westmcg@gmail.com
* For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us on facebook;
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarcellusWestmorelandCountyPA/
* To view past updates, reports, general
information, permanent documents, and meeting
information http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
* Our email address: westmcg@gmail.com
* 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
Contributors To Our Updates
Thank you to contributors to our Updates:
Debbie Borowiec, Lou Pochet, Ron Gulla, the Pollocks, Marian Szmyd, Bob Donnan,
April Jackman, Kacey Comini, Elizabeth Donahue, and Bob Schmetzer.
Thank you
To Stephanie Novak from Mt. Watershed Assoc., Carol
Cutler, and the Milburns for tabling and offering TDS water testing at the
Latrobe Farm Market. We had the opportunity to again talk to many interested
people about fracking.
To Jack Milburn, Lou Pochet, and Dr Cynthia Walter
for their efforts in obtaining our grant from the Mt Watershed Assoc.
A
little Help Please --Take Action!!
Tenaska Air Petitions—Please sign if you have not done so:
Please
share the attached petition with residents of Westmoreland and all bordering
counties. We ask each of you to help us
by sharing 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 wastewater into the Youghiogheny
River. Westmoreland County already has a
higher incidence of disease than other counties in United States. Pollution won’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.
*********************************************************************************
Calendar
*** WMCG Group
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.
***The Great March for Climate Action –Event
in Butler
WHAT'S NEXT FOR PITTSBURGH-AREA CLIMATE ACTIVISTS?
How about
this? Can you help make it happen?
The Great
March for Climate Action
Coming to Monroeville October 16. On March 1, 2014, hundreds of everyday
Americans set out from Los Angeles, CA, on a 3,000-mile walk to Washington,
D.C., with a goal of inspiring others from all walks of life to take action on
the climate crisis. The march has delivered to thousands of Americans the
message that urgent action is needed on climate change. Dozens of newspaper and
television reports have resulted. Thousands have marched for at least a day,
with a core group of 25-35 persons walking the entire distance. Thousands of
one-on-one conversations between Americans concerned about our future have
taken place. Songs around the campfire and sermons in church sanctuaries and
coalition-building gatherings have reverberated across the country.
The march will enter Pennsylvania on October 10, with
stops in Bessemer on Oct 10 at Maggie Henry's farm, Darlington (Oct 11) [with
an excursion that day to Butler, PA for a Global Frackdown rally], Freedom (Oct
12), Ben Avon (Oct 13), Pittsburgh, (Oct 14-15), Monroeville (Oct 16), South
Greensburg (Oct 17), Ligonier (Oct 18) and five other stops in PA before
exiting to Maryland on October 25th.
.
The marchers want nothing more than to be helpful in adding their voices and
bodies to the fights we have on our hands.
If you are interested in helping this march
amplify its impact as it comes through Pennsylvania, then let me know and I
will try to connect you with events along the Pennsylvania rout.
CONTACT: Stephen Cleghorn, Paradise Gardens
and Farm
jstephencleghorn@yahoo.com
or 814-932-6761
*******
Butler is Hosting An event for the Climate March-Oct 11
Save the Date:
Western PA’s Global Frackdown is set for
Saturday Oct 11 at Diamond Park in Butler, 2-5 PM.
Here is link to the website http://www.globalfrackdown.org/ Be there to welcome the Great March for Climate
Action on the Pennsylvania leg of its journey from LA to DC.
Here is link to Bill Moyers’ interview of one
of the marchers: http://billmoyers.com/episode/climate-change-next-generation/
Be
there for the launch of Pennsylvanians Against Fracking.
Bring your signs. Bring your banner. And BE THERE!
(More details to
come. Contact carolcutler3@msn.com if
you want to carpool to attend this event)
***Conference-Shale
and Public Health Features Dr Paulson, Dr McKenzie,
Dr Panettieri- Oct. 26/27
The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania's
Straight Scoop on Shale initiative will hold a conference "Shale and Public Health: Days of Discovery" on Sunday
afternoon October 26 and Monday October 27 at the Pitt University Club.
Featured
speakers on Monday October 27 include Dr. Jerome Paulson, Director of the
Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment (MACCHE), and Dr.
Lisa McKenzie of the Colorado School of Public Health.
On Sunday afternoon October 26,
Dr. Reynold Panettieri of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of
Medicine will present new research on the health impacts of shale gas
development.
The
conference is open to the public and free (with a small charge for lunch on
October 27), but pre-registration is required.
Or call 1-800-61-SHALE (800-617-4253)
***Boston Art Show
Utilizes Local Voices-- July 11, 2014 through
January 5, 2015
Open to the public, Boston Museum
of Science
Several of us spoke to artist Anne Neeley about water
contamination from fracking. Excerpts of what we said about our concerns
regarding fracking will play in a loop along with music in the background as
people view Anne’s murals of water. The show is not exclusively about the
effect of fracking on water and includes other sources of pollution. (see sites
below).
Some of us were fortunate to see photos of Anne’s
murals. They are beautiful and very thought provoking. Jan
ANNE NEELY WATER STORIES
PROJECT: A CONVERSATION IN PAINT AND SOUND
July
2014 – January 2015, Museum of Science, Boston
“Water Stories: A
Conversation in Painting and Sound” is at the Museum of Science, Boston through
January 2015. In recent years I have conveyed ideas about water and the
phenomena of water through nature, the news, memory and imagination. These
paintings explore the beauty and foreboding of water, related to central
themes, mostly manmade and thru climate change affecting this country. Sound
artist Halsey Burgund has created a 35 minute audio composition that
accompanies the paintings, comprised of five sections grouped by thematic
content: The Future, Stories, Bad Things, Science and Cherish. The voices are
edited and combined with water sounds and musical elements and play in a
continuous loop throughout the gallery. By placing this work in this Museum of Science
there is an extraordinary opportunity to clarify and illuminate issues around
water through visceral connections that paintings often elicit from viewers
while raising public awareness. My
hope is that this exhibition will spawn a new sense of ownership about not only
the issues facing us about water but how we use water on a daily basis.”
"Together, Anne and I
plan to explore big ideas about what’s happening with water in this country. In
the 2014, the Museum will exhibit Anne’s work and host a series of related
programs. At the Museum, we find that mixing art with our more typical
educational approaches works well. The art opens people to ideas, emotion,
scale, and import, in ways that more explicit techniques may not. It broadens
the audience, welcomes people who learn differently, and adds dimensions of
experience that are otherwise unavailable."
—
David G. Rabkin, PhD, Director for Current Science and Technology, Museum of
Science, Boston, MA
Visit
these sites for images and more information:
http://www.anneneely.com/pages/mos.html
TAKE ACTION !!
***Letters to the editor are important and one of the best ways to share
information with the public. ***
***See Tenaska Petition at the top of the Updates
***- Pittsburgh’s Air At Stake- Please
Comment-Time is Almost Up For Submitting Comments
Send Statement/Comment To Restrict Carbon
From Existing Power plants
Everyone Should Submit a Written Statement
We need to send a strong message to the EPA and Big Coal that there’s
overwhelming public support for national climate action –NOW! Big Coal and
their climate-denying allies are already trying to weaken the EPA’s historic
climate protection efforts.
Comments on the Clean Power Plan Proposed Rule must be received by
October 16, 2014. You do not have to write a long statement. Any
statement of support for Carbon reduction is helpful and there’s lots of data, just google climate
change—flooding, storms, effects on health, plant and animal adaptation, etc.
Send Your Comments To:
A: Comments on the EPA’s new
rule covering the carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants may be submitted via Email to:
A-and-R-Docket@epa.gov
With docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 in
the subject line of the message.
Be sure to reference Docket ID:
EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602
For information about the
carbon reduction plan:
Opposition to the New EPA
Rules
The
Obama Administration clearly anticipates strong opposition to the new rules,
and the fight will take place on several grounds. Despite strong public support
for the EPA’s proposed rules, the climate change deniers were quick to claim
the rules were unnecessary. The national Chamber of Commerce said the costs
were exorbitant, but Nobelist Paul Krugman dismisses their argument. But it is
the legal challenges that will perhaps slow-down the implementation of the
EPA’s rules, a delay we cannot afford.
And From Public Citizen
See
the top 10 FAQs on the carbon pollution reduction plan.
***Should Sunoco
Be exempt From Zoning Laws and Ordinances
“Here
is the action alert for pressuring the PUC to deny Sunoco Logistics' petition
during their upcoming meeting on October 2nd. Please pass along this blurb and
link to your networks!
If granted a designation as a Public
Utility Corporation, Sunoco Logistics would be exempt from complying with all
local zoning laws and ordinances that would otherwise prevent them from
constructing a pipeline and flaring stacks in residential areas. Send a
strong message to the PUC to deny Sunoco's petition!
Thanks! Sam Koplinka-Loehr”
*** Tell EPA: Our Ocean's Not a Dump for Fracking
From:
"Center for Biological Diversity"
<bioactivist@biologicaldiversity.org>
The agency charged with
protecting our environment is failing to do its job, and we need your help to
right this wrong. Off California's coast
the EPA has been letting oil companies dump up to 9 billion gallons of toxic
fracking wastewater directly into the ocean every year.
Many of the nearly 250
chemicals used in fracking wells are toxic to people and to wildlife like
whales, dolphins and sea otters. Some chemicals are known carcinogens; others
cause immune and nervous-system damage. Still others hover in the shadowy
category called "unknown" -- oil companies say their contents are
trade secrets, and the EPA blindly agrees to assume they're harmless.
We can't let this dumping
continue. If you wouldn't drink well water tainted by fracking fluids, surely no
animal should have to live in such water.
Act
now to tell the EPA to do its job and bring an immediate ban to the discharge
of toxic fracking chemicals off the coasts of Southern California and the Gulf
of Mexico. Click here to take action and get more information.
If
you can't open the link, go to http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16356.
***For Health Care
Professionals—Tell PA Dept of Health to Stop Ignoring Fracking Health Complaints
***Saving Pittsburgh Parks-
Needed: Registered voters in
Allegheny County Who Will Help
Please
read the message below and call me today to talk about this more:
Protect Our Parks submitted 5000 signatures to
County Council on May 6, calling for a no vote on drilling under Deer
Lakes. Unfortunately, council voted
anyway to go ahead with County Executive Fitzgerald's proposal to drill under
Deer Lakes Park.
Although we lost that battle, we have a new
campaign to protect the other 8 county parks.
And we need your help!!
This is basically a citizen’s initiative to
require Council to vote on an ordinance -- not a resolution, but an ORDINANCE
--which WE write. We've written an ordinance, to put a hold on activity in the
other parks --which we believe will be attractive to some of the council
members who voted yes last time. We need
signatures on a petition from 500 (really 750) registered voters in Allegheny
County.
Council will be required to hear public
testimony and vote within 60 days.
For this campaign to be successful we need
registered voters ( i.e. YOU) to circulate this ordinance/petition between
October 17 and Nov. 4. And we need
signatures from all over the county.
This petition is similar to the ones for
elected officials -- if you've ever seen those. The signers must be registered
votes in Allegheny County. And you must
get your petitions notarized.
Please give me a call today if you will
participate. October 17 is coming up soon.
Thanks,
Joni Rabinowitz
412-241-8359
***Petition- Help the Children of Mars School District
Below is a petition that a group of parents in the
Mars Area School District are working very hard to get signatures. Please take a moment to look at the petition
and sign it. It only takes 5
minutes. We are fighting to keep our children,
teachers, and community safe here and across the state of Pennsylvania.
Please share this with your spouses, friends, family,
and any organizations that would support this cause. We need 100,00 signatures immediately, as the
group plans to take the petition to Harrisburg within a week. Your support is
greatly appreciated!
Best Regards, Amy Nassif
***Sign On To Letter To Gov. Corbett-- Urge Him to Implement
De Pasquale’s Recommendations
For DEP
“I know you are as concerned as I am about the
recent news out of Harrisburg regarding the protection of our drinking water
from the dangers of natural gas drilling. Then join me to take action now.
It started with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection’s (DEP) acknowledgment that there have been 209 known cases of water
contamination from oil and gas operations since 2007.
http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2014/07/22/DEP-Oil-and-gas-endeavors-have-damaged-water-supply-209-times-since-07/stories/201407220069
If that wasn’t enough,
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale also released his much anticipated audit
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/reports/performance/special/speDEP072114.pdf
of DEP’s ability to protect water quality in the
wake of escalated Marcellus Shale drilling. The report shows how the explosive
growth of shale development caught the DEP flat footed, how the agency is
underfunded, and slow to respond to monitoring and accountability activities.
Some of the more alarming findings where:
DEP would rather seek voluntary compliance and encouraging industry to
work out a solution with impacted homeowners instead of issuing violations for
cases where industry impacted a water supply.
There is no system in place for frequent inspections of drilling pads,
especially during critical drilling operations much less during the lifetime of
the well.
DEP relies on a voluntary
system of reporting where and how fracking waste is disposed, instead of using a system,
where regulators can see how waste is handled from well site to disposal.
DEP’s system to track
complaints related to oil and gas development is “woefully inadequate.”
In addition to his findings,
Auditor General DePasquale made 29 recommendations, 18 of which require no
additional funding, for how DEP can address these issues and improve
operations. Email Governor Corbett today and urge him to have DEP implement all 29 of
the Auditor General’s recommendations.
These types of events shake
the confidence Pennsylvanians like you have in our government’s ability to
protect our drinking water. However, they also serve as a call to action. DEP
owes it to you to do everything it can to protect water supplies and public
health, Contact Governor Corbett TODAY
and tell him to have DEP take steps to improve the protection of our drinking
water from natural gas drilling.
Best, Steve Hvozdovich - Campaign Coordinator
Pennsylvania
Office, Clean Water Action http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2155/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16207
***Toxic Tuesdays –Tell DEP’s Abruzzo--Do not approve paving pads
and access roads with radioactive drill cuttings
“The next 4 Tuesdays, starting 8/26, are
Toxic Tuesdays. They're the days we're going to call PA DEP Secretary Abruzzo
to tell him that his agency should NEVER have approved Range Resources' permit
to experiment with using drill cuttings as a paving material for well pads and
access roads! We're going to tell him to reverse their decision.
The DEP gave Range Resources
permission to experiment with using radioactive drill cutting to pave well pads
and access roads. We have 30 days to appeal.
Call
Sec Abruzzo to reverse the decision 717- 787- 2814”
From:
Karen Feridan
***TRI (Toxic Release Inventory)
Action Alert-Close the Loophole:
“We need your help!! Please send
an email to the US EPA urging them to "Close the TRI Loophole that the oil
and gas industry currently enjoys".
We all deserve to know exactly what these operations
are releasing into our air, water and onto our land. Our goal is to guarantee the public’s right
to know.
Please let the US EPA know
how important TRI reporting will be to you and your community:
Mr.
Gilbert Mears
Docket #: EPA-HQ-TRI-2013-0281 (must be included on all
correspondence)
Mears.gilbert@epa.gov
Some facts on Toxics Release
Inventory (TRI) – what it is and why it’s important:
What
is the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)?
Industrial
facilities report annually the amount and method (land, air, water, landfills)
of each toxic
chemical
they release or dispose of to the national Toxics Release Inventory.
Where
can I find the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)?
Once
the industrial facilities submit their annual release data, the Environmental
Protection Agency
makes
it available to the public through the TRI’s free, searchable online database.
Why
is this important?
The
TRI provides communities and the public information needed to challenge permits
or siting
decisions,
provides regulators with necessary data to set proper controls, and encourages
industrial
facilities
to reduce their toxic releases.
Why
does it matter for oil and natural gas?
The
oil and gas extraction industry is one of the largest sources of toxic releases
in the United
States.
Yet, because of loopholes created by historical regulation and successful
lobbying efforts,
this
industry remains exempt from reporting to the TRI—even though they are second
in toxic air
emissions
behind power plants.
What
is being done?
In
2012, the Environmental Integrity Project filed a petition on behalf of sixteen
local, regional, and
national
environmental groups, asking EPA to close this loophole and require the oil and
gas
industries
to report to the TRI. Although EPA has been carefully considering whether to
act on the
petition,
significant political and industrial pressure opposing such action exists.
What
is the end goal?
Our
goal is to guarantee the public’s right to know. TRI data will arm citizens
with powerful data,
provide
incentives for oil and gas operators to reduce toxic releases, and will provide
a data-driven
foundation
for responsible regulation.
What
can you do?
You
can help by immediately letting EPA know how important TRI reporting will be to
you and your
community.
Send written or email comments to:
Gilbert Mears
Toxics Release Inventory
Program Division, Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20460
mears.gilbert@epa.gov
Docket #: EPA-HQ-TRI-2013-0281 (please be sure to
include in all your correspondence)
From: Lisa Graves Marcucci
Environmental
Integrity Project
PA
Coordinator, Community Outreach
lgmarcucci@environmentalintegrity.org
412-653-4328
(Direct)
412-897-0569
(Cell)
Frack Links
***Link to
DEPs Water Violations List
“The
link lists 250 water supplies across PA compromised by fracking...the tip of
the iceberg, since the DEP can't be depended on to know about or report on the
actual number of spills. The spread of fracking across the state is reflected
in when and where these spills occur, so you'll find the arrival of fracking
(and the inevitable spills) here in Westmoreland County on page six, with
spills in Donegal in 2013 and 2014.”
***Democracy
Now! Naomi Klein discusses fossil fuels
She criticizes Nature
Conservancy for drilling on “preserved” land.
***Link to
Shalefield Stories-Personal stories of those affected by
fracking http://www.friendsoftheharmed.com/
***To sign up for Skytruth notifications of activity and violations
for your area:
*** List of the Harmed--There are now
over 1400 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/
*** To See Water Test Results of the Beaver
Run Reservoir
IUP students test for TDS, pH, metals- arsenic, chromium, and strontium.
A group member who checks the
site still does not see testing for other frack chemicals including the BTEX
group or cesium for example. Here is a link to the IUP site:
***Video of
Pipeline Incidents since 1986
Frack News
All articles are excerpted
and condensed. Please use links for the full article. Special Thanks to Bob Donnan for many of
the photos.
*** Grant Awarded WMCG was
very pleased to be awarded a $2000 grant from the Mt Watershed Association
which will allow us to further our efforts to educate the public about the
harmful effects of fracking and to provide TDS and radioactivity screening for
interested homeowners.
***Zoning- Good
Analysis of Local Questions Under Discussion
From Group Member:
“1.
Let's assume for this discussion that all fracking surface operations within any
pre-existing zone with "residential" in the name can be prohibited or
challenged based on the Robinson decision/Constitution.
2.
If a municipality then has either a small industrial district OR no industrial
district OR a mostly built-out industrial district (with no large enough
parcels for fracking surface operations) OR an ag zone but no (or small)
industrial zone, what are this municipality's legal options?
A.
No rezoning. Fracking is limited to industrial zones, even if they are too
small to accommodate or non-existent. Tough luck for the industry. No large
enough open industrial zone land is available to put this industrial use. (Is
this choice vulnerable to an exclusionary zoning challenge and/or curative
amendment?)
B.
Or is this municipality legally under obligation to rezone more industrially
zoned land to accommodate this industry? How does this fit in with
comprehensive planning? How do you make a
previous residential zone where people live into something else? Can
pro-fracking residents make a case to be rezoned industrial? Can you rezone
more industrial land big parcel by big parcel, (if leasing residents want to)
or is that spot-zoning?
C.
Is a resource recovery district legal if residents live there? (Incompatible
uses problem still exists, right?) Would this district have to allow other
industrial uses?
I think this is a common dilemma
many municipalities are facing. Maybe the
bigger question is do municipalities really need to make accommodation for all
heavy industry? If a municipality has
big open parcels zoned "residential" or "agricultural", are
they legally compelled to rezone some of them to "industrial" to
avoid an exclusionary zoning challenge? How would this work in practice?
It's got to be confusing for the
industry, too, because big parcels of undeveloped land exist in mostly Ag/low
density residential zones. Pre-existing industrial zones are often built out
with whatever industrial uses are already there, right? Is adding onto
industrial zones more parcels the only legal way to go about this?
(Many
of the same questions apply to Ag zones, too, I would think.)”
***PA Auditor
General: Don’t Trust DEP Information
“The Attorney General’s office
showed reporters evidence of how DEP Secretary Chris Abruzzo exchanged
pornographic emails with his pals on taxpayer time.
And now, another state agency, the Auditor General’s office, has released a
“citizens guide” to shale gas water complaints warning Pennsylvanians not to trust information on the DEP’s website.
In an audit released back in
July, the Auditor General described DEP’s ineptitude when it comes to
investigating and acting upon shale gas related water complaints from citizens.
Sloppy record-keeping, lax oversight, and poor communication with citizens
topped the list of findings. So perhaps it’s not surprising that “Shale Gas
Development and Water Quality Complaints — A Citizen’s Guide” urges caution
when relying on DEP for accurate information.
“Users should exercise caution in accessing any
information from DEP’s website as the information may not be accurate and may
not be representative of actual conditions. DEP frequently posts data it
obtains directly from operators without checking to see if the data is valid
and reliable. In
particular, drilling dates (or spud dates) may be inaccurate on DEP’s website.
As we found in our audit work, the only way to really know when critical
drilling activity occurred on a site is to conduct a file review at the
applicable district oil and gas office or to speak with an operator’s
representative.”
The guide advises residents to
keep good records and insist on a complaint identification number when
informing DEP of a suspected problem with water supplies. And it urges citizens
demand a detailed, written description of the investigation. It also encourages
residents to allow operators to test their water prior to any drilling
activity.”
//stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2014/09/26/pa-auditor-general-dont-rely-on-dep-for-good-informationrr
***DEP Deception
In Lab Reports
Acetone Taken Out of Nail Polish Removers But Found In Water
“DEP might have used incomplete and inaccurate test information to
decide whether chemicals leaking from a Marcellus wastewater impoundment and a
drill cuttings pit contaminated a water well and springs in Washington
County.
The disclosures came during sworn
testimony by Vincent Yantko, a DEP water quality specialist and supervisor of
the investigation at Range Resources’ Yeager farm drill site in Amwell
Township, as part of a case before the state Environmental Hearing Board in
Pittsburgh.
Mr. Yantko was the first defense
witness the DEP called in the case brought by Loren Kiskadden, who is appealing
the department’s determination that his private drinking-water well wasn’t
contaminated by pollutants leaking from Range Resources’ 13.5 million-gallon
wastewater impoundment and mud and cuttings pit in 2010 and 2011.
The case before Thomas Renwand,
chief judge of the hearing board, is the first in the state to challenge a
DEP water supply determination denying contamination.
The DEP sent a determination
letter to Mr. Kiskadden on Sept. 9, 2011, saying Range’s gas operations on a
ridge above rolling farm fields did not contaminate his well water.
Range has repeatedly denied its
shale gas development operations on the Yeager farm site produced any impacts
on Mr. Kiskadden’s well or the well water of other residents of the narrow valley below the
drill pad, impoundment pit and cuttings pit. Range blames Mr. Kiskadden’s
problems on natural contaminants, bacteria from livestock and septic systems.
Mr. Kiskadden, who lives about a
mile from the Yeager drill pad at the lower end of the valley, wants Range to
provide a replacement water supply.
He and two other families also have filed a lawsuit
against Range alleging that they experienced serious health problems due to
exposure to water and air pollutants from the Yeager site.
During cross-examination by
Kendra Smith, who is representing Mr. Kiskadden with her husband, John, Mr. Yantko admitted the DEP did not
follow its regulations to determine whether leaks had occurred and did not
report all of its findings to Mr. Kiskadden.
Although Mr. Yantko said the DEP had “concerns about leaks and
migration of fluids” through the soil and groundwater in March 2010, it did not
order Range to drain the double-lined impoundment and check for leaks, conduct
dye tests to track leak migration or perform its own water sampling until
August 2011.
DEP samplings at a leak-detection
manhole next to the wastewater impoundment in August 2011 found total dissolved
solids at more than 29,000 milligrams per liter — four to five times greater
than what is expected in normal groundwater and more than 50 times what is
acceptable for drinking water.
Mr. Yantko testified that even
though those tests showed “a strong possibility of a leak,” the department had
no reason to believe the contamination was moving through the groundwater
off-site and did not tell Mr. Kiskadden or any other area residents about the
results.
Mr. Yantko testified that the DEP did not tell Mr. Kiskadden that seven months after it sent the
September 2011 determination letter, tests showed acetone in soil around the
drill cuttings pit and in Mr. Kiskadden’s drinking water. Acetone is
a component of some fracking fluids, and the EPA has detected it in
investigations of shale gas contamination in Wyoming.
Although Range has admitted
contaminating the Yeager farm springs, Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources
spokesman, said state and federal regulators have confirmed the company’s
operations have caused “no impacts on any other water supplies in the area,”
including Mr. Kiskadden’s.
Mr. Yantko also testified that Range did not seek or receive permission
from the DEP to flush the drill cuttings pit with 30,000 gallons of clean water
on July 14, 2011, in an attempt to dilute contaminants in the soil.
In his field notes, Mr. Yantko wrote, “This action was
both intentional and reckless, and may have resulted in additional contaminants
entering the Yeager spring water supply.”
Range had trouble digging out all
the contaminated soil around the drill cuttings pit. According to its own
records, between June 17 and July 7, 2011, it removed 722 tons of drilling mud
and cuttings, the waste rock that comes to the surface during the gas well
drilling process, plus 131 tons of contaminated soil beneath the pit.
Soil tests done after that
excavation still found carbon disulfate, benzene, toluene, oil and grease and
total petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil that remained, Mr. Yantko confirmed in his testimony.
Some of those contaminants also were
present in the laboratory test results on Mr. Kiskadden’s tap water, according
to court documents filed with the Environmental Hearing Board in October 2011.
Range conducted five excavations
of the pit from June through September 2011, digging up a total of 2,135 tons of
dirt and cuttings.
The DEP eventually approved
Range’s pit closure plan because it was able to show that the chemical residue
in the pit matched that in a background or baseline soil sample taken outside
of the drilling area. That’s a regulatory requirement before a closure plan can
be approved.
But there are indications,
according to testimony, that test
results on the background soil sample might have been altered to include
chemical components that were not actually present in the sample. That
allowed DEP to conclude that the samples matched and approve Range Resources’
request to close the pit.
Ms. Smith raised questions about
the baseline report, and Mr. Yantko testified that benzene and toluene did not
show up in DEP’s laboratory findings and were actually listed as not detected
by the lab.
Ms. Smith:
“The report says toluene was detected in the background sample, but the lab
report indicates it was not detected?”
Mr.
Yantko: “Yes.”
Ms.
Smith: “Was that inaccurate?”
Mr.
Yantko: “The numbers don’t match.”
Ms.
Smith: “Not only don’t they match, one says it’s not there.”
Mr.
Yantko: “That’s correct.”
The Yeager impoundment was one of
five Range Resources impoundments in Washington County that the DEP ordered
closed earlier this month. The consent order also required Range to pay a $4.15
million penalty, upgrade two existing impoundments and begin soil and
groundwater investigations.”
By
Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies-powersource/2014/09/29/DEP-admits-drilling-probe-error/stories/201409280221
***Treated
Frack Wastewater Still Toxic
“Researchers
with the American Chemical Society found that even extremely diluted wastewater
can still produce toxic byproducts when treated
A new study suggests fracking
wastewater can endanger drinking water even after it has passed through
treatment plants and been diluted.
At the end of the fracking process,
drillers are left with highly radioactive wastewater laden
with heavy metals and with halide salts like bromide, chloride and iodide.
Most
fracking operations store their wastewater in holding ponds. Eventually, that
water is filtered through municipal or commercial treatment plants and emptied
into rivers, lakes and ponds.
But
new research suggests that wastewater
contaminants, when subjected to traditional treatment methods like chlorination
or ozonation, encourage toxic byproducts.
Researchers with the American
Chemical Society found that even extremely diluted wastewater can still produce
these byproducts during the treatment process. Scientists say their findings
suggest regulators and energy officials should be more careful about which
surface waters treated wastewater is emptied into. They also say new water treatment methods should include
halide-removal techniques.
"The potential formation of
multiple disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water utilities in areas of
shale gas development requires comprehensive monitoring plans beyond the common
regulated DBPs," researchers wrote in the newly published study.
The
research was detailed this week in the ACS journal
Environmental Science & Technology”.
Read more:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/09/24/Treating-fracking-wastewater-results-in-new-unsafe-compounds/9151411587274/#ixzz3ENoRcs6R
The Research Study: Enhanced
Formation of Disinfection Byproducts in Shale Gas Wastewater-Impacted Drinking
Water Supplies
Research Study
Kimberly
M. Parker †, Teng Zeng †, Jennifer Harkness ‡, Avner Vengosh ‡, and William A.
Mitch *†
†
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University,
Stanford, California 94305-4020, United States
‡
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke
University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
Environ.
Sci. Technol., Article ASAP
DOI:
10.1021/es5028184
Publication
Date (Web): September 9, 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Chemical Society
*E-mail:
wamitch@stanford.edu; phone: (650) 725-9298; fax: (650) 723-7058.
Abstract
The
disposal and leaks of hydraulic fracturing wastewater (HFW) to the environment
pose human health risks. Since HFW is typically characterized by elevated
salinity, concerns have been raised
whether the high bromide and iodide in HFW may promote the formation of
disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and alter their speciation to more toxic
brominated and iodinated analogues. This study evaluated the minimum volume
percentage of two Marcellus Shale and one Fayetteville Shale HFWs diluted by
fresh water collected from the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers that would generate
and/or alter the formation and speciation of DBPs following chlorination,
chloramination, and ozonation treatments of the blended solutions.
During chlorination, dilutions as low as 0.01% HFW altered the
speciation toward formation of brominated and iodinated trihalomethanes (THMs)
and brominated haloacetonitriles (HANs), and dilutions as low as 0.03%
increased the overall formation of both compound classes. The increase in
bromide concentration associated with 0.01–0.03% contribution of Marcellus HFW
(a range of 70–200 μg/L for HFW with bromide = 600 mg/L) mimics the increased
bromide levels observed in western Pennsylvanian surface waters following the
Marcellus Shale gas production boom.
Chloramination reduced HAN and
regulated THM formation; however, iodinated trihalomethane formation was
observed at lower pH. For municipal wastewater-impacted river water, the
presence of 0.1% HFW increased the formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA)
during chloramination, particularly for the high iodide (54 ppm) Fayetteville
Shale HFW. Finally, ozonation of 0.01–0.03% HFW-impacted river water resulted
in significant increases in bromate formation. The results suggest that total
elimination of HFW discharge and/or installation of halide-specific removal
techniques in centralized brine treatment facilities may be a better strategy to
mitigate impacts on downstream drinking water treatment plants than altering
disinfection strategies. The potential formation of multiple DBPs in drinking
water utilities in areas of shale gas development requires comprehensive
monitoring plans beyond the common regulated DBPs.
***Arsenic-Laced
Coffee Good for You
by Walter Brasch
You’re sitting in your favorite restaurant
one balmy September morning.
Your waitress brings a pot of coffee and
a standard 5-ounce cup.
“Would you like cream and sugar with it?”
she asks.
You drink your coffee black. And hot. You
decline her offer.
“Would you like arsenic with it?” she asks.
Arsenic? You’re baffled. And more than a
little suspicious.
“It enhances the flavor,” says your
waitress.
“I really don’t think I want arsenic,”
you say, now wondering why she’s so cheerful.
“It really does enhance the flavor—and
there’s absolutely no harm in it,” she says.
“But it’s arsenic!” you reply. “That’s
rat poison. It can kill you.”
“Only in large doses,” she says. “I’ll
add just 150 drops to your coffee. It tastes good and won’t harm you,” she
says, still as cheery as ever.
“But 150 drops is deadly!” you reply,
looking around to see if you’re on “Candid Camera.” You’re not, and she’s
serious.
“It’s really nothing,” she says,
explaining that 150 drops, when mixed with five ounces of coffee is only 0.5
percent of the total. She explains that 99.5 percent of the coffee—about 2,800
drops—is still freshly-brewed coffee.
Ridiculous?
Of course it’s ridiculous.
But the oil and gas industry want you to
believe that 99.5 percent of all the fluids they shove into the earth to do
horizontal fracturing, also known as fracking, is harmless. Just fresh river
water. Move along. Nothing to see here.
As to the other half of one-percent? They
tell you it’s just food products. Table salt. Guar gum (used in ice cream and
baked goods). Lemon juice. Nothing to worry about, they assure you.
The
EPA, in 2013, identified about 1,000 chemicals that the oil and gas industry
uses in fracking operations, most of them carcinogens at the strengths they
shove into the earth. Depending upon the geology of the area and other factors,
the driller uses a combination of fluids—perhaps a couple of dozen at one well,
a different couple of dozen at another well. But, because state legislatures
have allowed the companies to invoke “trade secrets” protection, they don’t
have to identify which chemicals and in what strengths they use at each well.
Even health professionals and those in emergency management aren’t allowed to
know the composition of the fluids—unless they sign non-disclosure statements.
Patients and the public are still kept from the information.
What is known is that among the most common
chemicals in fracking fluids, in
addition to arsenic, are benzene, which can lead to leukemia and several
cancers, reduce white blood cell production in bones, and cause genetic
mutation; formaldehyde, which can cause leukemia and genetic and birth defects;
hydrofluoric acid, which can cause genetic mutation and chronic lung disease,
cause third degree burns, affect bone structure, the central nervous system,
and cause cardiac arrest; nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which can cause
pulmonary edema and heart disease; radon, which has strong links to lung
cancer; and toluene, which in higher doses can produce nausea, muscle weakness,
and memory and hearing loss.
Each well requires an average of
three to eight million gallons of water for the first frack, depending upon the
geology of the area. Energy companies drilling in the Pennsylvania part of the
Marcellus Shale, the most productive of the nation’s shales, use an average of
4.0–5.6 million gallons of water per frack. That’s
only an average. Seneca Resources needed almost 19 million gallons of water to
frack a well in northeastern Pennsylvania in 2012; Encana Oil & Gas USA
used more than 21 million gallons of water to frack one well in Michigan the
following year. A well may be fracked several times (known as “restimulation”),
but most fracking after the first one is usually not economical.
After
the water, chemicals, and proppants (usually about 10,000 tons of silica sand)
are shoved deep into the earth, most have to be brought back up. Flowback
water, also known as wastewater, contains not just chemicals and elements that
went into the earth, but elements that were undisturbed in the earth until the
fracking process had begun. Among the
elements that are often present in the flowback water are Uranium-238,
Thorium-232, and Radium, which decays into Radon, one of the most radioactive
and toxic of all gases.
Wastewater is often stored in plastic-lined
pits, some as large as an acre. These pits can leak, spilling the wastewater
onto the ground and into streams. The wastewater can also evaporate, eventually
causing health problems of those living near the pits who can be exposed by
inhaling the invisible toxic clouds or from absorbing it through their skin. In
the eight years since drilling began in the Marcellus Shale, about 6.5 billion
gallons of wastewater have been produced.
Many of the pits are now closed systems.
But that doesn’t prevent health problems. Trucks pick up the wastewater and
transport it to injection wells that can be several hundred miles away. At any
point in that journey, there can be leaks, especially if the truck is involved
in a highway accident.
Assuming there are no accidents or spills, the
trucks will unload flowback water into injection pits, shoving the toxic waste
back into the ground, disturbing the earth and leading to what geologists now
identify as human-induced earthquakes.
Now, let’s go back to the industry’s claim
of innocence—that 99.5 percent of all fluids shoved into the earth are
completely harmless. Assuming only five million gallons of pure river water are
necessary for one frack at one well, that means at least 25,000 gallons are
toxic.
Would you like cream and sugar with that?
[Dr. Brasch, an award-winning social-issues
journalist, is the author of 20 books. His latest book is the
critically-acclaimed Fracking
Pennsylvania: Flirting With Disaster, an overall look at the economics,
politics, health, and environmental effects of fracking.]
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/19/arsenic-laced-coffee-good-for-you/
***Porn Email
Scandal Includes DEP Arbruzzo
“At least eight prominent state officials - including
the head of the state police, Pennsylvania's top environmental regulator, and a
former spokesman for Gov. Corbett - were among commonwealth employees who sent
or received hundreds of sexually explicit photos, videos, and messages from
state e-mail accounts between 2008 and 2012, according to documents made
available Thursday by the state Attorney General's Office.
Following a court battle and
public record requests from The Inquirer and other news organizations, Attorney
General Kathleen G. Kane's office named the eight recipients and showed
reporters some of the pornographic material it said traveled over state-owned computers during work hours.
The recipients include Frank
Noonan, the current state police commissioner; E. Christopher Abruzzo, secretary of the Department of Environmental
Protection; and Kevin Harley, who had been Corbett's top spokesman both
when Corbett was attorney general and after he became governor.
None
responded to requests for comment.
All three men worked for the
Attorney General's Office when Corbett headed the agency. Noonan and Abruzzo
were elevated to cabinet posts when Corbett became governor. Jay Pagni, Corbett's spokesman, said he did
not know if the governor had spoken to Noonan or Abruzzo or if he would take
action against them.
In an interview, he said:
"The images described in these news accounts are unacceptable and have no
place in the work environment. It is [the governor's] expectation of those who
work for him that they perform with the utmost professionalism and are guided
by high ethical standards beyond reproach."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140926_AG__State_police_chief__DEP_secretary_among_those_trading_porn_emails.html
***DEP Secretary Chris
Abruzzo resigns
“DEP
Secretary Chris Abruzzo (center) resigned from his post today. Dana Aunkst will now serve as Acting Secretary. The resignation is effective immediately. It comes
amidst a scandal involving several top Corbett officials exchanging lewd
emails.
Abruzzo is one of
eight Corbett appointees recently named by the Attorney General’s office as
having sent or received pornographic emails on state computers. Some of the
emails were shown to reporters, but the information was released without
details as to who sent what to whom.
In
a letter to Gov. Corbett, Abruzzo says he doesn’t remember the emails but
accepts “full responsibility for any lack of judgment I may have exhibited in
2009.” At that time, Abruzzo worked under Corbett in the Attorney General’s
office leading the Drug Strike Force. Current Attorney General Kathleen Kane
says Abruzzo and others exchanged the lewd emails between 2008 and 2012, while
Corbett served as AG.”
***Panelists Debate
Effects Of Act 13 Decision
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2014/09/25/shale-insight-panelists-lock-horns-over-supreme.html?iana=ind_energy
“Participants in a panel
discussion at the Shale Insight 2014 Conference sparred over the state Supreme
Court’s decision on Act 13, which affirmed municipalities have the ability to
regulate oil and gas wells through local zoning rules.
Panelist David Ball, a Peters Township council member, said the
decision was right to restore municipal say-so in where natural gas wells are
located, something that Act 13 had taken away.
“Industrial operations belong where industrial operations belong,” he said.
However, two others said the
decision essentially puts the courts in the position of deciding whether
individual projects get done.
“This decision is frightening,”
said David Overstreet, a partner with ALL Consulting. “Courts — trial judges —
are going to sit up there and decide what’s good for us,” he said.
He
said the decision leaves businesses with no predictability, which they need to
plan for projects.
But law professor John Dernbach,
who co-directs Widener Law’s Environmental Law Center, said there is bar for
such lawsuits — litigants have to show that there is a harm. He said he doesn’t
believe the decision will bring a halt to new projects, as others suggest.”
***More Industry Backed
Research To Come Out Of Penn State
“Penn
State University said that General Electric Co. will give the school up to $10
million to create a new center for gas industry research.
GE said the money will support
research projects, equipment, and undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral
fellowships at The Center for Collaborative Research on Intelligent Natural Gas
Supply Systems.
The new center will include
faculty from the Smeal College of Business, Earth and Mineral Sciences,
Engineering, and Information Sciences and Technology.
GE said the money will be donated
over the next five years and earmarked for different uses. The company will
also have engineers in residence to work with faculty and students.”
(Note: GE Oil & Gas is involved in technology equipment and services for all
segments of the oil and gas industry, from exploration & production to
downstream.)
***Pennsylvania Keeps Gas Leak Sites Secret
“ The location of leaking natural
gas pipelines in PA is kept secret by the PUC which is charged with regulating
companies that own the lines.
But PUC commissioner Gladys Brown
told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review it's
important to shield the locations because of "security concerns."
The secrecy can prevent the
public from finding out about leaks.
Pennsylvania's aging natural gas
distribution network last year sprang more than 31,000 leaks, a Tribune-Review analysis
of federal data found. Pennsylvania has more than 10,000 miles of dangerously
leaky, decades-old distribution pipes and it could cost $11 billion to replace
them all.
The distribution network to homes
and businesses is not to be confused with much larger interstate transmission
lines.
Most natural gas leaks aren't dangerous.
The gas vents upward into open air and doesn't reach explosive concentrations.
But sometimes pavement or frozen soil forces natural gas to flow sideways,
trapping it underground. That can lead to deadly explosions.
During the last 10 years gas, explosions killed 10 people and injured
21 in Pennsylvania, the paper found. Nationally, accidents involving
distribution lines have killed more than 120 people, injured more than 500
others and caused more than $775 million in damage since 2004.
Some researchers are strapping
methane detectors to cars to record readings. "It's another diagnostic
tool that we believe we can use," said Peoples spokesman Barry Kukovich,
adding that "the more the public knows, the better."
Peoples plans to remove the last
of its cast iron pipe this year, part of a five-year, $500 million
infrastructure upgrade project.
By comparison, half of
Philadelphia's 3,000 miles of gas lines are cast iron, the Tribune-Review
analysis found.”
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140924_ap_55fe1fb0ed7348dcb86a644708bb4722.html#efEM418gPpUdkodr.99
***PA Gas Leaks
Among Worst in Nation
“One in five miles of Pennsylvania pipeline — nearly
twice the national average — is older than 1960, federal data show. And the
older the pipes get, the more they leak, officials say.
When a line breaks, the gas
begins to surface. If pavement or packed earth block its rise, the gas can move
sideways through softer soil, seeking a hole.
Across
the country, nearly 75,000 miles of such pipe remains in use — mostly under
Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
"We
have a ticking time bomb under most of our cities, especially in the Northeast
where we have older cities," warns Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski. In 2011,
a gas explosion killed five people and destroyed most of a block of that Lehigh
County city. He worries that dangerous pipelines will remain in use for
decades.
"It's
going to happen again," Pawlowski said. "It's just a matter of
time."
***PA Fish and
Boat Commission Struggling To Monitor Gas
Violations
“The PA Fish and Boat Commission
says its officers are struggling to monitor possible violations at Marcellus
gas drilling sites.
Executive director John Arway
says they would like an additional $1 million to hire seven more officers for
that task. The commission previously asked the legislature for the funding and
didn't get it.
The chief of the agency's law
enforcement bureau says they are already short 16 waterways conservation
officers, and that many drilling violations don't get investigated.
Officers
who stock fish and perform boating safety patrols only investigate pollution
incidents reported to that commission. The DEP monitors many other aspects of
oil and gas” production. http://cumberlink.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/pa-fish-boat-agency-seeks-gas-drilling-funds/article_5abf23ba-0c61-11e4-a78b-001a4bcf887a.html
http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20140928/NEWS02/140929448#.VCi97RaLGPa
***The
Real Costs of Fracking by Bamberger and Oswald
Recounting of Sick Animals and Humans
Book
Review by Ellen Cantarow,
….Sarah and Josie are neighbors
in countryside south of Pittsburgh, a quiet rural landscape undergoing massive
industrialization by the fracking industry. Josie's dream was to raise purebred
boxers and bulldogs, her life revolving around the animals. A neighbor leased
several acres of his farmland to a fracking company and Josie, who already knew
about the links between fracking and water contamination, began keeping precise
records charting the drilling and completion of wells and also the completion
of a wastewater impoundment. after the impoundment was completed in spring
2010 Josie lost her well water and her
spring water dropped to a trickle. she and her husband began hauling water from
a nearby creek for the family needs - they couldn't manage physically to haul
water for their horses.
"A young dog less than two years old, progressed
from healthy to incapacitated in a few days, with lab work indicating the
possibility of cancer, but also liver and kidney toxicity."
The first animal to die wasn't a horse, but a young,
beloved boxer named Mr. Higgins. A veterinarian diagnosed kidney failure. One
of Mr. Higgins' lymph nodes was enlarged; a New York State veterinarian, Michelle Bamberger,
who was interviewing Pennsylvania residents for a book she was writing with
Cornell University molecular medicine professor Robert Oswald, advised a needle
biopsy to rule out lymphoma ,common in this breed. The needle biopsy was never
done - even though Josie brought Mr. Higgins to a specialty clinic, she
"declined further diagnostics and opted for euthanasia," not being
able to bear watching him suffer any longer.
"A young dog," observes Bamberger, "less than two years old,
progressed from healthy to incapacitated in a few days, with lab work
indicating the possibility of cancer, but also liver and kidney toxicity."
Josie told Bamberger that two days before Mr. Higgins became ill, a truck had
spread wastewater on her road (a common industry practice), and Mr. Higgins
lapped up a puddle near the driveway. "Josie will never know for
sure," says Bamberger, "but very likely Mr. Higgins drank a cocktail
of heavy metals and radioactive and organic compounds that tasted salty and
made him want to consume more."
Next in the death march was a horse named Amy, pronounced healthy by a
veterinarian several months after Mr. Higgins died, but who, a few weeks after
that, stopped eating, lost weight and appeared to lose her balance and
coordination. A vet came to treat Amy for what he assumed was a neurological
disease (equine protozoal myeloencephalitis) and took blood for testing. Two
days later Amy's back legs became so weak she couldn't stand. She sank in her
stall and began convulsing. Again distraught, Josie had Amy euthanized. The
blood results indicated liver failure
due to toxicity - the vet suspected poisoning from heavy metals (these are
present in fracking wastewater) - but the illness was never diagnosed. Josie
couldn't afford the necropsy and further testing that might have concluded the
diagnosis. Moreover, representatives of the drilling company came soon after
the euthanasia and offered a "neighborly thing": carting Amy's body
off to be incinerated.
" Earlier, the view from
Sarah's farmhouse had been gorgeous, with vistas across the valley to the next
ridge of hills, and a feeling of seclusion and privacy. But a large well pad (a "pad" is the area where wells are
located) was built with seven wellheads and attendant tanks (one of the signal
characteristics of high-volume fracking is multiple wellheads occupying a
single pad). From these issued poisons (my word rather than the euphemism
"contaminants") that thickened the atmosphere, finally driving Sarah,
a single mother and a nurse, to take her children and leave.
"There
were times in the morning - the air would feel dewy. You could just feel the
chemicals on you," she told Bamberger. "It was so thick. It's almost
like a bug that is caught in a fogger . . . I felt like I couldn't breathe - I
would get so short of breath."
The animals were sentinels for
Sarah's symptoms. Besides shortness of breath, she lost her sense of smell.
After abandoning the house, whenever she returned, she'd get a metallic taste
in her mouth and a recurrence of headaches. "We didn't even know [the
impoundment] was up there until we figured out what was going on. We just
thought it was a well pad." Both women are left to live with uncertainty
about the consequences of living where they have: cancers, for instance, take
many years to develop, and by the time they do, it is even harder to establish
causes.
In October 2011, air testing was done on Sarah's and Josie's properties
by a nonprofit organization that provides the service for low-income families
affected by industrial drilling. The tests detected chemicals that, according
to Bamberger, "[read] like an environmentalist's worst nightmare: BTEX
(benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, p-xylene, and o-xylene); carbon
tetrachloride; chloromethane; methylene chloride; tetrachloroethylene;
trichlorofluromethane; I, I, 2-trichloro-I, 2, 2-trifluoroethane; and
I,2,4-trimethylbenzene." These chemicals, the authors observe, impact the
neurological and respiratory systems and can be toxic to blood cells.
High-volume hydraulic fracturing is a virtually
unregulated industry; sleights of hand transform horribly toxic waste containing
heavy metals, radioactive matter and chemicals from fracking fluid, into
innocuous "brine" or "residual waste" (you see these
legends on the side of trucks passing by you as you drive on Pennsylvania
highways). Many of the chemicals used in fracking are deemed
"proprietary" - that is, corporations don't disclose them,
compounding problems of testing and diagnosis when animals and people get sick.
The authors had heard stories of:
healthy cattle dying within one hour after exposure to hydraulic fracturing
fluid; cows failing to reproduce and herds with high rates of stillborn and
stunted calves after exposure to drilling wastewater; dogs failing to reproduce
after drinking contaminated water; dogs and horses developing unexplained
rashes and having difficulty breathing after living in intensively drilled
areas." In 2012 they published an article, "Impacts of gas drilling
on human and animal health," that became known for the same scientific
assiduousness as the book that would follow. They had already begun
interviewing dozens of people in Pennsylvania, and finally decided on the five
families whose stories are related in The
Real Cost of Fracking (all names are pseudonymous; the stories are true).
That the industry was already
underway meant it was ignoring what's known as "the precautionary
principle," under which any action suspected of causing harm must be
proved not to cause harm by the agency committing it. That principle, write the
authors, "would suggest that this industry has the obligation to prove
that its actions do not cause public harm. The fossil fuel industry . . . seems
to have taken a page from the tobacco industry playbook. That is, if a link
between drilling operations and public health cannot be proven definitively,
then the link is rejected, effectively putting the burden of proof on the
victim." (9) So Bamberger and Oswald set about "documenting exposures
and subsequent health problems by detailed reports - just as would be done for
a new disease - in both animals and their owners."
In Butler County, Pennsylvania, a
region in the state peppered with wells and fracking infrastructure, Claire
Wasserman, who had leukemia but was in remission, had a resurgence of the
disease after gas operations arrived in her community. In August 2011, she
noticed a metallic taste in her water and a black stain on her dishes. Tests by
the drilling company and the PADEP showed no "obvious contamination"
and so Claire and her husband Jason, a retired water-well driller, continued
drinking their well water. Claire's white blood cells spiked, her leukemia
returned, the family then stopped using their well water for drinking and the
leukemia went back into remission.
But
Jason began suffering from massive nosebleeds. "[H]e was standing in the
bathroom, and he said, 'Oh my God, Claire, come here.' Blood was just pouring
out of his nose. I said, 'Hold it up here, hold it up here!'" She tilted
her head back and pinched her nostrils to illustrate to Bamberger. "When
he was holding it like that, blood started coming out of his eyes. I said,
'Close your eyes, close your eyes!' and it started coming out of his ears. I
thought, 'This is it . . . '"
The bleeding happened during the flaring of
a gas well (gas impurities are burned off in this process). Chemicals released by flaring include the
BTEX compounds described above. Among the blood cells destroyed by BTEX
chemicals are platelets, whose numbers fall under BTEX impact; platelets are
important in clotting and when their numbers fall, explains Bamberger, bleeding
is more likely.
"The only honest answer to
the question of whether our food and water are safe from this process is that
we really don't know."
Toledo Attorney Terry Lodge
added: “What we are seeing already is a trend that can devastate entire
watersheds in Ohio and elsewhere. If fracking continues as projected, all
other uses for water – for industry, agriculture, support of life –
will likely be harmed. What people may not realize is that fracking
destroys water for good. Billions and billions of gallons of clean freshwater
removed from the water cycle forever and turned into contaminated waste.
Remaining water can be poisoned beyond any ability to remediate. This water can
never be replaced. When it’s gone, it’s gone for good.”
*** More Water
Being Used To Frack
"Ohioans are beginning to
realize that fracking uses a great deal of water, permanently ruining it for
other uses. But what they may not know
is fracked gas and oil wells in Ohio are
turning out to be less productive over time, with more water needed so the
effects of water usage are rising. Now, each time a Utica well is fracked
in Ohio, over seven million gallons of water is needed on average per well. This volume of water needed is steadily
increasing as the long drilled laterals increase in length. As more and
more water becomes necessary per unit of gas or oil produced, the cumulative
effects are being seen. Very little water is recycled by the industry for
re-use; most fracked water is lost to
the watershed and beyond forever as it is turned into concentrated toxic and
radioactive waste.
The water loss to the Ohio
River basin is expected to be 18.5 billion gallons in the next 5 years. The
industry also tends to underestimate water usage in its reporting to the ODNR.
For instance, in Harrison County, the actual amount used for fracking was
714,010,470 gallons compared to the estimated 587,864,044 gallons. That is an under estimation of 126,146,426
gallons for just this one county. A single well used 22,139,168 gallons of
water to frack.
Paul Rubin, a New York
hydrogeologist and environmental consultant warns, “Public waters should not be
provided to the gas industry. The
concept that this is a ‘beneficial use’ of these waters is seriously
flawed. Any use of public waters that
will assuredly lead to the long-term contamination of the state’s aquifers,
waterways, and reservoirs and should not be advocated in any way whatsoever. Public
health is a major and very real concern.”
Rubin’s warnings are supported by depictions of migratory pathways of
frack fluids intersecting with groundwater flows. These figures show that
groundwater and gas industry contaminants steadily move toward our major
aquifers and water supplies, often well below thousands of feed of
bedrock."
Not only does fracking itself consume vast amounts of
freshwater, the massive amount of waste that is generated as a result must be
disposed of in dumps and injection wells. For the first half of 2014 Ohio injection
wells disposed of 5,279,341 barrels of waste from operations in Ohio and
4,554,747 barrels imported from other states. Steady migration of toxic
fracking and wastewater fluids from gas and injection wells threaten
groundwater and surface water as well, especially those directly under
reservoirs and valley bottoms where major population centers have developed.
Reservoirs such as Clendening, Leesville, Piedmont and Seneca Lakes leased for
fracking by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) and proposed
fracking under the Ohio River could cause widespread toxic contamination of
public drinking water sources over time – not only with toxic chemicals and
radioactivity, but from the concentrated salts contained in frack waste.
A recent peer-reviewed report stated, “Noble gas
isotope and hydrocarbon data link four contamination clusters to gas leakage
from intermediate-depth strata through failures of annulus cement, three to
target production gases that seem to implicate faulty production casings, and
one to an underground gas well failure.”
(http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/12/1322107111). Another report
concluded, “Even in a best-case scenario, an individual well would potentially
release at least 200 m3 of contaminated fluids. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120806093929.htm).
FracTracker.org continues to compile data
showing the increasingly significant impacts of water withdrawals from
fracking. The results of their detailed work are publicly accessible at
http://www.fractracker.org/2013/12/water-demands/ for the Muskingum River
Watershed analysis and at http://www.fractracker.org/2013/01/ohlakes/ showing
Ohio lakes under threat. According to Ted Auch, PhD, FracTracker Ohio Program Coordinator, “What
we are seeing already is a trend that can result in devastating impacts upon
entire watersheds. First, already fragile ecosystems will be impacted very
detrimentally, and if this trend continues according to the projections of the
fracking deployment in Ohio, human and other industries’ needs for water will
most likely be severely affected. We predict a regional water crisis at this
rate of destruction.”
Freshwater usage is increasing. According to Dr. Auch, “The increase in
lateral length accounts for 40% of the increase in freshwater consumption, so
now freshwater is up from 4.88 million gallons average per Utica well fracked
to 7.27 million gallons today. Additional water is used to increase well
production. As water use goes up, the cost of this valuable resource consumed
by fracking is only .0027 the cost of the entire fracking operation. Water is a
cheap way to increase well production – a disposable commodity used by the
industry without constraint that in no way reflects its real worth.”
There
is a very limited, finite amount of freshwater on earth and not enough of it to
be destroyed in such quantities.
Related
files and documents:
FracTracker
Statistics (pdf)
Lake
Erie: Permitted Fracking Wells (excel spreadsheet)
Ohio
River Basin: Permitted Fracking Wells (excel spreadsheet)
***Fracking Flowback
Could Pollute Groundwater with Heavy
Metals Published
in the American Chemical Society journal
Environmental Science & Technology.
The chemical makeup of wastewater generated by fracking” could cause
the release of tiny particles in soils that often strongly bind heavy metals
and pollutants, exacerbating the environmental risks during accidental spills,
Cornell University researchers have found.
Previous research has shown 10 to
40 percent of the water/chemical solution injected at high pressure into deep
rock strata, surges back to the surface during well development. this “flowback
fluid” has properties that make it effective
at extracting gas from shale but can also displace tiny particles that are
naturally bound to soil, causing pollutants such as heavy metals to leach out.
They found that fewer than five
percent of colloids ( larger than the size of a molecule but smaller than what
can be seen with the naked eye ) were released when they flushed the columns
with deionized water. That figure jumped to 32 to 36 percent when flushed with
flowback fluid. Increasing the flow rate of the flowback fluid mobilized an
additional 36 percent of colloids.
They believe this is because the
chemical composition of the flowback fluid reduced the strength of the forces
that allow colloids to remain bound to the sand, causing the colloids to
actually be repelled from the sand.
Stoof said awareness of the
phenomenon and an understanding of the mechanisms behind it can help identify
risks and inform mitigation strategies.
“Sustainable development of any
resource requires facts about its potential impacts, so legislators can make
informed decisions about whether and where it can and cannot be allowed, and to
develop guidelines in case it goes wrong,” Stoof said. “In the case of spills, you want to know what happens when the fluid
moves through the soil.”
http://mediarelations.cornell.edu/2014/06/25/fracking-flowback-could-pollute-groundwater-with-heavy-metals/
***West Virginia Fracking
Under Ohio River
“ West Virginia is ready to let companies drill for oil and natural gas
deep beneath 14 miles of the Ohio River.
Sgtate
commerce officials opened bids to drill under the northern West Virginia
section of the river, which serves as a border with Ohio. Officials said other river
tracts could be next, and a wildlife management area is under consideration.
Leasing state land for fracking, is a new venture for West Virginia,
and could produce plenty of money during uncertain budget times. A bid by Triad
Hunter, for instance, would yield the state $17.8 million up front for a
five-year lease, plus 18 percent in royalties from what’s extracted.
Environmentalists
and citizen groups are alarmed at the drilling proposal, since it would allow
drilling a mile beneath a river that provides drinking water to millions of
people.
State environmental regulators would have to approve permits for the
operations.
Advocates urged the governor only
to think back to January, when a massive chemical spill sullied drinking water
for 300,000 people in West Virginia for days. They expressed little confidence
that state regulators would be diligent about safeguarding against spills.
Elsewhere, horizontal drilling
under rivers is generating state revenues.
In
March and in 2010, Chesapeake Appalachia paid Pennsylvania $10.5 million for
five-year leases to drill beneath two sections of the Susquehanna River, not
counting royalties.
Burdette said additional lands
are being considered, but state parks aren’t on the table now. The actual
drilling will be done off of state land. Currently, the mineral money has to go
back to the Division of Natural Resources, Burdette said.” http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20140927/NEWS04/140929500#.VCkFdle9Zwy
Donations
We are very appreciative of donations, both
large and small, 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:
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write- Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group. The reason for this is that
we are one project of 12 at Thomas Merton. You can send your check to:
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group, PO Box 1040, Latrobe, PA, 15650.
Or
you can give the check or cash to Lou Pochet or Jan Milburn.
To make a contribution to our group using a credit card, go to www.thomasmertoncenter.org. Look for the contribute button, then scroll
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Please be sure to write Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
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just one project of many of the Thomas Merton Center. You can also give your
donation to Lou Pochet or Jan Milburn.
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
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