Wastewater tracking bill introduced
http://citizensvoice.com/news/wastewater-tracking-bill-introduced-1.908232
Wastewater tracking bill introduced
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: July 29, 2010
State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, said Wednesday she is introducing legislation that would create a system for tracking and reporting the disposal of the polluted water that is a byproduct of natural gas drilling.
“My legislation would allow the public to track wastewater produced by this quickly growing industry from cradle to grave,” Mundy said in a prepared statement. “It would help promote public confidence that natural gas well operators are following the law on the treatment and disposal of wastewater, which can contain brine and chemicals.”
Companies with natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale already have to make semi-annual production reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Mundy’s proposed legislation would expand that to include the wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, and DEP would make the information available on its website.
Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking,” involves blasting millions of gallons of chemical-treated water thousands of feet underground to break up the shale and release natural gas.
Mundy explained the bill, which she worked on with Penn Future, is to ensure the chemical and salt-laden wastewater isn’t dumped where it’s not supposed to be.
“I think that’s a concern people have: where’s the water coming from, and where are they disposing of it?” she said. “Because it’s toxic and it’s polluting. We want to know where it’s going.”
Mundy previously introduced House Resolution 864, which urges Congress to pass U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act.
The FRAC Act is intended to close the “Halliburton Loophole” in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which exempts oil and gas companies from restrictions on hydraulic fracturing near drinking water sources. The FRAC Act would also require oil and gas companies to disclose all the chemicals in their hydraulic fracturing solutions.
Casey announced Wednesday provisions from the FRAC Act have been included in the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act, which will be considered ion the Senate floor.
“This is great. The more activity the better,” Mundy said when told about the new development. However, she noted, “There’s many a slip between introducing the legislation and getting it passed into law, at any level.”
If the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act doesn’t pass by the time the state legislature reconvenes in September, Mundy said she will urge leaders to bring her resolution up for vote, to show support for Casey’s efforts.
Mundy also sponsored two other pieces of natural gas drilling-related legislation. One is House Bill 2609, which would establish a one-year moratorium on issuing of new natural gas well drilling permits to give state officials more time to put appropriate regulations in place.
The other is House Bill 2608, which would prohibit natural gas companies from drilling horizontal wells or doing hydraulic fracturing within 2,500 feet of a drinking water source, instead of the current restriction of 100 feet.
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
Complete coverage of natural gas drilling in Northeast Pennsylvania
http://republicanherald.com/news/gas-drilling
Gas Drilling Headlines
Let tax help responders
A fire last week at a natural gas drilling site in Susquehanna County was handled quickly and correctly by driller Chesapeake Energy and local volunteer firefighters, according to state regulators. No one was injured, there was no detectable contamination.
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• State rule targets chloride levels
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• State puts natural gas drillers on notice
• DEP gas drilling violations database
• Natural gas companies aim to acquire all of Wyoming County’s mineral rights
• DEP shale chemical lists at odds over inclusion of above ground substances
Natural gas, unnatural risk: Hydrofracking endangers our water
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/07/25/2010-07-25_natural_gas_unnatural_risk.html
Sunday, July 25th 2010
Natural gas, unnatural risk: Hydrofracking endangers our water
There is no higher priority for New York’s state and federal legislators than to put the brakes on the idea of opening areas upstate to the controversial form of natural gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing – “fracking,” for short.
While the technique has been around for 60 years, critics say the modern version of fracking is unsound, leaving broad swaths of land poisoned and polluted.
“Gasland,” an award-winning documentary that airs tonight on HBO (gaslandthemovie.com), shows communities in Pennsylvania, Colorado and elsewhere rife with sick people, animals that have lost their fur, and water so polluted that it actually ignites when a match is held near a kitchen tap.
The problem is a byproduct of modern fracking, which involves shooting millions of gallons of water and a cocktail of extraction chemicals deep underground – on average, 8,000 feet below the surface. The pressurized water and chemicals shake loose natural gas that is then captured and piped away.
Remnants of the chemicals and half of the millions of gallons of water, however, stay behind and begin rising. The tainted water can end up polluting fresh drinking water, which tends to be only 1,000 feet below the surface.
Worst of all, a mysterious process called methane migration can leak combustible gas into the water table as well. That gives some residents in fracking areas tap water that explodes on contact with an open flame.
“It’s really quite shocking and strange and, and weirdly kind of thrilling when you see it,” the director of “Gasland,” Josh Fox, told me when describing the polluted water that turns to fire. “And then all of a sudden it hits: It’s really a huge problem.”
The film shows people assembling complicated 500-gallon bottled water systems, bemoaning lost property values and complaining of brain lesions, exhaustion and other health issues.
Fox blames the problem on the so-called Halliburton loophole of 2005, provisions in that year’s Energy Policy Act that exempted gas drilling companies from the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974 and allowed them to not disclose the 500-plus chemicals that get shot underground during fracking.
Passage of the law set off a wave of fracking that has reached 34 states. Fox himself became aware of the trend when a gas company offered him $4,000 per acre to let them frack on land he owns near Delaware – an offer that would have brought him $100,000. After studying the process and its effects around the country, Fox rejected the money outright.
His land, like all of upstate New York, sits atop a vast underground deposit of natural gas, the Marcellus Shale, that stretches from New York to West Virginia and could be a veritable Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
Hopes of exploiting these and other major gas reserves are the reason energy magnate T. Boone Pickens made TV ads advocating more extraction of “clean, natural gas” to wean America off of foreign oil. Pickens was persuasive, patriotic and profit-driven. I just hope he plans more commercials to explain the potential of frack-induced pollution.
A growing number of people are already saying: Not so fast. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has warned that fracking near the upstate watershed could pollute the drinking water for the 16 million people who live in or near our city.
Environmental groups are calling for a moratorium on leasing any land in New York for fracking, and Albany is considering a law imposing a one-year moratorium on fracking. A federal bill would give the federal Environmental Protection Agency the power to regulate fracking.
These are all good starts at what must be a top priority for elected officials: saving New York from environmental horrors that have already shown much of America the false promise of fracking.
elouis@nydailynews.com
Shale drilling, what is it?
http://www.tnonline.com/node/118669
Shale drilling, what is it?
Reported on Friday, July 23, 2010
By MICHAEL NEWTON TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
A lack of knowledge among citizens of Carbon County about the issue of shale drilling is seen as a major problem by the Kidder Township Environmental Advisory Committee. < http://www.americantowns.com/pa/lakeharmony/events/environmental-advisory-council >
“People have no idea,” said committee member Bob Dobosh at the EAC’s meeting this week.
This lack of knowledge is seen as a problem because choices made about shale drilling will have an immense impact on the future of both the state and the nation. Debate has raged between proponents, who view it as a vital part of the nation’s energy plan, and detractors who fear that the environmental impacts are not properly understood.
Shale drilling is a complex process and the technological advances that have made it possible have outpaced research into its consequences.
“Nobody is asking the question of what happens 10 years from now when we’re out of water,” said EAC member Hank George.
It is currently believed that there is more than 363 trillion cubic feet of harvestable gas in the Marcellus shale bloom. That is enough to supply all of the nation’s energy needs for 15 years. A typical well located on an 80-acre space, is expected to produce around 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas over the course of its operations. The gas is found in small cracks and fissures running through the porous rock.
The process of extracting the gas is complicated and relies primarily on two techniques hydrofracing and horizontal drilling. Hydrofracing is a process where a ‘mud’ made out of water and chemicals, is shot down into the well in order to break up the shale and allow the gases in between cracks in the rock to flow to the surface. Horizontal drilling is a process whereby the well is slowly turned at a 90 degree angle. Using horizontal drilling, a typical well can extract gas in a radius of over a mile.
According to a report issued by the United States Geological Society, shale drilling presents three main areas of concern over water quality. The first is the massive amount of water needed to perform hydrofracing. Each round of hydrofracing can use up to 3 million gallons of water. Thus, concerns have risen among local municipal water authorities as to where all that water will come from. If too much is used from local water sources, they can be damaged or depleted, leading to unnatural drought conditions.
The shipment of water and materials in extremely heavy trucks over small mountain roads may lead to erosion, which could further damage water tables. In addition, there is no way to know exactly how much material and chemicals will leak out of the trucks over time.
Once the hydrofracing solutions have been used they must be properly disposed. A typical 3-million gallon hydrofracing job can be expected to produce at least 15,000 gallons of contaminated water. Not only is the solution full of chemicals, many of which are guarded company secrets, but being in contact with rock formations means that when the solution comes to the surface, it brings along large amounts of silt and possibly harmful minerals. This presents difficulties because water treatment plants are not able to adequately remove these contaminants. Several alternative solutions have been proposed, such as reinjecting the hydrofracing solutions into shallow pits, but there is no clear consensus or across the board standard.
Knowledge about the process of shale drilling and the issues that go along with it can help citizens make informed decisions about the future of the state. Toward that end, the Kidder EAC is going to prepare informational newsletters and distribute them to the various homeowners’ associations in the websites.
Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
http://www.tnonline.com/node/115874
Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
Reported on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
By STACEY SOLT stacey.solt@gmail.com
Unless you’re reading this in Alaska, you know that our area suffered through a brutal heat wave this month. It’s important to stay hydrated during the heat but buying bottled water and fancy drinks can get expensive. Read on for tips to keep cool and save money on beverages this summer.
Water
Don’t pay for bottled water. Period.
Yes, there will be times when you’re away from home and a source of free tap water. I’m talking about the cases of bottled water that you buy to bring to work, or to sip around the house. Why would you spend your hard-earned dollars on bottled water when you’re going to drink it standing next to the kitchen sink?
Water bottles are also bad for the environment. You can recycle plastic bottles, but each bottle must be cleaned and melted down before it can become a “new” bottle, wasting energy and water. Why not buy a reusable, BPA-free water bottle for work and play, and save the store-bottled stuff for special trips?
I know that some homes have “bad” water. Our home’s water has sulfur during droughts so we’re changing our carbon filter pretty frequently right now. Purchasing a filter system has been an inexpensive way to improve our water quality, and it’s saved us hundreds of dollars each summer by making our tap water more palatable.
Caffeine and energy drinks
I love iced coffee, and I could drink it by the gallon during the summer! Fortunately, we brew our own coffee and chill it, which means that my favorite drink doesn’t cost too much money. But keep in mind that caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea can actually dehydrate some people. Don’t rely too heavily on these beverages during the summer.
Sports drinks are also popular during the summer, and they can be a great source of sodium and potassium (the minerals that we “sweat out”) on a hot day. Manufacturers have done a great job advertising these drinks as a cure-all for hot days and athletes.
Of course, be honest with yourself are you really active enough to need a sports drink, or does it just taste good? Don’t waste your money on high-performance drinks when the most activity you’ll do is swinging on the front porch. If you can’t stand the taste of water and drink a lot of sports drinks during the summer, try diluting these sugary drinks with water. You won’t miss the sweetness, and you’ll save a bit of money.
Other water sources
While it’s important to drink fluids regularly, foods can also be a great source of water! There’s a reason that ripe, juicy watermelon is so popular during the summer.
Adding seasonal fruits and vegetables can be a good way to keep yourself hydrated without spending extra money. You have to eat, right? Choose thirst-quenching foods over dryer foods to keep dehydration at bay add an apple to your lunch, or eat a small bowl of peaches or pears for dessert. These foods are great for staying hydrated, and they’re much healthier than eating a bag of chips. Many water-filled foods are also low in calories!
Marcellus Shale Regulations Regarding Drinking Water in PA
Bryan Swistock, Penn State Water Quality Extension Specialist, discusses the Marcellus shale regulations regarding drinking water in PA.
Safe Drinking Water workshop
http://www.americantowns.com/pa/hawley/events/safe-drinking-water-workshop
Safe Drinking Water workshop
Penn State Cooperative Extension will present a Safe Drinking Water workshop on July 13, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, Pike County Conservation District office, 556 Route 402, Blooming Grove. The cost is $7.00 per person or couple. Pre-registration, including payment, is required by July 9.
If you depend on your own well or spring for your drinking water, it is your responsibility to have your water tested periodically at a certified water testing lab. Water testing will be available for participants at a discounted fee through Prosser Labs.
For a printable flyer go to http://tinyurl.com/yycbns3
For more information contact Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County by phone at 570-296-3400, by fax at 570-296-3406, or send an e-mail message to PikeExt@psu.edu. Please be sure to include your full name and surface mail address.
Marcellus shale well accident reinforces need to guard water quality
http://live.psu.edu/story/47244/nw69
Monday, June 21, 2010
University Park, Pa. — The recent eruption of a Marcellus shale gas well in Clearfield County, Pa., has triggered investigations by state agencies. A Penn State Cooperative Extension water specialist said it also should remind Pennsylvanians that drilling can impact surrounding water resources, and well owners near any drill sites should take steps to monitor their drinking water.
The contaminated water spewed by the natural-gas well for more than 15 hours may have entered a local aquifer. Bryan Swistock, senior extension associate in the School of Forest Resources, said the state Department of Environmental Protection will probably check local streams for contamination, but it may be prudent for water-well owners living near the spill to have an independent laboratory test their well water. He said the tests for various contaminants have a range of costs and implications.
“Things like methane, chloride, total dissolved solids and barium are very good indicators and are relatively inexpensive to test for — most labs can do them,” Swistock explained. “When you move down into the organic chemicals that might be used in fracturing, the cost to test for them goes way up. The risk is much less for those, typically, so it’s not quite as important, but again, if you can afford to do that testing, that’s great.”
The Department of Environmental Protection ordered a contractor hired by the gas-well owner to stop some of its work in the state, hand over equipment records and provide access to employees as DEP investigates the equipment used by the company.
“They haven’t determined how the blow-out happened, but it appears that it allowed a lot of gas and hydrofracturing fluid to escape on the ground into nearby streams,” Swistock said. “That reinforces how important it is for people who live near natural-gas drilling to document their water quality before the drilling, so that if any incidents do occur, you can prove they happened. And that includes testing of wells, streams, ponds and any water resources that you’re concerned about before the drilling occurs.
“It’s hard to document anything if you don’t have any pre-existing data,” he added. “It’s important that homeowners have an unbiased expert from a state-certified lab conduct the tests, in case the sample results are needed for legal action.”
Water forced into subterranean pockets as part of the drilling process dissolves many chemicals out of the rock, Swistock said, and may gather large amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium, strontium and barium, and small amounts of arsenic and lead. There also are enormous amounts of sodium and chloride as water dissolves chemicals left behind by ancient sea water.
Swistock said balancing frequency of testing with the proximity of the drilling activity is an individual decision for each well owner.
“Fracking is a very intensive industrial activity, and these kinds of incidents are going to happen,” he said. “They don’t happen very often if we look at the history of the industry, but people have to decide on their own how concerned they are and how much testing they want to go through. Certainly, water supplies within 1,000 feet of the drilling are considered at higher risk. Beyond that, it’s up to the homeowner to decide. If some people 5,000 feet away are concerned and want to get testing done, that’s really their choice.”
About 3.5 million Pennsylvanians get their water from private wells and springs, according to Swistock. He said residents who want more information on Marcellus shale gas exploration can find it online at Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Natural Gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/.
Act now on new drilling regulations
http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/our-voice-act-now-on-new-drilling-regulations-1.841199
Our Voice: Act now on new drilling regulations
Published: June 13, 2010
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s assurances last week that the gas companies with drilling leases next to local reservoirs will be “very careful” not to spoil the source of our drinking water is not very, well, reassuring.
It is hard to have much trust in the energy industry while plumes of offshore oil taint the Gulf of Mexico, chemicals from gas drilling foul drinking wells in Susquehanna County and a well blowout in Clearfield County spews polluted water over prime forest land.
That same industry now holds leases to drill for gas in Marcellus Shale deposits within 100 feet of the Huntsville and Ceasetown reservoirs, which supply drinking water to 100,000 people in Luzerne County.
It is nothing short of shocking that there is no state law on the books forbidding gas drilling adjacent to a source of drinking water and no requirement that water suppliers be notified of leases so close to their reservoirs.
Still the Great Gas Rush continues as energy companies hurry to “drill here, drill now” while the Pennsylvania General Assembly stalls on putting proper regulations, inspections and taxes in place.
Our representatives in Harrisburg must act with more urgency to craft new rules for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposits that underlie most of the state, and, if necessary, slow or completely halt the issuing of drilling permits until those rules can be enforced.
The public can’t count on the carefulness of energy companies to preserve our environment and water resources. That is why we have regulations. And in the case of Marcellus Shale drilling, Pennsylvania needs more of them.
How Do Sinkholes Form?
http://www.livescience.com/environment/How-Do-Sinkholes-Form-100601.html
How Do Sinkholes Form?
By Stephanie Pappas, Life’s Little Mysteries Contributor
posted: 01 June 2010 12:37 pm ET
In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Agatha, a 330-foot-deep sinkhole opened up in the middle of Guatemala City. Like all sinkholes, the one in Guatamala City formed when a swath of land collapsed, leaving behind a crater-like depression in the ground.
The phenomenon is most common in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The ground beneath these states is rich in easily dissolved rocks such as limestone, carbonates and salt beds. When groundwater flows through these rocks, it eats away at them, leaving behind subterranean holes and caverns. When the roof of one of these caverns collapses, it takes the land above down with it.
Some sinkholes give way gradually and are filled in with dirt or sand from above. Others erode from the surface when easily dissolved rocks are exposed to rain and wind.
The most dangerous sinkholes are those that collapse suddenly. In some cases, the groundwater filling the underground caverns drains away because of drought or because humans divert the flow of groundwater for mining, drinking water or irrigation. Without the water supporting the roof from below, the land above crumbles. In other cases, the roof of the cavern becomes too weak to support the weight of the soil above it.
These sudden sinkholes can swallow cars, houses and even drain entire lakes without warning. In September 1999, Lake Jackson near Tallahassee, Fla., which measured more than 6 square miles (16 square kilometers), disappeared almost completely, drained from below by a 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) sinkhole. But don’t worry, it’ll be back: According to the Florida Geological Survey, the lake drains and refills every 25 years.