Jul 1
2010

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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

07/1/2010

CONTACT:
Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture
717-787-5085
Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater

HARRISBURG — 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.

_________________End of press release___________________

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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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Jun 27
2010

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“Once you know, you can’t not know.” – Calvin Tillman

image credit http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/27/2938051.htm

“Once your water’s polluted, it’s too late.” – citizens of New York State

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Jun 7
2010


DISH, TX — Shortly after a natural gas well was fractured using the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing, a private water well within a thousand feet of the natural gas well site began showing sedimentation.  DISH resident Amber Smith says shortly after the well was fractured a fine sand like sediment was present in the water from their private water well. The Smith family installed a water filtration system shortly after the sediment became present and continued using the water.  However, after a year the sedimentation reached the point that it clogged the entire plumbing system, and the water well is now unusable.

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The Smith family removed the tank from the water well and removed over ten pounds of the sand like substance.  After dismantling and cleaning the well system, the Smith family reassembled the well only to have it completely obstructed after only 30 minutes of operation.  Devon Energy who is the operator of the gas well has refused to take responsibility for the failure.  The Railroad Commission of Texas responded and took samples of the tainted water for limited analyzing.  The town of DISH also had independent testing accomplished to determine the content of the sand like substance.   The water well owned by the Smith family shows levels of arsenic at 7.5 times the acceptable level for drinking water.  The water also contained lead at levels that were 21 times above the acceptable levels, and chromium at more that double the allowable limits.  Independent testing shows elevated levels of butanone, acetone, carbon disulfide, strontium, as well as heavy metals, all above safe drinking water standards.  The town is awaiting additional test results.

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DISH is located in the epicenter of the Barnett Shale gas play and is home to a megacomplex of compressor stations, as well as pipelines, metering stations, gathering lines and gas wells.  The town of DISH spent nearly 15% of its annual budget on a comprehensive air study after months of complaints to the state regulatory agencies and the operators of the compressor sites, gave the citizens no relief.   DISH mayor Calvin Tillman says that “we are finally getting our air cleaned up, and now our water is showing signs of pollution,  we take two steps forward and three steps back”.  These results clearly show a correlation between the natural gas drilling process and water contamination, and this industry should no longer make claims that they have never contaminated a water source.   DISH resident Amber Smith is extremely concerned that her young children has been drinking this water.    Attached is a photo of the contaminated water.

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Mar 13
2010

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Guest post by Maura Stephens, originally published at Reader Supported News


13 March 2010

“Update: PEMA urges residents to prepare now for possible flooding.”

“DEP directs gas drillers to replace water.”

“Man killed by fall off Towanda drilling rig.”

I read these three stories in that order. The first two were in the Pike County [Pennsylvania] Courier, the third in the Binghamton [New York] Press & Sun Bulletin. The headlines of the first (get ready for a flood) and third (a man died in a gas-drilling accident) are self-explanatory. The second, about “replacing” water, went like this:

“The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) . . . ordered Schreiner Oil and Gas Co. to provide a permanent solution to water supply issues at two homes the company’s drilling activity impacted near Hedgehog Lane, McKean County.

“DEP previously determined that the company, based in Massillon, Ohio, was liable for affecting the water supplies of homes. . . . among the contaminants identified were total dissolved solids, chlorides, manganese, iron, dissolved methane and ethane gas.”

Does this not terrify everyone who lives in the huge gas-drilling and potential gas-drilling region? (The Marcellus Shale encompasses large swaths of New York State, almost all of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and parts of Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. A total of 31 or 32 states have deposits of so-called “natural” gas, more properly termed “fossil-fuel gas.”)

Here are some facts:
1) The horizontal, slick-water hydraulic fracturing process of gas drilling (“chemo-fracking”) uses and releases numerous toxic chemicals — carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, naturally occurring radioactive materials.
2) Accidents happen.
3) People make mistakes.
4) Floods occur.

Anyone who has ever experienced a flash flood knows that you’re going to run for your life and your loved ones’ lives first, and for your most expensive and/or most precious possessions next.

Even if gas companies had our best interests at heart — and you’d have to be a total naïf to think they do — there is simply no way to protect us from all these toxins that would go streaming into our water systems in the event of a flood, let alone the inevitable accidents and mistakes that will occur.

Because they will.

In the cases where the gas companies have to “replace” water, what are we talking about?

You can’t “replace” water that has been contaminated with poisons. You can bring in huge “water buffaloes” with 300 or 500 gallons of “fresh” water from elsewhere (and who is monitoring that water? Where does it come from?) to resupply a family with drinking, cooking, and bathing water, but the ground is still contaminated.

The vegetables and flowers and shrubs in the family’s garden are still reliant on that water for survival. The squirrels, bunnies, and raccoons . . . the chickadees, warblers, and woodpeckers . . . the frogs, fish, and turtles . . . the crickets, bees, and peepers . . . the family cat and dog . . . all drink the water from that contaminated ground. Toddlers in sandboxes eat the dirt. Kiddie pools and grown-ups’ pools, bird baths, ponds, streams, rivers, and lakes . . . all can be contaminated from just one spill.

You can’t “replace” bad water with good. Period.

There is not enough recompense in the world to mitigate this kind of permanent damage to a person’s home and property or to our surrounds, or to our own health and our children’s health.

It is up to communities to decide if the risks are worth the riches that will go to the gas companies and to a few members of the communities.

Let’s think about these risks for a moment: Someone in my community will die because of fracking. It’s inevitable. The man who was killed on a gas rig in Towanda, Pennsylvania, has a name: Greg Allen Henry. He was from Athens, Tennessee. He was 31 years old and was killed when he fell from a rig and suffered massive head trauma.

Are the risks worth the reward? How many lives are worth how many dollars? The job (of the many promised to Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers) came, no doubt, with pretty good pay to bring a Tennesseean so far from home. But was it enough for Greg Henry’s family? Will it help ease their grief?

Will you be getting free energy for life, if you lease your land and it’s fracked? Will you ever feel safe drinking the water? Will the royalty fees cover the loss of your home’s value? Where will you go if you are forced to leave your valueless home? What will happen to the investments of time, equity, sweat, and tears—let alone cash—you’ve poured into it? How much money is enough?

Is a Tennessee man’s life worth as much as a Towanda child’s life? If your child drinks contaminated water today and develops cancer in five years, will a gas company come forward to help you pay for your child’s chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and hold your hand while you wait for the latest medical test results that will tell you if she will live or die?

Are the risks worth the reward?

Whose risks? Whose reward?

Are the risks worth the reward?

Every community must come up with its answer.

See also Is the juice worth the squeeze?

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Mar 8
2010

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Trackback  •  Posted in Bad Neighbors, Community Effects, Fighting Back, Gas Drilling Accidents, On the Bleeding Edge, The Fox is Guarding the Henhouse  


Nov 2
2009

bathtime

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Trackback  •  Posted in General  


Oct 1
2009

From the Fort Worth Weekly blog, this was just too good to pass up:

Jim Beam And Frac Water Don’t Mix

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 by Jeff Prince

Jim Beam over ice with a splash of H20 is my favorite cocktail, and since all three ingredients require water I am concerned when somebody comes along and threatens the earth’s supply.

Fort Worth Weekly was among the first news organizations to explore the largely unregulated use of water by gas drillers and to explore how laws are stacked in the industry’s favor (“Til Your Wells Run Dry,” June 29, 2005, and “Water…Water…Where?” Oct. 4, 2006).

This paper has published numerous stories about people’s water wells being contaminated or dried up after a gas well began drilling nearby. Every time, the energy companies denied responsibility and said there’s no proof, you go get your expert and we’ll get our 12 experts, you go get your lawyer and we’ll get our team of lawyers and we’ll all meet in court…for many, many years until you’re bled dry, sucker.

Tarrant County and the Barnett Shale aren’t unique. The same fight is being waged across the country, wherever drilling is occurring.

Here’s the latest report, a good one from Reuters about polluted water wells in Wyoming. The EPA, which is taking baby steps toward growing a set of balls these days, says water wells tested positive for 14 contaminants and that nearby gas drilling might possibly maybe kinda be at fault.

As usual, the gas industry says “prove it, pal.”

Randy Teeuwen, a spokesman for EnCana Corp., which operates 248 wells in that part of Wyoming, was quoted by Reuters as saying, “The industry contends drilling chemicals are heavily diluted and injected safely into gas reservoirs thousands of feet beneath aquifers, so they will never seep into drinking water supplies. There has never been a documented case of fracking that’s contaminated wells or groundwater. We know they don’t have the science to prove what they say.”

The Reuters article ends with this: “Critics say their kids have gotten sick, their animals have died, and their water has in some cases become flammable because methane escaped into aquifers from gas wells. But they have been unable to prove their case because drilling companies are not required to disclose exactly what chemicals they use, thanks to an exemption to a federal clean water law granted to the oil and gas industry in 2005.”

Back in 2005, the Weekly was just perking up to the potential for water problems. The industry, of course, was way ahead of the game, already getting exemptions passed in their favor. Lobbyists and their wheelbarrows filled with cash have a way of encouraging exemptions.

See complete post at

http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=1632&Itemid=248

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Apr 19
2009

http://www.cleveland.com/sunnews/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/123988722216420.xml&coll=4

BAINBRIDGE, Ohio -

More than 100 people crammed into an overflowing meeting room at the Federated Church Tuesday to hear what the state was going to do about problems created by oil and gas well drillers.

Sean Logan, the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s director, had few answers to calm fears. He failed to satisfy the concerns of more than 40 residents whose water wells were damaged by an English Drive gas well drilled in December 2007 that blew one house off of its foundation.

It was for these residents that he called the meeting.

In addition to Bainbridge residents, fire chiefs, public officials and residents came from neighboring communities and as far away as Highland Heights, Broadview Heights and Twin Lakes.

They wanted to see how the state responds to gas well accidents because they face new wells in their own communities.

Logan had no answer for Niki Kakoleck of Scotland Drive.

“What is the state going to do for me and my family?” she asked point-blank.

“I tried to refinance my house today and the bank told me my house has no value,” she continued. “My husband and I paid $180,000 for it before the gas well blew up. Now it has no value. I have to pay an attorney now on top of it.
“We’re on the verge of bankruptcy. I hired a sitter to watch my nine-year-old and 11-year-old so I could come here and hear what you are going to do.”

When Logan repeated that he was ordering a new municipal water line, she cut him off.

“This sucks,” she said. “You guys dropped the ball for me and my family.

Life in a hotel
“You don’t understand what we’ve been through. I had to live in a hotel for a week before Christmas with my kids and two dogs when the gas well blew up. My electric fence I paid a couple thousand dollars for was ruined by your temporary water line.

“The water delivery trucks have ruined my driveway — it’s all cracked now. I have to leave my garage door open two days a week and let strangers come and go in my house to fill the temporary water tank. I worry about the safety of my kids.

“The temporary water line freezes in the winter right in the middle of giving my kids a shower — it stopped. I had to wash soap from them with freezing cold water. I didn’t sign up for the gas well. I’m not getting any royalties from it. What are you going to do for me?”

Lou Wagner of Scotland Drive said he is more concerned about safety than the water line, which Logan said last week that the ODNR would install because drilling has fouled water wells.

“What’s going on with the trapped gas underground?” he asked. “Is it going to seep into my basement and blow up my house? We’re living on a minefield. Even if we had good water you can’t drink it if you’re dead.”

Logan replied that the gas is venting underground.

“Yes, it is — it’s venting into the aquifer,” a woman said as the crowd roared in laughter.

‘No evidence’
Logan said he does not have evidence that the gas is continuing to flow into the aquifer.

“But, you don’t have evidence that it’s not,” said another resident.

Although Logan said, “The buck stops here with me,” he placed most of the blame on the driller, Ohio Valley Energy for not moving fast enough to install a municipal water line.

He called OVE’s actions “egregious” and repeated his pledge of last week to order OVE to install the water line to the homes considered to be affected by the faulty gas well.

Several residents asked how they could find out if their home was among those deemed affected and entitled to the proposed water line. They did not receive a clear answer.

When asked when the water line would be installed, Logan said he would give OVE 15 days to submit a plan.

Last week Jerry Morgan of Geauga County Water Resources Department told Sun News he has seen plans for the waterline from OVE’s engineering firm, but it could take months to get it approved through the county and the Ohio EPA before digging could begin.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Logan told residents the delay was with OVE.

Who’s to blame?
An insider told Sun News that state and county officials — not OVE –may be to blame for holding up progress on the waterline.

Last week OVE’s president Charlie Masters told Sun News that his company has been trying to bring in the water line since February 2008, but has met with resistance.

Tuesday night, Logan said his technical staff would examine independent laboratory reports on the “black goo” that is showing up in well water where gas wells have been drilled and fracted [sic].

This is a change from his stance April 7 when he said, “It seems to be naturally occurring in Geauga County water.”

At that time, he further stated “It’s well documented that there are problems with well water in Geauga County.”

County officials refuted that statement.

Loud boos
Logan pledged that he would push the envelope of the law to make OVE pay for monthly water bills homeowners would face with a municipal water line.

He was booed when he said although his department issues permits, it has no authority to slow down the drilling by slowing down the number of permits it issues.

He admitted that his department is understaffed and does not have enough inspectors to inspect new wells as they are being drilled, although current rules call for the inspections.

He further said his department does not have the authority to refuse a permit to OVE or any other driller that is caught using faulty practices.

“But you’re the only one who does have control over drillers,” a woman said. “We’re the people, and it’s time you stood up for we the people and stopped standing up for the gas industry.”

“You should just step up,” a man shouted.

Logan said he is working on legislation to change current laws.

State Sen. Tim Grendell and Rep. Matt Dolan attended the meeting.

Grendell told the crowd that he is working on legislation to bring back local control of gas well drilling, while Logan is working with the oil and gas well industry on his proposed legislation.

Attorney Dale Markowitz thanked Logan for meeting with residents. Markowitz also told Logan, “You’re on your last leg.”

Markowitz is representing the 40 residents and Bainbridge Township in their lawsuit against the driller and ODNR.

Dolan declined a resident’s request to speak at the meeting.

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