August 2013
Aug 31- Kevin Figaniak, a 21-year-old Wheeling Jesuit University student, was beaten to death by Craig Tyler Peacock and Jarrett Mathis Chandler.  Peacock and Chandler are from out of the area and are reported to be working in the natural gas industry.
Aug 30- A Chevron pipeline leaked an unknown quantity of natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico near Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Aug 29- Jesse A. Grimsley, 31, of Shevlin, Minn, was killed in a Sheehan Pipeline Construction accident near Steubenville, OH.  According to the sheriff’s office, Grimsley had filed a daily equipment check noting "brakes will not hold on hill.”  Sheehan Pipeline Construction is based in Tulsa, Okla.
Aug 29- Michael Guesman of Cortland admits in U.S. District Court in Cleveland that his former boss at Hardrock Excavating, Ben Lupo ordered him to dump brine waste on 24 separate occasions into the Youngstown sewer system.
Aug 29-An oil rig exploded in Lavaca County, TX, triggering a massive fire [video]
Aug 27-Caller discovers tanker truck dumping brine water on the roadway and running into Clearfork Creek near Grayville, OH
Aug 23-A breached frack pond operated by Berry Petroleum flooded nearby residential property in Gardendale, TX.
Aug 22-Residents in Chartiers Twp., PA complained of burning eyes, throat nausea and a metallic taste their mouths after another flaring incident at MarkWest’s natural gas processing plant.  This is at least the third flaring incident at the plant in the past six weeks.
Aug 22-A pipe manufacturer in the Marcellus region spilled 5,000 gallons of sulfuric acid into the Shenango River. 
Aug 21-Chesapeake Appalachia is cited with not reporting two pollution incidents in Beaver County, PA.  Soil samples and eye-witness accounts suggest petroleum products and flowback wastewater spilled onto the ground.
Aug 20-A 16-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in OK sending flames 200 ft. in the air and damaging a barn.
Aug 20-A semi-truck hauling for oil and gas wells in the area struck and killed 57-year-old Dan Wilson of Weirton, WV along U.S. 22.  The truck company was out of Indiana. [video]
Aug 20-West Virginia environmental regulators cited MarkWest Energy for causing a fishkill in Rocky Run, a tributary of Fish Creek after one of their pipelines ruptured.  Minnows, smallmouth bass and other species of fish died from the spill.
Aug 16-A Texas longhorn steer was killed by exposure to poisonous hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas from a pipeline leak in Alberta.
Aug 16- An Antero Resources site in Harrison County, WV caught ablaze sending three workers to the hospital, two via airlift.
Aug 16- Records were released indicating that OSHA cited Central Environmental Services LLC for the death of Brian Hopkins caused by an explosion at an EQT Corp. well pad in Taylor County, WV.
Aug 13-A landslide ruptured a MarkWest Energy pipeline in Wetzel County, WV causing a leak of an unidentified, but potentially explosive, liquid into a nearby stream.
Aug 13-Around 80 families were evacuated when a pipeline carrying gas byproducts ethane and propane somehow ruptured, caught fire, and exploded in IL.
Aug 10-A 24-year old was killed when a block from a New Star Energy fell and crushed him near Highvale, Alberta. [video]
Aug 7- A joint study from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that a Nami Resources Company’s fracking fluid spill in Kentucky in 2007 likely caused the widespread death of several types of fish.
Aug 6-A driver was cleared of any wrongdoing  for failing to stop after his 18-wheeler carrying fracking wastewater crushed a 14-year-old boy in Fort Worth, TX on April 24, 2013.  Deston Bibbs died as a result of his injuries.
Aug 3-In Tioga County, PA, Swepi Lp spilled 5 barrels of produced water from hole in the coil tubing unit onto the containment and pad. Holes were discovered in the containment liner.
Aug 1-A truck hauling brine collided with two cars in Vienna Township, OH.  Injuries were reported. 
Aug 1-In Lawrence County, PA, a Rockwater Energy Solutions truck carrying ethylene glycol to nearby fracking operations crashed spilling 265 gallons of the toxin poison in a field.  Unfamiliarity with the road was cited as one of the causes of the accident.
Aug 1-Two families in TX file a class-action lawsuit claiming that fracking caused damage to their real estate and homes.

JULY 2013
July 28-Jason Mearns, 37, of Beverly, W.Va., died as a result of a well explosion in New Milton, WV.
July 25-Slurry produced by the construction of the Appalachia-to-Texas Express Pipeline leaked into a creek in OH.
July 25- The Justice Department announces that Halliburton admits to destroying evidence in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and will plead guilty to a criminal charge.
July 24-A truck that carries fracking waste blew up killing a Wise County resident in TX.
July 24-Tommy Paxton, a 45-year-old from Walton, W.Va. died after an explosion on a well pad in WV.
July 23-An out-of-control natural gas well off the Louisiana coast caught fire. This is the second natural gas well in the gulf to fail in as many weeks.
July 22-Hundreds of residents were evacuated after a high pressure Dominion gas line ruptured in OH.
July 22- A crane tuck rolled off a road and over the hillside in Ohio County, WV, leaking diesel and closing the road.  The truck from coming from gas drilling site in Marshall County and is reported to be contracted by Noble Energy.
July 21-A Halliburton truck leaking hydrochloric acid closed part of Interstate 70 for four hours. 
July 20-A driver of a water truck was flown by helicopter to a Morgantown hospital after his truck overturned in WV.
July 18-Energy Corp. Of America is is caught discharging industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, PA.
July 18-OH Landowner accuses driller A.E.R. of dumping wastewater on his land [video].
July 18-The EPA fined XTO Energy (Exxon Mobil) $100,000 for violating the federal Clean Water Act for a two-month discharge of between 6,300 and 57,373 gallons of wastewater into the Susquehanna river system in Penn Township, Lycoming County.
July 18-Waste Treatment Corporation (WTC) received legal notice from Clean Water Action for their illegal discharge of oil and gas drilling wastewater (including chloride, bromide, lithium, strontium, radium-226, and radium-228) into the Allegheny River in Warren, PA.
July 16-Energy Corp Of America cited for 307CSL-Discharge of industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit in Moshannon State Forest, Clearfield County
July 14 & 15-A malfunction at the MarkWest Houston Gas Plant in Washington County sending large amounts of black smoke into the air for two days.  Residents report hearing a loud boom and seeing a mushroom cloud.
July 13-A gas well pad in Wetzel County, WV caught fire around 6:30 pm. 
July 12- A spill on a Penneco well site in Center Twp. left dead vegetation all the way and into Claylick Run.  There were reports of an oily substance released off site through pasture and into Claylick Run.
July 9- An oil field accident killed two men in KS.  Both were exposed to deadly hydrogen sulfide gas; a byproduct from the production of oil and natural gas.  It causes respiratory paralysis and is highly toxic. [video]
July 9-A gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico caused the greenhouse-gas methane to escape into the atmosphere.  The Coast Guard reports a "rainbow sheen" over a four mile area
July 8- Gas worker admits to dumping wastewater in the Big Sandy River after his boss told him to do so. [video]
July 8- A road in NJ collapses due to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.'s Northeast Upgrade Project.  It will take 1 to 2 weeks to repair the road. [video]
July 8-Brine & produced water were spilled at a well in Lycoming County.
July 7-The media is reporting the between five and eight people were injured when a gas well exploded in Doddridge County , WV.  There is suspicion that the employer was violating mandatory work hour rules.
July 6-As many as 40 people are missing after a massive explosion caused by a derailed train leveled parts of Lac-Megantic in Quebec.  Up to 1,000 people were evacuated in the community. [video]

JUNE 2013
June 26-Two county workers suffered minor injuries and at least 34 cars were damaged when a section of roadway sunk as a result of a Sunoco Pipeline LP project in Beaver County.
July 25- In Susquehanna County, PA, Chief Oil and Gas spilled an estimated 20 barrels of oil due to a valve that was left open.  It then leaked onto the ground through a hole in the plastic lining. 
June 25-A caller to the NRC reported a fire at an oil well near Ravenna, OH.  There were 150 gallons of oil released.
June 25-A 30-inch transmission pipeline exploded in Enon, LA causing the evacuation of 55 people.
June 22-A water tuck owned by JB Oil and Gas ran a stop sign killing a mother and her 14 year old daughter.
June 21-PVR’s Chapin Glycol Dehydration plant in Monroe Twp accidentally discharged in the atmosphere.  This is the 3rd such event since the PVR Chapin plant went operational in late spring of 2012. [video]
June 21 -32-year-old Greg Peacock, died from 3rd degree burns he suffered during an explosion at a well pad.  He left behind a two year-old son and fiancee.
June 20-50 homes were evacuated when a gas pipeline containing 1% deadly hydrogen sulfide ruptured southwest of Calgary after debris from a flood struck the pipeline.  
June 18-A 30-inch transmission line in Louisiana ruptured, sparking a natural gas explosion and a fire. 
June 13- A gas line ruptured underneath the Ohio River near Bellaire spewing gas out of the water between OH and WV [video]
June 12 -A truck at a well in MI backed into a high-pressure line causing an explosion that knocked people over in a nearby home. 
June 12 -A Williams cracker plant in LA exploded killing 2 and injuring 100.  This is the same type of plant that is proposed for Beaver County.
June 7-Investigations determined that Vintage Oil illegally dumped formation fluids and fracking fluids into an unlined pit in CA [video]
June 4- PA DEP fined PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering LLC of Williamsport, Lycoming County, $150,000 for multiple and continuing violations of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act and various related environmental regulations, including sediment discharges into High Quality and Exceptional Value streams during construction of the Coal Mountain pipeline in four Lycoming County townships
June 4-Wastewate hauler Harch was ordered to suspend operations in OH after evidence was found that the company was illegally disposing waste in a private pond [audio]
June 3- SWEPI LP was cited in for “failure to properly store, transport, process or dispose of a residual waste” at their West 1 OG Well in Slippery Rock Twp.
June 3- RE Gas Dev LLC (Rex Energy) was cited for “discharge of industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit” at their Warner Unit 1H in Lancaster Twp.
June 1-A pipeline operated by a Texas-based oil company has leaked 9.5 million litres of industrial waste water in Canada.
June 1-A caller to the NRC reported that a water tanker truck was dumping into Indian Creek in Tyler County, WV.

FEBRUARY 2013
Feb 26-One man was killed and another was injured in a drilling accident in eastern Ohio.
Feb 22-PA based Noble Energy spills over 95,000 gallons from a frack pond into a local tributary of Big Wheeling Creek in WV [video]
Feb 13-A blowout at a Chesapeake well sent fluid gushing into a stream in Bradford County, Pa
Feb 12-Over 12,000 gallons of “re-use” water was spilled at a Range Resources site in Cross Creek County Park, Washington County, PA
Feb 11-84,000 gallons of green oil-laden fracking fluid gushed from an oil well near Fort Collins, Co for nearly 30 hours
Feb 4-Approx. 840 gallon of waste water were spilled at the Rex/ McElhinney well in Forward Township, Butler County, Pa

JANUARY 2013
Jan 16-A chemical emergency is reported at an Ohio oil well facility.  At the time of the investigation, an inventory of the facility's chemicals wasn't available to local authorities.
Jan 14-Two workers were critically injured after an explosion at a well site in Atascosa County, TX. [video]
Nov. 1 to Jan. 31— likely more than 250,000 gallons of drilling wastewater and oil illegally dumped into a Mahoning River tributary in Ohio

A letter to the editor published in the Butler Eagle on April 26, 2013 with the original title If you See Something, Say Something

The April 21 Butler Eagle article “Natural gas development thriving in Butler County” focuses on the positives that the fracking boom has brought to Butler County, while downplaying the damages.
The article reports that there have been “just 41 violations reported across all wells (in Butler County), resulting in about $11,000 total in fines. Most wells that have been issued violations have received only one, while no site has received more than three citations from the DEP (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection).”
One thing many people overlook when assessing these numbers is that violations are assigned to a unit (or a well) and not a pad. A pad can have numerous wellheads.
For example, according to the DEP’s website, there are seven wellheads on the Voll/Soergel pad on Woodlands Road. Three thousand feet to the west sits the Gilliland site with 10 wellheads. Combined, they have four recorded violations, according to the DEP website on oil and gas.
None of the numerous “unintentional returns” and “discharges” into streams during pipeline construction are reported in the DEP system.
One such example was the February 2011 leak into Crab Run next to the Gilliland well. At that time, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission was investigating more than a dozen such spills into Connoquenessing Creek and its tributaries. There is no way of knowing how many have occurred in the county.
Many pads also house compressor stations to push the gas through the pipeline. Last week, it was reported that MarkWest, Rex Energy’s midstream partner in the area, was found by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to be in violation of the Clean Air Act. MarkWest operates many of the compressor stations, including the one on the Voll/Soergel pad, and the cryogenic plant in Connoquenessing. Its plant in Jackson Township is located about a mile from the Seneca Valley School District’s secondary school campus, and the Jackson supervisors have just approved a third plant right next door.
The third plant will be larger than the previous two combined.
If we are going to peddle the exaggerated short-term benefits of toxic fracking, should we not also be studying the devastation and violations? Should we not look at the whole process and not just the narrow view of the industry’s public relations campaigns?
In the middle of the biggest expansion of its responsibilities in recent history, the DEP’s budget has been slashed to historic lows. The recently resigned head of the agency, Michael Krancer, stated that he placed growth of the natural gas industry above oversight.
Additionally, as the deadly explosion in West, Texas, clearly demonstrated, a lack of documented violations does not make a facility safe. Far from it. It often points to a lack of proper oversight.
It has therefore been left to investigative journalists, grassroots organizations with limited resources, and concerned taxpayers to shine a light on the dangers of this industry.

On Aug. 23, the PA DEP issued an “environmental health and safety” violation to Rex Energy for “failure to properly store, transport, process or dispose of a residual waste” in Lancaster Township, Butler County. (Note: “Residual waste” from hydraulic fracturing is generally toxic.) And on Oct. 24, another violation of the same type occurred at a Rex Energy well in Penn Township, Butler County.

I know this because my wife and I subscribe to an online service that continuously monitors the DEP violations database and sends us notifications of violations in our area.

This online service is a valuable resource, because the DEP is not legally required to report drilling violations to the public, nor to local officials, and so, for the most part, it doesn't. If I wanted to learn more about this violation, I would need to apply to DEP for a “file review” – a rather involved process which would include a trip to the Northwest District office in Meadville.

An in-depth analysis of DEP data by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center, “Risky Business: An Analysis of Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Violations in Pennsylvania 2008-2011,” identified a total of 3,355 violations of environmental laws by 64 different Marcellus Shale gas drilling companies between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. Of these violations, the Center identified 2,392 violations that likely posed a direct threat to the environment and were not reporting or paperwork violations. Of these thousands of violations, perhaps a handful have received any media attention.

In March, the supervisors of Center Township, Greene County, learned of a 480-gallon diesel spill into a local stream. The spill occurred in December. They learned about it because a reporter from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did a violations file review. The supervisors were upset, saying that DEP should have notified them. Department officials told them that they wouldn't want to know about “every little spill.” “It isn't clear that DEP officials should be making that judgment if a 480-gallon spill went unreported to the public,” said Edward “Butch” Deter, chairman of the township's board of supervisors and president of the Center Township Volunteer Fire Department, Company 91.

Ed Barale, a supervisor in Amwell Township, Washington County, is also dissatisfied with DEP's lack of notification. DEP officials “don't tell us any more than they have to. I think we have a right to know. DEP keeps you in the dark, so I don't have much faith in them.” Eight Amwell residents are suing Range Resources and DEP over environmental problems they claim stem from violations committed by Range that the DEP did not report to the public.

Online services such as skytruth.org, epa-echo.gov and fractracker.org can help local residents to stay abreast of drilling violations in our area, and also, via skytruth, of new drilling permits that have been issued by the DEP for our area.

But wouldn't it be nice if the DEP would issue regular detailed drilling violation reports to all state media outlets, and especially to local officials and all residents within a mile or two of violation sites? One would think DEP would do this out of a sense of moral responsibility, or that state lawmakers would make it a legal requirement. If these violations were made public, maybe local residents would have a clearer, more realistic perception of the “safe and responsible drilling” taking place in their communities.  

j.p.m.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national environmental group, contacted MOB in August with a request to visit Butler County to see what is happening with unconventional well drilling.   The President, Frances Brenenke, brought two board members and 6 staff members to Butler to see the impact toxic fracking is having on people and communities. 

Two members of Marcellus Outreach Butler, Ping Pirrung and Dennis McCann, hosted a lunch at their home in Middlesex Township on August 27 for our visitors.  Janet and Fred McIntyre shared how their lives have been turned upside down and their health compromised  since drilling began in the Connoquenessing.  Woodlands.

At the end of the luncheon, Raina Ripple, Director of the Southwest Health Center,  told the visitors that the stories of people impacted in Butler County are the same as the stories she is hearing in Washington, Greene and Fayette Counties.  People are sick and living with contaminated water and breathing air that forces them to stay indoors.  And what is so upsetting to her is that “no one is doing anything to help these people – not the state or local governments, not the medical profession.”

The NRDC visitors were visibly moved by what they heard and this was reinforced when they piled into cars and took a tour of the shalefields in Butler County.  With Janet McIntyre and John Stolz as guides, a caravan of cars traveled down Brownsdale Road where there are 4 drilling sites within a  mile radius from one another.   At one site in the Woodlands,  the liner from a pond which had held contaminated flowback water had been carelessly left by the side of the road.  After visiting several drilling sites, a compression station and the gas processing plant,  our guests had to travel south to Washington County where Ron Gulla was hosting a similar event for them the following day to show them the impacts in Southwestern PA.

What were the results of NRDC’s tours of fracking sites, like their visit to Butler County?   Check out the impressions of  Frances Brenenke’s, President of NRDC, tour of western PA as captured in her blog.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/calling_for_national_fracking.html

On September 19th, NRDC launched the Community Fracking Defense Project. This new project, which is launching in five states—New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and North Carolina—will provide assistance to towns and other local governments that want added control over the siting of and/or protections against the harms of fracking in their communities.

For example, NRDC legal and policy staff, together with local partners, will:

•    Assist in drafting local laws and land use plans that control the extent of fracking within their borders and/or limit the harmful effects of fracking.

•    Work to re-assert communities’ rights to protect themselves under state law.

•    Defend relevant zoning provisions and other local laws that are challenged in court.

Kate Sidding, a NRDC attorney, filed an amicus brief in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on behalf of a number of municipalities in support of a lower court decision striking down portions of Act 13, a recently enacted Pennsylvania law that severely limits the ability of local governments to use their zoning powers to control where fracking occurs.

MOB was happy to host NRDC’s visit and is encouraged by their response and actions.  We need more powerful organizations to step forward and take a stand like NRDC is doing.  As more people and organizations stand up and make their voices heard, we increase our chances of stopping this destruction and getting permanent solutions for the people whose lives have been so negatively impacted.

-Dianne Arnold

On Aug. 23, the PA DEP issued an “environmental health and safety” violation to Rex Energy for “failure to properly store, transport, process or dispose of a residual waste” in Lancaster Township, Butler County. I know this because my wife and I subscribe to an online service that continuously monitors the DEP violations database and sends us notifications of violations in our area. (Note: “Residual waste” from hydraulic fracturing is generally toxic.)

This online service is a valuable resource, because the DEP is not legally required to report drilling violations to the public, nor to local officials, and so, for the most part, it doesn't. If I wanted to learn more about this violation, I would need to apply to DEP for a “file review” – a rather involved process which would include a trip to the Northwest District office in Meadville.

An in-depth analysis of DEP data by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center, “Risky Business: An Analysis of Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Violations in Pennsylvania 2008-2011,” identified a total of 3,355 violations of environmental laws by 64 different Marcellus Shale gas drilling companies between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. Of these violations, the Center identified 2,392 violations that likely posed a direct threat to the environment and were not reporting or paperwork violations. Of these thousands of violations, perhaps a handful have received any media attention.

In March, the supervisors of Center Township, Greene County, learned of a 480-gallon diesel spill into a local stream. The spill occurred in December. They learned about it because a reporter from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did a violations file review. The supervisors were upset, saying that DEP should have notified them. Department officials told them that they wouldn't want to know about “every little spill.” “It isn't clear that DEP officials should be making that judgment if a 480-gallon spill went unreported to the public,” said Edward “Butch” Deter, chairman of the township's board of supervisors and president of the Center Township Volunteer Fire Department, Company 91.

Ed Barale, a supervisor in Amwell Township, Washington County, is also dissatisfied with DEP's lack of notification. DEP officials “don't tell us any more than they have to. I think we have a right to know. DEP keeps you in the dark, so I don't have much faith in them.” Three Amwell families are suing Range Resources and DEP over environmental problems they claim stem from violations committed by Range that the DEP did not report to the public.

Online services such as skytruth.org, epa-echo.gov and fractracker.org can help local residents to stay abreast of drilling violations in our area, and also, via skytruth, of new drilling permits that have been issued by the DEP for our area.

But wouldn't it be nice if the DEP would issue regular detailed drilling violation reports to all state media outlets, and especially to local officials and all residents within a mile or two of violation sites? One would think DEP would do this out of a sense of moral responsibility, or that state lawmakers would make it a legal requirement. If these violations were made public, maybe local residents would have a clearer, more realistic perception of the “safe and responsible drilling” taking place in their communities.


j.p.m.