Follansbee, West Virginia ethane pipeline ruptures
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Residents in Follansbee, West Virginia, witnessed flames from a morning ethane pipeline explosion Jan. 26, The Intelligencer / Wheeling News Register reports.
No one was injured and no property was damaged when the ATEX Express pipeline ruptured. The gas was shut off but the flames continued into the afternoon.
The pipeline is operated by Texas-based Enterprise Products Partners. The company detected a drop in pressure at the Follansbee pump station, but it hasn’t determined a cause for the explosion yet. Enterprise also operates four other natural gas processing plants in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions.
Via: The Intelligencer / Wheeling News Register > Ethane Pipeline Blast Creates Fireball
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What is fracking?
Fracking is a slang term for hydraulic fracturing. Fracturing is a process by which highly pressurized fluid is pumped thousands of feet into the ground to fracture rock formations. The goal is to release the natural gas that’s locked inside the rock.
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What most concerns people about fracturing is ground water contamination. The worry is that fractures underground, caused by the process, will extending upwards and into aquifers, releasing gas and chemicals into the ground water supply. There’s been no confirmed reports of such a thing happening. Though surface spills and drill site blowouts can lead to localized environmental concerns.
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Flammable water is caused by the release of methane gas into a drinking water supply. Methane gas occurs naturally and can be released by any kind of drilling, including water wells. In Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy $1 million for contaminating ground water with methane. It was determined that the company had not properly cemented it’s boreholes and gas migrated up the well, between rock and into aquifers.