Slick company spokespeople, who apparently never leave the office and don't read newspapers are the only people I know of who will tell you that these kinds of things can't happen.  Most anybody else who actually works on wells, and knows that cars crash, trains derail, and airplanes fall from the sky will agree that problems with a gas well are pretty much guaranteed if somebody screws up. 
 
These incidents tell me that proscribed engineering procedures were not being followed, not that there is a systemic problem with gas drilling, and it is important to note the difference.  Yes, after 100 years they CAN get it right, and most of the time they do.  The engineering is definitely there to drill a well both economically and safely, while protecting the air, land, surface streams, groundwater, ecosystems and habitat. People who are cutting corners by not installing enough casing or doing it improperly, not checking cement bond logs, and skipping other steps are causing the problems.  Sometimes there are issues with defective casing that Chesapeake claims was the cause of this blowout, but it should have been inspected by them carefully before being put in the ground.
 
As I have been saying for years now, there needs to be stricter regulations, greater enforcement, mandatory inspections and inspector sign-offs at certain stages before proceeding, with huge fines if a company is found to be cutting corners.  Kudos to PA DEP for stepping up and hitting them where it hurts, but it would have been better if the inspectors had spotted the problem before there was an incident and shut them down until it was fixed.  WV needs to wake up, smell the coffee, and get with the program.  I find Chesapeake's arrogance to be galling anyway, so I'm personally happy to see them hauled off to the hoosegow.
 
-  Dan

--- On Tue, 5/17/11, Jim Sconyers <jim_scon@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [EC] Marcellus driller fined record $1.1M
To: "Frank Young" <fyoung@mountain.net>, ec@osenergy.org, "Dan Soeder" <djsoeder@yahoo.com>, "Beth Little" <blittle@citynet.net>
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 7:55 PM

This is what we're told can't happen.
 
Jim Sconyers
jim_scon@yahoo.com
304.698.9628

Remember: Mother Nature bats last.


From: Frank Young <fyoung@mountain.net>
To: ec@osenergy.org; Dan Soeder <djsoeder@yahoo.com>; Beth Little <blittle@citynet.net>
Sent: Tue, May 17, 2011 5:25:19 PM
Subject: [EC] Marcellus driller fined record $1.1M

One would think that after more than 100 years, the drilling industry could get it right.  Are there reasons other than carelessness on the part of drilling crews that this could happen?
According to the consent agreement signed on Monday, the DEP investigated at least seven instances of methane migration that contaminated 16 residential water wells in Bradford County last year.
The DEP blamed improper cement casings of Chesapeake gas wells for allowing the natural gas to seep into drinking water supplies. .