BARNESVILLE — A fracking waste spill that occurred Friday along Ohio 800 north of Barnesville was being cleaned up Monday.

“At 5 p.m. Friday the well operator on duty reported a mechanical failure resulting in a release of fluid from the containment area,” Bryan Force of Force Environmental Solutions wrote in a text message Monday. “The ODNR and EPA were contacted immediately. Cleanup started today (Monday) and will be completed by the end of the day Tuesday. Corrective action was taken to prevent a mechanical failure from happening again.”

According to an email from David Roorbach, public information officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, om Friday a brine release of 400-500 gallons was reported at the Buckeye UIC Barnesville No. 1 injection well.

The incident occurred when the transfer line failed. The brine was released onto the offloading area and flowed into an offsite ditch.

Roorbach said the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management visited site, which was stabilized late Friday night.

He said Force Environmental Solutions worked through the weekend and will continue to work this week to remediate the area.

Roorbach said the impact to wildlife was very minor, though area residents told The Times Leader that fish on a nearby stream had been killed.

Dispatchers at the Ohio State Highway Patrol post in St. Clairsville confirmed that troopers were called out Friday to assist with traffic control on Ohio 800.

Bryan Force said his company has owned the well for about a year and a half. It was purchased from CNX Resources Corp.

“That well is really the reason for us having a home base in Barnesville,” Force said. “It’s the reason we’ve been there ever since.”

The former Force Inc. is headquartered in Indiana, Pennsylvania, but took over the former Bob’s Chevrolet property in 2012. It has about six locations across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Eastern Ohio.

Bryan Force said he spent about six hours at the well site on Monday, doing his own investigation of the incident.

As part of the cleanup operation, a contractor struck and damaged a waterline.

“The area was marked by all utility companies prior to excavating but a service line was missed resulting in a loss of water service until the water company could fix it,” Force said via text. “We apologize for any inconvenience this caused any local residents.”

One village official was at the scene.

“That’s outside of our jurisdiction,” Barnesville Village Administrator Roger Deal said, adding the contractor doing excavation and cleanup work asked for some assistance Saturday and Monday. “They called me down there to locate the waterline for them. … There was definitely a cleanup going on. … They called and said they were digging and needed to know where our waterline was. … Hopefully there’ll be no contaminated soil. … There was a bunch of vehicles when I got there (Monday) morning.

“Our line’s 48 inches deep and it runs right along the ditch line,” Deal said.

Later Monday, however, the new accident resulted in a 48-hour boil order for households along Ohio 800.

“They just struck a waterline on us down there,” Deal said. “I’m getting ready to issue a boil order. … They broke a service line for our residents when they were digging and we’re going to have to valve it off in order to make that repair, so we’re going to have people shut off about halfway down Ohio 800 until we get that repair made.”

Bryan Force said Bill’s Towing is a contractor working at the well, while BTR Environmental also is on site as an environmental consultant, providing sampling and other services.

The well is located in Kirkwood Township, where Trustee Kevin Arigoni was surprised to hear of the spill on Monday.