As water worries mount, researcher says Marcellus Shale poses risk to air

By David Falchek (Staff Writer)
thetimes-tribune.com
July 31, 2010

Protecting watersheds in the Marcellus Shale region and forcing driller disclosure of fracking chemicals are the foremost demands of those concerned about potential environmental harm from natural gas activity.

The focused attention leaves out potentially greater threats, said Conrad "Dan" Volz, Ph.D., director and principal investigator of University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities. The region's air could face a so far undetected threat, he said.

While a spill at a natural gas drilling site that contaminates water is catastrophic, air pollution can be a more insidious problem - one he said he feels is being overlooked.

While environmental groups and citizens scour lists of chemicals added to hydraulic fracturing fluid used to break up the shale formation, the greater threat may come from toxins that come to the surface as flowback, said Mr. Volz. He said state air-monitoring stations tend to be located in urban areas, away from rural areas where much of the drilling would be taking place.

He said the flowback is a slurry that can contain naturally-occurring benzene, strontium and arsenic. The flowback is often stored in uncovered fracking ponds where volatile organic compounds evaporate into the air. Condenser stations, wells and pipelines also discharge VOCs.

VOCs, both manmade and naturally occurring, are emitted into the air by certain liquids and solids. Some can adversely affect health in cases of chronic exposure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

VOCs emitted by a single well pad may not be that significant, and Dr. Volz said there's debate over the risk to air quality and health. But as drilling intensifies, however, air quality will become an issue, he said.

Dr. Volz delivered his comments at a rollout of his group's Marcellus Shale website, www.fractracker.org, to a group of stakeholders that included economic development officials, environmental groups and academics in Danville on Thursday.

He hopes Fractracker.org will help inform policymakers on issues such as where to place permanent air-monitoring stations.

Compounding air quality unknowns is the lack of state Department of Environmental Protection air-monitoring stations in many parts of the Marcellus Shale region. The stations tend to be in urban areas with historically high industrial activity. Stations are in Swiftwater, Peckville, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke. None are in Wayne, Wyoming, Susquehanna or Bradford counties, where drilling activity is more common.

The DEP has a mobile air-quality lab collecting data around natural gas activity. The data has not been released, said DEP spokesman Mark Carmon. But Mr Carmon said it can provide a snapshot of the impact of natural gas activity on air quality.

Chris Tucker, spokesman for Energy In Depth, an oil and gas producers' association, said open fracking pits are increasingly being replaced by closed loop systems such as one being used by Anadarko Petroleum Corp., reducing the release of VOCs.

He also said that unlike natural gas in Southwestern Pennsylvania, natural gas coming from the Northeast is so- called "dry gas," nearly pure methane, with fewer condensates and VOCs.

University of Scranton chemistry professor Michael C. Cann said thousands of different chemicals come out of the earth in fracking fluid, but without research or testing, it's hard to assess the impact of the process.

"Certainly there are dangerous, naturally-occurring volatile organic compounds, but without research and testing, there's no way to know the risk," Dr. Cann said.
LINK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Sunday Matinee: BENZENE TOXICITY

Thank you Elizabeth Burns, ThePolylineLawsuit.com

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/1/2010

CONTACT:

Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture

717-787-5085

HARRISBURG -- The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.

Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.

“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” said Redding. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”

Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.

The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.

Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.

The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.

Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.

Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal’s system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.

The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:
• Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
• Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
• Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.

In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Hazards posed by natural gas drilling not always underground

by laura legere (staff writer)
thetimes-tribune.com
Published: June 21, 2010

(click to enlarge)

Fear about environmental damage from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling is often trained on what could happen deep underground, but some of the gravest hazards posed by the process are driven in trucks, stored in tanks, carried through hoses and left in pits on the surface of natural gas well sites.

Concentrated chemicals, as well as wastewater containing toxic levels of salts and metals, are stored, produced or transported in large quantities at each well site, creating the potential for tainting drinking water or seeping into local ponds and streams.

While recent incidents at Marcellus Shale wells involving explosions, blowouts and methane-contaminated drinking water have drawn attention to the dangerous potential of the activity, information about the industrywide frequency and impact of spills and leaks has not been reported publicly.

Department of Environmental Protection files made available to The Times-Tribune through a Right-to-Know request reveal hundreds of examples of spills at natural gas drilling sites in the state during the last five years, recorded by at least 92 different drilling companies.

The documents show that many of the largest operators in the Marcellus Shale have been issued violations for spills that reached waterways, leaking pits that harmed drinking water, or failed pipes that drained into farmers' fields, killing shrubs and trees.

The frequency of violations has kept the state's gas inspectors on the run.

After a Marcellus Shale hearing last week, DEP produced a list for state legislators of 421 violations found by inspectors at Marcellus Shale wells this year through June 4.

At least 50 of the violations - recorded by 15 different Marcellus operators - involved a spill to soil or water. Generic descriptions used by the department to characterize the violations make it impossible to determine the exact number of spills.

"It goes from an accident to negligence," DEP Secretary John Hanger said at the hearing, and attributed the problems to "poor management" and "not proper oversight" by the companies.

"This industry's got to look in the mirror," he said.

Kathryn Klaber, the director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Pennsylvania industry group, said shale drilling is an industrial activity, like many others.

"Any spill is a problem," she said. "For PR (public relations) reasons, for fines, for reputation, stock price - there's no good reason to have one."

(Notice she doesn't even mention environmental harm... just PR, fines, reputation and stock price!)

But, she added, "I think if we were looking across multiple industries ... the question I'd like to pose is, is it worse or better than others?"

(THE INCREDIBLE ARROGANCE OF THIS KIND OF THINKING NEEDS TO BE REDRESSED! ...Comparison to greater destruction is no excuse, it's just inexcusable! -Splashdown)

The following list highlights examples of spills, seeps and accidents as described in DEP documents that have been committed by an array of Marcellus Shale operators.

It illustrates that none of the companies currently pulling gas from the shale has been able to avoid potentially harmful accidents and errors.

Spills and leaks near a state forest

An accident at a Marcellus Shale well in early June caused a geyser of gas and wastewater to erupt for 16 hours on property owned by a private hunting club in the middle of a state forest frequented by campers and anglers.

The well is one of 44 permitted or pending Marcellus Shale wells operated by Houston-based EOG Resources on the hunting club land in Clearfield County, and the nearly catastrophic rupture was a dramatic demonstration of the hazards of natural gas drilling.

But months before that incident, a seemingly invisible plume of contamination affected water sources around the same EOG lease, prompting months of investigation by DEP.

Beginning in late August 2009, inspectors found evidence that Marcellus Shale waste fluids had impacted Alex Branch, a wild trout stream and high-quality fishery, and damaged the drinking water at a nearby hunting camp, where water tests found barium that was four times above the state and federal drinking water limits - an amount that can cause vomiting, diarrhea and muscle weakness after drinking it for even a short period of time.

DEP inspectors had not noticed any evidence of a spill from the nearest EOG well site and could see nothing wrong with the earthen pit where the company stored the well's waste, but it was determined that undetected seeps from one pit, and maybe several, most likely caused the wastewater to contaminate the stream.

An accident in early August may also have contributed to the damage when a small hole in a hose carrying wastewater from the well sprayed a fine mist for several days that landed on nearby plants and a small wetland. A heavy rain swamped the pad, likely washing the fluids downhill to the hunting camp and stream.

In response to the leaks, EOG excavated the suspected faulty pit and another nearby pit, backfilled other unused pits on the lease and transitioned to a system in which drilling fluids and waste drawn from a well are piped to closed tanks rather than pits, which helps to minimize the risk of seeps and overflows. In an e-mail to DEP, the EOG environmental safety administrator said the company would transition to the safer systems, which are not required by Pennsylvania law, because "we don't want to risk anything."

In a separate incident, on Oct. 12, 2009, a leak in a tank used to store a fluid mixture of water and hydraulic fracturing chemicals spilled about 7,980 gallons, most of which was absorbed into the ground.

It caused a nearby tributary to Alex Branch to turn cloudy and suds when agitated.

An EOG spokeswoman said the company "regrets these incidents occurred and took immediate steps to address the issues," including adopting new operating procedures and hiring outside contractors to perform water sampling after both events.

Acid leaks and unlabeled tanks

Twice in two months, hydrochloric acid spilled at two wells sites operated by Chesapeake Appalachia in Bradford County - including once when the company used a tank that was not meant to store the acid.

Alarmed notes from an inspector's telephone conversation with the tank's manufacturer at the time of the first spill, at the Chancellor well site in Asylum Twp. in February 2009, showed the tank was not designed or lined to hold 36 percent hydrochloric acid, and that even less concentrated acid should only have been held for a day and a half.

"Somebody messed up big time to put 14,000 gall. 36% HCL in a frac tank for 30 days!!" the note stated.

DEP records also show the same inspector pursuing concerns about the proper labeling of the tank, which was one among between 25 and 50 identical 500-barrel, corrugated wall storage tanks on site without placards to differentiate it.

"It's bad enough dealing with unlabeled 55 gallon drums in our line of work," he wrote in an internal e-mail, "but having to contend with unlabeled 21,000 gallon acid 'frac' tanks in the boondocks, on properties that have unrestricted access, is a bit much."

The second acid spill, at the Vannoy well site in Granville Twp., may have contributed to the contamination of a private pond and a 30-foot swath of dead or stressed vegetation, including several evergreen trees.

The 420-gallon acid spill was one of several accidents at the site DEP thought might have caused the damage, including a spill of several thousand gallons of water on March 3, 2009, that was never tested for metals and salts, the hallmark constituents of Marcellus Shale wastewater.

The acid spill, on March 20, also flowed into the pond. Chesapeake neutralized the acid and removed the contaminated soil, but a cleanup plan commissioned by the company in December said some of the acid likely percolated through the pad and may have remained perched on the shallow bedrock causing additional contamination.

In July, DEP inspectors found stained areas at the base of a waste pit where the company left rock cuttings and drilling fluids in direct contact with the ground, and said the stain was a sign that drilling fluid "either has or is seeping from the pit."

DEP fined Chesapeake $27,271.93 and its hydraulic fracturing contractor BJ Services $8,598.46 for the second hydrochloric acid spill in February 2010, a fine the agency never announced publicly.

Brian Grove, Chesapeake's director of corporate development, said the company "responded proactively to both situations" and "learned very valuable lessons from the incidents." It turned those lessons into new operating practices, including requiring secondary containment for all materials brought to a pad, he said.

Hydrochloric acid on public roads

A worker for Fortuna Energy (now called Talisman Energy USA) drove a tanker leaking hydrochloric acid about 2½ miles over public roads between two of the company's well sites in Troy Twp., Bradford County, on June 30, 2009.

At the second site, the driver, wearing an acid-resistant suit and a respirator, tried to put a catch pan under the leak, passed out from inhaling the fumes and was taken by helicopter to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre. The tanker lost between 100 and 200 gallons of acid and contaminated soil was later removed from both sites.

Talisman did not report the spill to DEP until late the next day, a delay DEP officials called "unacceptable."

A February 2010 press release from DEP announced a $3,500 fine for some incidents at one of the pads involved with the acid spill, but it did not address that spill. It also did not address three drilling wastewater spills in July and August 2009 on the same two well pads.

Efforts to reach a Talisman spokesman were unsuccessful. In the company's written response to DEP after the acid spill, the operations manager said it "takes the issue very seriously" and he visited each well site to emphasize to workers "the importance of our zero spill approach."

Mud eruption in a wetland

Crews for Chief Gathering - the pipeline subsidiary of driller Chief Oil and Gas - were boring a path for a pipeline 13 feet under a stream, wetland and road in Penn Twp., Lycoming County, on December 12, 2009, when the muds used to drill the hole erupted to the surface, spilling between 3,000 and 6,000 gallons into the wetland.

Initial reports from the company estimated the spill to be only about 100 gallons and to have stopped at least 10 feet away from the stream, but the DEP inspector who was called two days later found sandbags and a silt sock right at the water's edge and the barrier did not prevent some of the mud from reaching the stream.

Efforts to clean up the spill were slowed, first because the muds clogged the suction hoses the company used to try to remove it from the wetland, and later because the fluids froze solid.

While he was on site, the inspector also saw evidence of muds in a roadside ditch and was told that there had been another, unreported spill on December 10 of about 110 gallons.

The inspector noted that chemical safety sheets provided by the company for the mud, "Hydraul-EZ," listed the ingredients bentonite, a kind of clay, and a "bentonite extender," but the manufacturer "claims that any further details about these substances is proprietary" making it "difficult" to determine the potential of the mud to cause pollution.

Kristi Gittins, a Chief spokeswoman, said that the spilled mud is "not hazardous. It's dirt."

"There were no chemicals, and the DEP knows that," she said.

The remedy for such a spill is to "let it settle," she said, which is what the company was told to do.

Overflowing waste pit 1

More than 30,000 gallons of diluted wastewater overflowed a waste pit, rushed over a barrier and soaked a pasture on June 3, 2009, when workers transferring the fluid to the site owned by East Resources in Tioga County accidentally dumped too much into the pit.

The spill was first noticed by DEP inspectors, who happened to stop by the well pad.

The fluid was diluted enough, and cleaned up quickly enough, not to kill or stress vegetation, and the fluid did not appear to reach a stream.

The pit was among four at East Resources well sites in Tioga and Potter counties that discharged the wastewater they were holding. The three other pits all leaked and at least one was concentrated enough to kill or stress nearby vegetation.

East is finalizing a consent order with DEP that covers those and about 30 other violations at its sites, according to a violation notice posted on a DEP database that indicates the company will pay a $29,000 fine.

Stephen Rhoads, East's director of external affairs, said the spill was an "unfortunate accident" with no long-term impact.

"Working with DEP, we took care of it immediately," he said.

Overflowing waste pit 2

A 750,000-gallon pit holding a mixture of fresh water and wastewater overflowed off a well pad run by Atlas Resources in Washington County, through a drain and into a small tributary in a high quality watershed on December 5 and 6, 2009.

The spill was reported to DEP by the property owner, who noticed the spill before Atlas saw or reported it. It apparently was caused by a pump that turned on automatically but had no mechanism for turning off automatically when the pit was full.

The spill, for which the company has not been fined, is one of several violations the company has recorded in southwestern Pennsylvania. In January, DEP fined Atlas $85,000 for violations at 13 well sites between December 2008 and July 2009, including improper erosion controls and site remediation, and spills of diesel fuel and wastewater.

In late March, on the same Hopewell Twp. farm as the pit overflow, liquid hydrocarbons called condensate on the surface of a 400,000-gallon wastewater pit caught fire, engulfing the pit and burning its plastic liner, causing a plume of black smoke that was visible for miles.

Atlas, a Pennsylvania company, also drills non-Marcellus Shale natural gas wells, including one near Kushequa, McKean County which DEP found to have caused explosive levels of methane and ethane to seep into residential water supplies and triggered a small explosion in the village's public well in late 2007.

Efforts to reach an Atlas spokesman were unsuccessful.

Hydraulic oil leak

An oil leak from a hydraulic line in March 2008 spilled onto a field and into natural springs surrounding a Range Resources - Appalachia well in Washington County. The oil mixed with water and flowed 100 yards downhill, contaminating soil and killing vegetation.

Range excavated the contaminated soil and paid a $21,200 fine in June 2009 for the spills at that site and for 16 other violations, an enforcement action that was never publicized by DEP.

DEP also investigated whether a Marcellus Shale well drilled by Range on the same property affected an old abandoned well, causing gas to contaminate private water supplies and bubble up through the soil.

Matt Pitzarella, a Range spokesman, said the gas migration was a preexisting issue that was only discovered once Range's activities started on the site. The company capped and remediated the old well, he said.

The oil leak he called a mechanical error, and said the other violations included many that were administrative.

"Fortunately it was an incident that had minimal if any environmental impact, but you have to take care of every little detail," he said.

"Since that time we've increased efforts to keep spills on location."

Two months, two diesel spills

Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. had two 800-gallon diesel spills in five weeks in 2008 at some of its earliest Marcellus Shale sites in Dimock Twp.

On June 3, off-road diesel spilled from a break in a fuel line to a drilling rig, ran down a hill and into a roadside swale and pooled in a flooded wetland near Meshoppen Creek.

On July 11, a dump truck driver working to build an access road to a well backed into a 1,000-gallon tank of off-road diesel, panicked and dragged the tank about 30 feet before it tipped over and spilled onto the ground. Crews dug pits and vacuumed up about 170 gallons of the visible diesel, then removed contaminated soil and stone from the site. When two of nine soil tests showed continued contamination, contractors dug a foot deeper and excavated more soil. A total of 272 tons of contaminated soil was taken from the site.

The company was fined $4,915.30 for the first spill after the site was cleaned up.

According to DEP records, Cabot was ned for the second spill.

Cabot spokesman George Stark said the company "works hard to ensure that we have a plan in place to control and maintain any accidental release."

LINK

Meanwhile, also by LAURA LEGERE, in today's Times-Tribune:

State lacks consistent record keeping for natural gas drilling contamination, leak incidents

To read that excellent companion article, CLICK HERE.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Hydraulic fracking spells disaster

From Dish, Texas, to Dimock, Pennsylvania
By Betsey Piette

Workers World
May 6, 2010

Despite industry claims that the rapidly expanding practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from deep underground shale layers is “perfectly safe,” on April 15 the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas $240,000 for causing the contamination of 14 residential water wells in Dimock Township, Pa.

The company was also ordered to plug three gas wells it was operating in the town, which sits atop the Marcellus Shale formation, and was banned from drilling in the area. One water well in Dimock exploded last year, and DEP inspectors witnessed gas bubbling up at the base of eight other wells in March. Despite the ruling, Cabot has plans to drill 100 new wells in Dimock this year.

Independent newsroom ProPublica has reported on 50 similar cases across Pennsylvania, including reports of fish kills, water and air pollution, fires, out-of-control flaring, human illnesses and animal deaths.

The concern over the safety of hydraulic fracturing has prompted calls for a moratorium on drilling in Pennsylvania. In the process, often referred to as fracking, 2 to 9 millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and up to 250 chemicals, are pushed into underground shale layers to release natural gas.

In January the Pennsylvania state Legislature opened up 32,000 additional acres of state forest land to be leased for drilling. As a result, 692,000 acres of the 2.1 million acres of state forest land are now open for gas wells. During a recent push to expand the practice into the Delaware River basin, the Philadelphia City Council was pressured to pass a resolution on March 25 calling for an environmental impact statement before any new permits are issued.

Fracking has been in use for a number of years throughout the U.S., particularly in the Southwest. Five natural gas sites border the town of Dish, Texas, in a quarter-mile complex. In nearby Fort Worth, Texas, 1,400 wells have been drilled in urban areas, many near schools and residential centers.

Speaking at a meeting at Temple University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on April 16, Dish Mayor Calvin Tillman described how carcinogenic air pollution from natural gas drilling has damaged the quality of life in his town of 180 residents. The town sits atop the Barnett Shale, a geological formation similar to the Marcellus Shale.

Using his own money, Tillman has been traveling to Pennsylvania and New York to warn about the dangers of the gas boom. In his small town, trees are dying on a 30-acre farm that adjoins a labyrinth of small underground pipelines used to transport fuel from the fracking wells to outside markets. Horses have also fallen ill. Residents report problems with frequent nausea, severe headaches, breathing difficulties, chronic eye irritation, allergies, throat irritations and even brain disorders.

When Texas state inspectors, who are usually linked to the drilling companies, reported they could not find any problem with the wells, Dish town officials hired an environmental firm to collect one-day air samples near the compressors. Their study found high levels of 15 chemicals, including benzene, a known carcinogen. As a result the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality conducted air studies at 94 sites in the region. They found two sites with very high levels of benzene and 19 others with levels that raised concern.

In April, blood and urine testing of 28 adult Dish residents revealed that half the residents had slightly elevated levels of benzene and other contaminants. Four residents tested positive for benzene, including Tillman. Tillman noted that no testing was done on children, pregnant women or the elderly — groups likely to be most susceptible to the contaminants. Tillman’s water also tested positive for traces of styrene, ethyl benzene and xylene.

Growing concern over the danger of fracking has led to a push for legislation in Pennsylvania that would require drillers to disclose chemical ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluids. Other proposed legislation calls for a moratorium on drilling until environmental impact studies can be performed. Both bills have yet to be passed and face mounting opposition from the natural gas industry.

Nationally, the oil and gas industry won exemption from major provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act and other federal environmental laws with the passage of the 2005 Energy Bill. The bill’s “Halliburton loophole” protected the company from having to reveal the composition of their fracturing fluid, despite the fact that the list of hazardous substances compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund — the program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites — includes toxic profiles on benzene, styrene, toluene and other agents known to be in the mix. Efforts are also underway to challenge this legislation.

The EPA announced it will spend $4.4 million to start a study on the impact of fracturing in October, but Dr. Michel Boufadel, director of the Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulics Laboratory at Temple University College of Engineering, expressed concerns that the EPA’s study does not go far enough.

Speaking at the April 16 meeting, Boufadel noted that very few scientific studies on fracking have been conducted by researchers not connected to the drilling industry. He also pointed out that most studies assume that any leak of water contaminated by fracturing fluids would spread horizontally from a holding tank and be detected by ground level monitors.

Boufadel explained that the 250 chemicals contained in the fracturing fluid create “gooey, high density water” — a gel that suspends the sand particles needed to work into cracks in the shale layers. The result is “radioactive water six times more saline than sea water and containing known carcinogens.”

“If you don’t account for this heavy density you would expect water to move outward, but the reality is that it moves down,” Boufadel stressed. “If you only use existing traditional models of monitoring wells at ground level, you won’t detect contamination until it’s too late.”

LINK

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Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Fractured gas well questions multiply

by Jim Mayo, Your Times Publisher
Sequoyah County Times
April 26, 2010

The question of whether or not an injection well to dispose of oil and gas well fluids will be opened in Vian remains on hold while an Oklahoma Corporation Commission referee considers the application and the protests against it.

The Vian well is in a semi-dormant status awaiting the referee’s decision, but the larger issues of new and wide-spread use of hydraulic fracturing techniques in gas wells and disposal of the waste water that results from them have grown.

Of immediate interest is the fact that four new injection wells have opened in Arkansas near Fort Smith. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission reports that the amount of waste saltwater coming from Arkansas into the 18 counties of commission District IV, which includes Sequoyah County, dropped from 925,566 barrels in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2009 to 25,000 barrels for the quarter ending March 31, 2010. The new wells are likely taking much of the water that was coming here. However, this is but a small part of the total water injected in the district during the two time periods. Just because Arkansas drillers aren’t sending as much waste to us as they once did doesn’t mean the issue has passed.

I think it is important to consider as a whole the subjects of fractured wells, injection wells and soil farming, which is a way of attempting to dispose of waste salt water above ground and is the subject of much protest in Haskell County. Each is a part of the effort to increase production of natural gas.

When you see T. Boone Pickens on TV boosting gas, or read about rapidly increasing supplies of domestic natural gas, it is largely the hydraulically fractured wells that produce the gas.

I am indebted to my sister, Andy, in Beaumont, Texas, for sending along a story from the April 11 issue of the Houston Chronicle.

It reports on a potential disaster underway in the small town of Daisetta, Texas, which is located about 55 miles northeast of Houston.

On May 7, 2008, a sinkhole as wide as two football fields developed near this small town of 230. As that sinkhole developed, a quarter-mile away a geyser of fluid gushed from an abandoned well on property owned by the community’s mayor. The mayor said in the April 11 article that he had to cut down 100 trees on his property that were killed by the fluid.

The article went on to say, “In the first published report providing any explanation for the phenomenon, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality adviser theorized injection disposal wells may be primarily responsible for destabilizing the area and creating a kind of quicksand 1,000 feet below that led to the collapse.”

The town has hired a law firm to investigate and sue the people responsible, if that can be determined.

In addition to the sinkhole and dead trees and vegetation, the city worries that its water wells may also become contaminated.

The article said the Texas Railroad Commission conducted investigations and found nothing in violation of its regulations other than an instance when an injection well operator injected more waste than his permit allowed. The Railroad Commission is the Texas equivalent of our Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Both regulate the oil and gas industry.

Injection well operators and regulators have said many times that there is little or no risk involved in injecting oil and gas well waste into underground formations. People in Daisetta aren’t convinced. The Chronicle article reported that “… an engineering company drilling a backup well for the city detected traces of toluene and naphthalene in its water sample…. the engineer recommended abandoning the $93,000 project and drilling somewhere else.”

While hydraulic fracturing of oil wells has been going on for years, the wholesale fracturing of gas wells using millions of gallons of water under tremendous pressures is relatively new, and so some of the problems with the technique are also new.

Oklahoma is highly dependent on the oil and gas industry. One of the reasons we are in such a slump is the decline in prices for gas, partly brought on by the Great Recession. Partly because of this, state government is almost broke. Clearly, we all have a stake in what happens to oil and gas production.

We also have a huge stake in controlling and eliminating pollution and improving public safety. That is why people in Vian are so upset over the proposed injection well that would be located only a few blocks from the Vian school.

All of the problems surrounding frac wells have drawn the attention of the nation media. In recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal published an extensive article about the subject, the Public Broadcasting System program NOW featured a segment that would scare your pants off, and newspapers here and there are picking up on the story as it develops.

In the NOW segment, a man in a home near a fractured well turned on a water faucet in a kitchen and ignited the gas that came out into a ball of flames.

Congress has promised to hold hearings into the various issues surrounding the ever-growing complaints.

The oil and gas industry, and to some extent the government agencies which regulate them, are fond of saying that fracturing oil and gas wells and disposal of fluids down injection wells is nothing new.

It seems to me that while that may be true, there is still much more we don’t know about what we are doing than what we do know, and ignorance can be downright dangerous.

We should proceed with great caution.
LINK
Amen.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Sludge Pit Casualty: Lathrop Twp. PA

Click to super-size: Chief Oil and Gas/Phelps Unit: photo courtesy of Frank Finan

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Senator Casey asks federal agency to investigate drilling contamination

thetimes-tribune.com

BY LAURA LEGERE (STAFF WRITER)
Published: April 26, 2010

Senator Bob Casey is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate cases of water contamination related to natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania after a gas company operating in Susquehanna County failed to stop methane from leaking into residents' drinking water.

In a letter Monday to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Mr. Casey said he wants greater EPA involvement in the state because contamination incidents, including methane migration in Dimock Twp., "raise the question of whether the necessary steps have been taken to protect Pennsylvania families and communities against the detrimental side effects of drilling."

The oil and gas industry is largely exempt from federal environmental oversight and is instead regulated by state agencies. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection regulates the industry.

But in a press conference Monday, Mr. Casey said several layers of government oversight may be necessary to ensure drilling is done safely. And he believes the federal environmental agency already has some power to regulate the industry in general - and to investigate the Dimock incident specifically - through the Superfund program and emergency powers outlined in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

He wants the EPA to determine its authority under those laws. If the agency finds that it does not have sufficient authority to protect against the hazards of drilling, it should ask Congress for more, he said.

"I have a concern that there isn't enough of a federal responsibility here," he said, "or even if there is the statutory authority, that the federal government hasn't done enough in terms of investigation or action in this area."

In a letter to the EPA, Senator Casey wrote: “Natural gas drilling can provide an economic boost to Pennsylvania but we must protect ground water,” said Senator Casey. “We will not allow an out-of-state company to come to Pennsylvania and contaminate the groundwater of our residents. Three million Pennsylvanians rely on wells for their drinking water. We must ensure adequate safeguards are in place to protect this most basic necessity for Pennsylvanians.”

“I urge EPA to examine its authority to determine whether it can take additional steps in Pennsylvania to investigate and respond to groundwater contamination and other potentially harmful consequences of drilling. I request a meeting with you and appropriate EPA officials to discuss natural gas drilling and whether EPA could launch an investigation into water and environmental contamination.”
LINK TO STATE HOUSE SOUND BITES

Last year, Mr. Casey introduced legislation, called the FRAC Act, that would require the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells to be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. It would also require that drilling companies disclose the chemical composition of the fluids they mix with sand and water to break apart - or hydraulically fracture - the gas-bearing rock.

The gas industry maintains that hydraulic fracturing has never been the confirmed cause of drinking water contamination and argues that federal oversight would be an unnecessary burden.

Mr. Casey said Monday that it is possible for gas drilling to be done safely. "We don't have to choose between jobs and the environment, or choose between economic opportunity and protecting families' drinking water," he said.

This injection of unknown and potentially toxic chemicals often occurs near drinking water wells. Three million Pennsylvanians are dependent on private wells for water. Troubling incidents have occurred around the country where people became ill after fracking operations began in their communities. Some chemicals that are known to have been used in fracking include diesel fuel, benzene, industrial solvents and other carcinogens and endocrine disrupters.
LINK TO STATE HOUSE SOUND BITES

Victoria Switzer, a Dimock resident whose drinking water has been contaminated with methane, said she and 13 neighbors have had to live with that choice because oversight of the industry was not stringent enough to protect them.

"We've lost our drinking water; there's lots of gas there. That's not a choice people should have to make," she said.

LINK TO LAURA LEGERE ARTICLE

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

World-Renowned Scientist Dr. Theo Colborn on the Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking

Democracy Now!
April 14, 2010


The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a review of how the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can affect drinking water quality. We speak to Dr. Theo Colborn, the president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange and one of the foremost experts on the health and environmental effects of the toxic chemicals used in fracking.
(Link to Democracy Now! including rush transcript.)

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Fracking: As Safe as Coca-Cola!

By Kate Sheppard
Mother Jones
Tue. April 13, 2010

The natural gas industry would like us to believe that the chemicals they're injecting into the ground in order to extract gas are as harmless as Coca-Cola. Therefore, they should be shielded from the scrutiny of federal regulators. No need to investigate—just take their word for it!

In comments to the Environmental Protection Agency obtained by Mother Jones, Penneco Oil Company, an oil and natural gas business based in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, says that it will "strongly oppose" increased regulation of hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a "fracking," and questions why the EPA would even want to investigate the controversial practice of injecting water and chemicals into shale, coal beds, and other geological formations to extract natural gas.

Here's one clue: Natural gas extractors have been found to use compounds containing toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. A congressional investigation recently found that companies have injected hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel-based chemicals into the ground. Yet the industry is currently exempt from Clean Water Act standards, and companies are not even required to disclose exactly what their fracking fluids contain. The industry claims such information is proprietary.

Natural gas interests are fighting hard against efforts to subject the industry to tougher scrutiny. Shortly after the EPA announced that it would take a closer look at fracking due to concerns about water contamination, the industry began demanding protection under a climate bill. Penneco goes so far as to argue that the EPA is just making things up:

We are concerned that bureaucratic machinations have caused the EPA to hypothesize a problem and that EPA is now seeking research to justify a solution to a nonexistent problem. We are adamant that this process should start from the context of reality; Hydrofracking is a modern industrial and technological success which has delivered clean reliable energy to millions of American homes, reducing our dependence on foreign sources of energy -- and that the research should work forward from that premise.

Instead, Penneco wants the EPA to take a more "positive" approach to its investigation. The company "would like to see questions for research prefaced and asked from the positive regarding hydraulic fracturing." For example, "What has been the benefit to America's streams and waterways as a result of hydraulic fracturing allowing for fewer acres of disturbance while increasing the amount of recoverable reserves?"

REALLY!

But perhaps the most comical part of the submission comes when the company claims that injecting diesel fuel and other toxic chemicals into the ground is no more dangerous than soda pop:

The formula for Coca-Cola is a closely guarded secret—though the ingredients are disclosed. In its dilute form—as a beverage—Coca-Cola is a known acid. It is entirely likely that in transport, as a concentrate, Coke may qualify as a toxic chemical. Perhaps, on game day at a stadium, where the stadium may have thousands of gallons of Coke syrup waiting to be mixed with carbonated water, the stadium may have high levels of toxic chemicals on hand. However, as we all know, there is no practical risk and the substance is relatively harmless. We believe that the same reasonable standard of common sense needs to be employed with hydraulic fracturing chemical studies.

Thus, Penneco concludes, any study from the EPA should consider the "absolute benefit that our society and the environment have reaped as a result of the introduction of hydraulic fracturing technology." Glad that's settled!

!!!

If Congress places limits on carbon dioxide, the demand for natural gas is only expected to grow—along with pressure by the industry on lawmakers to let it operate without scrutiny.

LINK TO MOTHER JONES ARTICLE

Editorial comments by Splashdown in red.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Tests find toxins in Dish residents

Texas mayor, Calvin Tillman, visited our area recently to talk about the air quality issues facing DISH. The town's air is fouled by emissions resulting from a major convergence of gathering lines, compressors and metering facilities.

Results of blood and urine samples taken from DISH residents by state health officials have found toxic compounds (1,3-Butaduene compound, Toluene compound, Trichloroethylene compound, N,N-Dimethylformamide) in people’s bodies to be the same as those detected in the air and water there.

CLICK HERE to read the distressing report in today's Denton Record Chronicle.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILTY!

Protecting Our Waters Hails Philadelphia Weighing In Against Fracking In Delaware Basin

PRESS RELEASE
Says DRBC Should Heed City Position - Reject Stone Energy Permits

Philadelphia, PA -
Environmental groups from across the region hailed passage of a Philadelphia City Council Resolution yesterday calling on the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to reject all permits related to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, until a full environmental impact assessment is complete. The groups said the DRBC should follow the Council's direction and not allow this environmentally destructive drilling practice to occur in the Delaware River Basin.

"We are extremely happy that City Council took its first strong step towards protecting Philadelphia's watershed from shale gas drilling," said Iris Marie Bloom, Campaign Director of Protecting Our Waters, a grassroots Philadelphia organization that opposes shale gas drilling. "Thanks to this resolution, the Delaware River Basin Commission now knows that Philadelphia's elected officials don't want any arsenic, benzene, radium 226 or hundreds of other Marcellus Shale fracking contaminants anywhere near our drinking water!"

"The Delaware River Watershed provides drinking water to 15 million people who will all be affected if shale gas drilling moves ahead in the River's headwaters, 1.5 million of them here in Philadelphia," noted Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. "Until comprehensive analysis of the cumulative impacts of this new industrial activity is complete and protective regulations are in place, we will continue to fight to prevent shale gas extraction in our watershed".

So far, no gas drilling has occurred in the Delaware River Basin but many companies are poised to drill if they can obtain permits. Two applications from Stone Energy, one to frack the first well in the Delaware River watershed and one to withdraw up to 700,000 gallons per day from the West Branch Lackawaxen River, for five years, are pending. How DRBC rules on the Stone Energy permits will be considered a bellwether for gas exploration in the region. The DRBC Public Comment Period on the Stone Energy permits ends on April 12, 2010 and a decision could come in May.

"There are some places that simply are too sensitive and too important to allow any drilling at all, and the Delaware River Basin is one of those places." said Deborah Goldberg,
Managing Attorney for Earthjustice, a national environmental organization with offices in New York.

Stone Energy's water withdrawal permit would allow them to withdraw up to one billion, 277 million gallons of fresh, clean water from the West Branch Lackawaxen River over the next five years. If permitted, all of that water would be mixed with a toxic cocktail of fracking chemicals including methanol, formaldehyde, 2-butoxyethanol, and other known carcinogens. Fracking technology is exempt from major provisions of five federal environmental laws. The EPA recently announced a two year environmental review of the technology. New York City commissioned a scientific study which concluded there should be no shale gas drilling within 7 miles of New York City's watershed.

"There is no doubt that tremendous pollution of our water and air would result if these permits are granted" concluded Bloom, adding, "The net impact on climate change appears to be negative. This tiny, healthy tributary to the Lackawaxen River, Pennsylvania's 2010 River of the Year, spawns tremendous biodiversity and keeps the water flowing down to the mainstream Delaware River clean and fresh."

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILTY!

DEP: Gas industry treatment behind discharge on hillside

By PATRICK DONLIN - pdonlin@sungazette.com
sungazette.comMarch 17, 2010

WATERVILLE - A substance used in the natural gas drilling process is discoloring and distorting the texture of spring water running off a Cummings Township sidehill.

...

The mysterious substance was seen flowing down the slope, under the road and into Pine Creek, said Daniel T. Spadoni, spokesman for DEP's northcentral region office. Officials from another state agency alerted DEP.

"We were notified (Monday) morning by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources," Spadoni said. "There was a white foamy material discharging from a spring down the hill."

...

Terming it a surfactant, Spadoni said a substance known as Airfoam HD* was causing the water run-off to be unnatural in appearance.

...

Surfactant used to treat Pennsylvania General Energy wells affected the water run-off, which Spadoni said had nothing to do with hydrofracturing.

Workers for the Warren-based energy company are drilling five wells in the area, high above the road, but he said they have yet to reach the point of using highly pressurized water to break the rock underneath the ground.

They were using the whitening substance as a lubricant that lowers the surface tension between air and water, according to Spadoni.

A receptionist answering a Pennsylvania General Energy phone Tuesday afternoon said company officials were not available to comment.

"They're attempting to determine what caused this problem and what actions they can take to stop it," Spadoni said of energy company representatives, with whom DEP members have been communicating.

The only precaution Spadoni recommended to residents is to avoid the suspicious spring water run-off in the area.

"I don't think you would want to drink this discharge," he said.

The substance leaking down the hill isn't listed as dangerous on a Material Safety Data Sheet, according to Spadoni.

UH-OH...

"I don't believe there are concerns about drinking water in Waterville at this time," Spadoni said, adding that area residents can continue regularly using tap water in their homes.

The investigation will continue.

"We don't know for sure what its chemical composition is," Spadoni said.

He said DEP will continue to make sure the gas company assists to dissolve the situation. (!!!)

Spadoni said there may be more than one suspect discharge.

..................................................................................................

DEP lies to residents of Waterville about chemical product hazards

Nastassja Noell

*AIRFOAM HD discharging into spring water from gas production -- Dan Spadoni of the DEP said to the reporter in this news article that the MSDS sheet states that Airfoam HD is not dangerous -- HOWEVER, Air Foam HD has high levels of a chemical called 2-BE (2-Butoxyethanol) which is strongly associated with a rare form of adrenal cancer. The MSDS sheets for Airfoam HD (see below) indicate that this chemical product can cause health problems and is also soluble in water. Water tests for 2-BE are extremely expensive, costing over $100 for a 500ppm test of a water sample (as Wayne and Angel Smith in Clearville, PA found out last winter). There is already one poster child for 2-BE contamination and this rare adrenal cancer in a gas drilling area: Laura Amos. (read more following MSDS)

..................................................................................................

Laura Amos's water became contaminated with 2-BE when "fracturing four wells on our neighbors' property (less than 1000' from [their] house) ... "blew up" [their] water well, creating or opening a hydrogeological connection between [their] water well and the gas well...

...

In August 2004 [Amos] came across a memo written to the US Forest Service and BLM Regional offices in Delta County, describing the health hazard posed by a chemical used in fluids that are injected underground to enhance the release of methane. Dr. Theo Colborn of Paonia, Colorado submitted the memo in response to decisions that were being made in Delta County by the government officials to allow gas exploration and development on the Grand Mesa. Colborn is the President of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc (TEDX) and for over 10 years directed the World Wildlife Fund's Wildlife and Contaminants Program. She has been honored worldwide for her focus on the effects of synthetic chemicals on human and wildlife health. The focus of Colborn's memo was on a chemical called 2BE, used in fracturing fluids.

The following information was taken from Colborn's report: "2BE is a highly soluble, colorless liquid with a very faint, ether like odor." She wrote that at the concentration to be used in Delta county 2BE might not be detectable through odor or taste. "2-BE has a low volatility, vaporizes slowly when mixed with water and remains well dissolved throughout the water column." "It mobilizes in soil and can easily leach into groundwater." "It could remain entrapped underground for years."

She noted it is readily absorbed by the skin and can easily be inhaled as it off-gasses in the home. Colborn cited the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Profile that listed the following effects of 2-BE: kidney damage, kidney failure, toxicity to the spleen, the bones in the spinal column and bone marrow, liver cancer, anemia, female fertility reduction, embryo mortality, and the biggie that got my attention - elevated numbers of combined malignant and non-malignant tumors of the adrenal gland."

CLICK HERE to read Amos' entire galling tale.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

University of Pittsburgh scientist warns of imminent danger to ground water from gas drilling in Western Pennsylvania

Dr. Conrad Volz, a leading public health scientist, said that the recent huge increase of drilling for natural gas by Marcellus Shale may be helping the local economy, but it may be poisoning the ground water, also.

There's no question that the recent boom in Marcellus Shale gas drilling has put money in the coffers of small towns across Pennsylvania -- but in the words of Dr. Conrad Volz, at what price? "This is a potentially huge public health problem," said Volz, of the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Under normal circumstances, Volz does not talk in alarmed sound bites. But Volz said these are not normal circumstances.

Jenny Smitsky, who lives in Hickory, Washington County (about 25 miles from Pittsburgh, PA) lost three goats and all the fish in her pond. In fact, the EPA told her not to use her well water for any purpose, even washing. Testing revealed very high levels of manganese -- 100 times the acceptable amount -- in her well water. Her home is surrounded by gas wells.

"I had good, clear, good-tasting water. I never had a problem until drilling started," Smitsky said.

Volz said contaminated waste water from Marcellus drilling will have an impact on all of us, since it is being discharged into the Monongahela River. "The total dissolved solid levels are going up. These problems are occurring in our main stem river, where most of the population is getting their water," Volz said. "This just doesn't make sense, and it is a moral and ethical problem." Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said her agency is not convinced that the elevated levels of manganese in Smitsky's water were caused by Marcellus Shale drilling. The DEP plans to test Smitsky's water again.

Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas are locked under the Marcellus Shale that runs from West Virginia, through Ohio, across most of Pennsylvania and into the Southern Tier of New York state. It takes an estimated 3 million to 5 million gallons of water per well to drill down to the natural gas in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The water is mixed with resin-coated sand and a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, including hydrochloric acid, nitrogen, biocides, surfactants, friction reducers and benzene to facilitate the fracturing of the shale to extract the gas.

About 60 percent of the toxic water used to extract the natural gas is left underground to seep into surrounding ground water. According to Celcias, farm animals that have drunk this have died. Cattle ranchers in Colorado have reported that their livestock birthrates have gone down and animals are bearing deformed offspring.

In other words, communities that live down stream and that depend on water from our rivers should be keeping an eye on the water quality. We all want cheap energy sources, but without clean water, nothing will survive. These wells often spring up in areas where cows graze. If we poison our food supply, we will be poisoning ourselves, too.

To read more CLICK HERE and HERE.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Mayor Tillman Talks about the Effects of Drilling in DISH, TX

Sarah Blazonis
Fox 40 WICZ TV
Friday, February 19, 2010

Mayor Calvin Tillman says town officials in DISH, TX, had big ideas about what natural gas wells like these could bring to the area.

"Jobs, prosperity -- most of the things the folks in the Marcellus Shale are probably thinking about right now," said Tillman.

Tillman says drilling into the Bartlett Shale has cost the town as much as it's gained.

DISH's web site provides information about about its noise problem and air quality study -- which found several toxins related to gas production.

Sixty percent of residents who filled out a health questionnaire reported symptoms known to be related to those toxins.

"Watery eyes, sore throat, severe headaches, nausea, neurological problems," Tillman said.

Tillman was invited to the area by the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition. He plans to talk to residents about urging state lawmakers to pass regulations to protect the environment if drilling is approved in New York.

A local environmental defense lawyer says getting these regulations passed depends on team work from both sides of the issue.

"The economy vs. the environment, landowners vs. everyone else -- these are false dichotomies, and there's one water table that everyone's drinking from," said Helen Slottje, a managing attorney with the Community Environmental Defense Council, Inc.

Above all, DISH's mayor says the Southern Tier shouldn't rush into drilling.

"Slow down," said Tillman. "Slow down and think about it. Think it through, make sure that you put every precaution in place you can before you start."

It's a lesson Tillman says his town learned the hard way.
Residents voted just this week for a 90-day moratorium on new drilling permits.
LINK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Resistance to proposed wastewater facility grows

By Derrick Ek

Corning Leader

Sat Feb 06, 2010

Pulteney, N.Y. - As resistance to a proposed Chesapeake Energy toxic wastewater disposal facility near Keuka Lake grows, Pulteney Town Supervisor Bill Weber is vowing to do everything in his power to stop the project.

Weber has asked the town’s attorney to investigate the possibility of imposing a moratorium on such projects, and the Pulteney Town Board will discuss the matter at its next meeting on Wednesday.

“There’s no way I’m going to support this, and I have confidence that the town of Pulteney will find a way to stop it,” Weber said.

Chesapeake Energy has applied to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation for permission to build a facility in Pulteney to dispose of wastewater from its Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations.

The DEC will be the lead agency for the review. The project will also require a special use permit from the town of Pulteney.

The planned Chesapeake facility will include six bays to unload trucks carrying wastewater, six temporary storage tanks, and equipment to inject the wastewater into a 6,000-foot-deep depleted gas well, according to EPA documents. The documents indicate that Chesapeake would inject an average of approximately 180,000 gallons per day into the well over 10 years.

The well is located near the intersection of Armstrong Road and County Route 78, less than a mile from Keuka Lake.

Injection wells are a method used by gas drilling companies to dispose of the waterwater created by high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – which is a process used to tap the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation.

There is a shortage of treatment plants able to handle the waste in the Northeast, and injection wells provide “the most cost effective and environmentally sound option” for disposing of the wastewater, Chesapeake wrote in its EPA application.

However, the project is facing opposition from a network of concerned residents and environmental activists who fear heavy truck traffic on rural roads along the Keuka Lake wine trail, as well as the possibility that the wastewater could cause soil or water contamination by migrating through underground cracks or fissures.

The Leader contacted a top regional official from Chesapeake Energy on Thursday, seeking further details and asking the company to address the concerns. The official promised to speak with corporate officials and respond, but The Leader hadn’t heard back as of Friday evening.
...
Jeff Andrysick, [leader of a citizen group, Pulteney Pure Waters] ... believes the wastewater poses a threat to Keuka Lake, and that the rural roads can’t handle the truck traffic. Also, he said, the roads are bustling with vacationers in the summer, enjoying cottages on the lake and visiting nearby wineries such as Dr. Frank’s, Bully Hill and Heron Hill.

Any kind of industrial or pollution issues would threaten the wine industry, he added.

Andrysick said he didn’t want to see the bedrock underneath Pulteney turned into a “gigantic plumbing experiment.”

“Pulteney’s wonderful way of life shouldn’t be sacrificed to an outside predatory corporation. They don’t live here and won’t have to live with the results,” he said.

Weber, the town supervisor, called the situation a “perfect storm” that is threatening to “tear the town apart.”

He criticized some of the project opponents for acting irrationally. He says he’s been the target of a great deal of hostility because he was slow to notify the public of Chesapeake’s interest, and because of his perceived support for the project.

Weber said he never was in favor of the project, but had to consider it objectively.

In the beginning, he admitted, he didn’t even realize the scope of the project. Then he studied Chesapeake’s EPA application, consulted others, educated himself on related issues, and has come to the conclusion that the facility is a very bad idea. The main issue, in his mind, is truck traffic.

He isn’t sure yet about the threat to water supplies.

“I’m not a geologist to be able to tell you what the real threat is. Do I want it there? No, of course I don’t. Do I think it’ll destroy Keuka Lake? I don’t know,” he said. “But what really bothers me is the fact that somebody is trying to come into Pulteney and do something that the people don’t want.”

The town has time, he said, because the federal and state review process will likely take a year or longer. Implementing a moratorium may be a tricky issue, Weber said, because of the state’s conservation law regarding natural gas exploration.

“You can’t just zone (energy companies) out of existence,” he said. “Previous court cases have shown that.”

Weber is also concerned that if the EPA and DEC give approval to Chesapeake, but town officials refuse to give the company a permit, the town will wind up in a lengthy court battle.

“If this huge company is going to spend that much money on a project, and some little town in upstate New York says, ‘No, we don’t want you here,’ they’re gonna say, ‘We have every right to be here, get out of our way.’”
LINK.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Don't Frack with New York! Governor Patterson Poisons the Well to Balance the Budget

Alison Rose Levy
The Huffington Post
January 28, 2010

Former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer may have had his sexual peccadilloes but he knew how to stand up to corporate interests that threatened the public good. It was a big boost for oil companies, planning to despoil New York State, when the powerhouse Spitzer was replaced by his easily rolled-over successor.

While belt-tightening throughout the state budget, Governor Patterson added $3 million to fast track harmful gas drilling practices--a quick fix economic solution with tragic long-range health, economic, and environmental consequences.

On Monday, a statewide coalition of New York state residents, businesses, and environmental groups rallied in the state capital of Albany to ask legislators to oppose Patterson's plans to contaminate state-wide water supplies (including New York City's) by permitting a damaging form of gas drilling, known as "fracking," or hydraulic fracturing.

Thanks to lobbying by Halliburton and other energy companies, under the Bush-Cheney administration, fracking got exempted from the Clean Water Act even though it releases large quantities of undisclosed carcinogens and toxic chemicals into the earth and water supply.

According to a recent study, conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), just one drilling site deploys harmful chemicals sufficient "to contaminate more than 100 billion gallons of drinking water to unsafe levels ... more than 10 times as much water as the entire state of New York uses in a single day."

The chemicals used in fracking "pose a serious threat to the nation's water supplies, but those risks have been largely ignored," says the report. "Drinking water contamination and property damage have been linked to hydraulic fracturing in four states--Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. In one incident that polluted a Colorado creek, the drilling company is still trying to clean it up--four years later."

Nor does the drilling create local jobs or business. Instead, companies bus in workers from Texas, housing them in "man camps," sites where reportedly alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual predation abound. While no one wants a "man camp" next door, a gas well also ruins the neighborhood. If one owner sells property for drilling, all neighboring land can be conscripted for leasing, with no rights of refusal. Fracking also releases chemicals into the air; an army of trucks must carry over roads and New York State highways up to four million gallons of contaminated water (per well)-- which amps up air pollution and costly highway repairs. There is currently no way to effectively decontaminate the high quantities of waste water produced by fracking.

"We can't let the gleam of potential profits leave us with a legacy of polluted water and industrialized landscapes," said Wes Gillingham, program director of Catskill Mountainkeeper.

Last month, New York City's Department of Environmental Protection issued a report urging a halt to gas drilling since, "Natural gas drilling and exploration are incompatible with the operation of New York City's unfiltered water supply system and pose unacceptable risks for more than nine million New Yorkers in the City and State." They noted that drilling entails "invasive industrialization and creates a substantial risk of chemical contamination, and infrastructure damage."

This week, Mayor Bloomberg chimed in, "The consequences are so severe that it is not a risk that I think we should run. I do not think that we should allow fractured drilling anywhere near our water supply."

Although land can be fenced in, water can't be. It flows underground, it rises into clouds, it's borne by the winds, and released by the rains, far from its source.

While the Mayor nobly aims to protect the immediate area surrounding the city's upstate water reservoir, so far no studies have investigated how far water-born contaminants from throughout the state could flow downstream to impact NYC, or it's water supply. Fracking originated in arid western regions, and its proponents don't know the extent of pollution possible in a region of interconnected rivers and frequent rains like New York and New England.

In New York State, gas drillers hope to use fracking in the regions of the New York City Watershed, the Delaware River, the Finger Lakes, and upstate watersheds, the source of waters that flow downstate to New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

With fresh water resources becoming scarcer worldwide due to population growth and climate change, it's unconscionable for a short-term Governor to short-sell a precious resource to balance his budget. Perhaps the soon to declare gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Cuomo, will like his popular father, Governor Mario Cuomo, become a successful champion.

To take action, sign up with the Environmental Advocates NY Citizens for Safe Energy http://www.catskillcitizens.org/ The Environmental Working Group proposes a national ban or better regulation. Or join No Fracking Way on Facebook. Or cut to the chase, and ask soon to declare candidate, Andrew Cuomo to make New York State a model for future-oriented policies, rather than a disastrous object lesson in the costs of short-sighted gain.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Pennsylvania’s Gas Wells Booming—But So Are Spills

Atlas Resources, M.R. Dirt, Chesapeake, Schlumberger, Range Resources, Cabot Oil and Gas... is there a PA driller missing from the list?

by Sabrina Shankman
ProPublica
January 27, 2010

As more gas wells are drilled in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale, more cases of toxic spills are being reported. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania's environmental officials fined Pennsylvania-based Atlas Resources after a series of violations at 13 wells, including spills of fracturing fluids and other contaminants onto the ground around the sites. And just last week the agency fined M.R. Dirt, a company that removes waste from drilling sites, $6,000 for spilling more than seven tons of drilling dirt along a public road.

The reports come on the heels of a string of other incidents that have killed fish in one of the state's most prized recreational lakes and released toxic chemicals into the environment.

The Atlas spills are significant because they are among the latest and because they happened repeatedly during the routine transfer of fluids. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection fined Atlas Resources $85,000 for the offenses, which took place between May and December of 2009. Many of the spills were discovered by DEP inspectors.

The violation cited by the DEP include spills of fluids from the hydraulic fracturing process at seven sites, and failure to report a spill at one of those sites. One spill was the result of a faulty pit liner, which is supposed to insulate the ground from hydraulic fracturing fluids after they are pumped out of a well.

Atlas Resources controls more than half a million acres within the Marcellus Shale, the massive gas deposit that stretches from Tennessee to New York. The company, whose total revenue was $787.4 million in 2008, issued a statement acknowledging that it had entered a voluntary settlement with the DEP and saying that each of the incidents had been corrected. An Atlas spokesman declined a request to answer additional questions about the violations, or about the company's operations in Pennsylvania.

"If you look at this series of violations -- it's not only that there are multiple violations," said DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys, pointing to the fact that the same three violations were turning up at each site. "This is a pattern, and it's a problem."

The pattern, and the problem, extend beyond Atlas.

In December the DEP fined Chesapeake and Schlumberger, two of the biggest operators in the Marcellus Shale and in gas development nationally, for spilling hydrochloric acid, which is used for hydraulic fracturing and is corrosive. Cabot Oil and Gas, a Houston-based energy company that lists T. Boone Pickens as one of its stockholders, was fined in November for a series of spills, including a fracturing fluid spill by its contractor Halliburton.

In October Pennsylvania fined Texas-based Range Resources $23,500 for spilling nearly 5,000 gallons of wastewater, including hydraulic fracturing fluids, into a tributary of Cross Creek Lake, a protected watershed near Pittsburgh that contains some of the state's most robust fish populations.

A DEP report on that spill said, "The creek was impacted by sediments all the way down to the lake and there was also evidence of a fish kill as invertebrates and fish were observed lying dead in the creek.”

The Range Resources spill occurred on May 26, when the company was pumping fluids from the hydraulic fracturing of three wells through a six-inch pipe to a DEP-approved impoundment. Along the way, two screws along the pipe came loose, according to the Range Resources report on the incident, allowing thousands of gallons to spill onto the ground before the company was able to shut it down.

Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the loosened screws were a result of vandalism and that the company responded by increasing security at its sites. The fish killed in Cross Creek amounted to less than a pound of minnows, he said.

Just three weeks before the fines were announced, Range was penalized by the DEP for another accident -- this time for spilling more than 10,000 gallons of flowback water, which again resulted in a fish kill and a substantial cleanup effort. A DEP spokesman said he could not comment on that spill, because a settlement is still being decided.

"We find both of these to be unfortunate and unacceptable," said Pitzarella, who said that neither spill had any negative impacts on health or property.

Unlike previous spills -- including the recent Atlas spills -- the DEP has not issued press releases for either of the Range Resources spills, and a spokesman has not explained why.

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Red italic commentary by Splashdown.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!