October 21, 2011
The following is a press release from The Delaware Riverkeeper Network:
Delaware Riverkeeper Resigns From Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission
For Immediate Release, Contact: Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, 215 369 1188 ext 102
October 20, 2011, Bristol, PA – Days before the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission is scheduled to release its final report and recommendations, Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, resigned from her post as a Commissioner for the group. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Delaware Riverkeeper, Marcellus Citizens Commission, van Rossum
Posted in Environment, fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
October 18, 2011
None of the top three Republican Presidential contenders give much credence to the science of Global Climate Change. To ignore it the way they do just seems stupid, and this sets the table for my impressions of these motley characters. I cringe watching all the coverage about the Republican Primary. I don’t disagree with everything they say, but when they speak about energy, the environment or the EPA, they all have the same under-informed, unabashedly biased voice.
Republicans for Obama?
Really? Do they exist? Yesterday, at the supermarket, I saw a Prius with a brand new bumper sticker that read: “Republicans for Obama.” According to their website, “Republicans for Obama is a grassroots organization of proud party members who all share one important trait— we are Americans first and Republicans second.” Cool. I’m a registered Democrat and even I’ve been less than supportive of our president lately. His federal advisory commission on shale gas drilling is stacked with industry insiders, and the revolving door between industry and government has never spun faster. But at least Obama believes in Climate Change! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: EPA, Marcellus Shale Gas, Rick Perry
Posted in Energy, Environment, epa, Politics, shale gas pollution | Leave a Comment »
October 10, 2011
The Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) supply chain is generally more energy and greenhouse gas intensive than the supply chain for pipeline gas because of the extra processing steps. If Pennsylvania becomes a major LNG exporter, we will essentially be exporting the primary benefit of using this cleaner burning fossil fuel while bearing all the nasty environmental hazards and downsides of drilling for, processing and transporting it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Chesapeake, Corbett, Dominion Resources, liquified natural gas export, LNG, Maryland
Posted in Energy, Politics, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
October 5, 2011
UPDATE: The DRBC announced today that it will postpone the October 21 meeting date to vote on the new gas regulations. The meeting is now scheduled for November 21, 2011.
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ORIGINAL POST: The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will vote on October 21, 2011 whether to open the “Special Protection Waters” of The Upper Delaware to industrial shale gas drilling. If new DRBC regulations are passed, the current moratorium on hydraulic fracturing will come to an end, and fracking will begin in earnest in the Delaware River watershed region. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: delaware river, DRBC, New drilling regulations, PA DEP
Posted in anti-fracking movement, Energy, Environment, fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing, PA DEP, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
September 30, 2011
BrynMawr, PA-based Aqua America is one of the nation’s largest water and wastewater treatment companies, serving over 3 million customers across 12 states. Their largest water customer is Exelon Energy. Soon, though, Marcellus Shale gas drillers may provide an even larger revenue stream. Aqua will see tidy profits selling the Susquehanna River Basin water it pulls in Lycoming county to gas drillers in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier. It’s simply good business to accommodate them by laying 18-miles of 12-inch pipe. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Anne Minicozzi, Aqua America, Aqua PA, DiBenedictis, Penn Virginia, PVR Resources Partners, Range Resources
Posted in Environment, hydraulic fracturing, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA! | 1 Comment »
September 27, 2011
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is the only government entity standing between industrial shale gas drilling in the “Special Protection Waters” of the Delaware River watershed region and the 15.6 million people living downstream in Southeastern PA who rely on this river for drinking water. In September, the DRBC held its final public hearing on the issue of rules for horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware Basin in West Trenton, NJ. At least they held it, right? The hearing was called for 1:30pm, but Food & Water Watch, Protecting Our Waters, and other water action groups had a protest going by noon. The upshot: The DRBC is currently scheduled to vote on whether to allow fracking in the Delaware River Basin on November 21, 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Corbett, Delaware River Basin Commission, DRBC, Food Water Watch, fracking in the delaware, Krancer
Posted in Environment, hydraulic fracturing, PA DEP, Politics, Stop Fracking PA! | 1 Comment »
September 19, 2011
UPDATE [November 8, 2011] On Sunday, November 6, Bill Schackner reported in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that the Cal U Student Association had been quietly negotiating a mineral lease deal. Read the details in his article, Drilling on Campus: Marcellus Shale boom puts colleges at crossroads It’s the first of two parts. Here is Part II: Corporate funding of Marcellus Shale studies at universities raises alarms by Reid R. Frazier and Olivia Garber
ORIGINAL POST:
When Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett [R] first spoke of leasing state college and university land to gas drillers, he was addressing a meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of Councils of Trustees at Edinboro University in March, 2011. He was suggesting a way to soften the economic blow of $650 million in proposed cuts to Public Higher Education, cuts which amounted to a stunning 50% off the prior year’s budget. Cuts that were in addition to the universally repellant $550 million already slashed from Basic Education funding. When Corbett made his seemingly casual suggestion, however, he wasn’t grasping at political straws. He was sowing the seeds of new fiscal policy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: California, Clarion University, Corbett, fracking Mansfield University, fracking PA state schools, Indian University of Pennsylvania, Lock Haven, Penn State, Penn State Extension, Slippery Rock
Posted in fresh water pollution, Politics, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA!, Unconventional Gas Drilling | Leave a Comment »
September 13, 2011
What’s a mother to do? You can buy organic milk and skip the Happy Meal, but how do you protect tender young bodies from air pollution? How to you prevent them from handloading toxic chemicals like formaldehyde from pressure-treated wood on the playground? Dr. Sandra Steingraber is raising the alarm in Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis (Da Capo Press). It might be the most important parenting book you’ll ever read. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Living Downstream, methane contamination, Sandra Steingraber
Posted in Environment, fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing | 2 Comments »
September 13, 2011
If you live in Pennsylvania, and you haven’t read it yet, download/buy/borrow The End of Country right now. Done? Author Seamus McGraw is not only well-informed, he’s irreverent and blunt. To wit, his recent post on Facebook: “I’ve long argued that the two most dangerous chemicals that are used far too liberally in the fracking process are testosterone and adrenaline.”
As a man who facilitated the leasing of his mother’s land to Chesapeake Energy (testosterone), he is often perceived to be a part of the problem by angry fractivists (adrenaline). I would suggest that here’s a guy, a self-proclaimed environmentalist and early biofuel user, who understands the very real dangers of fracking, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Coal, renewable energy, Seamus McGraw, T. Boon Pickens
Posted in Energy, Environment, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA!, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 10, 2011
UPDATE, September 23, 2011:
Since posting below, PA DEP officials have gone on record insisting that “no chemicals” used in hydraulic fracturing or toxic wastewater produced were spilled during the recent catastrophic flooding in Pennsylvania, which occurred as a result of back-to-back hurricanes Irene and Lee. State officials have also suggested that the photo linked in the initial post (below) is inauthentic. Okay. But the fact is, we have only their word for it. Scott Detrow reports in StateImpact that gas drillers weren’t required to report any incidents due to a “loophole” in state regulatory policy. I know, right? How dumb is that? And these are the guys who are going to protect The Delaware River Watershed, drinking water source for 15.6 million people. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Corbett, fracking wastewater treatment, PA Flooding, Scott Detrow, Susquehanna River
Posted in fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
September 8, 2011
Wake The Village! Again
This morning, I sat in traffic for nearly three hours. Record flooding, mudslides and downed trees blocked the way of nearly every commuter in the region. It was a nightmare. I was late for the Freedom from Fracking Conference in Center City, and I was ticked. I arrived just in time to catch hydrogeologist Paul Rubin’s workshop, Our Aquifers, Our Drinking Water: Casualties of Gas Development. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2011, Freedom From Fracking, Paul Rubin, September 7
Posted in anti-fracking movement, Energy, Environment, hydraulic fracturing, Pennsylvania Watersheds, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
September 7, 2011
The purpose of the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission September 6th hearing at the Free Library of Philadelphia was to “delve deeper into a variety of shale gas issues, including water and air quality, social impacts of gas drilling, the drilling tax, and impacts outside Marcellus communities.” A host of invited presenters gave detailed testimony in their area of expertise, then the floor was open to public comment. This was, by far, the more colorful aspect of the evening, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission, crowley, frost, Paul Rubin, PennFuture, sliberman, tsou, Vitali
Posted in Environment, hydraulic fracturing, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Politics, shale gas pollution | 2 Comments »
September 1, 2011
In case you haven’t heard, Governor Tom Corbett thinks he’s “getting gas right.” The rest of Pennsylvania, including many Republican lawmakers in the Republican-controlled State House and Senate, tend to disagree. In the environmental equivalent of Redistricting, the administration has a plan to restructure the DEP and, in particular, its Bureau of Oil and Gas Management. In other words, they don’t like their cards, so rather than play the hand they’ve been dealt, they’re reshuffling the deck. Anything to “get gas done” – “getting it right” would simply be a bonus. The most objectionable of the rumored significant changes: several of the department’s renewable energy and energy conservation programs have been reassessed, scaled back or eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Corbett, DEP Reorganization, Don Hopey
Posted in PA DEP, Politics | Leave a Comment »
August 31, 2011
Pennsylvania’s smallest – and most vulnerable – citizens deserve clean air and methane-free water fountains when they go to school, right? Are we seriously at the point where we’re knowingly exposing school children to toxic air pollution, potential water contamination and massive truck traffic? Apparently, we are. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Ben Wieder, Blackhawk School District Fracking, Chesapeake Energy, gas lease, Jerry Wessel
Posted in fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
August 30, 2011
Long before the word fracking was in our lexicon, Food and Water Watch was advocating nationally against the dangers of industrial shale gas drilling. For years, this DC-based organization has been sounding the alarm over the chemicals used and the toxic waste produced by hydraulic fracturting. Today, they stand among better known environmental advocates such as the Sierra Club, in thick of Pennsylvania’s increasingly contentious legislative battle, armed with popular petitions, mounting scientific evidence and growing public concern. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: anti-fracking petition, Maude Barlow, New York Fracking Ban, Wenonah Hauter
Posted in Environment, fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing | 2 Comments »
August 29, 2011
I’ve called him a gasbag, and predicted he would flip the environmental bird to Camden County and South Jersey by not signing the ban on hydraulic fracturing passed by NJ state legislature earlier this summer. My next guess would have been a series of stall tactics, the likes of which Pennsylvania excels. Surprisingly, Governor Christie neither stalled nor outright vetoed. (No one thought he’d actually approve the measure, not just like that.) Turns out, he took a refreshingly moderate path with a conditional veto of the fracking ban, and the prudent step of proposing a moratorium on gas drilling for one year. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Chis Chirstie, Fracking ban, New Jersey
Posted in Energy, Environment | Leave a Comment »
August 20, 2011
The kids are home! Camp was great, and once again there’s a wait at Ruby’s Diner. It’s that pleasant interim between peak summer and back-to-school. Last week, on a trip to New England, my husband took us on a tour of the overnight camp where he spent six glorious summers in his youth. It was heartwarming to see him share his memories with our camp-aged son as he endeavored to warm him up to the idea of maybe going there, too. It was all I could do not to go around picking up the wet towels. I could totally see why it’s one of his “happy places.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: b'nai b'rith, fracking, Morasha, New Jersey Y, overnight camps, perlman starlight, poconos, Shalom Center
Posted in Environment, fresh water pollution, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
August 17, 2011
In a controlled test conducted by the US Forest Service initiated in 2008, frack waste was applied to a contained 1/4-acre of deciduous forest in West Virginia. I’ve been saying it for months, “Test, Baby, Test.” By that, I meant independent baseline testing Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Fernow, frack waste test, Mother Nature Network, US Forest Service
Posted in Environment, epa, fresh water pollution, PA DEP, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA! | 3 Comments »
August 5, 2011
The once pristine “high value” Laurel Lake Creek north of Allentown in Silver Lake Township, Susquehanna County is now the site of the latest Fraccident in Eastern Pennsylvania, according to Department of Environmental Protection officials. The persistent mud blowout was caused when Laser Northeast Gathering Co., LLP crews were tunneling beneath the “protected” waterway to lay a gas pipeline on Friday, July 29, 2011. Mud continues gushing today, one week later. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bentonite, blowout, Kevin R. Marion, Laser Northeast Gathering CO., Laurel Lake Creek, LLP, mud, Salt Springs State Park, Silver Lake Township, Vera Duerga
Posted in fresh water pollution, hydraulic fracturing, PA DEP, shale gas pollution, Stop Fracking PA! | Leave a Comment »
August 2, 2011
[UPDATE: April 5, 2012]: Eureka Resources Supports New Pennsylvania DEP Standards Encouraging Reuse-of-Wastewater From Oil and Gas Sites
[Original Post]: As of May, 2011, the PA Department of Environmental Protection has insisted that industrial gas drillers in Pennsylvania “stop sending toxic wastewater to 15 treatment plants unequipped to purify it.” There has been little mention of the millions of gallons of untreated frack waste that were released prior to the dumping deadline but hey, as the saying goes, it’s water under the bridge, right?
Seemingly overnight, gas drillers such as Chesapeake Energy began claiming that they now re-use or recycle 100% of their hydrofracking flowback. Other drilling companies have proffered similarly impressive percentages. Wow. That’s one nimble industry! In the space of a mere 28 days – not 28 months – they were able to revamp their industrial waste-stream and totally eliminate one of environmentalists’ biggest concerns. Amazing.
Water re-use has been key to substantiating the gas drillers’ claims. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Aqua-Pure Fountain Quail, Eureka Resources, Frack Waste Recycling, Halldorson, Layne Christensen
Posted in Environment, Pennsylvania Watersheds | 7 Comments »
Keep Tap Water Safe 