Posts Tagged ‘PA Drinking Water’

Fifty Shades of Fracking

June 27, 2012

Once again, PennEnvironment has smashed the barrier between Big Green and grassroots by eloquently framing the case for a moratorium on fracking in Pennsylvania. This week, PennEnviro presented a series of videos entitled Marcellus Shale Stories. Each clip features citizens speaking out, succinctly describing one aspect of the complex story that is Industrial Shale Gas Drilling. Together, their experiences are a testament to the devastating toll that shale gas production is presently exacting from unwitting Pennsylvanians like you and me.

Non-hysterically narrated by PennEnvironment‘s Erica Staaf, Marcellus Shale Stories is more than a catalog of the ill-effects of gas drilling. It’s an anthology of cautionary tales from Pennsylvania’s Sacrifice Zone, and it underscores the serious need for a moratorium on new drilling permits until comprehensive socio-economic and environmental impact studies are conducted. Otherwise, we are all vulnerable to:

  • Adverse Health Impacts
  • Water Contamination
  • Declining Property Values
  • Compromised Agriculture and Food Safety
  • Loss and Fragmentation of State Forest Land to Gas Drilling
  • Destruction of Scenic Landscapes Adversely Impacting Tourism
  • Downstream Pollution in Cities and Neighboring States

(more…)

Aqua America’s Unquenchable Thirst

April 17, 2012

Major Withdrawals, Major Impact

[UPDATE, April 19, 2012]:  Drought has come early…. Stateimpact.PA reports: SRBC Suspends Water Withdrawal in 5 Counties and Susquehanna River and Its Tributaries Hit Drought Levels by Donald Gilliland in The Patriot-News.

Marcellus effect: SRBC Temporarily Suspends Water Withdrawals

[Original Post]:  Once fresh water is used for fracking, it can never be safely returned to the watershed. You simply can’t filter out heavy metals and radioactive isotopes like Radon 226. The only thing the water is good for is more fracking. Permanently removing many millions of gallons of fresh water from the Susquehanna and Delaware River basins will leave our region more vulnerable to drought. Small streams, the water tables they inform, and the many private wells which rely on them, will dry up that much faster. Depleted water tables may also contain heavier concentrations of naturally occurring substances already present. (more…)

Toxic Treatment: Chlorine vs. Chloramine for Public Water Disinfection

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…)

Defunding & Defeating The Delaware River Basin Commission

March 8, 2012

In case you missed it on Philly.com…

Financial woes shake the DRBC
3 of the 5 commission members have either shrunk payments or stopped paying

by Sandy Bauers

Freaked About Frack Waste on AquaPA’s “Main Division”

May 13, 2011

People used to say, “What’s Fracking?” when they saw the bumper sticker on my car. Now they want to know what they can do to keep their tap water, and their family, safe.
   Water awareness is assuredly growing as water area consumers (a.k.a. humans) begin to question Lower Merion Township’s water source and origin, and its treatment before it issues from our taps. Even those with households on well water are curious to know how PA’s Industrial Gas Boom, and the accompanying toxic wastewater disposal problem, is impacting their water quality. (more…)