New Waterless Fracking Method Avoids Pollution Problems
insideclimatenews.org/news/20111104/gasfrac-propane-natural-gas-drilling-hydraulic-fracturing-fracking-drinking-water-marcellus-shale-new-york
By Anthony Brino, InsideClimate News and Brian Nearing, Albany Times-Union
Nov 6, 2011
Little-noticed drilling technique uses propane gel, not water, to release natural gas. Higher cost, lack of data and industry habit stand in the way.
Tanks labeled as "Brine Water" on a property in Dimock, Pa. In conventional fracking, wastewater can be several times saltier than sea water and tainted with chemicals and mild radioactivity.
ALBANY, N.Y.—In the debate over hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, two facts are beyond dispute: Huge amounts of water are used to break up gas-bearing rock deep underground and huge amounts of polluted water are returned to the surface after the process is complete.
Tainted with chemicals, salts and even mild radioactivity, such water, when mishandled, has damaged the environment and threatened drinking water, helping fuel a heated debate in New York and other states over whether gas drilling is worth its risk to clean drinking water, rivers and streams.
Now, an emerging technology developed in Canada and just making its way to the U.S. does away with the need for water. Instead, it relies on a thick gel made from propane, a widely-available gas used by anyone who has fired up a backyard barbecue grill.
Called liquefied propane gas (LPG) fracturing, or simply “gas fracking,” the waterless method was developed by a small energy company, GasFrac, based in Calgary, Alberta.
Still awaiting a patent in the U.S., the technique has been used about 1,000 times since 2008, mainly in gas wells in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick and a smaller handful of test wells in states that include Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico, said GasFrac Chief Technology Officer Robert Lestz.
Like water, propane gel is pumped into deep shale formations a mile or more underground, creating immense pressure that cracks rocks to free trapped natural gas bubbles. Like water, the gel also carries small particles of sand or man-made material—known as proppant—that are forced into cracks to hold them open so the gas can flow out.
Unlike water, the gel does a kind of disappearing act underground. It reverts to vapor due to pressure and heat, then returns to the surface—along with the natural gas—for collection, possible reuse and ultimate resale.
And also unlike water, propane does not carry back to the surface drilling chemicals, ancient seabed salts and underground radioactivity.
“We leave the nasties in the ground, where they belong,” said Lestz.
Read Full Article
New Waterless Fracking Method Avoids Pollution Problems, But Drillers Slow to Embrace It
Lawyer: Dimock water unsafe; deliveries should go on
thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-drilling/lawyer-dimock-water-unsafe-deliveries-should-go-on-1.1227996#axzz1cqCyvXh1
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: November 5, 2011
Attorneys for Dimock Twp. families suing a natural gas driller over contamination claims are asking the state’s chief oil and gas regulator to reverse his decision allowing fresh water deliveries to the families to end.
Tate Kunkle, a lawyer representing the 11 families in a suit against Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., wrote to the head of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas Management on Thursday to rebut Cabot’s claim that the families’ well water is safe and that proposed treatment systems work.
He cited tests over the past 22 months showing elevated levels of lead, aluminum, iron, toluene, methane and manganese in some of the water supplies, as well as detection of chemicals found in synthetic sands, hydraulic fluid and antifreeze that “are not naturally occurring and that are associated with natural gas drilling.”
“The fact is that the water in the Dimock/Carter Road Area remains unsafe for drinking, even with Cabot’s proposed ‘whole house treatment system,’ ” Mr. Kunkle wrote.
The DEP determined that faulty Cabot Marcellus Shale wells allowed methane to seep into aquifers in the Susquehanna County township, a finding the company disputes. Families have been relying on deliveries of fresh bottled and bulk water for drinking, bathing and cooking for nearly three years.
On Oct. 19, the agency found that Cabot had met the obligations necessary to end delivery of the water supplies outlined in a December settlement between Cabot and DEP. The settlement was reached after the Rendell Administration abandoned plans to build a public waterline to the homes and sue Cabot for the costs.
Those obligations included funding escrow accounts for 19 affected families with twice the tax-assessed value of their properties and offering to install methane-removal systems in the homes. The obligations did not include restoring the residents’ well water to its original quality or reducing levels of dissolved methane in the aquifer.
A DEP spokeswoman referred to a recent letter to the editor published by DEP Secretary Michael Krancer in the (Chambersburg) Public Opinion for his comments on the issue.
Mr. Krancer wrote that Cabot met the requirements outlined in the December agreement “and the law, in turn, requires DEP to follow its obligations – which we have done.
“The real issue here is not safety,” he continued. “It’s about a very vocal minority of Dimock residents who continue to demand that taxpayers should foot the bill for a nearly $12 million public waterline along Route 29 to serve about a dozen homes.”
Cabot argues that the methane in Dimock water supplies occurs naturally and is not a result of its gas-drilling activities. It has produced data showing naturally occurring methane is detectable in 80 percent of Susquehanna County water supplies.
The company plans to stop the fresh water deliveries on or before Nov. 30.
Cabot spokesman George Stark said Friday that the company is reviewing Mr. Kunkle’s letter. “Cabot continues to fully cooperate with the DEP regarding our operations,” he said.
In his letter, Mr. Kunkle quoted email messages from a Dimock resident who accepted a Cabot treatment system and found it failed to treat turbidity and metals in her water.
Mr. Kunkle accused Cabot of misrepresenting or selectively reporting water-quality test results and charged DEP with colluding with and “coddling” Cabot while abandoning the regulatory requirement for drillers to restore or replace tainted water supplies.
“To be sure, PADEP has taken a stance: profits of a private corporation from Texas are more important than the constitutional right to pure water of the Commonwealth’s residents,” he wrote.
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com
Pa DEP to Issue Technical Guidance on Wastewater Treatment Permitting
www.sacbee.com/2011/11/03/4028012/pennsylvania-dep-to-issue-technical.html
By Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Published: Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 – 8:53 am
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 3, 2011 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of Environmental Protection will soon offer new technical guidance designed to ensure compliance with updated wastewater-treatment regulations.
The guidance explains revisions to Title 25 Chapter 95 of the Pennsylvania Code that require new or expanded sources of natural gas wastewater to treat the wastewater to the federal drinking water standard of less than 500 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids prior to discharge.
“This technical guidance is another step in this administration’s continuing efforts to protect Pennsylvania’s water resources,” DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said. “This document clearly communicates to any facility seeking to increase its discharge of treated wastewater or to any facility seeking to start accepting wastewater that they must meet certain obligations.”
Krancer also said the guidance will ensure consistency in the department’s decision-making process in issuing these permits.
In April 2011, Krancer called on the natural gas industry to stop sending unconventional gas production wastewater to facilities that were permitted prior to revisions to the Chapter 95 regulations, which took effect in August 2010. The industry quickly complied. To ensure the continued protection of state waterways, the department is now issuing this guidance to explain the regulations governing new and expanded sources of discharged wastewater.
The technical guidance document, to be published in the Nov. 12 Pennsylvania Bulletin, will assist DEP’s permitting staff in implementing the new total dissolved solids effluent standard for discharges of treated natural gas wastewater. The revised Chapter 95 regulations ensure that drinking water, waterways, and watersheds in the state are not impacted by high levels of total dissolved solids. The most common total dissolved solids in Pennsylvania are chlorides and sulfates.
The guidance also clarifies that all facilities that accept shale gas extraction wastewater that has not been fully pre-treated to meet the discharge requirements must develop and implement a radiation protection plan. Such facilities must also monitor for radium-226, radium-228, uranium and gross alpha radiation in their effluent.
The department will host web-based trainings in the coming weeks to explain the implementation of the guidance document to treatment plants and their customers.
DEP regulates the treatment and discharge of industrial wastewater in the state as part of its administration of the federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
For more information, visit www.dep.state.pa.us or call 717-783-4693.
Media contact: Kevin Sunday, 717-787-1323
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Critic disputes Penn State findings and thinks potential well water contamination overlooked
www.timesleader.com/news/Study__Gas_drilling_not_polluting_water_11-04-2011.html
Posted: November 4
By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Study: Gas drilling not polluting water
The natural gas industry is pointing to a Penn State University study to boost its mantra that gas drilling is not linked to pollution of water wells.
But a drilling critic says the study found increased levels of a harmful chemical in water wells after gas drilling occurred nearby. He thinks other aspects of the study overlooked potential well water contamination.
“The Impact of Marcellus Gas Drilling on Rural Drinking Water Supplies” was authored by Penn State water quality experts led by Elizabeth Boyer, associate professor of water resources, director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center and assistant director of the Penn State Institutes of Energy & Environment.
The research was sponsored by a grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a bipartisan legislative agency within the state General Assembly. The goal was a large-scale study of water quality in private water wells in rural Pennsylvania before and after nearby Marcellus Shale drilling.
For the study, the researchers evaluated water sampled from 233 water wells near gas wells in 2010 and 2011. The first phase focused on 48 private water wells located within 2,500 feet of a nearby shale well pad. The second phase focused on 185 private water wells located within 5,000 feet of a shale well pad.
During the first phase, researchers collected pre- and post-drilling water well samples and analyzed them for water quality. In the second phase, researchers or homeowners collected only post-drilling water well samples and analyzed them for water quality. The post-drilling analyses were compared with existing pre-drilling test records.
John Krohn, spokesman for Energy In Depth Northeast Marcellus Initiative, noted excerpts from the report that said analysis of the water tests “did not suggest major influences from gas well drilling (or hydraulic fracturing) on nearby water wells.”
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and chemical additives deep underground to extract natural gas trapped in shale rock.
The study also found no clear link between methane migration and natural gas production, Krohn said.
Methane is a gas that some residents living near gas wells have lit on fire as it escaped from their kitchen faucets along with their well water.
Krohn also noted 40 percent of the water wells tested failed at least one safe drinking water standard, mostly for coliform bacteria, turbidity and manganese, before drilling occurred. This shows a need for uniform water well construction standards that don’t exist in Pennsylvania, as well as a need for education of water well owners.
Dr. Tom Jiunta, founder of the local Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, said study findings of increased levels of bromide and sediment/metal levels in wells after drilling/fracking were of particular concern to him.
“This finding alone shows that many wells near drilling sites are impacted by migration of underwater brines and possible drilling muds, both hazardous to drinking water supplies,” he said.
Bromide itself is not a health threat, but elevated levels “can create an indirect health issue as it may combine with other elements in water to cause carcinogenic compounds,” the report states.
Jiunta said nearly 80 percent of the water wells were not pre-tested for methane, bromide or oil/grease because well owners couldn’t afford the expensive tests. “This skews the data,” he said.
Jiunta also said the study considers only short-term changes in well water after nearby gas wells were drilled – less than three-month time periods. He said that time period is “inadequate for determining contamination,” citing a Temple University engineering professor who said most problems with underground water contamination would most likely take several years to be detected.
The Penn State study was released as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins a federal probe into whether hydraulic fracturing is spoiling and diminishing drinking water supplies.
The agency’s final study plan was released Thursday. The first results will be available in 2012.
Two Big Decisions Loom for 15 Million People Living Near the Marcellus Shale
www.alternet.org/environment/152934/two_big_decisions_loom_on_the_fate_of_drinking_water_for_15_million_people_living_near_the_marcellus_shale
November 1, 2011
Two Big Decisions Loom on the Fate of Drinking Water for 15 Million People Living Near the Marcellus Shale
Decisions about whether to allow fracking in NY, PA, NJ and DE may be decided in just a few weeks.
The fate of fracking in the Northeast may be determined soon.
On Nov. 21, the Delaware River Basin Commission, comprising representatives from four states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) and the federal government, will vote on whether to allow the intensive method of natural-gas drilling in the river’s watershed. The watershed, which supplies drinking water for more than 15 million people, overlaps the eastern end of the Marcellus Shale, an underground geological formation touted as the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas.”
The commission’s rules, which will apply in the Delaware watershed, will overlap with state regulations. Pennsylvania already allows fracking. New York is in the process of developing regulations about where it might be allowed and under what conditions. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will hold public hearings in November, and says it will decide sometime next year. Many environmental activists believe Gov. Andrew Cuomo is fast-tracking the issue.
The Background
Read more
Free Pre-Drilling Private Drinking Water Testing Offered
paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com/2011/11/free-pre-drilling-private-drinking.html
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Free Pre-Drilling Private Drinking Water Testing Offered In 8 Northcentral Counties
The Headwaters Quality Drinking Water Project of the Headwaters Resource Conservation & Development Council is now providing low income families in Jefferson, Elk, Potter, Cameron, Clearfield, Clinton, Centre and McKean Counties with secure chain of custody water sample analyses of their private water supplies prior to Marcellus Shale Gas Well Drilling activities.
A $150,000 grant from the Colcom Foundation’s Marcellus Environmental Fund supports this project.
The Headwaters Project is also providing mandatory educational workshops and material explaining how to interpret the water quality results, when do things become toxic, and what the homeowner should do in case something does happen to their water supply.
RC&D will partner with various organizations and agencies including the Department of Environmental Protection, Penn State Extension and the local school districts and conservation districts.
Jefferson & Clearfield Counties
The first set of water samplings will take place in Jefferson and Clearfield Counties. Testing will be conducted from October 24 through December 2 with a mandatory educational workshop following.
For folks living in Jefferson County, the workshop will be held on December 15 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined. For Clearfield County, the workshop will be held on December 14 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined.
Elk & Centre Counties
The second set of water samplings will take place in Elk and Centre Counties. Testing will be conducted January 9 through February 17 with a mandatory educational workshop following.
For folks living in Elk County, the workshop will be held on March 8 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined. For Centre County, the workshop will be held on March 7 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined.
Cameron & Clinton Counties
The third set of water samplings will take place in Cameron and Clinton Counties. Testing will be conducted March 12 through April 20 with a mandatory educational workshop following.
For folks living in Cameron County, the workshop will be held on May 10 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined. For Clinton County, the workshop will be held on May 9 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined.
McKean & Potter Counties
The fourth set of water samplings will take place in McKean and Potter Counties. Testing will be conducted May 14 through June 22 with a mandatory educational workshop following.
For folks living in McKean County, the workshop will be held on July 11 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined. For Potter County, the workshop will be held on July 12 from 5-7 p.m., location to be determined.
Applications can be obtained at the Clearfield County Conservation District located at 511 Spruce Street Suite 6, Clearfield, PA 16830 and are available online.
For more information, contact Kelly Williams, Clearfield County Conservation District’s Watershed Conservationist at 814-765-2629 or send email to: kwilliamsccd@atlanticbbn.net.
The Headwaters Resource Conservation & Development Council is tasked with providing local leadership to improve the economic, environmental, and social well-being of the people of Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Jefferson, McKean, and Potter counties in northcentral Pennsylvania.
Posted by David E. Hess at 11:37 AM
Private well survey and database planned in PA
www.riverreporteronline.com/news/14/2011/10/26/private-well-survey-and-database-planned-pa
October 26, 2011
TRR photo by Sandy Long
Brian Oram, a licensed professional geologist, offered this advice at a presentation in Honesdale, PA: “If you want to protect the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, you need to protect where the water gets into the aquifer and that is in rural private wells.”
In preparation for natural gas extraction and its potential impacts and opportunities, a session on methane migration was hosted by the Wayne County Oil and Gas Task Force on October 18 in Honesdale.
During his presentation, licensed professional geologist Brian Oram announced that a private well owner and watershed survey would be conducted to obtain information on regional concerns related to development of the Marcellus Shale.
Oram is the owner of BF Environmental Consultants, Inc. of Dallas, PA and former director of the Center for Environmental Quality at Wilkes University, where he oversaw production of a free publication on private well water testing (www.bfenvironmental.com/pdfs/Waterbooklet070610.pdf).
Oram opened his presentation with a plea to move beyond the division created by supporters and opponents of gas drilling and to focus on “understanding the risks” and testing private wells now. “It’s the match of the century,” Oram said. “Which side are we on? That’s the mindset that’s causing us problems.”
The primary risk Oram points to is the fact that nearly half of the private wells tested in Pennsylvania don’t meet the drinking water standards established by the EPA. Typical problems include corrosion, copper, lead, iron, manganese and methane, according to Oram.
“For 23 years, I’ve been encouraging private owners to test their water,” he said. “Maybe five percent do. It took an industry to come to town to get people to think about the quality of their own drinking water and to get it tested.”
Oram also discussed the Citizen Groundwater Database established at Wilkes University
(www.wilkes.edu/pages/4197.asp).
The regional database provides a central location to store baseline pre-drilling and/or post-drilling water quality data in order to document quality by geological formation, identify existing regional issues or concerns and provide an unbiased community resource as well as a mechanism to track temporal,
spatial and other geospatial variations in water quality.
Data from 320 private wells in Luzerne County, secured with a full chain of custody and third party testing, is already stored. “Forty-nine percent of the wells tested in Luzerne County violated the drinking water standard for total coliform bacteria,” he said. “Twenty-five percent had elevated lead; 10% of the population is drinking water contaminated with e coli. Some private wells contain pthalates (plasticizers), which can cause gastrointestinal problems and are suspected endocrine disruptors and carcinogens.”
Oram is a passionate advocate for the establishment of well construction standards, and an active critic of “what PA has allowed to happen to the private well program” by not implementing such standards. Pennsylvania is one of two states without construction standards, according to Oram. The other is Alaska.
Wells with problems such as bacterial or viral contamination are conduits for contamination of aquifers, Oram added. “We need to fix those. These are the vulnerable points in our communities.” Water can also move along casings and contaminate the groundwater aquifer, he said.
Oram urged audience members to get baseline testing done now. “Spend what you can afford,” he said. “There’s a list of recommended DEP parameters which runs about $400.” If doing baseline testing, he recommends adding tests for methane, ethane and propane.
BF Environmental’s Private Well Owner Survey seeks information on regional concerns related to Marcellus Shale and other non-point sources of pollution. The survey also aims to gauge support for a construction standard for new private wells, and to find out if citizens would test their water once a year if it only cost about $50.
The company is also absorbing the costs for free radon testing for 200 private wells to explore “how a migration event could occur if it may be related to a Marcellus Shale activity.” The web-based survey (www.surveymonkey.com/s/NMG6RQ3can) can be filled out online or mailed in. The company also offers baseline testing related to Marcellus Shale development and has recommended testing packages that are region specific.
Oram urged local leadership to use the results of such testing to inform decision-making, support solutions that fix problematic private wells and develop a community support program where citizens can call and get answers.
The event also featured Burt Waite, senior geologist and program director for Moody and Associates, Inc. who spoke on “Understanding Stray Gas in Pennsylvania.” Wayne County commissioners Brian Smith and Wendell Kay offered concluding remarks.
“Understand the risks,” said Smith. “Make good decisions based on what the risks really are and do that by talking to the people who have the skill sets that can help address those risks and solve the problems. That’s what we’re doing by having these forums.”
Kay added, “The goal of this organization is to educate as many of us as possible to all the aspects. This commission is looking at a whole variety of issues, both positive and negative, that will come about as part of this economic opportunity that we all hope we will enjoy.”
For more information visit www.bfen vironmental.com, www.water-research.net, www.wilkes.edu/water or www.epa.gov/safewater.
Study looks at water quality in private wells near Marcellus drilling
live.psu.edu/story/55987#nw69
October 25, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A study of more than 200 drinking-water wells near Marcellus Shale natural-gas
Bryan Swistock, extension water resource specialist, led the first 'unbiased and large-scale study of water quality in private water wells .. both before and after the drilling of Marcellus gas wells nearby.'
wells in 20 counties did not find statistically significant evidence of contamination from hydraulic fracturing — a process used by gas drillers to release natural gas using a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemical additives.
The study was conducted by researchers and extension educators in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. The research was funded by the state General Assembly’s Center for Rural Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center at Penn State. A free online seminar focusing on the study results will take place from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Information about how to register for the live webinar can be found at http://extension.psu.edu/water/webinar-series/schedule online. A recorded version will be available for those who cannot log in for the live offering.
“This is the first project to provide an unbiased and large-scale study of water quality in private water wells used to supply drinking water to rural homes and farms both before and after the drilling of Marcellus gas wells nearby,” said project leader Bryan Swistock, water resources extension specialist.
Conducted from February 2010 to July 2011, the study found methane in about a quarter of the water wells before any drilling occurred, but the concentrations were generally below advisory levels for treatment, Swistock said. The presence of methane can be naturally occurring or related to drilling activity.
“We really didn’t see any significant changes in methane levels after drilling or hydraulic fracturing,” he added.
There is no federal drinking water standard for methane as it can be ingested without harm, but high levels can cause an explosion hazard as the dissolved methane escapes from water.
Elevated levels of dissolved bromide were measured in some water wells and appeared to be a result of the gas-well drilling process and not hydraulic fracturing.
“Bromide was not detected in any of the water wells before drilling, but it did show up in several wells after drilling, which needs to be investigated further,” Swistock said.
The study’s modest number of samples for methane and bromide and the relatively short length of the study speak to the need for additional data collection and analysis, Swistock pointed out.
“Future research should look at a broader number of water contaminants over a longer period of time,” Swistock said. “More detailed and longer-term studies are critical to ensuring that Pennsylvanians’ private water supplies are protected.”
Wells in the study were not randomly selected. Project publicity solicited participation from well owners who knew gas drilling was going to occur near them, and many responded by contacting Swistock or other project investigators working for Penn State Extension.
“Our network of Penn State Extension educators throughout the state was absolutely critical to the efficient completion of this project,” Swistock said.
The first phase of the study included 48 private water wells located within about 2,500 feet of a Marcellus well pad. These wells were tested by Penn State researchers both before and after gas-well drilling. Twenty-six of the 48 were near Marcellus wells that were drilled and fracked, 16 sites had drilling but no fracking, and six sites were controls where no drilling or fracking occurred.
These wells were tested for 18 common water-quality parameters that could occur from gas-drilling activity, including chloride, barium, sodium, iron, manganese, methane, ethane, bromide, and oil and grease.
The second phase was comprised of 185 additional private water wells located within about 5,000 feet of a Marcellus well pad. Homeowners provided water test results collected by independent, state-accredited laboratories prior to Marcellus gas-well drilling. These tests then were compared with samples collected by Penn State personnel or by homeowners trained by Penn State personnel after gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing occurred.
Phase two included 173 sites near hydraulically fractured gas wells and 12 control sites where no drilling had occurred with five miles. These wells were tested for 14 common water quality parameters — methane, ethane, bromide and oil and grease were not included due to funding and sample-collection constraints.
Separate statistical analyses of results from each phase of the project produced similar results, according to Swistock.
In addition to the increased bromide concentrations in some water wells, a small number of water wells examined in the study also appeared to be affected by disturbance due to drilling, as evidenced by sediment and/or increased levels of iron and manganese that were noticeable to the water-supply owner and confirmed by water-testing results.
“While most water wells, even within 3,000 feet of a Marcellus well, did not have changes in water quality after drilling or hydraulic fracturing, that was the distance where we did sporadically measure increased bromide, sediment or metals. This seems to be the distance that we need to focus on for future testing and research,” Swistock said.
In addition to future research directions, the study also identified critical education needs for owners of private water wells. Most water-well owners had difficulty interpreting detailed water-test reports that they received as part of pre-drilling surveys, according to the researchers.
“As a result, most homeowners with pre-drilling water-quality problems were unable to identify them even after receiving extensive water-testing reports,” Swistock said. “There is a clear need to help homeowners understand pre-drilling problems, their risks and how to solve them.”
Other investigators on this project were Elizabeth Boyer, associate professor of water resources and director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center in the School of Forest Resources; James Clark, extension educator based in McKean County; Mark Madden, extension educator based in Sullivan County; and Dana Rizzo, extension educator based in Westmoreland County.
The full initial report and executive summary of this study are available on the Center for Rural Pennsylvania’s website at http://www.rural.palegislature.us/. The investigators currently are preparing this work to submit for publication in the peer-reviewed literature.
Citizens group seeks tougher gas rules
thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-drilling/citizens-group-seeks-tougher-gas-rules-1.1222909#axzz1bnmom3Ug
BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF)
Published: October 25, 2011
HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania should enact stricter rules to protect air quality and surface water and groundwater from the impact of natural gas drilling, a report issued by the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission said on Monday.
The commission was formed as a counterpart to Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Commission and held hearings this fall around the state, including Wysox and Williamsport.
The governor’s commission made no recommendations to control or monitor air pollution from well flaring, equipment leaks and compressor engines, said Thomas Au, a Pennsylvania Sierra Club official.
The citizens’ commission recommends several steps, including more state monitoring of air pollutants in the vicinity of wells and compressor engines and stronger enforcement at drilling sites of state laws that limit truck idling. Other recommendations call for a state drilling tax, restoring the authority of county conservation districts to review stormwater permits and establishing an office of state consumer environmental advocate.
Pennsylvania should ban drilling in flood plains, said John Trallo, a commission member from Sonestown, Sullivan County. Mr. Trallo is chairman of Residents United for Pennsylvania/Sullivan County chapter.
Forest clear-cutting to open space for drilling pads will make future floods even worse than those that hit the region in September, he said.
“We repeatedly heard that natural gas development has moved too quickly,” said Roberta Winters, an official with the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania about testimony at the hearings. “Pennsylvania was and is still not prepared to limit the risks and address its impact.”
The group’s report appears with time running out for a Senate Republican leader’s call for action on an impact fee bill on natural gas drilling during October. President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, is sponsor of an impact fee bill that won tentative approval from a Senate committee last spring but has yet to reach the Senate floor.
ONLINE: The report is accessible at http://citizens marcellusshale.com.
Contact the writer: rswift@timeshamrock.com
N.Y. gas drillers’ victory soured by tough new rules
www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-newyork-shale-idUSTRE79K4YT20111021
By Edward McAllister
NEW YORK | Fri Oct 21, 2011
People gather on the steps of New York City Hall protesting the states plan for shale oil drilling in the city's watershed in New York January 4, 2010. (Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)
The end of a drilling ban in New York was meant to be a new dawn for energy companies. After years of waiting, they would finally be able to exploit the richest deposit of natural gas in the country.
But as companies delve into new regulations for drilling in New York, they’re discovering a bitter reality: half the land they had leased for drilling may now be out of bounds.
In proposed new rules for drilling, which are expected to be finalized early next year, the state has imposed an off-limits buffer around its waterways due to environmental concerns about the effects that drilling will have on water supplies.
The buffers are as much as 20 times larger than neighboring, industry-friendly Pennsylvania.
After looking at maps of thousands of potentially forbidden acres, some companies are considering leaving the state altogether, Reuters has discovered.
Royal Dutch Shell, which has leased about 90,000 acres for drilling in New York, reckons that 40 percent of that land could be off limits under the proposed laws, a company source told Reuters after Shell completed modeling of its acreage in the state.
“We are looking at a potentially significant impact,” the source said.
Inflection Energy, a small independent company with 15,000 acres in New York, is reconsidering drilling there after studies showed that about 60 percent of its acreage might not be drillable.
“It is forcing us to change our business model,” said Inflection chief executive Mark Sexton. “If the regulations go ahead we will allocate more resources to Pennsylvania than New York. Originally we had planned to focus more on New York.”
Inflection had aimed to increase leased land to 50,000 acres.
The revelation of the stiff restrictions on drilling near aquifers and waterways, a previously unreported aspect of environmental regulations proposed this summer, is the latest set-back for shale drillers in New York, where unusually fierce local opposition has stunted development.
It also highlights how tougher state regulations could rein in the rampant expansion of natural gas produced using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial technique to extract gas from shale rock deep below the surface by blasting it with chemical-laced water.
ENVIRONMENTAL SET-BACKS