PV update at meeting slated Wed.
http://standardspeaker.com/news/pv-update-at-meeting-slated-wed-1.1019510
Published: September 19, 2010
PV update at meeting slated Wed.
The Tri-County Polycythemia Vera Community Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the auditorium of Tamaqua Area High School, 500 Penn St.
The meeting will provide information on a number of ongoing health-oriented studies aimed at determining the extent of polycythemia vera and related myelo-proliferative diseases and its possible link to environmental conditions in the area.
Dr. Vince Seaman of the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will give a summary of the research and a number of the research leaders will be present to answer questions on each specific study.
Drexel University investigators will attempt to determine factors that may contribute to the polycythemia vera cluster in the Tamaqua-Hazleton area by examining environmental and occupational histories of patients with the rare form of cancer and comparing them with those free of the disease.
A team from the University of Pittsburgh team is comparing polycythemia vera rates in the area to those in four counties in western Pennsylvania coal country to look for similarities and differences.
Tamaqua Mayor Chris Morrison will chair the meeting and explain the role of the advisory committee. He said it is important to get as much information as possible.
“We have a serious health threat in our area and one that may affect future generations,” Morrison said.
Hydraulic Fracturing Reports
For a better sense of what is going on with hydraulic fracturing, read these two reports.
Dimock Municipal Water
http://www.newschannel34.com/news/local/story/Dimock-Municipal-Water/nQ3hhSe3YkOkC1NQvgqwgw.cspx
Dimock Municipal Water
Last Update: 9/17/2010 10:15 pm
Pennsylvania’s top environmental regulator is proposing that residents in Dimock, PA who have had their drinking water wells contaminated by nearby hydro-fracking, be connected to municipal water supplies six miles away.
John Hanger says the best and only solution is to connect residents to the water system in Montrose at a cost of more than $10 million. The state DEP determined that the residential wells were contaminated with methane as a result of nearby natural gas drilling by Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas. Cabot has been supplying the homes with bottled water and the residents have launched a lawsuit against the company. Hanger says that if Cabot balks at paying the tab, the state will pay for the work itself, then go after Cabot for the money.
Researchers Concerned About Chemical In The Monongahela River
http://kdka.com/local/chemical.monongahela.river.2.1919015.html
Sep 17, 2010 8:02 pm US/Eastern
Researchers Concerned About Chemical In Mon River
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―The Monongahela River is the source for 13 different water companies.
The drinking water comes out of taps in homes and businesses in the better part of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are raising concerns about the level of bromide in the Mon River – something they detected in July and August.
“Bromide itself is not a concern,” says Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, director of CMU’s Water Quality In Urban Environmental Systems Center. “We’re concerned that when the bromide gets into the drinking water plants there’s a reaction that takes place.”
And that reaction comes when the river water is disinfected with chlorine and forms byproducts. The byproducts are always present in our water at different levels, but continuous high levels are linked to health problems, says Dr. VanBriesen.
“Particularly cancer and reproductive outcomes,” she said.
There is not a lot that water companies can do. The bromide contamination has to be stopped at its source. They must find out how it’s getting into the river.
“We initially started researching it because the Marcellus Shale produced-water does have a significant amount of bromide,” Dr. VanBriesen said.
But the bromide levels only spiked this summer and a lot of other industries are capable to producing bromide.
“It’s crucial for people to understand that we’re concerned about this, but the water is safe to drink,” Dr. VanBriesen said.
It’s the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s job to monitor contaminants in the rivers.
“Going back and using our data to look at all the dozens of facilities along the Mon that discharge into the river,” is what the watchdog department is doing says spokesperson Katy Gresh.
DEP detectives will be looking at three categories of potential bromide polluters.
“Deep mining, oil and gas as you mentioned and other heavy industry like power plants and steel plants,” Gresh said.
Finding a source may take six months to a year to sample bromide levels, but for now the DEP agrees that our water meets all federal standards.
The increased bromide levels have nothing to do with the musty taste and smell that some water company customers were experiencing last month due to stressed algae in the rivers.
U.S. Offshore Wind Potential Four Times Total Power Generated
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2010/2010-09-14-091.html
U.S. Offshore Wind Potential Four Times Total Power Generated
GOLDEN, Colorado, September 14, 2010 (ENS) – The potential of offshore wind power in the United States to generate electricity is at least four times as great as the nation’s total electric generating capacity from all sources in 2008, finds a new assessment by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In their technical report, Marc Schwartz, Donna Heimiller, Steve Haymes, and Walt Musial state, “Offshore wind resources have the potential to be a significant domestic renewable energy source for coastal electricity loads.”
Issued Friday, the NREL report presents the first draft of a national validated offshore wind resource database needed to understand the magnitude of the U.S. wind resource and to plan the distribution and development of future offshore wind power facilities. No offshore wind farms currently exist in the United States.
Wind availability and distribution is characterized by level of annual average wind speed, water depth, distance from shore, and state administrative areas.
The estimate does not describe actual planned offshore wind development, and the report does not consider that some offshore areas may be excluded from energy development on the basis of environmental, human use, or technical considerations.
The “Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Resources for the United States” shows that 4,150 gigawatts of potential maximum wind turbine capacity from offshore wind resources are available in the United States.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2008 the nation’s total electric generating capacity from all sources was 1,010 gigawatts.
The NREL report’s estimate is based on the latest high-resolution maps predicting annual average wind speeds, and shows the gross energy potential of offshore wind resources.
The potential electric generating capacity was calculated from the total offshore area within 50 nautical miles of shore, in areas where average annual wind speeds are at least 16 miles per hour at a height of 295 feet.
The research team assumed that five megawatts of wind turbines could be placed in every square kilometer of water that met these wind characteristics.
Detailed resource maps and tables for the offshore wind resources of 26 coastal states’ bordering the oceans and the Great Lakes break down the wind energy potential by wind speed, water depth, and distance from shore.
The offshore transformer station at the Lillgrund wind farm in the Oresund Sound between Malmo and Copenhagen converts the electricity produced by 48 turbines for use by 60,000 households supplied by the Swedish national grid. (Photo courtesy Siemens)
In May 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy released a report detailing a deployment scenario by which the United States could achieve 20 percent of its electric energy supply from wind energy.
Under this scenario, offshore wind was an essential contributor, providing 54 gigawatts of installed electric capacity to the grid.
“When President Obama took office in January 2009, his message clearly reinforced this challenge in a broader context of energy independence, environmental stewardship, and a strengthened economy based on clean renewable energy sources,” the authors state.
But many technical and economic challenges remain to be overcome to achieve the deployment levels described in the 20 percent wind report, the authors acknowledge.
“Many coastal areas in the United States have large electricity demand but have limited access to a high-quality land-based wind resource, and these areas are typically limited in their access to interstate grid transmission,” they say.
The new database will be periodically revised to reflect better wind resource estimates and to include updated information from other datasets. It is intended to serve as the foundation for future modifications that may include specific exclusion areas for the calculation of the nation’s offshore wind resource potential.
Offshore wind projects totaling more than 5,000 megawatts have been proposed and are in the planning or development stages in the United States and interest in offshore wind power development is growing among governments and also in the private sector.
On July 14, the American Wind Energy Association, AWEA, the national wind industry association, announced the formation of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, called OffshoreWindDC. The new coalition will focus on advocacy and education efforts to promote offshore wind energy.
Founding members and contributors to the Offshore Wind Development Coalition include the corporations Apex Wind, Cape Wind, Deepwater Wind, Fishermen’s Energy, NRG Bluewater Wind, OffshoreMW, and Seawind Renewable.
Jim Lanard, president of OffshoreWindDC, said, “We are delighted to join with AWEA to advocate for policies that will support the development of this well-established technology. Our joint efforts will lead to job creation, significant economic development opportunities and environmental and energy security for our country.”
“The creation of this coalition demonstrates the growing interest in offshore wind energy in the U.S.,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “Offshore wind provides a great opportunity to increase the use of renewable energy, thanks to the strong and steady winds that blow off our shores and proximity to electricity demand centers, particularly along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Great Lakes.”
The new coalition will join AWEA in working to secure long-term tax policy for offshore wind and shorten the permitting timeline for projects.
The effort will involve AWEA, offshore wind developers, and other stakeholders in states such as Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio.
Bode said, “Offshore wind energy is proven in Europe, and will soon be hard at work here in America, powering our economy, protecting our environment, and creating jobs.”
In June, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of 10 East Coast states signed a Memorandum of Understanding that formally establishes an Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to promote the efficient, orderly, and responsible development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf.
On April 21, the federal government approved Cape Wind, a 130-turbine wind power project in Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast that is the nation’s first approved offshore wind development.
A public-private partnership in New York State is developing a 350-megawatt offshore wind project. The Long Island – New York City Offshore Wind Project would be located about 13 nautical miles off the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens.
The New York Power Authority now is reviewing five proposals from wind developers to build offshore wind turbines in lakes Ontario or Erie. Lawmakers in some lakeside counties have expressed opposition.
In addition, NRG Bluewater Wind has proposed wind power projects off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey; and Deepwater Wind is involved with projects off the coasts of Rhode Island and New Jersey.
On August 19, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law the most comprehensive legislation yet passed by a state to support the development of offshore wind energy. The Offshore Wind Economic Development Act directs the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to develop and establish an offshore wind renewable energy certificate program that requires a percentage of electricity sold in the state to be from offshore wind energy.
There have been some setbacks. On August 20, Duke Energy announced the cancellation of plans to develop a three-turbine offshore wind demonstration project in a lagoon in North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound. Duke blamed high costs and greater than expected environmental impacts.
Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that of the 300,000 MW of wind power that could generate 20 percent of U.S. electricity in 20 years, 50,000 MW would likely be offshore.
Penn State will hold workshop on drilling water tests
http://citizensvoice.com/news/penn-state-will-hold-workshop-on-drilling-water-tests-1.1017737
Published: September 18, 2010
Penn State will hold workshop on drilling water tests
Penn State Cooperative Extension will hold an informational workshop on how to interpret pre- and post-gas drilling water test reports starting at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 in the Lake-Lehman Junior-Senior high school on Old Route 115 in Lehman Township.
Participants will learn how to understand the reports, as well as what drinking water standards are, how to treat pre-existing water quality problems, and the importance of chain-of-custody. Penn State Extension educators Peter Wulfhorst and Bryan Swistock will be the presenters.
The program is sponsored by the Penn State Master Well Owner Network, with funding and support from Penn State Cooperative Extension, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Groundwater Association.
For information or to register to attend, call (570) 825-1701, 602-0600 or 888-825-1701.
Cancer-cluster research data will be explained Polycythemia vera public meeting set for Tamaqua on Sept. 22
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135107
Reported on Saturday, September 18, 2010
Cancer-cluster research data will be explained Polycythemia vera public meeting set for Tamaqua on Sept. 22
By JOE PLASKO jplasko@tnonline.com
The Tri-County Polycythemia Vera Community Advisory Committee (Tri-County PV CAC) will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 22 at the Tamaqua Area School District Auditorium on Stadium Hill, 500 Penn Street.
The scope of the meeting is to provide the public with information on a number of ongoing health-oriented studies aimed at determining the extent of polycythemia vera and related myeloproliferative diseases (MPDs) and their possible link to environmental conditions in the area.
Polycythemia vera is a rare blood cancer in which the body produced too many red blood cells. A cluster of polycythyemia vera has been detected in the tri-county area of Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne, concentrated around Ben Titus Road in Still Creek.
Research has discovered a genetic mutation, known commonly as JAK2, that has been identified in polycythemia vera patients.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Dr. Vince Seaman of the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will give an overall summary of the research and a number of the research leaders will be present to answer questions on their specific studies.
Drexel University investigators will attempt to determine factors that may contribute to the PV cluster in the Tamaqua-Hazelton area by examining environmental and occupational histories (and other factors) of patients with PV and MPD related disease and comparing them with those free of these diseases.
The University of Pittsburgh team is conducting a study that will compare PV rates in the Tamaqua-Hazelton area to those in four western Pa. counties to look for similarities and differences in the two coal-producing areas that can provide clues to the causes of the disease.
Tamaqua Mayor Christian Morrison will chair the meeting and explain the role of the CAC community organization.
“Several of these teams will soon be conducting interviews in our area, so it is critical that we get as much information as possible,” said Morrison in a news release. “We have a serious health threat in our area and one that may affect future generations. We need to find out why we have a cancer cluster and eliminate the cause. In the meantime, we need to take good care of the patients and their families.”
Living in a Police State?
http://citizensvoice.com/news/state-homeland-security-monitoring-surprises-local-activists-1.1017812
State Homeland Security monitoring surprises local activists
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: September 18, 2010
The state Office of Homeland Security made all Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletins public on its website Thursday, and members of a local organization critical of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling were appalled to find out their group was frequently mentioned by name.
Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday he had just learned the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Homeland Security had been receiving intelligence bulletins from the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, an American and Israeli nonprofit corporation. Rendell apologized to the groups listed in the bulletin and said he is canceling the contract with the Institute.
The Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition is mentioned liberally throughout those for August and September, listing upcoming events and quoting from Web forums.
GDAC co-founder Dr. Thomas Jiunta originally accepted Rendell’s apology, but now says it’s not good enough. He said the group is talking to lawyers about the possibility of a suit.
“To think our government is using our tax money to spy on us is absurd. It makes me mad. I think it’s slanderous,” he said. “That has a lot of people concerned. If they want to take a trip out of the country, are they going to be on a no-fly list?”
A paragraph from the July 30 bulletin is an example of why they’re upset. It states, “The escalating conflict over natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania may define local fault lines and potentially increase area environmentalist activity or eco-terrorism. GDAC communications have cited Northeastern Pennsylvania counties, specifically Wyoming, Lackawanna and Luzerne, as being in real ‘need of our help’ and as facing a ‘drastic situation.'”
“I’m freaked out,” GDAC member Audrey Simpson of Shavertown said when she heard of the bulletins.
“It does freak me out, too. It’s really freaky, the whole thing,” Jiunta agreed.
“I think the ironic thing is, who’s actually harming our infrastructure and our water supplies? It’s the gas companies. They’ve got it all wrong,” he said. “Our organization is about helping people and preserving the health, safety and welfare of the public.”
Some of the information in the bulletins is questionable. The one for Aug. 30 states branches of the Swiss banking giant UBS AG – including one in Plains Township – could be targeted by anti-mountaintop coal removal activists Rainforest Action Network for protests or illegal actions “including trespassing, lock-downs and vandalism.” UBS AG was allegedly involved in financing mountaintop coal removal mining in West Virginia.
However, the Plains branch of UBS AG was sold in September 2009 and is now the Stifel Nicolaus financial services firm, according to the branch’s manager, who did not want to be named.
In an e-mail, Homeland Security Director James F. Powers Jr. said, “When the Plains Branch of UBS AG was sold in September 2009, the assets/liabilities may or may not have been paid at the time of sale.”
Since the stockholders are the only ones privy to the sale details, Powers said, it is unknown whether any outstanding loans that may have funded mountaintop coal removal methods were paid or transferred to the new owner.
He said the bulletins were provided for “situational awareness.”
“(We) rely on the local owner/operator’s knowledge to determine any mitigating actions based on their security system, etc. I don’t think anyone, regardless of their analytical expertise, would say with any certainty, that the site is 100% secure when these groups openly cite their intent,” Powers stated.
“We never know what our adversaries are thinking. But we know, or should know, the weaknesses of our security plans,” he concluded, “And Hope will never be a Security Strategy.”
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
Cement flows for permanent plug of BP’s Gulf well
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL?SITE=PALEH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-09-18-07-21-23
Sep 18, 2010
Cement flows for permanent plug of BP’s Gulf well
By HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Crews pumped cement into BP’s blown-out oil well thousands of feet below the sea bottom Saturday, working to finally seal the runaway well.
Engineers initially had planned to pump in mud before the cement, but a BP spokesman said that wasn’t necessary because there was no pressure building inside the well.
BP expects the well will be completely sealed – and declared permanently dead – sometime Saturday, five months after the catastrophe began April 20, when an explosion killed 11 workers, sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The cement couldn’t be pumped in until a relief well drill nearly 2.5 miles beneath the floor of the Gulf intersected the blown-out well, which happened Thursday.
The relief well was the 41st successful drilling attempt by John Wright, a contractor who led the team drilling the relief well aboard the Development Driller III vessel. Wright, who has never missed his target, told The Associated Press in August that he was looking forward to finishing the well and celebrating with a cigar and a quiet getaway with his wife.
“I am ready for that cigar now,” Wright said in an e-mail Friday to the AP from aboard the DDIII.
The Gulf well spewed 206 million gallons of oil until the gusher was first stopped in mid-July with a temporary cap. Mud and cement were later pushed down through the top of the well, allowing the cap to be removed. But officials will not declare it dead until it is sealed from the bottom.
BP PLC is a majority owner of the well and was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.
The oil spill was an environmental and economic nightmare for people along the Gulf Coast that has spawned civil and criminal investigations. It cost gaffe-prone BP chief Tony Hayward his job and brought increased governmental scrutiny of the oil and gas industry, including a costly moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling that is still in place.
With oil still in the water – some of it still washing ashore – people continue to struggle. Fishermen are still fighting the perception their catch is tainted, and tourism also has taken a hit.
Battle lines drawn over drilling in Delaware watershed
http://standardspeaker.com/news/battle-lines-drawn-over-drilling-in-delaware-watershed-1.1017453
Battle lines drawn over drilling in Delaware watershed
BY STEVE MCCONNELL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: September 18, 2010
The battle lines among pro and anti-natural gas drilling groups are being drawn in the Delaware River watershed amid the development of new regulations by an obscure federal-interstate agency that has jurisdiction over the industry and has put the clamps on it.
Both groups have been firing salvos recently hoping to shape gas drilling policy here, a 13,539-square mile area draining into the Delaware River that has been mostly off-limits to gas drilling including a ban on producing gas wells enacted in May.
But environmentalists were dealt a major blow Wednesday to convince the Delaware River Basin Commission to conduct an cumulative impact study of natural gas drilling.
Seventy-seven organizations issued a joint letter to the commission, a five member-board that manages water resources in the four-state area, urging them to vote at their Wednesday meeting in West Trenton, N.J. to undertake the substantial environmental study prior to adopting new natural gas regulations.
That request, however, never came to fruition – giving pro-drillers some relief because it would have extended the drilling moratorium that is in place while the commission develops its regulations, a process that began this year.
Peter Wynne, a spokesman for the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, a landowners group that has secured at least 80,000 acres in Wayne County for gas development, said Thursday it is not sensible to conduct a major environmental study before even knowing if there is a viable Marcellus Shale gas reserve in the watershed.
“The whole think would be an exercise in futility,” said Wynne, whose group signed a land lease agreement late last year with Newfield Exploration Company and Hess Corp.
Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said the commission’s lack of action on the study was a considerable setback, however, since the commission could use it to create effective regulations to protect the watershed.
“We really can’t develop regulations that would prevent pollution” without the study, Carluccio said. “You can’t develop regulations in a vacuum. We know it’s not safe now.”
Carluccio and other environmentalists remain concerned that a massive, industry-scale gas drilling operation could cause irreparable damage to the watershed and the Delaware River, which is part of the U.S. National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, home to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and provides drinking water to an estimated 15 million people.
A U.S. House subcommittee has appropriated $1 million for the study, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and limited to the watershed. If and when that money will be available is not known.
Commmission spokesman Clarke Rupert said that even if such a study is funded today, “it could still be several years before final results … are known.”
The commission will move ahead with developing and adopting draft regulations regardless of whether the study is or is not done, he added.
Meanwhile, draft regulations – which were expected to be finished this month by commission staff – have been pushed back to mid-October.
Industry opponents had also asked the commission to halt exploratory well drilling – four wells are either in development or have been drilled in Wayne County – until the new regulations are put in place.
The commission denied the request by vote Wednesday.
The matter will, however, go before a retired federal U.S. district court judge in December who will make a recommendation whether the agency should regulate these wells before its gas rules are adopted or be included in the current moratorium.