Witt Farm Prepared to process up to 6 Wells - Flare is very Large and Smelly

Since a few days the wind carries very strong fumes from the hidden flare on Witt Farm all the way to Heritage Park. The smell reminds me of sulfur and hydrochloric acid, which could be connected to the intense drilling and brine pumping we see since a while on the Purse, Stratton and Heritage Park wells. I took a look from the farm entrance but had only my cell phone so the pictures are not very good. But will be updated now:

 The flickering of the air above the barrel from the strong flare inside is not really visible but you can see that there are now 6 storage barrels, which corresponds to 6 wells being processed now or soon to come 

Look at the sizzling air above the barrel. This will give you an indication of how much stuff is emitted into the air all the time.

 

There are now also six separators for up to six wells

Heritage Park Wells are Hooked-Up to Witt Farm - Flare Now Larger

Yesterday morning, the central processing facility on Witt Farm, which is currently setup to receive 4 wells, was temporarily of grid.

4 broiler/separator chimneys - and

4 tanks are indicating that 4 wells are currently exploited on Witt Farm

The flare did not burn for a few hours while the temporarily plugged wells in Heritage Park and the pipeline were primed for production.

The hidden flare in the open barrel chimney was not visible yesterday morning

However, by about 6:00 pm the flare was back and seemed to produce more heat and soot than before. This is only the visible consequences of the now increased production of oil AND gas and volatiles that contain several poisonous and cancerous chemicals - beyond bad smell that will impair the health of many residents in at least a mile radius around the flare - depending on the wind direction and wind speed.

By 6:00 pm, the flare was back and seemed much larger. See the hot air swirling around on to of the chimney and the darkening indicating more soot.

 More is soon to come when the drilling operation on the neighboring landscaping business will hit oil.

Meanwhile the drill site at Heritage Park is now abandoned of workers and equipment and looks almost peaceful if you forget that the black gold is now flowing 4 feet underneath the ground, and the drilling mud was buried under ground in a sandwich of plastic tarps.

Response to the DT article: Health Department leaving oil regulation toDEQ

While I appreciate any news keeping the public aware of this topic, this article contained factual and implied misinformation that I will address with this response. A copy of this blog post will go to Patricia Bourgeois, Lenawee county health officer, Lou Schineman and Kristy Shimko, Michigan DEQ, and the Adrian city commissioners with the request to comment.

1. I do not think that the county's (or the city's) responsibility ends because a higher entity is watching upon us. If these authorities are not protecting our health and the integrity of air and water as essential resources adequately, then the county's health department(, and the city) are obliged to step in! I will provide good arguments that exactly that is needed.

2. The DEQ is NOT monitoring surface water, ground water or air quality near drilling or processing facilities. There are no baseline tests nor any follow-up tests done that could show changes through the activities of that industry. The burden of proof is once more on citizens to arrange for such tests and to do so - restricting them to only certain certified and very expensive test labs - and requiring commercial lab staff to take the samples - thus even raising costs further - which in the end leads to not many citizens being able to test their - our vital resources.

3. Most site visits and checkups (which do NOT include actual sampling!) are done by the oil and gas companies themselves. The DEQ is understaffed and instead of raising permit fees to have enough money to adequately monitor the activities of oil and gas drilling and processing, it is simply assumed that the oil and gas companies are honest and doing a good objective job in self-monitoring themselves. This is more than wishful thinking as corporations are by law required to maximize shareholder profit even at the cost of externalizing (environmental) costs - meaning having somebody else (often the government) pay the bill.

4. Lou Schineman, district manager of the DEQ’s Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals - or the staff writer Dennis Pelham, or an anonymous editor is wrong (does not know better or is misleading) when they state: "The gas being burned is basically the same as what is piped into businesses and homes and burned in furnaces, stoves, clothes dryers and water heaters". Several publications analyzing flare gases and volatiles found high concentration of toxic and cancerous BTEXs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) and other compounds in flare gases. They partially originate from the oil and gas deposits themselves and come up in the extraction process, or are in drilling aid chemicals or site treatment chemicals. I am more than happy to produce a full list of publications and chemicals upon request. Most of these dangerous chemicals are NOT in the natural gas that we use in our houses - the gas companies are required to take these dangerous chemicals out before delivering the natural gas to the customers.

5. Kristy Shimko - or the staff writer Dennis Pelham, or an anonymous editor are wrong when they say that "the flares are burning methane and nitrogen". Methane yes (about 65% of the flammable composition), but nitrogen does not burn and is as such not flared off. While it is great that the DEQ monitors for hydrogen sulfide, that should not be the only thing they do (see above)!

6. Why is the industry permitted to flare off and WASTE a potential energy resource while POLLUTING the air for SO LONG (more than 6 months)? They should NOT be able to acquire permits to start drilling before they have the infrastructure to collect and market the gases in place!

7. If flares are located on the country-side with maybe one farmhouse close to the flare (I am idealizing here - in the Irish Hills it is often many houses, and unfortunately not only owned by the profiteer of the royalties), it is an entirely different situation within the city of Adrian with quite a few residences around the flare on Witt Farm.

8. In addition to the danger to air and water by the drilling operations and the processing facilities (tank farms), the highest chances of oil and gas spills occur during loading and unloading (e.g. into trucks) as well as during transportation (by pipelines and trucks). Both areas are to my knowledge not regulated by the DEQ - and therefore the county health department cannot depend on the DEQ to safeguard health in these error-prone sectors of the oil and gas business. Looking on the shortcomings of DOT regulations for pipelines (remember the 2010 pipeline accident near Kalamazoo, Michigan?) and trucks (several accidents involving oil trucks every year) - the nearly operational pipeline from Heritage Park (and soon other surrounding drill sites) to the Witt Farm cutting through the River Raisin floodplain, and the increased truck traffic that the central facility on Witt Farm will bring to the city once more wells are connected, the county health department (and the City of Adrian) obviously have to get and stay involved to safeguard the health of our citizens!