* For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us on facebook;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarcellusWestmorelandCountyPA/
* To view past updates, reports, general
information, permanent documents, and meeting
information http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
* Email address: janjackmil@gmail.com
* To contact your state
legislator:
For the email address, click on the envelope
under the photo
* For information on PA state gas legislation
and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
.
WMCG Thank You
Contributors To Our Updates
Thank you to contributors to our Updates:
Debbie Borowiec, Lou Pochet, Ron Gulla, the Pollocks, Marian Szmyd, Bob Donnan,
April Jackman, Kacey Comini, Elizabeth Donahue, and Bob Schmetzer.
Tenaska Air
Petitions—Please sign if you have not done so:
Please
share the attached petition with residents of Westmoreland and all bordering
counties. We ask each of you to help us
by sharing the petition with your email lists and any group with which you are
affiliated. As stated in the petition, Westmoreland County cannot meet air
standards for several criteria. Many areas of Westmoreland County are already
listed as EPA non-attainment areas for ozone and particulate matter 2.5, so the
county does not have the capacity to handle additional emissions that will
contribute to the burden of ozone in the area as well as health impacts. According to the American Lung Association,
every county in the Pittsburgh region except for Westmoreland County had fewer
bad air days for ozone and daily particle pollution compared with the previous
report. Westmoreland County was the only
county to score a failing grade for particulate matter.
The Tenaska gas plant will add tons of pollution to
already deteriorated air and dispose of wastewater into the Youghiogheny
River. Westmoreland County already has a
higher incidence of disease than other counties in United States. Pollution won’t stop at the South Huntingdon
Township border; it will travel to the surrounding townships and counties.
The action to Tenaska and State Reps: http://tinyurl.com/stoptenaska
The hearing request to DEP: http://tinyurl.com/tenaskahearing
If you know of church groups or other organizations that will help with
the petition please forward it and ask for their help.
*********************************************************************************
Calendar
*** WMCG Group
Meeting We now meet the second Wednesday of every month at 7:30 PM in Greensburg. Email Jan for directions. All are very welcome to attend.
***Penn Trafford
Commissioners Meeting
Monday, December 15th at
7:00 pm
2001
Municipal Court, Harrison City
***Ligonier
Township Planning Commission Meeting
Tues. Dec 16, 7:30, Municipal Building, Oak
Grove, 711 North
***County
Commissioners’ meeting January 8, 2015 at 10:00 am, Westmoreland County
Court House to express your concerns about the Tenaska Gas Plant,
***Boston Art Show
Uses Local Voices-- July 11, 2014 through January 5, 2015
Open to the public, Boston Museum
of Science
Several of us spoke to artist Anne Neeley about water
contamination from fracking. Excerpts of what we said about our concerns
regarding fracking will play in a loop along with music in the background as
people view Anne’s murals of water. The show is not exclusively about the
effect of fracking on water and includes other sources of pollution. (see sites
below).
Some of us were fortunate to see photos of Anne’s
murals. They are beautiful and very thought provoking. Jan
ANNE NEELY WATER STORIES
PROJECT: A CONVERSATION IN PAINT AND SOUND
July
2014 – January 2015, Museum of Science, Boston
David G. Rabkin, PhD,
Director for Current Science and Technology, Museum of Science, Boston, MA
Visit
these sites for images and more information:
http://www.anneneely.com/pages/mos.html
TAKE ACTION !!
***Letters to the editor are important and one of the best ways to share
information with the public. ***
***Tenaska---LIKE This
Page On Facebook-- Stop Tenaska Westmoreland Project
***TRI (Toxic Release Inventory)
Action Alert-Close the Loophole:
“We need your help!! Please send
an email to the US EPA urging them to "Close the TRI Loophole that the oil
and gas industry currently enjoys".
We all deserve to know exactly what these operations
are releasing into our air, water and onto our land. Our goal is to guarantee the public’s right
to know.
Please let the US EPA know
how important TRI reporting will be to you and your community:
Mr.
Gilbert Mears
Docket #:
EPA-HQ-TRI-2013-0281 (must be included on all correspondence)
Mears.gilbert@epa.gov
Some facts on Toxics Release
Inventory (TRI) – what it is and why it’s important:
What
is the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)?
Industrial
facilities report annually the amount and method (land, air, water, landfills)
of each toxic
chemical
they release or dispose of to the national Toxics Release Inventory.
Where
can I find the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)?
Once
the industrial facilities submit their annual release data, the Environmental
Protection Agency
makes
it available to the public through the TRI’s free, searchable online database.
Why
is this important?
The
TRI provides communities and the public information needed to challenge permits
or siting
decisions,
provides regulators with necessary data to set proper controls, and encourages
industrial
facilities
to reduce their toxic releases.
Why
does it matter for oil and natural gas?
The
oil and gas extraction industry is one of the largest sources of toxic releases
in the United
States.
Yet, because of loopholes created by historical regulation and successful
lobbying efforts,
this
industry remains exempt from reporting to the TRI—even though they are second
in toxic air
emissions
behind power plants.
What
is being done?
In
2012, the Environmental Integrity Project filed a petition on behalf of sixteen
local, regional, and
national
environmental groups, asking EPA to close this loophole and require the oil and
gas
industries
to report to the TRI. Although EPA has been carefully considering whether to
act on the
petition,
significant political and industrial pressure opposing such action exists.
What
is the end goal?
Our
goal is to guarantee the public’s right to know. TRI data will arm citizens
with powerful data,
provide
incentives for oil and gas operators to reduce toxic releases, and will provide
a data-driven
foundation
for responsible regulation.
What
can you do?
You
can help by immediately letting EPA know how important TRI reporting will be to
you and your
community.
Send
written or email comments to:
Gilbert Mears
Toxics
Release Inventory Program Division, Environmental Protection Agency
1200
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460
mears.gilbert@epa.gov
Docket #:
EPA-HQ-TRI-2013-0281 (please be sure to include in all your correspondence)
From: Lisa
Graves Marcucci
Environmental
Integrity Project
PA
Coordinator, Community Outreach
lgmarcucci@environmentalintegrity.org
412-653-4328
(Direct)
412-897-0569
(Cell)
Frack Links
***Stupidity of Pink Fracking Fully Exposed on The Daily Show
Even Susan G.
Komen’s own website shares the chemicals from fracking that are linked to
breast cancer,
but it didn’t stop them from partnering with oil and gas giant Baker Hughes,
which donated $100,000 to Komen in October for the “Doing Our Bit for the Cure”
campaign where 1,000 fracking drill bits were painted pink.
The viral post on EcoWatch,
written by breast cancer survivor and fracking activist Sandra Steingraber,
exposed the hypocrisy of this campaign. Now, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
takes this outrageous partnership to new heights.
Watch this hilarious segment
where The Daily Show‘s Samantha Bee
meets Karuna Jaggar, executive director of Breast Cancer Action, to fully
uncover the stupidity of pink fracking.
***Dangers of Willful Blindness
***Fracking's Wide Health Impact: From the
Ozone to Ground Water and All Those Living in Between, a Science Update
•
CHE Blog
Speaker presentation slides:
***Video: Middlesex Zoning Case-Geyer Well Near Schools
“The
video is about 3 minutes long. Parents in Butler approach supervisors when
fracking threatens the health and safety of their rural community. The proposed Geyer Well Pad is 1/2 mile from the Mars
District schools and even closer to homes in a nearby sub-division.
Any
community in PA on the radar of the oil and gas industry will need this kind of
resolve and organization to protect their land base: "The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the Clean Air
Council and a local parents group Protect Our Children, are challenging the
ordinance that will allow six gas wells to be developed on a site close to a
school campus.”
A few excerpts:
Jordan Yeager for Delaware Riverkeepers-
“townships cannot put the interest of one set of property owners above the
community as a whole”
Tom
Daniels-U of Penn Land Use Expert – the ordinance
allows heavy industrial use in agricultural areas permits haphazard oil and gas
development which is contrary to protection of public health safety welfare
Acoustic
Expert Kayna Bowen states Rex acoustic assessment is
incorrect
***Gas Density -Google Earth
Dr. Ingraffea of Cornell has
pointed out that the industry can only be profitable if they achieve density.
That’s why leased regions are honeycombed with hundreds or thousands of wells.
This video is of photo shots of
Texas, Arkansas- You only need to watch the first few minutes then jump to
other areas to get the gist. But everyone should watch at least part of this.
***Cool Video--Colbert and Neil Young Sing About Fracking
***Link to
Shalefield Stories-Personal stories of those affected by
fracking http://www.friendsoftheharmed.com/
***To sign up for Skytruth notifications of activity and violations
for your area:
*** List of the Harmed--There are now
over 1400 residents of Pennsylvania who have placed their names on the list of
the harmed when they became sick after fracking began in their area. http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/
Zoning Corner
Comment by Area Councilman
“These folks are still treating
the decision as to if and where to allow drilling as a purely policy
decision. It is not. Allowing an industrial operation in a zoning
district in which it is a use incompatible with existing and permitted uses is
a constitutional violation. It is not a
decision in which the Supervisors have any discretion. There’s no “balancing” to be done. The zoning either does or does not permit drilling. Conditional use does not change or modify the
underlying zoning.”
Frack News
***Tenaska Power
Plant Issue Heating Up
“The gas fired 900-megawatt Tenaska
power plant would be a permanent source of air pollution in Westmoreland County
and of discharge into the Yough River. For example, 600,000 pounds of carbon monoxide,
800,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and 660,000 pounds of small particles will
be released into our already polluted air each year. These pollutants are
strongly linked to health problems.
Residents from the Smithton area,
the Mt. Watershed Assoc., and WMCG are working to protect air and water and
property values.
What you can do:
*LIKE the Facebook Page set
up by Bill Catalina. -- Stop Tenaska Westmoreland Project
*Sign the Tenaska Petitions-See links at the top of
Updates
* Attend the
County Commissioners’ meeting January 8, 2015 at 10:00 am to express your
concerns. Westmoreland County Court House, Greensburg.
***PA Gas Drilling
Permit Issued in Penn Twp Township
Gas
permit issued on 2014-11-18 00:00:00 to APEX ENERGY (PA) LLC for site DRAKULIC PAD 1H in Penn Twp township,
Westmoreland county
Tags:
PADEP, frack, permit, drilling, Gas
PA
Gas Drilling Permit Issued in Penn Twp Township
Gas
permit issued on 2014-11-18 00:00:00 to APEX ENERGY (PA) LLC for site DEUTSCH PAD 1H in Penn Twp
township, Westmoreland county
Tags:
PADEP, frack, permit, drilling, Gas
***Update From
Jan-- Ligonier Township
Meeting Dec 16, 7:30 at Ligonier
Township Municipal Building
“The Ligonier Township ad hoc
zoning committee charged with working on the gas ordinance has been working for
months to keep the frack zone in Ligonier Township limited to a small area.
According to zoning law, you must have an industrial area set aside in every
township. Our industrial zone is very small so Mr. Carcella, township manager, believes
that in order to avoid being sued, it should be larger.
He introduced a concept of
allowing parcels of frack zones in various areas of the township. He is
referring to these parcels of frack zones as an overlay. We do not have the
details. This process would chop up the
zones and result in endless debate about whose property should be a frack zone
and whose should not. It would also result in more toxic chemical exposure in
what are now residential or RA areas because the fracking would be more spread
out.
The planning commission meets December 16. The draft
will be presented that night-both the new zoning code and the map of the frack
zones. We need to be there. (There will then
be a hearing a few weeks after the presentation, probably in January.) I do not know if we have any opportunity to
speak after the presentation on the 16th but we need to have people present to
show that there is concern about this issue. People wanting to frack their
property will let their voices be heard and already are heavily lobbying the
supervisors.
This is a political issue-pro
fracking vs. property protection rights. Those who have the most people present
and speaking out will have a clear advantage when it comes to the vote.
Supervisors need to hear from us. This is the most important issue to confront
Ligonier residents in many decades. If water wells are contaminated, our
property is not worth much, if anything. Air contaminants have been linked to
cancerous and non- cancerous diseases and birth defects. And fracking brings
with it pipelines, compressor stations, frack pits, and other gas operations.
For those who are property owners but do not live
nearby, the January hearing and supervisors meeting are probably the more
important meetings to attend if you can’t make them all this busy season.
Our ad hoc zoning committee has
worked very hard on this issue. We need
your support. Please help us spread the word by asking friends, neighbors, and
family to these meetings. We will need to be at the January meetings as well.
***Penn Trafford
Update
Background: The DEP has approved
permits for wells at two sites (Drakulic & Deutsch) in Penn Township. Apex,
the operator, will soon be requesting Penn Twp. zoning approval. The Twp. is currently in the
process of making dramatic changes to its zoning regarding how and where
fracking will be allowed. These changes will mean significant health,
financial, environmental, and safety impacts on residents of the Township and
neighboring communities. On November 17, 2014, concerned residents presented a
list of questions to the Penn Twp. Board of Commissioners to gain a better
understanding of the Township’s decision-making process. The answers to these
questions are vitally important and have yet to be received.
Please attend the next
Commissioners' meeting to speak about your personal concerns and to connect
with other concerned local residents
Monday, December 15th at
7:00 pm
2001
Municipal Court, Harrison City
***Residents Challenge
Legality Of Drilling-Allegheny Township
By
Liz Hayes
“Allegheny Township's Zoning
Hearing Board on Dec. 3 will be asked to consider whether permitting Marcellus
shale gas wells in residential zones is legal.
Three Willowbrook Road residents challenged the “substantive validity”
of township zoning that permits oil and gas wells in all districts, including
residential neighborhoods.
Their challenge was triggered by
horizontal drilling permits issued by township Zoning Officer Susan Teagarden
and the state DEP. The permits were issued Oct. 6 to CNX Gas Co., a subsidiary
of Consol Energy Inc., for the “Porter 1K” well site. The site is on farmland
owned by John and Ann Slike.
The neighbors — Dee Frederick,
Beverly Taylor and Patricia Hagaman — said they didn't know about plans for a
natural gas well next door until July when a CNX representative gave them
paperwork indicating their water wells would be tested in case problems occur
later.
“We bought this house 22 years
ago figuring we'd retire there and we'd have peace and quiet,” said Taylor,
noting a nearby horse farm, the Willowbrook Country Club and Northmoreland
Park.
The women estimate in excess of 20 acres have been
cleared of trees as CNX performs grading and site preparation work less than
2,000 feet from their properties.
“Who's going to want to buy the
house now and move in next to that?” Taylor said. “Nobody.”
Christopher Papa, the attorney representing the women,
argues the industrial processes that accompany unconventional gas well sites —
namely hydraulic fracturing (fracking), heavy truck traffic, noise, odor,
potential pollution and long work hours — are not compatible with the intended
character of a residential-agricultural zone as described in township
ordinances.
The written challenge notes the
zone permits farms, single-family homes and church-related facilities, and
“jarringly, oil and gas drilling, a heavy industrial use permitted to the
exclusion of all other commercial and industrial uses, and not compatible or
safe in that zone.”
“If my clients wanted to set up a fruit stand in the front yard or open
a basement beauty shop, they'd have to go before the board,” Papa said. But
drilling “is just permitted as a right. It's permitted as maybe a shed in your
backyard.”
Since the state Supreme Court
overturned significant portions of Act 13, the state law that limited
municipalities' ability to set local restrictions on drilling, Papa said
several lawsuits have sprung up relating to where gas wells can go.
“We think it's logically incoherent to permit this stuff in residential
zones,” Papa said.
However, Township Manager Greg
Primm said officials felt farmland, with its large tracts of open space, was
appropriate for drilling sites since they would be farther from houses.
The majority of the township is zoned
residential-agricultural.
The
only industrial zones are limited largely to property along the Allegheny and
Kiski rivers, plus a section along Route 356.
As Marcellus wells began to proliferate in
2010, supervisors amended their ordinance to regulate some aspects of drilling,
such as noise, lights, fencing, road maintenance and some safety issues.
Although the board considered
limiting where wells could be located — and the township's environmental
advisory committee later recommended wells be prohibited from residential zones
— supervisors ultimately maintained the status quo and continued to allow
drilling in all zones.
Willowbrook resident Penny Rode
said her biggest complaint is where on the Slikes' property the well is being drilled.
Westmoreland County deeds records indicate gas leases were signed in July 2013
for Slike property totaling about 300 acres. Rode said she'd prefer the well to
be more centrally located on Slike land, rather than so close to neighbors.
“It's as far off his property as it could possibly
be,” she said.
John Slike said his attorney had
advised him not to comment until the hearing: “We'll have plenty to say there.”
Rode believes the location
violates a section of the township's ordinance that indicates wells should be
located to minimize disruption on others.
She said CNX officials previously
told neighbors the well location was chosen by the Slikes, a contention the
company's attorney denies.
“CNX evaluated a number of
factors in determining where to place the Slike (Porter) well pad. Mr. Slike
did not dictate the location,” attorney Blaine Lucas said. “The objectors'
homes range anywhere from 1,000 to almost 2,000 feet from the nearest well bore
at the Porter pad, which is two to four times the state requirement of 500
feet.”
The neighbors also are upset the township did not
force CNX to stop working while their challenge is under way. Several vehicles,
construction equipment and a large trailer loaded with felled trees were
visible at the site Monday.
Primm said the township's
attorney advised him that since the well activity is a permitted use, there was
no justification to force CNX to stop.
“CNX has complied with all
township ordinances, and the filing of the appeal does not require it to cease
work,” Lucas said. “Halting site work on the property would leave it in a
disturbed state and prevent completion of the pad before adverse winter weather
sets in.”
John Poister, a spokesman for the state DEP, said the department is not
involved in local zoning issues and does not have authority to stop work.
He said CNX met all state requirements when the permit was issued.
Papa said he believes he has
grounds to seek a court injunction forcing work to stop but has held off since
his clients may have more expensive legal battles ahead.
Taylor said she expects an unfavorable outcome from the zoning hearing
board: “I'm sure we're going to lose. We're going to have to go to court. We're
prepared for that.”
` Rode isn't hopeful, especially
since she noted Slike is an alternate member of the three-person zoning board.
Primm said Slike acts as an
alternate only if another member is absent, which Primm doesn't believe has
ever happened.
He said Slike would not be
involved in making a decision on the drilling issue.
Hagaman
said she wishes the issue of where drilling can occur could go before Allegheny
Township voters in a ballot referendum. Noting the prolonged cleanup from past
nuclear operations along the Kiski River, she fears the long-term environmental
impact of drilling.
“Our township could become all industrial,” she said.
“It can never go back.”
Frederick also fears what will
happen in her neighborhood.
“I
remember the first time I drove down Willowbrook Road and saw the property I
was destined to live in. It was beautiful,” she said. “There's a place for
this. It's not in a residential area.”
***Range Resources Sued-Water
Contamination
Mc Donald PA- Christopher and Janet Lauff of McDonald in
southwest PA allege water contamination
from gas drilling and leaks from a drilling wastewater pond near their property.
The
Lauffs have sued Range Resources, contending they had to forgo well water and
connect to a public water line, for which they’ve not been compensated by Range
Resources Corp. which was still evaluating the lawsuit but had “not seen any
evidence of health or environmental impacts,” its spokesman Matt Pitzarella
said.
The Lauffs contend they lost use of their well water
in 2010 after Range began fracking, at several wells within 1,000 feet of
their property. The Lauffs said a wastewater pond next to their property
amounted to “a regional toxic waste dump site for over 190 wells.”
The Lauffs said there were collateral problems from
the nearby drilling operations ranging from excessive truck traffic and noise
to flooding and erosion they blame on stormwater runoff from the drilling
complex.
The wastewater pond, also known as a drilling
impoundment, is one of several that prompted a consent decree with the DEP
under which Range agreed to pay $4.15 million in fines. The Lauffs contend the
impoundment that affected their property was built incorrectly and too close to
a creek.
The lawsuit also targets some property owners who
leased their land to Range and several other companies connected to the
drilling or a pipeline that carries gas from the Range drilling site.
Read more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/28/couple-sues-range-resources-over-drilling-water/#ixzz3LSoydmnr
***Fracking on Trax Farm At Christmas –Neighbors
Will
Deal With Noise, Odors, Bad Air Quality
“Gary
Baumgardner, who lives next to a well pad operated by EQT on Cardox Road in
Union Township, wants the company to cease operations for a day so he can host
a family dinner.
Baumgardner and other residents have
complained about noise and odors emanating from EQT’s well site, located on
property owned by Trax Farm. During a Union Township Board of Supervisors
meeting Monday, Solicitor Dennis Makel asked EQT to give the township their
test results on noise and air quality at the site.
Baumgardner said it’s a tradition
to host a Christmas dinner at his home, but his 9-month-old granddaughter is not permitted to come near active drilling
sites, per doctor’s orders.
Stephanie
Paluda, an EQT spokeswoman who attended the meeting, said the company will most
likely continue fracking operations on Christmas. She said the site is an
around-the-clock operation.
Baumgardner complained of plumes of white
smoke, a sulfuric odor and booming noises. He questioned why those
activities were louder at night, which kept him and his wife up past 2 a.m.
during the weekend.
“In
the day, everything’s quiet. There’s a drumming going on, but at night, all
hell breaks loose,” he said. “What are we trying to cover up?”
EQT
spokeswoman Linda Robertson said Tuesday afternoon they received no formal
complaints, and the company “cannot confirm any difference between what is
heard during the day or the night.”
“Throughout
the various development and production stages at Trax, we’ve hired independent
consultants to cover as much of a broad spectrum as possible – air, land and
sound concerns. “To date, those studies found EQT’s operations to be in
compliance with the noise requirements set forth in the township’s ordinance.”
Baumgardner
said there is a constant “rotten egg” smell on Cardox Road and questioned if
hydrogen sulfide is being released into the air.
Paluda
said the company has monitors to test for H2S, or hydrogen sulfide, and “if
there was actually H2S, all the alarms would have gone off.”
Makel
asked Baumgardner if any of his neighbors complained. He said they haven’t, but argued some accepted a $50,000 offer from EQT
to resolve claims involving the gas company’s operations, including damages,
annoyance, inconvenience, nuisance and pain and suffering. Baumgardner said he
had attorneys review the offer and decided not to sign for fear of having his
freedom of speech suppressed.
“Unfortunately,
EQT, with throwing the $50,000 out and everybody signing away their right to
complain, they can’t complain about their health, they can’t complain about the
noise, so what are they doing? They’re not complaining,” he said. “And they
know I didn’t sign.”
Mickey Gniadek, who also lives on Cardox
Road, attested to Baumgardner’s account and said his house was vibrating since
EQT started fracking the wells again.
“He’s
not giving you baloney here,” he said of Baumgardner.
Board
Chairman Larry Spahr said the township
is in the process of revisiting its noise ordinance, a step he said is “a
result of the activity at the well sites.”
He
said, for the most part, the township has a good working relationship with EQT.
The board in September approved EQT’s application for a freshwater impoundment,
despite some pushback from residents.”
http://washingtonobserverreporter.pa.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=3e7b5fb0e
***Cabot Fined for Tank Explosion and Waste
Spill
2800 Gallons Spilled
DEP
is fining Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas $120, 000 for a storage tank
explosion and wastewater spill. The incident had occurred in January at its
Reynolds well pad in Susquehanna County.
Officials say vapors in the headspace of the
wastewater tank ignited and caused the explosion, rupturing the tank. Inspectors found that a worker checking the
level of fluid in the 21,000-gallon wastewater tank ignited the vapors while
using his cell phone as a flashlight.
The department says an employee was injured and more
than 2,800 gallons of wastewater spilled, contaminating the soil beyond the
well pad.
It says Cabot cleaned up the spill.”
http://hosted2.ap.org/PAWIC/6ca8b7429ece49aaba52a5a7162b777a/Article_2014-12-02-PA--Gas%20Drilling-Fine/id-066cc6e6bf93416b9dcdfa4c064f7b70
***Study Links Fracking to Infertility,
Miscarriages, Birth Defects
Researchers: Webb, Bushkin
Fracking may pose
potent risks to children and pregnant women.
A new study links shale oil/ gas development to a
host of developmental and reproductive health risks, and says fracking poses a
particularly potent threat to what researchers called "our most vulnerable
population."
“Children, developing fetuses, they’re especially
vulnerable to environmental factors,” says Ellen
Webb, the study's lead author and an energy program associate at the Center for
Environmental Health. “We really need to be concerned about the impacts for
these future generations.”
The
risks from exposure to toxic chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive materials
include a parent's worst nightmares: “infertility, miscarriage or spontaneous
abortion, impaired fetal growth, and LBW,” the study found, referring to low
birth weight. The report also sounded an alarm about possible birth defects and
long-term chronic conditions the, symptoms for which may not emerge for years.
“Our
heartfelt concern is that if the oil and gas industry continues to develop more
wells, then the problem is going to be exacerbated greatly before we finally
have answers,” says Dr. Sheila
Bushkin-Bedient, one of the study’s co-authors and a member of the Institute
for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany-State University of
New York. “In terms of chronic
diseases and in terms of finding out the developmental problems of babies, we
might not know that for a decade or two. We might not know about cancers for a
couple of decades, and by that time, it would be too late.”
Thousands of trucks a day drive the country roads of
Northeast Pennsylvania, serving the hundreds of oil and gas sites that dot the
area, but also spewing noise and air pollution.
And yet, studies also have found that shale oil and
gas development can prove poisonous, releasing potent toxins into the air and
water around fracking, drilling, well, flaring and compression sites.
The
toxins include volatile organic compounds like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene,
xylene and formaldehyde, as well as heavy metals like cadmium and lead and
certain naturally occurring radioactive materials.
Webb, Bushkin-Bedient and four co-authors studied more than 150 papers
from 1970 to 2014 that analyzed those compounds and metals, looking at how they
affect humans as well as animals. Some of the studies were done in labs, others
in nature, and a few by local residents who collected the data themselves.
The results,
Bushkin-Bedient says, provoked serious “worry.”
One
study published in April, for example, found a higher rate of birth defects
within 10 miles of natural gas wells in rural Colorado, most notably congenital
heart and neural tube defects – both of which can occur from maternal exposure
to benzene.
Another 2002 paper found that women who were
exposed to toluene had unusual menstrual cycles and were unable to conceive.
And still other studies discovered some of the chemicals were apparent endocrine
disrupters that can dismantle hormone functions.
The studies corroborate other efforts, including one
study published in September by researchers from Yale University and the
University of Washington that found residents within a kilometer of a well had
up to twice the number of health problems as those living at least 2 kilometers
away.
Industry groups have vigorously fought against many of
the health studies. For example, after an October study showed that oil and gas
wells were spewing carcinogens into the air, posing “a significant public
health risk” that made an “elevation in cancer … almost certain to happen,”
according to lead researcher David Carpenter, the industry trade group Energy
in Depth dismissed it as “scientifically dubious.”…..
Part of the challenge lies in federal loopholes: A law
passed in 2005 that includes what's commonly known as the “Halliburton
loophole” exempts shale oil and gas companies from federal regulations
involving the monitoring and disclosure of fracking chemicals.
“Given the lack of study and understanding of all
the chemicals that are being used, we can’t know the extent of the risks,” Webb
says.
Yet, she adds, the research is mounting. And residents
who live near shale oil and gas operations, she adds, aren’t exposed to just
one or two substances – they absorb many at once, through the air or water or
both.
“These
materials work together additively or synergistically,” Webb says. “They
potentiate the effect of each other.”
Moreover, many of those who still live near shale oil
and gas sites lack the money to move away, leaving them few options for
reducing their exposure to toxins. Webb and Bushkin-Bedient avoided making any
specific policy prescriptions, but they did emphasize two points.
"People really near unconventional oil and gas
and fracking sites and those who work in the fracking industry have the right
to know the chemicals that are being used that may pose health threats,
especially to vulnerable populations like women and children," Webb says.
"More studies need to be done, and biomonitoring needs to be done,
assessing the body burden of chemicals."
***Gas Pipeline Developer Threatens to Seize
Land
Cabot
and Williams Corps
“The developer of a $750 million natural gas
pipeline from Pennsylvania into New York has threatened to seize land from
reluctant landowners through eminent domain.
A letter sent from the law firm Saul Ewing and obtained
by the Albany Times Union tells landowners who have refused to sell rights- of -way
for the Constitution Pipeline that they have until Wednesday to accept offered
prices. After that, developers will take them to court to force such sales for
possibly less money.
Project opponents filed a complaint against the
letters with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. His office
declined comment
Lawyer Daniel Estrin of Pace Environmental Litigation
Clinic said the letter is meant to "bully landowners ... into waiving
their property rights."
Asked about the legality of invoking eminent domain
prior to meeting conditions outlined in the FERC approval, Constitution
Pipeline Company spokesman Tom Droege told the Times Union, "We continue
to communicate with landowners along the route to seek easement agreements ...
We continue to work closely with other state and federal permitting agencies
and remain optimistic that we will receive necessary clearances."
U.S.
energy regulators approved the pipeline project last week. It's designed to bring
cheap shale natural gas from Pennsylvania into high-priced markets in New
England and New York.
The 124-mile pipeline could be operational by next
winter if it gets the remaining regulatory approvals from various state and
federal agencies in a timely fashion. It would run from Pennsylvania's
Susquehanna County through New York's Broome, Chenango and Delaware counties to
connect with the existing Tennessee and Iroquois pipelines in Schoharie County.
The lead partners are Williams Partners LP and
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. Williams will operate the pipeline, while Cabot and
Southwestern Energy have long-term agreements to supply the gas.
***Studies: Hazardous Compounds in Frack
Fluid
Researchers:
Stringfellow, Shaeffer
“Perhaps the most comprehensive look to date at
fracking chemicals was presented at the National Meeting & Exposition of
the American Chemical Society (ACS).
William Stringfellow, a professor in
environmental engineering at the University of the Pacific, lead author of the
report, The team of
scientists presenting this work said that out of nearly 200 commonly used
compounds, there's very little known about the potential health risks of about
one-third. However, they concluded eight of the known compounds are
toxic to mammals. Chemicals such as corrosion inhibitors and biocides are being
used in "reasonably high concentrations that potentially could have
adverse effects," said Stringfellow.
"Biocides
are inherently toxic by design," he told Truthout. "They need to be
evaluated even if used in small amounts because of their toxicity."
"Produced water can have benzene, which can get
into groundwater or volatilize into air.
. . . It's not good to either drink or inhale it."
A study released by the Environmental Integrity Project
(EIP) found that despite a federal ban on the use of diesel fuel in fracking without
a permit, several oil/ gas companies are exploiting a Safe Drinking Water Act
loophole pushed through by Halliburton to frack with petroleum-based
products containing even more dangerous toxic chemicals than diesel. For
example, a drilling company in West Texas injected up to 48,000 gallons of
benzene into the ground in September.
Over about two months, Eric Schaeffer, Executive
Director of the EIP and former Director of Civil Enforcement at the EPA, studied
more than 150 records in the industry-sponsored database of chemicals used in
hydraulic fracturing, called FracFocus.
Fracking with fluids containing benzene (a
carcinogen), ethylbenzene (a probable carcinogen) and other highly toxic
chemicals is a potential threat to drinking-water supplies and public health,
but, it appears to be common practice, according to the EIP's review of product descriptions available online
and company disclosures in FracFocus, an online chemical disclosure registry.
"Produced water can have benzene, which
can get into groundwater or volatilize into air," Schaeffer told Truthout. "It's not good to
either drink or inhale it."
From the FracFocus database-- In one of the first
disclosure reports, a well operated by Citation Oil and Gas Corp. in Carter
County, Oklahoma, had more than 90 gallons of ethylbenzene present in
"hydraulic fracturing fluid product."
"That's a
lot," Schaeffer said. "Five gallons of ethylbenzene can pollute a billion
gallons of water."
According to EPI, even the limited data available on
FracFocus shows at least 153 wells in 11 states were fracked with fluids
containing ethylbenzene between January 2011 and September 2014.
Between May 2013 and February 2014, another firm,
Discovery Operating Services, reported injecting solvents containing nearly
1,000 gallons of benzene into 11 wells in Midland and Upland counties in Texas.
Sharon Wilson, Texas organizer for Earthworks' Oil
& Gas Accountability Project, said: "Texas is in a record-breaking
drought where private water wells and even wells for entire towns are going
dry. Every drop is precious so we cannot risk polluting any water with toxic
fracking chemicals."
A gap in the Safe Drinking Water Act - often called
the "Halliburton Loophole" - requires permits for fracking with
diesel fuel, but allows companies to inject other petroleum products even more
toxic than diesel without any
permitting requirements or safeguards for underground water supplies.
This is exactly what happened shortly after the
Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) released its findings in October. A month
earlier, a Texas-based oil and gas company called BlackBrush O&G, LLC,
reported injecting a mix of crude oil, butane and other fluids containing up
to 48,000 gallons of benzene into a well in Dimmit County, Texas. After
BlackBrush was listed in a press release summarizing EIP's finding, information
in the FracFocus database disappeared. The information showing that up to
48,000 gallons of benzene had been used was deleted.
"They removed the line that showed that they
used up to 9 percent benzene" in the fracking fluid," Schaeffer told
Truthout.
As of press time, the revised entry in the database
lists how much "crude oil" was used, and there is no mention of
benzene. Schaeffer used the analogy of a syrup company deleting carbohydrates
and sugar from the label after some customers said the syrup had too many
calories. So instead, the company just says the product contains "up to
this much syrup."
"To protect public health, Congress should repeal
the Halliburton Loophole and the EPA should broaden the categories of fracking
fluids that require Safe Drinking Water Act permits."
In addition to legally required disclosure, operators
of wells that show a high level of hazardous compounds, such as compounds
belonging to the group called BTEX - an acronym that stands for benzene,
toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes - should have to get a permit under the Safe
Drinking Water Act, Schaeffer proposes. Precautions, including groundwater
monitoring, should also be required for those wells, Schaeffer said.
"To protect
public health, Congress should repeal the Halliburton Loophole and EPA should
broaden the categories of fracking fluids that require Safe Drinking Water Act
permits," said Schaeffer. "Without these reforms, we are perpetuating
a loophole that allows the unregulated injection of unlimited quantities of
highly toxic pollutants into the ground."
Stringfellow's team
found that most fracking compounds will require treatment before being
released.
They're
also looking at the environmental impact of the fracking fluids, and they are
finding that some have toxic effects on aquatic life.
"Preliminary results show that there is a
significant use of surfactants, which can be harmful to aquatic life and therefore may present a risk if there is an
exposure pathway such as a spill," Stringfellow told Truthout.
Some scientists have been calling for use of some
type of tracer device, such as a color or a chemical, to follow fracking fluids
through the environment.
In light of recent research that reveals details about
hazardous compounds in fracking fluid, such a tracer would be a useful way to help
companies, communities, overseers and policy makers understand how chemicals
flow deep underground, especially when multiple companies are drilling in one
area. This solution, however, wouldn't track the leaching of natural gas
through old mines or fissures. Such tracers would hold companies accountable to
the environment, to landowners and to stakeholders.
In an interview with Truthout, environmental scientist
Vanessa Lamers, pointed to another option for trying to track fracking fluids
that enter the environment. Recent research has shown how guar gum, a
gelling agent frequently used in fracking fluid, could be used as an
"indicator compound."
If the presence of guar gum is found in a creek, for
instance, scientists could conclude the water was exposed to fracking fluid at
some point, said Lamers, who, during her graduate studies at Yale, spent about
a year in Washington County studying the impacts of fracking on water.
"Unless someone has a guar gum Factory near their house," the gelling
agent is not something found commonly in ground or drinking water, Lamers
explained.
One drawback to this
method of detection, however, is that even if guar gum is detected, it would be
hard to pinpoint which company's well led to the contamination.”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27734-studies-raise-red-flags-about-hazardous-compounds-in-fracking-fluid-questions-loom-about-unknown-chemicals
***Ohio Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against State and Fracking Corporations
Tish O’Dell, Ohio Community
Rights Organizer
tish@celdf.org
www.celdf.org
“Residents
of Broadview Heights, Ohio, filed a first-in-the-state class action lawsuit
against the State of Ohio, Governor John R. Kasich, and Bass Energy, Inc. and
Ohio Valley Energy Systems Corp. The
lawsuit was filed to protect the rights
of the people of Broadview Heights to self-governance, including their right to
ban fracking.
In November 2012, residents of Broadview Heights
overwhelmingly adopted a Home Rule Charter Amendment – proposed by residents –
banning all new commercial extraction of gas and oil within the City
limits. The Amendment establishes a
Community Bill of Rights – which secures the rights of human and natural
communities to water and a healthy environment.
The Bill of Rights bans fracking and frack waste disposal as a violation
of those rights.
In June 2014, Bass Energy and
Ohio Valley Energy filed a lawsuit against the City of Broadview Heights to
overturn the Community Bill of Rights.
The corporations are contending that the community does not have the
legal authority to protect itself from fracking, and that corporations have the
constitutional “right” to frack.
Residents
involved in drafting and proposing the Community Bill of Rights attempted to
intervene in the lawsuit, to defend the community’s right to self-governance,
including the right to say “no” to fracking and other threats. However, in September, the Court of Common
Pleas of Cuyahoga County denied the motion to intervene, ruling that the
residents did not have a direct “interest” in this case.
With
the court’s denial of intervention, residents decided to move forward with the
class action lawsuit. In filing the
lawsuit, Broadview Heights residents
argue that the Ohio Oil and Gas Act, known as HB 278, and the industry’s
enforcement of the Act, violate the constitutional right of residents to local
self-government.
The Community Environmental Legal
Defense Fund (CELDF) assisted residents of Broadview Heights to draft the
Community Bill of Rights. CELDF is
providing its support and expertise to the residents of Broadview Heights with
the filing of the class action lawsuit.
CELDF
Executive Director, Thomas Linzey, Esq., stated, “This class action lawsuit is
merely the first in Ohio, and expected to be one of many filed by people across
the United States whose constitutional rights to govern their own communities are routinely violated by state
governments working in concert with the corporations that they ostensibly
regulate. The people of Broadview
Heights will not stand idly by as their rights are negotiated away by oil and
gas corporations, their state government, and their own municipal
government.” The residents of Lafayette,
Colorado, filed a similar lawsuit in August of this year.
Through grassroots organizing and
public interest law, CELDF works with communities across the country to
establish Community Rights to democratic, local self-governance and
sustainability. CELDF has assisted nearly 200 communities to ban shale gas
drilling and fracking, factory farming, water privatization, and other threats,
and eliminate corporate “rights” when they violate community and nature’s
rights. This includes assisting the
first communities in the U.S. to establish Rights of Nature in law, as well as
the first communities to elevate the rights of communities above the “rights”
of corporations. “
***On Water Testing:
Public Herald
(I am re-printing this information
-- the issue did not receive a lot of media publicity but was presented in the
film Triple
Divide. A pre -test was deemed insufficient by Chesapeake due to the
fact that the homeowner had mentioned an occasional salty taste to their water.
Thus, Chesapeake claimed a series of pre-
tests should have been conducted. Jan)
Joshua
B. Pribanic-Public Herald- provided this information:
EPA can require 4 tests in a determination: one for each season. Triple
Divide has the RW04 case from the ATGAS Blowout in Leroy Twp. which dismissed
the one pre drill test saying it was inaccurate due to the homeowner’s opinion.
The full file set for ATGAS is on #fileroom http://publicfiles.org/gmi/atgas-2h/ — you can keyword search
all the docs.
ATGAS
2H
A
‘Gas Migration Investigation’ (GMI) is conducted by the Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental...
***Dr Ingraffea on
Spatial Intensity
“The single most significant
element of shale gas development that seems to just not be understood by many
is its spatial intensity. It is an extreme form of fossil fuel development
because of the very large number of very big wells, total vertical and lateral
length and volume of the frack fluid, that have to be drilled throughout a
shale play [“play” is the engineering and industry term for “formation.”]
So what do I think is the largest
threat to humans posed by the unconventional development of natural gas from
shale formations around the world? And if I wanted to be more specific as an
engineer, strictly speaking, what is the greatest threat from clustered
multi-well pads, using high-volume hydraulic fracturing from long laterals?
That’s the problem.
Because it’s a spatially intense, heavy industrial activity which
involves far more than
drill-the-well-frack-the-well-connect-the-pipeline-and-go-away, it results in
much more land clearing, much more devastation of forests and fields. There’s
the necessity of building thousands of miles of pipelines which again results
in destruction of forests and fields. There’s the construction of many
compressor stations, industrial facilities that compress the gas for transport
through pipelines and burn enormous quantities of diesel. [They make] very loud
noise and emit hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. Then, there’s the necessary
construction of waste pits, and fresh-water ponds which again require heavy
earth movement, heavy construction equipment, the off-gassing of waste products
from the waste pits, and tremendous amount of heavy truck traffic which again
results in burning of large quantities of diesel, increased damage to roads,
bridges and increased risk to civilian transportation in the midst of the
traffic.”
.Interview
with Dr. Ingraffea of Cornell U. by Ellen Canterow
Dr.
Anthony Ingraffea—Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering, Weiss Presidential
Teaching Fellow at Cornell University and president of Physicians, Scientists
and Engineers for Healthy Energy, Inc. Among
his teaching awards are the Society of Women Engineers’ Professor of the Year
Award in 1997 and the 2001 Daniel Luzar ’29 Excellence in Teaching Award from
the College of Engineering. He organized and directed the Synthesis National
Engineering Education Coalition
Eagle Ford , Texas Gas Pads—This is Spatial Intensity
***Beaver Run Reclamation
a Failure
Letter to Editor
“Consol Energy has
established an extensive network of Marcellus gas wells in the Beaver Run watershed on
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County property. MAWC has made public
reports regarding the continued high water quality of Beaver Run Reservoir
despite the drilling — and that's great.
What Consol does not make public
is the very poor land reclamation at the aforementioned Marcellus sites.
In April 2013, Consol distributed
a press release praising its work done on the 60-acre Aikens Pad adjacent to
Beaver Run Reservoir. Craig Neal, a Consol employee, boasted, “Consol Energy
aims to reclaim land post-energy development back to its original or better
condition ... we have already planted 2,300 trees on two different sites.”
I challenge anyone with the most
basic understanding of the environment to inspect the “reclaimed” sites. They
will find tree mortality on about 90 percent of both unprotected young spruce
trees and hardwoods planted in tubes.
Of those tubed hardwoods (oaks),
many of the few survivors have limbs twisted into a non-viable limb-ball
because the netting on the tubes was never removed. Since the day of planting,
which was a big media event, these trees have not been tended — a guarantee for
failure.
Millions of dollars in profit
from gas exploration has come out of Beaver Run. Why can't Consol put money,
time and effort into a viable and sound reclamation?
If what Consol says differs so
greatly from what it does regarding reclamation, why should we trust anything
the company says about gas exploration?
Jeffrey
R. Pope
Washington
Township”
Read
more:
http://triblive.com/opinion/letters/7200018-74/consol-beaver-run#ixzz3KtLvZ7bJ
***Sen. Scarnati Turnaround: No
drilling In His Watershed
….Remember when Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon, the
largest fracked gas producer in the U.S., decided to sue the frackers because he didn’t like
their activities in his Texas backyard?
Now in a similarly contradictory move, PA State Senator Joe
Scarnati, Republican from Jefferson County, has announced — proudly — on
his own website, on August 11th, 2014, that the
watershed in his own backyard will
be protected from water contamination from fracking:
Flatirons
Development, LLC, has agreed to discontinue Marcellus drilling operations of
the Brandon-Day well which is located upstream of the Brockway Borough
Municipal Authority Rattlesnake Reservoir. The existing bore hole will be
abandoned, sealed and reclaimed to eliminate the possibility of watershed
contamination.
This is a
huge turnaround for a Pennsylvania state senator who has denied the possibility
of water pollution from drilling and fracking for the past five years,
frustrating the bejesus out of his constituents. Scarnati, the PA Senate’s President Pro Tempore, is a
powerful and controversial figure.
Sen. Joe Scarnati actually authored the
highly anti-democratic Act
13 — the law that imposed a gag order
on physicians and which, if not overturned, would have stripped municipal
rights from towns all across Pennsylvania, preventing them from protectively
zoning or regulating any aspect of shale gas operations. That includes well pad
construction, drilling, and fracking right through compressor stations, waste
impoundments, and pipelines.
It’s
not as if Sen. Scarnati’s turnaround means he will become an approachable,
community-oriented advocate for clean air and clean water. He shows no particular sign of caring about fracking-impacted
communities beyond his back yard. In fact, he was furious when Act 13’s
municipal rights-stripping clause was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court. Jenny Lisak of Pennsylvanians for Clean Water and Air (PACWA) reports:
“Several
of us in his district happened to have a meeting with him right after the
Supreme Court announced their decision, and he was angry.”
Nonetheless,
Senator Scarnati’s public statement expresses only pride and self-satisfaction
at his contribution to convincing a fracking company, Flatirons, not to drill the Marcellus Shale well that
impacts the watershed Scarnati draws from at his home and at his office:
…He seemed like Teflon. A wall. A fortress of denial. A loyal
servant to the fracking industry. So, how did this turnaround come about?
Clearly
the work of Toby Creek Watershed Association President Bill
Sabatose, whom Scarnati himself credits for sounding the
alarm about Marcellus Shale fracking in the Brockway watershed, is critical.
But a victory on this scale is never the work of
just one person or organization. We notice three elements contributing to the
turnaround.
First of all, turnout. Repeatedly, no
matter the weather, no matter the frustration level, no matter the perceived
hopelessness or powerlessness, people — ordinary people, smart people,
dedicated and informed people — turned out to public hearings about Flatiron
and the Brockway Watershed. Turnout continued to build. Residents in
at least four counties within Scarnati’s district protested at two of his
offices in July 2013, as part of a statewide call for a fracking moratorium:
Second of all, education:
hard-hitting, specific, science-based, repetitive. Here, Jenny Lisak is
among several voices commenting on the long-term process:
There may be good reason to keep
sharing information and educating, even though most times we feel quite
inefficient and unsuccessful in this fight.
I
often send Scarnati the same information I am compulsive about sharing on our
local listserve, prefacing with ‘I’m not sure you are seeing the same
information as I am but as a constituent I am seriously concerned about …’
I
have also sent him the “List of the Harmed.” I think we should all share the
news we are so appalled by with our legislators. I suspect they don’t see the
news we see.”
BACWA
(Brockway Area Clean Water Alliance), whose members belong to Brockway’s
municipal water authority (as well as others), have been very active in
educating Brockway citizens about the risk and impacts to their water supply.
Some of them are on our local listserve. Our group (PACWA) helped BACWA
have a showing of Gasland 1 at the firehouse in Brockway a few years ago and a
few months ago we showed Gasland 2 in Brockway with the help of
Doug and Briget Shields and Elk County CARES (Scarnati did not attend
either event).
Scarnati
is also hearing from others in his district who are coming to him with their
issues about traffic, fumes, noise, property rights, seismic testing, water
contamination, injection wells, etc. Two injection wells (one in Elk, one in
Clearfield County) in his district are being fought by his constituents….”
Third, attitude. If the folks in Scarnati’s district had given up or given in, history might be different and that well bore might not be being abandoned and sealed as you read this. But folks didn’t give up and didn’t give in. Folks kept their assertive attitude, individually and collectively. “
***Radioactive Waste-Dilution is Not The Solution
“A Marcellus Shale operator had a
problem when trying to dispose of oil and gas waste at local landfills- the
truck kept tripping radiation alarms.
The rejected trucks had to be
sent back to the well pads or taken out of sate, both costly options. Leong Ying, at Thermo Fisher Scientific is
marketing a new radiation detector that can instantly categorize the different
types of radioactive materials present in waste.
Today the waste is most often
diluted with non-radioactive materials such as soil then sent to a landfill.
“Its likely that many if not most
trucks bearing loads with high radioactive readings never show up at local
landfill. Alot of companies are
surveying before they leave a drilling site,” said Carl Spadaro, of Max Environmental.
Landfill alarms sound when a
truck carrying waste registers at or above a dose rate of 10 microrems per hour
above what is naturally in the air. DEP gives landfills annual limits on how
much they can accept.
Each load that
sets off an alarm but comes in below 140 microrems per hour can probably still
be disposed of in a landfill. It is subtracted from a landfill’s annual limit based
on a formula that takes into account the amount of the waste and exact dose rate.
For anything above 140 the
landfill operator has to contact the DEP and the waste will have to find a
different home. Likely out of state. Anything
below 10 microrem per hour is counted as if it were zero, raising some concerns
about accumulation of this material over time.
There is no reliable mechanism for the DEP to keep track of how much
oil and gas waste is going into state landfills. A Post Gazette analysis showed
there is widespread underreporting and inaccuracy in waste data.
It is also impossible to know how
much waste goes straight to out- of- state landfills because of these
discrepancies.
Drilling and fracking waste are
far and away the biggest TENOR triggers for radiation alarms at PA landfills.
Drilling and fracking waste comprised more than 85% of radiation alarms tripped
over the past years and a half.
Drilling and fracking dredge up
uranium, radium, thorium, strontium, and barium buried deep underground and
bring them to the surface along with drill cuttings, drilling muds, and
flowback fluid, and brine.
The majority of loads tripping
alarms are actually liquids that have been solidified into a sludge. They
comprised more than ¾ of radioactive loads last year
A study
of radioactive waste by DEP is to be released before the end of the years.”
***PA Rep. Cartwright Launches Frack Waste Investigation
“In a
reflection of growing national concern about the disposal of oil and gas waste,
a PA Rep. Matthew Cartwright-D launched
an investigation into how PA regulates
the discarding of the unwanted, often toxic material.
Cartwright
said "preliminary reports indicate there are big gaps in protections and
oversight that the federal government might have to fill."
Cartwright also has introduced
legislation to repeal the exemption that allows oil and gas waste to escape
regulation as hazardous material.
Cartwright sent a letter to Dana
Aunkst, the acting secretary of PA (DEP).
"The Subcommittee
minority is conducting this oversight to determine if state regulations and
monitoring of fracking waste are sufficient to ensure accuracy, completeness
and compliance with applicable environmental laws," Cartwright said in the
letter.
Cartwright said this is a "significant
first step in a comprehensive nationwide investigation." Cartwright called
oil and gas waste disposal a national priority because of the huge amounts of
waste being generated.
"We
don't know very much about what happens to these wastes and what impacts they
may have, and it's important for Congress to take a look at this issue that
does not get the attention it deserves,"
The agency had also came under fire after
revelations that it had improperly carried out fracking-related air studies in
2010 and 2011.
Among other concerns, Cartwright
wants to determine whether Pennsylvania is adhering to the federal Clean Air
Act, which mandates protection from airborne contaminants.
Cartwright
cites a 2011 minority staff report of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
It identified 29 chemicals found in fracking waste that are possible human
carcinogens, and are regulated under both the Clean Air Act and the Safe
Drinking Water Act for their risks to human health.
An
investigation published earlier this month by the Center found that in most
states where fracking is taking place, air
emissions from oil and gas waste are among the least regulated, least monitored
and least understood components in the extraction-and-production cycle.
This
lack of understanding can be traced to decisions Congress and the U.S. EPA made
decades ago, when oil and gas producers successfully lobbied to get most of
their waste exempted from federal hazardous waste regulations.
The exemption was granted in 1988 even
though an EPA study from a year earlier concluded that 23 percent of the waste
samples the agency had collected contained one or more toxic compounds – at
levels 100 times higher than those considered safe for humans.
But
that same EPA study also recommended granting the exemption because the authors
determined that the expense of disposing of so much hazardous waste would
likely slow domestic energy production and there weren't enough hazardous waste
sites to handle the waste.
Cartwright
cites a report by the Pennsylvania auditor general that concludes the state's
system for oversight of fracking waste "is not an effective monitoring
tool" and "is not proactive in discouraging improper, even illegal,
disposal of waste."
The
DEP has taken strong action against two waste handlers in the state in the last
two months. In September, the agency issued a $4.15 million fine to operator
Range Resources for four leaky impoundments. Earlier this month, the DEP
announced it was pursuing an even larger fine of $4.5 million to EQT Production
Co. for a major 2012 impoundment leak.
Cartwright's
committee is seeking answers by Nov. 12 to more than a dozen questions about
Pennsylvania's process for monitoring the handling and disposal of fracking
waste.
Among the answers Cartwright
wants from Pennsylvania's environmental regulators are:
*A
description of the state's inspection procedures of oil and gas waste disposal
facilities with respect to protecting human health and the environment from
contamination.
*An
explanation of the reporting requirements for producers, transporters and disposal
site operators that handle fracking waste.
*An
explanation of the process for receiving and investigating complaints regarding
fracking waste handling or disposal.
*Details
on how state regulators monitor the accuracy of reporting and compliance with
reporting and certification requirements for the handling and disposal of
fracking waste
The
number of inspections or investigations of disposal facilities receiving
fracking waste.
Cartwright, who campaigned on a
promise to make sure that fracking doesn't pollute air and water, also has
proposed legislation that has nationwide implications for the way oil and gas
waste is handled.
His
bill, introduced in 2013, would repeal the industry's hazardous waste exemption
that allows the following materials to escape federal hazardous waste
regulations: drilling fluids and cuttings; produced water; used hydraulic
fracturing fluids; tank bottom sludge; and hydrocarbon-bearing soil
So
far, Cartwright's bill — the Closing Loopholes and Ending Arbitrary and Needless
Evasion of Regulations Act, or CLEANER — has gone nowhere. But in August, he
scored a small victory when Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson became CLEANER's
70th cosponsor.
Cartwright said he hopes the
investigation will help establish the importance of closing federal loopholes.
"If
the investigation demonstrates a serious lack of accountability and regulations
at the State level, it will only reinforce the necessity of passing the CLEANER
Act," he said.”
(This article was updated in
October)
***Gas Flare To Light Up Part of Washington County
“A massive, noisy gas flare will be in western
Washington County, illuminating the first well that Range Resources Inc.
drilled into the Utica Shale formation in five years. The flaring, an
increasingly rare event in the Marcellus Shale gas play, is scheduled to begin
Dec. 7 and will burn brightly for as long as a week at Range Resources’ well
pad on property that the Claysville Sportsmen’s Club owns in Donegal Township,
just east of Dutch Fork Lake.
The 60- to 80-foot-tall ridge top flare will shoot
toward the heavens atop a 100-foot-tall stack pipe, lighting up the night sky.
It likely will be visible in Washington, Pa., more than 10 miles to the east,
and certainly to travelers on Interstate 70, a mile to the south.
Range representatives announced the flaring to Donegal
Township supervisors Nov. 12, telling them it is considered a “big burn” and
will produce a continuous noise of as much as 95 decibels at the well pad.
Sustained decibel levels between 90 and 95 can result in permanent hearing
loss, but workers will be equipped with ear protection.
“They told us the flare would be double the size of
other well flares, and the noise will be like a siren on a firetruck,” said
Doug Teagarden, a township supervisor. “There are houses within a couple of
hundred yards of the well pad, and those folks are going to hear it.”
Decibel levels at the nearest homes, about a quarter
mile from the well, will be lower, less than 65 decibels, according to Range
spokesman Matt Pitzarella. Typical conversation in a restaurant measures about
60 decibels, and busy street traffic registers 70 decibels. Mr. Pitzarella said
the flare noise would be inaudible on I-70.”
Bob Donnan on flaring
“Flaring
is a bad practice all the way around; wasting energy resources, reducing
royalty recipients income, and polluting everyone's air in the process. Our
region still has serious air quality challenges. Range should have put the
pipeline in first, but this is probably a cost-saving move as Range Resources
continues to brag to investors about being a very 'low cost' producer.
Flaring unleashes airborne pollutants including the
secret chemicals used to frac the wells, acetalhyde, acrolein, benzene, ethyl
benzene, formaldehyde, hexane, naphthalene, propylene, toluene, and xylenes
(BTEXs). Improperly operated flares put off black smoke, something we have seen
from far too many Range flares in Washington County over the years.
Weekends and
holidays don't limit this activity either, almost the contrary, they had flares
going at 3 different Avella sites one recent 4th of July during 'ozone action
days' and probably most memorable was their Labor Day 2009 flaring in Buffalo,
Pa, when they caught their own impoundment liner on fire and the fire
department had to be called in. A neighbor lady tells me she still has tinnitus
from their 'jet engine' noise level flaring 800 feet from her house, where they
initially used two flares.”
“The
closest frac site to our house is now about 3-miles east as the crow flies,
while most oil and gas patch activities are further to our west. When I brought
the newspaper in this morning I commented to my wife, “Boy the air stinks
outside!”
We live in a valley and it’s that
“perfect” kind of day for holding down air pollution; overcast with no air
movement. I would describe it as an ‘industrial odor.’ Another friend one mile
away described it as “a very bad burning smell.”
This
frac site is on a large multi-family-owned farm, farm market and nursery called
Trax Farms. They have various events throughout the year like pick-ur-own
strawberries, a pumpkin patch, hayrides and other similar events….”
+++++++++++++
Red squares represent compressor
stations. A MarkWest representative told Bob that 3 high producing wells can
require one compressor.
Donations
We are very appreciative of donations, both
large and small, to our group.
With
your help, we have handed out thousands of flyers on the health and
environmental effects of fracking, sponsored numerous public meetings, and
provided information to citizens and officials countywide. If you would like to
support our efforts:
Checks to our group should be
made out to the Thomas Merton
Center/Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group. And in the Reminder line please
write- Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group. The reason for this is that
we are one project of 12 at Thomas Merton. You can send your check to:
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group, PO Box 1040, Latrobe, PA, 15650.
Or
you can give the check or cash to Lou Pochet or Jan Milburn.
To make a contribution to our group using a credit card, go to www.thomasmertoncenter.org. Look for the contribute button, then scroll
down the list of organizations to direct money to. We are listed as the
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group.
Please be sure to write Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
on the bottom of your check so that WMCG receives the funding, since we are
just one project of many of the Thomas Merton Center. You can also give your
donation to Lou Pochet or Jan Milburn.
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizen’s Group—Mission Statement
WMCG is a project
of the Thomas Merton Society
• To
raise the public’s general awareness and understanding of the impacts of
Marcellus drilling on the natural environment, health, and long-term economies
of local communities.
Officers: President-Jan Milburn
Treasurer and Thomas Merton Liason-Lou Pochet
Secretary-Ron Nordstrom
Facebook Coordinator-Elizabeth Nordstrom
Science Advisor-Dr. Cynthia Walter
To receive our
news updates, please email jan at westmcg@gmail.com
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name from our list please put “remove name from list’ in the subject line
