Highly corrosive brine (residual) wastewater processing facility on Mon River in Fairmont

From an Article of Your Radio Place in Ohio, June 1, 2023

LORE CITY, Ohio–Members of three area fire companies responded to the report of an oil and gas well pad explosion Thursday morning.

Around 10 am Thursday, a explosion was reported at a Utica Resources drilling site on Leatherwood Road (SR 265) near the intersection of Salem Road, located east of Lore City.

According to local fire officials, a storage tank on the site exploded for reasons yet to be determined. The blast was reported by residents nearly 15 miles away.

Members of Lore City, Old Washington and Quaker City Fire Departments responded, and per protocol, staged at the entrance to the pad site. Following the explosion, a small fire was extinguished and situation was quickly brought under control by drilling company personnel on scene.

One worker, close to the blast received minor injuries and was evaluated by Old Washington EMS personnel. The worker refused treatment.

There was no report of nearby property damage and the incident is under investigation by the ODNR, well drilling company personnel and local fire officials.

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WV-DEP: Testing after Fairmont explosion showed no signs of contamination

Articles by C. Allan, WBOY News 12, Posted: May 30, 2023, Updated: May 31, 2023, UPDATE: 5/31/2023, 1:14 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — Officials with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are still assessing the site of a fire that happened at the Fairmont Brine Plant on Tuesday.

According to an update sent to 12 News by a DEP representative early Wednesday afternoon, testing performed by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on Tuesday showed that no first responders showed any signs of contamination. “No testing showed above background readings on their bodies,” said a DEP representative.

The representative also said that when the fire was extinguished around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, DEP staff did not see evidence of material or firefighting water leaving the site.

Crews from the DEP, Fairmont Brine Plant and Environmental Protection Agency are currently on site conducting an updated assessment.

UPDATE: 5/30/2023, 7:01 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — After previous reports that no evacuation was needed after an explosion at a brine plant in Fairmont on Tuesday, officials from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are now at the site testing for radioactive material.

According to the Marion County Homeland Security & Emergency Management Facebook page, DEP is at the Fairmont Brine Plant on AFR Drive performing various sampling tests of the air and ground. The post said that the operations are contained to the immediate affected area.

The Winfield VFD, Valley VFD, MCRS, Bunner Ridge VFD, Rivesville VFD, Barrackville VFD, Marion County Sheriff, Marion DHSEM, WV DEP, and Mon County Hazardous Response Team all responded.

ORIGINAL: 5/30/2023, 2:59 p.m.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — A representative with the Department of Environmental Protection has been called following an explosion in Fairmont.

According to the Marion County 911 Communications Center, an explosion was reported at 1:53 p.m. Tuesday at the old brine processing plant on AFR Drive in Fairmont.

When crews arrived on the scene, they reported back that there were no injuries and determined it was not necessary to evacuate the area due to potential chemical leaks resulting from the reported explosion, comm center officials said.

At this time, the Department of Environmental Protection has been notified of the incident and is sending a representative to the scene, according to the comm center.

At the scene were the Winfield, Valley, Rivesville, Barrackville and Bunner Ridge fire departments, also on the scene is the Marion County Rescue Squad as a precaution, comm center officials said.

The Winfield District Volunteer Fire Department is the lead at the scene, according to the comm center. Currently, the crews on scene are following precautionary direction and instruction per the Department of Environmental Protection.

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TIMELINE for Fairmont Brine Processing

> 2009 – Facility was constructed under previous ownership
> Q4 2009 – Venture Engineering & Construction, Inc. (“Venture”) hired by previous ownership to manage construction and commissioning
> Late 2009 – Operations begin (3,500 bbl/day facility)

2010 – Facility encounters increasing and severe metallurgical issues ~ Facility shuts down due to improper materials of construction and process issues

2012 – Facility is acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing, LLC (“FBP”) ~ Venture is hired to redevelop the facility as a 4,000 bbl/day plant

2013 – Pretreatment operations commence

July 1, 2014 – Evaporation & Crystallization process operations commence

October 1, 2014 – Sold 100% of the plant capacity under two take or pay contracts (4,000 bbls /day) through end of 2016.

Fracking for oil and natural gas is expensive

From Allied News, Grove City, PA, June 28, 2018

On Saturday, June 2, Marcellus Outreach Butler hosted a presentation by John Detwiler titled “The Financial Threat to Fracking” at the Butler Library.

John, a registered professional engineer, has worked as a business executive and strategic consultant for the natural gas and electric utility industries, and is a former faculty member of Carnegie Mellon University.

His presentation focused on how the fracking industry is slowly driving itself out of business with its reckless habits and exorbitant spending. Using actual data taken from the websites of Range Resources, EQT, and other drilling companies, John laid out the precarious situation that the fracking industry is in, and how its collapse could leave us worse off.

John’s program came in the wake of a hot topic in Butler County: Rex Energy’s recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Many in the area are wondering what will happen if Rex ultimately folds, and if their situation is unique, or emblematic of the entire fracking industry. During the program, it seemed increasingly clear that Rex is not a unique case.

The fracking industry as a whole is in a very precarious financial situation. Driven by an insatiable need for capital investment, these companies keep soliciting loans from lenders, driving themselves deeper into debt.

The process of constructing a well pad and drilling the wells costs several million dollars, and most of that money is acquired from lenders and investors.

Now that the initial gas boom of 2008-2012 flooded the market with a glut of natural gas and drove down prices, many companies are struggling to make sufficient money off new wells to pay back their investors.

Not only has the price of natural gas declined, but production has as well. Unlike other formations, production levels in the Marcellus Shale decline rapidly after the well is drilled.

According to John, the production of an average Marcellus well declines by 50 percent in only four months, and can drop to as low as ten percent of initial production in as little as two years. Due to this downturn, the national active drilling rig count has declined from 1,600 in January 2009 to less than 200 in January 2018, and now much of the gas and its liquid by-products like butane and ethane extracted in our area are destined for export to Europe and Asia.

Are the gas industry’s financial hardships good news for those fighting it? Not necessarily. Like a wild animal, when backed into a corner, the fracking industry also lashes out in desperation. Pittsburgh-based driller EQT, as well as Encana Energy, are in the process of developing half-mile-long “super well pads” that can house up to 60 wells in a single location, tapping multiple formations in every direction. These types of pads may soon be coming to western Pennsylvania, which sits atop not only the Marcellus, but also the Utica and Upper Devonian shales. And if companies do begin to fold, who will be responsible for cleaning up their messes and maintaining their existing infrastructure?

We don’t yet know what the future holds for Rex Energy or other smaller operators in our area, but John Detwiler painted an uneasy picture. In its Oil Patch Bankruptcy report issued on March 31, 2018, Haynes and Boone, LLP, listed 144 North American oil and gas companies that have declared bankruptcy since 2015, resulting in $90.2 billion of secured and unsecured debt, and Rex has just joined their number. It seems that what started out as a boom is, like always, quickly going bust.

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See also: “Millions Own Gas And Oil Under Their Land. Here’s Why Only Some Strike It Rich” : NPR, March 15, 2018