Gas Company Investigating Contaminated Water Well in PA

Uploaded by veraduerga on Mar 23, 2012

Taped 3-22-12. WPX evaluating the well structure and think this is the problem why it is erupting. Faulty well structure. I ask them to focus on isotopic testing of the water and see where this methane is coming from! Gets a bit heated....

More details here and here and here.

After watching this exchange between Vera and the gas company reps, I have to think that, although they are trying to appear calm and respectful, they don't really know what to do.  They want to give the appearance of doing all they can to be "good neighbors,"  even though they imply that this is not a problem THEY created, but rather a problem with the well.  Even so, they say they are offering to pay for repairs.  Of course, we know that other people who live nearby are also having well water problems.  So are all these wells going bad at the same time?

It appears that this gas company is grasping at straws, and the homeowner is getting a little (or a lot) of run-around. 

Water Well In PA Exploding With Methane

Uploaded by veraduerga on Mar 11, 2012

Water Well on route 29 in Franklin Forks, Franklin Twp.,Susquehanna County, Pa., exploding with very high methane 38 mg/liter after gas drilling and fracking the past 6 months. Gas wells are one mile east and west of this property. The family and neighboring homes can not drink their water. Methane is in the house, and adults and children are living in the homes. DEP investigating. Methane and high metals found so far. Taped on 3-9-12 by Lauren Petracca.

More here....

Drilling Pollutes Home and Groundwater in Bradford County, PA

A young family in Terry Township in Bradford County (PA) is now faced with the possibility of an explosion from methane gas.  They cannot drink their water or cook with it.  They have an ugly water buffalo tank in their front yard which has to be filled every 2 days.  They say their home was once worth $250,000, but now is worth perhaps $35,000.  No one wants a home with bad water. 

Chesapeake Energy is responsible for this serious problem, but have they accepted that?  And aren't there some public officials and gas industry representatives that will tell you there has NEVER been an instance of water contamination due to gas drilling?  How can they get away with that?

Gas Well Pads Are Extremely Dangerous Places

A well explodes in Forth Worth, Texas

Beware!  Do not go near gas drilling well pads. 


To: Advis...@PaForestCoalition.org

Subject: Details of the Carmichaels Gas Site Accident: Greene County (PA) Incident

On August 20, we received a report of an accident at an East Resources site on South Muddy Creek Road, Carmichaels (Greene County) .  The report claimed that a worker's flashlight set off a methane explosion from a "brine tank" (industry buzzword for flowback water?)  It was very strange that there was no word of this from DEP or the media. Finally, on August 26, we received this confirmation from DEP via Kathy Davis:

“There was an incident where a water hauler was on the top of a tank and he said when he checked the tank with a flashlight, it flashed on him. Burning him on the hands and face. He went to the hospital and was treated and released. The company contacted our Greene county oil and gas inspector and we were notified of the incident.  The cause of the ignition was never proven and new protocols have been initiated by the company including no water transfers after hours, no flashlights, lighters or anything that is not intrinsically safe.  The department is supplying our inspectors with intrinsically safe flashlights and related equipment as needed.  Ignoring the fact that no unauthorized people should ever be on a well location, tank or anywhere near the wellhead themselves. Gas wells, locations and the equipment used on the locations by their very nature must be assumed to be flammable atmospheres. One should never be discharging a firearm, smoking, burning, taking pictures, using a cell phone, running gasoline or diesel engines anywhere on or near the location without the proper protocols being put in place.  And just to be clear, no one should ever be hunting from the top of any brine, oil or fluids tanks associated with any oil or gas wells in the commonwealth or anywhere in the country for that matter. . . “

Michael H. Arch, PG
Oil and Gas Inspector Supervisor
412-442-4010

Dick Martin, Coordinator

The Pennsylvania Forest Coalition is a unique alliance of hunters, hikers, anglers, landowners, wildlife-watchers, paddlers, bikers, churches and conservation groups who are united in our concern for the good stewardship of our public lands.

Caring for what God has created http://www.paforestcoalition.org/.  You can give up eating Gulf Coast shrimp, but you can't give up drinking Pennsylvania water.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In Memory of Karen Korrell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010