Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates
November
9, 2012
Although
there were many positive results at the state and national level for those
candidates who represented more progressive environmental positions, results
were dismal for western PA outside Allegheny County. In our part of the state, many people we
encountered at the polls, voted on one issue, primarily on the gun or
anti-choice issue. As Jack and I worked throughout the day, we became
increasingly dismayed by interest exclusively in the voting recommendations
dispersed by the gun lobby which were being eagerly accepted and scrutinized,
while there was little interest in education, women’s issues, labor, community
rights, or environment-issues that affect the health and welfare of our
society. (I should mention, guys in our family are hunters and we own guns, so
that is not the point.) I did receive five or six positive comments on the
education issue- probably because more people were aware of severe cuts to
education- as I tried various one-liners to garner some votes for my candidate.
We need more candidates who give us a clear choice. But more importantly, we need an educated
electorate and I don’t know how we get there when families no longer read
newspapers or articles of length or complexity, just maybe having time to catch
the evening news that presents less than half of the story regarding the above
issues. Most of us are doing our part---more than our part, but we need to
reach others who are not informed, and I think that is going to take a real
change in strategy here in the rural areas. Jan
* For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us on facebook;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarcellusWestmorelandCountyPA/
* 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/
Calendar
*** Westmoreland County Commissioners Meeting- 2nd and 4th Thursday of
the month at the county courthouse at 10:00 AM
(NOTE: The 11/8 meeting was
cancelled and re-scheduled for 11/15.)
***
Dr. Stephen
Cleghorn to Speak in Middlesex
Sponsored
by MOM Nov. 13, Valencia PA
As
owners of a certified organic farm and licensed goat dairy, Stephen and Lucinda
committed themselves to creating a farm that, as Stephen put it, “helps to heal
our environment – our atmospheric, aquatic and botanic commons by which all
human and animal life is sustained.”
In
2009, the couple learned that their land
had been leased for an $80,000 signing bonus by the owner of the gas rights.
When the couple bought the property in 2005 they knew the gas rights had been
severed (a practice known as a “split-estate”), but their understanding was
this meant they might have to put up with a relatively small “shallow” gas well
being put on their farm in a location over which they would have some control.
However, Stephen and Lucinda found themselves in a much different situation. A Marcellus Shale well – which consumes 5 to
10 acres of their land – is being permitted just 3,500 feet from their house,
upwind of the organic pastures on which their goats graze and their hay is made.
***Frack
Forum
Saturday,
November 17 12:00-3:00 PM Friends Meeting House, Shadyside
By Marcellus Protest
Everyone concerned about
fracking, new folks and old, will be welcome to the first Marcellus Protest
“Frack Forum”.
The group will be observing the
second anniversary of Pittsburgh’s trail- blazing ban of fracking, which grew
out of our city’s mass rally and demonstration, held in the face of a drilling
industry trade show on November 3, 2010.
There will be a potluck meal,
meeting and mingling, celebration and strategizing. Come bring your contribution to our table and
to our conversation.
***The Marcellus Shale Documentary
Project: A public exhibit at
Pittsburgh Filmmakers Galleries, until Jan. 6-- more than 50 images telling the
stories of Pennsylvanians affected by the Marcellus Shale gas industry (also
online at http://the-msdp.us).
(Full details, with latest updates, and a more extensive list of events,
are on-line at www.marcellusprotest.org/event_calendar.)
Frack Links
** New and Better Frac Mapper
http://maps.fractracker.org/?webmap=86932335aa684ec18a3362969f229c9c
A new mapping utility for website visitors who want an
easy-to-use point and click tool – what we are affectionately calling
FracMapper.
(Give
the maps a minute to fully present details. The legend (key) is on the right.
Yellow triangles represent violations. The nice thing about the map is that the
violations show background information
immediately and you don’t have to link to another site to see what the
violation was. For example: At Twin Lakes there is a failure to remove
all pit drilling supplies and restore a well site. In Donegal, a pit contained
fluids and cutting. A tear was noted and fluid appeared to be over cut (poorly
explained, so I’m not exactly sure what
that means.. but one would suppose conditions allow a leak to occur.) In Fairfield Township near
Ligonier the operator had a spill of about 5 barrels worth of frack fluids that
escaped from a frack tank because the valve was not shut properly. In Derry,
pit fluid level was above the top of the pit in a couple of instances. Fluid
had flowed onto the pads. Near Keystone Lake the violation read--There is a
potential for polluting substance(s) reaching Waters of the Commonwealth and
may require a permit. And on and on…..
Jan)
**Mike
Stout & Human Union Band Video/music Stop the Frack Attack
Briget and Doug Shields are there.
** Nurses Rise-Nurses for Safe Water: ( Facebook site) “Nurses, as the most trusted
of professionals, call on all health care professionals to join us in raising
awareness of the clear and present danger to our water, our source of life and
health, threatened by fracking.”
** Video--Maggie Henry Organic Farm in Lawrence County
“Laurie Barr of Potter County has
a new video about Maggie Henry’s farm in Bessemer, Lawrence County. Maggie has
an organic farm in the historic Bessemer oil fields, where there are hundreds
of unplugged abandoned wells which are conduits for methane migration, that has
caused houses to explode in other PA legacy fields after Marcellus drilling
started.
Shell Oil is now drilling about
4,000 ft. from Maggie’s farm with little regard for the abandoned wells in the
area. Here’s the video about the situation”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7EJs7bgmkE&feature=youtu.be
Laurie is the co-founder of Save Our Streams PA (http://www.saveourstreamspa.org/)
and has a video introduction to PA’s abandoned wells. She also operates an
orphaned and abandoned well Scavenger Hunt which anyone can join from wherever
they are.
**
Cancer
Rise in Barnett Shale- Residents Want
Answers
Cancer
clusters in Texas of leukemia in children and breast cancer in women-from a
television news clip
** Carnegie Mellon Puts Shale Data
Online
Faced with a
scattered body of research and background information about the booming
Marcellus and Utica shale industries, officials and students at Carnegie Mellon
University have compiled a searchable “bibliography” of more than 1,000 documents online.
While
the bibliography has more than 200 documents in the category of “economic
impacts,” for example, just two are in the “crime and drugs” category. Those
gaps in knowledge can point the association to areas where it can sponsor
further research, Knittel said. The database includes sources that have a
stated pro- or anti-drilling stance, Strauss said, but the team’s goal was
simply to compile as much information as possible, not to weigh the merits of
the reports or take sides.
Story:
http://triblive.com/state/marcellusshale/2631884-74/database-brashear-strauss-information-association-category-drilling-knittel-officials-carnegie
Database:
TAKE ACTION!!
"We
call on US Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection for misconduct and fraud related to
withholding information about drilling contaminants in our water."
Will you sign this petition?
(See article #1 below for details)
Fracking Quotes
*** But it’s supposed to be a
scientific decision based on water test results and the law. What science
expertise in that does Krancer have?” George Jugovic of Penn Future on the
change in DEP notification policy regarding contamination letters to the
public. (see article #2)
***“She (Taru Upadhyay, technical director of the department’s Bureau of
Laboratories), revealed what can only be characterized as a
deliberate procedure” by the oil and gas division and the Bureau of
Laboratories “to withhold critical water testing results.” Attorney Kendra Smith on the DEP
purposely withholding the complete results of water testing as defined by the
EPA. (see article #1)
Fracking News
1. New York
Times Picks Up Western PA Story
What
Some Are Calling “DEP Fraud”
“Pennsylvania
officials reported incomplete test results that omitted data on some toxic
metals that were found in drinking water taken from a private well near a gas
drilling site, according to legal documents released this week.
The
documents were part of a lawsuit claiming that fracking, and storage of the
resulting wastewater at a site in southwestern Pennsylvania has contaminated
drinking water and sickened seven plaintiffs who live nearby.
In a
deposition, a scientist for the PA DEP testified that her laboratory tested for
a range of metals but reported results for only some of them because the
department’s oil and gas division had not requested results from the full range
of tests.
The
scientist, Taru Upadhyay, technical director of the department’s Bureau of Laboratories,
said the metals found in the water
sample but not reported to either the oil and gas division or to the homeowner
who requested the tests, included copper, nickel, zinc and titanium, all of
which may damage the health of people exposed to them, according to the
Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Kendra Smith, a lawyer for Loren
Kiskadden, whose water was tested by the Environmental Protection Dept,
contended that the department purposely
avoided reporting the full results of its tests of Mr. Kiskadden’s water in
June 2011 and January 2012, after using a method established by the federal EPA
known as 200.7.
The method tests for 24 metals, only
eight of which were reported, Ms. Smith said.
“Testimony of Ms. Taru Upadhyay was quite
alarming,” Ms. Smith wrote Thursday in a letter to Michael Krancer, the state
environmental secretary. “She revealed what can only be characterized as a
deliberate procedure” by the oil and gas division and the Bureau of
Laboratories “to withhold critical water testing results.”
Ms. Smith noted that the metals not reported in Mr.
Kiskadden’s tests have been identified
by industry studies as being found
as contaminants in water produced from
oil and gas operations.
In the suit, filed in the
Washington County Court of Common Pleas in May, Mr. Kiskadden lists health complaints — including nausea, bone pain, breathing difficulties and severe
headaches — that he says are consistent with exposure to “hazardous chemicals
and gases through air and water.”
Toxicology
tests on Mr. Kiskadden and the other six plaintiffs who live within a mile of a
Range Resources drill site and wastewater pond in Amwell Township have found
the presence of toluene, benzene and arsenic in their bodies, according to the
complaint.
The Amwell site is among those
the E.P.A. is using in its national investigation into whether fracking affects
groundwater and drinking water. “
(Pennsylvania Report Left Out
Data on Poisons in Water Near Gas Site
By JON HURDLE Published: November 2, 2012, New York Times)
The deposition of Taru Upadhyay, technical director of PA
DEP
By JON HURDLE Published: November 2, 2012, New York Times)
2. DEP Water
Notification Policy Criticized
“The new policy
will let administrators in Harrisburg instead of field offices decide whether
residential water users would receive letters notifying them of contamination. This may allow DEP officials to decide not
to issue, or delay issuing contamination letters recommended by a field office.
This could save the gas industry millions of dollar in water treatment or
replacement. Under the old policy, DEP
water specialists would send samples to the state testing lab and review the
results with department geologists. Now, a review is required by administrators
up to and including Scott Perry, Deputy Secretary of DEP Office of Oil and Gas
and DEP secretary Michael Krancer. DEP
District office staffers are concerned about the policy, which would allow
headquarters officials to second-guess their test- based contamination
determinations.
“The MAA (this
process ) used to be an advisory process, but now it’s an approval process,
said George Jugovic of PennFuture.
Harrisburg is making a decision on the notification before action is
taken, he said. But its supposed to be a
scientific decision based on water test results and the law. What science
expertise in that does Krancer have?”
John Hanger, former DEP secretary said the
DEP bears the burden of justifying why such a change was made to a science-
based process that reported water test results honestly and independently and
professionally. The process wasn’t broken. There was no abuse.
In September, Range Resources met several times with
the DEP to contest water contamination letters. Matt Pitzarella stated that
Range had conducted its own investigation and used the best experts, and has
nothing to do with “this “ case. (Which case specifically, is not stated but
seems to be referring to Jim Finkler who is discussed later in the article).
However according to the DEP, Range was cited in February 2012 for defective
cement in casings at the well.
Jim Finkler said
his water began bubbling with methane in February and continued through spring
and summer. Finkler lives about half-
mile from the Range well. He has not received replacement water from Range but
the company did install a vent on his well cap.”
(DEP policy on foul water notifications is criticized, don hopey,
pittsburgh post gazette)
3. Dr. Ingraffea
on Well Failures - About 7%
Figure
7. Preliminary results of survey of leaking wells in the Pennsylvania Marcellus
play based on violations issued by the DEP.
Violations data from :
http://www.depreportingservices.state.pa.us/ReportServer/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?/Oil_Gas/O G_Compliance
**See chart in newsletter
A report issued by Earthworks and based on the
largest health survey to-date is a cause for alarm. Similar conclusions were reported in the same week by the US Governmental Accounting
Office, and earlier by German researchers.
Nor can
residents of the gas patch gain comfort from the news that the PA-DEP may be failing to report all contaminants in tested drinking
water.
The chief
conclusions of the Earthworks report are:
.
* Chemicals associated with oil and gas
development are present in communities where development occurs.
.
* Residents
in these communities report that after gas development began, they developed new health problems—many of which
are known consequences of exposure to these chemicals.
.
* Those
living closer to gas facilities report higher rates of impaired health.
.
* Children
living near gas development reported negative health impacts that seem atypical
in the young.
.
* Chemicals
detected by air and water sampling have been associated by state and federal
agencies with both oil and gas development and with many of the health symptoms
reported in the surveys.
A spokesman for the industry-based Marcellus Shale
Coalition called the Earthworks report “blatantly misleading”.
5.
Marcellus Shale Radon in Water (From a group member)
“Radon has a half life of 3 ½ days and
is bound with Marcellus shale
methane. If your drinking water is contaminated with
methane from Marcellus shale, you are
drinking and breathing radon. Radium, (which is what radon is decayed from),
has a half-life of 1, 600 years!
"Radon is an inert
radioactive gas. This means it does not react chemically with other elements.
Whatever radon is in the pipeline and is delivered to homes it is released to
the home environment from kitchen stoves and space heaters. The radon is not
oxidized and is not made benign or non-radioactive in the burning process.
Since radon is an inert gas, when
it is inhaled, the gas is mostly exhaled, except radon will decay to other
radioactive decay products, such as polonium, bismuth and lead. These are
solid, fine radioactive particles that can be inhaled and subsequently reside
in the lungs."
"...drinking radon in water
causes about 19 stomach cancer deaths per year."
"Radon may
also be dissolved in water, particularly well water. After coming from a
faucet, about one ten thousandth of the radon in water is typically released
into the air. The more radon there is in the water, the more it can contribute
to the indoor radon level."
"Unlike radon, the progeny
are not gases and can easily attach to dust
and other
particles. Those particles can be transported by air and can also be breathed.
The decay of progeny continues until stable, non-radioactive progeny are
formed. At each step in the decay process, radiation is released."
see http://sosradon.org/faq
and http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/radon/basicinformation.cfm
and
6.
Mobile Air Testing Near
Gas Production
“There have been various types of air
testing done around Marcellus Shale gas production activities and here we take
a look at mobile air testing being conducted in Washington County,
Pennsylvania.
Testing is done through ambient
air sampling as well as direct measurement and characterization of emissions
from Marcellus Shale gas well sites, Centralized impoundment dams, Compressor
stations, Gas processing facilities and trucking operations.
Some of the pollutants in test
results might include Particulate Matter, Ozone, Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur
Dioxide, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Methane, Large hydrocarbons and
Volatile organic compounds.”
For more
pictures and information:
METHODOLOGY
“Production and
processing sites are measured using a suite of high-resolution instrumentation
in the mobile laboratory truck (a 1-second sampling). The mobile lab also
samples ambient air continuously while driving to establish background
concentrations. Emissions specific to a certain site can be characterized by
fenceline sampling, or using tracer methods. When using the tracer method,
easily identifiable inert gases are released from a stationary vehicle to help
validate the assumed emission source.”
7. German and European
Reports on Fracking
“A joint report from Germany's Federal
Environment Agency and Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety was released in September.
·
Hydrofracking-induced incidents can
do substantial harm to water resources.
· The greenhouse-gas footprint of shale gas is
between 30 to 183% greater than that of conventional gas.
· Some of the chemicals used in fracking should be
replaced due to environmental risks.
· Fracking should be banned in certain
areas such as areas with severe tectonic
risk, areas with pressurized artesian/confined deep aquifers and continuous
pathways, and Germany's Zone I and Zone II drinking water protection areas* and
thermal spring conservation areas (which may be the same as the spa regions
mentioned above).
· Before fracking is
allowed in broad areas, a new legal
framework is needed as well as additional scientific knowledge.
The European
Commission's Environment Directorate-General also issued a comprehensive
report (almost 300 pages) in September.
* There is a high
risk of surface and groundwater contamination at various stages of the
well-pad construction, hydraulic fracturing and gas production processes, and
well abandonment, and cumulative developments could further increase this risk.
* Air emissions
from numerous well developments in a local area or wider region could have a potentially significant effect on air
quality including ozone levels.
* There is a
significant risk of impacts due to the amount of land used in shale gas
extraction and it may not be possible to
fully to restore sites in sensitive areas following well completion or
abandonment.
*There are gaps or inadequacies in EU legislation that could lead to risks to the environment or
human health not being sufficiently addressed.
*Robust regulatory
regimes are required to mitigate risks.”
Natural Resources Defense
Council
Switchboard: Natural Resource
Defense Council Blog Amy Mall’s Blog
The latest science from
Europe on fracking NRDC
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
The deposition of Taru Upadhyay, technical director of PA
DEP
