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.”
Texas Ethanol Bill Uses Semantics To Lipstick The Shale Gas Pig
Using “alternative” as bridge label, a bipartisan group of misguided Texas congressmen have decided to redefine the term “Renewable” as it applies in the Federal Renewable Fuels Standards Act to include ethanol from fracked shale gas. Last time I checked, natural gas was a fossil fuel, and shale gas was considered an extremefossil fuel.
“Olson’s bill responds to commercial interest in producing ethanol from natural gas, amid questions about the ability to efficiently and cost effectively to transform plant material into ethanol that can be blended into fuel.” (more…)
Urban Disaster Records, producer of From The Frontlines, released this powerful new music video today. “Drillers Paradise” was written and composed by veteran gasfield videographer Jay Wilcox and Indie acoustic musician Dylan Storm.
Much of “Drillers Paradise” Was Filmed In Marcellus Hell.Video by Jay Wilcox and Dylan Storm, published on May 10, 2013.
“After touring, filming and witnessing the devastation, intimidation and corruption that goes hand in hand with the giant fracking corporations this song was born…Special thanks to Penni Patches Pixie Laine and the Butler Hoopers…pass this on cause ‘They use payoffs to buy off all the fools’……. “
I’ve listened to it a dozen times already, and it just keeps getting better!
Please Share wildly, and be sure to give it a thumbs uponYouTube.
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…)
Pennsylvania Stands Witness To The Adverse Impacts of Shale Gas Drilling
More than 1,208 individuals have gone on record (to date) on The List of The Harmed. The list is meticulously compiled by Jenny Lisak of The Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air. It’s got to be a full time job, as the number of people harmed easily keeps apace with drilling.
Even a list as long as this can’t do justice to the people whose lives have been ruined along with their land, air and water.
Ready or not, Americans have to make a choice. They can believe the slick TV ads, buying into the false promise of safe shale gas, or they can try to understand what impacts large-scale, industrial hydrofracking really brings to our ecology, landscapes and the communities who inhabit them. They can listen to the experiences of people living in the new gaslands of Pennsylvania, and not just the stories that grab headlines, but the common, garden variety suffering wrought by a single extreme extraction industry.
Postcards From The Sacrifice Zone
Rebecca Roter and Frank Finan listen. They listen to their neighbors and friends, and they speak out. They relay the stories they hear, and they encourage others to share their experiences, too.
Stand witness, encourage friends and family with skin rashes, upper respiratory problems, etc that appear shale related to DOCUMENT your experiences in your own voice, let a volunteer health advocate make sure the Dept of Health DOES ITS job and takes your shale related health complaint. Help save the next generation, so the claim cannot be made there are no health impacts in shale corridors. Impacted individuals can call Volunteer Health Care Advocate Celeen Miller 215-680-1452, 215-249-3619, 800-200-2229 to report complaints. Call Dr McKenzie, 215-662-2354, University of Pennsylvania, Occupational Medicine, for treatment.
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.”
It’s difficult to pick one favorite, but four-out-of-five fractivists agree the ultimate anti-gas image is by Artist/Activist LMNOP. based in Brooklyn, NY.
Lately, it seems like anti-fracking artistic expression is exploding out of gaslands everywhere. Maybe the message is mainstreaming? You know when Yoko Ono starts speaking out, the cause is officially big. She may be polite and petite, but she’s got a mighty big bullhorn and she’s obviously peeved.
Sad truth is, the harsh light of reality is unkind to the invasive, destructive processes of shale gas production and frack waste disposal. Across the country, there’s a heightened demand for clean, sustainable energy and increasing local efforts for conservation. Artists, filmmakers, videographers, photographers, musicians, writers and poets have become so passionate about this cause, they’re shouting from their respective rooftops. And voyeurs, if they’re anything like me, are left wondering what we can possibly do when a single industry is systematically destroying our water tables, air quality, and the loamy soil beneath our feet?
We can live without gas but we can’t live without water. It’s the stuff of life pulsing through our veins. Frack with that, and people tend to go hardcore. So go on, get schooled, and enjoy a sampling of the creative contributions inspired by the shale gas boom, in what is rapidly becoming the biggest public push-back the world has ever seen.
“C’Mon EPA, We’re Worried For Our DNA”
What lurks deep beneath Sesame Street? It’s a scary place yet this video is suitable for all ages.
Since New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has declined meet to with Yoko Ono as of yet, she has taken the truth to television. Ono makes it easy for Cuomo – and all the world – to see what’s wrong with Fracking in her new ad. (more…)
The Impacts of Drilling on Human and Animal Health
Groundbreaking Study Presented
Researchers Robert Oswald PhD & Michelle Bamberger, MS, DVMoffer viewers “a general introduction to the potential hazards associated with shale gas development. Specifically, it will draw on the descriptive epidemiology and case studies of Drs. Bamberger and Oswald to examine how and why animals can be used as sentinels for human health.“
Harbingers of Human Wellbeing
Published on Jan 30, 2013, Continuing Medical Education (CME) Activity Jointly Sponsored by Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy and the Medical Society of the State of New York. Source: YouTube
“According to Rende’s logic, it is the plaintiff’s own fault for believing the Range Resource test report was accurate and truthful. Does this mean Rende is also saying Range Resources is not to be trusted?”
“As they fight the expansion of fracking and push for tighter regulations on it, concerned citizens can count on an opponent nearly as powerful and monied as Big Oil: Big Ag…”
No NIMBYs In SEPA: Citizens Say “Yes!” To Clean Energy In Everyone’s Back Yard!
PA Dems to hold a hearing on non-fossil renewable energy for Delaware and Montgomery counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Show your support for solar and wind! Free, open to the public.
KeepTap’s Stats Reflect An Anti-Gas Movement On Fire
The momentum behind clean energy has been building like never before. In 2012, several grand-scale, public events like Shale Gas Outrage in Philadelphia, Stop The Frack Attack in Washington DC, and the sold-out 350.org Do The Math tour. Colleges and universities are now being asked by alumni, faculty and student bodies to take a leadership role in addressing Climate Change by pledging to divest from dirty energy and Go Fossil Free. (more…)
Resolve to get more involved in the incredible fossil-free grassroots movement that’s been springing up across the USA. No one should be an energy company guinea pig! Help your community maintain control over rampant, unregulated shale gas fracking, toxic waste water, pipelines, compressor stations and dehydration units. Chances are – wherever you are – there’s a local group fighting for our right to clean air, land and water. (more…)
From the folks who gave us classics such as Hydraulic Fracturing Party!, Marcellus Shale Fish Killsand Gas Wells, Frac Pits and School Coexist come two brand new holiday classics. Cineplex Rexfilmed high over Wetzel County, West Virgnia, Greene County and Washington County, Pennsylvania throughout 2012, and the aerial images they captured depict a state that is fundamentally changed by a single, heavily polluting industry.
Naughty
Not Nice…
Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is a healthy future for the children of the Marcellus Shale.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has held out long enough.
It’s time for the state to release the full test results from a Washington County, PA water well near a Range Resources fracking operation. It is, after all, the taxpayers who pay for such testing, and these taxpayers ought to know what pollutants have been identified in their drinking water. It’s perfectly reasonable to want to know to which toxic chemicals you have been exposed, especially when those chemicals have been intentionally omitted from your well water report by the DEP.
Now that the infamous “Suite Code 942” has been revealed, the jig is up. Am loathe to moralize, but it sure seems like the right thing to do.
“Critics suggest the purported ‘filtering’ of testing data is just one of the ways people are left in the dark about the assortment of heavy metals and other toxic contaminants that may be in their air and water as a result of drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other phases of natural gas production. Recent studies have identified more than 600 chemicals used throughout the process of natural gas production, and often left undisclosed by companies. Additionally, natural but equally hazardous substances can be released from the wells.“
Doesn’t DEP get it yet? Dismissing the drumbeats of concerned citizens only makes them louder.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Networkis asking people to please send this letter via the link on their site, or write you own, to those directly responsible for keeping this vital health information a secret. Addresses below. (more…)
The true story of the Marcellus Shale Gas Boom is stranger than fiction, full of polemic twists, shocking revelations and methane geysers. Here, an aggregation of the aggravation caused by the gas industry in Pennsylvania in the past week alone. Look out, David Hess, I’ve been taking notes.
AntiGas NewsClips - Friday, November 16, 2012: (more…)
SkyTruth.org and FracTracker.orghave teamed up to build the most comprehensive – and functional – database of fracking chemicals on the planet. The new SkyTruthFracking Chemical Database is a powerful research tool, enhanced by FracTracker‘s stellar mapping technology. Been looking for something a little more practical than the smattering of 27,000 pdfs found on FracFocus.org, the gas industry’s chemicals registry of choice? Look no further. (more…)
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?
