Natural Gas Companies Fined for Hydrochloric Acid Spill in PA

Interesting article on InjuryBoard.com. The spill referred to in the article happened almost a year ago, but this article is interesting nonetheless. At the bottom of the post they have a recommendation to hire legal counsel immediately should you think you are suffering health effects from oil and gas activities. They also have a phone number to call about your legal options.
The not so funny thing here is, if you mention hydrochloric acid in front of an industry representative, they will be quick to tell you that it is in your cleaning products. I'm sorry, but the stuff I clean my tub with is not strong enough to melt the skin off my hands and eat through the bottom of my tub!

Posted by Paul NapoliDecember 21, 2009 3:45 AM
Tags: None 0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribeDecember 18, 2009


The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Chesapeake Appalachia LLC and Schlumberger Technology Corp. $15,557 each for a 295-gallon hydrochloric acid spill at a natural gas drilling site in northern Pennsylvania.

Chesapeake staff notified the DEP on February 9, 2009 that a 21,000-gallon tank containing 36 percent hydrochloric acid was leaking at the company’s Chancellor well site in Asylum Township, Bradford County. A DEP inspector investigated the report and found that the tank had two leaks and was losing about 7.5 gallons of hydrochloric acid per hour.

Chesapeake’s emergency contractor began spill remediation operations that evening by removing freestanding acid from the ground with absorbent pads, excavating trenches to contain the acid, neutralizing acid-contaminated soil with soda ash and hydrated lime, and transferring about 11,000 gallons of acid from the leaking tank to two temporary tanks. More>>>