PA connections of contractor under fire for covering up Lejeune contamination
By Sue Sturgis
Hometown Hazards
March 10, 2010
My Congressman, Rep. Brad Miller, is the lawmaker who’s been raising hell about shoddy work by ATSDR in general, and particularly about what happened at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base in North Carolina, where cancer is widespread among former base residents.
Yesterday Miller’s committee requested documents from the Navy and a private contractor out of concerns that they knew about benzene contamination at Camp Lejeune but kept that information under wraps. Here’s a recent news story about that:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/09/379463/congressional-investigators-seek.html
The private contractor is Baker Environmental, a subsidiary of the Michael Baker Corp. I decided to check out who exactly this Baker is. As it turns out, Baker Environmental holds the contract to provide general assistance to the PA DEP’s Superfund program. It manages the program, does investigation and remediation, and provides engineering studies and remedial designs:
http://www.mbakercorp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1684&Itemid=278
Because of that, I do believe this ongoing Lejeune investigation will be worth watching for the folks back home in PA, and wanted to give you all a heads up.
Two Oil-Field Companies Acknowledge Fracking With Diesel
February 19, 2010
Two Oil-Field Companies Acknowledge Fracking With Diesel
By MIKE SORAGHAN of Greenwire
Two of the world’s largest oil-field services companies have acknowledged to Congress that they used diesel in hydraulic fracturing after telling federal regulators they would stop injecting the fuel near underground water supplies.
Halliburton and BJ Services acknowledged to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January 2008 that they had used diesel in the controversial process that has expanded access to vast natural gas plays.
Read More
Who owns groundwater in the aquifer?
http://www.mysanantonio.com/livinggreensa/84668452.html
Web Posted: 02/18/2010 12:00 CST
Who owns groundwater in the aquifer?
By Colin McDonald – Express-News
AUSTIN — The ownership and control of groundwater pumping rights in Texas is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the nine justices heard arguments in a case that pits the right of a landowner near Von Ormy to pump from the Edwards Aquifer against the government’s authority to regulate the use of ground and surface water.
For more than a decade, the Edwards Aquifer Authority has argued that in order for it to regulate pumping, landowners cannot own the water in the Edwards Aquifer.
It was first time the state’s highest court considered that argument.
Ground Water Awareness Week Slated for March 7-13
http://www.fb.org/index.php?fuseaction=newsroom.newsfocus&year=2010&file=nr0217b.html
Ground Water Awareness Week Slated for March 7-13
WASHINGTON, D.C, February 17, 2010 – The American Farm Bureau Federation is urging Farm Bureau members to schedule an annual water well checkup during National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 7-13.
Ground Water Awareness Week is sponsored annually by the National Ground Water Association. NGWA is urging every household well owner to check his or her well cap to make sure it is in good condition to protect the water supply from contamination.
“A damaged or unsecured well cap can allow the entry of bacteria or other contaminants into the well. It is one of the easiest things to check, and a well owner can do it,” said John Pitz, CPI, a member of NGWA’s national board of directors.
“While well owners can spot a damaged or unsecured well cap, they should always use a qualified water well systems contractor who knows applicable well construction codes,” Pitz said. “If the well cap is damaged or unsecured, the water well contractor may also need to test the water and disinfect the well.”
Having your well tested is the surest way to determine that the water is safe. Even if your well cap fits tightly on your well and your water tastes fine, the water well system should be given a checkup by a contractor every year, according to NGWA.
Farm Bureau supports National Ground Water Awareness Week because of the vital importance of ground water to farms and ranches for irrigation and because 96 percent of rural Americans depend on ground water for their water supply, according to AFBF President Bob Stallman.
“Irrigation accounts for the largest use of ground water in the United States. Some 58 billion gallons of ground water are used daily for agricultural irrigation from more than 374,082 wells,” Stallman said. “America’s farmers and ranchers take their roles as environmental stewards very seriously. We are committed to ensuring that America’s ground water supply is safe, clean and pure.”
To learn more about proper well location and construction, well maintenance, water testing and treatment, and groundwater protection, visit NGWA’s Web site, www.wellowner.org.
Contacts
Tracy Taylor Grondine
(202) 406-3642
tracyg@fb.org
John Hart
(202) 406-3659
johnh@fb.org
Webinar to address recycling wastewater from gas drilling
The calls to “reduce, reuse and recycle” have long been the watchwords of resource conservation, and when it comes to disposing of wastewater from shale-gas operations, those refrains still run deep, sometimes thousands of feet beneath groundwater sources.
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/44473/nw69
Previous webinars — which covered topics such as water use and quality, legal questions surrounding natural gas exploration, and gas-leasing considerations for landowners and implications for local communities — can be viewed at http://naturalgas.extension.psu.edu/webinars.htm online.
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://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/report-environmental-violations
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.
Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020201770.html
Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct
By MARC LEVY and VICKI SMITH
Tuesday, February 2, 2010; 2:40 PM
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odor.
With fortunes, water quality and cheap energy hanging in the balance, exploration companies, scientists and entrepreneurs are scrambling for an economical way to recycle the wastewater.
“Everybody and his brother is trying to come up with the 11 herbs and spices,” said Nicholas DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.
Drilling crews across the country have been flocking since late 2008 to the Marcellus Shale, a rock bed the size of Greece that lies about 6,000 feet beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Geologists say it could become the most productive natural gas field in the U.S., capable of supplying the entire country’s needs for up to two decades by some estimates.
Before that can happen, the industry is realizing that it must solve the challenge of what to do with its wastewater. As a result, the Marcellus Shale in on its way to being the nation’s first gas field where drilling water is widely reused.
The polluted water comes from a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are blasted into each well to fracture tightly compacted shale and release trapped natural gas.
Fracking has been around for decades. But the drilling companies are now using it in conjunction with a new horizontal drilling technique they brought to Appalachia after it was proven in the 1990s to be effective on a shale formation beneath Texas.
Fracking a horizontal well costs more money and uses more water, but it produces more natural gas from shale than a traditional vertical well.
Once the rock is fractured, some of the water – estimates range from 15 to 40 percent – comes back up the well. When it does, it can be five times saltier than seawater and laden with dissolved solids such as sulfates and chlorides, which conventional sewage and drinking water treatment plants aren’t equipped to remove.
At first, many drilling companies hauled away the wastewater in tanker trucks to sewage treatment plants that processed the water and discharged it into rivers – the same rivers from which water utilities then drew drinking water.
But in October 2008, something happened that stunned environmental regulators: The levels of dissolved solids spiked above government standards in southwestern Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River, a source of drinking water for more than 700,000 people.
Regulators said the brine posed no serious threat to human health. But the area’s tap water carried an unpleasant gritty or earthy taste and smell and left a white film on dishes. And industrial users noticed corrosive deposits on valuable machinery.
One 11-year-old suburban Pittsburgh boy with an allergy to sulfates, Jay Miller, developed hives that itched for two weeks until his mother learned about the Monongahela’s pollution and switched him to bottled or filtered water.
No harm to aquatic life was reported, though high levels of salts and other minerals can kill fish and other creatures, regulators say.
Pennsylvania officials immediately ordered five sewage treatment plants on the Monongahela or its tributaries to sharply limit the amount of frack water they accepted to 1 percent of their daily flow.
“It is a very great risk that what happened on the Monongahela could happen in many watersheds,” said Ronald Furlan, a wastewater treatment official for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “And so that’s why we’re trying to pre-empt and get ahead of it to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Regulators in Pennsylvania are trying to push through a new standard for the level of dissolved solids in water released from a treatment plant.
West Virginia authorities, meanwhile, have asked sewage treatment plants not to accept frack water while the state develops an approach to regulating dissolved solids.
And in New York, fracking is largely on hold while companies await a new set of state permitting guidelines.
For now, the Marcellus Shale exploration is in its infancy. Terry Engelder, a geoscientist at Penn State University, estimates the reserve could yield as much as 489 trillion cubic feet of gas. To date, the industry’s production from Pennsylvania, where drilling is most active, is approaching 100 billion cubic feet.
Wastewater from drilling has not threatened plans to develop the nation’s other gas reserves. Brine is injected into deep underground wells in places such as Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, or left in evaporation ponds in arid states such as Colorado and Wyoming.
However, many doubt the hard Appalachian geology is porous enough to absorb all the wastewater, and the climate is too humid for evaporating ponds. That leaves recycling as the most obvious option.
Entrepreneurs are marketing portable systems that distill frack water at the well site.
Also, in southwestern Pennsylvania, Range Resources Corp., one of the gas field’s most active operators, pipes wastewater into a central holding pond, dilutes it with fresh water and reuses it for fracking. Range says the practice saves about $200,000 per well, or about 5 percent.
In addition, a $15 million treatment plant that distills frack water is opening in Fairmont, W.Va. The 200,000 gallons it can treat each day can then be trucked back for use at a new drilling site.
For years, regulators let sewage treatment plants take mining and drilling wastewater under the assumption that rivers would safely dilute. But fracking a horizontal well requires huge amounts of water – up to 5 million gallons per well, compared with 50,000 gallons in some conventional wells.
“In this case,” said John Keeling of MSES Consultants, which designed the Fairmont plant, “dilution is not the solution to pollution.”
—
Vicki Smith reported from Morgantown, W.Va.
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.”
EPA’s Budget Proposal Seeks Efficiencies, Increased Environmental Protection
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2010
EPA’s Budget Proposal Seeks Efficiencies, Increased Environmental Protection
Budget proposal aligned with Administrator Jackson’s key priorities
WASHINGTON – The Obama Administration today proposed a budget of $10 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This budget heeds the president’s call to streamline and find efficiencies in the agency’s operations while supporting the seven priority areas EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson outlined to guide EPA’s work.
“To meet our environmental challenges and ensure fiscal responsibility, we’re proposing targeted investments in core priorities. This budget cuts spending while promoting clean air, land and water, growing the green economy and strengthening enforcement,” said Administrator Jackson. ”The president’s budget is focused on creating the conditions that help American families, communities and small businesses thrive. Clean air, clear water and green jobs are rebuilding the foundations for prosperity in communities across the country.”
Budget Highlights:
Cleaning up communities: This budget includes $1.3 billion to address Superfund sites that may be releasing harmful or toxic substances into the surrounding community. Cleaning up these sites improves communities’ health and allows for these properties to be used for economic development.
In addition, $215 million is provided to clean up abandoned or underused industrial and commercial sites that are available for alternative uses but where redevelopment may be complicated by the presence of environmental contaminants. Revitalizing these once productive properties, known as brownfields, helps communities by removing blight, satisfying the growing demand for land, and enabling economic development. EPA will focus its efforts on area-wide planning and cleanups, especially in under-served and economically disadvantaged communities.
This budget also offers $27 million for EPA’s new Healthy Communities Initiative. This initiative will address community water priorities; promote clean, green, and healthy schools; improve air toxics monitoring in at-risk communities; and encourage sustainability by helping to ensure that policies and spending at the national level do not adversely affect the environment and public health or disproportionally harm disadvantaged communities.
Improving Air Quality: In addition to the funding provided through the Healthy Communities Initiative, this budget includes $60 million to support state efforts to implement updated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). EPA proposed stricter air quality standards for smog and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and will work with states to help them meet those standards in the years ahead.
Building Strong State and Tribal Partnerships: This budget includes $1.3 billion for state and tribal grants. State and local governments are working diligently to implement new and expanded requirements under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. New and expanded requirements include implementation of updated NAAQS and addressing emerging water quality issues such as nutrient pollution. In addition to the $25 million for greenhouse gas permitting and $60 million to support state efforts to implement updated NAAQS, the $1.3 billion for state and tribal grants includes $45 million for states to enhance their water enforcement and permitting programs. In order to help tribes move forward with implementation of environmental programs, $30 million is budgeted for a new competitive Tribal Multi-media Implementation grant program. To further enhance tribal environmental management capabilities, this budget also includes an additional $9 million for Tribal General Assistance Program grants.
Taking Action on Climate Change: This budget contains more than $43 million for additional efforts to address climate change and work toward a clean energy future. EPA will implement the greenhouse gas reporting rule; provide technical assistance to ensure that any permitting under the Clean Air Act will be manageable; perform regulatory work for the largest stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions; develop standards for mobile sources such as cars and trucks; and continue research of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
Protecting America’s Waters: This budget broadens efforts to clean up America’s great waterbodies. It provides $63 million for efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and $17 million for the Mississippi River Basin to respond to non-point source control recommendations of the Nutrients Innovation Task Group and implement recommendations outlined in the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Action Plan.
This budget also invests $3.3 billion to maintain and improve outdated water infrastructure and keep our wastewater and drinking water clean and safe. This is in addition to $6 billion in funding provided to states through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Assuring the Safety of Chemicals: This budget calls for $56 million for chemical assessment and risk review to ensure that no unreasonable risks are posed by new or existing chemicals. This budget also invests $29 million (including $15 million in grants funding) in the continuing effort to eliminate childhood lead poisoning, and $6 million to support national efforts to mitigate exposure to high-risk legacy chemicals, such as mercury and asbestos.
Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice: This budget contains $8 million for environmental justice programs. It targets increased brownfields investments to under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and proposes $9 million for community water priorities in the Healthy Communities Initiative, funds that will help under-served communities restore urban waterways and address water quality challenges. EPA is committed to identifying and addressing the health and environmental burdens faced by communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. This commitment is fulfilled through the agency’s efforts to give people a voice in decisions that impact their lives and to integrate environmental justice in EPA programs, policies and activities.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/budget
CONTACTS:
Enesta Jones (Media Inquiries Only)
jones.enesta@epa.gov
202-564-7873
202-564-4355
Lina Younes (Public Inquiries Only)
younes.lina@epa.gov
202-564-9924
202-564-4355