Frack Fluid Spill in Dimock Contaminates Stream, Killing Fish

by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - September 21, 2009 4:09 pm EDT

Pennsylvania environment officials are racing to clean up as much as 8,000 gallons of dangerous drilling fluids after a series of spills at a natural gas production site near the town of Dimock late last week.

The spills, which occurred at a well site run by Cabot Oil and Gas, involve a compound manufactured by Halliburton that is described as a "potential carcinogen" and is used in the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, according to state officials. The contaminants have seeped into a nearby creek, where a fish kill was reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP also reported fish "swimming erratically".

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Neither Cabot Oil and Gas nor Halliburton immediately returned calls for comment on Monday. A Halliburton spokesperson sent an email referring any questions to information on the company’s website.

DEP officials were also unavailable for interviews, but said through e-mail that faulty piping is suspected and that they have not confirmed the exact cause of the spill. A press spokesperson said to expect an announcement and actions towards Cabot by Tuesday.

ProPublica interviewed state officials several months ago about drilling problems in Dimock [1]. "Cabot has definitely had their share of problems out there," Craig Lobins, a regional oil and gas division director, said then. "Some of them is just being a little bit careless… or sloppy, or maybe a little bit of bad luck too."

The drilling fluid spill Wednesday may be the most serious yet, because it involves chemicals that are known to pose a risk to human health and has spread into the area’s surface water system.

According to a Material Safety Data Sheet provided to the state this week by Halliburton, the spilled drilling fluid contained a liquid gel concentrate consisting of a Paraffinic solvent and Polysaccharide, chemicals listed as possible carcinogens for people. The MSDS form – for Halliburton’s proprietary product called LGC-35 CBM – does not list the entire makeup of the gel or the quantity of its constituents, but it warns that the substances have led to skin cancer in animals and "may cause headache, dizziness and other central nervous system effects" to anyone who breathes or swallows the fluids.

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It is not yet clear exactly what led to or caused the spill. State officials report that at least 1,000 gallons of fluid were spilled Wednesday afternoon, and another 5,900 gallons about 10 that night. The substance was reportedly a clay-like mixture, with the Halliburton gel mixed at about five gallons per 1,000 gallons of water. A DEP spokesperson said in an e-mail that the spills appear to be the result of supply pipe failures. In one case a pressurized line may have broken, and in another a seal may have given way. State officials said the fluids had spilled into Stevens Creek.

The contamination incident comes as the state faces increasing scrutiny for its handling of a natural gas drilling boom and dozens of instances of spills and water contamination related to it across the state. Earlier investigations by ProPublica found that methane had leaked into drinking water supplies from gas wells in at least seven Pennsylvania counties. And earlier this month the DEP began investigating a suspected chemical spill in the northwestern part of the state, hundreds of miles from Dimock, which decimated aquatic life along a 30-mile stretch of pristine river. (see below) No determination has been made in that case either, but waste fluids from drilling are among the possibilities being investigated.

For the complete report from ProPublica, CLICK HERE.

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Sudden death of ecosystem ravages long creek

'Everything is being killed': 161 aquatic species have died along Dunkard Creek
Sunday, September 20, 2009

By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Just 20 days ago, Dunkard Creek, which meanders lazily back and forth across the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, was one of the most ecologically diverse streams in both states, containing freshwater mussels, mudpuppy salamanders and a host of fish species from minnows to 3-foot-long muskies.

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But today, the 38-mile creek is all but dead, its 161 species of fish, mussels, salamanders, crayfish and aquatic insects killed by mysterious pollutants coming from sources state and federal agencies have yet to pinpoint despite aggressive field work.

"We've just been decimated down here. Everything is being killed almost from the headwaters of the creek to where it flows into the Monongahela River," said Betty Wiley, president of the Dunkard Creek Watershed Association. "It's such a tragedy for the creek. An ecosystem has been destroyed."

Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette

Insects take over the carcass of a dead fish along the bank of Dunkard Creek.

And fish continue to die as the initial mass of pollution moves down the creek, which flows into the Monongahela just down river from Point Marion, Fayette County, and as additional pollution is discharged from its mysterious source.

Environmental agencies are treating the creek as a crime scene. Longtime environmental and fisheries officials say the fish kill, which preliminary counts have put at more than 10,000, is one of the worst they've seen.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Friday said more than 30 miles of the stream have been damaged by the discharge. It has killed 18 species of fish and at least 16 species of freshwater mussels, including the salamander mussel and the snuffbox mussel -- both candidates for federal listings as endangered species.

"DEP will continue to monitor water quality so that when the responsible party is determined by West Virginia and [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] we are positioned to take appropriate enforcement action," said Ronald Schwartz, DEP acting regional director.

"This is the worst fish kill I've experienced in 21 years in West Virginia," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the National Research Center for Coal and Energy's Water Research Institute at West Virginia University.

Environmental agencies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources and the EPA each have had inspectors on the creek in recent weeks, testing water samples, collecting dead fish and observing discharges into the water.

An early and continuing focus of the investigation has been discharges from a mine water treatment facility located at Consol Energy's Blacksville No. 2 mine in West Virginia.

But state and federal investigators are confounded because chemical analysis shows the creek water at the treatment facility site contains extremely high total dissolved solids, or TDS, and chlorides -- properties found in wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas well drilling operations but not mine water. Total dissolved solids may include metals, salts and other elements.

Marcellus Shale well drilling water contains about 100 chemicals added to reduce friction, eliminate algae growth and perform other functions when water is pumped underground under pressure to fracture the shale and release natural gas.

Up to 4 million gallons are used for each Marcellus Shale well. Disposal of wastewater from the wells has caused problems throughout Pennsylvania, including TDS readings that exceeded federal safe drinking water standards in the Monongahela River last winter and this year.

On Thursday, investigators found dead fish for the first time about a mile and a half up the creek above the treatment plant discharge.

"Our hypothesis was that it's coming out of the Blacksville No. 2 mine, but the finding of dead fish upstream from the Blacksville discharge indicates the sole cause cannot be Blacksville," said West Virginia DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco.

Unlike Pennsylvania, the West Virginia DEP doesn't permit water or sewage treatment facilities in the state to accept or discharge Marcellus well wastewater, Ms. Cosco said.

The state agencies now are looking at the possibility that someone has illegally dumped drilling wastewater into the creek to avoid the expense of complying with laws governing its disposal.
The water must be treated in Pennsylvania or injected deep underground in West Virginia.

To continue reading about this eco-tragedy, CLICK HERE.

UPDATE FROM TXsharon: A state coalition of environmental, watershed, and sporting organizations is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take immediate action following the large scale fish kill in Dunkard Creek. To read their press release on Bluedaze, CLICK HERE.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!