But first, click here for a funny video warning of 1/6/14 weather.
UPDATE 1/6/14 here are some “stay warm/update” comments from the oil and gas industry folks on the Facebook site called Bakken Shale Fail of the Day on a very unusally frigid start to the 2014 work week that the US will not soon forget…..
Bryan Schaffer “Digging over a mile down into the earth, 24hours a day. Even in -50 degree temps, to get something, tells me this stuff is getting very very rare to find on this planet.
Shane Peterson wrote “Hey David pulled apart a line on a recycle pump 90%salt solid as a brick”
Jonathan Benedict wrote “It was -55 with the wind and had to steam god dam lines”
Ryan Gibbs “We aren’t working, there’s something about water freezing in a hydrovac that really screws up your day”
Dean Deschampe wrote “Heating tanks. Staying close to the discharge pipe, keeping my hands warm!! Shes cold out for sure!! Everyone be careful..”
Chad Stewart wrote “This is the second time in a month the company shut it down, safety concerns”
Chris Endres wrote “Working extremely hard cause a certain oil company cant keep things going…disposals,wells and the pipeline!!!!!”
Terrence Jones wrote “My company said the hell with that stay home lol”
Ed Bruns wrote “Waiting on flow back to unthaw there lines lol”
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update 12/21/13 Bloomberg reported ’’It was certainly a bullish number reflective of very cold weather and likely some well freeze-offs that hurt production.’’
I sent the Arlington Fire Dept and other related city personnel an email (see below) about getting citizens that live near these drill sites trained on how to enter a site and shut in a well (by hitting the red button) in the event that roads are impassable. I have had no follow up.
I also tried to comment on the Arlington City Blog about the existance of the red button, but my comment was denied being posted (see bleow).
In Nov and Dec of 2013, the Star Telegram reported two gas releases at the same drill site located at 6990 Ederville Rd near Arlington.
For this Ederville site, I heard that the fire department could not access the site (that would be strike 1).
Obviously electronic readings that should have been transmitted when the pressure changed failed to communicate a pressure loss (strike 2).
Once the verbal (not electronic) communication finally took place (after some confusion-strike 3),
the remote shut in attempt failed (strike 4).
I read that a Chesapeake pumper worker had to do a remote emergency shutdown by closing the flow line with valves. That meant that the standard safety feature that shuts in the well by hitting the onsite red button failed to completely shut in the well (strike 5) .
The second time the gas released weeks later (strike 6), the pressure monitor and remote shut in obviously didn’t take place again (strike 7 & 8) because the lady that reported these two accidents said on Facebook that the well didn’t shut off until “she” started making the calls.
Here is some of her communication I’d like to share with you readers and breathers out there…
“Yes, this morning at 5:30 a.m. my dog woke me up to let him go out. I heard a loud sound coming from across the street where the Ederville gas well is located. I looked out and saw the white cloud of gas spewing upward. I called the fire department and police and all the Chesapeake emergency numbers I had. The supervisor from the site called me to say they already knew about it but I don’t believe him because it wasn’t shut off until I started making the calls. It was very frightening especially since I could not leave the area because of the ice.”
Earlier from the first spewing event she wrote on November 2, 2013… “So scary to live across the street from a gas well. Had to call the fire department out tonight because of a loud noise going on and a huge amount of steam going up (and no one working on the site at all.) The City sent 4 fire trucks, the chief, the City gas well inspector and the hasmat (sp?) team. I had already put the dog in the car and left the neighborhood. None of my neighbors seemed to notice anything; at least they didn’t come out of their houses. I guess they actually trust Chesapeke that they wouldn’t let anything bad happen! What a joke!”
She also wrote…. “The late Ruth Graham who said, ‘If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.’ I pray for mercy, but I know that there is a time (known only to God) when His patience runs out.”
Almost two years ago I blogged about when a well blow out occurs (total loss of well) that they sometimes need to drill a relief well…in some cases these urban drill sites may not have the space to drill a relief well. I’ve read that they need to be positioned “vertically parallel (alongside), not perpendicular” to the existing well.
Think how many people would be evacuated for days or maybe even weeks if /when a blow out occurs. But then who would ever want to come back to a contaminated neighborhood?
Ed Irleand says its simple to push a well ER shut in (red) button, but if NO ONE ELSE can get to a drill site spilling or spewing, and if remote/offsite shut-in electronics fail….isn’t it up to the homeowner to try to minimize trespass of toxic effulents to their property that risks their family’s health? Umm later will we be arrested for trespassing?
Chesapeake has a bad track record so far in first and second satefy features failing namely the ones at Fulson/Chesapeake and also Exxon/XTO at the Pappy Elkins drill site the night of April 12, 2011 after we lost power.
Now imagine if we loose power, electronic remote devices fail, AND the roads are impassable?
Recent flooding in Colorado news coverage reported that remote well shut in works and that Mr Holloway said…“The industry is really proactive and everyone was helping everybody. Where operators couldn’t get into, someone else was shutting in other people’s wells”.
ICE HAPPENS …..I’m home right now typing this because of a DFW snow storm….and I’m listening for unusual sounds in case my Chesapeake well starts spewing here by the Cowboys Stadium.
update 12/16/2013 In response to my success in getting my property values reduced because I live near fracking, the lady mentioned above who recently endured two well spewing events near her home (see story below) wrote…
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As usual, I’ll leave you with a copy of my letters to our good leaders with the City of Arlington because open records is a squirrly thing in knowing how to word things so they can find them…
To: “don.jakeway@arlingtontx.gov” <don.jakeway@arlingtontx.gov>; “jay.white@arlingtontx.gov” <jay.white@arlingtontx.gov>; “trey.yelverton@arlingtontx.gov” <trey.yelverton@arlingtontx.gov>; Jay Doegey <Jay.Doegey@arlingtontx.gov>; “don.crowson@arlingtontx.gov” <don.crowson@arlingtontx.gov>; “jim.parajon@arlingtontx.gov” <jim.parajon@arlingtontx.gov>; “fbi.dallas@ic.fbi.gov” <fbi.dallas@ic.fbi.gov>
Cc: “AskChesapeake@chk.com” <AskChesapeake@chk.com>; David P. Poole <dpoole@rangeresources.com>; “brett.wiggs@dfwmidstream.com” <brett.wiggs@dfwmidstream.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2013 8:29 AM
Subject: Don, how feasible is this homeowner training in manual well shut in in ER event?
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Are there any measures we need to take to be prepared if any pipes break at a nearby drill site that we live by?
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Thanks for your question Kim! This article is meant to refer to water pipes; when the temperature drops, water can freeze and expand within the pipe, causing the pipe to break. If you see any suspected leaks or breaks in a public water line, please call Arlington Water Utilities 24/7 at 817-459-5900. Natural gas lines shouldn’t encounter the same issue, but if you see any suspected leaks or breaks in a gas line, please call 911. If you have any other questions about natural gas lines or natural gas drilling, please contact the Gas Wells Division of the Department of Community Development and Planning; you can find their contact information here: http://www.arlingtontx.gov/planning/gas_drilling.html
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Your comment is awaiting moderation.(Feil writes..update rejected).
Questions to ask when the power goes out if you live by a natural gas padsite…..we have about 60 here in Arlington.
1) How are all the drill sites, pipelines, compressor stations, procesing plants, and refineries doing?
2) If the waste hauling trucks cannot get to the storage tanks from over filling/spilling…the wells will auto shut in right?
3) And if the wells heads shut in from either freezing up or to prevent the storage tanks from spills, then will that cause a disruption to those power plants that use natural gas instead of coal?
4) Is that adding to the risk of even more power outtages?
5) If electricity powers any of these compressor engines, won’t they have an “upset” aka a toxic release to the airshed emission events?
6) Aren’t we soooo past dinosaur fossil fool fuels when we look at all the downed power lines from Mother Nature’s fits?
City of Arlington, TX - See more at: http://myarlingtontx.com/2013/12/03/frigid-weather-means-frozen-pipes/#sthash.PNhuC4VL.dpuf
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Nuclear power plants have issues in the freezing weather too…..
“The reactor shut down about 5 p.m. Monday when the National Weather Service said temperatures had fallen to about zero. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan called the shutdown “uneventful” and safe, but noted a fire suppression system was activated, dousing an electrical transformer with water. The transformer remained frozen Tuesday. The transformer converts power created by the reactor to electrical voltage.” http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RsoeEdis-EmergencyAndDisasterInformation/~3/OPHdeIUpLRs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
December 5, 2013 – 8:17 am
Your comment is awaiting moderation
Thank you….I truly believe if the roads ice up and our fire dept specialist division gas well response vehicles cannot get to the site or sites (or phone lines/power is down/communication is hampered), that a designated nearby homeowner should be instructed how to go to the site and know where to find and push the red, manual shut down button in the event of spillage or gas release. How do-able is this training in a pinch?