Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates
March 20, 2014
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reports, general information and meeting information
http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
* Our email address: westmcg@gmail.com
*
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* 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 You
* Thank you to contributors to our Updates: Debbie Borowiec, Lou
Pochet, Ron Gulla, the Pollocks, Marian Szmyd, Bob Donnan, Elizabeth Donahue, and Bob Schmetzer.
Calendar
*** WMCG Meeting We meet the second Tuesday of every month at
7:30 PM in Greensburg. Email Jan for
directions. All are very welcome to attend.
***Delmont
Informational Meeting
Huntley and Huntley Activity in the Area
April 1, 2014 from
6:45pm-8:30pm. RSVP is requested.
Delmont Fire Hall
Dear
Resident,
Recently,
several people from the Delmont area reached out to us at the Mountain
Watershed Association because they wanted to learn more about the activities of
Huntley and Huntley, Ion Geophysical and other companies conducting shale gas
related activities in your area. At the residents’ request we are holding a
public meeting at the Delmont Volunteer Fire Department on April 1, 2014 from
6:45pm-8:30 pm. RSVP is requested.
The meeting will include a
presentation on lease terms; insurance and mortgage issues; health and
environmental impacts; what is and is not legally permissible; tracking
activities using online tools; and other topics. The presentation will be
followed by an in-depth question and answer session.
Through
our experiences with industry we are aware that not all the facts are put on
the table. We want to rectify this. We hope you will come and bring your
neighbors so you can make an informed decision about what you want to do with
your land in your community. If you do not attend this meeting we still
recommend you seek professional counsel before signing any agreements.
For questions please call
Kathryn or Nick at 724-455-4200 or e-mail mcsp@mtwatershed.com. Sincerely,
Kathryn
Hilton, Community Organizer
***Deer Lakes Park Meeting –A public hearing is
scheduled for 7 p.m. April 2 at Deer Lakes High School. To
comment at the public meeting sign up 24 hours before the meeting day.http://www.alleghenycounty.us/council/meetings/comment.aspx
Take Action!!
***Letters to the editor are important
and one of the best ways to share
information with the
public. ***
***Tenaska Plant
Seeks to Be Sited in South Huntingdon, Westmoreland County***
Petition !! Please
forward to your lists!
Please
share the attached petition with residents of Westmoreland and all bordering
counties. We need
each of you to share the petition with your email lists and any group with
which you are affiliated. As stated in the petition, Westmoreland County
cannot meet air standards for several criteria. Many
areas of Westmoreland County are already listed as EPA non-attainment areas for
ozone and particulate matter 2.5, so the county does not have the capacity to
handle additional emissions that will contribute to the burden of ozone in the
area as well as health impacts.
According to the American Lung Association, every county in the
Pittsburgh region except for Westmoreland County had fewer bad air days for
ozone and daily particle pollution compared with the previous report.
Westmoreland County was the only county
to score a failing grade for particulate matter.
The
Tenaska gas plant will add tons of pollution to already deteriorated air and
dispose of waste water into the Youghiogheny River. Westmoreland County already has a higher
incidence of disease that other counties in United States. The pollution
doesn’t stop at the South Huntingdon Township border, it will travel to the
surrounding townships and counties.
If you know of church groups or other
organizations that will help with the petition please forward it and ask
for their help.
***RON SLABE Thanks
All for Signing Frack Pit Ban Petitions
“Dear
friend,
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014, I was able to
deliver our petition to Ban the Frack Pit with over 3800 signatures to the PA
DEP's Environmental Quality Board in Harrisburg, PA. Along with several environmental groups,
we brought petitions and letters and presented them to the PA DEP. Those petitions and letters, gathered with
the help of such groups as Clean Water Action, PennEnvironment, Delaware
Riverkeeper Network, the Sierra Club, Upper Burrell Citizens Against Marcellus
Pollution, and several other environmental groups, had over 17,000 signatures
demanding an end to open impoundments or what is commonly known as frack
pits. Mr. Scott Perry, DEP Deputy
Secretary, received us in the lobby of the DEP and accepted our petitions and
letters. We who delivered those messages
and the signers of those letters and petitions, spoke for the countless number
of Pennsylvanians who are tired and fed up with the environmental degradation
caused by these open impoundments or frack pits.
I cannot thank you enough for your
signature and help in making this effort a great success. And remember, if you still haven't signed,
you still have until tomorrow, March 14, which is the last day for accepting
public comment on the proposed DEP regulations.
The petition to Ban the Frack Pit
with any additional signatures
will be delivered electronically to the DEP.
Finally, I want to leave you with a most
profound ballad written and sung by Kris Kitko, called the Frack Pit Love
Song. It is a beautifully written piece
of music which tells the true tale of the horrible consequences of the frack
pit. Just click and listen. Give it about 20 seconds before the music
starts. If you have trouble, just go to
YouTube to find the "Frack Pit Love Song”
Frack Links
***Act 13 Forum
Video Is Up
The video is split into 2 parts for a total viewing time of about
2 hours. There is a small amount of
blank time (about a minute) at the beginning of Part 1, but just let it play...
Our Water, Our Air, Our Communities — And Forced Gas
Drilling?
What:
Delaware Riverkeeper Network hosted a forum with the lead litigators and
litigants of the landmark Act 13 case – the case in which the conservative
Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared that the rights of pure water, clean air,
and a healthy environment, across the generations, must be protected by state
and local legislators.
The
forum included a discussion of how Act 13 came to be passed, how and why the
legal challenge was formulated, including the interesting alliance between the
7 towns and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and the implications for
environmental, municipal, and legislative decision making going forward.
***Concerned about the air quality in
your community due to drilling?—Speaker Available
Southwestern Pennsylvania
Environmental Health Project will provide a professional speaker if you host a
community meeting. “Tyler Rubright is available throughout the next couple of
weeks to come to meetings and present and/or help to facilitate and answer any
questions.”
Contact Jessa Chabeau
***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 have 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/
*** Southwest PA
Environmental Health Has Air Monitors
From
Ryan Grode at the SWPA-EHP:
“I
am beginning a distribution of new air
quality monitors for individuals who are living near any type of drilling
activity. If you know of anyone who
would want to have one of these monitors at their home I would visit them and
set up the monitor for them, then come back in a few weeks to pick up the
monitor and perhaps our nurse practitioner will join me and conduct an exposure
assessment on the family.
If
you hear of anyone who would like help dealing with issues because of drilling
please refer them to me. The office
number is 724-260-5504. As mentioned I'll personally be able to go out to
see the family and speak with them and possibly set up air quality, water
quality, and possibly in the future soil quality monitors.”
From Jan:
At
our last WMCG meeting, SWPA-HEP provided information about the air and water
monitors. “Speck” is the air monitor developed by Carnegie Mellon. It is used
indoors, plugged into an outlet, and detects particulate matter. These monitors
are being used within about 3 miles of fracked wells. The device is not calibrated in a way to be
used in a court of law. It is used to
give the homeowner an idea of the level of pollution they are being exposed to,
and it registers a continuous read. The
dylos monitor could detect 2.5 particulate but had no continuous read.
The
water indicator, called “Catfish”, is
placed in the back of a toilet and measures conductivity which is related to
general water quality of water. Further testing can be done if conductivity is
abnormal.
***Isaak Walton
Presentations-- A series of
presentations on how shale gas drilling can affect water, air, and property, as
well as citizens' rights and state laws like Act 13.
1 - Ken DeFalla - Henry Enstrom Chapter - Water Quality
2 - Dr John Stolz - The Woodlands
3 - Dr Ben Stout - Charleston MCHM spill
4 - Dr Dorothy Basset - Energy Independence falsehoods
5 - John Smith, Esq - Act 13 Updates
6 - Raina Rippel, SWPA-EHP - Health Effects and Air Testing
7 - Ron Gulla - What to expect from the industry
8 - Linda & David Headley - Living close to drilling
9 - Joe Bezak - Jailed for stopping pollution of his land
***Frack Pit Ban
Petition Presentation-Televised
From Ron Slabe
“Hey folks,
Check out my moment of
Harrisburg fame when I delivered our petition to Ban the Frack Pit to the DEP
in Harrisburg. I knew the cameras were
rolling but only the Harrisburg stations were carrying it. Thanks to the Sierra Club, the TV footage is
available. Click on the link "Harrisburg
event" below to check out my "moment of fame." But more seriously, remember the dreadful
consequences of these open oil & gas cesspools! Ron Slabe”
Harrisburg event
Frack News
Drilling going on in Donegal
(Sample from Sky Truth Alert)
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC Reports Drilling Started (SPUD) in Donegal Twp
Township
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC reports drilling started on 2014-03-12 00:00:00 at
site OLD MCDONALD FARM UNIT 4H in
Donegal Twp township, Washington county
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC Reports Drilling Started (SPUD) in Donegal Twp
Township
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC reports drilling started on 2014-03-12 00:00:00 at
site OLD MCDONALD FARM UNIT 2H in
Donegal Twp township, Washington county
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC Reports Drilling Started (SPUD) in Donegal Twp
Township
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC reports drilling started on 2014-03-11 00:00:00 at
site OLD MCDONALD FARM UNIT 6H in
Donegal Twp township, Washington county
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC Reports Drilling Started (SPUD) in Donegal Twp
Township
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC reports drilling started on 2014-03-11 00:00:00 at
site OLD MCDONALD FARM UNIT 5H in
Donegal Twp township, Washington county
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC Reports Drilling Started (SPUD) in Donegal Twp
Township
RANGE
RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC reports drilling started on 2014-03-11 00:00:00 at
site OLD MCDONALD FARM UNIT 1H in
Donegal Twp township, Washington county
1. Deer Lakes Park
“Allegheny
County Council Vice President Nick Futules said a preliminary agreement that,
if approved, would permit Range
Resources to drill for gas under Deer Lakes Park will be introduced at
Tuesday's regular County Council meeting.
County
Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s office said the proposal contains a $4.7 million
bonus payment, $3 million for a Park Improvement Fund and 18 % in royalties,
which would go to the county for the duration of the lease.
“The county's participation in this makes
this a win-win for the community,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We are
enhancing assurances for our residents, enhancing revenues for the county as
well as the private land owners, and enhancing our community through the park
improvements that can be made with these revenues.”
The
lease would prohibit any operations from occurring in Deer Lakes Park,
Fitzgerald's office said.
Futules,
the chair of the parks committee, said the drilling proposal would go through a
committee review and public hearing process before a vote by council to accept
or reject it.
Fitzgerald said a public hearing is
scheduled for 7 p.m. April 2 at Deer Lakes High School.
Range Resources and Huntley &
Huntley submitted the lone proposal to drill under the park from well pads
outside its boundaries.
For more than six months, some residents have
voiced their opposition to the drilling in West Deer and Frazer during County
Council meetings.”
http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/proposal-drill-under-deer-lakes-park-headed-allegh/nfFZH/
2. Questions
To Ask Your Local Officials-From Debbie
(This is an excellent
list . Jan)
Debbie added these questions to the list:
-What chemicals will be used in the fracking fluids?
-How far will
emissions travel?
-What radioactive materials will be brought back to the
surface? (Who is testing for radioactivity?
Jan)
-How and where will you dispose of the fracking waste?
-What baseline tests (for air and water) will you do before
fracking begins?
-What ongoing testing will you do? How often?
How will the results be made public?
(From Jan: How many pads will be constructed and how many wells
will be located on each well pad?
Where will the gathering lines be located?
Where will condensate tanks be located and will there be
permanent air monitoring?
How frequently will the well site be inspected for leakage
of chemicals and for air/water testing? By whom? If a problem is detected, how
many days are permitted for the problem to be fixed?
Will green completion be required in the lease contract?
Flaring is toxic.)
Debbie provided this
list of 26 questions that was used in
2010. Feel free to print it and pass it
out to County Council and other local officials. They should have answers to ALL of these
questions (and more) before they allow fracking.
Questions about
fracking to ask your local officials:
1. How much water
will be used to frack each well?
2. Where will the
water come from?
3. What local water
sources will provide water for the drilling projects? Please provide specific names and locations
of each water source. Specifically, will
public water be used?
4. How many trucks
will be used for drilling operations?
Please specify truck traffic per hour, per day, per week. Communities already experiencing this type of
drilling have seen 200-300 trucks, per day, on local roads. Will this be true here?
5. Will drilling
companies provide bonding for each of the local, county, or state roads used
throughout the entire drilling process?
If not, who will be responsible to repair all road damage? Who will assume all repair costs?
6. How many times
will each gas well be “fracked?” Is it
true wells can be “fracked” as many as 10 times?
7. Specifically,
what chemicals, additives, surfactants, and/or solvents will be used during the
“fracking” process? (See articles: “What’s in that Fracking Fluid?” and “18 Cows Die From Apparent Chemical
Release”.)
8. Where will these
hazardous chemicals be stored (prior to them being used in the fracking
process)?
9. Specifically,
how much of each chemical, additive, surfactant and/or solvent will be used
during the “fracking” process(es)?
10. Where will the
toxic brine and “fracking” water be stored after the drilling?
11. Will drillers
create “frack ponds” on any local lands during the drilling process(es)? Specifically, where?
12. How large will
each “frack pond” be in size: length,
width, and depth?
13. Specifically,
what will be held in these “frack ponds?”
Will there be hazardous chemicals in these “frack ponds”? What are they?
14. Will these
“frack ponds” be fenced? Using what type
of fencing?
15. Where will the
toxic brine and “fracking” water be disposed of? Please provide the approved facility name,
address, and phone number, in writing.
16. Will PA DEP
require drilling companies to have permits for Storm Water Management and/or
Soil and Erosion/Sedimentation plans? If
not, why not?
17. If there are
storm water management and/or soil and erosion problems, who is responsible for
all clean up costs? If drillers are not
responsible for these clean up costs, will the landowners or the local
municipality be responsible for these clean up costs?
18. Is the drilling
operation restricted to daylight hours only?
Or will the drilling and truck traffic take place 24 hrs per day – 7
days per week?
19. Will the PA DEP
require sound restricting walls to be used at drill sites? If not, why not?
20. Will lights be
used on the drill site? Will these
lights be operational every night?
21. Large “flares”
are typically part of the fracking process.
How large in size will “flares” associated with drilling projects
be? How many feet of stack? How many feet of the actual “flaming
flare?” And, will these “flares” remain
after the drilling has been completed and will they run all night?
22. Will there be
compressor stations and separation plants associated with the gas well drilling
projects? If so, where will they be
located?
23. Why did the PA
DEP take important oversight away from County Conservation Districts – and
instead, “streamline” all oversight through the PA DEP, which is currently
overworked and extremely understaffed?
24. How many PA DEP
inspectors are currently employed in PA?
In this county?
25. How often will
PA DEP inspectors be on site at this drilling site? How often during the drilling process ? And how often after the wells are drilled?
26. What air
quality monitoring will be performed?
How will the results be made public?
3. Close to Home-By Bob Donnan (Please request newsletter to view Bob's photos)
(This presentation is still relevant
and can be used as a basis for constructing our own statements. Jan)
“We’ve lived in Peters Township for 34 years…
I’m pleased to say that I strongly
participated in an effort four years ago that helped prevent our township
council members from signing a lease for ALL our township parks and school
properties with Chesapeake Energy.
Chesapeake was also
after ALL our township public properties including the schools, so I also did a
presentation in front of the school board before most people were even aware of
drilling and fracking in our school district.”
Below is the presentation Bob made to the school board in May 2010:
“ The Marcellus Shale gas rush is upon us.
Most people in this room probably don’t know
what it looks like, or smells like, but they have heard about the money.
It’s very tempting for municipalities and
school districts to lease public lands for drilling.
Some go so far as to say it isn’t “fiscally
responsible” not to consider leasing.
I feel it is not “responsible,” especially for
a school district, to lease land for drilling.
Why do I say that?
Due to a concern for student health over fiscal
health.
Marcellus Shale drilling has already affected
our tap water. Most people have read about problems with high TDS, or total
dissolved solids, in the Mon River.
All of us have had our tap water affected to
varying degrees over the past 2 years.
This is increasingly due to Marcellus Shale
drilling, since each well requires so much water to fracture, and in turn
creates so much wastewater to dispose of.
But my
concern tonight is making you aware of the serious air quality issues around
drilling.
While natural gas may burn cleaner than coal,
its final footprint may be worse.
Mayor Calvin Tillman of DISH Texas recently
visited Midway to share his experiences related to air quality and drilling.
The mayor reminded us that once the gas wells are drilled, pipelines
and compressor stations soon follow.
Compressor stations, in addition to condensate
tanks and methane leaks, add to air quality woes.
One of Mayor Tillman’s major points was that
there are some places they shouldn’t drill for gas: Near parks, playgrounds,
hospitals and schools.
Thanks again Calvin!
As
these handouts will remind you, children are much more vulnerable to problems
from air pollution than adults.
Some will say school children can be protected
by signing “no drill” leases. But whether or not the drilling occurs on school
property, or under it, the final effect will be the same.
Gas wells, even after they are drilled, are
known for emitting BTEX’s (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene) since these
are usually present in the condensate tanks around gas well heads.
I
am here tonight to encourage this school board not to lease any school property
for gas production.
Your
leasing of school property for drilling would add to water and air quality
problems from drilling.
Lest we forget, we live in a part of
Pennsylvania where we have to burn special gasoline every summer, due to bad
air quality.
Added to our county’s air problems are the 16
counties that surround us with similar “non-attainment” of national air quality
standards.
Washington County, just like
Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland counties, fail the air quality test
on 3 counts – Ozone, particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.
Our 17-county area
ranks right up there with the 4 or 5 top areas in the US with the worst air
quality.
One of Bob’s handouts that
night using EPA data
PTSD
= Peters Township School District
One of Bob’s handouts that night using EPA data
PTSD = Peters Township School District
(Numbers indicate number of criteria failed. Jan)
Will
this board add to this pollution, or make the tougher, more responsible
decision to protect our school children? Time will tell.
Please spend the time necessary to study all
the health issues and remember that your main purpose is serving children’s
best interests and protecting their health.”
Chesapeake
brought in their first-string team of boys from Oklahoma and applied the full
court press, but council did not sign in the end. Small victories!
Bob Donnan “
4. Pre- Testing Of
Air Near Airport Drill Site
Who is Monitoring Air in Westmoreland County where we have no
Dept. of Health?
Mar 14 – “The Allegheny County Health
Department has begun monitoring air quality near Pittsburgh International
Airport in anticipation of the natural gas drilling planned for the area.
Mobile air testing equipment in Washington County, Pa
Jim Thompson, deputy director of environmental health for
the department, said that monitoring, which will measure for 61 different
"volatile organic compounds," began March 6.
Photo from Bob
Donnan
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/marcellusshale/2014/03/15/Air-tested-near-airport-at-planned-drilling-area/stories/201403150072
5. Seismic Testing by Bob Donnan
“Whether
it’s ‘Thumper Trucks’ or kilo-sized (2.2 lbs) charges of dynamite,
everyone knows seismic testing can do serious damage to
buildings and water wells.
Thumper trucks lower this pad onto roadways to lift the weight of
the truck and put vibrations into the ground, with 3 or 4 trucks running in
tandem. They are supposed to reduce the strength of vibrations close to homes
& water wells.
Yesterday I had a chance to photograph the home of a victim
of seismic testing. It is actually Ron Gulla’s cousin’s house on Linden Creek
Road. Ron tells me his cousin always had a good, strong water well until Thumper
Trucks traversed the road which is fairly close to the front of his house. A large water buffalo now adorns the side
yard.”
6. Protestors
Arrested Halting Fracking in Tiadaghton
State Forest
Marcellus Shale Earth First!
“In the
pre-dawn hours, activists with Marcellus
Shale EarthFirst!, Pennsylvania residents and students took action to halt
Anadarko’s fracking operation in the Tiadaghton State Forest. Protestors
blocked the only access road to a wellpad by locking themselves to barrels of
concrete, preventing workers from entering the site. At this time the
police have placed at least two people in handcuffs and one person has been cut
out of the blockade. The activists are demanding an immediate halt to all plans
for new drilling on Pennsyvlania’s public lands.
All the
blockaders have been removed after blocking the wellpad for 4 hours. A
solidarity rally was held at Anadarko’s corporate offices in Williamsport, PA.
“The public lands of
Pennsylvania belong to all Pennsylvanians,” said Michael Badges-Canning,
retired school teacher from Butler County who attended the protest. “It is my
obligation as a resident of the Commonwealth and a grandparent to protect our
wild heritage, our pristine waters
and the natural beauty for my grandchildren, Dougie and Lochlin.”
Gov.
Corbett (R-PA) has recently issued an executive order to open Pennsylvania’s
remaining public lands for fracking. This includes state forests that have been
off limits to gas companies since 2010, when then Gov. Rendell declared a
moratorium on any new leases. The moratorium came in the wake of a Pennsylvania
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
(DCNR) study that concluded no remaining state owned lands were suitable for
oil and gas development without significant surface disruptions. Gov. Corbett’s
current move to lift the multi-year ban ignores the negative effects that new
leases will have on Pennsylvania’s most ecologically sensitive forests,
including those where species are at risk.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/20/protestors-arrested-halting-fracking-operations/
7. Two Views of
Colorado’s New Regs
***Colorado First State To Pass Meaningful Regs on Fracking Pollution
“This is
a model for the country,” said Dan Grossman, the defense fund’s Rocky Mountain
regional director. Over the course of a
year, the new regulations will remove
enough volatile organic compounds from the air to equal those emitted by every
car and truck in the state, backers said.
“These rules punish rural Colorado for smog
created by Boulder and Denver,” said state Senator Greg Brophy, a Republican from
Wray seeking his party’s nomination to run against Hickenlooper for governor in
November.
America’s dirtiest secret
Brophy said in testimony on the rules last
week. “Let’s not be the first
state in the nation to regulate methane.”
Emissions
during oil and gas operations represent the state’s largest source of volatile
organic compounds that contribute to the formation of ozone, a ground-level
pollutant linked to respiratory problems and decreased crop yields. Parts of
Colorado violate national air quality standards for ozone.
The mandates are also the first attempt by
a state to regulate methane emissions from fracking. The main component of
natural gas, methane is 20 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere
than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.
“When I talk with my counterparts about air
pollution issues, the first thing that comes up is tanks,” he told the air
quality board. “We’re proposing a first-in-the-nation set of rules that
would address this very important problem.”
The regulations require companies to
install equipment to minimize leakage of toxic gases and to control or capture
95 percent of emissions.
Energy producers
would be required to routinely inspect well sites for leaks, as often as once a
month, depending on how much oil or gas a well produces. When leaks are
discovered, they must be fixed within 15
days.
The Air Pollution Control Division estimated costs at $40
million, while industry economists said they would be $100 million.
Companies supporting the
rules said while they need time to invest in expensive equipment and to hire
and train personnel on new systems, they are willing to shoulder the costs.
“We estimate it’s going to cost
Noble Energy $3 million dollars a year to comply with this rule,” testified
Brian Lockard, the company’s director of environmental, health, safety and
regulatory, at the hearing. “We project we’re going to have to hire 16
additional people.”
Noble runs about 8,000 wells in
the Denver-Julesburg Basin, where it plans to invest $12 billion over the next
five years. Noble and Anadarko undertake 80 percent of all operations in the
basin. Anadarko operates about 5,000 wells there and expects to invest $2
billion in the region this year.
Anadarko said the emissions
mandates are necessary to ensure the companies’ investments pay off.”
***The Good, Bad
and Ugly in Colorado’s New Fracking Air Emissions Rules
The Good News
Colorado’s new drilling and fracking air quality regulations
will cut Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions as well as methane emissions
from oil and gas wells and facilities. VOCs lead to ozone and other air quality
problems which cause asthma attacks and other health problems. And methane is a
serious greenhouse gas that must be better addressed if our planet has any hope
of controlling climate change.
The degree of the cut in both of these
pollutants is debatable—somewhere between 20 – 40 percent—because the new
regulations don’t require that all drilling companies comply, or that all
facilities comply, and allow any company to ask for a waiver if the cost is
deemed too onerous. But on the whole, any cut is better than no cut. Coloradans
can breathe a little easier, for a little while.
The Bad News
Unfortunately,
Colorado’s drilling and fracking landscape is not a zero-sum game because about
2,000 new wells are being drilled every
year. These new regulations won’t slow down fracking one single bit and may
actually help increase air pollution and climate change emissions. If you cut
emissions by ~30 percent and drill more and more wells, pretty soon the total
amount of emissions and pollution will come out even with where it is now and
will get worse as more wells are drilled.
Colorado
currently has 53,000 active wells and the industry predicts 50,000 more will be drilled in the next 30
years in addition to the redrilling and refracking of current active wells.
With these new regulations in place, at about 70,000 total wells our air pollution
will be the same as it is now; at
100,000 wells, our air pollution will be ~35 percent worse. By cutting
emissions, but by not stopping drilling and fracking altogether, these new
rules will lead to worse air pollution, increased climate change emissions, as
well as our suburban landscapes being swarmed with well pads spewing
cancer-causing chemicals in the air and on the ground.
The Ugly News
These new regulations may actually
undermine local democracy and the necessary change in policy that needs to
happen in Colorado. Over the past 18 months, local democracy has flourished in
Colorado as voters supported fracking
bans in Longmont, Boulder, Lafayette, Broomfield and Fort Collins. In fact,
it is these election outcomes that forced industry to the negotiating table to
support the new rules.
As one
participant from the Environmental Defense Fund stated publicly: “The
industry’s social license to do business is under attack in Colorado and the
political dynamics made a strong negotiated settlement attractive.” In other words, even though the industry had
spent over a million dollars fighting the local elections, they lost and so
they cut a deal with the Governor and a few frack-happy environmental groups to
try and save their asses.
By supporting this “attractive settlement,”
these environmental groups’ efforts have now bolstered the social license of
this polluting and climate-destroying industry. If your social license to
do business is destroying the planet, shouldn’t that license be revoked? Instead,
the deal could derail the ongoing
forward movement of authentic, grassroots, political change supported by voters
in Colorado cities with more than 400,000 citizens towards banning fracking and
switching our economy away from fossil fuels.
This mad rush to drill and frack in
Colorado was initially supported by two assumptions: 1) that natural gas has
less greenhouse gas emissions than coal and thus is a “bridge fuel” to fight
climate change, and 2) that American oil and gas makes us “energy independent.”
Both of these
assumptions have been proven false.
The mad
rush to drill and frack in Colorado and across the U.S. is accompanied by an
equally mad rush to build pipelines to get that oil and gas to the coast so it
can be shipped overseas where the international oil and gas corporations can
sell it for a higher price. Those corporations don’t fight with missiles and
ground troops here in America; they fight with hundreds of millions of dollars
lobbying, influencing elections, and polluting our democracy to make sure our
100 percent dependency on their product continues.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/20/colorados-fracking-rules/
8. Act 13 Suit
Cited in Tri-County Landfill Case
By Bernard A. Labuskes, Jr., Judge
Environmental hearing
Board
EHB Docket No. 2013-185-L
March 11, 2014
“The
Board grants a petition to intervene filed by individuals who live, work,
and/or recreate near the site of a proposed landfill.
Tri-County
Landfill, Inc. (“Tri-County”) filed this appeal from the DEPs denial of its
application for a municipal waste landfill permit at a site in Pine and Liberty
Townships, Mercer County. Ray Yourd, Diana Hardisky, Eric and Polly Lindh, Bill
and Lisa Pritchard, Ann and Dave Dayton, and Doug Bashline (the “Petitioners”),
who support the Department’s decision to deny the permit, have filed a petition
to intervene. Their petition, which is
supported by verifications, alleges that
they all live, work, and/or recreate in close proximity to the site of the
proposed landfill, and that the landfill will likely have a detrimental impact
upon their economic and environmental well-being. Tri-County opposes the petition.
In order to assess whether the Petitioners have
standing to intervene in this appeal, we need look no further than the Supreme
Court’s recent decision in Robinson Township. The Court in that case, among other things, addressed the standing of
the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (the “Network”), a citizen’s group, and Maya
van Rossum the group’s Executive Director, to challenge Act 13 of 2012, a
statute amending the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, 58 Pa.C.S. §§ 2301-3504. In
support of its standing, the Network emphasized the deleterious effects of
industrial activities close to its members’ homes, including potential effects
on their health and their ability to enjoy natural beauty, environmental
resources, and recreational activities such as fishing, boating, swimming, and
bird-watching. Citing Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental
Services, 528 U.S. 167, 183 (2000), the Network alleged that its members used
the affected area and that they were persons for whom the aesthetic and
recreational values of that area would be lessened by the challenged activity.
The Network said that environmental well-being, like economic well-being, is an
important ingredient of the quality of life, and the fact that environmental
interests are shared by the many rather than the few does not make them less
deserving of legal protection through the judicial process.
Based
upon these allegations, the Court held that the Network and Maya van Rossum had
standing. Robinson Twp., slip op. at 22.
The
affidavits asserted that the individuals were likely to suffer considerable
harm with respect to the values of their existing homes and the enjoyment of
their properties given the intrusion of industrial uses and the change in the
character of their zoning districts effected by Act 13. The Court held that the
individuals had a substantial and direct interest in the outcome of the
litigation premised upon the serious risk of alteration to the physical nature
of their respective political subdivisions and the components of their
surrounding environment. Id. The Court’s holding made it clear that “this
interest is not remote.” Id. at 17-18.
Tri-County says that some of the
petitioners do not actually live or work in the immediate vicinity of the
landfill. Even if that were true, we have repeatedly held that it is the
person’s use of the area and whether the project threatens that use by, e.g.,
lessening the aesthetic and recreational value of the area that qualifies for
purposes of standing.”
9. Industry
Defines Drilling Treadmill
Comment on
Industry’s Dr. Cline by Deborah Rogers
**The Department of Energy followed USGS’
lead and slashed their estimates for the
Marcellus by 66% admitting that the entire Marcellus play will now account for
a mere six years worth of gas at current consumption rates. Prior erroneous
estimates provided by industry were based on resource numbers rather than
actual recoverable reserves with existing technology.
It is also interesting to
note that both Poland and India invited the USGS to evaluate their reserve
estimates recently after industry projections and again such reserves were
slashed by 80-90%. A pattern is clearly emerging.
**Dr.
Cline states that there is no dry hole risk in shale development. He is
mistaken. It is commonly known that each shale play has contracted to a core
area. Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy told Bloomberg that “there was
a time when you were all told that any
of the 17 counties in the Barnett were as good as any other county. We found
out that there are 2-2 1/2 counties where you really want to be.”
Further,
well performance is not homogenous even
in the core areas. ITG Investment Research, also quoted by Bloomberg,
stated “one parcel of land may hold
enough fuel to justify prices…while the adjacent land is almost worthless to
drillers”. This is essentially dry hole risk.
** Dr Cline stated that
even if a natural gas play is in production decline, it does not necessarily
mean the play is over..it simply means the well development rate is not keeping
up with current production declines…so where is that treadmill?”
He is clearly unaware that he
just defined the drilling treadmill.
Well development rate is not keeping up with current production
declines. These companies have to keep
up prolific and continuous drilling in
order to keep production from falling . If you have little to no cash on
your balance sheet and very high debt then production
is how you meet debt service. If you stop drilling, production falls and so
does cash flow and hence it becomes difficult to meet debt service. This is not
a difficult concept to grasp. But I should like to thank EID again for their
admission that well development rates are not keeping up with current
production declines.” Deborah Rogers
http://energypolicyforum.org/2012/08/24/energy-in-depth-makes-massive-mistakes/
10. How Billions
of Barrels Of Toxic Oil/ Gas Waste Are Not Regulated By Jefferson Dodge and Joel
Dyer
“We often hear of the
“Halliburton loophole,” the regulatory exemption that in 2005exempted the industry in 2005 from the
Safe Drinking Water Act. But the
Halliburton loophole is just one small exemption to federal regulations for the
oil and gas industry. There are many others.
The mother of all oil and gas
waste exemptions had its beginnings in 1978
when the EPA proposed reduced requirements for types of large-volume wastes
associated with the oil and gas industry, namely produced water and drilling
muds.
The modern version of the Subtitle C exemption fictitiously purports that
the reason for reducing requirements for oil and gas waste was because these
large-volume wastes were deemed to be “lower in toxicity” and therefore not as
much of a threat to human health and the environment as other wastes being
regulated under Subtitle C. You can find such statements throughout the
websites and literature of local, state and federal government regulators of
toxic waste and in industry marketing materials.
But it is simply not true. According
to a 2002 EPA report on the RCRA oil and gas exemption, “The oil and gas
exemption was expanded in the 1980 legislative amendments to RCRA to include
“drilling fluids, produced water, and other wastes associated with the
exploration, development, or production of crude oil or natural gas. . . .”
By the time they had
finished defining “other wastes,” every single ounce of toxic waste generated
by the process of exploring for and/or producing oil and gas had been removed
from RCRA’s hazardous waste oversight.
What EPA did say is a startling indictment of our system of
environmental and public health oversight.
EPA’s report found that “oil, gas, and geothermal
wastes originate in very diverse ecologic settings and contain a wide variety
of hazardous constituents.”
EPA further found that “Imposition of Subtitle C
regulations for all oil and gas wastes could subject billions of barrels of
waste to regulation under Subtitle C as hazardous wastes and would cause a
severe economic impact on the industry and on oil and gas production in the U.S. Additionally,
because a large part of these wastes is managed in off-site commercial
facilities, removal of the exemption could cause severe short-term strains on the capacity of Subtitle C Treatment,
Storage, and Disposal Facilities, and a significant increase in the Subtitle C permitting
burden for State and Federal hazardous waste programs.”
The report concluded that
regulating toxic oil and gas exploration and production waste under RCRA
Subtitle C would not give the agency the “flexibility to consider costs when
applying these requirements to oil and gas wastes. Consequently, EPA would not be able to craft a
regulatory program to reduce or eliminate the serious economic impacts that
it has predicted.”
Translation:
Even
though this waste is hazardous to human health and the environment, EPA is
going to exempt it from the federal laws written to protect the public from
toxic waste because the problem is so massive (billions upon billions of
barrels) that it would make it literally impossible to drill for oil and gas in
the U.S. if the industry had to pick up the tab for remediating the
contamination it creates.
It is just math. More than 10
barrels of waste are created for every barrel of oil. Having to properly deal
with this waste to Subtitle C standards would be so cost-prohibitive as to be a
threat to our economy and, therefore, our security. And besides, the industry
creates so much toxic waste that EPA was concerned that we couldn’t possibly
find enough places to safely store it, so we might as well just make it legal
to get rid of it wherever. In fact, there are so many billions and billions of
barrels of toxic waste being created by the industry that the EPA was afraid that the federal government
wasn’t capable of creating a bureaucratic licensing system large and efficient
enough to produce enough permits to make the creation, transportation and
disposal of the waste legal on paper. And finally, the government doesn’t want
to cut into industry profits.
This is the real history of oil
and gas toxic waste regulations in this country, whether it’s drilling fluids,
mud, produced water, radioactive sludge and scale or fracking fluid. As hard as it is for most people to
believe, there is virtually no regulation on the vast majority of the oil and
gas industry’s waste at any level of government.
There are plenty of “policies and
guidance” concerning this waste — at least that’s what government likes to call
them.
“Suggestions” is the word most of
us tend to use for the same meaning.
Literally
everyone is using some version of legalese to claim that every other regulatory
agency has authority over this waste when, in truth, no one does for the most
part.
Some states, like Colorado, even have statutes on the books prohibiting
their state regulatory agencies from creating any enforceable laws on oil and
gas toxic waste unless and until the EPA ends its exemption, which of course it
says it doesn’t need to do because the states have it covered. It is a
dangerous game for all of us.
The real numbers of how much
exempted exploration and production waste we are talking about is hard to come
by because the government relies on the industry to provide them.
The industry has received some level of exemptions from virtually every
major environmental act that has come to pass, from clean air to clean water to
safe drinking water to even Superfund’s ability to hold the industry
accountable for paying for the contamination it has caused.
Denver resident Dennis Schum’s job at John Crane was to repair and refurbish seals of various
types and sizes that are used in the oil and gas industry as well as other
industries that use high-pressured systems with large pumps. HE says he never heard the term TENORM until 2013, but it’s a constant
part of his vocabulary these days. But first a little background.
These
formations most often also contain elements of uranium and thorium and their
decay products such as Radium 226 and Radium 228. In short, when the oil and
gas in these formations is produced, so is
radioactive salt water, which is referred to as produced water.
The BW spoke with Dr. Marvin
Resnikoff, a physicist at Radioactive Waste Management Associates and a
national expert on the oil and gas industry’s TENORM scale. Resnikoff says workers who work in pipe yards that clean TENORM scale
from pipes are getting major doses of radiation.
“It’s like working in front
of an x-ray machine that never turns off all day long,” he says.
Even people living nearby such pipe yards who were subjected to TENORM
scale particles blowing in the wind could become sick and develop cancers and
other illnesses, Resnikoff said.
“The more concerning threat from oil and gas generated TENORM,” says
the technician, “is inhalation.” He says Radium 226 has a half-life of 1,600
years and Radium 228 has a half-life of approximately 5.7 years.
“If even one particle is
inhaled,” he explains, “it can lodge in the lungs and cause damage to tissue
for the rest of a person’s life.
Such damage can include
cancers and other serious illnesses.”
The
EPA’s posted warnings for radium inhalation confirm the technician’s analysis.
Dennis Schum is getting more
desperate every day. He feels like there is no place for him to turn in order
to find out what radiation and chemicals were in the scale of the hundreds of
seals he cleaned over the past eight years. He is only now beginning to realize just how unregulated the world of
oil and gas waste really is. He gets told that no regulations were broken, but
he never hears the truth, that there are no regulations to break. He’s more
concerned about his health than ever and can’t figure out where to turn next.
He
says he’s thinking about making a sign and heading to the steps of the state
Capitol. He says, “Maybe then someone will hear me.”
http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-12516-americarss-dirtiest-secret.html
11. How Chesapeake
Fracks Landowners
by CHIP NORTHRUP “At
the end of 2011, Chesapeake Energy, was teetering on the brink of failure. The
money could be borrowed, but only on onerous terms. Chesapeake, which had
burned money on a lavish steel-and-glass office complex in Oklahoma City even
while the selling price for its gas plummeted, already had too much debt.
In
the months that followed, Chesapeake executed an adroit escape, raising nearly
$5 billion with a previously undisclosed twist: By gouging many rural
landowners out of royalty payments by charging back “transportation fees”- that
Chesapeake was paying to its financiers.
In lawsuits in state after state, private
landowners have won cases accusing the companies like Chesapeake of stiffing
them on royalties they were due. Federal investigators have repeatedly
identified underpayments of royalties for drilling on federal lands, including a case in which Chesapeake was fined
$765,000 for “knowing or willful submission of inaccurate information” last
year.
Here’s how one farmer got fracked by the frackers:
“When
the first gas flowed from the well on Drake’s land in July 2012, it was
abundant, and the royalty checks were fat…. That
year, many Pennsylvania landowners began receiving similarly sized payments as
thousands of new wells – many of them drilled by Chesapeake — finally began
producing gas.
But then, in January 2013, without warning
or explanation, the expenses withheld from Chesapeake’s royalty checks for use
of the gathering pipelines tripled. Drake’s income dwindled. His contract
with Chesapeake – and Pennsylvania law that sets a minimum royalty share in the
state – promised him at least 12.5 % of the value of the gas. Drake says the
company led him to believe any expenses withheld would be negligible. “Well,
they lied.”
His brother-in-law had 94 % of his gas
income withheld to pay for what Chesapeake called “gathering fees” for getting the gas to a transmission line.
Others across the northern part of the state also saw their income slashed.
“I’ve
got a stack,” said Taunya Rosenbloom, a lawyer representing Pennsylvania
landowners with natural gas leases. She pulled the statements of all of her
Chesapeake clients into an eight-inch pile on her desk. “Everyone is having
this issue.”
http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/03/13/how-frackers-frack-farmers/
EAGLE FORD SHALE IN SOUTH TEXAS
Photo: Amy Youngs
The industry needs density of wells to be profitable. Is
this what we want to live next to, or worse, in the midst of?
Dr. Susan Christopherson of Cornell University points out in
the study “A Distinctive US Approach to Gas Shale Development” that the pace
and scale of drilling is based on an
investment strategy.” (Not consideration of environment or the health
of the community).
12. Pipeline Leak
Fouls Nature Preserve-Ohio
“A
nature preserve in Ohio has added its name to the long list of victims of oil
spills.
The Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency estimates that
as much as 10,000 gallons of crude spilled in the Oak Glen Nature Preserve due
to a pipeline leak.
Though the leak was reported around 8 PM Monday, area residents say they'd
smelled petroleum or days.
The
Mid-Valley Pipeline is owned primarily by Sunoco, and runs from Longview, Texas
to Samaria, Michigan.
An
investigation by the Colerain Township Fire Department Monday evening found
that the spill "posed a significant
threat" to the environment and wetlands of the preserve.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/18-10
13. Largest
Anti-Fracking Rally in California History Draws Thousands
“They
came in thousands from across the Golden State. On Saturday, the largest
anti-fracking rally and protest in California’s history took place in the state
capital of Sacramento.
The message to California Gov. Jerry Brown
was simple: act now to ban fracking.
The
rally was organized by Californians
Against Fracking and some 80 environmental and health organizations, such as
Oil Change International (OCI) and 350.org.
Protestors
were young and old, united in their opposition to fracking. One group of
grandmothers sang: “We don’t want your fracking turning all our water brown,
Take your freakin’ frackin’ drills or we will shut you down! Hydro-FRAC-turing
just sucks.”
“Governor
Brown has positioned himself as a climate champion, and we want to make it
clear that as he decides whether to green light a massive expansion of fracking
in California, his legacy is on the line,” said rally organizer Zack Malitz.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/17/largest-anti-fracking-rally-california/
14. Texas Group
Gets Signatures for Fracking Ban on Nov. Ballot
“Frack
Free Denton announced they have gathered substantially more than the required
signatures to put their fracking ban initiative on the November ballot. Denton
City charter requires signatures equal to 25 % of votes cast in the most recent
general election for an initiative to get on the ballot.
Denton
Drilling Awareness Group (DAG), which was formed by members of the city’s
Drilling Advisory Group after their recommendations were largely ignored by the
city, launched Frack Free Denton, the fracking ban signature drive on Feb. 20.
Denton
city government, which supports fracking-enabled oil and gas development within
city limits, has a track record of ignoring its citizens and giving industry a
free rein. Decisions are made in closed sessions without citizen input.
“Our city government is clearly more
interested in protecting the fracking industry than its citizens,” said
Cathy McMullen, DAG president. “That’s why we need to gather as many signatures
as possible, to show they’ll pay a political price if they try to thwart their
constituents’ wishes.”
“As far as I know, fracking companies can’t
vote,” McMullen continued. “It makes one wonder why the city is prioritizing
fracking over Denton’s public health, especially since Denton residents aren’t
really economically benefiting from fracking.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/14/texas-group-fracking-ban-nov-ballot/
15. Fracking
Industry Tries to Buy Democracy in Rural Illinois
“Johnson
County, IL has oil and gas interests panicked about a local effort to stop
fracking. They’re spending tens of thousands of dollars in the rural county to
defeat a referendum that opposes fracking and defends local rights.
The
referendum reads:
“Shall the people’s right to local self-government be
asserted by Johnson County to ban corporate fracking as a violation of their
rights to health, safety, and a clean environment?”
The
industry and their cronies recently realized that voters are siding with local
control instead of handing their future over to Kansas-based frackers Woolsey
Energy. A front group for the oil
industry started professional mailings and robo-calls possibly funded by
the Illinois Petroleum Council which complain about “out-of-state” interests. Additionally, the Illinois Chamber of
Commerce spent $23,500 to promote fracking. That’s a huge cash dump in a county
where less than 3,000 people cast ballots in the last primary election.
Here’s a tip for the fracking forces: when
you’re doing a mailing that gripes about out-of state-agitators, mail it from
in-state. They should fire the consultant who had the bright idea of
mailing it from Iowa.
The
irony would be funny if the fracking industry weren’t pushing a
community-killing agenda. It’s locals
(not Kansas-based Woolsey Energy) who will have to suffer the consequences of
fracking. Woolsey’s mansion won’t suffer when Johnson county property values
fall. Woolsey will be counting his profits when local residents are dealing
with poisoned water. His workers will be on their way to another state when
Johnson county is left picking up the pieces after their roads, community
infrastructure and environment are wrecked.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/16/fracking-industry-buy-democracy/
16. Congressman
Declares Wind Tax Credit ‘Dead’
“Companies
across the country rushed to qualify for the wind production tax credit (PTC)
in December, and for good reason—the chances of it returning seem even bleaker
a few months later.
Because Republicans
are seeking a broader tax overhaul this year, one representative says there’s
virtually no hope of the PTC making a return this year.
“Maybe
there will be some in the Senate who will try to revive it but I really do
think it’s dead in the House,” U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-LA, told Bloomberg
this week.
Don’t be
surprised if there’s no movement to extend the wind production tax credit this
year, one House representative said U.S.
House of Representative Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, (R-MI),
introduced a proposal last month that
would retroactively reduce the credit from about 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour of
produced energy to 1.5 cents. The incentive would then be eliminated in 10
years. Camp’s plan estimated that the PTC provision would increase revenues by
$9.6 billion over time.
Meanwhile
Obama’s recent budget proposal called for an extension and expansion of the
PTC, to replace the investment tax credit, which displeased the solar industry.
As
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden assumed leadership of the Senate Finance Committee, he
received a petition with 50,000 signatures calling for the renewal of the PTC.
Before leaving the Senate to become the U.S. ambassador to China, Wyden’s
predecessor, Max Baucus, proposed a consolidation of energy tax credits that
would have preserved the PTC through 2016 before morphing its principals into
one or two much broader credits.
“The
wind industry has been and will continue to be engaged in tax-reform
discussions,” Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, said.
“The Senate Finance Committee offered a very constructive approach to reform,
in our view, and we look forward to working with Congress as debate over tax
reform continues.”
17. Measuring
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Around Wind Turbines: Is There A Health Concern?
(This concern has caused some to oppose wind energy. Jan)
McCallum
LC, Aslund ML, Knopper LD, Ferguson GM, Ollson CA. Measuring electromagnetic
fields (EMF) around wind turbines in Canada: is there a human health concern?
Environ Health. 2014 Feb 15;13(1):9. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The past five years has seen considerable expansion of wind
power generation in Ontario, Canada. Most recently worries about exposure to
electromagnetic fields (EMF) from wind turbines, and associated electrical
transmission, has been raised at public meetings and legal proceedings. These
fears have not been based on any actual measurements of EMF exposure
surrounding existing projects but appear to follow from worries from internet
sources and misunderstanding of the science.
RESULTS:
Background
levels of EMF (0.2 to 0.3 mG) were established by measuring magnetic fields
around the wind turbines under the 'shut off' scenario. Magnetic field levels
detected at the base of the turbines under both the 'high wind' and 'low wind'
conditions were low (mean = 0.9 mG; n = 11) and rapidly diminished with
distance, becoming indistinguishable from background within 2 m of the base.
Magnetic fields measured 1 m above buried collector lines were also within
background (<= 0.3 mG). Beneath overhead 27.5 kV and 500 kV transmission
lines, magnetic field levels of up to 16.5 and 46 mG, respectively, were
recorded. These levels also diminished rapidly with distance. None of these
sources appeared to influence magnetic field levels at nearby homes located as
close as just over 500 m from turbines, where measurements immediately outside
of the homes were <= 0.4 mG.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results suggest
that there is nothing unique to wind farms with respect to EMF exposure; in
fact, magnetic field levels in the vicinity of wind turbines were lower than
those produced by many common household electrical devices and were well below
any existing regulatory guidelines with respect to human health.
http://1.usa.gov/O5B096
Above Photo: “Carter
Impoundment Pit
How can you call that
water?” Photo and Caption by Bob Donnan
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:
In the Reminder
line please write- Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group (no
abbreviations). You can send checks to
Jan Milburn, 114 Mountain Road, Ligonier, PA 15658 or you can give your check
to Jan or Lou Pochet, our treasurer. 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.
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizen’s Group—Mission Statement
WMCG is a project of the Thomas
Merton Society
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 and
Thomas Merton Liason-Lou Pochet
Secretary-Ron
Nordstrom
Facebook
Coordinator-Elizabeth Nordstrom
Science
Advisor-Dr. Cynthia Walter
To receive our news updates, please email jan at westmcg@gmail.com
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