Posts Tagged ‘inspector’

VICKI SMITH Associated Press Writer
Published: June 7, 2010

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A crew drilling a natural gas well through an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle hit a pocket of methane gas that ignited, triggering an explosion that burned seven workers, state and company officials said Monday.

The blast created a column of flame that was initially at least 70 feet high, but the rig operator said the site was secure and the fire was about 40 feet high by late morning.

A team from Texas-based Wild Well Control, a company that specializes in rig fires, will decide whether to let the methane burn or try to extinguish the flames, said Kristi Gittins of Dallas,Texas-based Chief Oil and Natural Gas.

The explosion occurred about 1:30 a.m. in a rural area outside Moundsville, about 55 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, and presents no danger to any structures or people, said Bill Hendershot, an inspector with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas.

The operation was less than a week old: DEP records show a permit was issued June 2 to AB Resources PA LLC of Brecksville, Ohio.

Gittins said AB Resources is the operator of the well, while Chief has a “participation interest.” It is Chief’s responsibility to drill and complete the well, she said.

Chief’s site contractor, Union Drilling of Buckhannon, had drilled the first 1,000 feet of a second well on the property and was preparing to install surface casing when crews apparently hit and ignited the methane, she said.

Crews had drilled through the abandoned Consol Energy mine before without incident, she said.

Methane is a known risk when working near old mines, and the company typically takes a variety of precautions, including venting systems. Gittins could not immediately say what precautions were in place at this site.

“Luckily, our response team got there quickly, secured the area and evacuated the workers,” she said. “From all appearances, there weren’t any life-threatening injuries, so that’s a good thing.”

The seven workers were taken the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh and were in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Five were employed by Union and two worked for BJ Services Co. of Houston, Texas, said Jeff Funke, area director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Charleston office.

A spokesman for Union in Fort Worth, Texas, did not immediately return a telephone message.

The BJ Services workers were among four that had just arrived on site to place the casing, said Gary Flaharty, a spokesman for the parent company, Baker Hughes Inc. of Houston. The crew runs a safety check at the start of each shift and was just preparing to do that when the blast occurred.

Flaharty could not provide any details about the injured employees but said they’re being treated for burns and are expected to survive.

Funke said OSHA learned of the accident shortly after 8 a.m., and two investigators were being dispatched. However, they cannot enter the site and begin work until the fire is out, he said.

OSHA created a program to deal with gas drilling in the vast Marcellus shale fields about five years ago and has been proactively inspecting sites to ensure compliance with safety regulations, he said. The gas reserve is about the size of Greece and lies more than a mile beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

OSHA knew there would be a lot of drilling in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, “and we did our best to get out in front of that curve,” Funke said. “So we’re well-equipped to respond to this.”

About 98 percent of the region’s drilling now involves Marcellus shale, he said.

Gittins, the spokeswoman for Chief, confirmed the company was tapping into the Marcellus reserves. The company has drilled about 75 Marcellus wells in West Virginia and Pennsylvania so far, she said, with about 15 of them in West Virginia.

This was the company’s first major accident, she said.

However, it’s the latest in a string of accidents related to the rapidly growing pursuit of Marcellus gas.

In Pennsylvania, environmental regulators are investigating what caused another well to spew explosive gas and polluted water for about 16 hours last week until it was brought under control.

A crew of eight was evacuated from the Clearfield County site Thursday, but no one was injured. That accident involved EOG Resources Inc. of Houston.

Copyright:  The Scranton Times-Tribune

Official lays out efforts to protect environment

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DALLAS TWP. – The man in charge of ensuring the oil and gas industry complies with environmental regulations in Pennsylvania spoke at a well-attended Back Mountain presentation on Tuesday, informing the public about protections in place and what is being done to improve public safety.

Scott R. Perry, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, provided an overview of how drilling into the Marcellus Shale formation differs from other forms of natural gas drilling and discussed the bureau’s current work and future plans to protect the environment.

Misericordia University President Michael MacDowell welcomed Perry to the school’s Lemmond Theater, and assistant professor Julie Kuhlken, who teaches environmental philosophy, moderated a question-and-answer session afterward.

Oil and gas drilling began in Pennsylvania in 1859, Perry said. But new technology that enables horizontal drilling into the 5,000- to 7,000-foot-deep Marcellus formation has brought to the state energy companies that have until recently focused their efforts in western states.

“One of the things we noticed is that people from Texas and Oklahoma aren’t really familiar with hills. Pennsylvania has them, and we also have rain, more so than Texas, and so there have been some struggles in developing these well sites,” Perry said.

Pennsylvania, he noted, is the only state that requires an approved erosion and sediment control plan before a drilling permit is issued.

In his computerized slide show, Perry showed a photo of an erosion-and-sediment control violation at a state drilling site. Controls on the main level were fine, but farther down a hill, a DEP inspector found “a bunch of hay bales” and “silt fence that’s not doing any good.”

“I asked the inspector who took this picture what he thought they were thinking. He said, ‘I think they were thinking I wasn’t going to walk down that hill,’ ” Perry said, eliciting laughter.

DEP forced the operator to put proper controls in place.

Perry noted the DEP hired 37 inspectors in 2009 and is hiring 68 more this year to nearly double the size of the inspection staff to 193. Three-fourths of those employees will oversee the oil and gas industry; higher permit fees pay for it all.

Perry said he believes there are adequate regulations in place to protect public health and safety and the environment, but he supports several provisions in proposed legislation, such as one that would increase bonding requirements for drilling companies.

Perry said DEP officials are “always evaluating” regulations, and when they’re inadequate “we’re strengthening them. … For example, we’re evaluating the permit requirements for air quality. … We’re not done with the evaluation and regulation process for this industry. They’re just getting started and so are we.”

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

House committee members hear testimony on impact of gas drilling, proposed environmental safeguards.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

KINGSTON TWP. – Members of the state House of Representatives Environmental Resources and Energy Committee came to the Back Mountain on Wednesday to hear testimony on the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling and proposed legislation that would put additional environmental safeguards in place.

Testifying were representatives of two environmental groups, a local physician active in environmental issues and a resident of Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, where the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered a gas company to provide drinking water to residents after their wells were contaminated by methane.

State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, committee majority chairman, said the committee convened at the township municipal building at the invitation of state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston.

Mundy said she requested the hearing because she and many of her constituents “have serious concerns about the potential impact of Marcellus Shale drilling on our streams, our land and especially our drinking water,” noting that a proposed well site is less than two miles from the Huntsville and Ceasetown reservoirs.

Noting the contamination of drinking water in Dimock Township and a recent drilling-related mud spill in Clinton County, Mundy said there was “still time to put safeguards in place to protect the environment and the public health from the negative impacts” of gas drilling.

“That is why I strongly support Chairman George’s House Bill 2213, the Land and Water Protection Act, which would, among other things, require state inspections of well sites during each drilling phase and require full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing,” she said.

The act would also:

• Extend from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet the presumed liability of a gas well polluting a water supply.

• Update bonding requirements to cover the costs of decommissioning a well from a $2,500 bond to a $150,000 bond for a Marcellus Shale well and to a $12,000 bond for all other wells.

• Reaffirm that local government may regulate aspects of drilling within traditional powers, such as hours of operation.

Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club state chapter director, said the club supports the bill and suggested adding some provisions:

• Require a drilling permit applicant to publish in a local newspaper and in the Pennsylvania Bulletin that a permit application was submitted to DEP.

• Require that erosion and sediment control and storm water discharge plans for drill sites be as stringent as requirements for all other earth disturbance activities, and require DEP to offer county conservation districts the opportunity to review those plans and fund the work.

Brady Russell, Eastern Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action, said the gas industry will “cut corners” if not properly supervised. He made several recommendations, including requiring an inspector – or eco-cop – on each drill site to make sure drillers follow approved plans.

He also suggested requiring drillers to pay for pre- and post-drilling testing of nearby water sources.

Dr. Thomas Jiunta, a podiatrist from Lehman Township, where issuance of a drilling permit is expected to be approved next week, said that since he has been researching Marcellus Shale exploration, he has “gotten a lot of lip service from senators and representatives about how we need to do it right. Before I start, I just want to say that maybe, maybe – and this is the first time I’ve said this word – we need a moratorium to stop it until we get it right.”

Audience members burst into applause and cheers at Jiunta’s suggestion.

After sharing his concerns about an inadequate number of treatment plants capable of removing hazardous chemicals from water used in hydraulic fracturing and risks associated with storing those chemicals underground, Jiunta made several suggestions for the bill.

One is adding a requirement that recovered waste water from the fracturing process be stored in sealed tanks rather than in surface pits that have liners that he said could tear and overflow with heavy rain.

Dimock Township resident Victoria Switzer testified first that a gas company “landman” talked her and her “misinformed, uninformed and na�ve” family into leasing their land for $25 an acre and a 12.5-percent royalty minus transportation cost.

“We now sit in the middle of 63 natural gas wells. In spite of what has gone terribly wrong here, the 2010 plan calls for a doubling of their efforts,” Switzer said.

She said gas drilling has resulted in diminished or contaminated drinking water supplies, destruction of roads and bridges, increased traffic beyond road capacity; decreased air quality, loss of aesthetics and more.

Mundy said she can’t imagine what Switzer is going through.

“How do you like less government – fewer DEP employees, lower taxes, no severance tax? This is what we’ve got; let’s fix it,” Mundy said.

State Rep. Tim Seip, D-Pottsville, said a severance tax on gas extraction is necessary to fund more inspectors and conservation district work. He said the public should lobby their state senators to adopt the bill when it comes before them.

Asked if he thought a moratorium was possible in Pennsylvania, George said he thought, “It’s really going to help Pennsylvania if every place where there’s drilling we get this type of attention.”

Copyright: Times Leader