Gas Well Explosion – Indiana Township, PA

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On Friday a two-year-old shallow gas well exploded in Indiana Township (Allegheny County), PA killing two workers. According to sources, multiple parties are involved in the investigation, including the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Allegheny County fire marshal and Huntley & Huntley Inc., the Monroeville company that employed the workers. Read more>

This incident follows the EPA’s public comment meeting on Thursday, which was convened to gather citizen input on an EPA study that will assess the safety of hydraulic fracturing (and related issues) involved in Marcellus Shale gas extraction. Additionally, two hearings are planned today in PA. One will review emergency response procedures and the other will assess proposed state regulations. While Friday’s tragic accident did not occur at a Marcellus-depth well, it highlights why appropriate safety measures must be put in place as the Marcellus Shale play is explored further.

In an attempt to track and visualize the vital importance of drilling safety, CHEC is compiling a database of Marcellus incidents on FracTracker’s data tool. Additional organizations are participating in this process. If you have data that you would like to contribute to the dataset, please email (malone@fractracker.org) or call us (412-624-9379).

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2 replies
  1. Sam Malone
    Sam Malone says:

    >Hi Jessica, sorry about the confusion. You can actually hide the legend to see more of PA by clicking on the compass-like icon on the right edge of the gray box. You can even do the same with the authorship information on the top of the map by clicking the upside-down carrots. Is this a feature we should make automated? e.g. Leave the legend and authorship boxes open for 10 seconds and then close them automatically?

  2. Jessica
    Jessica says:

    >Why is the legend covering all of Pennsylvania west of Altoona? Even if there are no data points to show for that portion of the state we'd like to be able to see that.

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