Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Atlas well burns on WednesdayGeorge Zimmerman, who owns the property where an Atlas Energy wastewater impoundment pond caught fire on Wednesday, and neighbor Kyle Lengauer, said they experienced a "horrendous gas smell" in the days leading up to the fire, but they couldn't reach state officials to warn them.
"We actually left our house on Sunday because the fumes were so bad and we were so nauseated," said Mr. Lengauer, whose lives with his wife and two children on property that abuts Mr. Zimmerman's 480 acres in rural Hopewell.
Both men said they heard a loud explosion at about 8 a.m. Wednesday and saw an impoundment pond on fire with clouds of black smoke.
"I saw about a 100-foot flame -- you could see it seven miles away," said Mr. Zimmerman, who is embroiled in a lawsuit he filed against Moon-based Atlas Energy last year, alleging that the company "ruined his land with toxic chemicals," such as arsenic and benzene, used in hydraulic gas well fracturing.
Mr. Lengauer said he contacted a hotline for the state Department of Environmental Resources on Sunday, but was unable to reach agency officials because their voicemail boxes were full.
"I tried to call them for three days straight," said Mr. Lengauer.
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Washington County Public Safety Director Jeff Yates said the county's hazardous materials team responded to the site and used foam to extinguish a fire at a holding tank that is used to separate water and sand near the impoundment. The impoundment's rubber liner was allowed to burn out on its own, he said.
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Earlier this year, the DEP fined Atlas Energy $85,000 for failing to control erosion and runoff at six well sites and for not properly discharging waste products.
This is horrific! Even calling authorities apparently gets you no help. So where does that leave people? We are at the mercy of unresponsive authorities. We're told that gas drilling is safe. But then when something does go wrong (as so often it does in this "perfectly safe" industry), we are left high and dry. And when I read that the rubber liner from this pit was destroyed in the fire, all I can think of is the environmental devastation that has occurred here- damage which will be perhaps irreversible. This is huge news. How many more times will this scenario be repeated?
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