{"id":21026,"date":"2014-08-14T13:53:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T18:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=21026"},"modified":"2014-08-14T13:53:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-14T18:53:16","slug":"fracking-site-operator-faces-contempt-complaint-after-acid-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/08\/14\/fracking-site-operator-faces-contempt-complaint-after-acid-spill\/","title":{"rendered":"Fracking Site Operator Faces Contempt Complaint After Acid Spill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_21051\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21051\" alt=\"Crews work to contain and clean up 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid that spilled near a hydraulic fracturing site near Hennessey, Okla.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/08\/20140801-frack-spill-pics065_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/08\/20140801-frack-spill-pics065_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/08\/20140801-frack-spill-pics065_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/08\/20140801-frack-spill-pics065_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/08\/20140801-frack-spill-pics065_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crews work to contain and clean up 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid that spilled near a hydraulic fracturing site near Hennessey, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma&#8217;s oil and gas regulator filed a contempt complaint this week against the company overseeing a hydraulic fracturing operation in an oil field where 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid spilled.<\/p><p>The spill could be the state&#8217;s largest related to fracking, says Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"More...\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/wLLR4gdsKYTWqkBWQV8nkIFZhq9BKO1cNxxuxPyDUBDvRsVjodPiJsF7WiJRDANYx_7uRndXmrDWA9PWUSbpyclnwjZkKj9w7m8ZDIC8ozJ-v9jGeKj8DprXdgaJOUpp7A\" width=\"1px;\" height=\"1px;\" \/><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" id=\"docs-internal-guid-6ec3ea46-d5d8-7003-2e81-4bb30f0547b1\">The complaint, which accuses the operator of failing to prevent pollution, a violation of state oil and gas rules, directed Blake Vernon, the president of Blake Production Company, to appear before an administrative law judge on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The complaint, embedded below, was filed by a field inspector for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Vernon did not immediately return a call asking for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.41176470588235%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/1274428-occ-blake-production-citation.html?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false\" title=\"OCC Blake Production Citation (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><p>The landowner on July 28 reported the spill at an oil and gas well near Hennessey in northwestern Oklahoma&#8217;s Kingfisher County. Oil-field workers told state inspectors that a malfunctioning flange had caused 480 barrels of hydrochloric acid \u2014 a chemical commonly used in oil and gas production \u2014 to leak into an adjoining alfalfa field, according to the Corporation Commission&#8217;s investigative report.<\/p><p>An environmental cleanup crew neutralized the acid and built berms around the contaminated area to prevent runoff from entering a nearby creek, the report shows. About 1,600 yards of contaminated soil will likely have to be removed from the site, says the commission&#8217;s Skinner.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma&#8217;s oil and gas regulator filed a contempt complaint this week against the company overseeing a hydraulic fracturing operation in an oil field where 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid spilled.The spill could be the state&#8217;s largest related to fracking, says Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":21051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[238,270],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21026"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21058,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026\/revisions\/21058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}