While I completely understand the suffering and anger of families who suddenly find themselves in a zone of extraction, violence is not the answer. Please be careful in the comments.
Vandals used at least two kinds of guns and a homemade explosive device at seven wells in the past six weeks. The damage is in the tens of thousands and includes cleanup of spills from bullet holes in tanks. One of the guns was a .50 caliber (whatever that means).
San Juan County Sheriff’s office investigating vandalism at gas wells
By Ryan Boetel rboetel@daily-times.com
07/12/2012
And a reader sent in this report from the National Response Center:
NRC Report ID: 1017772
Incident Time: 2012-07-14 19:00:00
Nearest City: Norton, VA
Location: 1306 PETREY AVE
Incident Type: FIXED
Material: NATURAL GAS
Medium Affected: AIR
Suspected Responsible Party:
SkyTruth Analysis
Lat/Long: 36.940220, -82.592962 (Approximated from street_address)
Report Description
CALLER STATED THAT THERE IS A COMPANY THAT ARE SETTING NATURAL GAS TANKS ON FIRE.
Fight back in a peaceful way. Join together in solidarity and make your voices heard. STOP THE FRACK ATTACK 7.28.12
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.
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WOW that’s a new low for the oil & gas industry. I guess with the price of gas so low they have opted for insurance and blaming the environmentalist. which would be a win win. After all they (O&G) are spending huge amounts on PR. Maybe this will work for them. https://www.travelers.com/business-insurance/specialized-industries/oil-gas/index.aspx
infighting?….competitive edge?….pushing the insurance companies? If a mentally ill person did this, then that is one thing, but if a “company” or “group” of people R responsible, then thats a whole new thing that could show just how desperate people/businesses are becoming. How expenses are allocated to these padsites are so critical now as funds are more scarce now than ever before can mean the difference of future emission events if maintenance is skimped to pay for valdalism….hope it was the work of one mentally ill person….otherwise, I hope it was some really dumb, drunk kids who know better, but don’t realize the depth of their actions and the future ramifications for the money needed to just to keep up these padsites from regular accidents from mothernature and human accidental errors….intentional releases must be regarded as zero tolerance and 100% penalty – period.
a .50 cal round is very large. It was meant to punch holes in very hard things like engine blocks, steel. Special Forces snipers use a .50 cal rifle to shoot targets at great distances, like a mile away. .50 cal is a serious round and the rifles are quite expensive. Desert Eagle makes a .50 cal handgun, and my guess is that what it would be from. While neither the rifle or handgun are popular, I think it might be still difficult to track the owner down.
On one hand, I understand the anger that the drilling process and all this equipment can cause. On the other, I don’t know what shooting holes in it or blowing it up accomplishes. At the very least, it puts others and their property in extreme danger, if not the person committing the crime, and it causes that much more contamination to the ground in the area. If there had been spills and leaks prior, and you know there have been, the shooter gave the operator an excuse for all that existing contamination. If it’s a producing well, all the equipment will just get replaced anyway.
I had to google a .50 rifle. My word! The gun is gigantic like something you only see in the movies! Really dumb thing to do.
Not only do we have to worry about chemical exposure in the air, and contamination to the water supply, but now we have to worry about lunatics out there who might shoot at the equipment on these pad sites or detonate explosives. Just one more reason why this type of dangerous activity should not be allowed near homes. Nothing good is coming out of this shale gas boom. The ripple effects are very far reaching.
When a restaurant fails, you torch it and collect the insurance. If the wells were insured against vandalism and they were not economic, that may have been what happened, the owner torched them. An investigation might determine that – see if they collected on an insurance policy . . .
.50 caliber means the bore of the gun is 1/2 inch in diameter. A .50 is a military sniper round. The kind of weapon a psy-ops operative would have. So they torched the wells and blame it on some tree huggers – that don’t typically pack .50 caliber sniper rifles with their granola,
Are these the radicalized homegrown terrorists DHS wants you to believe exist?! Atleast the Oil & Gas industry is already trained to fight an insurgency with PR bullets.