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http://1490newsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/spill-now-believed-to-be-accidental.html reports:
“Although emergency crews first thought the oil spill on Hedgehog Lane this morning was malicious, police now believe a valve was accidentally opened, according to Bradford Township Supervisor Gayle Bauer. She said the investigation is continuing.
. . . . .“The operation is run by Aiello Brothers.
“Bauer said three vacuum trucks are still on the scene working on containment, and that another environmental cleanup company is coming in to help.
“Just over two weeks ago Schreiner was ordered by DEP to provide a permanent solution to water supply issues at two homes the company’s drilling activity impacted near Hedgehog Lane.
“DEP had previously determined that Schreiner was responsible for affecting water supplies at other homes in the area.”
Tags: Aiello Brothers, Bradford Township, McKean County, oil spill, Pennsylvania, Schreiner
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
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.
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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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…of the 17 families [whose water has been affected] I am aware of they are not all seniors-some are younger with children. They are not all within 1000 feet of the Gesford site which was the site where the gas company contaminated the aquifer with methane gas which did not come from the Marcellus but from gas above it- isotopic testing was done. The activities of the gas company have altered the water quality in our valley and above. Today I have bubbles. Others have a film on their dishes and their animals are extremely thirsty all the time. Some families get water from the gas company most buy and haul water in. The gas company has stated that unless DEP orders them to provide water they do not have to. Also DEP does not have an accurate record of who is not drinking their water and why. Water wells are private and not regulated by DEP. So unless the water well owner calls them with a complaint they are unaware of any problems. My question is how can the “on going investigation” be accurate if all the information is not compiled. The missing info could be the key.
The gas migration issue is still being investigated-the headlines were misleading stating no fracking fluids found in Dimock water supply….the violation was that the company contaminated the aquifer-fact-they did.
As far as the “promises” we were all promised great compensation- “you’ll see $90,000 a year on as little as 5 acres! or “you won’t be living in this trailer next year. You’ll have a nice new house.” Nothing was ever disclosed to most of us concerning the nature and scope of the industrialization of our community – ONE well was mentioned with the infamous little Christmas tree pipe to mark its location. Drive around our neighborhood- you will see tall vents on water wells, jugs of water behind homes, and disillusioned folks inside the same homes they had 3 years ago. The dwindling royalty checks will soon equal the amount of money some of us spend on buying water…
Tags: Cabot, contamination, DEP, Dimock, Pennsylvania, water wells
- Dimock, PA, approximately Thursday, 9/3:
A blowout occurs during drilling under a road and wetland for a gas pipeline, resulting in a large spill of drilling mud. Witnesses report a greasy, gray film running down a water body. Local people who hear about the blowout have difficulty getting the straight story, despite persistently asking questions of DEP and drilling company representatives. - Dimock, PA, Wednesday, 9/16, afternoon:
“At least a thousand” gallons of frack fluid escape from the Heitsman2 well site and run down into Stevens Creek. According to the fracturing subcontractor, Halliburton, the fluid contains carcinogenic substances. - Dimock, PA, Wednesday, 9/16, late evening:
A much larger spill of the same fluid occurs. Reports say the total volume of both spills the released frack fluids is as much as 8500 gallons. - Dimock, PA, Tuesday, 9/22
Another spill of the same fluid occurs. This one is of “hundreds of gallons.”
DEP reports fish swimming erratically and kills of small aquatic life.
On 9/22, after the third spill in a week’s time, DEP cites Cabot with 5 violations.
Following DEP’s action, the fish are still dead.
On 9/25, DEP orders Cabot to stop all hydraulic fracturing activities in Susquehanna County.
Reports indicate that, subsequent to DEP’s order, the fish are still dead.
. . . .
Why do regulating agencies pretend that physics pays any attention to regulations?
Why do they pretend that their disciplinary action is effective, when no disciplinary action can reverse the damage once it’s done?
On 9/30, the NYS DEC will issue its draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the next step in paving the way for New York to enjoy the benefits of industrial-scale gas drilling with horizontal drilling / high-volume hydraulic fracturing in low-permeability gas reservoirs.
The fish in our brooks and rivers are, for the time being, still alive. But it’s only a matter of time and physics – not regulation – before the same fate befalls them.
See:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=2868477
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1699593258/Third-natural-gas-chemical-spill-reported
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1128380990/DEP-notes-5-violations-for-gas-drilling-spill
http://www.wnep.com/sns-ap-pa–gasdrilling-spill,0,7426305.story
http://www.ahs2.dep.state.pa.us/newsreleases/default.asp?ID=5676&varQueryType=Detail
http://www.ahs2.dep.state.pa.us/newsreleases/default.asp?ID=5678&varQueryType=Detail
Tags: contamination, dead, DEP, Dimock, Halliburton, hydraulic fracturing, PA, SGEIS, spill, wildlife
Horseheads High School, 7pm
401 Fletcher St.
Horseheads, NY 14845
Contributed:
“The time to make a difference is tonight, 7PM at Horseheads High School.
“For the village of Horseheads, as lead agency, to have the ability to allow a huge corporation like Schlumberger to build a giant facility serving a 300-mile gas drilling radius with EXPLOSIVES, RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL AND CONCENTRATED TOXIC CHEMICALS across the street from a school , without requiring a full EIS is appalling. The truck traffic has been estimated in THE HUNDREDS of trucks from the site to and from the facility PER DAY. This three hundred mile radius includes most, if not all of us, but we have absolutely no voice.
“THE VILLAGE OF HORSEHEADS IS NOT REQUIRING AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT.
“All for a few hundred “jobs”, most of them dangerous and unpleasant. Is NYS’s economy so bad we are reduced to allowing rapacious businesses to flagrantly abuse the most vulnerable of us all? If natural gas extraction by unconventional means must occur as part of a well-thought out and soberly constructed NYS energy plan, then LET US DO IT METHODICALLY AND CAREFULLY.
“Instead, these companies have used highly financed, stealthy, and forceful techniques to get their way, from their cronies at the top to the landmen sharks who coerced landowner-victims into signing leases they had no context of understanding.
“The world is upside down. We don’t cherish our agricultural areas, our forests, our fresh water supplies in this country or this state anymore. And now, we see that many people are OKAY WITH NOT CHERISHING THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN, EITHER.
“From a Horseheads area resident and friend: “Even if people don’t want to speak, they need to attend in order to help fill the room and to hear what others say. But those who are willing to just make one simple point of their choice (especially about immediate air pollution and health hazards from Diesel exhaust and later water contamination) should be strongly encouraged to do so. Call some friends. Arrange car pools. The press will be there because it’s been announced repeatedly in both papers, and TV should be there, too. This is the only chance to speak publicly on this topic before the joint board workshop on Sept. 15. Then they will probably sometime afterwards in private make their decision of a positive or negative declaration of environmental impact (with subsequent automatic requirement of EIS or not) and the Village Board of Trustees hold its official vote on it at its next regular meeting (Sept 24).”
“So please show up, and show that you care about the runaway railroad train that is the oil and gas drilling industry moving into NYS without appropriate impact studies, oversight and transparency..”
Tags: Horseheads, hydraulic fracturing, Marcellus, Schlumberger
This isn’t “misinformation. ”
It’s not “misrepresenting the facts”
about “responsible gas exploration.”
It’s just what’s already actually happening in and to Wetzel County, WestVirginia.
The following post is copied with permission from
http://sootypaws.livejournal.com/15049.html
_______________________________________________________________
Wetzel County
We’ve seen and heard a presentation by Ray Renaud of the Wetzel County Action Group about what’s happening in north Wetzel County in northern West Virginia (just below the panhandle) where there’s a tremendous amount of drilling activity taking place. Right now the wells being drilled are for Marcellus shale but other companies are getting ready to move in including CNX which is an operator specializing in coalbed methane.
This is a very rural area with only a few roads and those are narrow, about 10 feet wide. Because of all the drilling there is a lot of traffic as equipment and materials are hauled to and from sites. Twenty-four hours a day, as many as 47 trucks an hour.
The well sites are huge with pads covering acres and pits just about as large. Multiple horizontal wells are being drilled and fractured on each pad before the operator moves to a new site. Fracturing requires large amounts of water and sand.
The scale of everything and its effect on the community and environment is hard to imagine. A copy of the presentation as a PowerPoint document is available online but it is a large download, almost 50 MB. http://www.sendspace.com/file/hlpich
Ray said we could use some of the photos from the presentation.
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The roads are narrow and wind up and down steep hills. Most of the equipment is much heavier than the roads were designed and built for — cars and light trucks. This is a holding structure for sand used in fracturing a well. There will be a large number of these tanks on the pad. |
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Because of all the traffic there’s a lot of accidents. This truck has rolled over, its cab partially crushed on the guard rail. We wrote a post a while back about |
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Traffic jams can last for hours and hours. These trucks are parked in front of the volunteer fire department, blocking fire trucks if there were to be an emergency. |
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The scale of everything is either huge, large or enormous. In the foreground on the right is a three-story barn. In the middle ground is a large volume pit holding fracture fluid.
Operators “dewater” rivers and streams for all the water used in drilling and fracturing, turning good water into waste. |
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This is a photo taken at night showing just a portion of a pad during drilling a horizontal well. Drilling goes on day and night. Once two wells are drilled on this pad the equipment will be moved to another pad to drill two more wells. Eventually there will be 6 wells on this pad. |
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The EPA waived sedimentation control requirements for the oil and gas industry. This means that oil and gas sites don’t need to use silt fencing or other control to protect streams, rivers and lakes. The rivers in Wetzel County are now running thick slurry instead of clear water. |
Our own gas well study has focused on problems at well sites and older ones at that. What’s happening in Wetzel County, West Virginia, and in parts of Pennsylvania, Texas and Arkansas and a host of other places is the future writ large as the oil and gas industry converts rural America into an industrial wasteland.
___________________________________________________________________
Visit original post at:
http://sootypaws.livejournal.com/15049.html
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Tags: accidents, drilling, exploration, extraction, Marcellus, natural gas, traffic, trucks, Wetzel County, WV
…You wonder if they wondered why.
Smells like… astroturf, don’t you think?
___________________Credit all photos Cecile A Lawrence (c)____________________
Tags: astroturfing, Bainbridge, coalition, Marcellus, our rights our land our future, rally
It’s a media miracle.
Like water into wine, like the loaves and fishes, somehow there were more people at the rally than arrived or left – even resorting to adding those 2 figures together. This handful of people who attended a coalition rally in Bainbridge on August 23 were, through the magic of reporting, turned into “two thousand.”
These pictures were taken at the height of the attendance, not early in the day.
On the evidence, it could easily be concluded that most of the people there were family members of organizers – or selling something. Look at all the company and bank reps standing around with no one to peddle their wares to.
It’s hard to conclude that in real terms, this thing was anything other than a bust. But when you can get the media to report that 2000 people showed up, and then you can take the newspaper article with the bloated figures to your politicians to pressure them to betray the majority population of their constituencies, suddenly, the sow’s ear becomes a silk purse.
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Kudos to the voice of caution – who evidently wasn’t standing alone on the fringe of the field, as reported by the media.
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___________________Credit all photos Cecile A Lawrence (c)____________________
Tags: astroturfing, Bainbridge, coalition, Marcellus, our rights our land our future, rally
The Bradford Era reports:
Thursday, September 3, 2009 4:05 AM EDT
DEP gets tough questions Wednesday night
By ADAM VOSLER, Era Reporter
Hedgehog Lane residents made it clear to Department of Environmental Protection officials Wednesday that their water and quality-of-life problems due to recent oil drilling are far from solved.
About 20 residents and Bradford Township Supervisors Chairman Don Cummins gathered at the Lions Club community building to ask tough questions of four DEP representatives who made the trip to provide an update on the issues and answer concerns. State Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, also attended the meeting, the second of its kind in recent weeks.
“I’m sure this has dragged on longer than you would’ve liked it to,” Regional Director Kelly Burch said of the problems, for which DEP issued violation notices to Schreiner Oil and Gas for four overpressured oil wells and contamination to seven water wells.
“Gas migration cases are very difficult.”
Schreiner drilled nearly two dozen wells last fall. Since then, residents have complained of everything from poor water quality to odor, noise, oil lease access road runoff onto Hedgehog, and other issues.
“We think most of the problems are corrected,” Burch said.
Several residents took exception to that claim. Many of them said their water still has foul odor and abnormal taste, while DEP countered that the water passes the agency’s 18 parameters for safe drinking.
“The source of the gas has been abated,” said Craig Lobins, regional manager of DEP’s Oil & Gas Management Program.
The other top complaint of residents has been a stripper plant located off Hedgehog Lane. [http://un-naturalgas.org/weblog/?p=457]
The plant strips unwanted gas out of the gas product that is coming out of wells. The structures, residents say, are a hazard because of its propane tanks that were placed only a few hundred feet from homes; also, the compressor station is noisy and produces an odor.
So the residents were likely not happy to hear that DEP granted New Century Pipeline a permit for the plant a few weeks ago — months after the structure was already built without permission.
That company, which is under Schreiner partner Aiello Bros. Oil & Gas, is facing a yet-unscheduled Bradford Township Zoning Board hearing on grounds that it never filed for a zoning permit. The matter could end up in McKean County Court if the company appeals the zoning officer’s findings.
“We are obliged by law to issue the permit if they meet our standards,” said DEP Air Quality Coordinator John Guth.
Cummins complained that the permit shouldn’t have been issued if the plant was in violation of township zoning laws. New Century has also faced DEP fines because it never informed the agency of its building plans, either.
“They have been noncompliant since the day they started operating,” Burch acknowledged.
Hedgehog natives wondered aloud why their neighborhood has been slow to receive help and why repeated offenses by Schreiner have been tolerated.
“When people are acting like this over and over and over, that’s where my frustration lies,” one Hedgehog resident said.
“Why is it up to us to try and stop somebody else who’s obviously breaking the rules?” asked another resident.
Schreiner’s permits for the several remaining wells to be fractured are valid until spring. DEP would not deny him that right, but Lobins said the wells are nearly worthless at this point because they’ve been open for so long.
“I don’t know if (Schreiner’s) going to drill any more of those,” Lobins said.
DEP had ordered Schreiner to stop further oil and gas drilling on Hedgehog until the water supplies were “restored or replaced,” which they have done by supplying bottled water and redrilling water wells. Of course, that matters little to the residents who say their water is still coming up bad.
. . . . .
Overall, it’s clear the residents are tiring of the water situation and what they believe is DEP’s negligence of obvious problems with its drinkability.
“I’ve lived there 21 years, and my water in the last year, it’s gone to crap,” said a man who identified himself as a resident of 177 Hedgehog Lane. Several residents cited the water as tasting “musty” and “old.”
A few visitors even questioned DEP reports they found online, saying the reports twisted what agents and residents said about their water’s poor odor and taste during recent visits.
Burch was swift in defending his staff.
“Many of my employees have a private well just like many of you … I know they wouldn’t tolerate it.”
After nearly two hours of back-and-forth between Cummins’ constituents and DEP officials, the supervisor boiled it down to one simple question.
“How do we get their water back to the way it was?” Cummins asked Burch.
As of today, the DEP does not seem to have an answer.
Full story at
http://bradfordera.com/articles/2009/09/03/news/doc4a9f350208adc444487486.txt
Tags: Bradford Township, Burch, DEP, hazardous fluids, leaks, Marcellus, McKean County, PA, Pennsylvania, propane, Schreiner, stripper, VOCs, water, water wells, zoning
http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/dockets/D-2009-20-1.htm
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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON CHESAPEAKE APPALACHIA, LLC
PROPOSED SURFACE WATER WITHDRAWAL PROJECT
PROPOSED SURFACE WATER WITHDRAWAL PROJECT
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC or “Commission”) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 on revised proposed Docket No. D-2009-20-1 for Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC (also, “Chesapeake”). The hearing will be held at the PPL Corporation Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center, 126 PPL Drive, Hawley, Pennsylvania 18428-0122 (link to PPL’s web site for driving directions). The hearing will begin at 10:00 a.m. and will continue until all those who wish to speak have had an opportunity to do so. No other Commission business will be conducted at the September 23, 2009 hearing.
Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC applied to the Commission for approval of a surface water withdrawal project to supply a maximum of 29.99 mg/30 days of water for the applicant’s exploration and development of natural gas wells in the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Surface water is proposed to be withdrawn from the West Branch of the Delaware River at a location known as the Cutrone Site in Buckingham Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania. The project is located in the Delaware River Watershed within the drainage area of the section of the non-tidal Delaware River known as the Upper Delaware, which is designated as Special Protection Waters.
The Commission held a public hearing on an initial draft of Docket D-2009-20-1 at its business meeting of July 15, 2009 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It heard testimony on the draft docket from approximately 40 witnesses on that date. Voluminous written comment was submitted on or before the July 15 hearing. In light of the high level of public interest in the project, the Commission took no action on the docket on July 15, and on that date it extended the written comment period through July 29, 2009. Approximately 1,200 written comments (excluding petitions) were received on the docket by the close of the comment period. After review and consideration of these comments, the Commission and staff are developing a revised draft docket, which will be posted on the Commission’s web site, http://www.drbc.net, on or before the close of business on Friday, September 11, 2009. Public comment is requested on those aspects of the docket that have been substantively modified. A list of these aspects will be provided on the Commission’s web site at the time the revised draft is posted.
Additional public records relating to the draft Chesapeake docket are available for review consistent with Article 8 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (RPP) governing public access to records and information. The RPP are also available on the Commission’s web site.
Individuals in need of an accommodation as provided for in the Americans with Disabilities Act who wish to attend the hearing should contact the commission secretary directly at 609-883-9500 ext. 203 or through the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) at 711, to discuss how the Commission can accommodate your needs.
Please note: The earliest occasion on which the commission may act on the draft docket is at its next business meeting, scheduled for October 22.
Tags: Chesapeake, DRBC, hearing, Marcellus, water withdrawal
In a story published on 8/27/09, Jon Hurdle of Reuters reports:
U.S. finds water polluted near gas-drilling sites
PHILADELPHIA, Aug 27 (Reuters) – U.S. government scientists have for the first time found chemical contaminants in drinking water wells near natural gas drilling operations, fueling concern that a gas-extraction technique is endangering the health of people who live close to drilling rigs.
The Environmental Protection Agency found chemicals that researchers say may cause illnesses including cancer, kidney failure, anemia and fertility problems in water from 11 of 39 wells tested around the Wyoming town of Pavillion in March and May this year.
. . . . .
Evidence of a link between gas drilling and water contamination would set back development of a clean-burning fuel promoted by the Obama administration as crucial to the future of U.S. energy production.
. . . . .
“There may be an indication of groundwater contamination by oil and gas activities,” said the 44-page report, which received little public attention when released on Aug. 11. “Many activities in gas well drilling (and) hydraulic fracturing … involve injecting water and other fluids into the well and have the potential to create cross-contamination of aquifers.”
Among the contaminants found in some of the wells was 2-butoyethanol, or 2-BE, a solvent used in natural gas extraction, which researchers say causes the breakdown of red blood cells, leading to blood in the urine and feces, and can damage the kidneys, liver, spleen and bone marrow.
Greg Oberley, an EPA scientist who has been testing the water samples, said the agency did not set out to prove that hydraulic fracturing caused groundwater contamination, but was responding to complaints from local residents that their well water had become discolored or foul-smelling or tasted bad.
The investigation was the EPA’s first in response to claims that gas drilling is polluting water supplies, he said. Testing will continue.
LINK TO GAS INDUSTRY?
While the EPA team has not determined how the chemicals got into the water, many are associated with gas drilling, Oberley said in a telephone interview.
“The preponderance of those compounds in the area would be attributable to the oil and gas industry,” he said.
. . . . .
John Fenton, a farmer in Pavillion, a rural community of about 150 people, said residents blame gas drilling for a range of illnesses including rare cancers, miscarriages and nervous system disorders.
Families with contaminated water wells have been advised by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not to drink the water, which in some cases was black and oily, with a petroleum-like sheen, and a smell of gas, Fenton said.
“The stress is incredible,” Fenton told Reuters. “People have built their lives and businesses here. What’s it all worth now?”
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2731170120090827?sp=true
For more on this story:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/epa-chemicals-found-in-wyo.-drinking-water-might-be-from-fracking-825
Tags: aquifer, contaminated, contamination, EPA, fracking, gas drilling, groundwater, hydraulic fracturing, illness, Pavillion, property values, toxic, water wells, WY
The Shreveport Times reports:
Recent incidents raise issues on drilling, environment
By Alisa Stingley
astingley@gannett.com
Blanche Jefferson lives in Shreveport, but her worries are all south of here.
Her granddaughter and five great-grandchildren live south of Spring Ridge and close to where 17 cows died after ingesting liquid that spilled from a nearby natural gas drilling rig site into a pasture.
“I’m mostly concerned … stuff might get in the water,” said Jefferson, 79, adding that the family depends on well water.
The environmental impact of drilling has her so concerned that she’s rethinking whether she wants to lease mineral rights from property she owns in that area to an energy company in the future.
“Money is nothing if something happened to them,” she says of the children.
. . . . . Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing several area incidents:
April: Seventeen cows died in a south Caddo Parish pasture after ingesting a liquid found pooled in the pasture, a spill from a nearby Chesapeake Energy drilling site. No reports on what killed the cows have been made public.
May: Fifteen Naborton families evacuated when a Chesapeake well east of Mansfield began blowing natural gas into the air. The air quality was monitored, and a Chesapeake spokesman said there was no threat to public safety or the environment. According to DEQ files on the case, 50 million standard cubic feet of methane gas — the main component of natural gas — was discharged after a casing valve failed.
DEQ doesn’t require notification of the release of 1 million standard cubic feet but does require notification of more than 2.5 million in a planned release. The Naborton release, however, was unplanned. Otis Randle, manager of the DEQ regional office here, said 50 million is “a lot of gas.” But he said people would not suffer health problems unless they breathed in a concentrated amount.
The main risk to nearby residents is the potential for explosion, and methane causes an adverse impact on the planet’s ozone layer, since methane is a greenhouse gas. The DEQ report on the Naborton well said the release did not have an off-site environmental impact. (un-naturalgas.org note: guess the atmosphere doesn’t count)
July: A natural gas well blowout occurred in north Sabine Parish, about six miles east of Converse. No residents were evacuated. The well was owned by Chesapeake, whose spokesman said there was no threat to the public or environment, and air quality was being monitored as a precaution. DEQ’s regional office in Shreveport investigated the blowout, finding it “pretty routine,” said Randle. No details on the amount released were available.
There are environmental concerns beyond reported incidents too:
Ground and surface water issues have arisen, particularly in south Caddo and DeSoto parishes, which heavily depend on the fragile Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. On the last day of June, about 1,000 customers of South DeSoto Water System had no water while workers replaced a pump. Officials wondered publicly if a natural gas drilling operation just 500 feet from their water well was making their equipment work harder to pump.
. . . . .
Many of the Web sites of the major competitors in the Haynesville Shale tout their dedication to preserving the environment.
Chesapeake’s page notes that it is a key contributor to The Nature Conservancy, and “our objective is to leave each site in as good, if not better, condition than when we started drilling.”
The U.S. Department of Interior recognized Devon Energy with a national award for its outstanding environmental and safety performance in the Gulf of Mexico.
And EnCana’s page notes: “We are looking at opportunities to recycle water and this option will become more viable as the play is further developed.”
While the proliferation of drilling in the Haynesville Shale is making environmental issues more visible and prominent, such concerns didn’t just arrive with the shale. Two cases from DEQ files:
In June, a Carthage, Texas, man pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of illegally discharging a pollutant into Louisiana waters after ordering a truck driver to discharge well treatment fluid into a Natchitoches Parish creek in April 2006. The man was sentenced to 24 months probation and agreed to pay a $5,000 criminal fine.
“Unfortunately, economic incentives drive environmental crime,” said Jeffrey T. Nolan, DEQ’s criminal investigations division manager.
In August 2006, DEQ responded to a landowner’s complaint that a well site where Winchester Energy was operating near Frierson had released at least four barrels of saltwater from a fracturing tank. According to DEQ files, the company had not contacted DEQ about the spill, which violates regulations. Also, the landowner said he asked Winchester to clean up the site but it refused. A few days later, DEQ noticed a cleanup in progress at the site, where vegetation had been killed in an area about 20 feet by 100 feet. DEQ in April this year deemed the site OK and did not take any action against Winchester.
For complete article, visit:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090809/NEWS01/908090333/1060
Tags: cattle, cows, DEQ, explosion, family, greenhouse gas, groundwater, hydraulic fracturing, Louisiana, methane, money
From Hedgehog Lane, Bradford Township, McKean County, PA:
“There is a Crossett truck here this morning. The second that I saw it pull up, I closed every window because I knew what was coming. My house is currently full of vapors that are making me nauseous….even with every window closed, this is the result. What more can I do???? There is nowhere in my house that I can go to escape the fumes, I certainly can’t go outside, and I have no vehicle. So I am forced to sit here light-headed, dizzy, and with a headache sucking in these fumes. This is the third time in the past 6 days that we have been exposed to this severity of stench. This is a very real problem that is going on way too long.”
“I spent 2.5 hours in my basement because the fumes were so bad in my home while a propane truck filled up from the stripper plant. It’s the 3rd time in 6 days that the stench has been so bad, but today was by far the worst! The basement even stunk, just not as bad as the rest of the house…I have had calls from neighbors over a pretty large area that say that they experienced the vapors today as well.”
Tags: Bradford Township, Marcellus, McKean County, PA, propane stripper, truck
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