7 families evacuated, thing may explode

[mike rossi]

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP — Trouble at a natural gas drilling site in Wyoming County has forced seven families from their homes and crews are worried about a possible explosion.

Gas workers are trying to fix a drill on a well pad of Keiserville Road in Washington Towhship after thousands of gallons of fracking fluid spilled out onto the pad.

The Department of Environmental Protection tells us a malfunction on the drill going into the well caused the spill.

DEP officials said that at one point, about 800 gallons of fluid per minute were flowing out. They managed to slow the rate of fluid flowing but still call it a significant spill.

DEP said they secured 5,400 barrels of fluid.

Authorities said a drill became stuck in the well and pressure building up behind caused the spill and creates the potential for an explosion. They are trying to use a crane to remove the drill and cap the well.

Emergency management officials said there is no danger to the public from an explosion and the process of capping the well is underway.

E.M.A. officials evacuated four homes and three others left voluntarily.

 

More details on video: http://wyomingcounty.wnep.com/news/news/176153-fracking-fluid-leak-wyoming-county

[Doc]

Well, that sounds like a potential situation that I should be welcoming into my back yard .....Eh? Oh but wait, there are all kinds of people telling us that the process is absolutely safe. They would lie to us would they?

[growalot]

Boy does this ever bring back memories of the Retsof salt mine fiasco...never...never learn

[mike rossi]

Well, that sounds like a potential situation that I should be welcoming into my back yard .....Eh? Oh but wait, there are all kinds of people telling us that the process is absolutely safe. They would lie to us would they?

 

Yup, sounds real safe to me.    If they ban their default method in NY, they still got propane fracking. In Proping , instead of millions of gallons of pressurized water loaded with 600 chemicals; they just use one gas to harvest another gas    ... Instead of blowing up the underground rock with a pressurized chemical cocktail, they let the propane expand (explode?) underground. Earthquake faults, no problem with either method, according the the industry .. You know, like dude    , they like got it all under control dude,...

Edited March 15, 2013 by mike rossi

[mike rossi]

The industry has also been pandering to sportsmen. For several years, PA allowed this industry on it's state game lands (SGL) which are the equivelent of New York's  WMAs. This full page ad surfaced yesterday, same day they evacuated those people. Alan Probst, host of Wild Pennsylvania endorses Cabot Oil & Gas and states the industry benefits hunting, trapping, fishing, and wildlife. Below is an advertisement by Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, this week in Mulligan’s shopping guide distributed in what is known as “Gasland”, north central PA and south central NY.
 

Can natural gas benefit wildlife?
“Absolutely!” says the host of Wild Pennsylvania with Alan Probst.
An avid outdoorsman and award-winning TV producer, Alan has shared his love of hunting, trapping, and fishing for over a decade, producing a variety of outdoors and sportsman programming for local, regional, and national television.
Alan says when companies like Cabot work with landowners to return drill sites to their natural states, they can be designed and reseeded in a way that provides animals with a more attractive habitat.
“I make my living from the outdoors” says Allen. “It’s good to know we can enjoy the economic benefits offered by natural gas, while actually improving living conditions for the region’s wildlife.”

Edited March 15, 2013 by mike rossi

[Cazadora]

I got this in my facebook feed, this happened in Ohio. I guess the wells really can explode!  Yeah, this is really great for NY... I think we should have a well every few miles... I can't believe people are actually having these things put on their land, that's crazy!

 

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/well-explodes-in-eastern-wayne-county-1.381615#.UURDomBQ3tI.facebook

[Doc]

This stuff is getting out of control. First you are risking your drinking water, and the well doesn't even have to be on your property. Now it looks like there is the risk of explosion. And the beauty of it all is that it benefits nobody but a handful of landowners. Everybody gets to share in the risks, and the only people that benefit are a couple of landowners here and there. Give me a break!

[covert]

Nope, doesn't benefit anyone but landowners, no one uses natural gas but the people who have the wells on their land. (sarcasm)

[mike rossi]

Nope, doesn't benefit anyone but landowners, no one uses natural gas but the people who have the wells on their land. (sarcasm)

Do you know that in the US, including NY, that China has already started buying both the leases and the US energy companies? In Canada, residents got suckered into expecting lower natural gas prices, but the Canadian goverment started exporting their "domestic" natural gas to India and China. That of course raised the demand, which raises the price for Canadians.

[covert]

China is buying everything.  Does that mean we should just lie down in the dark and die?  We need to get the power somewhere but everyone succumbs to NIMBY.  Unless we are willing to give up the internal combustion engine and go back to doing all of our heating with wood we are going to need oil, gas and coal. 

 

Wind and solar are nice but don't have the capacity or reliability to support large scale development, hydro is great except the fish-huggers fight the dams and everyone quakes in their boots at the mere mention of nuclear power.  The Canuks were willing to sell us their petroleum products until our President blocked the pipeline so they decided to sell it to the Chicoms instead.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2013 by covert

[mike rossi]

So it matters to the Canadians that the money-huggers are exporting to china instead of the USA? Exporting is exporting... Canadians were sold on domestic energy independence and lower prices for themselves, the same sales pitch the USA is getting. When you export, you sell more... When you sell more, the price goes up, not down

 

Obama wants domestic energy, no surprise he didnt want the canadian pipeline. He particularly champions hydrofracking for natural gas. He has no problem with the gas pipeline they are building right now down the east coast.