Archive for the ‘PA Drinking Water’ Category
April 9, 2012
PA DEP Sends Cabot Oil & Gas a Stern Letter About Dimock
On March 9, 2012, the PA Department of Environmental Protection sent a certified letter to Mr. Phil Stalnaker, Vice President & Manager-North Region Cabot Oil & Gas. Basically, they found the company’s reporting on the 2008 water contamination in Dimock, PA to be significantly lacking. The report, prepared by URS Corporation, a global company based in SanFrancisco CA, has such “deficiencies” that DEP has been unable to review it, and therefore take any real action. Seems to me, DEP and Cabot have been dragging this dance out long enough.
DEP’s Jennifer Means, Environmental Program Manager of the Eastern Oil & Gas District, wrote the letter. She highlights the Department’s four main complaints: (more…)
Tags:Cabot, Dimock PA, Jennifer Means, Phil Stalnaker
Posted in DEP, fracking accidents fraccidents, hydraulic fracturing, PA Drinking Water | Leave a Comment »
April 8, 2012
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…)
Tags:American Rivers, anti-fracking petition, CLAW, Delaware Riverkeeper, Jessie Thomas-Blate, Trout Unlimited, van Rossum
Posted in fresh water pollution, PA DEP, PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Unconventional Gas Drilling | Leave a Comment »
April 6, 2012
Just Add Sunshine…
If a stream dies, does anybody hear? Life in Boiling Spring Run in Central, PA ceased decades ago, yet while local residents have been reporting illegal dumping for years, the PA DEP has ignored the problem. Until 2009, that is, when DEP took samples, then declared the test results “Confidential.” (more…)
Tags:Bedford County, Boiling Spring PA
Posted in DEP, Environment, PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds | Leave a Comment »
April 1, 2012
“If you were looking for a way to poison the drinking water supply, here in the Northeast you couldn’t find a more chillingly effective and thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic fracturing,” wrote Paul Hetzler, a former environmental engineer with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation in The Watertown Daily Times in December, 2011.
Paula Clair of Garrison, NY cites Hetzler in her thoughtful Op-Ed piece, Don’t Sacrifice Water For Profits, in TimesUnion.com on March 31, 2012, writing: “Water is life. There is no life without it. Don’t let big oil/gas sacrifice our state, our homes and our health for their profit.” Clearly, Clair gets it. She’s awake, and questioning the source of her water. Her words reflect the growing public concern for watersheds, fresh air and food supplies. The Natural Gas Industry may be saturating our commercial airwaves with slick ad campaigns, but we the people have YouTube!
An Anti-Fracker’s Playlist… (more…)
Tags:Leslie Stahl, Paul Hetzler, Paula Clair
Posted in anti-fracking movement, Environment, fracking, fresh water pollution, PA Drinking Water, shale gas pollution | Leave a Comment »
March 30, 2012
The New Normal? Updated…
Methane contamination has become such an issue that one of PA’s largest water suppliers, Pennsylvania American Water Co. in Hershey, PA, is working to stay ahead of the toxicity curve. David Templeton and Don Hopey report in Water company plans to change disinfectant used in some systems, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the company will switch more treatment plants from Chlorine to Chloramine for disinfection in order to control “carcinogenic disinfection byproducts including trihelamethane and haloacetic acid.”
According to Heinz Award winning Ecologist and Author, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., when you chlorinate water that is contaminated with methane you end up with disinfection by-products such as Trihalomethanes, or chloroforms, which are known to cause bladder and colon cancer.
Use of Chloramine in public water supplies is more widely opposed than Chlorine. While complaints from Chlorine are mostly aesthetic, such as taste and smell, complaints from Chloramine include skin rashes, respiratory and digestive problems. EPA admits that not as much research has been done on Chloramine as Chlorine. Nevertheless, PA American Water is looking to increase their use of Chloramine wherever possible. (more…)
Tags:Chloramine, Chlorine, Erin Brockovich, PA Drinking Water, Public Water Treatment, Susan K. Pickford
Posted in Environment, PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds | 3 Comments »
March 29, 2012
Get Lawyered Up!
I was first introduced to attorney Jon Ostroff years ago, when he married my treasured pal, Amy. He left an impression on me as the type of guy who prefers mediation over litigation. In other words, he was one of the least litigious lawyers I’ve ever met. When I last saw Jon, a while back, his good-natured, altruistic energy was focused on an orphanage in Cape Town, South Africa that he and Amy had recently adopted. Today, thanks to their family’s intelligent, caring efforts, Love to Langa, is a flourishing foundation which has helped create many a happier, healthier childhood.
Fast forward to the Fracking Boom, and my pleasant surprise at finding Ostroff Injury Law focusing its energy on providing legal recourse for those injured by industrial Marcellus shale gas drilling. (more…)
Tags:Frackcidents, fracking lawsuits, Jon Ostroff, Love to Langa
Posted in epa, fracking accidents fraccidents, hydraulic fracturing, PA Drinking Water, Unconventional Gas Drilling | 1 Comment »
March 28, 2012
Catching Up On Reading
Everyone cares about water. Luckily, there’s new information on watershed protection everyday, making it relatively easy to comprehend the urgent issues confronting the 15.6 million people who rely on the Delaware River Watershed. The “Little Giant” generates $22 billion in revenue for eastern Pennsylvania each year, according to The University of Delaware, and gas drillers should not underestimate how much the City of Brotherly Love loves this 333-mile long river.
(more…)
Tags:Dory Hippauf, Irena Salina, Maya van Rossum, Richard Louv, Walter Brasch
Posted in Environment, fresh water pollution, PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds, shale gas pollution | 1 Comment »
March 27, 2012
Citizens Call for Water Sovereignty
Last week, it came to light that Aqua PVR LLC is displacing 32 families in Piatt Township, Lycoming County, so they may syphon off hundreds of millions of gallons of Susquehanna River Basin water for gas drillers. News of this outrage traveled quickly through blogs and on Facebook pages like StopFrackingPA! There was talk of how best to get information about Aqua PA’s heartless corporate behavior out to Rachel Maddow.
Watch a brief, moving video about the difficulties facing Riverdale residents, Marcellus Shale Reality Tour Part 6 Eviction Notice, by Scott Cannon of Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition on You Tube. (more…)
Tags:Aqua America, Aqua PA, Aqua PVR, Rachel Maddow
Posted in PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
March 21, 2012
UPDATE On The Residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Village from Judy Morrash Muskauski: “A Bryn Mawr-based Aqua PVR LLC has decided it will give most residents of Riverdale Mobile Home Village until June 1 to move.The company received permission from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water per day from the site. The company plans to build a pump station on the site. The water will be transported via pipeline to gas drilling sites. The residents’ leases have been terminated.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZL9wgGqJk1s
ORIGINAL POST: Displacing a community of 32 families from the Riverdale Mobile Home Village in Piatt Township, PA is just another day on the job for Aqua PVR LLC. For 38-year resident, Doris M. Fravel, however, the news is devastating. The company, owned by Bryn Mawr-based Aqua America, plans to eliminate her neighborhood and build a water withdrawal facility for the Natural Gas Industry.
“I could sit down and cry my eyes out,” the 82 year old widow told David Thompson of The Williamsport SunGazette in his article, 32-Unit Village No More.
Loretta J. Gary, POWer extraordinaire, called attention to the story which has quickly become emblematic of the way pro-gas interests are cramming drilling-related activities down Pennsylvania’s collective sore throat. It’s on anti-fracking organizer Alexander Lotoro’s considerable Facebook radar, too. (more…)
Tags:Aqua PA, David Thompson, Donna Alston, Doris Fravel, Loretta Gary
Posted in fracking, hydraulic fracturing, PA Drinking Water, Stop Fracking PA! | 2 Comments »
Keep Tap Water Safe 
