Texas Sharon's Bluedaze

Fracking News

Big gas leak in Cresson, Texas at newly fracked well

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THERE SHE BLOWS!

They can’t get this drilling and fracking thing right.

UPDATE: see comments for more information. The operator is EOG.

That’s methane and who knows what else spewing into the atmosphere. Methane is the most powerful greenhouse gas.

The first responders came out and turned a valve so the leak is less now. Nice way to externalize the cost of fracking, just let the taxpayer funded first responders take care of it.

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  1. David says

    Every time I hear of a chemical leak such as this it makes me think of the Bhopal disaster where gas leaked from a pesticide plant immediately killing at least 3,800 people while they slept.

    • TXsharon says

      If you smell rotton eggs or dirty socks, it’s deadly H2S and you should run. Of course, if you’re asleep then you will never wake up.

      • GhostBlogger says

        But, H2S can stop your sense of smell if there’s enough of it around. So, you could get an initial “rotten egg” smell, then smell nothing, even with dangerous amouonts of it around.

  3. anon says

    until you boot these oil and gas funded republicans from office, planet earth does not have a chance.

    • Tim Ruggiero says

      The Democrats aren’t doing such a hot job of it themselves. It doesn’t help when the head of the EPA announces that she’s not aware of any ground water contamination die to fracking, and it really doesn’t help when Obama speaks to all the so-called ‘benefits’ in his State of The Union speech.

      I fear it’ll take something akin to Bhopal before real regulation becomes the order of the day.

      • Alma Hasse says

        Tim,

        I couldn’t agree with you more. I truly believe this is more about the perpetual re-election cycle than anything else. These guys (both R’s and D’s) want all of those campaign $$ in order to win re-election. Since their number one priority is to keep their respective seats (I’m sure there are a few exceptions– hopefully, anyway) they need big “kitties”. If the recall election in Wisconsin has proven anything, it’s that he/she with the biggest checkbook balance wins!

  7. Andy Mechling says

    I was hoping that video would show the first responder who went and shut that thing down. He or she has some Texas-sized cajones, in my estimation.

    One thing is certain, down there in Cresson, those guys at EOG have local access to some highly experienced operators as neighbors:

    http://www.barnettservices.com/

    Barnett Services is located on Cleburne Highway in Cresson, and the website lists services such as Fluid Transport, Frac Tanks for Fluid Storage, and Disposal wells.

    and then there’s the JCWD,
    http://www.texastransco.com/disposalfwpondinfo.html

    “Onsite, we own and operate a full service Disposal Well known as the Johnson County Salt Water Disposal (JCSWD) which holds a capacity of 25,000 barrels per day.”

  9. Andy Mechling says

    Also, Sharon,

    I have to take issue with you about the odors. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs. The odor is very distinctive, and recognized by all.

    Descriptions of “dirty socks” and raw sewage have more frequently been associated with mixtures of CS2, COS, and H2S, at least in my experiences, and in some of the literature also.

    Dirty socks is what the folks in Arvin, California described during a ghastly drift incident involving the fumigant Metham Sodium in 2002.

    There were actually two horrific “drift” incidents at Arvin, and one in 1998 in Earlimart CA involving the same pesticide which affected a reported 178 people. These these incidents all occurred in migrant communities, and none received any significant press, but folks almost died, It was nasty.

    Metham sodium, like all dithiocarbamate pesticides, is manufactured via a chemical reaction involving carbon disulfide; These products break down rapidly in soils: into carbon disulfide, carbonyl sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, MITC, and potentially MIC.

    Yes, the same MIC that is blamed for killing all those people at Bhopal, where Union Carbide was manufacturing carbamate pesticides from waste sulfur.

    See, David, how it all comes around?

  10. Andy Mechling says

    Last year, Bayer Crop Sciences announced that it would finally stop manufacturing MIC at its plant in Institute, WV.

    http://healthandpestadvice.blogspot.com/2011/01/quarter-century-after-bhopal-deadly.html

    “It’s something we’ve called for for a long time,” said Maya Nye, an Institute resident and a spokesperson for People Concerned About MIC. The chemical is “the worst of the worst,” she said.

    “The handwriting was on the wall,” said Rick Hind, legislative director for Greenpeace. “They’re the last man standing on a process that’s infamous and connected to the world’s deadliest industrial accident.”

    • WCGasette says

      […]
      While this is a monumental step in our 26-year campaign to keep our community safe, we stand in solidarity with the workers in their time of struggle. Job blackmail is a common scare tactic used by corporations to divide communities and hide the bad business practices that threaten worker safety and job security.

      It is this tactic that holds us economic hostages to corporations who are willing to put profits before people and that compromise our community’s health and safety. Our hearts go out to the workers who, over the next several years, will be losing their jobs.

      Yet we must remember that these jobs were lost to them by a company that chose not to plan ahead, not to change to safer technologies, and not to ensure their future in our community.
      […]

      It took 26 years. The job blackmail part sounds familiar.

  11. Angel says

    Should they also be fined by the EPA for discharging a deadly gas into the atmosphere??

  12. Andy Mechling says

    Is that some sort of fractionator setup in the background there? like a de-propanizer or something?

    could one of you oilfield experts chime in on this one?

  14. Affie says

    I have not seen anyone pose a quetsion about the voc’s and svoc’s that were reported in New York State DEC July 2011 SGEIS. The report is inconclusive but it contains quite a bit of information on chemicals present at wells in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The chemicals they have info on are used in additives and others were found in the flow-back process. I also noted that most of the chemicals that went in did not come back out. In my opinion after reading it fracking sounds worse than a nuclear bomb exploding. If you have not read it you should. Also spread the word about this enlightening report far and wide.