Kinzua Heights: Freedom Isn't Free

Citizens Bear the Cost of Violations by Freedom Oil Ventures

More Hellbender News

By Cathy Pedler, Forest Watch Coordinator

An Allegheny Defense Project (ADP) Forest Watch Team finds multiple, flagrant violations in a new oil and gas drilling site in Brothwell Run on the Allegheny National Forest. On May 22, 2010 the Forest Watch Team participating in our first training session investigated Kinzua Heights area of Brothwell Run, which has been hit hard by oil and gas drilling in the last few years. Residents living in the area had been hearing loud machinery noises during the day and long into the night. We traveled down FR 147, and FR 625 to discover the "Liberty" Farms of Freedom Oil Ventures, LLC of 4801 Lang NE STE 110, Albuquerque, NM 87109.

We parked at the gate and hiked from the point where citizen vehicles are not allowed—"Foot Traffic Only"—unless you work for the oil and gas industry.

The "Liberty" Farm areas of Freedom Oil Ventures, LLC have it all. There were no Erosion and Sedimentation Plans posted, and not surprisingly, no erosion and sedimentation controls. At one place in the deeply rutted road, Freedom Oil Ventures, LLC bulldozed the road fill over the edge of the roadway into the rock canyon system on Brothwell Run. These rock formations contain openings and pathways into groundwater. The acidic runoff and oil residue from the poorly constructed roadways drains into the rock formations (see photos below). Drilling fines were either blown into the woods, or into an unlined brine pit (see photos below). A newly drilled well was simply covered with a bucket (see photo below). One of the most alarming violations was the venting of gas into the forest from valves at well jacks (see photo above and see video here). 

Unfortunately, FR 625 also endures the USDA tree farming impacts of herbiciding (see photo below), fencing (see photo below), and the use of prescribed burning, a practice which is ill-advised at best in a forest like the Allegheny where oil and gas infrastructure (e.g., wells venting natural gas) blankets the landscape (see photo below).

In the case of Freedom Oil Ventures, LLC, "Liberty" and "Freedom" apparently mean ignoring law and decency. 

Above: "Liberty" Farm Bulldozer Work-Road Debris, Oil Residue, and Run-Off, Draining into Brothwell Rock Canyons

Above: "Liberty" Farm Bulldozer Work—Road Debris, Oil Residue, and Run-Off, Draining into Rock Canyons in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: "Liberty" Farm Bulldozer Work—Road Debris, Oil Residue, and Run-Off, Draining into Rock Canyons in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Rock Canyons in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Unlined Brine Pit with Fracking Fluids/Drilling Fines in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Drilling Fines On Forest Floor in Drainage Area, in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Drilling Fines/Fracking Fluids On Vegetation and Forest Floor in a Drainage Area, in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Bucket Covering New Well, in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Absence of Erosion and Sedimentation Controls, "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Absence of Erosion and Sedimentation Controls, "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Well Venting Gas in Background, Remnants of Prescribed Burn in Foreground, in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Fencing in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Herbiciding ("reforestation") in "Liberty"Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Compressor Inundating Forest Environment and Blasting Kinzua Heights with Noise in "Liberty" Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest

Above: Equipment in "Liberty" Farm, in Brothwell Run, Allegheny National Forest