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.
Drilling areas cause for concern
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Drilling_areas_cause_for_concern_06-17-2011.html
Posted: June 18, 2011
Health matters Pa. wants to create registry to track illnesses in fracking communities
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett’s top health adviser said Friday that he wants to make Pennsylvania the first state to create a registry to track illnesses in communities near heavy drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation to determine what kind of impact, if any, the activity has on public health.
Health Secretary Eli Avila told Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission that creating such a registry is the timeliest and most important step the Department of Health could take, and that his agency is not aware of anything like it in other drilling states.
“We’re really at the frontiers of this and we can make a speedy example for all the other states,” Avila told the commission at its fourth meeting.
Collecting information on drilling-related health complaints, investigating them, centralizing the information in one database and then comparing illnesses in drilling communities with non-drilling communities could help refute or verify claims that drilling has an impact on public health, he said. The aggregation of data and information also would allow the Department of Health to make its findings public, in contrast to the privacy that surrounds its investigation into individual health complaints and the findings that may result.
The Marcellus Shale formation, considered the nation’s largest-known natural gas reservoir, 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.
The rapid growth of deep shale drilling and its involvement of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, chemicals and often-toxic wastewater are spurring concerns in Pennsylvania about poisoned air and water.
“As drilling increases, I anticipate, at least in the short term, a proportionate increase in concerns and complaints which the department must be prepared to address,” he said.
In the past year or so, the Department of Health has received several dozen or so health complaints, he said.
One woman, Crystal Stroud of Granville Summit in northern Pennsylvania, told an anti-drilling rally in the Capitol this month that she is hearing from others in Bradford County about bizarre and sudden health problems that they blame on contaminated water from the area’s heavy drilling.
Stroud herself blames her barium poisoning on well water polluted by drilling near her home, and accused state agencies of turning a blind eye.
“I am extremely confused as to why our Health Department is not interested in these issues and no one from (the) Pennsylvania Health Department has contacted us, and why are they not investigating this?” Stroud, 29, told the crowd on June 7.
“Every week I receive a phone call from someone different in my county that has unexplained rashes, high blood pressure, heart palpitations, high barium levels, a child with blisters all over his face from his mother bathing him in the water, and even a woman whose spleen burst in an unexplained way, all with contaminated water,” she said.
A spokesman for Corbett has said both the departments of Health and Environmental Protection have active investigations into Stroud’s claims, and the company that drilled the well, Dallas-based Chief Oil & Gas LLC, has denied responsibility for Stroud’s health problems.
On Friday, Avila said his agency has found no links between drilling and the illnesses and diseases presented to it so far, but he added that a wider study is necessary to determine whether there are any associations, and a health registry could accomplish that.
Such health registries are common, and in the past have been created to monitor and study data related to cancer and rare diseases, health department officials said. To set up a drilling-related registry and fully investigate drilling-related health complaints would require another $2 million a year for the department and possibly require the help of the state’s schools of public health, Avila said.
Shale drilling requires blending huge volumes of water with chemical additives and injecting it under high pressure into the ground to help shatter the thick rock — a process called hydraulic fracturing. Some of that water returns to the surface, in addition to the gas, as brine potentially tainted with metals like barium and strontium and trace radioactivity by the drilling companies.
State eyes new instance of methane near drilling
http://www.timesleader.com/news/State_eyes_new_instance_of_methane_near_drilling_06-16-2011.html
Posted: June 17, 2011
The flammable, explosive gas was found in several Lycoming County water wells.
MUNCY — State environmental officials are investigating another instance of methane contaminating water in northern Pennsylvania near a Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operation.
The Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday that it found the flammable, explosive gas in seven water wells in Lycoming County and gas bubbling into the nearby Little Muncy Creek.
DEP spokesman Daniel Spadoni said the agency is trying to determine the source of the gas.
He said there’s no information that the methane is affecting the creek’s aquatic life or accumulating in homes.
The initial report of well bubbling came in mid-May.
That home is about a half-mile from a drilling site owned by ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy of Fort Worth, Texas.
The company voluntarily halted drilling operations in the county and is cooperating with the DEP.
Poll: Pa. voters strongly back drilling, tax on energy companies
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Poll__Pa__voters_strongly_back_drilling__tax_on_energy_companies_06-15-2011.html
Posted: June 15, 2011
Sixty-three percent support drilling, and 69 percent approve of an extraction tax.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters support natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a new poll that also shows strong backing for an extraction tax on energy companies.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows that 63 percent of Pennsylvanians say the economic benefits of drilling outweigh the environmental impacts, while 30 percent express the opposite view.
The poll appears to reflect the prosperity that drilling has brought to economically struggling regions of the state. Drilling firms and related industries added 72,000 jobs between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2011 — at an average salary higher than the statewide average, according to the state Labor Department.
Meanwhile, 69 percent told pollsters they support a drilling tax on gas companies, unchanged from an April survey. Pennsylvania remains the largest gas-drilling state without an extraction tax. The state Senate plans to debate a bill as early as next week that would impose an “impact fee” on natural-gas drilling.
“‘Drill, baby, drill,’ is the call from Pennsylvania voters, and ‘tax, baby, tax,’ is the follow-up as voters see natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale as an economic plus more than an environmental negative,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “They also see added taxes on gas drillers as one of the few acceptable ways to help balance the budget.”
Gov. Tom Corbett, who promised in his 2010 campaign not to increase taxes or fees, has said recently he would consider a fee that helps drilling communities cope with the impact.
The Quinnipiac poll also shows that Pennsylvanians’ views of Corbett differ markedly along gender lines as he approaches six months in office.
Pennsylvanians as a whole remain divided over Corbett, with 39 percent approving of the job he’s doing and 38 percent disapproving. The numbers are similar to April’s poll results.
But men and women have much different impressions of Corbett’s performance. Tuesday’s results show 30 percent of female respondents approved, compared with 48 percent of men. The 18-point gap is more than twice the 7-point margin in the April 29 poll.
One family’s life in the gas patch of Bradford County, Pennsylvania
I’ve blogged before about the water contamination linked to natural gas production in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Companies have been fined for contaminating the water there, both groundwater and creeks, but there continue to be reports of contamination.
Today I spoke on the phone to Jodie Simons, a mom in West Burlington Township. Her story is a very upsetting tale of what is happening to some families living in the gas patch. The first well near Jodie’s home was drilled in 2007. Within six months, five of her horses died. According to Jodie, “The vet could not explain this rash of horse deaths in such a short time period.” In 2008, Jodie was pregnant, went into early labor, and tragically lost her baby. Also that year, a number of pheasants, ducks, chickens, and turkeys on her farm died, and a pig went from around 500 pounds to 100 pounds in a two week period, continually vomiting, and then died. Dozens of animals died; only a few are now left. She consulted multiple veterinarians and none could provide an explanation for the symptoms. Jodie now wonders if these problems were related to water quality.
In 2009, a second well was drilled near the Simons’ home. Jodie reports that it was re-fracked in February, 2011. Shortly thereafter, their tap water turned gray and hazy. After the water changed, both Jodie and her young son began getting severe rashes with oozing blisters. Jodie’s 10-year-old daughter had to be taken to the hospital for torrential nosebleeds that would not stop, nausea and severe headaches. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tested the water and found very high levels of methane and other contaminants in the water, but said it was safe to drink. Since the Simons family stopped using any of their water, these symptoms have gone away.
Jodie reports that her water still “stinks awfully; it is a scummy, rotten, nasty smell…”
The oil and gas company that owns the nearby wells originally offered to supply the Simons’ with water for only 3 to 6 months – and only if they signed a document stating that the company did not cause any problems. The Simons family declined to sign. In mid-May, the company began providing bottled water, but there is no fresh water coming out of their faucets. Jodie reports that four neighbors also have water contamination.
Thanks to Jodie Simons for sharing her story.
Amy Mall’s Blog: Posted June 10, 2011
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/one_familys_life_in_the_gas_pa.html
Stacked Fracking Panel Has Public Meeting Monday in Pennsylvania
http://www.ewg.org/release/stacked-fracking-panel-has-public-meeting-monday-pennsylvania
Monday night, June 13, is your chance to speak up on behalf of America’s drinking water and to help protect your land from damage from oil and gas drilling.
Not content with the appointment of a federal panel heavily biased in its favor, industry backers are pulling out all the stops to dominate the panel’s first public meeting on Monday night in western Pennsylvania.
An industry group called Energy in Depth has sent an email enticing people to attend Monday’s meeting, apparently hoping to draw an audience that is friendly to wide-open drilling. The group is offering to pay for transportation to the event, including “airfare (for older folks, especially… and for heads of landowner groups),” hotels and meals.
As an additional inducement, the group’s email originally offered to provide those who attend the meeting with tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates/New York Mets game that day, but a spokesman said later that offer had been withdrawn. Could that be because the game is at the same time as the Department of Energy panel’s meeting?
People with legitimate concerns about the potential harm from drilling activity need to show up, too, to counter this blatant effort to pack the hall for the meeting of the Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.
Gas and oil drilling is nothing new, but today’s drilling relies more heavily than ever on a controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking.” Fracking has been associated with drinking water contamination and property damage across the nation, from Pennsylvania to Wyoming. In one incident that polluted a Colorado creek, nearby groundwater was still contaminated with benzene six years later.
The Energy Department set up its advisory board to make recommendations to improve the safety of fracking. The problem is, six of the seven panel members have direct financial ties to the natural gas and oil industry, and there is no one on the panel representing communities that could be harmed by water contamination or other problems caused by fracking.
Environmental Working Group has gone on record requesting that the panel’s chairman John Deutch step down because he has a conflict of interest: He has received nearly $1.5 million as a board member of both Schlumberger Ltd., one of the world’s three largest hydraulic fracturing companies, and Cheniere Energy, Inc., a Texas based company focused on liquefied natural gas.
The Energy Department panel’s first public meeting is scheduled to be held at Washington Jefferson College, 60 South Lincoln Street, in Washington, Penn., from 7 p.m to 9 p.m. on Monday, June 13. Anyone can speak. We hope you’ll attend the hearing to learn more about fracking in your area and to stand up for your right to know.
Click here for more information about the Energy Department meeting, http://www.shalegas.energy.gov/.
Interested in speaking? Here are some key issues.
• Fracking and its effects on Pennsylvania’s land and water are serious matters that should be discussed by everyone in the community.
• Government advisory panels should be fair and balanced.
• John Deutch cannot be impartial and should step down from the panel.
• An impartial person should lead the panel. It should also be expanded to include local people directly affected by oil and gas drilling and also independent experts.
Click here to read more information about this fracking advisory board, http://ewg.org/release/ewg-chair-dept-energy-natural-gas-panel-must-step….
We hope you can attend this public meeting!