westmcg@gmail.com
* For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us on facebook;
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* 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 usually
meet the second Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM in Greensburg. Recently we have adjusted this schedule. Email
Jan for details and directions. All are
very welcome to attend.
***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
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. ***
***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
***Cool Video--Colbert and Neil Young Sing About Fracking
***Link to DEP’s Water Violation 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/
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.”
***200 Holes Found
In Pit Liner
PA seeks record $4.5m fine on
'leaking' frack pit In Tioga County
“DEP is pursuing a record $4.5m
fine against a gas driller over what they describe as a major case of pollution
from a leaking waste pit.
The DEP announced that it is
seeking the penalty against EQT Corp. The acting DEP secretary, Dana Aunkst,
said EQT has been uncooperative during the investigation and “fails to recognize
the ongoing environmental harm” from its leaking impoundment in Duncan
Township, Tioga County.
EQT says it dealt promptly with
the leak and accuses state regulators of trying to grab headlines. EQT is suing
the agency over its interpretation of Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law.
The impoundment held wastewater
from the fracking process. Environmental regulators say more than 200 holes
were found in the impoundment’s lining. They say streams, springs and
vegetation were harmed.”
***DEP Frack Air Studies Leave Out Or Mis-Report On 25 Chemicals
Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Three
widely cited state studies of air emissions at Marcellus gas development sites
in PA omit measurements of key air toxics and calculate the health risks of
just two of more than two dozen pollutants.
State
regulators and the shale gas drilling industry over the past four years have
repeatedly used the regional studies to
support their positions that air emissions from drilling, fracking wastewater
impoundments and compressor stations don’t pose a public health risk.
The
revelations about the shortcomings of the state DEP short-term air sampling
reports are contained in sworn depositions by two DEP air program employees who
worked on them.
Those
documents were filed in a Washington County Common Pleas Court civil case in
which three families allege that air and water pollution from Range Resources’
Yeager drilling and 13.5-million gallon fracking wastewater impoundment in
Washington County made them sick.
In
a parallel case, now before the state Environmental Hearing Board, one of those
individuals, Loren Kiskadden, has appealed a DEP ruling that myriad spills and
leaks at the Yeager drill site and impoundment did not contaminate his well
water supply a half mile away.
“The DEP’s
willingness to allow Pennsylvania’s citizens to continue to rely upon what it
knows to be an inaccurate air study is unacceptable and completely contrary to
the department’s obligations to the public,” said John Smith, who with his
wife, Kendra Smith, is representing Mr. Kiskadden in the case before the EHB
and the property owners in the civil case.
According to
the Washington County court documents filed in August, concentrations of 25 airborne chemicals that the DEP’s field laboratory truck
parked near the Yeager drill site in rural Amwell Township measured were
mis-reported or not reported to administrators in Harrisburg who wrote the air
quality report for southwestern Pennsylvania in December 2010.
Linda Hreha,
a chemist in DEP’s mobile analytical section who did the air sampling on which
all three of the state’s regional air quality reports are based, testified in
her deposition on Dec. 5, 2013, that she measured but
did not report elevated concentrations of air contaminants at the Yeager
impoundment, including 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene
at 550 parts per billion; methane at 1.2 parts per million; and methyl
mercaptan at 1 part per million, twice the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health recommended exposure limit.
Because
the depositions indicate DEP used the
same data reporting procedures for shale gas pollution reports in 2011 in the
North-central and Northeast regions of the state, the validity of those reports
are also called into question.
In all three reports,
the DEP failed to calculate the health hazard for 25 of 38 chemicals it tested
for but still concluded that the levels of those air pollutants that the shale
gas development sites emitted were not likely to trigger air-related health
concerns, she testified.
Not only did
the DEP not calculate the vast majority of chemical hazards, but its
determination that public health would not be harmed was not made by anyone
with training in medicine, toxicology or environmental or occupational health,
according to Nick Lazor, chief of the DEP’s Air Quality Monitoring Division,
who oversaw production of the reports and was deposed on Jan. 17, 2014.
Although
the DEP air pollutant sampling was supposed to be following protocols from air
testing done in Texas’ Barnett Shale gas and oil field, Mr. Lazor testified in
his deposition that the department couldn’t
test for two chemicals, acrylamide and glutaraldehyde.
The first is a carcinogen and the second a potent toxin.
Both
have been used in hydraulic fracturing fluid and were detected in emissions at
Barnett shale gas drilling and fracking sites in Texas.
Though
the DEP acknowledged in the shale gas air pollution reports and again Sunday in
response to questions that the reports were intended to provide only a
“snapshot” of air contaminants on the day they were measured, state
environmental officials in Republican and Democratic administrations and
drilling industry spokesmen have used them more broadly to allay public health
concerns and justify regulatory restraint.
Michael
Krancer, Gov. Tom Corbett’s first DEP secretary, referenced the studies in
testimony opposing federal regulation of the shale gas industry before U.S.
House committees in November 2011 and May 2012 in Washington, D.C., and before
a state House Policy Committee in February 2012.
Just last month, Travis Windle, a spokesman
for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry lobbying group, cited the air
monitoring studies when he questioned the objectivity of Yale University
researchers whose study found greater numbers of illnesses near shale gas
drilling sites.
Also last month the DEP, in a letter to the
Mars Parent Group, twice referenced the short-term studies to justify its
decision to approve a permit for R.E. Gas Development LLC, a subsidiary of
State College-based Rex Energy, to drill and hydraulically fracture a Marcellus
Shale gas well a half-mile from the Mars Area School District campus and its
3,200 students in Middlesex Township, Butler County.
Local residents, the Clean Air Council and
the Delaware Riverkeeper Network have appealed that permit decision to the
state Environmental Hearing Board.
“Speaking
as a parent, it’s a concern that the DEP continues to rely on studies done in
2010 and 2011 and shown to be inaccurate, incomplete and inconclusive,” said
Amy Nassif of the Mars Parent Group, to whom the DEP letter was addressed.
“Those
studies don’t consider vulnerable populations like our children and aren’t
applicable to what’s going on around the Mars School District campus in 2014.”
S.
Craig Lobins, who wrote the letter and is the DEP’s northwest district oil and
gas manager, declined a request for comment.
Morgan Wagner, a DEP spokeswoman, did not
address questions about the department’s use of the reports to justify its
siting decision near the Mars schools.
She
said the DEP has been a leader in implementing strict emissions controls for
shale gas development and is working on a new long-term air pollution
monitoring study that will be finished this fall.
“There
certainly is a big question about whether the DEP did a good job on those
studies,” said Joseph Minott, an attorney and executive director of the Clean
Air Council, a Philadelphia-headquartered environmental organization that is an
appellant in the appeal of the Rex Energy permit filed with the state
Environmental Hearing Board.
“A cynic would say the DEP did what it
wanted to do with the air studies to get the result it wanted, and it wanted to
prove the pollution was minimal and set the testing protocol to get that
result.”
By Don Hopey Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Public Trust in PA Regulators Erodes Further Over Flawed Fracking Air Study
“DEP detected high
concentrations of certain chemicals—but those results weren't included in the
final study released to the public. The DEP also failed to assess the potential
health risks of 25 of the monitored chemicals.
Raw data
showing high concentrations of certain pollutants at gas operations and health
risks of 25 chemicals were left out of the state's studies.
By Lisa Song, InsideClimate News Oct
23, 2014
Pennsylvania
regulators used flawed methodology to conclude that air pollution from natural
gas development doesn't cause health problems. The revelation has further
eroded trust in an embattled state agency.
The news was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The
paper cited court documents that show how air quality
studies conducted by the Department of Environmental Protection in 2010 and
2011 failed to analyze the health risks of 25 chemicals. The studies also
didn't report some instances where high pollutant levels were detected.
The
evidence came from statements of two DEP scientists who were deposed in a
lawsuit. Their depositions call into
question the report's conclusion that the air sampling found no health risks
from shale development.
The
DEP "did not identify concentrations of any compound that would likely
trigger air-related health issues associated with Marcellus Shale drilling
activities," the study's executive summary said.
Two
later DEP air-sampling studies from 2011 used the same methodology. All three reports have been cited by
Pennsylvania regulators and industry to support drilling activity.
"It's a
really serious mess," said toxicologist David Brown of the Southwest
Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, which helps residents whose health
may be impacted by natural gas development.
Brown
has worked at various health agencies throughout his career, including the
Centers for Disease Control and the Connecticut Department of Public Health,
where he was chief of environmental epidemiology and occupational health.
"Probably
the most important thing health and environmental agencies do is to maintain
trust," he said. Now that the DEP has broken that trust, "I don't
think it's fixable."
When
InsideClimate News asked the DEP to comment, agency spokeswoman Morgan Wagner
responded with a letter that the DEP sent to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on
Wednesday. The letter criticizes the Post-Gazette article, but doesn't
challenge its main finding about the data left out of the DEP reports.
The
DEP has faced years of criticism for its handling of the Marcellus Shale boom.
"The gas industry is treated with kid gloves," said George Jugovic
Jr., a former DEP official who is now chief counsel of the environmental group
PennFuture. Jugovic said that leniency applies to both the current
administration under Republican Governor Tom Corbett, and the previous
administration of Democratic Governor Edward Rendell.
A
July audit by Pennsylvania's Auditor General's office faulted the agency for
poor communication with citizens, a lack of transparency and weak industry
oversight on the issue of water protection from natural gas development.
Two months
later, the Auditor General's office followed up with a separate document that
warned citizens not to rely on data posted on DEP's website, because it often contains self-reported data from shale gas
operators that aren't reviewed for accuracy.
Nadia
Steinzor, eastern program coordinator of the environmental group Earthworks Oil
and Gas Accountability Project, said the recent revelations about the DEP’s air
studies have made her even more skeptical of the agency's actions.
"They
make me question DEP's ultimate motivations," she said. The next time the agency releases a study,
"we and others have to take a really hard careful look at [the]
methodologies they use."
Both of the DEP employees deposed,
Linda Hreha and Nicholas Lazor, were involved in the studies. Their
depositions, taken in Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014, were filed as part of an air and
water pollution case against drilling operator Range Resources.
The DEP has cited the
flawed studies as recently as September 2014 in a lawsuit filed by citizens
trying to block several gas wells near schools and homes in Middlesex Township. In response to the plaintiffs'
concerns, the DEP wrote a letter that referenced its 2010 study, saying the
"short-term, screening level air quality sampling initiative…did not
identify concentrations of any compound that would be likely to trigger acute
air emission-related health issues."
Range
Resources, the company involved in the lawsuit that brought the depositions to
light, lists the Pennsylvania studies (among others) to show how "air
quality surrounding natural gas development...is safe."
The
depositions reveal a series of mistakes made by the DEP. To begin with, the report's raw data show
the agency detected high concentrations of certain chemicals—but those results
weren't included in the final study released to the public. The DEP also failed
to assess the potential health risks of 25 of the monitored chemicals.
In his deposition, Lazor said none of
the DEP employees who prepared the 2010 report were trained in epidemiology,
medicine, or environmental or occupational health.
Although the agency consulted with an
epidemiologist from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the epidemiologist
only saw a copy of the final report—not the raw data behind the study.
The
DEP studies were criticized even before the depositions came to light. In 2011,
the environmental group GASP (Group Against Smog and Pollution) noted that the DEP
air monitoring instruments could only detect some pollutants at extremely high
levels unlikely to be found in the atmosphere. In one case, the agency's
minimum detection limit for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was 198 parts per billion—18
times higher than the state's average NO2 concentration of 11 parts per
billion.
Earthworks'
Steinzor said the studies do have some value. They were—and still are—among the
few studies conducted by regulatory agencies on the air impacts of shale
development. Also, they ultimately convinced the DEP to do another long-term
air quality study in the Marcellus. Those results have not been released to the
public.
Brown,
the Environmental Health Project scientist, said the latest news has seriously
damaged the DEP's reputation in future work. "I don't know how an agency
redeems credibility once they've lost it at this scale."
See Also
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140403/toxic-emission-spikes-fracking-sites-are-rarely-monitored-study-finds
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140218/fracking-boom-spews-toxic-air-emissions-texas-residents
And one specifically about Washington
County:
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140722/families-sick-fracking-exposure-turn-concerned-scientists
***Inspection Regs Change
Fewer, Not More, Well Inspections Proposed
By Laura Legere / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The
DEP is proposing a new policy to standardize the way it handles oil and gas
well site inspections, enforcement actions and complaints that drilling has
damaged water supplies.
Some
of the provisions might give people “heartburn,” a DEP official said.
The proposal lowers expectations
for how frequently well sites will be inspected and requires, rather than
requests, drilling companies to temporarily replace potentially disrupted water
supplies within the radius of their wells where the law presumes the company is
to blame.
The draft policy addresses several issues
raised in a withering audit of the department’s oil and gas program released in
July by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale — but not necessarily in the way the
auditors recommended.
Mr. DePasquale urged DEP to update its inspection policy to
include mandated inspections at critical drilling stages and over a well’s
lifetime.
The
department’s current inspection policy, which was developed more than 25 years
ago, says regulators intend to inspect well sites during as many as 16 separate
stages of development, including roughly nine times between when the drill bit
hits the ground and when the well begins producing oil or gas.
The
department is not meeting those goals, which were always “aspirational” and are
no longer “necessarily appropriate,” Mr. Klapkowski said.
“I think we’re probably lucky at this point
if we’re getting to these well sites two to three times in that time frame,
based on the number of inspectors we have and the number of well sites,” he
said.
The
new proposal lists 12 key occasions when regulators aspire to conduct
inspections, but in somewhat opaque language it instructs district offices to “ensure that all wells are inspected
at least once” in accordance with the schedule — not once at every stage.
It also
drops the current guidance to inspect every well at least annually.
“What it says is that it has to be
inspected at least once,” Mr. Klapkowski said. “I think some people are going
to have a little bit of heartburn with that, and I expect we’re going to get a
significant amount of public comment on that issue.”
DEP
spokeswoman Morgan Wagner said in an email that it is the agency’s goal to
inspect a well each time one of the 12 key stages occurs. The department “is
confident it has the positions necessary to conduct approximately 27,500
inspections annually,” she said, including about 10,500 annual inspections for
new wells. There were about 2,100 new wells drilled last year.
The
new draft policy also lays out steps and schedules for regulators to respond to
water supply complaints so inspectors in different regional offices follow the
same procedures.
Mr.
DePasquale’s audit criticized DEP for late, confusing and inconsistent
communication with people who complained of water supply disruptions related to
drilling. The audit also reprimanded the
agency for failing to issue enforcement orders every time oil and gas
operations damaged water supplies, saying that without such official actions
“violations can be dealt with ‘off the books’ and away from the public’s
scrutiny.”
DEP
has improved the consistency of its communications — it is now department
practice to issue a letter in every case rather than making phone calls, as
some inspectors did in the recent past.
In
the draft policy, DEP also commits to
issuing a formal violation notice every time it ties a water supply disruption
to drilling. Violation notices are recorded in the agency’s online
compliance databases, which means the public can learn about them more easily
than if they were only kept in paper files.
But DEP does not intend to issue
an order — a higher, more resource-intensive level of enforcement — in cases
when a water supply has already recovered on its own or been replaced, when a
water supply owner withdraws the investigation request or when the drilling
company and water supply owner reach a settlement.
“It
will be documented that the determination occurred. A notice of violation will
be issued. But we’re not going to issue that order,” Mr. Klapkowski said.
DEP’s
proposal for automatically requiring companies to provide temporary replacement
water for some disturbed supplies is already raising eyebrows in the industry.
“There’s got to be a way for an operator to take an
action without admitting guilt,” Mr. Waite said after the meeting. “That’s not
in there. In fact, the opposite is in there.”
State law presumes drillers are responsible
for water supply pollution within 2,500 feet of shale gas wells during six
months or a year after drilling. Companies can rebut that presumption by
showing that the pollution already existed or was caused by something else,
among other defenses.
In
an issue alert published on Oct. 6, K&L Gates attorneys R. Timothy Weston
and Tad Macfarlan wrote that “the suggestion that PADEP can and should ‘advise’
an operator to provide a temporary water supply even if the operator can firmly
rebut the presumption of liability” goes beyond the language of the state’s
revised oil and gas law, known as Act 13.
Mr. Klapkowski said that although he expects DEP
will receive “a vigorous and thoughtful set of comments” on the proposal, the
final version will likely be in place by the end of the year.”
Laura Legere:
llegere@post-gazette.comhttp://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2014/10/28/Severance-tax/stories/201410280011
***Murrysville Council Gets Update On Task Force
“Municipal
planner Allen Cohen updated council last week on the deliberations of
Murrysville’s Marcellus Shale Task Force. Mr. Cohen’s report laid out eight
options the task force is considering to regulate drilling sites in the municipality.
•.Keep the overlay district as mapped
in the original oil and gas drilling ordinance.
• Modify the overlay district to
eliminate potential areas of concern.
• Eliminate the overlay district and
allow drilling as a conditional use in areas zoned rural-residential (R-R) on
parcels meeting minimum size requirements.
• Permit drilling only in the
business district (B) on parcels meeting minimum size requirements. Heavy
manufacturing is currently allowed in the business district on parcels with a
minimum 10-acre site.
• Create new areas in the
municipality suitable for drilling and rezoning them as resource recovery
districts.
•. Create additional areas in
business zones or create new Industrial zones suitable for drilling.
• Combine some of the above options
• Conclude that no area in
Murrysville is compatible with oil and gas drilling
The
municipality has no industrial or resource recovery zone classifications and
regulates gas and oil drilling by identifying suitable areas in other zones.
Called an overlay district, the approach is used in other communities, but
legal opinions of its effectiveness vary. Mr. Cohen’s report included comments
by attorney John Smith regarding the use of the overlay approach. Serving as a
panelist for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Mr. Smith said oil and gas overlay
districts have potential legal hurdles.
“Property
owners rely on the zoning classification of their property, which may be changed
through an overlay to allow different uses. A mineral extraction and gas
overlay district that allows for industrial oil and gas operations outside of
industrial zoning districts, subjects nonindustrial areas to industrial
activities. If the purpose of zoning is to place like uses together, then how
can an industrial use be extended into nonindustrial areas” he said.
Elanor
Sharp of Shady Drive urged council to follow the lead of Upper Burrell, which
in October approved restricting of fracking to industrial zones. She said
council will eventually have to address the question of whether the overlay
district is legally defensible.
“As
a concerned resident, I am of the opinion that Murrysville should drop the
overlay concept and restrict fracking surface operations to industrial zones”
she said.
However, Mr. Cohen cautioned council
that creating a drilling ordinance is not a one-size-fits-all process.
“Be
careful not to take another community’s approach and say it is ours,” he
advised. “ The task force is focusing on what is good for Murryvsille. We are
fact finding in order to present options in a balanced manner. All of the
options must be defensible in a court of law. And it is undecided law right
now.”
Councilman
David Perry said council will “consider options from zero drilling to expanding
the overlay district.”
Still, he noted, it will be a year
before any action is taken.”
Tim Means, freelance writer:
suburbanliving@post-gazette.com. http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2014/10/23/Murrysville-Council-gets-update-on-drilling-study/stories/201410230054
***Washington County Judge Reaffirms Court Order For Range Resources
“Oct 22 – A
Washington County Court judge reaffirmed her opinion that Range Resources
should be compelled to release a full list of chemicals and additives,
including proprietary substances, used at an Amwell Township drill site that is
the subject of ongoing litigation.
President Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca upheld
her previous Court of Common Pleas order for Range to disclose chemicals used at the Yeager well site. The order was
issued as part of a lawsuit involving three families who allege that Range’s
operations contaminated their drinking water.
Range
appealed the June 11 court order, and O’Dell-Seneca’s opinion will head to the
state Superior Court to decide the matter on appeal.
O’Dell-Seneca
wrote in her opinion that Range’s “allegation that this Court erred in ordering
the disclosure of this information is rendered moot by defendant’s recent
claims that it has, in fact, complied with this court’s order.”
Several
Range attorneys argued in court last month that the plaintiffs – Stacey Haney
and her two children; Beth and John Voyles and their daughter; and Loren and
Grace Kiskadden – know enough information about the products and additives
Range used in fracking to conduct tests of their water supply. Range’s counsel
said the “chemical families” were released for all proprietary products that
were not named by manufacturers, and thus the families could determine whether
or not chemicals in their water match those found in Range’s products.
O’Dell-Seneca
wrote that Range’s argument that the pertinent information was not in its
possession is “immaterial” because Range
served subpoenas on non-party entities in Texas – where Range’s headquarters
are located - in compliance with a previous court order issued January 22.”
“It appears that this court’s order of June
11, 2014, is not overly burdensome,” she wrote.
*** Health Risks of Frack
Pits-Study Continues
A West Virginia study will help
Americans inside the fracking boom understand the dangers of exposure to VOCs.
“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.
She
wasn't satisfied with the answers she got from state regulators and
politicians, so the mother of two set out to find a scientist who could help.
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. He suspects waste disposal might turn out to be "the weakest link
of all" in the oil and gas extraction and production cycle.
The industry's waste isn't subject to
regular air monitoring, because in 1980s the energy industry lobbied
Congress and the U.S. EPA 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?"
Background Studies
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.
Promising
Study Underway in West Virginia
Orem,
who is conducting the West Virginia study, was already searching for an oil and
gas disposal site to test when a scientist at West Virginia State University
told him about Mary Rahall's concerns about the Fayetteville disposal site.
Orem had previously studied the chemical profiles of produced water at shale
and coal-bed methane drilling sites across the country. "We jumped on it
as soon as we heard about it," he said.
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.
***Infant Deaths Near Drill Sites Spawn More Research
VERNAL, Utah
“Over
a dozen infants died in this oil-booming basin last year. Was this spike a
fluke? Bad luck? Or were these babies victims of air pollution fed by the
nearly 12,000 oil and gas wells in one of the most energy-rich areas in the
country?
Some
scientists whose research focuses on the effect of certain drilling-related
chemicals on fetal development believe there could be a link.
Questions
about drilling's possible effect on infants and the unborn aren't confined to
this northeast corner of Utah. Late in 2013, an unusually high number of fetal
anomalies in Glenwood Springs, 175 miles away in Colorado, were reported to state authorities. A study found no
connection with drilling.
Concerns
have been raised in other areas of heavy drilling, but no clusters have been
documented. No dots have been connected. But there are some in the scientific
and medical communities working to try to make a connection.
"I
suspect it is real — that there is a relationship," said Susan Nagel, PhD,
a University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher who is focusing her
studies on fracking-fluid chemicals that affect hormones.
Scads of medical studies have concluded
that air pollution can harm embryos. Drilling is a documented contributor to
that pollution. It is a given that some of the harmful chemicals released in
drilling, like benzene, toluene and xylenes, can cross the placental barrier
and cause heart, brain and spinal defects.
"Suffice
it to say that air pollution from drilling is a part of it," Dr. Brian
Moench said of the Vernal-area deaths.
Moench,
a Salt Lake City-based anesthesiologist and president of Utah Physicians for a
Healthy Environment, admits that establishing a scientifically solid link
between dead babies and drilling pads is complicated.
Air
pollution is often a stew of chemicals and particles from multiple sources. In
Vernal, diesel pickups and fracking rigs roll down Main Street spewing fumes.
Oil
field-support businesses, with their tanks of fluids and fuels, string out for
miles. A coal-fired power plant sends a plume of smoke high in the air.
A
recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration study showed dangerously
high levels of ozone in the Uintah Basin around Vernal. Last winter, ozone
levels spiked well beyond the safe level set by the Environmental Protection
Agency — worse than the highest ozone days in Los Angeles. The study blamed the
oil and gas industry.
"I
think we pretty clearly have an air-quality problem, but we try not to freak
out," said Seth Lyman, an air-quality researcher with Utah State
University in Vernal. "But I think there is a low probability (that) air
quality is bad enough to impact infant mortality."
There
was another factor last year: An explosion occurred east of Vernal on March 1,
2013, at a business that handles and cleans fracking equipment. The blast blew
debris over a half-mile area. No one knows what it might have blown into the
air. No measurements were taken.
Uintah
County Commissioner Mike McKee said that wasn't a concern, just as drilling
rigs aren't. He cited a county study done several years ago to determine if
there was a spike in asthma cases in Vernal, as some residents feared. The
study found there was not.
"People
complaining about our air are from out of the area, from what I am
seeing," McKee said.
One
of the most vocal is Moench.
Moench
took it seriously this year when Vernal midwife Donna Young told him that she
had researched obituaries and was alarmed by the high numbers of dead babies.
Young
and Moench were able to convince the TriCounty Health Department in Vernal to
work with the state on a study to determine if Young's trend figures are
correct.
Moench said that people who aren't
looking at the possibility of a connection "have blinders on."
Nagel is in Moench's corner.
In two
phases of research, she has gathered samples in Colorado's Garfield County and
is currently exposing pregnant mice to fracking fluids in her lab. She will be
looking for effects on the offspring.
Nagel said it is too early to have
results, but she won't be surprised if there are effects from hormone-harming
chemicals called "endocrine-disrupters."
"Mechanistically,
from what we know about endocrine-disrupting chemicals, it is highly
plausible," she said about linking the chemicals to fetal problems.
Part
of the reluctance of residents around Vernal to ascribe any ill effects to
energy-field pollution could be tied to the average $3,963 average monthly
nonfarm wage in Uintah County — the highest in Utah.
Young
said she benefits from that and has no bias against the industry in spite of
receiving threats and suffering vandalism after she started talking about the
infant deaths. Many of the fathers of the babies she delivers work in the oil
fields.
"I
just really, really want to find out what is going on," said Young, who now insists that all her
pregnant patients use air and water filters.
It
was midwives who also raised concerns and triggered the study in Garfield
County this year. They had noticed a higher-than-normal number of anomalies in
fetuses during ultrasounds and reported that to the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment.
The
study found no common denominator in 22 cases and determined the midwives may
have erred in their use of ultrasounds and in record-keeping.
The
Utah Department of Health is now working on a study. Epidemiologists initially
are using birth and death certificates to determine if there truly was a spike
in infant deaths, as Young's numbers show.
Her numbers
show an upward four-year trend in infant deaths: One in every 95.5 burials in
Uintah County in 2010 was a baby, according to Young. In 2011 it was one in
every 53. In 2012, one in every 39.7. And in 2013 the number jumped to one in
every 15.
State
epidemiologist Sam LeFevre said his study will crunch numbers and not delve
into causes for deaths unless the numbers show a potential problem.
Besides
oil-and-gas-stoked pollution, there could be many other causes.
Uintah
County is 24th of 27 Utah counties in health rankings.
Twice
as many residents here smoke than in the rest of Utah. More residents, in an
area rife with new fast-food chains, are overweight. More residents admit to
drinking heavily. There are more teen mothers and more mothers on average who
don't get good prenatal care.
Dr.
Karl Breitenbach, a physician who has done deliveries and prenatal and newborn
care in Vernal for 27 years, was the only Vernal physician who responded to
requests for comment. He said he has reviewed data through 2012 and hasn't seen
any increase in baby deaths.
"I
am unwilling to speculate until I see some proof that there actually is an
increased rate of infant morbidity or mortality," he said in an e-mail.
While
the state studies in Utah and Colorado address numbers, general research on
fracking fluids and developing babies is expected to go farther.
Nagel
said she is trying to establish a laboratory link that future researchers can
then use as they study health effects in drilling areas.
Liza
McKenzie, a research associate at the Colorado School of Public Health who has
studied health effects of fracking fluids in Colorado, said she plans to do
more research on the subject of fetuses and infants exposed to the chemicals.
Her earlier
research showed babies born to mothers living within 10 miles of wells are at
greater risk of congenital heart defects and neural tube defects. The oil and gas industry have criticized her research methods
and findings.
Results
from the state study in Vernal are expected early next year.
For
now, infant deaths have dropped back to average. Residents are reluctant to
talk about the infant-death issue. Many are focusing on a future that is filled
with expanded fossil-fuel prospects. Nearly 85 percent of Vernal residents
indicated in a recent survey that they welcome oil shale development.”
***Letter To Editor-PA Air Being Jeopardized
“Pennsylvania’s
Department of Health seemingly has been ignoring reports of health problems linked to Marcellus Shale natural gas (“Groups:
Health dept. policy on fracking falls short,” Aug. 20).
We
know that Pennsylvania has a long history of dirty air and subsequent damage to
public health, and that trend isn’t changing with Marcellus Shale development.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and other air pollutants from oil and gas
industry activities affect our health – both adults and children – and add to
our state’s poor air quality. These pollutants accelerate dangerous climate
change trends and contribute to toxic smog.
We
do have the technologies to reduce methane emissions and air pollutants, and
they are cost-effective and available. Why aren’t we implementing them?
Cleaner
air and improved public health are a win for Pennsylvanians. As a parent,
reducing smog and toxic pollution are urgent issues for me and for our
children’s future.
Clean
air should not be optional.”
Paula Chaiken
http://timesleader.com/news/letters/50506697/Air-quality-jeopardized
***NPR Guts Environmental Team, Leaving Only One Reporter
“How
interested is the public in climate change and other environmental issues?
Apparently, National Public Radio (NPR) thinks the answer is “not very.”
Many
people critical of NPR have charged that its sponsorship by companies and
organizations invested in fossil fuel industries has caused it to step
cautiously on environmental issues. Inside Climate News reports that the media
outlet generally perceived to provide thoughtful coverage of pressing issues
has cut back its environmental staff from three reporters and an editor,
working within NPR’s science desk, to a single reporter covering the
environment part-time. Of the four working on the beat at the beginning
of this year, Richard Harris and Vikki Valentine have moved to new roles at NPR
and Elizabeth Shogren has left the media outlet. Only reporter Chris Joyce
remains on the beat.
Inside
Climate News found that, despite rising public interest, the People’s Climate
March in September that drew hundreds of thousands of people and major stories
such as the drought in the southwest, the number of pieces tagged “environment” at
NPR has dropped since the beginning of the year from an average of the low 60s
per month to the mid 40s. It found that those stories were a mix of things
including pollution, wildlife, global health, agriculture and land conservation.
“Some of the critics pointed to NPR’s
acceptance of short sponsorship ads from corporations, and especially America’s
Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), as proof,” he wrote. “Corporate and other
business sponsorships account for 25 percent of NPR’s revenues, but in my more
than three years as ombudsman, I have yet to find a single incidence in which a
story was influenced by a sponsor……”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/27/npr-guts-environmental-team/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=406d1dc924-Top_News_10_28_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-406d1dc924-85389273
***Pennsylvania State Police May Be Tracking Fractivists- Soundtrack
from WESA
By ESSENTIAL PITTSBURGH
Listen ...13:10
“Are
state police in Pennsylvania tracking activists for Marcellus Shale drillers?
We’ll pose that question to journalist Adam
Federman who recently reported on this issue for the Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia City Papers.”
***Waynesburg Borough Investigates
Frack Water Dumped Into Sewer
“The
borough's sewage plant manager noticed a milky substance right after flow
meters indicated a spike in the normal amount of sewage flowing through the
system. The frack water can include briny substances and traces of chemicals
used in the process.
The borough hasn't accepted gas well
water since 2009, when the DEP ordered sewage plants to reduce how much
wastewater they processed after the Monongahela River was found to be
contaminated with substances the plants couldn't properly treat. The DEP went one step further in 2011 and
asked drillers not to send their wastewater to sewage plants. (This was
voluntary. Jan)
"No
matter how good the Waynesburg plant or any plant is, they are just not
equipped to handle and treat frack water," DEP spokesman John Poister
said.
The agency planned to send an inspector
to Waynesburg this week to discuss the matter with officials, Poister told The
Associated Press on Tuesday.
"Our
investigation is just starting," he said.
Cumberledge
said there are only a few spots where somebody could have dumped the water and
not have been seen publicly.
Whoever
dumped the frack water could also face criminal charges and civil penalties.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/14/borough-investigates-frack-water-dumped-into-sewer/
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
To receive our
news updates, please email jan at westmcg@gmail.com
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