Pa. citizens have constitutional right to clean air, pure water
JOHNSTOWN — “We have met the enemy and they is us,” said the comic character Pogo.
Ed Smith
Both political parties sponsored candidates for governor who accepted campaign money from the gas drilling industry – an industry they would be required to regulate if elected.
The Republican candidate, Tom Corbett, received more than $1 million from 15 or more gas drillers and was elected. He then appointed an owner of a drilling company to head his transition team and has appointed his own man as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.
He has said he intends to reopen state forests and parks to more gas drilling, reversing the decision of his predecessor. The DEP’s website says that the department wants to be a “partner” with those it regulates. (Imagine an IRS examiner telling a taxpayer he wants to be a “partner,” or the building inspector telling the building contractor, whose work he inspects, that he wants to be a “partner.”)
Pennsylvania is said to be the only state that does not tax the gas drilling industry, the only state that permits gas drilling frack waste (said to be one of the most dangerous substances on Earth) to go into municipal sewage treatment plants – that cannot treat the highly toxic rock-dissolving chemicals and acids – which is then discharged to rivers and streams, and is anticipating more than 50,000 new gas wells in the next 20 years.
People of both parties must demand more than simply victory at the polls. Pennsylvania deserves better. Political leaders and the political process have failed to provide ethical, responsible government.
The New York Times, in a recent Sunday front page story titled “Regulation Lax as Gas Well’s Tainted Water Hits Rivers,” reveals that Environmental Protection Agency scientists warn that drilling waste is a threat to drinking water in Pennsylvania. The Times has learned that the level of radioactivity in frack wastewater is many hundreds or thousands times the maximum allowed by federal standards for drinking water, and that there is no testing for radioactivity at water treatment plants or sewage treatment plants.
Drinking water intakes are often downstream from sewage treatment plants.
The Times calls Pennsylvania “ground zero” and said the state is “overwhelmed and under-prepared.” The Times quotes Corbett’s reason for not taxing the drilling industry, “Regulation (of the gas drilling industry that has been charged with polluting wells, streams, rivers and water tables) has been too aggressive.”
The governor’s webpage lists housing, family services, jobs, economic development, education and senior care – all of which are valid concerns but none of which are constitutional law requirements of the governor’s office.
Environmental protection is the only constitutional mandate of the governor, and it is omitted from the webpage.
Pennsylvania is one of four states that have an Environmental Bill of Rights adopted as amendments to their constitutions. The others are Illinois, Montana and Hawaii.
Pennsylvania’s Environmental Bill of Rights was approved by bipartisan majority vote of two successive sessions of the Legislature and was overwhelmingly approved by the citizens. It became law on May 18, 1971. Gas drilling with fracking is the biggest environmental threat since.
Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As Trustees of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
This amendment was adopted because Pennsylvania citizens, who still live with the mining impact of 100 years ago, believed that destruction of the environment was an unacceptable price for economic gain. It still is. The intent of the amendment was to prevent environmental harm – not measure and manage it.
When Corbett took the oath of office on Jan. 18, 2011, and became the 46th governor of Pennsylvania, he said, “I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.”
As a lawyer and former attorney general, he understands the oath and duty. So do legislators and judges.
John C. Dernbach, a professor at Widener University’s School of Law and constitutional researcher, points out that Pennsylvania’s environmental constitutional amendment makes environmental protection part of the constitutional purpose of state government. The environment is given the same legal protection afforded to individual property rights and, balanced against those rights, is directed toward environmentally sustainable development.
The public trust part obliges the state to conserve and maintain public natural resources for the benefit of all people. The state is obligated to ensure that consideration and protection of constitutional values concerning the environment are made part of all state decision-making.
Constitutional law is there to prevent environmental degradation.
State officials, especially the governor, have a moral, ethical, legal and fiduciary responsibility, as trustees of state resources, to protect those resources for the beneficiaries – and that is the highest duty under the law.
Pennsylvania citizens, and future generations, are the beneficiaries – not foreign gas drilling companies, their stockholders or those they fund. A fiduciary is legally bound to act within the law in the best interests of the beneficiaries. Citizens are entitled to a state government that accepts, as its first responsibility, the duty to carry out constitutional law.
Natural resources are the common property of all the people, now and forevermore. The governor’s legal constitutional duty is to conserve and maintain those resources for all – not just for the gas drilling industry.
Pennsylvania is not for sale.
March 21, 2011
Ed Smith of Jackson Township is a retired city and county manager.
http://tribune-democrat.com/editorials/x449496875/Pa-citizens-have-constitutional-right-to-clean-air-pure-water
Natural gas tax could hurt Pa
Gov. Tom Corbett sloughed off a poll Thursday that shows Pennsylvanians opposed to his steep education funding cuts and in favor of taxing the natural gas industry, arguing the tax would not end state budget woes but could alienate “a cornerstone of the future.”
“We didn’t campaign based on polls; we’re not governing based on polls,” Corbett said during a news conference after an appearance at the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not what we were elected to do.”
Corbett opposes the natural gas severance tax and his proposed 2011-12 budget cuts funding for public schools, higher education, public libraries and other education-related entities by $1.5 billion, or 15 percent.
A Franklin & Marshall College poll released Wednesday showed more than three-fifths of residents favor taxing natural gas production while more than three quarters oppose the education cuts.
Critics of Corbett’s budget argue a natural gas tax would not chase away the industry because Pennsylvania is the only state with no local or state severance tax and companies will not leave billions of dollars in potential profits in the ground.
But Corbett said he fears the industry will transfer gas well-drilling equipment and money for investment to other states where severance taxes on gas extraction might be lower if Pennsylvania imposes a severance tax on gas.
“It’s important to get this industry rooted in Pennsylvania,” he told reporters.
“I want them building their headquarters here,” he said during his speech to about 50 chamber members.
Corbett specifically defended the higher education cuts, which Penn State University President Graham Spanier has said could lead to higher tuition and closing of some Penn State satellite campuses.
“It’s Spanier that’s taking the fight to the students,” Corbett said. “He’s the one that, when hearing the budget, immediately said, ‘We’re going to put this on the backs of the students,’ where he’s been putting it the entire time.”
Over the last decade, Penn State has received $3.5 billion in state money while more than doubling tuition, the governor said.
“Who’s putting it on the back of the students?” he said.
Corbett said the painful cuts are necessary because of the $4.3 billion budget deficit he inherited from Gov. Ed Rendell, whose natural gas tax proposal, he noted, would have produced only $170 million next year.
“I think people lose sight of that,” he said of the inherited deficit. “That’s what I can’t lose sight of.”
Corbett reminded the chamber audience his budget is only a proposal and said he would listen to amendments, but said the bottom line for spending will be his proposed $27.3 billion.
“The final number of spending will not be above $27.3 billion or I will not sign the budget,” he said.
Corbett dismissed the argument that he did not ask businesses and corporations to sacrifice in his budget.
“First off, businesses and corporations have been sacrificing,” he said. “Their business has been so far down that they haven’t been able to employ people. … I’m not sure what you mean by them sacrificing. Does that mean more taxes? Well, you know where I am on more taxes.”
Corbett pointed to the elimination in his budget of legislative initiative grants – legislators’ money for special projects – that often went to companies.
Corbett’s budget reduces funding for the Department of Economic and Community Development – the source of many grants and loans for corporate and business development by $114 million, or more than a third of its 2010-2011 level. Much of that was money provided by one-time federal economic stimulus money.
“We have many corporations that come to us that are always asking us for more money,” the governor said. “We’re going to look at those very carefully. We have to reduce the spending there. And we have to let the free enterprise system work.”
Corbett told the chamber audience no one should be surprised that he opposes raising taxes because he promised that while campaigning for the office.
“I came straight out with what I said I’m going to do,” he said.
Corbett said the $20 million in funding that Rendell promised for renovating Lackawanna County remains under review. He declined to say if there is reason to think he would not approve the money.
“I’ve been so busy with this budget, that’s one that I haven’t really sat down and looked at,” he said.
Corbett also said he will name a transportation task force to examine ways of paying for transportation projects and mass transit within 30 days.
March 18, 2011
by Borys Krawczeniuk (Staff Writer)
bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
http://citizensvoice.com/news/corbett-natural-gas-tax-could-hurt-pa-1.1120478#axzz1GxRsqoZJ
Frack Water Safety Debated
Bill to require drillers to disclose chemicals goes before Congress
WHEELING – Federal legislators Robert Casey and Diana DeGette believe hydraulic fracturing may contaminate drinking water during the natural gas drilling process.
But Marcellus Shale Coalition President Kathryn Klaber said Congress has no business regulating drilling via the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act.
The bill, commonly known as the FRAC Act, was introduced by U.S. Sen. Casey, D-Pa., and Congresswoman DeGette, D-Colo., in each chamber this week. The legislation is similar to a bill of the same name that died last year.
“Pennsylvanians have a right to know the chemicals used in fracking that could make their way into drinking water and other water sources,” said Casey.
“The FRAC Act takes necessary but reasonable steps to ensure our nation’s drinking water is protected, and that as fracking operations continue to expand, communities can be assured that the economic benefits of natural gas are not coming at the expense of the health of their families,” added DeGette.
The bill’s sponsors say the FRAC Act would:
• Require disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking, but not the proprietary chemical formula. This would be similar to how a soft drink producer must reveal the ingredients of their product, but not the specific formula;
• Repeal a provision added to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting the industry from complying with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Some anti-fracking advocates have commonly referred to this 2005 provision as the “Halliburton Loophole.”
The act would also provide power to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to require drillers to have an employee, knowledgeable in responding to emergency situations, present at the well at all times during the exploration or drilling phase.
Klaber, though, said state officials are best equipped to regulate fracking and drilling. However, the West Virginia Legislature did not adopt proposed regulations for natural gas drilling – including chemical disclosures for fracking – in the recently concluded regular session.
“Because of tight regulations and laws in place, coupled with the commitment from industry to protect the environment, there’s never been a single case of groundwater contamination associated with fracturing …,” Klaber said.
Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth, went further than Klaber, saying the FRAC Act is “based on fundamentally incorrect information,” noting the Safe Drinking Water Act was never used to regulate fracking.
“Its backers say it’s about forcing companies to disclose the composition of the … solution that’s not water and sand, even though just about every state regulatory agency in the country will attest that such information is already available,” Fuller added.
Officials with Chesapeake Energy said about 99.5 percent of the 5.6 million gallons of fluid used to frack a typical well consists of water and sand.
However, if 0.5 percent of the 5.6 million gallons used for a normal well consists of materials other than water and sand, that means 28,000 gallons of chemicals found in products such as antifreeze, laundry detergent and deodorant are pumped deep into the ground at high pressure for each fracking job the company performs.
According to Chesapeake, the company’s most common fracking solution contains 0.5 percent worth of chemicals. These include:
• hydrochloric acid – found in swimming pool cleaner, and used to help crack the rock;
• ethylene glycol – found in antifreeze, and used to prevent scale deposits in the pipe;
• isopropanol – found in deodorant, and used to reduce surface tension;
• glutaraldehyde – found in disinfectant, and used to eliminate bacteria;
• petroleum distillate – found in cosmetics, and used to minimize friction;
• guar gum – found in common household products, and used to suspend the sand;
• ammonium persulfate – found in hair coloring, and used to delay the breakdown of guar gum;
• formamide – found in pharmaceuticals, and used to prevent corrosion of the well casing;
• borate salts – found in laundry detergent, and used to maintain fluid viscosity under high temperatures;
• citric acid – found in soft drinks, and used to prevent precipitation of metal;
• potassium chloride – found in medicine and salt substitutes, and used to prevent fluid from interacting with soil;
• sodium or potassium carbonate – found in laundry detergent, and used to balance acidic substances.
March 17, 2011 – By CASEY JUNKINS
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/553099/Frack-Water-Safety-Debated.html?nav=515
Bill regulating fracking draws mixed reaction
Legislation introduced Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to regulate aspects of natural gas drilling provoked mixed reactions from environmental groups and the industry.
The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals — or FRAC — Act “would increase disclosure and regulation of chemicals that could enter Pennsylvania’s drinking water supply,” according to a statement from the senator.
“We think the FRAC Act is a great first step,” said Jessica Ennis, legislative associate for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm. “I think it would put more accountability into the drilling process.”
Drillers, meanwhile, oppose the attempt to bring hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — under federal regulation.
“This is really a Washington solution in search of a problem,” said Travis Windle, spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition. “This is something the states ably, aggressively and effectively regulate every day.”
Fracking, a fundamental step in Marcellus Shale drilling, involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground under high pressure to break apart rock and aid in releasing trapped natural gas.
Congress exempted fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005.
The bill was one of three Mr. Casey introduced Tuesday pertaining to natural gas drilling. A companion bill to the FRAC Act was introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
March 16, 2011
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11075/1132238-113.stm
Events at Lehigh Gap Nature Center
There are several events and volunteer days coming up at Lehigh Gap Nature Center. Some of the programs require REGISTRATION. Read on.
March 26 — Spring Clean-up. 9:00 a.m. to noon. This is a big volunteer day for working on lots of spring chores at the Refuge. We depend greatly on our volunteer base and this is a great opportunity to help us out. (Rain Date — April 2)
April 23 — Earth Day Celebration
7:00 a.m. Bird Walk at LGNC. All are welcome.
9:00 a.m. to noon. Native Plant workshop. REGISTRATION REQUIRED. This is a 3-hour workshop designed to teach you about native plants and how to create habitat gardens. We will be both indoors for a presentation and outside in the gardens. Come prepared to do some weeding and also to learn about the native plants. Each participant will receive a book, a plant to take home and use in your garden, and a gift certificate to Edge of the Woods native Plant Nursery. This workshop is FREE to LGNC members and you have first chance to register. Please register as soon as possible — space is limited to 15 people. If more than one person in the same immediate family is coming, that will count as one registration. (See May 4 for another date for the same workshop).
April 30 — Natural History Workshop
8:00 a.m. Birding Workshop for beginners and families. Binoculars are available for those who do not own them. Come out and learn how to identify our local birds and learn about their ecology and behavior.
10:00 a.m. Fly fishing Demonstration by LL Bean. REGISTRATION REQUIRED. This is an opportunity to learn about the ecology and art of catch and release fly fishing. LL Bean will bring fly rods and you will have a chance to try out your casting skills.
May 4 — Native Plant Workshop
6:00-9:00 p.m. REGISTRATION REQUIRED. (Same workshop as April 23 — see description above.)
May 7 — Natural History Hike
9:00 a.m to about noon on the Charcoal Trail. Moderately difficult hike. We will climb over the top of the mountain looking for signs of spring.
May 14 — Second Saturday Bird Walk
7:00 a.m. Good time for warblers and other spring migrants and arrivals.
May 22 — LGNC and LV Audubon Birds Walk at Lehigh Gap.
7:00 a.m. Led by Corey Husic.
All of these events begin at the Osprey House. For the events requiring registration, be sure to register if you intend to come, and be sure to come if you register. If you register and do not attend, you take the place of someone else who wanted to attend – space is limited.
Contact:
Dan Kunkle
Lehigh Gap Nature Center
P.O. Box 198
Slatington, PA 18080
610-760-8889
http://lgnc.org
U.S. Rep. Mark Critz of Johnstown helps form Marcellus caucus
The boom in Marcellus Shale gas drilling has created an abundance of economic opportunities.
But it also has spurred questions about technology, regulation and environmental impact.
Now, several members of Congress are banding together in a new Marcellus Shale Caucus. Co-founded by Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Critz of Johnstown, the caucus will serve as a “bipartisan educational forum” that also could provoke discussion about potential federal regulation.
“Our goal is to have a conversation so we can discuss and learn about the effects that developing the Marcellus Shale will have on each of our congressional districts,” Critz and U.S. Rep. Tom Reed wrote in a letter to House members.
Critz said he and Reed, a New York Republican, first discussed the idea in January. They issued their joint letter last month.
So far, nine other representatives have signed up. The caucus’ membership now includes eight Republicans and three Democrats from four states – Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia.
Critz stressed the educational aspect of the caucus, saying members want to hear from the drilling industry, environmental groups and governmental representatives.
Field hearings could be held in some congressional districts, though no such sessions have been scheduled at this point.
“We’re going to try to move it along quickly,” Critz said.
The congressman, who is serving his first full term, has talked often about gas drilling’s economic potential. During his campaign last year, Critz said coal mining and Marcellus Shale drilling could help make western Pennsylvania the “energy capital of the world.”
But in a Monday interview, Critz also noted the need for “balance between industry and the environment.” And he said members of the new caucus could talk about regulating the drilling industry.
“What is the best way forward?” Critz said. “When do we need to regulate?
“When do we need to not regulate?”
The letter from Critz and Reed notes that “concerns do exist regarding the development of the Marcellus Shale, particularly over groundwater contamination.”
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Marcellus Shale Caucus:
Jason Altmire, D-Pa.
Lou Barletta, R-Pa.
Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
Mark Critz, D-Pa.
Richard Hanna, R-N.Y.
Bill Johnson, R-Ohio
David McKinley, R-W.Va.
Tom Reed, R-N.Y.
Tim Ryan, D-Ohio
Bill Shuster, R-Pa.
Steve Stivers, R-Ohio
March 15, 2011
Mike Faher
mfaher@tribdem.com
http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x977550329/Critz-helps-form-Marcellus-caucus
Well water users will get financial aid
Seminars will provide low interest loan information to rural households.
Rural household owners using well water – pull out your calendars and red pens. Four seminars are planned to introduce a Household Water Well Assistance Program.
Brian Oram, Wilkes University professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Quality, said the goal of the seminars is to educate the public.
The Pocono Northeast Resource Conservation and Development Council, a nonprofit organization, has acquired $130,000 in grant money and will lend it out as low interest loans to low- and moderate-income households to repair and improve their quality of well water.
A seminar is scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on March 21 at the Lake Township Municipal building. Other seminars are scheduled for today at the Monroe County Conservation District, Stroudsburg; March 22 at the Columbia County AG Center, Bloomsburg; and March 23 at the Wayne County Park Street Complex, Honesdale.
Anyone unable to attend any of the meetings can obtain information by contacting the Pocono Northeast Resource Conservation and Development Council, Mayfield, by calling 570-282-8732, extension 4, e-mailing to sue@pnercd.org, or visiting the RC & D website www.pnesolutions.org.
RC & D chairman Brian Oram said the goal of the seminars is to educate the public on what minerals and their amounts are normally found in well water, private well and drinking water issues, and the specifics of the RC & D Household Well Water Program.
The terms of the loan are simple. Well water home owners must live in a rural area with an average of fewer than 274 people per square mile, proof of ownership and full-time residence, must qualify as low-to-moderate income, well water must already be tested to show existing problems, and applicants must prove ability to repay the loan.
According to the guidelines of the RC & D, low income in Luzerne County starts at $31,700 for one person to $52,550 for six people in one household. A chart is available at the RC & D website.
Oram, a geology professor and laboratory manager for the Center of Environmental Quality at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, said loans will not exceed $11,000, will have 1 percent interest, and recipients will have a maximum of 20 years to repay.
Applications will be accepted starting March 1. Oram said beginning April 25, applications will be reviewed every two weeks.
Some of the uses of the loan would include drilling a new well for an existing home, and closing off an old well. Oram said the loan would not cover drilling a well for new construction, water testing, to pay for home plumbing systems, or for a home sewer or septic systems.
In his 20 years of experience in studying area water supplies, Oram found the biggest well water problems involve bacteria and solids. He said unlike reservoir water which is tested daily, well water users do not test their water frequently.
“The Environmental Protection Agency advises well water should be tested annually,” he said.
Lately, rural homeowners have been testing their well water, due to the invading Marcellus Shale natural gas industry. Hidden pre-existing quality problems are being found. The loan could help them increase the quality of their water, Oram said.
“Almost everybody uses well water,” Oram said. “Thirty percent of reservoir water comes from ground water. We all have a vested interest in maintaining quality ground water.”
EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent
March 14, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Well_water_users_will_get_financial_aid_03-14-2011.html
Don’t turn Pennsylvania into Texas
Introducing his first budget last week, Gov. Tom Corbett proposed gutting state funding for education while sparing natural gas drillers from the type of production tax imposed by all other major gas-producing states. Corbett argued that a gas industry unencumbered by a production tax would turn Pennsylvania into “the Texas of the natural gas boom.”
Well, there already is a “Texas of the natural gas boom.”
It’s called Texas.
And despite a longstanding, but loophole-ridden, 7.5 percent production tax on the nation’s most productive gas wells, Texas, like most states, is faced with a huge budget deficit.
In fact, a recent report by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that Texas’ projected budget gap for fiscal year 2012 is the largest in the nation when measured against its current budget, at 31.5 percent.
Unlike his fellow Republican budget-cutters in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where projected budget shortfalls stand at 16.4 and 12.8 percent respectively, Texas Gov. Rick Perry can’t blame greedy state employee unions or out-of-control social spending for his money woes.
State employees in Texas have long been barred from collective bargaining and the state is notoriously stingy when it comes to spending on schools and social programs.
A 2009 study by the National Education Association found Texas ranked near the bottom for per-capita spending for public welfare programs and per-student expenditures in public schools. Nearly one-quarter of Texans lack health coverage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared to about 10 percent in Pennsylvania and 15 percent nationwide.
That still hasn’t helped Texas escape the downturn in tax revenues ravaging all states, due largely to a weakened economy that seems to just now be on the road to recovery.
In fact the very refusal by uber-conservatives like Perry – who has proposed that his state opt out of the Social Security system and maybe the Union itself – to even consider reasonable and fair tax increases over the years is what has driven Texas closer to the brink than any other state.
That’s the road Tom Corbett is proposing we follow in his proposed budget.
He would rather take money and services away from public-school students, the poor and elderly than impose a fair tax on the gas industry, which, by the way, contributed nearly $1 million to his campaign.
Corbett’s proposed budget is unfair, unconscionable and unethical.
And it is likely to land us in the same mess as Texas.
http://citizensvoice.com/news/don-t-turn-pennsylvania-into-texas-1.1117896#axzz1GJB7bAaK
March 13, 2011
Bromide: A concern in drilling wastewater
The high waters of the Allegheny River flow along the 10th Street Bypass last week. Public water suppliers in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in the region are concerned about higher levels of bromide in rivers and streams as natural gas drilling increases.
Ballooning bromide concentrations in the region’s rivers, occurring as Marcellus Shale wastewater discharges increase, is a much bigger worry than the risk of high radiation levels, public water suppliers say.
Unlike radiation, which so far has shown up at scary levels only in Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing wastewater sampling done at wellheads, the spike in salty bromides in Western Pennsylvania’s rivers and creeks has already put some public water suppliers into violation of federal safe drinking water standards.
Others, like the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, haven’t exceeded those limits but have been pushed up against them. Some have had to change the way they treat water.
Bromide is a salty substance commonly found in seawater. It was once used in sedatives and headache remedies like Bromo-Seltzer until it was withdrawn because of concerns about toxicity. When it shows up at elevated levels in freshwater, it is due to human activities. The problem isn’t so much the bromide in the river but what happens when that river water is treated to become drinking water.
Bromide facilitates formation of brominated trihalomethanes, also known as THMs, when it is exposed to disinfectant processes in water treatment plants. THMs are volatile organic liquid compounds.
Studies show a link between ingestion of and exposure to THMs and several types of cancer and birth defects.
Marcellus Shale wastewater- current discharges
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131660-113.stm
March 13, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983
Hearing on Dallas Twp. natural gas metering station moved to April
The date and location have changed for Dallas Township’s zoning hearing on a natural gas metering station on Hildebrandt Road one-third of a mile from Dallas schools.
Chief Gathering LLC was supposed to present plans to the zoning hearing board Monday in the township building. Instead, the hearing will be held at 7 p.m. April 4 in the Dallas Middle School auditorium, Dallas Township zoning officer Leonard Kozick said.
Chief already had a hearing Feb. 9 on its original plan to build a natural gas compressor station at 49 Hildebrandt Road. That hearing also had to be moved to the middle school due to the hundreds of opponents who attended. Many residents and parents were concerned about the potential for safety hazards including explosions, as well as possible pollution.
The hearing was continued but not resumed because, within two weeks, the company promised to relocate the compressor station to another site in Dallas Township. On Feb. 24, Chief submitted a revised application for two metering station buildings, two gas flow control buildings, a 100-foot communications tower and an 8,000-gallon underground odorant tank.
Chief has not disclosed which other locations are under consideration for the compressor station, which takes liquids out of natural gas and pressurizes it before it goes into a transmission pipeline to market.
Chief waived the rule obligating the zoning board to make a decision within 45 days of the original hearing, Kozick said. He said March 23 would have been the due date.
Metering stations measure the quantity and quality of gas entering the transmission lines – in this case, the Transco interstate pipeline, which runs through Dallas Township. Williams, which owns the Transco, also plans to tap into the pipeline on a property behind the one Chief chose for its own metering station.
Although Williams hasn’t submitted plans, Kozick said he did get a registered letter Wednesday from the company asking for a preliminary opinion on whether a metering station would be an appropriate special exception use in an agricultural area. The township’s zoning ordinance does not specifically allow metering stations.
Williams would have to schedule its own zoning hearing, since Kozick said he can’t answer the question.
“That’s up to the zoning board. It’s not up to me,” he said.
Williams spokeswoman Helen Humphreys anticipates an application will be sent to Dallas Township in the coming weeks.
“We want to be sure that what we submit conforms with all the regulations and ordinances that are applicable,” she said. “That’s very important.”
Published: March 11, 2011
By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
http://citizensvoice.com/news/hearing-on-dallas-twp-natural-gas-metering-station-moved-to-april-1.1117229#axzz1GJB7bAaK