Become a Waterdog!

Become a Pine Creek Waterdog!! It’s simple and could make a huge difference in protecting our environment and assisting the DEP in enforcing compliance with our regulations. 

The Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group is holding a training and registration for Waterdogs on February 8, 2011 from 7 to 9 pm at the Tokishi Training Center, NYPUM Drive, Wellsboro Pa. 

There is a $10 registration fee to cover cost of materials. 

To register, call 

Erica Tomlinson

Watershed Specialist
Tioga County Conservation District724-1801×118 

Limited to 35 Waterdog trainees. 

You will be provided with a bumper sticker, registration card and logbook for recording your observations. This training will show you how to document and record important observation information and who to call in the event of environmental harm or public safety issues.  So join us for an interesting evening program on how a citizen can participate in the protection of our environment and place your “Pine Creek Waterdog” bumper sticker on your vehicle and go forth!

General info about Marcellus Shale in PA

The Marcellus Shale natural gas play is one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the United States. The northern tier of Pennsylvania, which contain some of the deepest stratum of Marcellus shales in the Eastern United States, has recently become the focus of intense energy development. An increased awareness of the importance of this “discovery” has brought many companies to seek El Dorado in the region.

Currently there are drilling rigs scattered across the region, with rigs located in Tioga, Bradford, Lycoming and Susquehanna Counties. Marcellus Shale rigs typically explore as deep as 8,000 feet and drill horizontal legs as far outward as 4000 feet from the vertical well. In order to release the gas from the tight shale formation a process called hydrofracturing is used. Hydrofracturing (called fracing for short) fractures the shale through the use of pressurized water. Special sands, called propents, and chemical are injected along with the water to form a porous route for the gas to flow through.

We are fortunate that our Department of Environmental Protection has a very rigorous permitting and inspection process that the companies must follow in order to extract the gas. We do however understand that those personnel cannot maintain a watch on the activity of all the people, rigs and trucks contracted and subcontracted to produce the gas. Many contractors and companies brought in from outside the state are not yet familiar with our regulations regarding water usage, erosion and sedimentation, and waste disposal. The region is too large and the resources of the regulators too limited to effectively keep track of the exponential growth in activity taking place.

Basic Waterdog Training

Here’s a note from Erica about the next basic Waterdog training. Don’t forget to register for this class; they would rather not have walk-ins.

The next Basic Waterdog Training will be held on March 23 from 7 pm – 9 pm at the North Campus of Penn College.    You can either call or email me to register for the training!

Thanks

Erica Tomlinson

Watershed Specialist

Tioga County Conservation District

570-724-1801 ext 118

Waterdog Update

Here’s an update on the Waterdog training coming up this month. Don’t forget to call Erika and let her know you are coming to the training. Contact me if you need her number.

Hello Waterdogs,

I wanted to let everyone know that I have finally confirmed the location for the Advanced Waterdog Training!!  It is Saturday, February 27, from 9-12 at the Ives Run Recreation area at the Tioga Hammond Lakes.  It will be held in the Visitor’s Center/Ranger Station.

This training is for current waterdogs only – but I only have some of the emails!!  I will be mailing out other fliers for those that I don’t have emails – so if you could please send this on to someone that you know is already a waterdog I would really appreciate it.  Also I have cards for everyone – I have redone the cards if you have already received one – they are more wallet friendly!!  So please let me know one way or the other if you are coming to the training – if you are not planning to attend the training I will mail your Id card to you.

Thank you,

Erica Tomlinson

Watershed Specialist

Tioga County Conservation District

Waterdogs update

The meeting on Dec. the 8th has been moved from Penn Tech campus to the one-day-to-be Deane Center on Main Street in Wellsboro. Starts at 7pm and you need to be registered for the class. Cost is $10.00

If you have already taken a Waterdogs course you are always invited back to any new courses, free of charge and without registration. Hope to see many of you there.

Waterdogs have the gas industry upset!

I think it’s wonderful that our small group of watch dogs, otherwise know as “waterdogs”, has created such a stir! Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group has done such a wonderful job of putting this program together! Not only are they being recognized as an organization that has power by educating the local area residents (in the wake of DEP being given the slash and burn treatment by our state government) but also as a group that is so on-the-ball with the information they are making available to participants of the course, that the gas industry feels the need to criticize what they are doing in an attempt to make the Waterdog trainings appear limited and naive. The PA Oil and Gas Association spokesman in the article is doing exactly what any industry with a lot of black baggage would do. They love it when we feel powerless because their industry is, as he puts is, complicated and arcane, which it is…but it also doesn’t take a rock scientists to figure out most of what is going on as well as some of the industries dirty little secrets. Being a Waterdog doesn’t make anyone comparable to a DEP inspector but it does give area residents the opportunity to learn about what’s happening to their environment and take some care and control in what happens to the water and and other resources in PA. It also is a viable way for many more pairs of eyes to keep watch over the mass of wells that have been drilled in such a short time span that the DEP is struggling to keep up with monitoring all of them.

I just wanted to update this post and add this note. ALL calls to DEP are confidential and the right of every citizen! I just spoke with a friend who works in that office and she and I both want to make sure that the folks in PA understand that. SO please call DEP if you have a need to or if you have questions and be comfortable that your concerns and/or information will remain private.

by Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: December 1, 2009

A small watershed protection group has drawn the disdain of the state’s natural gas industry by offering a training program to help citizens in Northern Pennsylvania learn how to document and report potential environmental violations at Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling sites.

The Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group, based in Tioga County, will hold its second two-hour training session Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Pennsylvania College of Technology campus near Wellsboro.

The “waterdogs” program is meant to teach citizens in Susquehanna, Bradford and Tioga counties how to monitor waterways and well sites in the midst of a rapid expansion of gas drilling. It is also aimed at supplementing the oversight of the Department of Environmental Protection, which has struggled to fill all 17 oil and gas positions in its northcentral regional office.

In publicity materials about the event, the group called DEP’s permitting and inspection process “very rigorous” but said the staff is outnumbered by the many out-of-state gas contractors that are “not yet familiar with our regulations regarding water usage, erosion and sedimentation, and waste disposal.

“The region is too large and the resources of the regulators too limited to effectively keep track of the exponential growth in activity taking place,” the group said.

Reaction from the state’s natural gas industry ranged from disbelief to derision.

The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association posted news of the event on its Web site under the headline, “Environmental vigilante training to help enforce Marcellus drilling regs.”

“In just two hours you can learn all you need to know to be an environmental vigilante and help protect our watersheds from Marcellus gas drillers,” the post said.

On his “Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Law Blawg,” Meadville-based oil and gas attorney Russell L. Schetroma called the event “amazing.”

“Hopefully the participants, the sponsor and the college have insurance to cover the damages operators suffer from spurious claims of environmental damage made by graduates of the program,” he wrote.

Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, said his post was meant to be “tongue-in-cheek,” but the production of natural gas in the state and its regulation are “very serious issues.”

“To act like you’re going to make someone competent as a DEP inspector with two hours of training for issues as complicated and arcane as these… is a little naive and a little dangerous,” he said.

He also said the volunteers risk creating more work for DEP, rather than helping its staff, “by reporting things that aren’t in fact a problem.”

DEP investigates all complaints that fall under the department’s jurisdiction.

But Ron Comstock, president of the headwaters group, said the goal is precisely to limit the amount of unsubstantiated complaints filed with DEP by people who do not know what to look for.

“In the absence of some responsible programs like this, they’re going to have just tons of that,” he said.

The group encourages people to be aware of the drilling as it expands in the region. “Maybe they’ll see something that’s not right,” he said, “and with some training, they’ll know what to do.”

The group also emphasizes water quality monitoring in streams where it already has strong baseline data so it can track signs of leaks or spills, he said. Similar community monitoring has been recommended at public meetings by water quality specialists with the Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Mr. Comstock said his group hopes to start a training movement that will spread to other watershed groups around the state.

“We stress safety,” he said. “If there’s anything we can do to make a bad experience something better and safer, that’s what we hope to do.”

Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com

What can Tioga County residents do about water quality issues?

By AUDREY PATTERSON – Sun-Gazette Correspondent-November 2nd, 2009

WELLSBORO – Water quality issues associated with gas well drilling and its environmental impacts were at the forefront of an Oct. 21 Tiadaghton Audubon Society meeting at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center. More than 30 people attended and also learned how they can undergo training to help ensure the health of local streams.

Permits have been issued for 172 gas well drilling locations in Tioga County, and that number is expected to increase, said speakers Jim Weaver, Tioga County planner, and Ron Comstock, president of the Pine Creek Headwaters Protect Group.

“Water quality is one of our biggest concerns right now,” Weaver said. “Surface water withdrawal from local streams for ‘fracking,’ especially from sensitive wild trout streams, could have significant impacts.”

Fracking is the term given to the process of mixing water and sand to unlock gas sealed within the Marcellus Shale rock formation.

Drilling waste or “brine” – a mixture of water, salt, chemicals and natural materials – either is taken to water treatment facilities or trickled back into waterways through dilution.

Tioga County does not have brine water treatment facilities, making proper disposal another concern, Weaver said.

Attendees appeared shocked to learn that discharging brine back into waterways is legal.

Fracking materials or brine can break into aquifers, polluting underground drinking water supplies.

Such pollution affects local streams and may cause increases in water temperature, which decreases dissolved oxygen levels trout need for survival.

Water withdrawal and disposal activities also can cause a loss of habitat due to destruction of spawning areas. Surface water withdrawal is occurring at five locations in Tioga County.

Weaver encouraged citizens to speak with local representatives and encourage their support of legislation that brine water meets drinking water standards.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for issuing permits, inspections and responding to complaints about water quality.

Weaver advised participants who live near drilling sites that it “behooves all of us to get our water tested now.”

Materials that can appear at high levels in contaminated water include benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, xylene, heavy metals, salt and radioactive materials.

He also mentioned health and safety issues associated with “free gas,” which is a natural gas that escapes from bedrock and can leak into drinking water aquifers and homes. It is odorless, colorless and highly flammable.

Homeowners wouldn’t even know if it was in their home or drinking water until it caught on fire, Weaver said.

Weaver told the county home- and landowners that they can call the Tioga County Cooperative Extension office at 724-9120 for information about water testing.

DEP will respond to concerns, he added, but without baseline data from water tests conducted before drilling, there will be no sure way to assess impacts cause by gas drilling.

Pine Creek Headwaters Protect Group is working to educate local citizens about waterways monitoring, specifically Pine Creek and its tributaries, Comstock said.

The program, called Waterdogs, trains citizens to recognize health and safety issues and environmental problems associated with gas well drilling.

Waterdogs are given a logbook and resource information that can be used if they observe a potential hazard. Training also includes proper reporting of hazards.

Gas well representatives are aware of the Waterdogs program, Comstock said, adding that the protect group hopes to train as many Waterdogs as possible.

The next training session is 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 8 at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s North Campus in Wellsboro. Advance registration is required, and a $10 fee applies.

For more information, or to register, call Eric Tomlinson at 724-1801, ext 118.

Patterson, a naturalist and author, lives in the town of Wellsboro. She may be contacted through her Web site, www.pagrandcanyon.webs.com.

Upcoming Waterdog Training

The Waterdog training will be held Tuesday, September the 29th, at the Penn Tech north campus on Rt 6 outside Wellsboro at 7pm. Please call 570.724.1801 ext:118 and let Erika know if you are planning to attend. They would like to have an idea of how many attendees to expect.

Waterdog training is a class put together by the Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group and they aim to educate local residents about the equipment and vehicles used for gas well drilling and operations. You will be  instructed on how to identify various vehicles and what their purpose is and with that information you are asked to keep an eye out for vehicles carrying waste water that may be parked near local streams and waterways. If you see anything suspicious you are expected to report it to the correct authorities. All the details will be covered at this training. The general idea is to make sure there are local folks who are educated about the tools these companies are using so we can make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing in regards to the safety of our water. There are a lot of well sites in our Tioga County alone and it will be tough for the DEP to have personnel all over the county at the same time.

FYI, taking this class will not make you a secret agent or anything…just hoping to educate those that are concerned for their homes and local environments.

Dunkard Creek Massacre

Click the link below for an up close view of what Dunkard Creek looks like after Cabot Oil & Gas’s spills earlier this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJbx9XD5GXU

I think that if they find that the waste water in this creek is from more than just the spills, but also from illegal dumping, it will highlight just how important the Waterdog program in Tioga County is going to be.

Waterdogs

This is a copy of the flyer on waterdogs for Tioga County PA.

Citizen Monitoring

in

the Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale natural gas play is one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the United States. The northern tier of Pennsylvania, which contain some of the deepest stratum of Marcellus shales in the Eastern United States, has recently become the focus of intense energy development. An increased awareness of the importance of this “discovery” has brought many companies to seek El Dorado in the region.

Currently there are drilling rigs scattered across the region, with rigs located in Tioga (2 rigs), Bradford (5), and Susquehanna (11) Counties. Marcellus Shale rigs typically explore as deep as 8,000 feet and drill horizontal legs as far outward as 4000 feet from the vertical well. In order to release the gas from the tight shale formation a process called hydrofracturing is used. Hydrofracturing (called fracing for short) fractures the shale through the use of pressurized water. Special sands, called propents, are injected along with the water to form a porous route for the gas to flow through.

We are fortunate that our Department of Environmental Protection has a very rigorous permitting and inspection process that the companies must follow in order to extract the gas. We do however understand that those personnel cannot maintain a watch on the activity of all the people, rigs and trucks contracted and subcontracted to produce the gas. Many contractors and companies brought in from outside the state are not yet familiar with our regulations regarding water usage, erosion and sedimentation, and waste disposal. The region is too large and the resources of the regulators too limited to effectively keep track of the exponential growth in activity taking place. So, what can the average citizen do to help?

Pine Creek Waterdogs

Become a Pine Creek Waterdog!! It’s simple and could make a huge difference in protecting our environment and assisting the DEP in enforcing compliance with our regulations. The Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group is holding a training and registration for Waterdogs on September 29^th from 7to 9pm at the Pennsylvania College of Technology, North Campus on Route east of Wellsboro. There is a $10 registration fee to cover cost of materials. You will be provided with a bumper sticker, registration card and logbook for recording your observations. This training will show you how to document and record important observation information and who to call in the event of environmental harm or public safety issues. So join us for an interesting evening program on how a citizen can participate in the protection of our environment and place your “Pine Creek Waterdog” bumper sticker on your vehicle and go forth!