Geismar Olefins Plant Explosion & Fire, Louisiana, 2013

From an Article by Terry L. Jones, The Advocate, September 26, 2016

PLAQUEMINE — Four men injured in the 2013 explosion at the Williams Olefins Geismar plant were awarded a total of $13.6 million in damages after an Iberville Parish jury late Monday night ruled the company, several plant officials and its parent company were negligent and knew with substantial certainty that the deadly fire could occur.

The jury rendered its verdict after five hours of deliberation in the three-week trial in the first of several lawsuits related to the incident that killed two people and injured 114 workers.

“For a month they were trying to shift blame onto their shell company (Williams Olefins) and I’m glad the jury saw right through it,” Kurt Arnold, attorney for the plaintiffs, said after Monday night’s verdict.

The jury found that Williams’ Oklahoma-based parent company was 95 percent responsible for the explosion and Williams Olefins was 3 percent to blame. The jury apportioned 1 percent of the blame on plant official Parker Tucker and 1 percent for plant supervisor Larry Bayer, who were also named defendants in the lawsuit. The jury absolved defendant Erick Comeaux, a plant official.

Plaintiff Shawn Thomas will receive the highest payout in damages, awarded $9.4 million for past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental anguish, and pain and suffering. Kris Devall was awarded $3.6 million and Eduardo Elizondo and Michael Dantone were awarded $360,000 and $205,000, respectively.

The company, in a written statement issued after the verdict, says it plans to appeal: “Nothing about the tragic accident at the Williams Olefins facility in Geismar on June 13, 2013 was intentional. We believe there is sufficient Louisiana case law that supports our legal position, and we will appeal the jury verdict rendered in the 18th Judicial District Court.”

In their closing arguments, attorneys for the four men asserted Williams Olefins administrative leaders and plant managers had some idea an explosion could occur, ignoring for seven years warnings that could have prevented the tragedy at the facility, which straddles the Ascension-Iberville line.

“This accident doesn’t happen if the board of directors and CEOs heeded the warnings they were told,” Arnold told the jurors.

But the jury was asked by defense attorneys to view the decisions and actions of the company and its plant officials as a mistake they never intended to happen. “This case is not about responsibility. Williams Olefins already accepted responsibility,” defense attorney Glenn Farnet said. “It was a horrible mistake. Human beings make mistakes. Mistakes are not intent.”

Farnet asserted that in order for the plaintiffs to argue intent Williams’ officials would have had to have known three sequential factors would occur on the day of the explosion. “The scenario that happened that morning had never happened in 13 years because it was an unusual scenario,” he said.

The plaintiffs contended that Williams, key management figures and others had known for years that one of two reboilers used in the refinery process was isolated from pressure relief — which meant there was a risk of over-pressurization and explosion.

Both sides admitted in the court the explosion could have been prevented if car seals, costing less than $5, were tied onto the rebroiler valves. But defense attorneys claimed corporate officials were under the assumption the safety measures had been followed based on what they were told by plant managers.

Much of the debate during the three-week trial centered on the whether Williams’ Oklahoma-based corporate headquarters should bear much of the responsibility for the explosion since its administrative leaders must sign off on many of the day-to-day decisions made at the Geismar facility by the plant managers who work for its limited liability company, Williams Olefins.

“Williams Olefins stood up here and took the blame, but that wasn’t enough,” said Jim Reed, the attorney representing two of the parent companies named in the lawsuit. “Sometimes the truth is very simple. Lawyers complicate things.”

Arnold, the plaintiffs attorney, asserted in court Monday that Williams should bear 90 percent of the responsibility for the plant explosion and Williams Olefins should take 4 percent of the blame. The remaining liability should be apportioned among the remaining defendants, he said.

Arnold asked the jury to award Thomas and Devall $12.1 million each to cover past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental and physical suffering since the explosion.

Arnold asked that Elizondo and Dantone get at least $1.6 million and $835,364, respectively, for past and future medical expenses and lost wages. He left it to the jury to determine what additional money, if any, the two men should receive for past and future mental anguish and pain and suffering.

But Randy Cangelosi, one of several attorneys arguing on behalf of Williams, said some of the plaintiffs exaggerated their injuries while others had pre-existing conditions or weren’t injured severely enough to prevent them from getting high-paying jobs in the future.

“This case is about what’s fair and reasonable. It’s not about punishing any company,” he told the jury.

Cangelosi said Dantone should receive between $65,000 to $80,000 in damages, Elizondo somewhere in the range of $65,000 to $80,000, Thomas between $1.4 million to $1.7 million and Devall’s payout should fall somewhere between $400,000 to $925,000.

Tony Clayton, another attorney for plaintiffs, told the jurors that Williams should not be allowed to injure its employees and then turn around and determine how much money the workers should receive for their injuries.

“Your verdict will be a historical marker of how (these plants) conduct themselves in the future,” Clayton said in his closing arguments. “If they’re man enough to come here and make profits off of us, then they need to be man enough to pay for their substantial mistakes.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Accident Description and Safety Investigation:

Accident: Williams Olefins Plant Explosion and Fire
Location: Geismar, LA
Accident Occured: 06/13/2013 | Final Report Released: 10/19/2016
Accident Type: Chemical Manufacturing – Fire and Explosion
Investigation Status: The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation was released at a news conference in Baton Rouge, LA, on 10.19.2016
The fire and explosion occurred on Thursday June 13, 2013, which fatally injured two workers and injured 114 at the William Olefins, Inc., plant located in Geismar, Louisiana.

FINAL REPORT OF C.S.B., CASE NUMBER No. 2013-03-I-LA
https://www.csb.gov/file.aspx?DocumentId=6004

Gov. Wolfe needs public support to regulate the fracking industry

Letter to Editor, Scranton Times Leader, May 19, 2018

Gov. Tom Wolf has once again proposed a common sense severance tax on natural gas operations in Pennsylvania. Bill O’Boyle’s recent coverage spells out many of the benefits of taxing energy companies based on how much natural gas they produce.

The bill has bipartisan support, and Pennsylvania remains the only major natural gas-producing state that doesn’t have a similar tax on production. It could lead to billions of dollars in revenue for initiatives throughout the Commonwealth.

A progressive tax on energy companies for the natural gas they produce – using the natural resources of our state – makes sense and is a necessary step for Pennsylvania.

But make no mistake – this is not an environmental issue. This is a revenue issue.

The severance tax would be an important revenue tool for our state, but it should not overshadow or distract from key environmental issues facing Pennsylvania.

As Harrisburg debates a severance tax, essential regulations curbing dangerous methane emissions at natural gas sites remain unrealized. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas and is emitted alongside other pollutants that have been linked to a host of health issues from low birth weight to asthma to heart disease. As pro-industry groups like the Marcellus Shale Coalition push to kill the severance tax and protect energy conglomerates’ bottom lines, the DEP is critically underfunded. Officials say it is “mathematically impossible” for the agency to keep up with required safe drinking water inspections.

As the debate over a severance tax heats up, Pennsylvania citizens and lawmakers cannot confuse the energy industry’s responsibility to pay its fair share in taxes with its responsibility to protect the air and water of our commonwealth and the health of our families and communities.

Joseph O. Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel

B. David Smith, Outreach Coordinator (412-954-8494),
dsmith@cleanair.org

Clean Air Council, Suite 300, 135 S. 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103

NGL Pipelines from OH, WV & SW-PA to East

Construction Worker Killed for New Natural Gas Processing Facility at Marcus Hook, PA

From an Article by Jamison Cocklin, Natural Gas Intelligence, April 1, 2015

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP confirmed that a contract employee was killed on Monday during work to convert the Marcus Hook industrial complex near Philadelphia into a natural gas liquids (NGL) terminal.

Spokesman Joe McGinn said the contractor, whose name was not released, died in an incident at about 2:30 p.m. EST Monday. The worker reportedly died of blunt force trauma after a large pylon fell. No other injuries were reported.

A U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) representative said federal officials are investigating. OSHA said the contractor worked for Los Angeles-based engineering and construction services firm AECOM, which has been cited for several OSHA violations in the past, according to agency records.

“The worker was struck by a steel pile during pile-driving operations,” said OSHA spokeswoman Joanna Hawkins. She added that the federal investigation could take up to six months to complete.

“No words can express the sorrow and pain that come when such a tragic event happens,” Sunoco stated. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of the individual who died. They have suffered a devastating loss.”

Sunoco is converting the former oil refinery on the Delaware River into a terminal to store, export, process and distribute NGLs. (The Sunoco Mariner pipeline system which crosses southern Pennsylvania is being upgraded and repurposed to transport NGLs from southwestern PA, northern WV and eastern OH to the Marcus Hook facility.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No injuries in tank fire at well pad in Marshall County

From WTRF News 7, Wheeling, WV April 1, 2015

Moundsville, WV (AP) – An emergency official says no one was injured when a storage tank fire broke out at a drilling well pad in Marshall County.

Marshall County Emergency Management director Tom Hart says the fire was reported around 4:45 a.m. Wednesday at Gastar Exploration’s Armstrong pad near the Wetzel County line. (This is the Mason-Dixon Line, as extended to the Ohio River.)

Hart says four to five tanks were burning when firefighters arrived. The fire was extinguished in about an hour and the well pad wasn’t damaged.

Hart didn’t know what the tanks contained.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

One small example: "ATEC pipeline in Ohio"

Ohio’s natural gas boom brings flurry of pipeline construction

From an Article by Jon Chavez, Toledo Blade, December 7, 2014

The 1,230-mile Atex pipeline is one of numerous new or ongoing natural gas projects criss-crossing Ohio right now. Atex went into operation in 2013. About 38,000 miles of pipeline are expected to be built or replaced across the state in the next decade.

A huge supply of natural gas in the shale of northern Appalachia is igniting a mega-boom in gas pipeline construction in Ohio, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the 1940s.

“You have interstate, intrastate, local utility service lines upgrades, collection lines for oil and gas utilities, and lines for gas-fired electric utilities. Altogether, there will be 38,000 miles of pipeline development in Ohio over the next decade,” said Dale Arnold, director of energy services for the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

“I tell people you might not see shale and oil drilling development in your area like in the eastern part of the state, but with pipelines and development, it’s coming your way.”

Three proposed pipelines are winding their way through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval process now. A major pipeline company has hinted it may build a fourth large pipeline.

The largest project is Energy Transfer Partner L.P.’s $4.3 billion Rover Pipeline, an 823-mile conduit running from southeast Ohio west to Defiance County and then north to Michigan and Canada. The 409-mile main line will have nine new lateral pipelines ranging from 4 to 206 miles to connect it to southeast Ohio, Michigan, and Canada.

E.T. Rover will begin moving 3.25 billion cubic feet of gas daily from Appalachia to southern Ontario in 2016. [This pipeline would start at the Sherwood Separation Plant on US Route 50 near West Union in Doddridge County, WV.]

Also aimed at the Canadian market is Spectra Energy/​DTE Energy’s $1.5 billion Nexus, a 250-mile pipeline that will begin in northeast Ohio’s Columbiana County, cut across to Maumee, and turn north through Fulton County to reach Michigan and Canada. It will move 2 billion cubic feet of gas daily starting in 2017.

In southeast Ohio, NiSource subsidiary Columbia Pipeline Group is proposing Leach XPress, a $1.75 billion, 160-mile pipeline to send 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily from West Virginia and southeast Ohio to central Ohio, where it will connect to lines running to Leach, Ky. Set to be ready 2017, the line is needed to ship gas to the Gulf of Mexico — where Ohio got most of its natural gas in the past.

Two other major pipelines went into service the last two years.

Enterprise Products Partners’ 1,230-mile Atex pipeline runs from southwest Pennsylvania through a sliver of West Virginia and across 13 Ohio counties, ending in southern Indiana. It began operating in 2013. It can move up to 190,000 barrels a day of ethane (a natural gas liquid) that winds up in Texas and the Gulf Coast, where it is refined into the petrochemical ethylene.

Sunoco Logistics/​MarkWest Liberty Midstream’s 230-mile Mariner West pipeline, which moves ethane from the Youngstown area to Sarnia, Ont., via Toledo and southern Michigan, began operating last spring. It can transport 50,000 barrels of ethane per day.

Recently, ANR Pipeline Co., one of North America’s largest pipeline operators, has started discussions about building a major pipeline that would follow the ET Rover route. ANR has yet to submit a proposal to FERC.

However, it is not just major pipelines that are cutting across Ohio’s farm fields. Smaller lateral lines that feed off the new pipelines to provide gas for homes or for new electric generation plants are in the works as well. “Gas exploration and production has grown in Ohio in the last few years. We have seen a general increase in the construction of pipelines in the state. Most of it is routine,” said Matt Butler, a spokesman for the Ohio Power Siting Board.

But, “We have definitely seen an increase in natural gas-fired plant proposals, and that has a lot to do with the trend in utilities to retire coal-fired generation,” he said. The new Oregon Clean Energy Center, an $800 million electric plant with natural gas-fired turbines, will be fed from a new pipeline — the 22-mile Oregon Lateral line proposed by North Coast Gas Transmission LLC of Columbus.

Mr. Butler said two more plants, one south of Dayton and the other in Carroll County in northeast Ohio, have been proposed. A third plant is being discussed for suburban Cleveland. All would need lateral pipelines.

Huge upgrade

New pipeline also is being laid statewide to replace pipes laid almost 70 years ago when a post-World War II economic boom led to high demand for natural gas. This year Columbia Gas of Ohio is replacing a million feet (189 miles) of old pipe at a cost of $181 million statewide. In the Toledo area, it is replacing 40 miles at a cost of $22 million and spent $7.5 million this year on a replacement gas line running under the Maumee River between Maumee and Perrysburg.

Driving the pipeline boom are rich natural gas deposits in the Utica Shale bed in West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and southern New York, and the Marcellus Shale in West Virginia, eastern Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. Utica Shale sits a few thousand feet below Marcellus Shale.

Reverse flow

Petrochemical plants, which break down or “crack” natural gas liquids into more usable products, historically were built in the south or southern Canada because it put them closer to the pipelines. Now with plentiful, cheaper natural gas liquids available in Appalachia, the Atex and Mariner pipelines were needed to get those liquids to the plants, Mr. Bennett said. “Our traditional conventional pipeline system is just for natural gas. But now we’re having to build pipelines to take these natural gas liquids out of here to get them to the markets,” he said.

In 2009, Kinder Morgan Energy’s 1,679-mile Rockies Express pipeline came east to Ohio to bring cheap Rocky Mountain and West Texas natural gas east. Earlier this year, however, the Rockies Express reversed its flow to head west because gas from Utica shale was much cheaper than gas coming from the western areas of the United States.

Demand for cheap Utica and Marcellus gas now is coming from Canada, the Gulf region, Texas, and further west but the infrastructure can’t move large volumes to supply Ontario, Louisiana, Chicago, St. Louis, and elsewhere, Mr. Anderson said.

That is why E.T. Rover, Nexus, Leach XPress, and other projects all are happening simultaneously, he added. “I don’t recall anything of this kind of magnitude having occurred in my historical recollection,” Mr. Anderson said. “The driver is the success basically of the Marcellus and Utica shales. The level of production there is trying to find a market, trying to find a home.”

NOTE: The landscape in WV and PA is also becoming overwhelmed with pipeline rights-of-way. The Marcellus and Utica shale counties are in for more gathering lines, local process plant lines, regional lines and interstate pipelines.  The 36 inch and 42 inch lines are particularly disturbing to the backyards, farms, hills and valleys. DGN

See also: www.mareproject.org and www.FrackCheckWV.net

To: NPR -- Think Twice About Fracking

National Public Radio should think twice about their “sponsors”

From a Post by Environmental Action, November 2014

Most Americans consider NPR an independent media organization, so it might surprise you that one of its biggest corporate sponsors is the American Natural Gas Alliance, a front group that exists only to promote some of the worst energy polluters in America.

The ANGA has been an NPR corporate sponsor for months, using its airtime to promote the misleading ‘think about it’ campaign that is in fact a promotion for the dangerous and destructive drilling process known as fracking.

NPR’s financial dependence on the fracking industry could be fouling its news coverage, just like fracking fouls up our air, water and climate. Fracking puts America on a path toward a bleak energy future, with polluted land, flammable tap water and earthquakes.

Meanwhile, clean, green energy sources like wind and solar can provide 99 percent of our electric, transportation and manufacturing power needs. No fracking required. Even better — every time we choose renewable energy over oil, coal and gas, we reduce emissions, lower the cost of energy and create jobs.

When trusted news outlets like NPR take money from ANGA and repeat their deceptive marketing claptrap — on OUR airwaves — we have to question their objectivity. Sign up here to tell NPR that when it comes to fracking, don’t even think about it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

NPR is airing pro-fracking ads on our public radio stations and reducing their environmental reporting team by 80%.

When NPR started airing pro-fracking messages, I was annoyed. But now that they’ve also announced plans to close down virtually all their environmental coverage — leaving just one part time reporter to cover fracking, the climate crisis, and more —now I’m frankly alarmed.

Do you agree that public radio needs to reject money from the fossil fuel industry, and spend more time covering fracking and the climate crisis?

NPR has always said that we shouldn’t worry about the fracking ads, because they won’t impact news coverage. But last month, they announced plans to dramatically reduce their staff covering the environment and climate change.*

All this week, dozens of protesters have been sitting in, speaking out and even getting arrested over at the offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is just a few blocks from NPR’s office. But they couldn’t spare a reporter even one day this week to cover the fact that FERC rubber stamping fracking projects that destroy towns, and being met with hundreds of protesters everywhere they go.**

We need to tell NPR that this is not acceptable. We need to show them that radio covering the fracking boom and the climate crisis is engaging, smart, and essential. And we need to ask the local affiliates from New York to Sacramento and everywhere in between, to join us in sending that message.

Thanks for tuning in to the planet, and tuning out pollution,

Signed: Drew Hudson and the team at Environmental Action

* Joe Romm, NPR Guts Its Environment And Climate Reporting Team, Becomes ‘Part Of The Problem’, Think Progress, October 24, 2014
** Hannah Northey, More activists arrested as climate demonstration continues at FERC, Energy and Environment News Greenwire, November 4, 2014

Blast At Pump Kills Va. Worker  — Blue Racer facility near Caldwell in Ohio erupts in fire Wednesday

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, November 14, 2014

CALDWELL, OHIO – A Wednesday evening blast and resulting fire at a Blue Racer Midstream natural gas processing station near Caldwell in Noble County in Ohio killed 48-year-old Norman Butler, a contract worker from Virginia. Blue Racer spokeswoman said Butler was working on a natural gas liquids pump that moves that condensate into a gathering pipeline. Condensate is considered a light oil with a consistency similar to gasoline.

Blue Racer is a partnership of Dominion Resources and Caiman Energy. Through its vast and expanding network of pipelines, processing stations and compressors, the company moves natural gas. The pipeline into which the Noble County condensate is pumped leads to the giant Natrium plant along the Ohio River in Marshall County.

The Noble County Blue Racer site is adjacent to a Consol Energy natural gas well pad. Consol is Blue Racer’s “customer,” as the condensate Blue Racer processes comes from Consol’s well. The accident happened at the processing station.

There were no other injuries to Blue Racer or Consol Energy employees or contractors. The Noble County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene immediately following the incident along with local fire departments, the Noble County Emergency Management Agency and the state Fire Marshal.

All production wells and pipelines nearby are shut down while an investigation takes place. The Noble County Sheriff said officials remained on the scene to fully extinguish and contain the fire Thursday. He also asked for a “no fly zone” in the area of the fire as a precautionary matter.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Fracking blast kills one Halliburton worker, injures 2 in Weld County, Colorado

From an Article by Jesse Paul & Mark Jaffe, Denver Post, November 13, 2014

MEAD, COLORADO — One worker was killed and two were seriously injured Thursday when a frozen, high pressure water line ruptured at a Weld County oil well site. The workers were trying to thaw the line when the accident occurred, officials said.

The Anadarko Petroleum Corp. well was being hydraulically fractured, or fracked, by the Halliburton Co. and the workers were Halliburton employees. Anadarko said it was suspending all fracking operations in the area pending a review of the accident.

The area has been the scene of drilling since at least 1979, but this year Anadarko has sunk at least nine, deep horizontal wells, according to state records. Each of those wells has to be fracked by pumping a mixture of water, sand and trace chemicals into the well at high pressure to crack rock and release oil.

Thomas Sedlmayr, 48, was airlifted to Denver Health and Grant Casey, 28, was taken by ambulance to the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland. The name of the dead worker has not been released.

Weld County Sheriff’s Office deputies are investigating the accident. The death and injuries appeared to be caused by a high-pressure water valve that ruptured, said agency spokesman Sean Standridge, the office’s spokesman. Firefighters also responded to the accident.

The workers were trying to warm the pipe, which had frozen, when it ruptured, Standridge said.  The temperature was about 10 degrees at the time, but overnight temperatures were well below zero. The water pressure was estimated at between 2,500 and 3,500 pounds per square inch.  Dozens of people work at the site, which is about two hundred yards long.

Investigators with the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration in Denver were notified of the accident at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday, said Herb Gibson, OSHA area director. Two investigators are at the Mead area site looking into the accident, Gibson said. “It’s a dangerous industry,” Gibson said. “This is a tragic situation.”

The oil and gas industry in 2012 had a fatality rate of about 25 per 100,000 workers — higher than construction, manufacturing, or agriculture, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Between 2007 and 2011 there were 19 oil and gas field fatalities in Colorado, according to federal data.

In 2012, a 60-year-old worker died in another Weld County drilling accident that occurred when pressurized gas was released as workers prepared an Encana Corp. Davis well pad to begin pumping. In October a worker was killed on a drilling rig in Garfield County.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Reported Gas Well Explosion in Lewis County, WV

ORIGINAL: 10/31/14 –  WDTV – 5 News has received viewer concerns about an incident at a gas well in the area, Friday. Lewis County 911 says that EMS crews and the Walkersville Fire Department responded to a well site in Walkersville around 3:30 p.m. No word on any injuries or on what happened.

UPDATE: 11/01/14 –  Lewis County 911 officials said this reported incident was a gas well explosion. There’s no reports yet if anyone was injured or what caused it.

NOTE: An unconfirmed report indicates that a 16 year old on an ATV was injured or killed as a result of an explosion at a conventional gas well site.

<<<   See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net >>>

Gas Well Development

Gas drilling boom accelerates with little study of public health effects

Article by Lisa Song and Jim Morris, InsideClimate News, Charleston Gazette, March 5, 2014

A new study has underscored just how little is known about the health consequences of the natural gas boom that began a decade ago, when advances in high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and directional drilling allowed companies to tap shale deposits across the United States. “Despite broad public concern, no comprehensive population-based studies of the public health effects of [unconventional natural gas] operations exist,” concluded the report published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Last week, InsideClimate News, the Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel reported on the health data gap in the Eagle Ford Shale, where a lack of air monitoring and research is aggravated by a Texas regulatory system that often protects the gas and oil industry over the public. Scientists interviewed for the series said the uncertainties persist across the country. In the words of one expert, scientists “really haven’t the foggiest idea” how shale development impacts public health.

Gas and oil production releases many toxic chemicals into the air and water, including carcinogens like benzene and respiratory hazards like hydrogen sulfide. While residents near drilling areas in Texas reported symptoms that are known to be caused by these chemicals, including migraines and breathing problems, it was impossible to link them to the drilling boom because no studies could be found that prove cause and effect.

The new study, led by John Adgate at the Colorado School of Public Health, examined available research on the environmental, social and psychological impacts of shale gas drilling. It was the first time anyone had tried to tackle the question in a systematic way, Adgate said. The researchers found that much of the existing work “isn’t explicitly tied to health.” Many studies analyzed the level of pollutants in the air or water, but didn’t track how the exposures are connected to local health trends. Other studies used health surveys, but didn’t compare the respondents’ results with the health of the larger surrounding community.

What’s needed, Adgate said, are comprehensive studies that examine possible connections between chemical exposures and community health trends. But these types of studies require substantial funding and good baseline data, both of which are hard to obtain.

“You’re not going to find anything if you don’t look, and some people think we shouldn’t be looking, or that it’s not worth looking,” he said. “We do know a lot of these things are hazardous, and we just need to develop a system [that] provides people with a reasonable level of certainty [on the] effects, or lack thereof.”

Health impacts will vary based on local geology, weather patterns, operator practices and other factors, Adgate said, so it would make sense to set up a study that tracks people from different parts of the country.

Regulators are well aware of the knowledge gap. In 2012, the Government Accountability Office — the investigative arm of Congress — reviewed more than 90 studies from government agencies, the industry and academic researchers and concluded that oil and gas development “pose inherent environmental and public health risks, but the extent of these risks is unknown, in part, because the studies GAO reviewed do not generally take into account the potential long-term, cumulative effects.”

On the issue of air pollution, the GAO said the studies “are generally anecdotal, short-term, and focused on a particular site or geographic location. [They] do not provide the information needed to determine the overall cumulative effect that shale oil and gas activities have on air quality.”

Bernard Goldstein, a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-author of the paper, pointed to a need for well-designed studies in large populations. Scientists could analyze a community before, during and after drilling begins, or compare the health of residents in communities close to and far from a shale play, he said.

Both Adgate and Goldstein cited major barriers in funding. “There hasn’t been a lot of money thrown at this problem,” Adgate said. “It’s a contentious issue as everybody knows, and nobody’s stepped up to say we’re going to fund independent research.”

Goldstein said the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences — part of the National Institutes of Health — has started to fund some studies, but the results won’t emerge for years. Adgate suggested more public-private partnerships like the Health Effects Institute, an independent research organization that studies vehicular air pollution. It is jointly funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the auto industry.

Goldstein, a doctor and toxicologist who served as an assistant EPA administrator under President Ronald Reagan, sees the lack of research as a failure of transparency. “The impression I have is, there’s at least some part of industry that believes it’s better not to have these studies, because they believe it will lead to toxic tort lawyers suing the industry.”

There seems to be little interest in obtaining better data, he said. Two years ago, he led a study that analyzed the membership of three advisory committees established by President Barack Obama and the governors of Maryland and Pennsylvania. All three groups were tasked with studying the impacts of shale gas, yet Goldstein and his colleagues found that none of the 51 members had a medical or health background.

“The current lack of almost any support for research directly related to the health effects of unconventional gas drilling is shortsighted and counterproductive,” he said in 2012 in testimony before the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee. “[The] only cost-effective time to make this investment is now….”

This report is part of a joint project by InsideClimate News, the Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel. Lisa Song is with InsideClimate News and Jim Morris is with the Center for Public Integrity. InsideClimate News is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science. More information is available at http://insideclimatenews.org/.

Sixth Tank Exploded on Lisby Pad

WV-DEP News: Cease Operations Order Issued for Lisby Well Pad in Tyler County

============================
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 @ 1:30 PM
============================

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 January 2nd 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 January 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.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

WEST VIRGINIA: Well pad explosion sends tank flying, injuring one worker 

By Gayathri Vaidyanathan, E&E reporter, EnergyWire, January 8, 2014

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 WV-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 WV-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 WV-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 WV-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 WV-DEP is investigating the accident and assessing fines, Aluise said.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

An Article on this Explosion was published on January 9th in the Wheeling Intelligencer.

Worker Paralyzed  Repairing Rig at Harrison County Jobsite

From the Article by Kate White, Charleston Gazette, July 22, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A lawsuit was settled last week in Harrison County for $12 million against drilling companies after an incident left a worker paralyzed. The lawsuit against Frontier Drilling and Antero Resources claimed unsafe working conditions at a job site in Salem.

Joseph Davenport sued over an incident that occurred in May 2011 while he was trying to repair the drill on the rig, according to Charleston attorney Bobby Warner, who represented him. “They should’ve shut down the job and contacted a third party to come in and repair it. Obviously, that would have caused the job to be shut down and they’re under pressure to keep things moving,” Warner said. “[Davenport] was directed by a supervisor to basically perform a very unsafe task in an attempt to fix the broken part of the drill.”

The tools designed for the task were worn out and broken, according to the complaint filed in Harrison Circuit Court. Pressure placed on a drilling device known as a “power tong,” which Davenport was forced to use, began to whip rapidly, striking him in the chest and throwing him into the rig, Warner said. “That’s what snapped his spinal column,” the lawyer said.

Davenport was originally diagnosed as a quadriplegic. He is still considered a paraplegic but is now able to walk with the assistance of leg braces and crutches, Warner said.

During a deposition, Jason Ware, a safety coordinator with Antero, according to transcripts, said that in the 36 months he had worked at the rig, 25 to 30 work-related accidents occurred that resulted in broken bones or surgeries, not counting stitches.

“Antero continues to have a very bad track record of having unsafe workplace conditions resulting in too many men being severely injured,” Warner said Monday.

At least five workers were hospitalized earlier this month following an explosion at an Antero natural gas well in Doddridge County. (Severe burns resulted and some were in critical condition.)

Antero Resources owns at least 399 wells in Doddridge, Harrison, Ritchie, Tyler and Upshur counties, according to a 2012 Department of Environmental Protection database. The database lists 141 of those wells as being actively drilled; however, because the database is incomplete, that number is likely higher.

Antero has had safety problems in the past. Last August a spark at an Antero-owned well in Harrison County ignited methane gas several hundred feet underground, causing a fireball and a fire that burned for about an hour. Three workers were injured in that fire. The DEP cited Antero for failure to maintain well control for that incident.

The DEP has cited Antero for 17 violations of state law in the past three years. Those have been primarily environmental violations — for things like failing to prevent waste runoff, failure to report discharges and contaminating waterways. One violation, from Jan. 4, 2013, warned, “Imminent danger water supplys threatened by allowing pollutants to escape and flow into the waters of the state.”

In June 2012, Antero was drilling using water in Harrison County when they accidentally repressurized some old water wells, causing several geysers, one about 10 feet high, that flooded one nearby home and several garages.

In March 2011, state regulators shut down an Antero gas well in Harrison County after mud contaminated with drilling chemicals spilled into a nearby stream.