Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates July 24,
2012
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articles and updates or to just vent, visit us at face book.
To view permanent
documents, past updates, reports, general information and meeting information
http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
To email
your state legislator: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/
For information on the state gas
legislation and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
Please Cut and Paste All Links-(they work erratically)
Calendar of Events
*** Westmoreland
County Commissioners will
conduct public meetings to solicit comments on how to spend Marcellus shale
impact fees.
The meetings will begin
at 6 p.m. on:
• July 26 at Rostraver Township
Municipal Building, 201 Municipal Drive
• Aug. 13 at Derry Township
Municipal Building, 5321 Route 982
SEE our Blogspot--To
facilitate us in providing input, Cynthia Walter has written an overview of
points to consider when making comments to the commissioners. Included is Mike Atherton’s statement.
SURVEY ON LINE If you cannot attend, you can fill out a
survey at this link.
*** DC Rally July 28!!!!
photo by Bob Donnan
People from around the country will rally in Washington on
July 28 for the first national protest against the use of hydraulic fracturing.
Marcellus Protest has done a fine job in reserving a bus that will leave
Lawrenceville PROMPTLY at 8:00 am and return at 10:30 pm. SPACE IS LIMITED, so
buy your ticket NOW. Discount price $25 till July 15. After July 16 price is
$35. Some scholarships may be available. See Rally schedule below. Good news: the Sierra Club and
an individual have pledged funds to help pay for the bus from Pittsburgh to the
Stop the Frack Attack in Washington DC on July 28. These funds will be used to pay for
'scholarships' for those who cannot afford the $25 bus fee.
If you would go on the bus to the protest (or if you know of
people who would go) but are short on funds, you may get a seat on the
Marcellus Protest bus paid for by the pledged funds.
There
are about 13 seats left on the Marcellus Protest bus. Email mpro113@gmail.com
now, as these seats may go fast.
This is the big day; we are
organizing to get as many people as possible! We have people coming from
Texas, West Virginia, New York, Vermont, and even Australia. There will be at
least three busloads from Pennsylvania.
2:00pm Rally
Location:
The West Lawn of the Capitol
3:30 pm March
Location:
The Streets of DC
After
getting pumped up by our awesome speakers, it’s time to hit the streets. We
will make a special delivery to the American Petroleum Institute and American
Natural Gas Association. They say fracking is good for our water, we say nay
and have the water to prove it!
Among
the sponsors of this, the largest anti-fracking event ever, are Delaware
Riverkeeper Network, Earthworks, NRDC, and the national Sierra Club. Activists
from Western Pennsylvania will be interested to know that the rally in DC will
be the concluding event for the ‘Tour de Frack’ cyclists who will have ridden
from Butler, PA.
TAKE ACTION
All Township Residents—Call to Action !!
**Lawsuit Filed --Resolutions of Township Support
Urged
Please contact Jan for
a copy of a resolution supporting the lawsuit against Act 13. Act 13 precludes the use of local zoning to
restrict gas operations in residential areas, restricts doctors in sharing
important health data, and limits counties in the use of the impact tax (a
partial list).
HOW WE CAN
HELP: Please print the resolution
and take it to your next township supervisors’ meeting to request their support
for this lawsuit. Supervisors should return the signed resolution to Brian
Coppola and also to your state representatives.
Sample Statement: See our Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group blogspot, for a sample statement to supervisors.
(Address is listed above)
Good references on
Act 13:
Top Ten Myths about Act 13 by Sierra Club- http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/FrackingMythbustersFactSheet.pdf
Handout
on Act 13 by Penn Future (short version)-
http://www.pennfuture.org/UserFiles/File/MineDrill/Marcellus/CitizenGuide_Act13_20120410_summary.pdf
Delaware
Riverkeepers Basics About Act 13
Penn
Future on act 13 (detailed version)
*** Billboard Help needed to find a good location for a
billboard with a message about the Act 13 vote- we did the work to create the
message, we know the colors we want, now
we need to find an advertising company that has a billboard available
and within our budget . This should not
require a lot of volunteer time but many in our group are already overloaded.
Can you help?? Email jan
***Letters to Editor Needed
Response to Chamber of Commerce
Chamber officials from Washington and Harrisburg say they will spend
millions of dollars on the new "advocacy and education" campaign, as
they called it.
It's aimed at persuading
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and other states with underground shale gas
deposits not to hurt the fast-growing natural gas industry by enacting costly
new taxes or environmental regulations.
Fracking News
1. Dave Letterman on Fracking-We’re
screwed:
3. Reporters
Confused on Duke Study of Brine Migration
“Duke University released a study on
water quality in the Marcellus Shale region. Here's a sampling of the
conflicting headlines from the media coverage:
*Marcellus Shale study claims gas drilling did not contaminate
drinking-water wells;
*New research shows no Marcellus Shale pollution;
*Pennsylvania fracking can put water at risk, Duke study finds;
*Yet another study confirms fracking can pollute groundwater;
*New study: Fluids from Marcellus Shale likely seeping into Pa. drinking
water;
*Findings are mixed in fracking-water study.
The sources of these headlines include the Wall Street Journal, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, BusinessWeek, ProPublica and others.
Here's the actual headline from
the Duke University site: Natural
underground pathways may be conduits for Marcellus brines.
Researchers took hundreds of samples from groundwater aquifers in six
counties overlying the shale formation in northeastern Pennsylvania and found
elevated brine. The study says it is
unlikely that the elevated salinity is connected to hydraulic fracturing, or
"fracking". But they are concerned that the presence of the brine
suggests "natural pathways" leading up to aquifers from far below
the surface, and that these pathways
might allow gases from shale-gas wells to put drinking-water supplies at risk.
We're concerned, too — not just about the findings, but about the
difficulty in finding our way through conflicting, often-politicized accounts
of matters of scientific interest.”
July 17, 2012|Daily News Editorial
(Unfortunately
many local papers only carried the AP press article which wrote the “no risk to
water” story. AP has incorrectly interpreted the information on gas drilling in
several recent stories.jan)
In a recent study done by Penn State, researchers discovered that the
majority of residents in rural PA will not benefit from gas exploration –
because they do not own enough land to lease – and they not likely to find jobs
working as transient laborers on rigs.
Some of the study’s conclusions:
·
40% of
mineral rights in the 11 gas counties in PA are not owned by residents of
those counties – i.e. the voters. So those who drill do not have to live
with the nuisances and more serious problems created by drilling, yet they profit from leases and
royalty income
·
Of the residents, 10% own half of the land therefore 10% of landowners have a large
potential for economic gain from gas development due to the amount of land they
own.”
90% of the residents, (“voters”), do not own enough land to drill and
play shale game roulette with their land or water supply. Therefore, their opinions
about drilling in the community have relatively little impact on gas
development in their area.”
“Residents
who rent and own no land have no formal voice in whether and how gas
development occurs within their community.
In all other states, the voters have the ability to opt out of having
their town fracked senseless – by protecting their roads with local ordinances
and protecting their homes, businesses and water supply with land use
protections.
To read the
study:
5.
Upper Milford Supervisors say ‘Fracking’
law Must Go
“In a 3-0 vote, the Upper Milford
(Lehigh County) Supervisors approved a resolution supporting the repeal of Act
13, putting on the record its displeasure with the controversial state
“fracking” law.
The Upper Milford Supervisors began talking about Act 13 in June when
resident Barnaby Ruhe came before the board to discuss the environmental and political
dangers of the Act. He asked the board to join the more than 100 townships
across the state that are opposing the law.
In an effort to learn more about Act 13 before taking any sort of a
formal stand against it, the Supervisors invited a representative from state
representative Simmons' office to attend the board’s July 5 meeting. At that
meeting, Eric Davis, a Simmons’ staffer, told the board that Simmons did vote
in favor of Act 13, adding that if the Supervisors have a problem with the
measure, they could ask Simmons to vote to repeal the law.
Township resident Barry Williams brought the discussion on Act 13 to a
rapid close, “Fracking is the law,” Williams said. “The voters need to tell
Simmons to vote for the repeal. We need more voices to say ‘we don’t want
this.’
“We can talk until we are blue in the face. I am tired of coming here
week after week and hearing you talk about this. I would like you to make a
resolution supporting the repeal of Act 13. That’s all you can do.”
(By Jennifer Marangos http://emmaus.patch.com/articles/upper-milford-supervisors-say-fracking-law-must-go)
6. 12 year old girl talks about
fracking-Audio
7. WMCG (us) Signs on to Letter
About Deceptive Leasing Practices
An organizational sign-on letter drafted
by the Environmental Working Group to the Director of the newly created
U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, urges him to address the impact of deceptive oil and gas leasing practices on
U.S. property values and mortgages.
Greater consumer protection is needed now more than ever as the number of
oil and gas leases on mortgaged property rises while companies continue to
misrepresent or conceal the risks of fracking from landowners.
Excerpt from Letter:
Re: Addressing the impact of oil and gas leases on U.S.
property values and mortgages
Dear Director
Cordray:
On behalf of the
undersigned, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) would like to congratulate
you on becoming director of the newly created U.S. Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (“Bureau”). As you develop the Bureau’s priorities, we ask you to give attention to the impact
of deceptive oil and gas leasing practices on U.S. property values and
mortgages, particularly as companies increasingly rely on the technology
known as hydraulic fracturing.
Specifically, we
ask the Bureau to:
• Investigate
the extent to which oil and gas companies misrepresent or fail to disclose the
risks of drilling and hydraulic fracturing when they approach landowners to
lease their land for drilling operations;
• Develop robust
disclosure standards and other regulations that would prevent oil and gas
companies from engaging in deceptive leasing practices and hold them
accountable for representations made by their leasing agents; and
• Work with
state regulators, the lending community, insurance companies and public
interest groups to develop a campaign to educate the public about
the ways that oil and gas leases may affect property values and mortgages.
8. University of Texas Fracking
Study Spun the Facts and Misled the Public On Water Contamination
“Public Accountability Initiative, a non- profit, public- interest,
research organization, continues to investigate the fracking industry’s
influence on academic research. This
report investigates a University of Texas study that claimed that fracking had
never been linked to groundwater contamination. Univ. of Texas promoted the study as an independent study, but PAI
found that the study was actually led by, Charles Groat, a gas industry insider
and UT faculty member, who sits on the board of fracking company Plains
Exploration & Production (PXP). Groat failed to disclose this position and
his $1.6 million stake in the company.
PAI’s report also dissects the Univ. of Texas report’s industry-friendly
message, showing that its central claim–
that fracking does not cause
groundwater contamination – relies on a highly-specific and misleading
definition of fracking; that the report was released as a rough draft and
not ready for public release; and that the university’s press push around the
report significantly mischaracterizes and oversimplifies its findings.” http://public-accountability.org/
Read the full report »
http://public-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/ContaminatedInquiry.pdf
9. Penn State Study Misled Public on Fracking
Pennsylvania remains the largest U.S. state without a tax on natural gas
production, thanks in part to a study released under the banner of the
Pennsylvania State University.
The 2009 report predicted drillers would shun
Pennsylvania if new taxes were imposed, and lawmakers cited it the following
year when they rejected a 5 percent tax proposed by then- Governor Ed Rendell.
“As an advocacy tool, it worked,” Michael Wood, research director with
the non-profit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, said in an interview. “If people wanted to find a reason to vote
against having the industry taxed in that way, that gave them reason to do it.”
What the study didn’t do was note
that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the
University of Wyoming, with a history of producing industry-friendly research
on economic and energy issues. The researcher, Tim Considine, said his
analysis was sound and not biased by industry funding.
As the U.S. enjoys a natural-gas boom from a process called hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, producers are taking
a page from the tobacco industry playbook: funding research at established
universities that arrives at conclusions that counter concerns raised by
critics.
(Bloomberg Business Week Jul 23, 2012 By Jim Efstathiou Andrew
Harrer/Bloomberg)
10. Well leaks Poisonous Hydrogen
Sulfide in Mississippi Causes Evacuation
“Emergency officials say a natural gas well is leaking hydrogen sulfide
in Wayne County and officials have evacuated everyone within a mile radius and
shut down the airspace in the area.
The
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency says
the evacuation effected seven
houses and 27 people.
MEMA says hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous, flammable gas which gives off
the smell of rotten eggs. It can deaden a person's sense of smell so a
potential victim may be unaware of its presence”.
(http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/781081f18a914e99bb46b1b630cac560/MS--Hydrogen-Sulfide-Leak AP 7-20-12)
11.
Beaver Run Reservoir Water Testing Questioned
Westmoreland Municipal Authority is confident the reservoir which serves
150,000 people in 31 municipalities is
not being contaminated. Students from IUP have been doing testing
But, even after a year, some of those results haven't been made public.
Visitors to the IUP website can find pH levels, temperature information and
other surface test results that are conducted quarterly in b groundwater near
the well pads and the reservoir itself. However, more in-depth chemical testing
on samples is ongoing, said John Benhart, chairman of the department of
geography and regional planning, which is handling the project.
Murrysville councilman Jeff Kepler
is concerned. After receiving a consumer
confidence report from the authority, Kepler
began questioning the frequency of water quality testing at the reservoir. The
report - which Ashton said the authority is federally required to send out
annually - includes a smattering of test results, some dating back to 2008.
That alarmed Kepler and other members of Murrysville Council who wanted
more up-to-date data."Our residents deserve to know (what testing is being
done)," said Council President Joan Kearns
"When
has doing the minimum required been acceptable?" Kepler said. "I
think if there's a specific activity that has increased the concern of the
public, yes, I'd like to see more, specifically about Marcellus shale, in these
reports."
12.
Study Shows 25%
Increase in Low Birth Weight Babies When Wells Nearby
New research suggests the health of newborn babies is adversely affected
in areas close to hydraulic fracturing sites.
“A mother’s exposure to fracking before birth increases the overall
prevalence of low birth weight by 25 percent,” said Elaine L. Hill, Cornell
University doctoral candidate and author of the working paper (not yet peer
reviewed, jan), “Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Infant Health:
Evidence from Pennsylvania.” Hill also found a 17 percent increase in “small for
gestational age” births, and reduced health scores.
She spoke at a fracking forum hosted by Sen. Tony Avella in New York City
Wednesday.
Hill’s paper looked at birth measures, including birth weight and
premature birth, for those born in Pennsylvania starting in 2003, before
fracking began. The study used data through 2010 and focused on those living up to 1.5 miles from gas development sites.
Pennsylvania increased its unconventional natural gas wells from 20 in 2007 to
4,272 by the end of 2010.
(http://current.com/http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/link-between-low-birth-weight-and-fracking-says-new-research-267746.html)
13. Trouble
in Truthland, the Video
“Shelly
Depue, star of the new movie TRUTHLAND, just made her rounds here and got
VERY quiet when an audience member in
Uniontown questioned her on what she knew about all the violations from the 10 Marcellus wells on her property. It
must be rough being a parrot for industry when you have a bubbling annulus!
One
of the Depue wells (8H) is severely flawed with a bubbling annulus. An annulus
is the cemented layer between layers of steel, you know, the one that 'never
leaks' and can survive cannon-type explosions as seen toward the end of the
"Truthland" movie. Two more of the Depue wells (2H and 6H) have
Pennsylvania DEP violations, which are shown below. Needless to say, it's not
going nearly as well as all the "experts" interviewed in the
Truthland movie led Shelly to believe it would!
At
one of the Pennsylvania movie screenings this past week, Ms. Depue stated she
had not seen the Pennsylvania DEP File Review documents for Depue 8H. At least
now she can find them here, since they are shown below, for everyone's
reference. Isn't it odd that Pennsylvania landowners can be 'kept in the dark'
when important things like this are happening on their property, that could
affect their health and well-being. Violations
like “Failure to properly control or dispose of industrial or residual waste to
prevent pollution of the waters of the Commonwealth” don’t sound good for
anyone living in Pennsylvania.”
14.
On Act 13 and Health Care Providers
“In April, Commonwealth Senior Judge Keith Quigley ordered a 120 day halt
in the implementation of parts of Act 13. If implemented, Act 13 will overrule
every local ban, moratorium, and zoning law already in place in PA municipalities
that were meant to protect residents from possible air and water pollution
affecting their quality of life and health as a result of fracking procedures.
However, the most mind-blowing section of Act 13 is the one related to
the industry’s protection of potentially harmful fracking fluids as a “trade
secret,” which the industry is not obligated to publicly disclose, or how much
of these fluids are pumped into the ground (Section 3222(b.2)).
A complementary provision allows healthcare providers access to these
“trade secrets” to treat suspected affected patients only if the healthcare provider signs a confidentiality agreement
preventing him or her from “ever
sharing knowledge” of the harmful fracking fluids with patients or other
healthcare providers (Section 3222.1(b)(11)).
Pennsylvania Southwestern towns of Cecil, Peters, South Fayette, Mt.
Pleasant and Robinson were joined in the suit by a Monroeville doctor, Dr.
Mehernosh Khan, MD.
Dr. Khan, a family practitioner,
said that “the concern is not only regarding the health effects we see in our
patients now, from skin rashes to serious neurological problems, but the
unknown long-term effects that drilling procedures will have on public health.
The natural gas drilling industry is the only industry that requires us, the
physicians, to sign a confidentiality agreement so they can release vital
information that could save our patients lives. However, we cannot share that
information; we cannot even consult with other colleagues or tell the patients
themselves what is affecting their health.”
Dr. Khan is concerned with the precedent the law could set up in other
areas of practice, impeding doctors to perform medicine properly. In addition,
he said, it makes it impossible to collect evidence and keep track of
information related to potential harmful effects on human health that could
derive in new legislation without taking the risk of being sued by the natural
gas drillers.
Moreover, the House version of Act 13 assigned up to $2 million annually
to the PA Health Department for new research, and for keeping a statewide
registry tracking potential health effects related to drilling. However, the
provision disappeared during later negotiations between Republican leaders in
the House and Senate and Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration officers.
“Why do this industry’s regulations have to be different from other
industries such as minerals extraction or coal?” Dr. Kahn asks.”
(http://www.voxxi.com/fracking-regulations-pennsylvania/)
15 . Nurses
Want the Right to Know About Frack Chemicals
“As nurses, we strongly support our right to know in order to protect the
health of our communities and the environment. That's why the American Nurses
Association House of Delegates last month passed a resolution highlighting the
important role nurses play in advocating for the health of their patients and
communities when faced with fracking. As
the number of gas fracking wells has increased exponentially over the past 20
years, the public's right to know
what chemicals are used in this process has become imperative to protect the
public health.
Fracking chemicals now being found in our
water supplies have been linked to cancer and kidney, liver and neurological
damage. Nurses working in rural areas are also describing how the quality of
life in rural communities is being destroyed by drilling, well operations and
truck traffic associated with fracking.
Because fracking is fairly new in many areas, statutory or regulatory
processes have not adequately ensured health and environmental safety. In areas
where fracking is taking place, the public is looking to nurses and other
health care providers for answers. However, health care workers do not have
access to vital chemical information.
A new report evaluating how states
are dealing with fracking concludes that "no state is requiring enough up
front collection of baseline data and ongoing monitoring of drilling operations
to ensure adequate protection of local water supplies and public health."
The report, "The Right to Know, the Responsibility to Protect"
from OMB Watch, a government accountability group, outlines what an effective
fracking disclosure policy would look like.”
16. Chamber of Commerce Promotes Gas
Industry
“Pennsylvania business and government leaders are teaming up to promote
the economic benefits of natural-gas drilling in the state. The U.S. Chamber of
Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy launched the campaign at the
Capitol on Thursday.
Karen Harbert, head of the institute, says Pennsylvania's program is part
of a national effort to build support for the economic and energy benefits of
natural gas that's being extracted from shale formations. Similar efforts are
under way in Ohio and West Virginia.
Gene Barr, president of the Pennsylvania chamber, says gas produced in
Pennsylvania from the Marcellus Shale formation is already benefiting residents
across the state. He says support for the industry's continued development is
critical because it provides good jobs, attracts manufacturing and provides tax
revenue to pay for public programs.”
(http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/07/us_chamber_touts_economic_bene.html)
17. David Ball Responds to Chamber
of Commerce Director
Letter to the Editor:
Jeff Kotula ( Executive Director of the Washington
County Chamber of Commerce, jan) makes several statements in his recent piece
in The Energy Report, “Impact fee can make substantial economic impact here,”
that entirely miss the reality of the situation.
First, he misses the
point of the lawsuit against Act 13. The suit does not contend that the state
does not have the power to preempt local ordinances. The suit contends that 12 provisions of the act are unconstitutional.
The state can preempt but it must do so in a constitutional manner. Local
officials wish to maintain control of local zoning and development because they
are constitutionally mandated to provide for the health, safety and welfare of
their citizens.
Secondly, Kotula states that statewide regulation
is a “more holistic approach” to resource development. It is anything but
that. A one-size-fits-all mandate that
allows drilling in all zoning districts is ultimately destructive to the
economies of municipalities and egregiously violates the rights of residents.
The few “improvements” that Kotula cites are of no value when entire
residential areas are destroyed by drilling, compressor stations and gas pipe
lines.
Thirdly, Kotula appears to be clueless about the
real impact of uncontrolled industrial activity in this state’s
municipalities. He does not mention the
implied right to unfettered surface access for drilling. This leads,
inevitably, to decreased property
values, reduced tax bases and suppression of development for fear of nearby
drilling that results in further reduction of tax revenue. He fails to note
the unreimbursed destruction of local roads and the safety hazard of
high-volume, heavy-truck traffic on rural roads. He fails to note that
insurance companies are increasingly hesitant to write property insurance
policies for property on which drilling is occurring, may occur or that is
close to drilling activity.
The point of view
expressed by Kotula is in concert with the industry talking points. Sure,
impact fees are nice but they will not come close to compensating communities
for the economic loss they will suffer. Act 13, specifically the sections that
refer to local zoning control, is bad legislation. It is unconstitutional, and
it richly deserves to be struck down by Commonwealth Court.
At the recent Pennsylvania Association of Township
Supervisors convention, 1,455 local municipalities unanimously passed two
resolutions opposing Act 13’s infringement on local zoning control. This should
be a very strong message to our legislators as well as chambers of commerce.
Mr. Kotula would be well advised to fully
understand the issues at hand and truly advocate for the businesses and
residents of Washington County and the Commonwealth by opposing these
regulations.
David M. Ball, Peters Township Councilman
++++
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizen’s Group—Mission Statement
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-Wanda Guthrie
Secretary-Ron
Nordstrom
Facebook
Coordinator-Elizabeth Nordstrom
Blogsite
–April Jackman
Science
Subcommittee-Dr. Cynthia Walter
To receive our news updates, please email jan at janjackmil@yahoo.com
