In late June of this year, a tractor-trailer operated by EQT carrying fracking wastewater crashed and flipped over in the community of Holbrook, Greene County. A massive truck, carrying tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater, barreled down Golden Oaks Road, before veering off, flipping on its side, destroying a resident’s fence and driveway, and spilling 110 barrels of dangerous, toxic fracking wastewater into their yard and nearby stream.
The tractor-trailer destroyed a resident’s driveway, wooden fence, and drainage culvert before flipping and spilling nearly 6,000 gallons of highly toxic wastewater into their front yard and down the culvert into the nearby stream, Garner Run. According to documents CCJ acquired from DEP, the spill was ‘remediated’ immediately by EQT and DEP by removing topsoil that showed conductivity. With what we know about the mobility and toxicity of wastewater, there is serious doubt about whether that was in any way sufficient, especially when the topsoil removed was someone’s front yard. But this lack of adequate response from DEP every time industry poisons our community seems to have become commonplace. DEP designated that the spilled wastewater into Garner run created minimal impacts using methods CCJ finds insufficient. DEP made their incident report just a few hours after the crash, stating that there was no dead vegetation or dead fish immediately around the spill as the basis for their determination of low impacts. Afterwards, DEP did some water testing of the stream, but as CCJ has experienced, DEP’s testing practices are wholly incomplete when it comes to fracking wastewater. To add insult to injury, DEP only fined EQT $1,000 to cover the cost of DEP’s assistance in the cleanup and monitoring. Another notch in the belt of totally unnecessary and avoidable impacts to our community as the fracking industry continually tries to make inappropriate logistic decisions. Putting these high volume truck routes on these quite small residential rural roads has the industry routinely trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
For those familiar with the area, the cause of this accident is apparent. Reckless driving of massive vehicles unsuited for roads like Golden Oaks, have turned quiet rural communities like Holbrook into busy industrial zones. Whether it’s overbearing truck traffic who have to cross the double yellow of the road just to go around the bend, the damage these out of place trucks have on our roads, or the horrific sound pollution they generate when they use their jake brakes, fracking truck traffic creates a nuisance that disrupts our communities. These roads were not designed to handle all of this heavy industrial traffic. Fracking trucks have disrupted or destroyed the quiet life many seek by living in these communities.
Stories, accidents, and spills like this continue to become more common. CCJ is currently working with communities in Robinson Township and Hanover Township, Washington County, who have been plagued by dangerous truck traffic from nearby fracking operations. Residents are afraid to turn out of their driveways or go around a blind turn because they worry a massive truck that doesn’t fit down their rural residential road will crash into them. Residents are waking up in the middle of the night to the deafening sound of these trucks using their jake brakes to navigate roads they simply do not belong on. Worst of all, their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Local governments are often powerless because the traffic in question is on state roads. PennDOT either ignores residents’ concerns or gives them the run around with no resolution or next steps provided. CCJ and residents all across Washington and Greene Counties have been sounding the alarm about the inevitability of an incident like what happened in Holbrook, and yet it continues.
When we think about the impacts of fracking in our communities, we often think of the residents who live next to the wellpads or those downstream of the industry’s water treatment facilities. But for many folks who live along the major truck routes of these operations, it can feel like they live in a bustling factory, not a quaint rural community. There are a myriad of reasons why people live in communities like Holbrook, but the unifying story that links many of them is their enjoyment of quiet, rural, Appalachian life. The fracking industry has taken so much from so many people, but calm, peace, and quiet might be the most universal. As such, it is important for us all to stay aware of the reality of what it’s like to live with the fracking industry, and just how wide its web of impacts truly is.
Well done Seth, your Dad….