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Spill Baby Spill

9/3/2013

 
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As fracking and its ancillary operations are charging full steam ahead across Butler County, we are seeing almost daily reports of high profile and high volume spills, explosions, accidents, deaths, reported violations and acknowledgement of old and continuing violations.  We thought that we would highlight a few to give you a sense of the destruction that fracking leaves in its path.   This is by no means a full list.

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August 2013
Aug 31- Kevin Figaniak, a 21-year-old Wheeling Jesuit University student, was beaten to death by Craig Tyler Peacock and Jarrett Mathis Chandler.  Peacock and Chandler are from out of the area and are reported to be working in the natural gas industry.
Aug 30- A Chevron pipeline leaked an unknown quantity of natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico near Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Aug 29- Jesse A. Grimsley, 31, of Shevlin, Minn, was killed in a Sheehan Pipeline Construction accident near Steubenville, OH.  According to the sheriff’s office, Grimsley had filed a daily equipment check noting "brakes will not hold on hill.”  Sheehan Pipeline Construction is based in Tulsa, Okla.
Aug 29- Michael Guesman of Cortland admits in U.S. District Court in Cleveland that his former boss at Hardrock Excavating, Ben Lupo ordered him to dump brine waste on 24 separate occasions into the Youngstown sewer system.
Aug 29-An oil rig exploded in Lavaca County, TX, triggering a massive fire [video]
Aug 27-Caller discovers tanker truck dumping brine water on the roadway and running into Clearfork Creek near Grayville, OH
Aug 23-A breached frack pond operated by Berry Petroleum flooded nearby residential property in Gardendale, TX.
Aug 22-Residents in Chartiers Twp., PA complained of burning eyes, throat nausea and a metallic taste their mouths after another flaring incident at MarkWest’s natural gas processing plant.  This is at least the third flaring incident at the plant in the past six weeks.
Aug 22-A pipe manufacturer in the Marcellus region spilled 5,000 gallons of sulfuric acid into the Shenango River. 
Aug 21-Chesapeake Appalachia is cited with not reporting two pollution incidents in Beaver County, PA.  Soil samples and eye-witness accounts suggest petroleum products and flowback wastewater spilled onto the ground.
Aug 20-A 16-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in OK sending flames 200 ft. in the air and damaging a barn.
Aug 20-A semi-truck hauling for oil and gas wells in the area struck and killed 57-year-old Dan Wilson of Weirton, WV along U.S. 22.  The truck company was out of Indiana. [video]
Aug 20-West Virginia environmental regulators cited MarkWest Energy for causing a fishkill in Rocky Run, a tributary of Fish Creek after one of their pipelines ruptured.  Minnows, smallmouth bass and other species of fish died from the spill.
Aug 16-A Texas longhorn steer was killed by exposure to poisonous hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas from a pipeline leak in Alberta.
Aug 16- An Antero Resources site in Harrison County, WV caught ablaze sending three workers to the hospital, two via airlift.
Aug 16- Records were released indicating that OSHA cited Central Environmental Services LLC for the death of Brian Hopkins caused by an explosion at an EQT Corp. well pad in Taylor County, WV.
Aug 13-A landslide ruptured a MarkWest Energy pipeline in Wetzel County, WV causing a leak of an unidentified, but potentially explosive, liquid into a nearby stream.
Aug 13-Around 80 families were evacuated when a pipeline carrying gas byproducts ethane and propane somehow ruptured, caught fire, and exploded in IL.
Aug 10-A 24-year old was killed when a block from a New Star Energy fell and crushed him near Highvale, Alberta. [video]
Aug 7- A joint study from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that a Nami Resources Company’s fracking fluid spill in Kentucky in 2007 likely caused the widespread death of several types of fish.
Aug 6-A driver was cleared of any wrongdoing  for failing to stop after his 18-wheeler carrying fracking wastewater crushed a 14-year-old boy in Fort Worth, TX on April 24, 2013.  Deston Bibbs died as a result of his injuries.
Aug 3-In Tioga County, PA, Swepi Lp spilled 5 barrels of produced water from hole in the coil tubing unit onto the containment and pad. Holes were discovered in the containment liner.
Aug 1-A truck hauling brine collided with two cars in Vienna Township, OH.  Injuries were reported. 
Aug 1-In Lawrence County, PA, a Rockwater Energy Solutions truck carrying ethylene glycol to nearby fracking operations crashed spilling 265 gallons of the toxin poison in a field.  Unfamiliarity with the road was cited as one of the causes of the accident.
Aug 1-Two families in TX file a class-action lawsuit claiming that fracking caused damage to their real estate and homes.

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JULY 2013
July 28-Jason Mearns, 37, of Beverly, W.Va., died as a result of a well explosion in New Milton, WV.
July 25-Slurry produced by the construction of the Appalachia-to-Texas Express Pipeline leaked into a creek in OH.
July 25- The Justice Department announces that Halliburton admits to destroying evidence in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and will plead guilty to a criminal charge.
July 24-A truck that carries fracking waste blew up killing a Wise County resident in TX.
July 24-Tommy Paxton, a 45-year-old from Walton, W.Va. died after an explosion on a well pad in WV.
July 23-An out-of-control natural gas well off the Louisiana coast caught fire. This is the second natural gas well in the gulf to fail in as many weeks.
July 22-Hundreds of residents were evacuated after a high pressure Dominion gas line ruptured in OH.
July 22- A crane tuck rolled off a road and over the hillside in Ohio County, WV, leaking diesel and closing the road.  The truck from coming from gas drilling site in Marshall County and is reported to be contracted by Noble Energy.
July 21-A Halliburton truck leaking hydrochloric acid closed part of Interstate 70 for four hours. 
July 20-A driver of a water truck was flown by helicopter to a Morgantown hospital after his truck overturned in WV.
July 18-Energy Corp. Of America is is caught discharging industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit in Moshannon State Forest in Clearfield County, PA.
July 18-OH Landowner accuses driller A.E.R. of dumping wastewater on his land [video].
July 18-The EPA fined XTO Energy (Exxon Mobil) $100,000 for violating the federal Clean Water Act for a two-month discharge of between 6,300 and 57,373 gallons of wastewater into the Susquehanna river system in Penn Township, Lycoming County.
July 18-Waste Treatment Corporation (WTC) received legal notice from Clean Water Action for their illegal discharge of oil and gas drilling wastewater (including chloride, bromide, lithium, strontium, radium-226, and radium-228) into the Allegheny River in Warren, PA.
July 16-Energy Corp Of America cited for 307CSL-Discharge of industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit in Moshannon State Forest, Clearfield County
July 14 & 15-A malfunction at the MarkWest Houston Gas Plant in Washington County sending large amounts of black smoke into the air for two days.  Residents report hearing a loud boom and seeing a mushroom cloud.
July 13-A gas well pad in Wetzel County, WV caught fire around 6:30 pm. 
July 12- A spill on a Penneco well site in Center Twp. left dead vegetation all the way and into Claylick Run.  There were reports of an oily substance released off site through pasture and into Claylick Run.
July 9- An oil field accident killed two men in KS.  Both were exposed to deadly hydrogen sulfide gas; a byproduct from the production of oil and natural gas.  It causes respiratory paralysis and is highly toxic. [video]
July 9-A gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico caused the greenhouse-gas methane to escape into the atmosphere.  The Coast Guard reports a "rainbow sheen" over a four mile area
July 8- Gas worker admits to dumping wastewater in the Big Sandy River after his boss told him to do so. [video]
July 8- A road in NJ collapses due to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.'s Northeast Upgrade Project.  It will take 1 to 2 weeks to repair the road. [video]
July 8-Brine & produced water were spilled at a well in Lycoming County.
July 7-The media is reporting the between five and eight people were injured when a gas well exploded in Doddridge County , WV.  There is suspicion that the employer was violating mandatory work hour rules.
July 6-As many as 40 people are missing after a massive explosion caused by a derailed train leveled parts of Lac-Megantic in Quebec.  Up to 1,000 people were evacuated in the community. [video]

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JUNE 2013
June 26-Two county workers suffered minor injuries and at least 34 cars were damaged when a section of roadway sunk as a result of a Sunoco Pipeline LP project in Beaver County.
July 25- In Susquehanna County, PA, Chief Oil and Gas spilled an estimated 20 barrels of oil due to a valve that was left open.  It then leaked onto the ground through a hole in the plastic lining. 
June 25-A caller to the NRC reported a fire at an oil well near Ravenna, OH.  There were 150 gallons of oil released.
June 25-A 30-inch transmission pipeline exploded in Enon, LA causing the evacuation of 55 people.
June 22-A water tuck owned by JB Oil and Gas ran a stop sign killing a mother and her 14 year old daughter.
June 21-PVR’s Chapin Glycol Dehydration plant in Monroe Twp accidentally discharged in the atmosphere.  This is the 3rd such event since the PVR Chapin plant went operational in late spring of 2012. [video]
June 21 -32-year-old Greg Peacock, died from 3rd degree burns he suffered during an explosion at a well pad.  He left behind a two year-old son and fiancee.
June 20-50 homes were evacuated when a gas pipeline containing 1% deadly hydrogen sulfide ruptured southwest of Calgary after debris from a flood struck the pipeline.  
June 18-A 30-inch transmission line in Louisiana ruptured, sparking a natural gas explosion and a fire. 
June 13- A gas line ruptured underneath the Ohio River near Bellaire spewing gas out of the water between OH and WV [video]
June 12 -A truck at a well in MI backed into a high-pressure line causing an explosion that knocked people over in a nearby home. 
June 12 -A Williams cracker plant in LA exploded killing 2 and injuring 100.  This is the same type of plant that is proposed for Beaver County.
June 7-Investigations determined that Vintage Oil illegally dumped formation fluids and fracking fluids into an unlined pit in CA [video]
June 4- PA DEP fined PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering LLC of Williamsport, Lycoming County, $150,000 for multiple and continuing violations of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law, the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act and various related environmental regulations, including sediment discharges into High Quality and Exceptional Value streams during construction of the Coal Mountain pipeline in four Lycoming County townships
June 4-Wastewate hauler Harch was ordered to suspend operations in OH after evidence was found that the company was illegally disposing waste in a private pond [audio]
June 3- SWEPI LP was cited in for “failure to properly store, transport, process or dispose of a residual waste” at their West 1 OG Well in Slippery Rock Twp.
June 3- RE Gas Dev LLC (Rex Energy) was cited for “discharge of industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit” at their Warner Unit 1H in Lancaster Twp.
June 1-A pipeline operated by a Texas-based oil company has leaked 9.5 million litres of industrial waste water in Canada.
June 1-A caller to the NRC reported that a water tanker truck was dumping into Indian Creek in Tyler County, WV.

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MAY 2013
May 30- PDC Energy pipeline drilling operations polluted White Day Creek in Monongalia County, WV.

May 30-13 people were injured in natural gas explosion at Williams Gas Pipeline facility in Branchburg, NJ.
May 14-Explosion at Williams natural gas compressor in Brooklyn Twp., Susquehanna County [video]
Approx. May 22-A Louisiana man was killed at a North Dakota drillsite
May 1-More than 1,600 gallons of oil spilled from an oil storage tank into a creek in Trumbull County, OH [video]
May 30- PDC Energy pipeline drilling operations polluted White Day Creek in Monongalia County, WV.
May 30-13 people were injured in natural gas explosion at Williams Gas Pipeline facility in Branchburg, NJ.
May 14-Explosion at Williams natural gas compressor in Brooklyn Twp., Susquehanna County [video]
Approx. May 22-A Louisiana man was killed at a North Dakota drillsite
May 1-More than 1,600 gallons of oil spilled from an oil storage tank into a creek in Trumbull County, OH [video]
May 30- PDC Energy pipeline drilling operations polluted White Day Creek in Monongalia County, WV.
May 30-13 people were injured in natural gas explosion at Williams Gas Pipeline facility in Branchburg, NJ.
May 14-Explosion at Williams natural gas compressor in Brooklyn Twp., Susquehanna County [video]
Approx. May 22-A Louisiana man was killed at a North Dakota drill site
May 1-More than 1,600 gallons of oil spilled from an oil storage tank into a creek in Trumbull County, OH [video]


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APRIL 2013
April 30- 9,000 gallons of wastewater spilled onto a miniature horse farm and into the farmhouse basement and garage from a Carrizo well site.  Fluid spilled from another Carrizo well site in Wyoming County in March [video]
April 27-A considerable amount of natural gas and crude oil residue blew out of an Atlas Energy pipeline Lafayette Twp., Bradford County.
April 27-More than 100 barrels of oil-based drilling mud spilled into Cadron Creek after a truck accident in WV.
April 17- MarkWest natural gas operations in Butler and Washington Counties were cited by the EPA for being in violation of federal clean air laws.
April 11-Two men died after an explosion at Eureka Hunter Pipeline operations near Wick, W.Va
April 4-An explosion at a natural gas compressor station in Logan County, OK forced the evacuation of homes within one square mile of the incident.

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MARCH 2013
March ??-DEP found "petroleum-based hydraulic fluid used in industry" in Hicks Creek .  It is unknown who or the when the dumping took place.
March 19-A compressor station caught fire in Bradford County, PA sending one worker to the hospital with burns. [video]
March 17-An oil tank on a pad in Columbiana County, OH exploded throwing its lid 400-500 feet into the yard of a nearby residence.
March 15-An explosion of a gas well with 30 ft. flames forced people from their homes in Chippewa Township, Wayne County, OH.  It was felt 3 miles away.
March 14-Frack fluid spewed at a rate of 800 gl/min. in Wyoming County, Pa [video]
March 9-A Spectra Energy compressor station in Clearville, PA spewed methane and other hydrocarbons over a period of three hours.  Local homeowners complained yet Spectra and the DEP denied the release for 6 six days.
March 9-Two children were killed when a water truck rolled over and crushed a car on in Clarksburg, WV.

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FEBRUARY 2013
Feb 26-One man was killed and another was injured in a drilling accident in eastern Ohio.
Feb 22-PA based Noble Energy spills over 95,000 gallons from a frack pond into a local tributary of Big Wheeling Creek in WV [video]
Feb 13-A blowout at a Chesapeake well sent fluid gushing into a stream in Bradford County, Pa
Feb 12-Over 12,000 gallons of “re-use” water was spilled at a Range Resources site in Cross Creek County Park, Washington County, PA
Feb 11-84,000 gallons of green oil-laden fracking fluid gushed from an oil well near Fort Collins, Co for nearly 30 hours
Feb 4-Approx. 840 gallon of waste water were spilled at the Rex/ McElhinney well in Forward Township, Butler County, Pa

JANUARY 2013
Jan 16-A chemical emergency is reported at an Ohio oil well facility.  At the time of the investigation, an inventory of the facility's chemicals wasn't available to local authorities.
Jan 14-Two workers were critically injured after an explosion at a well site in Atascosa County, TX. [video]
Nov. 1 to Jan. 31— likely more than 250,000 gallons of drilling wastewater and oil illegally dumped into a Mahoning River tributary in Ohio

Long-term Environmental Effects

8/24/2013

 
Back in the old days, when we drilled for natural gas in “conventional” shallow rock deposits, drilling and fracking for natural gas raised barely a blip on the social controversy radar.  Now that those conventional deposits have been mostly depleted and we are drilling in “unconventional” deep shale deposits, using millions of gallons of water laced with a proprietary cocktail of toxic chemicals for fracking, natural gas drilling has sparked local, national and global opposition.

The reasons for worldwide fracking protests are manifold, but one area of particular concern is the likely long-term effects of unconventional drilling on groundwater aquifers.

Back in the old days of conventional drilling, it was economically feasible to capture up to 95% of the natural gas released from shallow rock deposits per well.  With unconventional drilling in deep shale deposits, that figure is generally placed in the 30-70% range.  Granted, 30-70% of the massive amounts of natural gas locked up in shale, combined with the number of wells being drilled, translates into an enormous amount of natural gas being captured, which is what all the recent crowing about shale gas production is about.

But not much is ever said about the 30-70% of shale gas which is released from the rock and stays in the ground.  Where does it go?  What does it do?

The natural gas that is released but not captured for human use is free to migrate where it will, including up the well-bore which facilitated its release, even after said well has been capped, and through whatever cracks and fissures, natural or man-made, it may find.

The gas industry would have us believe that between it and Mother Nature, the groundwater aquifers in shale country are completely protected.  We are told that the layer of rock between shale and aquifer is totally and permanently impermeable.  Not all geologists are in agreement on this.  Seismic forces can lead to fissures where none existed previously.

But the main focus of natural gas advertising is on the layers of concrete and steel which are placed between the well-bore and the aquifer.  That, we are told, will shield the aquifer from all pollution, be it methane or toxic flowback, forever.  Not so. Failure of well casings to prevent leakage is figured at 6-20% from day one to year five of a well, even by industry sources.

But let's estimate the integrity of wells out 30 years, 50 years, 100 years. How well are those concrete and steel casings going to hold up?   Think of your knowledge of the roads and bridges in western Pennsylvania. Steel rusts and corrodes.  Concrete cracks and deteriorates.  And that 30-70% of released natural gas will find those cracks and fissures eventually.  Eventually there will be 100% failure of steel and concrete casings across hundreds of thousands of wells throughout Pennsylvania, throughout the Northeast, throughout the U.S., throughout the world.  Aquifers will be polluted, by methane gas and by any residual toxic wastes from fracking that are not disposed of properly.

The “unconventional” wisdom of the gas industry seems to be: “Let's make a killing on the drilling now and clean up the mess later.”   It may well be a mess unparalleled in the history of human existence.

Indeed, drilling is just the beginning.

j.p.m.

How Many Reasons do you Need to Ban Fracking?

5/7/2013

 
In the hope of balancing the slick TV ads, local “advisory councils” and shale-gas “forums,” all proclaiming how safe and wonderful everything is in the world of shale-gas drilling, I am making available to the public, online, the report I compiled for the Butler Township Marcellus Shale Advisory Board. 

This report, “Municipalities That Have Sought to Ban or Significantly Restrict Natural Gas Drilling: Who, How and Why,” in no way reflects the opinions of the township board of commissioners or the final recommendations of the township advisory board. 

However, it does contain numerous factual incident reports, medical observations, and academic and governmental studies, all of which highlight the myriad hazards and issues associated with unconventional drilling for shale gas. 

In other words, everything the gas industry doesn’t want people reading about, knowing about, talking about or thinking about. 

Not that I have any illusions about bursting the rosy money-in-the-bank bubble that most Butler Countians live in regarding this subject. I have come to accept that most local residents will not believe anything negative about the gas industry without direct, firsthand experience of the negative impacts that have been felt in other drilling areas. 

And, if that happens, chances are good that the industry practice of settling lawsuits by way of non-disclosure agreements will keep other county residents from learning about those impacts. 

I read with interest the March 21 Butler Eagle article “Shale safety deal done” about the “sustainable shale” coalition between a few gas-drilling companies and a few environmental groups that has formed in Pittsburgh. It’s nice to see a few drilling companies admitting that there might be some problems that need to be solved. 

Their list of “performance standards,” however, is woefully inadequate. 

This report will provide readers with the full scope of the mess that the gas industry needs to clean up, if indeed it ever can be cleaned up. 

The report is available for viewing here.

If You See Something, Say Something

4/28/2013

 
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A letter to the editor published in the Butler Eagle on April 26, 2013 with the original title If you See Something, Say Something

The April 21 Butler Eagle article “Natural gas development thriving in Butler County” focuses on the positives that the fracking boom has brought to Butler County, while downplaying the damages.
The article reports that there have been “just 41 violations reported across all wells (in Butler County), resulting in about $11,000 total in fines. Most wells that have been issued violations have received only one, while no site has received more than three citations from the DEP (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection).”
One thing many people overlook when assessing these numbers is that violations are assigned to a unit (or a well) and not a pad. A pad can have numerous wellheads.
For example, according to the DEP’s website, there are seven wellheads on the Voll/Soergel pad on Woodlands Road. Three thousand feet to the west sits the Gilliland site with 10 wellheads. Combined, they have four recorded violations, according to the DEP website on oil and gas.
None of the numerous “unintentional returns” and “discharges” into streams during pipeline construction are reported in the DEP system.
One such example was the February 2011 leak into Crab Run next to the Gilliland well. At that time, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission was investigating more than a dozen such spills into Connoquenessing Creek and its tributaries. There is no way of knowing how many have occurred in the county.
Many pads also house compressor stations to push the gas through the pipeline. Last week, it was reported that MarkWest, Rex Energy’s midstream partner in the area, was found by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to be in violation of the Clean Air Act. MarkWest operates many of the compressor stations, including the one on the Voll/Soergel pad, and the cryogenic plant in Connoquenessing. Its plant in Jackson Township is located about a mile from the Seneca Valley School District’s secondary school campus, and the Jackson supervisors have just approved a third plant right next door.
The third plant will be larger than the previous two combined.
If we are going to peddle the exaggerated short-term benefits of toxic fracking, should we not also be studying the devastation and violations? Should we not look at the whole process and not just the narrow view of the industry’s public relations campaigns?
In the middle of the biggest expansion of its responsibilities in recent history, the DEP’s budget has been slashed to historic lows. The recently resigned head of the agency, Michael Krancer, stated that he placed growth of the natural gas industry above oversight.
Additionally, as the deadly explosion in West, Texas, clearly demonstrated, a lack of documented violations does not make a facility safe. Far from it. It often points to a lack of proper oversight.
It has therefore been left to investigative journalists, grassroots organizations with limited resources, and concerned taxpayers to shine a light on the dangers of this industry.

Just the Facts...

12/14/2012

 
Below is a list of pertinent events in the current Woodlands water contamination fiasco.

  • In late 2010, Rex Energy commenced its shale-gas drilling operations in the Woodlands area of Connoquenessing Twp., Butler County. By January 2011, at least a dozen households that previously had good clean water for at least a decade, all suddenly found themselves with a host of water problems, ranging from discoloration (orange, purple, black), to foul odors, to getting sick when they or their pets drank the water, to the water suddenly disappearing from their wells.
  • In Dec. 2011, Rex Energy announced that, according to rigorous scientific testing done by the lab they hired, Environmental Service Laboratories Inc., there was no way that their drilling operations had anything to do with water contamination complaints in the Woodlands. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection later backed up these findings.
  • A February 2012 Associated Press article reported that initial post-drilling water quality tests in the Woodlands conducted by the DEP showed man-made industrial contaminants in the water – a multi-chemical mix that suggested either multiple sources of contamination or one industry that uses many chemicals. Shale-gas drilling is the only industry in the Woodlands area. It also noted that the chemicals found in those initial post-drilling results were not even tested for in the results that exonerated Rex Energy from blame.
  • A follow-up AP report revealed that Rex Energy gas wells near the Woodlands neighborhood had developed casing problems during the drilling process. Neither Rex nor the DEP had disclosed this fact to Woodlands residents or the public, either at the time of the incident or during the later discussions of possible water contamination in the area. Faulty gas-well casings have been a common factor in documented water-contamination incidents linked to natural gas drilling.
  • In early November 2012, both the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on court depositions by two former DEP employees-turned-whistleblowers, stating that the DEP routinely creates incomplete lab reports and uses them to dismiss complaints that Marcellus Shale gas development operations have contaminated residential water supplies. According to one deposition, a special lab code for Marcellus Shale water contamination complaints, “942 Suite Code,” is used statewide. In a Post-Gazette file review of DEP water quality reports generated under that code, it was found that those reports didn't disclose all of the contaminants found in well water samples. The water complaints in these cases were then dismissed because the abbreviated reports did not support the property owner complaints. One of the areas mentioned in the Post-Gazette's report on its file review was The Woodlands.
  • In August-September 2012, Rex Energy commenced another round of drilling and fracking. By October, the number of Woodlands households reporting water problems had risen to at least 25.
In the face of the above factual statements, I have two questions to ask the citizens of Butler County: 1.) Are the Woodlands water contamination problems related to shale-gas drilling in the area? 2.) How do we go about getting honest accountability from county, state and local officials regarding this problem, and from our “sacred cash cow,” the shale-gas drilling industry?

Gas Patch Roulette

11/14/2012

 
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For years now we’ve heard individual reports about human and animal health impacts related to gas development but until now they have been dismissed as “anecdotal.”  That was until, Earthworks, a DC-based nonprofit, released the results of the largest health study in the Marcellus Shale region to date.
 
The study brings much needed quantifiable data to the discussion surrounding the health impacts of shale drilling and its related infrastructure.  Air and water tests accompanied the health data of 108 residents in 14 PA counties.  Butler county residents account for 11% of the participants.
 
The report shows a direct correlation between proximity to a facility (well, waste impoundment pit, compressor station) and the prevalence of symptoms. 
 
  • In all counties except one (Bradford) the most common health symptom reported is sinus/respiratory problems.
  • 40% of households (22/55) reported that pets and livestock began to have symptoms (such as seizures or losing hair) or suddenly fell ill and died after gas development began nearby.
  • 15 of those surveyed stated that their symptoms lessened or disappeared when they were away from home.
  • Members of 4 households moved to new locations due to gas drilling and several others stated that they would if their finances and jobs allowed it.
Read the full report http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/public_health_and_gas_development#.UKReVIZqMg8


Natural Resources Defense Council Visits Butler Shalefields

10/19/2012

 
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national environmental group, contacted MOB in August with a request to visit Butler County to see what is happening with unconventional well drilling.   The President, Frances Brenenke, brought two board members and 6 staff members to Butler to see the impact toxic fracking is having on people and communities. 

Two members of Marcellus Outreach Butler, Ping Pirrung and Dennis McCann, hosted a lunch at their home in Middlesex Township on August 27 for our visitors.  Janet and Fred McIntyre shared how their lives have been turned upside down and their health compromised  since drilling began in the Connoquenessing.  Woodlands.
John Stolz, Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education and professor of biology at Duquesne University, explained the research he has been doing  with the aquifers in the Woodlands. Rich Waters, an independent videographer, showed a moving video he created of other families’ stories.  The final story came from Taylor Jennings who lived across the road from the large gas processing plant on Hartmann Road near Evans City.  He described the foul odors, the truck traffic and the contaminated water that he can set on fire.  
At the end of the luncheon, Raina Ripple, Director of the Southwest Health Center,  told the visitors that the stories of people impacted in Butler County are the same as the stories she is hearing in Washington, Greene and Fayette Counties.  People are sick and living with contaminated water and breathing air that forces them to stay indoors.  And what is so upsetting to her is that “no one is doing anything to help these people – not the state or local governments, not the medical profession.”
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The NRDC visitors were visibly moved by what they heard and this was reinforced when they piled into cars and took a tour of the shalefields in Butler County.  With Janet McIntyre and John Stolz as guides, a caravan of cars traveled down Brownsdale Road where there are 4 drilling sites within a  mile radius from one another.   At one site in the Woodlands,  the liner from a pond which had held contaminated flowback water had been carelessly left by the side of the road.  After visiting several drilling sites, a compression station and the gas processing plant,  our guests had to travel south to Washington County where Ron Gulla was hosting a similar event for them the following day to show them the impacts in Southwestern PA.

What were the results of NRDC’s tours of fracking sites, like their visit to Butler County?   Check out the impressions of  Frances Brenenke’s, President of NRDC, tour of western PA as captured in her blog.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/calling_for_national_fracking.html

On September 19th, NRDC launched the Community Fracking Defense Project. This new project, which is launching in five states—New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and North Carolina—will provide assistance to towns and other local governments that want added control over the siting of and/or protections against the harms of fracking in their communities.

For example, NRDC legal and policy staff, together with local partners, will:

•    Assist in drafting local laws and land use plans that control the extent of fracking within their borders and/or limit the harmful effects of fracking.

•    Work to re-assert communities’ rights to protect themselves under state law.

•    Defend relevant zoning provisions and other local laws that are challenged in court.

Kate Sidding, a NRDC attorney, filed an amicus brief in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on behalf of a number of municipalities in support of a lower court decision striking down portions of Act 13, a recently enacted Pennsylvania law that severely limits the ability of local governments to use their zoning powers to control where fracking occurs.

MOB was happy to host NRDC’s visit and is encouraged by their response and actions.  We need more powerful organizations to step forward and take a stand like NRDC is doing.  As more people and organizations stand up and make their voices heard, we increase our chances of stopping this destruction and getting permanent solutions for the people whose lives have been so negatively impacted.

-Dianne Arnold

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In many ways, the word “fracking” is a most unfortunate word.

10/16/2011

 
It's unfortunate that it's so much fun to say! It makes you feel like you're getting away with saying something naughty in a public place (as in: “Get that fracking thing out of here!”).

It's also unfortunate that it's so much more convenient to say “fracking” than it is to say “high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing and its associated infrastructure.” But that's exactly what opponents of the current method for drilling in the Marcellus Shale are talking about when they say, perhaps too simplistically, “Fracking poisons your air and water.” They are talking about the faulty well casings (still a problem, according to the DEP violations database) that allow methane and other substances to contaminate groundwater aquifers. They are talking about compressor stations with their toxic emissions which the EPA has identified as a serious health risk. These things are part of the “associated infrastructure” of hydraulic fracturing.

The gas industry responds to opponents' linguistic shorthand by saying, very condescendingly: “Fracking doesn't do that. Fracking occurs well below groundwater aquifers, certainly below the air we breathe,” referring, of course, to the deep-level subterranean fracturing of shale and nothing more.

By these statements the industry tries to make opponents of “fracking” (all-inclusive definition) look like fools.

It's time to stop this war of words. It's time to look at this process as a whole, to examine violations databases and health-impact studies and illness reports from drilling areas and properly assess the hazards of the entire process.  It's time to shut it down until it can be conclusively proven that it does no harm, not wait for a 10-year study to conclusively prove that it is doing harm. By that time, so much more harm will have been done due to inadequate safeguards, based on: “You can't prove that your symptoms are due to drilling, even if they are the same symptoms that people are experiencing in drilling areas of Texas and Colorado and weren't present until drilling started taking place...”

Yes, “fracking” is a most unfortunate word. It is also a most unfortunate industrial practice. And I think that you know which fracking definition of “fracking” I mean...

j.p.m.

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    Blog posts written by members of Marcellus Outreach Butler.

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