Pa. 2nd Fracking Well, Gas Explosions Every Few Seconds, Possibly Impaired Senator's Memory, Crime Scene Now
Chevron’s frack well blowout in southern Pennsylvania’s Dunkard townwhip was one of three wells on the pad where now, a second gas well is leaking and causing explosions every few seconds, “par for the course” according to Chevron spokesperson, while major fracking puppet Sen. Timothy Solobay’s memory has apparently failed him regarding blowout preventers.
One of the three wells on the pad, the one that initially exploded and caught fire, has burned itself out, according to officials.
A second well continues to leak gas and cause explosions.
“Water used in hydraulic fracturing was bubbling up from the well and possibly extinguishing the flames, but when the gas reaches the hot metal of the nearby [propane] truck, it reignites, causing a cycle of booming bursts of horizontal flame every few seconds,” said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary E. Christopher Abruzzo.
‘Infrequency’ of BOP Failures, Lawmaker With Memory Issue Says
No trained or equipped personnel were onsite Chevron’s well pad to respond to Tuesday’s disaster.
“Because of the infrequency of these things happening, it makes it harder to have (responders) everywhere,” said Senator Timothy Solobay, D-Canonsburg, who stopped in Bobtown to speak with Chevron officials.
Christian Science Monitor reported a 2009 reliability study finding BOPs failed 62 times during three years of testing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Aside from Cameron International’s BOP repeatedly failing in the Deepwater Horizon Macondo Well operation, and causing the catastrophe, including 11 immediate deaths, a couple of months later, In Solobay’s neighbor state, West Virginia, a failed BOP injured seven men and another failed BOP killed 13 in Texas.
The reliability of blowout preventers in natural gas and oil wells came into sharper focus after a natural gas well head blew out in West Virginia, causing a fire that injured seven in 2010.
Not only that, a deadly BOP failure the same week in Texas caused the deaths of 13 workers when a natural gas pipeline exploded:
The blast was originally thought to be an oil well explosion. An electrical crew was digging a hole when it struck the gas pipeline, an emergency services spokesman in Hood County, Texas, said.
WFAA-TV, the Dallas/Fort Worth station, reported three people were dead and 10 were unaccounted for after the blast.
Sen. Solobay must have also forgotten that, as the above events unfolded in 2010, his own state’s Department of Environmental Protection ordered EOG Resources Inc. to suspend all its natural gas well drilling activities in Pennsylvania after its natural gas well spewed out explosive gas and polluted water 16 hours.
“Six hours is not a bad response time, when you think of where they had to come from,” Solobay said Thursday.
Had the well been any closer to homes and schools, six hours would have been catastrophic.
Sen. Solobay, however, during 2011-2012, received 20.4% from fossil fuel and energy industries, largely from the fracking gas company Consol Energy, his fourth largest contributor.
Consol produces both gas from fracking and high-BTU coal. It’s in with Chevron in the so-called Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD).
CSSD boasts of being “an unprecedented, collaborative effort of environmental organizations, philanthropic foundations, energy companies and other stakeholders committed to safe, environmentally responsible shale resource development.”
Solobay’s approval rating by environmental groups dropped from 73% in 1999-2010 to 13% in 2011-2102.
Abruzzo and DEP spokesman John Poister said Thursday that Chevron and the DEP had placed air monitors around the disaster site in Dunkard, including at several homes within a mile of the well.
Poister said some monitors would sample air for about 24 hours, and then would go to a lab in Harrisburg for a rush analysis.
Abruzzo said no gas was found beyond the well site, and explosions booming from the well’s re-ignitions pose no danger.
Police Establish Crime Scene
“The Chevron folks believe this is par for the course,” Abruzzo said.
Disasters and death are all par for the course in the fossil fuel industry.
State police are treating the site as a crime scene, even though a death has not been confirmed, and a body has not been found.
State Rep. Pam Synder (D- Greene) says state police are treating the site as a crime scene, even though a death has not been confirmed, and a body has not been found.
She said a Houston, Texas-based company called Wild Well Control, which specializes in these types of incidents, is on the scene.
“They’re doing everything they can,” she said. “Everybody’s doing everything they can to make sure that this situation is contained, controlled, and over as soon as possible.”
“A serious reminder of the dangers we face”
The missing worker is employed by Houston-based contractor, Cameron International. The company refuses to release his name, but has now issued another statement about the incident. (Read: Pa. Gas Blowout Coverup: Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe Ties. Missing Man Employed By Same Failed Macondo BOP Company)
“It is a serious reminder of the dangers we face in our industry every day, and underscores the importance of safety in everything we do.”
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
| Online: | |
| Visits: | 1,599,621,523 |
| Stories: | 8,139,708 |
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
The plot gets thicker and thicker, and the coverup gets deeper and deeper, now including a PA senator. What a dramatic drop in public approval of his environmental positions – probably when his funding from fossil fuels and energy increased.
Gas and oil vapors definitely seem to impact mental capacity of lawmakers – at least those taking huge fossil fuel industry campaign funds.
There are some grave inaccuracies within this article:
FIRST…
When you dig into a gas pipeline, it is NOT a BOPE failure! period! It is a people failure, ie: those workers’ that didn’t have the knowledge of or the ability to avoid that pipe in the ground!
When you “quote” a figure, like 67 failed tests of BOPE over 3 years (from back in 2009 no less) you also need to note the “total number” of tests performed; so a % factor/rate of failure can be seen/calculated. I will venture a guess that from 2006 till 2009 (+/-) there must have been many 10′s of THOUSANDS of tests performed in the “gulf area” – which would have included sub-sea as well as surface BOPE, those on the test spud down in the well bay and those on active wells inclusive. AND, it should be noted that some “failure” items could be very minor items, those NOT related directly or impairing any PRESSURE HOLDING FUNCTION in the first place. Further, most such failures can be traced to PEOPLE FAILURES during assembly or repair in the first place!
THE definitive study on BOPE “failures” was done back in the 1970′s by IMCO Services and the USGS (now MMS) – This was looking at “actual blowouts” (loss of primary control). Only 2.3% of all these actual cases, which were claimed as equipment failures, turned out to be PEOPLE failures!..
The mention of “no experts on site” and how it took 6 hr to get there…
FIRST – I use to be one of those experts prior to my retirement! Well control was my job, TRAINING those that work in the offshore was my job – I still have valid credentials with MMS to teach well control schools.
SECOND – “To spend money” on a well site is the sole ability of the “operator” – That Company Man had to seek his office’s input/approval before the call to Wild Well Control et al could be made. No doubt, down in Houston, TX. According to time of day, day of week, and weather for flying…from call to wheels up on the way by jet would be a MINIMUM of 2 hours…even traffic could delay that an hour or more.. Flight time to PA from IAH would be about 2.5 hours or so.. Then, they have to rent a car/truck or copter to get from the runway/airport out to the well site. Once there, they have to “understand” the full situation/wellbore geometry/local resources/safety issues, etc…figure 1 to 4 hours to be “read-in” those on site with the knowledge…now, figure another hour or two for the Operating Company Brass to understand the same things, and approve the initial approach to recovery of control… IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR Sh_t, you don’t belong on site or in the chain of command – period!.. Talk to Red Adair or Boots’ n Coots’ about such conflict issues, etc..
The “danger” to someone “off site” is inversely proportional to that “distance” off site!.. IF the initial blast/fire didn’t harm them, then 99% chance nothing would. That 1% is for sour gas wells, which this was not (thank God). There is no drama or high risk in this case and making such part of the article is a dis service. The only place where I know of “wells” being right in by buildings, commercial and homes, is in Willmington, CA and Huntington Beach, CA… some homes have been lost and paid for by the operator…but, no lives I am aware of – ever!.
What is NOT covered here, is very important: WHAT was being done on this well when it got loose?.. I see “Frac” mentioned, but was the actual frac crew on site, doing an actual frac operation at that moment??.. This relates to “what was in the hole” when this happened…a tubing string with a wellhead, or with an actual BOPE of some design below the frac manifold ? This second well being involved seems to indicate some sort of WELL HEAD EQUIPMENT is involved, NOT BOPE per se.
Dang it people…the oilpatch is a dangerous place on a nice day… Get slack on your training or knowledge and it turns into a snake pit real fast…toss in some nasty weather and you have the perfect storm for a BIG BANG. Not to mention the handling of many 1,000′s of PSI of pressure right in your face… Pumping at 6-8,000 PSI with all that slurry, sand, and fluids only trapped by iron, that can wear out due to erosion, is high-pucker factor moments…better known as days of boredom followed by moments/minutes of shear terror!.. Hope they find the Cameron hand safe and about 60 miles down the road where he quite running.
Agenda 21 in Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett recently proposed allowing gas drilling in the state’s parks and forests after a four-year ban, listing energy independence and economic security as reasons to ramp up fracking the massive Marcellus Shale region.
Drilling on public lands fragments the land via pad construction, roads, and pipelines and makes human and wildlife habitats more vulnerable to chemical spills, explosive fires, poisoning of aquifers and lowers real estate values.
SORRY:
I muddy’ed up that study done in the 1970′s about BOPE equipment failures…
Out of the original 107 blowouts examined in detail, ONLY 3 were truly due to EQUIP FAILURE.. ALL THE OTHERS were found to be PEOPLE FAILURES… hence, we got OCS order T-1 about training being required thereafter…
That’s OK. Thanks.
Every report regarding this aspect says the workers were not trained or equipped for this type of disaster – essentially a blowout. BOP equipment can and does fail too often and causes too much human and environmental harm.
We do not know yet if the BOP should have prevented this – but first reports said there was a leak during the night before the blast. If that’s the case, a BOP should have worked.
MontanaMel puts it well: fracking is a very dangerous business – for everyone. Bottom line: fossil fuel industries have always been dangerous to workers and everyone else. Once upon a time, we may have considered this a reasonable price to pay for “progress.”
Now, it’s much worse, because there is a much higher demand and because all the easy pickings are used up. This means going for the ridiculously harder, more dangerous, more wasteful deposits, sickening and killing more people and poisoning the environment we depend on far more seriously. This includes skyrocketing emissions pushing global warming toward runaway climate change.
Clean fossil fuel energy is a myth. Carbon capture and sequestration is an example of the lies pushed by the industry: it would cost far too much and would pose the unacceptable risk of CO2 escaping to the atmosphere.
Now envision the alternative: renewable energy from solar, wind, tidal, geothermal. They don’t blow up, poison people, or destroy the environment.
The obstacle to truly clean energy: our inertia. When we suffer enough to rebel? Better be soon, or forget it.
Fracking for a better America, This is destroying lives and the water table , Government need to be kicked out as they are now just representing their donation agenda.