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“‘I’ve signed farmers who were sitting there with broken-down equipment, a broken roof, losing money because they wouldn’t put a fence up to keep critters out of their corn silo,’ Casale said. ‘You go and write them a check and they’ve got a brand-new tractor and a brand-new Ford truck, and the corn silo’s still the same. You know that old adage, the shoemaker’s kid doesn’t have shoes? I hate to say it, but I see a lot of them worse off than when they started.’
“Sometimes, he told me, he found himself thinking, I’m killing this county.”
- Playboy, current issue, “Drill!”
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We usually leave events to the events calendar. The announcement below is worth an exception because of its particular combination of pic and text: The industry and its lobbyists have been working the halls of state capitols and wining & dining local officials for a long time. The citizens were the last to know.
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Tags: lobbying
July 15, 2010
Clearfield County (PA) District Attorney, William A. Shaw, Jr., announced that an investigation is ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the recording of fraudulent deeds filed at the Clearfield County Courthouse.
Shaw reported that “the investigation is focusing on irregularities that appear in several deeds claiming ownership of gas rights for nearly 2700 acres of property in the Morrisdale area, known as the Wigton Coal Reservation”. Shaw stated that “the investigation began after the District Attorney’s Office received a complaint from a property owner seeking to enter a lease agreement with a gas company”.
Shaw said that “as a result of fraudulent deed recordings, land owners in the Morrisdale area seeking to enter lease agreements with gas companies may be required to file lawsuits to protect their legal interests. Gas companies intending to drill wells are reluctant to enter lease agreements when ownership of the gas rights is clouded by fraudulent deed recordings”.
Shaw stated that, “the investigation has identified what appears to be fraudulently recorded deeds claiming ownership of gas rights. The theft of gas rights may have an enormous economic impact on the true owners of the gas rights. Land owners should not be required to spend thousands of dollars to file lawsuits to protect their ownership interests”.
Shaw is concerned that “many property owners may be making life altering decisions based upon inaccurate or false information”. Shaw “encourages all landowners to exercise caution and seek the advice of legal counsel when entering into any type of agreement relating to gas rights”.
Shaw said that “any fraudulent recordings can impact land owners for many years if corrective action is not taken”. “Simply trying to buy or sell a house could become an issue if the fraudulent deeds are not identified and corrected”, Shaw said.
Shaw reported that the investigation has been referred to the Pennsylvania State Police, Woodland Barracks. Shaw anticipates that criminal charges will be filed in the near future.
Shaw described the land identified by the investigation as generally surrounded by or touching the Deer Creek Road to the Allport Cutoff to the Morrisdale Allport Highway to the Deer Creek Road.
Anyone with knowledge or information about a crime is asked to call Clearfield County Crimestoppers at (800)-376-4700.
What happened to conservative values? It has been very disappointing to see our conservative values continue to dwindle under the pressure from large corporations. In Texas our politicians talk conservative values right up to the point where they fail to follow them. Two foundation pieces of conservatism, are property rights and the free market system. In Texas, our “conservative” politicians have taken away both from the average Texan. You are allowed to enjoy your property, as long a corporation or someone with more money doesn’t want it. This used to be a state where you could move out in the rural areas, buy a piece of land, and live in peace. Now if you move to the country to have some property, you are an immediate target for a corporation to take your land, or make it unlivable.
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The prime example of this is the oil and gas industry. The State of Texas has taken away most of the rights that pertain to land ownership from the citizens and given it to these large corporations. One glaring example is the natural gas pipeline midstream companies, which have been given the tremendous power of eminent domain. These are private, for profit companies that have been awarded all the power of government to condemn property. This not only takes away property rights, but it destroys the free market system that allows for a property owner to negotiate in good faith for the use of their property. Instead the private property owners are immediately subjected to threats and intimidations. Due to these companies being for profit, it is in their best interest to obtain the easement and install the pipeline as cheap as possible, and they use whatever tactic necessary to achieve this. Therefore, private property owners are paid a fraction of the value of the land and not compensated for associated property damage. This is not limited to the active drilling areas, due to pipelines being installed all over the state.
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Another example is what is known as forced pooling. It has many names and variations, but again it is another method to transfer private property rights to large corporations. This again takes away the requirement to negotiate in good faith from the private property owner for their mineral properties. In Texas the minerals are the dominant property right, so the surface owners have little input on what happens to their property. However, under forced pooling, the energy companies can even take your minerals without your consent. This again takes away private property rights and undermines the free market system. The private property owner also has no protection if something goes wrong in the process. Therefore, these corporations can take your property without your consent, destroy it, and the only recourse is a lawsuit that may cost the private property owner tens of thousands of dollars.
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I have seen other “conservative” states like Pennsylvania following the Texas policy of destroying private property rights, and not allowing private citizens to enjoy their property investments. I would urge the other states to not do it the “Texas Way”. In Texas it is only worth owning property, if you are willing to concede that you have no right to enjoy that property. So you must ask yourself if that is what you want for the citizens of your state. Private property rights and free market system are the values that are important to the “Average Joe” trying to live the American Dream; let’s not continue to destroy this.
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Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640“Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it”
Tags: compulsory integration, easement, eminent domain, forced pooling, pipelines
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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/1/2010CONTACT:Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture717-787-5085Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling WastewaterHARRISBURG — The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.
“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” said Redding. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”
Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.
The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.
Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.
The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.
Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.
Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal’s system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.
The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:
• Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
• Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
• Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.
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See also http://un-naturalgas.org/weblog/?s=farming which contains:
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? in which photos document tumors and ulcers on animals living near gas operations
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? Part 2 in which details about the photos are provided
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? Part 3 Video, in which Tweeti Blancett explains how gas operations have made her ranching operation nearly impossible
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Tags: cattle, DEP, PA, water contamination
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Deposit (NY) Courier, Letter to the Editor, 6.30.2010
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