Delaware River basin gas drilling meeting delayed
www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/131370968.html
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Sat, Oct. 8, 2011
The Delaware River Basin Commission on Friday postponed until Nov. 21 a meeting to consider regulations that would allow natural gas drilling in the basin. The new date is a month later than planned.
The commission, a federal and interstate agency, oversees the basin, which provides drinking water for 15 million people, including Philadelphia and some suburbs. It has put a moratorium on drilling until rules can be adopted.
The commission said it needed more time to prepare for the meeting, expected to be the site of a major protest.
Regulations were proposed in December, and by the time a public-comment period ended in April, the commission had received 69,000 submissions.
Some commission members had pushed for swift action. The New Jersey representative threatened to withhold state funding of the agency if it did not act at its September meeting.
But shortly before the September meeting, the commission announced it could not finish the job in time. A special meeting was announced for Oct. 21.
The commission says it’s still not ready. “Additional time is necessary to complete the ongoing process,” a release issued Friday said.
Other members of the commission are Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and the federal government, represented by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation underlies the upper portion of the river basin. But the river and many tributaries there are under special protection because of their high water quality.
Critics have been angered by the possibility the commission would present revised regulations and vote on them at the same meeting.
The commission says the postponement will allow it to publish the modified regulations on its website on Nov. 7, two weeks before the expected vote.
No public comment will be taken at the meeting, the release said.
In August, environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit contending that the commission should not adopt any regulations until a broad cumulative-impact study is completed. New York, which will not allow drilling until state regulations are adopted, filed a similar action in June.
New Jersey State Police confirmed that a permit had been issued for protesters to demonstrate outside the meeting. The permit application estimated 500 people would participate.
Within the last few days, Facebook and Twitter accounts for “OccupyDRBC” – an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protests – have been formed.
The Nov. 21 meeting will run from 10 a.m. to noon at the War Memorial in Trenton
Safe Drinking Water program planned for Oct. 15
www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111007/COMM011101/110070301/-1/NEWS
Published: 10/07/11
HAWLEY, Pa. — If your well was flooded after the recent visit by Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee or any other high water event, then you need to test your water for a number of potentially harmful substances such as bacteria and nitrates, which can have health effects on you and your family.
In addition, your well could have high levels of iron, manganese and copper, which can cause unwanted stains and odors.
If you depend on your own well or spring for your drinking water, it is your responsibility to have your water tested periodically at a certified water testing lab. No government agency is going to require you to have your water tested.
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County will be conducting a Safe Drinking Water program from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 15 at the PPL Environmental Learning Center on Route 6 in Hawley, Pa. There is a registration fee of $10 for handouts.
To register for the Safe Drinking Water program, go to the website http://guest.cvent.com/d/icq7m2 or call 877-489-1398 and mention the Oct. 15 Safe Drinking Water Seminar. The registration deadline is Wednesday.
In addition, Penn State Cooperative Extension is offering water testing for a discounted fee through Prosser Labs on Oct. 19 and 26 and Nov. 2. In order to participate in the water testing, you must attend the Safe Drinking Water program to receive your test bottles.
Four different sets of water tests will be offered, ranging from coliform bacteria and E. coli bacteria to a test of seven other parameters. Test bottles need to be returned by noon Oct. 19 or 26 or Nov. 2.
For more information on the Safe Drinking Water program or water testing, contact Peter Wulfhorst at the Penn State Cooperative Extension office at 570-296-3400 or visit the Pike County Cooperative Extension website at http://extension.psu.edu/pike and go to events.
PennFuture seeks state park protection
citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/pennfuture-seeks-state-park-protection-1.1211603#axzz1Zj7VI2Rp
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: October 1, 2011
HARRISBURG – A statewide environmental group launched a campaign on several fronts Thursday to head off any future gas drilling in state parks.
PennFuture called on natural gas companies to voluntarily sign a pledge not to drill in state parks or buy gas supplies drilled there. The organization also urged lawmakers to enact a significant special impact fee for any drilling in state parks that disturbs the land surface.
The issue is considered pressing by environmentalists because the state doesn’t own the subsurface mineral rights beneath an estimated 80 percent of state park land. Sixty-one of the 117 state parks are in the Marcellus Shale formation and seismic testing for gas deposits has taken place in several parks.
“There is a very real possibility of gas rigs puncturing our state parks,” said John Quigley, a former secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, who is a PennFuture consultant.
Quigley said the group recognizes that state law gives owners of mineral rights in state parks the right to develop their property and sign leases with gas companies. That’s why the appeal is being made to the gas companies not to seek leases in recognition of the public value of park land and its importance to local economies, he said.
“I think frankly the industry does not need the PR headache of disturbing the park land,” added Quigley. In addition, PennFuture is working with lawmakers to introduce bills to require a 300-foot setback to drilling along the boundaries of a state park and to establish a special impact fee substantial enough to discourage drilling on park land that disturbs the land surface, he said.
When the state acquired tracts for state park land in decades past before deep gas drilling was even considered possible, the mineral rights were either too expensive or already owned by individuals or in some cases companies that since became defunct.
But DCNR has sketchy information about the ownership of mineral rights. Quigley said it would be too expensive and time-consuming to do title searches on mineral rights at all the state parks. The general policy has been to require an owner to submit proof of title, he said.
DCNR monitors the activities of gas companies if they conduct tests on privately owned mineral deposits in state parks and makes sure they abide by rules governing disturbance of surface land, said Richard Allan, the DCNR secretary, in testimony Wednesday before the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
“Beyond that, we have to give them access if they want to do certain tests,” he said.
swift@timesshamrock.com
Citizens Unite – Compile Your Water Quality Data
(Note: Brian Oram is a charter member of the Carbon County Groundwater Guardians.)
Citizens – there are more private wells than public water supplies in Pennsylvania. In many regions, the natural gas companies have conducted baseline testing and have returned the data to you. The problem is that the industry has the data and can easily compile, but for citizens they are lacking an explanation of the data and it is not being compiled. We need to work together to protect our groundwater data.
To help – send NO Money – All that is being asked is as follows:
1. Send a copy of your water quality data or host a community meeting where the water quality data could be compiled.
To request a community meeting or presentation on “Getting the Waters Tested- The Marcellus Shale Factor” or the “Community Groundwater / Surfacewater Database” – email brian.oram@wilkes.edu or bfenviro@ptd.net. Please put Citizen Database in Subject.
2. Release the data to the Citizens Groundwater / Surfacewater Database. Here is the information sheet. The database will only include the data and No personal information.
3. Email the information to the addresses above or send a hardcopy to
Mr. Brian Oram, PG
Citizen Outreach Program
15 Hillcrest Drive
Dallas, PA 18612
4. You get a review of your data for free and you can be sure your data will help track water quality change in the region.
5. Private Well Owner Survey – Funded by Mr. Brian Oram. Please participate – the survey results in be published in the New Free Guidebook for Private Well Owners
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NMG6RQ3
This survey is part of the efforts of Mr. Brian Oram, Professional Geologist, and owner of B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc to help educate and inform the community. The survey will not be published and all information is confidential. Part of this survey will be used to create a new booklet that helps educate private well owners and policy makers in our community. This survey is not funded by any outside company or organization and solely funded by Mr. Brian Oram.
Please act now.
Thanks for your consideration
Brian Oram, Professional Geologist, Soils Scientist, Licensed Well Driller
My Blog Site – http://pennsylvania-solutions.blogspot.com
Free Outreach to Private Well Owners – http://www.water-research.net
Gas well cement issues reported
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/gas-well-cement-issues-reported-1.1205029#axzz1YDTV7QfJ
By Laura Legere (staff writer)
September 18, 2011
At the recent Shale Gas Insight conference in Philadelphia, the CEO of one of the largest Marcellus Shale drilling companies in Pennsylvania was unequivocal in his message that methane contamination of drinking water supplies from faulty gas wells is at an end.
“Problem identified; problem solved,” Chesapeake Energy’s chairman Aubrey McClendon declared.
But violations data released last week by the state Department of Environmental Protection show problems persist with the cemented strings of steel casing meant to protect groundwater from gas and fluids in Marcellus wells.
In August, DEP inspectors found defective or inadequate casing or cement at eight Marcellus wells, including Hess Corp.’s Davidson well in Scott Township, Wayne County – the first casing violation found in the county where only a handful of Marcellus wells have been drilled.
During the first eight months of 2011, 65 Marcellus wells were cited for faulty casing and cementing practices – one more than was recorded in all of 2010.
Casing and cementing violations do not necessarily indicate that gas has or will migrate into drinking water supplies, and methane is present in many water wells in Pennsylvania from natural pathways unrelated to gas drilling. But in the three dozen instances when methane has migrated into water supplies from gas wells in Northeast Pennsylvania, cement flaws have been identified by state regulators as a primary pathway for the gas.
In his comments at the conference, McClendon credited an “updated and customized casing system” included in stronger state oil and gas casing and cementing regulations for “preventing new cases of gas migration.”
The increase in casing and cementing violations reflects the state’s increased attention to the issue, especially since the regulations were updated in February. The steady pace of new violations – an average of eight new wells a month have been cited for casing, cement or leaking gas violations this year – also indicates the complexity of the problem in a state where the geology is neither uniform nor predictable.
DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, who was not present for McClendon’s statement, said he could not respond to it directly when asked about it at the shale conference.
“One case of methane migration or well contamination is one case too many,” he said.
Most of the casing and cement violations recorded this summer became evident to inspectors when bubbles rose from between the cemented casing strings in water pooled at the well sites or when combustible gas was detected with meters at the surface, according to notes in the violation reports posted by the department online.
The department considers bubbling or escaping gas at the surface an indication of problems below.
In June, July and August, bubbling or escaping gas was noted during inspections of Marcellus wells in Wayne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford and Lycoming counties in the northeast and northcentral region. The wells’ operators include Chesapeake, Hess, Exco Resources, Williams Production and XTO Energy.
The inspector’s notes from the Hess Davidson well on Aug. 18 confirmed bubbling outside of one of the casing strings and that “Hess indicated (the) bubbling is methane.” The company was directed to develop a plan within 30 days to “remediate (the) problem of defective cement.”
Hess spokeswoman Maripat Sexton said the company is working with DEP to resolve the issue.
“There does not appear to be any adverse impacts,” she said.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Sept. 15 webinar to examine Marcellus gas legal issues
http://live.psu.edu/story/54984#nw69
Ross Pifer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Web-based seminar to be presented at 1 p.m. Sept. 15 by Penn State Extension will examine legal issues associated with natural-gas development in the Marcellus Shale formation underlying Pennsylvania.
There have been more than 2,350 wells drilled into the Marcellus in the Keystone state in the last few years, primarily in the southwest, northeast and northcentral regions. Those wells and wellpads, the gas they produce and construction of related infrastructure, such as pipelines and transfer stations, have created legal dilemmas for residents and municipalities.
In the webinar, which will run for more than an hour, presenter Ross Pifer, clinical professor of law and director of the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law, will talk about legal developments, encompassing statutes, regulations and court opinions at the state and federal level.
“I will review the various Marcellus Shale legal developments that have occurred over the past several months as well as those that are ongoing,” he said.”I will discuss the legislation that has been enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and cover some of the other topics that are being considered by the General Assembly and U.S. Congress.”
Pifer also intends to discuss regulations and other ongoing administrative proceedings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Delaware River Basin Commission, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
As Marcellus activities occur throughout much of the commonwealth, the legal developments related to Marcellus Shale continue to increase, Pifer noted. “I will cover the issue of municipal regulation of natural-gas operations, and I will address highlights from court opinions that have been issued by state and federal courts in Pennsylvania.
“The goal of this webinar is to highlight the numerous legal developments to provide the participants with an overview of the legal landscape surrounding Marcellus Shale.”
The 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 session is available on the webinar page of Penn State Extension’s natural-gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars.
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; implications for local communities; and gas pipelines and right-of-way issues also are available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website (http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas).
For more information about the webinar, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at 724-837-1402 or by email at jdt15@psu.edu.
New study determines states offer inadequate coal ash protection
http://www.tnonline.com/2011/aug/25/new-study-determines-states-offer-inadequate-coal-ash-protection
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A new study finds that state regulations regarding coal ash disposal are inadequate to protect public health and drinking water supplies for nearby communities. The information comes as federal regulations – the first of their kind – are under attack by a hostile Congress bent on derailing any effort to ensure strong, federally enforceable safeguards for coal ash, America’s second largest industrial waste stream.
Earthjustice and Appalachian Mountain Advocates (formerly the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment) released “State of Failure: How states fail to protect our health and drinking water from toxic coal ash,” a review of state regulations in 37 states, which together comprise over 98 percent of all coal ash generated nationally. The study highlights the lack of state-based regulations for coal ash disposal and points to the 12 worst states when it comes to coal ash dumping: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and Virginia.
There are currently nearly 700 coal ash ponds and hundreds of coal ash landfills in the U.S., most of which operate without adequate liners and water quality monitoring, and have been operating as such for decades. Most states do not require coal ash dumps to employ the most basic safeguards required at landfills for household garbage.
State of Failure includes detailed information on basic disposal safeguards, such as groundwater monitoring, liners, isolation of ash from the water table, and financial assurance requirements in 37 states where coal ash is currently generated and disposed.
Coal ash is the toxic remains of coal-fired power plants; enough is generated each year to fill train cars stretching from the North Pole to the South Pole. The ash contains toxic metals, including arsenic, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury, and selenium. Coal ash is commonly dumped into unlined and unmonitored ponds and landfills. There are well over a hundred documented sites where coal ash has contaminated drinking water or surface water.
The EPA is currently considering a federal proposal to regulate coal ash that includes two options: the first option would classify coal ash as hazardous waste, requiring water quality monitoring, liners and the phase out of dangerous “wet” storage of coal ash, such as the pond that collapsed in Kingston, Tennessee in 2008. The second option would continue to allow states to inadequately regulate coal ash by establishing only guidelines that states are free to ignore. Within the industry, coal ash generators support the weaker option. The EPA, under pressure from industry, has postponed finalizing the coal ash standard until 2012.
But coal ash allies in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are not content with delay. Two bills currently moving through the House seek to undermine any efforts by the EPA to set federal enforceable safeguards for coal ash disposal. Both bills require EPA to let the states – and the states alone – decide how to regulate ash, with little federal oversight.
“This report proves unequivocally that state programs, without federal mandates or oversight, are a recipe for disaster when it comes to protecting our health and our environment,” said Lisa Evans, senior legislative counsel at Earthjustice and a co-author of the study. “Strong, federally enforceable safeguards are needed to guarantee that our drinking water remains free of arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxic metals found in coal ash. The myth that states are doing a good job protecting Americans from coal ash is busted.”
“The problem with relying on state regulations is that they are not designed for the unique problems of coal ash generally and coal ash impoundments particularly,” said Mike Becher, the Equal Justice Works Fellow at Appalachian Mountain Advocates. “While many coal ash impoundments are regulated by state dam safety programs, these programs were developed to deal with dams holding back water, not toxic substances. State solid waste programs, on the other hand, are not used to dealing with large impoundments and the threat of a catastrophic dam failure like the one seen in Tennessee in 2008.”
Panel recommends statewide statewide standards for new private water wells
http://republicanherald.com/news/panel-recommends-statewide-statewide-standards-for-new-private-water-wells-1.1188749
BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF rswift@timesshamrock.com)
Published: August 15, 2011
HARRISBURG – A special state commission recommends setting statewide construction standards for new private water wells, resurrecting an issue that has been debated for the past two decades.
The Governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission included the recommendation in last month’s report to guide the development of the deep pockets of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. The commission also recommended doubling the distance separating a gas well from a water well from 250 feet to 500 feet.
Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23, Williamsport, is considering introducing legislation to set standards for new water wells.
More than three million Pennsylvania residents rely on about one million private wells for drinking water. Methane contamination of drinking water such as occurred last year in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, is one of the most volatile issues surrounding the hydrofracking operations used in the deep Marcellus wells in Northeast Pennsylvania. Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. agreed to pay $4.1 million to Dimock residents affected by methane contamination attributed to faulty natural gas wells.
Some 20,000 new water wells are drilled each year in the state, yet for all this reliance on well water, Pennsylvania is one of the few states without private well regulations.
The commission kept its water well standards recommendation general in scope, while referring to a 2009 study by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative research agency, that concluded that 40 percent of private water wells have failed to meet at least one health-related drinking water standard. The commission noted pointedly that poorly constructed water wells can be pathways for bacteria and contaminants such as naturally occurring shallow methane gas to migrate into water supplies.
Groundwater aquifers can be polluted by failing septic systems, fertilizer runoff and mining, the center study found, while individual wells can be contaminated by exposed well casings, or having a loose fitting well cap or no cap at all, allowing surface water to enter a well.
The study recommended passing state laws requiring testing of new water wells by a certified lab and standards for new well construction and education programs for homeowners.
The Marcellus Shale drilling has led people to call for protection of water supplies, Yaw said. The senator said there have been a few problems, but they have to be viewed in the context of hundreds of gas wells drilled in recent years.
He said setting water well standards is one way to allay public concerns.
“If there’s a concern people have, let’s do something about it,” Yaw said.
In a related vein, the federal Department of Energy’s Shale Gas Production Subcommittee recommended last week that requirements be set to do testing for background levels of existing methane in nearby water wells prior to gas drilling.
The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors is opposed to a statewide well construction standard and prefers letting municipalities handle the issue through local ordinances.
Supervisors in some regions are concerned it will lead to state regulations on how property owners use their well water or even metering of wells, said Elam Herr, the association’s deputy director.
The last major push for regulation of private water wells came in 2001-02 when drought conditions led to enactment of a state water resources planning law. The House approved a water-well bill, but it didn’t become law.
Marcellus waste increase attributable to new rules, errors
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/marcellus-waste-increase-attributable-to-new-rules-errors-1.1190648#axzz1Vf1dbwq2
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: August 19, 2011
Marcellus Shale natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania reportedly produced vastly more fluid and solid waste in the first half of 2011 than the previous six-month period, but changes in reporting requirements and mistakes in data entry account for some of the surge.
More than 34 million barrels of salt- and metals-laden wastewater flowed from the state’s Marcellus wells in the first six months of 2011, according to industry-reported data published by the state Department of Environmental Protection. That is more than eight times the amount reported in the last six months of 2010, despite the fact that drilling did not markedly increase between the two periods.
• Database: Marcellus Shale production (January to June 2011)
http://thetimes-tribune.com/data-center/database-marcellus-shale-production-jan-to-june-2011-1.1190149#axzz1VR8Lf1y7
• Database: Marcellus Shale waste (January to June 2011)
http://thetimes-tribune.com/data-center/database-marcellus-shale-waste-jan-to-june-2011-1.1190150#axzz1VR8Ufhx6
Chesapeake Energy reported the vast majority of the wastewater – 24.5 million barrels – a pronounced spike from the second half of 2010 when the company reported producing only 60,704 barrels of the fluid.
The company attributed the spike to changes in state reporting requirements as well as an increase in production from its wells.
In a change from past practice, the state now requires operators to include all of the wastewater they reuse or recycle not just the waste that is disposed of in the six-month reports, said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources.
“We believe the current advances are more transparent and make more sense,” he said.
Recycling and reuse has become common practice since the state restricted the amount of salty drilling wastewater that can be discharged into rivers from treatment plants that cannot remove all of the contaminants.
In the first half of 2011, operators reused or recycled 29 million barrels of the wastewater that flows back from the wells or about 86 percent of the waste.
About 3 million barrels of the waste was taken to 15 treatments plants that Marcellus drillers have largely stopped using since mid-May at the request of DEP Secretary Michael Krancer.
Another 800,000 barrels of the wastewater was injected into deep disposal wells, mostly in Ohio, according to the state data.
The amount of rock and lubricant waste, called drill cuttings, that is displaced as operators bore to and through the shale also apparently surged in the first half of 2011. The reported cuttings increased by 254 times to 50.4 million tons between the last six months of 2010 and the first six months of 2011.
But 50 million of the 50.4 million tons of drill cuttings were mistakenly reported by EOG Resources, which made an error when it entered the data, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
“EOG inadvertently submitted its original data in pounds rather than tons,” spokeswoman K Leonard said. “EOG should have reported 25,000 tons of cuttings for the first half of 2011.”
The company is submitting a revised report to state regulators, she said.
The actual amount of cuttings produced by all operators was closer to 405,000 tons, compared with 198,000 tons produced in the last half of 2010.
That increase also reflects changes in reporting requirements, Pitzarella said.
The industry did not previously have to include in its six-month reports the cuttings that were encapsulated and buried at well sites. As operators move away from using lined pits at well sites, very few cuttings are being encapsulated and more of it is being reported.
“Most is now going to approved landfills,” he said.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Aug. 25 webinar to examine effect of Marcellus gas activity on habitat
http://live.psu.edu/story/54504#nw69
Thursday, August 11, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the Marcellus natural-gas boom has reverberated around Pennsylvania, residents and scientists alike have expressed concern about the impact extensive drilling and associated infrastructure development is having on wildlife habitat.
Wildlife managers and protectors are worried about forest fragmentation, the advance of invasive plant species and the effect the Marcellus play is having on activities such as hunting, fishing, bird watching and wildlife viewing.
There have been more than 2,350 wells drilled into the deep Marcellus formation under Pennsylvania in the last few years, primarily in the southwest, northeast and northcentral regions.
A Web-based seminar presented by Penn State Extension will offer a look at the latest information on the subject. Titled, “A Research Update on the Effects of Marcellus Shale Drilling on Wildlife Habitat,” the one-hour session will take place at 1 p.m. on Aug. 25.
Margaret Brittingham, professor of wildlife resources in the College of Agricultural Sciences
“The webinar will cover landscape and habitat changes associated with Marcellus Shale exploration and development, and how that may affect Pennsylvania wildlife and wildlife-associated recreation,” said presenter Margaret Brittingham, professor of wildlife resources in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
“I will discuss research we recently have completed on shallow wells and give an overview of our current research project, which is looking at the effects of Marcellus Shale gas exploration and development on wildlife habitat in general and forest songbirds in particular.”
Pennsylvania contains internationally important breeding habitat for a number of neotropical migrant songbirds that — if degraded — would affect world populations, Brittingham noted. And much of the extensive gas development is occurring in the state’s northern tier, where some of the densest forests in North America provide ecologically vital bird habitat.
However, that new research is in its early phase, Brittingham explained. “We currently are collecting baseline data and determining whether there are any detectable changes at this stage of development,” she said.
“I will conclude the webinar by discussing habitat-restoration needs, guidelines and opportunities, both for minimizing potential problems and enhancing habitat quality.”
The 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 session is available on the webinar page of Penn State Extension’s natural-gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars.
A webinar at 1 p.m. on Sept. 15 will focus on 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; implications for local communities; and gas pipelines and right-of-way issues also are available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website (http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas).
For more information about the webinar, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at 724-837-1402 or by email at jdt15@psu.edu.