When did it become the norm to allow companies to pollute our waterways and water wells; destory our lands; maim, injure or even kill people; use our drinking water from public sources as their drilling lubrications; destory our roads, and cause accidents from excessive highway speeds. Enough is enough.

Mr Morris is also correct in that greed and ignorance is to blame. Heck, members of my own family are willing to sacrifice my rights, properties, water, way of life, and turn my front yard into a industrial park, to boot, just for a promise that they may someday put a few bucks in their own pockets.

Just recently, a bus carrying my children was struck by a water transport truck near Big Moses on Indian Creek. Will it take a major accident to wake people up, for them to see and understand what’s going on.

Is the almighty dollar blinding them just because a very few jobs are being offered to us locals? What happens when the big companies are gone and we have to face what has actually taken place and the damage is done?

WEST VIRGINIA: Well pad explosion sends tank flying, injuring one worker  (Wednesday, January 8, 2014)

Gayathri Vaidyanathan, E&E reporter

An oil and gas contractor broke his ankle last week as a battery tank holding hydraulic fracturing fluids and crude oil exploded in West Virginia with enough force to deform the metallic structure and toss it 100 feet.

The incident happened at 11:30 p.m. Thursday in Tyler County at the Lisby well pad of Jay-Bee Oil and Gas, a small independent driller based in West Virginia that is a repeat environmental and safety offender, at least since 2010.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has cited the company for 21 environmental violations since 2010, and the federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration has cited the company for 38 worker safety violations. The incident suggests that environmental and worker safety violations often go hand in hand.

In the latest incident, it is likely the tank contained vapors that were “somehow ignited, possibly by static electricity, but that has not been confirmed,” wrote Thomas Aluise, communications director for the DEP, in an email. The well was being hydraulically fractured at the time of the incident.

The tank contained 1,575 gallons of fluids, and some of it spilled on the soil, the DEP said. Most was contained in a dike.

The accident caused scaffolding nearby to collapse and strike the worker, who was employed by Baker Hughes.

Jay-Bee said in a statement that the worker was released from the hospital over the weekend. It did not provide additional details.

Aluise said the Office of Oil and Gas had not found any contaminants in the nearby Big Run Creek. Residents continued to remain concerned, however, as the grass-roots group Occupy the Hollers measured conductivity in the creek of 7,050 microsiemens per centimeter, indicating high salt content. Most streams have conductivity between 50 and 1,500 microsiemens.

The company has been a repeat offender in the state, often for violations involving the improper construction and maintenance of waste pits and secondary containment barriers. At times, the company has failed to report to the DEP when its wastes have flowed into nearby streams, according to documents provided to EnergyWire in response to a Freedom of Information Act request last year.

For instance, in March 2011, the company stored fracking fluids in open pits that had torn liners, which contaminated the groundwater. The DEP in response ordered the company to stop operations until the pits were fixed and fined the company $57,000.

Separately, OSHA has reacted to complaints about working conditions at Jay-Bee well pads and found a number of violations since 2010. The federal agency has so far fined the company $40,763.

The DEP said Jay-Bee had been ordered to suspend its fracking operations at the Libby well pad and is cleaning up the contaminated soil. The DEP is investigating the accident and assessing fines, Aluise said.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s
Office of Oil and Gas (OOG) has issued a Notice of
Violation, as well as a Cease Operations Order, to Jay-Bee
Oil & Gas in connection with the company’s Lisby gas well
pad in Tyler County.

The Lisby pad was the site of a Jan. 2 incident during
which a tank ruptured and leaked fluids to surrounding
grounds on the well site. One worker was injured as a
result of the incident.

As part of the OOG order, which halts all well work on the
Lisby pad not necessary as part of gaining control of
activities on the pad, Jay-Bee Oil & Gas must submit a
report to the OOG on or before Jan. 14, 2014, that
demonstrates a knowledge and understanding as to the cause
of the tank rupture; demonstrates Jay-Bee’s ability to
safely resume operations on the pad; and outlines future
preventative measures to be used to safeguard against
similar incidents.

Also, as part of the order, Jay-Bee is required to provide
an analysis of the fluids contained in the ruptured tank;
submit to the OOG a proposal for soil sampling and a
remediation plan to remove and dispose of any contaminated
soil from the impacted areas; submit to the OOG a proposal
for water sampling, including plans for containment and
removal of any pollutants found; and provide an after-
action report that details Jay-Bee’s testing and
remediation activity, including all sampling data, as a
result of the order.