Arlington officials report on fracking fluid blowout

Two months ago, 100 homes in Arlington had to be evacuated as fracking fluid spilled out of a drilling site onto the city streets.

Now we know officially what happened, why it happened, and why Arlington officials are blaming the drilling company for "unacceptable behavior."

A series of video recordings obtained by News 8 shows the scene behind the walls of a fracking site 600 feet from a cluster of homes in the state's seventh largest city. In the incident, 42,800 gallons of fracking fluid — boiling up from thousands of feet underground — spewed into the streets and into Arlington storm sewers and streams.

WFAA obtained this video that shows a leak of fracking fluid from an Arlington drilling site (Photo: WFAA)

 

Four attempts and 24 hours later, experts were finally able to plug the natural gas well.

Nearby residents and Arlington officials feared the worst. Now, two months later, fire officials have concluded their investigation.

"Clearly there was a release of unpermitted materials into the stormwater system," said Arlington Fire Chief Don Crowson as he addressed Arlington City Council members on Tuesday.

The good news, according to Crowson: Despite numerous toxic substances being released into the environment, tests show it was not in amounts that did significant damage to the environment.

The bad news? He said the drilling company mishandled the spill.