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Clean-Up Of Hydrocloric Acid Spill In Kingfisher County

Workers clean up an acid spill in Kingfisher County.
Joe Wertz
/
StateImpact Oklahoma
Workers clean up an acid spill in Kingfisher County.

Contractors worked through the weekend to clean up an acid spill at an oil and gas site near Hennessey in Kingfisher County. About 20,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid leaked from a tank into an alfalfa field last week, killing crops over a 500-foot long path.

”The area of contamination was bermed before the rains came to prevent anything from getting into the creek," said Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner. "And the water then that resulted from when the rains came, that has been pumped off and taken off site.”

To finish the cleanup, contractors will likely have to dig up and haul off 16,000 yards of contaminated soil. Hydrochloric acid is routinely used in oil and gas production. The cause of the spill and the role played by the oil and gas operator, Blake Production, is still under investigation.

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Joe was a founding reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma (2011-2019) covering the intersection of economic policy, energy and environment, and the residents of the state. He previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly arts and entertainment correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla. and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
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