Freedom! Karnes CO, TX Well Blowout Forces Up To 20 Families To Evacuate
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No one was injured, but families were left scrambling on how to respond. The blowout is only the most recent in a long line of life-altering consequences of the fracking boom in the Eagle Ford Shale. Shepherd was among those evacuated on Tuesday, which is not the first time oil and gas drilling has driven her from her once-idyllic home. The well operator Encana Corp. — a Canadian company based in Calgary — de-pressurized the well and shut it down Thursday morning. Encana spokesman Doug Hock said 15-20 families were evacuated for safety and Encana is paying for them to stay at a local hotel.
Shepherd, a retired Navy veteran, estimates the well lies a quarter-mile from her South Texas home. She's worried about the contamination on her property, which she said has already plummeted in value because of the nearby drilling, and on her neighbors' land. Three of the landowners closest to the well own cattle, she said, so it could harm the livestock and their drinking water. Lucas Jasso is one of those landowners. He has three cows and two bulls. "I don't know at this point if my animals are still alive or not," he said on Thursday afternoon. Jasso, a Vietnam War veteran, was in Corpus Christi when the well erupted.
Jasso’s neighbor Leonard Cordova lives about 150 yards from the well, which is on the property across the street from his family’s land. Cordova was making lunch for his 2-year-old daughter on Tuesday when he heard a loud bang. Because Cordova’s wife had driven the family car to work, Cordova and his daughter had no way to evacuate until they flagged down a firefighter about two hours after the blowout. They had to leave their cats and dogs behind. Cordova said he had a bad headache Tuesday night and a sore throat. His daughter’s eyes look red, but she seems otherwise healthy. Cordova used to work in building maintenance for an oil and gas contractor, but was laid off when oil prices tanked. Still, he said things were better before the boom began. “We always see flares and all this pollution. [I’d] rather them not be here,” he said.
Hock said Encana is working with state regulators to assess the environmental damage, and to determine when the families can return home.
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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/21052015/well-explosion-douses-karnes-texas-neighborhood-already-weary-fracking
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when I was a college student and afterwards when I worked in Austin. It is about 50 miles away from my home town.
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