Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates April 4,
2013
* 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 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-
To
read former Updates please visit our blogspot listed above.
Calendar of Events
***County Commissioners Meeting- 2nd and 4th Thursday of
the month at the county courthouse at 10:00
***Pittsburgh
Health Summit on Chemical Exposure in Gasfield Communities
Saturday April 6th,
2013
Conference Time: 8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Location:
The Carnegie Science Center
1 Allegheny Ave, Pittsburgh, PA
Google Maps URL: http://goo.gl/maps/xP7UK
"Recent
technological advances in directional drilling and high volume slickwater
hydraulic fracturing have stimulated the rapid development of a complex
industrial network. In addition to multi-acre well pads, this network includes
compressor stations, cryogenic separation plants, crystalline silica sand
transfer stations, landfills that accept radioactive drill cuttings, and open
impoundments for freshwater, flowback and other hazardous liquids. Incidences
of human and animal health impacts from living near these facilities are
increasingly documented, principally through the efforts of concerned citizens
and community-based action groups. The Pittsburgh Health Summit will serve to
further amplify the voices of people who suffer with symptoms of chemical
exposure as they seek protection from air and waterborne contaminants generated
by the rapidly expanding shale gas and oil industry. The event will be
facilitated by Dr. Gerald Groves."
Contact
Information:
Dr. Yuri Gorby
Howard
A. Blitman Chair in Environmental Engineering
Professor,
Department of Biology
Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
Troy,
New York, 12080
ygorby@gmail.com
Registration required:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1tdHH0rdF0gcVJ6sFb1h0DcFx_XMhww0LVtk4L_JtRy8/viewform.
There
is no cost to attend but registration is required. Lunch and light snacks will
be provided.
***Dr. Wendy Lee Professor of Philosophy Speaks on Fracking
The Seventh Annual Dr. Bernard Cobetto Lecture Series on Contemporary Ethical Issues presents environmental philosopher Dr.
Wendy Lee and a community panel will discuss natural gas fracking in “When the
Earth Moves Under our Feet: The Pennsylvania Marcellus Gas Rush.”
7 p.m. Wed. April 10
Ferguson Theater (Smith Hall), U. of Pitts, Greensburg
Free & Open to the Public
To register, call 724-836-9911
http://www.universityannouncements.pitt.edu/cobetto.pdf
***Environmental
Justice Film Series: The Price of
Sand, The Last Mountain, and Triple Divide.
Please
visit:
EnvironmentalJusticeTMC.blogspot.com
For
additional information contact: Wanda Guthrie 412-596-0066 or email:
environment@thomasmertoncenter.org
The Last Mountain:
Tuesday evening, April 9, 7pm Community House Presbyterian Church,120
Parkhurst St Pittsburgh, PA (North Side
Community) 15212
We
are all users of the electricity and power that is generated from the
sacrifices of the Appalachia residents and miners. The imagery of environmental
devastation is so shocking, the deregulation and egregious indifference of the
coal mining companies’ various violations so appalling, that we begin to feel
somehow complicit in perpetrating this modern American tragedy. Ordinary
people, banded together in a common purpose, can indeed move mountains.
The Price of Sand:
Saturday evening, April 20, 7pm Saturday evening, The Episcopal Church
of the Redeemer,5700 Forbes Avenue (Squirrel Hill Community) 15217
In parts of rural Wisconsin,
the presence of sand mines is something you can feel, smell or taste. The presence of those mines and the trucks
hauling its powdery sands toward natural gas drilling sites has been
devastating. The sand is an essential ingredient in the fracking process.
Sand,
fracking, health, volumes: It has been tough for residents of Pennsylvania to
prove that natural gas production is harmful to health. It has been equally
difficult for our Midwest neighbors to
convince the public of the health hazards posed by the frack sand mining
Triple Divide:
Monday evening, April 29, 7pm, 5401 Centre Ave Pittsburgh, PA (Shadyside Community)15232
Through personal stories,
experts and public documents, Triple Divide tells a cautionary tale about the
consequences of fracking, including contamination of water, air and land;
intimidation and harassment of citizens; loss of property, investments and
standard of living; weak and under enforced state regulations; decay of public
trust; illness; fragmentation of Pennsylvania’s last stands of core forest; and
lack of protection over basic human rights.
The film begins at one of only
four triple continental divides on the North American continent in Potter
County, Pennsylvania, where everything is downstream. From this peak, rain is
sent to three sides of the continent—the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada,
Chesapeake Bay on the eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. This vast water
basin is drained by three major rivers—the Allegheny, Genesee and Susquehanna.
These waterways rank among the most coveted trout streams in the U.S., helping
to create a regenerative tourism economy upon which locals have depended for
generations. At this “watershed moment” in Pennsylvania’s history, which way
will the future flow?
The documentary filmmakers,
Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, will lead a question and answer session.
***Earth Day
Protest at Regional DEP Offices-April 22
Calling on DEP to
fulfill its mission and stop fracking
Contact:
Jay Sweeney, Green
Party of Pennsylvania , 570-587-3603
Melissa Troutman, Mountain Watershed Association,
724-455-4200
A coalition
of more than 40 environmental organizations and individuals are rallying for
protection of communities and the environment with a statewide Earth Day
Protest on Monday, April 22. These rallies will call on our public officials to
act with integrity and protect the people of Pennsylvania , who are being
victimized every day by fracking and the cradle-to-grave dangers of shale gas
extraction.
Rallies
will take place at each of the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP)
regional offices in Harrisburg , Meadville , Norristown, Pittsburgh ,
Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport on Earth Day. The coalition is calling for
support from people who want to stand together to preserve and protect our
communities from the assault and abuse of environmental devastation.
The rallies
will demand that DEP fulfill its mission to "protect Pennsylvania 's air,
land and water from pollution and to provide for the health and safety of its
citizens through a cleaner environment.” In order to do so, DEP must put the
‘public’ back in public policy.
Join the Earth Day coalition at your regional DEP office to
demand our public officials:
• Appoint an
environmental expert without industry ties as DEP Secretary to ensure DEP’s
mission is fulfilled;
• Place a moratorium on permits for gas wells, compressor
stations, pipelines, water withdrawals, coal mines, and other infrastructure
related to fossil fuel extraction;
• Allow no more toxic secrets and full disclosure of water
tests and other studies by DEP;
• Provide justice for those harmed by the oil and gas
industry; and
• Reopen the DEP Office of Energy and Technology Deployment
to develop solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies.
For
more information or to get involved, contact these regional representatives:
Northeast Region, Wilkes-Barre : Jay Sweeney, 570-587-3603, jnln@epix.net
Southwest Region, Pittsburgh :
Mel Packer, 412-243-4545 or 412-307-6827, melpacker@aol.com
Northcentral
Region, Williamsport : Russell Zerbo,
215-567-4004 x130, rzerbo@cleanair.org
Southcentral
Region, Harrisburg : Maria Payan, 717-456-5800, payans@zoominternet.net
Northwest Region, Meadville :
Diane Sipe, 724-272-4539, sipediane5@gmail.com
Southeast
Region, Norristown : Chris Robinson, 215-843-4256, chrisrecon@netzero.net
Currently
the coalition includes:
Allegheny
College Students for Environmental Action,
http://webpub.allegheny.edu/group/sea/Home.html
Benedictine
Sisters Erie PA, www.eriebenedictines.org/
Berks
Gas Truth, http://www.gastruth.org/
Brandywine
Peace Community, www.brandywinepeace.com
Bucks
County Green Party, www.pa.greens.org/bucks/
Citizens
for Clean Water,
Communities
United for Rights & Environment, http://marcellus-cure.blogspot.com/
Cross
County Citizens Clean Air Coalition,
Damascus
Citizens for Sustainability, DamascusCitizens.org
Delaware
Riverkeeper Network, www.delawareriverkeeper.org
Energy
Justice Network, www.energyjustice.net/
Environmental
Justice Committee - Thomas Merton Center,
http://thomasmertoncenter.org/projects/environmental-justice/
Food
& Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Fracking
Truth Alliance, http://frackingtruth.webs.com/
Frack
Mountain , www.frackmountain.com
Gas
Drilling Awareness Coalition, www.gdacoalition.org/
Granny
Peace Brigade Philadelphia,
Green
Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), www.gpofpa.org
Green
Party of Philadelphia (GPOP), www.gpop.org
Growing
Community Project, facebook.com/growingcommunityprojectPA
Celia
Janosik, Beaver County Volunteer Water Quality Monitor,
Kill
Mammon, www.killmammon.wordpress.com/about/
Lehigh
Valley Gas Truth, www.gastruth.org/
Lehigh
Valley Greens,
Lenape
Nation, Chief Shelley DePaul, www.lenapenation.org/main.html
Luzerne
County Green Party,
Marcellus
Outreach Butler, www.marcellusoutreachbutler.org/
Marcellus
Protest, www.marcellusprotest.org/
Montgomery
County Green Party, www.greens.org/pa/montgomery/
Mountain
Watershed Association, www.mtwatershed.com
Northwest
Greens, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nwgreens/
Peach
Bottom Concerned Citizens Group, www.pbccg.com/
PA
Alliance for Clean Water and Air, www.pacwa.org/
Physicians
for Social Responsibility Philadelphia, www.psrphila.org
Protecting
Our Waters, www.protectingourwaters.com
Jasmine
Rivera, Action United,
Mark
Schmerling Photography, www.schmerlingdocumentary.com
Shadbush
Environmental Justice Collective, www.shadbushcollective.org/289/
Shale
Justice Coalition,
South
Hills Area Against Dangerous Drilling (SHAADD), www.shaadd.org
350
Berks & Lehigh Valley Climate Action,
Dr.
Walter Tsou, Phila. Commissioner of Health 2000-2002,
Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group, www.westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/,
Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom, Philadelphia/Delco Branch,
York
County Green Party, www.yorkgreenparty.org/
Take Action!! Send this letter for a Public
hearing (from Mt Watershed)
Power Plant Ruffsdale, Westmoreland County
We need to request
a public hearing and make public comment for a natural gas-fired power plant
proposed in Ruffs Dale, West Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County by
TENASKA PA II PARTNERS LLC.
Please copy the
following text and e-mail to Jill Geisler at JGeisler@pa.gov or send a letter
to Jill Geisler 400 Waterfront Drive Pittsburgh PA 15222. Make sure to include
"Tenaska Permit 65-990" in the subject line.
****************
Dear Ms. Geisler,
I request a
public hearing for the Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station Permit #65-990
to take place prior to approval of the facility's permit. In addition, I would
like to provide the following public comment.
This plant would emit carbon monoxide, formaldehyde,
volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, hazardous air pollutants,
particulate matter, sulfur oxides, sulfuric acid mist, and greenhouse gases
according to a recent, comparative natural gas power plant permit issued by
your department to Moxie Energy in Bradford County.
The Westmoreland County and the Laurel Highlands region
regularly experience periods of air inversion where moisture and air pollutants
become trapped below a layer of cold air as the weather changes throughout the
day and seasons. This air inversion puts southwest Pennsylvanians at risk of
ground level ozone exposure in addition to the many toxins emitted by the
plant.
Asthma patients exposed to the plant's emissions could be
triggered into fits, more asthma patients may be diagnosed, and children with
developing lungs and seniors with respiratory disorders are disproportionately
at risk.
All of the required gas infrastructure and cumulative air
quality impacts should be considered part of the permit application and review
process.
The plant will be supplied via regional shale gas wells
developed using hydraulic fracturing that entails heavy truck traffic, methane
migration, flaring, chemical evaporation, and diesel equipment emissions.
Thousands of more shale gas wells will be needed to supply the plant.
Cryogenic processing plants, dehydrator stations, compressor
stations, metering stations, and pipeline construction are required to process
and transport the gas. Once the plant is online, additional compressor station
engines will be needed to replace the pressure lost in gas transmission lines.
I urge you to deny this permit and protect our air.
Pennsylvanians must prioritize energy efficiency and clean, sustainable
electricity generation.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Your E-mail]
[Your Phone Number]
Write Thank Yous To
Newspapers that Pursued Open Records in the Hallowich Case:
David
M. Shribman, Executive Editor
Susan
Smith, Managing Editor
Pittsburgh
Post Gazette
34
Blvd. of the Allies
Pittsburgh,
PA 15222
Liz
Rogers, Editor
Observer
- Reporter
122
S. Main St.
Washington,
PA 15301
Thanks
are also due to the judge on the case:
President Judge Debbie O'Dell-Seneca
Washington
County Courthouse
1
South Main Street, Suite 2002
Washington,
PA 15301
Frack
Links
*** ‘Fracking
& Public Health’ on You Tube
Seminar held at St. Vincent
College in Latrobe, Pa
***To sign up for notifications of activity and violations for
your area:
***Headley Story on
WTAE
***List of Harmed Now on Fracktracker
Frack News
1. SkyTruth Alert
Overflows—Too Many to Include
The gas industry
must still abide by local zoning regulations, since Act 13 remains overturned.
The
industry claims local zoning regulations hamper development. What an absolute distortion of the facts as evidenced
by my last Sky Truth Alert which included 50 permits to drill and a note that I
need to limit my geographic area because the
limit of 50 notifications was exceeded.
Several of the permits were in South
Huntington Township and Derry Township, Westmoreland County,
To sign up for alerts for your area:
http://alerts.skytruth.org/
2. PACWA’s List of the Harmed
Now Mapped by FracTracker http://www.fractracker.org/2013/03/pacwas-list-of-the-harmed-now-mapped-by-fractracker/
Jenny Lisak, co-director of the Pennsylvania Alliance for
Clean Water and Air, maintains a list of people who believe they have been
harmed by gas extraction operations. It is appropriately entitled, The List of the Harmed. The February version
of the list (mapped below) names 822 people negatively impacted, with symptoms
ranging from headaches and rashes to death...
3. Warnings Regarding the Center for Sustainable Shale Development
From Sierra Club and
Marcellus Protest
**Dr. Anthony Ingraffea confirms that the new
"Center for Sustainable Shale Development” is a PR move on the part of EDF
From Sierra Club
“We should merely ignore it, that the
so-called 15 standards amount to a hill of beans. Fortunately,
Sierra came right out with a criticism of it nationally. Unfortunately, now that Teresa Heinz Kerry's
husband is Secretary of State (poised for possible approval of the Keystone XL
Pipeline), her former position against fracking might have changed and Heinz
Endowments is one of the environmental funders of CSSD.
But worse, EDF has been positioning itself since April 2011 to undermine the
science of Cornell University's Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Anthony
Ingraffea peer-reviewed study that predicts that methane is the dirtiest fossil
fuel, worse than coal. Ingraffea met with Fred Krupp and Mark
Brownstein a year ago but Krupp and EDF are on a mission to completely
discredit the findings and a full-blown national campaign to do so will launch
on April 26. We need to be ready to counter their campaign with a national one
of our own.
EDF
has been trying to kill coal- good- and elevate methane (gas, jan) to a
national hero level as a bridge fuel, bad.
You've perhaps been seeing the national press report EDF's repeated
references to their 3.2% figure of intentional and fugitive methane emissions
on the atmosphere, that anything less than that is acceptable and the
industry's aim of reducing it soon to 1%.
An exact figure is never possible, only a range is scientifically
appropriate, and the present range of actual measured methane releases to the
atmosphere are starting to indicate that the entire life-cycle rate to be higher than 3.2%, e.g. the
peer-reviewed work of NOAA/U of Colorado.
Reducing any emission rate would require enormous capital investment to
repair leak sources, and require years to complete, for a methane supply of
only a few decades at most, when we are running short on years to avert even
more serious climate change impacts.
EDF
stated a year ago that the Howarth, Santoro, Ingraffea predictions are wrong
and EDF is conducting its own life cycle
study of all methane emissions.
However, a one-year study is not a long-term, comprehensive study as it
claims to be. Ingraffea asked for Cornell to be on the team but was refused.
EDF had
counted on the support of NRDC and Sierra but the Chesapeake/Sierra scandal
dissuaded Sierra's support and NRDC unconscionably remains on the fence. We need NRDC to be castigating EDF and Heinz
vociferously. Everything needs to be
done to persuade Frances Beinecke to protect our interests and the
environment. Their refusal to do so
cannot continue.
You've noticed that The New York Times has silenced Ian Urbina
on his Drilling Down series about methane.
And its environmental editor, with whom Ingraffea met to challenge that
NYT, is not "down the middle," stating his prime source of
information on the issue is Fred Krupp.”
From: Sierra
Club Atlantic Chapter gas drilling task force
**And An Editorial
From Marcellus Protest, Pittsburgh
The Center for
Sustainable Shale Development
“Making Peace? The
center for Sustainable Shale Development
“When the
Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) was announced on March 21, we
didn’t get it. How can shale be made
sustainable? We know that sustainable is
the must-have corporate buzzword nowadays.
[What’s next,
ads for “sustainable beer”?]
Still, “sustainable shale”?? But now we understand.
It’s not
the shale they’re making “sustainable;” it’s the development. This is to be a Center for Sustaining the
Development of Shale a public relations countermeasure to divert us from real
environmental protection, and to keep an awakened citizenry from interfering
with the fracking juggernaut.
Overwhelmingly,
the news was reported as “environmentalists and drillers declare peace.” That’s because CSSD’s press release began by
touting their “environmental organizations, philanthropic foundations and
energy companies”—in that order.
Read on,
though, and you find that their Board of
Directors is dominated by industry executives and consultants, with ICF international
providing ‘technical support.” Those
“environmental organizations,” however, are relegated to “strategic
partners”. So, when the reporters are
gone and CSSD gets down to business, any impact it has upon fracking will be of
the industry, by the industry and for the industry.
CSSD didn’t
quite have its documentation together on launch day. (Maybe they rushed the announcement, in hopes
of neutralizing headlines about the Pennsylvania DEP?) Still, we were able to read a copy of their
first publication, “Performance Standards.”
CSSD has said that any ‘operator’ who signs up to
these standards (and pays $30,000) will receive their
seal-of- approval as one of fracking’s good guys.
But CSSD’s
“Standards” miss the point. They
meticulously specify a few technical matters where the industry came to
agreement on “best practices.” (For
example, specs on diesel engines fill three of the Standards’ eleven
pages.) On the other hand, they are
silent about the effects of fracking
operations.
No matter what it actually does to the
environment, CSSD won’t
get in the way of the
industry’s freedom to frack. Just as
long as an ‘operator’ agrees to follow the industry norms, they’ll have CSSD’s
blessing. (Well, any norms that CSSD has
been able to codify. CSSD says it spent
two years of behind the scenes meetings to come up with those eleven pages.)
Meanwhile, CSSD’s
environmental ‘strategic partners’, haven’t said why they put their names to
this announcement. (We’ve asked; they
don’t answer.) So we can’t tell you:
*What does a ‘strategic partner’ really get
to do at CSSD? (And what have they
agreed to stop doing?)
*
What are the ‘partners’ getting for the use of their names?
The “environmental community”
isn’t monolithic. Many environmental
groups jumped up to disassociate themselves from CSSD’s claimed “peace”
settlement. But by then the news cycle
had moved on, and they didn’t get much attention.
Yet the opposition is to
fracking is powerful, and growing. The formation
of the CSSD shows that this industry needs every trick it can find in order to
confound and confuse opposition.
Some sincere environmentalists
still hope to ‘regulate’ fracking – although we at Marcellus Protest do
not. But CSSD’s new environmental
‘partners’ should not have squandered their influence so cheaply. They haven’t “made peace” (as the
headlines
tell us); they’ve just been co-opted, getting nothing in return but to see
their names appear on the fracker’s cookbook. “
4. Att. John Smith’s
Comments on Intra-State Effect of Act 13
“Last July
the state commonwealth court ruled in favor of municipalities on Act 13, Tom
Corbett’s legislation that imposed a one size fits all set of regulations that
was then challenged by a group of municipalities.. That decision was appealed
by the industry and a decision is expected any day.
“Pennsylvania’s decision won’t set precedent
across the nation but is may be instructive for other state courts, said lead attorney
John Smith of Smith-Butz Law Firm. Its’
happened here before. When the Pa Supreme Court justices found in 2009 that
state guidelines don’t necessarily supersede local regulations, they cited a
Colorado courts decision.
Pennsylvania’s ruling could be useful in
taking similar cases before a judge in shale drilling state, said Smith, since
this is a ‘case of first impression”.
We are hearing from a
lot of people in New York. The calls come from reporters looking for legal tea
leaves and medical personnel who are concerned about drilling activity near certain
populations. “
In New York,
legislators voted to extend the state’s 5-year moratorium on drilling to 2015. “
(Drilling conflict plays out around US, Pittsburgh post
gazette)
5. Family Says Gas Drilling
Turning Paradise Home Into Nightmare –from Bob
Mar 29, 2013 - PENNSYLVANIA - "Is that really water
burning?" Parsons asked Headley. When Headley placed a funnel over the
bubbles, the flame stayed lit. "The horses used to drink out of this
spring, and the deer and the coon. All those animals have since left. Nothing
will drink out of it. There's not a footprint around this well at all,"
said Headley.
But that's not what
angers Headley the most. About 150 yards from his home, the cap on a natural
gas tank popped up, and a gas cloud began pouring out. Headley recorded the
incident on video from inside his house.”
Video
& Story:
http://www.wtae.com/news/local/investigations/Family-says-gas-drilling-turning-paradise-home-into-nightmare/-/12023024/19524746/-/9emijj/-/index.html
The
Headley’s provided more details in the recent Saint Vincent meeting video:
Headley Family Exposed to
Atlas Blowdowns 500 Feet from Their Home
“What am I supposed to do if I need to get in
here?” Dave Headley asked a worker from Atlas Resource Partners, which owns a
Marcellus gas well on his property. The worker, Headley said, secured the gate
at the end of the driveway leading to the Headleys’ house with a padlock
wrapped in barbed wire.
He got no
response from the man on the other side of the gate.
The couple
also said they are concerned about what’s coming out of the gas wells, and onto
their land.
Recently,
the Headleys said Atlas representatives performing what Crook called routine
maintenance, the blowing down of the well, sparked a dispute between Dave
Headley and the workers.
Crook said although he knows Atlas is in
compliance with Pennsylvania (DEP)
standards when it performs blowdowns, he wasn’t able to explain the science of
the process or why it’s not considered unsafe to blow that liquid into the air.
Headley
showed the Herald-Standard video footage
of the blowdown process, which he said took place multiple times last
summer show a floating ventilation cap
open on the top of a several-hundred gallon tank labeled “brine,, and a
brownish liquid being aerated in bursts, some of them lasting several minutes
and leaving a fog hanging in the air.
The tank is about 500 feet from the
Headleys’ front door, and about 100 feet away from the fence containing
their four horses. Dave Headley said the DEP has echoed Crook’s statement that
on a production well, Atlas is allowed to perform the procedure.
“They blow
out all the water because it increases efficiency,” Dave Headley said the DEP
told him.
“A certain
amount is legal,” he said, “but there’s no way to keep track of how much is
coming out of there, or what’s in it.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
describes well blowdowns as one means of reducing the amount of liquid that
accumulates in the gas transmission pipes. According to the EPA, blowing down a
well to temporarily restore production “can vent significant methane emissions,
from 80 to 1600 million cubic feet per year per well.”
“The
process must be repeated as fluids re-accumulate, resulting in additional
methane emissions. Operators may wait until well blowdown becomes increasingly
ineffective before implementing some type of artificial lift. At this point,
the cumulative methane emissions from a well could be substantial,” according to
information from the EPA website.
“For natural gas wells,” the EPA states, “a
progression of fluid removal options are available to unload accumulated fluid,
boost gas production, extend well life and reduce or eliminate the need for
well venting.”
There are also other procedures that result in less methane
being released into the air along with the liquid, according to the federal
agency.
The
Headleys said that when Atlas conducted the blowdowns throughout the summer,
they noticed the trees nearest the brine
tank yellowing. They also started noticing swelling around their horses’ eyes
and one of the horses later lost its eyesight on one side.
When the Atlas workers came by to conduct
the most recent blowdown, Dave Headley said he went over to tell them to stop.
His 4-year-old son
was outside in the yard, and his 17-year-old son was about 100 feet away,
chopping wood, he said. Dave Headley said he received no warning or advisement
that the blowdown was about to occur.
“If it was your children, you wouldn’t let them play in it
either,” Dave Headley said he told the workers.
A state police trooper
visited later to tell Dave Headley not to harass the workers, and not long
after that, the Atlas workers came back to put a lock on the gate, Dave Headley
said. The most recent
trouble isn’t the Headleys’ first bout with the gas companies.
“We
had a shallow surface spring,” Linda Headley said, but the drinking water
became contaminated, so they paid to put 2,500 feet of water line across their
property to link into public water. “(The pipeline workers) drove over it and
broke up the pipe,” she said, “and now the water line is spewing water.”
Linda Headley produced a water
bill she recently received saying she owes hundred of dollars. “Normally our
bill is 30, maybe 40 dollars,” she said.
Last year, the DEP cited LMM for spilling bentonite into nearby Georges
Creek after an inspector from the DEP’s Southwest Region Oil and Gas
Program responded to the spill on June 4 and determined that bentonite from a
horizontal natural gas pipeline drill did impact the creek. Bentonite is a
super-absorbent clay-like material used to lubricate and seal well casings.
Veronica Coptis, a community
organizer with the Mountain Watershed Association, a nonprofit water
conservation group, has said if enough
bentonite dissolves in the creek, it could adversely affect the creek’s aquatic
habitat by coating the streambed and clogging the gills of fish.
LMM filed separate suits in
Fayette County Court last year against Dave Headley and his neighbor, Joe
Bezjak, for attempting to prohibit the workers from entering their property.
Their court cases are ongoing.”
To read the article:
http://www.heraldstandard.com/news/local_news/property-owner-s-access-blocked-by-gas-company/article_26a2cf31-58df-5ed5-abdf-ecf0fbe41672.html
6. Antero Industrial Site
Moves for No One-
the Trent Family Suffers
By Tara Zrinski, Shalereeporter.com shalereporter.com
“New Milton, W.V. — On March 18, Antero Resources issued its
2012 financial and operational results.
This highlighted the company holdings of 305,000 net acres
in the Marcellus Shale and 88,000 acres in the Utica Shale.
Boasting a sky-rocketing production increase of 9 percent,
Antero’s March daily production in March of 390 million cubic feet blows away
the 2012 daily average of 239.
Antero
operates 13 Marcellus rigs, all of which are in West Virginia, and it expects
to add another by year’s end. Antero ascent in the natural gas industry,
however, is blemished by the complaints of a Doddridge County landowner.
William Trent has been battling
Antero Resources over the placement of a water “tank farm” 63 feet from the
bedroom window of his disabled son Jake.
“The neighbor and Antero don't seem to care, as long as they
are both making money,” said Trent. “Life does not seem to matter to them, but
Jake's life does matter to me.”
Ten years ago, Jake Trent suffered a traumatic brain injury
after a four wheeling accident at the age of 15. After over a year in the
hospital, he returned home, his left eye lost and a shunt inserted into his
head to drain the fluid from his brain. He has had over 30 reconstructive
surgeries to his face.
“Jake
couldn’t talk to you, couldn’t even roll over when he came home,” said William
Trent, the adopted father of Jake. “Now he is walking and talking, and all of
this can be lost under these conditions.”
Trent is concerned that his son’s most
recent reconstructive surgery has not healed because of the dust and diesel
fumes the family has had to endure since nearby drilling operations began in
October 2012.
Although the natural
gas operations are on his neighbor’s property, Trent said he introduced his
son to the workers last November in hopes that they would move their operations
while Jake healed from his most recent surgery.
“This was
his last shot at it, that’s what upset me,” said Trent. “With all the dust and
the fumes, if that gets in his shunt, that’s it for Jake.”
In
addition, the family has lost sleep from equipment lights shining in their
windows and the house vibrating as Antero fracked a well 24 hours a day for six
weeks at about 300 feet from their home.
“[Jake’s] temperament changed, his eye was
all bloodshot and burning. It was the diesel fumes,” said Trent.
Trent contends that the operation could have been moved to either of
two open meadows a half a mile from his home instead of “smack dab in my front
yard,” a request Trent said he made at the onset of drilling operations.
At
age 66, Trent works as a production supervisor in the industry of which he is
critical, ironically, so he can continue to care for his Jake. He declined to
provide the name of his employer but indicated that his company would not
operate with such little “concern and respect.”
If Trent could say anything to Antero, it would be: “Get it the hell
out of there. My place is ruined. Who will buy it now?”
Trent and his wife, Debbie,
built a handicap-accessible home with a swimming pool for Jake’s rehabilitation
on a 25-acre plot of land. It is not only covered in mud and dust but is
worthless because of the natural gas operations that have left a huge impact on
the well being of the family.
Now, 10 large water tanks, three water pumps and lights border the
Trent property, guarding a well pad that has been fracked twice since drilling.
“Everything I got is covered
in mud, dust and fumes,” said Trent.
Although Antero supervisors and
even Vice President Alvyn Schopp insisted the situation would be taken care of,
months went by with no concern or contact to the family, Trent said, contrary
to what Antero told local media.
After Trent took his fight to
the local television station, Antero immediately put up a 16-foot fence on Feb.
13.
Trent said that his son’s eye
cleared up and his personality went back to “Jolly Jake” after the fence was
erected, blocking the lights and a bit of the noise.
Since that time, though, his
neighbor had a new fence installed that has left a gap between the drilling pad
and the Trent house, , letting the noise, dust and fumes travel back onto his
property. Trent is still concerned that the stress of the constant flow of
trucks could pose a detriment to Jake’s well being.
Contacting Antero’s Monte Clare
concerning the resolution and future operations, questions were deferred to Vic
Schopp in the Denver, Colo., office, who failed to respond to the inquiry.
“Am I against drilling?
absolutely not.” said Trent, who believes that production is good for the state
and the people who benefit from royalties. “Am I against ruining people’s
lives? Heck yeah, when it’s not necessary.”
By Tara Zrinski, Shalereeporter.com
7. MOB Photo of the Day #87 (03/28/13)
A truck sucks up drilling mud after a
spill during a pipeline project in early 2011.
When asked about the
spill on Feb 21, 2012, Michael Brinkmeyer, general manager at Keystone
Midstream Services LLC, told The Pittsburgh Tribune Review “there were no accidents
or uncontrolled or unexpected discharges.” Later that day, Brinkmeyer changed
his story and stated that Keystone Midstream Services LLC did have an
"inadvertent surface release" from its pipeline installation a week
prior, on Feb. 14.
Read the full chronology below and you can decide if he was
trying to cover-up the spill.
• On Feb. 20, 2012 MOB was informed by a resident that there
was a “spill” taking place on Crab Run Rd. near the site Rex Energy’s Grossick
well.
• One witness was told by a worker that there had been a
“frack out,” another worker said it was drilling mud that returned to the
surface.
• Upon inspection by
MOB members, drilling mud lined the culvert next to the road, passed through a
pipe under the road, and ran towards the creek. Hay bales were set up in an
attempt to stop the flow into the creek. Watch the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DN2ULc-eBM
• According to Timothy Puko’s February 21 article published
on Pittsburgh Tribune Review’s website, the clean-up had been going on for
three to four weeks--that would set the start date at Jan. 23 or 29. In the
same article Michael Brinkmeyer, general manager at Keystone Midstream Services
LLC, told the reporter “there were no accidents or uncontrolled or unexpected
discharges.” Read more:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_782645.html#ixzz1nhu80rPe
• In a second article posted the same day by the same
author, Brinkmeyer changed his story and stated that Keystone Midstream
Services LLC did have an "inadvertent surface release" from its
pipeline installation a week prior, on Feb. 14. Read more: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_782729.html#ixzz1nhuXkllr
• The cleanup was still underway on Feb. 28, 2011. Watch the
video: https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=K0aC4yyVoDY
Photo
by: MOB
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/734861_5830484650445
64_598064772_n.jpg
8. Allegheny County Working
to Limit Diesel Emissions.
(This article
by Don Hopey explains the work being done in Allegheny County to limit highly
toxic diesel emissions, soot particles being so tiny they can directly enter
the bloodstream. By contrast, in more
rural areas, we are being exposed to increasing levels of diesel pollution via truck
traffic and the unregulated use of non-road diesel engines that frequently are
used to power equipment used for the
fracking process. Fracking engines are exempt from protective regs. Jan)
Beginning
in 2007 federal regulations required diesel engines to reduce sooty particle
emissions by 90% and in 2010 to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, a
component of smog by 95%. Federal Rules require
all new diesels to run cleaner. Allegheny Co. Health Dept ‘s vehicle retrofit
program is helping achieve that goal.
The program
has installed new filters and new engines in about 200 vehicles since 2005, costing
about $4 million. And including
retrofits of almost 100 school buses, two Port Authority buses, eight trucks,
44 garbage and municipal trucks and one CSX switchyard locomotive.
The retrofits have reduced diesel emission from those vehicles
by at least 90%, almost 400 tons a year. Reductions include 10 tons of highly carcinogenic
diesel particulate matter containing soot (black carbon), heavy metals, and
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Mr. Thompson, of
Allegheny County Health depart, said 1
ton of diesel particulate emissions poses the same cancer risk as 60 tons of
benzene which is know to cause cancer. By comparison, Stationary sources,
power plants and factories in Allegheny County emit a total of 50 tons of benzene
annually.
The problem
is the older diesels vehicles that can last for 30 to 60 years. Other sources
of diesel emissions include towboats, construction equipment, train locomotives
and off peak electric generator run by industry.
The county has implemented
idling regulations limiting diesel vehicles to no more than 5 minutes of idling
per hour. This reg has been hampered by the state enacting an idling law, Act
124, which prohibits the county health dept from enforcing the county regs.
State law pre-empts Allegheny enforcement and allows enforcement only by law enforcement
officers and some members of the DEP.
A $865,000 study by Pitt school
of public Health and Carnegie Mellon has begun and will use 40 battery operated multi- pollutant
monitors at strategic locations in Downtowns to identify sources of diesel
emissions.
Rachel Filippini from GASP said,
“A Coalition of environmental groups active in pushing for passage of the city
clean diesel construction law in 2011 attended a council committee meeting to
strongly urge the city to implement and enforce the law. “There
has been a huge delay and we want to know what’s going on. The law says
regulations were supposed to be written in six months and yet the air quality
has not benefited and dirty emission are continuing to affect people living
nearby various construction projects a swell as the construction workers.”
By
Don Hopey Pittsburgh Post Gazette, March 24 2013, County acts to reduce diesel
engine emissions)
Old Diesel Equipment
Still Spewing Soot into Pittsburgh’s Air
By Emily DeMarco-Construction
Regs Never Finalized
“Pittsburgh
City Council passed a clean construction law more than 18 months ago but no
dozers, diggers or dump trucks have had to comply. Regulations for the ordinance
haven’t been finalized making in unenforceable.
The law
focused on construction sites that received public dollars. If the development’s
budget was larger than $2.5 million and it received at least $250,000 in public
subsides, it would have to retrofit a percentage of its diesel equipment.
EPA has set standards for new diesel engines but the old
engines produce dirty diesel fumes. The
tiny soot particles, black carbon, can go straight into the bloodstream, and is
linked to cancer, asthma, and stroke.”
(old diesel equipment still spewing soot into Pittsburgh’s
air, Emily de marco, Pittsburgh post gazette, march 24, 2013)
9. Overview of the Hallowich
Case, Washington County
by S. Tom Bond,
Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV
“The
curious story of Stephanie and Chris Hallowich of Washington County in
Pennsylvania may have reached an end. A good start on this is the National
Geographic article relating their experience with shale drilling. Chris, a
young high school History teacher, and Stephanie, an accountant, bought ten
acres about 30 miles South of Pittsburgh and built their dream home, completed
in 2007.
As the
article puts it, “But even as they were building, the bucolic view was being replaced by an industrial panorama. Four natural gas wells, a gas processing
plant, a compressor station, buried pipelines, a three-acre plastic-lined
holding pond, and a gravel road with heavy truck traffic surround them.
Instead of the sounds of birds and the scent of new-mown grass, the Hallowiches
listen to the wheeze of tractor-trailer brakes and breathed diesel fumes—and
worse.”
The result was they had to have water
delivered to their home for drinking, bathing and cooking, and were exposed to
air contamination, too, as well as the sound of the compressor station and
trucks. As readers of FrackCheckWV.net know, standards for proof of well
contamination are set impossibly high, loss of water supply simultaneous to
drilling is not considered proof, you must show the contamination is identical
to something that was sent down the well.
There was a conflict between the PA-DEP
assessment of their well water and the results of a private lab. They had
to use a windsock to tell which way the wind was blowing, to know when to keep
their children indoors. Part of
Hallowich’s problem was having so many installations around them, which are
considered individually, but not the total effect, in present law. They had
invested their future income on the place and no one would buy it and no bank
would finance the buyer. The
company said they offered what amounted to 40% of the value Hallowich’s thought
it was worth, but Hallowich’s denied ever getting an offer. Mrs. Hallowich
became a vocal critic of the industry.
Then the Hallowich’s decided to sue. In August,
2011 it was announced the family had settled the claim against the drilling
company and the two companies that operated the compressor stations. No details
were released, and the results were sealed by the court.
Now the
story gets more peculiar. At this point
the drilling company decided to increase the size of the impoundment from 5
million to 15 million gallons.
Next, two
newspapers, the Observer-Reporter of Washington County, and the Pittsburg
Post-Gazette, decided to ask for opening court records, based on the state
Constitution relating to open court proceedings. The judge refused, saying the
papers had waited too long, from August 23 to September 6, “And untimely filing
of petitions are frowned upon.”
At this
point an Observer-Reporter writer thought to examine the transfer tax record in
the Court House. This showed a $545,000 between the two parties.
November 15th, 2011, the Hallowich’s filed a second suit
against the drilling company stating it had violated the confidential agreement
by falsely stating it paid $500,000 for the property. The actual price was
$100. The claim was that the drilling
company intentionally and fraudulently filed a Reality Transfer Tax Statement
of Value with the State Department of Revenue to publically embarrass them and
inflate the family’s tax obligations on the sale of their home and “garner a
public relations windfall,” because the company had paid more than the full
market (appraised) value of the property.
By April
the matter had grown so important as a news item that the case was appealed to
the PA Superior Court. Earthjustice, a public interest law firm specializing in
cases protecting natural resources, safeguarding public health, and promoting
clean energy, filed an amicus brief on behalf of doctors, scientists,
researchers and advocates supporting the joint efforts of the Pennsylvania
newspapers. “The sealed court records in
this case are part of a widespread pattern of industry secrecy,” Mr. Gerhart
said. “In the face of a nationwide gas drilling boom and the troubling
reports of related health impacts, we cannot afford to let this pattern
continue.”
The 39-page brief contained references to
27 other court cases in seven states involving confidential settlements or
limited disclosure or nondisclosure of court proceedings alleging health or
environmental problems caused by unconventional shale gas development involving
hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Six of the cases are in Pennsylvania.
In
December the state Supreme Court sent the case back to the county court. In January the case was again in Washington
County court before a new judge who said, “The whole thing is a little unusual.
There wasn‘t at least complete transparency that occurred here. And if you have
a presumption of openness in the court and all the activities that happen in
it, this might raise some eyebrows.”
In a March a decision was made by the new Judge that
the record should be opened. The settlement paid out $750,000,including more
than $150,000 in legal fees. The comment from the driller at this point
was, “Range does not have concerns with the judge’s decision, which we greatly
respect, to make the court file public. This information combined with the vast
public data accessible through the DEP’s extensive investigations should
provide the public with even greater clarity that shale gas is being developed
safely and responsibly.” To which the reader will no doubt ask, “So why were
they against disclosure in the first place.”
The new judge’s statement was,
“Corporations, companies and partnership have no spiritual nature, feelings,
intellect, beliefs, thoughts, emotions or sensations because they do not exist
in the manner that humankind exists … They cannot be ‘let alone’ by government
because businesses are but grapes, ripe upon the vine of the law, that the
people of this Commonwealth raise, tend and prune at their pleasure and need.
Therefore, this court must grant those motions and reverse [the previous
decision], unless a higher authority forestalls the common law’s application.”
An article appeared on March 21
titled “Washington County couple collects $750K settlement in fracking case
with no medical evidence to support health claims,” allowing the spokesman from
the drilling company to say, “We’ve long maintained there was never any
environmental or safety impact on the family. The public can now very clearly
see this is an industry that is being faithfully and responsibly developed
without adverse impacts on health, safety or the environment.”
Whoa! What’s the lesson here? Do
you suppose these people admitted they were lying all along? Do you suppose two college educated people
didn’t understand the implications of the statement admitting no medical
evidence existed to show that drilling harmed them when collecting a
settlement? Or do you suppose it was a logical extension of the often used
confidential settlements, mentioned above, so frequently forced on litigants to
get them to settle? Is this last interpretation out of line with the
attempt to “stick it to the Holloways” by falsely reporting property value as
mentioned in the second suit filed?
What
is the old saying, “When you swim with sharks….”
Recent FrackCheck Publication by S. Tom Bond on March 25,
2013
10. Race to Ship PA Gas to the
Gulf
(The article notes that PA faces an uphill battle in
getting a cracker plant. The cracker plant, to which Gov Corbett promised huge
tax breaks, would be highly polluting and deteriorate air quality. There is, of course, no mention of tough
environmental regs to protect health. Jan)
By Erin Schwartzel
“Pipelines in PA will move natural
gas liquids to Texas – a 1500 mile trip. Enterprise will start building a
pipeline next month that will connect Houston, PA to Houston, Texas.
Ethane which can be processed
into ethylene- used to make plastics- is in demand. A plant is needed to
convert the ethane into ethylene. The PA
cracker plant would take several years of construction. So in the meantime t
the ethane will be shipped to the Gulf Coast.
About 70% of the Enterprise
route will use pipelines already in place, converting pipelines so that they
can run liquids, which are cheaper to run because they require lower pressures.
In Beaumont Texas, near Houston,
petrochemical plants are everywhere. Pennsylvania faces an uphill battle to get
the cracker plant because infrastructure and a workforce are already in place
in other states. “
To
read the article: (race is on to ship gas liquids form PA to Gulf Coast plants,
Erich schwartzel, post gazette, march 24 3013)
11. More Drilling in PA In Order To Send Gas to India and Japan
“The operator of a
proposed Chesapeake Bay terminal that would liquefy natural gas for export has
signed deals to ship the fuel to India and Japan, buttressing its application
for an export license.
Dominion Resources announced Monday that it
had secured buyers for essentially the entire capacity of the proposed plant at
Cove Point, Md., which is tied directly by pipeline to Pennsylvania's Marcellus
Shale gas field.
The
Virginia energy company also announced it had signed engineering contracts for
the Cove Point project and filed a formal 12,000-page application with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Construction would
start in 2014 and the plant would begin shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) in
2017. The project is estimated to cost from $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion.
Natural
gas must be purified and super-cooled into liquid to be transported by ship.
Upon arrival at destination markets, the LNG is converted back into gas.
Dominion says the plant would generate 4,000 direct and indirect jobs
during construction, produce an estimated $9.8 billion in royalty payments to
mineral owners over 25 years, and spin off $1 billion annually in federal,
state and local government revenues.
It also would stimulate more drilling in
Pennsylvania, where Marcellus production has subsided because an oversupply has
driven down prices. "This may be an opportunity for them to return to
drilling like they were before," said Daniel E. Donovan, a Dominion
spokesman.
Dominion's proposal awaits a key license
from the Department of Energy to export LNG to non-free-trade nations, which
include Japan and India. Dominion's application is third in line out of more
than 20 awaiting review by the energy department. Most of the plants are on the
Gulf Coast.”
Under the agreements, Dominion
collects a fee for transporting and processing the fuel, but the exporters will
own the natural gas.
Commentary by John Trallo:
We are the
fossil fools of fossil fuels.
This is what we're being asked to
sacrifice our lifestyles, our peace, our state forests, our families’ health
and safety, our property values, and our children's future for. Oh, and corporate profits, too. We have been
lied to by the industry and our elected officials, and it continues to go on,
and will continue until the people wake up and refuse to tolerate it. We
deserve better. Our children deserve better. This is NOT what "energy
independence, lower domestic fuel costs, clean energy, and American jobs"
look like.
We are going to be an extraction
colony for the rest of the world, and with this insane push towards
"right-to-work" in this country, we will indeed have the "right
to work" for less than standard or minimum wage, no benefits, no retirement,
and no ability to engage in collective bargaining for a living wage and for job
security. Corbett said, PA is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.... this is what
he meant. We will be a third world extraction colony.
This is why people like State Senator
Gene Yaw and State Representative Garth Everett are holding a "closed door
- invitation only" PA stakeholders meeting on developing 25,000 acres of
Rock Run in the Loyalsock State Forest -- that belong to the people of PA, in
which every PA resident is in fact a stakeholder, at the DCNR Resource
Management Center at 6735 Rt. 220 Dushore, PA 18614 tomorrow at 1pm, where not
even the press is allowed in. This cries for a public presence asking to have
access as PA stakeholders, as is our constitutional right.
This is
outrageous.
JT
12. Gas Prices and Production Decline
“The
trend is so ominous that two industry insiders I know believe that U.S. natural
gas production could actually start declining soon and send prices soaring.
They say drillers have fallen so far
behind that it will be impossible to make up for production lost from existing
shale gas wells. Those wells typically see production decline rates of 85
percent after two years. (Translation: Some 85 percent of existing
production from shale gas wells must be replaced every two years BEFORE
production can grow.)The future is, of course, unknown to us. But, the present
and the past suggest that the so-called shale gas revolution is about to be
laid to rest. Yes, shale gas might prevent total American natural gas
production from dropping off a cliff even as conventional natural gas
production continues to decline. And, at some point shale gas might even allow
U.S. production to rise modestly above current levels. But, two things are now
abundantly clear: It won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap.”
Comment from Group Member:
According
to this, It would appear that the cost to extract MS gas has resulted in
drastic cut backs on production because gas prices have remained low.
However, If
LNG is exported to the degree that applications are being made and the fall off
rate for wells already drilled is at 85% after only TWO YEARS as listed in what
I've copied and pasted below, the cost will spiral for all while multiple wells
will need to be drilled to keep up with demand. Our state will suffer
mass destruction, along with the residents enduring the drilling and yet we
consumers will pay increased costs for the gas provided.
13. Ed Rendell's Payments from Gas Interests
Not Disclosed in Pro-Fracking Column
“Former Gov. Ed Rendell once called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
"crazy" for backing a moratorium on gas
drilling until environmental concerns could be resolved. This past week,
Rendell had a strongly worded op-ed column in the New York Daily News,
attacking "vocal critics … who continue to push a false choice" by
putting environmental concerns ahead of the "economic growth" of the
gas boom. Rendell, it seemed in Wednesday's column, just wanted to give New
York State some helpful advice out of the kindness of his heart. The very next
day, a bunch of online troublemakers known as ProPublica divulged something that Rendell "forgot" to tell
the editors of The Daily News. He was not just speaking as Pennsylvania's
former governor; he was speaking as a paid consultant for a company that
has invested in the gas drilling industry.
When Rendell's
column urged New Yorkers to support fracking, ProPublica reported, he did not divulge that "he has worked as a
paid consultant to a private equity firm with investments in the natural gas
industry," and gets about $30,000 a year from the firm, Element Partners.
Rendell did tell The Philadelphia Inquirer that, "This idea that I'm a
shill for natural gas companies is ludicrous." As for the "strong
oversight" Rendell mentioned, critics have accused both him and Corbett of
undercutting enforcement of environmental laws, an assertion supported when two
officials of the oddly named state Department of Environmental Protection were
forced to testify under oath and confirmed deliberate steps to withhold
disclosures about water contamination.”
14. Industry
Complains So DEP Withdraws 4 Pollutants from Proposed Water Regs
March 29, 2013 – In the face of industry opposition, Pennsylvania
officials have backed away from proposed
standards that would limit certain kinds pollution that drilling and fracking
operators can discharge into the Commonwealth’s waters.
Specifically, the agency has removed proposed
standards for molybdenum, sulfates, chlorides, and 1-4 dioxane, because the
restricfftions “raised the concern of the business community,” according to a
recent DEP report. The constituents were
originally included in proposed updates to Chapter 93, which regulates water
quality under the Clean Streams Law. The revised proposal is now pending
approval by the Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality
Board.
http://tomwilber.blogspot.com/2013/03/pa-eases-water-standard-update-after.html
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
To remove your name from our list please put “remove name from list’ in
the subject line
