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Dear Pickens Plan “Army” -
In an article titled, “High Times for T Boone Pickens,” Time Magazine quoted Senator Howard Metzenbaum:
“Pickens makes a crusade out of what he’s doing because he can make a lot of money.”
And that was in 1985.
I don’t know about you, but I see a pattern emerging.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961946-1,00.html
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Reported by PhillyIMC – Philadelphia Independent Media Center
Residents report Toxic Clouds of Gas near a MarkWest Compressor Station
Nastassja Noell | 10.23.2009
The Marcellus Shale is said to be the third largest natural gas field in the world, but the gas is trapped as small pockets inside of rock. During the past 5 years, as rising prices have made unconventional gas sources profitable for the industry, a frenzy of drilling rigs have entered the Northeastern US. Natural gas drilling infrastructure requires CNG compressor stations, which are known for having incidents such as explosions or high pressure releases.
Reporting from Binghamton, NY: On Tuesday, residents near the Nancy Stewart Compressor station in Mt. Pleasant Township, PA reported an incident involving natural gas occurring at around 1:15pm. Raw natural gas was escaping from a pipeline with such force that it caused nearby homes to shake. The high pressure gas was not being burned and was released for over an hour, causing a loud sustained noise to be heard throughout the area. “It sounded like a rocket taking off,” said Martin O’Lear, who lives about a quarter mile from the compressor station.
“My eyes started to burn, and then I started to cough which lasted through the afternoon and night” said Mr O’Lear, who lives uphill from the compressor station. “I’ve lived here for 34 years and never before had my eyes start to burn when I stepped outside.”
MarkWest Liberty and Resources LLC, could not be reached for comment.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) stated that the incident was normal operating procedure. “At this point what we understand is that they were conducting some maintenance and repair on the pipeline near to the station,” Helen Humphreys, the community relations coordinator for the DEP, told Indymedia on Wednesday afternoon. “We are continuing to investigate to see if there is more to the story.”
The DEP reported that they are currently performing air tests in the areas surrounding the MarkWest compressor station; air tests were stated to have been performed the day after the incident occurred. Test results may be available next week.
Raw natural gas may include the known carcinogen benzene. Residents stated that the fumes were strong, similar to kerosene oil, but did not smell like sulfur – which would indicate the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the gas. Washington Hospital and the local veterinarian clinic reported that no patients have exhibited symptoms of hydrogen sulfide poisoning as of Wednesday afternoon.
CNG compressor stations use engines to push the gas down the pipeline and are a major component of the modern natural gas infrastructure. Many CNG compressor stations also refine the natural gas coming out of the well head by removing the water and other contaminants. Incidents involving compressor stations are common in natural gas drilling areas.
“We [in Louisiana and Texas] frequently have compressor stations that have either had an explosion or an over-pressurization” said Wilma Subra, a chemist who founded the Oil and Gas Accountability Project. On Tuesday, Dr. Subra spoke at length about air pollution associated with CNG facilities on WHRW Binghamton’s radio show “The Point.”
On August 23 in Clearville, PA, a compressor station operated by Spectra had an emergency shutdown which caused surrounding fields to be covered with an oily substance as large amounts of natural gas were vented into the atmosphere.
MarkWest owns and operates at least 9 compressor stations in Washington County, there are at least two MarkWest compressors stations in Mt. Pleasant.
If residents smell an egg sulfur smell near a gas pipeline or gas well, this may be an indication of hydrogen sulfide, a known toxin. Please call your local Emergency Management Agency (EMA).
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/residents-report-toxic-clouds-gas-near-markwest-compressor-station
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From the Chesapeake Bay Foundation blog:
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My Road Trip to Frackville, Heart of the Drilling Boom
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Please visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NY-Statewide-Ban-On-Natural-Gas-Drilling to sign the following petition:
We the undersigned …
CALL FOR A BAN ON GAS DRILLING IN LOW-PERMEABLE STONE DEPOSITS IN NEW YORK STATEWhereas,
1. With a failure rate of between 2 to 8 percent, horizontal drilling and hydrofracking pose an unacceptable risk to our drinking water and the quality of groundwater, aquifers, lakes and streams
2. Drilling will introduce over 250 chemicals into our air and water, placing local residents, wildlife, and critical agriculture and watershed areas at risk3. Communities where hydrofracking has occurred have experienced explosions, fires, spills, stream contamination, and well pollution as well as degradation of aquifers and other water supplies
4. Local emergency services, including volunteer fire departments, EMS units, and healthcare providers, will be severely stressed and placed at considerable risk from accidents
5. Gas drilling in NYS will involve construction of a massive infrastructure of wellheads, pipelines, compressing stations, and processing centers spread across much of rural upstate NY
6. Infrastructure development will involve extensive clearcutting, 24 hour noise and light pollution, huge increases of truck traffic, and the permanent altering of existing landscapes
7. Industrialization is incompatible with agriculture, tourism, recreation; drilling and related development will significantly alter existing use patterns of rural areas
8. Compulsory integration of neighboring landowners to allow gas extraction against their wishes is an unlawful seizure of land and an unconstitutional abuse of power
9. Extensive drilling will undermine property values and increase tax burdens on local citizens, creating boom and bust economic cycles in local communities
10. New York City’s Dept. of Environmental Protection has concluded that hydrofracking is too dangerous for the city’s Catskill/Delaware watershed
11. NYS DEC’s draft Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) is fatally flawed in its open support of drilling, its minimization and dismissal of risks, and its failure to consider the total cost of drilling
12. NYS DEC is seriously understaffed and underfunded, and is in no position to regulate and effectively monitor drilling in NYS, and
13. Natural gas is not “clean energy” but rather just another polluting, non-renewable fossil fuel contributing to global warming
We call on you to put the people first and protect our health, environment, communities, and future by banning horizontal drilling and hydrofracking to release gas from low-permeable stone formations in New York State.
Sincerely,
The Petition Signers and the following organizations:
Action Otsego, Advocates for Springfield, Atlantic Chapter of Sierra Club, Bronx Greens, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, CDOG (Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Drilling Opposition Group), Citizens Action Alliance, Concerned Citizens of Otego, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Energy Justice Network, Environmental Working Group of Central New York, Friends of Brook Park, Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance (FWCanDo), Hands Across the Border, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederation (banned drilling on all lands under their control), More Gardens!, National Alliance for Drilling Reform, New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG), NYH2O, Schoharie Valley Watch, Inc., Shaleshock, Sustainable Otsego and SWiM (Safe Water Movement)
Tags: statewide ban
DELAWARE-OTSEGO AUDUBON SOCIETY
PO Box 544, ONEONTA, NY 13820
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11/2/09
AUDUDON GROUP OPPOSES HYDROFRACTURING, CALLS PROCESS AN UNACCEPTABLE DANGER
The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society has announced its opposition to hydrofracturing gas exploration and production in our region. In a recent statement released by the group, DOAS also calls on NY State to permanently ban the practice.
Dangers to humans, wildlife, and water resources were cited as primary reasons the group finds hydrofracking unacceptable. The statement details multiple areas of concern created by injecting hundreds of millions of gallons of water treated with toxic chemicals under ground at extremely high pressures.
“After a careful review, our board of directors found it unacceptable to expose present and future generations to the contamination produced by this drilling technique,” said DOAS president Tom Salo. The group’s statement calls hydrofracking ” . . . an assault on the very resources that sustain life,” and says, “this damage will remain for millennia, and will threaten unseen future generations, as well as present-day humans and wildlife.”
Other reasons cited for the group’s opposition include wildlife and social impacts from noise and air pollution, large water withdrawals, and damage to habitats and roads from pipelines and wells.
The DOAS statement reads “Hundreds of wells are anticipated for our area, and this may change the region to a permanent industrial landscape. Potential contamination and depletion of water, and pollution of air, soil, and of farm and forest ecosystems could destroy the many resources available today. Water withdrawal and contamination are of special concern. The fragmentation and loss of habitats, and the disturbances of noise and traffic will have an adverse affect on birds and other wildlife, some already in precipitous decline.”
A recently released impact statement from the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation is insufficient to overcome the fundamental threats from hydrofracking, according to DOAS Director Jean T. Miller. “How can we engineer away permanent physical changes and poisoning of the earth?” she said. “We are trading a few more years of fossil fuels for tens of thousands of years of damaged and tainted ground below us.”
Regarding the DEC proposal, DOAS’ statement reads, “Even with the most stringent controls and oversight, this activity is an unacceptable danger to our planet, with no environmental benefits.”
The Audubon group is calling upon the state of New York to permanently ban hydrofracking. “In our view, there is no way this can be done without serious and long-term negative impacts,” said Salo. DOAS is urging the public and their members to contact DEC on the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement before November 30. Comments should be sent to
dSGEIS Comments,
Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral
Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500,
or submitted on-line at DEC’s website.
The DOAS position on gas drilling and hydrofracking wells can be found on their website <http://www.doas.us/>www.doas.us.
Tags: ban, hydraulic fracturing, NYS
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