By Melissa Daniels
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
PITTSBURGH — The Department of Environmental Protection granted Chevron Corp. an emergency temporary permit to draw up to 1.15 million gallons of water daily from Dunkard Creek to extinguish a fire at a Greene County natural gas drilling site.
DEP spokesman John Poister said the creek is the nearest source of water to the fire, burning since Tuesday morning.
“This is only for a temporary, short period of time, so we’re not anticipating there’s going to be any kind of permanent impact on the creek,” he said. “But they do need the water.”
Crews will siphon water into trucks that will be brought to tanks at the well site. But before they can put out the fire, burning continuously at one well hole, specialists from Wild Well Control have to remove more equipment from the well pad, including a hot, charred crane.
“That had to be done before they could do the next step,” Poister said.
Weather has slowed the progress, Poister said. Overnight snow and a morning thaw left the access road to the well pad muddy and difficult to transport equipment. Stones were brought in to act as temporary pavement.
The gas fire started around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. One worker, a contractor from Cameron International Corp., is still missing. Poister said there was no update on the worker’s identity or whereabouts.
“There’s no timetable for actually gaining control of the well pad,” Poister said. “It’s just going to take as long as it’s going to take.”
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