Worried about Water in Blossburg, PA

Blossburg, PA had a scare the other day of high mercury levels in their water supply. Update info says new tests show the levels are now reading appropriately but folks living in the borough of Blossburg should avoid drinking the water or washing their dishes in it. You can read more details about this issue here. Just the title of that story doesn’t make me feel to reassured and if they don’t want you to drink it or eat from it then you probably shouldn’t be bathing in it either, even though they are not warning people to avoid that.

Hydraulic Fracking the Propaganda and Truth

I know I’ve been away from this blog for a while now but it looks like folks are still finding it. The following link was passed on to me, and good for a few laughs despite the depressing topic, and I just had to pass it along. Enjoy and share!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZptKESRzio&feature=youtu.be

Advanced Waterdog Training in August

An advanced Waterdog training will take place on August 11th. Details from the flyer are below.

Hello Waterdogs,

I wanted to invite all of you to our Advanced Waterdog Training on August 11 from 5:00—9:00. This training will only be for people who have already attended the initial training. We will be hosting the training at the Ives Run Visitor’s Center. The program will be outside so please dress appropriately for walking in the grass and along the stream. Please register with Erica Tomlinson at 570-724-1801 ext 118 or etomlinson@tiogacountypa.us.

We can’t wait to see you all there!

Phone: 570-724-1801 ext 118

E-mail: etomlinson@tiogacountypa.us

P.O. Box 445

Wellsboro, Pa 16901

Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group

Tentative Agenda

Introduction – Goals & Objective

Review of Basic Waterdogging

Photos – What & How to:

Rapid Bioassessment for O&G

Sampling Water, Soil & Other – What, where, how

Field Kit

“Off the shelf” Contents

Care & Use

TDS Meter – use and calibration

QA/QC & COC – Lovegreen’s manual

Corroboration & Reporting (what to do with samples)

Adaptive Learning & commitment

PennFuture workshop: Gas and Our Water

Gas and Our Water:

Legal tools for watershed advocates dealing with

drilling in the Marcellus Shale

Saturday, April 16

King’s College, Wilkes-Barre

This workshop will give grassroots conservation and watershed groups, concerned citizens and volunteers the legal tools necessary to protect our water and ensure Marcellus Shale gas drilling is done responsibly. Hear from leading environmental attorneys on land use and zoning, permits, wastewater issues, and enforcement of our clean water laws and regulations. Find out how to participate in the permitting process and to get decision-makers to listen to you.

Specific topics include:

* Wastewater and stormwater permits and permit appeals;

* Clean water enforcement; and

* Land use and zoning – Planning a boom

 

Space is limited – Register today

3 CLE credits available

Breakfast and materials included

 

The cost of the workshop is FREE to PennFuture members and students with ID; $10 for non-members. Free parking.

Space is limited and registration is required; register online today or by calling 717-214-7920.

A draft agenda will be available soon.

Date: Saturday, April 16, 2011

Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Location:

King’s College -Burke Auditorium

133 North River Street

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711

If you’d like to attend this event you can purchase tickets online by clicking here:

http://my.pennfuture.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=107422&autologin=true&AddInterest=1261

A Comprehensive Website for News Headlines

The below site, while not covering everything, does offers a lot of info in one place.

Newspaper Headlines:

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Gas-Drilling_NEWS.htm

Oil and Gas Companies Illegally Using Diesel in Fracking

By Adam Federman, Earth Island Journal

Posted on February 1, 2011

The 2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act famously exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. But it made one small exception: diesel fuel. The Policy Act states that the term “underground injection,” as it relates to the Safe Drinking Water Act, “excludes the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities [italics added by author].” But a congressional investigation has found that oil and gas service companies used tens of millions of gallons of diesel fuel in fracking operations between 2005 and 2009, thus violating the Safe Drinking Water Act. Hydraulic fracturing is a method of drilling that injects large volumes of water, chemicals, and sand underground at high pressure to break open rock formations and release stores of natural gas. In some cases, however, water based fluids are less effective and diesel fuel or other hydrocarbons may be used.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the congressional committee noted that between 2005 and 2009, “oil and gas service companies injected 32.2 million gallons of diesel fuel or hydraulic fracturing fluids containing diesel fuel in wells in 19 states.” None of the companies sought or received permits to do so. “This appears to be a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act,” the letter states. “It also means that the companies injecting diesel fuel have not performed the environmental reviews required by the law.”

Moreover, because the necessary environmental reviews were circumvented, the companies were unable to provide data on whether they had used diesel in fracking operations in or near underground sources of drinking water. Diesel fuel contains a number of toxic constituents including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

In the last few years, shale gas extraction has increased exponentially, raising fears that drinking water wells and underground aquifers may be at risk. It has become a particularly sensitive issue in the northeast’s Marcellus Shale, which underlies parts of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. Later this month the Delaware River Basin Commission will hold public hearings on drilling in the watershed—a source of drinking water for more than 15 million people.

The EPA is currently conducting its own study of the impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water supplies due out in late 2012. But will companies that have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2005 be held accountable?

Matt Armstrong, a lawyer with the Washington firm Bracewell & Giuliani, which represents several oil and gas companies, told the New York Times, “Everyone understands that E.P.A. is at least interested in regulating fracking.” But: “Whether the E.P.A. has the chutzpah to try to impose retroactive liability for use of diesel in fracking, well, everyone is in a wait-and-see mode. I suspect it will have a significant fight on its hands if it tried it do that.”

To read this article online, click here:

http://www.alternet.org/story/149760/oil_and_gas_companies_illegally_using_diesel_in_fracking_

To read the New York Times coverage of this issue, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/energy-environment/01gas.html

To read the Energy policy Act, click here: http://www.epa.gov/oust/fedlaws/publ_109-058.pdf

To read the letter from the Congressional Committee to EPA Administrator Jackson, click here: http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?q=news/waxman-markey-and-degette-investigation-finds-continued-use-of-diesel-in-hydraulic-fracturing-f

NOTE: The letter states, “In 2003, EPA signed a memorandum of agreement with the three largest providers of hydraulic fracturing to eliminate the use of diesel fuel in coalbed methane formations in underground sources of drinking water. Two years later, Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act except when the fracturing fluids contain diesel. As a result, many assumed that the industry stopped using diesel fuel altogether in hydraulic fracturing…

According to EPA, any company that performs hydraulic fracturing using diesel fuel must receive a permit under the Safe Drinking Water Act. We learned that no oil and gas service companies have sought—and no state and federal regulators have issued—permits for diesel fuel use in hydraulic fracturing…

In a 2004 report, EPA stated that the ‘use of diesel fuel in fracturing fluids poses the greatest threat’ to underground sources of drinking water….

In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which contained a provision addressing the application of Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to hydraulic fracturing. Congress modified the definition of ‘underground injection to exclude’ ‘the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas… The effect of this law is to exempt hydraulic fracturing from the underground injection control (UIC) permit requirements unless the fluid being injected is diesel fuel. As EPA states on its website: While the SDWA specifically excludes hydraulic fracturing from UIC regulation … the use of diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing is still regulated by the UIC program. Any service company that performs hydraulic fracturing using diesel fuel must receive prior authorization from the UIC program….

PA DEP Fines Pennsylvania General Energy Co. LLC $28,960 for Illegal Surfactant Discharge

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

Dept. of Environmental Protection

Commonwealth News Bureau

Room 308, Main Capitol Building

Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

02/2/2011

CONTACT:

Daniel T. Spadoni, Department of Environmental Protection North-central Regional Office

570-327-3659

DEP Fines Pennsylvania General Energy Co. LLC $28,960 for Illegal Surfactant Discharge to Pine Creek in Lycoming County

Incident Occurred at a Marcellus Natural Gas Well Pad in Cummings Township

WILLIAMSPORT — The Department of Environmental Protection today announced that it has fined Pennsylvania General Energy Co. LLC (PGE) of Warren $28,960 for the illegal discharge of Airfoam HD, a surfactant, into Pine Creek in Lycoming County last March.

Surfactants are used by natural gas drillers to create a foam that will lift water and drill cuttings to the surface. Airfoam HD is approved by DEP for use by the industry.

“PGE responded immediately to this incident and fully cooperated with the department,” said DEP North-central Regional Director Nels Taber.

During the weekend of March 13 and 14, 2010, there was significant rainfall and snow melt that caused residual Airfoam in a Marcellus well bore to migrate to a spring on the hillside creating a white, foamy substance. The spring was not used as a source of drinking water.

A DEP investigation on March 15 verified that the material was flowing from the spring, down the hillside, under Pa. Route 44 via a storm drain, and into Pine Creek. At the time, the spring was flowing at an estimated 180 gallons per minute.

PGE began diverting foam from the storm drain in the road berm and later placed an absorbent boom across the spring run on the hillside, which prevented further discharges to Pine Creek.

No constituents of Airfoam HD were detected in Pine Creek.

The discharge was a violation of the Clean Streams Law, Solid Waste Management Act, and DEP’s oil and gas regulations.

The fine was deposited into the fund that supports DEP’s oil and gas permitting and enforcement programs.

For more information, call 570-327-3659 or visit http://www.depweb.state.pa.us.

Trout Unlimited to hold training session for Marcellus Shale Monitoring

The following Trout Unlimited-sponsored training session is for those interested in learning about the signs and symptoms of trouble in the Marcellus Shale drilling areas, and to learn what’s normal when such activity is on-going.

When: February 26, 2011 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Where: Citizen’s Hose Co., Lock Haven, PA (on Rt 150 – aka Bellefonte Ave.)

Cost: Free for Trout Unlimited members; $17.50 for non-members (lunch and training materials included)

Registration contact: Dave Sewak – email: dsewak@tu.org or phone: 814.659.1772

Waterdog Training January 10th 2011

Waterdogs Training

Monday, January 10^th, 2011

7:00-9:00pm

Jersey Shore Middle School Library

Registration Fee $10

Additional $20 if you would like a TDS Meter

Registration is due by January 3^rd, 2011

Please make checks payable to: LCCD

Lycoming County Conservation District

542 County Farm Road, Suite 202

Montoursville Pa 17754

Space will be limited to the first 50 participants.  Pre-registration is required.

If you have questions please call Carey Entz @ (570) 433-3003

EPA’s Public Meeting on Hydraulic Fracturing

EPA’s Public Meeting on Hydraulic Fracturing Study to Take Place in Binghamton, New York; Meeting Scheduled for September 13 and 15 at the Broome County Forum Theater

Release date: 08/31/2010

Contact Information: John Senn, (212) 637-3667, senn.john@epa.gov

New York, NY – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected a new venue and dates for the public meeting on EPA’s upcoming hydraulic fracturing study originally scheduled for August 12, 2010. The meeting will now be held at the Broome County Forum Theater in Binghamton, New York, on September 13th and 15th, 2010.

Meeting Information:
EPA will hold four identical sessions during a two day session at the same location:

Date: Monday, September 13, 2010
Location: Broome County Forum Theater, 236 Washington St., Binghamton
Time:

• 12:00pm – 4:00pm (pre-registration begins at 10:30am)
• 6:00pm – 10:00pm (pre-registration begins at 4:30pm)

Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Location: Broome County Forum Theater, 236 Washington St., Binghamton
Time:

• 12:00pm – 4:00pm (pre-registration begins at 10:30am)
• 6:00pm – 10:00pm (pre-registration begins at 4:30pm)

Transition from the Postponed August 12 Meeting
The four sessions scheduled for September 13 and 15, 2010 will be identical to those already convened in Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The agenda will match that of the meetings previously scheduled for August 12. As with all previous meetings, EPA will make a short presentation at the beginning of each session and registered speakers will then have the opportunity to provide verbal or written comments directly to EPA.

All individuals who pre-registered for the August 12 meetings will retain their registration for the September 13 and 15 meetings. Because the timing of the sessions has changed from a one-day event to a two-day event and EPA has added another meeting session, EPA needs pre-registered individuals to specify the session they would like to attend.

1. Pre-registered speakers for the August 12 session will be sent an e-mail from the Cadmus Group requesting they select one preferred session in which to provide verbal comment. The email notification will provide instructions on how to choose a session. Speakers who pre-registered using the telephone registration will be contacted by Cadmus by phone to confirm their preferred session.
2. Pre-registered attendees (those who opted not to give verbal comment) will be asked to indicate the session they would like to attend via the registration website. The registration website is located at http://hfmeeting.cadmusweb.com and will open beginning at 9:00 am on Friday, September 3, 2010…….

For additional questions or comments, please email hydraulic.fracturing@epa.gov or call 1-866-477-3635. Meeting information may be found on the EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study website athttp://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/wells_hydroout.cfm……