Posts Tagged ‘site’

TUNKHANNOCK – A sand-and-gravel company in Falls Twp. secured local permission Thursday to withdraw water from Buttermilk Creek for gas well drilling.

The township zoning hearing board approved the variance for Geary Enterprises, which operates a quarry and processing plant along Buttermilk Road.

Owner William Geary Jr. told the board his company already has a permit from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for the withdrawal of up to 99,999 gallons a day, with a maximum of 68 gallons a minute. Mr. Geary said the water will be taken from the site for use in the hydraulic fracturing process, or fracking, at gas wells.

Mr. Geary said he has not contracted with any gas company yet. The withdrawal operation is speculative, he said, based on the imminent expansion of the gas industry into Wyoming County.

He stated that there would be no fracking chemicals or any other substances on the site, which would merely be used for withdrawal of fresh water.

Mr. Geary told the board he is still awaiting a minor modification of his existing mining permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to allow the withdrawal site. He said he has also applied for a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for a minor encroachment on wetland adjacent to the creek.

The board granted the variance conditional on the receipt of those two permits.

Mr. Geary said studies of the creek dating back nearly 70 years have shown the average creek flow rate is about 3,000 gallons a minute, so the water taken out should have minimal effect.

In addition, Mr. Geary said the SRBC has tied its permit for the site to the flow rate of the Lackawaxen River in northern Wayne County. He said if that river’s rate falls below a certain level, the operation must shut down, and remain offline until the river is back over the minimum rate for at least 48 hours.

SRBC review docket No. 20100907 notes that the Lackawaxen gauge is used because “local stream monitoring may not be practicable.”

Mr. Geary said water will be drawn from the creek into storage tanks, then trucks will take water from the tanks to well sites. That will enable water to be pumped continuously, while having trucks coming in and out only during daylight hours.

He said there would be about 20 trucks a day accessing the site via Buttermilk Road and Route 92. Because his company already operates heavy trucks in the area, Mr. Geary said the extra traffic should have little to no additional effect on roads.

Contact the writer: mrudolf@wcexaminer.com

View article here.

Copyright: The Scranton Times

By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
Published: August 19, 2010

Drilling is close to wrapping up at Luzerne County’s first natural gas well, paving the way for Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc. to start on the second.

In a recent release, Encana reported drilling operations at the Buda natural gas well site on Route 118 behind the Ricketts Glen Hotel in Fairmount Township are expected to be finished within the next two weeks. Construction of the drilling pad at the Salansky site on Zosh Road in Lake Township is also “nearing completion and preparation for active drilling operations will start soon,” the company stated.

However, Encana stated that the completion process, which includes hydraulic fracturing, has not yet been scheduled for either site.

The wells will take approximately 6 millions of gallons of water for hydraulic fracturing.

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission, which regulates large water withdrawals, has granted Encana permits to take water from three sources shared with other natural gas drilling companies and three municipal sources.

The municipal sources are Dushore Water Authority in Sullivan County, Towanda Municipal Authority in Bradford County and Tunkhannock Borough Municipal Authority, Wyoming County.

Encana has SRBC permission to take up to 499,000 gallons per day from a Citrus Energy source at the North Branch Susquehanna River in Washington Township, Wyoming County; up to 999,000 gallons per day from the Mountain Energy Services Inc. source at Tunkhannock Creek in Tunkhannock Township; and up to 240,000 gallons per day from the Bowmans Creek withdrawal site of Randy Wiernusz in Eaton Township.

Withdrawals from the Citrus Energy site are currently on hold due to low stream levels, triggering what the commission calls “pass-by restrictions,” according to Susquehanna River Basin Commission Spokeswoman Susan Obleski.

Citrus Energy and Mountain Energy were also under the restrictions, but Obleski said those have been lifted.

“The other two are available, but I understand the stream flows are dropping quickly there again, so it could be only a matter of time that they’re put on hold again,” she said.

Encana also announced that in the event of a natural gas well emergency, the company is partnering with Cudd Well Control as a first responder.

Cudd, which is based in Houston, Texas, has opened a branch on Route 414 in Canton, Bradford County – the first well-control specialists to start operating in Pennsylvania. Previously, specialists from Texas had to be flown in to handle natural gas well emergencies.

“We’ve worked with Encana for a long time in Texas and look forward to partnering here in Pennsylvania,” Troy White, Cudd’s director of business development, said in a prepared statement. “Our specialized team is already familiar with Encana’s safety practices, so we expect a smooth transition to first response planning with Encana in the Marcellus.”

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072

View article here.

Copyright:  Citizens Voice

By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
Published: July 22, 2010

FAIRMOUNT TWP. – In one Luzerne County municipality, a natural gas drilling rig towers in the background as a guard keeps vigil against unauthorized personnel at the gate that is kept open to allow trucks to pass in and out of the site.

In another Luzerne County municipality a few miles away, new electrified fencing surrounds a meadow and engineers’ trucks kick up dust along the freshly re-graveled road.

On Wednesday, Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc. started drilling the county’s first exploratory natural gas well in Fairmount Township, and also began site preparation for a second well in Lake Township.

Encana spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenbeck said the drilling components have arrived and operations are moving forward on the site owned by Edward Buda in Fairmount Township, on Route 118 behind the Ricketts Glen Hotel. The well will be drilled about 7,000 feet deep, then go out 2,500 to 5,000 feet horizontally.

Asked what motorists can anticipate near the site, Wiedenbeck said, “We would expect some additional truck traffic. There is signage on the road leading up to and away from the location.”

Noise and dust are side effects of the drilling process, which it is estimated will take about 30 days, Wiedenbeck said. Encana will monitor and mitigate both the dust and the noise at the site, and the company is working closely with Fairmount Township officials, she said.

About a quarter of a mile down Route 118 from the drilling site, Good’s Campground owner Frank Carroll was cutting firewood Wednesday afternoon. He noticed there has been a lot of truck traffic at the drill pad.

“Crazy thing is, all I can hear is the backup of the trucks – you know, beep-beep-beep,” Carroll said as he piled the cut wood in the bed of his pickup truck and pulled a blue tarp over it. “It doesn’t bother me, but I can hear it.”

Carroll says he wakes early and sleeps soundly, so he doesn’t expect the 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week drilling operation to disturb him.

“I’d sleep through the end of the world,” he joked.

One thing does bother Carroll: the speculation. Will the well pay off in royalties to landowners who leased mineral rights?

“Everybody’s been talking about it for two years, how they’re going to get rich or they’re going to get nothing,” Carroll said. “And they’re still talking about it. They all think they’re going to be rich – and they can’t all be rich.”

As soon as drilling is complete in Fairmount Township, the rig, from Horizontal Well Drillers of Purcell, Okla., will be taken to the Lake Township site.

“Efficient work operations is to go from one area to the other,” Wiedenbeck said.

In Lake Township, heavy truck traffic warning signs are in place on Meeker, Outlet and other roads to be traveled by the approximately 2,100 total trucks it will take to create the drilling pad, drill the well and bring in the roughly six million gallons of water needed for hydraulic fracturing.

Robert and Debra Anderson live so close to the Zosh Road site that will be transformed into a natural gas drilling pad they could throw a baseball from the front yard of their trailer home and easily have it land over the electrified wire fence surrounding the meadow belonging to Paul and Amy Salansky.

The Andersons love the area, which is full of wildlife: “I have turkeys, I have deer, I have foxes, I have bear … I even have ducks in my pond,” Debra Anderson said.

Things were quiet on Wednesday afternoon, but in the morning, there was a “big meeting” at the drill pad site, Robert Anderson said.

Just then a pair of engineers drove by in a Borton-Lawson truck, stirring dust from the road as they passed.

But not much dust. The Andersons are pleased with the work Lake Township’s three-man road crew has done on the dirt-and-gravel roads around the site: enlarging them, smoothing them, lining the drainage ditches with rock. Debra Anderson declared she hasn’t seen the roads look that good in the 15 years they’ve lived in the township. Encana’s paying for the road maintenance, Robert Anderson said.

Lake Township will provide dust control with calcium chloride applications on the roads, he said. But what about the noise and light when drilling starts?

“We’ll deal with it. You can’t stop progress,” Robert Anderson said.

He called Encana a “reputable company, not like the one that’s up in Dimock,” and said its representatives are good about telling residents what’s going on. He said he attended the last Lake Township meeting, at which dozens of natural gas drilling opponents showed up, and he said they should go to the company for information, not the supervisors.

“People that go to the Lake Township meetings should be Lake Township residents,” Robert Anderson said. “It’s no one else’s concern.”

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com , 570-821-2072

View article here.

Copyright:  The Citizens Voice

Copyright: Times Leader

Worker for subcontractor at Cabot site in Dimock Township was hit on head with a pipe.

The Associated Press

DIMOCK TWP. – A worker at a natural gas drilling site in Susquehanna County died Monday at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center after being hit on the head by a pipe.

The Luzerne County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 41-year-old Gregory Walker. His death was ruled accidental. Coroner John Corcoran could not provide his hometown or any additional information.

Walker was working at a Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. drilling rig in Dimock Township, when he was hurt Monday. He was taken to a hospital in Montrose and then flown by helicopter to the hospital in Plains Township, where he died Monday. Cabot spokesman George Stark said Walker worked for a subcontractor.

Copyright: Times Leader

Parcels in Lake, Fairmount townships require county zoning approval.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

An energy company is seeking zoning approval to temporarily locate five personnel trailers and up to 192 water storage tanks capable of holding more than 4 million gallons on a 6-acre site in Lake Township.

IF YOU GO

The Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board will hear testimony on applications from EnCana Oil & Gas for special land uses in Lake and Fairmount townships at 7 p.m. Tuesday, in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

EnCana Oil & Gas USA Inc. also wants to temporarily place a sewage holding tank and a potable water tank for each trailer at the site, all to be used during the drilling of a well to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface.

The Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday will hear a presentation from EnCana in connection with the company’s application for a “temporary use” and a special exception to construct a permanent gas well head facility on the 49-acre property located at 133 Soltis Road and owned by township Supervisor Amy Salansky and her husband, Paul.

EnCana also is seeking a use variance to operate a natural gas meter station on 5 acres within a 112-acre parcel in Fairmount Township, as well as a height variance to erect an associated 150-foot radio tower on the site.

The meter station site, located at the intersection of Mossville and Hartman roads on property owned by Thomas and Caroline Raskiewicz, would be used to treat and compress natural gas from another well drilling site in Fairmount Township for which EnCana has already received county zoning approval. That drilling site, located off state Route 118 between Tripp and Mossville roads, is owned by Edward Buda.

The Salansky site in Lake Township is the third in the county on which EnCana plans to begin drilling for gas this summer. Earlier this month, the company received approval from Lehman Township supervisors to drill near Peaceful Valley Road on property owned by Russell and Larry Lansberry.

The Salansky and Buda sites required county zoning board approval because neither Lake Township nor Fairmount Township has zoning regulations.

Wendy Wiedenbeck, public and community relations advisor for EnCana, said the Buda site will be the first to be drilled. The target date for drilling to begin, known in the industry as the spud date, is July 1. Crews were to begin clearing an access road on Thursday.

Wiedenbeck said the spud date for the Salansky site is expected to be about a month after drilling begins at the Buda site. It takes about a month to drill a well, and the drilling equipment will be moved from one site to the next.

Plans for the Lansberry site are still under discussion, she said.

21,000-gallon tanks

According to a narrative that EnCana included in the zoning application for the Salansky site, the company will need about 6 million gallons of water for each well completion. Completing a well requires hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which is the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and a small amount of chemical fluid additives into the wellbore under very high pressure to fracture the shale formation and release the natural gas.

EnCana estimates about 1.2 million gallons of flowback water will return to the surface.

Fresh water for the well completions will be stored in some of the 21,000-gallon “frac water” tanks, which are about 8 feet wide, 50 feet long and 13 feet tall. Some of the steel tanks also could be used to collect flowback water, which either will be treated and reused during a future well completion or hauled away and disposed of at a permitted wastewater facility.

EnCana plans to drill one well at each site using a truck-mounted drill rig. It would be drilled vertically about 7,000 to 8,000 feet deep and then horizontally about 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

During drilling operations, sites would have a drill rig, stockpiles of drill pipe and casing, a 60-by-160-foot reserve pit with an impermeable liner for collecting cuttings and fluid, mud shakers to separate the cuttings from the fluid, generators to provide power to the drill rig and office trailers that would be equipped with personnel sleeping quarters.

Drilling activities would occur around the clock for about four weeks and require on-site supervision 24 hours a day.

Main access roads to the Salansky site include Lehman Outlet, Hoover, Sholtis, Zosh, Ides, Meeker and Slocum roads and state Route 118. EnCana will work with supervisors of Lake and Lehman townships to complete a road assessment and provide appropriate bonding for the roads.

Meter site structures

Major structures at the Raskiewicz meter site in Fairmount Township, in addition to the radio tower, include two 40-by-40-foot buildings, about 20 feet tall, that would house compressor engines, and a 15-by-35-foot meter building about 12 feet high.

Also planned is a smaller air purification building.

Two 20-foot-tall storage tanks for condensate – liquids that fall out of the gas and settle at low points in the pipeline – also will be placed there, along with various other types of storage tanks, most about 10 feet tall. There also will be a dehydration unit, mainly composed of a vertical tank about 34 feet tall.

The facility will require a 1/2 acre where a 6-inch EnCana gas line will feed into the 24-inch transcontinental pipeline that already passes through the site underground, and another 1.5 acres for placement of EnCana treating and compression equipment. The additional 3 acres is for future expansion.

Main access roads to the site are state Route 118, Mossville Road and Hartman Road.

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

Copyright: Times Leader

DEP probes Cabot Oil & Gas query about “discharge of black water” in Dimock Twp.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DIMOCK TWP. – The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating a possible leak or spill at a natural gas drilling site in Susquehanna County.

Mark Carmon, DEP spokesman at the Wilkes-Barre office, said the department received a call to its emergency response line from Cabot Oil & Gas Co. on Sunday afternoon informing the department that employees found “a discharge of black water” at the site.

The call was referred to the department’s Gas & Oil Program team, which operates from DEP’s Williamsport office.

Dan Spadoni, DEP spokesman at that office, said the team is investigating “the possibility of a spill or leak at Cabot’s Hibbard drill pad” since Monday, but has not yet determined if there was a spill or leak at the site.

Spadoni said there are two wells on one pad at the site, and no drilling activity is currently taking place. He said the team took samples from a private drinking water well that is currently not being used, from two nearby springs and from the site pit.

The samples are being analyzed at DEP’s lab in Harrisburg.

“We need to see those results to see what our future course of action will be,” Spadoni said.

He expected lab results back in a week or two.

Spadoni said Cabot’s consultant also collected samples and the drill cuttings in the pit for analysis. Site pits, which are lined, are where the residue from the drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes ends up, he said.

There was discussion on an online Susquehanna County gas forum about the possibility of a nearby pond being drained, but Spadoni said he had no information about the pond and no samples were collected from it.

He confirmed Cabot had a vacuum truck on-site “in response to where this dark fluid was observed. It was a voluntary measure on their part,” he said.

Spadoni said he believes there was no recent drilling activity at the site. The site had not been shut down because of the discovery of the liquid, he said.

Ken Komoroski, spokesman for Cabot Oil & Gas, said there was no indication of any environmental contamination or pollution.

“Discolored water was observed over the weekend and Cabot immediately responded to observing water in a ditch. We notified DEP and took the additional measure to have a vacuum truck remove water from ditch,” Komoroski said, adding that employees noticed the water while driving by the site on Route 29.

Cabot also drained the pit to check if it was possible the water was leaking from the drill pit, but the pit liner was “completely intact. All indications are that it was not a result of Cabot activities,” Komoroski said.

Komoroski said the drill site has been in existence “for quite some time, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason” for the discolored water to appear “since it hasn’t been active site. We were not able to identify any potential cause or relationship.”

He said the water was found “in the vicinity of the site, but close enough that we wanted to consider the possibility that it was related to our activities.”

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

Copyright: Times Leader