The $423,300 fine is said to be a record fine for a single incident but it’s meaningless to Williams and useless in washing water tainted with benzene.
Ned Prather lives in a cabin northwest of Parachute and on May 30, 2008, he drank from the benzene contaminated spring near his cabin.
Tests on June 4, 2008, found benzene levels that exceeded state groundwater standards by 32 times at the spring and 13 times at the cabin’s kitchen fauce
It’s said the contamination came from a leaking waste pit at the Williams pad site. Why would Williams use a waste pit? That’s not best practice. Isn’t it interesting how these companies know how to prevent these kinds of “accidents” but they won’t unless they’re forced? In this case, using a closed-loop systems like Williams does in urban areas would have prevented this water contamination.
LINK to the entire article.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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And yet, they can still claim "no contamination proven by hydraulic fracturing," because, of course, this was caused by the waste pit. Fracking still awesome.
A Williams exec, their lead attorney, and every member of Congress not supporting the FRAC Act should drink just as much water from that benzene-polluted creek as that unsuspecting man did.
I wonder how the folks at Coors would be able to put a marketing spin on this if their Rocky Mountain spring water isn't so clean?