Home water supply after gas drilling, Hickory, PA
Governor Rendell, Governor Paterson, will you join us?
Mr Grannis? Mr. Gruskin? There’s plenty for all.
I live in Hickory, PA… just to update what is going on here, we had our water sent to an independent lab. The amount of toxic chemicals found were off the chart. We had the DEP come to the house (they are a complete joke!). They took a sample of the water months ago and we have had no report come back from them. My landlord called them and they said it was safe to drink. We still have had no report from them. The same day they took the water sample, I took a picture of our water, you won’t believe it.
From time to time our water quits running so I have to reset the pump, this is when this brown oily water flows through our pipes. Believe it or not, the DEP took three vials of this same water for testing. The lab told us not to drink the water, not to use it for cooking and not to use it for bathing. When you can’t [get] help and you can’t get another water supply because too many people have their pockets padded, what are you to do? We take quick, lukewarm showers (pray for me) we do not drink it and don’t use it for cooking, we buy alot of bottled water.
Here is a picture of the brown water, it’s not always brown but it’s always full of toxins!
It’s strange how people are so scared of the swine flu, but when you talk about how the gas drillers poison our water supply they think you’re crazy or they get mad because they think they can become rich off of a deal with a gas company, money is more important to them than their health. Finally, but too late for them, people’s eyes are starting to open to see the truth.
Thank you and keep up the fight, I know I will, the future of our nation’s health depends on it!Hickory, PA resident, to Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, January 13, 2010
‘Petro-pirates’ robbing Alberta’s resources
Flushing justice down the pipeline with Wiebo Ludwig’s arrest
Published January 14, 2010 by Jack Locke in Viewpoint Corey Pierce
. . . . . Alberta is not a democratic province. It is a province controlled by international corporations that see profit and extraction of natural resources as their prime object.
In order to accomplish their objective, the industry will use its abundant resources to do things that are not very nice. Companies will send crews of desperate men to attack the land and lay waste on anyone who gets in their way. These crews may wear uniforms and call themselves Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Or the petro-pirates may hire private security forces to instigate dirty tricks to dissipate legitimate opposition to the destruction of Alberta’s air, water and land.
There is a great amount of opposition in Alberta to what the Progressive Conservative dynasty allows. There are voices in every Alberta city that oppose the wanton poisonings of citizens who happen to live downwind or adjacent to an oil or gas well.
But Oilberta is a one-industry town. It is run by the bosses of EnCana, Shell and other giant corporations. They have infiltrated every aspect of Alberta society: hospitals, schools and the government. They have put a clamp on dissension and discussion in a most disgraceful way.
. . . . .
I have lived 15 km downwind of a gas plant. I can tell you stories about the clouds of toxic chemicals that are emitted in the dark of night, while country children sleep in their beds. I can tell you how the Alberta government watchdog agency prohibited me from speaking at a public hearing over whether to allow Shell Canada to expand its Caroline gas plant. I can tell you how the government of Alberta intercepted my private communications for at least four months in 1999.
Nobody likes explosions of pipelines. Nobody likes to have a seismic crew destroy the ageless aquifers that provide drinking water for cattle and country folk. Nobody likes to have a gas well spewing harmful vapours into the air. But people do like automobiles, and they like to receive unnaturally healthy returns on investment. Ah, there’s the rub.
The situation in Alberta will continue for some time to come. So long as birds are found dead on tarsand tailings ponds, so long as drinking water ignites in the rural homes of Albertans, so long as the government permits these atrocities, not much will change.
All that Ludwig wanted was a decent place to live, free from the dangers of modern life. A simple rural existence, subsistence. You’d think it could be found in remote Hythe, Alta. But obviously not.
The idea of sustainable development, respect of citizens and nature and a just society are words not often heard in Alberta’s highest offices. And even if they are heard, they are meaningless in the current political environment.
. . . . .
As a large, cold nation we should develop a national policy that protects the land for future generations, one that protects our natural resources. Depletion of our life’s blood will only ensure a miserable future for our children.
Even if our governments allow for the exhaustion of our non-renewable resources, they must not prohibit legitimate debate on the subject. The word tyranny should have no place in the Canadian lexicon. Yet, the repeated arrest of Ludwig is a sad example of justice being flushed down the pipeline.
Read full piece at Fast Forward Weekly
Tags: Alberta, Canada, pipelines, police
Photo of Mono Lake © Copyright 2009 David Chudnov FreeLargePhotos.com
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Mono Lake, in California, is about twice as saline as ocean water. Very few species can survive there for long. The exceptions are an algae, brine shrimp, and alkali flies. Mark Twain found Mono Lake to be a “lifeless, treeless, hideous desert… the loneliest place on earth.” (Wikipedia)
Brine from gas wells is six to ten times as saline as ocean water.*
And nobody knows how to treat or dispose of it safely.
*”Clinton (OH) brines have 175,000-210,000 parts per million of sodium. For comparison, ocean brines have only 18,000-35,000 ppm of sodium.” See Expert: “The industry has too little concern for …….. public health, for our groundwater resources, and for facts.”
See also http://sootypaws.livejournal.com/13664.html
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Tags: brine, produced water, saline, salt
The editor of the O&G industry magazine World Oil was fired for defending a petroleum geologist’s columns indicating shale gas yields are overstated (that wells aren’t actually producing as industry advertised… not even close).
Below are 3 links to articles regarding this incident. The 1st reports on the firing; the 2nd is the editor’s explanation for his firing (posted on the columnist’s blog); and the 3rd is the column, which (due to pressure from industry to suppress the publication of a shale gas play production chart) was pulled from the November issue of World Oil.
http://www.aspousa.org/index.php/2009/11/umbrage-in-the-gas-patch/
From Perry Fischer, former World Oil Editor:
http://petroleumtruthreport.blogspot.com/2009/11/letter-from-perry-fischer-former-editor.html
Facts are stubborn things: Arthur E. Berman November 2009
http://www.aspousa.org/index.php/2009/11/facts-are-stubborn-things-arthur-e-berman-november-2009/
Now, why might large publicly traded drilling companies wish to suppress analysis indicating actual shall gas yields aren’t even close to what the prospective investors and leasors think they are?
Petrohawk has only $526 million in current assets, and $5.88 billion in non-current (not liquid) assets. Shareholder equity is $3.28 billion (6.2 times current assets and equal to 51% of total assets). Petrohawk desperately needs its shareholders to believe its tall tales.
- David J Cyr
The Associated Press reports:
Gas line explodes in Panhandle
Nov. 5, 2009, 9:29AM
AP
Flames blazed more than 400 feet high above a natural gas line explosion that rocked Bushland, Texas about 1 a.m. today.
BUSHLAND — A natural gas pipeline exploded in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, shaking homes, melting window blinds and shooting flames hundreds of feet into the air, authorities said. Three people were injured in the blast, which occurred at 1 a.m. near Amarillo, and they were taken to an area hospital with burns, said Potter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Roger Short. “My home is about 20 miles something away and I could see the flames from my home,” Short said. “You could hear the roar of the flames 20 miles away.” Firefighters were able to contain most of the flames by 5:30 a.m. though small grass fires continued to burn, Short said. Nearby residents were evacuated, and the pipeline’s gas was shut off, Short said. One house was destroyed, and several others were damaged in Bushland, about 15 miles west of Amarillo, he said. “The heat onto the homes, it did a lot of damage. You could see blinds inside the homes that were melted … it was very hot,” Short said. Bushland Middle School principal, Mark Reasor, said about 60 people who were evacuated took shelter at the school for a few hours before returning home before dawn. Gas service had been cut off to nearby homes and Bushland’s schools, officials said. Messages left with the hospital for conditions of those injured were not immediately returned Thursday. A team of investigators was heading to the pipeline, said Robert Newberry, a spokesman for El Paso Natural Gas. El Paso Natural Gas is a subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corporation.
Tags: pipelines
A November 4th press release from the PA DEP reveals that while “numerous” people in Dimock have been without good water for, oh, a year, give or take, it takes an agreement process with DEP to force Cabot Oil & Gas to address residents’ need for “replacement” water. It takes an agreement process with DEP to force Cabot Oil & Gas to release to DEP a complete list of people who have reported issues with their water.
DEP says this will provide a “long-term solution.” That seems optimistic. How do you “replace” someone’s own clean, clear, safe spring or well water? And, you have to wonder, eventually, after northeastern PA and New York’s Southern Tier are pincushioned with gas wells, where will the “replacement” water come from? And what will we use to schlep it from hither to thither? Oh, yeah, now I remember: diesel fuel made from foreign oil. Yup, that stuff that natural gas was supposed to free us from depending on.
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Pennsylvania DEP Reaches Agreement with Cabot to Prevent Gas Migration,
Restore Water Supplies in Dimock Township
Agreement Requires DEP Approval for Well Casing, Cementing
MEADVILLE, Pa., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of
Environmental Protection and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. have executed a consent
order and agreement that will provide a long-term solution for migrating gas
that has affected 13 water supplies in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County.
The affected area covers nine square miles around Carter Road.
The consent order and agreement outlines a process that will give DEP more
oversight of Cabot’s new well construction work in the affected area. Prior to
drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or hydro fracking, the company will submit
well casing and cementing plans to DEP. Once DEP provides written approval,
Cabot may proceed.
“The goal of the consent order and agreement is to ensure a long-term
resolution to issues that have emerged in Dimock,” said DEP Northwest Regional
Director Kelly Burch. “The company will focus on the integrity of the wells in
the affected area in an attempt to determine the source of the migrating gas.”
This past week, Cabot has provided an interim solution for all of the homes
where water supplies have been affected. Cabot must develop a plan by March 31
to restore or replace the affected water supplies permanently.
Under the consent order and agreement, Cabot must additionally submit to DEP:
– Information on all parties who have contacted the company about water
quantity or quality issues; and
– A plan that specifically identifies how the company intends to prove the
integrity of the casing and cementing on existing wells and fix
defective casing and cementing by March 31.
If Cabot fails to fix the defective casing and cementing by the March
deadline, the company must plug defective wells or implement another
alternative as approved by DEP.
In addition, Cabot paid a $120,000 civil penalty for violations of the Oil and
Gas Act, the Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Streams Law.
The consent order and agreement caps a DEP investigation that began early this
year when numerous Dimock area residents reported evidence of natural gas in
their water supplies. DEP inspectors discovered that the well casings on some
of Cabot’s natural gas wells were cemented improperly or insufficiently,
allowing natural gas to migrate to groundwater.
On Sept. 25, following a series of wastewater spills, DEP ordered Cabot to
cease hydro fracking natural gas wells throughout Susquehanna County. The
prohibition was removed after the company completed a number of important
engineering and safety tasks.
Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. is a Delaware-based company with a mailing address in
Pittsburgh.
For more information on oil and gas wells, visit www.depweb@state.pa.us,
keyword: Oil and gas.
Unnatural Gas: The Inflated Promise of a Not-So-Clean Fuel
Meanwhile, in competing with Big Coal for the affections of Congress, the newly formed America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) launched an $80 million advertising and lobbying campaign earlier this year to promote its “clean, abundant, American, reliable, and versatile” product. As climate bills work their way through Congress, ANGA’s efforts appear to be paying off.
Risking our water so we can burn more natural gas will not be the planet’s miracle climate cure. For the United States to achieve necessary reductions in greenhouse emissions – estimated at more than 80 percent – will require not more energy production, even if somewhat cleaner, but deep cuts in energy consumption.
Coal must be phased out as quickly as possible, but more gas won’t accomplish that. While electric utilities’ gas consumption doubled from 1996 to 2007, coal use continued its steady climb.
What if, with shale drilling, we could achieve another doubling of gas-fired electricity generation, but this time eliminate an equivalent amount of coal-fired generation? Even that steep escalation of gas drilling would cut the utility industry’s carbon emissions by only 12 percent and the nation’s total carbon emissions by just 5 percent, based on Energy Department figures.
Financier T. Boone Pickens recommends running our vehicles on natural gas. But substituting natural gas for gasoline in all vehicles would reduce the nation’s total carbon emissions by less than 9 percent. Converting all gasoline-powered vehicles would consume more natural gas than electric utilities, homes and businesses combined. Consequences for the nation’s water would be disastrous.
Natural gas is being hailed by some, including Pickens, as a high-energy “bridge” to a renewable future, and by others as sufficiently climate-friendly to be a “destination” fuel. But as gas’ environmental drawbacks become more evident, it’s looking more like a bridge to nowhere.
Read the entire piece at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/04-5
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Entry at Energy-Facts.org:
Our steadily increasing dependence on gas is worrisome — especially since gas supply is projected to decline through 2020. [2]
Fool Me Twice
Despite this supply decrease we continue to build out an ever more extensive natural gas infrastructure– verifying Santayana’s warning that: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Our “dash to gas” over the past decade led to higher electric rates and increased home heating prices and it raised the cost of manufacturing. Why should the next decade be any different?
. . . . .
EIA’s analysis of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 — the “Waxman-Markey” climate bill — came to this conclusion: “Our results suggest that this legislation would likely increase the use of natural gas for generation over the next decade in all of the scenarios we analyzed…”
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Read the entire post at http://www.energy-facts.org/
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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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From the desk of T. Boone Pickens
Army:
What a couple of weeks it’s been and I have lots to report and something very important to ask.
There’s a new Natural Gas Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives which is headed by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK). The more than 40 bi-partisan members of the caucus held a major hearing on Capitol Hill. The Natural Gas Caucus talked about how the development of America’s natural gas resources will help set America on a path to energy independence and create millions of new jobs. It was a great event and an important message to get out there.
But here’s the really important part.
We’ve got just under 100 cosponsors of the NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1835) in the House—and that’s great—but I think we can educate more Members of Congress, build on that support and do a lot more.
Click here to email your Member of Congress and ask them to become a cosponsor of the NAT GAS Act.
I think we can get at least another 20+ cosponsors in the coming weeks so I’m calling on every member of the Army to reach out to their Member of Congress right now so that we can get to at least 120 sponsors by November 20th. I’m calling it 120 by 11-20.
I’m going to be working the phones and I need you to as well. Army, we can get this done and show Congress that it’s time to end our dependence on foreign oil.
Click here to email your Member of Congress and ask them to become a cosponsor of the NAT GAS Act.
Stay tuned because we’re going to post regular updates about our progress and highlight those members who are working to get us off foreign oil.
Let’s keep the pressure on!
– Boone
P.S. We recently ran an ad in the news publications which cover Capitol Hill. Click here to view the short video we did about this really unique ad. It’s getting people’s attention.
Oh, T Boone-Doggle:
Ruined lives and ruined land
What do you not understand?
To T Boone-Doggle’s “Army”: Y’know, the thing about an army is that it’s composed of foot soldiers who do what they’re told; they’re generally not told the real reason for what they’re doing, and they’re expendable. Do you know what it is he’s not telling you? What he really has you fighting for? We do: through that legislation he’s shilling, T Boone-Doggle wants to force the US taxpayer to foot the massive bill for a nationwide natural gas delivery infrastructure (think natural gas filling stations on every corner) and the demand for the resource that will result. If you keep listening to his schtick, and he succeeds, and he doesn’t die first of decrepitude, your labors will make him rich, AGAIN – at your expense, mine, and this country’s, in every way.
That’s why he’s called T Boone-Doggle. Don’t fall for it anymore.
Tags: Pickens
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