PA-DEP investigating large spill in Little Mingo Creek, Washington Co. PA
From an Article by Scott Beveredge, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, September 20, 2014
Precision Pipeline workers have rinsed down the area around Little Mingo Creek where nontoxic bentonite clay spilled into the creek Saturday. The retention wall helped collect the sediment of the clay to be pumped out of the creek. The spill was due to a Sunoco pipeline drilling project when the drill bit hit something in the ground that resulted in the clay spraying out of the hole. The bentonite clay is used for lubrication when drilling.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating a large spill of gray drilling sludge into Little Mingo Creek in Nottingham and Union townships.
The DEP believes the substance is nontoxic bentonite clay Precision Pipeline of Waynesburg used Thursday for a Sunoco pipeline construction project related to the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry, said the department’s spokesman John Poister.
“We are concerned the cleanup has taken this long,” Poister said Saturday. He said the PA-DEP is monitoring for the possibility of a fish kill and may alert Pennsylvania American Water Co. that the spill discovered at 6 p.m. Thursday is located in a Monongahela River tributary upriver from the company’s water intake pipe.
The U.S. Coast Guard offered to assist in the cleanup, and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency is aware of the spill. The PA-DEP has employees at the site and determined Saturday afternoon no animal deaths occurred because of the spill, Poister said. “At this point it appears to be contained,” Poister said at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Sunoco is constructing a 50-mile pipeline across Washington and Westmoreland counties to Delmont to ship natural gas byproducts to the East Coast. The drilling project behind Mingo Creek Church resulted in lubrication spraying out of the hole and into the creek when the drill bit encountered something in the ground, Poister said. He said the PA-DEP had yet to determine how much of the sludge entered the creek.
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