Missing Worker: ‘Remains’ Found at Drilling Site in Greene County PA

Worker has been missing since explosion & fire

From an Article by Molly Born and Sean D. Hamill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 19, 2014

At a somber news conference Wednesday, state police and officials from two well companies acknowledged what the colleagues, friends and family of a missing contractor had feared for eight days: that he likely died during an explosion at a well in Greene County that he was working on last week.

State police said during a search earlier Wednesday they recovered what appear to be the remains of Ian McKee, 27, a Cameron International field service technician. Bones were found between a charred crane and a tank on the well pad, roughly where Mr. McKee’s coworkers told investigators they last saw him before the blast.

“We did not find an actual physical body,” said state police spokeswoman Trooper Stefani Plume. “We just found remains there at the scene.” Investigators said the remains have been taken to the Greene County coroner’s office, where they hope to identify them as Mr. McKee’s.

Adam Nightingale, Cameron’s vice president of human resources, said Mr. McKee, who is originally from Warren, lived most recently in Morgantown with his fiancee, who is pregnant with his child and is due in July.

Samuel Davis, a New Jersey attorney representing Danielle Desposito and Mr. McKee’s estate, said Wednesday night that the couple, together five years, had planned to buy a home and get married.

“This has been a very difficult day in an [extremely] horrific week” for the family, said Mr. Davis, the family spokesman. “She was in a way comforted that they would be able to have a funeral with some recovered part of Ian, and on the other side, the finding … brought a degree of finality. “The hope that Ian will come from work no longer exists.”

Stefan Radwanski, vice president and general manager of Cameron’s surface systems division, said the company has been in regular contact with the McKee family and will continue to provide for their needs. “All of us at Cameron are deeply saddened by this incident and our thoughts and prayers are with Ian McKee’s family,” he said.

Mr. McKee was working on the well with a crew of 19 other contractors on Feb. 11 when it exploded, igniting flames that were fed by leaking natural gas for five days before they finally extinguished themselves. Everyone else managed to escape the blast, with just one other employee suffering a minor injury.

Investigators finally got to look on the well pad for Mr. McKee eight days after the blast because experts from Wild Well Control of Houston finally were able to pull a charred crane off the well pad that was nearest to the still-leaking wells, said Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection deputy secretary.

That came after Wild Well finished installing a fire suppression system to constantly douse the well heads, helping to keep the natural gas from building up on site and minimizing the potential for an explosion. The company also installed tube “diverters” onto the two leaking well heads to direct the natural gas away from the well pad.

Mr. Perry said Wild Well still has to stage all the necessary equipment before the well heads can be capped, a process that could take at least another two days.

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Chevron’s solution: ‘Let them eat pizza’

Editorial, Washington PA Observer Reporter, February 19, 2014

Legend has it Marie Antoinette, when told during one of France’s famines that peasants had no bread, replied, “Let them eat brioche,” or more popularly, cake. Actually, it’s unlikely the queen ever said this. Opponents of the monarchy during the French revolution never used the quotation, but it was later cited – or perhaps invented – by some historians to illustrate how oblivious and detached the ruling class had become.

We admit it’s a little unfair to compare Chevron Corp. to the 18th-century French monarchy, but its response to residents living in the vicinity of a raging well fire last week in Greene County was widely and similarly interpreted: Then let them eat pizza.

The fire, which burned out of control for days and finally extinguished itself Saturday, killed one worker and injured another. The effort to control the blaze resulted in even more traffic and disruption than the drilling and operation of the Marcellus gas well, and so Chevron sent employees door to door to about 30 people in the area to thank them for their patience and understanding and to give them gift certificates to Bobtown Pizza. The certificates, worth $12, are good for a large pizza and a 2-liter bottle of soda.

Opponents of the gas industry immediately lit up the blogosphere with derisive and sarcastic commentary about Chevron’s magnanimous gesture. The fact Chevron made $21.4 billion in profits last year and addressed the situation in Greene County by spending $1,200 on 100 gift certificates was more than ample fuel. We wonder ourselves about the debate around the corporate table; whether giving away, say, $15 coupons would have been overly generous and fiscally irresponsible.

But the value of the compensatory gifts is not the point; more to the point is that the corporation in its gesture appears to be oblivious of the effect its operations have had on its neighbors. As important for the future of this region and this nation as the Marcellus Shale may be, extracting gas from it has negative impact on our water resources, on the air we breathe and the roads we travel. Those who live near gas wells must deal with noise, heavy truck traffic and the possibility of accidents that could force their evacuation. Certainly, the gas industry has brought jobs to the area and pumped money into our local economy, but this has not come without the surrender of some of our quality of life.

A free pizza does not even the score. The public relations folks at Chevron would have done better to have done nothing. They might have done best by simply offering a public apology for the disruption caused by the accident at the well, and a pledge to increase its commitment to safety.