Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates March 26, 2013
* For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us on facebook;
* To view permanent documents, past updates,
reports, general information and meeting information
http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
*
To discuss candidates: http://www.facebook.com/groups/VoteProEarth/
* To contact your state
legislator:
For email
address, click on the envelope under the photo
* For information on the state gas legislation
and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
St Vincent Health
Forum Successful
Thank you to those who
donated their time to help with the meeting:
Lou Pouchet -for
the great video at the beginning of the program
Bob Donnan-for many
of the wonderful pictures we used for the video
Harriet Ellenberger,
Michelle Keenan, and Elizabeth Nordstrom for publicity
Dr. Cynthia Walter
–For making all facility/dinner arrangements with ST Vincent College
Bob Donnan and Josh
Pribanic for recording the program and posting on You Tube
Wanda Guthrie-for
arranging for the sale of Shale Stories Booklets (you can purchase one for five
dollars, let Wanda or Jan know.)
Melissa Troutman of Mt Watershed (our faithful and most essential
co-sponsor) who filled in all the many gaps from running off literature, to
coordinating speakers and videotaping, to tech support
To all of you who helped by posting flyers and
emails
And of course a special thanks to our speakers: Nadia Steinzor, Raina Rippel, Linda and
David Headley, and Dr. Ralph Miranda
You can view the program ‘Fracking &
Public Health’ on You Tube
Seminar held at St. Vincent
College in Latrobe, Pa
Calendar of Events
***Film----Triple Divide Showing in Butler
Saturday, March 30,
2013 - 12:30 pm
Butler Public Library
218 N. McKean Street
Butler PA 16001
Free and Open to the Public
Public Herald
investigative journalists Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman announce the
opening of Triple Divide. Triple Divide deconstructs the (DEP) handling of
shale gas development.
Pribanic
and Troutman take audiences on a cradle-to-grave journey to uncover how DEP and industry have handled
violations within Pennsylvania’s highest classified watersheds, what happened
in the 2011 Bradford County Blowout, water contamination complaints, health
issues, and the split-estate landowner dispute.
*** 2nd Community
Rights Workshop- Friday evening,
March 29, 6pm to 9pm and Saturday, March 30, 9am to 6pm, 2013,
Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Avenue,
Pittsburgh
Not to be missed by those who are committed to Community
Empowerment for a Sustainable Future
Space is limited to 35 maximum. Sign up early and please
forward this to people you know who would find this a really useful workshop.
Wondering
why corporations have more power than those of you living in your community?
Wondering
why Harrisburg licenses and permits corporations to harm your community?
Wondering
why Harrisburg routinely prevents you from making decisions that are in the
best interests of your community?
The
Pennsylvania Community Rights Workshop takes an in-depth look at how
Pennsylvania's political and legal structures have been set up to protect the
interests of an elite minority, at the expense of the majority of
Pennsylvanians. We'll look at how Pennsylvania's constitution has continually
evolved since the American Revolution to protect wealth and privilege over
community self-government; we'll look at how corporations in Pennsylvania have
received more rights and protections than those of you living in your
community; and we'll look at how Pennsylvanians have pushed back against these
oppressive structures to reclaim democracy in their communities.
We
will also explore how to strengthen a Referendum Campaign in Pittsburgh that
will place Community Rights on the November ballot.
We
will also consider what it would take to create a Pennsylvania constitution
that protects the rights of people, communities, and nature by securing our
inalienable right to local self-government, free from corporate and state
interference.
TO REGISTER SIMPLY EMAIL:environment@thomasmertoncenter.org
and let us know how you will be paying.
The total cost of the workshop is $60 per person.
A partial payment of $25 must be paid by March 25 unless a
special arrangement is made (call Wanda at 724.327.2767 or 412.596.0066) or
email environment@thomasmertoncenter.org It is possible to PAY BY CREDIT CARD OR
PAYPAL ACCOUNT! Log on to Thomas Merton Center Donate and scroll down to
Environmental Justice.
Checks should be made out to the Thomas Merton Center, with
a memo notation “Community Rights” Please send to Thomas Merton Center, 5129
Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15224 The balance should be paid in full the evening
of March 29 at the workshop. We are keeping our expenses to a minimum to ensure
affordability for everyone.
***County
Commissioners Meeting- 2nd and 4th Thursday of
the month at the county courthouse at 10:00 AM
For a full calendar
of area events please see “Marcellus Protest” calendar:
Take Action!!
***Gas Company Sues NY Town You can help them keep their
fracking ban—
“Mary Ann Sumner is Town Supervisor for the Town
of Dryden (population 14,500) in upstate New York. She loves Dryden, and she
takes her job very seriously.
That’s why
she is in New York State Supreme Court today, fighting a lawsuit brought against her and Dryden by an oil and gas
company trying to force citizens to accept fracking inside the town’s borders.
Will you
stand in solidarity with the people of Dryden on this historic day?
In 2011, Supervisor Sumner and her colleagues on the Dryden
Town Board voted to prohibit the use of land within the town for oil and gas
development activities, including fracking. Six weeks later they were sued by an oil and gas company owned by a
Forbes-ranked billionaire.
When Dryden
defeated the billionaire’s company in court, it made history, inspiring other
towns across America to enact similar bans. But Dryden’s fight is not over—the
US subsidiary of a foreign-owned oil company has now stepped in to challenge
the town.
Earthjustice
attorney Deborah Goldberg is representing Dryden in this precedent-setting
case. As this message is being sent, she is facing off against oil and gas
industry lawyers in Albany, NY.
The coming
weeks will be tense ones in Dryden as the townspeople and their local elected
officials await the court’s ruling. Will you sign on to this petition and send
them a message of support?
These
messages will be read aloud at upcoming Town Board meetings, letting the
leaders of Dryden know that thousands of people have their back in this fight.
The link to take action
Frack Links
***Dr. David Brown— Video on fracking and health
***The Program “Fracking Hell”
can now be accessed via You Tube and can
be downloaded using a free program called iLivid.
Fracking
Hell: The Untold Story-A good program to recommend to friends
An original investigative report
by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas
development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to
unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts
fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New
York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?
1. DEP Secretary Krancer Resigns
Quotes from past DEP Secretary Krancer (cited from Marcellus Protest):
*The department that I lead oversees the development of natural gas.
*Fracking fluid is comprised of water and sand: the rest are components
in common everyday use such as food additives and cosmetics. Many of those
chemicals are food grade.
*There has never been an instance where fracking fluids have
contaminated groundwater
*At the end of the day, my job is to make sure gas is done.
He misrepresented the industry estimate of job creation as being
established fact. He twisted the findings of a Duke U study to claim water
contamination from drilling had been conclusively disproved. He promised the DEP would work day and night
to issue permits for gas processing plants in eastern PA. He disparaged the work of environmental
groups and inter-state oversight boards.”
STATEMENT OF JOHN HANGER ON
THE RESIGNATION OF DEP SECRETARY KRANCER
(There are many
diverse opinions on John Hanger’s entry into the gubernatorial race but most
environmentalists agree that at least getting the fracking issue into the
debate is a positive move. jan)
“The
resignation of Department of Environmental Protection’s Secretary Krancer
reveals a crucial state agency in crisis.
His interim replacement, Chris Abruzzo, has
absolutely no environmental background and is completely unqualified for the
position. He is currently a deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office
and before that he served in the Attorney General’s office supervising the Drug
Strike Force section.
It
is telling that there is no one at DEP to take over the agency. Morale at DEP
is at devastatingly low levels. Corbett’s DEP has failed to adequately regulate
gas drilling and taken combative stances when citizens present the agency with
legitimate concerns and problems. The
agency has been hostile to renewable energy and has failed to take action to
clean up pollution in the Susquehanna River. DEP’s ability to carry out its
mission of protecting public health and the environment has been severely
compromised by budget cuts to an already spare budget. But Corbett’s
ideological opposition to adequate government funding also prevented DEP from
moving forward with increases to fees for reviewing permit applications.
Corbett
clings to the old, disproven ideology that we cannot have both a good economy
and a good environment. Unless he changes that wrong-headed idea, his DEP will
fail to take advantage of ways to both grow the economy and clean up the
environment, especially when it comes to growing our wind and solar industries.
Pennsylvania’s rising unemployment rate is a glaring example of failure of this
ideology – we are only one of seven states with a rising unemployment rate –
our rate climbed from 7.6 percent in January 2012 to 8.2 percent in January
2013.
We
wish Secretary Krancer well in his new endeavor, but we do not anticipate a
change in DEP’s course as long as Governor Corbett fails to understand that we
need a healthy environment to grow a healthy economy.”
2.
Area Groups Including WMCG
Sign onto Breathe Act
Letter of Support
WMCG signed
onto a letter of support for the Breathe Act introduced by Rep. Jared Polis CO
and Rep. Matt Cartwright PA and others in the House. The bill would close
serious loopholes in the Clean Air Act by providing more adequate regulation of
air pollution associated with oil and gas drilling.
***HR 1175, the Focused Reduction of Effluence and
Stormwater runoff through Hydrofracking Regulation (FRESHER) Act***
***HR 1154, the Bringing Reductions to Energy's Airborne
Toxic Health Effect (BREATHE) Act***
From Penn Future:
“U.S. Reps.
Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) have introduced a pair of
bills to ensure that the gas hydrofracking industry follows the same rules that
other industries do. Oil and gas
operators are now exempt from key federal environmental laws such as the Clean
Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
Cartwright
is the sponsor of HR 1175, the Focused Reduction of Effluence and Stormwater
runoff through Hydrofracking Regulation (FRESHER)
Act. This bill would eliminate the
construction and operations exemption
for the oil and gas companies in the Clean Water Act for stormwater runoff
permits and require a study to fully understand the effects of these operations
on surface water.
Polis is
the sponsor of HR 1154, the Bringing Reductions to Energy's Airborne Toxic
Health Effect (BREATHE) Act. This
bill would close the oil and gas
industry loophole in the Clean Air Act's provisions regarding the aggregation
of small sources of air pollution.
Any
organization that wishes to endorse Rep. Cartwright's FRESHER Act should
contact Joy Bergey, PennFuture's federal policy director.”
The
following organizations have already endorsed this legislation and are actively
working to garner support within Congress and throughout the country: Clean
Water Action, Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Trout
Unlimited, Greenpeace, American Rivers, NRDC, National Audubon Society,
Wilderness Workshop, National Parks Conservation Association, Penn Environment,
Earthworks, Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community, Los Padres Forest Watch,
Center for Effective Government, Earthjustice, Environment America, Ecoflight,
People’s Oil & Gas Collaborative, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Citizens
for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), Blancett Ranches, San Juan Citizens
Alliance.
3.
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, Ohio Anti-Fracking
“Members of the
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown (UUYO) helped canvass
Youngstown neighborhoods to gather signatures for the Community Bill of Rights petition which will be on the May 7, 2013
primary ballot. This Bill of Rights asserts that we have inalienable rights to
clean air, water, land and local control over industries that put those rights
at risk. UUYO is a member of Faith
Communities Together for Frac Awareness (FaCT), a coalition of more than 40
Catholic, Jewish and Protestant Faith Communities from 16 counties in Ohio, 3
in West Virginia as well as locations in Pennsylvania (neogap.org
"Faith Communities"). Three Northeast Ohio Unitarians, Ron Prosek,
Dr. Ted Voneida and Susie Beiersdorfer will be presenting a workshop entitled
"Fracking, An Assault on the Web of Life" during the District
Assembly Meeting in Niagra Falls, NY, April 26 and 27, 2013. They will present
a similar workshop at the General Assembly in June.”
4.
Judge O’Dell- Seneca Says PA Lawsuit Is An Open Public Record
“A western Pennsylvania
judge says the public has the right to see a sealed settlement between gas
drilling companies and a family that claimed that drilling operations damaged
their health.
Judge Debbie
O'Dell-Seneca ruled Wednesday that openness
in the court system is more important than the interests of the companies.
Stephanie and Chris
Hallowich initiated a case against Range Resources, MarkWest Energy Partners
and Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream Partners in 2010. The dispute was
settled in July, 2011 but the companies asked that the records be sealed, and
another judge agreed.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Washington Observer-Reporter
challenged that decision, and O'Dell-Seneca ruled in their favor.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/APbcf763f3d80e484aabb22cf31dc172d3.html
*************************
Judge O'Dell-Seneca
found that businesses do not have the same right to privacy as individuals.
"Whether a right
of privacy for businesses exists within the penumbral rights of Pennsylvania's
constitution is a matter of first impression," the judge wrote. "It
does not."
The defendants [all businesses] claimed they
had the right to privacy to protect the record from being unsealed.
Judge O'Dell-Seneca wrote that Article I of
the state Constitution, which reads, "All men are born equally free and
independent," cannot apply to them.
"There are no men
or women defendants in the instant case; they are various business entities.
... These are all legal fictions, existing not by natural birth by operations
of state statutes. ... Such business
entities cannot have been 'born equally free and independent,' because they
were not born at all."
http://pipeline.post-gazette.com/news/archives/25102-washington-county-judge-orders-marcellus-shale-development-settlement-records-unsealed
5.
Different Perspectives ---Environmentalists
and drillers become 'unusual bedfellows' to agree on standards
“To
get certified, drillers won't be able to use open-air ground pits to store
wastewater or be able to vent gas during initial production. They would even
have to tighten emissions from the trucks their contractors use on the road,
which could be one of the toughest standards to meet, members said.
“It's
the question citizens will now ask (their local drillers): ‘Are you certified?'
” Mark Brownstein of the Environmental Defense Fund said at the public
introduction of the program at the Heinz Endowments headquarters, Downtown.
“That, I think, is what's so important about this effort. It gives the general
public an option to hold these (drillers) accountable to the rhetoric they
espouse.”
Press Release from the Heinz Endowments website
“PITTSBURGH, Pa., March 20, 2013
– A group of leading environmental
organizations, philanthropic foundations, and energy companies have
collaborated to form a unique center to
provide producers with certification of performance standards for shale
development. The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) has
established 15 initial performance standards designed to ensure safe and
environmentally responsible development of the Appalachian Basin’s abundant
shale gas resources. These standards will form the foundation of the CSSD’s
independent, third-party certification process.
CSSD’s founding participants are:
• Chevron
• Clean Air Task Force
• CONSOL Energy
• Environmental Defense Fund
• EQT Corporation
• Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP)
• The Heinz Endowments
• Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture)
• Pennsylvania Environmental Council
• Shell
• William Penn Foundation
Technical support has been provided by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, ICF International, and the law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin &
Mellott.”
And the Response:
New Fracking Standards Are Not Supported by Environmental
Organizations-
“Kutztown, PA – Environmental
organizations across Pennsylvania are objecting to a misleading announcement
coming from the oil and gas industry that says they have “made peace” with
environmentalists by agreeing to voluntary fracking standards. According to
the announcement made, the oil/gas industry believes the new standards “could
ease or avert some of the ferocious battles over fracking that have been waged
in statehouses and city halls.” They’re wrong. In fact, the anti-fracking
movement is large and getting larger as evidence mounts that fracking cannot be
done safely, contributes to climate change, endangers the human and animal
health and safety, tears apart communities, and pollutes our air and water.
“The cynical intentions
of the drillers are stated clearly in the announcement. They say they want to
‘hasten the expansion of fracking’. They say they want to ‘bypass the often
turbulent legislative process altogether’. They say they want to make ‘drilling
more acceptable to states and communities that fear the environmental
consequences’. Making drilling more
acceptable and making drilling safer is not the same thing. These statements
reveal the industry’s self-serving attitude known all too well to those whose
lives have been impacted by drilling,” said Karen
Feridun, Founder of Berks Gas Truth.
The voluntary standards
are listed on the oxymoronically-named website sustainableshale.org. The so-called “tough new standards” don’t
appear to be substantially different from the corresponding regulations the
industry has been blatantly disregarding for years. In addition, they fail to
address many issues including radioactivity, methane migration, drill cuttings,
community disruption, forest fragmentation, LNG, and compressor stations, to
name but a few.
"The overwhelming
harm of gas development on communities being drilled and our natural
environment demands real action, not limp attempts at ‘management’ that just
rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking ship. First, we need a nationwide
moratorium on drilling, then we need to let science and health professionals
fully examine and expose the truth about the inherently polluting fracking
process, while we work as a nation to replace these deadly resource extraction
industries with energy efficiency and clean, truly sustainable energy
sources," said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director,
Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
"The only way for
the fracking industry to self-regulate itself in a fashion that protects the
people of Pennsylvania is to kindly end its operations in Pennsylvania and exit
our state," said Sam Bernhardt, Pennsylvania Organizer at Food & Water
Watch. "Pennsylvania needs a ban on fracking, and it needs it now."
This may be the most
cynical aspect of all - a newly-created Center for Sustainable Shale
Development would be comprised of a 12-member board tasked with overseeing the
voluntary standards program. “The center’s proposed 2013 budget is $800,000,
with the two sides expected to contribute equal amounts,” says the program’s
interim leader. It would appear that the obscenely wealthy oil and gas
companies are only putting up half of the money and that the rest would come
from those who would otherwise be funding efforts to fight on behalf of the
environment and communities.
“Experience has shown that
large, industry-oriented environmental groups do not necessarily
represent the interests of grassroots, community-based organizations,” said Melissa Troutman, Outreach Coordinator of Mountain
Watershed Association. “If you read the book Managing
Activism: PR Advice for Neutralizing
Democracy, author Denise Deegan advises that this sort of ‘dialogue’ is
industry’s most effective method for managing activists. In our experience,
this is true.”
The anti-fracking
movement extends far beyond the environmental community to include religious
groups, sportsmen’s associations, health organizations, social justice
organizations, renewable energy organizations, political groups, farming
associations, and others. The groups the industry worked with on this project
are not generally considered to be among the hundreds of groups in the movement
in Pennsylvania, as they have maintained an industry-friendly stance on
drilling.
Jay Sweeney, Chair of the Green Party
of Pennsylvania said, “I was flabbergasted to read the article saying the oil
& gas industry had made peace with environmentalists. I read the article
looking to find out exactly what environmentalists had been consulted and found
none. The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands by our position that fracking must
be banned!”
“This brilliant propaganda on the part of the gas industry and national
groups that are not so much environmental organizations as they are
greenwashing collaborators only serves to underscore the collective fear they
have of how organized, how effective, how nimble, and how truly threatening the
grassroots coalition against fracking has become to the interests of the
corporate profit agenda of the fossil fuel barons,” said Julie Edgar, Organizer
of Lehigh Valley Gas Truth. “We stand united-- we will not be co-opted-- we
will not be mollified by what amounts to no more than a crock of radioactive
fracking sludge.”
Contacts:
Karen Feridun,
Berks Gas Truth, 610-678-7726
Tracy Carluccio,
Delaware Riverkeeper Network, 215-692-2329
Jay Sweeney, Green
Party of Pennsylvania, 570-587-3603
Melissa Troutman,
Mountain Watershed Association, 724-455-4200
6.
Recent Spills Listed—from Marcellus Outreach Butler
“There have been
a number of high profile and high volume spills and accidents in recent
weeks. We thought that we would
highlight a few to give you a sense of the destruction that fracking leaves in
its path. This is by no means a full
list.
Nov. 1 to Jan. 31— likely more than 250,000
gallons of drilling wastewater and oil illegally dumped into a Mahoning River
tributary in Ohio
Feb 4—Approx. 840 gallon of waste water were
spilled at the Rex/ McElhinney well in Forward Township, Butler County, Pa
Feb 11—84,000 gallons of green oil-laden fracking
fluid gushed from an oil well near Fort Collins, Co for nearly 30 hours
Feb 12—Over 12,000 gallons of “re-use” water was
spilled at a Range Resources site in Cross Creek County Park, Washington
County, PA
Feb 13—A blowout at a Chesapeake well sent fluid
gushing into a stream in Bradford County, Pa
Feb 22—PA based Noble Energy spills over 95,000
gallons from a frack pond into a local tributary of Big Wheeling Creek in WV
[video]
Feb 26—One man was killed and another was injured
in a drilling accident in eastern Ohio.
March 9—Two children were killed when a water
truck rolled over and crushed a car on in Clarksburg, WV.
Match 9—A Spectra Energy compressor station in
Clearville, PA spewed methane and other hydrocarbons over a period of three
hours. Local homeowners complained yet
Spectra and the DEP denied the release for 6 six days.
March 14—Frack fluid spewed at a rate of 800
gl/min. in Wyoming County, Pa [video]
March 15—An explosion of a gas well with 30 ft.
flames forced people from their homes in Chippewa Township, Wayne County,
OH. It was felt 3 miles away.
March 17—An oil tank on a pad in Columbiana
County, OH exploded throwing its lid 400-500 feet into the yard of a nearby
residence.
March 19—A compressor station caught fire in
Bradford County, PA sending one worker to the hospital with burns.”
7.
Thousands of Gallons of Pollution from Gas and/or Oil Spill in Colorado
“Cleanup continues at
the site of an underground spill of thousands of gallons of pollution related
to the oil and gas industry in the heart of Colorado's fracking country.
The underground leak
is located near the town of Parachute and has threatened to contaminate
Parachute Creek, which flows into the Colorado River. State officials continue
to report that buffers have kept the creek safe, so far.
Colorado regulators reported that nearly
6,000 gallons of "hydrocarbons" had been recovered from the site. At
least 102,564 gallons of contaminated water have been recovered, as well.
The spill site is near a natural gas plant operated by Williams Energy, and another company, WPX
Energy, operates underground oil and gas pipelines in the area. Both
companies are working to contain the spill but neither company has taken
responsibility, publicly revealed the source of the pollution or identified the
type of hydrocarbons contaminating the area.
Williams Energy workers first identified the spill on March 8, but the
company did not alert the nearby town of Parachute until five days later, which
frustrated local officials who visited the site this week. It's unclear how
long the underground plume of pollution was growing before Williams discovered
the contamination in an area adjacent to its gas plant.
A local
cattleman told The Denver Post that such spills are common in the area and
often remain secret, and state records show that the oil and gas industry is
responsible for hundreds of spills each year, the newspaper reports.
"This is one
more strong argument for keeping oil and gas wells and related infrastructure a
safe distance from waterways,'' said Suzanne O'Neill, the organization's
executive director. "Regulators pledged to form a stakeholders' group to
develop standards for riparian setbacks a while ago. We're still waiting."
In 2008, Colorado regulators failed to include protections and buffer
zones for waterways as they overhauled regulations for the oil and gas
industry, the group noted.”
Spokespeople for Williams did not respond to several inquiries from
Truthout.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15282-thousands-of-gallons-of-pollution-recovered-from-oil-and-gas-spill-in-colorado
8. Corbett and Wife Took Over $15,000 in Gifts from
Law Firm Representing Oil and Gas Industry
During his time as
State Attorney General and Governor, Tom Corbett and his wife took thousands of
dollars in gifts from an influential Philadelphia law firm whose clients
include oil, gas, and chemical companies fighting state and federal
environmental regulators.
According to a
StateImpact analysis of the couple’s ethics filings, the law firm Blank
Rome LLP has given them $15,447 in gifts since 2007. The gifts include
tickets to Phillies games, dinner at the swanky Pennsylvania Society gathering
in Manhattan, and an annual gala benefiting the Philadelphia Orchestra —where
their tickets cost $2,500 apiece.
Story:
Key political contributions from 2009-2010
that got us where we are today:
9.
New Secretary of Energy Moniz Has Strong Ties to Large Energy Companies
MIT physicist Ernest
Moniz is an academic who has also served on boards or advisory councils of
large energy companies, including BP.
Drilling Deeper: The Wealth of Business Connections for Obama’s Energy
Pick
--He was on BP’s Technology Advisory Council between 2005 and 2011, a
position for which he received a stipend
--He's on the board of ICF International, a Fairfax, Virginia-based
company which does energy and environmental consulting. It has received Energy
Department contracts as part of what one executive called a “longstanding
relationship with the Department of Energy.” As a board member, Moniz got
$158,000 in cash and stock
--He is a trustee of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research
Center (KAPSARC), a Saudi Aramco-backed nonprofit organization. The
organization did not respond to requests for information.
--He is on the strategic advisory council of NGP Energy Technology
Partners, a private equity firm that invests in both alternative energy and
fossil fuel companies.-
--From 2002 to 2004, Moniz sat on the strategic advisory council of
USEC, a public company that provides enriched uranium to nuclear power plants.
--Since 2006, Moniz has been on the board of General Electric’s
“ecomagination” advisory board. No response on requests for information on
compensation.
by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, March 20, 2013, 9:53 a.m.
10. New Study Says Marcellus Drilling Will Raise Water Pollution Levels
of Chloride and TSS
“Shale gas
development can adversely affect surface water quality by increasing the
downstream concentrations of two pollutants, chloride and total suspended
solids, according to a study by scholars at Resources for the Future. The
results were published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
Sheila Olmstead,
Lucija Muehlenbachs, Jhih-Shyang Shih, Ziyan Chu, and Alan Krupnick relied upon
more than 20,000 surface water quality observations taken over 11 years in
Pennsylvania to estimate the effects of shale gas development on downstream
water quality through 2011. The results indicate statistically
significant water quality impacts from wastewater sent to treatment plants and
runoff from well pad development. The study found no systematic
statistical evidence of spills or leaks of flowback and produced water from
shale gas wells into waterways.” (Bob Donnan and I both had to comment on this last
statement. We agree they could not have looked very hard at the data if they
lacked evidence of spills or leaks into waterways. Jan)
full text of the study:
11. “Wave” of Bills at W VA Legislature Would Weaken Water Quality
“Water quality advocates and
environmentalists are concerned about a wave of proposals the legislature is
considering that would weaken state clean water protections. Don Garvin,
legislative coordinator, West Virginia Environmental Council, pointed to bills to allow more selenium, aluminum
and beryllium in West Virginia's water, and said there are separate proposals
to loosen the rules on treating run-off, especially from abandoned surface
mines and mountaintop removal sites.
Allies of the
mining industry won a lot of seats in the last election, Garvin noted.
"The legislature this session is a different legislature," he said.
"There's a lot more pressure being put on, by the coal industry in
particular, because they have the votes." State selenium limits helped
force Patriot Coal to give up mountaintop removal last fall, Garvin said, so it
is no coincidence some lawmakers now want to loosen those regulations. The
state Department of Environmental Protection is also asking to change aluminum and beryllium limits without going through
the normal rulemaking process. Garvin said it's a fake emergency. "The only emergency in the DEP's
proposed emergency rule appears to be that our water is too clean," he charged.”
12.
Concerns Raised About Ramifications of Ag Bill
“Could a new bill
making its way through the Pa House make it a criminal offence to share
photographs of fracking activities online?
Some think so. The bill,
co-sponsored by Butler, Beaver, and Lawrence County Representative Jaret
Gibbons makes “Interfering with agricultural operations” a criminal
offence. § 3309.1 defines interfering as
anyone who takes a photo or sound recording or “uploads, downloads, transfers
or otherwise sends recorded images of, or sound from, the agricultural
operations over the Internet in any medium” without the owner’s consent.
FOX News 56 calls the bill’s wording “confusing and in the worst case
misleading.”
13.
Problems with Blowdowns Continue- Clearville, PA-from Bob
“Problems with
blowdowns continue at Steckman Ridge near Clearville, Pa. (Bedford County).
This is also an area with large underground gas storage, and you may remember my
earlier stories about Wayne & Angel Smith’s ‘reversing pond’ where the
water level rises and lowers as gas is pumped into and out of the underground
reservoir. The Smith farm is also home to a double-billed goose, and Angel
sends an ongoing assortment of ‘foam photos’ (she suspects MBAS) from the small
stream near their home. Several years ago the Smiths had to install a $5,000 to
$10,000 water treatment system in the basement of their farmhouse.”
Steckman Ridge
facililty—one blowdown sprayed a fine mist of an oily substance over the
surrounding countryside. photo by Bob Donnan
14.
Less Dependence on Middle East Oil, More Dependence On Chinese Gas?
Chinese firm puts millions into
U.S. natural gas stations
“ENN
Group Co Ltd, one of China's largest
private companies, is quietly rolling out plans to establish a network of
natural gas fueling stations for trucks along U.S. highways. With plans to
build 50 stations this year alone, ENN joins a small but formidable group of
players -- including Clean Energy Fuels Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc -- in an
aggressive push to develop an infrastructure for heavy-duty trucks fueled by
cheap and abundant natural gas. Clean Energy is backed by T. Boone Pickens and
Chesapeake Energy Corp.
The
move is yet another example of China's ambition to grab a piece of the U.S.
shale gas boom. Just last month, Sinopec Group said it would pay $1 billion for
some of Chesapeake's oil and gas properties in the Mississippi Lime shale. The
Chinese firm reached out to a small Utah company, CH4 Energy Corp, which had
opened a single LNG and CNG fueling station in Salt Lake City with the help of
federal stimulus funds. The deal created Transfuels LLC, which operates as Blu
LNG. ENN has a majority stake in the joint venture and controls its board of
directors, according to sources familiar with the deal.”
15.
DEP Investigating Spill at Cross Creek County Park
From bob
Mar 15, 2013 - The PA DEP has
issued a notice of violation to Range Resources Corp. in connection with a
water spill last month at Cross Creek County Park, a DEP spokesman said Friday.
John Poister, DEP spokesman in Pittsburgh, said workers on the Marcellus Shale gas drilling site noticed what is known as “re-use” water entering a secondary
containment area. “This was just
recycled water,” Poister said in an email. “No frack additives were in this
water.” (So now they can remove frac chemicals, since when?? bob)
“It appears open-top storage tanks were
overflowing. Water flowing into these tanks was not being monitored. Range
reported the spill to DEP, which sent inspectors. “We consider this a
significant spill, and we will evaluate the entire incident, response and
cleanup before we make any decisions on a civil penalty,” or fine. Pizzarilla:
“In this instance, some recycled water left our secondary containment, but our
engineering practices and approach allowed for the immediate cleanup and
remediation of the water, which contains a small fraction of the salt than what
is used on roads nearby Cross Creek for de-icing. This is not to suggest that
we don’t take the spill seriously, regardless of the impact, but context is
important.”
Recent video of a new Range
well pad inside the park:
Range
was fined $23,500 for a May 2009 spill and fish kill inside the park, when they
were pumping flowback through a 3.5 mile long temporary pipeline to the Lowry
Impoundment. Pizzarilla blamed ‘vandals’ for loosening 2 pipe connectors.
16.
Loyalsock State Forest -- Penn Future Files Legal Appeals
From Penn Future
Our right to know is your right to know--
PennFuture filed
legal appeals of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' (DCNR)
denial of two Right to Know Law requests regarding proposed
natural gas development in an extraordinary
section of Loyalsock State Forest in Lycoming County. We requested the proposed development plans
and maps submitted to DCNR by Anadarko Petroleum. DCNR gave us the cover page
of the plan and redacted everything else. The appeals were filed with the
Office of Open Records, a special administrative court that hears Right to Know
Law appeals.
An unusual deed gives
DCNR the ability to restrict or block Anadarko's access to the surface of the
tract, and thereby permanently protect most of this land.
Even though DCNR is charged with
managing our state forests for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians including
generations yet to come, the agency has refused to conduct public hearings and
allow for public input into this matter or provide information on the
environmental impacts or the alternatives that are being considered. Anadarko
seems to have the only other seat at the table with DCNR. We think you, the
citizens of the Commonwealth, have a right to know what Anadarko and DCNR are
proposing to do with this special part of Penn's Woods and to better understand
the potential consequences of these far-reaching decisions.
17. Neighbors Want Answers After Natural Gas Drill Malfunction-Washington
Township
“ Carizzo gas workers
were back on the gas well pad on Keiserville Road in Wyoming County. They were
cleaning up and removing any leftover fracking fluids that spilled when the
well head outside Tunkhannock malfunctioned.
The DEP says officials are investigating how a bolt on the well head
failed on Wednesday night, causing thousands and thousands of gallons of
fracking fluids to shoot out.”
Video & story:
Photo by bob donnan
18. Yeager Compound-See Above Photo
“Contaminated water wells in the vicinity of this impoundment are at
the core of an evolving high-profile lawsuit involving the Voyles, Haneys and
Kiskaddens, as well as the Pa DEP suite code issue (that turned up
during legal depositions), who knew what when, and if water buffaloes were
provided as early as they should have been to affected residents. The Voyles
live directly across the road from Mr. Garrett’s house and you can see their
house in the upper right corner of the photo below.” For more details, read
Beth Voyles’ story by Eric Belcastro here:
Mr. Garrett’s house is circled.
19. Colorado Lawmakers Aim to
Tighten Oil/ Gas Regs
SUMMIT COUNTY — “With many Colorado residents feeling that
Gov. Hickenlooper has tilted the playing field in favor of fossil fuel
development, the Colorado General Assembly will begin to explore new laws that
could help balance fossil fuel extraction with public health and safety and
concerns about impacts to the environment.
House Bill 13-1267 would increase the
maximum daily fine for serious accidents from $1,000 to $15,000 per day and set
a minimum fine of $5,000 per violation per day for violations that have a
significant adverse impact on public health, safety, or welfare, including the
environment. It would also repeal the cap on the maximum total fine.
House Bill
12-1269 would make it clear that the primary mission of the Colorado Oil and
Gas Conservation Commission is to make sure that public health and safety and
natural resources are adequately protected during the course of fossil fuel
development. It also addresses the inherent conflict of interest that currently
exists on the commission by prohibiting future commissioners from being
employees, officers, or directors of oil and gas companies. Read more of this
post
By Bob Berwyn
20. Fracking Wastewater Can
Be Highly Radioactive
Updated 1 week ago | By Rachel Morgan Shalereporter.com
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a four-part series on
radiation in fracking wastewater.
“PORTAGE, Pa. — Randy Moyer said he hasn’t been able to work in 14 months.
He
said he’s seen more than 40 doctors, has 10 prescriptions to his name and no
less than eight inhalers stationed around his apartment.
Moyer said he began transporting
brine, the wastewater from gas wells that have been hydraulically fractured,
for a small hauling company in August 2011.
He
trucked brine from wells to treatment plants and back to wells, and sometimes
cleaned out the storage tanks used to hold wastewater on drilling sites.
By November 2011, the
49-year-old trucker said he was too ill to work, suffering from dizziness,
blurred vision, headaches, difficulty breathing, swollen lips and appendages,
and a fiery red rash that covered about 50 percent of his body.
“They called it a rash,” he said
of the doctors who treated him during his 11 trips to the emergency room. “A
rash doesn’t set you on fire.”
Moyer said he spent most of last
year in his apartment in Portage, which is located near Altoona in Cambria
County.
Moyer said he would lay on the
floor by the open screen door because his skin burned so badly, while doctors
scrambled to reach a diagnosis. He said the only thing that has helped ease his
symptoms is a homeopathic tea recommended by others in the community who have
similar symptoms.
Today, he has a box brimming
with doctors’ bills but still no diagnosis.
Moyer believes he’s sick from the chemicals in fracking fluid and the ensuing
wastewater — and from radiation exposure.
And he may be right.
Studies from the U.S. Geological
Survey, Penn State University and environmental groups all found that waste
from fracking can be radioactive — and in some cases, highly radioactive.
A geological survey report found that millions
of barrels of wastewater from unconventional wells in Pennsylvania and
conventional wells in New York were 3,609 times more radioactive than the
federal limit for drinking water and 300 times more radioactive than a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission limit for nuclear plant discharges.
And Mark Engle, the
USGS research geologist who co-authored the report, said that fracking flowback
from the Marcellus shale contains higher radiation levels than similar shale
formations.
“There
(isn’t) a lot of data but in general, the Marcellus
appears to be anomalously high,” Engle said. He said the USGS had
agreements with a handful of oil and gas companies to sample the flowback from
their wells for this particular report. These companies, he said, did not wish
to be identified.
Engle also
says that both the Marcellus shale itself and the wastewater generated from
fracking are both radioactive, but he doesn’t know just how much radium the
shale contains. He said it “may be fairly small, since radium is so soluble.”
But he also said this solubility would make it easier for the radium to
dissolve into the brine itself — and come to the surface.
The USGS is
still studying the issue. They are currently sampling — or testing — produced
waters from all types of oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North
Dakota and Montana, including those from the Marcellus shale. A few more
reports are in the works, Engle said. Another report, issued by the New
York-based Grassroots Environmental Education by Ivan White, a career scientist
for the National Council on Radiation Protection, came to a similar conclusion
as the USGS and Penn State reports, maintaining that fracking can produce waste
much higher in radiation than previously thought. A recent study by an
undergraduate student and two professors in Penn State’s Department of
Geosciences also found that fracking wastewater contains high levels of radium
— and barium.
The study,
written by Penn State alum Lara Haluszczak, professor emeritus Arthur Rose, and
professor and head of the Department of Geosciences Lee Kump, describes the
radium and barium found in fracking flowback as originating from ancient brines
instead of the fracking fluid used by the industry to frack wells. The report,
which focused on flowback within 90 days of fracking in primarily Pennsylvania
wells, has been approved for publication in the International Association of
Geochemistry’s journal Applied Geochemistry.
Environmentalists say these treatment plants simply aren’t
equipped to deal with radioactive wastewater.
“As
fracking has rapidly expanded, we’re seeing much more of this radioactive
waste, which is a problem, since traditional landfills and wastewater treatment
plants aren’t accustomed to handling it,” said Adam Kron, attorney for the
Environmental Integrity Project. “In fact, wastewater treatment plants aren’t
able to remove radioactivity, and we’re starting to hear accounts of landfills
receiving — and sometimes turning away — radioactive cuttings and sand from
across state lines.” “Even if it’s (radioactive materials) diluted quite a bit,
it’s still going to be above the drinking water limits,” Rose told Penn State
Live, the university’s official news source. “There’s been very little into
this.”
DEP
does not measure radium concentrations in fracking wastewater. Instead, they
encourage water treatment facilities that accept the brine to test for high
levels of radium. Another common way of disposing of fracking wastewater is
by sending the water out of state to injection wells, usually to Ohio. However,
neither Pennsylvania nor Ohio measures levels of radiation in fracking
wastewater when it’s extracted from a well or disposed of in an injection well.”
http://m.heraldstandard.com/news/local_news/fracking-wastewater-can-be-highly-radioactive/article_d97e6d1b-1396-500f-a0cc-b521dd9861f0.html#.UU9lYWuQ-b0.facebook
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 remove your name from our list please put “remove name from list’ in
the subject line
