To join the ligonier citizens group please email janjackmil@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/
* Email address: janjackmil@gmail.com
* To contact your state
legislator:
For the email address, click on the envelope
under the photo
* For information on PA state gas legislation
and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
WMCG Thank You
Contributors To Our Updates
Thank you to contributors to our Updates:
Debbie Borowiec, Lou Pochet, Ron Gulla, the Pollocks, Marian Szmyd, Bob Donnan,, Kacey Comini, Elizabeth Donahue, and Bob Schmetzer.
Thank you to Lou Pochet, our treasurer
and Thomas Merton liason for representing our group at the Thomas Merton
meeting in Pittsburgh.
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
*********************************************************************************
Calendar
*** WMCG Group Meeting We usually meet the second Wednesday of every month at 7:30 PM in Greensburg. Email Jan for directions. All are very welcome to attend.
***Ligonier Township Supervisors Meeting
Tues. Jan 13, 7:00
pm,
Municipal Building, Oak Grove, 711 North
***Ligonier Township Planning Commission Thurs. Jan 22 7:00 pm Municipal
Building, Oak Grove
***PA Rally Against Fracking- Tues. Jan 20th
10:00 am Harrisburg
“To demonstrate resistance
and to change the narrative, Pennsylvanians Against Fracking will be at the
INAUGURATION in HARRISBURG on TUES. JAN 20th.
Cuomo banned Fracking mainly
because he heard the voices of his constituents saying NO!
Elected officials in PA need
to hear a MAJORITY of their constituents saying NO. And they need to buy into a new
narrative--Clean energy and efficiency can drive this state's economic future.
In addition to the rally
announced below, DIRECT ACTION to "engage" Wolf at the swearing in
ceremony and/or the open house at the governor's mansion are in the works. If you want to get in on the direct action,
contact mbadges@gmail.com for updates
and act now to get tickets for the swearing in ceremony using this link.
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/14938276788/efbnen
You can sign up for the rally at https://www.facebook.com/events/334545760062747/
Whether
you join in the rally or engage in direct action, plan now to be in Harrisburg
on Tues Jan 20th.
We will convene our rally at
the Grace Street Methodist Church, across the street from the Capitol. From
there, we will march over to the inauguration site, just outside the Capitol.
With loud chants and vivid props, we will communicate directly to Governor Wolf
why he needs to follow the example of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and stop
fracking now!
We will be posting a
timeline of events as soon as we know when the inauguration will start, but
please plan to arrive at the church at 10 a.m.! We have a bus to Harrisburg on Jan 20th
leaving Edgewood Town Center at 6 am. We need as many people as possible to
make this trip if we are going to convince Wolf that if it's not healthy for NY
it's not good here.
Check out other
transportation options below:
Southwest PA: Email mpro113@gmail.com to
learn about carpools from Southwestern PA
Let
us know if you want to coordinate a carpool from your community by emailing
sbernhardt@fwwatch.org.
Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Address: 216 State St.
Harrisburg, PA 17101”
Frack News
***Permits/Violations
in Derry- Donegal- Bell Twp
*PA Gas Drilling Permit
Issued in Derry Twp Township
Gas permit issued on 2014-12-23 00:00:00 to WPX ENERGY
APPALACHIA LLC for site FRYE SOUTH 1-8H in Derry Twp township, Westmoreland
county
*PA Permit Violation
Issued to Wpx Energy Appalachia Llc in Donegal Twp, Westmoreland County
Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on
2014-12-05 to Wpx Energy Appalachia Llc in Donegal Twp, Westmoreland county.
OGA 3218(A) - Failure to restore or
replace a public or private water supply affected by a well operator.
*Bell/ Washington twp
drilling starting near reservoir
***Tenaska Power
Plant Issue Heating Up
“The gas fired 900-megawatt Tenaska power
plant would be a permanent source of air pollution in Westmoreland County and
of discharge into the Yough River. For example, 600,000 pounds of carbon
monoxide, 800,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides, and 660,000 pounds of small
particles will be released into our already polluted air each year. These
pollutants are strongly linked to health problems.
Residents from the Smithton area,
the Mt. Watershed Assoc., and WMCG are working to protect air and water and
property values.
What you can do:
*LIKE the Facebook Page set
up by Bill Catalina. -- Stop Tenaska Westmoreland Project
*Sign the Tenaska Petitions-See links at the top of
Updates
Great Turn out at the County Commissioners
Meeting to
oppose the
Tenaska Plant.
Excellent,
scientific data presented. Good job all!
Tenaska Battle
Brews
“For
more than five years, Tenaska, a Nebraska-based energy company, has been toying
with the idea of building a large natural gas power plant in South Huntingdon,
Westmoreland County. In 2009, it said construction could begin within the next
five years. In 2011, it suggested shovels in the ground by 2012. And so it
went.
Now, with several major
environmental permits pending and a county approval process completed, the
company has a new starting date for construction: the summer of 2015.
But for residents surrounding the
400-acre parcel in Smithton where the 950-megawatt plant would sit, this time
the projections seem urgent and alarming.
“It’s
almost in our backyard. It is much, much too close,” Diane Bendix said. “We
have a creek go through our yard. There’s a lot of wildlife here. God forbid if
there’s an accident there.”
Diane and Harvey Bendix bought
their home in Smithton 18 years ago and have enjoyed the quiet, rural life
there, Harvey Bendix said. He expects all of that will come to an end if the
plant is built.
“I’m not opposed to progress in energy development. But
for this to go into a community that is not designed for industrial, it’s
ridiculous,” he said. “The homes were there first. Why should our homes, our
lives, our livelihood be destroyed by this plant?”
“I can’t tell you how afraid we
are of this thing,” Mrs. Bendix said.
The couple and at least a handful
of other residents and environmental groups were preparing to voice their
concerns at today’s Westmoreland County commissioners’ meeting. Bill Catalina,
whose property is closest to the proposed plant, said he believes the voters
will speak if the plant goes through.
“We don’t mind energy, and we
don’t mind it in our area. But we mind it in our face,” Mr. Catalina said.
He is concerned about water
pollution from more than 1 million gallons of daily discharges that the plant
would contribute to the Youghiogheny River each day, according to a Department
of Environmental Protection permit application.
But each person who opposes the project has a
unique reason, he said. Some, like parents of students at the elementary and
middle schools about a mile from the site, might worry about air pollution.
Others, like a neighbor with horses, worries about the noise.
Joseph Kalinowski, who has sued
Tenaska, has lived in his house for 40 years and spent the past 20 turning most
of his 120-acre parcel into a forest. Now, he says, the company will be using
that forest as a buffer between the proposed plant and his home, less than half
a mile away.
South Huntingdon, like many rural
municipalities in Pennsylvania, has no zoning ordinances and no other
regulations governing what kinds of facilities can be built where within its
borders.
That ties the hands of local
officials, said Ted Kopas, a Westmoreland County commissioner.
“County
government has no authority over the project to stop it even if we wanted to,”
Mr. Kopas said.
All he can do is work to get
concerned residents relevant information about the plant’s progress, he said.
“Tenaska made the decision to
build there,” he said. “It’s fair to say no one at the county government
dissuaded the company from doing so. It’s an important project for our area.”
In 2010, Tenaska submitted an
application to the county under its subdivision and land-use ordinance, which
is agnostic on the use of the property but ensures that any development
complies with certain parameters such as setbacks and access to the site.
The land review was completed in
2013, according to Mr. Rigone.
“We spent an enormous amount of
time making sure it was done correctly,” he said. “That’s the micro — that’s
how it impacts the residents around it.”
From a macro standpoint, he said,
there’s not much the county can do to balance the economic development it wants
with the larger considerations about the net pollution impacts on the region.
Tenaska has said the plant would
create about 300 construction jobs and about 25 permanent jobs once built.
Despite the urgency felt by some
of the residents opposing the facility, it’s still not clear that Tenaska is
pulling the trigger on the plant. A similar project in Lebanon County has been
stalled for the same period of time.
While Monte Ten Kley, manager of
project coordination at Tenaska, said 2018 is the tentative date for operation,
he added that “market conditions will ultimately determine the timeline.”
Electricity demand has been down
since the recession and has not demonstrated cause for significant optimism in
the near future. That has surely made securing a power purchase agreement for
the plant difficult, but Mr. Ten Kley indicated this week that construction
could move forward without such an agreement.”
Concerns Aired To
County Commissioners
***17
speakers ticked off reasons why Westmoreland County commissioners should oppose
a Tenaska plan to construct a $500 million natural gas-fueled power plant in
South Huntingdon.
Passionately arguing their case
Thursday, opponents said they're concerned about the plant's impact on the
environment and the overall quality of life in the sedate, rural area just
south of Interstate 70 and Route 31.
But in the end, the commissioners
did not tell the speakers what they came to hear.
Instead,
they said the matter is out of their hands.
It's state officials who have the
final word about whether Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners LLC can build the
mammoth 930-megawatt facility on 50 acres of a 134-acre parcel, a project that
has been in the planning stages since 2009.
“What would happen if a (natural
gas) explosion would occur at Tenaska? All the dwellings south of the property
would be affected,” said Joseph Kalinowski, whose 120 acres abut the site.
An explosion could impact nearby
Yough Intermediate Middle School and Mendon Elementary School, both less than a
mile from the site, said Kalinowski, who last year lost a lawsuit challenging
the county's approval of the land's use for the power plant.
Tenaska Pennsylvania Partners, an
affiliate of Tenaska Inc. of Omaha, intends to start building the plant this
summer, with completion in three years, if its plans are approved by the state
Department of Environmental Protection.
That start date has been a moving
target for several years, shifting from 2011 to 2013 and now to this year,
delays officials have said are tied to securing long-term commitments to
purchase the power produced at the facility. A similar program in Lebanon
County also has been delayed.
Tenaska officials said Thursday
that they hope to address residents' concerns at a public forum set for 6 to 8
p.m. Jan. 21 in the Turkeytown Fire Hall. Representatives from the state and
Tenaska are scheduled to make presentations.
Cynthia Walter of Hempfield, a
St. Vincent College associate professor of biology, told commissioners that the
plant would add 8.4 million pounds of pollutants annually to the atmosphere.
“The DEP regulations are
inadequate and out of date. You need qualified air and water studies,” said
Walter, who was not speaking on behalf of the college.
Nick Kennedy, an attorney and community
advocate for the Mountain Watershed Alliance, told commissioners that they
should hire an expert to conduct an independent review that would be a
“reasonable analysis” of Tenaska's plans for the plant.
“The
DEP is not infallible. It is within your power to ask for an independent review
of this plant, so they (residents) can fully understand the effects and
benefits ... and allow for an open discussion,” said Kennedy, whose
Melcroft-based environmental group seeks to protect the region's waterways.
Commissioner Charles Anderson
said the county has done its due diligence and said he would review the plans,
but he did not commit to hiring an expert to conduct the county's own analysis
of the permits.
Read
more: http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/7522829-74/plant-tenaska-power#ixzz3OOAPNWm2
***Update From
Jan-- Ligonier Township
The Ligonier Township ad hoc zoning committee
charged with working on the gas ordinance has been working for months to keep
the frack zone in Ligonier Township limited to a small area. 
A
new zoning ordinance and map was presented to the planning commission by the
Ligonier Township Manager on Dec. 16. There are several proposed frack zones in
three corners of the township that are presently conservation districts. The
map is subject to change. If water wells are contaminated, our property is not
worth much, if anything. Air contaminants have been linked to cancerous and
non- cancerous diseases and birth defects. And fracking brings with it
pipelines, compressor stations, frack pits, and other gas operations.
A
new zoning ordinance and map was presented to the planning commission by the
Ligonier Township Manager on Dec. 16. There are several proposed frack zones in
three corners of the township that are presently conservation districts. The
map is subject to change. If water wells are contaminated, our property is not
worth much, if anything. Air contaminants have been linked to cancerous and
non- cancerous diseases and birth defects. And fracking brings with it
pipelines, compressor stations, frack pits, and other gas operations.
In
addition, the solicitor and manager want to change hearings from conditional
use to special exception. Anyone who has attended conferences on zoning has
heard Att. John Smith and others explain why conditional use is the preferred
procedure. It means hearings for gas
wells and other issues go before the supervisors –the people you vote for not
the zoning board of which the members are appointed.
Supervisors and the township
manager need to hear from us. This is the most important issue to confront
Ligonier residents in many decades. The next meeting where we have the
opportunity to speak will be the supervisors meeting Jan 13 at 7:00 and
Planning Commission Jan. 22 at 7:00. Please help us spread the word. A flyer is
attached. Please share.
***Comments of
Alyson Holt On Murrysville Zoning Ordinance
Below
are the public comments I intend to make on Monday:
“Good evening. The input I'd like
to give tonight concerns the section beginning on page 12 entitled "Energy
Resources". I think the wording of this section is vague and does not
strongly enough state the Municipality's constitutional responsibilities as
trustee and fiduciary to protect both its residents and its environmental
resources. As Attorney John Smith wrote in 2014, "Governments do not have an obligation to provide areas for all
conceivable uses of land, due to topography and space issues. However, to the
extent that uses may be accommodated in districts with similar uses, whether
industrial, commercial, or residential, it is advised that no such use be
prohibited." That wording is very
different from the phrase "provide for the reasonable development of this
energy resource" (meaning Marcellus Shale natural gas) which I quoted from
the "Energy Resources" section of the Comprehensive Plan.
In the future, drilling companies may also
quote from this section when applying for well pad permits or appealing
denials. This Comprehensive Plan document should clearly communicate to all
interested parties, including drilling companies and residents, that the
government of the Municipality both keeps abreast of and endeavors to fully
understand the ramifications of the most current zoning and land-use case law.
Murrysville will never be an easy, uneducated target for exploitation by this
industry. In addition, the document
should state without apology that Murrysville government's first constitutional
priority with regards to oil and gas extraction will be to protect the health,
safety, and welfare of its residents and to protect its natural resources. To
that end, I offer the following wording changes below:
Rewording of "Energy Resources" section
beginning on page 12:
...The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has recently
ruled that Pennsylvania municipalities have the right and responsibility under
the provisions of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Code (MPC) and the
Pennsylvania Constitution to use its Comprehensive Plan and its zoning powers
to regulate the location of oil and gas drilling well sites, in particular the
industrial process of high-volume hydraulic fracturing well sites. In addition,
in its role as trustee of environmental resources, the Municipality also has
the right and responsibility to establish standards, including but not limited to
air and water quality standards, to protect the public health and safety under
the provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution's Environmental Rights
Amendment. Accordingly, the
Municipality will regularly review its current regulations, including but not
limited to zoning, on oil and gas drilling to assure that its provisions are 1.
based on the most current and defensible case law and 2. prioritize the public
health, safety, and welfare, and protection of natural resources under the
authority of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Municipality will also base its
determination of whether surface operations of high volume hydraulic fracturing
of the Marcellus Shale should be permitted within its borders on the most
recent evidence available, including but not limited to, relevant case law,
health and environmental impact studies, and other scientific studies of areas
and populations impacted by drilling. Finally, recognizing that impacts from
high-volume hydraulic fracturing drilling operations may cross municipality
borders, the Municipality will endeavor to establish good communication and
cooperation with its bordering townships on this important issue.
***Murrysville To
Revise Proposed Comprehensive Plan
“Murrysville Council has agreed
to strengthen language on oil and gas drilling in its 10-year comprehensive
plan to reflect an emphasis on public health.
Residents requested the
change in the final public hearing Monday on the comprehensive plan. Council
directed the solicitor to rewrite the language to reflect the change.
Several in the audience pointed to a phrase in the
plan that says the municipality needs to review its current zoning regulations
to provide for “… reasonable development of this energy resource, while protecting to the
maximum extent possible the public health and safety and the natural resources
and land impacted by this activity”.
“I am disappointed. The language in this plan is woefully vague
on the subject of hydraulic fracking. To me it seems like Murrysville is
promoting the development of the resource and giving second place to the health
and safety of the community,” Chet Smolinski of Windover Road told council.
Alyson Holt of Primrose Lane singled out the same phrase, fearing it
leaves the door open for drilling companies to justify their activities in
applying for permits for future well sites.
“The comprehensive plan should
also convey that Murrysville is not an easy, uneducated target for exploitation
by the drilling industry. The comprehensive plan should state without apology
that the municipality’s first constitutional priority with regards to mineral
extraction will be to protect the health, safety and welfare of its residents
and to protect its environmental resources,” she said, reading from a prepared
statement.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2015/01/08/Murrysville-to-revise-proposed-comprehensive-plan-update/stories/201501080097
Murrysville Residents
Comment On Proposed Update to Comprehensive
Plan
“To several Murrysville residents, the municipality's
updated comprehensive-plan draft seemed to prioritize the promotion of
Marcellus shale drilling over residents' health and welfare.
At Monday's public hearing on the
update to the state-mandated comprehensive plan, council members tried to assure
them that was not the case.
Many of the public comments on
the proposed revision centered on the “Energy Resources” portion of the plan,
which addresses oil and gas drilling.
The final sentence of the “Energy
Resources” portions reads that Murrysville needs to review its current zoning
regulations on oil and gas drilling to assure that it “provides for reasonable
development of this energy resource while protecting to the maximum extent
possible the public health and safety and the natural resources and land
impacted by this activity.”
Resident Alyson Holt said she thinks the reference to
providing for reasonable development should be removed.
“The comprehensive plan document should convey that
Murrysville is not an easy, uneducated target for exploitation by the drilling
industry,” Holt said.
She
also submitted several suggestions for language changes to the “Energy
Resources” section of the draft update.
Resident Sharp
said the plan should be rewritten “to reflect the municipality's constitutional
obligation to safeguard its citizens' health, safety and welfare.”
Sharp
said all hydraulic fracking should be banned in Murrysville until “its safety
can be proven and confirmed by peer-reviewed scientific studies and data.”
Resident Kathleen Borres said the
plan's approach regarding oil and gas drilling is “ambiguous language that will
cost the municipality and residents a good deal of money in the end … people's
health and well-being, and the well-being of nature itself, should be the
driving motive of any development decisions the council makes, not anything
else.”
Resident
Shirley Turnage, who was part of a comprehensive-plan update in 2002, gave her
own comments and submitted suggestions from Citizens to Preserve Rural
Murrysville, a group to which she belongs.
Both Turnage and the citizens'
group criticized the ordinance establishing an overlay district where oil and
gas drilling could potentially take place.
“The ordinance circumvents good
land-use policies that are already in place,” Turnage said.
Members of council gave comment
as well, and nearly everyone stressed that the municipality is not placing
potential shale-drilling benefits over citizens' health and welfare.
“(The
health and welfare part) might have been written second, but I don't think
anyone here considers it a secondary concern,” Councilman Loren Kase said.
Chief administrator Jim Morrison
said Marcellus drilling “is a difficult issue. I, personally, believe the
language provides the proper framework for us to move forward through the
(Marcellus shale) task force and council.”
Council Vice President Rege Synan said not only is a comprehensive plan
not a legally binding document, it also is subject to revision.
Read
more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmurrysville/yourmurrysvillemore/7507716-74/plan-council-drilling#ixzz3OHGJFYH7
***Winfield Twp.
Supervisors Delay Vote on Drilling Ordinance
“The Winfield Township
supervisors have delayed voting on an ordinance regulating oil and gas
exploration in the township until challenges to similar regulations in two
other townships are resolved.
Residents in Middlesex Township, Butler County and
Allegheny Township have appealed zoning ordinances that allow Marcellus shale
gas drilling in most areas of the communities.
In Middlesex, two environmental
groups and four township residents claim the changes passed in August endanger
residents' health and safety by allowing drilling in nearly 75 percent of the
township. The appeal was filed because of controversy over a Rex Energy well
pad that opponents say is too close to Mars Area School District property. The
group has also appealed a state DEP well permit issued to Rex.
The Allegheny Township challenge
was triggered by horizontal-drilling permits issued in October to CNX Gas Co.
for a well pad off Willowbrook Road.
The
appeal, filed by two residents who live nearby, challenges the validity of the
zoning ordinance that permits oil and gas wells in all zoning districts,
including residential.”
http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourallekiskivalley/yourallekiskivalleymore/7438720-74/township-drilling-ordinance#ixzz3NuoJoDo6
***Allegheny
Township Hearing
Note: Att. Ed
Bilik is noted in the article as the
creator of the Western PA Gas Leasing
Consultants. The purpose of the Consultants is to assist landowners with leases. The Western Pa Gas Leasing site says: “We can
aggressively market your gas rights.”
Bilik is the law partner
of Les Mlaker who was also involved in the Allegheny Township hearing on the
side of those who defend the new ordinance which allows fracking anywhere. Les Mlaker is also solicitor in Hempfield and
Penn Trafford Twps. Solicitors have been guiding or assisting with the
development of the township zoning gas ordinances.
“The first zoning hearing on the
validity of Allegheny Township's natural gas-drilling regulations featured as
much debate among attorneys as it did testimony from witnesses.
Christopher and Angelo Papa, the
attorneys representing three Willowbrook Road residents who object to a
Marcellus gas well permitted on a neighboring property, were able to present
only two witnesses during a 4 1⁄2-hour hearing Wednesday before the Allegheny
Township Zoning Hearing Board.
Dee Frederick, Beverly Taylor and
Patricia Hagaman not only have asked the board to revoke CNX Gas Co.'s permit
to drill on Willowbrook, but they also want the board to rule against the
township's ordinance that allows drilling in all zones, including residential.
The first hour of the hearing was
spent debating whether Duquesne University professor John Stolz was qualified
to testify on his knowledge of how unconventional gas wells are drilled, the
industry's use of hydraulic fracturing, and his research into the potential
environmental impacts of the process.
In what Angelo Papa described as
an “ambush” on Stolz, the professors' credentials were questioned by the
attorneys of four other parties involved in the challenge: CNX; John and Ann
Slike, who leased their land to CNX; a group of township landowners interested
gas leases; and the township itself.
Despite Stolz' five years of research into fracking and its impacts
through Duquesne's Center for Environmental Research and Education, the zoning
hearing board ultimately ruled he did not meet the legal criteria of an expert
witness.
His
testimony was limited to general information about how horizontal wells are
drilled.
Stolz said the process can
require an intensive amount of water, equipment and waste, but the attorneys
prevented him from saying much about his research into the environmental
impacts.
Under questioning from CNX attorney Steven Silverman and Ed Bilik,
an attorney who formed Western PA Gas Leasing Consultants to assist
landowners with leases, Stolz acknowledged he was not familiar
with many of the specifics of the Willowbrook well and had not done research
specifically in Allegheny Township.
The
testimony of the Papas' second witness was smoother, but not without
objections.
Steven Victor, a landscape
architect and land-use planner, was allowed to be offered as an expert witness
with background in municipal zoning law and planning. Victor was involved with
a previous development plan at River Forest Country Club.
Victor was hired by the Papas to
review the township's zoning regulations on gas and oil drilling — which he
found to offer “inadequate” protections for residents.
Because drilling is allowed as a
permitted use in all zoning districts, Victor said the township had little
ability to review individual drilling permits and required little notification
to neighbors about incoming wells.
The Willowbrook Road well site is
in an R-2 residential-agricultural zone, which covers about 85 percent of the
township.
Victor said the township's ordinances
offered “soft standards” that leave it largely up to a driller to determine
where wells are, allows them to drill at all hours, and doesn't provide
setbacks from neighbors.
Also, Victor noted the ordinances
do not allow for a gas compressor or processing stations in any zone — which he
said leaves the township open to a legal challenge that could result in them
being placed anywhere.
The hearing ended about 11 p.m.
before the opposing attorneys had a chance to cross-examine Victor.
His testimony was interrupted
several times by attorneys who objected to his detailing points in the
township's ordinances. The Papas argued details were a benefit to the large
audience of community members who likely were unfamiliar with the details.
The division among the crowd was
obvious in its response to that argument — some cheered for Victor to continue,
others objected to the lengthy hearing.
Other signs of the split crowd
included a large display of materials warning of potential drilling hazards
while another group asked attendees to sign petitions supporting drilling.
Zoning
Hearing Board Solicitor Larry Loperfito said the hearing will continue Jan. 28.
The hearing originally planned for Jan. 15 was canceled.”
http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourallekiskivalley/yourallekiskivalleymore/7515019-74/hearing-township-drilling#axzz3ONMEdZcK
***Coal Power
Plant Fire In Morgantown, W.Va.
Methane Gas Catches
Fire--1 Mile Evacuation Zone
“Beginning at approximately 2
p.m., emergency officials in Morgantown, W.Va. had urged immediate evacuation
for anyone located within one mile of the 695-megawatt, coal-fired Longview
Power Plant on Fort Martin Road in Monongalia County. Fort Martin Road also was
closed.
One of six tanks -- each
containing several thousand gallons of methane gas -- caught on fire, although
the tank did not explode, according to Mike Wolfe, director of the Monongalia
Emergency Centralized Communications Agency. No other combustible materials
were near the fire, he said.
There were no reported injuries
and all employees of the power plant were safely evacuated, according to Mr.
Wolfe.”
http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies-powersource/2015/01/05/West-Virginia-judge-denies-chemical-company-s-second-challenge-to-fracking-operations/stories/201501050130
***Judge Hears Compressor
Case-Kretschmann Farm
When your township
has a hearing---Get It Right!
Comment by Alyson Holt who posted the article
on facebook: “…..I have posted the text of the
article because it's a case being argued right now about compressor stations in
agricultural districts. This quote in particular points out how important it is for
residents to cite expected impacts as precisely and evidence-based as possible
and get it on the public record and not just complain in general:
"Cardinal attorney Blaine Lucas said no objectors offered any evidence of
possible environmental harm during the hearings. He said they raised concerns,
asked questions, sought assurances and offered speculation, but not evidence":
“Attorneys made arguments before
a Beaver County judge about a compressor station planned near an organic farm
in New Sewickley Township.
Cardinal PA Midstream of Dallas
plans to build the Pike Compressor Station on 11 acres of property at 282 Teets
Road, owned by the Teets family. PennEnergy Resources of Findlay Township,
which would use the station, has an option to buy 44 acres from the family.
Don and Rebecca Kretschmann,
owners of Kretschmann Family Organic Farm on Zeigler Road, appealed the
construction after township supervisors unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for the station to
be built in an agricultural zone. The Kretschmanns said they fear the
compressor station would cause their organic farm to lose customers who might
fear contamination from the station.
John M. Smith, who is representing
the Kretschmanns, told President Judge John D. McBride that the record
regarding the supervisors’ decision is incomplete, leaving him to speculate as
to why they denied the Kretschmanns’ appeal. Smith said he is not even sure the
supervisors entertained the testimony of residents before they made their
decision.
Likening the conditional-use permit to a form of “spot
zoning,” Smith said the supervisors couldn’t just “shoehorn” the compressor
into an agricultural zone. He said residents have an expectation that the land
remain agricultural.
Smith said the testimony in township hearings didn’t
focus on the potential effect of spills or leaks from the compressor site, and
he disagreed with expert testimony on the record that the emissions from the
compressor would be akin to a car engine running. Smith claimed “tons” of
emissions would go into the air.
Philip Lope, who represents
the township, said the objectors offered no testimony about the potential
emissions and instead were making “vague claims” about emissions
that might be harmful to their operation. Lucas said the EPA and the state DEP regulate
emissions.
Smith said the township supervisors have an
obligation to ensure that residents have clean air and water even if no one
objected to the construction of the compressor. He said those rights
are being “overridden for pure economic concerns.”
Lope told McBride the case is a
simple issue of Cardinal making a standard conditional-use application and
township officials accepting their evidence that the compressor would not cause
harm. He said Cardinal was “able to persuade” the township that the two uses
could co-exist without harm to the community or the environment.
Lope said that just because the
supervisors didn’t reply to each objector, it doesn’t mean they weren’t
considered.
He said township officials did
not undertake their decision lightly.
McBride said the case file he
must review is very large, so it will take him some time to come to a decision.
“I want to get it right,” he said.”
http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/judge-hears-arguments-in-compressor-case/article_2f75f46a-9062-11e4-84a6-c312364c75ec.html
***Update on Mars Zoning
Case
“Zoning hearing board meeting
regarding the well pad proposed near the Mars school grounds.
“An appeal of Middlesex's
drilling ordinance could last years and could help define the extent to which
municipalities are allowed to oversee and regulate hydraulic fracturing,
supporters and opponents of the ordinance say.
Opponents say the township's
zoning regulations inadequately protect health and safety, while energy company
lawyers contend the state is the primary regulator of fracking and the subsoil.
“This is not about constitutional rights. It's
zoning 101. Municipalities have a role to play in terms of where natural gas
drilling can occur,” said Yeager, a Bucks County lawyer who successfully argued
before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to overturn portions of Act 13, a
state law that prohibited municipalities from banning or restricting hydraulic
fracturing.
The zoning hearing board is being asked to determine whether the
township's zoning protects health and safety. Opponents are challenging a
drilling permit that allows Rex Energy of State College to drill on Middlesex
property owned by Kim and Bob Geyer, who live in adjacent Adams. Drilling there
is on hold because of the appeal.
One Middlesex resident, Crystal
Yoest, testified that she lives 1,300 feet from a gas well. “There are lots of
light and noise. It disrupted our lives,” she said.
When questioning Parrish,
township Solicitor Mike Hnath asked if oil and gas drilling could help helping
preserve the rural nature of Middlesex.
“If someone owns a farm and can't
afford to keep it, isn't this (fracking) a type of farmland preservation?” he
said.
Parrish replied that it could be.
The board has at least four more
similar hearings. Its ruling can be appealed to Common Pleas Court and
Commonwealth Court and possibly could be appealed to the state Supreme Court, a
process Yeager said could take about two years.”
http://triblive.com/…/butler/745…/middlesex-zoning-drilling…
***Fire At Gas
Metering Station Near Mark West
Another
Evacuation For Residents
(In
addition to the compressor stations used to reduce the volume of gas and push
it through the pipe, metering stations are placed periodically along interstate
natural gas pipelines to allow pipeline companies to monitor the natural gas in
their pipes. Photo is of a metering station. jan)
“About
a dozen Chartiers Township residents were evacuated Christmas Eve after a fire
broke out at a gas meter station on Western Avenue.
Company spokeswoman Sara Delgado
said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but state DEP spokesman
John Poister told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette it was caused by
over-pressurization that allowed gas to leak or escape from the station. He
said the DEP and state Public Utility Commission are investigating
The company was notified about
the fire through its pipeline control system and “responded by closing the main
line valve of its Ohio Valley Ethane Pipeline in order to stop the flow of
product to the facility,” according to a company statement.
Company
personnel depressurized the facility, and the fire was contained to flare area
piping.
“The company is assessing the
damage to the facility and has initiated an incident investigation,” the
company said. “No estimate is currently available so far as when the facility
would be returned to service.”
The MarkWest natural gas
processing plant, which is located by the meter station, was not impacted by
the fire, according to company spokesman Robert McHale.
Sethman lamented the fact it was the second evacuation he and others on
his road experienced this year. Nearly 100 residents were evacuated in May
when lightning struck the MarkWest plant and caused a gas leak.
“Obviously, it’s not safe,” he said of the gas facilities. “Things like
this keep happening and nobody understands that area right there is ground
zero.”
http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20141225/NEWS01/141229752#.VJ4wlVIYKA
***Justice Castille Of
Act 13 Decision, Retires
Justice
Ronald Castille
After leaving the office in 1991,
Castille went into private practice at Reed Smith before being elected to the
state Supreme Court bench in 1993. After 15 years on the high court, Castille
was named chief justice in 2008.
"It's been
extremely busy, a lot of controversies that I've had to chase down,"
Castille said. "The biggest accomplishment administratively was to keep
the doors to the court open during these tough economic times."
By way of comparison, Castille
said that during the height of the recession, New Hampshire put off trying
civil cases for a year and Los Angeles County closed down 60 courtrooms.
During his time at the helm of the court, its most important decisions,
according to Castille, were reapportionment, suspending voter identification
requirements, and the Marcellus Shale case.
In the shale matter, Castille said the General
Assembly in Act 13 "essentially suspended all existing zoning requirements
in the state of Pennsylvania. The effect of that is you can put a shale
anywhere. You could put it in the parking lot of a church. We sent it back to
the legislature where we upheld the environmental rights of the constitution."
As for what's
next, Castille, who reached the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70 last
year, said there are many opportunities, including doing work for the American
Bar Association, the Conference of Chief Justices, continuing his push for the
funding of civil legal services in Pennsylvania, and being involved in numerous
veterans organizations.
But first, there's fishing in
Florida.”
http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202713846132?slreturn=20150004113902
***DNCR, Not The Governor, Can OK Leases on State Land
“Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court upheld the
state legislature’s right to use the royalties from oil and gas production on
state forest lands for general state budget purposes, but it found that the state’s conservation department — not
the governor — has the ultimate authority for making the decision to lease.
The court rejected the Corbett
administration’s argument that the governor can override decisions made by the
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources about whether to lease state
lands for oil and gas development.
In
an opinion written by Judge P. Kevin Brobson and joined by five of the court’s
judges, the court found that although DCNR officials “serve at the pleasure of
the governor,” their primary duty is to serve “the people of this
Commonwealth,” who expect those officials to defend the environmental rights
defined in the state constitution “even when faced with overwhelming political
pressure, perhaps from the governor, to act against their better judgment.”
http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2015/01/07/Court-Pennsylvania-DCNR-not-governor-has-authority-to-OK-natural-gas-leases-on-state-lands/stories/201501070160
***Frack Chemicals
7.2 millions gallons of kerosene used
in Greene County Gas Wells
Posted by Ken Dufalla, Izaac Walton
League
“In a recent article
published in the Greene County Messenger, it was noted that over 7.2 millions of gallons of kerosene
has been used in drilling gas wells in Greene County. This does not
surprise me at all. In fact, diesel fuel has also been used in gas well
drilling in Cumberland Township. Diesel fuel has been outlawed for drilling
because of its potential hazardous affects on the environment. Even the
“Halliburton Loophole” prohibits the use of diesel fuel for drilling gas wells,
but it is still being used.
In the following column, I will
try to discuss some of the problems that I have found with the use of certain
chemicals being used in the gas drilling operations.
I was recently handed a fairly
complete list of chemicals used in slick water hydro-fracking. The document has
17 pages of different chemicals being used in the drilling operation while
hydro-fracking. There are just too many to discuss each one of the chemicals
being used. I broke down some of the more dangerous chemicals and I will
discuss some of them. The report was
prepared by Henry A. Waxman, Edward J. Markey and Diana DeGette for the United
States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce in April 2011.
The report states that between
2005 and 2009, the oil and gas companies
used more than 2,500 hydraulic fracturing products containing 750 chemicals and
other products. During the same time period, over 780 million gallons of
hydraulic products were used and this does not include water. Some of the
components used in the hydraulic fracturing products were common and generally
harmless, such as salt and citric acid. Some were unexpected, such as instant
coffee and walnut hulls. Some, however, are extremely dangerous such as benzene
and lead. Also, methanol, which was used in 342 hydraulic fracturing products,
is a hazardous air pollutant which is now a candidate for potential regulation
under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
In the same time frame, oil and
gas service companies used 29 products that are: (1) Known or possible human
carcinogens, (2) Regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act for their risks to
human health, and (3) Listed as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air
Act. These 29 chemicals were used in more than 650 different products being
used in hydraulic fracturing.
This leads us to the BTEX compounds that are
associated with the drilling industry. BTEX is short for benzene, toluene,
xylene and ethylbenzene. These compounds were found in 60 different drilling
products being used in fracking. The BTEX compounds are regulated by both the
Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act. Benzene is a known human
carcinogen. During the five-year period from 2005 to 2009, the drilling companies
injected over 11.4 million gallons of BTEX into the wells.
It is a known fact that some of these
chemicals will leach into drinking water supplies. Well failure in casing
materials can and will lead to contamination of drinking water. It has been proven
that six percent of the wells being drilled will have well casing failure
immediately upon completion. Remember, a lot of these chemicals stay
underground. You may think that this is safe, but I can assure it is not. An
industry argument is that the Marcellus Shale layer is more than a mile deep,
and the chemicals will never reach the surface. They also state that there is a
solid rock barrier that prevents these chemicals from reaching the surface.
Seems to me that if you drill holes in the rock overburden in order to reach
the Marcellus Shale layer, this compromises the integrity of the overburden.
How can something be solid if holes are drilled into it and then subjected to
high pressure hydro-fracking?
This now leads us to local
situations. We now know that there is a lot of bromide entering our water
systems. This bromide is coming from local mining discharges. Bromide is not
generally associated as a problem in the mining industry. Where are these
bromides coming from?
A good way to track down the
source of these bromides is to monitor the height of the mine pools. We
estimate that there is over 1.2 trillion gallons of water in our old worked-out
mines. The old mines are flooded, and they must be pumped down in order to keep
them from blowing out into the surface water. This mine water needs to be
treated before being released into the raw drinking water supplies. If you
study the heights of these mine pools, you can see a marked increase in their
heights.
Let me give you an example. In
August and September of 2012, Clyde Mine showed a marked increase in the mine pool. The pool level went from 780
feet above sea level to 802 feet above sea level. One spike occurred in late
August and another in mid September. One could reason that maybe there was an
increase in surface water; however, if one would check the bromide
concentrations, the bromides
concentrations also increased. If the excess water was due to surface
water, then the dilution factor should have decreased the bromide
concentration, not caused an increase in the concentration. This is evidence
the mine pool was compromised with water containing bromide.
Where do bromides come from? The answer is “Marcellus
Gas drilling.”
In
order to raise the Clyde Mine pool 22 feet, there had to be a tremendous
release of water into the pool. This could have been done by dumping gas
drilling wastes into the mine or more likely a bulkhead in an adjoining mine
gave way introducing contaminated water. Either way, the source comes from
drilling wastes water.
I
am afraid that the water woes are just beginning for our area in southwestern
Pennsylvania. Too much evidence is coming to light about problems with
hydro-fracking. Maybe we should all listen to the folk song “Where Have all the
Flowers Gone.” When will we ever learn?
As always, remember what
Christmas is about and always place your faith in a higher power.”
http://www.heraldstandard.com/gcm/opinion/natures_corner/chemicals-chemicals-chemicals/article_8a04e6cf-280f-5ac6-8e42-cce884f2b03e.html
***Pennsylvania
Should Follow New York’s Lead
Letter To Editor December
29, 2014 12:00 AM
“New York State has banned
fracking. The state’s health commissioner concluded that public health risks
are simply too great to allow the practice to get underway in New York. When asking himself whether he would let
his children play in a school field near fracking, he said “No.”
Then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, “If you wouldn’t
want your children to live near fracking, no one’s children should have to.”
The New York decision begs the
question, what about Pennsylvanians who live near fracking? Do our children’s
lungs and hearts and reproductive systems somehow work differently from those
of New Yorkers so that they can withstand the air and water and soil
contamination that attends fracking? Near Pittsburgh we have the Mars Parent
Group trying to keep fracking away from their schools and Protect Our Parks
advocates saying that drilling next to parks where children play is too risky.
The New York decision validates the concerns of these groups.
New York arguably conducted the
longest, most complete, most publicly transparent process of analyzing the
public health risks of fracking of any state in the union. The people who
conducted this review hold credentials on public health protection that are
beyond challenge.
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf supports
fracking, but says he will create a health registry. Not good enough. That just
makes Pennsylvanians into sacrificial lab rats whose health will be monitored
as it worsens. If the public health risks are too great in New York, then why
are they not too great in Pennsylvania?’”
J.
STEPHEN CLEGHORN
Paradise
Gardens and Farm; Reynoldsville, Jefferson County
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/letters/2014/12/29/Pa-should-follow-New-York-s-lead-on-fracking/stories/201412290051
***Range Resource
Subpoenaed for Air Tests
“A Pittsburgh engineering company will be subpoenaed for air-quality
test results at several fracking impoundments owned by Range Resources, which
has not provided the results requested in an ongoing case in Washington County
Court.
Attorney John Smith, who along
with his wife, Kendra, is representing three Amwell Township families who claim
their health was affected by Range’s drilling operations, said they “wanted to
go right to the source” and get the data
from URS Corp., which performed air tests at the Jon Day, Carter and Lowry
impoundments in Washington County. He said Range also will be compelled to
provide any air test results it has.
President Judge Debbie O’Dell
Seneca, who is stepping down from the bench Monday, quashed Range’s objection
to the plaintiffs’ request to subpoena URS Corp. The case, which has been
ongoing since 2012 and already changed hands once from Judge Katherine Emery to
O’Dell Seneca, will again need to be assigned to a new judge.
The plaintiffs, who live or used
to live below the Yeager drilling site in Amwell Township, are Stacey Haney and
her two children; Beth and John Voyles and their daughter; and Loren and Grace
Kiskadden.
The plaintiffs asked for
air-quality test results at all of Range’s natural gas sites in June 2013.
According to court documents, Range replied the company had not conducted air
testing at the Yeager site, but the court said Range “failed to answer the
question or raise any objections relative to air tests performed at other
impoundments or natural gas drill sites.”
Glenn Truzzi, environmental engineering manager for Range, said during
a July court deposition that, to his knowledge, Range had not conducted air
tests at any of its well sites or impoundments
But according to court documents, Truzzi signed verification of Range’s
responses to the plaintiffs’ request for air test results, and he also signed
Range’s answer to a complaint, which denied emissions from the Yeager site
affected the plaintiffs.
Pete Miller, water resources manager at Range, testified in court Aug.
29 he believed air tests were conducted at some Range sites, but could not
provide details. He was asked about an email he sent in 2011 to Mark Gannon, of
engineering firm Tetratech, asking to “run it at the Day impoundment instead of
the Yeager impoundment.”
Miller said this pertained to air monitoring, and explained Range
wanted to test the Jon Day impoundment when it was empty to use the results as
a “baseline” to see if anything changed once the impoundment was filled with
water. He said Range also hired URS to conduct air monitoring tests at the Jon
Day, Carter and Lowry impoundments within the past two years. He said he
believed the tests were in response to complaints that Range received.
A Range spokesman did not respond
to a call seeking comment.
Range was ordered to shut down
its Lowry impoundment in Hopewell Township in accordance with a state DEP
consent agreement in September. The company also was ordered to upgrade its Jon
Day impoundment in Amwell Township and convert its Carter impoundment in Mt.
Pleasant Township back to a freshwater pit.” http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20150102/NEWS01/150109893#.VKoGDSi_Dqq
***Vantage Fined
$1 Million For Landslide
“The state DEP announced that it has fined Vantage
Energy Appalachia LLC nearly $1 million
for more than a dozen violations of environmental regulations stemming from
a landslide and illegal disposal at its
Porter Street well pad in Franklin Township, Greene County.
On Jan. 16, 2014, DEP learned that a landslide occurred at the well
pad the previous day. DEP said inspectors immediately responded and noted that
the slide impacted the side of the well pad and had dropped about 40 feet down
slope to where it encroached upon two streams.
The slide continued to grow substantially and eventually covered the
two streams.
DEP threatened to order a
shutdown of all activity on the well pad. In response, the company on March 28
– more than two months later – agreed to voluntarily stop drilling operations
and to make interim action to prevent further movement of the slide. DEP cited
the company for numerous violations of the state’s Oil and Gas Act and Clean
Streams Law.
On July 14, Elite Well Services, a Vantage contractor, dumped two
truckloads (about 200 barrels) of drilling wastewater down the side of the well
pad where the interim stabilization activities were occurring.
The wastewater impacted the
landslide area being restored and ended
up in the streams originally impacted by the slide. DEP again cited the
company for further violations of various environmental statutes including the
Oil and Gas Act.
On July 21, the company submitted a notice of its intent to
remediate the soils, surface water and groundwater impacted by release of the
wastewater. But, even as they began those efforts, DEP learned that Vantage had constructed a new access
road along the streams impacted by the slide and the waste discharge. The
construction was not authorized under the company’s erosion and sediment
permit. The company was cited again.
On December 16, Vantage and DEP
signed the Consent Order and Agreement (COA) that establishes enforceable
milestones for Vantage to correct the violations at the well site and requires
the full restoration of impacted streams and wetlands, permanent stabilization
of the well pad, and remediation of the soils, surface water and groundwater
impacted by the illegal disposal of the wastewater.
“These violations resulted in significant damage to our natural
resources and this action is in direct response to the seriousness of the
violations,” John Ryder, Director of District Oil and Gas Operations for
DEP said. “To its credit, Vantage has begun to make a genuine effort to better
manage and operate their well sites. The company has hired an independent
consultant to conduct an environmental audit of all of their well sites in
Pennsylvania and the company is now fully cooperating with DEP.”
By signing the COA, the company
also agreed to the $999,900 fine, one of the largest imposed on a driller by
DEP this year. The COA also stipulates further penalties if project deadlines
are not met. As part of the agreement, the company will also provide written
“progress reports” detailing the actions taken during each period to comply
with the requirements of the COA. The company must complete all the work on the
site, meeting all DEP regulations, by Dec. 31, 2015.”
***Health Effects
of Silica At Frack Transfer Stations
“Fracking companies call the sand
a “proppant” because they use it to prop open tiny cracks they split in the
shale, creating a pathway that allows trapped oil and gas to escape. Wells in
Susquehanna and Wyoming counties use between 5 million and 13 million pounds of
sand each.
Workers who breathe the
fine-grained dust day after day risk developing “silicosis” or, eventually,
lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis and other airway diseases, Grains of dust
can lodge in lung tissue, causing inflammation and cell proliferation,
according to the National Toxicology Program’s carcinogen profile of the
substance.
Workers face the greatest
exposure risk, but “residents near
quarries and sand and gravel operations potentially are exposed to respirable
crystalline silica,” the report states.
Now, after months of pressure by locals, the DEP proposes using air
monitors and meteorological equipment to sample the local air before and after
the transfer plant begins operations, according to a letter DEP’s statewide
Bureau of Air Quality director Joyce Epps wrote to Tunkhannock Borough Council.
The DEP plans to measure airborne
fine particles 2.5 micrometers in diameter - 30 times smaller than the diameter
of a human hair. For the first time, they’ll also measure 4-micrometer
particles, a size chosen specifically for crystalline silica.”
Read
more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/13/state-eyes-air-study-near-fracking-sand-facility/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz3NQuAr8UL
***Fracking Boom
Is Fracking Bubble
By Walter
Brasch
(Please
link to the entire article for interesting details. Jan)
“…..What
the state government doesn't readily acknowledge is that much of the damage to
roads and bridges has come from increased truck traffic from the fracking
industry.
"The damage caused by this
additional truck traffic rapidly deteriorates from minor surface damage to
completely undermining the roadway base [and] caused deterioration of several
of our weaker bridge structures," Scott Christie, Pennsylvania's deputy
secretary of the Department of Transportation, told a legislative committee in
2010. Since then, the damage has increased in proportion to the number of wells
drilled into the state. There are about 7,100 active gas wells in the state,
with the cost of road repair estimated at
about $13,000 to $25,000 per well. The fracking truck traffic to each well is the equivalent of about 3.5 million cars
on the road, says Christie.
There are several realities the
oil/gas industry knows, but the politicians, chambers of commerce, and those
who believe everything politicians and corporations tell them don't know or
won't publicly admit knowing.
First--as long as it's economical
to mine the gas, the industry won't leave the state, even if they have to pay a
5 percent extraction tax, which is at the low end of taxes charged by other
states.
Second--the expected $1 billion
in extraction tax per year, even if the legislature approves, should not be
expected. The industry has already found most of the "sweet spots,"
and production will likely fall off in 2015,
Third--the industry salivated at
the newly-found technology and gas availability and overdrilled the past four
years, leading to a glut and falling prices. End of the year prices are about
$3.17 per million cubic feet, down almost 30 percent from November.
Fourth--falling prices have led
to drilling not being as profitable as it could be.
Fifth--the OPEC countries have
not lowered their own production of oil, and the reason for the lower gas
prices at the pumps is not because of the shale gas boom, but because of the
plunging price of oil per barrel, which has declined by about 40 percent since
Summer. Once oil prices fell beneath about $70--73 per barrel, American shale
frackers found themselves unable to compete economically.
Sixth--To compensate for lower
prices in the United States, the megacorporate drilling corporations have begun
to find alternative ways to make money. One
way is to build a massive maze of pipelines, and send natural gas to refineries
in Philadelphia and the Gulf Coast, changing the gas into the extremely
volatile liquefied natural gas (LNG), putting it onto ships, and exporting it
to countries that are willing to pay more than three times what Americans are
paying for natural gas. However, there is an unexpected twist….
Eighth--The
jobs promised by the politicians, the various chambers of commerce, and the
industry never met the expectations. Gov. Tom Corbett claimed 240,000
additional jobs. The reality is the increase in jobs is about one-tenth of that….
Tenth--The
continued push for fossil fuel development, and more than $4 billion in
governmental subsidies, slows the development of renewable energy, while
escalating the problems associated with climate change and brings the world
closer to a time when global warming is irreversible.
The fracking industry doesn't acknowledge that this newer process to
extract gas, which has been viable less than a decade, is destroying the
environment, leading to increased climate change, and putting public health at
risk, something that dozens of independent scientific studies are starting to
reveal. It was a 154-page analysis of public health implications, conducted
by the New York Department of Health, and based upon scientific and medical
studies, that led New York this month to ban all drilling--and infuriate many
politicians and some landowners who were expecting to make extraordinary wealth
by leasing mineral rights beneath their land to the gas companies. Of course,
they didn't look to their neighbor to the south to learn the wealth promised
was never as much as the royalties delivered and that many landowners now say
they should never have given up their mineral rights and the destruction of the
land and farms that came with it.”
***PA Still Has No
Health Registry
“New
York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration announced that state will ban fracking,
citing uncertainty about the health risks
In Pennsylvania, where elected officials from both
parties embrace shale gas development, government leaders are still debating
whether to fulfill a three-year-old recommendation for how to study the potential
impact of gas development on public
health.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus
Shale Advisory Commission urged the state Department of Health in 2011 to
create a health registry to track the well-being of people who live near
natural gas drilling sites over time. The
project was not funded, and the registry was never created.
Could the starkness of New York’s
warning influence policy in Pennsylvania?
“I don’t put a lot of stock in
the New York analysis,” said Drew Crompton, chief of staff for state Sen. Joe
Scarnati, R-Jefferson, the Senate president pro tempore.
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, a Democrat, wants to create a registry to monitor
health issues related to shale development, his spokesman said.
Mr. Crompton said proposed
funding for a health department registry was withheld in the past out of fear
that regularly testing residents who live near wells would be “improperly
unnerving” for communities.
“We have always been careful
about this subject because we don’t like a study or some sort of analysis done
under the premise that it’s unsafe,” he said.
Dr. Goldstein advocates taking a
more active approach to investigating shale-related health impacts than
creating a registry. “You take a look and you try to see what’s happening,” he
said. “You don’t just sit back and wait and put things in a log book.”
He thinks Pennsylvania still has
time to begin collecting robust health data.
“It’s a shame we didn't start at
the beginning,” he said. “It would have been better to have gotten the baseline
information. But it’s not too late to start.”
http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/policy-powersource/2014/12/23/Will-New-York-fracking-ban-affect-Pennsylvania-approach-to-shale-drilling/stories/201412230014
***Natural Gas Down
30% But to Rebound
“Natural gas, the nation's
most prevalent heating fuel, is getting cheaper just as winter is arriving
because of mild temperatures and plentiful supplies.
The price of natural gas has
dropped 29 percent in a month, to $3.17 per 1,000 cubic feet on Tuesday from
nearly $4.50 in late November. That's a steep drop even for a fuel notorious for
volatile price swings.
Conditions look good for low
prices throughout the spring. After that, though, prices could head back up,
analysts say.
One-fifth of the nation's natural
gas production is from gas found when drilling for oil, so-called "associated
gas." A drop in the price of oil is forcing drillers to cut back, and that
may slow the growth in production of associated gas.
Also, in April of next year an
EPA rule governing emissions of mercury and other toxic chemicals goes into
effect. That will force electric utilities to reduce their use of coal, the
chief source of those emissions, and turn instead to natural gas.
And later next year the first of
several new liquefied natural gas export terminals are expected to start up,
further increasing natural gas demand.
Brackett
expects natural gas prices to increase after the second quarter and average $4
per 1,000 cubic feet for the year.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/natural-gas-30-pct-month-27791276
Frack Links
***New Frack Infrastructure
Map—
The Clean Air Council’s new
gas infrastructure map will make it easy to
see compressor stations, dehydration stations, gas processing plants, natural
gas liquid pumping stations, power plants, and pipelines in the state, You
can also report pollution issues from nearby facilities directly to regulatory
agencies—including the DEP and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry. The map is now available
online at: http://tinyurl.com/gasmapPA
Sincerely, Joseph Otis Minott, Director Photo
by Bob Donnan
***Video--Registered
Nurse Rebecca William –Sick in Azle,Texas
Registered
nurse Rebecca Williams talks about the health issues she has witnessed in those
living alongside gas wells and compressor stations in Azle, Texas- the sudden
appearance of Nosebleed, headaches, rashes, respiratory infections when
fracking starts.
***How Much Land Does Fracking Encompass
This
article includes several good visuals.
***Fracking's Wide Health Impact: From the
Ozone to Ground Water and All Those
Living in Between, a Science Update
Speaker presentation slides:
***Video: Middlesex Zoning Case-Geyer Well Near Schools
“The
video is about 3 minutes long. Parents in Butler approach supervisors when
fracking threatens the health and safety of their rural community. The proposed Geyer Well Pad is 1/2 mile from the Mars
District schools and even closer to homes in a nearby sub-division.
A
few excerpts:
Jordan Yeager for Delaware Riverkeepers-
“Townships cannot put the interest of one set of property owners above the
community as a whole”
Tom
Daniels-U of Penn Land Use Expert – The ordinance
allows heavy industrial use in agricultural areas permits haphazard oil and gas
development which is contrary to protection of public health safety welfare.
Acoustic
Expert Kayna Bowen states that Rex acoustic
assessment is incorrect.
***John
Smith Presents in Peters Township
Many
of us attended this meeting, but for those who did not, it is a good discussion
of questions surrounding the zoning of frack areas.
***Gas Density -Google Earth
Dr. Ingraffea of Cornell has
pointed out that the industry can only be profitable if they achieve density.
That’s why leased regions are honeycombed with hundreds or thousands of wells.
This video presents photo shots
of Texas, Arkansas- You only need to watch the first few minutes then jump to
other sections of the video to get the gist. But everyone should watch at least
part of this.
***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/
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
To remove your
name from our list please put “remove name from list’ in the subject line
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.
