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Accident at gas well in Northern Tier near creek that enters Susquehanna.

DEP workers examine water samples for testing in Bradford County after a gas well blowout in LeRoy Township. The well was in the process of being hydraulically fractured.

State workers collect samples Wednesday from a stream near a natural gas drilling accident in Bradford County.

Aimee dilger photos/the times leader

Megan Morse talks with reporters Wednesday as a state Department of Environmental Protection worker leaves her father’s home with water samples after an accident at a natural gas well on Randy Morse’s farm.

Crews clean up a spill of hydraulic fracturing fluid at a Chesapeake Energy well site on the farm of Randy Morse on Wednesday. The fluid spilled from the well pad Wednesday morning after an accident during well-fracturing.

Aimee dilger photos/the times leader

LEROY TWP. – A blowout at a natural gas well Wednesday sent “frack fluid,” a water and chemical mixture containing hazardous materials, gushing into a stream in Bradford County.

Chesapeake Energy, operator of the ATGAS 2H well pad on Southside Road in Leroy Township, said an equipment failure just before midnight Tuesday into Wednesday during completion procedures, or hydraulic fracturing, allowed drilling liquid to spill from the pad.

Chesapeake spokesman Rory Sweeney said pressure in the well broke a piece of completion equipment installed to hydraulically fracture, or “frack,” the well, forcing pressurized liquid through the equipment and through the broken part.

Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals, frequently called frack fluid, into a well to break apart the Marcellus Shale and release pockets of gas trapped within the shale.

Sweeney characterized the accident as more of a leak than a full blowout, and state Department of Environmental Protection Emergency Response Manager John Erick said “It’s not the classic blowout where things are blowing out of the top of the well,” but a less dramatic sort of blowout.

There were no injuries reported in the incident.

Chesapeake said an undetermined amount of liquid flowed off the well pad, which leads downhill towards an unnamed stream that flows into Towanda Creek. Towanda Creek joins the Susquehanna River near Towanda.

Erick said he could not estimate how much fluid made it into the stream, but said that at least some did. He said at approximately 5:15 p.m. Wednesday that the accident had not officially been declared under control but that “they have a handle on it.”

“We’re considering the situation under control but not completely,” Erick said. “Things could still go wrong, but it’s much better than it was.”

DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh said at 9 p.m. that the situation was not yet under control, but that crews from Chesapeake had contained the flow from the well-head to keep it from spilling from the well pad and into the creek.

Crews from Chesapeake, DEP and accident-control specialists Boots and Coots International Well Control worked to control the spill and minimize environmental damage Wednesday. Crews collected water samples from the ground near the site, from the stream and from the drinking water wells of nearby residents.

Gresh said samples collected at the stream found no evidence of an impact to aquatic life. DEP plans to keep crews onsite until the situation is under control, and water sampling will continue today, Gresh said.

“We’re concentrating right now on working with the operator to get the well under control; any kind of potential enforcement action will be conversation down the road,” Gresh said. “Our focus right now is getting the well under control and determining what environmental impact the spill had.”

As a precautionary measure, seven families living near the well were temporarily evacuated Wednesday morning, though many returned to their homes in the afternoon, and said they planned to stay.

“I was born here; I’ve lived here all my life; my parents lived here all their lives,” said LeRoy Township Supervisor Ted Tomlinson, who lives on Southside Road about 100 feet from the well pad. “We’re going to stick on this corner; my roots are too deep here.”

Tomlinson added the township emergency management agency set up a command center in the township community center, where area residents could go with questions.

The ATGAS H2 well pad is located on the farm of Randy Morse, who named the well by combining the first initials of his grandchildren. Morse, too, said he plans to stay put.

When asked if he is concerned about his drinking water quality, Morse replied, “sure, we all are,” but also applauded Chesapeake’s handling of the accident.

“Chesapeake is doing everything they can,” he said. “They’re doing everything as responsibly as I would be.”

Ira Haire, who lives across the street from Morse, said he wasn’t overly fearful of the spill.

“I don’t really have any concerns about it,” he said. “They’ve been here; they checked all my water. … In every little puddle of water they’re checking.”

Even after the accident, Haire touted the economic development gas drilling has brought to Bradford County.

“It’s progress,” he said. “My kids don’t live around here; if this was here 20 years ago, my kids would probably still be here.”

Locally, though, opponents of hydraulic fracturing lamented the environmental damage the accident may have caused.

“A lot of us in the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition said it’s going to take a major event to unfortunately open people’s eyes and this is that event,” said Scott Cannon of the Luzerne County based coalition.

He added that Gov. Tom Corbett said he wants to protect our water.

“This is a case of him not protecting our water,” said Cannon. “He needs to wake up, and this is that wake-up call.”

Casey calls for increased safety

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On the heels of the blowout at the ATGAS H2 natural gas well in Bradford County, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, called on legislators to improve safety at drilling well sites.

Casey has introduced legislation targeted at improving safety for workers and emergency response procedures at drilling sites, and to require public disclosure of chemicals used in the fracking process, the Senator said in a release Wednesday.

Casey said he has been in contact with state and local officials to see if federal assistance is needed for cleanup at Bradford County spill.

“I will continue to monitor the situation as the investigation continues and more details are known,” Casey said. “Natural gas drilling offers Pennsylvania a great economic opportunity. However, incidents like this blowback are a reminder that there are dangers and that precautions must be taken to protect the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians.”

First reported at

12:36

p.m.

timesleader.com