Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates August
29, 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-
Thank you to Volunteers:
Thank you to everyone who has
helped with distributing flyers. We were
on the sidewalks outside concerts at St Clair Park and will be at Northmoreland Park.
Workers included Harriet Ellenberger, Cindy Walter, Mike
Atherton, Kathryn Hilton, Jan and Jack Milburn and Marian Szmyd.
If you
are attending an event where you can hand out information on fracking, please
let me know, and we will provide you with some literature. This is a good way
to better inform the public and often can be done with no fee involved — public sidewalks are public . jan
Thank you to all who responded to the Alert:
“Friends,
Last Friday, we blew
our own expectations out of the water.
Organizations from
across the country submitted over 1 million comments to the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM), the agency that controls US federal lands, to say no to a new
proposal to expand fracking on our public land.
This amazing response from activists from all over the
country sends a loud and clear message to the BLM and the Obama administration
that we will not stand for any more fracking on our lands -- we want renewable
energy, and we want it right away.
Last Thursday, with our friends at Americans Against
Fracking, a coalition of organizations focused on banning fracking, we
delivered over 650,000 of those comments to the BLM. 350’s Policy Director
Jason Kowalski stood with organizations big and small who want to ban fracking,
from the frontlines in Pennsylvania, to many of the national organizations
tackling the issue.
Fracking threatens our climate, water and health. Time and
time again we’ve seen fracking wells crack and water contaminated. Methane gas
is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and fracking leaks a ton of it into
our atmosphere. What’s not leaked is burned and turned into CO2, which we
already have far too much of anyways.
But together, we’re showing that our movement is ready to
step up to do big things to stop fracking. And that’s huge.
Thank you for standing 1 million strong against fracking,
Linda Capato, 350.org”
TAKE ACTION!!
***Help Protect
PA’s Wild Trout Streams and Endangered Species
PA Legislature Looking to Gut Protections to Appease Drillers & Other Special
Interests
Oppose H.B. 1576
& S.B. 1047
A.K.A The Endangered Species Coordination Act
Politicians in Harrisburg are considering a proposal that
would put endangered and threatened wildlife in Pennsylvania at risk—such as
the Banded Sunfish, Brown Bat, and Northern Cricket Frog.
Email your legislator today and ask them to oppose efforts
to rollback protections for PA’s endangered species.
The
proposal being considered would remove the classification of “endangered” or
“threatened” for all species categorized as such by the state—and require them
all to be re-designated—or lose protections. They would also put the fate of
these creatures in the hands of politicians by removing the power to protect
species from ecologists and scientists.
And even worse, developers,
frackers and other polluters would be able to begin construction in a natural
area, without considering nearby populations of endangered species.
Tell
your legislator to keep endangered species protections in place.
Rachel Carson once said, “"Like the resource it seeks
to protect, wildlife conservation must be dynamic, changing as conditions
change, seeking always to become more effective."
The
current proposals don’t make protection for these animals more effective at
all. It’s a step back for critical populations of Pennsylvania wildlife.
So help us give them a voice in Harrisburg by emailing your
legislators today. Ask them to oppose legislation that rolls back protections
for Pennsylvania’s threatened and endangered species.
David Masur
PennEnvironment Director
[1] "House Bill 1576," Pennsylvania
************************************
Spread the word and
share this info on your Facebook page:
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/river-action/ongoing-issue-detail.aspx?Id=61
5 Reasons to Oppose these bills (from Mt Watershed) :
There
are many things wrong with these Bills but five things to point out now with
proposed H.B 1576:
*
The PA Fish and Boat Commission, PA Game Commission, and Dept. of
Conservation and Natural Resources would be prohibited from designating a species as Threatened &Endangered
unless the species was FEDERALLY
designated.
* Plus the law would put political pressure
over the science by requiring any action or listing by the agency to first be
submitted to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission for approval.
*
The proposed legislation would greatly weaken PA’s Wild Trout stream
designation – by removing the ability
for a stream to be given Wild Trout stream protection provisionally in advance
of publication in the PA Bulletin.
This contradicts how DEP applies Exceptional Value existing use
designation to Wild Trout streams in advance of Environmental Quality Board
(EQB) approval and would allow for degradation of our important and rare wild
trout streams as PADEP works through the lengthy and often multi-year long
stream upgrade process.
*
Any new designation of a Pennsylvania endangered species could only happen if that species is in
danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its entire
federal range. So a species could be
on the verge of extinction in PA and it would not qualify as endangered in Pennsylvania and receive necessary special
protections under this new proposed law.
* The legislation would shift the burden onto the taxpayers and state agencies
to determine the presence of threatened and endangered species instead of keeping that burden on the
developers and polluters who are applying for permits.
Pennsylvania
species on the existing state’s listing would be AUTOMATICALLY DELISTED from the
state’s “centralized database “ after two years unless they are re-designated
by the agency.
To view PA H.B 1576:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2013&sInd=0&body=H&type=B&bn=1576
To view PA S.B.
1047:http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2013&sInd=0&body=S&type=B&bn=1047
To see PA Game Commission comment about the problems with this
bill:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/160776944/HB-1576-Packet
Please also contact the
two Committee Chairs: Rep. Martin Causer
(717-787-5075) and Rep Gary Haluska (717-787-3532) who are holding the joint
hearing on Monday.
MCauser@PahouseGOP.com, and http://www.pahouse.com/contact/viaLDPC.asp?district=73
(to email Rep. Haluska)
Spread the word and share
this info on your Facebook page:
http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/river-action/ongoing-issue-detail.aspx?Id=61
***Oppose The
Natural Gas Consumer Expansion Act SB 738
Presented
by Gene Yaw, and co-presented by Pileggi, Tomlinson, Vulakovich, Vogel, Ward,
Erickson, Mensch, Greenleaf, Gordner, White, Robbins, Vance, Wozniak, Rafferty,
Costa, Baker, Waugh, Brewster, and Browne
In a nut
shell, what this legislation means is that the municipalities would be required to submit a plan for the expansion of
natural gas as a public utility, and the cost for this infrastructure will come
from "customer contribution". In other words, the people living in
rural PA will foot the entire cost of this expansion project. But that's not all. This bill also states
that any future expansion costs will also be in the form of "customer
contributions". This will not affect customers that are natural gas
customers prior to this legislation. Bottom line, anyone who is not a current
natural gas customer will be footing the bill for the entire expansion
project... like it, or not.
By increasing the demand, this
will automatically increase the domestic price. Couple that with the cost of
the infrastructure, and we'll end up much higher property tax and much higher
utility bills.
It will also mean more drilling,
more compressor stations, more pipelines, more construction, more truck
traffic, more pollution, etc., etc., etc.!
Another perfect example of
privatizing the profits by socializing the costs.
To read the bill: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2013&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0738&pn=1213
That is why everyone needs to call
their representatives and insist they vote "NO" on SB738.
***Ask Pres. Obama
to Resume Fracking Studies
From Food and Water Watch
“Last
week, there was breaking news from EPA whistle-blowers that in 2012 the EPA abandoned an investigation of
fracking-related water contamination in Dimock, Pennsylvania after an EPA staff
member raised the flag that it was likely caused by fracking¹.
There's
an unfortunate trend here, because they've also abandoned their
fracking-related water contamination investigations in Pavillion, Wyoming² and
Weatherford, Texas³. This is
unbelievable, and totally unacceptable.
Will
you join me today in calling on President Obama and his new EPA administrator
Gina McCarthy to immediately reopen these investigations and deliver safe
drinking water to the residents of these communities while the investigations
commence?
Thanks
for taking action,
Sarah Alexander, Deputy Organizing Director, Food & Water Watch”
Frack Links
***Rob Rogers Fracking Cartoon An excerpt:
“The whole idea of
marketing fracking as a “festival” makes me uncomfortable.”
“What’s next the “Carbon monoxide expo” or the
“Mercury-poisoning regatta?”
***Colbert Video -- Range Pays for Silence on Fracking and Health Problems
Colbert’s Satire on Hallowich Case
***To sign up for notifications
of activity and violations for your area:
***List of the Harmed--There are now
over 1300 residents of Pennsylvania who placed their names on the list of the harmed
because they became sick after fracking began in their area . http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/
***Problems with
Gas?—Report It-from Clean Air Council
Clean
Air Council is announcing a new auto-alert system for notifying relevant
agencies about odors, noises or visible emissions that residents suspect are
coming from natural gas operations in their community.
Just
fill out the questions below and our system will automatically generate and
send your complaint to the appropriate agencies.
Agencies that will receive your e-mail: the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection (Regional Office of sender and
Harrisburg Office), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Take Action Here
If you witness the release of potentially hazardous
material into the environment, please also use the National Response Center's
online form below:
Thanks for your
help.
Sincerely, , Matt Walker, Community Outreach Director, Clean
Air Council
***Dr. Brasch
Hosts Fracking Program-- Dr. Walter Brasch, author of the critically
acclaimed book, Fracking Pennsylvania,
is hosting a weekly half-hour radio show about fracking. "The Frack Report" airs 7:30 p.m.,
Mondays (beginning July 29) and is re-run 7:30 a.m., Wednesdays, on WFTE-FM
(90.3 in Mt. Cobb and 105.7 in Scranton.) The show will be also be live
streamed at www.wfte.org and also available a day after the Monday night
broadcast on the station's website. Brasch's first guest is Karen Feridun,
founder of Berks Gas Truth. He will be interviewing activists, persons affected
by fracking, scientists, and politicians. Each show will also feature news
about fracking and the anti-fracking movement.
Brasch is a multi-award-winning four-decade
journalist and social activist, a former newspaper reporter and editor,
multimedia production writer-producer. Among his most recent awards are those
from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Pennsylvania
Press Club, National Federation of Press Women, National Society of Newspaper
Columnists, and Society of Professional Journalists. He is professor emeritus
from the Pa. State System of Higher Education. He is also the author of 17
books, most fusing history with contemporary social issues.
***Preview - Glass
Half Empty: An American Water War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rVV-umpTlU
***Texan drought
sets residents against fracking - video
Skytruth
Report Details
NRC Report ID: 1057959
Incident Time: 2013-08-22
17:00:00
Nearest City: Canonsburg,
PA
Location: MARKWEST
CRYOGENIC PROCESSING PLANT WESTERN AVE
Incident Type: FIXED
Material: UNKNOWN MATERIAL
Medium Affected: AIR
Suspected Responsible Party: MARKWEST CRYOGENIC PROCESSING
PLANT
SkyTruth Analysis
Lat/Long: 40.284130, -80.312195 (Approximated from ZIP)
Report Description
***WEB REPORT***
11:20 AM LARGE FLARING FLAMES, STACKS RELEASING WHITE/GREY SMOKE INTO THE ENVIRONMENT-
WITNESSED FROM ROUTE 19. 5:30PM- 7:15PM, LARGE FLARING FLAME- STACKS RELEASING
A LARGE AMOUNT OF BLACK SMOKE INTO ENVIRONMENT, MULTIPLE OCCURRENCES. .
Frack News
1. CBS (KDKA)
Celebrates Gas Industry
All Gassed Up: CBS Radio hands over the mic to natural-gas
boosters
by Chris Potter Pittsburgh City Paper
“CBS Radio, which owns KDKA and three other local stations, celebrated
Aug. 15 as a "Marcellus Shale Festival" — a chance "to celebrate
all that Marcellus Shale brings to our region." The festival featured an
on-air parade of drilling boosters at KDKA, as well as off-air programming at
the North Side's Stage AE.
Morning
host Marty Griffin, for example, touted the broadcast as a celebration of
"hope and opportunity." His guests included Pitzarella, Allegheny
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — who has aggressively pursued drilling
opportunities on county land — and Phelim McAleer, maker of pro-drilling film
FrackNation. Environmentalists, by contrast, were ridiculed in absentia: Griffin
mocked Doug Shields, a vocal drilling opponent, by suggesting the former city
councilor was "pounding on a bathroom door somewhere, looking for
work."
And when environmentalists did
appear, they say, they were ushered out.
While the festival was billed as
"free to the public," Stage AE is private property, and Lucas Lyons
says security told him to leave when he tried to convince attendees that
drilling was dangerous. ("People started calling me ‘Obama,'" Lyons
says — and because the president supports drilling, "I was really
confused.")
Another environmentalist, Kathryn Hilton, tried circulating
anti-drilling literature. "I was fairly certain there weren't going to be
any alternate views available," she says. And indeed, she says she was
told to distribute the material outside.
"The industry likes to say they operate in good
faith," Hilton says, "but the absence [of dissenting voices] suggests
they aren't."
The Festival events and broadcasts
were sponsored by drilling interests, including an upcoming industry convention
and Norton Rose Fulbright, a law firm with a drilling practice. Companies like Range are frequent CBS Radio
advertisers; sports-talk station 93.7 The Fan even offers a sponsored
"Fracking is Fun" fact-of-the-day feature.
CBS Radio senior vice president Michael Young says
CBS does "not normally" conduct such promotions, though the station
has held smaller-scale "expos" on drilling before.
"We
promoted it as a Marcellus Shale Festival, and the town-hall meeting was about
how private companies and the public sector were working together," says
Young.
"In our editorial coverage,
I think you get a diverse sense of opinions, and of objective news
coverage." When asked about claims that environmentalists' opinions were
unwelcome at the Festival, Young said he couldn't comment. But "if there's
a big story" related to drilling, "our folks will be out there and be
objective."
But
why should audiences believe that? When a broadcaster boosts an industry on and
off the air, is it fair to expect listeners to distinguish a station's
news-gathering from its promotions?”
2. Rep. White
Leads- Will anyone follow
Mandatory Air Monitoring—Just what the doctor ordered
MEMORANDUM
Posted: August 26, 2013 03:22 PM
From: Representative Jesse White
To: All House members
Subject: Air Quality Monitoring Systems
with Publicly-Accessible Data Near Natural Gas Operations
“In the near future, I will be
introducing legislation that would mandate air quality monitoring systems be
placed near all natural gas compressor stations, processing plants and
centralized wastewater impoundments.
Under this legislation, air quality
monitoring systems would be required at all current and future sites. In
addition, the facility operators would be required to install and maintain
monitoring systems at their own expense as a condition of their permitting.
Further, this legislation would require that all air quality levels recorded by
monitoring systems be made publically accessible through a real-time display
posted on the Internet.
Recently, the Associated
Press reported on preliminary data from the Southwest Pennsylvania
Environmental Health Project regarding cases in which residents may have
experienced symptoms and illnesses as a result of living in close proximity to
natural gas operations. To date, the project has discovered 27 cases in which
residents developed symptoms and illnesses after nearby natural gas operations
began. All 27 cases are confined to Washington County residents who have had no
underlying medical conditions that were likely to have caused the symptoms in
question, but who live near probable sources of drilling-related water and air
pollution.
According to the AP article,
(which can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fracking-health-project-puts-numbers-debate)
A previous DEP
report found some of the state's highest
levels of gas drilling air pollution in Washington County, including toxic
compounds such as benzene, toluene and formaldehyde. Other gas drilling
firms and companies operate in the area, too. Long-term exposure to benzene can
affect the immune system and cause cancer, while toluene can cause excessive
sleepiness, confusion and, with long-term exposure, brain damage.
Although
this data is only in preliminary stages, there are indications that air
pollution generated from natural gas production may have a much greater impact
on the health of area residents than was previously thought.
I believe that requiring air quality monitoring systems to be placed
near natural gas compressor stations, processing plants and centralized
wastewater impoundments will hold everyone to a higher standard and ensure that
air quality is safe for residents living nearby.
If we are going to have an
honest, fact-based debate about the impact of drilling-related operations in
our communities, the public should have access to the facts in an unfiltered
way. This will also be useful for operators who contend their facilities are
not impacting the air quality; if there is no impact, it should be clear for
everyone to see.”
If you would like to co-sponsor this legislation, please
contact Dominic Lemmon at 717-783-6437 or DLemmon@pahouse.net.
3. Court Should
Say No to Act 13 Reargument
By DAVID M.BALL
“Wouldn't
life be great if we could have a redo on things we think might not go our way?
That's exactly what the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the
Department of Environmental Protection are seeking in a
recently filed request for a reargument of the Act 13 1awsuit before the State
Supreme Court.
In
February 2012, the state House of Representatives approved, by a razor-thin
margin of 10 votes, House Bill No.1950 which became Act 13, amending the Pennsylvania
Oil and Gas Act. Act 13 was written by industry, for industry and to the
detriment of the commonwealth's citizens. Among many other unconstitutional
features, the law stripped municipalities of their zoning and planning rights.
It permitted industrial operations such as gas well drilling, compressor stations,
hazardous waste impoundment ponds and processing plants in all zoning
districts, including residential areas. It violates the core rationale for
zoning, voids the comprehensive plans of municipalities, holds the very real
potential of subjecting citizens to dangerous environmental hazards, will
adversely impact property values and promotes the interests of one industry.
In March
2012, several individuals and seven communities, including Peters, Mt.
Pleasant, Cecil and Robinson townships in Washington County, filed suit against
the commonwealth. The suit asked Commonwealth Court to declare certain
provisions of Act 13 unconstitutional and to stop implementation of the parts
of the law. The court ruled that parts of Act 13, including the sections that
would strip zoning authority from local municipalities and allow the PUC to act
as judge and jury regarding the law were, indeed, unconstitutional
The
state decided, predictably, to spend more taxpayer money and appeal to the Supreme
Court, and the case was heard in October before only six judges, thanks to the
suspension of Justice Joan Orie Melvin. To date, the decision has not been
handed down, and Corealle Stevens was sworn in as the seventh Justice on July
31 to replace Orie Melvin. Shortly thereafter, the DEP and the PUC filed a
motion to have the case reargued before the Supreme Court now that a seventh
justice has been appointed.
If
granted, such a motion would seriously call into question the integrity of the
court. Why do they want a rehearing with seven justices? Earlier this year in a
talk before the Philadelphia Bar Association, Justice Michael Eakin indicated
that two pending cases were tied 3-3.The presumption is that one of those was
the Act 13 decision. A 3-3 decision by the court is a decision, just as surely
as any other vote. In the case of a 3-3 decision, the decision of Commonwealth
Court is upheld.”
4. Research Study: Fracking Fluid From 2007 Kentucky Spill May
Have Killed Threatened Fish Species
“2013 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Southeastern Naturalist.
A joint study from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service found that a
fracking fluid spill in Kentucky in 2007 likely caused the widespread death of
several types of fish.
Nami
Resources Company, a London, Ky.-based oil and gas exploration company, spilled
fracking fluid from four well sites into the Acorn Fork Creek in southeastern
Kentucky in May and June 2007. Not long after, nearly all the aquatic life --
including at least two fish from a threatened species -- in the part of the
stream near the spill died. Chemicals released during the spill included
hydrochloric acid.
After
studying samples of the water and bodies of green sunfish and creek chub,
government researchers have concluded that
the spill acidified the stream and increased concentrations of heavy metals
including aluminum and iron. Fish exposed to the water developed gill lesions
and showed signs of liver and spleen damage, USGS announced in a press release.
The gill
lesions were consistent with "toxic concentrations of heavy metals,"
the researchers concluded.
Nami
Resources pleaded guilty to charges that it violated the Clean Water and
Endangered Species Acts in the spill and paid a $50,000 fine in October 2009, but
blamed the incident on "independent contractors" who were not under
the company's direct supervision.
"Our study is a precautionary tale of how entire
populations could be put at risk even with small-scale fluid spills," said
USGS scientist and lead author Diana Papoulias in the release.
"These
species use the same water as we do, so it is just as important to keep our
waters clean for people and for wildlife," co-author Tony Velasco said.
"This is an example of how the smallest creatures can act as a canary in a
coal mine."
The
study appears in a special 2013 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Southeastern
Naturalist.”
5. EPA To Set Air
Pollution Rules, Gas Industry Bulks
By RENEE SCHOOF, McClatchy Newspapers
“The EPA is expected
to announce the first national rules to reduce air pollution. The White House
has been reviewing the EPA plan to consider possible changes, the normal
procedure for regulations. Industry groups have lobbied for exemptions
The final version will show how President Barack Obama’s
administration navigates between the nation’s needs for energy and health.
Pam Judy of Carmichaels,
Pa.., says
she fears that her family already is at risk from fumes from a large natural
gas compressor station 780 feet from their home in the hills. When they built
it, they were far from everything. Three years later, a natural gas compressor
station was built on neighboring property.
“We have fumes that are in our
yard almost constantly,” she said. “There are times when it smells like diesel
or a kerosene smell. It’s very difficult to pinpoint the exact smell. Then
there are times we get a smell like chlorine. When we get that chlorine smell
it literally will scorch your eyes and your throat.”
Air tests found 16 chemicals in her yard, including benzene, a chemical
the EPA classifies as a carcinogen. She said test of her blood also showed
exposure to benzene and other chemicals. Benzene can cause dizziness and
headaches, symptoms she’s had. Her adult children have had runny noses,
headaches and sore throats that go away when they aren’t at their parents’
home.
The family worries about
long-term exposure and is wrestling with whether to stay. Their land was handed
down in her family since her great-grandparents’ day, Judy said. “It’s really
heart-wrenching for us to make the decision to move.”
Paul Parker, a retired vice president of an engineering company who worked with
energy companies, has lived for 36 years in an area south of Pittsburgh where
natural gas development has sprung up in the last few years. Parker said no to
leases on his own property, but sees the development around him and says the
area has been ruined.
“When you go outside, it’s like living in a chemical complex,” he said.
He said pollution comes from vents on storage tanks near his property, as well
as nearby
flaring to burn gas in early
stages of well development and the diesel emissions of
hundreds of trucks needed to
haul water and equipment to well sites.
The EPA’s rule
would require companies to use portable equipment to
capture this gas that otherwise escapes to the
atmosphere or gets burned
off in flares,
a process known as green completion. The equipment would reduce volatile organic
compounds, which contribute to the formation of smog ,and capture methane, and make it available for
sale.
The industry estimates
that more than 25,000 wells are fractured or refractured each year.
The American Petroleum Institute, API the lobby for the oil and gas
industry, has asked the Obama administration to make the requirement apply only
to wells where the gas stream is 10 percent or more of volatile organic
compounds. That approach would exclude many wells.
The EPA’s existing rule for
volatile organic compounds in the gas industry was issued in 1985 and applied
only to leak detection at new and upgraded gas processing plants. That
arrangement leaves much of the volatile organic-compound emissions from the oil
and gas industry unregulated.
API
told the EPA earlier that the average well is 2.95 percent volatile organic
compounds. API spokesman Carlton Carroll said
that number was wrong. “We believe the average is closer to 10 percent,” he
said.
API
president and CEO Jack Gerard wrote to senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett that emissions
controls on VOCs would not be cost-effective. He also asked for other changes,
including at least two years for building the equipment needed for green
completions.
Environmental groups oppose those
requests. They say that even small
percentages of volatile organic compounds add up, because the volumes in
fracking are so large. They also say that the industry over-estimated the costs of green completions, and they point out that in
states such as Colorado and Wyoming, where the equipment is already required,
the gas industry has continued to grow.
Other parts of the EPA’s plan
would require equipment on compressors, storage tanks and new pneumatic
controllers, the instruments that control pressure and other conditions.
“This industry produces an astonishing
amount of air pollutions,” and the emissions have been largely ignored, said
Joe Osborne, legal director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution.
Some pollutants on a local
level can mean greater risks for cancer and neurological and reproductive
problems, Osborne said. Other pollutants combine to form smog, which spreads
over a much wider area. Smog can make it hard to breathe, aggravate asthma and
other lung diseases and permanently damage lungs
In
Pennsylvania, where GASP is based, parts of the state, along with much of the
rest of the Eastern U.S., already don’t meet health standards for smog. The
good news is that smog levels have gone down in the past 20 years, Osborne
said. But the development of shale gas “has the potential to halt that progress
or potentially even reverse it.”
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/04/16/5104405/as-air-pollution-from-fracking.html#storylink=cpy
6. DEP Attempted
To Suppress Controversial Study On Shale
Gas and Climate Change
“StateImpact
Pennsylvania has obtained a copy of the original draft climate report and
internal DEP emails, which reveal an attempt by its Policy Office to suppress
controversial research that questions the benefits of natural gas.
The DEP’s Policy
Office wanted a team of Penn State scientists who authored the climate report
to remove all references to a 2011 study from Cornell University.
The peer- reviewed paper, by
professor Robert Howarth, has been the subject of intense debate. It concludes
that from a climate change perspective, natural gas is dirtier than coal.
Howarth believes this methane leakage negates any climate
change benefits derived from burning natural gas.
Here’s part of their
original climate change draft report, which was submitted to the DEP in
February 2012:
Under scenarios where
large amounts of methane are vented, or fugitive methane emissions from the gas
transportation system are high, the life-cycle climate impacts of natural gas
power generation may be on par with coal-fired power generation (Howarth, et
al., 2011). This conclusion also rests on assumptions regarding the timing of
climate impacts over which there is additional uncertainty. Three other studies
(Jiang et al., 2011: NETL, 2011: Cathles, 2011) question the assumptions by Howarth…
DEP policy specialist Jessica Shirley pressed
the point to Sherrick in an email.
“Please ensure that
all references to Howarth are removed,” she wrote.
Drafts of the climate report and
internal DEP emails were obtained by the environmental group, PennFuture
through an open records request and shared with StateImpact Pennsylvania.
Jessica
Shirley, the DEP policy specialist who asked for the study to be removed, says
it was her own judgment call, and she was not pressured by anyone above her.
“We ended up not
taking it out,” she tells StateImpact, “[Howarth] will be in the final
assessment report.”
Colm
Sweeney studies greenhouse gas emissions for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado.
He and a team of scientists recently took measurements with
an airplane over a gas field in Utah and
found on one day the gas field leaked 6 to 12 percent of the methane produced
(which is on the higher end of Howarth’s leakage rates).
“We need a lot more measurements to say methane
leakage is a national problem,” he says.
The
federal EPA recently slashed its estimates of how much methane is being emitted
by oil and gas production, citing tighter controls by the industry.”
http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/08/27/dep-attempted-to-supress-controversial-study-that-criticized-shale-gas/
7. Fracking Boom
Could Lead To Housing Bust
“When it comes to the real estate market in Bradford County,
PA, says Bob Benjamin, a local broker and certified appraiser for residential mortgage,
lending is an especially murky
situation.
When
Benjamin fills out an appraisal for a lender, he has to note if there is a fracked well or an impoundment lake on or
near the property. “I’m having to explain a lot of things when I give the
appraisal to the lender,” he says. “They are asking questions about the well
quite often.”
And
national lenders are becoming more cautious about underwriting mortgages for
properties near fracking, even ones they would have routinely financed in the
past, Benjamin says.
That’s a
real problem in Bradford County, where
93 percent of the acreage is now under lease to a gas company.
Lawyers,
realtors, public officials, and environmental advocates from Pennsylvania to
Arkansas to Colorado are noticing that banks and federal agencies are
revisiting their lending policies to account for the potential impact of
drilling on property values, and in some cases are refusing to finance property
with or even just near drilling activity.
Real
estate experts say another problematic trend is that many homeowners insurance policies do not cover residential properties
with a gas lease or gas well, yet all mortgage companies require homeowners
insurance from their borrowers.
“I
think we are on the tip of this,” says Steve
Hvozdovich, Marcellus Shale coordinator for Clean Water Action in Pennsylvania.
“Whether you are the homeowner trying to get homeowners insurance or the
neighbor [to a fracking site] who is trying to refinance, there are just so
many tentacles to this. I don’t think people are grasping all the impacts of
natural gas drilling.”
Brian
and Amy Smith live across the street from a new gas well in Daisytown in Washington County, Pa.. Last year, when
they applied for a new mortgage on their $230,000 home and hobby farm, they
were denied.
According to ABC affiliate
WTAE, this appears to be the first
example in western Pennsylvania of a homeowner being denied a mortgage because
of gas drilling on a neighbor’s property:
In an email, Quicken Loans told
the Smiths, “Unfortunately, we are unable to move forward with this loan. It is
located across the street from a gas drilling site.” Two other national lenders
also turned down Brian Smith’s application.
“I think a lot of folks
nationally are watching this case,” says Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), a
congressman who represents areas north and west of Denver. He noted that in his
home district fracking leads to a “haircut on a property’s values.”
“I think it is something that the
banks would frankly be smart to look at,” Polis says.
Elisabeth N. Radow, a lawyer and
chair of the League of Women Voters of
New York State’s Committee on Energy, Agriculture and the Environment, says
the Smiths’ story shows that property owners are clearly vulnerable to what
happens on their neighbors’ land in fracking territory. “A [fracking] gas well
brings commercial activity, can pollute drinking water and devalue the
property.”
Another big unknown is how
homeowners might be affected by horizontal drilling happening underneath their
property, May said. “Horizontal drill bores radiate out from the vertical bore
up to one mile in each direction, which could potentially impact other owners’
fee-simple real estate ownership,” May says.
Twelve hundred miles southwest of
Bradford County, Connee Robertson and her husband run an animal rescue center
on 1.6 acres overlooking Little Red River .
Robertson moved to the area in
1993 because she fell in love with this part of the Ozarks known for its
pristine rivers and lakes. That was before gas companies such as Chesapeake
Energy discovered the Fayetteville shale formation.
Over the past few years, those
problems have included earthquakes and drilling crews pulling water out of the
Little Red River. One of Robertson’s horses died for unknown reasons, and her
neighbors’ wells have been polluted.
More recently, Robertson has
heard about buyers unable to purchase homes in the area because they can’t
secure financing.
In the Laurel Highlands area of
Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains, traditionally known for tourism and
recreation, drilling is scaring off prospective second-home buyers before they
even start thinking about mortgages, says Melissa
Troutman of the Mountain Watershed Association. She knows of one buyer who
left the market after they learned that there was drilling three and a half
miles from a home they were looking at.
Many of the largest mortgage
institutions have already enacted policies that bar lending to certain
properties near gas drilling and gas lines.
The Federal Housing Administration’s lending guidelines prohibit
financing for homes within 300 feet of a property with “an active or planned
drilling site.” In an email response to a question from Grist, FHA
spokesman Lemar Wooley explained the reasoning behind the guidelines:
FHA is primarily concerned with the health and safety of the occupants
of the dwelling. If the property is subject to smoke, fumes, offensive
noise and odors, etc. to the extent they would endanger the health of the
occupants then the property is ineligible. FHA is also concerned with the risk
to the insurance fund. So if the property is subject to those same items and
the health of the occupants is not endangered, but the marketability of the
property is compromised, the property may not be eligible for FHA insurance.
Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac also prohibit property owners from signing a gas lease.
May said many owners are now in “technical default” under the terms of
their mortgage if they signed a gas lease without first getting consent from
their lender.
Another clause in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages prohibits
hazardous materials on a residential property. “It comes as a surprise to a
lot of people. They weren’t aware that their mortgage came with those
restrictions,” May said.”
By
Roger Drouin
http://grist.org/climate-energy/fracking-boom-could-lead-to-housing-bust/
Home
8. Professor Wants
Air Emissions Regulated
Extreme Levels of Benzene Floating Around
“Levels of carcinogenic benzene in the air 625 feet away from one
natural gas drill site were so bad that a West Virginia University professor
said he would recommend "respiratory protection."
Although
these extreme levels of benzene lasted for only about three hours at one
particular site, Michael McCawley, chairman of the Department of Occupational
& Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at WVU, said
the readings show that air emissions from Marcellus and Utica shale drilling
need more regulation.
A West
Virginia DEP study - which the state Legislature requested and which included
McCawley's work - does not recommend any change to existing state law, However, McCawley said this is
only a small part of the picture because the DEP study primarily dealt with
whether the Legislature should extend the current 625-foot setback requirement
for wells to be located away from occupied dwellings.
"Not
everything happens at the center of the well pad, the way the Legislature seems
to believe," McCawley said.
"Distance is less important than monitoring."
In multiple legal
advertisements during the past few years, natural gas producers have confirmed
the "potential to discharge" various amounts of these materials into
the air on an annual basis from the operations at the natural gas wells and
compressor stations:
benzene
carbon
dioxide
nitrogen
oxides
carbon
monoxide
sulfur
dioxide
methane
carbon
dioxide equivalent
xylenes
toluene
Formaldehyde
McCawley
studied the air near seven wells throughout the state. Each well was in a different stage of
development at the time he monitored them from July through October 2012.
He said benzene was the primary
constituent that he found at the sites, though he does not believe all of this
came from the well itself.
"It appears the diesel activity at the well sites could
be contributing to the readings we are seeing at the sites," McCawley
said.
For
those who live in the rural areas near these well sites, such as Wetzel County Action Group member Bill
Hughes, the time for more regulation is now.
"These things
are totally unregulated, unmonitored and unaccounted for," Hughes said of
the air emissions from well pads. "The diesel fumes are continuous and
almost unbearable. My neighbors do not live in the country to constantly breath
in diesel fumes."
In terms of the immediate
hazards for those living in the vicinity of natural gas wells, McCawley said,
"There is cause for concern." However, he said the Legislature does
not have to change any rules to protect public health because he believes the
DEP already has all the authority it needs. The DEP study determines the agency
already has the "regulatory framework" to reduce air emissions from
drilling. McCawley would like to see this put into action.
"The DEP could require companies to
monitor their own air emissions as a way to control this," he said. "That
way, they could at least know when there is a problem."
McCawley
also said he is working with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department to
conduct a long-term study regarding how drilling is impacting Ohio County's air
quality.
"You
are not necessarily going to see benzene at well sites. But we need to know
what is being emitted, how it is being emitted, and for how long it is being
emitted," he said.
Hughes agrees, noting his neighbors do not want their
children or grandchildren to get sick from the fumes.
"We will make no progress in minimizing the
long-term regional air quality deterioration in our state until we formulate a
process that requires all natural gas exploration and production companies to
inventory and measure all emissions," he added.
To
read the article:
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/588790/Professor-Wants-Air-Emissions-Regulated.html?nav=515
9. Two Responses To Kevin Begos, AP
Regarding the Southwest
PA Environmental Health Project Article by Begos
Response #1 by Larysa Dyrszka, MD; Kathleen Nolan, MD,
MSL; and Sandra Steingraber, PhD
“Early results from an
on-the-ground, public health assessment in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
indicate that environmental contamination is occurring near natural gas
drilling sites and is the likely cause of associated illnesses. We are alarmed
by these preliminary findings. They show
that—after only six years of drilling—human exposure is occurring and people
are getting sick. The presence of any sick people gives lie to industry
claims that (fracking) is “safe.”
Focusing on the early low numbers from this ongoing study, however—as
does a recent Associated Press story—is misleading. The 27 cases documented by the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental
Health Project team are not a surveyed sample of the region’s population,
nor were they recruited to be part of a study. They are patients from a single rural clinic who came in seeking help.
As such, these early figures could easily be the leading edge of a rising wave
of human injury.
Furthermore, these 27 people represent only those suffering acute problems. Chronic
illnesses can take years to manifest. Mesothelioma from asbestos, thyroid
cancer from radiation, mental retardation from lead poisoning; birth defects
from the rubella virus: all these now-proven connections began with a handful
of case studies that, looking back, were just the tip of an iceberg. We know
that many of the chemicals released during drilling and fracking operations—including
benzene—are likewise slow to exert their toxic effects. Detection of illness
can lag by years or decades, as did the appearance of illnesses in construction
workers and first responders from exposure to pollution in the 9/11 World Trade
Center response and clean-up.
The early results from the
Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project study implicate air contamination as the likely cause of three-quarters
of the associated illnesses so documented. In some cases, starkly elevated
levels of fracking-related air pollutants were found in the air inside of
people’s homes. This is an unacceptable problem: breathing is mandatory and, while a drinking
water source might be replaced, air cannot.
A minority of cases suffered from
likely exposures to tainted water, but these low numbers are not reassuring.
Many exposures related to natural gas extraction increase over time. First come
airborne exposures, as seen in Washington County and around the country where
drilling and fracking is taking place. In a small percentage of communities
near drilling operations, water contamination also takes place immediately due
to failure of the well casings. But, more
often, water contamination is a delayed response. Well casings continue to fail
as they age—up to 60 percent over 30 years—and, as they do, we expect health
effects from waterborne contaminants to rise and spread to more communities.
Thus, each well is potentially
the center of an expanding circle of illness. At first there are only a few
cases, but the ultimate result may be widespread contamination.
In the AP story, the gas industry
argues that lives are saved by cleaner burning natural gas. Even if there is
any truth in that claim, saving U.S. lives from emissions from shamefully
antiquated coal plants should not require sacrificing unconsenting children and
families to contaminated air and water from fracked wells and the
transportation of gas. Creating new health hazards to replace the old is
unethical when clean, safe, renewable forms of energy exist.
Given that exposures and illness
increase over time and given that many instances of contamination and illness
related to fracking never come to light due to non-disclosure agreements with
the industry, we cannot accurately quantify the extent of our problems with gas
drilling. We do know they are here, and we have every reason to expect that
they are not yet fully visible and they are growing.”
http://concernedhealthny.org/category/press-releases/
The Biased
Mainstream Fracking Debate-Response #2
By
Alan Septoff
“Yesterday’s Associated Press
story (by Begos, Jan) about the health impacts of fracking-enabled oil and gas
drilling in southwest Pennsylvania inadvertently reveals the bias that
underlies much of the “mainstream” fracking debate.
The story covers results from the
Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project's study: fracking-enabled
oil and gas development harms the health of residents living nearby.
One might think that a story
about fracking’s threat to human health shows how robust the debate is – or
even that there’s an environmental bias in fracking reporting. But one would be wrong.
There have been years of evidence of fracking’s threats to human health. Both
from studies, and from the long established pattern of health impacts that
follows oil and gas development wherever it goes. Yet this story implies that
this research is the first of its kind.
The Associated Press claims that
science reporting, especially in matters of public health, must be held to a
very rigorous standard. Which, if true, would be easy to respect. But that
rigor is only applied to one side of the fracking debate.
This same story which – years
late – acknowledges the health risks of fracking, in the same breath suggests – without support – that the fracking's
risks are offset by the benefits of replacing coal with fracked gas.
And that’s the bias. In many
circles -- in the mainstream press and in government -- the bar is high for
consideration of the downside of fracking. But there appears to be no similar
bar to considering the (speculative) upside of fracking.
Furthermore, the story implies that the only alternative to fracked gas is coal. It
makes no mention of evidence that natural gas is worse for the climate than
coal. It makes no mention of the rapidly emerging, and now cost competitive,
renewable energy market. Or (hah, silly me) energy conservation.
Leveling the terms of the debate
so that fracking's alleged upsides are treated with at least the same degree of
scientific rigor and skepticism as its downsides – at the Associated Press, in
state legislatures around the country, in Congress, and in the Obama administration
– is essential to protecting communities and the environment from the negative
impacts of fracking-enabled oil and gas development.”
-
See more at: http://www.earthworksaction.org/earthblog/detail/the_biased_mainstream_fracking_debate#.UhwmYOCKl0p
10. Marcellus
Shale Waste Trips Radioactivity Alarms
“Last
year, nearly 1,000 trucks hauling 15,769 tons of Marcellus Shale waste were
stopped at Pennsylvania landfill gates after tripping radioactivity alarms.
The trucks were pulled to the side, wanded with hand-held
detectors and some of the material was sent to laboratories for further
evaluation. In the end, 622 tons were shipped to three out-of-state landfills
specifically designed to dispose of hazardous and radioactive materials.
But most
of the flagged waste was eventually allowed past the gates. It was safe enough
to be buried along with other waste as long as it stays below the annual limit,
the DEP and landfill operators deemed.
To put it into perspective, the
alarms flagged only 1 percent of all landfill-bound Marcellus waste last year,
according to state figures. Shale gas operators reported sending just under 1 million tons of waste to Pennsylvania
landfills in 2012. The majority of that was drill cuttings -- chunks of earth
pulled out of the well during the drilling process -- but there was also
flow-back water, frack sand and other fluids that were turned into sludge for
disposal.
It's these sludges
that experts say are most likely contributing to elevated radiation counts.
The increase in radioactivity at landfills may be a product
of how Marcellus waste treatment has changed over the last few years.
In 2011, radioactivity concerns centered
around water. Back then, oil and gas companies were still taking their
waste to municipal wastewater treatment plants and to commercial plants that
were discharging into the state's waters.
In the summer of 2011, the DEP collected and analyzed
sediment from the PA Brine wastewater
treatment plant in Indiana County and found levels of radium 226 in the
discharge pipe that was 44 times the drinking water standard. Twenty meters downstream of the discharge
point, levels were still 66 percent above the standard.
In
April 2011, the PA Brine plant and all such plants in the state had been told
not to accept Marcellus wastewater, but the radioactive elements found in PA
Brine's soil were remnants of prior discharges.
Kelvin Gregory, an assistant professor at Carnegie
Mellon University who works on Marcellus water issues, said the peak of
radioactivity in wastewater comes after the initial gush of flow-back water
comes to the surface after fracking. Radium concentrations are highest in produced
water, a term that describes the brine that continues to flow out of the well
for long periods of time after that well starts producing gas.
Yukon accepts about 90,000 tons of waste annually and just last month
amended its permit to be able to accept waste that trips radiation alarms.
"We
didn't do this to bring in a lot of [radioactive] waste," Mr. Spadaro
said. "We did this to level the playing field."
Yukon competes with two other
landfills within a 5-mile radius.
"The
biggest concern is exposure of a landfill worker during unloading and somebody
who's handling material," Mr. Spadaro said.
The
exposure level allowed at Pennsylvania landfills is a quarter of the EPA's
public radiation dose limit of 100 millirem per year.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.
Read
more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/marcellus-shale-waste-study-shows-radioactivity-is-naturally-occurring-700313/#ixzz2cj2FYtAQ
11. MarkWest Plant
Is A Problem in Chartiers Twp
“People
living near MarkWest’s gas processing plant in Chartiers Township are losing
patience with the company after another flaring incident at the site Thursday.
Suzanne
Bastien, who lives less than two miles from the MarkWest plant, said she saw
black smoke billowing from the flaring tower which she documented with her
camera. Bastien said she and her husband have seen flaring there for four or
five years, but the last two instances have been particularly bad.
“My eyes were burning, my throat was
burning and I was nauseated when I got in the house. You could taste a metallic
taste in your mouth,” Bastien said of the smoke from Thursday. “It just kind of
hung in the air, which made it even worse. I don’t necessarily want to be
an activist, but this is getting to the point where we’re really worried about
our health.”
It’s at
least the third flaring incident at the plant in the past six weeks, prompting
the state DEP to investigate the problem and mandate the company submit a plan
to rectify the issue. Company officials said the first flaring incident July 14
and 15 was from the installation of a new de-ethanizer that apparently was not
operating correctly and causing the smoke.
MarkWest
spokesman Robert McHale said Thursday’s
incident was caused by a “system disruption and loss of power” at the plant
that triggered safety systems to direct natural gas liquid to be burned off in
the flare.
State Rep. Jesse
White, D-Cecil, questioned why the DEP has not yet mandated air-quality
monitors at the plant so that residents could be alerted if there is a problem.
He also questioned MarkWest representatives, who said after the last flaring
that the events were planned and automated safety systems worked as expected.”
12. Sinkhole
Disaster
(I saw
this story covered on the news twice. In neither story was it reported that
Occidental Petroleum was being sued for injection mining. Jan)
“Bayou
Corne is the biggest ongoing disaster in the United States you haven't heard
of.
One
night in August 2012, after months of unexplained seismic activity and
mysterious bubbling on the bayou, a sinkhole opened up on a plot of land leased
by the petrochemical company Texas Brine, forcing an immediate evacuation of
Bayou Corne's 350 residents—an exodus that still has no end in sight. Last
week, Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the company and the principal
landowner, Occidental Chemical Corporation, for damages stemming from the
cavern collapse.
Texas Brine's operation sits atop a three-mile-wide,
mile-plus-deep salt deposit known as the Napoleonville Dome, which is sheathed
by a layer of oil and natural gas, a common feature of the salt domes prevalent
in Gulf Coast states. The company
specializes in a process known as injection mining, and it had sunk a series of
wells deep into the salt dome, flushing them out with high-pressure streams
of freshwater and pumping the resulting saltwater to the surface. From there,
the brine is piped and trucked to refineries along the Mississippi River and
broken down into sodium hydroxide and chlorine for use in manufacturing
everything from paper to medical supplies.
What
happened in Bayou Corne, as near as anyone can tell, is that one of the salt
caverns Texas Brine hollowed out—a mine dubbed Oxy3—collapsed. The sinkhole
initially spanned about an acre. Today it covers more than 24 acres and is an
estimated 750 feet deep. It subsists on a diet of swamp life and cypress trees,
which it occasionally swallows whole. It celebrated its first birthday recently, and like most one-year-olds, it is both
growing and prone to uncontrollable burps, in which a noxious brew of crude oil
and rotten debris bubbles to the surface. But the biggest danger is invisible;
the collapse unlocked tens of millions of cubic feet of explosive gases, which
have seeped into the aquifer and wafted up to the community. The town blames
the regulators. The regulators blame Texas Brine. Texas Brine blames some other
company, or maybe the regulators, or maybe just God.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/22/1233033/--The-biggest-ongoing-disaster-in-the-United-States-you-haven-t-heard-of
13. Reflections by an Environmental Expert on
the Dunkard Creek Fish Kill…(from Bob)
“I also find it interesting that
the determination of the saltwater algae that magically appeared in Dunkard
Creek isn't linked definitively to equipment brought in from TX that was
dumping directly into the creek and introduced the algae...hence the bloom and
the fine. They levied the fine...but, don't say why. They didn't connect the
dots in this report, but the elephant you referred to is in the room and boy,
is it BIG.
I also took note that the
biologist noted that the presence of the algae DOESN'T CAUSE A FISHKILL in
water with pH over 7. This is extremely important because this is what I said
for years: the fish kill was caused by the extremely low pH which was caused by
the illegal dumping of frackwater. When I tested that water, it was 4.9...this
is in the presence of the algae! Now, the algae would be RAISING pH as it
advanced...so how low was it?! That acid
water is what actually killed the fish! This report CONFIRMS it. The frackwater
caused the kill, period.”
14. Airport
Drilling- Profit Only Over Time
“Dallas/Fort
Worth was the first international airport to sign a shale development lease.
that has brought in about $300 million since 2006. But drilling there has been
on hold for several years because of low natural gas prices.
"This
thing comes and goes, "said David Magana, the public relations face of
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
"If
you know that going in and you don't create a lot of need from the gas revenue,
then this thing goes very well."
Pittsburgh
International is projecting that its deal with Consol, signed in February, will
yield about $500 million over the life of the lease, which will be in effect as
long as the gas keeps flowing profitably.”
15. Research: South Texas Earthquakes Likely Triggered By Shale
Boom
Earthquakes in the Eagle Ford Shale region — including a 2011 quake
felt in San Antonio — are likely being triggered by increased oil extraction,
according to a new research paper from the University of Texas at Austin. A
two-year survey of seismic activity links small quakes in South Texas largely
to the upswing in the production of oil and brackish water that flows up
alongside hydrocarbons.
Previous studies have linked earthquakes to the disposal of fracking
fluids in deep wells in other regions, including in other parts of Texas
and in Ohio. The UT study will be published online this week in the journal
Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/08/27/south-texas-earthquakes-likely-triggered-by-eagle-ford-boom-researchers-say/
16. Fracking,
Fractures and Human-Induced Earthquakes
By Brian Allen
“A new Concord
University geological initiative could help scientists recognize the potential
for man-made earthquakes caused by natural gas drilling.
According
to the West Virginia Geological survey there have been about 20 measurable earthquakes in the state in the past
five years, more than half of those were
in Braxton County where Chesapeake Energy was disposing fluid via deep well
injection.
Chesapeake voluntarily lowered
the pressure of its injections in Braxton County at the request of the West
Virginia Division of Environmental Protection in 2010, although they denied
the wells had anything to do with the earthquakes.”
http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=31076
17. Fracking
and Farming in WV
By S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV
(Excerpt)
“There
are many financial losses never accounted for in the development of gas from
the Marcellus shale. The drilling platform area and deeply rocked roads are
essentially taken out of production forever, removed from any kind of
production. Pipelines and unimproved areas are out of use for the time of use
for production and the 70 to 90 years beyond required for the re-growth of
timber (if ever).
Building
sites are lost, the effects of on-site disposal of wastes, which seep into the
ground or are buried there, are a loss. The numerous compressor station
locations can never be reclaimed completely, and depress values in their
neighborhood. Lifestyle issues such as light, noise, smell, view and
trespassing beyond the well pad and roads are completely forgotten in the
industry accounting.
All
these are ignored, externalized costs.
Costs shoved off into the residents of the area where drilling is done. How
would you establish a monetary value on these?
Price is
the amount a willing buyer would pay a willing seller. Price determination
could be made by looking at the price of a property before drilling and sale to
an informed buyer afterwards. Obviously, several cases of such transfers could
not be easily found. Once there is drilling in the neighborhood, property sales
are not easy.”
http://www.frackcheckwv.net/2013/06/29/part-2/
18. Gas Used For Both
Heat and Electricity Causes Problems
“When gas is used for electricity
and also for heat, there needs to be enough space in the pipeline to serve both
masters.
In the days following the
Boston blizzard in February, a megawatt
hour of electricity in the PJM grid/power pool went for about $35. In New
England, it exceeded $250. Natural gas in that region was triple the price
being charged in other parts of the country.
Oil and gas producers, as well as
pipeline companies, project that power generation will be the largest and
fastest growing use for all the new shale gas coming out of the ground, and
they welcome it with open arms.
Yet few
natural gas generators hold "firm capacity" contracts, which means
the gas supply they're buying can be interrupted if another customer with
priority needs it or if supply is somehow constrained. Firm capacity contracts guarantee that the
volume a generator is buying will be delivered at the time needed.
Consequently, they're more expensive than interruptible supply.
Coal plants can reach into their
coal piles when called upon or they can let the unburned fuel sit for another,
more lucrative day. Gas must be burned when it arrives as on-site storage isn't
an option.
Because gas is a real-time fuel
-- meaning it needs to reach the power plant just in time to be burned --
scheduling gas delivery is a much more complicated process than, say, arranging
coal or even nuclear fuel supply.”
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/natural-gas-now-serves-two-masters-electricity-and-heat-699747/#ixzz2d6KWJ7Zf
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
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