Protect Your Own Drinking Water in Pike County the Poconos

Pennsylvania Well Owners Residents Submit Data to the Citizens Database

For 2014 – ROA Number – 2  – Citizens Database

For the past 20+ years, Mr. Brian Oram has been conducting water quality analysis, baseline testing, and conducting education programs for the citizens of Pennsylvania.  Even though our groundwater resources are one of our most important assets, there is limited data on the quality and quantity of regional groundwater. While working at Wilkes University, he helped establish the formation of a “Citizen” Groundwater and Surfacewater Database.  Even though he no longer work full-time at Wilkes University, he is working with the Keystone Clean Water Team,   Dr. Brian Redmond,  and Dr. Sid Halsor on the development, formation, and creation of this community tool.  This regional  water quality database is an unbiased warehouse of water quality data that is supported by fellow “Citizens” of this Commonwealth.   After reviewing this information, we would hope you will take action and support the PA Citizens Groundwater and Surfacewater Database and Contribute to the PA Private Well Owner and Watershed Survey, but if you outside of Pennsylvania we will still provide assistance with reviewing your data and maintain a record.  For private well owners and water systems outside of Pennsylvania, please participate in this survey.

The database will provide information about the current state of groundwater and surface water quality and serve as a basis for monitoring impacts related to Marcellus gas drilling and other activity in our region.  The purpose of our database is twofold. We will use it to help us better understand the current and future groundwater and surface water quality for the region. The database will also be used to generate educational materials relating to regional water quality. The database is for research and education purposes, and will not be sold or used for any commercial purpose. The database is managed by representatives of the Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences Department at Wilkes University, i.e., Dr. Brian Redmond and Dr. Sid Halsor.  To protect your privacy, the research database file will only include the testing results, zip code, general information on well or water source, and the latitude and longitude of the sampling site. Your name, address, or other contact information will NOT be included within the database.

To learn More – go to Citizen Science and the Citizen Groundwater/ Surfacewater Database– The Concept. 

You can send a copy of your certified testing data- It is FREE!

In order to participate in this process, please do the following:

1. Information Document about the Program (Download a copy – fill it out -Please Keep for Your Reference).
2. Download a copy of the Consent Form to release to the Database and Sign and Return.
3. Send a copy of your certified laboratory testing results with Chain-of-Custody Documents.
4. Mail this information to:

Mr. Brian Oram, PG
Keystone Clean Water Team
15 Hillcrest Drive
Dallas, PA 18612
Questions  – call (570) 335-1947
or send a pdf version by email to bfenviro@ptd.net.

Volunteer

We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.  We look for people that can forward solid articles, help coordinate local education efforts, and more.  Become part of the Keystone Clean Water Team!.

Everything we do began with an idea.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !

For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.  Waiting on Official Name change to the Keystone Clean Water Team by the IRS.  Unsolicited donations are appreciated.

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization).

Fourteenth Year of Being Recognized as a Groundwater Guardian Community

Pennsylvania  GROUNDWATER GUARDIANS Recognized

The Carbon County Groundwater Guardians recently received national recognition from the Nebraska-based Groundwater Foundation, which designated the county as a “Groundwater Guardian Community.” This is the 14th (fourteenth) consecutive year the local group has received the award. To celebrate that recognition we announced our Free Well and Spring Testing and Screening Program and officially announcing the new name of the organization will be the Keystone Clean Water Team.  The Team will maintain the goals of the Groundwater Guardian Program and will include an objective to provide information and technical support to aid in the formation of new local Groundwater Guardian Organizations throughout Pennsylvania.

We also announcing our official ROA’s for 2014.  We have three  primary ROA or objects for 2014.  These include:

1. Providing fact based information without bias or spin. This information will be provided through our Web-Portal and Facebook Account or by joining the PA Groundwater Forum.
2. PA Groundwater Education, Private Well Owner Workshops, and assisting with the review of data being submitted to the PA Citizens Groundwater and Surfacewater Database in PA.
3. Groundwater and Surfacewater are connected.  Therefore, we will highlight key issues related to watershed management, riparian zones, sourcewater protection, and more.

“The greatest threat to our groundwater and water supply is lack of awareness and misinformation,” said Brian Oram, manager of the Keystone Clean Water Team and Carbon County Groundwater Program.   He explains that misinformation results in the support of efforts that ultimately do not solve the primary problems.   The organization, Oram said, “is a non-profit group designed to encourage citizen involvement in groundwater protection at the local level and to provided fact-based information on multiple topics”.

With the receipt of the Groundwater Guardian Community national award,  we are proud to be recognized and we hope to afford conducting a small celebration to promote this effort and the recent changes to the organization.  We would also like to recognize the new members for the board.   The members of the board include Mr. Rick Grant, Dr. Marleen Troy, Mrs. Susan Gallagher, Mr. Greg Sorber, and Mr. Brian Oram.   We also like to thank the effort and leadership of Mr. Frank Waksmunski.

Volunteer

We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.  We look for people that can forward solid articles, help coordinate local education efforts, and more.  Become part of the Keystone Clean Water Team!.

Everything we do began with an idea.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !

For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.  Waiting on Official Name change to the Keystone Clean Water Team by the IRS.  Unsolicited donations are appreciated.

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization).

Pleasantville man Indicted Falsely Claiming to Plug a Well

Pleasantville man indicted in environmental case

A Pleasantville man was indicted Tuesday on charges he violated federal law by falsely claiming amid an injection-well-permitting process that he had plugged abandoned Elk County oil wells when he had not.   The person, Mr. Wright (edit since is only charged and indicted), age 44, faces three felony charges of “false writing or document to the government” stemming from events that occurred between September 2009 and April 2011, the government said.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. Wright remains free while awaiting arraignment. According to the indictment filed by a federal grand jury sitting in Erie, Pleasantville-based S & T Services and Supply Inc. contracted with ARG Resources Inc. to plug abandoned oil wells so that ARG would be in compliance with its injection-well-permitting process under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Wright was then hired by S & T Services to perform the well plugging. The government charges that Wright filed three false Certificates of Well Plugging claiming he had properly plugged three Elk County abandoned oil wells when he had not. The Environmental Protection Agency then relied on those certificates while issuing permits for Class II injection wells, the government said. Fluids associated with oil and natural gas drilling, including brine, are deposited in Class II injection wells. The approval process for the injection wells in question required all wells within a quarter-mile of the injection well site to have been plugged, the government said.

“When individuals knowingly submit false reports or data to the government as alleged in this case, our ability to protect public health and the environment is undermined,” said David G. McLeod Jr., special agent in charge of the EPA’s criminal enforcement program for mid-Atlantic states. “Anyone thinking about submitting false information should seriously consider today’s indictment. EPA and its partner agencies will not hesitate to seek prosecution of those who violate our nation’s environmental laws.” The EPA, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Forest Service investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini.”

LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNthompson.

Link:

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140213/NEWS02/302119430/Pleasantville-man-indicted-in-environmental-case&template=printart

My question to Lisa Thompson

1. How was this discovered???
2. Clearly demonstrates that Safe Drinking Water Act in Play in PA.
Notified of this by: Laurie Barr – SaveourstreamsPA-www.saveourstreamspa.org

Shalefield Stories: Frontlines of Fracking Tell their Story to the Country

Shalefield Stories: Residents on the Frontlines of Fracking Tell their story to the country

Philadelphia, PA — A newly released booklet, compiled by the citizen’s group Friends of the Harmed, is being released nationwide to make the case why fracking should not be expanded into other states.  The booklet, called Shalefield Stories, which PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is helping to present, recounts stories of families living with illness, water contamination and damage to their livelihood—even as the current administration advocates to carry-on, full steam ahead, with fracking.

“Behind the alarming numbers that outline fracking’s environmental impacts, there are real people whose lives have been gravely impacted by these polluting practices,” said Kristen Cevoli, Fracking Program Director for PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center. “These are their stories, and it is our responsibility to heed their words of warning on fracking.”

People recalling their experiences with fracking damage in Shalefield Stories include:

• Judy Armstrong Stiles of Bradford County, Pa., who spoke of the barium and arsenic that was found in her drinking water, and then in her blood, after Chesapeake began drilling on her land;
• June Chappel of Washington County, Pa., who lived with a 15 million gallon fracking waste pit just 200 feet from her house; and
• Terry Greenwood of Washington County PA, who lost 11 head of cattle after fracking fluid contaminated a pond and field on his farm.

Shalefield Stories was compiled by individual residents in Pennsylvania and is being released in a number of events across the country to highlight the tragedies that have impacted people in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia from growing amounts of shale gas drilling.

“The natural gas industry has stolen our land, polluted our streams and air, made our family and animals ill, and destroyed our peaceful way of life,” said David and Linda Headley, residents of Fayette County, PA in the report. “We want safer extraction, more concern for the environment, and accountability for the industry.”

One of the common themes running through Shalefield Stories is how people have become sick living on the frontlines of fracking.  In Bradford County, PA, shortly after drilling began in 2010, the Stiles family experienced a series of unexplained health problems, from extreme rashes that caused their skin to peel, stomach aches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and seizures.    An independent water test revealed dangerous levels of lead, methane, barium, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals in family’s tap water. Blood tests revealed barium and arsenic. Further testing revealed radon in the air, and radium and uranium in the water.

The toxic substances used in fracking fluid and wastewater have been linked to a variety of negative and serious health effects, such as cancer, endocrine disruption, and neurological and immune system problems.

“The only transparent part of this industry is the toxic contamination that it’s doing to our environment and to our democracy” stated Briget Shields of Friends of the Harmed, “This one of the reasons we put Shalefield Stories together – to expose what these drilling companies are doing to our families and communities.”

PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center presented Shalefield Stories today, as further mounting evidence of the dangerous and dirty practice of fracking in the state of Pennsylvania.

“For anyone across the nation who doubts the damage of dirty drilling, all they have to do is look to the nightmare unfolding in Pennsylvania. We have known this truth for some time. But now we are hearing it from the source, from the very people living on the frontlines of fracking,” concluded Cevoli. “We urge our decision-makers in Harrisburg to heed the warnings of their own constituents who have had to live with the consequences of dirty drilling, and take swift action to close the door on this dangerous practice.”

On the federal level, last summer the Obama administration received more than a million comments urging for much stronger protections from fracking for national forests and national parks. In addition, Rep. Matt Cartwright (PA) has introduced CLEANER (H.R. 2825) — a bill to close the loophole exempting oil and gas waste from the nation’s hazardous waste law.

Reference/Comment- Characteristics of Wastes  (I do agree that the states should be regulating under the Solid Waste Regulations- PA does due this already)!

“What experiences like these show is that states are not protecting people from this dirty drilling,” said Cevoli, of PennEnvironment. “It’s time for Washington to step in; ultimately they need to ban fracking in order to protect our environment and public health. They can start by barring fracking in and around our national parks and national forests, and closing the loopholes that exempts fracking from core provisions of our nation’s bedrock environmental and public health laws.”

For more information- Because of the size of the document (18 mb) and the unclear copyright provisions (18 mb) is appears the document may be available for free from Penn Environmental.

Personal Comments

1. I think it is a document that must be reviewed, please obtain a copy, review, and fact check.
2. I wish the authors provided more historic detail where predrilling testing was actually present and available.  Many of the problems or unknowns created by the lack of proper baseline testing.  A little more fact checking would have been nice.
3. I wish the authors went a little deeper that just listing cases, but did the follow through and remove claims that were later to be determined not to be related to natural gas development.  This makes the larger document suspect and takes away from the individuals that had an impact from spill or disturbance during the drilling problem.
4.Again -the document does that same as all the other posts – takes about the stuff that was found in the water, but really does not go into the details on pre-drilling levels, post-drilling levels, and what the levels really mean.  Please see the Well by Well Analysis for Dimock.
5. We have been working on groundwater and private well issues for a long time, it is not just about the documented presence, but the concentration and other information is critical.
6. PA residents can submit their data to the Citizens Database (In Development)
7. Impacts to private well and groundwater is NOT an issue that should be used as part of environmental spin.  There are real problems that require real solutions.  Many citizens need to understand what happened, how to fix, and how to protect their interest.

Volunteer

We seek new people at all skill levels for a variety of programs. One thing that everyone can do is attend meetings to share ideas on improving CCGG, enabling us to better understand and address the concerns of well owners.

Everything we do began with an idea.

We realize your time is precious and the world is hectic. CCGG’s volunteers do only what they’re comfortable with. It can be a little or a lot.  Get YOUR WATER Tested – Discounted Screening Tests !

For more information, please go to CCGG’s About Page or contact us.

Carbon County Groundwater Guardians is a 501(c)(3) IRS approved nonprofit, volunteer organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.  Unsolicited donations are appreciated.

Help the Organization and Get Your Water Tested or Order the Private Well Owner Guide (proceeds benefit This Organization).