One family’s life in the gas patch of Bradford County, Pennsylvania
I’ve blogged before about the water contamination linked to natural gas production in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Companies have been fined for contaminating the water there, both groundwater and creeks, but there continue to be reports of contamination.
Today I spoke on the phone to Jodie Simons, a mom in West Burlington Township. Her story is a very upsetting tale of what is happening to some families living in the gas patch. The first well near Jodie’s home was drilled in 2007. Within six months, five of her horses died. According to Jodie, “The vet could not explain this rash of horse deaths in such a short time period.” In 2008, Jodie was pregnant, went into early labor, and tragically lost her baby. Also that year, a number of pheasants, ducks, chickens, and turkeys on her farm died, and a pig went from around 500 pounds to 100 pounds in a two week period, continually vomiting, and then died. Dozens of animals died; only a few are now left. She consulted multiple veterinarians and none could provide an explanation for the symptoms. Jodie now wonders if these problems were related to water quality.
In 2009, a second well was drilled near the Simons’ home. Jodie reports that it was re-fracked in February, 2011. Shortly thereafter, their tap water turned gray and hazy. After the water changed, both Jodie and her young son began getting severe rashes with oozing blisters. Jodie’s 10-year-old daughter had to be taken to the hospital for torrential nosebleeds that would not stop, nausea and severe headaches. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tested the water and found very high levels of methane and other contaminants in the water, but said it was safe to drink. Since the Simons family stopped using any of their water, these symptoms have gone away.
Jodie reports that her water still “stinks awfully; it is a scummy, rotten, nasty smell…”
The oil and gas company that owns the nearby wells originally offered to supply the Simons’ with water for only 3 to 6 months – and only if they signed a document stating that the company did not cause any problems. The Simons family declined to sign. In mid-May, the company began providing bottled water, but there is no fresh water coming out of their faucets. Jodie reports that four neighbors also have water contamination.
Thanks to Jodie Simons for sharing her story.
Amy Mall’s Blog: Posted June 10, 2011
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/one_familys_life_in_the_gas_pa.html
Stacked Fracking Panel Has Public Meeting Monday in Pennsylvania
http://www.ewg.org/release/stacked-fracking-panel-has-public-meeting-monday-pennsylvania
Monday night, June 13, is your chance to speak up on behalf of America’s drinking water and to help protect your land from damage from oil and gas drilling.
Not content with the appointment of a federal panel heavily biased in its favor, industry backers are pulling out all the stops to dominate the panel’s first public meeting on Monday night in western Pennsylvania.
An industry group called Energy in Depth has sent an email enticing people to attend Monday’s meeting, apparently hoping to draw an audience that is friendly to wide-open drilling. The group is offering to pay for transportation to the event, including “airfare (for older folks, especially… and for heads of landowner groups),” hotels and meals.
As an additional inducement, the group’s email originally offered to provide those who attend the meeting with tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates/New York Mets game that day, but a spokesman said later that offer had been withdrawn. Could that be because the game is at the same time as the Department of Energy panel’s meeting?
People with legitimate concerns about the potential harm from drilling activity need to show up, too, to counter this blatant effort to pack the hall for the meeting of the Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.
Gas and oil drilling is nothing new, but today’s drilling relies more heavily than ever on a controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking.” Fracking has been associated with drinking water contamination and property damage across the nation, from Pennsylvania to Wyoming. In one incident that polluted a Colorado creek, nearby groundwater was still contaminated with benzene six years later.
The Energy Department set up its advisory board to make recommendations to improve the safety of fracking. The problem is, six of the seven panel members have direct financial ties to the natural gas and oil industry, and there is no one on the panel representing communities that could be harmed by water contamination or other problems caused by fracking.
Environmental Working Group has gone on record requesting that the panel’s chairman John Deutch step down because he has a conflict of interest: He has received nearly $1.5 million as a board member of both Schlumberger Ltd., one of the world’s three largest hydraulic fracturing companies, and Cheniere Energy, Inc., a Texas based company focused on liquefied natural gas.
The Energy Department panel’s first public meeting is scheduled to be held at Washington Jefferson College, 60 South Lincoln Street, in Washington, Penn., from 7 p.m to 9 p.m. on Monday, June 13. Anyone can speak. We hope you’ll attend the hearing to learn more about fracking in your area and to stand up for your right to know.
Click here for more information about the Energy Department meeting, http://www.shalegas.energy.gov/.
Interested in speaking? Here are some key issues.
• Fracking and its effects on Pennsylvania’s land and water are serious matters that should be discussed by everyone in the community.
• Government advisory panels should be fair and balanced.
• John Deutch cannot be impartial and should step down from the panel.
• An impartial person should lead the panel. It should also be expanded to include local people directly affected by oil and gas drilling and also independent experts.
Click here to read more information about this fracking advisory board, http://ewg.org/release/ewg-chair-dept-energy-natural-gas-panel-must-step….
We hope you can attend this public meeting!
Hundreds at Capitol Rally for Action on Marcellus Drilling
http://www.berksmontnews.com/articles/2011/06/08/tri_county_record/news/doc4def7d0c7c9df756950929.txt?viewmode=fullstory
by Pennsylvania Campaign for Clean Water
Largest Rally in Harrisburg Calls for Drilling Moratorium and Environmental Protections
(Harrisburg) – Hundreds of Pennsylvania residents rallied at the State Capitol today protesting the state legislature’s inaction on Marcellus Shale drilling. The coalition of groups holding the rally called it the largest that Harrisburg has seen to date protesting Marcellus Shale gas drilling.
The coalition called for:
1. A moratorium on further drilling in Pennsylvania until a full cumulative impact analysis on gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is conducted.
2. Improved protections from gas drilling for drinking water supplies and rivers.
3. Ensuring that gas drillers pay their fair share in taxes, and utilizing these funds to restore cuts to the DEP budget.
4. Require full disclosure by gas drillers of all chemicals used.
5. Maintain the moratorium on further leasing of State Forest land for gas drilling.
Groups sponsoring the rally and lobby day included: PA Campaign for Clean Water, Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, PennEnvironment, Gas Truth of Central PA, League of Women Voters of PA, Physicians for Social Responsibility Philadelphia, Marcellus Protest, EARTHWORKS Oil and Gas Accountability Project, Green Party of Philadelphia, Mountain Watershed Association, Responsible Drilling Alliance.
Crystal Stroud, a resident of Towanda, PA, in Bradford County, described her health problems caused by drinking water contaminated with barium and other toxins from nearby gas drilling. “No one is receiving help from our DEP, local, state or federal governments. Our family has become collateral damage! We are just 1 of the 33% failure rate of these gas companies. The failure to keep the residents of Bradford County’s wells contaminant free,” she stated.
Other speakers at the rally included Josh Fox, the creator of the film documentary, GASLAND, and Craig Saunter, a resident of Dimock, PA, where considerable water contamination from drilling has occurred. Also speaking was Jonathan Jeffers, a former worker in Pennsylvania for Bronco Drilling, who described the neglect he saw for health, safety, and the environment while working on gas drilling jobs.
Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director for Clean Water Action, stated, “Drilling has been going on for nearly four years now, but still our state legislature has taken no action to protect residents from harm. Legislators should take note that the crowds in the Capitol calling for action keep getting bigger.” In addition to attending the rally, protesters made over 160 appointments with state representatives and senators, covering almost every corner of the state.
Several legislators attended the rally, many of whom have introduced legislation on the issue. Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) stated, “We are the only state that doesn’t tax them. 70% of Pennsylvanians understand this and want a tax. Last year and half alone, drillers racked up over 1500 violations. A severance tax will hold the industry accountable and ensure that the people of Pennsylvania are not left footing the bill.”
“The people of Pennsylvania are alarmed at the growing list of pollution incidents at gas drilling sites across the state,” said Jeff Schmidt, Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter. “They are here today because they know that Pennsylvania’s gas drilling law and regulations don’t provide enough protection for our health or the environment. We don’t need an industry-dominated Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, whose roll has been to stall the needed reforms. We call on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to immediately enact amendments to our antiquated Oil and Gas Act legislation, such as HB 971, to protect our communities,” he concluded.
“Every day, the gas industry succeeds in making its voice heard, trying to convince us and our decision-makers that Marcellus Shale drilling isn’t the biggest public health and environmental threat to hit Pennsylvania in a generation,” said Erika Staaf with PennEnvironment. “Yet poll after poll tells us that the majority of Pennsylvanians want industry to pay its fair share in taxes and want clean air and clean water. We’re here to make our voices heard and tell our leaders exactly that.”
“The elected officials of Pennsylvania need to listen to the people who live and work here — we need protection from the gas industry’s out of control violations through a statewide drilling permit moratorium,” said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
“Elected officials heard loudly and clearly today that they have a duty to protect communities from the rush to drill,” said Nadia Steinzor, Marcellus Regional Organizer for Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project. “Citizens are simply asking for health and the environment to be given priority over industry profit.”
Autism Experts Urge Reform of U.S. Chemicals Law
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2011/2011-06-08-01.html
WASHINGTON, DC, June 8, 2011 (ENS) – Environmental health and autism experts Tuesday called for reform of the outdated U.S. law regulating chemicals, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.
They warned that the recent sharp rise in autism is likely due, in part, to the cocktail of toxic chemicals that pregnant women, fetuses, babies and young children encounter.
“Lead, mercury, and other neurotoxic chemicals have a profound effect on the developing brain at levels that were once thought to be safe. With some complex combination of insults, little brains reach a tipping point,” warned Donna Ferullo, director of program research at The Autism Society, told reporters on a conference call convened by the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition.
The nationwide coalition represents more than 11 million people, including parents, health professionals, advocates for people with learning and developmental disabilities, reproductive health advocates, environmentalists and businesses.
Today in the United States, about one in every 110 children has autism, a disorder of neural development characterized by abnormalities of social interactions and communication, severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. Boys are affected more than girls – one in every 70 boys will have autism.
Ferullo called autism the “fastest growing developmental disability in the United States.”
“It has increased 600 percent in the last two decades – 1.5 million Americans are living with autism,” she said. “This epidemic within one generation cannot be solely accounted for by genetic causes, or wider diagnostic criteria or even increased awareness.”
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Learn about safe drinking water test
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1595580764/Learn-about-safe-drinking-water-test
Posted Jun 05, 2011 @ 03:39 PM
Palmyra Twp. (Pike) — Homeowners and business people often take it for granted that the water coming out of their tap is safe for drinking. There are a number of potentially harmful substances that can harm your family or customers. These include bacteria, nitrates, iron and manganese. Some of these substances have health effects and others can cause unwanted stains and odors.
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. NO government agency is going to require you to have your water tested.
Penn State Extension in Pike County will be conducting a Safe Drinking Water program on Wednesday, June 29 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the PPL Environmental Learning Center on Route 6 near Hawley. There is a registration fee of $7/person or couple for handouts. Pre-registration, including payment, is required by June 24. Make checks payable to: PSCE Program Account and mail to Penn State Extension, 514 Broad St., Milford, PA 18337.
In addition, Penn State Extension is offering water testing for a discounted fee through Prosser Labs on July 6, 13 & 20. In order to participate in the water testing, you must attend the Safe Drinking Water program to receive your test bottles. Four different sets of water tests will be offered ranging from coliform bacteria/e coli bacteria to a test of 7 other parameters including coliform bacteria. Test bottles need to be returned to the Extension office by 12 noon on July 6, 13 & 20.
For more information on the Safe Drinking Water program or water testing, contact Peter Wulfhorst at the Penn State Extension office at (570)296-3400 or visit http://extension.psu.edu/pike and go to events.
Republican Pileggi proposes severance tax to help seniors
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/republican-pileggi-proposes-severance-tax-to-help-seniors-1.1156511#axzz1OVCl9M3c
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: June 3, 2011
HARRISBURG – A Senate Republican leader wants to levy a state Marcellus Shale severance tax as a way to pay for a freeze on school property taxes for senior citizens.
Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, sent a memo to colleagues seeking support for a “reasonable and competitive” severance tax to generate about $250 million annually for tax relief targeted for individuals 65 and older who have qualified for a homestead exemption for at least five years.
“The tax burden would be shifted from seniors, many of whom are struggling to stay in their homes on a fixed income, to companies involved in natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania,” said Pileggi.
Pileggi has yet to introduce his bill. The senator said the tax will be based on an as of yet unspecified fixed rate applied to both the volume and price of gas.
He considers the proposal revenue neutral since all severance tax revenue would go to a dedicated fund to reimburse school districts for revenue lost due to the tax freeze.
This is a telling point in light of a flap over whether the drilling impact fee legislation sponsored by Pileggi’s colleague, Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, is a tax increase or not.
Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, wrote to senators last week saying the impact fee bill is a tax increase. As a result, he said, any state lawmaker who signed ATR’s anti-tax hike pledge would be violating that pledge if they voted for the impact fee bill.
The ATR pledge contains a provision that a tax increase is acceptable if directly offset by a tax cut of equal size so it becomes revenue neutral. Scarnati countered that his impact fee bill doesn’t increase taxes and will be offset anyway by several state business tax cuts.
Pileggi said he supports Scarnati’s plan to use impact fee revenue to cover the costs of the impact of gas drilling on the environment and local governments.
Another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Nick Miccarelli, R-Ridley Park, said this week he will introduce a severance tax bill to pay for a cut in the state personal income tax.
Pileggi is the most prominent GOP lawmaker yet to call for a severance tax, but Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is steadfast in opposition to the idea. These new severance tax bills are an attempt to give political cover to state lawmakers who signed the ATR pledge, said Jan Jarrett, president of PennFuture, an environmental group. Jarrett said the bills help advance the debate over a severance tax, but won’t get her group’s support because they don’t help the environment and local communities.
“You really need to structure a tax in a way to address the extra costs that drilling imposes on the environment and communities,” she added.
Construction of waterline, $2.5 million penalty in Ivy Park agreement
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/construction-of-waterline-2-5-million-penalty-in-ivy-park-agreement-1.1156956#axzz1OKViizAw
BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: June 4, 2011
The companies responsible for contaminating groundwater in four Lackawanna County municipalities must install a waterline for as many as 500 homes and will be fined $2.5 million, the Department of Environmental Protection announced Friday.
The consent order and agreement with Bostik Inc. and Sandvik Inc. comes six years after officials discovered groundwater contaminated by volatile organic chemicals. The chemicals were traced back to the companies’ facilities in the Ivy Industrial Park in Scott and South Abington townships.
Since then, residents have fought for clean water.
The DEP has worked with Pennsylvania American Water Co. to develop the initial design of a large-scale waterline project in the investigated area, according to the DEP. Bostik and Sandvik will pay $20 million for the project.
The groundwater source will be outside the affected area, and 500 homes will be eligible to connect to the more than 21 miles of water mains. In the area, 218 homes already have carbon treatment units.
Homeowners who connect to the new system would need to abandon their existing wells to eliminate the effects of the contamination continuing to migrate in the geology of the area, according to the DEP.
“We believe this is what’s in the best interest of the community and the company,” said Ray Germann, a spokesman for Bostik.
Installation of the waterline should start next summer and should take nine to 12 months to complete, he said.
In a press release, Sandvik stated that it had worked with the DEP, local communities and other stakeholders to evaluate environmental conditions in the area.
“The company has been diligent in responding to the requests of regulators and the needs of the community during this period, and is pleased to resolve these issues in a productive manner through these agreements with the commonwealth. Sandvik will continue its efforts along with Pennsylvania DEP, Bostik, Inc. and Pennsylvania American Water Co. to establish a new water system for the community.”
The companies have also agreed to reimburse DEP $1.7 million for its investigatory costs through June 2010, along with all future costs related to the site. The agreement with the DEP did not address payments to individual property owners.
In 2005, officials discovered that groundwater near Ivy Industrial Park was contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE. TCE has been known to cause several types of cancer as well as neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity, liver toxicity and kidney toxicity if it is ingested or absorbed through the skin, according to reports issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The investigation, which included sampling more than 500 private wells, determined that levels of TCE and PCE from Bostik and Sandvik had impacted groundwater in parts of Scott, Abington (now Waverly), North Abington and South Abington townships.
A DEP spokeswoman said that Metso Paper USA Inc., another industrial park tenant, did not contribute to the contamination and will not be penalized.
The settlement will be discussed at a public meeting at the Lakeland High School auditorium on Wednesday, July 13, at 6:30 p.m. A 60-day public comment period begins today.
The consent order and agreement and the consent assessment of civil penalty are available for review at DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre by calling 826-5472 to make an appointment. The documents are also available at the municipal buildings in Scott, Waverly, North Abington and South Abington townships.
Comments on the documents may be submitted in writing to Jeremy Miller, DEP Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701.
The documents are also available online at www.depweb.state.pa.us, by clicking on “Regional Resources,” then “Northeast Region.”
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com
DEP suggests stronger drilling rules are needed
http://online.wsj.com/article/APda6b059295ad44818b60955e3e981cef.html
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration is recommending tougher laws to protect drinking water from pollution caused by booming natural gas exploration in Pennsylvania and to allow the state to wield harsher penalties against drilling companies that violate the law.
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer made the recommendations in a letter sent Friday to Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who chairs the governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission.
One recommendation would restrict well drilling within 1,000 feet of a public water supply. Currently, the law requires as little as 100 feet in many cases. Another would clarify the DEP’s authority to revoke or refuse to issue a drilling permit under certain conditions, and allow it to require comprehensive tracking of drilling wastewater that would help the agency more accurately determine wastewater recycling rates.
Krancer also recommended expanding buffer requirements between gas wells and private drinking water wells from 200 feet to 500 feet; boosting per-day penalties for violating the law and well-plugging insurance requirements; and extending a driller’s presumptive liability for pollution or water loss from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet from a gas well.
Many of those recommendations, if not all, have been under consideration in the Legislature since last year, with little action. Some of the bills would provide for stronger protections than the Corbett administration advocates.
The Marcellus Shale formation, which is considered the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir, lies primarily beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio. Pennsylvania is the center of activity, with more than 3,000 wells drilled in the past three years and thousands more planned in the coming years as thick shale emerges as an affordable, plentiful and profitable source of natural gas.
When drilling companies began flocking to Pennsylvania several years ago to exploit the Marcellus Shale formation, they were largely working under laws from the 1980s that never envisioned deep-drilling activity that is combined with high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the recent innovation of horizontal drilling underground.
So far, the Legislature has done little to change that, other than pass a bill to require faster public disclosure of well-by-well gas production data from Marcellus Shale wells and debate the merits of a tax on gas extraction.
Pennsylvania remains the largest gas-drilling state without such a tax and Corbett opposes the imposition of one.
For decades, energy companies have drilled shallow oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. But high-volume fracking involves the use of chemicals and produces millions of gallons of often-toxic wastewater, sparking fresh environmental concerns about the protection of public waterways and wells that provide drinking water to millions of people.
Last year, the Department of Environmental Protection won approval of tougher regulations on drilling safety, chemical disclosure and wastewater disposal and, before that, regulatory approval to increase permit fees so that it could pay the salaries of more inspectors and permitting staff.
But Pennsylvania has left a number of protections undone, some lawmakers say.
For instance, Pennsylvania’s $1,000 per day penalty on drillers for violating state regulations lag many other states. The $25,000 per-company insurance bond that the state requires to plug abandoned wells is out of date, as well, since plugging a single well can cost as much as $100,000.
In April, the DEP asked drilling companies to voluntarily stop taking the wastewater to riverside treatment plants that were ill-equipped to remove all the pollutants from it. The agency has not said whether the companies are complying with the May 19 deadline.
___
Information from: The Times-Tribune, http://thetimes-tribune.com/
Fracking review ordered
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Fracking_review_ordered_05-29-2011.html
Posted: May 29
MICHAEL GORMLEY
NY Governor issues memo following Pa. accident
ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has ordered an expanded environmental review of proposed “hydrofracking” for natural gas in New York after an accident in Pennsylvania caused a well to gush salty, chemically-tainted water for two days.
An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to review and learn any lessons from the April mishap in Pennsylvania’s Bradford County.
The memo dated Friday said the “blowout” raised issues about the controversial technology that need to be evaluated before New York decides whether to allow a major expansion of the potentially lucrative gas-extraction method, which has been assailed by some environmentalists as unsafe.
The memo was from Cuomo’s director of state operations, Howard Glaser, to Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens, a Cuomo appointee.
The April 19 accident in Pennsylvania briefly caused a handful of families living near the well to flee their homes as thousands of gallons of brine flooded across farm fields and entered a stream. Well cappers from Houston had to pump ground-up tires, plastic bits and other rubber material into the well to temporarily seal it.
Well operator Chesapeake Energy said the environmental damage from the spill was minimal, but temporarily suspended operations to investigate what went wrong.
New York’s review will include an on-site inspection by New York officials.
The findings will be part of New York’s environmental evaluation of using hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas from the Marcellus Shale deposit through much of New York’s Southern Tier. The final report is due July 1.
The gas drilling boom has been an economic engine in Pennsylvania, but it has been delayed in New York for the past three years as environmental groups have assailed hydraulic fracturing as a potential hazard to drinking water.
“Fracking” involves shooting huge volumes of water, laced with much smaller amounts of chemicals and sand, thousands of feet underground to release trapped gas. Some of the water then returns to the surface, tainted by substances like barium and salt that it picks up underground. By law, this wastewater must be disposed of deep containment wells or treated before it is released back into the environment.
Industry groups say the process is well regulated and safe.
The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York had asked Cuomo to expedite the state’s review of fracking and allow permitting for gas exploration to proceed.
Could Smog Shroud the Marcellus Shale’s Natural Gas Boom?
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/05/27/27greenwire-could-smog-shroud-the-marcellus-shales-natural-3397.html
By GABRIEL NELSON of Greenwire
Published: May 27, 2011
Since returning to private life, John Hanger, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, has kept busy trying to douse fears that his state’s natural gas boom is contaminating drinking water.
Hanger’s two-year tenure saw the Marcellus Shale, an underground rock formation that runs beneath much of the Northeast, change from a geological oddity into the center of a American drilling renaissance. Under his watch, Pennsylvania scrambled to respond to claims that water supplies are being tainted by the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which a blend of water, sand and chemicals is injected underground to break the shale and release the gas inside.
Hanger, a Democrat who previously led the Pennsylvania-based environmental group PennFuture, left office convinced that the high-profile fracas over fracking is misguided.
Air pollution is more of an Achilles’ heel for drilling in the Northeast, he said last week, pointing to spikes in emissions that have followed natural gas development in other parts of the country.
Thousands of natural gas wells are expected to be drilled in Pennsylvania over the next few years, requiring a fleet of construction equipment, diesel engines and compressor stations. Together, they could be a large new source of smog-forming emissions along the Northeast corridor, much of which still struggles with old air quality standards at a time when U.S. EPA is preparing to make the rules stricter.
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