Drought warning
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135919
Reported on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Drought warning
Shortage of rain must be taken seriously
Last week, the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a drought warning for our newspaper’s entire coverage area – Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Schuylkill Counties.
The combination of lower rain than usual with the excessive summer heat has resulted in stream levels being well below normal.
One only has to see the receding shore line at Mauch Chunk Lake Park to understand how critical the water level has become.
The National Weather Service says rainfall is four inches below normal for the past 90 days in the Lehigh Valley. Carbon County has a 4.5 inch deficit for 90 days while in Monroe County, there is a 5.2 inch rainfall shortage for the three-month period.
The DEP is asking people to conserve water. One of the most common sources of waste water is a leak within your residence, such as a toilet. DEP says a leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day. Although many households are strapped for cash right now, fixing such a leak should be a priority since it can also reduce your monthly water bill.
DEP encourages residents to conserve water by taking showers instead of baths.
Also, keep water in the refrigerator to avoid running water from a faucet until it is cold.
Run your dishwasher only when it is full.
Water is a precious resource and we can’t ignore the fact that levels at our storage facilities are being reduced by the lack of rain. Generally, the water lines aren’t fully restored until spring when a good snow pack melts. A dry winter will make things very critical, so it’s best to start conserving now.
This is especially true if you rely on wells rather than city water.
The DEP could do more to help the situation by making its Web site more user friendly with drought advice, suggestions, and information. Very little is stated on the DEP site about the drought conditions.
After all, it is the DEP which issues drought warnings.
We agree that there is a drought. We have to think ahead, though, to assure that if the drought continues, we’ll still have enough water to meet our every day needs.
By Ron Gower
rgower@tnonline.com
DEP Investigating Source of Stray Methane Gas in Bradford County
DEP Investigating Source of Stray Methane Gas in Bradford County
DEP to Require Complete Remediation
HARRISBURG — The Department of Environmental Protection is continuing to investigate the source of stray methane gas detected in the Susquehanna River and at six private water wells in Wilmont Township, Bradford County, late last week.
“Chesapeake Energy has been working at the direction of DEP to determine the source or sources of the stray gas,” said Hanger. “Gas migration is a serious, potentially dangerous problem. Chesapeake must stop the gas from migrating.”
Chesapeake has six Marcellus Shale gas wells located on the Welles well pads one three and four, located two to three miles northwest of the Susquehanna River. These wells are believed to be the source of stray gas that was detected on Aug. 4 at a residence located on Paradise Road in Terry Township. DEP issued a notice of violation to Chesapeake and required it to provide and implement a plan to remediate. Progress has been made, but, to date, this violation has not yet been fully resolved.
While neither DEP nor Chesapeake have been able to conclusively show that the Welles wells are the source, DEP believes that they are the most likely source.
The wells were drilled between Dec. 2009 and March of this year; however the wells have not been fractured or “fracked” and are not producing Marcellus gas. For that reason, DEP believes that any stray gas migrating from these wells is not from the Marcellus Shale formation, but from a more shallow rock formation.
Chesapeake has screened 26 residences within a one-half mile radius of the river and found six water wells to have elevated levels of methane. Chesapeake monitored each of the houses served by an impacted water well and found no indication of methane gas in the homes.
On Sept. 3, high levels of methane were detected in the crawl space under a seasonal residence. Emergency responders were contacted to ventilate below the home and gas and electric utilities were shut off to eliminate any potential for ignition.
Chesapeake has equipped water wells with high levels of methane with ventilation systems and installed five methane monitors in the homes associated with the im-pacted wells. Additionally, Chesapeake has provided potable water to the effected residents.
No residents have been evacuated from their homes.
DEP first received information about water bubbles in the Susquehanna River late on Sept. 2, with additional reports received the next morning of bubbling in two private drinking water wells nearby. In response, DEP sent two teams of inspectors to investigate the source of stray methane gas on Sept. 3.
One team of DEP inspectors went to the Susquehanna River near to Sugar Run where bubbling had been reported. DEP collected samples of the gas for isotopic analysis which is used to identify the source. Analysis of the lab results will be complete within 2 weeks.
Biogenic methane gas is formed at shallow depths from the natural organic decomposition of waste, such as one would find in swamp gas. Thermogenic methane gas is produced in deeper geologic formations and is the gas typically developed for economic purposes.
Both DEP and Chesapeake have taken gas samples from the water well heads and the natural gas wells. The results will help to determine if the source of the stray gas detected at the river and in the water wells is the Welles wells.
Anyone who notices unusual bubbling in surface or well water should notify DEP immediately by calling 570-327-3636.
####
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=14034&typeid=1
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09/7/2010
CONTACT:
Helen Humphreys, Department of Environmental Protection
717-787-1323
Penn State researchers ‘whet’ teen students’ interest in water cycle
http://live.psu.edu/story/47937/nw69
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Penn State researchers ‘whet’ teen students’ interest in water cycle
Photo by Margaret Hopkins In Pun, a rising ninth grader at State College Area High School, gets help from George Holmes, Penn State graduate student in civil engineering, on how to read an electronic water-level sensor. For more photos from the Stone Valley streambed ‘lab,’ click on the image above.
University Park. — A dry streambed in a small wooded valley near Penn State’s Stone Valley Recreation Area became a “living” laboratory Wednesday (Aug. 18) for a group of State College Area High School students getting an early taste of earth science.
Using soil moisture probes and water-level sensors, the teens sampled 16 sites to determine the depth of the water table and the moisture content along a streambed that was so dry in parts that it was almost dusty. The laboratory was the 20-acre Shale Hills watershed in the Penn State Stone Valley Experimental Forest in Huntingdon County.
Instructing the students was Chris Duffy, Penn State professor of civil engineering, who is the lead researcher in the NSF-sponsored Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (CZO). Critical Zone science explores the complex physical chemical and biological processes that shape and transform the life-sustaining Critical Zone stretching from the top of vegetation to the bottom of groundwater.
Researchers in three Penn State colleges, Engineering, Earth and Mineral Sciences and Agricultural Sciences, are involved in examining water flow patterns and rates as it moves through the subsurface of the Shale Hills watershed.
A new initiative for the State College Area School District, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) academy is emphasizing hands-on activities with students building instruments, conducting experiments and analyzing data.
“When kids see and do hand-on things, they remember it far better than being told what it is and how it works,” said Wendy Watts, who teaches physics in the school district and who also took a turn measuring soil moisture with the students.
The students’ measurements confirmed their hypotheses: Soil on the banks of the stream was drier than the soil in the streambed, and soils are drier closer to stream headwaters.
“Doing experiments and seeing how it works in person helps me learn it better,” said 14-year old In Pun, one of the 10 students in the State College Area School District’s week long STEM Summer Academy. “I’m really understanding how the water cycle works and how everything affects it.”
Amer Sible, 14, said, “This helps me make connections between the everyday things you see and the science behind them.”
Dave Klindienst, the district STEM coordinator, said the district is looking to build more collaborations with Penn State, a goal that also fits well with Duffy.
“If we want to move Critical Zone Observatories forward as a national network, we need education at the K-12 level in the mix,” Duffy said. “Today was an opportunity for students to learn about ecology, geology and hydrology with mentors.”
Meters required for all wells
http://www.tnonline.com/node/128288
Meters required for all wells in Nesquehoning, PA
Reported on Thursday, August 26, 2010
By CAROL ZICKLER TN Correspondent tneditor@tnonline.com
“Tom Merman asked David Hawk, who serves as the borough’s Water Authority chairman, about putting meters on all of the wells in town that don’t have meters on them. Hawk answered that it is up to council as to whether they want to enforce the ordinance. There is an ordinance that all wells have meters attached. Later in the meeting it was discussed that each homeowner who does not have a meter must get one and have it installed. They will have 30 days from time of accepting the meter to have it installed.”
Wilkes University to track NEPA well water quality
http://citizensvoice.com/news/wilkes-university-to-track-nepa-well-water-quality-1.946863
Published: August 14, 2010
Wilkes University to track NEPA well water quality
Wilkes University will announce a major initiative to track water quality in residential wells in Northeastern Pennsylvania at a news conference Tuesday. Water quality has become a significant issue in the area with the advent of natural gas drilling related to the Marcellus Shale formation. The project, by the university’s Center for Environmental Quality and its Homeowner Outreach Program, will be the first of its kind to track the quality of water in homeowners’ wells in Luzerne and Columbia counties. Educational outreach programs and materials related to water quality and well testing will be shared at the event.
Marcellus shale well accident reinforces need to guard water quality
http://live.psu.edu/story/47244/nw69
Monday, June 21, 2010
University Park, Pa. — The recent eruption of a Marcellus shale gas well in Clearfield County, Pa., has triggered investigations by state agencies. A Penn State Cooperative Extension water specialist said it also should remind Pennsylvanians that drilling can impact surrounding water resources, and well owners near any drill sites should take steps to monitor their drinking water.
The contaminated water spewed by the natural-gas well for more than 15 hours may have entered a local aquifer. Bryan Swistock, senior extension associate in the School of Forest Resources, said the state Department of Environmental Protection will probably check local streams for contamination, but it may be prudent for water-well owners living near the spill to have an independent laboratory test their well water. He said the tests for various contaminants have a range of costs and implications.
“Things like methane, chloride, total dissolved solids and barium are very good indicators and are relatively inexpensive to test for — most labs can do them,” Swistock explained. “When you move down into the organic chemicals that might be used in fracturing, the cost to test for them goes way up. The risk is much less for those, typically, so it’s not quite as important, but again, if you can afford to do that testing, that’s great.”
The Department of Environmental Protection ordered a contractor hired by the gas-well owner to stop some of its work in the state, hand over equipment records and provide access to employees as DEP investigates the equipment used by the company.
“They haven’t determined how the blow-out happened, but it appears that it allowed a lot of gas and hydrofracturing fluid to escape on the ground into nearby streams,” Swistock said. “That reinforces how important it is for people who live near natural-gas drilling to document their water quality before the drilling, so that if any incidents do occur, you can prove they happened. And that includes testing of wells, streams, ponds and any water resources that you’re concerned about before the drilling occurs.
“It’s hard to document anything if you don’t have any pre-existing data,” he added. “It’s important that homeowners have an unbiased expert from a state-certified lab conduct the tests, in case the sample results are needed for legal action.”
Water forced into subterranean pockets as part of the drilling process dissolves many chemicals out of the rock, Swistock said, and may gather large amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium, strontium and barium, and small amounts of arsenic and lead. There also are enormous amounts of sodium and chloride as water dissolves chemicals left behind by ancient sea water.
Swistock said balancing frequency of testing with the proximity of the drilling activity is an individual decision for each well owner.
“Fracking is a very intensive industrial activity, and these kinds of incidents are going to happen,” he said. “They don’t happen very often if we look at the history of the industry, but people have to decide on their own how concerned they are and how much testing they want to go through. Certainly, water supplies within 1,000 feet of the drilling are considered at higher risk. Beyond that, it’s up to the homeowner to decide. If some people 5,000 feet away are concerned and want to get testing done, that’s really their choice.”
About 3.5 million Pennsylvanians get their water from private wells and springs, according to Swistock. He said residents who want more information on Marcellus shale gas exploration can find it online at Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Natural Gas website at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/.
Drinking water workshop planned in Pottstown
http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/06/02/news/doc4c066a9ec9b9d304913037.txt
Drinking water workshop planned in Pottstown
Published: Wednesday, June 02, 2010
By Mercury staff
POTTSTOWN — A free workshop on how better to protect drinking water sources from contamination will be held Thursday, June 24, at Pottstown Middle School.
Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Southeast Region, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania’s Water Resources Education network, the Montgomery County Conservation District, Montgomery County Planning Commission, Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, Schuylkill Action Network, PA Rural Water Association, Pennsylvania Amaerican Waterworks Association and Penn State Cooperative Extension, the workshop will be held at the middle school, 600 N. Franklin St., from 1 to 4:45 p.m.
To preregister visit www.drinkingwaterwise.org or contact Julie Kollar at 267-468-0555.
Drinking water clinic highlights drilled wells, cisterns and springs
http://live.psu.edu/story/46304/nw69
Friday, April 23, 2010
University Park, Pa. — Ben Franklin wrote, “when the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” But even when the well is pumping steadily, it’s still worthwhile to regularly test private water supplies.
Public water systems are required by law to protect customers and regularly test for impurities. But in Pennsylvania, 3.5 million residents are served by private water systems, such as wells, springs and cisterns, and they have no such legal oversight.
“If you own your own private supply, it’s all your own responsibility to provide clean water to yourself, the people in your family and the people who come to visit,” said Peter Wulfhorst, educator with Penn State Cooperative Extension in Pike County.
Wulfhorst will be the featured speaker in the next Penn State Extension Water Webinar, titled “Safe Drinking Water Clinic,” which will air at noon and again at 7 p.m. on April 28.
He said two types of water standards concern homeowners: primary standards pertaining to health, and secondary standards that pertain to the water’s aesthetics — its taste or smell, its appearance, or whether it stains plumbing fixtures or laundry. He said the webinar will cover both of these subjects, as well as how to protect a water supply from contaminants, which contaminants to test for and what treatments to use if contaminants are present. Read more
Water Well Pennsylvania testing offered to residents near drilling site
http://citizensvoice.com/news/well-testing-offered-to-residents-near-drilling-site-1.738187
Well testing offered to residents near drilling site
By Elizabeth Skrapits (Staff Writer)
Published: April 21, 2010
elizabeth skrapits / the citizens’ voice Brian Oram, a hydrogeologist from Wilkes University, talks about local geology Tuesday at the Lehman Township Fire Hall.
LEHMAN TWP. – Residents near a planned natural gas well site in Lake Township were advised Tuesday to take advantage of an opportunity to have their private wells tested.
Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc., in partnership with WhitMar Exploration Co., has selected the Salansky property on Sholtis Road in Lake Township as the site of the second of three proposed exploratory natural gas wells in Luzerne County.
State regulations require natural gas drilling companies to sample drinking water wells within 1,000 feet of their drilling sites, but Encana is testing within a 1-mile radius of its proposed drilling sites.
The companies plan to start drilling at the Lake Township site in July if they can receive the required permissions, Encana Spokeswoman Wendy Wiedenbeck said. The first site to be drilled will be the Buda property behind the Ricketts Glen Hotel in Fairmount Township, in June. Although the companies have required permits to drill at a third site, the Lansberry property in Lehman Township, Wiedenbeck said she is not sure when drilling will start there.
Encana has retained Lancaster-based RETTEW Associates Inc. as a third-party firm to do the sampling, and King-of-Prussia-based TestAmerica as its independent laboratory to do the tests.
Drilling will not start until the water testing is complete, Wiedenbeck said. The reason for the water testing is to establish a baseline, or show what is in peoples’ well water before the drilling starts.
A few residents expressed concern about a similar situation like that in Dimock Township, where 14 families’ wells were invaded by methane. The state Department of Environmental Protection fined Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., made the company cap three wells, and put a stop to more drilling within a 9-square-mile radius of the township for at least a year. The problem is believed to have been caused by a faulty well casing.
Encana will follow protocols so as not to repeat the mistakes of the other well operator, according to Wiedenbeck. Differences include two well casings, the first of which will go at least 50 feet below the nearest known water source.
“I don’t know if there’s anything I can say to erase the concern from another’s mistake,” Wiedenbeck said. “We will take steps so we do not impact the water.”
On questioning, Wiedenbeck admitted Encana may have had an impact to a water source – a stream – while drilling in Colorado, but said state environmental authorities were called immediately and the company implemented a new protocol afterwards.
Although people seem to have a lot of concerns about the hydraulic fracturing process, Wiedenbeck said the biggest concern should be about the well bore instead of 7,000 feet underground: the well bore integrity will prevent fluids and gas from migrating.
If Encana did impact residents’ water, the company would be responsible to make sure they had drinkable, usable water the same as before the incident, she said.
“I think they (Encana) danced around some of the questions, but the water testing is a good idea, at least to give us a baseline,” Jeffrey Chulick, who lives near the Lake Township site, said after the meeting when asked what he thought. “I’m not sure about the natural gas drilling, though.”
After the question-and-answer session with Encana, Wilkes University hydrogeologist Brian Oram gave a presentation on what’s underground and in the water in the region.
Oram, who is not involved with the water sampling or acting as a consultant to Encana – “My role isn’t to swing somebody either way,” as he put it – did advise people to have the water sampling done.
He said in his 20 years of doing baseline water testing in Luzerne County, he found 30 percent to 50 percent of private wells were contaminated. For example, methane was discovered in wells in Tunkhannock and Columbia County even before Marcellus Shale drilling started there, Oram said.
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
Drinking water workshop April 13
http://www.inyork.com/business/ci_14828703
Drinking water workshop April 13
Daily Record/Sunday News
Posted: 04/06/2010 09:09:43 AM EDT
York County Cooperative Extension is scheduled to host a workshop for people who might have problems with their wells or who might be new to well water April 13.
The safe drinking water workshop is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is scheduled to repeat at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the York County Annex, 112 Pleasant Acres Road, in Springettsbury Township.
Registration is $13 for an individual and $15 for couples by calling 840-7408.