State expanding water tests for contaminants from drilling
Most treatment facilities unable to remove many pollutants, EPA letter says.
HARRISBURG — Prodded by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state said it is expanding the scope of water tests to screen for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants from the state’s booming natural gas drilling industry.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s acting secretary, Michael Krancer, wrote Wednesday to the EPA to say that he has requested additional testing from some public water suppliers and wastewater treatment facilities.
Those steps, he said, were in the works before the EPA’s regional administrator, Shawn Garvin, sent a March 7 letter asking Pennsylvania to begin more water testing to make sure drinking water isn’t being contaminated by drillers. The state’s requests for additional testing, however, were made later in March, Krancer said.
The tests should check for radium, uranium and the salty dissolved solids that could potentially make drilling wastewater environmentally damaging, according to copies of letters the DEP said it sent to 14 public water authorities and 25 wastewater facilities.
In his letter last month, Garvin said most treatment facilities are unable to remove many of the pollutants in the often-toxic drilling water. Substances of concern, he said, include radioactive contaminants, organic chemicals, metals and salty dissolved solids.
In his letter to Garvin, Krancer seemed to bridle at the perceived suggestion that the state isn’t doing its job keeping up with the drilling industry’s hot pursuit of the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir, the Marcellus Shale.
“Rest assured that well before receiving your letter, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has been focusing on issues relating to natural gas drilling, and prioritizes protecting the environment and public health and safety above all else,” Krancer wrote.
Garvin also had asked the state to re-examine permits previously issued to the treatment plants handling the waste, saying they lacked “critical provisions.” Krancer responded that requirements to monitor for substances of concern will be added to permits upon renewal and where warranted.”
An EPA spokeswoman, Donna Heron, said Thursday that her agency received Pennsylvania’s letter and is reviewing it.
Pennsylvania is the center of Marcellus Shale drilling activity, with more than 2,000 wells drilled in the past three years and many thousands more planned.
Drilling for gas in deep shale deposits is emerging as a major new source of energy that supporters say is homegrown, cheap and friendlier environmentally than coal or oil.
But shale drilling requires injecting huge volumes of water underground to help shatter the rock — a process called hydraulic fracturing. Some of that water then returns to the surface. In addition to producing gas, the Marcellus Shale wells produce large amounts of ultra-salty water tainted with metals like barium and strontium, trace radioactivity and small amounts of toxic chemicals injected by energy companies.
Most big gas states require drillers to dump their wastewater into deep shafts drilled into the earth to prevent it from contaminating surface or ground water. Pennsylvania, however, allows partially treated drilling wastewater to be discharged into rivers from which communities draw drinking water.
Before Garvin’s letter, water suppliers typically tested only occasionally for radium, and it had been years since the utilities drawing from rivers in the affected drilling region had done those tests.
Krancer also said his agency is seeking money to add more water-quality testing stations on Pennsylvania’s rivers. The state already is testing at seven spots on Pennsylvania’s waterways that are downriver from treatment plants that discharge partially treated gas-drilling wastewater, but upriver from public drinking water intakes.
Some Pennsylvania drilling wastewater is reused or trucked out-of-state for disposal underground. Of the wastewater taken to treatment plants in recent months, the great majority went to seven plants that discharge into the Allegheny River, the Mahoning River, the Conemaugh River, the Blacklick Creek, the Monongahela River, the Susquehanna River and the South Fork Ten-mile Creek.
Last month, the DEP said earlier tests from those seven waterways showed no harmful levels of radium, which exists naturally underground and is sometimes found in drilling wastewater that gushes from wells.
Radium that is swallowed or inhaled can accumulate in a person’s bones. Long-term exposure increases the risk of developing several diseases, such as lymphoma, bone cancer, and diseases that affect the formation of blood, EPA said.
April 8, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/State_expanding_water_tests_for_contaminants_from_drilling_04-07-2011.html
State orders drilling halt after 2 wells are polluted in Forest County
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The state Department of Environmental Protection has determined that natural gas has contaminated well water at two homes on private properties within the Allegheny National Forest in Forest County and ordered Catalyst Energy Inc. to halt drilling and hydraulic fracturing at 36 non-Marcellus Shale wells in the area.
The order requires Catalyst, headquartered in Cranberry, to halt all drilling operations on new wells and to conduct tests to determine which of the 22 vertical wells it has already drilled in the Yellow Hammer area of Hickory is causing the water contamination.
The 22 vertical wells already drilled are combination oil and gas wells. Eighteen of those 22 wells have also been “fracked,” a procedure that uses water, chemicals and sand pumped down the well under high pressure to fracture the rock layers and release the oil and gas.
The Catalyst wells are all between 1,500 feet and 3,000 feet deep and extend into the Bradford Group, an upper Devonian oil and gas sands formation containing an estimated 250 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas. The Marcellus Shale is a middle Devonian formation and its wells in the state are usually 5,000 feet to 8,000 feet deep.
Residents of the two homes within 2,500 feet of the wells complained to the DEP in January about odors and cloudy water. Notices of violation were issued to Catalyst on Feb. 10 and March 1 for groundwater contamination.
Freda Tarbell, a DEP spokeswoman, said the DEP’s follow-up investigations confirmed that natural gas had contaminated the water supply at both homes.
Catalyst is required by the March 30 order to immediately provide temporary, whole-house water systems to the affected homes and permanently restore or replace the water supplies by July 1.
Catalyst wells already producing in the area will be allowed to continue operations, Ms. Tarbell said.
Phone calls to Catalyst requesting comment were not returned. Catalyst was incorporated in 1992 and, according to the company’s website, has developed and operates more than 400 oil and gas wells in the state.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11095/1137024-503.stm
Board to hear gas proposal about plans to build Dallas Twp. metering station
DALLAS TWP. – Resident Jane Tolomello plans to attend the Dallas Township zoning hearing tonight to express her concerns about Chief Gathering LLC’s latest proposal to build a natural gas metering station near her home on Fairground Road.
“It’s going to be within feet of my home,” said Tolomello, who owns the Snooty Fox Consignment Shop in Shavertown. “It will be in my community, near my business, by where my daughter goes to school.”
Representatives from Chief Gathering will provide testimony before the three-member zoning board at 7 p.m. in the Dallas Middle School auditorium.
The company applied for special zoning exceptions for the construction of two metering facilities, two flow control buildings, a 100-foot communications tower, a 10-foot flare and an 8,000-gallon mercaptan tank on a site off of Hildebrandt Road, about one-third of a mile from the Dallas School District campus.
In a press release, Chief’s Vice President of Public Affairs Kristi Gittins said the metering facility is an important aspect of transporting the natural gas that flows into the Transco interstate pipeline used to heat homes and businesses.
She said the metering facility needs to be placed near the point of transfer from the Chief pipeline to the Transco line, and the station’s purpose is to measure the quality of the gas.
Earlier this year, Chief submitted plans to the township for the location of a proposed seven-unit compressor station on the Hildebrandt Road site. Parents flooded the Dallas Middle School auditorium in February to express their concerns, which included worries about air and noise pollution.
“It’s toxic,” said Tolomello, who said she’s joined the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition as a result of these developments in Dallas Township. “If this is approved, there could be a lot more industry to this area.”
After listening to the concerns of state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman, and state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, the company announced plans to relocate the compressor station to a “more rural area of Dallas Township.”
“Chief made a commitment and will not build its Luzerne Compressor Station within a mile of Dallas schools,” stated Ted Wurfel, Chief’s vice president of environmental, regulatory and safety affairs.
April 4, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Board_to_hear_gas_proposal_04-03-2011.html
Delaware River basin residents see chance to profit, but those downstream fear pollution
Gas drilling pits North vs. South
PHILADELPHIA — Debate over setting conditions to allow natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin is pitting landowners in Northeastern Pennsylvania who want to profit from the commonwealth’s drilling boom against people downstream who are concerned about the possible environmental impact
The Delaware River Basin Commission, a New Jersey-Pennsylvania agency that oversees withdrawals and water quality in the watershed drained by the 330-mile-long river, proposed regulations in December that would open wide-scale drilling for the first time but with generally stricter rules than in the rest of Pennsylvania. The agency is taking public comments until the middle of the month.
The issue has divided landowners seeking to take advantage of the boom and those concerned about the environment.
Louis Matoushek, for one, is upset that the panel halted production on his land in Wayne County three years ago after a company had already drilled a well.
“They changed the rules in the middle of the game,” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But in Philadelphia about 150 miles downstream, Christopher Crockett, who is in charge of planning for the city’s water department, fears the effect on the drinking water for millions of people in Philadelphia and its suburbs.
“We want to make sure we have the science before the policy,” he said.
Before the commission acted, thousands of acres were leased and seven wells drilled in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but none were fracked — a process of injecting millions of gallons of water into the ground to free the gas.
Environmental advocates had urged the commission to wait for a study to assess the impacts, as New York is doing. The industry, however, urged action, citing the region’s need for an economic boost and the national market for clean-burning, domestic energy.
The commission says the shale areas of the basin, which includes portions of New York, could have 15,000 to 18,000 wells at some point, built on about 2,000 well pads encompassing up to 12,000 acres, plus more land for pipelines and infrastructure.
But 15 million people from Philadelphia to New York use the water, and some pristine areas of the river north of Trenton have been federally designated for extra oversight.
Pennsylvania, which has seen landowners enriched and businesses profit from the portion of the massive Marcellus Shale underneath the commonwealth, is pressing ahead. But Delaware and New Jersey, with no shale and therefore less to gain, have been cautious.
“These are decisions that are going to affect multiple generations,” said Delaware’s Collin O’Mara, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. “It’s better to get it right than to do it fast.”
John Plonski, assistant New Jersey commissioner for water resources and the state’s commissioner on the interstate panel, said New Jersey “has always taken the position that our primary responsibility is to protect the integrity of the Delaware River.”
April 4, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Gas_drilling_pits_North_vs__South_04-03-2011.html
Workshop to train private well owners
Residents of Tioga and surrounding counties will be offered a training workshop on how to properly manage their home wells, springs, or cisterns.
Residents who rely on private water systems for home drinking water can be at risk of drinking contaminated water.
Resource professionals such as Penn State Cooperative Extension, the Pennsylvania Ground Water Association, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency will offer this training from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 14, at the Tokishi Training Center, 124 Nypum Drive, Wellsboro.
Private water systems are unregulated, so landowners need to take the proper measures to ensure that their drinking water is safe for consumption.
This workshop is offered as part of the “Master Well Owner Network,” a program intended to teach volunteers from across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania about proper management of their own private water system.
In return, the volunteers must go out into their local community to educate others about the importance of proper management of private drinking water supplies.
To become part of this network or for more information, please contact Stephanie Clemens at 814-865-2250 or by email at mwon@psu.edu.
Information and a volunteer application can be found at extension.psu.edu/water/mwon. Space is limited and applications will be received by April 23
Williamsport Sun-Gazette
April 3, 2011
http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/562324/Workshop-to-train-private-well-owners.html?nav=5014
Natural gas drilling might not just be an environmental concern
It might hit you in the pocketbook.
Communities and farmers are under mandates to reduce pollutants going into the Chesapeake Bay. The byproducts of drilling also are going into the bay but are largely unaccounted for.
The natural gas companies aren’t going to be held responsible for that. Farmers and communities will be, and they will have to spend more money to get rid of stuff they’re not producing.
In other words, it’s not your fault. But it might be your responsibility.
That’s the argument behind the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s call for a comprehensive study of drilling impacts. The foundation made the pitch at the opening meeting of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, a panel appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett.
It’s not so much about the well-publicized drilling waste discharged into rivers, but rather the myriad other impacts of the industry that, for the most part, get little attention.
With drilling comes a lot of land disturbance and deforestation, which impacts water quality.
And it’s not a matter of drillers flouting regulations, they say. Even if the drilling industry follows existing law to the letter, studies show it has an impact on rivers and streams.
But at the moment, that impact is not part of the equation in plans to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Read more
Federal oversight of fracking in dispute
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey drew jeers from drillers and cheers from environmentalists last month when he launched his latest push to bring hydraulic fracturing under federal oversight.
Depending on one’s perspective, allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the controversial technique would either disrupt the natural gas industry and erect a new regulatory hurdle or provide baseline standards and reassure people who fear that the process can ruin underground supplies of drinking water.
“The bill is designed to make sure that we don’t have problems. I think it’s a very important precaution,” Mr. Casey, D-Pa., said during a recent interview.
Developed more than 60 years ago by oil and gas company Halliburton and used today in all Marcellus Shale wells, hydraulic fracturing is a technique that injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground under high pressure to crack rock and allow trapped natural gas to flow.
Some of the mixture remains underground. And some of the chemicals, although added in relatively small quantities, are harmful.
That toxicity is what scares environmentalists, who wonder exactly what substances drillers are shooting into the earth, whether the fluid can foul drinking water, and if the process is being adequately regulated.
“So far, states have not stepped up to the plate to fill those shoes,” said Jessica Goad, policy fellow at The Wilderness Society.
Mr. Casey’s FRAC Act — Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals — has two components.
One would put hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” under the auspices of the EPA and remove a 2005 congressional exemption — dubbed the “Halliburton loophole” — that prevents the agency from regulating it.
The other would force drillers to reveal publicly all chemicals used in fracking, except for proprietary formulas.
Read more
Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties rank among the unhealthiest in the state
Luzerne ranked only 59th healthiest of the state’s 67 counties, according to the County Health Rankings report issued Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
Schuylkill ranked 56th while Carbon ranked 61st, the report said. The healthiest county in the state, which received the number one ranking, was Chester County.
The nationwide report looks at a variety of factors that contribute to the overall health ranking, including premature death rate, access to healthy foods, income, access to doctors, use of preventative screenings, environmental factors, and health behaviors such as smoking, obesity and alcohol use.
Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon all had higher than state and national rates for smoking, obesity, excessive drinking and motor vehicle crash death rates, the report said.
“It’s hard to lead a healthy life if you don’t live in a healthy community,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The County Health Rankings are an annual checkup for communities to know how healthy they are and where they can improve.”
The numbers didn’t surprise Drums physician Phillip Benyo, who was interviewing candidates for the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton Friday afternoon.
“There’s a lot of blame to go around,” he said. “As physicians, we’re not treating preventative and health issues, instead we’re treating diseases.”
Patients share some of the blame as well, Benyo added.
“We live in an abusive, health-wise, society,” he said, pointing to unwise choices about smoking and food, and neglecting to treat silent diseases such as hypertension and high cholesterol.
Benyo said some people take better care of their cars.
“They take their cars for annual inspections, and our cars can be replaced. We come in last on the list of things to do,” Benyo said.
“Patients and physicians need to join together and grow the boat of wellness,” he said.
Benyo hopes the new medical college will turn out physicians willing to stay in the area, allowing patients greater access to health care, especially preventative measures.
The report showed that people in Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill counties had access to fewer primary care physicians.
Nationally, there is one primary care physician per 631 people, and one for 838 people in Pennsylvania, the report said. In Luzerne County, there is one physician for every 1,027 people; Carbon has one for every 2,121 people and Schuylkill one for every 1,989, the report said.
Linda Thomas-Hemack, a primary care physician and program director for the internal medicine residency at the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, said the shortage of doctors is “an impending disaster” for the community.
“Access is a pillar of the population’s health,” she said.
To read the report, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org/pennsylvania.
Staff writer Erin Nissley contributed to this report.
By KELLY MONITZ (Staff Writer)
Published: April 2, 2011
http://standardspeaker.com/news/area-s-health-among-state-s-worst-1.1126997
DEP top-down directive on drilling violations draws criticism
HARRISBURG – A new top-down directive from the Department of Environmental Protection on handling Marcellus Shale drilling enforcement actions and violations is drawing sharp criticism from some lawmakers in Northeastern Pennsylvania and calls for more explanation from others.
Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, offered the strongest response to the directive that requires regional DEP officials and inspectors to forward Marcellus enforcement orders involving a fine, remedial action or the initial notice of violation to top officials in Harrisburg for approval.
“This ‘signoff policy’ as it has been reported, is impractical and unacceptable,” said Baker, a member of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. “In my district, drilling is taking place in areas that are environmentally sensitive and in places close to critical watersheds. As more inspectors are deployed to monitor more drilling sites, I want to ensure there is comparable thoroughness to the inspections and consistent application of penalties for violations. Nothing in that suggests the need for any sort of upper-level clearance process.”
Sen. John Blake, D-Archbald, said the directive could hamper the ability of DEP inspectors to issue timely notices of violations to drilling companies. He and several other senators questioned state emergency management officials about the policy Thursday during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
“The inspectors have an obligation to proceed on what they see as an (environmental) threat and do so in a timely manner,” added Blake.
Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Hughestown, a member of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, is troubled by the directive.
“The people in the field have the best capacity to make a judgement whether there is a violation,” said Carroll.
Sen. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, ranking Democrat on the Senate Environmental Committee, said he’s concerned that just the Marcellus Shale industry is singled out for a streamlined process. The DEP directive requires regional office directors and the director of the bureau of oil and gas management to seek approval for actions involving Marcellus violations from two top agency deputies with final clearance from DEP Secretary-designate Michael Krancer.
This is an effort to ensure that DEP acts consistently in how it enforces Marcellus Shale violations in the different and geographically separate regions of the state where deep drilling occurs, said DEP spokeswoman Katherine Gresh in the agency’s southwest regional office in Pittsburgh.
DEP oil and gas inspectors have traditionally been based in western Pennsylvania, the location of shallow oil and gas drilling as well as a Marcellus boom area. The development of the Marcellus boom area in Northeast Pennsylvania led to the recent opening of a DEP oil and gas office in Scranton.
Gresh said the centralized review is being done on a trial basis and is not yet a permanent policy.
“In order to do our job more effectively and to ensure we are protecting the environment, we must have consistency,” she added.
She said there are cases of well operators carrying out the same practices in separate boom areas and getting notices in one area yet not the other.
However, the Sierra Club, an environmental group, said the directive will “handcuff the environmental cops on the beat.”
“At Pennsylvania well pads, contaminated water can be spilled, workers can be injured and killed from accidents, and local emergency personnel will be put at risk because the notices of violations are not being issued promptly,” said chapter director Jeff Schmidt.
Meanwhile, a bill requiring DEP to post inspection reports of drilling enforcement actions online has been sponsored by Sen. Kim Ward, R-Greensburg. Supported by Senate Republican leaders, the measure would also double civil penalties for drilling well violations under the state oil and gas act to $50,000, plus $2,000 for each day a violation continues. The current penalty is $25,000; plus $1,000 for each day.
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: April 1, 2011
http://citizensvoice.com/news/dep-top-down-directive-on-drilling-violations-draws-criticism-1.1126501#axzz1INGIhedk
Sen. Casey’s FRAC Act – full-text of the legislation
Sen. Casey’s FRAC Act – full-text of the legislation
WASHINGTON, April 2, 2011 — Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pennsylvania has introduced the bill (S.587), legislation that would “amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to repeal a certain exemption for hydraulic fracturing.”
The bill, introduced on March 15, was co-sponsored by Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Maryland, Dianne Feinstein, D-California, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-New York, Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, Bernard Sanders, I-Vermont, Charles E. Schumer, D-New York and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island. It was referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
A copy of the full-text of the legislation follows:
S.587
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to repeal a certain exemption for hydraulic fracturing, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act’ or the ‘FRAC Act’.
SEC. 2. REGULATION OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING.
(a) Underground Injection- Section 1421(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)) is amended by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following:
‘(1) UNDERGROUND INJECTION-
‘(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘underground injection’ means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection.
‘(B) INCLUSION- The term ‘underground injection’ includes the underground injection of fluids or propping agents pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations relating to oil or gas production activities.
‘(C) EXCLUSION- The term ‘underground injection’ does not include the underground injection of natural gas for the purpose of storage.’.
(b) Disclosure- Section 1421(b) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘(4) DISCLOSURES OF CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS-
‘(A) IN GENERAL- A person conducting hydraulic fracturing operations shall disclose to the State (or to the Administrator, in any case in which the Administrator has primary enforcement responsibility in a State), by not later than such deadlines as shall be established by the State (or the Administrator)–
‘(i) before the commencement of any hydraulic fracturing operations at any lease area or a portion of a lease area, a list of chemicals intended for use in any underground injection during the operations (including identification of the chemical constituents of mixtures, Chemical Abstracts Service numbers for each chemical and constituent, material safety data sheets when available, and the anticipated volume of each chemical to be used); and
‘(ii) after the completion of hydraulic fracturing operations described in clause (i), the list of chemicals used in each underground injection during the operations (including identification of the chemical constituents of mixtures, Chemical Abstracts Service numbers for each chemical and constituent, material safety data sheets when available, and the volume of each chemical used).
‘(B) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY- The State (or the Administrator, as applicable) shall make available to the public the information contained in each disclosure of chemical constituents under subparagraph (A), including by posting the information on an appropriate Internet website.
‘(C) IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE IN CASE OF MEDICAL EMERGENCY-
‘(i) IN GENERAL- Subject to clause (ii), the regulations promulgated pursuant to subsection (a) shall require that, in any case in which the State (or the Administrator, as applicable) or an appropriate treating physician or nurse determines that a medical emergency exists and the proprietary chemical formula or specific chemical identity of a trade-secret chemical used in hydraulic fracturing is necessary for medical treatment, the applicable person using hydraulic fracturing shall, upon request, immediately disclose to the State (or the Administrator) or the treating physician or nurse the proprietary chemical formula or specific chemical identity of a trade-secret chemical, regardless of the existence of–
‘(I) a written statement of need; or
‘(II) a confidentiality agreement.
‘(ii) REQUIREMENT- A person using hydraulic fracturing that makes a disclosure required under clause (i) may require the execution of a written statement of need and a confidentiality agreement as soon as practicable after the determination by the State (or the Administrator) or the treating physician or nurse under that clause.
‘(D) NO PUBLIC DISCLOSURE REQUIRED- Nothing in subparagraph (A) or (B) authorizes a State (or the Administrator) to require the public disclosure of any proprietary chemical formula.’ For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
US Fed News
April 2, 2011
http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/news_display/1391001461.html