Faux Surveillance

A group of thieves is moving this way!!!

 

This time Chesapeake is the victim.   According to incident reports obtained via an open records request, thieves are breaking onto gas drill sites and stealing copper wire.  Apparently, Chesapeake told the City that was the reason why so many of their drill sites did not have  lightning arrestor systems or grounding in place.  Good excuse.  Although they failed inspection for this particular deficiency at numerous sites, only two reports of theft turned up in our search.  One incident occurred at the infamous Bruder Site.  An Arlington Detective spoke to the Chesapeake Energy Security Manager.  Here is an excerpt of that conversation:

"There is no video evidence from this offense or any witnesses... the Arlington well sites do not have upgraded security like the ones in Fort Worth and Johnson County and believes a group of thieves from that area is moving this way."

Despite no witnesses, no video evidence, the reportee ~ a pumper who works for Chesapeake ~  provided the dispatching officer a lengthy narrative including the names of possible suspects who happen to  drive a red Chevy pickup truck.  All heresay.

We called a city in Johnson County to check out the security manager's statement.  We spoke with Erik Welch, Burleson's Gas Well Coordinator.  (Erik previously worked under Collin Gregory before Collin became Arlington's Gas Well Coordinator.)

We learned that Burleson's security requirements ARE more stringent than Arlington's.  Their gas drilling ordinance mandates cameras in high pedestrian areas and any sites within 1,000 feet of a building or public gathering space.  Cameras must capture CLEAR video images as well as traffic entering and exiting the gate.  It must also capture CLEAR images of on-site production equipment AND be equipped with motion detection and  panning technology.  Video data must be maintained 400 hours, include the date and time, and have the capability to be viewed at a monitoring facility. 

Arlington's gas drilling ordinance is weak and poorly written.
Click here and go to Section 7.01 item 25 for a comparison. 

 

We hope  Chesapeake's Project Manager found the cameras they were looking for.  

We found some great deals on E-Bay!! 

A Whoosh and a Boom

Now what's going on at Chesapeake's Bruder Gas Drill Site?

On Tuesday night, September 17th residents called 911 when they heard a loud whoosh and a boom.  Here's an e-mail one neighbor sent to Chesapeake:

"I wanted to let you know that we had an incident tonight at the Bruder Site. I did call 911. I've never heard a sound like this before. It was a very, very loud whoosh and then a find of [sic] boom or something like that.  The fire department came out. It happened a little after 11:00. I can't imagine that no one else called it in because it was so loud."

Here's Chesapeake's response to that neighbor's concerns:

"I wanted to let you know that what you heard last night were two wells coming online. Chesapeake had personnel on the site during the day and during the night to handle these operations and they met with the Fire Department when they arrived. We had a sufficient compliment of operations personnel and equipment to handle this activity and the Fire Dept. was satisfied that Chesapeake had all aspects of the operation very much under control. As you know the Bruder padsite is home to a number of very excellent and good producing wells and sometimes when strong wells come online they can initially make the whooshing sound that you heard.

 I am sorry that you were concerned but happy to report what you heard was the sound of gas filling the pipeline after coming online. Please let me know if there is any additional information that I can   provide as I am happy to help whenever possible."

 WOW, THEY HAVE "STRONG WELLS"?
These are "good producing wells"?

As one of the lessors said, "Someone is getting some money, but it isn't us."

It seems the Fire Department provided a totally different response about this incident to this resident  Here is the e-mail the resident sent to Chesapeake: 

"I was told by the fire department that what I heard was the gas well water in the gas lines causing pressure. Water caused pressure to build up and the pressure detection system shut down the wells automatically. So i don't know who told you the noise was from the wells coming back on line. It seems the info I was given by the Arlington fire department was different than the information you were given. I'm going to see if I can get a copy of the report from the fire department to clarify."

Here's the next e-mail from Chesapeake.   Sounds like they're attempting to cover their tracks:

"I have done some further checking after receiving your second email. Indeed there were two different things that transpired last night and I initially only reported on one of them. What you heard about 11:00 p.m. was the result of the pipeline valve closing automatically because there was a large volume of water coming out of the well. This resulted in a high water level in a vessel and the subsequent shutting of the pipeline valve. These valves close very quickly and although loud in volume our safety system worked as designed. Unfortunately, there is no way to accurately predict exactly when the water will begin to flow and how much water will flow when we bring wells online. The system is designed to shut down automatically if the volume of water flowing to the tanks is too great – that is what happened and what you heard.

After the wells were shut off automatically Chesapeake worked to get them back online and that occurred about 2:30 a.m. Each of these operations created the sounds that you heard. However, as I mentioned in my previous email the systems worked as designed in a safe and efficient manner. The Fire Department was on site with our operators and reviewed the status of the operations and saw them to be safe and secure. My apologies for not providing the entire explanation in my original email. Although it was my desire to get you an explanation as quickly as possible this morning that resulted in me sending an incomplete summary of what had occurred."

Perhaps there is a whistleblower out there who can tell us the real story... 
 
In the meantime, here is the official incident report from that night:

Bruder Gas Drill Site Incident Report 09172013