SALEM, Ohio — A Gulfport Appalachia unconventional oil and gas well pad in Guernsey County caught fire the night of Jan. 2 after an explosion inside one of the two tanks. The Groh well pad, located in Antrim, Ohio, sits along state route 22.
Everyone within a half-mile radius was asked to evacuate that night to the nearby fire station. The Antrim Volunteer Fire Department, Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office, Gulfport and the Ohio Department of Transportation arrived on the scene quickly to shut down the pad and assess the damage.
What happened?
The Antrim County Fire Department arrived on the scene around 5 p.m. to flames roughly 100 feet high above a tank on the well pad. According to video updates posted to Facebook by Fire Chief Donald Warnock, a tank exploded and the top blew off, prompting the fire.
State Route 22 and the well pad were promptly shut down “due to the hazards of the other tanks possibly overheating and exploding,” Warnock said.
The Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office used a drone to fly over the site and assess the scene. Footage showed one tank was completely collapsed while the second one was ruptured. The drone also measured the thermal temperature of the fire, showing it was dying down.
Officials decided to let the fire run its course to ensure the safety of emergency personnel.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the fire was put out on the afternoon of Jan. 3. The agency has yet to determine the cause of the explosion but will be leading an investigation.
“The well pad will remain shut down and inactive. There are no reported injuries, no reported impacts to wildlife, and no reported impacts to waters of the state,” said a spokesperson for ODNR.
The evacuation order was lifted shortly after noon on Jan. 3. According to ODNR, the Groh well pad was constructed in 2012.
A history of violations
The Groh well pad was one of 17 well pads in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency settlement agreement with Gulfport Appalachia in 2020 that ordered the company to make improvements to operations and reduce volatile organic compound emissions.
As part of the agreement, Gulfport had to pay a $1.7 penalty for violations to the Clean Air Act, reduce VOC emission by 313 tons per year and invest $2 million to make necessary improvements at the listed well pads.
At the Groh well pad, the company was ordered to use a directed inspection and preventative maintenance program, implement an investigation and corrective action and perform tank pressure monitoring.
“The big question is: did they do that?” said Cathy Cowan Becker, board of director for Save Ohio Parks, a citizen-led group advocating for no fracking on public lands. “Because if they were monitoring the pressure of those tanks, would this have happened?”
According to public record requests to ODNR, Gulfport has also received several violations for accidents at well pads in Ohio spanning 2013-2022. These accidents included ground contamination at wells in Belmont and Harrison Counties and several incidents of brine waste (fracking waste) being released into streams and the soil across Ohio.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
