In 1930, my greatgrandparents purchased a beautiful farm in Bradford County, PA, in a little hamlet called French Azilum. In the summer, we spent time there, resting, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the wild flowers, the bright stars and planets on a clear moonlit night, and swimming in the Susquehanna River. If gas drilling is allowed to continue, Bradford County and all of Pennsylvania will be forever changed, ruined beyond repair.
A burned-out shell of a car remains after a massive natural gas explosion killed eight and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno, California, three years ago today. (Photo courtesy National Transportation Safety Board.)
Three years ago September 9th, a massive natural gas explosion devastated a neighborhood in San Bruno, California, killing eight people, injuring 66 others, and destroying 38 homes – and for many area residents and policymakers, more than a few key questions remain unanswered.
Remembering those who died in this horrific explosion three years ago- a disaster that might have been prevented if better safety precautions had been in place. Pipelines are dangerous. Saftey regulations are not sufficient.
The Falcon natural gas compressor station south of Pinedale (Wyoming) burns and then explodes into a column of flame midday Dec. 6, 2012, in this submitted video. Nobody was directly injured in the fire and explosion, which was triggered by venting natural gas at the station, which is part of a system to collect natural gas from the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields. The fire was allowed to burn out, under the watchful eyes of area firefighters.
5:18 p.m. EDT, October 7, 2011
For the second time in two days there has been an emergency at a
natural gas drilling site.
Thursday's was in Bradford County. Today there was one in Lycoming
County. State environmental officials said there was an explosion at an Anadarko well pad north of Jersey Shore. Emergency crews responded along Dam Run Road at the Larry's Creek Fishing and Hunting Club a little after noon.
Authorities said a gas production unit, something similar in size to a
backyard shed, exploded. A spokesperson for Anadarko Petroleum said no one was hurt in the explosion and all operations were taken offline.
DEP officials said some gas escaped, but soon after the equipment
safety mechanisms worked. Newswatch 16 was not able to see the site, but the Larry's Creek site has six gas well pads.
According to Anadarko, production at the entire site has been shut down until a complete investigation is done to make sure it is safe. DEP and Anadarko are looking into what caused the explosion and what if any impacts it's had on the environment.
When an explosion at a compressor station or gas well occurs, everyone does their best to deal with the emergency. However, for the nearby residents, there is usually a period of time, hours, a day, when they live in fear. They don't know what is happening until someone comes knocking at their door. In this case, Stephanie Hallowich and her husband have had to go somewhere safe because their two young children were having nosebleeds and headaches even before this blast occurred. They want to sell their home. Any buyers out there?
See video here and here.
Read more here in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Overwhelming evidence now exists that the Halliburton gas drilling process causes contaminated drinking water, carcinogens in the farmland and food chain, torn-up roads, risk of explosions, toxic air pollution, plummeting real estate values, and screeching noise pollution.
What does the gas industry have to give back to the land and the people who live on the land? Practically nothing. The gas industry has a way to avoid consequences. Lots of money and lots of lawyers and lots of public officials and community leaders who can't wait for the drilling to commence. Why do people make decisions which are not in their best interests? It is the hope of striking it rich. The only people who do that for sure are the gas drilling corporations.
A young Rockville, Indiana, resident, fourteen-year-old David Crowder, was hunting mushrooms in the woods last week when, all of a sudden, a gas pipeline ruptured nearby.
We heard like a jet engine running and then a big boom, and we saw the smoke rising, Crowder said.
People called 911, thinking that something terrible must have happened. Residents within a mile of the explosion were evacuated. Emergency vehicles lined the road, blocking traffic. A Parke County (Indiana) sheriff said the erupting flames reached as high as 700 feet and were visible for miles.
I never saw anything like it, he said, describing the roar as that of "ten jet engines."
A six-year-old little girl, Krinjal Patel, said
We thought a plane crashed.
The good news is that no one was hurt or killed. Several residents reported how scary it was to hear the explosion and see the massive flames. There were homes and a church near the explosion, and people were worried that they might have been damaged. Apparently no homes or buildings were affected by the explosion and fire.
What is the effect of pipeline explosions on people who experience them? Do they not create anxiety and fear? Could this happen again? Will someone be killed next time? Is this lack of safety damaging to our children? What about six-year-old Kringal? Will she ever feel the same about the place where she lives? Will she ever forget that day she heard that loud boom and saw the flames reaching for the sky?
You can read the whole article in the Terre Haute News here.
Construction of a gas well pad has already begun in the city of Mansfield, Texas, right next to a youth playing field. The City Council voted on May 3, 2009, to proceed to the second reading of the proposal to allow the gas well to be drilled within feet of where children play soccer. The vote was 6-1 in favor. The Council will be required to read and vote on this proposal two more times before it is finally approved. Concerned citizens of Mansfield are asking people to speak up and speak out against this plan. The administrator of the blog Protect Mansfield writes,
They are building an actual road EXACTLY where the current temporary one is laid… WAY too close to homes and still utilizing current park infrastructure for their entrance and exit from the well site. The location of the pad is as documented… VERY close to both sets of youth athletic fields. The frac pound will be on the other side of the park. This basically means the entire park will be an industrial zone due to the traffic to and from the well to the pond. You can talk about how clean their sites are, and I'm sure they do what they can to make them more aesthetically palatable to the general public.. but this is a PUBLIC PARK WHERE KIDS PLAY SPORTS.
The request of XTO for a Special Use Permit to drill 20 natural gas wells over a 5-year period inside the Mansfield Sports Complex was put forth at an April 28th City Council meeting. Over 75 concerned citizens showed up to protest. They expressed their concerns regarding the drilling itself and the presence of heavy industrial vehicles. The remarks of these residents were characterized as fear-mongering by Tim McCann, who is, perhaps surprisingly, the President of the Mansfield Soccer Association. McCann spoke vigorously in favor of the permit.
More details of the meeting are available here. [Money! Money! Money! Is it worth our children's safety?]
It is no secret that hydrofracking a gas well is a very toxic procedure, affecting the air, the soil, and many times the water. A well pad brings with it, not only negative health issues, but also noise pollution, dangerous traffic problems, and a very real possibility of explosions. Why would any municipality even consider for a moment allowing such a gas well to be placed next to a public park?
See pictures here. The close proximity of the well pad site and the playing fields is shocking.
Another meeting of the City Council was held May 11th.
Yesterday an Irving, Texas, resident barely escaped with his life when his house exploded. It is reported that just before the blast, he lit a cigarette. There was no gas smell detected at the time. There is a pipeline under the street where the man lives, and the gas company is investigating. Read more here.
Today, in San Antonio, Texas, a construction crew hit a 24-inch pipeline, causing a huge explosion which burned for 90 minutes. No injuries were reported. Read more here.
With the natural gas industry bent on extracting every last morsel of natural gas from the planet, we all are faced with the prospect of living with buried pipelines everywhere- under our streets, under our homes, under our playgrounds, under our schools- everywhere. Pipelines have proven to be extremely dangerous. Buried quite deep underground or not far from the surface, they can develop leaks which go undetected. Construction crews can accidentally cut into a pipeline, even when they know it's there. Pipeline inspections may be inadequate or non-existent. Corrosion occurs inside the pipe where it cannot be seen.
Are we as citizens going to stand for the pipeline permits to be issued by our elected officials in our counties, townships, and cities? How many deaths are tolerable for the sake of a gas company's profits? How much collateral damage is acceptable?
For a homeowner fortunate enough to be able to purchase a new home in this time of economic crisis, it would indeed be troubling to be told that the dream home you want is sitting within fifteen feet of a buried gas pipeline. Regrettably, this scenario is not unheard of. Recently in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, the Police Jury has agreed to allow a local developer to build a residential neighborhood over a natural gas pipeline. Not all jurors and local residents are happy about this. Jason Reid, a resident of Bossier Parish where the pipeline is said,
I wouldn't put my house on top of it, not with my family.
James Harris, the developer, plans to build 50 houses on the land in question. Eight of the houses would be over the pipeline. However, there may be a conflict of interest in a sense because Mr. Harris is not only the developer, he is also a member of the Bossier City-Parish Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC). He has said,
We want what the MPC and the Police Jury want. We want what's safe for the homeowner.
The case can be made that pipelines under homes is nothing new. There are hundreds of oil and gas pipelines in Bossier Parish, crisscrossing under many residential neighborhoods. The problem here is one of liability because the homes are not yet built. The Police Jury is concerned it might be held liable should an explosion occur. As a matter of fact, Mr. Harris himself told the Police Jury that his crews have already hit and ruptured the pipe once! This pipe, laid in about 1943, was originally buried "below plow depth," but Harris had it lowered to 16 feet below the surface. And, not to worry, all parties have agreed in principle to maintain a 30-foot easement from the property lines of the adjacent homes.
Still fresh in the minds of concerned citizens is a huge explosion in Carthage, Texas (pictured above), last February (2009). Residents in the area were evacuated as far as one and a half miles away. However, both the Police Jury and Harris say they are satisfied that everything will work out and that adequate safety precautions have been taken.
