Articles Posted in Oil & Gas

It is tough to imagine life before electricity. Over time, even in the past 15 to 20 years, there have been countless changes to how we produce and distribute power. In 2000, 50% of all energy produced in the U.S. came from coal. By 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, that number dropped to 39%. There have been many positive changes to the environmental and health impact of coal use, but real dangers continue to concern our San Francisco toxic exposure attorney. Our firm is dedicated to helping people in Northern California who have been sickened by coal ash or otherwise made ill because of coal.

Power Company Agrees to Fund Clean-Up of Major Coal Ash Spill

On Tuesday, a report in the San Francisco Chronicle announced an agreement between Duke Energy and environmental/wildlife groups to fund the cleanup of a major spill of toxic coal ash. The spill originated at a power plant near Eden, North Carolina and left 70 miles of the Dan River covered in gray sludge. Duke has already begun vacuuming up large pockets of the sludge from the river bottom. The agreement provides that the company will pay for further cleanup and wildlife monitoring. While water samples showed a drop in contamination as the ash settled to the bottom, environmental groups warn that the sediment will be churned back into the water after storms and in other high water flow periods. Residents have been warned not to eat fish caught downstream from the plant and communities that use the river for drinking water have been treating the water and filtering out contaminants. North Carolina lawmakers are examining other ash dump sites in the state.

In a noxious introduction to a little-known chemical, 300,000 residents of nine counties in West Virginia were left without most of their drinking water Thursday after a storage tank ruptured at chemical plant, spilling 5,000 gallons of MCHM, or 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, into the Elk River. And San Francisco toxic tort attorney Gregory J. Brod would remind us that the disaster in the Mountaineer State, while local, has unsettling implications elsewhere in the nation.

According to The New York Times, the chemical spill occurred at a chemical plant owned by Freedom Industries that is located upstream from the West Virginia American Water Company, which supplies most of the household water in Charleston, the state capital, and the surrounding area. Because the contaminated water had already invaded the water company’s distribution system, the company’s entire system has to be flushed, a process whose timeline is undetermined at this point.

On Friday morning, residents learned that their tap water was unsafe for routine uses such as drinking, brewing coffee, brushing teeth or bathing, and local stores quickly ran out of their supplies of bottled water. But residents of Kanawha County, where Charleston is located, smelled a telltale sign that something was amiss the day of the spillage, when many reported a foul oder – similar to licorice – in the air. The National Guard had to supplement water supplies with shipped-in tankers of water that residents could take home in jugs.

Area schools were closed and businesses such as restaurants and hotels were effectively shut down. The state’s governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, ordered a ban on drinking, bathing and cooking with tap water in Charleston and nine surrounding counties. The federal government joined the governor in declaring a state of emergency in West Virginia.

MCHM is used in the mining industry to wash coal, and its spillage into a river from a ruptured storage tank is a direct, obvious and nightmarish source of pollution. However, there are more insidious sources of water pollution that can emanate from extractive industries and are as much a cause for concern. And in the western United States, there is particular cause for worry, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 40 percent of all the watersheds in the region are impacted by mining pollution, including residual mercury and acid mine drainage. The drainage occurs when acidic water leaks from mines, either active or inactive, when freshly extracted minerals are exposed to air and water.

The spillage of a toxic chemical used by an extractive industry such as coal mining is also a reminder that the current boom in the oil and gas industry as a result of enhanced drilling techniques – particularly hydraulic fracturing and its close cousin acidizing, which employ water and chemicals to separate hydrocarbons from rocks – are a cause for concern in states such as California where the new techniques are very much in evidence.
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The controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will take an important step toward greater transparency and oversight, if regulations proposed in Sacramento on Friday are enacted. However, Bay Area toxic tort attorney Gregory J. Brod remains concerned that California residents in or proximate to the drilling areas may still be exposed to some potentially harmful consequences.

The proposed new regulations, detailed in the San Francisco Chronicle, would require oil companies to obtain a specific permit to frack a well in California. An earlier proposal did not require the permitting process. The proposed rules would also mandate that the oil companies reveal the chemicals employed in fracking as well as monitor nearby groundwater for any signs of contamination. Fracking involves the injecting of a highly pressurized mix of water, chemicals and sand deep into the ground in order to cause the cracking of rocks and thus liberate the oil or natural gas locked within the shale formation. Fracking has an equally controversial close cousin, known as acidizing, in which a type of acid is pumped into vertical wells to create pores in rocks and thus release the petroleum within.

Both fracking and acidizing have raised concerns about potential groundwater contamination from the chemicals used in the procedures as well as caused jitters in nearby communities where seismologists suspect the extractive methods have triggered small earthquakes. And at the nexus of these worries in the Golden State sits the massive Monterey Shale formation, which stretches through the southern San Joaquin Valley and the adjacent Coast Range and traps a potential 15.4 billion barrels of oil, the largest such formation in the nation.

While all forms of energy extraction involve some potential for environmental degradation or health risks, the exact nature of the risks linked to shale oil and gas recovery remains largely unknown, according to a report released by the federal General Accountability Office. In its report, the GAO explained that what is known about fracking suggests that the process poses potential damage to air and water quality including these specific risks:

• Increased air pollution from engine exhaust due to stepped-up truck traffic to and from well sites
• Increased emissions from diesel-powered pumps employed in fracking
• Since fracking requires enormous amounts of water, the process stands to deplete important bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers and streams
• Contamination to surface and underground drinking water due to accidental spills and routine releases of water mixed with chemicals used in the fracking process
• Soil erosion and shifting of oil, gas and chemicals into underground aquifers

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While the jury is still out on whether the practice used to extract natural gas and oil from shale known as “fracking” is inherently dangerous, the process has been known to cause contamination, especially of drinking water. And another technique related to fracking that oil companies are employing to separate hydrocarbons from shale formations in California known as “acidizing” could prove to be as harmful to health as it is effective in oil and gas exploration. Attorney Gregory Brod, who has achieved notable success in resolving numerous oil and gas related disputes and has litigated and tried several energy industry cases in the state, is closely monitoring this potential source of toxic torts.

Largely Mum Oil Industry Sees Monterey Shale Formation as Big Prize
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the process of acidizing, which pumps a type of acid into vertical wells to create pores in rocks and thus release petroleum locked in, may work better than hydraulic fracturing, which uses water, in California’s shale formations. The state’s oil industry is eyeing in particular the large Monterey Shale formation – thought to hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil – for utilizing the acidizing process. While petroleum companies have set their sights on the Monterey Shale formation in Central California, they have been fairly tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the details of acidizing for competitive reasons as well as the desire not to draw the attention of environmentalists and state officials.

When it comes to acidizing, there is plenty to ponder and debate. Hydrofluoric acid, the particular acid used in acidizing, is highly corrosive, capable of breaking down steel as well as rock, and it can also damage lungs and cause serious burns to the skin. When hydrofluoric acid exceeds 67 degrees it forms a vapor cloud that lingers near the ground, according to energy experts. A high-profile example of the deadly nature of the acid arose last September, when a hydrofluoric acid accident at a South Korean chemical plant killed five people.

Acidizing Process Attracts Scrutiny from Lawmakers in Sacramento
While state officials say they are not aware of any serious accidents involving the use of hydrofluoric acid as an acidizing agent to extract petroleum in California and there have been no recorded incidents of the acid seeping into groundwater, lawmakers in Sacramento are moving to include acidizing in legislation to regulate fracking. More specifically, the bill would require oil companies to secure permits for acidizing as well as fracking of wells, and it would authorize a study of the potential environmental perils of the two extractive techniques.
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From single-vehicle car crashes to major industrial accidents, we believe in learning from tragedy. This is a value we share with the victims who come to us for help after their lives have been shaken by injury or loss. Preventing future incidents is one of the goals of injury litigation, a process that helps compensate victims and also helps avoid future tragedy by uncovering the cause of past events. It is a goal that can be especially important in the cases we handle as an Oakland industrial accident law firm and one we are reflecting upon this month as we note the one-year anniversary of the 2012 Chevron refinery explosion.

Public Demands Action Following Chevron Plant Explosion

A recent article in The Oakland Tribune recalled the events of August 6, 2012 when a unit at the Chevron refinery in Richmond burst into flames, sending a dark cloud of smoke across the neighboring communities. For many, the incident recalled the accident at the Tosco refinery in 1999 that left four workers dead. While no fatalities were attributed to the Chevron fire, some 15,000 residents sought medical attention in the aftermath of the explosion and several workers incurred minor injuries.