Dunkard Creek Spill: 500 Gallons Of Drilling Mud Entered PA Stream

PINE BANK, Pa. (AP) — The Department of Environmental Protection says about 500 gallons of drilling mud spilled into a western Pennsylvania stream at a pipeline project site.

DEP spokesman John Poister says in a statement that the spill happened Wednesday afternoon on a tributary of Dunkard Creek, about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh, near the West Virginia border.

Poister says Equitrans, based in Pittsburgh, was drilling under the creek for a pipeline. The company reported the spill and began cleaning the site, and DEP has taken water samples.

Poister says DEP will return to the site Friday to determine the state of the cleanup.

An Equitrans spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

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Comments

[banana republican]

07:18 PM on 04/18/2012

Think its a big deal? Wrong. Learn all there is to know about this http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/oilcreek/index.htm

[Kommonman]

02:48 AM on 04/15/2012

More of that vaunted safety we here tell about from the neergy sector...Still oil flowing from the cracked rock dome off brazil and that gas well in the northsea still spewing...unexplained oil film covering the waters between to chevron oil platforms but it is not Chevron's fault...yes it is just drilling mud..supposedly...still the silalcates clog the gill of fish just the same...And there sit the proponents for the industry spewing the same old dogmatic responses...Of course they do...by their own admissions they have vested interests in the oil and gas industry...and as usual with every drill baby drill we get a spill baby spill and then we get the bill baby bill

[Mandy Ann Osipchuk]

11:28 PM on 04/14/2012

This is water, water that should be cherished by all. It could be someones drinking water. I visited PA about 6 times... The 1sttime the water and rock water falls I viewed and took pictures of where crystal clean, rocks grey plants lush and green, After about the 4,5,6th time, not so much, the rocks where bright orange, the water was greyish and the plants about 2-3 feet from the water brown and dead. Gross I did not even take my waterfall pictures for that reason. People are stupid and think that we do not have new energy technology. That killing our planet is THE ONLY way to drive our sorry a$$es to walmart ect..we all have been lied too and all we need to do is google New Energy Technology and demand it! And you will see we are all being lied too.

[jamie461]

10:14 PM on 04/14/2012

The gas companies won't be satisfied until they turn Pennsylvania into an uninhabitable wasteland.

[Lance Manling]

02:03 PM on 04/13/2012

Clay and water went into that creek!!! What will we do? What will we do?

[brutusmojo]

03:13 PM on 04/13/2012

Dumb comment Lance,how old are you 12? Any pollution is unacceptable.When the industry plays something down and says don't worry,the opposite should occur.And your humor is not cute.

[D-Driller]

08:26 PM on 04/13/2012

What was dumb about it? It's a crossing boring, nothing more. This type of thing is done every day, in every town in America.

[energydem]

09:47 PM on 04/13/2012

Excuse me, the truly immature comment here is "any pollution is unacceptable." Do you drive a car, use electricity, heat your home, have plastic in your house? We should do whatever we can to produce energy responsibly but conversion of any energy source to useful energy has environmental impacts.

This is a complete non-story. Please don't try to make it one, D Driller is correct.

[jonoruf]

01:12 PM on 04/16/2012

Do we know it was only clay and water? I thought companies don't have to disclose the chemicals that they use for fracking.

[Lance Manling]

10:20 AM on 04/18/2012

It is mostly clay and water.

[Lance Manling]

12:15 PM on 04/18/2012

Do a search. It isn't a big secret.