Your Private Drinking Water and the Natural Gas Industry (Part Two)
http://www.northcentralpa.com/news/2011-07-17_your-private-drinking-water-and-natural-gas-industry-part-two
July 17, 2011
By Penn State Cooperative Extension in Gas Industry
Part two of an article on considerations for private drinking water wells and natural gas drilling
At Penn State Extension’s programs that focus on protection and testing of private water supplies near natural gas drilling, Bryan Swistock, water resource extension specialist provides valuable information and practical advice for people interested in protecting their private drinking water supplies. Knowing the quality of your home well or spring water before natural gas drilling is critical to knowing if that quality changes or is impacted by natural gas drilling (or any other factors, for that matter). Swistock says if you want to legally document your water quality prior to any drilling occurring, you need to use a third-party, state-certified test lab. Importantly, he says that many drilling companies conduct what is called “pre-drilling survey” water testing.
“This is a survey of drinking water supplies in the vicinity of the natural gas drill site. The survey is not actually performed by the drilling company, but by a third-party, accredited testing firm,” says Swistock. “If you are asked to participate in such a survey, it’s in your best interest to do so, since the drilling company will pay for the water test.”
Swistock says people always have the option of paying for their own water testing. He says there are several factors to consider.
As far as “what” to test for when testing your drinking water supply, Swistock recommends a tiered approach. “There’s no perfect answer, but I suggest setting some priorities – ask yourself what is most critical to test for and start there. Prioritize and determine what you can afford to test for. If you are financially able to do more, there are some additional parameters you could consider.”
Once you’ve decided to have your drinking water tested, and have determined what to test for, understanding the results can be complex. Swistock says the report you will receive from the certified testing lab is considered a legal document, and it can be difficult to understand what the numbers mean.
“Many Penn State Cooperative Extension offices have both the people resources and informational materials to help people better understand their water test results. In fact, there’s an on-line form to help people interpret test results. You can also ask the lab that conducted the test if they will explain the results to you,” says Swistock.
Swistock also provided a number of informational web sites. He said the eNotice web site atwww.dep.state.pa.us/enotice/ allows people to sign up to receive e-mail notices when drilling is going to occur in a specific municipality or county.
Swistock says there are a number of pro-active measures people can take to protect their drinking water. For people leasing land to drillers, he recommended several stipulations that should be included as part of the lease. He also urged people to report problems and concerns to the PA Department of Environmental Protection, which has regulatory oversight for the natural gas activities in the region.
In addition, Swistock says researchers at Penn State University, through the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, have begun natural gas-related research to monitor drinking water wells and gather data.
Swistock finishes his presentations by noting the vast amount of information that is available from the Extension Office. He encouraged people to visit their web site at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas
Excerpted from the Clinton County Natural Gas Task Force (www.clintoncountypa.com ) weekly columns.
Shale commission faces votes on future of drilling
http://citizensvoice.com/news/shale-commission-faces-votes-on-future-of-drilling-1.1173999#axzz1S4wWwA8r
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: July 12, 2011
HARRISBURG – The governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission starts its endgame Friday with members voting in public on what recommendations to put in a comprehensive report guiding the future of natural gas development in Pennsylvania.
This will be the last working meeting of the commission before the July 22 deadline to hand a report to Gov. Tom Corbett.
Heading the agenda will be a series of votes on proposals offered by four working groups established when the commission began its work in March.
The proposals that garner a majority vote from the members will be included in the report, said Chad Saylor, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the commission chairman. The bulk of the proposals deal with public health and safety and environmental protection issues, he added.
The commission members are reviewing the working group proposals, therefore allowing for last-minute discussions before the meeting agenda is set, Saylor said.
One of the most closely watched issues facing the commission is levying an impact fee on drillers to offset the cost of drilling operations for municipalities, and additionally address environmental issues related to drilling.
Saylor was unable to say whether an impact fee recommendation will be voted on Friday, but he said a lot of attention was focused on impact fees in the working group that dealt with local impact and emergency preparedness issues relating to drilling.
House and Senate Republican leaders put off plans to vote on impact fee legislation at the close of the spring legislative session after Corbett said he would veto any bill with those provisions that reached his desk in advance of the commission’s report. Corbett has suggested he wants to see what the commission recommends concerning an impact fee, but he doesn’t think impact fee revenue should go to the all-purpose state General Fund.
Cawley has repeatedly said the issue of a state severance tax on natural gas production is off the commission’s agenda given Corbett’s strong opposition to that idea.
Likely to be in the mix for consideration are recommendations offered by the Department of Environmental Protection and Health Department.
DEP has outlined a major overhaul of the state Oil and Gas Act with stronger buffer zones to keep natural gas drilling away from water sources, tougher penalties and bond requirements and a “cradle-to-grave” manifest system to track wastewater from hydraulic fracturing. For example, DEP recommends restricting well drilling within 1,000 feet of a public water supply and doubling the distance from 250 feet to 500 feet to separate a gas well from a private well.
The Health Department wants to create a registry to monitor and study data on the health conditions of individuals who live near drilling sites.
“In order to refute or verify claims that public health is being impacted by drilling in the Marcellus Shale, there must be a comprehensive and scientific approach to evaluating over time health conditions of individuals who live in close proximity to a drilling site or are occupationally exposed,” said Health Secretary Eli Avila in a presentation to the commission last month.
Zoning is another issue on the commission’s radar screen.
In a May presentation, the industry-oriented Marcellus Shale Coalition called attention to a “patchwork” of ordinances dealing with such subjects as road use and well site setbacks. The Coalition called for consistency in zoning powers and not singling out activities by the gas industry.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
As Focus On Fracking Sharpens, Fuel Worries Grow
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/13/137789869/as-focus-on-fracking-sharpens-fuel-worries-grow
by Jeff Brady
July 13, 2011
A controversial technique for producing oil and natural gas called hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — has led to drilling booms from Texas to Pennsylvania in recent years. But there are concerns that it may be polluting drinking water.
As policymakers in Washington discuss how to make fracking safer, there is concern that fracking itself has become a distraction.
In the U.S., pretty much all of the oil and gas that was easy to get to is gone. Fracking makes it possible to extract petroleum from hard-to-reach places — say, a mile underground in dense layers of shale.
Drillers pump truckloads of water mixed with sand and chemicals into the rock. Under intense pressure, that creates tiny fractures that allow oil and gas trapped there to escape.
“Hydraulic fracturing is truly the rocket science of what’s happening in energy,” says Tisha Conoly Schuller, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
Schuller has seen fracking bring new life to old oil and natural gas fields, boosting domestic production in the U.S. She says that’s a good thing — especially for natural gas, because it burns cleaner.
In Pennsylvania the number of natural gas wells drilled into the Marcellus Shale has increased from 34 in 2007 to 1,446 last year.
But drive around the region and you’ll see that not everyone shares the industry’s appreciation of fracking. There are lawn signs opposing gas drilling, and in Sullivan County, N.Y., a handmade sign reads, “Thou shalt not frack with our water. Amen.”
Many fracking opponents were inspired by the movie Gasland. In one compelling scene, Weld County, Colo., resident Mike Markham shows how he can light his tap water on fire.
Throughout the movie, filmmaker and activist Josh Fox gives fracking special attention — calling into question how safe it is and whether it’s adequately regulated.
Says Schuller: “I think hydraulic fracturing has become a synonym for oil and gas development or anything one doesn’t like about oil and gas development.”
The industry worries that the focus on fracking could prompt policymakers to restrict the practice and bring a halt to the gas booms under way. That’s already happening around the country in places such as Buffalo, N.Y., Pittsburgh and most recently Morgantown, W.Va. New York is deciding on new rules to govern fracking there.
It’s not just the industry concerned about the focus on fracking. Some environmentalists say it may be taking attention away from the other problems that go along with drilling, like air pollution and toxic spills.
“I’m hoping that it’s really just a starting point — a jumping-off point — to look at all these other issues,” says Amy Mall, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
And Mall hopes the focus on fracking will lead to more research about how oil and gas development affects people.
“There’s very little science about any of these impacts — not just the fracking, but the air quality, the waste-management issues,” Mall says. “But it does seem the immediate priority of the agencies is to focus on fracking.”
Certainly that’s what the Energy Department’s Natural Gas Subcommittee will discuss as it meets in Washington, D.C., this week. Eventually the group’s recommendations will be sent to the federal agencies that have a role in regulating fracking.
July 21 webinar to focus on natural gas pipelines
http://live.psu.edu/story/54077#nw69
Friday, July 8, 2011
The type of pipeline -- whether it’s a gathering line or a much larger interstate transmission line -- determines how much surface disturbance takes place.
University Park, Pa. — A Web-based seminar to be presented by Penn State Extension July 21 will explore pipeline development and regulation in regions of the state being intensely affected by drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation.
Speaking in the webinar will be Wayne County extension educator Dave Messersmith, based in Honesdale, who is part of Penn State’s Marcellus Education Team and coordinates the university’s annual Marcellus Summit, and Paul Metro, chief of the Gas Safety Division of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
They will discuss pipeline construction, associated surface infrastructure (valves, compressor stations, etc.), pipeline impacts on the landscape and in communities, ways to reduce pipeline impacts, negotiating terms for a pipeline right-of-way and regulatory oversight of gas pipelines in Pennsylvania.
There have been more than 2,300 wells drilled into the deep Marcellus layer in Pennsylvania in the last few years, primarily in the southwest, northeast and northcentral regions. Many pipelines have been and are being built to get the large volume of gas they produce to consumers.
A pipeline right-of-way is a strip of land over and around natural gas pipelines where some of the property owner’s legal rights have been granted to a pipeline operator, Messersmith said. A right-of-way agreement between the pipeline company and the property owner is also called an easement, which is usually filed in the county Register and Recorders Office with property deeds.
“Many people are concerned about eminent domain as it relates to pipelines,” he said. “In reality the type of pipeline — whether it’s a gathering line or an interstate transmission line — will determine who provides regulatory oversight and whether eminent domain is possible.”
Penn State Extension offers a publication called “Negotiating Pipeline Rights-of-Way in Pennsylvania,” which Messersmith authored, for people interested in knowing more about pipeline issues. Part of the Marcellus Fact Sheet Series, single copies can be obtained free of charge by Pennsylvania residents through county Penn State Extension offices, or by contacting the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Distribution Center at 814-865-6713 or AgPubsDist@psu.edu. The publication also is available in digital format at http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/PDFs/ua465.pdf online.
The July 21 webinar is part of a series of online workshops addressing opportunities and challenges related to the state’s Marcellus Shale gas boom. Information about how to register for the webinar is available on the webinar page of Penn State Extension’s natural-gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars online.
Future webinars will focus on a research update on the effects of shale drilling on wildlife habitat and current legal issues in shale-gas development.
Previous webinars, publications and information on topics such as air pollution from gas development, the gas boom’s effect on landfills, water use and quality, zoning, gas-leasing considerations for landowners, and implications for local communities also are available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website, at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas online.
For more information, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at 724-837-1402 or jdt15@psu.edu.
New study demonstrates toxic impacts of hydrofracking fluid on forest life
http://coloradoindependent.com/93580/new-study-demonstrates-toxic-impacts-of-hydrofracking-fluid-on-forest-life
By David O. Williams
07.11.11
Hydraulic fracturing itself may not directly contaminate groundwater supplies, as the oil and gas industry has steadfastly maintained for years, but the wastewater associated with the controversial process can be very hazardous to forest life, at least according to a new study produced by a U.S. Forest Service researcher.
Conducted by researcher Mary Beth Adams and published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, the study is entitled “Land Application of Hydrofracturing Fluids Damages a Deciduous Forest Stand in West Virginia.”
Adams applied more than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluid to a quarter-acre plot of land in the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia. All of the groundcover on the plot died almost right away, and within two years 56 percent of the approximately 150 trees in the area had died.
“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which reported on Adams’ study last week.
Ruch noted that land disposal of fracking fluids is a common practice and that Adams’ study was conducted with a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste,” Ruch added.
In Colorado, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette for several years has been pushing different versions of the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, which in its latest incarnation would require the national disclosure of chemicals used in the process.
The oil and gas industry maintains it must keep its formulas secret for proprietary reasons, and the process is exempt from federal regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
But state oil and gas regulators in Colorado, as well as state industry representatives, argue that chemical disclosure will not prevent spills from holding pits and pipelines and that those areas of concern should be the real focus of regulatory efforts.
Fracking typically injects water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet below the surface to crack open tight rock and sand formations in order to free up more natural gas. Those results occur far below drinking water wells and groundwater supplies. There is still debate, even among scientists, over whether fracturing itself can cause contamination of groundwater.
Pa. seeks stronger look at drilling near water
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OBFMKG0.htm
By MARC LEVY
HARRISBURG, Pa.
Pennsylvania environmental regulators have agreed to take more precautions before they approve certain permits for oil and natural-gas drilling sites where well construction poses a pollution threat to some of the state’s highest-quality waterways.
The state Department of Environmental Protection agreed to the measures to settle a complaint by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation first filed in 2009 that also asserted the agency had approved three deficient permit applications.
The settlement, dated Wednesday, essentially reverses some steps the department took two years ago to speed up the permitting process for Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry. The foundation argued the speedup was illegal.
Primarily, the agreement will impact drilling-related activity — land clearing, production, processing, treatment and pipeline construction — in northern Pennsylvania, where the state’s “high quality” and “exceptional value” waterways are predominantly found, said foundation scientist Harry Campbell.
“The heart of the matter is that those water bodies overlay, almost to a T, where predominantly the drilling activity is occurring,” Campbell said. The settlement contains “very significant sea changes in the way we are permitting those facilities within those watersheds that house the very special water.”
The settlement was approved by an Environmental Hearing Board judge and included subsidiaries of Houston-based Ultra Petroleum Corp. and Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. The resulting stricter review process could take up to 60 days. Currently, those permits can get approved in a matter of two weeks.
“It’s important to give the DEP more time to look at everything,” foundation lawyer Amy McDonnell said.
The DEP said in a statement that the revisions would make the permit review process “more robust.”
“This proposed settlement is an important step forward in our continued commitment to oversee this industry in an environmentally and economically conscious manner,” the statement said.
The agency must still take public comment for 60 days on the proposed change.
Under it, the department will require the stricter review if drilling-related activity poses the potential to pollute a high-quality waterway, or if a well pad is on a flood plain.
The DEP will have to decide how close a project has to be to warrant more scrutiny, McDonnell said. Current state law dictates that no well may be prepared or drilled within 100 feet of any waterway, though a number of lawmakers, as well as the DEP, have proposed expanding that buffer.
Amid industry complaints about a slow and bureaucratic permitting process, the DEP in 2009 took steps to speed up reviews of permits for well-related construction. However, the foundation complained that, without a technical review, fast-tracking the permit reviews of erosion, sediment and stormwater control plans was illegal.
The DEP was only reviewing the applications administratively to ensure they were complete, and relied on the word of a professional engineer that the application complied with the law.
The foundation began reviewing some of the permits the department had issued and found, for instance, that one failed to mention that a pipeline would be crossing a high-value wetland or they lacked stormwater preparations, foundation officials said.
As a result, the DEP revoked permits issued to Ultra and Talisman, both in northern Pennsylvania, and then reissued them after the problems were fixed.
The foundation has not carried out a more recent review to see whether the DEP has continued to approve error-riddled permit applications. But Campbell said the department since then has made strides to get more inspectors in the field to enforce compliance.
Major drilling companies began descending on Pennsylvania in earnest in 2008 to exploit the Marcellus Shale formation, regarded as the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir.
It 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.
For decades, energy companies have drilled shallow oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. But the use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, which involves the underground injection of chemicals and produces millions of gallons of often-toxic wastewater, in the Marcellus Shale formation has sparked fresh environmental concerns about the protection of public waterways that provide drinking water to millions of people.
Gas industry must learn Pennsylvania not for sale
http://tribune-democrat.com/editorials/x1511088498/Gas-industry-must-learn-Pennsylvania-not-for-sale
Edward Smith-Editorial June 29, 2011
Gov. Tom Corbett accepted more than $1 million from the gas industry, got elected, appointed a gas driller to head his transition team, appointed his man to run the Department of Environmental Protection (and regulate the gas industry), and has steadfastly refused to tax the gas industry even though Pennsylvania is the only state without a severance tax.
Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is a historic, one-time opportunity to produce a big enough source of new revenue for the state to solve some real problems and reduce the growing property tax burden on homeowners and businesses.
The biggest problem facing the state is the miserable quality of public education.
Former Gov. Tom Ridge said his biggest regret was his inability to improve public education.
Pennsylvania has the opportunity to enact a tax on the still-emerging gas drilling industry and earmark the revenue for education and environmental protection.
Earmarking this new revenue to fund education would reduce state spending and go far to balance current and future state budgets. Property taxes should be rolled back to a base year and further increases prohibited.
Pennsylvania’s Environmental Bill of Rights makes its citizens (not the gas companies) beneficiaries and the governor and Legislature trustees.
As a trustee, the governor has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the beneficiaries, not to favor the gas industry.
Legislators have the same responsibility. It’s time they act like trustees.
Corbett has chosen, instead, to make deep cuts in the funding of all public education and avoid taxing the gas industry. The result is likely to be further slippage in the quality of education, higher costs for higher education (already unaffordable for many) and higher property taxes.
An impact fee is not the same as a severance tax, but there should be impact fees on every gas well and there should be an environmental impact statement tied to regulation because the geology on every well is different.
The revenue from impact fees should go to local governments to offset the costs of infrastructure and services.
The revenue from the severance tax should go to the state (but not into the General Fund) and be earmarked for education and environmental protection.
Ridge, now a consultant to the natural gas industry, says that drillers need to improve their image. He might have said that the industry needs to clean up its act and its image.
The oil and gas industry is the only one in America allowed to inject – unchecked – known hazardous, rock-dissolving chemicals into the earth, thus risking contamination of drinking water.
The “Halliburton Loophole” is the name given to the exemption in the Clean Drinking Water Act that exempts the industry from federal regulation.
Halliburton patented the toxic cocktail of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing technique to extract natural gas.
John Hanger, former secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said that frak fluid is “one of the most hazardous materials on earth.”
The New York Times says, “If hydraulic fracturing is as safe as the industry says it is, why should it fear regulation?”
Governmental regulation is all that stands between environmental destruction and an industry that has shown a total disregard for the environment (dumping frak waste into rivers and streams is one example).
As The New York Times pointed out in a series of investigative reports, Pennsylvania was unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with the Marcellus Shale gas drilling dilemma.
When the gas industry gives millions of dollars to candidates, they expect favors in return. They are trying to buy Pennsylvania.
Recently, the industry tried to stack a public hearing held by the U.S. Department of Energy by offering all-expense-paid trips to pro-drilling landowners in northeast Pennsylvania to attend and testify at a public hearing held in Washington, Pa.
Citizens with poisoned wells and those who care about poisoned streams and water tables had to pay their own way.
The gas industry has funded university studies and opinion polls to mold public opinion.
When the gas industry invites regulation, behaves ethically, does not try to buy votes and favors from public officials, avoids half-truths and untruths, accepts responsibility for disasters and protects the environment, it will deserve respect.
Money talks, as it did 100 years ago when mining companies polluted our streams.
But I believe that most Pennsylvanians agree that our state is not for sale.
Edward Smith of Jackson Township is a retired city and county manager.
Susquehanna and Bradford selected for federal fracking study
http://thedailyreview.com/news/susquehanna-and-bradford-selected-for-federal-fracking-study-1.1166184
By Laura Legere (Times-Shamrock Writer)
Published: June 24, 2011
A landmark federal study of oil and gas drilling’s potential impact on drinking water will use Susquehanna and Bradford counties as a case study, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday.
The two counties at the center of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in Northeast Pennsylvania will be one among five case study regions where oil or gas wells have been hydraulically fractured and drinking water contamination has been reported. The others are in Washington County, Pa., North Dakota, Texas and Colorado.
The EPA is conducting a multiyear investigation of the possible link between groundwater contamination and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into underground rock formations to crack the rock and release the oil or gas trapped there.
Along with the five case studies in regions where impacts have been reported, the agency will use Washington County, Pa. and a Louisiana parish above the Haynesville Shale as prospective case studies where the agency will seek to measure any impact from fracking as it happens. In those cases, the EPA will monitor the hydraulic fracturing process throughout the life cycle of a well – from the moment water is withdrawn from rivers through the mixing of chemicals and the fracturing of wells to the disposal of the wastewater that returns to the surface.
The agency plans to release initial research results by the end of 2012. The EPA will begin field work in some of the case study regions this summer, the agency stated in a press release.
“We’ve met with community members, state experts and industry and environmental leaders to choose these case studies,” Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development, said. “This is about using the best possible science to do what the American people expect the EPA to do: ensure that the health of their communities and families is protected.”
Case studies were selected from more than 40 nominated sites based on criteria including the proximity of water supplies to drilling activities, concerns about health and environmental impacts, as well as geographic and geologic diversity.
Bradford and Susquehanna counties were selected so the agency can investigate contamination in groundwater and drinking water wells, suspected surface water contamination from a fracturing fluid spill and methane contamination in water wells, EPA officials said.
U.S. Senator Bob Casey, who recommended Pennsylvania sites for the study and has introduced several fracking-related bills in Congress, said the research will “help provide the science needed to assure that natural gas drilling is conducted in a safe and responsible manner.”
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com
Marcellus Shale Job figures disputed
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Job-figures-disputed.html
June 22, 2011
Report says new hires are not same as new jobs. Coalition claims economic growth.
HARRISBURG – The Keystone Research Center in a policy brief Tuesday asserts that the number of jobs created in Pennsylvania by the Marcellus Shale boom has been much less than cited in recent news reports.
The brief claims that figures of approximately 48,000 new jobs created between late 2007 and 2010 are “exaggerated claims” that rely on data about “new hires,” which are not the same as new jobs.
“New hires” track additions to employment but not separations due to resignations, firings or replacements.
Between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2011, Marcellus industries added 48,000 “new hires,” while all Pennsylvania industries added 2.8 million “new hires.”
But “as Pennsylvanians well know, the commonwealth has added nothing like 2.8 million jobs to the economy since 2009” and, in fact, only 85,400 new jobs were created, according to a research center press release.
“The number of new hires by itself tells half the story and is not a meaningful indicator of job creation,” said Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center. “You have to also look at the number of people who leave jobs.”
Between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the latest report from the state Department of Labor and Industry’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, all Marcellus Shale-related industries added 5,669 jobs. Six industries in what CWIA defines as the “Marcellus Core” industries added 9,288 jobs during this period. During the same three years, 30 industries in a group CWIA calls “Marcellus Ancillary” actually lost 3,619 jobs, according to the brief.
Overall, Marcellus job growth is small, accounting for less than one in 10 of the 111,400 new jobs created since February 2010, when employment bottomed out after the recession, the report finds.
Even if Marcellus Shale-related industries had created no jobs in 2010, the state still would have ranked third in overall job growth among the 50 states.
“The Marcellus boom has contributed to job growth, but the size of that contribution has been significantly overstated,” Herzenberg said.
“To explain Pennsylvania’s relatively strong recent job growth requires looking at factors other than Marcellus Shale, such as the state’s investments in education, renewable energy, work-force skills, and unemployment benefits,” he added.
The report also states that any economic benefit from the Marcellus Shale must be balanced against the impact of drilling on other industries, such as tourism and the Pennsylvania hardwoods industry.
To sustain Pennsylvania’s strong economic performance, policymakers should adopt a drilling tax or fee that helps finance job-creating investments in education and the economy, as well as providing resources to protect the environment and address infrastructure needs, the report recommends.
Marcellus Shale Coalition President and Executive Director Kathryn Klaber called the brief a “thinly veiled, politically timed attack on an industry that is creating family-sustaining jobs for men and women across the commonwealth.”
Klaber said Marcellus development is fueling economic growth, employment and investments in roads and infrastructure at rates not seen in decades.
“According to the Department of Labor and Industry, unemployment in counties with Marcellus development remains below the state average. Along Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, where development is most concentrated, employment has jumped 1,500 percent since the end of 2007,” Klaber said.
Furthermore, Klaber said, Marcellus operators are investing billions of dollars into Pennsylvania’s economy – from constructing state-of-the-art operating facilities, to building new offices, to leasing land for responsible development and driving economic growth in our rural communities.
“Take into account the more than $1 billion in taxes generated by Marcellus activity over the past half-decade, stable and affordable energy prices made possible by responsible natural gas development, and the ancillary employment impacts cascading through businesses across the commonwealth, and only then can the full act of Marcellus development be realized. Once again, the rhetoric of opponents of Pennsylvania’s clean and abundant energy supply is simply not squaring with reality,” Klaber said.
“People who were out of work and now have jobs thanks to Marcellus development are more than statistics, and they are proud that they now have jobs. Attempting to trivialize their new employment opportunities simply to fulfill a political agenda not only denies the real economic benefits from Marcellus, but also demeans the very people who are employed,” she said
Mapping of underground water pools
http://citizensvoice.com/news/mapping-of-underground-water-pools-1.1164422#axzz1Pup6R8MH
Published: June 21, 2011
Fears that the development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves might lead to anthracite mining era-style environmental degradation are well founded. This is especially true as it relates to protecting the sources of the water that we need to survive.
It is ironic, then, to learn that the natural gas and coal industries, both intent on extracting resources from underground, are linked today. The linkage is in the vast water pools in former mine workings, water that can be tapped for fracking. That is the process whereby water is injected under high pressure into the shale deposits that hold the natural gas, breaking up the shale to allow the gas to escape and be captured.
There are billions of gallons of water in the anthracite coal fields. The total could be more than one trillion gallons, according to Bob Hughes of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Mine Reclamation. His agency and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission are engaged in a high-tech mapping of underground water pools in the anthracite fields.
The mapping also reveals existing coal deposits. There are billions of tons of coal underground. Yes, billions of tons, and that coal, the billions of gallons of water and even the 65 or so mine fires burning in Pennsylvania all mean that bountiful resources exist that could create, build and sustain economic models that could inure to the benefit of all Pennsylvanians.
The key is developing each resource so that it can turn a profit for whatever entity does the developing, whether it is a private company or a government entity.
The spark that led this column to talk to Bob Hughes was a letter to the editor from Jude O’Donnell of Harveys Lake. He wondered if the tremendous energy being generated by the Laurel Run mine fire might be harnessed. The fire has been burning underground on the mountain east of Wilkes-Barre since 1915. In the 1950s, all homes in the mine fire area were taken by the federal government and the fire was sealed with a clay barrier.
Hughes said O’Donnell’s idea has merit. A plant could be built outside the fire zone and the heat could be piped to the plant and converted by one of several processes into energy. That energy could heat homes or businesses, or sold, perhaps by a local government or consortium of local governments working together. Can you say “regional cooperation?”
The same could be done at other mine fires in the state, including Centralia, the famous fire that led to abandonment of a community in southern Columbia County.
The energy from mine fires likely will last for generations, Hughes said, just as the billions of gallons of underground water will be there for centuries. The mapping partners are looking at historical data on water levels, recorded at boreholes all over the anthracite fields, and safe withdrawal levels can be established. This would preclude mine subsidence threats.
Mine water is undrinkable and unusable, except for industrial uses such as fracking, because of its iron content. However, wastewater from fracking then becomes dangerous if it enters aquifers, reservoirs, streams and rivers used as drinking water sources. This is the key issue on which critics of natural gas development are focused, with good reason.
Then there is the coal. Strip mining continues, especially in the Southern Anthracite Field, but few deep mines exist. The last to operate in Wyoming Valley was the Glen-Nan mine in Newport Township, the closing of which I covered in 1974. It will take technological breakthroughs and an industry commitment to environmental protection before anyone can get excited again about tapping the massive coal reserves.
The mapping project will be invaluable to those watchdog groups and citizens in general worried about the commonwealth’s water resources. In addition to the use of aquifers, lakes and streams by gas companies, we must add mine water pools which should not be discounted, regardless of acidity, as a major part of overall Pennsylvania water resources.
Paul Golias, retired managing editor of The Citizens’ Voice, writes a weekly column on regional issues. He can be contacted at pgolias@ptd.net.