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/.
Whip-poor-will Hike and Summer Camp at LGNC
Dear Members and Friends of Lehigh Gap Nature Center,
ON Saturday evening, June 12 we will host our annual Whip-poor-will Hike beginning at 6:00 p.m. This hike is led by Jim Gabovitz of the Allentown Hiking Club and Bob Hoopes of LGNC. We begin by spotting cars at the end point, then hike up the mountain and arrive at the towers on the summit of the ridge in time for sunset. After that, we hike down Translater Lane in the moonlight listening for Whip-poor-wills.
THis is a 6 mile hike that ascends the mountain — a one thousand foot elevation gain. The trail ascends gradually in most p;laces but is rocky and steep for short sections. The trails winds through our re-vegetated grasslands, forest, and the natural savanna on top of the ridge.
There is a chance of rain, so be prepared in case of a shower. The hike will be cancelled if thunderstorms (lightning) are imminent. That decision will be made at the trailhead.
This is a spectacular hike and a fun event. Whip-poor-wills have become less common in recent decades but are still common on the Kittaitnny Ridge near Lehigh Gap. Meet at the Osprey House at 6:00 p.m.
###
There are still a few opening in our Young Ecologists Summer Camp. Any student that just finished 6th or 7th grade is eligible. The camp runs daily from 9:00 to 3:00 from June 28 to July 2.
If anyone is interested in the camp, please contact me at this email address or at the phone number below.
Dan
Dan Kunkle
Lehigh Gap Nature Center
P.O. Box 198
Slatington, PA 18080
ph/fax 610-760-8889
http://lgnc.org
The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is looking for some volunteers
The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is looking for some volunteers to staff our information desk in the new visitor and education center. The building is nearing completion, with a July 16 opening anticipated.
We expect to staff our information desk in the new visitor lobby with volunteer “information specialists.” The job will include greeting visitors and providing them with information and answering their questions. You will also answer the phone and staff a small sales shop.
We are planning on 3 or 4 hour shifts, and we are hoping to have plenty of volunteers so you will only need to be here once a week or less (Unless you prefer to be here more often.). There will be weekend and weekday shifts.
Many of you have expressed interest in volunteering and some cannot do some of the more physically demanding work. Here is your opportunity to fit in.
Please let me know if your are interested in volunteering for this important position. WE are setting up some training sessions so you will be comfortable when we open to the public. Thanks.
Dan
Dan Kunkle
Lehigh Gap Nature Center
P.O. Box 198
Slatington, PA 18080
ph/fax 610-760-8889
http://lgnc.org
Lehigh Gap Nature Center offers natural history hike
Dear members and friends of LGNC,
You are invited to join us for a natural history hike from Lehigh Furnace Gap to the Osprey Houseon Satruday, May 15. We will meet at the Osprey House at 8:45, car pool to Lehigh Furnace Gap, hand hike back to the Osprey House, stopping to enjoy the views and observe plants, birds, and whatever else we see along the way. Pink Lady Slippers should be blooming for example. We will stop for lunch along the way.
Bring lunch and water. We should arrive at the Osprey House by around 2:00, then go back for the cars.
Hope to see you Saturday.
Dan
www.lgnc.org
Packer Township to adopt environmental protection law
Published on Times News Online (http://www.tnonline.com)
http://www.tnonline.com/node/86740
Packer Township to adopt environmental protection law
By admin
Created 04/08/2010
The Board of Supervisors for Packer Township has voted unanimously to advertise an ordinance that would enable the municipality to adopt and enforce environmental protection standards exceeding those set by the State legislature.
The ordinance is being considered by the Township in wake of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s lawsuit to overturn an ordinance adopted in 2008 which bans corporate sewage sludge dumping within the township.
The vote to advertise the Packer Township Community Self-Government Ordinance is the necessary legal step prior to it being adopted by the township, which could occur as early as May 4.
The Board’s consideration of the ordinance followed a ruling by the Commonwealth Court on March 17 that let stand all but one provision of the Packer Township Sludge Ordinance, adopted in 2008.
Reacting to the attorney general’s legal filing in another municipal sludge ordinance case, in which he argued that “there is no inalienable right to local self-government” (Corbett vs. East Brunswick, January 31, 2008), Packer Township amended its sludge ordinance to remove authority from the attorney general to enforce state laws that violate community self-governing rights.
Claiming authority to sue to overturn the entire ordinance, Attorney General Thomas Corbett filed suit against Packer and on behalf of corporate waste haulers in August, 2009. Corbett requested the court nullify the ordinance without going to trial and find the ordinance void as a matter of law.
The opinion filed on March 17 stated that “Corbett’s Motion for Summary Relief is granted with respect to the amendment removing the authority of the Attorney General to enforce state law. The Motion for Summary Relief is denied with respect to all remaining issues.”
The new ordinance under consideration asserts that the “Pennsylvania legislature has repeatedly violated the right of Packer Township residents to govern their own municipality” and calls for “the outright nullification of the doctrine of preemption when it prohibits the people of Packer Township from adopting higher standards than those set forth in state law, but also requires the people of Packer Township to refuse to recognize the authority of the Attorney General or the courts, when those entities attempt to enforce the legislature’s illegitimate acts.”
“We know we’re pulling the tiger’s tail, but it’s not a question of which branch of government is more powerful; it’s a matter of right and wrong,” said Thomas J. Gerhard, chairman of the Packer Township supervisors. “It’s about justice and the denial of justice by the state, the legislature, the courts and the attorney general.”
How quickly the sewage sludge ordinance law suit moves forward in a politically packed year is up to the office of the attorney general. The state’s claim that dumping sewage sludge in rural communities is a “normal agricultural activity” protected by the state’s “Right to Farm” (ACRE) law will be one of the questions of fact before the court, as will the question of who has the right to govern in the municipalities of Pa.: corporate Boards of Directors and state regulatory agencies, or the people who live and raise families in those communities.
The case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Packer Township, 432 MD 2009.
Is Our Drinking Water At Risk?
http://larchmont.patch.com/articles/is-our-drinking-water-at-risk
Is Our Drinking Water At Risk?
League of Women Voters sponsors breakfast to discuss what’s happening in the Marcellus Shale.
By Keith Loria | Email the author | February 6, 2010
The natural gas industry considers the Marcellus Shale something of a gold mine, as the ancient rock formation, extending through Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, contains between 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, experts say.
The problem is that to extract the gas, companies are using new technologies combining large quantities of water, pressure and unidentified chemicals to force the gas from the shale, and many believe that this endangers our drinking water, forests, wildlife and personal well-being.
More than two dozen concerned citizens and local government officials were on hand at Hector’s Village Café yesterday morning to hear about these dangers in an event presented by the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Larchmont and Mamaroneck.
“We are always interested in educating people on how to take positive steps,” said Elisabeth Radow, the chair of the Environmental Committee for the LWV branch.
“It’s a very compelling topic and is one of the most critical topics that I have seen in a long time,” she said. “We are looking overall at 15 million people whose water supply can be affected because of the drilling.”
One thing was made very clear by the discussion: New York doesn’t have the right kind of regulations in place to handle the environmental realities and the consequences can be serious.
Marian Rose of the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition began by talking about how the drilling unleashes natural radioactivity in very large doses, so there’s the potential of toxicity or cancer.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no control over what they are doing, and they will not tell you what the impact will be,” Rose said. “We believe if you don’t know what’s going to happen, then don’t do it.”
Currently, New York has no regulations about the amount of water that can be extracted. A large concern is that the more drilling that is done, the more water that is needed, and therefore, the forests are being put in danger.
“The Coalition is trying hard to protect the forests in this area,” Rose said. “Nearly 75 percent of our watershed is from the forest, which is why we have good water. If you fragment the forest too much, the landscape will be transformed to a bleak industrial landscape, which will have a major impact on water quality.”
Deborah Goldberg, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s New York office, startled the crowd when she talked about water in Pennsylvania that was apparently affected by the drilling so much that water from faucets could be lit on fire.
“The state of Pennsylvania realized quickly that if they continued to drill they would impact every fresh water stream in a period of two years,” she said. “They are now preparing regulations to protect their waters.”
The hope is that New York will do the same thing. As it stands now, New York is in the middle of an environmental review process, and environmental groups hope that the regulations will be substantially revised. If not, Goldberg said, expect to see a great deal of litigation come about.
Ernie Odierna, councilman for the Town of Mamaroneck, was on-hand and believes this is an issue that everyone should get behind.
“Residents should communicate with their elected officials,” he said. “We are fortunate to have Assemblyman George Latimer here today to hear it first hand, but the rest of them should know about the jeopardy that our environment is being put into because of this. I think that’s key.”
Natural Gas Drilling Tip Line
http://www.epa.gov/region03/marcellus_shale/tipline.html
Natural Gas Drilling Tip Line
EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region has a natural gas drilling tip line for reporting dumping and other illegal or suspicious hauling and/or disposal activities.
Tip line number (toll free): 877-919-4372 (877-919-4EPA)
Tip email address: eyesondrilling@epa.gov
Tip mailing address: EPA Region 3
1650 Arch Street (3CEOO)
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029
Documenting Suspicious Activity
To the extent possible, record:
• Location of the event
• Date of the event
• Time of the event
• Who, if anyone you interacted with during the event
Photos and videos are great ways to document observations. Be sure to record the date and time the photo or video was taken. Email your digital files, or mail your photographic prints, video cassettes, or CD-ROM disks to EPA using the contact information above.
When describing what you observed, include:
• Activity taking place, including description of equipment and materials involved
• Descriptions of vehicles
- Color
- Company name or logo
- License plate number
- Type of vehicle
• Destination of discharge (physical location and stream name, if known)
• Environmental impacts: discoloration, dying vegetation, dead fish or other wildlife
Thank you for reporting this information to EPA.
Great Backyard Bird Count February 12-15
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5032
Bird Trackers
February 1, 2010
Reported by Erin Schneider
Become a “citizen scientist” this winter by participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). During the weekend of February 12-15, you and your family can aid in the necessary monitoring of birds across our nation, and assist research facilities at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada. Last year, participants recorded more than 93,600 online checklists of birds sighted, creating the continent‘s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.
“The GBBC is a perfect first 
step toward the sort of intensive monitoring needed to discover how birds are responding to environmental change,” says Janis Dickinson, Director of Citizen Science at Cornell Lab. “Winter is such a vulnerable period for birds, so winter bird distributions are likely to be very sensitive to change. There is only one way—citizen science— to gather data on private lands where people live….GBBC has enormous potential both as an early warning system and in capturing and engaging people in more intensive sampling of birds across the landscape.”
After entering sighting data at birdcount.org, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that follow the birds’ movements. Contributors are also encouraged to submit photographs they have taken during the count to the GBBC photo contest where they will be entered to win an assortment of prizes.
“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds—all at the same time,” says Audubon Education Vice President Judy Braus. “Even if you can identify a few species you can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities.”
Pennsylvania’s clean drinking water may be in jeopardy without regulations
Editorials »
Pennsylvania’s clean drinking water may be in jeopardy without regulations
By Patriot-News Editorial Board
February 01, 2010, 7:10AM
Drinking water could become tainted if more regulations on Marcellus Shale drilling are not implemented.
Clean water is something most Americans take for granted. When we turn on the tap, we expect a steady flow of clean water at whatever temperature we have indicated on the faucet dial.
Pennsylvania can no longer take drinking water for granted. The state faces a new threat to our water supply in the form of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. The process to extract the gas is called hydraulic fracturing, and as the name implies, it is hugely water intensive.
Fracturing has been around for a long time, but Marcellus drilling requires deep wells and even more water usage to break the shale and force the gas up.
The problem isn’t so much the initial quantity of the water. Pennsylvania is blessed with an abundance of fresh water. The issue is all the wastewater after it has been through this intensive industrial process.
At the moment, the resulting wastewater from operating Marcellus Shale wells is treated for basic contamination and then released back into the state’s streams and rivers.
But wastewater from Marcellus Shale isn’t normal. It often contains higher than average “total dissolved solvents,” some of which are toxic in high concentrations and can lead to conditions such as bladder cancer.
The state must set regulations on total dissolved solvents to protect our drinking water.
Some in the gas industry oppose harsher water regulations as draconian and “anti-competitive.” They argue that these solvents dilute away in the rivers.
That sounds nice, but there’s a basic math problem here. Our streams, while numerous, are not enough to dilute the quantities of water expected when Marcellus Shale drilling is up and running.
It was actually two natural gas drilling companies (Atlas and Range) that approached the Department of Environmental Protection and warned that if Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing explodes in number, then stream dilution is not going to be enough. Several rivers and streams are likely not to make the federal drinking water acceptability threshold.
In other words, our drinking water could become tainted.
The state already has experienced this once in the Monongahela River in 2008. That year, 17 water intake points from Pittsburgh to West Virginia were deemed unsafe from elevated bromide solvent levels (the cause was a number of factors of which gas drilling is thought to be one). We were behind the curve in solving the problem, and we do not want to be there again.
New “wastewater treatment requirements” have been proposed by DEP Secretary John Hanger. The easily accessible 10-page document is up on the department’s Web site for public review through Feb. 12. If enacted, the new rules would make Pennsylvania one of the leaders in this area.
Before anyone balks, let’s remember that Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale has been widely projected to be the largest shale gas bed in the world, outstripping even the Barnett Shale in Texas.
We’re going to have a lot more wastewater to deal with than everyone else, and DEP is right to be proactive.
The regulations set new levels of acceptability. For the first time, all companies would have to treat the wastewater for total dissolved solvents.
For bottom-line types, it boils down to this: Companies would have to pay slightly more to clean the wastewater before it goes back into Pennsylvania’s waterways. DEP estimates no more than 25 cents per gallon.
It’s a small price to pay for safety of future Pennsylvanians.
Watering the regulations down would be a mistake.
2009 Second Warmest Year of Warmest Decade on Record
NEW YORK, New York, January 25, 2010 (ENS) - The year 2009 was tied for the second warmest year in the modern record, shows a new analysis of global surface temperature from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Conducted by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, the analysis also shows that in the Southern Hemisphere, 2009 was the warmest year since modern records began in 1880.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2010/2010-01-25-03.html