CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection is investigating a serious accident that occurred last week at a Talisman Energy natural gas well drilling site on state forest land in Tioga County, DEP officials announced Tuesday.

The incident led Talisman Energy to temporarily shut down hydraulic fracturing operations at all of the company’s well sites in North America.

The “well control incident,” as the DEP termed it, occurred shortly after noon on Jan. 17 at a Talisman Energy well in Tioga State Forest. The well pad is located in Ward Township, about five miles east of Blossburg.

During the hydraulic fracturing process, fracking fluids and sand were discharged from the well into the air, according to the DEP.

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