Issues and Impacts
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
As you all probably know, both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management found that there would be no significant impact to the Beartooth Front or the Community of Clark from the 3D Seismic Exploration proposed by Quantum Geophysical, contracted by Windsor of Wyoming, LLC. These findings were released in records of decision by both agencies.
On August 11, 2006, a Nabors drilling rig encountered an overpressured zone at a depth of 8,500 feet. What resulted was a “blowout” at the Crosby 25-3 gas well.
The incident occurred at 2 P.M., when rig hands spotted drilling fluids and methane gas erupting along the county road with some of these blowholes located 150 feet from the rig. Officials for the company, Windsor of Wyoming LLC. and its contract crews spent three hours attempting to deal with the problem before calling in volunteer emergency services, who then lost another hour “evaluating” the situation. Eventually, twenty-five homes in the Line Creek sub-division were evacuated.
Urgent Alert: Proposed Well on Shoshone National Forest and new Bighorn Basin Resource Management Plan!
Contact federal agencies to make your comments now! 
For three days, while residents camped out with friends or in motels 40 miles away, 8 million cubic feet of explosive methane and vaporized drilling fluids were released into the atmosphere as the company attempted to “kill” the well.
Line Creek residents were “kept in the dark” as to what was occurring at the well site. Neither company representatives, elected and appointed state officials, county disaster nor emergency workers could tell Line Creek residents what to expect in the aftermath of the Windsor blowout. They just kept repeating that a gas blowout was a “one in a million” occurrence.
For eight years, during which time Windsor was responsible for three toxic spills and fined for illegal dumping of drilling fluids, our small community has attempted to prepare for this type of a disaster. Again and again, residents have asked how a 12-member, volunteer, first-response team could handle industrial accidents of this magnitude, how our neighborhood of 35 households could be evacuated safely on a narrow, one-way gravel road, how medical aid could reach us from 40 miles away.
Clark Resource Council has reached out to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and his appointees at the Department of Environmental Quality, the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and the State Lands Board. We have talked to elected officials from the conservation district to state legislators to Wyoming’s small congressional delegation. We have worked with local first responders, and we have attempted to open a dialog with Industry representatives.
The Windsor blowout demonstrated that accidents do happen -- serious, dangerous accidents. That is why we need to take a hard look at oil and gas operations throughout Wyoming and the West, scrutinizing environmental and safety records of operators, keeping inventories of toxic chemicals and demanding realistic evacuation plans.
Instead, here in Clark, Wyo., it’s business as usual. The week following the blowout, Windsor received a WY Oil and Gas Commission permit to conduct seismic exploration, using shallow-placed explosives to map subsurface geology on the same property where the accident occurred. A week afterwards, the company got the go-ahead to resume drilling on the blowout site.
Teracon, environmental consultants hired by Windsor, has drilled groundwater monitoring wells at locations around the Crosby site where the August 11, blowout occurred. The first samples were taken nearly two months after the blowout and showed groundwater contamination. A notice of violation has been issued by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and Windsor Energy Resources has entered the Voluntary Remediation Program. The second sampling round of monitoring wells, the Bennett Creek Site, and private water wells occurred the week of March 13, 2007. Line Creek and springs flowing into the creek were also tested.
For details on the blowout, contaminants reports, and monitoring program go to Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Reports and Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Reports
Contact Us
Clark Resource Council 920 Road 1AB Powell, WY 82435
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