DEP Fines Talisman Energy For Bradford County Drilling Wastewater Spill

The Department of Environmental Protection has fined Talisman Energy USA Inc., of Horseheads, N.Y., $15,506 for a spill of used natural gas drilling fluids last November at its Klein gas well pad in Armenia Township, Bradford County that polluted a small, unnamed waterway.
            The spill involved hydraulic fracturing flowback fluid, which is the substance that returns to the surface after a company injects the pressurized fluid underground to fracture, or “frack,” a geologic formation and extract natural gas.
            “DEP’s investigation in late November 2009 determined that Talisman spilled between 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of fracking flowback fluids when a pump failed and sand collected in a valve,” said DEP Northcentral Oil and Gas Program Manager Jennifer Means.
            The fluids flowed off the well pad and toward a wetland, and a small amount ultimately discharged to an unnamed tributary to Webier Creek, which drains into the upper reaches of the Tioga River, a cold water fishery.
            Talisman successfully completed DEP’s Act 2 process for spill cleanup activities.
            The fine will be deposited into the fund that supports DEP’s oil and gas permitting and enforcement programs.


8/9/2010

Go To Preceding Article     Go To Next Article

Return to This PA Environment Digest's Main Page