“EPA is proud to be part of this tree planting venture that helps transform a previously barren and contaminated site into a beautiful ecological vista along the Appalachian Trail,” said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin.

This is the second year of tree planting, which is the final step in re-vegetating Blue Mountain – - a joint effort involving EPA, the National Park Service, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the American Chestnut Foundation. The area had suffered extensive environmental damage that was caused by years of emissions from zinc smelting operations in the Borough of Palmerton.

Last spring about 8,350 trees were planted. Before the tree planting, EPA and the National Park Service oversaw grass planting and other re-vegetation on a 500-acre section of the site that had to be done from aircraft due to the steep slope and remote location.

National Park Service Northeast Regional Director Dennis Reidenbach noted, “This is an excellent example of how collaborative public and private partnerships can have a meaningful and positive impact for the environment.”

Initially the trees will be protected by deer-proof fencing. The trees include a special mostly American, potentially blight-resistant generation of American chestnut which can help re-establish these trees in the eastern United States. Once prevalent in forests throughout the eastern United States, American Chestnuts were nearly wiped out by a blight causing fungus that was introduced around 1900.

“We are impressed by the interagency cooperation on this project and excited about the prospect of American Chestnuts once again flourishing on the Appalachian Trail,” said American Chestnut Foundation’s Sara Fitzsimmons.

In addition to the chestnut trees, various oaks, Black Gum, Sumacs, Chokeberry and Sweet Ferns will be included. Planting the seeds, seedlings, bare roots and rhizome cuttings will require drilling holes with an auger. The holes will be filled with top soil and a nursery mix.

The tree planting is being paid for by CBS Inc., formerly Viacom International, and the party potentially responsible for the contamination. More information on the Palmerton site see EPA’s website: http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/sites/PAD002395887/index.htm .

Contact: Bonnie Smith smith.bonnie@epa.gov, 215-814-5543

Specifically, the legislation would establish construction standards, including the decommissioning of abandoned wells, to be followed by water well drillers and owners.  Nothing in this legislation requires the metering of homeowner wells.

p. Ron Miller (R-York) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) serves as Minority Chair.

Original Article

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

May 1, 2013 – The US Map of Suspected Well Water Impacts is a project that will attempt to piece together recent complaints of well water quality impacts that people believe are attributed to unconventional gas and oil operations. Research has demonstrated potential risks to ground and drinking water posed by faulty well casings, surface spills, and hydraulic fracturing. From across the country, in areas where gas and oil development is occurring, accounts of possible well water contamination have been reported but not been collected all in one place – yet. The FracTracker Alliance and cooperating organizations are providing that opportunity.

Inspired by other “crowd-sourced” data and mapping projects, this project aims to collect ongoing stories, narratives, and data from individual homeowners living on well water near drilling operations and map the general location of these reports online.  The first version of the dynamic map (shown below) is available at www.fractracker.org/usmap.

Once received, submissions will be reviewed to the extent possible by cooperating researchers and organizations. Not all reported cases of water contamination, however, have been or will be able to be substantiated. According to Brook Lenker, Executive Director of FracTracker Alliance:

The reports we are collecting are not necessarily indisputable evidence that drilling has contaminated drinking water sources. Some accounts are irrefutable. Others remain unsubstantiated, but that doesn’t mean the well owner isn’t experiencing serious problems. Even where proof may be elusive, perception of risk can tell us much about an issue and the level of concern by the community.  This information will likely help to identify pre-existing problems or conditions that were not previously well known.  Such outreach is needed to permit citizens, local agencies, and others to work together to address pre-existing concerns, improve local regulations or standards, conduct proper baseline testing and monitoring, and make informed decisions.

As unconventional natural gas and oil extraction expands internationally, an Internet-based project like the US Map of Suspected Well Water Impacts can help to share on a global scale how people in the U.S. view – and may be impacted by – unconventional drilling. If everyone contributed their stories, the public’s understanding of gas and oil extraction’s impacts on well water could expand dramatically.

Anyone wishing to submit their story should visit www.fractracker.org/usmap or call (202) 639-6426. A complete list of current project partners is available on the website.

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Immediately following the open house which starts at 6:30 pm- the hearing will start.  The anticipated start time is at 7:30 p.m., members of the public may present up to five minutes of formal testimony for the public record. The testimony will be recorded by a court reporter and transcribed into a written document, and DEP will create a written response to all relevant testimony.

Those who wish to present oral testimony should contact DEP Community Relations Coordinator John Poister at 412-442-4203 or register that evening prior to the hearing. Only those who register can give testimony at the public hearing.

For anyone unable to attend the public hearing, written comment should be submitted by the close of business on May 11 to Alan Binder, PA DEP Bureau of Air Quality, Southwest Regional Office, 400 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Copy of the Annoucement

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

PPL officials didn’t even know the company owned the old rail line that once carried passengers from Scranton to Tiffany Corners, just west of Montrose. Cabot Oil & Gas Inc. untangled the mystery of the rail right-of-way last year as it sought to sign mineral leases with landowners. A savvy title searcher had a hunch that the missing link in the ownership chain may have been misfiled in Wyoming County. It was.

PPL’s ownership of the former Northern Electric is clear, but whether it can convince a court to affirm that ownership over competing claims is not as clear.

News broke when mineral rights owners looked over changes to one of the most important financial documents they will ever receive: The Pooling and Unitization Declaration which spells out the number of acres they and others own and the share of royalties they will receive. Those who thought they owned a piece of the former Northern Electric land have seen their piece of the land and royalty pie shrink.”

 The rest of the story

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

“PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is “kind of an earthquake” in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. “This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks.”

For the whole story

For Methane Issues in Pennsylvania
For Fact Based Review of Dimock

“DCNR has heard from numerous individuals and organizations on this issue through letters, phone calls and in a meeting this month with local stakeholders,” DCNR Secretary Richard Allan said through a release. “This webinar gives us an additional opportunity to exchange information and respond to questions about potential gas development in the Loyalsock, where the state does not own the subsurface gas rights.”

The key issues

1. The state does not own the mineral rights to 25,000 acres of state land.  We only have surface rights.
2. Anadarko Petroleum owns about 50 percent of those rights.
3. Based on court decisions, DCNR has no say over what happens on 7,000 acres. Reportedly this area is the most ecologically sensitive (not sure what that means specifically).

“When we don’t own the mineral rights,” says Novak, “we do always attempt to talk with companies because it helps us protect a resource and it also helps them, by providing some certainty related to their development plans.”

For more information an a schedule of the Webinar and Public Meeting (no time set).

Harrisburg – Department of Conservation and Natural Resources officials will participate in a free, web-based seminar offered by Penn State Extension on Marcellus Shale issues in the Loyalsock State Forest, Lycoming County, on Thursday, April 25.

The session eventually will be archived and available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas.

Other resources

1. DCNR- Oil and Gas in PA

2.Do I have any say as to what oil and gas operators do on my land if I’m only a surface property owner?

Yes. Even if you do not own the oil and gas rights to your property, you should retain legal counsel and work with the operator to ensure that your property (including private water supplies, if applicable) is not adversely damaged by access to and drilling at the well site. For more information, consult “Landowners and Oil and Gas Leases in Pennsylvania” fact sheet or visit one of the online oil and gas leasing forums.

Additional Resource(s):
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/office_of_oil_and_gas_management/20291
http://www.naturalgasforums.com/index.php

Source – Article by Susan Phillips (4/19/2013)

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

These findings, along with maps depicting areas in the state most likely to have elevated levels of arsenic in groundwater, are part of a recently released U.S. Geological Survey study done in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Environmental Protection.

The results highlight the importance of private well owners testing and potentially treating their water.  While public water supplies are treated to ensure that water reaching the tap of households meets federal drinking water standards, private wells are unregulated in Pennsylvania, and owners are responsible for testing and treating their own water.

For this study, USGS scientists compiled data collected between 1969 and 2007 from industrial, public, and private wells. Arsenic levels, along with other groundwater quality and environmental factors, were used to generate statewide and regional maps that predict the probability of elevated arsenic.   The study examined groundwater from carbonate, crystalline, and shale/sandstone bedrock aquifers, and from shallow glacial sediment aquifers. Similar maps have been produced for other states.

“This research is not intended to predict arsenic levels for individual wells; its purpose is to predict the probability of elevated levels of arsenic in groundwater to help public health efforts in Pennsylvania,” said USGS scientist Eliza Gross, who led the study.  “The study results and associated probability maps provide water-resource managers and health officials with useful data as they consider management actions in areas where groundwater is most likely to contain elevated levels of arsenic.”

For more details go here (Some mapping available)

The Pennsylvania Department of Health plans to use the maps as an educational tool to inform health professionals and citizens of the Commonwealth about the possibility of elevated arsenic in drinking water wells and to help improve the health of residents, particularly in rural communities.  Please consider forward you certified testing data to the Citizens Groundwater Database.

Private well owners can find testing and other information on Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Arsenic in Drinking Water website.

or Check out the Arsenic Outreach Program here - Has links to treatment options and low cost informational water testing.

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

There is still time to apply to an exciting new camp for students ages 14-17. On August 4-8, 2013, Trout Unlimited will be hosting the first ever River Researchers Teen Camp at Mahaffey Camp & Conference Center along the banks of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Clearfield County, Pa.

During the five-day camp, students will learn first-hand about coldwater conservation, environmental stewardship, and brook trout through a series of hands-on lessons. The camp will focus on abandoned mine drainage pollution, river restoration efforts, water sampling, aquatic insect collecting and identification, fisheries biology techniques, and environmental career and volunteer opportunities, along with fun activities to encourage team work, leadership, and community involvement. There will also be plenty of time for fly tying and fishing, a field trip, and a fish fry!

We are currently seeking students to take part in this exciting event. We are also seeking interested female adult team leaders who will help guide students through the week’s activities. Please spread the word about this opportunity and also consider being a team leader.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please visit the River Researchers Teen Camp website at: www.wbsrc.org/teencamp/default.html .

Website Provided for Educational Purpose.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Pike-Wayne Earth Day Festival
Date: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cost: Free and open to the public
Location: PPL’s Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center
Contact: PPL at 570-253-7001 or pplpreserves@pplweb.com

Please check the website for updates and more details at www.pikewayneearthday.org.

Rain or Shine!

Activities and exhibits include:

•Arts & craft activities for kids
•Bring an old t-shirt and give it a new life! Cub Scout Pack #229 will be turning them into bags.
•Bring old tennis shoes for recycling! Girl Scout Troop #50151 is recycling them with Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe campaign.
•Bird walks
•Door Prizes
•Live music
•Face painting and Species Celebration
•Yummy, healthy food and local maple syrup for sale
•Kayak demos on Lake Wallenpaupack

Other Partners that Should be at the event
◦Delaware Highlands Conservancy
◦Delaware Highlands Mushroom Society
◦Lacawac Sanctuary
◦Lacawanna College Lake Region Center
◦Lake Wallenpaupack Watershed Management District
◦National Park Service – Upper Delaware
◦Northeast PA Audubon Society
◦Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
◦PPL Lake Wallenpaupack Environmental Preserve
◦Pike County Conservation District
◦Pike-Wayne Conservation Partnership
◦Promised Land State Park
◦SEEDS
◦U.S. Forest Service: Grey Towers
◦Wallenpaupack Area High School
◦Wallenpaupack Historical Society
◦Wayne Conservation District