You don’t have to be a hydrogeologist to understand the severity of the U.S. Geological Survey’s most recent warning. As the number of suitable sites for deep wastewater injection wells dwindles, and production in the Marcellus ramps up, pressure is mounting on municipal water treatment plants to deal with all the frack waste. But as every good sewage plant operator knows, what goes in, must come out.
Technical Announcement: Disinfection of Energy Wastewater Can Lead to Toxic Byproducts
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communications and Publishing
12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119, Reston, VA 20192
Mike Focasio 703-648-6808
Alec Demas 703-648-4421
Released: 9/4/2013 — Wastewater treatment plants that process waters from oil and gas development were found to discharge elevated levels of toxic chemicals known as brominated disinfection byproducts, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. (more…)
There are two kinds of people in Philadelphia, those who oppose a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export facility, and those who don’t know about it yet. Oh, right, and then there’s a few who’ve been quietly getting LNG done for years.
Think About It – LNG Is A Bad Idea
Sierra Club Wants to Stop LNG Exportsand they’re not mincing words. The new “Beyond Natural Gas” campaign website states: “EXPORTING LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG) TO OVERSEAS MARKETS IS A DIRTY, DANGEROUS PRACTICE THAT LETS THE INDUSTRY MAKE A KILLING AT THE EXPENSE OF HUMAN HEALTH –
“Exporting natural gas would increase fracking and carbon emissions, put sensitive ecological areas at risk, and do nothing to address our country’s energy challenges. Natural gas companies envision a network of winding pipelines and noisy, polluting compressors that connect the drills to the docks, slicing through wild lands, rivers, and backyards. Pipelines and gas wells will inevitably leak or rupture, risking lives and fouling the environment where people live and further polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink.”
Basically, Sierra researchers conclude that “The United States is sleepwalking through one of the biggest energy policy decisions of our time.” (more…)
Nearly everyday it seems there’s a new report of Marcellus shale gas waste spilling in Pennsylvania’s wetlands and streams, DEP violations like this recent “discharge” reported by SkyTruth:
Issued to Energy Corporation of America on July 22, 2013 — Code 307CSL: Discharge of unconventional industrial drilling waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit in Clearfield, Girard Township (ID#673076)
“An unknown amount of the fluid escaped the pad, flowed down a hill, crossed a road and entered the basement and garage of a nearby farmhouse, Ms. Connolly said. It soaked property at the horse farm, whose owners were out of state, but a farmhand kept the animals safely away from the fluid.”
On both sides of the shale gas safety debate, experts agree that “surface spills” hold the greatest threat for surface water and groundwater contamination. Pennsylvania, by the way, is home to more fresh water resources than any other state in the continental U.S.
“Surface spills of fracturing fluids appear to pose greater risks to groundwater than hydraulic fracturing itself,” writes Bryan R. Walsh in Shale Gas: It’s Not the Fracking That Might Be the Problem. It’s Everything Else, Time Magazine, on February 17, 2012. While Walsh pays short shrift the long term impacts of deteriorating wellbore seals, his premise certainly rings true right now. Every week, we see more spills, more overturned tankers and leaky valves, each one a small-scale, highly toxic event unto itself, and it invariably concludes with a dead stream and DEP asking drillers to promise not do it again.
A Water-Tight Case?
And then there are spills so big and negligent that the EPA has no choice but to step in and sue the driller, as is the case of this EXXON/XTO Energy violation, reported earlier this week:
GrowthBusters wants you to know “what’s cooking in the public debate about fracking” so they made this “fair use sampling” of video clips about one the most important public debates currently raging across Colorado and the United States.
Frack-Free TV: Lives and groundwater are routinely destroyed yet the shale gas industry keeps on drilling, spending millions to buy the silence of those impacted, and often their real estate, too. Big Gas has also been spending hundreds of millions in advertising to convince you that these Americans don’t exist.
Doug Shields, the former Pittsburgh city councilman who most recently appeared in Gasland II, and a tireless advocate for Pennsylvania’s natural resources, recently posted this Postcard From The Sacrifice Zone on several anti-fracking facebook pages:
“[Pine Creek] isn’t too far from Williamsport, PA, the self-named ‘Energy Capital of Pennsylvania.’ I was there on June 19th for the screening of Gasland Part II later that evening. On the morning of, I took off for a drive up into the Pine Creek Valley with a backroad map of the area provided to me by a local who had marked out the drilling fields for me.
“The valley, mostly a series of state parks and forests, is a place that is stunningly beautiful with dramatic. steep-sided hills covered with verdant forests spilling down to Pine Creek. I also noted how the locals felt very much a part of this landscape and how they appreciated the beauty that surrounded them and the lifestyle it provided.“I left Rt 44 and headed up the unpaved back roads to the top of the plateaus above the valley. First, I see the signs restricting trucks from roads deemed too small to use in the State Parks. Then, the pipeline rights-of-way carved through the forests for miles, cutting up hills once filled with forest. At the top, more pipelines then, the well pads.
“A helicopter breaks the silence of the forest, the sound the engine’s roar covers this valley I am in, hovering with wire cables dangling about a half mile away above a steep hillside. Roads, leading off into the dark corners of the park, were gated and posted with warnings by the drillers to keep out.“As I drove by a gas worker in Tiadaghton State Park, we exchanged brief looks filled with suspicion, both of us thinking, “What is he doing here?” My car had no drilling company logos on the side and I was taking pictures. I thought to myself, “How sad it is that we don’t simply wave and greet one another.” I think we both understood that we were some sort of threat to one another just by being there. The character of this community had been changed in so many ways.”
Shields included a link to this clip from the ever-upcoming documentary Groundswell Risingin which Pennsylvania’s scenic Pine Creek Valley is overrun with 24 hour heavy duty truck traffic due to hydraulic fracking.
Groundswell Rising: Protecting Our Children’s Water
“Heavy Fraffic equals to 400 to 600 water trucks to frack one natural gas well!!” says Elizabeth Greico, a Northeastern Pennsylvania resident. “Where will they get all this water? Extract it from local streams and ground wells? How long can the environment support this kind of aggression? Can you believe 80,000 gallons of toxic chemicals injected into one fracked well? Benzene? Fight back and write to you Congressmen, Representatives and local elected officials! Ban Fracking in your Town! Go CELDF.org ! They will help you organize! Don’t wait! Do it now!“
Right after the release of Gasland II on HBO, Josh Fox sent this letter to President Obama, and he asked fellow fractivists to share it, too.
Finally got to see the film, and I felt relieved and recharged because Fox has successfully captured, in granular detail, an accurate portrait of big energy fracking U.S. democracy, and a fossil-free movement that is growing larger and ever more determined. The complexity of images, information, and emotions validated my impression of the shale gas invasion over the past few years, both in Pennsylvania and around the world. Given that this form of extreme fossil fuel extraction is ramping up exponentially worldwide, and entire regions of my home state are being transformed into endless industrial zones, the request seems pretty damn reasonable. Sharing!
Request to President Obama: Please meet with the Scientists and Families in GASLAND, Part II
Josh’s letter to President Obama, July 8th, 2013:
Dear President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary Moniz, Heather Zichal and Valerie Jarrett,
I write to request a meeting with you and families directly impacted by oil and gas drilling and fracking—as documented in Gasland Part II—to…gether with a small group of scientists and engineers who are also featured in the film. (more…)
Who are these people? And why do they think they have the right to force a heavily industrial deep shale extraction process into a highly protected watershed which supplies drinking water to 17 million people from New York City to Wilmington, Delaware? It would seem this handful of county commissioners is ready to risk it all, for roughly 5% of the U.S. population, while shushing valid environmental concerns with the vague promise of jobs. Who’s gonna want the jobs if you can’t drink the water?
Tell DRBC: Pennsylvania’s Last Frack-Free Watershed Deserves A Permanent Ban! (more…)
Energy From Shaleis yetanother generic new front group created by America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) to advertise the illusion that the highly polluting process of shale gas production is really shiny, clean and green. They recently launched their first PR effort, asking us to “Think About It.” Believe me, ANGA, I have.
Even when done correctly, fracking cannot be done safely.
All cement wellbore seals, every last one of them, will fail over time. Cement simply doesn’t last forever. Steel can crack. Even if drillers get everything exactlyright the first time, cement will become porous due to heat and pressure. Earthquakes, whether caused by nature or deep waste injection wells, hold the potential to damage seals. In about 50-60 years tops, according to gas industry estimates, most wellbore seals will fail, eventually enabling pathways for fluids and gases to communicate with aquifers, geological formations or the environment.
Image Credit: George E. King Engineering, March, 2009
This is an aspect of the drilling issue that simply cannot be ignored. When it comes to the future security of our drinking water supplies, this is the crux of it.
Now, It’s About Gas. Ultimately, It’s About Water.
“It’s not roulette. It’s a certainty,” Gasland II filmmaker and citizen of the United States, Josh Fox, recently said on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher. “This is a problem the gas industry can’t fix.”
Headless Fed: EPA Punts Fracking Study
The good news is, drillers have the technology to reseal and replug failed wellbores. The bad news is, they have to do it fairly often. More than 5% of wellbore seals fail immediately. (more…)
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but apparently it says a lot more when it’s a photo of frackers fracking. In Pennsylvania recently, the battle to control the images used to depict the national debate over shale gas drilling has officially heated up.
In February, 2013 PA House Bill 683 was proposed by nine Pennsylvania lawmakers – Reps. Gary Haluska [D-73rd], Carl Metzgar [R-69th], Stephen Barrar [R-160th], M. K. Keller [R-86th], Dick Hess [R-78th], Dan Moul [R-91st], Mike Fleck [R-81st], C. Adam Harris [R-82nd] and Tom Murt [R-152nd]. Steve Todd was among the first to report it in his February 26 post, PA State House Judiciary Committee: NO on HB683. This bill would prohibit people from photographing oil and gas operations because they are occurring on agricultural lands. By fracking farmland, gas drillers would gain new impunity under a piece of anti-whitsle blower legislation, commonly known as an “Ag-gag.”
Yes, you’re reading it correctly. PA HB683 would make it illegal to photograph images of gas drilling operations – the good, the bad, the mundane and the incendiary.
And in case you’re wondering, Pennsylvania has about 63,163 farms. That’s roughly 7.8 million agricultural acres out of the total 29.5 million acres in Pennsylvania, which ranks 20th in the U.S. for agricultural production.
“HB683 makes it illegal to photograph a farm, a cow, a horse, sheep, goats, pigs, haystacks, tractors, chickens, corn fields, pumpkin patches, vegetables, fruits, and natural gas wells. Fracktivists have been filming frack sites, FROM PUBLIC ROADS, their videos are invaluable in documenting fracking’s destruction of PA.” ~ MarcellusProtest.org
The bill is currently in committee, but environmentalists are keeping an eye on it. HB 683 is exactly the sort of legislation the PA GOP tucks into other bills and passes late at night.
Unsurprisingly, HB 683 has its roots (tentacles?) in similar ALEC-sponsored legislation proposed in other states. Dory Hippauf relates its absurdity in Arresting Monet – AG-GAG Pennsylvania House Bill 683, Blog.ShaleShockMedia.org:
“HB683 is modeled after ‘proposed legislation’ written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wish lists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC’s operations.”
PLEASE SIGN ON to the PETITION To Say NO to HB 683 HERE.
” Yesterday in Lancaster, PA, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee voted 115 to 81 for a resolution calling for a moratorium on all frack drilling in Pennsylvania. This was a vote for the health and safety of Pennsylvanians and our environment against the out of state billionaires and corporations who own Corbett and the DEP.”
A coalition of concerned democrats will deliver a widely supported resolution to the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee which is meeting onSaturday, June 15th in Lancaster, Pa. They willaddress the party’s emerging policies towards shale gas production, urging them a second time to support Senator Jim Ferlo’s proposed Statewide Natural Gas Drilling Moratorium. Scroll down, or click here for a link to the action and resolution, written by Sue Lyons of Monroe County, Pa.
Use Discretion, Win Elections!
It’s time for the PA Dems to stop being out of step with the majority of Pennsylvanians and out of touch with the damage fracking is doing to our communities, natural resources, health, safety and climate! (more…)
Suddenly, A New Genre: Independent Films About Fracking
Cool art house theater or screen porch screening, there’s a whole crop of new films that reveal the true stories of fracking and the impact of industrial shale gas extraction on people, land, air and water. There are so many new movies, you could spend the whole summer watching them, and why not? Here’s my current Don’t Miss list – please share your reviews and recommends.
Groundswell Rising Rough Cut Ready, Almost!
Susan Lyons recently posted on StopFrackingPA! that a “Rough Cut debut of Groundswell Rising sold out at Pocono Community Theater. Got there too late to get a seat. Hope to see the final version soon.”
Mark Dodel replied: “Actually we ended up watching Dear Gov Cuomo. The final print of Groundswell Rising wasn’t finished in time to get it to the theater I had never seen the Cuomo movie so it worked out. They will reschedule Groundswell soon.”
Groundswell Rising, Protecting Our Children’s Air And Water, the new documentary from Emmy Award-winning Resolution Pictures, captures the passion of people engaged in a David and Goliath confrontation. They stand together, challenging a system that promotes profit over health. We meet mothers, fathers, scientists, doctors, farmers and people from all sides of the political spectrum taking a hard look at energy extraction techniques not proven to be safe. With the Oil and Gas industry’s expansion of fracking seen as a moral issue, this provocative documentary tracks a people’s movement, a groundswell rising towards reason and sensitivity, to protect life, today and tomorrow.
Imagine discovering that you don’t own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. (more…)
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 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 now 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.
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.”
Yesterday was the long awaited premier of Josh Fox’s new documentary, Gasland Part II at The Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Can’t. Wait. To. See. It. Some initial tweets about the film, shared by Marcellus Protest and fans:
“Gasland 2 is an essential and worthy follow up to the original. More emotional and just as disturbing.”
“Congratulations to Josh Fox on inspiring premiere of your powerful & timely new film at Tribeca.”
“Part 2 just premiered at Tribeca Film Fest NYC. An absolute must see on fracking, govt, corps. + We, the people.”
“Still choked up by Gasland Part 2. Even more powerful, urgent + compelling than first one.”
Until the new documentary comes to Philadelphia, and it will, I’ll have to content myself with these videos of the Q&A Session that followed the screening, published by sailorsmoon9:
Forbes Contributor, Jeff McMahon, Joins Hal Harvey In The Methane Fact Bubble
Speaking at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy on Thursday April 11, Hal Harvey, CEO of the lobby firm Energy Innovationand former Energy Advisor to Clinton and H. W. Bush, offered up his playbook for frackers. On April 12, Forbes contributing writer, Jeff McMahon, covered Harvey’s speech in the article, “5 Things U.S. Must Do To Win At Fracking.” I wasn’t there, but I’m guessing it must have been a bit like preaching to the choir. (more…)
Despite the wildly banging gavel, The Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum would not be silenced at the March 6 Delaware River Basin Commission public hearing – not until she had given full voice to the resolution proposed by numerous environmental groups in the basin. Only then did she yield the floor, and it was to the incredible harmony of the 70 or so activists in attendance singing This Land Is Your Land.
Try as DRBC might, even with a formal acknowledgement of the March 1 letter signed by 67 organizations and a petition signed by thousands of citizens, the Commission can no longer fallback on its routine deferral of pipeline oversight. While the DRBC would continue to kick the can down the road, chainsaws are whirring, and trees are already being felled by the thousands as forests are fragmented for new pipeline routes. This is no longer acceptable to watershed stakeholders, nor was it palatable to the majority of people in that meeting room.
van Rossum delivered their message with succinct, breathtaking force:
“A failure to act is a decision not to act.”
Thank you, protestors. Thank you, Delaware Riverkeeper, for standing up for our right to a clean, safe watershed.
“Somebody has to do something to protect these waters,” Joe Zenes, Pike County PA resident. Posted by Delaware Riverkeeper Network, March 7, 2013
“The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and concerned citizens from four states vented their anger at the Delaware River Basin Commission when the agency refused to take action to regulate shale gas pipelines in the watershed. The protestors shutdown the meeting at one point.” (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.”
Keep Tap Water Safe 