Well Blowout in Wyoming County, PA 

Three Washington Township families were evacuated from their homes late Wednesday night when Carrizo Oil & Gas lost control of the Yarasavage 1H well during the hydraulic fracturing process.  

At its peak, 800 gallons per minute of waste water flowed from the well; 227,000 gallons were recovered and removed by truck. Reports say that some fluid ran off the pad but was contained in a temporary catch basin.

The well was brought under control Thursday morning and capped later in the day. The exact cause of the blowout remains unknown at this time, though equipment failure is suspected.    

According to MarcellusGas.org, the Yarasavage well pad contains seven permitted wells which have garnered five violations through 39 inspections. The 

Yarasavage 1H well is responsible for two of those violations, cited during the drilling process.

Carrizo Oil & Gas is based in Houston, Texas, and has 115 permitted wells on 31 well pads in PA.  

The PA Department of Environmental Protection compliance report shows that Carrizo Marcellus LLC, the main operator of Carrizo's three operations in PA, has collected 92 violations

and 13 enforcements stemming from 462 inspections performed on 95 wells. 

Watch the WNEP video 

Forest Impacts

Heavy machinery and wet forest roads are not a good mix. 

Deep ruts on the Ellenton Grade in the Loyalsock Forest.

Saturday, March 16, 11:00 a.m.  

Old Loggers Path hiking trail.                                                                    Image: Ralph Kisberg

Last minute changes 

to the hike location or parking will be noted here on the day of the hike.

LOYALSOCK STATE FOREST:

Behind Closed Doors  

By Ralph Kisberg 

RDA thanks PennFuture and the PA Forest Coalition for the terrific work by RDA board member and PennFuture staff attorney Mark Szybist, Policy Director Steve Stroman, and the Coalition's Dick Martin in successfully filing well-targeted Right to Know Law (RTKL) requests with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Attempting to navigate hundreds of pages of e-mails, letters, black-and-white maps, and rapidly scrawled notes to make sense of it all has been a challenging task.

Reid Frazier of the Allegheny Front ran an interesting background story last week from information obtained from RTKL documents. He noted that Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) offered the DCNR a paltry $15 million for surface use of the Clarence Moore tracts.

Seismic testing equipment found in the Loyalsock Forest - July 2012

Further investigation reveals that negotiations have been taking place for a long time - with some unexpected twists. One was an offer in early 2011 by APC to DCNR to explore "exchanging fee oil and gas interests for more restrictive oil and gas leases of State Forest lands," which included "a perpetual right to control the surface of over 25,000 gross acres in Loyalsock Forest." No mention of why this offer went nowhere could be found.

We were pleased to see that DCNR Secretary Richard Allan and Bureau of Forestry Director Dan Devlin have defended the DCNR's property rights, insisting that Anadarko recognize the DCNR's control of the Clarence Moore surface. In a January 2012 letter to Doug Lawer, APC's vice president of southern region operations, Secretary Allan wrote:

I am concerned that in our meeting and in your letter, you did not acknowledge the unique circumstances surrounding the gas and surface rights on these lands. I also found your characterization  

In a May 4, 2012, letter, Mr. Devlin firmly echoes Secretary Allan's January letter:

It is DCNR's position that access to its lands under the Commonwealth Court's decision of 1989 cedes DCNR the right of surface control over the majority of the warrants in the litigated acreage.

And goes on to remind Anadarko:

DCNR is the steward of the lands held in trust for the people of the Commonwealth and DCNR is responsible for the environmental protection of the lands and managing any economic benefit that may come from the lands. At the end of the day DCNR must be able to defend its actions and provide justifications for the agreements reached, the protections put in place, and the fairness of any financial benefits it may receive for the Commonwealth.

The one tiny color map that was found reveals what appear to be 25 or 26 reds dots indicative of well pads or a mix of well pads and "freshwater" impoundments and references to compressor sites C1 through C4. A reference is made by APC of a $1.1 billion investment in the Moore tracts. One has to wonder, then, what kind of return does APC expect to gain from that investment?

DCNR spent a lot of effort to come up with a figure to counter the $15 million 

APC offer for surface use based on, as far as we can tell, "replacement value of $24 million." But of course, you can't replace the value of Rock Run or the habitat for so many threatened, rare and vulnerable species as exist up there, including humans recreating in the tranquility of gas-development-free woods. 

What we do not have at this point are phone and in-person conversations between the Governor's Office and the brass at DCNR. The methodology for placing a value on this precious and fragile gem of the state forest system brings to mind the old saying about someone knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. It is not consistent with what the DCNR knows and is concerned about for the Loyalsock Forest. It is consistent with what Anadarko Petroleum Corporation sees as valuable: only the gas beneath the land.

The people who know the true value of this area, and those who have the life experience to imagine it, must tell Governor Corbett, their legislators, and 

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation just what the real value is to present and future Pennsylvanians.

Flagging marks seismic testing by CGG Veritas in the Loyalsock Forest.