Marcellus Shale well site catches fire

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Marcellus Shale well site catches fire

POSTED: Wednesday, April 7, 2010, 6:47 PM
Filed Under: BRT | FrackTrack | Marcellus Shale | News
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I'm a bit late on this one, but the Post-Gazette reported last week that a wastewater pond used in Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling caught fire. Two nearby residents of the site, which is operated by Atlas Energy Copr. (one of whom is already suing Atlas for "ruining his land with toxic chemicals") say that they had smelled a gas odor for days . . . and had reported it to the Department of Environmental protection without hearing back:

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.

I've called DEP for updates or further response, since the P-G seems to have dropped the story for now.

One thing that's interesting about this story is that it was the wastewater pond that caught fire. I've had several officials indicate that these ponds (like the one pictured above) are mostly storing freshwater — yet I reported on a toxic mud spill resulting from a similar pond last week, and, before that, on an incident of pollution in Clearwater county that resulted from the lining of another waste pit being ruptured.

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