State geologists mapping deep aquifers
http://thedailyreview.com/news/state-geologists-mapping-deep-aquifers-1.1137358
by robert swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: April 26, 2011
State geologists are mapping the location of the deepest water aquifers in response to the upsurge in natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation.
With Marcellus wells reaching several thousand feet deeper than traditional shallow gas wells, locating the deep aquifers will tell geologists where potable water supplies that could be affected by drilling operations can be found.
The Pennsylvania Topographic and Geologic Survey, one of state government’s oldest offices dating to 1836, is taking on new work as a result of Marcellus development, survey director George Love told the citizens’ advisory council for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Geologists are also consulting an extensive water well inventory as part of this effort. Under state law, drillers of water wells are required to submit a public record after completing a new well.
In addition to locating aquifers, the survey is starting to examine the impact of hydrofracking operations on groundwater supplies, he added.
Love said the survey’s aim is to provide unbiased information.
The survey’s geologists routinely provide information about groundwater supplies, geologic formations and hazards and the location and extent of mineral deposits to state and local officials, commercial firms and the public as well.
The survey’s regional studies are of particular use to local and regional planning commissions, said Love.
Long before the Marcellus drilling became a phenomenon, the survey’s oil and gas division conducted extensive studies of Pennsylvania’s oil-and-gas producing areas to show where future prospecting would pay off.
By studying geologic data from oil and gas wells, the survey produces maps and cross-section diagrams as well annual production reports for minerals.
The roots of the survey lie in the development of the coal and iron industries in the early 19th century. The anthracite fields of Northeast Pennsylvania were among the first areas surveyed. The early surveys also identified potential routes for roads and railroads serving the new industries.
In the modern area, the survey provides information about sinkholes in the limestone-bearing regions of southern Pennsylvania and likely underground storage sites for any future program to sequester carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The survey is perhaps best known for its series of quadrangle and county topographic maps that are the basis of planning, land development, agriculture and recreation projects.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com
Residents claim negligence, sue Chesapeake
Arbitration sought by Bradford County families. Contaminated water claimed.
SCRANTON – Attorney Todd J. O’Malley on Monday filed what he called the first in a series of lawsuits against natural gas drilling companies on behalf of families he said have been harmed by negligent drilling activities.
Representing three Bradford County families, O’Malley, of O’Malley & Langan in Scranton, and New York attorney William Friedlander, filed a petition in U.S. District Court seeking to force Chesapeake Energy Corp. into arbitration, claiming the company contaminated their water, devalued their land and caused many other hardships.
Chesapeake Appalachia LLC and Nomac Drilling LLC are also named as respondents.
The petition states that Wyalusing residents Mike and Jonna Phillips, Scott and Cassie Spencer and Jared and Heather McMicken, all living in homes along Paradise Road, entered into 10-year oil and gas leases with Chesapeake in 2007 or 2008.
The petition also states that the families “suffered water and property contamination caused by the negligent and grossly negligent oil and gas drilling activities” of the companies, which “caused the release, spill, discharge, and emission of combustible gases, hazardous chemicals, and industrial wastes from their oil and gas drilling facilities.”
The releases caused damages including loss of home values, costs of property remediation, loss of quality of life, emotional distress and punitive damage. The amount in dispute exceeds $75,000, the petition states.
O’Malley said clauses in the leases require arbitration for such disputes, but the companies have refused to arbitrate. He said arbitration would be faster than a full-blown court case and the families need relief now.
O’Malley said water purification systems Chesapeake installed for the families work poorly if at all and improper installation led to flooding and mold problems in one family’s home.
“It has been one nightmare after another for them,” he said.
A Chesapeake spokesman, who was unaware of the petition, said he would look into the matter but did not call back on Monday.
Nels Taber, regional director for the North Central regional Office of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said DEP was informed of the gas migration problems in July 2010 and determined that the residents’ water wells “had been impacted by gas drilling activities.” He said Chesapeake took “some remedial activities” and Chesapeake installed three new drinking water with water treatment systems.
Taber said the possible levying of fines was “an ongoing matter.”
O’Malley said his clients were “not going to get rich” through the gas leases because each family owns only 2 acres of land. He said they signed the leases because a land man convinced them it would reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
O’Malley said he is representing about 10 other families in different locations who have suffered similar problems that he says were caused by Chesapeake or Chief Gathering.
Penn State study assesses state taxes on Marcellus Shale production
http://live.psu.edu/story/52988#nw69
Thursday, April 21, 2011
University Park, Pa. — The ongoing utilization of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale natural gas deposits has the state weighing the pros and cons of taxing the drilling activity. A study recently released by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences used state tax information in an effort to begin an objective analysis of the drilling’s impact on local economies and state tax collection.
The research, summarized in a four-page booklet titled “State Tax Implications of Marcellus Shale: What the Pennsylvania Data Say in 2010,” compared counties where there is Marcellus Shale drilling and production activity with non-Marcellus counties. The study was authored by Timothy Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics and Penn State Extension state program leader for economic and community development, and Charles Costanzo, an undergraduate student majoring in community, environment and development.
Data are drawn from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s report, “2010 Wells Drilled by County as of 02/11/2011,” as well as from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s “Personal Income Statistics for 2007 and 2008” and its “Tax Compendium (2007-08 through 2009-10) with Statistical Supplements.”
Kelsey said while it’s still early in the natural gas drilling process, the analysis indicates that Marcellus Shale development brings some positive economic activity for communities.
The study found that state sales tax collections were up by an average of 11 percent in counties with major Marcellus activity, while collections dropped an average of more than 6 percent in counties without any Marcellus. Sales tax collections are an indicator that retail sales are booming in Marcellus counties.
“Tax revenues are only one side of finances, however, so this analysis only considers half of the issue,” Kelsey said. “The impact of Marcellus drilling on state and local government costs is yet unclear, so it is too early to understand the overall impact of Marcellus on the state government. This state tax analysis does not indicate the impact of Marcellus development on local government and school district tax collections, since royalty and leasing income is exempt from the local earned income tax, and local jurisdictions cannot levy sales taxes.”
Kelsey said researchers wanted to find out if state tax records could yield objective financial data on how local economies are being affected by Marcellus Shale development.
“The state tax information provides a glimpse at how sales activity and personal income are changing,” he said. “The state collects objective tax collection information every year, and that can provide a good snapshot of how residents’ income is changing and the amount of retail activity going on.”
Kelsey explained that the booklet can help the average citizen to understand that Marcellus Shale development is having a discernible economic impact on residents and in communities.
“We’re early enough in the development of the shale that much of what we ‘know’ is based on anecdotes and personal stories,” he said. “This analysis provides some real numbers behind those anecdotes. The data show clearly that there are economic benefits that are accruing because of the gas activity — higher personal tax collections, higher sales tax collections. Realty tax incomes in drilling counties are decreasing, but less than in non-drilling counties.
“The booklet will not tell you how those benefits relate to costs, because we weren’t able to look at that,” he added. “So, it is only a partial picture of what’s going on. You know there are dollars coming in but you don’t know if it’s a net gain or a net loss to the community.”
Kelsey cited increased highway repair and maintenance, greater administrative demands, changing human service needs, and law enforcement and courts among the costs that determine whether the drilling activity is adding to or subtracting from a county’s bottom line.
Kelsey stressed that, because the study focuses only on state tax collection, it doesn’t support assumptions about local tax changes. He points out that local governments don’t have the option of a sales tax, and that the personal income tax increases seen in the study are largely the result of leasing and royalty income, which are both exempted from earned-income tax.
“So we know from this analysis that state revenues are going up, but we don’t know if local tax revenues are increasing or decreasing as a result of the activity,” he said. “That’s a huge caveat.”
Single copies of “State Tax Implications of Marcellus Shale” can be obtained free of charge by Pennsylvania residents through county Penn State Extension offices or by contacting the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Distribution Center at 814-865-6713 or by email at AgPubsDist@psu.edu. For cost information on out-of-state or bulk orders, contact the Publications Distribution Center. The publication also is available on the Web at http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/ua468.pdf. Click here: State Tax Implications of Marcellus Shale
Pa. ponders penalties over Bradford County drilling site mishap
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Pa__ponders_penalties_over_Bradford_County_drilling_site_mishap_04-24-2011.html
Posted: April 25, 2011
LAURA OLSON Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Once final seal is in place, Chesapeake can begin a probe of why the well blew out.
HARRISBURG — As workers on a Bradford County drilling site continued to prepare the now-stable well for a final protective seal, state environmental officials took a step toward assessing penalties for the accident.
Well-control specialists spent most of the day relieving pressure within the Chesapeake Energy well, a procedure that both company and Department of Environmental Protection officials said was not unusual. Those efforts were suspended late Friday afternoon, as rain began to fall, according to Chesapeake.
Company spokesman Rory Sweeney said they made “slow progress” toward completely plugging the well Friday, noting that no additional wastewater or gas had escaped since those leaks were stemmed Thursday evening.
Procedures to relieve well pressure are “something that is expected at this stage in the process” and raised no immediate concerns, DEP spokesman Dan Spadoni said.
Once the final seal is in place, Chesapeake can begin an investigation of why the well blew out during hydraulic fracturing late Tuesday night. That wellhead malfunction resulted in thousands of gallons of fracking wastewater spewing back to the surface, with some trickling into a tributary to Towanda Creek.
The well was continuing to leak wastewater Wednesday afternoon, when workers were able to put the briny fracking fluid in containers on the well pad. Neither the DEP nor company officials have estimated how much wastewater entered the tributary, though initial Chesapeake testing showed “minimal, if any” impacts on the waterway.
Incident reports posted on the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s website stated that “approximately 30,000 gallons of fresh water leaked out of a gas well and into a secondary containment area in Leroy Township.” A report issued Thursday also states that there are “no life safety or environmental concerns” from the accident.
A PEMA spokesman did not return a request Friday for additional information.
Chesapeake said it would account for the spilled wastewater as the investigation gets under way. “We’re not done here when the well is finally sealed,” Sweeney said.
For DEP officials, who have been involved in the accident response, the next investigatory steps are under way. The agency issued a notice of violation to Chesapeake on Friday, Spadoni said.
In the notice, the DEP asked the company to submit an analysis of what caused the equipment failure. The notice also stated that Chesapeake was expected to “be in a stand-down mode on hydraulic fracturing” as officials review what happened.
The company said it halted all post-drilling activities, which include hydraulic fracturing, “in order to conduct thorough inspections of wellheads used in completion operations throughout the Marcellus Shale.”
But environmental advocates from PennFuture called on DEP Acting Secretary Michael Krancer to shut down all Chesapeake sites until the agency conducts its review.
Two Bradford County lawyers representing local residents who say they have contamination-related ailments made a similar plea Friday.
Spadoni said the DEP would “evaluate the information that is provided to us by Chesapeake” and decide what additional steps may be necessary.
State calls for stop in using plants to treat tainted water. Drillers ready to comply.
End near for drill pollution
by DAVID B. CARUSO
April 24, 2011
Pennsylvania’s top environmental regulator says he is confident that the natural gas industry is just weeks away from ending one of its more troubling environmental practices: the discharge of vast amounts of polluted brine into rivers used for drinking water.
On Tuesday, the state’s new Republican administration called on drillers to stop using riverside treatment plants to get rid of the millions of barrels of ultra-salty, chemically tainted wastewater that gush annually from gas wells.
As drillers have swarmed Pennsylvania’s rich Marcellus Shale gas fields, the industry’s use and handling of water has been a subject of intense scrutiny.
The state’s request was made after some researchers presented evidence that the discharges were altering river chemistry in a way that had the potential to affect drinking water.
Locally, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority has run into strong public opposition to a potential plan to build a treatment facility for the wastewater in Hanover Township. Many residents say they are concerned about environmental contamination as well as increased truck traffic bringing tainted water in for treatment.
The sanitary authority has consulted PA Northeast Aqua Resources to conduct a feasibility study on building a plant to treat wastewater produced by Marcellus Shale gas drilling.
John Minora of PA Northeast Aqua Resources said the initial study is complete, and the sanitary authority is now working on a second study with Red Desert/Cate Street Capital, a company seeking to build the plant next to the WVSA’s current facility.
For years, the gas industry has bristled and resisted when its environmental practices have been criticized.
But last week, it abruptly took a different tone.
Even before the initiative to end river discharges was announced publicly, it had received the support of drillers. By Wednesday evening, a leading industry group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, had announced that its members were committed to halting the practice by the state’s stated goal of May 19.
“Basically, I see this as a huge success story,” said Michael Krancer, acting secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. “This will be a vestige of the past very quickly.”
After May 19, almost all drillers will either be sending the waste to deep disposal wells — mostly in Ohio — or recycling it in new well projects, he said.
While the movement to end the wastewater discharges followed years of environmentalists’ criticism, the most influential push may have come from within the industry itself.
Among major gas-producing states, Pennsylvania is the only one that allowed the bulk of its well brine to be treated and dumped in rivers and streams. Other states required it to be injected into deep underground shafts.
Publicly, the industry — and the state — argued that the river discharges were harmless to humans and wildlife.
Just months ago, the industry was actively opposing new state regulations intended to protect streams from the brine, saying fears about the river discharges were overblown.
But simultaneously, some companies were concerned.
John Hanger, Krancer’s predecessor as the state’s environmental secretary, said that as early as 2008 he had been approached by two of the state’s most active drillers — Range Resources, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Atlas Energy, now a subsidiary of Chevron, warning that the state’s permissive rules had left rivers and streams at risk from the salty dissolved solids, particularly bromides, present in produced well water.
“They came to me and said, if this rule doesn’t change, there could be enormous amounts of wastewater high in (total dissolved solids) pouring into the rivers,” Hanger said.
Almost since then, the companies have been working on alternative disposal methods.
“We never thought that it was a good practice to begin with,” said Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella.
For months, drillers have been introducing technology that returns brine to deep wells, rather than discarding it as waste. By the end of last year, this reuse was being considered by most big drillers as the industry’s future.
Efforts to curtail the waste flow accelerated, though, after a series of critical media reports, increased pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency, and new research that raised questions about whether drinking water was being compromised.
After reviewing that research, Range Resources began lobbying other drillers to confront the problem once and for all, and to do it publicly, Pitzarella said.
The water that flows from active wells is often contaminated with traces of chemicals injected into the wells during a drilling procedure called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which breaks up the shale and frees natural gas. The flowback water also brings back from underground such naturally existing contaminants as barium, strontium, and radium.
Worries about the contaminants took on added urgency after the Monongahela River, a western Pennsylvania waterway that serves as a major source of drinking water for Pittsburgh and communities to its south, became so salty in 2008 that people began complaining about the taste.
The Department of Environmental Protection responded by curtailing the amount of wastewater sent to plants on the Monongahela. It also wrote new rules barring wastewater treatment plants from accepting more drilling wastewater than already permitted unless they were capable of turning out effluent with salt levels that met drinking water standards.
Those rules, though, left most of the existing wastewater treatment plants alone, and between 15 and 27 continued to pump out millions of gallons of water that scientists said was still high in some pollutants.
Over the past year and a half, a handful of researchers, including Jeanne VanBriesen, a professor of civil engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and Stanley States, director of water quality at the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, have been collecting evidence on an increase in bromide in rivers that were being used for gas wastewater disposal.
The industry has, until now, expressed mostly skepticism about any possible link between drilling waste and water quality problems.
When The Associated Press reported in January that some drinking water systems close to gas wastewater treatment plants had struggled to meet EPA standards for trihalomethanes, the article was written off by industry groups as irresponsible, as was a similar report by The New York Times in February that focused on the presence of radium in drilling waste.
But in recent weeks, Range Resources arranged for VanBriesen and States to present some of their preliminary findings on bromide to a gathering of industry representatives.
VanBriesen said she cautioned that her own findings didn’t necessarily point the finger decisively at natural gas waste as the main culprit behind rising bromide levels.
Still, her presentations had an impact, she said.
“I think what you are seeing is a realization that the problem isn’t going away,” VanBriesen said. “I’m not pushing the panic button … but it’s a directional change that you don’t want to continue.”
Marcellus Shale Coalition President Kathryn Klaber said that after reviewing those findings, her group now believes the industry is partly responsible for the rising bromide levels.
In her letter to Krancer on Wednesday, she promised that the industry was taking action, but also encouraged state officials to evaluate whether other “sources” were contributing to the problem.
Krancer promised that evaluation would indeed happen, but he said he believed the gas industry’s actions would lead to immediate improvements in river bromide levels.
Look closer at this clean energy
http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/look-closer-at-this-clean-energy/10965/
April 24, 2011 at 6:00 am by Jay Jochnowitz, Editorial page editor
Opinion: Getting natural gas out of the ground turns out to be pretty dirty business. Energy shouldn’t come at the price of drinkable water and clean air.
The natural gas industry likes to portray its product as abundant, domestic and clean. Perhaps it thinks two out of three isn’t bad.
We don’t. Nor should Congress and the government agencies entrusted with protecting our drinking water and environment.
Time and again lately, we’ve received fresh warnings that mining this source of energy is far from a clean process, despite the industry’s often artfully parsed claim that the method of choice — horizontal hydraulic fracturing — is safe.
The process involves drilling deep underground, down and horizontally, and pumping in millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to crack the rock and release trapped gas. The industry is using fracking to tap portions of the Marcellus Shale, a gas-rich rock formation that lies under six states, including New York. The state has yet to issue permits while it drafts regulations.
Among the latest rebuttals to the industry’s claim of safety:
Thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water spewed into a stream last week from a well in Bradford County, Pa. Homeowners and farmers don’t know if their water is safe now for people and animals. This follows well contaminations elsewhere in the state, which embraced the rush to drill.
While the industry likes to note that chemicals are only a tiny fraction of the fracking mixture, a congressional investigation found that it added up to 866 million gallons, including hazardous and carcinogenic compounds, pumped into wells in at least 13 states from 2005 to 2009. And while underground, the water can become radioactive. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told Pennsylvania to test drinking water for radium.
Pennsylvania officials have halted the disposal of drilling wastewater through treatment plants that discharge into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people. The plants, it turns out, aren’t equipped to remove the pollutants.
A Cornell University study concluded that fracking contributes to global warming even more than coal or oil burning by releasing methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The industry — which has sought to block release of methane emission data — dismissed the peer-reviewed study as lacking credibility.
New York has prudently held off issuing drilling permits at least until regulations are finished this summer. We urge the state, once again, to continue its moratorium until the EPA finishes a study into the safety of hydraulic fracturing, most likely next year. That study, focusing on water, should be expanded to air quality in light of the Cornell report.
Likewise, the interstate Delaware River Basin Commission, which controls a watershed that spans New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and supplies water for millions including New York City residents, should wait for the EPA study, too, before issuing its own drilling regulations. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman should follow through on his threat to sue the commission if it doesn’t take the time for a proper environmental study.
Finally, Congress needs to fix mistakes it made in 2005 to exempt hydrofracking from federal clean air and water standards. Lawmakers need to let the agency charged with protecting the environment do its job in regulating an industry that has proven to be anything but clean.
Shale-tax debate heats up
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Shale-tax_debate_heats_up_04-24-2011.html
MARC LEVY
Posted: April 24, 2011
One big unknown is whether House Republican leaders will allow a floor vote.
HARRISBURG — Ready, set and … introduce your Marcellus Shale severance tax bill (or local impact fee bill or whatever you want to call it).
Two Republicans, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati of Jefferson County and Rep. Kate Harper of Montgomery County, are preparing to introduce bills on top of at least six others already kicking around the GOP-controlled Legislature, adding fuel to what could be one of Harrisburg’s liveliest debates this spring.
Nearly every Democrat, a majority of Republican senators and at least a dozen House Republicans are expected to support some type of tax or fee on the booming natural gas industry. That makes it seem that something might actually pass, more than two years after then-Gov. Ed Rendell raised the prospect of a tax.
Still, the debate is likely to expose divides, especially among Republicans.
For instance, some Republicans, particularly in moderate southeastern Pennsylvania where there is no drilling, want natural gas money to help underwrite the state’s environmental protection, cleanup and enforcement efforts. But other GOP members want the money to remain in drilling communities, and some oppose a tax or fee outright.
“In my area, you have all of the anxiety (over drilling pollution) and very little of the benefit and that makes for a difficult situation in the Republican caucus,” Harper said.
It also seems clear that any tax or fee that passes would have a lighter touch on the wallets of major international energy companies, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., than in most other states. Right now, Pennsylvania is the nation’s largest natural gas-producing state that does not tax the activity.
One big unknown is whether House Republican leaders will allow a floor vote on such a proposal.
“Right now, our goal is an on-time, no-tax budget,” said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, and House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny. “We’re not looking at any new taxes or fees.”
Miskin acknowledged that a number of House Republicans are interested in a tax or fee.
“But if it means Harrisburg doling it out one way or another, there are concerns,” he said.
Another unknown is whether Gov. Tom Corbett would even sign a bill that taps natural gas money to pay for anything more than a locally managed program that addresses the cost of damaged roads or contaminated water.
Efforts to impose a tax or fee to help statewide environmental causes may hit a brick wall if Corbett insists that, in keeping with his campaign pledge not to raise taxes or fees, none of the natural gas revenue may migrate to Harrisburg.
He has said that he will listen to proposals for a local impact fee, and otherwise is letting the discussion happen in the Legislature and on a task force he appointed to assess a range of shale-related issues.
“I believe that people are all over the board on what (a local impact fee) means,” Corbett said Thursday. “But in my mind, you do not bring the money to Harrisburg.”
Sen. Charles McIlhinney, R-Bucks, is a co-sponsor of a bill introduced by Democratic Sen. John Yudichak of Luzerne County, saying it is a fee-based approach that he believes should meet muster with the governor because it pays for the state’s costs to deal with natural gas-related damage and regulation that otherwise is borne, in part, by taxpayers in his district.
“Why is my constituents’ tax dollar paying for cleanups in Cambria County or Tioga County?” McIlhinney questioned. “I’m not saying take tax money out of there and send it to other places in the state, but we should tax it there and make it pay for the damage it causes.”
Yudichak’s bill would assess a severance tax of 2 percent on the shale gas, rising to 5 percent after three years.
Four bills introduced by Democrats — two in the House, two in the Senate — would assess higher tax rates, making them less likely to win support. Another bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Gene Yaw of Lycoming County, would allow property taxes to be assessed on the value of Marcellus Shale wells, as it is on coal and limestone.
Scarnati is revealing little detail about his bill. Harper’s bill would divide money mainly between education, environmental causes and drilling communities. It would assess a severance tax of 1.5 percent for five years, before rising to 5 percent.
“Everybody wants fair taxation and everybody understands that if you let one group off, somebody else has to pick it up,” she said. “The industry, by the way, is paying this tax in every other state and I think they’re expecting it” in Pennsylvania.
She acknowledged that her bill would carry a lower tax rate than some of her allies want, but she said she crafted it that way to garner a veto-proof majority should Corbett try to reject it. And if House Republican leaders refuse to hold a floor vote on it, she said she will try to work with an ally to attach it as an amendment to another bill.
“I’ve been in the Legislature for 11 years,” Harper said. “One thing you learn is there is more than one way to get to a goal.”
Advocate: Driller’s fines low
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
April 23, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Advocate__Driller_rsquo_s_fines_low_04-22-2011.html
Environmental advocate: DEP hasn’t fined Chesapeake enough in past; heavy fine merited if violations caused the blowout.
A state environmental advocate said Friday that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection has handled natural gas driller Chesapeake with kid gloves in the past and should fine the company heavily for any violations related to a blowout in Bradford County.
A blowout Wednesday at Chesapeake’s Atgas H2 well in LeRoy Township, Bradford County, spilled a reported 30,000 gallons of salt-saturated and chemical-laced produced water from the well pad and into a tributary of Towanda Creek.
Crews successfully plugged the leak Thursday, and Chesapeake has been sent a notice of violation by DEP.
Jan Jarrett, president of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, or PennFuture, a nonprofit environmental and energy advocacy organization, said state fines levied against the company have been too low to provide a deterrent effect and have been significantly lower than fines assessed other gas drillers for similar violations.
In February, Chesapeake allowed vapors to catch fire at a well site in Washington County, creating a danger to the nearby community.
In March, DEP ordered Chesapeake to stop work on a well pad in Galeton, Potter County, because the company failed to implement proper erosion controls, allowing sediment from the pad to pollute a stream that provided drinking water to the local community.
DEP did not fine the driller for either incident, Jarrett said, and she questioned why.
Following a blowout at an EOG Resources well in Clearfield County, which like Wednesday’s blowout spilled flowback water into the surrounding environment, DEP fined the driller $400,000 and temporarily suspended EOG’s operations statewide.
If Chesapeake is found to be at fault for the Bradford County blowout, she said a similar tough penalty is warranted, if not overdue.
“You don’t fine somebody if they are not breaking any laws, but if the investigation finds that they have, then they should be fined and fined heavily,” Jarrett said, adding, “they should not be allowed to operate until they can prove that they can drill safely.”
Chesapeake has voluntarily suspended all hydraulic fracturing operations at its wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia while it determines what went wrong.
“A full investigation will be conducted to determine the root cause of the failure, evaluate best management practices and make any and all necessary corrections before returning to normal operations,” Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said in a statement Wednesday.
With 344 wells drilled, Chesapeake ranks among the most active companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale, rivaled by other giants Range Resources and Atlas Energy. The company has also been issued 1,229 drilling permits, 17 percent of all Marcellus Shale permits issued through April 1.
The company also ranks among the most frequent violators of DEP regulations. DEP inspectors found 364 violations at Chesapeake Marcellus Shale gas wells between January 2008 and March 31, ranking the company second only to Cabot Oil & Gas, now infamous for its alleged contamination of drinking water wells in Dimock, in number of violations.
Jarrett said Chesapeake ranks only eighth in the value of total fines assessed in the last five years, paying $61,000.
Jarrett said that’s too low.
“Fines are meant to motivate; it’s not just punishing a company for any particular incident or for violating environmental law, but fines motivate companies to focus on the future,” she said. “It’s a deterrent.”
DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday responded that “DEP has pursued aggressive enforcement actions in the past, and will continue to pursue aggressive enforcement actions as necessary.”
“The enforcement process is a vital and integral component of the department’s commitment to overseeing this important industry grow in an environmentally and economically conscious manner,” Sunday said.
Chesapeake did not respond to a reporter’s request for a reaction to Jarrett’s statements.
Gas well blowout: Operator suspends fracking in state
Chesapeake: Flow from leak in Bradford County well stopped. Cause of breach still unknown.
LEROY TWP. – As a natural gas well in Bradford County continued to leak super-salty flow-back water after a blowout Wednesday, well operator Chesapeake Energy suspended all hydraulic fracturing operations in Pennsylvania on Thursday.
The leak, which began in an accident Tuesday night, produced water and natural gas until about 10 p.m. Thursday, when Chesapeake said it had stopped the flow.
Chesapeake’s Atgas H2 gas well in LeRoy Township, near Canton, suffered a blowout when a piece of equipment failed during hydraulic fracturing just before midnight Tuesday into Wednesday, sending a reported 30,000 gallons of water spilling from the well pad, some of it reaching a tributary of Towanda Creek.
The creek flows into the Susquehanna River.
Chesapeake said fluids still seeping from the leaking piece of equipment had been contained by midday Wednesday, and a secondary containment mechanism was diverting the flow of fluids away from Towanda Creek.
Equipment was removed from the well head, and crews worked to plug the leak and seal the well. Chesapeake said after 10 p.m. Thursday that workers had successfully stemmed the flow of the leak, and that they would continue to monitor it overnight.
Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said the exact cause of the breach remained unknown Thursday, but that it took place in a wellhead connection.
“Chesapeake has voluntarily suspended all completion operations in Pennsylvania as we evaluate this incident,” Grove said in a statement Thursday, later adding, “a full investigation will be conducted to determine the root cause of the failure, evaluate best management practices and make any and all necessary corrections before returning to normal operations.”Seven families living near the well were temporarily evacuated Wednesday morning but returned later in the day.
Chesapeake spokesman Rory Sweeney said fluid injected into the well during fracking contained chemical additives that aid the process, including corrosion and bacteria inhibitors, but the main environmental concern is with brine, naturally occurring underground salt water now back-flowing from the well with the frack fluid.
“Highly briny liquid can have some effects,” Sweeney said. “That’s why we’ve been very diligent and worked very hard to mitigate and minimize the effects to the environment.”
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s daily summary report Thursday stated approximately 30,000 gallons of water leaked from the well. Chesapeake and the state Department of Environmental Protection could not confirm that figure.
DEP spokesman Daniel Spadoni said Thursday that well-containment specialist Boots and Coots International Well Control Inc., of Texas, pumped ground up tires, plastic bits and other rubber material into the well to plug the leak, and will then pump heavy mud into the hole to kill the well.
Spadoni said DEP sampled seven private wells Wednesday and eight surface water locations but had not received the results.
A field test of water from Towanda Creek entering the Susquehanna River did not indicate an impact, Spadoni added.
Grove said the well also began emitting limited amounts of natural gas early Thursday morning, and that Chesapeake and the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency performed gas-plume modeling and found that any natural-gas releases will not pose a risk to the area’s public safety.
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
April 22, 2011
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Operator_suspends_fracking_in_state_04-21-2011.html
More News About the Blowout:
Chesapeake suspends well completion operations
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/chesapeake-suspends-well-completion-operations-1.1136178#axzz1Jb4OFfes
Chesapeake stops fluid leak
http://citizensvoice.com/news/chesapeake-stops-fluid-leak-1.1136067#axzz1K40icpUb
After gas well leak in northern Pa., company suspends some operations
http://republicanherald.com/news/after-gas-well-leak-in-northern-pa-company-suspends-some-operations-1.1136148
Additional News on Gas Well Blowout in Bradford County
Accident at gas well in Northern Tier near creek that enters Susquehanna
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Blowout_in_Bradford_County_04-20-2011.html
Gas well blowout spills frack fluids onto farm, streams in Bradford County
http://citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/gas-well-blowout-spills-frack-fluids-onto-farm-streams-in-bradford-county-1.1135482#axzz1K40icpUb
Drilling fluid gushes from gas well
http://standardspeaker.com/news/drilling-fluid-gushes-from-gas-well-1.1135492
Natural gas well blows out, releasing fluids in Bradford County
http://republicanherald.com/news/natural-gas-well-blows-out-releasing-fluids-in-bradford-countyspill-at-well-drilling-site-causes-evacuation-1.1135593
Gas Well Spews Polluted Water