Pennsylvania State Documents Reveal Rampant Water Contamination In Gas Sacrifice Zones
Several excellent articles have been posted recently about the inadequate, often shoddy, records keeping practices of The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. They’re linked here and shouldn’t be missed. Bottom line is, if you think PA DEP is actively protecting the Pennsylvania’s water supplies from the impacts of shale gas drilling, think again.
“Scattered records kept by the state Department of Environmental Protection offer one answer to a key question in a new age of fossil fuel extraction in Pennsylvania: How many water supplies have been damaged by drilling?”
Gas proponents might continue to insist that gas drilling has never damaged a single water supply, yet we know there are plenty of instances where it has. As it turns out, PA DEP knows this, too, though they had to be sued to produce the evidence. They claimed, unsuccessfully, that the public records requested by The Times-Trbune were “too burdensome” to find. In The Times-Tribune’sSunday Times Review of DEP Drilling Records Reveals Water Damage, Murky Testing Methods, Legere reviews the pages eventually furnished by the civil servants of this hyper-reluctant state agency:
“State environmental regulators determined that oil and gas development damaged the water supplies for at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012, according to a cache of nearly 1,000 letters and enforcement orders written by Department of Environmental Protection officials and obtained by The Sunday Times.”
The Times-Tribune editors have even included a detailed groundwater complaints map with the help of the genius geeks at FracTracker.org, “a non-profit organization that collects, shares and visualizes data related to the oil and gas industry.”
TELL THE PA DEMS – Stop Fracking, Start Using Common Sense
Political actions are monumental labors, but when they strike the right chord, they’re anything but laborious. They unite the grassroots, attract support from big greens and inspire new voices. Successful actions activate the rusty apparatus of democracy, and they tend to take on a life of their own.
PLUS A Week of Anti-Fracking Actions!June 3rd – June 8th
In step with Stop The Frack Attack’s National Week of Action, Tell The PA Dems “STOP FRACKING NOW!” will include a week of local lobbying and recruiting efforts, and culminate in strong, united representation at the next State Democratic Committee policy meeting on June 15, 2013. Here’s why the action was created (from the Event Description):
“A member offered a resolution calling for a moratorium on fracking at their last meeting. The resolution never made it to the floor. A revised version will be offered this time and we think it deserves a floor vote.
“Senator Jim Ferlo is introducing a moratorium bill. Berks Gas Truth helped deliver over 100,000 signatures calling for a moratorium to the Governor’s office on April 30th. It’s clearly time, actually way past time, for a moratorium, so why do the PA Dems hang onto the severance tax/regulation stance that is as outmoded as fossil fuels?
“The party sets the platform on which candidates run. We can’t go into the 2014 campaign with our only alternative to Corbett a string of candidates who are still willing to give Pennsylvania to the drillers, as long as they pay a little in the process. We deserve better than that! Our natural resources deserve better. Our state constitution says so! Now it’s time for the Democratic Party to chime in and throw their support behind a moratorium.”
Today, a coalition of environmental organizations and anti-fracking activists deliver the largest petition ever submitted to the Pennsylvania state legislature. It calls for a moratorium on new shale gas drilling permits in Pennsylvania.
The petition, Protect Pennsylvania From Gas Drilling, includes the names and signatures of more than 100,000 Pennsylvania residents, and it sends a stunning message to state legislators and the shale gas industry. This is what it says: (more…)
We know the Marcellus Shale Coalition never put it to a vote, but does Pennsylvania DEP Secretary, Michael Krancer, believe that climate change might determine the new “price of doing business” in our state?
On February 20, 2013, at a Pennsylvania House Budget Hearing, Rep. Scott Conklin [D-77th, Centre County] asked the Secretary exactly that, but the newly bearded Krancer didn’t want to answer.
Published on Feb 20, 2013
Rep. Conklin deserves kudos for asking about the cost of climate change. So does Rep. Matt Bradford [D- 70th, Montgomery County] for following up, as State Impact Pennsylvania’s Marie Cusick reports in DEP Secretary Michael Krancer Clarifies Views on Climate Change, February 21, 2013:
“Climate change. Is it real?”
“Representative, I couldn’t be more clear,” Krancer replied, “the lowering of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions is a good thing.”
“You couldn’t be more opaque!” shouted Bradford.
And, so, the question remains: Is Pennsylvania’s rush to frack increasing or decreasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere?
Methane may be a cleaner fuel to burn (until it explodes) but it’s certainly not a clean fuel to frack from the ground. One glimpse at this infrared video of gas production sites shows how much gas is released, intentionally and otherwise.
Are we really willing to bet it all on gas drillers best practices, minimal air sampling and lousy DEP record-keeping? This seems ignorant and brash when our planet is so perilously close to an atmospheric carbon tipping point.
“Witnesses criticized the state Department of Environmental Protection for failing to enforce drilling regulations. Some residents in drilling areas brought what they consider as evidence — jugs of orange-brown tap water.”
“Many times over the last few years, we have reached out to the DEP for help, with little or no success,” Headley said. His family has had issues with contaminated water and grass that refuses to grow, as well as issues with a pipeline going in under their stream, he said. “I think DEP stands for ‘don’t expect protection,’ ” Headley said.
“At issue is whether deliberate actions by state officials are letting Texas gas industry robber barons do more damage to the environment than was done by coal industry robber barons in the last century, and are endangering people’s health in the process.As I reported in September, I submitted several questions to DEP, in writing, about new DEP rules supposedly designed to protect the environment. Many of the rules, it seemed to me, did the opposite. For example, DEP now allows fracking fluids to accumulate in pits that are only 20 inches above groundwater tables. I’m still waiting for answers.”
“There is no uniformity within the scientific community on how much the warming is occurring,” said Krancer, “And there’s no agreement about how much is attributable to the human part of it and how much is attributable to other factors.”
Pennsylvania’s municipal water treatment plants were designed to handle the bio solids of sewage, not the radioactive compounds contained in shale gas drilling waste. They can’t handle the massive volumes of frack flowback produced in our state.
It takes 4.5 to 9 million gallons of fresh water to hydro-frack a single natural gas well. There are more than 30,000 permits awaiting approval in Pennsylvania over the next 10 years. In addition to the 8,982 frack wells currently operating in Pennsylvania, that equals 165 billion gallons of fresh water, largely from the Special Protection Waters of the Delaware River Watershed and the Susquehanna River Basin. Once removed, this water is destined to become toxic, radioactive frack “flowback.” And, by the way, that’s way more water than we actually have.
At first blush, recycling frack flowback – both onsite and at regional treatment plants – seems like the perfect solution. There’s now a long list of companies who want to sell or lease their services to drillers, along with their glorified mobile distillation units. But this, too, poses new problems and raises even more questions about shale gas waste regulation and oversight. Ultimately, waste recyclers still have to deal with the disposal of the super salty waste bi-product known as brine.
So now, recycled frack brine is to be sold - at around $.05 a gallon - to PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) to spray on our roads for deicing in winter, and something called “dust suppression.”
Seriously, dust suppression.
Untreated frack brine has been shown to include barium, radium, strontium and a range of radionuclides. Sometimes, there’s even uranium. (Yes, there’s uranium down there, too.) Flowback may also contain sodium and calcium salts, iron, oil, numerous heavy metals, diesel fuel and industrial soaps. And now this stuff might be on my running shoes, and the wheels of my kids’ bikes. Heavy snows and spring rains will carry these compounds into our rivers and streams, lacing our waterways with toxins. Are you kidding me?
How is it, though they’re using taxpayer dollars to buy this supposedly “clean” brine, that there was no public input?
This question was put to the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Executive Vice President of Technical Affairs, Andrew Paterson, who was testifying on behalf of the 250-member gas industry trade group at a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing on Marcellus Shale Air Pollution at Delaware County Community College in Media, PA on October 12, 2011. (more…)
Environmental incidents such as unconventional gas drilling accidents – or fraccidents – must be reported, wherever they occur. SkyTruthis a whiz-bang non-profit based in West Virginia. Their team uses remote sensing and digital mapping technologies to combine environmental protection with environmental awareness. Their motto: “As soon as WE know – YOU know.” (more…)
Does The Corbett Administration Hate Nature As Much As They Hate Environmentalists?
Not all Pennsylvanians are prepared to accept the governor’s latest executive order for a fracking “Permit Decision Guarantee” without crying foul, as Kevin Begos of the Associated Press reports via Businessweek in Foes: Pa. State Permit Order Threatens Environment.
StateImpact’s Scott Detrow appears to concur that Corbett’s new decree is a potential political misstep in How Will Corbett’s Executive Order Change The Marcellus Permitting Process? on August 13, 2012. Though he barely hints at it, Detrow’s article earned him a proper bitch-slapping in the Comments section by the governor’s hyper-conservative energy czar, Patrick Henderson, who takes to task both StateImpact and the AP for their apparent and willful lack of “context.” (more…)
You may have noticed a new approach by the Gas Industry to reach out and touch us with their concern. TheMarcellus Shale Coalition has taken to the radio to promote its new online forum. Their new web-effort, which runs until July 20th, focuses on Southeastern PA, and was created “to better understand the questions residents of greater Philadelphia have about natural gas development in Pennsylvania.” Another major industry lobby group, Energy In Depth, has been busy debunking Gasland with all its might, along with all the other documented evidence which proves shale gas development pollutes land, water and air. If all this makes you uneasy, then your instincts are right on. Writer Dory Hippauf takes a good look at this latest industry tack, delving into the people and companies behind it, in Energy-In-Depth: The Dots. (more…)
[UPDATED: May 25, 2012] Including more info on Reclassification to Exceptional Value or High Quality Stream
“The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) is petitioning the PA Department of Environmental Protection to upgrade the Upper and Middle Delaware River to Exceptional Value (EV) Quality,” states Faith Zerbe , DRN’s Water Watch Director.
To this very productive end, Delaware Riverkeepers and over 20 organizations and 300 co-petitioners have submitted a petition to to PADEP, and they are actively seeking signatures and letters of support. If you value this magnificent, historic American River, please lend your voice and sign on to the Original Petition to elevate the Delaware’s environmental, economic and social status. Demand adequate protections for drinking water today! (more…)
The simplest way to ensure lasting protections for the fresh water resources of 15.6 million people is to raise the status the Upper and Middle Delaware River to “Exceptional Value” (EV). It would also help to ensure that EV or High Quality (HQ) tributary streams remain un-fragmented.At any rate, drillers seem to be getting along without having to drill in yet another precious watershed.
A statewide moratorium on new Unconventional Shale Gas Drilling permits in Pennsylvania might seem like a long-shot, but I gladly signed the Pennsylvanians for Clean Land Air and Water (CLAW) Petition. A ban on Fracking in the Delaware River Watershed ought to be more feasible, but as the CLAW signatures are rapidly accumulating, it occurs to me that maybe I’m just being cynical. (more…)
Caveat Emptor: DEP Not Required to Report Gas Drilling Violations to Landowners
Violations at Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas drilling well pads and associated infrastructure occur at an average rate of 12-a-day, according to Iris Marie Bloom, director of Protecting Our Waters in Showdown Expected at the SRBCCorral by Susan Phillips of StateImpactPA. Some violations are more serious than others, but one thing they all have in common: the PA Department of Environmental Protection is not required to notify landowners of any violations on their leased properties, even though they’re on the line for damages. (more…)
[Original Post]: Gas drillers want you to think Pennsylvania’s water supply was rife with shallow methane before they began fracking the Marcellus Play. Obviously methane deposits can migrate, but why would these towns have been settled in the first place if the water table was bad? Listening to residents in these Northern and Western gas drilling locales, you hear recurring themes about a whole new kind of water problem.
“Up until November, I could drink my water.”
“It’s black.“
“It’s really slimy.”
“Up there, a coupla houses, they’re starting to have some issues.”
Can steep budget cuts to the PA Department of Environmental Protection be offset with gas drilling permit fees?
At the February 27, 2012 Democratic Policy Committee Meeting in Bryn Mawr, PA, the word “overwhelmed” was repeatedly used to describe the PA Department of Environmental Protection. Most notably, George Jugovic, Jr., then Senior Attorney and newly named CEO for PennFuture, and former Southwest Regional Director of the PA DEP, stated that when he asked Joyce Epps, DEP Bureau of Air Quality director, what her department needed most to effectively regulate Marcellus air emissions, she replied emphatically, “We need more people.” (more…)
I started this blog a year ago, freaked over Fracking and the hydrological catastrophe coming to Pennsylvania. I was determined to reach one thousand people with the message that industrial shale gas drilling will forever destroy beautiful, economically struggling regions of rural PA. I wanted them to know that the unchecked, under-regulated shale gas industry is already polluting the water we drink and the air we breathe.
Mostly, I wanted people to Take Action to protect the imperiled Delaware and Schuylkill River watersheds. (more…)
Rep. Greg Vitali Seeks to Close Gas Industry Air Pollution Exemptions with House Bill 2113
Here’s an interesting fact: On March 1, 2012, the PA Department of Environmental Protection is required to submit a 2011 Air Emissions Inventory for “unconventional drilling” operations in Pennsylvania to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. They will be reporting on Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), like benzene and toluene, and Particulate Matter from internal combustion engines which contributes to Ozone counts, among other things.
Since it’s not feasible for the DEP to test the air everywhere, reporting data is provided by gas industry operators, who derive their numbers from the specifications manuals of the equipment they use. This is where the drillers’ exemptions come into play. (more…)
BRISTOL PA – The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) announced the settlement of an appeal DRN filed with the PA Environmental Hearing Board concerning one of the first shale gas wells drilled in the Delaware River Basin. The well is a vertical gas well and was not hydraulically fractured.
The appeal — filed in coordination with Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and local residents — involved the Newfield Appalachia PA, LLC “Woodlands” well in Damascus Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania. (more…)
When it comes to the pro-gas point-of-view, is there anyone worth listening to?
Last week, former DEP chief, John Hanger, earned props from the gas industry blog, Marcellus Drilling News, in a pithy post entitled, Former PA DEP Head Says Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Aquifers. MDN, which is edited by Jim Willis in Binghamton, NY, was spotlighting Hanger’s comments in a recent New York Post article about “fracking hysteria.” From the start, that right-wing litterbox liner has been unabashedly anti-Environment in their coverage of issues surrounding Fracking. One can expect greater journalistic integrity from MDN, which simply distilled Hanger’s quotes to support their editorial position, that fracking is safe. My kinda of post, only ass-backwards. (more…)
