U.S. Under Attack: 7 Oil/Gas Disasters, 4 Days. BOP Failure Sent Workers Running For Lives From Out Of Control Well

After six fossil fuel disasters left parts of the nation looking like a war zone over three days this week, an out-of-control Whiting Oil and Gas company frac well in North Dakota blew out Thursday, sending 15 workers running for their lives in fear of an explosion. A blow out preventer failed. Around 10,000 gallons of poisonous fluid has been leaking from the wild well per hour.

The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well blowout occurred when a blow out preventer (BOP) failed south of Watford City, about seven miles north of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit in North Dakota according to the Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms.

Fifteen workers, who freafully ran from the well, left their pickups at the site and called McKenzie County Sheriff’s Office, said McKenzie County Emergency Manager Jerry Samuelson. He directed a school bus in the area to pick up the workers.

“When that thing blows, you just never know,” Samuelson said. “There’s a possibility of explosion.”

The BOP seal leaked and caused the accident, according to Denver, Colorado-based Whting Oil and Gas company spokersperson Jack Ekstrom.

“It’s still a tad dangerous up there,” Kris Roberts, with the health department’s Division of Water Quality said mid-day Friday.

Bob Wisness, who lives about a mile from the well, said he saw what looked like a green vapor after the incident. He received a message from Whiting that a blowout occurred. Although Wisness didn’t feel he was in danger, he started texting friends who live near the site but were out of town, he said.

“There are well sites that are closer to people’s homes. I’m glad it’s not me. Other people have good reason to worry about it,” Wisness said.

While no immediate injuries were reported, the initial release sprayed oil and water on to snow that is on top of the ice-covered Cherry Creek, according to Helms.

“To the best of our knowledge, nothing has gotten into the water,” Helms said.

Whiting Oil and Gas claimed about 50 barrels of flowback water were released but contained on site within a berm.

Fracking had been completed at the well and the fluid released was a poisoned water-based solution that flows back to the surface. As much as one million gallons of water is used per well. The well continued releasing about 200 barrels of poisoned fluid per hour, about 10,000 gallons per hour. The company says the fluid was directed to tanks and contained on site, according to Ekstrom.

Crews from Wild Well Control were brought in to assist with the out-of-control well. Helms said the cause of the accident will be closely examined because blowouts carry serious health and safety risks. (Author’s emphasis.)

In 2012, a worker died when hit by pickup during the chaos after a blowout in Williams County, North Dakota.

This is the seventh major fossil fuel disaster across the nation this week, as this reporter wrote Friday:

Bright glows of fireballs brightening night skies worse than detonated bombs; blown up homes while others rocked to their foundations; evacuations of families; injured workers, derailed train leaking more chemicals, and a highly toxic coal slurry covering at least six miles of waterway emptying into a major river have left the countryside looking like a war zone.    

Leaked poisonous coal slurry blackens a once prisitine Appalachian Mountain stream in West Virginia early Feb. 2014. (Matt Wasson/Appalachian Voices/Occupy the Hollers/Facebook)

Earlier this month, federal regulators fined Whiting Oil and Gas and two other companies for mislabeling the type of flammable crude oil they were transporting by rail. The penalties? A slap on the wrist total of $93,000.  

Transportation Department inspectors began random tests last summer in attempt to ensure producers, shippers and railroad companies properly lable oil from Bakken shale region of North Dakota.

The inspections started after a train carrying crude oil derailed and killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Whiting Oil and Gas was among the first to be fined from the new inspections.

After a sixth fracking explosion injured a worker and sent a tank flying 100 feet in West Virginia last month, the government shut down a repeat offender drill company with a cease and desist order and a violation notice. The orders came as America’s main oil and gas trade group prepared to launch another aggressive campaign to promote non-renewable energy.

Here’s how people in the UK are preventing the dangerous fracking process in their communities.

UK frack off video