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-
To read former Updates
please visit our blogspot listed above.
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.
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.
The action to Tenaska and State Reps: http://tinyurl.com/stoptenaska
The hearing request to DEP: http://tinyurl.com/tenaskahearing
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
*******
***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
***Tell Susan G Komen--Pink Drill Bits Are Not Cute
The breast cancer organization
Susan G. Komen and fracking giant Baker Hughes have partnered to distribute
1,000 specially painted pink drill bits around the world.
This “Doing Our Bit for the Cure”
partnership is pinkwashing. Komen claims to care about ending breast cancer but
is taking money from—and providing good
PR for—corporations that are poisoning and contaminating our air, water and
bodies with chemicals linked to a range of diseases and disorders, including
breast cancer. Shame on Komen.
Take action: Tell Komen founder
Nancy Brinker to stop fracking with our health. Brinker plans to accept the Baker Hughes’ donation on Oct. 26 at the
Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game. Signing this petition immediately sends an email
to Susan G. Komen saying, “Don’t Frack With Our Health.” Your name will also
be included with the list that will be hand-delivered to Brinker prior to the
NFL game.
“Dear Nancy Brinker, founder and chair of global
strategy of Susan G. Komen,
We are outraged that as the largest breast cancer
organization in the world, you are partnering with a fracking corporation that
is poisoning our health. Pink drill bits are a pinkwashing publicity stunt.
Fracking is a toxic process—at least 25 percent of the
more than 700 chemicals used in fracking are linked to cancer. By taking money from
these companies and giving them permission to use your name, you are complicit
in a practice that endangers women’s health. You have created a perfect profit
cycle whereby Baker Hughes contributes to causing the very disease you raise
money to cure. This is unacceptable to us. Our health is not for sale.
If you really care about women’s health, break your
relationship with pinkwashers like Baker Hughes, and take a stand against
fracking.
***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.
***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
***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.”
***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 notes that the site still does not list testing of other frack chemicals
including the BTEX group or cesium for example. Here is a link to the IUP site:
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.
Zoning Notes
Note
From Group Member: “Just remember, however, that an overlay cannot change the
underlying zoning district. For example,
a residentially zoned area may have an overlay applied that enhances its
characteristics as a residential area but cannot create a use incompatible with
residential zoning.”
***Parents/Environmental
Groups Challenge Middlesex Township Zoning Changes That Allows Fracking Near
Schools and Homes
Appeal Filed With
Zoning Hearing Board
“Parents in Middlesex Township,
and environmental groups Clean Air Council and Delaware Riverkeeper Network
have challenged an amendment to Middlesex Township’s zoning ordinance which
allows shale gas extraction and gas infrastructure to nearly blanket the
community. The parents and groups argue
that the zoning amendment removes core protections to residential neighborhoods
from dangerous industrial activities. The
challengers claim that the amendment violates the people’s right to pure water,
clean air, a healthy environment, and fails to protect public health, safety,
and welfare by allowing shale gas extraction, drilling, and gas infrastructure
to occur so close to where children, families and residents live, learn, work, and play. The appeal was filed
with the Middlesex Township Zoning Hearing Board.
Despite
continued opposition by parents, the three Middlesex Township Supervisors voted
to approve the zoning amendment on August 13th, which allows shale gas
extraction, including fracking and related infrastructure, like compressor
stations and processing plants, to
operate in agricultural and residential areas. Two of the Township
Supervisors had to recuse themselves due to conflicts of interest, but were
called back to take the vote in order to achieve a quorum. The DEP approved permits to allow Rex Energy
to drill and frack 6 wells at the Geyer site which is less than a half mile
away from 3,200 students at the Mars School District campus.
“The
zoning changes clearly reflect Rex Energy’s desire to frack in the locations
Rex determined to be most cost effective and highlight the company and Township Supervisors’ disregard for the health and
safety of children and residents,” said Joseph Otis Minott, Chief Counsel and
Executive Director for Clean Air Council. “Prior to the zoning changes, Rex
Energy would not have legally been able to frack in the same location, even
though they had proposed the idea publicly and received written support from
the township.”
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware
Riverkeeper and head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network says, “The
Pennsylvania Constitution ensures protection of our pure water, clean air and
healthy environments for present and future generations. Permitting shale gas extraction so close to a
school filled with children, and throughout the communities where people live,
is an obvious breach of this obligation and trust. Our kids and communities need and deserve the
thoughtful and concerted attention of our lawmakers and regulators and are
entitled to a level of protection that protects them in the present and the
future. Allowing shale gas extraction in
every part of Middlesex Township, including at the Geyer site, is a betrayal of
trust and law that the Delaware Riverkeeper Network cannot sit silently by and
let happen.”
Rex
Energy announced plans to begin drilling
the Geyer wells as early as January or February 2015. As a result of the
challenged zoning changes, the Geyer well is likely the first of many proposals
to drill or operate gas infrastructure near the Mars School District and residential
areas.
Matt
Walker is the Community Outreach Director with Clean Air Council. “Middlesex Township should not have allowed
major industrial uses like fracking to operate near vulnerable populations like
children,” said Walker. “The zoning changes contradict sound planning practices
and could dramatically change the Mars area into a heavy industrial and
polluting landscape complete with fracking, compressor stations, processing
plants and pipelines. The Council is highly concerned about the air quality and
public health impacts to our members and their families that will come with
increased shale gas operations like Rex’s Geyer well and others. Drilling
and fracking 6 gas wells on the Rex Energy Geyer well pad will emit harmful
pollutants into the air near the Mars School District campus where 3,200
children breathe the air every day. Children are especially vulnerable to
environmental health hazards because they breathe more air per unit of body
weight than adults do and because their lungs are still developing.”
Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper
Network
keepermaya@delawareriverkeeper.org
***Rural Neighborhoods
At Risk Of Becoming Industrial Areas
6 Robinson Twp. Residents
File a Challenge
“Families in Robinson Township,
Pennsylvania filed a legal challenge to a new zoning ordinance that promises radical change to the rural
character of the area by allowing oil and gas well site development, including
drilling and fracking, as a permitted use in agricultural and rural residential
neighborhoods
Fearing dramatic change to the
rural and agricultural character of their community, six residents of Robinson Township today filed a challenge to the
township’s recently amended zoning ordinance, which opened up a majority of
the zoning districts to oil and gas development and related industrial
facilities.
On August 7, the Board of
Supervisors of Robinson Township, Washington County, amended the local zoning ordinance to allow
the development of oil and gas well sites—which includes heavy industrial
activities such as drilling and hydraulic fracturing that bring traffic, noise,
and pollution—as a permitted use in rural residential neighborhoods and
agricultural areas.
By making such sweeping changes
to the township’s zoning map, the Board of Supervisors is alleged to have
ignored its duties under the Pennsylvania Constitution and other state law by
elevating the commercial interests of private oil and gas development above the
public’s interest in developing and preserving the township in a manner
consistent with the township’s comprehensive plan.
The township residents filing the
challenge are Cathy and Christopher Lodge, Brenda and Nolan Vance, and Irene
and Richard Barrie. On their behalf,
attorneys with the firm Cafardi Ferguson Wyrick Weis + Stanger llc in
consultation with the Environmental Integrity Project filed a substantive
validity challenge of the ordinance with the Robinson Township Zoning Hearing
Board.
The six residents seek to preserve the rural character of the township
and the agricultural way of life they have known for decades. Their families
live in either agricultural conservation or rural residential districts.
They worry about a sharp increase in oil and gas activity near their homes,
including the construction and operation of well pads, wastewater impoundments,
compressor stations, processing facilities, and large swaths of temporary
housing for well site workers. The new ordinance makes it easier to construct
and operate an oil and gas well in the agricultural district than a seed store,
and removed the requirement that oil and gas development demonstrate that it
would be harmonious with the uses permitted in the zoning district.
Under the township’s prior zoning
ordinance, oil and gas development was prohibited in agricultural conservation
or rural residential districts like those the six residents live in unless the
Zoning Hearing Board granted a “special exception,” requiring a formal public
hearing and vote by the board, under rigorous standards.
By contrast, the new zoning
ordinance allows drilling and related work as a permitted use and eliminates
the right to a public hearing and the need for Zoning Hearing Board
approval. This removes the ability of
impacted citizens to raise their concerns and objections in a formal hearing
before decisions are made to allow heavy industrial activity. Under the special exception process, the
Zoning Hearing Board would tailor its approval of any oil and gas use to
account for the particular facts of each case and could include conditions,
restrictions, and safeguards for local residents.
The purpose of the challenge is to overturn the August 7 zoning
ordinance and restore the protections to the rural and agricultural character
of the township.”
Cafardi Ferguson Wyrick Weis +
Stanger, LLC, is a business law firm based in Wexford, PA, with experience in
litigation, construction, land use and development, zoning, municipal law and
other business-centered areas of practice.
The
Environmental Integrity Project, begun in 2002, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization founded by former EPA attorneys to ensure the enforcement of
environmental laws and the protection of public health.
Media
Contacts:
Tom
Pelton, Director of Communications, Environmental Integrity Project, (202)
888-2703.
Dwight
Ferguson, Founding Partner, Cafardi Ferguson Wyrick Weis + Stanger, llc (412)
515-8900.
To
read the zoning board challenge: http://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/Zoning-Hearing-Board-challenge.pdf
***University of
Pennsylvania Study: Gas Wells Lead to Hospitalizations
http://citizensvoice.com/news/study-more-gas-wells-in-area-leads-to-more-hospitalizations-1.1763826
WILKES-BARRE
— “The more natural gas wells in an
area, the more of its residents end up in the hospital.
The results of the unreleased study were
revealed at a state Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing on the subject
of tracking, reporting and acting on public health concerns related to natural
gas drilling.
However, there needs to be
“consistent, constant communication” between the Department of Health and the
state DEP which state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says does not have the
resources and technology to effectively do its job.
DePasquale said there should be a
dedicated staff person in each of the two departments — Health and
Environmental Protection — to keep in touch with each other.
The hearing, requested by state
Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, and chaired by state Sen. Lisa
Boscola, D-Bethlehem Township, included testimony
by Trevor M. Penning, professor of pharmacology and director of University of
Pennsylvania’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology.
Since 2011, the center has had a
Marcellus Shale working group to address the public health impact, he said. The
center did a study focusing on two counties where natural gas drilling has
grown dramatically between 2007 and 2013: Bradford and Susquehanna. Wayne County,
where no gas drilling is taking place, was used as a control.
Researchers collected data from seven different insurance providers for
the three counties, Penning said. They compared the density of the gas wells
with inpatient health records, adjusting for population density.
“Our studies indicate that over time, an increasing number of wells is
significantly correlated with inpatient rates of hospitalization,” Penning
stated.
Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown,
asked if there was any diagnosis.
Penning said the center is not
ready to divulge the conditions yet because the study hasn’t been reviewed, but
as soon as it is published, it will be made public.
Yudichak and Sen. Stewart
Greenleaf, R-Upper Moreland Township, sponsored Senate Bill 790, which would
give $3 million in natural gas impact fees to the Department of Health to
research whether health services are adequate in drilling areas, including
collecting and reporting health data and training health care providers. The
bill also calls for researching health effects of air pollutants generated by
oil and gas operations.
The bill’s purpose is to push
Pennsylvania towards a statewide database of public health information
regarding natural gas drilling, Yudichak said.
One of the concerns the center’s
researchers have is how it could be affected by the provision of Act 13 that
Penning says “puts a gag order on physicians.”
Studies tend to focus on the
effects of air pollution from natural gas-related activities rather than water
contamination. For one thing, there is a lack of baseline data on water
contamination. For another, under Act 13 of 2012, which established the impact
fee drillers pay to the state, natural gas companies do not have to disclose
what substances are in the fluids they use in hydraulic fracturing or
“fracking.”
Ruth McDermott-Levy, associate professor and director of the Center for
Global and Public Health at the Villanova University College of Nursing, has
been researching health needs in communities in Pennsylvania where fracking
is taking place and supports Senate Bill 790.
There is a relationship between certain air pollutants
and lung cancer and heart disease, she said. The air pollution doesn’t just
come from drilling sites, but from support facilities including compressor
stations, dehydration stations and truck transport, she said.
Wozniak pointed out that “we
don’t know the ‘secret soup”” used in fracking, and wanted to know if there was
any way to ask what to look for.
McDermott-Levy said health care
providers need to know the chemical composition of the fracking fluids.
“We
need disclosure. That’s the bottom line. We’re forced to work in the dark,” she
said.
It is important that the
state-collected health data is made available to the public as soon as possible,
and the Department of Health must develop a health registry that is accessible
to the public so they can learn, McDermott-Levy said. The current culture of
silence is no benefit to Pennsylvanians and only creates more distrust, she
said.
Raina Rippel, director of the
Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, also said the state needs
to focus on getting information out in a timely fashion and regaining the
public’s trust.
Right
now the community does not know where to turn, and people do not trust the
resources they are getting from the state, she said.
“The state of Pennsylvania
has lost the trust of a lot of its citizens,” Rippel said.
After
the hearing, Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition member Scott Cannon said he
considered it a step in the right direction, but is concerned because he
believes “$3 million isn’t going to cover much at all.”
http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies-powersource/2014/10/06/Testimony-Obsolete-tests-tainted-shale-analysis/stories/201410060075
***Testimony: DEP
Water Report’s Conclusion Written by Range
Resources
By
Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“State regulators did not
consider available water chemistry test results and had limited knowledge of
past spills and leaks at Range Resources’ Yeager Farm gas development site in
Washington County before deciding the operation did not contaminate the nearby
private water supply of Loren Kiskadden, according to testimony in the ongoing
case before the state Environmental Hearing Board in Pittsburgh.
DEP geologist, Michael
Morgart, also testified that a hydro-geological report he wrote in response to
Mr. Kiskadden’s contamination complaint contained an unattributed conclusion by
Range Resources’ that an analysis of Mr. Kiskadden’s water, “does not indicate
contamination by gas well drilling.”
The DEP geologist, sent that
report to his superiors in the department’s Bureau of Oil and Gas in August
2011, the month before it determined there was no impact from the Marcellus gas development to Mr. Kiskadden’s water well
in rural Amwell Township.
Mr.
Morgart, testified that he was unaware of many of the spills and leaks in 2011,
during his hydro-geologic investigation, and a hydro-geological link
between the Kiskadden water well, located 2,800 feet down gradient from Range’s
drill site and leaky 13.5 million gallon impoundment and drill cuttings pit,
was “unexpected.”
That conclusion differed from his
sworn deposition testimony, and he later testified that such a connection was
“possible but not probable.”
He also testified he wrote two
different reports on water flow around the Yeager drill site, but denied the
second was changed by a DEP supervisor to weaken the hydro-geological link
between the site and Mr. Kiskadden’s well.
The hearing on Mr. Kiskadden’s
appeal of that DEP determination is the first in the state to challenge a
department ruling that a private water well was not contaminated by Marcellus
Shale gas development and has been going on for two weeks with two more
scheduled.
The DEP’s own witnesses in the Kiskadden appeal testified on cross examination that the department used an old
laboratory testing menu -- the 942 standard analysis code from 1991 -- that didn’t report all of the contaminants in
the Kiskadden well. A new one developed in 2010 analyzes more chemicals and
metals and was created especially for testing potential water impacts from
Marcellus Shale gas development.
In questioning by DEP attorney
Richard Watling, Taru Upadhyay, director of the DEP’s Bureau of Laboratories,
testified that her lab followed all regulations and accepted practices in
analyzing water samples from Mr. Kiskadden’s kitchen faucet in June and August
2011 and January 2012, providing results for contaminants requested by the
department’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management.
But under cross-examination by
Kendra Smith, an attorney representing Mr. Kiskadden, Ms. Upadhyay admitted
that the lab’s chemical “data package”
for water samples was much more detailed and extensive than that requested by
and reported to the oil and gas bureau, and contained results for a variety of
man-made chemicals and 24 metals, including some that are associated with shale
gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Those additional chemical analyses were not requested
by the Bureau of Oil and Gas for the review of Mr. Kiskadden’s water faucet
sample tests.
If they had been, Ms. Upadhyay testified, they were available and could have
been provided.
Byron Miller, a DEP water quality
specialist who visited Range’s Yeager drill pad and impoundment many times
since 2011 and took water samples from Mr. Kiskadden’s kitchen faucet, said he
wasn’t told about the new more detailed and expansive water testing codes and
continued to use older codes.
On June 5, 2011, Mr. Miller wrote
in a report generated after his first visit and water test that the Kiskadden
property was not contaminated by the Yeager drilling operations, but admitted
on cross-examination he never looked at any pre-drilling water test results
that could have shown changes in the water quality, and was unaware at that
time that Range was bringing drilling mud from other well sites to the Yeager
pad for processing and storage.
Mr. Miller also testified that there were multiple
leaks and spills at the Yeager drill site. Those included:
• On March 25, 2010 a drilling mud and cutting pit on the Yeager well pad leaked into the
ground, contaminated two springs on the Yeager farm and required the eventual excavation of 2,135 tons of
contaminated soil and cuttings — the waste rock mud, and fluids from the
drilling process. Mr. Miller said he didn’t know how much material leaked from
the pit. The contaminated springs continue
to flow onto the ground and into small
streams that drain in the direction of Mr. Kiskadden’s property in the
narrow agricultural valley 4 1/2 years
later.
• In April 2010, the impoundment began
leaking when a hole was mistakenly left in the double liner as it was filling and on April 20, a truck carrying
residual drill cuttings dumped its load into the impoundment.
• On
July 14, 2010, flowback water, the
wastewater from fracking, overflowed the
secondary containment around the impoundment. Range reported that
Weavertown Environmental Group had “vacuumed” it up.
•
on Dec. 7, 2010, there was a reported
overflow of 84 gallons of refrack fluid and 15 gallons of diesel fuel at the
impoundment.
•
on Feb. 8, 2011, between 10 and 20
gallons of “production fluid” was spilled on the ground from a truck, along
with an unknown amount of diesel fuel.
• on Apr. 6, 2011, a truck overturned and
leaked fracking wastewater down the drill pad access road and across McAdams
Road where the fluids seeped into a 50-by-70-foot section of a farm field. No
remediation or soil excavation was ever done.
For most of
those spills and leaks, the DEP did not issue any Notice of Violation and did
not know the chemical makeup of the spilled and leaked fluids and materials,
according to the testimony of Mr. Miller. The soil impacted by the April 2011 truck spill that seeped into the farm field was analyzed,
Mr. Miller said, and was found to contain a host of man-made and natural
contaminants, including arsenic, barium,
strontium, mercury, acetone, benzene, carbon disulfide, ethyl benzene, toulene,
oxylene and oil and grease.
Mr. Miller also testified he had
“concerns” about leaks at the impoundment in August 2010 when he found out Range applied Acroclear, a highly toxic
chemical product, to the water to combat a strong hydrogen sulfide or ‘rotten
eggs” odor. Despite his concerns about leaks and the toxicity of the
product he did not order the company to drain and inspect for leaks.
Despite the detailing of spills,
leaks, and flushing of the drill cuttings pit, groundwater contamination and
water contamination test results, when asked if his opinion on Mr. Kiskadden’s
well contamination had changed, he said, “No.”
Although the Yeager impoundment was one of five leaky Range wastewater holding
lakes in Washington County last month the DEP ordered the shale gas driller to
drain and close in a consent agreement that also included a $4.15 million
fine, the company has maintained that Mr. Kiskadden’s water problems are caused
by natural contaminants, bacteria from livestock and septic systems.”
Testimony
in the case is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
***Fracking Chemical
Classified As “Anticipated to Cause Cancer”
Jennifer
Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council October 6, 2014
“The National Toxicology
Program’s Report on Carcinogens—the nation’s authoritative public list of
substances “known” or “reasonably anticipated” to cause cancer in humans—added
four chemicals, making a total of 243 substances in its 13th Report:
1-bromopropane
used as a cleaning solvent and in spray adhesives;
Pentachlorophenol,
a complex mixture used as a wood preservative to treat utility poles;
Ortho-Toluidine,
used to make rubber chemicals, pesticides, dyes, and some consumer products;
Cumene,
found in fuel products and tobacco smoke.
Cumene is classified as
“reasonably anticipated” to cause cancer. It’s also on the congressional list
of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for oil and gas. It’s
been listed as a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency since 1990, so it’s been known to be bad for health for a
long time.
We need more than disclosure of
chemical identities. We also need chemicals to be hazard-tested before they are
marketed, before they are allowed into commercial products, and before they are
allowed to be used in industrial processes where workers and communities can be
exposed.
And, cumene isn’t the only health hazard associated with fracking. Diesel
particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), road dust, BTEX chemicals (benzene,
toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) are all potential pollutants associated with fracking
that pose health risks. Benzene is also a known carcinogen listed by the Report
on Carcinogens , VOCs and NOx contribute to the formation of regional ozone
which causes smog and is very harmful to the respiratory system. Particulate matter can cause respiratory
problems including coughing, airway inflammation and worsening of existing
respiratory illnesses such as asthma and COPD, and premature death.
I co-authored a paper with
Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) expert Dr. Tanja Srebotnjak that
provides a summary of the fracking process and all the ways that it can pollute
and pose health risks to workers and surrounding communities.
NRDC is speaking out and taking
action: on the dangers of unregulated oil and gas pipelines; on the risks to children
from unsafe exposures; on faulty gas wells contaminating water supplies; on risks to wildlife; and the Halliburton
Loophole that exempts fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and
other regulatory loopholes like the one in the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA). That’s why NRDC has joined with organizations and individuals
across the country to demand nationwide rules requiring the disclosure of
chemicals used in fracking, along with the environmental and health risks
associated with those chemicals.
We need more than disclosure of
chemical identities. We also need chemicals to be hazard-tested before they are
marketed, before they are allowed into commercial products, and before they are
allowed to be used in industrial processes where workers and communities can be
exposed. And, right now, chemical manufacturers don’t have to conduct any
hazard testing at all. That’s why NRDC is fighting hard for meaningful reform
of our Nation’s laws, including the broken Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).”
***Study on Health Risks of Fracking's Open Waste Ponds, WVA
By
Zahra Hirji, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer
“When Mary Rahall discovered that
oil and gas waste was being stored in
open-air ponds less than a mile from a daycare center outside Fayetteville, W.
Va., she started digging for information about the facility's air emissions
and protections for a nearby stream.
Eventually
her questions found their way to William
Orem, a chemist at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Reston, Va., and he
began collecting air and water data at the site last fall.
Orem's small study could have
implications far beyond Fayetteville, because it's among the first scientific
efforts directed at how air emissions from oil and gas waste could be affecting
human health
The industry's waste isn't subject to regular air
monitoring, because in 1980s the energy industry lobbied Congress and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to exempt most of it from hazardous waste laws,
even though it can contain benzene and other chemicals known to affect human
health. In
a recent story about waste pit emissions in Texas, InsideClimate News
discovered that, nationally, there's little data or regulatory oversight
regarding air quality at oil and gas waste disposal sites.
A handful of short-term air
studies involving drilling wastewater—the most toxic form of drilling
waste—have been conducted. But most were designed to determine how the
emissions contribute to ozone, not how they might directly affect public
health. Orem's waste pond study is apparently the first prompted by local
health and environmental concerns and the first to collect continuous air
sampling over many months.
Rahall said the foul stench from
the ponds at the Danny Webb Construction facility, outside Fayetteville,
sometimes drifted into town. "It smells like it's going to explode,"
she said.
Orem hasn't smelled anything, but
he has heard similar complaints from other residents.
"Whether those [citizen]
concerns are justified or not is still unclear," he said.
Orem hasn't begun analyzing his
data. When he does, he said the following questions will serve as his guide:
"Is there a problem? Is there not a problem? If there is a problem, what
are the contaminants of concern?"
Short-term studies of waste-pond
emissions in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming between 2009 and 2013 have either
focused on how the emissions contribute to ozone (a major respiratory
irritant), or to test air-monitoring equipment that could be used by the EPA.
But several of these studies have produced data and anecdotal evidence that the
emissions can reach levels that might trigger health problems.
A 2009 EPA report examined
emissions data collected near three evaporation ponds operated by a drilling
company in Western Colorado. The goal wasn't to gauge the risk to human health
but to test equipment and measurement techniques the agency could use to track
emissions from oil and gas or similar industries, according to EPA spokesman
Richard Mylott.
While benzene, toluene and xylene
levels were generally below risk levels established by the federal Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the EPA found that a few of the measured
concentrations exceeded those guidelines, particularly downwind of the ponds.
In their introduction to the
report, the authors said there was an "immediate need" to better
understand emissions from volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including benzene
and toluene, from oil and gas waste pits. Depending on the concentration and
length of exposure, these chemicals can cause a range of ailments, from
headaches to neurological damage and cancer.
In 2011, Gabrielle Petron, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
scientist working at the University of Colorado, was trying to determine
whether emissions from two well sites in northeastern Utah were causing a rise
in winter ozone. During the course of their work, Petron and her team of researchers
discovered "out of this world" levels of benzene and toluene coming
from small ponds of untreated wastewater near the well sites. At one point, the
vapors were so thick that Petron felt nauseous and moved her team out of the
area.
"You had to go upwind of the
ponds," she said. "You could not stand to be in the downwind emission
stream."
Robert Field, a University of Wyoming scientist, had a similar
experience when he led a winter ozone study funded by his school and state and
federal regulators. Field and his co-researchers spent three winters in the Upper Green River Basin taking air
samples near hundreds of wells in a rural area where oil and gas production is
the main industry. There was also a wastewater recycling facility with large
open ponds, where liquid waste from fracking and other processes evaporates
into the air.
Field said he often smelled a
strong chemical odor at the fence line of the facility. "You don't want to
breath this pollution," he said.
Air monitoring data he collected close to the
facilities found concentrations of toluene and xylene that far exceeded levels
found in urban areas. This chemical signature, characteristic of oil and gas
wastewater, was also present in air Field measured about three miles downwind
of the facility.
Field's team also found
occasional spikes in benzene. About half of the 20 samples taken near the
facility in 2012 exceeded health guidelines set by the California EPA for
short-term benzene exposure (9 parts per billion). One sample had a benzene
concentration of 109 parts per billion. (Neither Wyoming nor the federal EPA has
short-term guidelines for benzene).
Field said the data show VOCs from the facility, most likely from the
large treatment and storage ponds, contribute significantly to the area's
ambient air quality. The impact of the facility's emissions was an unexpected
discovery, he said.
Results from the study were
published as a discussion article by the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and
Physics. Although the study wasn't designed to address human health effects,
Field said he hopes scientists studying waste health effects will take notice
of his findings.
Last winter Seth Lyman, an
environmental scientist who directs the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy
Research Center at Utah State University, measured air emissions from ponds at disposal sites and other oil and
gas facilities in northeastern Utah's shale region. The air quality testing
was part of an ozone study supported by a Uintah County group and the Trust
Lands Administration. Some of the ponds had frozen over and had very low levels
of VOCs. But some air samples taken from
ponds that didn't freeze exceeded California's EPA standard for short-term
benzene exposure.
Lyman recently received federal
funding to extend his study of air quality near industry waste ponds, and also
to test the air near pits containing solid waste.
A third winter ozone study in Utah, by NOAA scientist Carsten Warneke,
took short-term samples of air downwind of three oil and gas waste ponds. It
has also been published on the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics website. Benzene levels at two sites were low, but
they exceeded California's standards at a third site.
Orem, who is conducting the West
Virginia study, and his team set up four air monitors around the site. The
facility's owner wouldn't let him install a monitor at the ponds, so he
positioned one as close "as legally possible," he said. He installed
the other three further away, to track how chemicals in the air might travel
and identify any other sources of emissions.
The monitors are equipped with
foam discs that continuously absorb volatile organic compounds from the air. He
swaps out the discs every couple of months.
The parameters of Orem's study
have shifted since he began his work. Danny Webb Construction's operating
permit was renewed in February, but on the condition that the ponds be closed.
When environmental groups appealed that decision, the West Virginia Department
of Environmental Protection revoked the permit, although an injection well used
to dispose of wastewater deep underground still operates at the site.
Orem had gathered five continuous
months of air quality data while the ponds were up and running. He continued
collecting data during and after the reclamation process, which involved
removing the waste and liners and backfilling the depressions with dirt.
Meanwhile,
Orem is trying to expand his understanding of the air and water issues
surrounding oil and gas production waste. He's searching for additional
disposal sites to monitor, as well as active drilling sites that have on-site
waste storage and disposal.”
This
article is part of an ongoing investigation by InsideClimate News and The
Center for Public Integrity into air emissions created during oil and gas
production. CPI's Jim Morris contributed to this report.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20141010/small-study-may-have-big-answers-health-risks-frackings-open-waste-ponds
***PSATC Opposes
Sunoco Becoming Public Utility
“Ms.
Rosemary Chiavetta, Secretary PA Public Utility Commission Keystone Building
400 North Street, 2 n d Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Re:
Sunoco Pipeline Petition - P-2014-2411941, et seq.
At its recent Annual Business
Meeting, the PA State Association of
Township Commissioners (PSATC), voted to oppose Sunoco Pipeline's petition
filed with the PUC to be regarded as a public utility for the purpose of
implementing its Mariner East Pipeline Project.
From the local government
perspective, if Sunoco is awarded public utility status, it will be exempt from
the zoning and subdivision and land development regulations adopted by the municipalities
in the project's footprint. This will significantly hamper each municipality's
duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of its residents. Sunoco's
facilities would be able to be placed anywhere, without regard to municipal
planning, review or approval.
Sunoco, as a distributor of a
bulk resource, is very different from the traditional public utility that
provides an essential service to individual customers. Beyond preemption of local zoning and land use regulations,
granting public utility status to Sunoco would also give it status to invoke
the use of eminent domain to take public and private property for its project.
PSATC opposes Sunoco's request
and supports the myriad of petitioners seeking to have public utility status
denied.
H. Edward Black
Commissioner,
Lower Allen Township President, PSATC”
***Confirmed:
California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions
Of Gallons of Frack Wastewater
Water Wells
Contaminated
“After California state
regulators shut down 11 fracking wastewater injection wells last July over
concerns that the wastewater might have contaminated aquifers used for drinking
water and farm irrigation, the EPA ordered a report within 60 days.
It was revealed yesterday
that the California State Water Resources Board has sent a letter to the EPA
confirming that at least nine of those sites were in fact dumping wastewater
contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants into aquifers protected
by state law and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
The
letter, obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, reveals that nearly 3 billion gallons of wastewater were
illegally injected into central California aquifers and that half of the water
samples collected at the 8 water supply wells tested near the injection sites have
high levels of dangerous chemicals such as arsenic, a known carcinogen that can
also weaken the human immune system, and thallium, a toxin used in rat poison.
Timothy
Krantz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Redlands,
says these chemicals could pose a serious risk to public health: “The fact that
high concentrations are showing up in
multiple water wells close to wastewater injection sites raises major concerns
about the health and safety of nearby residents.”
The
full extent of the contamination is not yet known. Regulators at the State
Water Resources Board said that as many as 19 other injection wells could have
been contaminating protected aquifers, and the Central Valley Water Board has
so far only tested 8 of the nearly 100 nearby water wells.
Fracking
has been accused of exacerbating California's epic state-wide drought, but the
Central Valley region, which has some of the worst air and water pollution in
the state, has borne a disproportionate amount of the impacts from oil
companies' increasing use of the controversial oil extraction technique.
News
of billions of gallons of fracking wastewater contaminating protected aquifers
relied on by residents of the Central Valley for drinking water could not have
come at a worse time.
Adding
insult to injury, fracking is a water-intensive process, using as much as
140,000 to 150,000 gallons per frack job every day, permanently removing it
from the water cycle.
Hollin
Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, says these new
revelations prove state regulators have failed to protect Californians and the
environment from fracking and called on Governor Jerry Brown to take action now
to prevent an even bigger water emergency in drought-stricken California.
“Much
more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the
threat to public health,” Krezmann says. “But Governor Brown should move
quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that
California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.”
http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/10/07/central-california-aquifers-contaminated-billions-gallons-fracking-wastewater
***Landowners
Refuse Williams Co. Easement Offers For Pipeline
“A group of Lancaster County
landowners held a press conference Saturday to publicly reject what they call Williams Partners’ “disrespectful” and
“ludicrous” offers to buy easements allowing a massive natural gas pipeline to
cross their properties.
At the event, Ed Saxton defiantly tore up the contract
Williams sent him.
The
company had attached a Post-It saying one copy was for him to keep for his
records.
“Williams, for my record, I do
not accept your proposal,” Saxton said, adding: “Stay off my land.”
His comment alludes to an
incident in early August when surveyors working on Williams’ behalf trespassed
on his and others’ properties. Williams acknowledged the violation and banned
the crew from future work.
Williams is proposing to build 35
miles of 42-inch-wide high-pressure gas pipeline through Lancaster County. It
is part of the company’s 177-mile Atlantic Sunrise Project to transport
Marcellus Shale gas to market.
Hundreds
of county properties would be affected.
` In September, landowners reported that
Williams had begun sending them offers, typically a few tens of thousands of
dollars, for right-of-way for the pipeline.
Williams
promises to pay several thousand dollars upfront if property owners sign within
60 days.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based firm has
yet to file an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the
agency that must approve the pipeline.
The speakers at Saturday’s event,
organized with the group Lancaster Against Pipelines, raised concerns about
safety and privacy.
Williams
will be able to add more pipelines to the corridor once it’s established, they
warned.
The clear-cutting for the
pipeline will create a de facto pathway “for anyone to run up and down our
properties,” said Kevin Shelley, Saxton’s neighbor.
He questioned the industry’s
assurances about safety. Displaying a photo of an aftermath of a pipeline
explosion, he asked: “Are we going to have this in our back yards?”
“We’re rural, but I think we
matter, too,” he said.
Should a rupture occur, the blast radius would be many
hundreds of yards wide, Conestoga Township landowner Kim Kann said.
Saxton called Williams’ contract
offers a “ploy.” If the company can get enough contracts signed, it will look
to FERC as though the community welcomes the pipeline.
“Do not sign this document,” he
urged other landowners.
If you’re even considering it,
see an attorney, so you understand clearly what you’re giving up, he said.
Tony Haverstick said Williams’
easement offer “doesn’t touch” what the pipeline will do to the value of his
historic Manor Township farmland.
Tim Spiese lives in Martic
Township, but in his case, Williams is seeking an easement on his vacation
property in Clinton County, where he has a cabin.
He promised Williams he and
fellow landowners would fight every step of the way.
“Our goal is, it’s going to cost
you so much money you’re going to go back to Oklahoma and leave us alone,” he
said.
The landowners said they’re
acting in the interest of the broader community.
The pipeline route hasn’t been
finalized yet, Kann said.
“If it is in my back yard right
now it could be in your back yard tomorrow,” she said.”
http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/landowners-reject-williams-pipeline-offers/article_1a189cd2-4c0e-11e4-956a-001a4bcf6878.html
Landowners
reject Williams pipeline offers
***Benzene Exceeds Texas Exposure Limitations at Denton, Texas Playgrounds
“A
new report published by ShaleTest, an independent environmental research agency
in Denton, found levels of benzene in
several Denton parks that exceed the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality's long-term exposure limitations. Benzene is a carcinogen found in cigarettes, gasoline and is a common byproduct of oil and
gas drilling sites.
McKenna
Park is one of the playgrounds where unsafe levels of the chemical were found.
The playground is located next to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Denton,
within a neighborhood, next to several churches and across the street from one
of Denton's many Rayzor
Ranch gas wells.
"The effects of benzene are
well-known. It causes cancer at low exposure rates, in adults. And we're
talking about a playground where children are going to play.
So that's very concerning," says Calvin Tillman, a spokesman for
ShaleTest. As a part of the Project Playground
national initiative, the group collected air
samples from several DFW playgrounds to test for
potentially harmful air quality.
Wilma
Subra, a chemist who is the consultant for ShaleTest, says inhaled low doses of
benzene over an extended period of time can cause any number of health
problems. "This is one example of the chemicals that are associated with
oil and gas processing being released into the air," she says. "You
usually don't have drilling production on the playground, but there's no
restriction on how close you can drill to a hospital, playground, home, things
like that."
In
2013, the city of Denton passed an ordinance that prohibited fracking
operations within 1,200 feet of homes, schools, playgrounds, or hospitals. But
Dr. Adam Briggle, a bioethics professor at UNT, says the local law is flimsy at
best, as it does not apply to any drilling site in operation before 2013.
"Everything that existed was grandfathered under existing laws," he
says. "The opposition is calling for responsible fracking, and in fact we
have a responsible ordinance. But the problem is it doesn't apply to
anything."
Briggle
says the initial exposure to benzene was a much higher level than the current
amount. That's to be expected, but the City assured residents that after the
first jump in chemical production, exposure would taper off to TCEQ-approved
levels.
"This
study is troubling because it shows those emissions linger for years at a lower
level, but still at level above what is considered safe,"
Briggle says. "There's no way to prevent these exposures in our community.
They're vested under older laws, so it underlines the need for a ban."
The
drilling near McKenna Park began in 2010, after a heated debate by residents
failed to prevent the site. Dentonites consider this site the beginning of the
local anti-fracking movement. Cathy McMullen, who lives close to McKenna, first
became involved with the movement when she heard about operation.
"It's
my neighborhood, I see kids playing down there all the time. In what world is
this right? I don't know when we decided this was acceptable," says
McMullen. "You look at the safe levels, and you realize they're
established on adult men. It's concerning. Is this something you want to
tolerate? And if it's not we're going to have to step up and demand change.
We've been asking for a long time." Denton residents will have the chance
in November to pass the first local ban in Texas against fracking operations.” http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/10/fracking_benzene_denton_playground.php
***Rep. Rothfus Speaks For Fracking
“Murrysville's
US Congressional Representative, Keith
Rothfus, recently spoke at a pro-fracking event in Pittsburgh supporting liquid
natural gas exports (which, by extension, supports gas pipeline proliferation
and Marcellus fracking). Exporting gas is where the drilling industry is
looking for profits, NOT by selling the gas to local Western PA markets for
heating our homes because there is much more gas being produced than W PA can
use:
"As
a bevy of liquefied natural gas export projects inch their way along, one
organization is trying to activate shale supporters to lean on their
legislators to speed the process.
Our Energy Moment — a coalition of
companies, institutions and individuals tied to shale development founded in
Louisiana in 2013 — staged its first event in Pennsylvania on Thursday at the
Sen. John Heinz History Center in the Strip District. The event, which included
short speeches from former Gov. Tom Ridge and from U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus,
R-Sewickley, was a chance for the organization to recruit Pennsylvania
companies and business leaders to join their cause."
***Range CEO
Opposes Being Taxed
“Imposing more taxes on record
amounts of gas from Pennsylvania wells would harm an industry squeezed by low
prices and insufficient infrastructure, the CEO of the state's most prolific
driller said Monday.
Some major energy companies
reduced drilling activity in the state because a glut of gas lowered prices to half of that seen in
other parts of the country, Range Resources Corp. CEO Jeffrey Ventura told
Tribune-Review reporters and editors.
An extraction tax like that
proposed by gubernatorial front-runner Tom Wolf, on top of the per-well fee
they're paying to the state, could push big companies to other shale plays,
Ventura said.
“I think you'll see companies
like Range or some of the smaller people stay pretty active, but at the end of
the day, it clearly will impact the play overall,” he said.
The pipes and processing
facilities needed to move gas and related liquids from wells to good-paying
markets are at least two years away from catching up with supply, Ventura said.
“Until that infrastructure works itself out and demand catches up with
supply, there's a huge negative basis,” he said, noting that gas that fetches
$4 per thousand cubic feet at major pipeline points gets only $2 coming out of
Pennsylvania.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who
trails Wolf, a York County Democrat, in most polls before the Nov. 4 election,
opposes adding taxes on the industry.
Ventura,
a Penn Hills native, said he hopes Shell builds a so-called cracker plant here
and noted the company would provide it with ethane. But Range has a plan to
triple its production in the next four years, mostly from the Marcellus and
underlying Utica shale.
Its early presence in the shale
allowed Range to sign lucrative contracts on existing pipelines, especially for
shipment of ethane, he said. And the company holds what it considers some of
the most valuable land leases above several shale layers.
“A lot of the growth going
forward will be in Southwest PA,” he said, noting internal studies that show
the highest concentration of gas and liquids below Washington County.
Infrastructure problems have
caused some setbacks for Range this year. Shutdowns of a processing facility in
Washington County — both planned and unplanned — limited some production for
several weeks. Chronic leaks at some of its older well site impoundments —
huge, earthen pools built to hold fracking water between uses at several wells
— led to a $4.15 million state fine last month and an agreement with the state
to improve its designs.
Environmentalists say that experience shows Range and
other companies should abandon the use of such impoundments in favor of
closed-tank systems.
“We don't understand why Range won't shift
over to other available technologies that would allow for better protection of
the water and land,” said Myron Arnowitt, state director for Clean Water
Action.
Ventura said Range will shift to
using fewer impoundments in more centralized locations with leak detection
systems above state standards while it recycles fracking water.
“Now
we understand the field better,” he said, noting the company has redesigned the
pits about five times. “Our team is focused on the best solution, and at this
point they're the right answer.”
Read
more:
http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6918230-74/range-gas-state#ixzz3FWjSOyYw
***Frac Sand
(Concerns have also been
raised about the health of people living near railways where the sand is
transferred to trucks to be used at frack sites. Jan)
Report coauthor Grant Smith,
senior energy policy advisor, Civil Society Institute, said: “The rapid expansion in the United States of
oil and shale gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, has a hidden side
filled with problems: the mining of the special sand that is essential to
fracking a drilled well. As this report
makes clear, it is essential that local and state governments assess and take
action based on the impacts of the full cycle of shale oil and gas drilling,
including frac sand mining. Health,
water, and other economic concerns should be addressed comprehensively, rather
than being ignored or dismissed. Protecting public health and safety is the
first responsibility of government.”
EWG
Executive Director Heather White said: “None of the states at the center of the
current frac sand mining boom have adopted air quality standards for silica
that will adequately protect the tens of thousands of people living or working
near the scores of recently opened or proposed mining sites. EWG’s mapping
research found frac sand sites in close proximity to schools, hospitals and
clinics, where children and patients may be exposed to airborne silica. Chronic
exposure can lead to emphysema and lung disease. We need strong state action to
protect the public health from yet another troubling side effect of the
unprecedented wave of shale gas development.”
MEA
Executive Director Kimberlee Wright said: “Citizens living near frac sand
mining in Wisconsin are witnessing a massive destruction of their rural
landscape. Elected officials and our states' natural resources protection
agency have largely dismissed local citizens' concerns about their health, the
health of their environment and their quality of life. Without a clearer view
of the big picture of frac sand mining's impact, laws that protect our
communities' air and water aren't being developed or enforced.”
The
U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued the permit for the Cove
Point liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in Maryland. Dominion Resources has
proposed a tax-advantaged master limited partnership, or MLP, to own the
terminal and use proceeds from a planned initial public offering to help fund
construction estimated to cost as much as $3.8 billion.
Dominion,
of Richmond, Virginia, is seeking to take advantage of a boom in U.S. natural
gas production, driven by advances in drilling techniques including hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking. Cove Point is scheduled to begin shipments from the
5.25 million tons a year capacity plant in 2017. The U.S. Energy Department has approved Cove Point’s exports to both free-trade
and non-free trade agreement countries, according to FERC’s statement.
Cove Point would be the nearest export terminal
to the Marcellus Shale, the most productive U.S. natural gas deposit. Cheniere
Energy’s Sabine Pass and Sempra Energy’s Cameron terminal in Louisiana are the
only U.S. export projects so far to win approval from the FERC and US Energy
Department.
Dominion’s
waterfront site, about 60 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., has already
imported liquefied natural gas and requires minimal construction that would
damage the environment, Dominion said in a statement yesterday following the
approval.
Opponents including the Chesapeake Climate Action
Network, an environmental group, have vowed to contest FERC approval in the
courts. FERC failed to consider total impacts from increased natural gas
production, including greenhouse-gases associated with fracking, they said in
filings. FERC said the proposal, if mitigated with certain conditions, is “in
the public interest.”
Advocates of natural-gas exports in
Congress and the industry in recent months have seized on the potential for
U.S. supplies of the fuel to cut Europe’s reliance on Russia. Europe gets about
30 percent of its natural gas from Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea
region in March.
The
company has in place 20-year contracts with affiliates of Japan’s Sumitomo
Corp. (8053) and Gail India Ltd. of New Delhi. Neither Japan nor India have
free-trade deals with the U.S.
NOTE: Dominion operates the Blue Racer Natrium
complex in Marshall County, as well as other natural gas processing
infrastructure in both Ohio and West Virginia, which would send material to
Cove Point for export so the gas could be used in cities such as Tokyo and New
Delhi. The Cove Point project is separate from Dominion’s planned $5 billion
Atlantic Coast Pipeline that would ship natural gas from West Virginia for use
in North Carolina via a 42-inch diameter line running 550 miles. From an
Article by Jim Polson & Mark Chediak, Bloomberg News, September 30,
2014
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:
Checks to our group should be
made out to the Thomas Merton
Center/Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group. And in the Reminder line please
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
down the list of organizations to direct money to. We are listed as the Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group.
Please be sure to write Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
on the bottom of your check so that WMCG receives the funding, since we are
just one project of many of the Thomas Merton Center. You can also give your
donation to 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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news updates, please email jan at westmcg@gmail.com
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