http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/20/968731/-Massive-Fracking-Blo...

http://youtu.be/nCyHS7fKmXI
Another consequence of deregulation has apparently just boiled over in Bradford County, Pa.
video-(Bradford County PA, 90 miles west of the Delaware River Basin, shows us the face of shale gas drilling's industrialization in ruined air and drinking water. Photographed by Jane Prettyman (with apologies for soviet camera), host of 'Public Comment' (pubcomm.blogspot.com). Music: "Wheels" by Jason Shaw (Creative Commons) and "Sacrifice" by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke.

Also see TV news report on Bradford County gas well blowout in same area where this film was made, causing a massive spill of chemical-laced frack flowback waste water contaminating Towanda Creek that feeds into Suqsuehanna River more videos below)-figgdimension



Operators have lost control of a natural gas well in rural northern Pennsylvania, leading to a spill of fluids used in the drilling process.

Bradford County emergency officials say thousands of gallons of tainted water have spilled from a Chesapeake Energy Corp. well site near Canton since early Wednesday.

As of 1:50 pm., the spill was still out of control, spilling "thousands and thousands" of likely contaminated water over fields and into at least one stream, per the reports, prompting the evacuation of seven families, thus far. Updated reports indicate the water started pouring out at 11:45 pm last night.

The "stream" is apparently the Towanda Creek, which feeds into the Susquehanna River, which in turn feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.

http://www.grist.org/...

Reuters describes the spill as "uncontrollable" as of 3:52 pm. The local news reports describe attempts to control the spill as a "Large scale operation" with a "widespread impact." There appear to be no reports providing the actual amount of fluids spilled at this time.

Pennsylvania has already been under the watch of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and concerns that the practice of this fracking has caused a risk to human life as well as the environment and has required regulators to maintain regular sampling of local water supplies. Pennsylvania is also the only state which has allowed this wastewater to be partially treated and returned to local rivers and community drinking water.

My Dad and I used to fish in the Susquehanna for bass when I was a kid. We've hunted in Bradford County. Now the "shale boom" has turned the area and others in PA. upside down with newly minted millionaires selling their age-old wooded tracts of property to the highest bidder, pretty much heedless of the environmental impact.

Chesapeake Energy Corp (you have to love the irony) has this to say about their unregulated mishap:

Chesapeake said a piece of equipment failed late Tuesday while the well was being hydraulically fractured, or fracked. In the fracking process, millions of gallons of water, along with chemical additives and sand, are injected at high pressure down the well bore to break up the shale and release the gas.

But not to worry, trumpets the Business Insider.

The event has had no impact on Chesapeake energy shares, which are up more than the broader market, 2.75%, and natural gas prices are higher.

With remarkable synchronicity, known energy magnate and self-promoting blowhard Boone Pickens picked a poor day to criticize President Obama's recent statements of concern about hydraulic fracturing:

TULSA, Okla. - Billionaire energy magnate T. Boone Pickens on Wednesday defended a controversial natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, a day after President Barack Obama expressed concern that the process could pollute groundwater.

"That's the first time I ever heard him saying anything about fracking," Pickens said of the drilling method that uses water, sand and other additives to free natural gas underground. "The president, I'm sure, knows very little about fracking.

And Boone knows so much about it. I'm sure he thought the anniversary of the Gulf oil disaster was just exquisite timing for his paean to the virtues of gas drilling.

Pickens, who spoke Wednesday at the 2011 Sustainable Enterprise Conference in Tulsa, said out of the 800,000 wells that have been fracked in the Southwest, he didn't know of a single lawsuit or complaint that arose from the process.

"I've fracked over 3,000 wells myself; they fracked on my ranch yesterday,"

I won't hold my breath waiting for Pickens to comment on this spill. One thing seems clear: these "concerned billionaires" and corporations have no compunction whatsoever about fracking us all.

Update: news report from the local TV station, it was still not under control as of Wednesday night.

http://www.wnep.com/...

The news report is also instructive in its depiction of local resident reaction as "cautiously optimistic." No detractors of Chesapeake are put on camera.

Further Update: As of 3 pm Thursday it appears the well is still not under control, although they are routing the poisonous water into containment vessels. Chesapeake is considering a "top kill" technique to plug the well. They have halted the fracking procedure in seven wells, temporarily.

http://www.reuters.com/...
Originally posted to Dartagnan on Wed Apr 20, 2011 at 03:04
http://youtu.be/AqiLyK0JJfw?hd=1