Researchers Concerned About Chemical In The Monongahela River
http://kdka.com/local/chemical.monongahela.river.2.1919015.html
Sep 17, 2010 8:02 pm US/Eastern
Researchers Concerned About Chemical In Mon River
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―The Monongahela River is the source for 13 different water companies.
The drinking water comes out of taps in homes and businesses in the better part of southwestern Pennsylvania.
Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are raising concerns about the level of bromide in the Mon River – something they detected in July and August.
“Bromide itself is not a concern,” says Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, director of CMU’s Water Quality In Urban Environmental Systems Center. “We’re concerned that when the bromide gets into the drinking water plants there’s a reaction that takes place.”
And that reaction comes when the river water is disinfected with chlorine and forms byproducts. The byproducts are always present in our water at different levels, but continuous high levels are linked to health problems, says Dr. VanBriesen.
“Particularly cancer and reproductive outcomes,” she said.
There is not a lot that water companies can do. The bromide contamination has to be stopped at its source. They must find out how it’s getting into the river.
“We initially started researching it because the Marcellus Shale produced-water does have a significant amount of bromide,” Dr. VanBriesen said.
But the bromide levels only spiked this summer and a lot of other industries are capable to producing bromide.
“It’s crucial for people to understand that we’re concerned about this, but the water is safe to drink,” Dr. VanBriesen said.
It’s the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s job to monitor contaminants in the rivers.
“Going back and using our data to look at all the dozens of facilities along the Mon that discharge into the river,” is what the watchdog department is doing says spokesperson Katy Gresh.
DEP detectives will be looking at three categories of potential bromide polluters.
“Deep mining, oil and gas as you mentioned and other heavy industry like power plants and steel plants,” Gresh said.
Finding a source may take six months to a year to sample bromide levels, but for now the DEP agrees that our water meets all federal standards.
The increased bromide levels have nothing to do with the musty taste and smell that some water company customers were experiencing last month due to stressed algae in the rivers.
Shale gas drillers injected diesel fuel into the ground
http://www.examiner.com/energy-in-philadelphia/shale-gas-drillers-injected-diesel-fuel-into-the-ground-1
August 18th, 2010
Shale gas drillers injected diesel fuel into the ground
Tap water catching fire due to natural gas migration from hydraulic fracking operations.
Photo: Source: Gasland
In February of this year, the House Energy and Commerce Committee revealed Halliburton and BJ Services, two oil and gas currently operating in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation, had used diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing operations in at least 15 states in from 2005 to 2007. The gas companies would not reveal to the committee where these injections occurred and may have broken the Safe Water Drinking Act laws.
Hydraulic drilling fracking operations inject millions of gallons of water combined with toxic chemical laden compounds to create intense high pressure to break and keep open underground shale rock formations which allows natural gas to be captured. The process is highly controversial with gas industry front groups stating the process is safe while government officials, residents in drilling areas and environmentalists are all increasingly concerned about the negative effects on drinking water supplies along with air and land damage from these other chemical pollutants which result from shale gas drilling operations.
Benzene and toulene, both toxic substances and known cancer causing agents in low concentrations are found in fracking solution compounds.
The Marcellus Shale formation covers almost two thirds of the state of Pennsylvania including more than 36% of the Delaware River Basin which supplies drinking water to millions in the greater Philadelphia area. There are more than 3700 Pennsylvania shale gas drilling permits currently issued to oil and gas companies, mostly to out of state firms. Shale gas formations are also found in Texas and Colorado along with other parts of the country.
The three oil and gas companies heavily involved in chemical fracking named in the committee’s February disclosure were Halliburton, BJ Services and Schlumberger. These companies are currently drilling in Pennsylvania and members of the gas industry front group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition. The federal committee’s disclosures that these companies injected diesel fuel into the ground as part of their fracking operations appears to directly contradict ongoing gas industry front group claims such chemical solutions are harmless to the environment and drinking water supplies. Halliburton and BJ Services had signed a federal non-dissent decree back in 2003 that would no longer inject diesel fuel into the ground during their drilling operations.
More than 25 major environmental groups have written to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. House of Representatives requesting the government determine whether these companies violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
“Oil washing up on our shores is not the only threat America currently faces from the oil and gas industry,” said Lynn Senick with Northeast Pennsylvania Gas Action. “Currently, there is not a system in place to make sure that toxic diesel fuel is not polluting our drinking water sources.”
In April of this year, Kenny Watt of Houston, Texas based BJ Services, vice president of the company’s pressure injection services stated, “We have taken an extremely proactive approach in the Marcellus Shale play, with the long-term objective of becoming the largest provider of casing and tubing running services in the region,’. This was the same month, oil giant Baker Hughes of Houston, Texas acquired BJ Services.
The revelations by the federal government that these companies had used diesel fuel as part of their underground fracking solutions comes at same time the gas industry steadfastly refuses to release the details of their fracking solutions claiming they are trade secrets.
Oil and Gas Company Penneco, owned by the Jacobs family of Pittsburgh, is very strongly opposed to any increased regulation of industry operations. The company stated, “We are concerned that bureaucratic machinations have caused the EPA to hypothesize a problem and that the EPA is now seeking to justify a solution to a nonexistent problem.”
To learn more about Penneco, go to: http://www.penneco.com
To learn more about the federal Environmental Protection Agency, go to: http://www.epa.gov/
Disclaimer: The writer holds no stocks or has any financial arrangements with any of the companies named in this article.
Wastewater tracking bill introduced
http://citizensvoice.com/news/wastewater-tracking-bill-introduced-1.908232
Wastewater tracking bill introduced
BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: July 29, 2010
State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, said Wednesday she is introducing legislation that would create a system for tracking and reporting the disposal of the polluted water that is a byproduct of natural gas drilling.
“My legislation would allow the public to track wastewater produced by this quickly growing industry from cradle to grave,” Mundy said in a prepared statement. “It would help promote public confidence that natural gas well operators are following the law on the treatment and disposal of wastewater, which can contain brine and chemicals.”
Companies with natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale already have to make semi-annual production reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Mundy’s proposed legislation would expand that to include the wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, and DEP would make the information available on its website.
Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking,” involves blasting millions of gallons of chemical-treated water thousands of feet underground to break up the shale and release natural gas.
Mundy explained the bill, which she worked on with Penn Future, is to ensure the chemical and salt-laden wastewater isn’t dumped where it’s not supposed to be.
“I think that’s a concern people have: where’s the water coming from, and where are they disposing of it?” she said. “Because it’s toxic and it’s polluting. We want to know where it’s going.”
Mundy previously introduced House Resolution 864, which urges Congress to pass U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act.
The FRAC Act is intended to close the “Halliburton Loophole” in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which exempts oil and gas companies from restrictions on hydraulic fracturing near drinking water sources. The FRAC Act would also require oil and gas companies to disclose all the chemicals in their hydraulic fracturing solutions.
Casey announced Wednesday provisions from the FRAC Act have been included in the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act, which will be considered ion the Senate floor.
“This is great. The more activity the better,” Mundy said when told about the new development. However, she noted, “There’s many a slip between introducing the legislation and getting it passed into law, at any level.”
If the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act doesn’t pass by the time the state legislature reconvenes in September, Mundy said she will urge leaders to bring her resolution up for vote, to show support for Casey’s efforts.
Mundy also sponsored two other pieces of natural gas drilling-related legislation. One is House Bill 2609, which would establish a one-year moratorium on issuing of new natural gas well drilling permits to give state officials more time to put appropriate regulations in place.
The other is House Bill 2608, which would prohibit natural gas companies from drilling horizontal wells or doing hydraulic fracturing within 2,500 feet of a drinking water source, instead of the current restriction of 100 feet.
eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072
Two Oil-Field Companies Acknowledge Fracking With Diesel
February 19, 2010
Two Oil-Field Companies Acknowledge Fracking With Diesel
By MIKE SORAGHAN of Greenwire
Two of the world’s largest oil-field services companies have acknowledged to Congress that they used diesel in hydraulic fracturing after telling federal regulators they would stop injecting the fuel near underground water supplies.
Halliburton and BJ Services acknowledged to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January 2008 that they had used diesel in the controversial process that has expanded access to vast natural gas plays.
Read More
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) on fracking
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/76719-congress-returns-to-full-plate
01/18/10
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) on fracking
In the House on Wednesday, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), through the Energy and Commerce Energy and Environment subcommittee he chairs, will review a plan by ExxonMobil to buy XTO Energy for $31 billion.
The hearing is also likely to delve into the topic of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a technique to blast water, chemicals and sand underground to create cracks for natural gas to flow through. Energy companies have used the practice for decades, but as huge natural-gas reserves have been discovered in shale deposits underlying populated areas in New York and Pennsylvania, new concerns have been raised about whether fracking is properly regulated.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) have introduced bills that would end the exemption fracking now has from the Safe Drinking Water Act and require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the process.
ExxonMobil included a clause in its bid to buy XTO that it could back out of the deal if Congress moves to regulate hydraulic fracturing. Industry contends federal regulation is unnecessary, given state regulations. Energy companies also say more regulation will slow production of an important “bridge fuel,” so labeled because natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than do other fossil fuels, allowing time for renewable energy resources to develop.