Shale drilling, what is it?
http://www.tnonline.com/node/118669
Shale drilling, what is it?
Reported on Friday, July 23, 2010
By MICHAEL NEWTON TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
A lack of knowledge among citizens of Carbon County about the issue of shale drilling is seen as a major problem by the Kidder Township Environmental Advisory Committee. < http://www.americantowns.com/pa/lakeharmony/events/environmental-advisory-council >
“People have no idea,” said committee member Bob Dobosh at the EAC’s meeting this week.
This lack of knowledge is seen as a problem because choices made about shale drilling will have an immense impact on the future of both the state and the nation. Debate has raged between proponents, who view it as a vital part of the nation’s energy plan, and detractors who fear that the environmental impacts are not properly understood.
Shale drilling is a complex process and the technological advances that have made it possible have outpaced research into its consequences.
“Nobody is asking the question of what happens 10 years from now when we’re out of water,” said EAC member Hank George.
It is currently believed that there is more than 363 trillion cubic feet of harvestable gas in the Marcellus shale bloom. That is enough to supply all of the nation’s energy needs for 15 years. A typical well located on an 80-acre space, is expected to produce around 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas over the course of its operations. The gas is found in small cracks and fissures running through the porous rock.
The process of extracting the gas is complicated and relies primarily on two techniques hydrofracing and horizontal drilling. Hydrofracing is a process where a ‘mud’ made out of water and chemicals, is shot down into the well in order to break up the shale and allow the gases in between cracks in the rock to flow to the surface. Horizontal drilling is a process whereby the well is slowly turned at a 90 degree angle. Using horizontal drilling, a typical well can extract gas in a radius of over a mile.
According to a report issued by the United States Geological Society, shale drilling presents three main areas of concern over water quality. The first is the massive amount of water needed to perform hydrofracing. Each round of hydrofracing can use up to 3 million gallons of water. Thus, concerns have risen among local municipal water authorities as to where all that water will come from. If too much is used from local water sources, they can be damaged or depleted, leading to unnatural drought conditions.
The shipment of water and materials in extremely heavy trucks over small mountain roads may lead to erosion, which could further damage water tables. In addition, there is no way to know exactly how much material and chemicals will leak out of the trucks over time.
Once the hydrofracing solutions have been used they must be properly disposed. A typical 3-million gallon hydrofracing job can be expected to produce at least 15,000 gallons of contaminated water. Not only is the solution full of chemicals, many of which are guarded company secrets, but being in contact with rock formations means that when the solution comes to the surface, it brings along large amounts of silt and possibly harmful minerals. This presents difficulties because water treatment plants are not able to adequately remove these contaminants. Several alternative solutions have been proposed, such as reinjecting the hydrofracing solutions into shallow pits, but there is no clear consensus or across the board standard.
Knowledge about the process of shale drilling and the issues that go along with it can help citizens make informed decisions about the future of the state. Toward that end, the Kidder EAC is going to prepare informational newsletters and distribute them to the various homeowners’ associations in the websites.
Grassland Hike at the Gap
Dear Lehigh Gap Nature Center members and friends,
On Saturday, July 24 we will have a grassland hike at the Gap from 9:00 to noon. We will check out the Prairie area and the plants we planted last year inside and outside deer exclosures as well as looking for other wildflowers and butterflies along the way. Meet at the Osprey House at 9:00.
Bring water — it may be very hot.
Hope to see you at the Gap on Saturday.
Dan
Dan Kunkle
Lehigh Gap Nature Center
P.O. Box 198
Slatington, PA 18080
ph/fax 610-760-8889
http://lgnc.org
Polycythemia vera (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Polycythemia vera is a blood disorder in which the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells. Polycythemia vera may also result in the overproduction of white blood cells and platelets. Most of the health concerns associated with polycythemia vera are caused by a blood-thickening effect that results from an overproduction of red blood cells.
Contents
1 Epidemiology
2 Symptoms
3 Diagnosis
4 Treatment
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
http://www.tnonline.com/node/115874
Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
Reported on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
By STACEY SOLT stacey.solt@gmail.com
Unless you’re reading this in Alaska, you know that our area suffered through a brutal heat wave this month. It’s important to stay hydrated during the heat but buying bottled water and fancy drinks can get expensive. Read on for tips to keep cool and save money on beverages this summer.
Water
Don’t pay for bottled water. Period.
Yes, there will be times when you’re away from home and a source of free tap water. I’m talking about the cases of bottled water that you buy to bring to work, or to sip around the house. Why would you spend your hard-earned dollars on bottled water when you’re going to drink it standing next to the kitchen sink?
Water bottles are also bad for the environment. You can recycle plastic bottles, but each bottle must be cleaned and melted down before it can become a “new” bottle, wasting energy and water. Why not buy a reusable, BPA-free water bottle for work and play, and save the store-bottled stuff for special trips?
I know that some homes have “bad” water. Our home’s water has sulfur during droughts so we’re changing our carbon filter pretty frequently right now. Purchasing a filter system has been an inexpensive way to improve our water quality, and it’s saved us hundreds of dollars each summer by making our tap water more palatable.
Caffeine and energy drinks
I love iced coffee, and I could drink it by the gallon during the summer! Fortunately, we brew our own coffee and chill it, which means that my favorite drink doesn’t cost too much money. But keep in mind that caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea can actually dehydrate some people. Don’t rely too heavily on these beverages during the summer.
Sports drinks are also popular during the summer, and they can be a great source of sodium and potassium (the minerals that we “sweat out”) on a hot day. Manufacturers have done a great job advertising these drinks as a cure-all for hot days and athletes.
Of course, be honest with yourself are you really active enough to need a sports drink, or does it just taste good? Don’t waste your money on high-performance drinks when the most activity you’ll do is swinging on the front porch. If you can’t stand the taste of water and drink a lot of sports drinks during the summer, try diluting these sugary drinks with water. You won’t miss the sweetness, and you’ll save a bit of money.
Other water sources
While it’s important to drink fluids regularly, foods can also be a great source of water! There’s a reason that ripe, juicy watermelon is so popular during the summer.
Adding seasonal fruits and vegetables can be a good way to keep yourself hydrated without spending extra money. You have to eat, right? Choose thirst-quenching foods over dryer foods to keep dehydration at bay add an apple to your lunch, or eat a small bowl of peaches or pears for dessert. These foods are great for staying hydrated, and they’re much healthier than eating a bag of chips. Many water-filled foods are also low in calories!
Weed Killers and Your Garden
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5244
EARTHTALK
Week of 07/11/10
Dear EarthTalk: Within my lawn I have over 100 citrus, mango and avocado trees. When I use Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed, am I feeding my new fruit any poison? Will the weed killer be taken up by the fruit?— Richard Weissman, Miami, FL
In short, yes and yes: You will jeopardize the health of your fruit trees and your yard in general if you use such products. Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed, as well as many other “weed-and-feed” fertilizers (Vigero, Sam’s, etc.), contain the harsh chemical herbicide atrazine, which excels at terminating fast-growing weeds like dandelions and crabgrass but can also kill other desirable plants and trees and damage your entire yard as toxin-carrying root systems stretch underground in every corner and beyond.
Howard Garrett, a landscape architect who founded the DirtDoctor.com website and is an evangelist for natural organic gardening and landscaping, points out that anyone who reads the label on such products will learn that even manufacturers don’t take their health and environmental effects lightly. Some of the warnings right there in black and white on the Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed packaging include precautions against using it “under trees, shrubs, bedding plants or garden plants” or in the general vicinity of any such plants’ branch spreads or root zones.
Scott’s also recommends not applying it by hand or with hand-held rotary devices or applying “in a way that will contact any person either directly or through drift.” And just in case you were thinking it was okay for the environment, Scott’s adds that “runoff and drift from treated areas may be hazardous to aquatic organisms in neighboring areas” and that the product is “toxic to aquatic invertebrates.”
Of course, homeowners aren’t the only ones who want lush plant or grass growth without weeds. Farmers have been using atrazine for decades all over the country, although not surprisingly concentrations are highest along the Midwest’s so-called Corn Belt. The herbicide consistently delivers slightly increased agricultural yields, but environmentalists wonder at what cost. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental research and advocacy non-profit, reports that atrazine exposure has been shown to impair the reproductive systems of amphibians and mammals, and has been linked to cancer in both laboratory animals and humans. Male frogs exposed to minute doses of the herbicide can develop female sex characteristics, including hermaphroditism and the presence of eggs in the testes. Researchers believe such effects are amplified when atrazine and other chemicals are used together.
As to safer alternatives, Garrett recommends organic fertilizers. “Synthetic fertilizers are unbalanced, often contain contaminants, have no carbon energy, contain far too much nitrogen and have few trace minerals,” he says. “Organic fertilizers, on the other hand, contain naturally buffered blends of major nutrients, trace minerals, organic matter and carbon. They have lots of beneficial life and, most important, they contain nothing that will damage the roots of your trees and other plants.” Some of Garret’s top choices include corn gluten meal (a natural way to prevent the growth of new weeds), THRIVE by AlphaBio, Garrett Juice, Ladybug, Medina, and Soil Mender. More and more choices are coming on the market all the time thanks to the growing popularity of organic gardening.
CONTACTS: Scotts; The Dirt Doctor; NRDC.
Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
With Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale-gas epoch still in its infancy, some experts doubt we have seen one-tenth of what is yet to come and recommend that municipalities brace themselves for rapid change. “People who are not in the Marcellus areas have no clue how big this is going to be,” said Kurt Hausammann Jr., planning director for Lycoming County. “This has the possibility to change our whole way of life.”
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/47431/nw69
Download This Story Here
Local zoning is perhaps best control over Marcellus play, planner says
Can people can be genetically susceptible to P. vera?
Myeloproliferative neoplasms – personal stories | Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
People can be genetically susceptible to the series of rare blood cancers
Professor Nick Cross and his team at the University of Southampton have shown that people can be genetically susceptible to the series of rare blood cancers known as myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). His team have identified a particular area of the patient’s DNA which is prone to developing mutations.
Professor Cross discovered that a particular region of chromosome 9 that carries the JAK2 gene is predisposed to acquiring mutations, but only in individuals with a particular genetic makeup. It is likely that this finding will lead to a much better understanding of how the JAK2 gene mutations happen and why they lead to an increased risk of someone developing an MPN.
The team at the laboratory, which is part of the University of Southampton, found that people carrying this mutation-prone region of DNA on chromosome 9, which includes the JAK2 gene, have triple the risk of developing a MPN.
The link is especially strong in polycythaemia vera (PV), one of the main three MPNs. Professor Cross says: “Our research provides strong evidence that at least half of the cases of PV diagnosed each year are linked to an inherited genetic variant on chromosome 9. Whilst this risk is still very small it nonetheless confirms that individual susceptibility is linked to genetic inheritance. “
Marcellus Shale Regulations Regarding Drinking Water in PA
Bryan Swistock, Penn State Water Quality Extension Specialist, discusses the Marcellus shale regulations regarding drinking water in PA.
Drought conditions in Carbon County, PA
http://www.tnonline.com/node/114155
Drought conditions in Carbon
Reported on Thursday, July 8, 2010
By AMY ZUBEK azubek@tnonline.com
With much of the northeast experiencing scorching temperatures, high humidity and little to no precipitation, Carbon County is among the growing number of counties that have been placed on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s drought list.
Mark Nalesnik, the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency director, released an updated drought map from DEP yesterday.
According to the composite indicator map, dated July 6, numerous counties throughout the eastern portion of the state are in a drought watch or warning. Carbon County is listed in a drought watch.
A drought watch declaration is the first level and least severe of the state’s three drought classifications. It calls for a voluntary 5 percent reduction in non-essential water use. The classifications are dependent on four indicators, including precipitation deficits, surface water levels, groundwater levels and soil moisture. Drought watch conditions begin to occur when a deficit of 25 percent of the normal precipitation happens over a three-month period. Drought warning conditions occur when a deficit of 35 percent is recorded and drought emergency conditions begin to happen when a deficit of 45 percent is recorded.
Nalesnik recommends that Carbon County residents try to conserve water, if possible, until the drought situation improves.
He noted that there are three burn bans currently in place in the county. They include Mahoning Township, Bowmanstown and Lower Towamensing Township.
“I strongly recommend not burning trash or having camp fires at this time,” Nalesnik said. “Since water supplies may become limited, I am concerned about water shortages for firefighting, so please avoid unnecessary use of water and do not be careless with fires.”
Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein echoes Nalesnik’s thoughts.
“I would strongly urge residents to start to conserve water, especially those on wells. Even if we do get some showers this week it will not be enough to get us out of the watch,” said Nothstein.
“We have been watching the situation and will continue to monitor rainfall events and act accordingly.”
He also suggests that all water authorities and suppliers review their contingency plans and update them as needed.
Nothstein added that he is anticipating calling a meeting for Carbon County’s Drought Task Force, a group the county reorganized in 2007, when Carbon County was classified in a drought watch.
The group looks at the water resources in the area to determine the severity of the drought in the county.
This includes seeing how many wells have gone dry and how far they would have to drill to reach the water table.
It also includes watching the river, creeks, lakes and dam levels.
In times of a drought watch, area residents can help conserve water by taking shorter showers, washing only full loads of laundry, watering lawns and gardens only when it is necessary and using water sparingly during daily routines.
Safe Drinking Water workshop
http://www.americantowns.com/pa/hawley/events/safe-drinking-water-workshop
Safe Drinking Water workshop
Penn State Cooperative Extension will present a Safe Drinking Water workshop on July 13, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, Pike County Conservation District office, 556 Route 402, Blooming Grove. The cost is $7.00 per person or couple. Pre-registration, including payment, is required by July 9.
If you depend on your own well or spring for your drinking water, it is your responsibility to have your water tested periodically at a certified water testing lab. Water testing will be available for participants at a discounted fee through Prosser Labs.
For a printable flyer go to http://tinyurl.com/yycbns3
For more information contact Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County by phone at 570-296-3400, by fax at 570-296-3406, or send an e-mail message to PikeExt@psu.edu. Please be sure to include your full name and surface mail address.