How long it really takes for a plastic grocery bag to decompose
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5337
EARTHTALK
Week of 09/19/10
Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard conflicting reports regarding how long it really takes for a plastic grocery bag to decompose. Can you set the record straight?
— Martha Blount, San Diego, CA
Researchers fear that such ubiquitous bags may never fully decompose; instead they gradually just turn into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. The most common type of plastic shopping bag is made of polyethylene, a petroleum-derived polymer that microorganisms don’t recognize as food and as such cannot technically “biodegrade.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines biodegradation as “a process by which microbial organisms transform or alter (through metabolic or enzymatic action) the structure of chemicals introduced into the environment.” In “respirometry” tests, whereby experimenters put solid waste in a container with microbe-rich compost and then add air to promote biodegradation, newspapers and banana peels decompose in days or weeks, while plastic shopping bags are not affected.
Even though polyethylene can’t biodegrade, it does break down when subject to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, a process known as photodegradation. When exposed to sunshine, polyethylene’s polymer chains become brittle and crack, eventually turning what was a plastic bag into microscopic synthetic granules. Scientists aren’t sure whether these granules ever decompose fully, and fear that their buildup in marine and terrestrial environments—and in the stomachs of wildlife—portend a bleak future compromised by plastic particles infiltrating every step in the food chain. A plastic bag might be gone in anywhere from 10 to 100 years (estimates vary) if exposed to the sun, but its environmental legacy may last forever.
The best solution to plastic bag waste is to stop using disposable plastic bags altogether. You could invest a few bucks in reusable canvas totes—most supermarket chains now offer them—or bring your own reusable bags or backpacks with you to the store. If you have to choose between paper and plastic, opt for paper. Paper bags can biodegrade in a matter of weeks, and can also go into compost or yard waste piles or the recycling bin. Of course, plastic bags can be recycled also, but as just explained the process is inefficient. According to the nonprofit Worldwatch Institute, Americans only recycle 0.6 percent of the 100 billion plastic bags they take home from stores every year; the rest end up in landfills or as litter.
Another option which some stores are embracing—especially in places like San Francisco where traditional plastic shopping bags are now banned in chain supermarkets and pharmacies—are so-called compostable plastic bags, which are derived from agricultural waste and formed into a fully biodegradable faux-plastic with a consistency similar to the polyethylene bags we are so used to. BioBag is the leader in this field, but other companies are making inroads into this promising new green-friendly market.
San Francisco’s pioneering effort to get rid of polyethylene bags is a positive step, but environmentalists are pushing for such bans more widely. A California effort to ban plastic bags failed again recently, but will likely eventually succeed. Washington, Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina are watching closely and considering similar laws depending on what happens in the Golden State. Worldwatch reports that taxes on plastic bags in South Africa and Ireland have been effective at reducing their use by upwards of 90 percent; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan and the UK are also planning to ban or tax plastic bags to help stem the tide of plastic waste.
Obama Admin Rejects Timeout for Natural Gas Drilling in N.Y., Pa.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/22/22greenwire-obama-admin-rejects-timeout-for-natural-gas-dr-60467.html
Obama Admin Rejects Timeout for Natural Gas Drilling in N.Y., Pa.
By MIKE SORAGHAN of Greenwire
Published: September 22, 2010
The Obama administration has decided against pressing for a temporary halt to Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania and New York, a key federal official said.
Brig. Gen. Peter “Duke” DeLuca, commander of the North Atlantic Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, last week declined a request from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to use the federal government’s vote on the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to seek a temporary ban on gas production in the Delaware watershed.
Hinchey wants drilling there to wait until the commission completes a “cumulative impact statement,” but DeLuca said that could delay drilling for years.
“The citizens of the basin are counting on the commission to make smart choices that allow for environmental protection to proceed together with economic development,” DeLuca wrote in the Sept. 14 letter (pdf).
The letter was written a day before Lt. Col. Philip Secrist, representing DeLuca and the Obama administration on the commission, voted to continue limited exploratory drilling in the basin. The vote denied a request by environmental groups seeking to block the drilling of test wells that were “grandfathered in” when the commission imposed a de facto moratorium.
Hinchey, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is seeking $1 million for the DRBC to study the cumulative effects of drilling in the basin, which provides drinking water to 5 percent of the country’s population (Greenwire, Sept. 13).
Cash for the study has been set aside in the House Interior Appropriations bill, which has not been passed in the Senate. But the spending bill is not likely to be approved before November, because Congress is expected to pass a stopgap “continuing resolution” before leaving Washington to campaign, rather than finish its work on spending bills. And there is no concrete plan for passing the measure after the November election.
Hinchey wrote DeLuca on Sept. 9, saying he was alarmed that the DRBC is preparing to finish regulations — which would allow production to start — this year, before a cumulative impact study could even start. He asked DeLuca to use his seat on the commission to advocate for blocking development until after the study is done.
“It is difficult to understand how the DRBC can consider the release of gas drilling regulations without a comprehensive assessment of the possible impacts in the Delaware River Basin,” Hinchey wrote.
DeLuca said such a study could take years, even if completed promptly.
“The federal family of agencies that I represent on the commission are collectively charged with a requirement to support the economic needs of the region and our nation’s need to secure energy reserves while protecting the environment,” DeLuca wrote.
Hinchey targets, industry defends Army Corps
The Army Corps represents the federal government on the commission, which also includes representatives of the governors of four states, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The federal-state hybrid was created in 1961 to address regional water conflicts, and oversees water quality and quantity issues in the 13,539-square-mile basin.
At the Sept. 15 meeting, the corps’ Secrist pointedly noted that he was “representing President Obama” on the commission.
Hinchey, however, aimed his criticism at DeLuca and the corps rather than the Democratic administration.
“The response is deeply troubling and raises a lot of questions about how the ACOE [Army Corps of Engineers] views its role as the federal government’s representative to the DRBC,” Hinchey spokesman Mike Morosi said in an e-mailed statement. “The congressman will be following up on this matter shortly.”
Environmentalists say DeLuca is wrong when he asserts that the DRBC must balance environmental concerns with economic development. Jill Wiener, a leader of an upstate New York group called Catskills Citizens for Safe Energy, said the commission’s mandate is to protect water quality.
“They owe their fealty to the river and the people of the basin,” Wiener said, “not the economic health of a few leaseholders and multinational corporations.”
But industry officials say DeLuca was correct to reject Hinchey’s request.
“Just to be clear here, Hinchey was trying to use a federal agency to direct the actions of a regional water board for the purposes of preventing the development of natural gas in a state where he doesn’t even live,” said Chris Tucker, spokesman for Energy in Depth, a group of independent drillers. “Next thing you know, he’ll be ordering the Army Corps to build levees around our well sites in Wyoming.”
DRBC Executive Director Carol Collier stalled the eastward march of gas rigs across Pennsylvania last year when she asserted jurisdiction over Marcellus Shale drilling and said no production permits would be issued until regulations are complete.
That has upset natural gas producers like Hess Corp. and Newfield Exploration Co., along with landowners expecting money for leasing their land to the companies(Land Letter, July 8).
Environmentalists have cheered the moratorium on production but are fighting the DRBC decision to allow exploratory wells.
Is N.J. pressing for drilling?
Gas companies say the gas in the Marcellus Shale formation under Pennsylvania, New York and adjacent states could power the country for years and allow a switch from coal to a cleaner-burning fuel. Many farmers have reaped big windfalls by allowing drilling on and under their land.
But drilling has contaminated creeks and ruined the water wells of homes near well sites. New York and Philadelphia have rallied against drilling, out of concern it could contaminate their water supply
Hundreds of people attended U.S. EPA hearings this summer in Pennsylvania and New York on “hydraulic fracturing,” an essential process for drilling in shale that involves injecting millions of gallons of chemical-laced water thousands of feet underground. Most of those testifying called it a dangerous process that needs federal regulation. The industry says it is an established, safe technology.
Environmentalists have also said that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is pressuring the DRBC to speed up drilling in Pennsylvania, despite worries about upstream water contamination (Greenwire, Sept. 16).
Christie’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin wrote a letter in July urging the DRBC to enact its drilling regulations by the end of September (the DRBC now says a draft proposal won’t be ready until next month, with a goal of finalizing by the end of the year). It also said that the DRBC should cede its authority over natural gas development to Pennsylvania once it develops water quality regulations.
But Martin says he was just trying to get the regulatory process moving.
“New Jersey is not trying to expedite drilling,” Martin said in an interview this week. “What we’re trying to do is avoid duplication.”
Groups rally for Marcellus Shale gas drilling restrictions
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10265/1089281-454.stm
Groups rally for Marcellus Shale gas drilling restrictions
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Susquehanna County resident Victoria Switzer came to an anti-Marcellus Shale gas drilling rally here Tuesday, and she was angry.
Since 2003, Ms. Switzer has lived in the small town of Dimock, in the state’s northern tier between Scranton and the New York border. In the summer of 2009 — after deep underground drilling for natural gas began in her area — she said the water that came from her well turned “bubbly, smelly and foamy” and was undrinkable.
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which is drilling in dozens of locations in the county, insisted it didn’t cause the problem. But Ms. Switzer said Cabot did start trucking in bottled drinking water last October for her and 22 other families whose wells also were fouled. Ms. Switzer said that in her opinion, there has to be some connection between the underground drilling and the “methane migration” that has ruined so many water wells in the area.
And lately, she added, other chemicals, such as ethyl benzene, xylene and toluene have shown up in her water. She thinks the “fracking” process used to extract natural gas, where chemicals are mixed with large amounts of water and pumped underground to force out the gas, is responsible.
“How did these chemicals get into my water?” she said. “I didn’t have this problem before the drilling started.”
She got a lot of support from the dozens of environmental groups who rallied at the Capitol in support of several Marcellus-related bills — one that would impose a tax on gas extracted from the hundreds of wells around the state, another that would direct state environmental officials to more closely monitor the effect of drilling on streams and underground water, and a third bill that would impose a one-year moratorium on drilling any new wells.
The activists demanded that the Legislature act on the bills before leaving in mid-October to go home and campaign for the Nov. 2 election, but time for action is growing short. So far legislators haven’t been able to agree on specifics for a gas severance tax, which could generate $100 million to be split among state agencies and municipalities that are facing higher costs related to gas drilling.
In a statement Tuesday, Cabot denied that its drilling is causing water problems for Susquehanna County residents. In its fracking process, Cabot said, it hasn’t used any of the chemicals that Ms. Switzer complained about.
Cabot said it has examined water samples taken from the area in 2008, before drilling began. “These sample results confirm the presence of many of the chemicals in water samples taken [from Dimock properties] prior to gas well drilling in the area,” Cabot said. The firm said it “remains committed to safe and secure operations in Susquehanna County.”
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a group of natural gas producers, also released a statement by Department of Environmental Protection official Scott Perry, who said, “A lot of folks relate the problem in Dimock to a fracking problem. I just want to make sure everyone’s clear on this — that it isn’t. We’ve never seen an impact to fresh groundwater directly from fracking.”
At the rally, the environmentalists released their “platform of state action” with 13 demands, such as a Marcellus Shale gas severance tax and “a moratorium on further drilling on both private and public lands” so regulations can be developed to “fully protect our environment, health and communities.”
The groups also want the Legislature to prohibit what they called “forced pooling.” If pooling is allowed, one landowner who refuses to sign a lease for drilling under his property could be forced to do so just because all the nearby property owners have signed such leases.
The groups also want distance requirements between wells, so they can’t be clustered together.
“There should be reasonable laws and best practices put in place during the drilling into Marcellus Shale,” said Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Luzerne, a moratorium proponent. “People are frustrated, confused and flat-out angry about the [drilling] accidents that have occurred and about the lack of [General Assembly] action to protect them.”
The environmental groups at the rally, who chanted “No Free Pass for Oil and Gas,” included Clean Water Action, the Sierra Club, the Gas Accountability Project, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Penn Environment.
Also at the rally was Josh Fox, creator of the controversial documentary film “Gasland,” which is critical of the gas drilling industry.
Also Tuesday, another critic of gas companies, Gene Stilp of Harrisburg, brought his 25-foot-high, inflatable pink pig back to the Capitol, where he had used it in 2005 to protest legislative pay raises. This time he hung a banner on it reading “Rendell Fire Powers.”
He was calling for Gov. Ed Rendell to fire James Powers Jr., director of the state Office of Homeland Security, who had distributed “anti-terrorism bulletins” that warned law enforcement agencies against a number of protest groups, including those opposed to gas drilling.
And in yet another action Tuesday, House Republicans unveiled a four-part plan to promote the use of natural gas instead of gasoline. They called on state agencies to “transition” the 16,000 gasoline-powered vehicles in the state fleet to vehicles that run on natural gas. That would “reduce the commonwealth’s reliance on oil and create a tremendous demand for the natural gas available right here in Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York.
Republicans also called for tax credits for companies that convert their fleets to natural gas and for financial incentives to local governments and mass transit agencies that do the same. Those three changes would cost about $60 million, they estimated.
The GOP also called for building natural gas stations at every other service station along the Pennsylvania Turnpike so it’s easier for drivers to refuel their gas-powered cars.
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes: tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 1-717-787-4254.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10265/1089281-454.stm#ixzz10H06fPq6
Emergency drought relief loans available for farmers
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135921
Reported on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Emergency drought relief loans available for farmers
State Rep. Keith McCall said that farmers in Carbon County are eligible to apply for low-interest emergency disaster assistance loans from the federal Department of Agriculture to help recover crop losses associated with the summer’s dry weather.
“The extreme heat and lack of rainfall has had a negative impact on Carbon County’s farmers this year, and I’m glad the federal government is making these loans available to help our farm families stay afloat and keep their farms up and running,” McCall said. “I hope every farmer affected by the drought conditions will apply for this funding.”
Farmers can apply for the loans through the Carbon County Farm Service Agency in Lehighton at (610) 377-6300 or by visiting the department online at www.fsa.usda.gov.
Besides Carbon County, 15 other counties in the region were declared primary disaster areas: Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Snyder, Union and York.
In addition, 22 counties bordering the primary disaster area were named contiguous disaster areas: Adams, Bedford, Berks, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Delaware, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Sullivan, Wayne and Wyoming.
Farmers in all affected counties have eight months from the Sept. 10 date of disaster declaration to apply for the loans, and each application will be considered based on losses, available resources and ability to repay.
Drought warning
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135919
Reported on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Drought warning
Shortage of rain must be taken seriously
Last week, the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a drought warning for our newspaper’s entire coverage area – Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Schuylkill Counties.
The combination of lower rain than usual with the excessive summer heat has resulted in stream levels being well below normal.
One only has to see the receding shore line at Mauch Chunk Lake Park to understand how critical the water level has become.
The National Weather Service says rainfall is four inches below normal for the past 90 days in the Lehigh Valley. Carbon County has a 4.5 inch deficit for 90 days while in Monroe County, there is a 5.2 inch rainfall shortage for the three-month period.
The DEP is asking people to conserve water. One of the most common sources of waste water is a leak within your residence, such as a toilet. DEP says a leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day. Although many households are strapped for cash right now, fixing such a leak should be a priority since it can also reduce your monthly water bill.
DEP encourages residents to conserve water by taking showers instead of baths.
Also, keep water in the refrigerator to avoid running water from a faucet until it is cold.
Run your dishwasher only when it is full.
Water is a precious resource and we can’t ignore the fact that levels at our storage facilities are being reduced by the lack of rain. Generally, the water lines aren’t fully restored until spring when a good snow pack melts. A dry winter will make things very critical, so it’s best to start conserving now.
This is especially true if you rely on wells rather than city water.
The DEP could do more to help the situation by making its Web site more user friendly with drought advice, suggestions, and information. Very little is stated on the DEP site about the drought conditions.
After all, it is the DEP which issues drought warnings.
We agree that there is a drought. We have to think ahead, though, to assure that if the drought continues, we’ll still have enough water to meet our every day needs.
By Ron Gower
rgower@tnonline.com
Cabot spokesman: Contaminants were already there
http://citizensvoice.com/news/cabot-spokesman-contaminants-were-already-there-1.1024703
Cabot spokesman: Contaminants were already there
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: September 22, 2010
Tests of two private water wells in Dimock Township showed traces of toxic chemicals in 2008 before Marcellus Shale gas drilling began nearby, according to test results made available to Times-Shamrock newspapers on Tuesday by the gas driller active in the township.
But a spokesman for Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. said those chemicals – toluene, benzene and surfactants – were not detected in 2008 in pre-drill samples taken at more than a dozen nearby water supplies along Carter Road in Dimock where a private environmental engineering firm recently found toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
The contaminants found this spring and summer by Scranton-based Farnham and Associates, Inc. were at levels 1,000 times higher than the toluene levels detected in the two wells in 2008, the firm’s president, Daniel Farnham, said.
Cabot released the 2008 water tests on Tuesday in response to reports last week that Farnham had found widespread chemical contamination in water wells already tainted with methane linked to the gas drilling in Susquehanna County.
Farnham took the samples for families in Dimock Township who have sued Cabot for allegedly damaging their water, health and property.
The drilling company said the toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene found in the drinking water could not have come from hydraulic fracturing fluids used in its Marcellus Shale drilling operations because its service contractors do not use those chemicals.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground to break apart the gas-bearing rock. Critics of the process link it to anecdotal reports of water contamination and health problems in drilling regions like Dimock Township, while the industry and state regulators say the practice has never caused water contamination during decades of use.
“Ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene – those are not chemicals that we have used at all in our fracking,” Cabot spokesman George Stark said on Tuesday. “The fact that he’s found these is troubling, but they’re not from frack fluids.”
Cabot indicated that a likely cause of the contaminants, which are found in diesel and gasoline as well as some hydraulic fracturing additives, is an auto repair shop located near the affected wells.
The 2008 test results – which came from water samples taken by Farnham and analyzed by a separate firm for Cabot – detected surfactants at .07 mg/L in two wells, toluene at .002 mg/L in one well and .003 mg/L in the other, and benzene at .002 mg/L in one well.
Neither well showed the presence of ethylbenzene or xylene and none of the other wells sampled by Cabot contractors in 2008 along Carter Road showed any indication of the chemicals, Stark said.
Farnham, who conducted routine sampling of water wells along Carter Road this spring and summer, found ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene in the water at nearly all of the homes at levels between 2 and 7 mg/L.
Those levels exceed federal drinking water standards for toluene and ethylbenzene, a suspected human carcinogen.
Farnham also found ethylene glycol at 20 mg/L and propylene glycol at 200 mg/L in a May 2010 drinking water sample from one of the homes, owned by Victoria Switzer.
An independent water test performed for the Switzers in May 2008 did not analyze for glycols, but the test showed no indication of ethylbenzene, toluene or xylene.
Cabot’s contractors use ethylene glycol and propylene glycol in their hydraulic fracturing fluids, Stark said, but he does not believe they contaminated the Switzer well. Glycols break down within days in water, he said, and Cabot has not hydraulically fractured wells in the Carter Road area since November 2009.
“I would stand pretty confident they are not related,” he said.
The spikes of contamination recorded by Farnham in the water wells after periods of rain indicate a surface spill, not a disturbance of the aquifer through hydraulic fracturing, Stark said.
Cabot has reported at least five diesel spills since 2008 at or around its well sites in the township to the state Department of Environmental Protection, but Stark said the company does not believe its surface activity caused the contamination. A press release distributed by the company on Tuesday said “extensive testing performed this year in cooperation with the PA-DEP has confirmed that Cabot’s operations have not caused any such surface contamination.”
Efforts to contact a DEP spokesman on Tuesday to confirm Cabot’s statement were unsuccessful.
Farnham said the levels of glycols found in Switzer’s water indicate an industrial cause, not the auto repair shop.
“To show up in the levels that we’re seeing (the mechanic) must have had one hell of a radiator leak,” he said.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Sides of gas drilling debate split on fracturing study
http://standardspeaker.com/news/sides-of-gas-drilling-debate-split-on-fracturing-study-1.1022577
Sides of gas drilling debate split on fracturing study
By LAURA LEGERE (Staff Writer)
Published: September 21, 2010
Binghamton, N.Y. – Hundreds of people gathered in this Southern Tier city on last week to advise the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on how to conduct a multiyear study of hydraulic fracturing and the impact it may have on drinking water.
Despite the New York setting, many of the speakers at the first sessions of a two-day hearing about the gas drilling technology turned their attention south of the state border to describe evidence of the promise, or peril, of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
The meeting is the last of four being held in the United States this year to gather public input about the scope and shape of the study, especially where to find appropriate places for case studies of the interaction – or lack thereof – of hydraulic fracturing and drinking water supplies.
Dimock Township in Susquehanna County was offered repeatedly as a perfect place to examine: It is an epicenter of Marcellus Shale gas activity in Pennsylvania, and state regulators have determined that water wells there were contaminated by methane associated with the drilling.
Victoria Switzer, a Dimock resident, testified that water from her household well was recently found by an independent lab to contain ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and toluene – all chemicals frequently used in the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” process.
“EPA, do your job,” she said. “Please demand accountability. I offer you a case study: myself, Dimock.”
The commonwealth was also invoked as an example of the benefits of natural gas drilling by New Yorkers who support the development of the industry in their state, which has a moratorium on Marcellus Shale exploration while it develops rules for regulating it.
“Drilling is safe and will bring prosperity to New York,” said Lorin Cooper, a member of the Steuben County Landowners Coalition. “The evidence is in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and everywhere else drilling has been allowed to proceed.”
The sides of the drilling debate were split at the hearing in their advice to federal environmental regulators.
Those in favor of drilling tended to ask for a narrow study – one that looks at the specific moments when a gas-bearing formation is fractured by high volumes of water mixed with sand and chemical additives. The industry and state regulators say there has not been a single documented case of groundwater contamination in the United States that can be attributed to that process.
“All that we ask is that this study be focused and not take forever to complete,” said Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala, who supports drilling and hydraulic fracturing. “I hope the EPA is not going to study the entire natural gas drilling cycle.”
Those opposed to the drilling asked for an expansive study – one that covers everything from how water for fracturing is withdrawn from rivers to the disposal of the salt- and metals-laden wastewater that returns from the wells. Some also encouraged the agency to cover other associated impacts, including air pollution.
“The EPA study must look cradle to grave,” said Barbara Arrindell of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a Wayne County-based anti-drilling group.
Prior to the afternoon session, pro- and anti-drilling groups gathered on opposite ends of Washington Street shouting competing slogans of “Pass the gas” and “No fracking way.”
At the anti-drilling rally, where the props included a large plywood derrick, a Mother Earth puppet and a person dressed as “Frackin’stein,” the prop presented by Dimock resident Craig Sautner – a milk jug of brown water drawn from his well after intensive gas drilling occurred nearby – garnered the most response.
“I can’t say this is going to happen to your well. I’m not sure,” he said. “But do you want to take that chance?”
Down the road, Jim Riley, a landowner from Conklin, N.Y., said he does not have a gas lease, but would like one.
“First thing I’d do, I’d fix my house up,” he said. “I’d spend my money right here in the community.”
“I’m not afraid of the drilling,” he said.
The EPA meeting continues today, with two sessions from noon to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m. The agency is also accepting written comments on the study at hydraulic.fracturing@epa .gov through Sept. 28.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Free electronics’ recycling event planned for Carbon on Sept. 29
Reported on Monday, September 20, 2010
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135622
Free electronics’ recycling event planned for Carbon on Sept. 29
In cooperation with Advanced Green Solutions, Carbon County will host an electronics’ recycling event at the Lehighton Borough Public Works building, East Penn Street, Lehighton, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 28; and from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29.
Anything electronic will be accepted at no charge to the county or residents. Acceptable materials include, VCR’s, DVD players, radios, stereo equipment, computer keyboards, towers, printers, scanners, telephones, mainframe and telecom equipment, typewriters, hard drives, lap tops and copiers.
Advanced Green Solutions will also be accepting computer monitors for a $7 charge and TV’s and air conditioners will be $20.
No white goods/appliances or household items (such as microwaves, toasters, etc.) will NOT be accepted.
Anyone with questions should call Duane or Patti and the Solid Waste Office at (610) 852-5111.
Lawsuit: Gas drilling fluid ruined Pa. water wells
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/7202580.html
Lawsuit: Gas drilling fluid ruined Pa. water wells
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM and MARY ESCH Associated Press Writers © 2010 The Associated Press
Sept. 15, 2010, 5:13PM
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Thirteen families in the heart of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale say their water wells have been contaminated by poisonous fluids blasted deep underground by a drilling company using a technique at the center of a fierce nationwide debate.
A faulty gas well drilled by Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. leaked toxic fracking fluid into local groundwater in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna County, exposing residents to dangerous chemicals and sickening a child, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The lawsuit — one of the first in the nation to link hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tainted groundwater — said the well’s cement casing was defective. It also cites spills of industrial waste, diesel fuel and other hazardous substances.
“The fracking fluid leaked into the aquifer and contaminated wells within several thousand feet, if not more,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Peter Cambs of Port Washington, N.Y.
A Southwestern official denied any problems with the well and state environmental officials said they found no link between the well and any contamination.
Fracking is the process by which natural gas is extracted from dense shale deposits, including the vast Marcellus Shale in the Northeast. Millions of gallons of water, mixed with chemicals and sand, are pumped at high pressure thousands of feet underground to create fissures in the rock and release the gas.
Pennsylvania and West Virginia have seen thousands of wells drilled in recent years as the riches of the Marcellus Shale have become more accessible with the fracking technique. Some geologists estimate the Marcellus, which also lies beneath New York and Ohio, contains more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The oil and gas industry says hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for decades and that there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination caused by fracking. Environmentalists fear otherwise.
The Susquehanna County claims come as the Environmental Protection Agency — just 40 miles away in Binghamton, N.Y. — holds the last of four national hearings on the impact of fracking on water and public health. Fracking is currently exempt from EPA regulation; the agency is considering how to structure a study requested by Congress, where bills are pending that would reverse the exemption.
The environmental group Riverkeeper released a report to EPA on Wednesday summarizing more than 100 cases of contamination related to natural gas drilling around the country. The report cites cases where federal and state regulators identified gas drilling operations as the known or suspected cause of groundwater, drinking water, and surface water contamination.
Riverkeeper documented more than 20 cases of tainted drinking water in Pennsylvania; more than 30 cases of groundwater and drinking water contamination in Colorado and Wyoming; and more than 10 surface water spills of drilling fluid in the Marcellus Shale region. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection has logged 1,435 violations of the state’s oil and gas laws in the Marcellus Shale in the last two and a half years, the report says.
The report also documents more than 30 investigations of stray gas migration from new and abandoned wells in Pennsylvania and five explosions between 2006 and 2010 that contaminated ground or surface water.
“Despite industry rhetoric to the contrary, the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing are real,” said Craig Michaels, an author of the report.
The lawsuit filed in Susquehanna County said water wells became contaminated with high levels of barium, manganese and strontium after Southwestern, in 2008, drilled its Price No. 1 well in Lenox Township. The contaminated water wells are less than 2,000 feet from the gas well.
The plaintiffs seek monetary damages, environmental cleanup and medical monitoring. The suit said the child who has been sickened has shown neurological symptoms “consistent with toxic exposure to heavy metals.” A lawyer would not elaborate on the child’s ailments.
John Nicholas, who oversees Marcellus development for Southwestern, told The Associated Press that the well is mechanically sound and that there’s no evidence its drilling operations have harmed water supplies.
He said the company and state environmental regulators investigated complaints by residents living near the well, “and we failed to find any tie between our operations and these local water problems.” He said the company tested the Price No. 1 well and found that “the mechanical integrity of the well is good.”
Nicholas declined comment on the suit itself, saying the company has not seen it.
The Pennsylvania DEP sampled a plaintiff’s well about two years ago and found an elevated level of manganese. DEP told the resident it was unable to establish that drilling “contributed to the degradation of your water supply,” according to a letter from DEP provided by Cambs, the plaintiffs attorney.
“The data that we had from our samples did not allow us to conclude that the well had been contaminated by gas well drilling,” DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphries said Wednesday.
More recent testing of the plaintiff’s well by an independent lab, Appalachia Hydrogeologic and Environmental Consulting of Hallstead, Pa., found elevated levels of barium, iron, manganese and strontium.
“Appalachia recommends that water from the potable well NOT be used as a drinking water source until the barium and strontium levels are remedied,” according to Appalachia’s report.
Plaintiff Mary Donovan, 39, said she’s drunk nothing but bottled water since Appalachia’s April tests.
“The only thing I can do (with well water) is bathe with it and wash my clothes, and God knows if that’s harmful to me,” she said.
“These people don’t care what they’re doing to the environment and to people,” she said.
The Lenox Township developments recall the situation in nearby Dimock Township, where state regulators say Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. drilled faulty wells that allowed methane gas to escape into residential groundwater supplies. More than a dozen families in Dimock have filed suit. Cabot claims the high levels of methane detected in the wells might be naturally occurring.
Some of the cases in the Riverkeeper report were also included in a report submitted to the EPA last year by the Cadmus Group, hired by the agency to analyze reports of contamination believed to be related to hydraulic fracturing.
The Cadmus report identified 12 cases in six states — Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming — that may have such links. The report said there was insufficient information to definitively confirm or rule out hydraulic fracturing as the cause.
Online: http://www.riverkeeper.org/
Riverkeeper releases First-of-its-kind Report on Environmental Impacts of Gas Drilling
http://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/news/safeguard-drinking-water/report-on-environmental-impacts-of-gas-drilling/
09.13.10 :: Latest Developments :: Safeguard Drinking Water
Riverkeeper releases First-of-its-kind Report on Environmental Impacts of Gas Drilling
Fractured Communities is a follow-up to the 2009, Riverkeeper Case Studies report presented to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in an attempt to dispel myths from state regulators and gas industry executives that drilling was always safe and that reports of contamination were inaccurate. This report highlights some of the environmental impacts that hard working Americans have had to deal with as we strive to work with government agencies and industries to take the lead in creating long-term energy solutions and sustainable economies of scale that do not require the sacrifice of clean air and water. It also provides recommendations that may help to alleviate some of the problems documented across the country, including legislative and regulatory actions that would be necessary in order to prevent and control further environmental contamination.