Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates July 16, 2012
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meeting information http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
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ACTION
All
Township Residents—Call to Action !!
**Lawsuit
Filed --Resolutions
of Township Support Urged
Please contact Jan for a copy of a resolution
supporting the lawsuit against Act 13. Act 13 precludes the use of local zoning to
restrict gas operations in residential areas, restricts doctors in sharing
important health data, and limits counties in the use of the impact tax (a
partial list).
HOW WE CAN HELP: Please
print the resolution and take it to your next township supervisors’ meeting to
request their support for this lawsuit. Supervisors should return the signed
resolution to Brian Coppola and also to your state representatives.
Sample Statement: See our Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
blogspot, for a sample statement to supervisors. (Address is listed above)
Good references on Act 13:
Top Ten Myths about Act 13 by Sierra Club- http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/FrackingMythbustersFactSheet.pdf
Handout on Act
13 by Penn Future (short version)-
http://www.pennfuture.org/UserFiles/File/MineDrill/Marcellus/CitizenGuide_Act13_20120410_summary.pdf
Delaware
Riverkeepers Basics About Act 13
Penn Future on
act 13 (detailed version)
http://my.pennfuture.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=9002#top
***Moratorium for the Entire State
The
backroom deal for a moratorium will temporarily protect just four
counties—Bucks, Montgomery, Northampton, and Lehigh—leaving 80 percent of
Pennsylvanians vulnerable to the environmental and health impacts of gas
drilling.
We shouldn't treat any Pennsylvanians like second- class
citizens. It’s time for our legislators to enact a real moratorium that
protects EVERYONE’s drinking water and health from gas drilling. Sign our petition calling for a moratorium on
gas drilling today.
https://www.change.org/petitions/no-new-permits-a-moratorium-for-pennsylvania
Calendar of Events
*** Westmoreland County
Commissioners will conduct public meetings to solicit comments on how
to spend Marcellus shale impact fees.
The meetings will begin
at 6 p.m. on:
• July 23 at Mt. Pleasant Township Municipal
Building, 208 Poker Road
• July 26 at Rostraver Township
Municipal Building, 201 Municipal Drive
• Aug. 13 at Derry Township
Municipal Building, 5321 Route 982
YOU MUST REGISTER TO SPEAK
SEE ATTACHMENT(on emailed updates)--To facilitate us in
providing input, Cynthia Walter has written an overview of points to consider when
making comments to the commissioners. I have also included Mike Atherton’s
statement.
SURVEY ON LINE If you cannot attend, you can fill out a
survey at this link.
*** DC Rally July 28!!
People from around the country will rally in
Washington on July 28 for the first national protest against the use of
hydraulic fracturing. Marcellus Protest has done a fine job in reserving a bus
that will leave Lawrenceville PROMPTLY at 8:00 am and return at 10:30 pm. SPACE
IS LIMITED, so buy your ticket NOW. Discount price $25 till July 15. After July
16 price is $35. Some scholarships may be available. See Rally schedule below.
Good news: the Sierra
Club and an individual have pledged funds to help pay for the bus from
Pittsburgh to the Stop the Frack Attack in Washington DC on July 28. These funds will be used to pay for
'scholarships' for those who cannot afford the $25 bus fee.
If you would go on the bus to the protest (or if you
know of people who would go) but are short on funds, you may get a seat of the
Marcellus Protest bus paid for by the pledged funds.
There
are about 13 seats left on the Marcellus Protest bus. Email mpro113@gmail.com
now, as these seats may go fast.
This is the big day; we are
organizing to get as many people as possible! We have people coming from Texas, West
Virginia, New York, Vermont, and even Australia. There will be at least three
busloads from Pennsylvania.
2:00pm Rally
Location:
The West Lawn of the Capitol
3:30 pm March
Location:
The Streets of DC
After
getting pumped up by our awesome speakers, it’s time to hit the streets. We
will make a special delivery to the American Petroleum Institute and American
Natural Gas Association. They say fracking is good for our water, we say nay
and have the water to prove it!
Buy
your ticket here:
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=nreqd8cab&oeidk=a07e63chn2ha1f2a9f5
Among
the sponsors of this, the largest anti-fracking event ever, are Delaware
Riverkeeper Network, Earthworks, NRDC, and the national Sierra Club. Activists
from Western Pennsylvania will be interested to know that the rally in DC will
be the concluding event for the ‘Tour de Frack’ cyclists who will have ridden
from Butler PA.
From the Jewish
Community on the DC Rally -Rabbi Waskow
From
Thursday, July 26, through Saturday, July 28, thousands of people will gather
in Washington DC, for various aspects of “Stop the Frack Attack.”
After many local, state, and regional actions against
fracking, this will be the first national action. The Shalom Center is one of
many co-sponsors.
Highlights: Thursday, Lobbying; Friday: Training in various
forms of effective social action, followed by a strategy discussion and “town
meeting”; Saturday, at US Capitol: multireligious service followed by rally and
then march to Big Gas corporate Headquarters. The multireligious service organized by The
Shalom Center and Interfaith Moral Action on Climate will be held at the Capitol
at 1:30 Saturday afternoon
Among religious leaders taking part
in the service will be Rev. Bob Edgar, former head of the National Council of
Churches, now head of Common Cause; Rev. Richard Cizik, co-founder of the New Evangelical Partnership
for the Common Good. Others have been invited from the Jewish, Catholic, Muslim,
and Buddhist communities.
This increased political power
makes it even harder to get Congress and state legislatures to focus on the
need for sustainable non-fossil-fuel sources of energy, like wind and solar
power.
All
three of these results of fracking violate the Holy Unity that is the
Interbreathing of all life.
Group Actions/Activity
*** Sponsored a potluck for tour de frack at Cross Creek Park
*** We are investigating data on air and/or water monitoring
for informational purposes at the county level
*** We are designing a billboard about local votes on Act 13
*** Jan responded to
DEPs question about better regulation for the Welling
Compressor Station (regarding statement previously made for the group and information provided by GASP)
Compressor Station (regarding statement previously made for the group and information provided by GASP)
*** Several members
continue to speak at county commissioners meetings
*** Jan got letter published,
as president of the group, in the Citizens Voice News-- a response to Lou
D’Amigo of PIOGA ‘s (PA Oil and
Gas) letter about green slime (his name for environmentalists.)
Fracking Quotes
*** “Pennsylvania
politicians sold gas companies the right to pollute Pennsylvania’s land, air,
and water for bargain basement prices,” said Josh McNeil, Executive
Director of Conservation Voters of PA
*** “Duke University researchers found evidence
that brine contaminated shallow aquifers in NE Pennsylvania after rising from
the mile-deep rock layer.” (see item #2)
*** “We obviously have methane going out very far
underground," Dr. Payne, environmental scientist at Gas Safety Inc,
speaking of methane contamination in Bradford, PA.
Fracking News
1. Research
Study----Brine from the Deep Can Migrate
into Aquifers
“Duke University researchers
found evidence that brine contaminated shallow aquifers in NE Pennsylvania
after rising from the mile-deep rock layer. It probably followed natural
pathways, but if such seepage travels quickly, it could mean the billions of
gallons of chemically treated water that drillers use to tap shale for gas
could one day reach shallow groundwater, researchers said. “We don’t have a
good sense of what the actual timing is,” said Nathaniel R. Warner, the study’s
lead author. The study “is showing, importantly, that these pathways do exist.
It becomes more important if we’re talking about a short time frame.”
Though the
fluids were natural and not the byproduct of fracking, the finding suggests
that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to
be impossible. (In other words, fracking fluids may travel too. jan)
Drilling
companies have claimed their threat to groundwater is minimized with thousands
of feet of rock trapping any dangerous chemicals below. But gas companies can
no longer argue the fracking poses no risk at all to drinking water
The Duke
study, which the National Academy of Sciences will publish, is the second one
recently to suggest that the geology surrounding the Marcellus shale can allow
fluids to migrate upward from deep shale layers much more freely than
expected. Natural faults and fractures
in the Marcellus, made worse by drillers, could allow chemical migration to the
surface within 10 years, hydrologist Tom Myers said in a work published in
April in the journal “Ground Water.”
(Tim
Puko, http://triblive.com/state/marcellusshale/2176408-74/marcellus-drilling-shale-duke-fluid-academy-according-contaminated-deep-engelder?printerfriendly=true; Propublica,
lustgarten, 7-9-12, new study fluids from Marcellus shale likely seeping into
pa drinking water; Salon, by sarah laskow, confirmed;fracking can pollute, 7-9-12)
2. DEP
Ignores Citizens Complaints
Clean Air Council Seeks Federal Intervention Incident-at
Bradford
“The Clean
Air Council says residents who have contacted the state DEP about gas drilling
related air pollution incidents are
frustrated by the lack of response. The
Council sent a letter to EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin, asking the
EPA to assist the DEP. The letter from Clean Air Council executive director
Joseph Minott details complaints from 13 residents who experienced odors, or
witnessed “opaque” emissions.
“The Council discovered that in some cases, complaints made to DEP were never fully
investigated and in other cases, residents lost faith in DEP and stopped
reporting pollution complaints to them.”
Minott says
the Clean Air Council has since created their own system to log drilling
related complaints. The online form includes reporting on health issues the
residents think might be associated with the odor, or visible emission
incidents. Of those who have filled out the Clean Air Council survey, 75 %
listed health impacts during the visible emissions, including headaches,
dizziness and vertigo. More than 60 % experienced headaches soon after an odor
event.
The Clean Air Council also says it’s difficult to even reach
DEP to report a complaint.
“Residents
reported that the DEP complaint telephone number has not been working on
several occasions in the past 8 months.
Residents and Council staff have called during normal business hours and
found that no one answered.”
And to make
matters worse, those who did reach DEP, according to Minott, often described
interactions with rude and dismissive field agents.”
(see update #3 below)
by
Susan Phillips
3.
Update on Leroy Twp. Methane Problem
High levels of methane may have
infiltrated water wells and streams through small spaces in a gas well. DEP
says Chesapeake has patched the holes by squeezing cement into the perforations
and that the repairs have proven to be successful.
The DEP’s
investigation covers 1½ square miles, two streams, a wetland and four
potentially affected water wells, all of which have been given treatment
systems or alternate water supplies. “The situation is and at all times was
under control by the DEP said Krancer, DEP secretary. The department has not
yet determined the cause of the methane migrations.”
Clean Air
Council commissioned a study last month in Leroy Twp. where the gas was found
bubbling in streams and water wells.
Clean Air
Council continues to seek information on the fault line plumes and their
possible health and environmental impacts which found average ground-level methane concentrations in a roughly
two-square-mile area at nearly twice normal background levels for the region's
air. In one area, the methane concentration in the air was more than 10 times
background levels
"We obviously have methane going out very far
underground," Dr. Payne, environmental scientist at testing company, Gas
Safety Inc, said. "They are not
adequately addressing that issue by itself. And they are not willing to provide
any information to indicate why it is that they are concluding that everything
is getting better and better."
(By
laura legere, times tribune, dep sec: methane may have leaked, 7-13-12)
4.
Nationwide
Won’t Cover Fracking Damages
“Nationwide
says risks involved in fracking were too great to ignore.
A memo, not
written for public perusal, read, “After months of research and discussion, we
have determined that the exposures presented by hydraulic fracturing are too
great to ignore. Risks involved with fracturing are now prohibited for General Liability,
Commercial Auto, Motor Truck Cargo, Auto Physical Damage and Public Auto (insurance
)coverage.”
It said
“prohibited risks” apply to landowners who lease land for shale gas drilling
and contactors involved in fracking operations, including those who haul water
to and from drill sites: pipe and lumber haulers; and operators of bulldozers,
dump trucks and other vehicles used in drill site preparation.
The
president of the general contractors group of NY State responded that
Nationwide is not on job creation’s side.”
(US
insurer won’t cover gas drill fracking exposure, AP, latrobe bulletin, 7-13-12)
5. Sky Alerts for Gas Activity/Problems in Your
Area
You can sign up to receive notifications and alerts. This is one of the
best sites I have used because it is easy and the alerts are sent for the area
you choose.
6. $$
Gas Industry Has Spent More Than $23
Million to Influence PA Elected Officials
(Common
Cause)
Top
recipients of industry money given between 2000 and April 2012 were Gov. Tom Corbett (R) with $1,813,205.59, Senate
President Joseph Scarnati (R-25)
with $359,145.72, Rep. Dave Reed
(R-62) with $137,532.33, House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-28) with $98,600, and Sen. Don White (R-41) with $94,150.
Total contributions from natural gas
interests between 2000 and 2012: $8 million.
Total lobbying expenditures by gas interests between 2007 and 2012:
$15.7 million
Yet Gov Corbett, Lt. Gov Cawley, and their
corrupt political cronies want us to believe that a severance tax, or tighter
regulation will 'price PA out of the market'. [Seriously?] This is obscene!
This is NOT how democracy is supposed to
work.
After
reaching an all-time annual high of $1.6 million in 2010, the new study found
that contributions declined to $560,800 in 2011. Lobbying expenditures surged during this same period, however, with
$5 million being spent in 2011, an increase of $1 million from 2010. An
additional $1.8 million was spent in the first three months of 2012, bringing
the total since 2007 to $15.7 million.
“The industry has
largely had its way in Pennsylvania and has spent millions to put their friends
in the state legislature and the Governor’s mansion,” said James Browning,
Regional Director of State Operations for Common Cause. “The industry’s focus
now is on protecting these investments and maintaining access to key elected
officials.”
“Pennsylvania
politicians sold gas companies the right to pollute Pennsylvania’s land, air,
and water for bargain basement prices,” said Josh McNeil, Executive
Director of Conservation Voters of PA.
“For their $23 million political investment, gas companies avoided
hundreds of millions in taxes that could have paid for thousands of teachers, roads
and desperately needed environmental protections.”
Pennsylvania continues to be one of
just 11 states that fail to limit campaign contributions, and the state’s
failure to require electronic filing of campaign finance reports has resulted
in delays by the Pennsylvania Department of State in making these reports
available on its website. According to Common Cause, less than half of the
reports due to be filed by all candidates at the end of last March were
available on the DOS website as of April 20, just four days before the April 24 primary.
MarcellusMoney.org is a collaboration of Common
Cause PA and the Conservation Voters of PA
James
Browning
Regional
Director of State Operations
Common
Cause
(215)
605-6315
7. Roadside
Bomb?-- from tour de frack
Toluene 1.0 µg/m3
Chloromethane 1.3
µg/m3
2-Butanone (MEK) 1.3 µg/m3
Triclorofluoromethane (CFC
11) 1.6 µg/m3
Acetone 8.0 µg/m3
These are not the ingredients for a road-side
bomb but given the result they might as well be. They
are air results taken from a home 1,200 feet downwind from a massive frack
pond. When I visited the home last
week, Norma, the owner, took me to the edge of her property. There were two tractors bailing hay from the
land that grows produce for Soergel’s Orchard between us and a colossal black
water hole. It was lunchtime and it
looked like the two men in baseball caps were about to finish on the field that
was directly downwind and downhill from the pit. Months earlier, bulldozers had carved out a
Paul Bunyan-sized grave. The L-shaped
scar measures three football fields long and 1.5 wide.
After a few moments I could sense the change
in the air. The wind was blowing right
over the contaminated water dump and heading towards us like a bullet on its
way to pierce the chest of a passer-by.
Norma isn’t a passerby. Two
generations ago, her husband's family owned all of this land.
It wasn’t the smell of the air that stuck to
my skin but the weight. It seemed heavy
and thick. Previously, when passing by drilling rigs and processing plants,
I’ve experienced numb lips and a metallic taste. Often my tongue goes off line and seems to
swells in my mouth like after a dental visit but this was different. It was as if the pressure of Norma’s worries
combined with the metals and hydrocarbons in the air were squeezing my skull
much in the same way Norma is being squeezed out of her home...[more to come]
Jason
A decision by PA lawmakers to block gas
drilling in two counties is a blow to the state's prospects, an industry
official said. Lawmakers backed a ban on fracking in Bucks and Montgomery
counties until the state's DCNR can complete a five-year study of the region.
Lou D'Amico, director of the Pennsylvania Oil
and Gas Association, was quoted by the Platts news service as saying the
decision set a bad example.
"If I were an oil company and saw that kind
of legislative activity, I would think long and hard before making any kind of
investment in any kind of property in southeastern Pennsylvania," he
said.
9. Lawsuits
“About 40 civil suits
have been filed in the U.S., alleging personal injury, nuisance and toxic torts
involving land, air and water. Some
landowners who entered into leases with
drilling companies are suing over the terms of the lease; some landowners who
don’t own the oil or gas rights under their property are suing for nuisance;
some are suing for physical injuries such as headaches, nosebleeds, nausea and
open skin sores; and some claim diminution in the value of their property as a
result of damaged water and air.
“[Insurance]
agents are trying to make themselves as aware as possible of the situation,
because obviously if someone’s signing a contract with one of the energy
companies to permit a drill site on their property, then there’s going to have
to be a response from an insurance standpoint as far as trying to find the
coverage if the current carrier is not willing to provide it,” according to the
insurance education organization Sparks Club.
Insurance
agents and brokers should tell their
clients to “take a close look” at the indemnification agreement with a lawyer,
according to Claire Pantaloni, industry affairs director for Insurance Agents
& Brokers (IA&B).”
10. MarkWest Sues Cecil Twp. --Complains they will suffer
“Irreparable harm due to unrecoverable economic loss”
(Cecil Twp. has been sued twice in a couple of
weeks. Anyone still think these companies are our good neighbors? jan)
MarkWest Liberty is suing
Cecil Twp., claiming irreparable
financial damage by not being able to build a gas compression station.
The company also
petitioned Commonwealth Court for a preliminary injunction to pave the way for
the construction of the station.
An application for a
special exception was turned down in 2011, with the township zoning hearing board citing
potential impact on neighboring properties and disagreeing with MarkWest’s
claim of providing an “essential service.” Washington County Court of Common
Pleas is hearing the company’s appeal of that decision. MarkWest also
claims that the township’s ordinance violates the act by not permitting
compressor stations in industrial zones.
MarkWest contends it
should be permitted to build the compressor station because it meets
requirements set forth in Act 13, regarding distance from existing buildings
and property lines, and anticipated noise levels.
Cecil is among the
municipalities that are mounting a legal challenge against Act 13.
Unless the company is
granted relief, MarkWest stands to suffer “irreparable harm due to
unrecoverable economic loss,” according to the application for preliminary
injunction.”
(By Harry Funk
http://canon-mcmillan.patch.com/articles/gas-company-sues-cecil-township-837bb20d)
11. Dawson Sues Cecil
Over Seismic Testing
“Dawson
Geophysical filed a civil suit against Cecil Township over its
seismic testing ordinance and the company’s ability to conduct that testing on municipal
roads.
“Dawson seeks to bar Cecil Township from
enforcing (its ordinance) to prohibit the use of vibration trucks on township
roads,” adding that the regulations in place fail to conform with the state
constitution and other laws.
Approved
by Cecil supervisors in 2010, the seismic testing ordinance calls for
applicants such as Dawson that seek to use township roads to go through a
public hearing process—and if approved, give notice of its activities to the
municipality, as well as affected residents.
Reached
for comment on the suit Monday, Cecil solicitor John Smith said that he was
unsure why Dawson sued the municipality a day after it made application to the
township to use its roads for such testing, adding that supervisors would have
taken action on the application.
He added
that the Act 13 injunction leaves in place all local ordinances—including
those relating to seismic testing.
Smith, who was in
court Monday regarding the issue, said, “They basically said, ‘We need to be on
the roads tomorrow.’ And that’s just not the way it works.”
He added: “They have to let the process run its course.”
By
Amanda Gooly
12. Labor Fatalities Increase in Fracking Industry
“According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2003-2008 there was a 62-percent
increase in the number of workers employed in the oil and gas industries in the
US. During this same period, the number
of fatalities in the industries grew by 41 percent.
Despite the increase in fracking sites, the
number of inspections (I believe this refers to work safety inspections-jan) of areas being drilled has decreased.
According to an analysis of more than 50,000 inspection reports by The New York
Times, the number of drilling rigs rose by more than 22 percent in 2011 from
the prior year, but the number of inspections at such worksites fell by 12
percent.
In a letter,
the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers Union and the United Mine Workers complain
that (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and
Health Administration (MSHA) are not doing enough to regulate the potential
hazards that harm fracking workers.
In order to
reduce the number of oil and natural gas workers killed on the job, organized labor wants OSHA and NIOSH to
issue a “joint hazard” alert identifying all the hazards and identify a way to
deal with them. In addition, the unions want MSHA to identify increased
hazards associated mining silica sand. Finally, they want the Obama
administration to immediately implement the delayed rule limiting workers'
exposure to silica dust.
(http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13286/fracking/)
13.
No Bar B Ques Allowed --
“A few weeks ago I
visited with a friend who lives near the huge MarkWest plant in Houston, Pa. He spotted an article in the newspaper about
consideration of a ban on outdoor grilling. He looked at me and laughed, “What
a joke, they should live where I do.” Flare-offs from that MarkWest plant close
to his house, like the photo taken from his backyard below, are not uncommon in
his township of Chartiers. So this
latest newspaper article begs the question, “Will frackers be allowed to flare
Marcellus wells in this township?” (from Bob)
14.
Natural Gas Drilling
Impacting Affordable Housing
“Before the gas boom, homelessness was
unimaginable in rural Pennsylvania, where quiet streets had an excess of
housing. Today, housing is not just expensive. For many, it is unaffordable.
Judy Smith is the soft-spoken
volunteer coordinator of Grace Connection, a charity begun by a group of
Towanda-area churches. For many years, the charity operated a clothing and food
bank, and helped people in crisis who needed vouchers for gas, food, or even to
maintain utility services. With the advent of Marcellus Shale exploration, the
social problems have gotten more severe, Ms. Smith said.”
(http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/natural-gas-drilling-impacting-affordable-housing-1.1340562)
Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizen’s Group—Mission
Statement
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-Wanda
Guthrie
Secretary-Ron
Nordstrom
Facebook
Coordinator-Elizabeth Nordstrom
Blogsite –April
Jackman
Science
Subcommittee-Dr. Cynthia Walter
To receive our news updates, please email jan at janjackmil@yahoo.com
