Lycoming County Fracking Spill: Truck Belongs To Spill Response Company

• Scott Detrow
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  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

Scranton-area television station WNEP has more details about a Lycoming County crash involving a truck carrying 4,600 gallons of fracking fluid.
The truck was operated by Minuteman Environmental Services, a company that, ironically, responds to industrial spills. “For emergency spill cleanup or routine tank cleaning, Minuteman has the equipment you need,” the company’s website boats.  “Our vacuum trucks, along with our inventory of specialty pumps, provide quick spill clean-ups, fluid transfers and easy tank cleaning and maintenance.”
Minuteman offers a range of other drilling-related services, including transportation of fracking fluid, and providing tanks for on-site fluid storage.
Here’s more information From WNEP:

The Minuteman Environmental Services driver somehow crashed into a rock wall in Watson Township on his way to a gas well site, according to state police.
Fire officials said the truck was hauling a full load in excess of 4,600 gallons of the treated wastewater that contains high salt levels and some chemicals used in the fracking process.
Firefighters placed booms in Pine Creek to catch any contamination.  A detour was expected to be in place for hours after the crash.

Governor Corbett visited Minuteman in February, and sang its praises as an “American success story.”
A Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman confirms WNEP’s details. Minuteman employee declined to comment to StateImpact Pennsylvania.
 

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