Flooding in Gasland (Bradford County, PA)

Terry Township resident Lynn Ottaviani can count herself lucky for surviving this crash without serious injuries or worse. She was driving west along Route 187 in Terry Township Sunday afternoon just as the hard rain was changing to snow and the roadway quickly turned icy. Lynn’s car ran out of control on a curve, left the roadway and snapped off a utility pole before careening over an embankment into a swollen stream. She escaped through the driver’s side window and was picked up by a passing motorist. Emergency crews who responded to the scene at first feared she may have been washed away since there were no footprints offering evidence she had scaled the creek bank. Her father, Dr. Robert Ottaviani of Camptown, eventually arrived on the scene and told emergency crews that his daughter had phoned him and was okay.

Is this an area we want gas wells drilled?  These floods are not uncommon this time of year.  Could this have been a gas drilling vehicle full of drilling waste?

Frack Spill in PA (Woodward Township) Accident

Residents near frac truck crash awaiting tests of well water, soil

February 23, 2011 - From staff reports

SWISSDALE - A cluster of residents near the horseshoe curve along Coudersport Pike in Woodward Township are awaiting the results of tests of their well water and soil following the weekend crash of a tank truck hauling frack water from a natural gas well site. The truck was full of frack water when it tipped over on the curve at Berry Lane and plowed through guardrails, spilling its load and injuring the driver, finally identified Tuesday by township police as Richard Hollabaugh, 41, of Morrisdale.

The truck was heading to another well site in Lycoming County and was hauling what officials called filtered frack or flush water about 10:45 p.m. Friday night. Since then, Berry Lane resident Rebecca Dunlap and her family - among the closest to the spill - are not drinking water from their well.

The crash, the second within nine months at the curve involving a gas industry vehicle, was unnerving. Upon hearing the crash, Rebecca said she ran outside to discover the driver, who was trapped in the truck's cab. "I immediately talked to the driver and he was alert. We're thankful he is fine and has been discharged from the hospital," she said.  "I immediately noted water flowing out of the tank," she recalls, so she asked the driver if it was fresh or frack water, and "he said fresh." "I think that maybe his definition of fresh water is different than mine," she said. "I could smell that it was not fresh water."

Emergency crews responded quickly upon receiving calls to the 9-1-1 center. The driver had to be extricated from the cab and was taken to Lock Haven Hospital for treatment, according to township police investigator Miles Houseknecht.

It was early the next morning when the truck was pulled up from the bottom of the embankment and towed away. After being notified, the response by the state Department of Environmental Protection; the owner of the truck, A&A Construction of Clarence; along with officials from Anadarko Petroleum Corp., whose well the truck was serving, also was very quick, she said.  "My husband called the DEP and they responded immediately and identified it as frack water. He said it was 9 percent, but I don't quite understand what the 9 percent referred to," she explained.

The DEP estimates between 3,400 and 3,600 gallons of frack water leaked from the truck. The spill is within about 200 feet of her well, she estimated. "That's concerning. We had our well water tested last year, almost one year to the date, in fact, so that we have a baseline water quality data," she said.  And while her well is on a slight upslope from the spill, she explained, "hopefully, most people understand that geology doesn't have to follow surface contour." 

"I have to say that I contacted Anadarko myself and they immediately called back, insuring they would look into the situation."

Dunlap subsequently arranged for a neighborhood meeting Saturday afternoon, attended by 10 surrounding property owners, three staff members from Anadarko and three from A&A Construction.  Among those attending were Ralph and Cathy Padilla, who live across Route 664. They also are not drinking water from their well for fear of contamination.  Ralph said the truck knocked down power lines, something he noticed upon running to see if the driver was OK. We cleared everyone out of the area after the driver said he was OK but that he was trapped," Ralph said.  Ralph said he also noticed the water leaking from the tank truck.

A&A hired a consultant, GEF, and a respresentative took samples from water wells, then came back and took soil samples, Rebecca said.  "That's where this stands. We're waiting for preliminary analyses from the samples. They'll tell us what they found and we'll go from there," she said. "In the meantime, we're not drinking the water, of course." The family is buying its water for consumption and "Anadarko told us to keep the receipts."

Dunlap said the test results could be available as early as today. The initial report that the truck did not leak water was a "miscommunication," Rebecca surmised.  "We had a huge snow melt Friday and maybe that's why" it was initially unclear to certain emergency responders whether water from the tri-axle truck spilled from its tank, she thought.

This morning, Anadarko issued the following statement, "The safety and well being of these families is our priority, and we are working with the service provider to take action by providing drinking and cooking water, while water sampling is under way. A&A Construction, Inc. has hired independent experts to conduct the sampling on water wells and soil under the supervision of the Pennsylvania DEP."

It was last June 22 when a Florida man driving a tri-axle flatbed truck and hauling a pickup truck crashed through the same guardrail at the horseshoe curve again, right next to Rebecca's home - after coming from a drill site north of Woodward Township. The driver was trapped in the truck for nearly two hours before being freed from the wreckage and taken to a hospital for treatment. That truck was hauling "drill steel" at the time.

LINK  Drilling Concerns
LINK  to article above

Natural Gas Drilling Causes Truck Traffic Nightmares

Frack truck impacts on New York towns and villages:  What will our future look like?

Thanks to Sustainable Otsego for this excellent presentation by Chip Northrup and Jeff Reynolds.
Distribution courtesy of Teresa Winchester.

Gas Drilling in PA: No Respect For the Law

This morning PennDOT removed a tracked drilling rig from the wooded area where it fell off a lowboy Friday in East Troy, PA.  Two problems come immediately to mind:

1. The weight of the rig and the lowboy together were overweight.  Law for weight IGNORED.

2. Diesel was drained from the rig after the accident.  That sounds very nice, but did any of the diesel fuel spill during the accident or as the fuel was being drained?   ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS!

This scenario has been repeated many, many times in PA and everywhere else gas drilling is happening.  It is a significant danger to local people and the environment.  However, there seems to be little worry by gas companies.  I will give the benefit of the doubt that the gas industry does care about their workers.  However, the fines for these accidents is laughable at best.  The Daily Review reported that the fine here will be more than $12,000.  A mere drop in the bucket.

Read more...........LINK

Natural Gas Drilling: Nineteen Minutes in Dimock, PA

Hundreds of diesel truck trips are required to service each gas well, polluting the air with noxious compounds in diesel exhaust fumes. This quick little film captures 58 trucks on one road on one Fall afternoon in Dimock PA over a 19-minute period of real time. One truck, poignantly, carries fresh drinking water for a Dimock family whose water has been ruined by gas fracking.


Guitar music by Jason Shaw at www.audionautix.com, "Plantation" and "Mountain Sun," permission for use licensed under Creative Commons by Jason Shaw.

"19 Minutes in Dimock" © 2010 by Jane Prettyman, host of 'Public Comment' (username 'Dissenta'): http://www.pubcomm.blogspot.com/.

Natural Gas Industry: "I can't stop the truck!"

Tractor-trailer Hits Antique Shop in Ulster, PA
Photo: Brian Bishop, The Towanda Daily Review

Cindy Chase was closing her store Thursday afternoon in Ulster, PA, when she heard someone yelling at her to get out of the way.  She turned and saw a huge truck coming right for her.  Read more...

This is just one more example of the danger we face.  Even the trucks on our roads pose a significant risk, to say nothing of what happens on well sites themselves in terms of contamination of our water, soil, and air.  Cindy Chase was able to jump out of the way.  What if there had been a child there or an elderly person walking along the sidewalk?  The impact was so great that it appeared to have shifted the building off its foundation slightly. 

The truck involved in the crash was presumably owned by Washita Valley Enterprises, Inc., a company headquartered in Springtown, Texas.  Where are the local jobs we were promised?

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

"I could smell his brakes, and I knew he was in trouble..."

Runaway truck crashes in Camptown, PA
Photo credit: David Keeler, Rocket-Courier

UPDATE:  The driver of this tanker was driving too fast.  His brakes had NOT failed as initially assumed.  The Towanda Daily Review report is here.

So it's 8:30 at night.  Rich and Hope Minyon were at home near Brewer Hollow Road on Route 409.  They heard the sound.  They ran to the other side of the house- away from the road.  The runaway water tanker had lost its brakes and was speeding downhill toward the Minyon home.  It flipped on its side, slid down the road, and careened over a small embankment, coming to rest in front of the Minyon's house.  Read more...

I am familiar with the terrain in Bradford County, PA.  There are many houses at the bottom of many hills on narrow country roads.  These houses are sitting ducks.  These large tankers are too big to drive on these winding, hilly roads.  Everyone knows that.  It is also known that the drivers of these trucks often drive too fast.  They drive while drowsy.  They drive while on drugs.  This is a formula for more accidents and injuries and deaths.  How many deaths will it take?

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

PUT SAFETY FIRST BEFORE PROFITS

Another Wastewater Spill in West Virginia

A tanker truck carrying drilling wastewater in Brooke County, West Virginia, spilled 500 gallons of the extremely slick brine October 13th.  The spill covered nearly three miles of heavily traveled roadway, turning it into a very hazardous road, so slippery it was like a layer of black ice. The tanker came from a nearby natural gas drilling site.  It was reported that the driver of the truck had no idea his truck was leaking.  Apparently other motorists saw the leak and called 911.

LINK

My question:  Even though the EMA director said the brine is not considered a major environmental threat, he did say that the clean-up crews didn't know all of the chemicals they were dealing with.  If we don't know what is in the brine, how can anyone say it is not an environmental threat? 

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Gas Drilling Bad For Business in Bradford County, PA

A water tanker spews dust as it drives along North Street recently.  Jackie Vanderpool says some of the customers at her hair styling business are reluctant to venture out in the dust after an appointment.
Photo: The Rocket-Courier, Wyalusing, PA

Road construction and heavy truck traffic on North Street in Terry Township have not been kind to Jackie Vanderpool and her business.  Road work has hurt her business immensely she says.  Other small business owners have experienced similar problems- lost business.

Vanderpool says that the entrance to her salon used to be level with the road, but now there is a steep incline to traverse in order to get to her walkway.  Some of her elderly clients have a lot of trouble now, and they are afraid of falling.  She says,

All I want is for it to be fixed somehow.  I worry about my customers falling down and hurting themselves.

Customers have started calling the salon to see if road conditions are good or bad. Roads being worked on are sometimes closed off. Vanderpool has asked the construction company if her customers can be allowed to go through to get to her salon. Some of her clients just want their hair cut instead of the usual wash, set, and style. They feel like it is futile to get their hair styled only to go outside and be enveloped in dust.

It's sometimes so thick you can't even see across the street.

While it is nice that the construction workers have offered to come and help customers get back to their cars safely, that solution seems undesirable. Who wants to have a sweaty, road crew member in full battle array take a hold of your arm?

Vanderpool told the reporter, Cain Chamberlin, that it takes her two or three weeks to make the same amount of money that she used to make in only one week.

LINK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In memory of Karen Korell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010

Natural Gas Drilling: Another Truck Overturns

Photo Credit:  Jason Fox, The Leader

What is toxic drilling waste doing being transported from Pennsylvania to New York State anyway?  As a NYS resident, I do not want PA toxic waste dumped in NYS.  For that matter, I do not want toxic drilling waste dumped anywhere.

Early in the afternoon of August 30th, a dump truck carrying gas well drill cuttings bound for a landfill crashed, spilling its toxic cargo over an embankment to the edge of a stream which feeds into the Conhocton River near where it meets the Chemung River.  The load of drilling mud was mixed with sawdust, as is the custom, to solidify the "stuff."  What ended up where it shouldn't have- these drill cuttings- is the mess that comes up out of the wellbore during drilling, some of it consisting of materials from deep within the earth.  This very gross-looking stuff contains radioactive materials and a lot of toxic chemicals as they are mixed in the drilling process.  This is a very serious accident.  Sadly these kinds of accidents are becoming more and more numerous. 

Read the story here.

Photo credit:  Jason Fox

Marcellus Shale: Water Truck Crashes in Bradford County, PA

[Photo credit: David Keeler, Rocket Courier]

Another truck accident in Bradford County (NEPA) has occurred in Terry Township.  This and other incidents involving gas drilling vehicles are becoming almost commonplace.  This road does not appear to be anything but a rather straight stretch of road, although there are ditches on either side, and it is a narrow country road as most are.  Was the driver going too fast for conditions?  A fisherman called in to 911 after witnessing this accident.  Read the article here.