Bogus US Drilling Chemicals Database No Substitute For FRAC ACT
Make no mistake… the “Chemical Disclosure Registry” found at FracFocus.org is a sophisticated instrument of industry propaganda, not an independent, academic webtool. Though basically useless as a database, the site accomplishes more than simply informing the public about the chemicals a gas driller may, or may not, be using when hydraulically fracturing a well near you. FracFocus cleverly packages the information in an attempt to legitimize the use of the many dangerous toxins required in unconventional horizontal drilling. (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…)
PA DEP’s Sharply Criticized, Incomplete Marcellus Production Report
A clean up effort is underway to address a serious data reporting error at The Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania. The overburdened state agency has been cited several times for insufficient records-keeping, yet this latest DEP misinformation incident is proving difficult, if not impossible, to contain. As a result, reliable Marcellus production figures, eagerly sought by both those opposed to fracking as well as those seeking to profit from it, are in dangerously short supply. According to BloombergBusinessweek, Associated Press: Critics Say PA DEP Gas Data Has Serious Flaws.
In what appears to be the PA DEP equivalent of valve failure, the department recently released an incomplete Marcellus production report which, in turn, was derived from sloppy gas driller input. As a result, the official DEP report was missing key information from Chesapeake’s wells in Bradford County – the largest operator in the state’s most heavily drilled county.
Fracts Still Emerging
This isn’t the first time DEP screwed up on important Marcellus production data.
“New Report Raises Red Flag for Bats from Shale Gas Drilling”
Bristol, PA – The Delaware Riverkeeper Network released a new report authored by a bat expert at Bat Conservation International considering and documenting many potential impacts shale gas development and fracking can have on bat populations living in the Delaware River watershed. According to the report, the water withdrawals, water pollution, air pollution, and massive land disturbance associated with shale gas development pose serious threats for bat populations, including the little brown bat and the federally endangered Indiana bat. The report notes that bats have been significantly impacted by White-nose Syndrome and as a result are at increased risk from human impacts such as shale gas development. The location of the Marcellus shale, now the targeted shale formation for drilling across Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere, overlaps some of the areas hardest hit by White-nose Syndrome. (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…)
In the face of a frightful dearth of genuine environmental stewardship at top Pennsylvania state levels, New Yorkers living in Marcellus towns have been scrambling to proactively manage the imminent shale gas issues confronting them – from water management to truck traffic and emergency preparedness, to the negative impact on their taxbase. The Marcellus Effect chronicles the town of Caroline’s struggle to protect its water supply near Ithaca New York in How Far Is “Safe” When Protecting Aquifers?
Simultaneously, one of New York’s most picturesque finger lakes strives to maintain hard-won environmental gains as residents and fans organize to fight off an ill-advised gas storage facility planned for the abandoned salt mines located beneath it. You can learn about the citizen-led struggle to Save Seneca Lake in writer Elaine Mansfield’s moving video, Angry Faces, Placid Water: Fracking, LPG Gas Storage, and Seneca Lake produced by Owl Gorge Productions.
“The oil and gas industry plans to build an enormous liquid petroleum gas storage and distribution depot in abandoned salt mines under Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen, one of New York’s most popular scenic tourist attractions. Part of the Marcellus Shale hydrofracking nightmare, this huge facility threatens the pure water of Seneca Lake with petroleum gas and salt pollution, would burn off excess gas with a towering flare stack, produce air pollution, and be a visual and noisy blight along this gorgeous lake. Worst of all would be the constant risk of gas explosions. Local resident, writer, and activist Elaine Mansfield eloquently presents this issue in Smith Park along the shore of Seneca Lake.”
Truck traffic is a mundane yet no less horrendous byproduct of fracking. Imagine heavy tankers and Wide Loads roaring past your kitchen window every fifteen seconds, morning, noon, and night. Traumatic, right? Many compare it to an army mobilization. Track Traffic Procession — Longest One Yet, recorded in Montrose PA by veraduerga on July 29, 2012, gives you a pretty good idea of what drilling can do to an otherwise quiet town. The video was featured on the Bradford County-based blog Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends. In it, Vera sends a message to her neighbors in New York: “Keep it out.”
“Why do you have a camera?” asks a passerby.
“I’m recording it so people know what we’re going through. To tell the world, y’know, the nonsense that’s here…”
“Yeah, I don’t blame you.”
Deposit Truthland™ Nonsense Here
Vera also braved the truck traffic to attend a totally “truthy” screening of the gas industry infomercial Truthland in Deposit, NY. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing more obnoxious than arrogant gasholes bullshitting a shill-filled audience in a random auditorium, but you decide. Perhaps Energy In Depth has thought better of airing its propaganda on college campuses after the debacle at the State University of New York Buffalo earlier in July. Chip Northrup captured that scene brilliantly in Truthland Bombs In Buffalo, on No Fracking Way, a blog for New York and Pennsylvania hosted by ShaleShockMedia.org. (more…)
Online petitions aren’t ba-a-ad, but nothing’s more valuable than hard-copy signatures. Lots of `em. Because people who are willing to put their name to paper are also more likely to go out and vote. That’s why PennEnvironment has been busy spear-heading the largest anti-fracking petition in Pennsylvania.
“Powerful gas industry lobbyists and their allies in Harrisburg are pushing through policies that would expose our environment and communities to the dangers of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. But they’ve got a fight on their hands — thousands of Pennsylvanians are joining our call to help stop gas drilling from contaminating our drinking water, polluting our air, destroying our forests and threatening our health.”
Already more than 50, 000 petitioners are calling on legislators “to support a moratorium on further shale gas extraction in Pennsylvania until it is proven safe for our environment and the public’s health.” The current goal is reach 100,000 so ask all your friends to sign it, too!
On May 6, 2012, a deer drank from a pool of water above an abandoned gas well in the Allegheny National Forrest. Deer drinking from a puddle, that’s nothing new. All I know is, I would never want my little doe drinking that poison!
A Leaking Gas Well In The Allegheny National Forest
Saveourstreamspa.org uploaded this short, eye-opening video: “The Allegheny National Forest is plagued with abandoned, wells that have been left behind, unplugged by oil and gas operators. Not only are many of these wells spewing methane into the atmosphere, but fluids are being released from these wells and are being consumed by game and wildlife.” (more…)
“Last year, two thousand people flooded the streets of Philadelphia to confront the mega-corporations that are playing fast and loose with public health. Protect our communities and stand up for justice! Protect air, water, farms and food. Fight against climate change by fighting unconventional dirty drilling. Make sure our voices are even louder this year, and more clear: No Fracking. No Cracking. Send this industry packing! Don’t let them frack our future!”
Get the very latest on events, speakers and educational sessions at shalegasoutrage.org. Want to volunteer? Please contact this amazing grassroots organization at protectingourwaters@gmail.com.
Keep Tap Water Safe 