Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates
October 31, 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/
* Our email address: westmcg@gmail.com
*
To discuss candidates: http://www.facebook.com/groups/VoteProEarth/
* To contact your state
legislator:
For the email address, click on the envelope
under the photo
* For information on PA state gas legislation
and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
WMCG Thank Yous
* Thank you to contributors to our Updates: Debbie Borowiec, Lou Pochet,
Ron Gulla, Marian Szmyd, Bob Donnan, Gloria Forouzan, Elizabeth Donahue, Bob
Schmetzer.
* Thank you to Joe
and Judy Evans for their kind donation of the printing of fracking tri-folds that we have been distributing.
* Thank you to Jenny Lisak for
working with the group’s suggestions to create our logo.
* Thank you to Kathryn Hilton, Mt
Watershed, for expediting the completion of the
information sheet on seismic testing as requested by many people in our
group.
* Kathryn and Jan distributed
flyers in the Derry area.
Calendar
***
WMCG Steering Committee Meeting We meet the second Tuesday of every month at
7:30 PM in Greensburg. Email Jan for directions. All are invited.
*** Nov. 4-Thomas
Merton Center Award Dinner- Bill McKibben-- This year we will be honoring Bill
McKibben, founder of 350.org. The dinner and celebration is on Monday, November
4 at the Sheraton Station Square beginning with a 6 PM reception.
We will
be offering a comfortable space for tabling and room with space for
milling. We are asking folks to share
1/2 tables, about 3 ft per organization, large enough for displays and
literature.
We are
encouraging environment friendly groups and businesses as well as our projects
and allies to take this opportunity.
The
tabling is free but we do encourage you to register and reserve a dinner ticket
for $50 each. This is a great way to let people know what you've been doing and
advertise for upcoming events.
Please
let me know as soon as possible as this will be on a first come first settled
basis.
Wanda Guthrie, TMC Board Member
wanda.guthrie@gmail.com
***Nov 12- Radioactive Drill Cuttings Reclassified -
Columbus Ohio
Public forum Columbus
Public Library, Tuesday Nov. 12th, 7pm.
The Ohio
state legislature snuck language into the 2013 budget bill in June that
reclassifies shale production drill cuttings from TENORM (Technically Enhanced
Normally Occurring Radioactive Materials) to NORM (normally-occurring
radioactive materials), which makes radioactive content invisible to the
regulatory environment. The
"beneficial uses" clause of the bill allows these potentially
radioactive materials to be used in applications, such as in landfills as clay liners.
The
test case is right here in Columbus, where the Ohio EPA has permitted Ohio Soil
Recycling
(http://www.soilrecycling.com/services/ ) to receive drill cuttings (and
according to the website, this material includes drilling muds which are still
classified as TENORM) to be used as a claytopper to the Integrity Drive drum
dump. This landfill is a legacy dump
where barrels full of toxic wastes were buried over the past decades, and has a
history of leaching toxins into the nearby Alum Creek. There are 39 licensed landfills in Ohio now
susceptible to receiving these radioactive
materials
which are completely de-regulated.
Presenters at the forum
include -
Yuri Gorby - expert on microbe
effects, particularly pertinent to the soil
remediation
process used by Ohio Soil Recycling
http://faculty.rpi.edu/node/1179
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tssuNWKyLSI
Dr. Julie Weatherington Rice - geologist, Adjunct
Faculty The Ohio State
University
and Bennett & Williams
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/radioactive-drilling-waste-shipped-to-landfi
lls-raises-concerns
http://www.ohiowater.org/otco/new%20site/docs/presentations/2013/Water_Works
hop/Day_2_Groundwater/Shale%20Gas%20Wastes.pdf
Terry Lodge, attorney from Toledo area
who specializes in industrial
radiation
contamination issues
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-power/2013/7/19/davis-besse-hearing-docket.html
There
will be other speakers as well.
If
you can share this with any networks that you are a part of, we would
look
forward to having audience members from Pennsylvania as well.
Take
care,
Greg
Pace
Fresh
Water Accountability Project www.fwapoh.com <http://www.fwapoh.com>;
Radioactive
Waste Alert Organization
www.radioactivewastealert.org
<http://www.radioactivewastealert.org/>;
www.globalcommonstrust.org
<http://www.globalcommonstrust.org/>;
Guernsey
County Citizens Support on Drilling Issues
***Nov 21 Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Dwight C.
Baum Professor of Engineering,
Cornell University Butler, PA On
the science, safety and debate over hydraulic fracturing. More information to
follow.
*** Nov 25, 26 Facing
the Challenges-- Duquesne University Researchers present on: Air and
water, Animal and Human Health, Geological, Biological investigations.
***Nov 17 Fall
Summit, Parish Hill, North Park
“ On November 17, 2013 we will hold our 1st
annual Fall Shindig at North Park in Allison Park, PA. from
9-5pm. The building has a capacity of
150 persons and we want to have great regional representation so please, invite
your friends and colleagues.
$10 registration fee
to cover the building and food.
Peace and solidarity,
Kathryn Hilton, Community Organizer, Mountain Watershed
Association”
Register at:
www.mtwatershed.com/blog
For a calendar of area events please see “Marcellus Protest”
calendar:
http://marcellusprotest.org/
Donations
We are very appreciative of donations
to our group.
With your help, we have handed out thousands of flyers
on the health and environmental effects of fracking, sponsored numerous public
meetings, and provided information to citizens and officials countywide. If you
would like to support our efforts:
Checks to
our group should be made out to the Thomas Merton Center and in the Reminder
line please write- Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group (no abbreviations).
You can send your check to: Thomas Merton Center attn. Ros Malholland , 5129 Penn Ave,
Pittsburgh, PA 15224. Or you can give
the check to Lou Pochet or Jan Milburn. Cash can also be accepted.
To make a contribution to our
group using a credit card, go to www.thomasmertoncenter.org. Look for the contribute
button, then scroll down the list of organizations to direct money to. We are
listed as the Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group.
Please
be sure to write Westmoreland Marcellus
Citizens’ Group on the bottom of your check so that WMCG receives the
funding since we are just one project of many of the Thomas Merton Center. You
can also give your donation to any member of the steering committee.
Take Action!!
Volunteers Needed!!
We need volunteers
who will take an hour or so to distribute flyers in Westmoreland Neighborhoods. You can help to inform your own area or we
can suggest an area. Some rural areas are best reached by car and flyers can be
put in paper boxes. Please contact Jan if
you are able to help. Meetings are good venues for distributing flyers as
well—church meetings, political, parent groups, etc. If you can only pass out
fifteen, that reaches fifteen people who may not have been informed.
The following petitions are active.
***Tell FERC---Stop Rubber-Stamping
Frack Pipelines
On
September 29, Steven Jensen, a farmer in North Dakota, discovered a massive
865,000-gallon fracked oil spill in a wheat field on his land. The spill, which
is one of the largest inland oil-pipeline accidents in the United States ever,
may have gone on for weeks unnoticed before it was discovered.
The
spill in North Dakota is not an isolated incident. Every week there are news
reports about pipeline leaks and explosions that contaminate our land and water
and sometimes kill. But instead of fixing its crumbling infrastructure, the oil
and gas industry has embarked on a reckless spending spree. It wants to
build thousands of miles of new pipelines so that it can frack America and make
us dependent on dirty fossil fuels for decades to come.
We
have to speak out now to stop it. My petition, which is to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, says the following:
America
doesn’t need endless pipelines and related infrastructure that impact local
communities and that choke off the development of clean, renewable energy
supplies. It is time for FERC to put down its rubber stamp and place a
moratorium on new fracking and oil- and gas-related infrastructure projects.
Tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Stop approving
oil and gas infrastructure.
Private
land is seized by eminent domain. Dangerous and polluting compressor stations
are constructed in the middle of residential neighborhoods. One gas pipeline is
slated to cut through the Gateway National Recreation Area. And now there’s a
plan to build another large and potentially explosive pipeline near a nuclear
reactor in one of the most densely populated areas of the country.
How
can this happen? Isn’t anyone looking out for the public’s safety and welfare?
That "someone" should be FERC, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission. It’s supposed to consider “public convenience and
necessity” before permitting projects like these. But it’s fallen down on the
job. Instead of critically examining all the impacts associated with oil and
gas infrastructure, it’s become a rubber stamp for an industry that has shown
that it doesn’t give a damn about the health and safety of the American people.
Tell FERC that America doesn’t need endless pipelines
and related infrastructure that impact local communities and choke off the
development of clean, renewable energy supplies.
Will you join me and add your name to my petition to
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to demand that it stop approving oil
and gas infrastructure?
Thank you for your
support.
Jill Wiener
*** ACT NOW TO PROTECT
ALLEGHENY COUNTY PARKS
(From
Sierra Club)
“Members
of Allegheny County Council are being heavily lobbied by County Executive Rich
Fitzgerald and Gov. Tom Corbett to vote down the call for a hold on drilling in
the regional County Parks system.
CONTACTING YOUR COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER IS ESSENTIAL
and then find your member’s email address by clicking on
their photo in the member’s directory.
The message is simple:
"Please vote YES in favor of Councilwoman Daly Danko's resolution
that places a hold on any drilling within or beneath all county parks until a
thorough examination of the risks and liabilities has been
completed."
The important preamble to Danko's resolution is at http://alleghenysc.org/?p=14140
Sign the ‘No Fracking in Our Parks’ PETITION.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP”
Frack Links
***FrackSwarm.org (part of
Sourcewatch) is a new clearinghouse for information on all things frack
related. Both Coalswarm and FrackSwarm's pages are housed
on SourceWatch, a 60,000-article open-source encyclopedia sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy. . Its unique in that FrackSwarm leverages the power of the grassroots:
anyone can add information, all information is footnoted, the entire
resource is linked smoothly from local to international content and it builds
collaborative spaces among groups working on various issues related to
fracking.
*** Shale Truth
Series -- Dr. Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University says the gas
industry has changed communities, and that many people who once lived in rural
or suburban areas now find themselves living in industrial zones.
A
new Shale Truth segment featuring various speakers, can be seen on The Delaware Riverkeeper Network's YouTube channel every Wednesday
at http://bit.ly/ShaleTruth
***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. 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.
***PA has only
seen tip of Fracking Iceberg-Dr
Ingraffea
Dr Ingraffea explains that fracking has just begun, far more
is planned, and consequently related impacts. 30-40% of all gas wells are
leaking presently and this will be the case in the future.
5-10% leak immediately.
Of all wells drilled between 2010 and today in PA, 10 % are leaking.
Over 1000 people in PA have said their water was affected by
fracking. DEP has confirmed 161 incidents.
***To sign up for
notifications of activity and violations for
your area:
***List of the Harmed--There are now
over 1600 residents of Pennsylvania who placed their names on the list of the
harmed when they became sick after fracking began in their area. http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/
Fracking News
All
articles are excerpted. Please use the links
to read the full article.
1. Westmoreland Reservoir
From Bob: “Parts of Westmoreland County
are served by Beaver Run Reservoir as a water source. The surrounding property
(owned by the water authority) already has 36 gas wells drilled by CNX. Why would anyone ever lease land that close
to a water supply reservoir for drilling and fracking? DEP’s John Poister does not say what kind of unusual
algae was present, could it be Golden Algae, or maybe didymo, commonly called rock
snot algae??”
A clip from the New York Times explains the
interest in the algae that has been mentioned at the reservoir (jan):
NYT: Who killed Dunkard Creek?
“Was
it coal miners whose runoff wiped out aquatic life in the stream where locals
have long fished and picnicked? Or was it Marcellus Shale drillers and the
briny discharge from their wells that created a toxic algae bloom that left a
miles-long trail of rotting fish along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania state
line?
A few days before the consent agreement was
signed and announced this year, Reynolds wrote to a colleague that Marcellus operations on the creek are the
most likely way for the fish-killing "golden algae" to spread.
"There
is water that is removed from these streams for use in Marcellus
fracking," he wrote . "There is always some amount of water that gets
left in the tank and hoses that then gets put into other streams. By far, this is the most likely way that GA
[golden algae] will be moved around." http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/10/12/12greenwire-in-fish-kill-mystery-epa-scientist-points-at-s-86563.html?pagewanted=all
“Dunkard
Creek is a 38-mile creek that contained a unique ecosystem with 161 species of
fish, 14 species of mussels, salamanders, crayfish and aquatic insects. It was
one of only two or three creeks like it on the Monongahela River watershed.
Some experts say it will be decades before the fishery returns to normal, if
ever. Many of the fish were over 15 years old. It's believed the prized mussel
population may be lost forever.” Bob Donnan
http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Dunkard_Creek.htm
The Water Alert At Beaver Reservoir
“The boil-water
alert was issued as a precaution after water collected Wednesday at the George
R. Sweeney Water Treatment Plant revealed a small depression in part of the
filter, which could allow untreated water to bypass the filtration barrier,
municipal authority officials at its New Stanton headquarters said Friday.
"We think the
breach occurred as the filter was being tested," authority general manager
Chris Kerr said.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection spokesman John Poister said small microorganisms, algae and other
things they don't normally see were found in the water.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/westmoreland/2013/10/25/Westmoreland-County-authority-asks-50-000-users-to-boil-water.html
********
“Oct 25 – Three school districts closed
Friday. A group of nursing homes boiled water to prepare food. A popular
restaurant served meals on paper plates. Shelves typically stocked with fresh
vegetables at Giant Eagle were bare while mist was turned off.. An advisory to
boil water, now expected to extend into Tuesday, has touched thousands across
Westmoreland County.
The notice from the Municipal
Authority of Westmoreland County is affecting about 50,000 of its customers --
100,000 to 120,000 people -- most north of Route 30. Parts of White Oak in
Allegheny County and the Westmoreland County municipalities of Apollo, Delmont,
Derry Township, Export, Irwin, Jeannette, Manor, Murrysville, North Huntingdon,
Penn Township and Vandergrift are under the alert, among others. McKeesport is
not affected. Water used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, washing
dishes and preparing food should be boiled for a minute then cooled, the
authority advised. “
*******************
“Kerr said the problem occurred at
one of seven filtration units at the plant within a 96-hour period.
The
treatment plant was built in 1997 and is rated for a capacity of 24 million
gallons per day.”
Read more:
http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4943736-74/boil-customers-according#ixzz2ihgm8hli
2. Sunoco Pipeline Meeting In Harrison
City
Marian attended. Her comments:
“Sunoco
representatives were present there but this was not an open forum. This actually was an invitation only forum
for those who are directly affected. If
you had a question, you spoke individually with a rep. I got in a couple of questions and here's
what I found out.
The
line is following the Dominion line which is already in place (2012). They're installing 12" lines for this
LNG phase of the job. They will connect
to the 8" or 10" line already in place at Delmont. The lines are some sort of steel lined.
Pumping
stations will be required about every 11 miles so I don't know the
ramifications of that.
The
work will use Chestnut Lane in PT (Kistlers Golf course) as the job hub.
Monitoring will be done at a
facility close to Philadelphia. I guess
the lines are divided into sections and the company can monitor those sections
to determine any problems.
The
fluid will be pumped at 1500 lb pressure.”
******
Another comment from group member:
“Looks like the route is more
through Export than Murrysville. And I believe much of it is already laid--across
22 and down across Old William Penn in Export.”
3. Tragedies Highlight The Need for Pipeline Reform
“What’s going on
with pipelines? Has there been a high number of major pipeline tragedies recently, or are such
incidents just more in the news with widespread attention to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline?
As someone who has worked on
pipeline safety and associated environmental protection issues since I began
serving on a pipeline federal advisory committee in the mid-1990s, I can say confidently that the period from
2010-2013 has had a very large number of serious transmission pipeline
tragedies compared to the previous decade (serious in the lay-person’s
sense of the term, i.e., not the relatively narrow definition developed by
federal pipeline regulators). The
federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), part of
the U.S. Dept Of Transportation , oversees pipeline safety and environmental
protection nationwide. PHMSA performs this job through regulations and their
enforcement, advisory bulletins, education, safety research, permit approvals
and partnerships with many state pipeline regulators. Congress guides PHMSA’s
work, with the most recent pipeline safety law reauthorization signed by
President Obama on Jan. 3, 2012.
According
to PHMSA, in 2012 there were more than 185,000 miles of hazardous liquid
transmission pipelines (generally crude oil and its products like gasoline and
diesel) and nearly 303,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines in the
U.S. The map shows the locations of these transmission pipelines. The map does not show federally-unregulated
pipelines including extensive rural “gathering” line mileage–likely an
up-and-coming problem in terms of safety and the environment as unregulated
shale gas and oil gathering lines age and corrode.
Early
in the Obama administration, PHMSA began a review of its hazardous liquid (49
Code of Federal Regulations Part 195) and natural gas (49 Code of Federal
Regulations Part 192) transmission pipeline regulations, and requested public
comments on what changes should be made to improve those regulations. These
“advanced notices of proposed rulemaking” (ANPRM) were issued on Oct. 18, 2010,
for hazardous liquid transmission pipelines and on Aug. 25, 2011, for natural gas
transmission pipelines. Commenters included industry, state and local
governments, public interest organizations, and individuals.
Despite extensive and broad interest in
updating and streamlining these regulations, PHMSA has not issued the necessary
follow-up rulemaking proposals. These regulations are needed reforms that
have not progressed at all during the five years of the Obama administration. PHMSA’s regulatory paralysis is
unacceptable to those who lived through past transmission pipeline tragedies
and to everyone who lives near or cares about pipeline safety.
These reforms, which have been under development
since well before the ANPRMs were issued, include:
* Providing
upgraded regulatory coverage for
unregulated or minimally-regulated pipelines especially rural gathering lines,
“produced water” lines which contain briny subsurface fluids, multi-phase
pipelines containing oil, gas and produced water, and pipeline segments not
likely to affect “high consequence areas” (currently, integrity management
requirements apply only to pipeline segments likely to affect high consequence
areas).
* Leak detection requirements for oil
and natural gas transmission pipelines. There are no federal leak detection
performance standards at present (some states have such standards) so—if
operators have leak detection at all—there are no standards for how well these
mechanisms must perform, e.g., what their detection levels must be and the
speed of detection. At the request of Congress, PHMSA has developed several
studies on leak detection, however the report findings have gone nowhere (much
to the dismay of leak detection equipment manufacturers).
* Instituting shut-off valve requirements for
both natural gas and oil pipelines to minimize the sizes of releases. These
regulations would include shut-off valve location requirements.
What will it take to get the Obama administration to move
forward on these important regulatory initiatives? Sadly, relatively frequent,
major pipeline tragedies do not appear to be enough. Congress should be
concerned about this and may need to hold hearings on why there have been
regulatory development delays, especially after it did its job in 2011
reviewing and passing the pipeline safety statute reauthorization with
bi-partisan votes in both the House and Senate. The new Secretary of
Transportation, Anthony Foxx, also needs to be aware of, and to take action on,
the unacceptable regulatory paralysis that currently prevents pipeline safety
improvements.”
This post originally appeared on SkyTruth.org.
4. Valley Grove, WVA Home Destroyed By Drill Muds
30
Fish Killed
‘Drilling mud’ floods from pipeline project
"We are not certain how the
drilling mud traveled from the drilling site to the well," he said.
“4 feet of drilling fluid and
water poured into the Wieczorkowski basement. A MarkWest crew was drilling near the
property as part of a pipeline installation
Robert McHale, manager of
governmental and regulatory affairs for MarkWest Energy, said workers were doing
a horizontal bore under the road near the Wieczorkowski home when the drilling
fluid pushed up through the home's basement floor. He said a 200-foot offset
existed between the home and the drilling site. West Virginia DEP spokesman Tom
Aluise said 6,000 gallons of water and drilling fluid infiltrated the
Wieczorkowski home from a nearby pipeline operation through an
abandoned water well under the house. "We are not certain how the drilling mud
traveled from the drilling site to the well," he said.”
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/591451/Valley-Grove-Home-Destroyed.html?nav=515
WTOV 9
Video:
Question posed by group member: How did
"nontoxic" drilling mud kill 30 fish ?
Pipeline Drilling Mud Enters Creek
Professor Stout Asks for Proof of Non-Toxicity
“The infiltration of more than
6,000 gallons of "drilling mud" into a Valley Grove home appears to
be part of a larger gas pipeline problem-- the fluid also seeped into nearby
Little Wheeling Creek twice last week. West Virginia DEP spokesman
Tom Aluise said about 30 fish - mostly minnows - died in Little Wheeling Creek
when drilling fluid pushed up through cracks in the creek's bed. The
drilling operation is part of MarkWest Energy's pipeline infrastructure in Ohio
County. Aluise said drilling
mud entering a creek through cracks in the creek bed is not an unusual
occurrence. "It happens," he said. "In the industry they call it
inadvertent return." Aluise said "a huge amount of mud concentrated
in a small area robs the water of oxygen and little fish cannot survive in that
environment."
MarkWest spokesman Robert McHale
said the fish died because their water was taken away. Benjamin Stout, a
biology professor at Wheeling Jesuit University, wants proof the fluid is
non-toxic. "The facts do not add up," he said. "They should do a
laboratory sampling (of the drilling mud) and show us the results. That will
tell if it is non-toxic." The pipeline issue is not the first in the
region for MarkWest. In August, the DNR cited the company for "conditions
not allowable in the waters of the state" after a landslide ruptured a
natural gas liquids pipeline causing a fish kill in Rocky Run, a tributary of
Fish Creek in Wetzel County.”
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/591558/Pipeline-Drilling-Mud-Enters-Creek.html?nav=515
Drilling Muds
5. Fracking Leads to Industrialization
of Backyards
“The
natural gas boom has led to an “unprecedented industrialization” of many
Americans’ backyards, an analysis from the Wall Street Journal has found.
The WSJ looked at
census and gas well data from more than 700 counties in 11 major gas producing
states, and found that at least 15.3 million Americans have a natural gas well
within one mile of their home that has been drilled since 2000.
That’s more than the population of Michigan or New York.
The
boom has left some towns inundated with natural gas operations. In suburban Johnson County,
Texas, 99.5 percent of the area’s 150,000 residents now live within a mile of
the county’s 3,900 wells — in 2000, there were fewer than 20 oil and
gas wells.
And
the construction of natural gas wells isn’t letting up anytime soon. Production
of the Marcellus Shale region is growing faster than expected, reaching 12
billion cubic feet a day — enough that, if it were a country, the Marcellus
Shale would be the eighth-largest producer of natural gas in the world. America will
have “a million new oil and gas wells drilled over the next few decades,” a
Duke professor told the WSJ.
And
it’s likely many of those wells could end up in Americans’ backyards — a
recent Reuters analysis uncovered the unsettling trend of home developers
keeping the rights to oil and gas reserves under the houses they sell, in many
cases without notifying the homes’ buyers outright. That way, the home developer can lease the land of an entire
neighborhood to a natural gas company — with or without the residents’ consent.
This boom of backyard wells, however, has driven
many Americans to action. More and more cities are voting to ban fracking;
Pittsburgh was the first municipality in 2010 to ban the practice, and since
then Highland Park, N.J., and multiple cities in Pennsylvania have banned
fracking. In 2011, Dryden, N.Y. banned fracking after a fierce and successful
lobbying effort from town citizens. Now, that ban is being taken to New York’s
highest court, and the court’s decision could set precedent for the legality of
other local fracking bans.
It’s not surprising that many towns and cities are
concerned about the dangers of fracking. Fracking has been tied to a range of
health effects in people and livestock, and it also greatly increases truck
traffic around wellsites, leading to an increase of noise and fumes. It’s
largely up to states to enact their own regulations on fracking, and several
are — California is requiring oil and gas companies to list the chemicals they
use in fracking online and monitor the air and water quality around well sites,
and New York state enacted a moratorium on fracking six years ago, in order to
give the state time to determine the potential
environmental and health impacts of the practice.
But right now, there are few federal regulations on
the practice, something House Democrats want to change. They’re calling on the
Obama administration to speed up Environmental Protection Agency guidance on
fracking — guidance which they say is long overdue.”
http://www.nationofchange.org/more-15-million-americans-now-live-within-one-mile-fracking-well-1382883382
6. Clean Water Action Sues: Alleges
Waste Treatment Corp. Discharged
Drilling Waste Into Allegheny River
October 28, 2013
By Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Clean Water Action
has filed a federal lawsuit against Waste Treatment Corp., alleging the
commercial water treatment facility in Warren is illegally discharging gas
drilling wastewater containing high levels of salts, heavy metals and
radioactive compounds into the Allegheny River.
The
statewide environmental organization, which filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S.
District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Erie, said the company
has violated its discharge permit limits more than 400 times since 2010.
Despite those
violations, and the ongoing
200,000-gallon-a-day discharge of drilling wastewater containing 125,000 pounds
of salt, the DEP has not taken any effective action to stop the pollution, said
Myron Arnowitt, Clean Water Action state director.
"You
hear all the time that gas drilling wastewater doesn't end up in our rivers
anymore. However, this is one case in which it clearly is," Mr. Arnowitt
said.
A
2012 DEP study, cited in the lawsuit filing, found levels of chloride,
bromide, lithium, strontium, radium-226 and radium-228 downriver from the plant
that were more than 100 times higher than those found upriver from the plant.
The
Allegheny River is the drinking water source for several public water
suppliers, including the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which has
400,000 customers.
"One
of the reasons we decided to proceed with our suit is because DEP seems more
concerned with negotiating a deal with the company than protecting the
public," Mr. Hvozdovich said. "It's important that WTC stop accepting
natural gas drilling wastewater while the legal process unfolds and that any
resolution to the situation ensures the protection of the Allegheny River.”
7. McCawley
Finds High Levels of Benzene in WV Panhandle
Recommends Respiratory Protection
“Michael McCawley continues letting
West Virginia lawmakers know that carcinogenic air pollutants from Marcellus
Shale drilling pose a serious threat in the Northern Panhandle. McCawley, chairman of the Department of
Occupational & Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health
at West Virginia University, testified last week before a committee of the
state Legislature's. One of these studies he prepared for the WVA DEP measured levels of
cancer-causing benzene in the air 625 feet away from one Wetzel County site,
which were so bad that McCawley said he would recommend "respiratory
protection" for those in the area. Current West Virginia law requires
wells be drilled at least 625 feet away from an "occupied dwelling," but
McCawley emphasized that air pollution can move. McCawley also said air
pollution can flow from natural gas pipelines, noting this can create even more
problems because there is no such requirement that pipelines be built 625 feet
from homes.”
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/591620/Air-Monitoring-Push-Goes-On.html?nav=510
8. New Report Exposes Impacts of Fracking on Water
By:
Hansen, Mulvaney, Betcher
San Hose
University
Prepared
for Earthwork Oil and Gas Accountability Project
“A new
report reveals the impacts of Shale gas
development on freshwater resources in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The
report, Water Resource Reporting and
Water Footprint from Marcellus Shale Development in West Virginia and
Pennsylvania, provides the most recent and comprehensive investigation of
water used and waste generated by fracking operations in the two states.
“Water
use and contamination are among the most pressing and controversial aspects of
shale gas and oil development,” says Evan Hansen of Downstream Strategies.
“Industry and policymakers must heed this information to prevent water and
waste problems from escalating.”
Among
the findings:
* More than 90 percent of the water injected
underground to frack gas wells never returns to the surface, meaning it is
permanently removed from the water cycle. This could have huge repercussions in
water-poor states.
* More than 80 percent of West Virginia’s
fracking water comes from rivers and streams. Reuse and recycling of flowback
fluid makes up only eight percent of recent water use in West Virginia and 14
percent in the Susquehanna River Basin in Pennsylvania, and is highly unlikely
to be a solution to the water needs of the industry going forward.
* As the industry expands, the volume of
waste generated is also increasing rapidly. Between 2010 and 2011, it went
up by 70 percent in Pennsylvania to reach more than 610 million gallons.
* Water use per unit energy—often referred to
as a blue water footprint—is higher than evaluated by prior research,
even though this study employed a stricter definition of water use. While
previous studies considered all water withdrawn per unit energy, this one only
considered water that is permanently removed from the water cycle.
* States have taken
steps to gather information on water
withdrawals, fluid injection, and waste disposal, but reporting remains
incomplete, operators sometimes provide erroneous data, and the data itself
is not always readily available to the public.
“It is clear from this report that fracking uses and will
continue to use considerable water resources, despite industry claims to the
contrary,” says Bruce Baizel director of Earthworks’ energy program. “This
means we need stronger public oversight of fracking, and also a more robust
debate on how much water we are willing to part with for the sake of fracking.”
9. Leaked
Documents Reveal the Secret Finances of
Pro-Industry Science Group-ACSH
“The American
Council on Science and Health bills itself as an independent research and
advocacy organization devoted to debunking "junk science." It's a
controversial outfit—a "group of scientists…,…….that often does battle
with environmentalists and consumer safety advocates, wading into public
health debates to defend fracking, to fight New
York City's attempt to ban big sugary sodas, and to dismiss
concerns about the potential harms of the chemical bisphenol-A (better
known at BPA) and the pesticide atrazine. It acknowledges that it receives some
financial support from corporations and industry groups, but ACSH, which reportedly stopped
disclosing its corporate donors two decades ago, maintains that these contributions don't influence its work and agenda.
Elizabeth
Whelan, a Harvard-trained public-health scientist, founded ACSH in 1978 as a
counterweight to environmental groups and Ralph Nader's consumer advocacy
movement.
From
the start, ACSH has faced questions
about its funding. It was launched with $100,000 in seed money from the Sarah
Scaife Foundation, which has also supported the Heritage Foundation, the
American Legislative Exchange Council, and Americans for Tax Reform, among
other conservative groups. By the early 1980s, ACSH's donors included Dow,
Monsanto, American Cyanamid, Mobil Foundation, Chevron, and Bethlehem Steel. In
1984, Georgia-Pacific, a leading formaldehyde maker, funded a
friend-of-the-court brief filed by ACSH in an industry-backed lawsuit
that overturned a ban on formaldehyde insulation.
Yet internal financial documents
provided to Mother Jones show that ACSH depends heavily on funding from corporations that have a financial
stake in the scientific debates it aims to shape. The group
also directly solicits donations from these industry sources around
specific issues..
According to the ACSH documents, from July
1, 2012, to December 20, 2012, 58 percent of donations to the council came
from corporations and large private foundations. ACSH's donors and the
potential backers comprise a who's-who of energy, agriculture, cosmetics, food,
soda, chemical, pharmaceutical, and tobacco corporations. ACSH donors in the second half of 2012 included Chevron ($18,500),
Coca-Cola ($50,000), the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation ($15,000), Dr.
Pepper/Snapple ($5,000), Bayer Cropscience ($30,000), Procter and Gamble
($6,000), agribusiness giant Syngenta ($22,500), 3M ($30,000), McDonald's
($30,000), and tobacco conglomerate Altria ($25,000). Among the corporations
and foundations that ACSH has pursued for financial support since July 2012 are
Pepsi, Monsanto, British American Tobacco, DowAgro, ExxonMobil Foundation,
Phillip Morris International, Reynolds American, the Koch family-controlled
Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the Dow-linked Gerstacker Foundation, the Bradley
Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust.
Lately, ACSH has become a vocal player in
the debate over "fracking."
In February, the council posted an outline of a
"systematic, objective review" it intends to publish on the
scientific literature covering the potential health effects of fracking. In an
April op-ed for the
conservative Daily Caller website, Whelan
criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) for dithering on whether to allow
fracking in New York State and asserted that "publicity savvy activists
posing as public health experts are spearheading a disingenuous crusade to
prevent the exploitation of the vast quantities of natural gas." Fracking,
Whelan wrote, "doesn't pollute water or air."
The
Daily Caller story included no disclosure of the funding ACSH has
received from the energy industry. Big energy companies and ACSH go way
back: In the 1992 memo, Whelan called
ACSH "the great defender of petrochemical companies." According to the ACSH documents, it
received a $37,500 donation in 2012 from the American Petroleum Institute
related to "fracking." That year, it also received other energy
industry funds, including $18,500 from Chevron and $75,000 from the ExxonMobil
Foundation.
The ACSH documents list
ConocoPhillips as a "projected" donor for
"fracking/general" and say ACSH should pitch the National
Petrochemical & Refiners Association,
a "past supporter," around the issue of fracking. According to the documents, ACSH was
awarded a grant for fracking work from the Triad Foundation ($35,000
for "gen/fracking"). Triad has supported the Heritage Foundation and the Heartland
Institute, a nonprofit that has worked to refute climate science. The Bodman Foundation also gave $40,000 to support a forthcoming ACSH study titled
"Hydraulic Fracturing: Myths and Realities." Bodman
is a reliable supporter of conservative causes, doling out five-figure sums to the American
Enterprise Institute, Hudson Institute, and National Center for Policy
Analysis.”
“The small town of
Pungesti in eastern Romania could be sitting on vast reserves of shale gas and
U.S. Chevron wants to find it. But the people of Pungesti want nothing to do
with it. "Our kitchens are filled with homemade jams and preserves, sacks
of nuts, crates of honey and cheese, all produced by us," said Doina
Dediu, 47, a local and one of the protesters.
"We are not
even that poor," she said. "Maybe we don't have money, but we have
clean water and we are healthy and we just want to be left alone."
Several people said they had gone on YouTube to watch excerpts of the
2010 U.S. documentary "Gasland,"
which to showed the environmental damage caused by shale gas drilling.
Chevron said studies
by the EPA and the Ground Water Protection Council had confirmed no direct link
between fracking and groundwater contamination.
Some local people
say they doubt the project would generate many jobs, or that they are qualified
for them. If there is to be progress and investment, they say they would prefer
a vegetable processing plant, abattoir or wind energy park.”
11. Texas Air Pollution Linked to Fracking and No Zoning
From Keith Mcdonough, (summarized by jan)
“The
article below is from the Allegheny Front web site. The NPR program addressed Air
Pollution caused by Fracking; Dallas
TX now has the second worst air in the nation due to fracking and related industry
primarily because they have no local zoning laws in Texas. That’s right;
residential areas are right next to industrial activity . That is just what Governor Corbett’s stated plan is for PA; “the next
Texas” but he needs to destroy local zoning laws to complete it which is what
Act 13 does. Zoning protection is what Commissioners in South Fayette have
been fighting for in the courts with no final ruling released a year after
our case was heard. What is going on there? How does our Supreme Court wait
a year to release their decision?”
The Allegheny
Front article:
Cracker
Plant Pollution: Preview for Pennsylvania
Twice the VOCs of the Clairton Coke Works?
“When that stuff gets emitted in
the daytime—it cooks up the highest amount of ozone you’ve ever seen,” Jeffries
said.
“Petrochemical plants have helped fuel
the Houston’s economic rise. But they also have added to its poor air quality,
with emissions linked to asthma, cancer, and heart attacks.
From Pennsylvania to
Texas, the chemical industry is building new plants to take advantage of gas
produced up by the fracking boom. Shell Chemical is eyeing building an ethane
cracker in Monaca in Beaver County. The plant would take ethane from the
Marcellus shale and convert it into ethylene—a key building block for plastics
and chemicals—through the ‘cracking’ process.
Shell’s
Pennsylvania cracker would be northwest of Pittsburgh, in a region that already
fails federal air quality standards for ozone and other pollutants, according
to the EPA. Ozone is an oxidant that can burn lung tissue, aggravate asthma and
increase susceptibility to respiratory illnesses like pneumonia and bronchitis,
according to the agency.
Ozone is formed when volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) mix with other forms of pollution in the presence of sunlight.
Air quality experts say the biggest
impact a cracker plant would have in Pittsburgh would be through releases of
VOCs.
The company has said differences in
local permitting rules and the type of raw materials it would use make it hard
to project what kinds of emissions a Pennsylvania cracker would produce. The company has used Shell’s Norco plant in
Louisiana in the past as a reference when it proposed its Pennsylvania cracker.
Norco produces roughly twice the VOCs of
U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke works, currently the highest emitter in Southwestern
Pennsylvania, according to the EPA.
Shell recently agreed to spend $115
million to clean up emissions at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery and ethylene plant near Houston after the
Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging
the plant’s flares were emitting improper amounts of VOCs and cancer-causing
pollutants.
Joe
Osborne of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, said the Beaver County plant
would likely be a major source of new pollution, with more than 50 tons per
year of VOCs and 100 tons of nitrogen oxides, another key component of ozone,
though he has yet to see any estimates from the company.
“I
expect it will be a large source of ozone precursors, and this would be located
in an area that’s already failing to meet federal health-based standards for
ozone,” he said.
Compounding
the problem is the fact that Houston has no zoning laws, which means residents live across the street from huge
refineries and chemical plants.
In 2003, Toyota decided against locating a
plant in the region because of the city’s air. Hendler says the number of air
monitors in Houston doubled in a few years.
The state undertook a wide ranging
series of studies. Aircraft from NASA
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew over the ship
channel with special emissions-sensing equipment.
They
found big leaks at the plants. The worst were from chemical plants with
‘crackers’ that made ethylene and propylene, two basic building blocks of
plastic.
“The plants were having
1,000 pound releases, 5,000 pound releases, 20,000 pound releases, in one case
200,000 pound releases,” said Harvey Jeffries, a retired University of
North Carolina chemist who studied Houston’s air.
Ethylene and propylene—the two main
products made in a cracker— are considered ‘highly reactive VOCs, meaning they can create large plumes of
ozone in a matter of hours under the right conditions.
“When that stuff gets emitted in the daytime—it cooks up the highest
amount of ozone you’ve ever seen,” Jeffries said.
When they looked at Houston’s
industrial corridor, scientists realized chemical plants had been chronically under-reporting their emissions. A lot
of this pollution was ‘fugitive’ emissions—leaks from valves, flanges, tiny
holes in pipes, and incomplete combustion of waste gasses in the plants’
flares.
To
get the city’s air under federal air pollution limits, Texas implemented a
suite of environmental reforms. The state created special limits on emissions
of highly reactive VOCs like propylene and ethylene, and implemented a
cap-and-trade program for Houston’s petrochemical plants.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality estimates the city’s ozone
levels have decreased about 20 percent since 2001.
Houston still struggles with air quality. The city will see huge
expansions of its petrochemical sector in the next few years, thanks to the
fracking boom. Several new or expanded ethane crackers are slated to go online
to take advantage of cheap natural gas. This has some clean air advocates
worried.
Larry
Soward, a former regulator for the Texas commission and president of Air
Alliance Houston. “But let’s not pat ourselves on the back too much. So far we
have not met a single (federal) standard for ozone and we’re talking about
adding all these new pollution sources.”
Soward thinks they could go even further—by implementing more
fence-line monitoring and increasing maximum fines on plants, now $25,000 a
day.
“We just don’t do that in Texas,” he said.
“If you
monitor, it will get better,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened here.”
Smith’s group tests for more than 150 pollutants to help oil, gas and
petrochemical businesses meet federal air quality mandates.
It
helped companies cut down on leaks at their facilities. In that way, he said,
the monitors have been good for the city’s air, and good for the companies’
bottom line.”
See more at: http://www.alleghenyfront.org/story/houston-air-pollution-preview-pennsylvania#sthash.gwvvi9U3.dpuf
12. Stanford Professor:
Powering Entire World on Renewable Energy No Problem
“A Stanford
University professor, a guest on the Letterman Show, did more than just
advocate renewable energy. Mark Jacobson
suggested that the world could easily live off renewable energy.
“There’s enough wind to power the entire
world, for all purposes, around seven times over,” the professor of civil and
environmental engineering told David Letterman. “Solar, about 30 times over, in high-solar locations
worldwide.”
Jacobson said a good starting point would be in the U.S., where he
believes the world’s largest untapped resource of offshore wind energy exists
on the East Coast. Jacobson, the director of Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy program, told the
audience that he is working on “science-based plans to eliminate global
warming” because 2.5 million to 4 million deaths take place each year due to air
pollution.
Early on,
Letterman posed one of the most pressing questions regarding a shift to
renewables: “How do we motivate the fossil fuel people—the gas, and oil
people—of this country to stop what they are doing? … They’re not going to give
up this multi-billion dollar industry.”
Jacobson
responded, “We really do need policies put in place. Right now, the fossil fuel
industry gets a lot of subsidies. Wind and solar also get subsidies, but not
quite as much in aggregate.
Watch the attached to video to learn about
Jacobson’s plan and why he believes “everything’s going to be OK.”
13. Teresa Heinz Kerry Speaks on Shale
Center
Teresa
Heinz Kerry, chair of the Heinz Endowments, said she and other family members
on the endowments' board wanted to collaborate with the energy industry on ways
to responsibly drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale, but they did not expect
the Center for Sustainable Shale Development to be launched out of that effort.
"I
was never involved with the center. ... I don't know how it came
about," Mrs. Kerry said.
Mrs. Kerry, refused to link Ms. Glotfelty's firing to creation of the
center. Nor would she comment on the departure of Douglas Root, longtime communications
director. The foundation's executive director, Robert Vagt, announced he also
will step down.
Many
observers believe Ms. Glotfelty, Mr. Root and Mr. Vagt all may have been caught
up in the fallout from launching the center, which apparently did not have the
full support of the Heinz family members who sit on the endowments board.
The
Center for Sustainable Shale Development is a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that
states its mission as supporting best practices for shale development. Its
partners include energy companies such as Chevron, EQT, Consol and Shell;
environmental groups including the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Penn
Future; and philanthropies.
Asked
how that initial idea to collaborate evolved into the center without her or the
board's knowledge, Mrs. Kerry said, "I don't know. Things changed. I don't
know how or when."
While
she acknowledged approving initial funding for "a collaboration," the
board did not authorize the center, she said.
Some foundation observers have speculated that while
she was ill, Andre Heinz, known to be an avid environmentalist, assumed more
control of foundation affairs and was involved in firing the staff members.
"He is one of the brightest people there are and
is passionate like his father and doesn't put up with nonsense. ... It's
probably an easy way for people ... to criticize what they don't like. And I
don't care, quite frankly."
14. U.S. Department of Energy Awards $60M to Solar Research and Development
Wanting to build on an already
growing industry, the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) invested $60 million this week in solar
energy research and development.
The awards were announced at the Solar Power International 2013 event in
Chicago as a small portion of President Obama’s plan to reduce carbon pollution
while supporting clean energy innovation.
The $60 million,
issued by the DOE’s SunShot Initiative, is spread out
over 40 awards and six funding programs, program director Minh Le told RenewableEnergyWorld.com. The awards
support technologies that lower installation costs, increase performance,
support solar cell efficiency and more.
15. Massachusetts Model State
“350
Massachusetts is a grassroots, volunteer-led network that Bill McKibben has
called a “model for what we need all across the country and all around the
world.”
We're focusing on two
core campaigns: divesting the state of Masschusetts from fossil fuels and
working with Governor Deval Patrick to achieve key climate goals during his
last year in office.
Our
divestment campaign aims to make Massachusetts the first state in the country
to divest from fossil fuels, and we've built a lot of momentum over the past
few months. Meanwhile, our Climate Legacy campaign plans to work with Governor
Patrick on initiatives like a ban on coal-fired power plants, an end to new
fossil fuel infrastructure projects, and setting our state up for a carbon tax.
For
more information on 350MA or our core campaigns, visit our website at
350ma.org. If you've been wondering how to get more involved, this is your
chance. Newcomers who are ready to work on an ongoing basis are welcome. Come
to the 350MA Campaigns Summit, and leave with a critical role on one of the
statewide campaign teams!”
From 350 mass.
16. Fracking Industry Fights Taxes
“A coalition of gas drilling companies came out
recently against higher taxes on gas drilling companies in Pennsylvania. The Marcellus Shale Coalition, industry
group, blasted plans from a variety of Democrats’ gubernatorial hopefuls who
say they want to increase the taxes paid by the gas industry. Drillers in
Pennsylvania pay an impact fee to the state and local governments – drillers
have paid more than $400 million since the fee was imposed in 2012 – but
Democrats want to increase the rate and use it to fund a range of state-level
programs that have nothing to do with drilling.
“Every square inch
of the Commonwealth is benefiting from this generational opportunity,” the
coalition said in a statement. “It would be irresponsible and ill-advised to
advance massive new energy taxes that would strike an unnecessary blow to one
of our economy’s most important, thriving and promising sectors.”
It’s hardly
surprising. After all, what industry would not oppose a politically driven
effort to single them out for higher tax rates?
But there is more
to the story, and it’s a story voters will hear plenty about in the next year.
With Gov. Tom Corbett looking like one
of the most vulnerable governors in the country for the 2014 election cycle,
the natural gas industry figures to be one of his most important allies.
The reason is
simple: Natural gas companies have more
than just rhetoric to help the embattled governor. They also write checks with
lots of zeroes.
The gas industry poured more than $1
million into Corbett’s first gubernatorial campaign, and Democrats talking
about jacking up taxes on their companies will only drive them further into
Corbett’s corner for 2014.
Corbett’s team
talks about raising as much as $30 million for his re-election effort. It’s a
good bet that a sizable chuck of that amount will come from the Marcellus Shale
Coalition’s members.
It’s no secret that the
Republicans and the natural gas companies have forged a politically beneficial
alliance.
.” The campaign of Tom Wolf, a York County businessman and former head of the state
Department of Revenue, responded with a video criticizing
the governor for “giving away our state’s natural resources.”
And
that’s the message you can expect to hear from many of the Democratic
candidates over the next year, particularly as they play to their base in the
primary.
U.S. Rep. Allyson
Schwartz, the perceived frontrunner in the race, has
called for a 5 percent tax on natural gas production.
Democrats
seem determined to take a hard-line anti-fracking stance during next year’s
campaign. The state party has already approved resolution in favor of banning
hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania, though state lawmakers and the heads of
several prominent unions criticized that decision and cited the “vital economic
interest” gas drilling represents.
There
also is the minor question of whether such a tax — to say nothing of a drilling
ban — would pass the Republican-controlled Legislature. Former Gov. Ed Rendell could not
get a 5 percent severance tax through the General Assembly, even when half of
it was controlled by Democrats.”
17. Air pollution from gas/oil Processing Connected to Non Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma and Leukemia
(Another report on the lymphoma-
leukemia study, jan)
Journal: Atmospheric Environment
“It turns out that heavy air pollution in Canada may be associated with
cancer spikes. Scientists have discovered that levels of contaminants
higher than in some of the world's most polluted cities have been found
downwind of Canada's largest oil, gas and tar sands processing zone in a rural
area where men suffer elevated rates of cancers linked to such chemicals.
In
order to examine how this processing zone might be impacting the community
downwind from it, the researchers captured emissions in the rural Fort
Saskatchewan area. They took one-minute samples at random times in 2008, 2010
and 2012. Despite the random times,
though, all of the samples showed similar results; amounts of some dangerous
volatile organic compounds were 6,000 times higher than normal.
The contaminants that the researchers found
included the carcinogens 1,3-butadiene and benzene and other airborne
pollutants. Yet in order to see how these pollutants might be impacting the
community, the researchers had to investigate a bit further. They gathered health records spanning more
than a decade that showed the number of men with leukemia and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma was greater in communities closest to the pollution plumes than in
neighboring counties.
"Our study was designed to test what kinds of
concentrations could be encountered on the ground during a random visit
downwind of various facilities. We're
seeing elevated levels of carcinogens and other gases in the same area where
we're seeing excess cancers known to be caused by these chemicals,"
said Isobel Simpson, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our main
point is that it would be good to proactively lower these emissions of known
carcinogens. You can study it and study it, but at some point you just have to
say, 'Let's reduce it.'"
That's
not all the researchers discovered, either. It turns out that the Alberta
plumes were comparable to those found in heavily polluted megacities. In fact, the levels of some chemicals were
higher than in Mexico City during the 1990s or in the still polluted
Houston-Galveston area.
"For
decades, we've known that exposure to outdoor air pollutants can cause
respiratory and cardiovascular disease," said Stuart Batterman, one of the
researchers. "The World Health Organization has now also formally
recognized that outdoor air pollution is a leading environmental cause of cancer
deaths."
The findings are published in the journal Atmospheric
Environment.”
18. Processors
and Compression
Commentary and Photos By Bob Donnan
“Today’s Eye-Opener
“Following
two dozen flights over Shale Gas development, this kind of image still opens my
eyes to the broad scope of what is very quickly happening around us. Especially
when you consider that a dozen or more
of these huge wet gas processing (fractionators) and compression facilities
have popped-up around the tri-state area in just the past few years, with
this one being slightly south of the Pennsylvania line in Wetzel County, WV.
Consider the logistics it took to build this place! Some of these facilities process Utica Shale
wet gas, and others Marcellus Shale wet gas, but the gas liquids these
facilities separate from the methane (natural gas) seems to be about the same:
mostly propane, followed by butane and pentane.
Next
they want to extract more ethane to fuel ‘cracker’ plants which supply
feedstock for things like plastic manufacturing. These gas liquids are all ripe
for export by truck, rail, pipeline and ship. With all this infrastructure in
place, drilling in neighborhoods will be their final phase… one well site per
square mile would probably be ideal in industry’s eyes.”
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.
