Battle lines drawn over drilling in Delaware watershed
http://standardspeaker.com/news/battle-lines-drawn-over-drilling-in-delaware-watershed-1.1017453
Battle lines drawn over drilling in Delaware watershed
BY STEVE MCCONNELL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: September 18, 2010
The battle lines among pro and anti-natural gas drilling groups are being drawn in the Delaware River watershed amid the development of new regulations by an obscure federal-interstate agency that has jurisdiction over the industry and has put the clamps on it.
Both groups have been firing salvos recently hoping to shape gas drilling policy here, a 13,539-square mile area draining into the Delaware River that has been mostly off-limits to gas drilling including a ban on producing gas wells enacted in May.
But environmentalists were dealt a major blow Wednesday to convince the Delaware River Basin Commission to conduct an cumulative impact study of natural gas drilling.
Seventy-seven organizations issued a joint letter to the commission, a five member-board that manages water resources in the four-state area, urging them to vote at their Wednesday meeting in West Trenton, N.J. to undertake the substantial environmental study prior to adopting new natural gas regulations.
That request, however, never came to fruition – giving pro-drillers some relief because it would have extended the drilling moratorium that is in place while the commission develops its regulations, a process that began this year.
Peter Wynne, a spokesman for the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, a landowners group that has secured at least 80,000 acres in Wayne County for gas development, said Thursday it is not sensible to conduct a major environmental study before even knowing if there is a viable Marcellus Shale gas reserve in the watershed.
“The whole think would be an exercise in futility,” said Wynne, whose group signed a land lease agreement late last year with Newfield Exploration Company and Hess Corp.
Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said the commission’s lack of action on the study was a considerable setback, however, since the commission could use it to create effective regulations to protect the watershed.
“We really can’t develop regulations that would prevent pollution” without the study, Carluccio said. “You can’t develop regulations in a vacuum. We know it’s not safe now.”
Carluccio and other environmentalists remain concerned that a massive, industry-scale gas drilling operation could cause irreparable damage to the watershed and the Delaware River, which is part of the U.S. National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, home to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and provides drinking water to an estimated 15 million people.
A U.S. House subcommittee has appropriated $1 million for the study, conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and limited to the watershed. If and when that money will be available is not known.
Commmission spokesman Clarke Rupert said that even if such a study is funded today, “it could still be several years before final results … are known.”
The commission will move ahead with developing and adopting draft regulations regardless of whether the study is or is not done, he added.
Meanwhile, draft regulations – which were expected to be finished this month by commission staff – have been pushed back to mid-October.
Industry opponents had also asked the commission to halt exploratory well drilling – four wells are either in development or have been drilled in Wayne County – until the new regulations are put in place.
The commission denied the request by vote Wednesday.
The matter will, however, go before a retired federal U.S. district court judge in December who will make a recommendation whether the agency should regulate these wells before its gas rules are adopted or be included in the current moratorium.
Gas Drilling Report Details 100+ Contamination Incidents
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/24079
Date Published: Friday, September 17th, 2010
Gas Drilling Report Details 100+ Contamination Incidents
An environmental group has compiled a report detailing more than 100 instances of environmental contamination linked to the gas drilling operations around the country. The group, Riverkeeper, is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to examine these incidents as it studies the gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The report, Fractured Communities, highlights case studies where federal and state regulators identified gas drilling operations, including those that utilize hydraulic fracturing, as the known or suspected cause of groundwater, drinking water, and surface water contamination.”
“Despite industry rhetoric to the contrary, the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing are real,” Craig Michaels, Watershed Program Director for Riverkeeper and an author of the report, said in a statement. “The case studies highlighted here represent just a sample of problems that regulators, landowners, municipalities, and communities across the country continue to uncover. We trust that EPA will assist state agencies in monitoring and investigating these problems as the agency continues its scientific study of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing.
Specifically, the report documents:
• More than 20 cases of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania;
• More than 30 cases of groundwater and drinking water contamination in Colorado and Wyoming;
• More than 10 cases of surface water spills of drilling fluid in the Marcellus Shale region;
• More than 30 investigations of stray gas migration from new and abandoned wells in Pennsylvania;
• Dozens of illegal operations and permit violations by gas drilling companies;
• Five explosions that occurred between 2006 and 2010 that contaminated groundwater and/or surface water.
According to Riverkeeper, state regulators have assessed over $3.6 million in penalties against gas companies as a result of these violations.
Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the ecological integrity of New York State’s Hudson River and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water supply of New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. Gas drillers have been eyeing massive deposits in New York’s Marcellus shale region, which includes the entire Catskills watershed that provides New York City with all of its drinking water. People there are worried that drilling could pollute the watershed. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has had gas drilling permit approvals on hold since 2008 while it conducts an environmental review of fracking.
The EPA announced its fracking study in March, following an order from the US Congress. The agency had issued a report on hydraulic fracturing in 2004, but it was criticized as flawed due to heavy industry influence on the panel that reviewed that study. The 2004 study ostensibly found that fracking posed no threat to water quality, but an EPA whistleblower claimed findings that showed benzene and other toxic chemicals in fracking fluid could migrate into ground water had been suppressed in the final report.
It was that report that convinced Congress to exempt fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. As a result, regulation of the industry is left up to the states, and drillers are not required to disclose the chemicals they use in their fracking fluids.
Government puts monitoring advocacy groups above protecting drinking water
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ksinding/government_puts_monitoring_adv.html
Posted September 15, 2010 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
Government puts monitoring advocacy groups above protecting drinking water
Another scandal surfaced in the Pennsylvania drilling world today – this time with a twist: in an email he accidentally sent to an anti-drilling advocate, the head of the state’s Office of Homeland Security revealed he has been monitoring groups fighting to protect against health & environmental risks associated with fracking and reporting back to gas companies. You read that right.
To quote State Homeland Security Director James Powers’ email directly: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale formation natural gas stakeholders, while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies.”
The irony here is painful. The government won’t protect Americans from health & environmental risks associated with natural gas drilling, but they will protect gas companies from those Americans. It can’t regulate this heavy industrial activity that transforms communities and threatens grave health & environmental risks – but it can let the gas companies know which public meetings concerned citizens plan to attend.
If there is a concern about violence, of course, that would be one thing. The official did indicate the groups are being monitored because there have been “five to 10” incidents of vandalism related to the industry – and that’s not an act we support. But meanwhile, hundreds of residents have reported concerns – that many could themselves interpret as violent – that gas drilling may be tied to home explosions, flammable tap water and health issues. Yet the comapnies are still operating, right in their backyards. Who’s watching them?
This raises so many (more) questions about how gas companies are operating in Pennsylvania and perhaps even around the country. As an advocate for protecting against threats from gas drilling – I can’t help but wonder:
-Whose idea was this in the first place?
-Has any of this information been reported to the federal government?
-Is this really just a ploy to spy on advocacy groups concerned about drilling’s risks?
-What information did the PA Office of Homeland Security give to the government?
-Who exactly are they monitoring and how? Are they tapping our phones? Reading our email?
-Why can’t they figure out a way to protect citizens instead?
-What’s next?
Lab finds toxic chemicals in Dimock Twp. water
http://citizensvoice.com/news/lab-finds-toxic-chemicals-in-dimock-twp-water-1.1014270
Lab finds toxic chemicals in Dimock Twp. water
BY LAURA LEGERE (STAFF WRITER)
Published: September 16, 2010
Michael J. Mullen / times-shamrock
Victoria Switzer of Dimock Township presents an array of photographs depicting environmental problems caused by gas drilling in the area to Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty in March. Water testing by a private environmental engineering firm has found widespread contamination of drinking water by toxic chemicals in an area of Dimock Township already affected by methane contamination from natural gas drilling.
Reports of the positive test results first came Monday when Dimock resident Victoria Switzer testified at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on hydraulic fracturing in Binghamton, N.Y., that the firm Farnham and Associates Inc. had confirmed ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and toluene were present in her water.
The firm’s president, Daniel Farnham, said this week that the incidence of contamination is not isolated.
Instead, he has found hydrocarbon solvents – including ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene – in the well water of “almost everybody” on and around Carter Road in Dimock where methane traced to deep rock formations has also been found.
The chemicals he found in the water in Dimock generally have industrial uses, including in antifreeze, gasoline and paint – except propylene glycol, which is also used in food products.
All of the constituents are also frequently used as chemical additives mixed with high volumes of water and sand to fracture gas-bearing rock formations – a crucial but controversial part of natural gas exploration commonly called “fracking.”
Farnham’s findings could cast doubt on the safety of the practice, which state regulators and the gas industry say has never been definitively linked to water contamination during the 60 years it has been used.
Critics say compelling anecdotal evidence, like that from Dimock, indicates otherwise.
Farnham stopped short of attributing the contamination to natural gas activity.
“Do I have enough information to say that this stuff came from fracking? I can’t prove that,” he said. “I don’t think anybody can. But it certainly is interesting.”
Residents in Dimock began raising concerns about their water nearly two years ago, when they began to notice changes in odor, color, taste and texture.
The Department of Environmental Protection determined that Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. allowed methane from a deep rock formation to seep into 14 residential drinking water supplies through faulty or overpressured casing in its Marcellus Shale gas wells.
But the department also determined in March 2009 that hydraulic fracturing activities had not impacted the water wells after it tested for indicators of fracturing impacts, including salts, calcium, barium, iron, manganese, potassium and aluminum.
In April of this year, Switzer and two of her neighbors who live at the bottom of a valley along Burdick Creek noticed that their water ran soapy. A DEP specialist came to test the water three days later, she said, but by that time the foam was gone.
DEP results from its April tests for ethylene glycol and propylene glycol found no trace of the chemicals, DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun said.
But over the spring and summer, with routine testing, Farnham noticed a pattern of troubling spikes: “After a heavy rain, certainly these things seem to crop up as the aquifer is disturbed,” he said.
“What I found was hydrocarbons – ethylbenzene, toluene – in almost everybody who was impacted in the area,” he said. “Oddly enough, if I were to go due east or due west of the affected area, I found nothing.”
In August, Farnham shared the results with Cabot during a meeting concerning a lawsuit many of the affected families have filed against the company. During a second meeting that month with the families in Dimock, Farnham told DEP Secretary John Hanger and Oil and Gas Bureau Director Scott Perry what he had found.
Rathbun, the DEP spokesman, said the agency is currently testing for toluene throughout the affected area and will be able to evaluate Farnham’s findings once its own widespread round of testing is done. “To date, DEP’s lab analyses do not support his findings,” he said.
Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. spokesman George Stark said pre-drill testing performed by Farnham when he was contracted by land agents of the company in May 2008 showed the hydrocarbon solvents and glycols pre-existed in some wells.
Farnham said Wednesday he never tested for the constituents in 2008, let alone detected them.
Farnham’s investigation into the contaminants is ongoing: He has more samples to analyze and more spikes in the test results to research and confirm. But he is certain that his findings so far are correct.
“I double- and triple-checked everything to make sure the evidence is irrefutable,” he said.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Marcellus job portal now online
http://standardspeaker.com/news/marcellus-job-portal-now-online-1.1013914
Marcellus job portal now online
FROM STAFF REPORTS)
Published: September 16, 2010
The Marcellus Shale Coalition has launched a website intended to connect job seekers with its members – natural gas companies and related businesses.
The “job portal” at [ www.marcelluscoalition.org ] offers descriptions of job opportunities and what the required qualifications are, from equipment operators and well tenders to geophysicists and market research analysts, and have links to the employment pages of companies’ websites.
“The responsible development of the Marcellus Shale’s abundant, clean-burning natural gas resources continues to expand throughout the region, helping to fuel a robust and growing supply chain network – the ‘Marcellus Multiplier’ – across the commonwealth,” Marcellus Shale Coalition Executive Director Kathryn Klaber noted in a prepared statement.
“Our industry is committed to putting Pennsylvanians to work, strengthening our workforce and our economy, and putting our nation on a path toward a cleaner and more secure energy future,” she said.
Pennsylvania Families Sue Southwestern Energy on Shale Drilling
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-15/pennsylvania-families-sue-southwestern-energy-on-alleged-shale-pollution.html
Pennsylvania Families Sue Southwestern Energy on Shale Drilling
Thirteen families in northeastern Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against Southwestern Energy Co. alleging that the company’s drilling for natural gas has contaminated drinking water.
Southwestern spoiled water wells by hydraulic fracturing, a process that uses blasts of water and chemicals to free natural gas from shale rock, according to the complaint filed yesterday in the civil division of the Court of Common Pleas of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The company used fracturing in October 2008 on a gas well in Lenox Township, Pennsylvania, according to Mark Boling, Southwestern’s general counsel.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying the drilling technique, known as fracking, to determine its effect on underground water supplies. Gas from shale may produce 50 percent of the U.S. gas supply by 2035, up from 20 percent today, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
“We actually had the chemicals associated with fracking fluids leaking into wells,” Peter Cambs, an attorney representing the families, said in an interview. “Something was going on related to the fracking process.”
Southwestern tested water wells in the area, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) north of Scranton, and found no contamination that could be linked to its drilling, Boling said.
“From our testing, we did not find anything that would lead one to believe that it’s from our drilling operations,” Boling said in an interview. “Part of our investigation is going to be trying to find out what prior uses were on the property to see if there was some industrial activity.”
Southwestern, based in Houston, is the largest natural-gas producer in the Fayetteville Shale formation in Arkansas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in Binghamton, New York at 1647 or jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.
Survey measures residents’ attitudes about Marcellus exploration
http://live.psu.edu/story/48364/nw69
Survey measures residents’ attitudes about Marcellus exploration
Friday, September 10, 2010
While energy companies continue to search beneath Pennsylvania for natural gas, social scientists are looking for ways to tap into the attitudes of residents about the gas-exploration boom in the region.
Residents in 21 Pennsylvania counties and eight New York counties — a region some refer to as “the Marcellus Fairway” — recently completed a survey looking at their level of satisfaction with their home communities, their knowledge about Marcellus Shale drilling and their trust in the process. The results suggest that, overall, the public-opinion jury is still out, according to Kathy Brasier, assistant professor of rural sociology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Brasier will be the featured speaker during a free, Web-based seminar titled, “Natural Gas Experiences of Marcellus Residents: Preliminary Results from the Community Satisfaction Survey,” which will air at 1 p.m. on Sept. 16. Sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension, the “webinar” will provide an overview of the recent survey of residents in counties where shale-gas exploration has begun.
Information about how to register for the webinar is available at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars. Online participants will have the opportunity to ask the speaker questions during the session.
“The main research objective was to establish baseline data so that, as we repeat the survey over the development of the Marcellus, we can track changes in people’s experiences and thoughts about the shale,” said Brasier. She noted that the main educational objective was to get a better sense of what people living in the region think about Marcellus, to create educational programming that takes into account local views — whether those are commonly held ideas or points of conflict.
Brasier said, based on the responses of nearly 2,000 participants, the survey revealed that significant proportions of people had yet to form opinions or report knowledge about Marcellus development. However, she said that those who have formed opinions were pretty strong in their feelings, responding in the extreme ends of the attitude items.
When asked about overall support for natural-gas extraction in the Marcellus, about 45 percent support it; 33 percent neither support nor oppose it, and 21 percent oppose Marcellus exploration. She said that there was more opposition among New York respondents, with nearly 31 percent opposing Marcellus gas extraction. In contrast, 19 percent of Pennsylvania respondents oppose drilling in the Marcellus.
Brasier conjectured that one possible reason for greater opposition in New York — where Marcellus drilling has not been approved — was the idea that stopping shale-gas extraction is still on the table. “There is still talk that they may be extending the moratorium, and that might be a little bit greater motivation for those who oppose it,” she said. “That’s not going to happen in Pennsylvania. Here, it’s coming, and if people are in the ‘opposed’ camp, it’s more about how to shape it to have the least damage.”
Accordingly, the main issues people felt they knew something about were environmental and water impacts. Environmental issues were also the ones people thought would “get worse,” according to the survey. The only area that people thought would get better was the availability of good jobs, Brasier said.
She said that a relatively small number of respondents (10 percent) had signed a lease for gas rights. Of these, about half are satisfied with the terms of the lease. About half had received lease or royalty payments. A majority of those who had received payments said they were satisfied.
In addition to questions about the respondents’ satisfaction with and attachment to their community, and knowledge of Marcellus Shale activities and impacts, participants also were asked their attitudes about development of the Marcellus and their trust in organizations that are active in Marcellus Shale issues. Brasier said that trust in the natural-gas industry, state agencies and state governments has a great deal to do with attitudes toward Marcellus exploration.
Attitudes might also vary depending on whether respondents had bad previous experiences with other extractive sectors, such as coal or shallow gas, or had experienced other social or environmental problems as a result of that activity.
Brasier said that future work will compare responses on the community satisfaction variables across time. She said she also wants to get a better sense of residents’ feelings about the workers, including those who might have moved recently to the area because of gas drilling. Future surveys also are likely to explore what people do for recreation and how these activities might be affected by drilling.
The “Natural Gas Experiences of Marcellus Residents” webinar is part of an ongoing series of workshops addressing issues related to the state’s Marcellus Shale gas boom. Previous webinars, which covered topics such as water use and quality, zoning, gas-leasing considerations for landowners and implications for local communities, can be viewed at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/webinars online.
For more information, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at 724-937-1402 or by e-mail at jdt15@psu.edu.
Contact John Dickison jmd16@psu.edu
EPA wants chemical info from 9 service providers
http://www.timesleader.com/news/EPA-wants-chemical-info-from-9-service-providers.html
September 10, 2010
EPA wants chemical info from 9 service providers
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it has requested information about chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process from nine leading service providers involved in operations in the Marcellus Shale natural gas region.
The EPA said it is preparing a study of whether a link exists between hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” and a health hazard from contaminated drinking water.
“This scientifically rigorous study will help us understand the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water – a concern that has been raised by Congress and the American people,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement Thursday.
The federal agency has requested information about the contents of hydraulic fracturing fluids used by BJ Services, Complete Production Services, Halliburton, Key Energy Services, Patterson-UTI, RPC Inc., Schlumberger, Superior Well Services and Weatherford, all of which are involved in fracking the Marcellus Shale.
The announcement comes as Congress debates two bills, introduced in June 2009, and collectively dubbed the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals, or FRAC Act, which would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to require drillers to disclose the contents of hydraulic fracturing fluids and which would subject the hydraulic fracturing process to federal regulation.
The study also follows a November 2009 request by Congress that the EPA undertake a new study of the process. The EPA said it plans to announce initial results of the study in late 2012.
Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which water, sand and additives are pumped into underground geological formations to create fractures, and, in the case of shale gas drilling, unlock natural gas deposits.
A spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a group advocating Marcellus Shale gas extraction, said his group is eager to assist the EPA in any way it can with its study, as he believes it will verify the safety of the fracking process.
Coalition spokesman Travis Windle said the fracking process has a more than 60-year record of safe operations and a 2004 EPA study of hydraulic fracturing in much shallower coal bed methane reservoirs found no link between fracking and aquifer contamination.
“We’re confident that a study, which is grounded in facts, and is straightforward and methodical, is going to prove what the EPA said in the past,” Windle said “It’s going to underscore the long and clear record that fracturing does not pose any threat to groundwater contamination.”
However, the coalition strongly opposes the EPA regulation that Congress is considering, Windle said, stating federal regulation “would devastate job production.”
“The 44,000 jobs that our industry has created in Pennsylvania alone in the last four years would be dramatically undercut if this misguided legislation was enacted,” Windle said, explaining that under the proposed FRAC Act legislation, drillers would be required to apply for EPA permits before beginning hydraulic fracturing, which would slow the drilling.
Windle said chemicals used in fracking fluid in Pennsylvania are publicly available information and the industry is monitored by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
A spokesman for gas-extraction company Cabot Oil and Gas, which is active in Susquehanna County, said the company is not involved in the EPA study, but welcomes the opportunity “to partner with the EPA to show them that it’s a safe technology.”
Cabot is involved in a lawsuit brought in 2009 by Dimock residents, who claim Cabot’s drilling operations polluted their drinking water.
Cabot spokesman George Stark would not comment on the subject of an active lawsuit, but said generally of Dimock that “the Department of Environmental Protection has stated that the situation there is not the result of hydraulic fracturing.”
“In the operations that Cabot has been involved with, we have not seen that there has been a threat to drinking water through the hydraulic fracturing process,” Stark said.
DEP Investigating Source of Stray Methane Gas in Bradford County
DEP Investigating Source of Stray Methane Gas in Bradford County
DEP to Require Complete Remediation
HARRISBURG — The Department of Environmental Protection is continuing to investigate the source of stray methane gas detected in the Susquehanna River and at six private water wells in Wilmont Township, Bradford County, late last week.
“Chesapeake Energy has been working at the direction of DEP to determine the source or sources of the stray gas,” said Hanger. “Gas migration is a serious, potentially dangerous problem. Chesapeake must stop the gas from migrating.”
Chesapeake has six Marcellus Shale gas wells located on the Welles well pads one three and four, located two to three miles northwest of the Susquehanna River. These wells are believed to be the source of stray gas that was detected on Aug. 4 at a residence located on Paradise Road in Terry Township. DEP issued a notice of violation to Chesapeake and required it to provide and implement a plan to remediate. Progress has been made, but, to date, this violation has not yet been fully resolved.
While neither DEP nor Chesapeake have been able to conclusively show that the Welles wells are the source, DEP believes that they are the most likely source.
The wells were drilled between Dec. 2009 and March of this year; however the wells have not been fractured or “fracked” and are not producing Marcellus gas. For that reason, DEP believes that any stray gas migrating from these wells is not from the Marcellus Shale formation, but from a more shallow rock formation.
Chesapeake has screened 26 residences within a one-half mile radius of the river and found six water wells to have elevated levels of methane. Chesapeake monitored each of the houses served by an impacted water well and found no indication of methane gas in the homes.
On Sept. 3, high levels of methane were detected in the crawl space under a seasonal residence. Emergency responders were contacted to ventilate below the home and gas and electric utilities were shut off to eliminate any potential for ignition.
Chesapeake has equipped water wells with high levels of methane with ventilation systems and installed five methane monitors in the homes associated with the im-pacted wells. Additionally, Chesapeake has provided potable water to the effected residents.
No residents have been evacuated from their homes.
DEP first received information about water bubbles in the Susquehanna River late on Sept. 2, with additional reports received the next morning of bubbling in two private drinking water wells nearby. In response, DEP sent two teams of inspectors to investigate the source of stray methane gas on Sept. 3.
One team of DEP inspectors went to the Susquehanna River near to Sugar Run where bubbling had been reported. DEP collected samples of the gas for isotopic analysis which is used to identify the source. Analysis of the lab results will be complete within 2 weeks.
Biogenic methane gas is formed at shallow depths from the natural organic decomposition of waste, such as one would find in swamp gas. Thermogenic methane gas is produced in deeper geologic formations and is the gas typically developed for economic purposes.
Both DEP and Chesapeake have taken gas samples from the water well heads and the natural gas wells. The results will help to determine if the source of the stray gas detected at the river and in the water wells is the Welles wells.
Anyone who notices unusual bubbling in surface or well water should notify DEP immediately by calling 570-327-3636.
####
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=14034&typeid=1
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09/7/2010
CONTACT:
Helen Humphreys, Department of Environmental Protection
717-787-1323
Wading through water-test results subject of webinar
http://live.psu.edu/story/48230/nw69
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wading through water-test results subject of webinar
Well owners may wish to have drinking water tested before and after nearby gas wells are drilled.
When it comes to water-test results, one of the murkiest problems facing homeowners is how to interpret the results, according to an expert in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. And with the flood of Marcellus shale gas-drilling activity in Pennsylvania, there has been a steadily rising tide of information about water availability, water quality, water-testing procedures and what those tests indicate.
“We’re finding that in a lot of these counties, there is a lot of water testing being done by gas companies or by households — before and after drilling — and these water test reports can be very hard to understand,” said Bryan Swistock, a water resources extension specialist in the college’s School of Forest Resources. “For some, it’s like trying to decipher foreign language.”
To help owners of private water supplies navigate the water-testing maze, Swistock will conduct a free Web-based seminar titled, “How to Interpret Pre- and Post-Gas Drilling Water Test Reports.” Part of a series of online water-related workshops produced by Penn State Cooperative Extension, the webinar will air at noon and again at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15.
Participants must pre-register for the webinars, but only one registration is required for the entire series. To register, visit http://extension.psu.edu/water/webinar-series. Once participants have pre-registered, they may visit the webinar site (https://breeze.psu.edu/water1) on the day of the presentation to view the live presentation.
Water-quality experts, gas-company officials and attorneys all agree that if gas-drilling activity is scheduled to take place nearby, homeowners should get pre-drill water testing done, Swistock said. Because gas companies have a presumed responsibility for water quality within 1,000 feet of a gas well, they frequently provide free water testing to homeowners within that radius. Some gas companies may pay to test private water systems even beyond 1,000 feet from a gas well, he added.
Homeowners who live outside that range — or ones who don’t trust free testing — may opt to pay for their own testing. For these consumers, Swistock advises hiring a state-accredited lab to come out to the home. The water sample then becomes a “legally valid” sample, the chain of custody of which is assured, should a case go to court, he said.
Swistock explained that water testing for all possible pollutants associated with gas-well drilling can by very expensive. Homeowners should discuss the costs of the testing with the laboratory or consultant to select a testing package that addresses their concerns while still being affordable.
Some homeowners are distressed to discover pre-existing problems that have nothing to do with gas exploration. It is common to uncover problems such as bacteria, traces of nitrate, or lead, which sometimes can come from the home’s own plumbing system. “Some problems don’t have symptoms, so if the well was never tested previously, and people didn’t experience any symptoms, they’ll think the test result was doctored,” Swistock said.
He noted that more than 1 million Pennsylvania homes and farms have drilled water wells, and about 45 percent of them have never been tested. He said bacteria occurs in about one-third of water wells in the state and is likely to go undetected unless someone had reason to investigate.
Changes in other water conditions may prompt more immediate investigation. Nearby construction or drilling may create changes in water’s appearance, taste or availability. The sudden onset of spurting faucets, foaming or cloudy water, metallic or salty tastes, previously undetected odors, or reduced flow volume may each indicate manmade problems caused by localized disturbances.
In addition to water sources, information also should be carefully evaluated. With the recent deluge of sources disseminating information related to protecting water supplies near gas drilling, Swistock suggests that homeowners with private water systems in the Marcellus region be vigilant and carefully weigh comments and recommendations they receive. He recommends seeking out credible sources of information, trustworthy third-party testing services and state-accredited water labs to conduct the testing.
“It’s our mission to provide unbiased information grounded in research to help people manage and protect the water resources of Pennsylvania,” Swistock said. “None of my current or past research funding has come from the Marcellus gas industry. My only goal is to provide facts that will help homeowners and others make the best decision possible.”
The webinar also will provide viewers with links to useful websites, including a description of various water tests, a list of state-accredited labs and an online Drinking Water Interpretation Tool to help homeowners interpret complex water test reports.
This presentation is part of an overall series targeting the most common water questions and concerns people have about water resources on their own property, whether those are water wells, septic systems or ponds. Other topics in the series include managing septic systems, ponds and lakes, drilling wells and safe drinking water. Recordings of previous webinars can be found at http://extension.psu.edu/water/webinar-series.