August 17th
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - A spark (click title to entry - thank you) from a natural gas drilling operation in north-central West Virginia ignited methane gas several hundred feet underground early Friday, sending up a fireball and triggering a blaze that officials said burned for about an hour on the floor of the rig.
Three workers were injured, two seriously enough to be airlifted to a hospital after the fire at the Antero Resources site near Sycamore in Harrison County. The fire was quickly extinguished and the well pad was in a rural area, so it posed no danger to the public.
Al Schopp, a vice president at Colorado-based Antero, said two men were flown to a burn unit in Pittsburgh, but he did not have immediate word on their conditions. The third victim was treated at a Clarksburg hospital and released....
August 22, 2012
SYCAMORE, W.Va. (AP) — Two workers burned in a Harrison County (click here) drilling rig fire last week are out of the hospital, and state environmental regulators have ordered Antero Resources to gain full control over their operation near Sycamore.
David Belcher, assistant chief of the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Oil and Gas, tells WBOY-TV he can't comment further on the conditions of the injured men or identify them.
Those two workers and a third man were hurt Friday when a spark ignited methane gas several hundred feet underground, triggering an hour-long fire on the floor of the natural gas drilling rig at Antero's Cottrill No. 3 well....
...The State Department of Environmental Protection issued an order August 20 instructing Antero to cease ―any and all operations not necessary as part of the efforts to regain control‖ of the well. It also instructs Colorado-based Antero to work with property owners to sample water wells used for people, domestic animals, or any other use if they are within 2,000 feet of the well. The testing should, at a minimum, focus on pre-drilled water analyses and levels of dissolved methane....
At still yet another well in Pennsylvania. Yep.
Published: 3:32 pm Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012
| Associated PressPennsylvania environmental officials (click here) have given permission to a company to resume a gas drilling procedure that blasts chemical-laden water into the ground in a village where residents say their well water was polluted.The Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday that Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has met its obligations under a 2010 consent agreement and will be permitted to frack seven previously drilled wells in Dimock Township.Dimock residents say Cabot polluted their water supply with methane gas and toxic chemicals. State regulators had previously blamed Cabot for elevated levels of methane in the aquifer and banned it from drilling and fracking in a 9-square-mile area.The DEP hasn't cleared Cabot to resume drilling any new wells in the area but says it may begin producing gas from the seven existing wells.
Pennsylvania is not having an easy time with hydraulic fracturing. Gas is explosive. Now, people can't even trap shoot without problems with gas leaks. These things happen. No one ever listens. Ah, the plight of the insightful.Pennsylvania environmental officials (click here) have given permission to a company to resume a gas drilling procedure that blasts chemical-laden water into the ground in a village where residents say their well water was polluted.
The Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday that Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has met its obligations under a 2010 consent agreement and will be permitted to frack seven previously drilled wells in Dimock Township.
Dimock residents say Cabot polluted their water supply with methane gas and toxic chemicals. State regulators had previously blamed Cabot for elevated levels of methane in the aquifer and banned it from drilling and fracking in a 9-square-mile area.
The DEP hasn't cleared Cabot to resume drilling any new wells in the area but says it may begin producing gas from the seven existing wells.
10:58 PM, Aug. 21, 2012
