Emergency drought relief loans available for farmers
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135921
Reported on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Emergency drought relief loans available for farmers
State Rep. Keith McCall said that farmers in Carbon County are eligible to apply for low-interest emergency disaster assistance loans from the federal Department of Agriculture to help recover crop losses associated with the summer’s dry weather.
“The extreme heat and lack of rainfall has had a negative impact on Carbon County’s farmers this year, and I’m glad the federal government is making these loans available to help our farm families stay afloat and keep their farms up and running,” McCall said. “I hope every farmer affected by the drought conditions will apply for this funding.”
Farmers can apply for the loans through the Carbon County Farm Service Agency in Lehighton at (610) 377-6300 or by visiting the department online at www.fsa.usda.gov.
Besides Carbon County, 15 other counties in the region were declared primary disaster areas: Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Snyder, Union and York.
In addition, 22 counties bordering the primary disaster area were named contiguous disaster areas: Adams, Bedford, Berks, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Delaware, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lycoming, Mifflin, Montour, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Sullivan, Wayne and Wyoming.
Farmers in all affected counties have eight months from the Sept. 10 date of disaster declaration to apply for the loans, and each application will be considered based on losses, available resources and ability to repay.
Drought warning
http://www.tnonline.com/node/135919
Reported on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Drought warning
Shortage of rain must be taken seriously
Last week, the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a drought warning for our newspaper’s entire coverage area – Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Schuylkill Counties.
The combination of lower rain than usual with the excessive summer heat has resulted in stream levels being well below normal.
One only has to see the receding shore line at Mauch Chunk Lake Park to understand how critical the water level has become.
The National Weather Service says rainfall is four inches below normal for the past 90 days in the Lehigh Valley. Carbon County has a 4.5 inch deficit for 90 days while in Monroe County, there is a 5.2 inch rainfall shortage for the three-month period.
The DEP is asking people to conserve water. One of the most common sources of waste water is a leak within your residence, such as a toilet. DEP says a leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day. Although many households are strapped for cash right now, fixing such a leak should be a priority since it can also reduce your monthly water bill.
DEP encourages residents to conserve water by taking showers instead of baths.
Also, keep water in the refrigerator to avoid running water from a faucet until it is cold.
Run your dishwasher only when it is full.
Water is a precious resource and we can’t ignore the fact that levels at our storage facilities are being reduced by the lack of rain. Generally, the water lines aren’t fully restored until spring when a good snow pack melts. A dry winter will make things very critical, so it’s best to start conserving now.
This is especially true if you rely on wells rather than city water.
The DEP could do more to help the situation by making its Web site more user friendly with drought advice, suggestions, and information. Very little is stated on the DEP site about the drought conditions.
After all, it is the DEP which issues drought warnings.
We agree that there is a drought. We have to think ahead, though, to assure that if the drought continues, we’ll still have enough water to meet our every day needs.
By Ron Gower
rgower@tnonline.com
Cabot spokesman: Contaminants were already there
http://citizensvoice.com/news/cabot-spokesman-contaminants-were-already-there-1.1024703
Cabot spokesman: Contaminants were already there
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: September 22, 2010
Tests of two private water wells in Dimock Township showed traces of toxic chemicals in 2008 before Marcellus Shale gas drilling began nearby, according to test results made available to Times-Shamrock newspapers on Tuesday by the gas driller active in the township.
But a spokesman for Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. said those chemicals – toluene, benzene and surfactants – were not detected in 2008 in pre-drill samples taken at more than a dozen nearby water supplies along Carter Road in Dimock where a private environmental engineering firm recently found toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
The contaminants found this spring and summer by Scranton-based Farnham and Associates, Inc. were at levels 1,000 times higher than the toluene levels detected in the two wells in 2008, the firm’s president, Daniel Farnham, said.
Cabot released the 2008 water tests on Tuesday in response to reports last week that Farnham had found widespread chemical contamination in water wells already tainted with methane linked to the gas drilling in Susquehanna County.
Farnham took the samples for families in Dimock Township who have sued Cabot for allegedly damaging their water, health and property.
The drilling company said the toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene found in the drinking water could not have come from hydraulic fracturing fluids used in its Marcellus Shale drilling operations because its service contractors do not use those chemicals.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground to break apart the gas-bearing rock. Critics of the process link it to anecdotal reports of water contamination and health problems in drilling regions like Dimock Township, while the industry and state regulators say the practice has never caused water contamination during decades of use.
“Ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene – those are not chemicals that we have used at all in our fracking,” Cabot spokesman George Stark said on Tuesday. “The fact that he’s found these is troubling, but they’re not from frack fluids.”
Cabot indicated that a likely cause of the contaminants, which are found in diesel and gasoline as well as some hydraulic fracturing additives, is an auto repair shop located near the affected wells.
The 2008 test results – which came from water samples taken by Farnham and analyzed by a separate firm for Cabot – detected surfactants at .07 mg/L in two wells, toluene at .002 mg/L in one well and .003 mg/L in the other, and benzene at .002 mg/L in one well.
Neither well showed the presence of ethylbenzene or xylene and none of the other wells sampled by Cabot contractors in 2008 along Carter Road showed any indication of the chemicals, Stark said.
Farnham, who conducted routine sampling of water wells along Carter Road this spring and summer, found ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene in the water at nearly all of the homes at levels between 2 and 7 mg/L.
Those levels exceed federal drinking water standards for toluene and ethylbenzene, a suspected human carcinogen.
Farnham also found ethylene glycol at 20 mg/L and propylene glycol at 200 mg/L in a May 2010 drinking water sample from one of the homes, owned by Victoria Switzer.
An independent water test performed for the Switzers in May 2008 did not analyze for glycols, but the test showed no indication of ethylbenzene, toluene or xylene.
Cabot’s contractors use ethylene glycol and propylene glycol in their hydraulic fracturing fluids, Stark said, but he does not believe they contaminated the Switzer well. Glycols break down within days in water, he said, and Cabot has not hydraulically fractured wells in the Carter Road area since November 2009.
“I would stand pretty confident they are not related,” he said.
The spikes of contamination recorded by Farnham in the water wells after periods of rain indicate a surface spill, not a disturbance of the aquifer through hydraulic fracturing, Stark said.
Cabot has reported at least five diesel spills since 2008 at or around its well sites in the township to the state Department of Environmental Protection, but Stark said the company does not believe its surface activity caused the contamination. A press release distributed by the company on Tuesday said “extensive testing performed this year in cooperation with the PA-DEP has confirmed that Cabot’s operations have not caused any such surface contamination.”
Efforts to contact a DEP spokesman on Tuesday to confirm Cabot’s statement were unsuccessful.
Farnham said the levels of glycols found in Switzer’s water indicate an industrial cause, not the auto repair shop.
“To show up in the levels that we’re seeing (the mechanic) must have had one hell of a radiator leak,” he said.
llegere@timesshamrock.com
Site tracks shale industry campaign spending
http://citizensvoice.com/news/site-tracks-shale-industry-campaign-spending-1.1021359
Site tracks shale industry campaign spending
BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF)
Published: September 20, 2010
HARRISBURG – The natural gas industry contributed more than $3 million to statewide and legislative candidates from 2001 through March and spent more than $5 million on lobbying since 2007 when a new public disclosure law took effect, according to a new campaign spending tracking website.
Common Cause PA and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania recently launched the website www.marcellusmoney.org to provide a window on industry spending as up to date as possible under the infrequent state campaign finance reporting deadlines. The website is searchable by company, political candidate and contribution amount.
It debuts with intense debate over Marcellus Shale tax and regulatory issues dominating Harrisburg during an election year.
Search our online databases on natural gas drilling
The site identifies 25 natural gas companies as top campaign contributors during the past decade, including several active in Northeast Pennsylvania, a hot spot for drilling and exploration in the Marcellus Shale geological formation. They include Chesapeake ($75,000), Chief Oil & Gas ($16,800), Anadarko ($8,600), Williams Production ($2,750) and Cabot Oil & Gas ($1,500).
Indiana, Pa.-based SW Jack Drilling tops the list with $950,000 in contributions, one-third of the total. But there’s an important caveat. The firm’s chairwoman is Christine L. Toretti, the National Republican committeewoman and frequent contributor to GOP candidates.
According to the website, the top 10 recipients of driller campaign cash during the past decade include: Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett ($372,000), Lt. Gov./Senate GOP leader Joseph Scarnati ($117,000), Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell ($84,000), Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato ($74,000), Rep. David Reed, R-Indiana ($57,000), Democratic Auditor General and gubernatorial candidate Jack Wagner ($50,000), Sen. Don White, R-Indiana ($48,000).
Also: Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte ($33,800), Former House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg ($29,400) and House Minority Whip Mike Turzai, R-Pittsburgh ($26,000).
Northeastern region lawmakers receiving contributions include House Speaker Keith McCall, D-Summit Hill ($12,000), Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Peckville ($7,000), Rep. Matt Baker, R-Wellsboro ($6,200), Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lower Saucon Township ($5,300), Sen. David Argall, R-Tamaqua ($3,900), Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Towanda ($2,500), Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township ($1,500), Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Williamsport ($1,500), Sen. John Gordner, R-Berwick ($1,300), House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township ($1,250), Rep. Ed Staback, D-Archbald ($500), Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke ($250) and Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake ($250).
“This is such a good issue to demonstrate the power of money in elections in Pennsylvania,” said Common Cause director Barry Kauffman, citing the impact of the drilling boom on water quality, local roads and the use of chemicals in fracking fluids. “These are all pretty important issues for people in two-thirds of the state.”
Industry spokesmen point to another side of the coin regarding efforts to influence policy on Marcellus Shale issues.
Two Harrisburg-based nonprofit organizations that advocate for a state severance tax on natural gas production have funding issues of their own, they add. The environmental group PennFuture receives taxpayer-funded grants to promote alternate-energy development, while the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, which issues studies on the tax structure, has major labor leaders on its board.
The natural gas industry doesn’t receive tax dollars and is transparent about who contributes to its advocacy efforts, said Travis Windle, spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group.
Alex Kaplan, the Marcellus website creator, built the database using campaign reports filed with the Department of State. The department’s campaign finance website allows for searches of individual candidates and PACs, but not anything more in-depth.
“It’s impossible to get a sweeping view of an industry on that (state) website,” said Kaplan. He said such analysis is important since Pennsylvania is one of the few states that doesn’t limit the amount of campaign contributions.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
Penn State will hold workshop on drilling water tests
http://citizensvoice.com/news/penn-state-will-hold-workshop-on-drilling-water-tests-1.1017737
Published: September 18, 2010
Penn State will hold workshop on drilling water tests
Penn State Cooperative Extension will hold an informational workshop on how to interpret pre- and post-gas drilling water test reports starting at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 in the Lake-Lehman Junior-Senior high school on Old Route 115 in Lehman Township.
Participants will learn how to understand the reports, as well as what drinking water standards are, how to treat pre-existing water quality problems, and the importance of chain-of-custody. Penn State Extension educators Peter Wulfhorst and Bryan Swistock will be the presenters.
The program is sponsored by the Penn State Master Well Owner Network, with funding and support from Penn State Cooperative Extension, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Groundwater Association.
For information or to register to attend, call (570) 825-1701, 602-0600 or 888-825-1701.
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.
Some in Palmerton feel borough was shortchanged
http://www.tnonline.com/node/134788
Reported on Friday, September 17, 2010
Some in Palmerton feel borough was shortchanged
By TERRY AHNER tahner@tnonline.com
TERRY AHNER/TIMES NEWS Dr. Kathleen Patnode, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, gives a presentation on the Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund Site Natural Resource Damage Assessment to members of the Palmerton Area Chamber of Commerce earlier this week.
Has Palmerton been shortchanged out of a $20 million settlement for damage to the environment?
A number of borough officials and business owners believe so, and let their thoughts be heard at a meeting of the Palmerton Area Chamber of Commerce earlier this week.
Dr. Kathleen Patnode, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Pennsylvania Field Office, explained the nature of the settlement reached last year between the Environmental Protection Agency and CBS Operations, Inc, as well as the decision-making process that determined how the funds are to be used.
Recently, government trustees have decided that more than 95-percent of the natural resource damage assessment funds are expected to be expended on projects well outside the Palmerton area.
Patnode gave a presentation on the Palmerton Zinc Pile Superfund Site Natural Resource Damage Assessment Draft Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment.
As part of her dialogue, Patnode shared the context for the natural resource damaged assessment; summarized the natural resource injury assessment; outlined the restoration opinions analysis; described the preferred restoration alternatives; and reviewed the public process.
Patnode said that under Superfund site law, natural resource damage assessments are conducted by government officials designated to act as “trustees” to bring claims on behalf of the public for the restoration of natural resources injured due to hazardous substances. Those trustees include the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Game Commission, and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, she said.
The goal, Patnode said, is to make the public whole for the hazardous substance-related loss of natural resources through restoration, replacement, or acquisition of the equivalent of injured resources.
Patnode stressed that natural resource damages are in addition to remedial actions. and that remedial actions are risk-based to protect human health and the environment from further unacceptable harm, such as to bind metals in soils and plants on the mountain; to stop metals from contaminating groundwater; and to prevent metals from entering the creek.
Natural resource damages for the Palmerton site are the restoration needed to compensate for the level and type of natural resources that would have existed if metals had not contaminated the mountain, groundwater and creek, Patnode said.
She said the keys in the NRDA process are to define the scope, evaluate the injury, use information to reach settlement with potentially responsible parties, and develop a restoration plan.
The settlement for natural resource damages was reached with the responsible parties on Oct. 27, 2009, by judicial consent decree, Patnode said.
That includes the transfer of about 1,300 acres of the “King Manor” property to PGC; the discharge of the $300,000 mortgage on the Lehigh Gap Nature Center; a nonprofit conservation and environmental education organization located in the Lehigh Gap; a cash payment of $9.875 million, that, based on the cost of potential restoration projects, would compensate for remaining losses; as well as full reimbursement of the trustees’ damage assessment costs, she said.
The proposal, Patnode said, calls for the funds to be used for habitat acquisition/easement protection of the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge; Lehigh River Headwaters and other areas on Kittatinny Ridge and the Lehigh River; a Lower Lehigh River Dam removal feasibility study; a Parryville access site for fishing on the Lehigh River; and restoration and enhancement of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
But, many residents in the Palmerton area believe that a greater percentage of the funds should be use on local environmental projects, said Peter Kern, chamber president.
“I think everybody understands the difference between remediation and replacement,” Kern said. “People are concerned there will be little or no money in the local community.”
Terry Costenbader, president of Palmerton Borough Council, was a bit more blunt in his approach.
“Let’s cut to the chase; CBS is paying the penalty here for causing the damage,” Costenbader said. “It sounds to me you people want to spend the money in other areas than where we’re sitting.”
Jim Christman, owner of Christman Realty, told Patnode the criteria “seems odd”, and added that the real damage to the community “has been the stigma as a Superfund Site attached to it.”
Patnode said that while she could empathize, a specific set of rules and regulations must be followed.
“I understand what you’re saying and that there could be many civic products in Palmerton,” Patnode said. “This law only basically allows us to restore natural resources.”
Patnode said appropriate lands could include the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge and the Upper Lehigh River area.
She said the public comment period was from June 15 to July 15; however, comments submitted after the deadline were accepted. Trustees will review all comments and develop a revised document and response to the comments, Patnode said.
Also, she said additional restoration projects for Trustee evaluation are being accepted. But, Patnode said potential projects won’t be reviewed until the restoration plan is final; projects will be divided by alternative type and evaluated by the subcouncil responsible for that alternative; and the subcouncil recommendations must receive unanimous vote by the entire trustee council.
Patnode said the goal is to get the plan finalized this fall, at which point projects could be reviewed.
Dan Kunkle, director of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, said the group is merely “following the law.”
“I trust they are going to look at our proposals, and accept or reject them based on the criteria,” Kunkle said. “I think the project is really working.”
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
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