NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FROM STATES ACROSS THE COUNTRY DESCRIBING DANGERS FROM
UNCONVENTIONAL, HIGH-VOLUME, HORIZONTAL HYDRAULIC DRILLING (FRACKING)
Multinational energy companies (drillers) who have been active in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia are now
turning their sights to Ohio, where the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations sit. What can we learn from the
experiences of other states being “fracked”? According to an August 2010 report based on Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection records, 1,435 violations of Pennsylvania state oil and gas laws occurred
during gas drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale within a two-and-a-half-year period.
Well Blowouts, Explosions
Pennsylvania Natural Gas
Well has Blowout during
Fracking
A natural gas well spilled
thousands of gallons of
hydraulic fracking drilling fluid
water in Pennsylvania on
Wednesday after a blowout,
state and local regulators said.
The well, operated by
Chesapeake Energy, began
spewing fluid at 11.45 p.m. on
Tuesday during the
controversial "fracking" drilling
process ... The incident comes
two months after Chesapeake
shut natural gas wells in the
Marcellus Shale in western
Pennsylvania, after a fire in
natural gas liquids storage tanks
injured three people. Reuters,
April 20, 2011
DEP says safety issues
ignored in Clearfield County
gas well blowout
A June 3, 2010 gas well blowout
in Clearfield County,
Pennsylvania, about 100 miles
outside Pittsburgh, sent at least
35,000 gallons of wastewater
and natural gas spewing into
the air for 16 hours. In all, the
well blowout amounted to five
(5) violations of the Oil & Gas
Act, five (5) violations of the
Clean Streams Law, two (2)
violations of the state’s Air Act,
and four (4) violations of the
Solid Waste Management Act.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, July,
14, 2010
Gas Well Explosion
Seven people were injured early
today in an explosion at a twoday-old gas well that had
recently started drilling to the
deep Marcellus shale formation
in rural West Virginia.
The West Virginia explosion is
the second major accident at a
Marcellus shale drilling
operation in four days. On
Friday, natural gas and drilling
fluids escaped from a Marcellus
shale well operated by EOG
Resources in Lawrence
Township, Clearfield County,
Pa., for 16 hours… Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, June 7, 2010
Illegal Discharges, Water
Contamination
Cabot Oil & Gas is showing
"arrogant disregard" for
Pennsylvania's regulations and
environment after ignoring an
order from state environmental
overseers to fix pollution, an
official said Thursday. The
agency is taking multiple
enforcement actions against
Cabot -- including suspending
review of all Cabot permits
statewide and new drilling in
Dimock -- because of a history
of problems.
pressconnects.com, April 30,
2010
Moon's Atlas Energy
Resources fined $85K for
environmental violations
(Discharges in Three PA
Counties)
In January 2010, PA DEP fined
Atlas Resources $85,000 for
violating state environmental
laws at 13 well sites in
southwestern Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
January 9, 2010
Buried Secrets: Is Natural
Gas Drilling Endangering
U.S. Water Supplies?
…the EPA negotiated directly
with the gas industry before
finalizing …conclusions, and
then ignored evidence that
fracking might cause exactly the
kinds of water problems now
being recorded in drilling states.
ProPublica, Nov. 13, 2008
Officials in Three States Pin
Water Woes on Gas Drilling
Released in December by
Garfield County, one of the
most intensely drilled areas in
the nation, the report concludes
that gas drilling has degraded
water in dozens of wells. The
scientists… indicated with more
clarity than ever before that a
system of interconnected
natural fractures and faults
could stretch from deep
underground gas layers to the
surface. They called for more
research into how the industry's
practice of forcefully fracturing
those deep layers might
increase the risk of
contaminants making their way
up into an aquifer.
Propublica.org, April 26, 2009
Chesapeake Energy Receives
Violation Notice (Bradford
County, PA)
Friday the state sent
Chesapeake Energy a notice of
violation. The Department of
Environmental Protection said it
believes the methane gas,
which was still bubbling Friday,
is caused by nearby Chesapeake
gas drilling wells. Nearby
residents said Chesapeake has
been providing water to them
since the problem started.
WNEP.com, Sept. 17, 2010
Chesapeake, Schlumberger
fined $22,000 each in
hydraulic-fracturing-related
deaths of cattle
Citizens noticed the dying cows
April 28 in a pasture …
Witnesses reported hearing
them bellowing and seeing
them bleeding before they fell
over dead.
At the time, Schlumberger, as a
contractor of Chesapeake, was
performing routine fracturing of
the natural gas well. LDEQ
determined during its
investigation that fluid leaked
from the well pad then ran into
an adjacent pasture after a rain.
Shreveport Times, Mar 25, 2010
underground. Other
carcinogenic materials can be
added to the wastewater by the
chemicals used in the
hydrofracking itself. While the
existence of the toxic wastes
has been reported, thousands
of internal documents obtained
by The New York Times from
the EPA, state regulators and
drillers show that the dangers
to the environment and health
are greater than previously
understood. NY Times, Feb 26,
2011
Violations
Radiation
Radioactive question posed
on gas, oil drilling
Nearly 15 years ago, the
national organization
recommended that the Ohio
Dept of Health should
determine the appropriate
action levels for the
(radioactive) material, he said.
"How is it possible that 15 years
have passed since the first
recommendations, yet no
program for on-site monitoring
has been adopted? "
Chagrin Valley Times, Feb. 24,
2010 Ohio House Hearing
… a report … by the
Pennsylvania Land Trust
Association, which identified
the Marcellus drillers with the
most violations in Pennsylvania
from Jan. 1, 2008 to June 25,
2010… Chesapeake Energy
Corp. drilled the largest
number of Marcellus gas wells
in PA over the past 2 1/2 years 153 - and also had the second
largest number of violations
during that time, 118, according
to the report.
Thedailyreview.com, August 4,
2010
Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’
Tainted Water Hits Rivers
With hydrofracking, a well can
produce over a million gallons
of wastewater that is often
laced with highly corrosive salts,
carcinogens like benzene and
radioactive elements like
radium, all of which can occur
naturally thousands of feet
For More
Information:
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