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Marcellus Shale Fires
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Fires around Marcellus Shale
gas drilling activities
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Impoundment
Fire
Best Impoundment Dam
Labor Day 2009
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What were you doing Labor Day?
The families next to the
Best
Production Pad in Buffalo, Pennsylvania were watching a drama
unfold on Labor Day. Natural gas drilling activities had
continued for a year at a large drilling pad next to their homes on
Wotring Road, as seven Marcellus gas wells were drilled and fracked
by Range
Resources. A huge
impoundment had been constructed behind
their homes to hold recycled drilling fluids, and had a smell that
ranged from kerosene to sewage.
They were told there would be one gas flare lit after the wells were
fracked, and also given the chance to move into a pre-paid motel
room for several days. With the number of pets some families
owned, along with other complications, most elected to stay home.
They had already put up with drilling activities for a year, so how
bad could a few more days be in comparison? Or so they
thought.
Instead of one flare being lit there ended up being two flares, as
this photo and video from the early hours of Labor Day morning
clearly illustrate:
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Video
of twin Labor Day flares in Buffalo, Pa |
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Twin flares light up the sky during the
pre-dawn hours of Labor Day 2009
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The rancid odor was nearly as dramatic
as the huge gas flares
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The gas flare closest to the impoundment
caused the problem....
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The nitrile pit liner caught on fire!
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DEP eFACTS on
the
BEST
IMPOUNDMENT DAM
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP,
WASHINGTON COUNTY
BUFFALO, PA |
| Authorization ID: |
798417
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| Permit number: |
95-7-60915-2 |
| Site: |
BEST IMPOUNDMENT DAM PERMIT
95-7-60915-2 |
| Client: |
RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC
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| Authorization type: |
Centralized Impoundment Damn |
| Application type: |
New
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| Authorization is for: |
SITE |
| Date received: |
06/11/2009 |
| Status: |
Issued
06/29/2009 |
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Eye witness reports indicate that Canton
Township VFD was called to the fire
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Imagine the heat from a
gas flame that large
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Flare has been extinguished and
damage control begins
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Firefighter's efforts couldn't prevent a large
portion
of the pit liner from being destroyed
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Section of the pit liner being replaced.
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Gas flare re-lit the day after Labor Day.
Many questions still remain about this pit fire:
Did Range ever report
this to the PA DEP?
How much fluid escaped
from the pit?
Did the fire company file
a report?
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| LINKS
Best
Production Pad
Frac pits
and impoundments
Gas
well flaring
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