Accidents

Accidents | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Tag Team Grudge Match: Jesse White/Patch v Range Resources/DEP
April 17, 2013

The ongoing grudge match between western PA Rep. Jesse White (from Cecil) and Range Resources continues and has grown. Last week White made a formal “Right to Know” request with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (another favorite target of White) over the alleged leakage of 30 gallons of…fresh water? frack wastewater?…it’s not clear to MDN which it is–from a Range impoundment located in Cecil Township.

Regardless of the tiny amount of whatever leaked, the DEP has not responded to White, yet, so he’s turning up the pressure by going to his favorite media stenographer, Canon-McMillanPatch:
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Accidents | Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Eureka Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Tyler County | West Virginia

Flash Fire at Pipeline Station in WV Kills 1, Injures 3 Others
April 15, 2013April 15, 2013

A flash fire at a "pig receiving station" along a Eureka Hunter pipeline near Wick (Tyler County), WV last Thursday evening seriously injured three people requiring they be airlifted to Pittsburgh. A fourth person was taken to a local hospital. Sadly, one of the seriously injured workers, 56-year-old Bruce Phipps of Marietta, Ohio, died late Friday night. Pipeline Inspection Gauges (or Pigs) are used for pipeline cleaning, inspection and maintenance, and fluid batching in pipelines. A pig is pushed along the inside of a pipeline by the flow of liquid or gas. A pig launching station is used to insert the pig into a pipeline using a series of valves and hatches. The pig is pushed through the pipeline by the liquid or gas stream to the pig receiving station.

It was at such a receiving station where the flash fire occurred. According to news accounts, the flash fire was under control within 15 minutes…

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Accidents | Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia

Update on Chesapeake Energy Well Fire in Brooke County, WV
April 11, 2013April 11, 2013

An update on the Chesapeake Energy well fire in Brooke County, WV that on Monday torched five tractor-trailers and did $8 million in damage:

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Accidents | Brooke County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia

Chesapeake Energy Well Fire in WV Does $8M in Damage
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

A fire at a Chesapeake Energy well site in Brooke County, WV on Monday destroyed five tractor-trailers and caused an estimated $8 million in damage. Fortunately, no one was injured. The details as we know them:

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Accidents | Beaver County | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Wastewater

Beaver Falls, PA – Downriver from Youngstown Frackwater Dumping
April 10, 2013April 9, 2013

An article in the Youngstown Vindicator asks the question of whether or not the illegal dumping of frack wastewater in the Mahoning River by D&L Energy owner Ben Lupo (see Youngstown Wastewater Dumper Pleads Not Guilty in Federal Court) has contaminated water supplies down river—particularly in Beaver Falls, PA. Beaver Falls gets its water from the Beaver River, which in turn gets its water from the Mahoning River where the dumping took place.

According to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, Beaver Falls noticed "some problems" but the incident probably had "just a minor effect." That’s not much comfort for residents in Beaver Falls who wonder whether or not they were drinking polluted water…

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Accidents | Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wastewater | Wyoming County (PA)

Carrizo Resumes Fracking at Site of Spill in Wyoming County, PA
April 8, 2013April 8, 2013

On March 13, Carrizo Oil & Gas temporarily lost control of a Marcellus Shale gas well they were fracking in Wyoming County, PA, leading to a spill of over 200,000 gallons of fracking water. The frack water was contained and trucked away (see Carrizo Problem Fracking NE PA Well, Evacuates 3 Nearby Families). Since then, Carrizo has tested local water sources and has found “nothing unusual,” so the state PA Dept. of Environmental Protection has given them the green light to resume fracking the well:

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Pipelines | Processing Plants | West Virginia | Williams

Williams Methane Pipeline Ruptures in Marshall County, WV
March 25, 2013March 25, 2013

Early Friday afternoon, a 24-inch methane-only natural gas pipeline built and maintained by Williams near their Fort Beeler cryogenic processing plant ruptured. The pipeline is located 4 miles south of Cameron (Marshall County), WV.

Fortunately the blowout did not ignite and there were no injuries:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Washington County | Wastewater

Range Gets Violation Notice for Wastewater Spill in SW PA
March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

A very small spill (about 40 barrels, or 1,680 gallons) of recycled fracking water with no chemical additives in it was spilled in Cross Creek County Park (Washington County), PA on Feb. 12 by Range Resources. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection has issued Range a notice of violation and is investigating…

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Accidents | Carrizo Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Wyoming County (PA)

Carrizo Problem Fracking NE PA Well, Evacuates 3 Nearby Families
March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

Carrizo Oil & Gas temporarily lost control of a Marcellus Shale gas well they were fracking in Wyoming County, PA on Wednesday. The company was in the 23rd stage Wednesday about 6:00 pm when wastewater and brine started to flow at a rate of about 800 gallons per minute—too fast to control. The concern was that natural gas (methane) would start pouring out of the hole too, so Carrizo and a specialty well control crew worked through the night and by early Thursday had the problem contained, and by Thursday afternoon they had the well capped. No methane was released into the atmosphere and the wastewater was contained.

During the episode three families that lived within 1,500 feet of the well were evacuated as a precaution. They returned on Thursday. Here’s the details about the accident as we know them:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Noble Energy | Wastewater | West Virginia

Brine Wastewater Spill in Marshall County, WV Investigated
March 1, 2013March 1, 2013

Last Friday Noble Energy discovered a valve left open on a brine wastewater storage pond was allowing brine water to pour out—some 2,264 barrels (95,000 gallons) in Marshall County, WV. Brine “wastewater” is not fracking wastewater and does not contain fracking chemicals. It’s naturally-occurring water from deep below the surface that seeps out of drilled holes long after initial drilling is done. Brine contains a lot of minerals, and sometimes low amounts of radium—hence the anti-drillers mantra “it’s radioactive!”

When an accident like this happens, and when the water reaches a local tributary as it did with this incident by getting into the Big Wheeling Creek, it’s not nothing. It’s also not an ecological disaster. Fortunately, the spill was largely contained in sediment traps designed to do just what they did—stop most of the water from spreading. Here’s what we know so far about the accident:

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Accidents | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Taylor County | Trucking | Wastewater | West Virginia

Wastewater Trucker Killed in WV Well Pad Explosion
February 18, 2013February 18, 2013

A worker transferring wastewater from a holding tank to a truck at an already-drilled EQT well pad site in Taylor County, WV was killed when something at the site caused an explosion. The WV DEP is investigating.

The few details that we currently know:

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Soil | West Virginia | Wetzel County

MarkWest Fined for Soil Erosion/Creek Damage Near WV Plant
February 14, 2013February 14, 2013

MarkWest Energy has been slapped with a $306,000 fine by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection for polluting a small stream near its new Mobley processing plant in Wetzel County. The plant just went online in December (see MarkWest’s Mobley, WV Wet Gas Processing Plant Goes Online). During construction of the plant, the DEP says MarkWest’s work caused landslides of dirt, trees and other debris into a nearby creek.

MarkWest has agreed to pay the fine and “accepts responsibility” for the damage, yet they officially admit no wrongdoing under the proposed settlement order. Hmmm.

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | MarkWest Energy | Pennsylvania | Washington County

MarkWest Sues Enerflex Over Compressor Station Fire in Western PA
February 5, 2013February 5, 2013

Midstream powerhouse MarkWest filed a lawsuit on Monday in Washington County, PA seeking $1.1 million from Enerflex Energy Systems, manufacturer of equipment for compressor plants. MarkWest says Enerflex sold them defective equipment that led to a fire, and a lot of damage, in their compressor facility in Avella, PA last year:

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Accidents | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Feds Eye Regulating PA Marcellus Gathering Pipelines
January 30, 2013January 30, 2013

In early December, the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Nisource) exploded near Sissonville, WV—10 miles north of Charleston (see Columbia NatGas Pipeline Explodes Near Charleston, WV). The repercussions are still being felt. WV Sen. Jay Rockefeller held a Senate “field hearing” about pipeline safety on Monday in Charleston, WV. The first person to testify was Sissonville resident Sue Bonham who thought the world was literally be blowing up. The fire that burned in Sissonville near her home for more than an hour was so hot it burned the asphalt on I-77 into cinders.

So it’s no surprise that the federal government would start nosing around non-federally regulated (smaller) pipelines. Apparently they’ve set their sites on local gathering lines in the PA Marcellus:

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Accidents | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Chesapeake Well Pad Likely Source of Water “Contamination” in OH
January 17, 2013January 17, 2013

One of the charges leveled against shale drilling by anti-drillers is that chemicals used during drilling—in greatly diluted quantities—will somehow rise up from a mile or more below the surface and contaminate groundwater sources like water wells and springs. However, in over 50,000 horizontally drilled and fracked shale oil and gas wells across the country, and in over two million vertically fracked wells, groundwater contamination from deep drilling has never happened. Nada. Not once.

That’s not to say activities related to drilling have not affected (i.e., “contaminated”) groundwater supplies. Groundwater is affected from time to time, but it’s rare and when it happens, it’s fixable. Case in point: Harrison County, Ohio. Limestone used in a drill pad constructed by Chesapeake Energy at their Dodson well site is likely the cause of discolored (“contaminated”) storm water discharging into a local stream and lake, the source of water for some area residents…

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Accidents | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marion County | Omni Energy Services | West Virginia

Accident Kills Marcellus Shale Rig Worker in Fairview, WV
January 16, 2013January 16, 2013

Monday night, an Omni Energy Services Corp. worker died when a rig being used to drill shallow exploratory holes for Marcellus Shale seismic testing overturned and crushed him. The accident happened at the Loveridge Mine preparation plant property owned by CONSOL Energy in Fairview (Marion County), WV. The accident was not related to CONSOL’s coal mining operations at the property.

The few details that we know thus far:

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