Yourlawyer.com (Gas Leaks News) http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/gas_leaks Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:34:32 -0800 pixel-app en Gas line accident erupts in fire in rural Parker County http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12656 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12656
Emergency personnel rushed to the scene, as flames rolled several hundred feet into the air from a line in a rural area near Lake Weatherford.

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler says the accident happened as some workers were laying a pipeline.

There were no immediately confirmed injuries, but live T.V. coverage showed several nearby vehicles had burned.

Flames appeared to be fed from some type of gas line.

The area is about 30 miles west of Fort Worth.
]]> Marlboro house explosion critically injures two http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12289 Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12289
Police Chief Ron Devies said the house blew up around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, critically injuring a man and a woman inside.

“We suspect that it may have been a propane leak but that’s what we’re narrowing down and completely pinpointing today,” said Devies, who was at the scene with Marlboro firefighters until around 12:30 a.m. and was back at the scene this morning.

Devies said he hopes to give an official ruling today.

The couple, was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital by chopper where they are being treated for critical injuries in the burn unit.

“I don’t know how they did it, but he picked her up and carried her out,” Devies said.

He said walls on two and a half sides were completely blown off “and the roof is in the basement because it went up and came down,” he said. “The only thing standing right now is the front porch roof, which is leaning in toward the structure.”]]> Pa. house explosion injures 4 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12288 Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12288 A natural gas leak was suspected as the cause of the blast just after noon, said New Castle Fire Chief Jeff Scrim. But Columbia Gas spokesman Matt Pitzarella said late Monday that company investigators found no evidence of a leak and believed the explosion came from the basement.

"We know the roof, we were told, went 200 feet in the air, so we know the explosion was pretty potent," he said.

The blast was felt a mile away and sent debris through the walls of some of the other homes, police and neighbors said.

"There's destruction everywhere," neighbor Bonnie Lemmon said. "Everybody's windows are busted out. There's just destruction."

Patrick Henry was inside the home, while Jared Baker and Sophia Baker, whose relationship was unclear, were on the sidewalk nearby at the time of the blast, authorities said. A fourth person, a woman, was hit by debris and treated at the scene, authorities said.

Henry was in critical condition and Jared Baker in serious condition, said a spokeswoman at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Sophia Baker was taken to West Penn Hospital, also in Pittsburgh, where her family asked that her condition not be released.

Sean Duffee, who lives about five houses away, said the blast blew his windows out and punched a hole several feet wide through one wall.

"I'm going to board everything up and try to get everything I can out of the house and go somewhere," Duffee said.

Police and emergency crews planned to patrol the area to prevent looting.

New Castle is about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

]]> BP closes some Alaska wells after allegations http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11999 Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11999
The wells were in the process of being shut down Tuesday, BP spokesman Darren Beaudo said.

The action came after workers told the Financial Times of London about the leaks, according to the newspaper, which first reported the shutdowns on its Web site.

Most of the shuttered wells were in Prudhoe Bay, Beaudo told The Associated Press.

The shutdowns come a month after BP confirmed it had received a subpoena from a U.S. grand jury investigating a massive oil leak in Alaska last year.

BP blamed the March 2005 incident at Prudhoe Bay, the largest-ever spill in Alaska’s North Slope region, on a small hole caused by corrosion in a pipeline. Up to 267,000 gallons were believed to have spilled onto the frozen ground about 250 miles above the Arctic Circle.

The 12 well shutdowns affect about 8,000 barrels a day out of the North Slope’s total daily production of about 800,000 barrels, Beaudo said.

BP plans on running integrity tests on the affected wells.

“If we reconfirm that they met those standards we will put them back on production,” he said.

Beaudo said BP was being cautious in addressing the leaks of a freeze protection material known as arctic ice pack. The material is usually crude oil or diesel fuel. A typical well has about 168 barrels of freeze protection material.

None of the leaked material had reached the Arctic tundra, Beaudo said.

“We decided in an abundance of caution to shut down and reconfigure the integrity of 12 operating North Slope wells,” he said. “We have no reason to believe that continued operation poses a risk to workers or the environment.”

Ten of the wells were in Prudhoe Bay, one was at Milne Point and another was at Northstar.

All but one of the wells was shut down by Tuesday. Beaudo said the remaining gas injector well at Northstar was somewhat more complicated to shut down and could take a couple of days.

Beaudo said BP had become aware recently that concerns were increasing about freeze material making its way into well cellars.

“We were made aware of anonymous concerns about spills to well cellars, as well as nonspecific safety concerns around working these wells,” Beaudo said.

He said the anonymous concerns were attributed to workers and a regulator.

The company will invite regulators from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the Alaska Department of Conservation to observe the integrity tests, Beaudo said.

The commission is a state regulatory agency.

Messages left Tuesday night for Commissioner Cathy Foerster and DEC spokeswoman Linda Giguere were not immediately returned.

BP also will appoint an independent ombudsman to receive future concerns about BP operations, he said. That person should be in place in the next 60 days.]]> Worker Dies in Industrial Leak Near Pensacola http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11836 Wed, 07 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11836
Authorities say the victim died after inhaling toxic hydrogen sulfide gas at the Blackjack Creek Treating Facility in Allentown, about 20 miles northeast of Pensacola. The toxic chemical is created in the process of making crude oil. Joseph Smith was injured, but has been treated and released from the hospital.

Fire officials say Monday's leak did not affect anything outside the plant or its boundaries. The plant was closed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2002 while extensive repairs were made to reduce sulfur dioxide and possible hydrogen sulfide emissions.

The company paid $125,000 in civil penalties and completed a pollution prevention project instead of the balance of the penalties, according to a consent order.
]]> Health Department says gasoline leak fixed; waiting for report http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11809 Fri, 02 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11809
Don Kerzmann said he and four others who live near the Cenex station where the leak was found last September are preparing a lawsuit.

Gary Berreth, a state Health Department environmental engineer, said the leak came from the station's pipe system and followed a coal vein. His estimate was "somewhere upwards of 30,000 gallons."

"Mr. Kerzmann's well happens to be a relatively shallow well. In the deeper wells, we haven't picked up any indication of contamination," Berreth said Friday.

The station stopped the leak toward the end of September, and a consultant is investigating the cause, Berreth said. The consultant's report on the leak is expected within a month.

"It seems to have gone pretty much straight down and then it hit this coal vein," Berreth said. "It's kind of a unique geology. It seems to have hit that highly fractured coal vein and just followed the fractures."

The Health Department has been testing for benzene, a component of gasoline, because exposure over a long period of time has been linked to cancer, Berreth said. Kerzmann said a doctor had ordered him to leave his home because of the contamination.

Berreth said samples were taken in the area Thursday but the results will not be known for a couple of weeks.

Kerzmann told the Minot Daily News the amount of gasoline spilled could be as high as 700,000 gallons but later told the newspaper he misspoke and the estimate was closer to 70,000 gallons. Cenex station manager Paul Schlichting told the newspaper he thought the spill was between 30,000 gallons and 40,000 gallons.

Schlichting said earlier that the station tried to reach an agreement with Kerzmann and hook him up to a rural water system. Kerzmann said he would not agree because it would bar him from trying to collect for damages.

"The state is going to hook him up to rural water since they can't come to an agreement," Berreth said. "He needs to get back to us in writing.

"Really, the only route of exposure to his residence is through that well," Berreth said. "Once the well is disconnected and rural water is provided, that should eliminate any entrance of this."]]> Utility to pay $8 million for natural gas explosion in Bellevue http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11724 Thu, 18 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11724
The daughter and two sons of the late Frances Schmitz, 68, accepted the settlement about two months ago after Puget Sound Energy promised to make changes designed to prevent similar accidents, said the family’s lawyer.

“They are relieved that they were able to get this resolution, to make this area safer so others don’t have to walk in their shoes,” Beninger said.

Puget Sound Energy did not admit fault as part of the settlement, he added.

Grant Ringel, a spokesman for the utility, would not discuss the details of the settlement but said Wednesday, “We are very happy to have this issue resolved and again express our sympathy to the family.”

Schmitz was severely burned by the blast and fire on Sept. 2, 2004, and died three weeks later. The explosion was blamed on a leaky pipe.

In their lawsuit, Schmitz’s children accused the utility of negligence.
State regulators found that long-term corrosion caused the leak in a steel pipe leading to the house. The pipe was installed in 1963 and was essentially unprotected from rust for two decades before an electrical corrosion protection system was added, according to expert testimony cited by the state Utilities and Transportation Commission.

As part of a settlement with the state panel last fall, Puget Sound Energy agreed to check for corrosion in tens of thousands of steel gas pipes across Western Washington and to review all coated steel gas lines that lacked corrosion protection for at least five years.

Soon after the explosion, regulators found that a miswired electrical device, a rectifier, could have contributed to the pipe corrosion, and as part of its settlement with the state the utility paid a $90,000 penalty for the miswiring.

In a final report by the commission’s Pipeline Safety Program last fall, however, investigators wrote that the rectifier had “little or no bearing” on the leak or explosion.

]]> Families Sue Exxon For $1 Billion http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11725 Fri, 12 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/11725
The families live near the Jacksonville Exxon station in Baltimore County where, in January, state environmental officials said as much as 26,000 gallons of fuel leaked for more than 30 days.

The Maryland Department of the Environment filed 15-count suit against Exxon-Mobil last month as crews reportedly recovered more than 10,000 gallons of gas and roughly 2 million gallons of contaminated water.

The families said their wells have tested positive for containing the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).
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"Although we're using bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing our teeth, we’re forced to shower and clean clothes in water that may, for another 30 days, become contaminated," said Thomas Howe, a homeowner involved in the litigation.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Darrielle Snipes said the families claim Exxon took too long to notify the state and the neighborhood of the dangerous contamination.

The families contend that the same station experienced a 1,000-gallon gas leak in the 1980s, and claimed the station had a chance to stop the recent leak early on.

"We have knowledge that a station employee early on, within that first week, brought to the attention of Exxon specific discrepancies in the amounts of gas, and Exxon chose not to close this gas station," said Stephen Snyder, an attorney for the families.

Snipes reported the families want a community water supply installed. The state suit seeks up to $25,000 per day of violation in addition to reimbursement for costs incurred as a result of the spill. State law allows an additional $100 per gallon in fines for spills over 25,000 gallons.
]]> Gas Leak Water Contamination Injury Lawyer http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/gas_leaks Fri, 12 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/gas_leaks Gas Leaks Gas leaks often pollute and contaminated water supplies within the surrounding areas, both commercial and residential. Gas leaks happen when underground gas pipes at gas stations break. If these gas leaks go weeks without the proper cleanup, many people lives and health are put into harms ways.  Large gas corporations for years have been accused of negligence for allowing these types of leaks to happen, failure to give details of all leaks as soon as they happen, and embellishing all clean up efforts.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Storto Enterprises Inc. face one of the largest ecological enforcement actions in several U.S. states. In mid January 2006, approximately 25,000 gallons of unleaded regular gas oozed from a small hole drilled in an underground fuel line by a contractor performing maintenance at an Exxon gas station in the Jacksonville vicinity of Baltimore County. As a result, Exxon officials waited almost a full month, until February 17, 2006 to report the gas leak.

A total of 6 commercial and residential wells throughout the Jacksonville area have been contaminated as a result of the gas leak. According to Maryland state officials an additional 62 wells in residential neighborhoods show traces of MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), an additive found in gasoline. 

If you or a loved one suffered serious health issues from a gas leak, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified pollutants attorney.]]>