WNEP Blowout in Canton, Bradford County Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Thousands of gallons of natural gas drilling waste fluids spilled onto a farm and streams for over 12 hours Wednesday after a driller in Bradford County lost control of a well late Tuesday.

The Atgas 2H well operated by Chesapeake Energy Corp. in LeRoy Township blew out during the hydraulic fracturing process at around 11:45 p.m., swamping the lined well pad and overflowing into a field, a small tributary and Towanda Creek, state environmental regulators said.

Seven families were asked to evacuate the area until the well could be brought back under control, Chesapeake said in a statement, adding that no one was injured in the incident and no gas was emitted to the atmosphere.

The identities of the seven families evacuated from the area were unknown late Wednesday. However, Canton Fire Chief Kim Jennings reported that the evacuees were placed in local motels.

Jennings said Canton firefighters as well as Western Alliance Ambulance personnel were on the scene throughout the day, standing by and making certain that any equipment needs were met. Jennings said the Canton Fire Department left the scene late Wednesday night, but would be available at any time if the situation at the drill site would become unsafe.

Chesapeake described the problem as "an equipment failure." Neither the company nor regulators with the state Department of Environmental Protection could provide a precise estimate of how much fluid was spilled.

Emergency crews were able to stop the fluid from flowing into Towanda Creek by Wednesday afternoon, but crews struggled to regain control of the well into Wednesday evening. The well control specialty firm Boots and Coots was brought to the site from Texas, Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Katy Gresh said.

It was unclear Wednesday where exactly the well was leaking or why, but officials on site described the leak as originating from below the frack valve stack, an above-ground piece of equipment that controls pressure during the fracking process.

"Evidently the crack is in the top part of the well below the blowout preventer," Skip Roupp, the deputy director of the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday afternoon, referring to a device used in emergency situations to choke off flow from a well. "They don't really know what happened yet because they don't have it controlled yet."

At least eight DEP personnel were on scene sampling the unnamed tributary and Towanda Creek as well as eight private water supplies, Gresh said. There was no evidence the spill killed fish, she said.

The Atgas 2H well is part of a six-well pad in a remote area on LeRoy Mountain about 13 miles west of Towanda.

The hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, stage of well development takes place after a well is drilled and involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressures to crack the rock and release the gas trapped there.

A portion of that fluid returns to the surface laden with salts, metals and radioactivity that occurs naturally in the shale formation and is mobilized by the fracturing process. The wastewater, called flowback water, spewed from the Atgas well on Wednesday. The exact composition of the spilled fluid had not been determined.

Chesapeake Energy, one of the state's most active Marcellus Shale drillers, has been issued 30 notices of violations from the DEP for its operations in the state this year. The company has been cited 284 times for violations since the start of 2008 and has been subject to 58 enforcement actions by environmental regulators, according to DEP records.

Unlike a blowout at a Clearfield County gas well in June - the most serious well control incident in the state's Marcellus Shale to date - the blowout in LeRoy Township never spewed a geyser of waste fluid into the air, Gresh said.

In the June incident, at a well owned by EOG Resources, natural gas and wastewater shot 75 feet into the air after drillers hit unexpectedly high pressures underground.

Gresh reported around 9 p.m. that DEP representatives were still at the scene and she had not yet been informed that the situation was under control.

When asked at the site if Chesapeake will later resume drilling the well, Brian Grove, director of corporate development for Chesapeake Energy, said he could not say until the situation is brought under control, allowing the company to make that determination.



Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/gas-well-blowout-spills-frack-fluids-o...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• WNEP
• Blowout
• in
• Canton
• Chesapeake
• Energy
• Corp.
• LeRoy
• Township

[GADCLuzerneCounty]

Pay no attention to ballsOstone, he is of limited mental and moral capacity.

[walls0stone]

brine? yes, our towns have put brine..aka salt water on roads for how long? Is it a blow out or a leak? or is it a BLOW Back. More bad crap is found in your Pepsi than production water. Don't like this new business, Get out of the area. this guy is a joke. who is write'n his script?

[GADCLuzerneCounty]

@walls0stone You're the joke. I was here first before the gas industry came in and polluted my air and water. You get out.

[bloodshot23]

Should have never been allowed to be put there in the first place.... corporate greed at its finest.

[bloodshot23]

@bailesie Well, the Gas and Oil companies are the ones making the big profits. I don't know of anyone in the Back mountain that heats with natural gas. Coal, Fuel oil and Wood pellets are what family and friends use. Wood stove for heat.

[bailesie]

@bloodshot23 Actually, it's landowner greed. People will sign their life away when they see how much money they get paid + royalties + free gas. Blame them and blame the demand for natural gas. How do you heat your home?

[twenty5psi]

you know what's funny about the locals, me being one so my bias should be skewed to anti-drilling: the locals have no problem driving their big trucks, probably don't recycle, consume products that detriment someone elses land far far away, etc. Where/ how do you think most ALL of your products are made? Everyone is a hypocrite here. Finally jobs are brought to the region which pay 2-3x more than any other local job, and people lose their mind. Keep being hypocrites, locals.

[goldentreebe]

@walls0stone In 15 years when the next generation are looking for people to hang for these crimes, I am grateful that you and those like you are so outspoken. Up north there are signs in peoples yards! Jesus said to live by the golden rule "do unto others". We the people are brainwashed,delibratly dumbed down by the plutocracy we clearly refuse to see! We have been bought! We are filthy! Pray for mercy, were gonna need it.

[walls0stone]

@GADCLuzerneCounty really? so you take that road? you presume to brush my understanding and education off and that is your back door to getting out of this argument? You presume that you are somehow smarter than I...what GOD gave you the right to comment on an event you, and this news cast know nothing of. Do you want to talk about the industry or just act like a bitch? I'm come'n DOWN to your level. Morals? sometimes one must stand up and say a thing or two... when people like you lie.

[walls0stone]

you don't live here... so back off! bleed me? I'll meet you and the fucking well pad. Pick a town... you think is is all about your mother fucking earth? this is about jobs.. real jobs.. oh the flatlanders want the clean air and the perfect retirement...but what about the farmers and locals? should everyone just sit around and work for shit money and run off every industry so you can have a cool place to pitch your tent? you mind your back yard and I'll mind mine.

[walls0stone]

uh... so you are not from here? I'm not worried about the millioneers, I'd like people here to just get jobs. In this area they pay people 200-300 a week for a days work. that is crap! You are not from here...you don't even know were mansfield is...but YOU shove your face into this place? mind your own business and stop reading all the BS on line. 

[killgreed]

@walls0stone Ok killer, I am no where near Mansfield, I do not know you, Why would I waste my time, & how would this change any thing? You threaten local people with 80,000 gas workers to shut up the non progessive rednecks. I don't stop, or back down, I will bleed on you, you are boring, this is unfruitful, I bet your going to open a can of woop ass, or something?

[xtelmasx]

@walls0stone This company is making how much money to pollute that area? I guess everyone in Syracuse New York dealing with Onondaga Lake should have let that continue happening and just moved out, or those people at love canal, they didn't need to live there anyways what were they thinking, living near a polluting industry.

Maybe you should stop worrying about the millionaires and worry more about those who cant afford health care, but have to take on your precious brine.