In what can only be described as a mighty blow against industry hubris and governmental malfeasance, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has rescinded a permit it had previously issued to XTO for a proposed well site in Franklin Township. It would be wonderful if this act of sanity could be attributed to corporate conscience or governmental due diligence, but that is not the case. This amazing turn of events came about because a mighty band of residents pooled their pluckiness, their resources and their expertise and felled Goliath - XTO is a subsidiary of the richest company on the planet - ExxonMobil.

Time and again, XTO assured the residents that they knew Franklin Township better than the folks that live there. Time and again, XTO, its apologists and sock puppets crowed about meeting or exceeding DEP's "stringent" regulations. Time and again, governmental bodies soothed the concerned residents, "DEP will take care of you."

XTO's permit application failed to address, didn't even fill out, important parts of the application. Other parts were merely boilerplate, failing to address facts on the ground. This put the Lake Arthur watershed in harm's way, it endangered the drinking water supply of Harmony Borough and the private wells of nearby residents. And how did DEP respond? It approved this woefully inadequate and dangerously deficient plan - living up to a moniker many of us now use to describe the agency, Don't Expect Protection.

Using thousands of dollars of their own money, Save Lake Arthur Watershed (SLAW), the aforementioned mighty band, mobilized. These, mostly retired, residents did what XTO and DEP should have done. They poured over maps, studied run-off patterns, read regulations, examined documents,read research, and implored company and government officials to pay attention. All to no avail. Finally, they filed suit - at great cost. And then, XTO and DEP took notice.

The system is broken. We, the residents of the Commonwealth, pay taxes to fund an agency that doesn't do its job. Worse, that agency is held up as an impediment to business and, contradictorily, a protector of the Commonwealth. It's neither. DEP is a sham. Residents of the Commonwealth shouldn't have to pay more money just so DEP will pay attention to us.

If XTO can't fill out paperwork properly, even when it knows that people are watching, how can we trust them to do infinitely more complex things when no one is watching? And how do we know that no one is watching? Because DEP rubber stamps documents that leave entire critical sections blank.

A while ago, a Butler County resident found that a driller located a well too close to his house (the driller was XTO). He told me that he notified DEP and was told, "XTO would never make a mistake like that." The homeowner insisted that DEP measure and, sure enough, the well was too close.

If XTO and DEP can't take care of the little things, they have no business conducting or regulating big and complex things.

What would we do without plucky residents?

Michael Bagdes-Canning

I am greatly concerned about the proposed well pad at the Cratty farm off Election House Road. Currently, this pad is located within the watershed for Lake Arthur and Moraine State Park. This watershed is a state-designated Special Protection High Quality Watershed in which strip mining and other significant earth-moving projects have been prohibited since the creation of the lake in the 1960s. However, because the Marcellus Shale boom is so recent, there are no special protections concerning fracking. I am opposed to fracking in general, but it likely will happen regardless. Therefore, since townships have the power to regulate fracking within their communities through zoning and other laws since the repeal of Act 13, Franklin Township should pressure XTO Energy to move their well pad to the southeast, so that it would not drain into Shannon Run, which directly feeds Lake Arthur. 

I would like to point out the fact that XTO has one of the worst violation records for a drilling company in the state. XTO has 186 violations on record, the sixth highest in the state (NPR StateImpact). Here are some recent examples:

• April 22, 2014: XTO Energy issued a violation for “Failure to properly store, transport, process or dispose of a residual waste” at their AK Steel B1H well in Butler Township.   
  A similar incident also occurred at their Vadnal A Unit 10HB in Jefferson Township on April 20, 2014. There are numerous cases of this violation at XTO sites across Butler County. 
• July 23, 2013: XTO issued a violation for “Discharge of industrial waste to waters of Commonwealth without a permit” at their Kozick Bros Const Inc 2 well in Summit Township.

The majority of XTO’s numerous violations are related to spilling, mishandling, or dumping fracking fluid or residual waste. Fracking fluid contains “BTEX compounds, which stands for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene.  They are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – (organic chemical compounds that are highly evaporative and can produce noxious fumes). Benzene is a known carcinogen, and has also been shown to cause blood disorders.  Both benzene and toluene can affect the reproductive and central nervous systems.   Ethylbenzene and xylene can have respiratory and neurological effects” (from Catskill Mountainkeeper). A joint study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that a fracking fluid spill in Kentucky in 2007 killed all of the aquatic life in Acorn Fork Creek, the stream into which the fluid was spilled. “After studying samples of the water and bodies of green sunfish and creek chub, government researchers have concluded that the spill acidified the stream and increased concentrations of heavy metals including aluminum and iron. Fish exposed to the water developed gill lesions and showed signs of liver and spleen damage, USGS announced in a press release. The gill lesions were consistent with ‘toxic concentrations of heavy metals,’ the researchers concluded” (from the Huffington Post). Hydrochloric acid was present in the spilled fluid.

As you can see, if similar incidents were to occur at the XTO site on the Cratty farm as have occurred elswhere in Butler County, Lake Arthur and Moraine would be directly affected by it. XTO will also likely construct both fresh and wastewater impoundments at the site due to the lack of municipal water sources and other drilling activity in the area. This poses another threat, as the linings in these pits are only required to be 30 mm minimum in thickness. Often, these liners are poorly installed or tear, leaking the fluid into the ground. These pits have also been known to overflow in heavy, sustained rains. 

I love Lake Arthur and Moraine, and I am certain that many in western Pennsylvania would be devastated if anything were to happen to our beloved park. I urge you to do the smart, common-sense thing and force XTO to move their wells out of the Moraine watershed. Since the repeal of Act 13, you have the power to do that and you need to use it. I have enclosed copies of the articles I mentioned in this letter. Thank you.

Samuel A. Hoszwa