Fracking has massive transport requirements, to and from thousands of dispersed sites, often along small rural roads, and this is driving a carnage of accidents, explosions, spills and deaths on the roads, railways, and potentially soon waterways, of the US, from Texas to Pennsylvania. Continue reading
Accident Rates Involving Heavy Goods Vehicles In Pennsylvania Counties With (Dashed) And Without (Dotted) Significant Fracking (Click To Enlarge)
North Dakota community evacuated after train collision and fire (LA Times, December 2013) Casselton, a city of 2,432 people in North Dakota was evacuated after a train carrying Bakken Shale crude oil collided with another train, setting off a large fire, explosions and huge clouds of toxic smoke, a symptom of the fact that U.S. railroads are moving 25 times more crude than they did in 2008
Coast Guard Moves to Approve Barging of Hazardous Fracking Waste on Major Rivers (Truthout, November 2013) US moving forward with a proposal that would allow barges to transport large amounts of hazardous and radioactive wastewater from fracking operations on America’s major rivers, raising possiblity of a leak or spill on a major waterway contaminating drinking water supplies for millions of people
Train carrying crude oil derails, cars ablaze in Alabama (Reuters, November 2013) A train carrying crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota derailed and exploded in a rural area of western Alabama as a result of increase in trafficking of crude by rail with growth of shale oil production
Shale gas development linked to traffic accidents in Pennsylvania (Common Resources, September 2013) Fracking requires more than a thousand trips per well, often along rural roads or through small towns, with rates of accidents involving a heavy truck shooting up in Pennsylvania counties where significant fracking has occured, resulting in an average of 2 extra fatalities per county per month
Focus of Lac-Mégantic probe turns to North Dakota oil fields (Globe & Mail, August 2013) A train carrying Bakken Shale crude oil, which is typically lighter and more flammable than conventional crude, crashed and erupted into a huge fireball, killing 47 residents and levelling the centre of the small Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic
Consequences of the boom: Road, rail deaths on rise (Bakken Today, January 2013) The Bakken Shale oil driven jump in traffic has led to a huge spike in highway and train accidents and deaths in North Dakota
Traffic deaths soar in Eagle Ford Shale areas (Houston Chronicle, July 2012) Karnes County, one of more than a dozen inundated with traffic from the Eagle Ford Shale, has seen an increase by 12 times in the number of fatalities on its roads, with the biggest jump involving commercial vehicles, as big trucks hauling heavy loads are constantly damaging the roads