Maryland to Sue for a Fracking Spill - in Pennsylvania

Maryland's Attorney General has told a gas driller working in Pennsylvania that he plans to sue the company for violating federal anti-pollution laws after thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluid spilled into the Susquehanna River watershed last month.

In a "notice of intent to sue," Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said there was an equipment failure April 19 at a gas well being drilled by Chesapeake Energy Corp. in Leroy Township, in north central Pennsylvania. The failure resulted in "loss of control of the well."

"Tens of thousands of gallons" of "fracking" fluid, used to fracture bedrock and release natural gas from the Marcellus Shale deep underground, leaked out and escaped the berm built to contain it, Gansler said. The fluid crossed neighboring farms, then flowed into Towanda Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River.

Ooo, ooo! Tens of thousands of gallons! Any notion of the dilution that will take place between north central Pennsylvania and Maryland? (see map below)  The current flow of the Susquehanna at Conowingo Dam is about 150,000 cubic feet per second, and one cubic foot is ~6.2 gallons, thus in one second the river moves 930,000 gallons of water into the Chesapeake Bay, so the fracking fluid would be diluted roughly one hundred fold if it were delivered in a one second burst.  Hardly likely.  More likely, the spill occurred over days, giving dilution factors of hundreds of thousand fold if not millions.  And that assumes that none of the components of the fracking fluid are lost to adsorption to sediments or volatilization, the most common fates of most toxic compounds.  It is highly unlikely that any of the components of this spill can be detected entering Maryland.

So why is the Attorney General of Maryland suing a Oklahoma company, for a spill that happened in Pennsylvania which is not expected to have any significant impact in Maryland?  I can't read minds, but I suspect that he wants to kill fracking, and that as a loyal democrat and liberal he would like to kill any development of fossil fuel near Maryland (and probably elsewhere in the US as well).

In all likelihood, laws were violated by the spill, but enforcing those laws should be up to the authorities of the state of Pennsylvania, and the Federal authorities, not a vindictive and opportunistic pol from another state.


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