Marcellus Drillers' Image Suffering

Washington PA Observer Reporter
14 November 2010

It appears to be taking quite a while for some operators of Marcellus Shale fracking-water trucks to realize that their vehicles are supposed to be in safe working order.

Pennsylvania State Police and the state Department of Environmental Protection recently announced the results of a three-day, statewide vehicle enforcement action targeting trucks hauling gas-drilling wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing process, commonly known as fracking, and the results were not encouraging.

The report said citations were issued for 1,066 of the more than 1,400 trucks that were inspected from Oct. 25 to 27. More than 200 of the cited vehicles were immediately taken out of service, as were more than 50 drivers. This came after similar inspection efforts in June and earlier in October that led to the issuance of hundreds of citations and hundreds of vehicles being ordered off the roads.

We hear often from drivers concerned about the speeds at which these fracking-water trucks are being driven, often on secondary roads, and the fact that some of them may be less than safe does little to assuage our fears that a major accident is waiting to happen, one that perhaps could lead to a severe environmental contamination or, even worse, the maiming or death of a motorist sharing the roads with these big, heavy vehicles.

The DEP and state police signed a deal in September to provide more money for the roadside vehicle safety inspections, but no matter how many are conducted, they will have little effect if these truckers and the companies they work for consider the fines and actions against drivers to be simply the cost of doing business. We don't know that to be a fact, but the rampant disregard for safety laws could lead one to that conclusion.

The drilling companies have the ultimate responsibility here. They might argue that the trucking outfits are private contractors, but if the Marcellus drillers truly want to be seen as good corporate citizens, a demand that those hauling their wastewater comply with the law would go a lot further with the public than the purchase of a cow at the county fair. Perhaps they could take some of the big money they have lavished on our politicians and direct it, instead, toward a vehicle safety compliance program.

The vehicle enforcement sweep wasn't the only news recently casting the Marcellus industry in a bad light.

On Tuesday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a subpoena to Halliburton after the energy company refused to reveal the chemicals it uses in the fracking process.

The EPA is looking into the potential health threats from fracking, which involves forcing huge quantities of water, chemicals and sand underground to free gas from shale formations. Halliburton contends that the EPA's demand for disclosure of the chemicals it is pumping into the environment is "unreasonable."

Also Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority took the bull by the horns and approved about $12 million to extend public water service to residents of the small northeastern Pennsylvania town of Dimock, who contend that for the past two years they have been unable to use their well water, which is brown, tainted by methane and causes skin rashes.

A Marcellus driller operating in the area, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. of Texas, denies that its operations are to blame. The residents think otherwise. The DEP plans to sue Cabot to recoup the money spent on the water extension. Cabot's attorneys made it clear at the meeting of the infrastucture authority that it will sue to stop the project, which exasperated DEP Secretary John Hanger, who said other drilling companies have been much more responsive when environmental issues arise.

"The only thing that I regret is that it's taken two years for this company, Cabot, to be faced with a solution," he said. "You saw today what Cabot does: They bring the lawyers in. They've done that for two years. They are unique in having lawyered up, as opposed to really dealing with the problem."

None of these stories gives us warm and fuzzy feelings about the Marcellus Shale industry.