The Marcellus Effect

Shale Gas Over-hyped, Under-performing

2012-02-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

Over-exuberance about the promise of shale gas is overshadowing the falling profitability and declining productivity of shale gas wells. That’s the message Deborah Rogers is bringing to communities scattered across the Marcellus shale region, and she should know – she’s been analyzing productivity of Barnett shale gas wells around her home in Fort Worth, TX.

Rogers, a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, has served on the Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas since 2008. She became concerned when the numbers didn’t add up: estimates of reserves didn’t match the actual production-generated tax revenues that Fort Worth and neighboring municipal governments received.

When she started digging into the data she learned that less than six percent of Barnett shale wells met “minimum economic thresholds”. The industry claims that natural gas offers a cheap and abundant energy source that will last 100 years. But data from the Barnett shale gas play show a well failure rate that is increasing over time, says Rogers.

Even as companies drill more wells, the amount of gas produced has been declining. She points to audited records from the City of Fort Worth: in 2008 the city took in $50 million in income from wells drilled on city-owned properties. By 2010 the income was $38 million – based on four times as many wells.

Geologists are finding shale gas reserves to be less homogeneous than once thought.

Unfortunately, all those wells bring heavy environmental and health costs to the communities. Air quality data collected by the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) show high levels of two carcinogens, benzene and formaldehyde. Air tests also measured hydrogen sulfide, a potent neurotoxin, at levels 400 times what is usually found in urban air. TCEQ’s conclusion: gas drilling “contributes more air toxins than all cars, trucks and airplanes in the region combined,” says Rogers.

The gas industry continues to promote the conversion of vehicles and power plants to natural gas, claiming this domestic source of energy will result in a cleaner environment. At the same time they are quietly pursuing an export market, seeking permits to convert import terminals to expert terminals. This is happening just as American companies are looking to bring production back home, says Rogers. The promise of cheaper energy costs has car manufacturers ramping up production of gas-powered vehicles and other manufacturers bringing their factories back to the US.

It’s a squeeze play, Rogers says. “It’s only a business transaction for the companies. Their job is to find, extract and sell minerals to the entity paying the highest price.”

But, hey – if you don’t believe her analysis you just have to look at the recent news from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). On January 23 the agencylowered its estimates of recoverable shale gas reserves in the US and slashed their estimate of Marcellus reserves by 66 percent. That same day Chesapeake announced that they are cutting drilling andproduction of gas – due to low prices.

You can read more about what Rogers said here.

EPA Tests Dimock Water Despite Industry Criticism

2012-01-28T10:57:00.000-05:00

photo provided; EPA mobile lab in Dimock, PA

As promised, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is testing water in Dimock homes. As expected, the gas industry is fighting back, claiming whatever is in that water was already there. And to further complicate the picture, Cabot Oil and Gas CEO Dan Dingles is accusing the EPA of undercutting President Barack Obama’s “commitment” to developing the nation’s shale gas reserves.

If it weren’t in the news you’d assume this was the plot of a soon-to-be-released midwinter movie.

This week two teams of scientists began sampling well water from homes in Dimock, PA – or at least the homes they’ve been given access to. Of the 66 homeowners they contacted, EPA has received permission from 55 to conduct sampling.

EPA determined that further testing was warranted after reviewing results from testing Cabot conducted last fall. Although Cabot’s tests indicated methane may no longer be an issue, the results raised the Agency’s concern about the potential health threats posed by other contaminants in the water: arsenic, barium, a plasticizer known as DEHP, glycol compounds, manganese, phenol, sodium and others. EPA admits that some of these occur naturally, but notes that all of them are associated with gas drilling.

So why aren’t the other 11 homeowners getting their water tested? For free by scientists with no ties to the oil and gas industry?

Peer pressure, say some Dimock residents. Email and Facebook comments mention intimidation and pressure from both gas industry representatives and other residents. And while industry criticism against EPA for what they consider “meddling” is to be expected, the outcry by fellow residents against their neighbors illustrates just how deeply gas drilling can divide a community.

There are residents who support Cabot’s drilling and who, either because they already have leases or are hoping to cash in on future activities, criticize the continued attention on water problems as “baseless” and “hyped-up allegations”. These are the same folks who were outraged that the PA Department of Environmental Protection ordered Cabot to build a water line to bring fresh water to Dimock – even though Cabot would foot the bill.

Apparently nixing the water line was not enough for Enough is Enough. Their most recent campaign is “Dimock Proud”, featuring signs proclaiming that “the water IS clean and the people are friendly.”

Industry-backed Energy in Depth has been posting up a storm, claiming that the water’s safe and the testing is nothing more than politics – a “decision by EPA to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying water to people who don’t need it.”

But, hey – didn’t the President of the United States just say, in his State of the Union address, that we should drill for more gas? Apparently that was the take-away message for Cabot CEO Dan Dinges. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Dinges cited Obama’s support for domestic natural gas. He criticized EPA’s water testing in Dimock as an action that threatened to “undercut the President’s stated commitment to this important resource”.

Dinges later released another statement to the press, calling EPA’s work in Dimock “more of an attempt to advance a political agenda hostile to shale gas development rather than a principled effort to address environmental concerns in the area.”

But with a file full of Pavillion, WY tests to back them up, EPA responded that its actions are based solely on science – and the law.

As for that State of the Union comment? Anyone who was listening knows that the President emphasized that any drilling would be limited by “developing this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.”

EPA Trucks Water to Dimock

2012-01-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

Water Delivery on Carter Rd, Dimock. photo by Tom Frost

On Friday, January 20 the US Environmental Protection Agency showed up at the Sautner residence on Carter Road in Dimock, PA for a press conference and to deliver water. Yup, the federal agency has determined that there are 4 homes, including the Sautner’s that need replacement drinking water immediately. The reason: results from water tests raised health concerns, says EPA.

Not only are they supplying water to these four families who have been left by their state government without water since the end of November, but EPA will begin testing water supplies for 61 homes in Dimock this Monday and Tuesday.

Lots of people showed up on Friday to celebrate the water – and the raised awareness that EPA’s actions will bring to the potential for shale gas drilling to contaminate drinking water. Just last year EPA found that hydrofracking was responsible for contaminating drinking water in Pavillion, WY.

Craig Sautner thanked the EPA, but noted that water shipments is a temporary fix. The ultimate goal is to get a permanent water pipe to bring fresh water to the homeowners who can’t drill new wells in a contaminated aquifer.

Victoria Switzer, whose well has also been contaminated, criticized the PA Department of Environmental Protection for failing the citizens who lost their water due to faulty casings – for which DEP fined Cabot Oil & Gas. “I hope EPA is here to protect us,” she said, noting that she is not one of the four that EPA will be delivering to.

Filmmaker Josh Fox was also on hand. “This represents a monumental failure of Governor Corbett and the DEP,” he said, warning that similar cases of water contamination are unfolding across the state.

You can watch the press conference here.

EPA’s documents relating to Dimock are here

Keystone Pipeline Nixed

2012-01-18T17:48:00.001-05:00

This afternoon the Obama administration put the final (at least for now) kibosh on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry crude oil 1600 miles from the Alberta, Canada tar sands to refineries in Houston and other Texas port cities.

GOP candidate Mitt Romney decried this decision as a job-killer, but the state department denied the permit because there was not enough time to review the plans. The project had been delayed because of objections from environmental groups and farmers who feared the proposed route would impact their water resources.

During the congressional "impasse" on payroll taxes last month, Republicans forced the Obama administration to agree that they'd make a decision on the pipeline within two months. It should have come as no surprise that 60 days wouldn't be enough time to carry out the environmental studies required to approve the project.

The rejection of the pipeline permit isn't a judgement on the merits of the project, Obama told the press. It is a judgement on what he called "the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the state department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people." You can read more here.

Methane found in More PA Wells

2012-01-10T16:35:00.000-05:00

This past August methane was found in three private water wells in Lenox Township, located about 10 miles east of Dimock, PA. Investigators from the PA Department of Environmental Protection determined that the gas migrated from a flawed well drilled by Cabot Oil and Gas Corp.

Local news reports that video taken inside one of Cabot’s wells shows that steel casing was improperly constructed. Also that methane was found between the cemented strings of casing in all three gas wells on the well pad – evidence, state regulators note, of flaws in construction.

How much methane are we talking about? Before drilling, the methane level in one well was 0.3 milligrams per liter (about 0.3 ppm). Post drilling those levels shot up to 49 ppm (measured on Aug. 16) and 57 ppm (measured on Aug. 18).

At this time Cabot has installed methane detection alarms in the homes, vented the affected water wells, and is delivering replacement drinking water to two of the homes. The methane level in the third well has decreased to a level not requiring an alternate water supply, explains DEP.

Cabot spokesman George Stark told the press that “Cabot is committed to safe and responsible operations and takes matters like this very seriously.”

Until a journalist followed up on this investigation, DEP had not posted the results of their investigation. That, DEP says, was an “oversight”. Read more here.

" Withdraw the SGEIS" says Hinchey

2012-01-09T12:24:00.000-05:00

Today Congressman Maurice Hinchey sent a letter to NY Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to withdraw the SGEIS – the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) on high-volume horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale and other shales. His reason: failure of the dSGEIS to take into account new information that has been discovered about the environmental, public health and economic risks associated with the natural gas drilling activity.

In his letter Hinchey wrote, “… I believe this document falls far short of what is needed to protect local communities from the risks posed by shale gas drilling and does not fully mitigate potential threats, including those to public health, drinking water, air quality, and municipal infrastructure.” He highlighted 10 specific problems that must be addressed before the state permits any drilling:

1. The lack of a cumulative impact analysis of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus formation to understand the full impact drilling could have on our water resources, air quality, local roads and other public infrastructure.

2. The lack of a full assessment of the public health impacts of gas drilling through an independent Health Impact Analysis, as called for by more than 250 health care professionals in an October 2011 letter to Governor Cuomo.

3. The lack of a comprehensive wastewater treatment plan that details where and how large amounts of flowback and produced water will be treated or disposed, including how toxic or radioactive contaminants will be removed.

4. The failure to prohibit the use of toxic chemicals in all fracturing fluids in order to prevent groundwater and surface water contamination.

5. No requirement to publicly disclose all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid at each well site, including a proposed list of chemicals made public before drilling operations begin and the final list of chemicals and quantities used made public no later than 30 days after drilling operations are completed.

6. The absence of a plan to identify New York areas prone to higher seismic activity and measures to prevent earthquakes potentially associated with horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

7. The failure to require a dramatic increase in DEC resources and staffing devoted to the permitting and oversight activities related to high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

8. No complete ban on land spreading of shale gas drilling waste fluids or prohibition on the use of reserve pits or centralized impoundments for fracking fluids and flowback water.

9. No alignment of DEC's gas drilling permit rules with the requirements of secondary lending institutions covering oil and gas activity on mortgaged properties. These include pre-approval from banks and other lenders before signing gas leases, minimum setback requirements from residential structures, prohibition on certain drilling and process equipment, title insurance requirements, property assessments, and more.

10. A failure to provide for an enhanced role for local governments to prohibit gas development that is incompatible with local land-use and zoning regulations.

You can read his entire letter here.

18,000 and Counting

2012-01-08T20:19:00.000-05:00

That's how many comments NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has received so far on its Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in Marcellus and other shales. Keep the tallyman counting, though because the deadline for comments is another three days away - January 11. And there's plenty more comments to come. In fact, the Tioga County Landowners Group is holding a rally in Candor on Tuesday morning to talk about jobs and drilling - and according to Nick Schoonover, that group and affiliated groups have collected another 10,000 comments that they'll be delivering to DEC on Wednesday.

They're not the only ones. Pro-drinking water activists and others are holding comment-writing parties to encourage citizens to participate in the process.

EPA Promises Water for Dimock Residents & Then Backs Off

2012-01-07T11:02:00.003-05:00

updated at 7:40 pm: AP reports EPA cancels water delivery here. they are "filling information gaps" says an EPA spokesperson...

updated at 12:14pm: Carter Road residents received phone calls from the EPA emergency services this morning, notifying them that water deliveries are not going to happen after all. When Craig Sautner asked why, he received no explanation. EPA has not responded to my request for information.

originally posted Saturday morning:

Fresh drinking water is hard to come by for some Dimock residents. Three years ago they lost their water source when drilling by Cabot Oil & Gas caused methane and, possibly, other chemicals to migrate into their home water wells.

But yesterday EPA representatives called the households and promised water will be delivered. One resident who received a phone call from EPA told me that the agency said they've contracted with a water delivery company and a delivery should come within a couple days.

“We are holding our breath waiting for the first drop of water to be delivered!” she said.

These home-owning, tax-paying citizens were left high and dry, without a reliable supply of clean water when Cabot stopped delivering water on November 30. More than a month ago.

Environmental groups and caring people have been donating water, but the deliveries have been sporadic. And with winter coming, the Dimock residents were concerned about a consistent water supply. For those scraping the bottom of the water barrel, EPA’s promise of fresh water is a prayer answered in the nick of time.

Cuomo talks about Everything EXCEPT Gas

2012-01-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo left out some of his remarks prepared for yesterday's State of the State address. In particular - about 125 words of prepared text about gas drilling and fracking.

In the State of the State comments presented to members of the NY State Legislature, Cuomo included the following comments (on page 15):

Hydraulic Fracturing in the Southern Tier

In 2011, the Department of Environmental Conservation(“DEC”) conducted a comprehensive review of the impact of proposed gas drilling using high-volume hydraulic fracturing.DEC presented for comment significantly improved measures to protect the state’s drinking water, air, land, and other natural resources, and completed a study of potential socioeconomic impacts. DEC released the revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement and comprehensive regulations governing all aspects of high volume hydraulic fracturing. DEC also held four public hearings around the state, attended by a total of 6,000 people. The Department received more than 15,000 comments.DEC is reviewing all the comments and expects the final environmental impact study and the advisory panel’s recommendations to be released in 2012, before any decisions are made on how to proceed.

But go to his "official" State of the State press release and they're missing. Which leaves people on both sides of the issue wondering why such an important issue was left out of a major address.

EPA Reopens Dimock Water Investigation

2011-12-31T14:32:00.000-05:00

In an about-face, officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) returned to Dimock, PA for another look at water wells contaminated three years ago by Cabot Oil and Gas activities. They are reopening their review of town water supplies after recent tests revealed issues that they say “merit further investigation”.

This is a 180-degree turn for EPA. At the beginning of the month they sent a letter to residents stating that the information they had gathered “does not indicate that the well water presents an immediate health threat to users.”

But now, they say, critical data gaps have emerged in water sampling and test results. They are also concerned that residents have alternative sources of fresh water.

Tests from the drinking water wells taken in early fall showed elevated levels of metals, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, glycols, surfactants, and 2-methoxyethanol. So now EPA wants to investigate further – an action that the industry group Energy in Depth has criticized as “overstepping [the EPA’s] regulatory authority.”

You can read more about this in prize-winning journalist Laura Legere's article here.

SRBC Approvals, Procedure Questioned

2011-12-22T13:39:00.000-05:00

Last week (Thursday, Dec. 15) the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) held its quarterly business meeting in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Read the official press release (link) and it looks like business as usual: “SRBC concluded all scheduled actions including voting on water withdrawal and consumptive use applications…”

However, read press accounts and it’s pretty clear that the meeting was anything but. Several people disrupted the meeting with mic checks and questions about just who the water belongs to. In the noise and confusion SRBC chair Kelly Heffner tried to maintain control, but failed.

According to one reporter the meeting was “… interrupted by protesters, and SRBC commissioners completed their voting in private."

Another reported that Heffner threatened to clear the room and the commission hastily adopted the recommendations and adjourned the meeting early.

Some people who attended that meeting contend that the SRBC chair adjourned the meeting when the disruptions occurred. Commissioners filed out of the room, then returned a few minutes later to vote on the items.

SRBC 12/15/11 Wilkes Barre -- Meeting Adjourned Before the Vote from Shaleshock Media on Vimeo.

It’s pretty hard to make out what’s happening because of the chaos, but someone had a recorder running during that meeting – a Tascam DR-07 sitting on top of a speaker cabinet about 10 feet from the table where the commissioners were seated. In this excerpt you can hear Heffner saying “Adjourn! Adjourn! Clear the room.”

But, says SRBC spokesperson Susan Obleski, the meeting was not officially adjourned at that time. In a telephone conversation earlier today, Obleski admitted that, yes, Heffner did indeed say “adjourn”.

However, that call was out of order. “When the commissioners stepped out of the room, they were advised by SRBC counsel that the meeting was still in session,” Obleski said. “The meeting was never officially adjourned.” So when the commissioners returned, they didn’t need to reconvene, as they were still in session. They just had to bring up the docket for a vote. “Which,” Obleski said, “they did according to Commission procedures” prior to officially adjourning the meeting.

While there are some questions about how the meeting was conducted, Obleski is firm that as far as approving the dockets goes, SRBC is on solid legal ground. They conducted that portion correctly, she said. As for Heffner’s call to adjourn – that was in response to people crowding up against the commissioners. Obleski noted that the SRBC is reviewing video and audio recordings and should have a public statement soon. “But the dockets stand approved,” she emphasized.

“SRBC meetings often don’t generate much public turnout,” says Nadia Steinzor, the Marcellus Shale regional organizer for Earthworks. The oppositional turnout last week should, at the very least, make the SRBC aware of the strong views of the public. “Gas development is so controversial because of its many negative impacts, in particular to water resources. The SRBC must uphold comment periods and manage meetings so that the public can openly and respectfully share their views and knowledge—which will hopefully in turn encourage the Commissioners to make decisions that truly protect the Basin.”

Thomas Au, Conservation Chair for Sierra Club PA agrees and called for the SRBC to reconvene to consider the docket they so hastily dealt with on the 15th. “Commission decisions need to be made in an open, public forum,” he said.

Yesterday Steinzor and Au signed on with five other environmental organizations in a letter to the SRBC that asks the Commissioners to reconvene for the purposes of completing its meeting held on December 15. The letter states that when the disruptive behavior made the proceedings unintelligible, and the Commission chair failed to control the meeting, she adjourned it. “… some attendees in the audience left the meeting at that point. The Commissioners and Commission staff then excused themselves only to return minutes later where they voted and approved 22 of the projects at issue, off-the-record and without having formally reconvened. None of the remaining individuals wishing to provide public comment were able to exercise that right.”

Steinzor and the six other signatories have reviewed the videos and listened to reports from people who attended the meeting. Whether legally adjourned by Roberts Rules or other rules, for all intents and purposes it appears that SRBC did indeed adjourn prior to voting on the water withdrawal projects, they say. “Because the majority of the proposed water withdrawals concerned shale gas operations that entail potentially significant direct, indirect and cumulative impacts, those approvals demand the utmost transparency and accountability.”

Binghamton Passes Fracking Ban

2011-12-22T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last night, by a vote of 6 to 1 the Binghamton (NY) City council approved a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing within city limits. According to the press, more than 100 people crowded into the council chambers to witness this three-hour meeting. Sixty-eight people commented on the proposed ban.

Meanwhile, the Tompkins County legislature has approved a resolution urging NY to ban high-volume hydrofracking statewide. That resolution passed in a 14 to 1 vote.

A Taxing Question...

2011-12-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

In an email to the local press yesterday, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) spokeswoman Emily DeSantis remarked on the agency’s need for additional funds for regulating hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling. Apparently those funds “will not be included in the executive budget” – the budget Gov. Andrew Cuomo will propose around mid-January.

That’s about the same time that DEC should be getting down to the business of reading through the thousands of public comments regarding the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). And the proposed regulations for high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

Wayne Bayer, a DEC engineer who is shop steward for the Public Employees Federation union, said the agency is understaffed and its employees are concerned about adding a new regulatory program like hydrofracking.

At this point the DEC estimates it will need 140 new workers for the first year permits are issued and 226 by the fifth. Add salaries to the cost of needed equipment and you’re looking at an additional $20 million a year.

Where will that money come from? Right now DEC has convened a panel of outside experts to develop a list of fees and taxes that could be levied on drillers to cover the costs. That panel should be issuing a report “sometime in the first part of next year,” says DeSantis.

But it’s going to be tough to sell the need for additional staff when Cuomo has already required all state agencies to cut 10 percent from their budgets for the current fiscal year, and is looking for an additional 2.5 percent cut for 2012-13.

What to do? Ask the industry to pay for the services it uses. Jim Smith, a spokesman for the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York (IOGA-NY), is confident the money will come into the state once DEC gives drillers a green light. “We support more DEC staff,” he told the press. Once drilling starts there should be enough revenue through permitting and other fees to “more than pay for that staff.”

What Fracking Sounds Like

2011-12-16T12:07:00.001-05:00

One of the things that residents in NY have been asking their towns to do before Marcellus drilling takes off is develop some noise and light ordinances. In fact, Tioga Investigates Natural Gas (TING), an advisory group in Tioga County, NY includes information on developing such ordinances in their resource binder (along with road agreements and lots of other useful stuff).

If you have never seen - or heard or smelled - fracking, here's a video of a fracking operation by Williams Gas Company at the Hollenbeck well site on Franklin Forks Rd., Franklin Forks, PA in Susquehanna County. The video was recorded on December 15 - just yesterday - at 6:30 pm. The active drilling site is across the road from a home; pay attention to the truck traffic.

Much thanks to Vera Scroggins, Citizens for Clean Water (Susquehanna County, PA)for the video.
If for some reason the video below doesn't work, here's the link: http://youtu.be/zPE2RU5099U

<br>http://youtu.be/zPE2RU5099U

DEC Environmental Engineer says Fracking WILL Pollute Water

2011-12-14T11:02:00.000-05:00

Paul Hetzler, an environmental engineering technician with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 5 says hydraulic fracturing – as it’s practiced today – will contaminate our aquifers. Not might. Will.

In a letter to the Watertown Daily Times Hetzler criticizes current technology. “If you were looking for a way to poison the drinking water supply, here in the Northeast you couldn’t find a more chillingly effective and thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic fracturing,” he writes. “There’s no such thing as a perfect well seal. Occasionally sooner, often later, well seals can and do fail, period.”

And that failure, when it happens, will be expensive. Everyone, regardless of whether they are receiving royalties or living miles away, will end up paying for the subsurface investigations, whole-house filtration systems and unending lab analyses as industry lawyers tie up complaints in courts.

“I’d love to see hundreds more jobs created,” Hetzler writes. “But not if it means hundreds of thousands using well water will be at a high risk of contamination.” The solution? Develop safe technologies before drilling.

Hetzler isn’t the only DEC staffer to speak out against the agency’s current – and proposed – fracking regulations. At the November 30 DEC hearing in New York City Stephanie Low read a statement from DEC employee Wayne Bayer. Bayer is an Environmental Program Specialist and Executive Board member of the DE’'s union, the Public Employees Federation (PEF). He speaks for the 1774 members of the professional, technical and scientific staff of the DEC – those on the ground, he says, who know the issues of fracking and the draft SGEIS best.

“The 25 percent reduction in existing staff at DEC has crippled our ability to carry out all existing regulatory and statutory responsibilities assigned to our agency,” Bayer states. “There is no fracking way we can presently, honestly and adequately add any new responsibility as labor-intensive as regulating, monitoring and inspection activities related to high volume hydraulic fracturing of natural gas.” Until DEC can hire adequate staff … “the moratorium should be extended.” You can hear the entire statement here.

Judge to Dimock: No Soup for You

2011-12-13T08:21:00.000-05:00

Last Friday Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes Jr. told the Carter Road residents that they would not see future water deliveries. At least not until they have allowed Cabot Oil & Gas to install “whole-house gas mitigation” systems for their wells.

When the water shipments were canceled twelve days ago, the 11 families depending on delivered water appealed to the PA Environmental Hearing Board. They argue that the state is wrong in ignoring the harm that could come from drinking contaminated water. It’s more than methane, say the Carter road residents. Their water contains metals and volatile organic compounds including solvents and manufactured chemicals at levels higher than state and federal standards.

Of course, Cabot and the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) submitted their own arguments, noting that the Environmental Hearing board doesn’t have the authority to force the driller to continue deliveries of drinking water. Nor does it have the authority to order DEP to take enforcement action.

So where does that leave the Carter road folks? With empty water tanks. Because, as some of them have told the press, the treatment system Cabot is offering only targets methane, not the other toxic contaminants. And what they want – despite the political bickering and nasty comments from the “Enough Already” crown – is their water back. They want good, clean water to drink – or make soup. Not a wad of cash.

Water Fights in Dimock

2011-12-07T10:20:00.002-05:00

This morning I turned on my tap and filled up my teapot with water from my well. I cooked oatmeal. I washed my face with warm water. And not once did I have to worry about checking the water level in my tanks, rationing bottles for the week’s cooking and wondering whether I could afford to pay for water deliveries next week.

photo by Kathy Cronin, Sierra Club

Drive an hour southeast, just 50 or so miles away, and the story is different. Eleven families in Dimock, PA ration every drop of water they’ve got. Because last week Cabot Oil & Gas cut off water deliveries to their homes. Water deliveries that replaced the well water contaminated by methane migration from leaky well casings in three of Cabot’s wells.

But Cabot, and DEP have decided that now, after three years, the water is “good enough” to drink. It’s not, writes Kate Sinding who characterizes this water as an “alphabet soup of dangerous contaminants, including lead, beryllium, iron, manganese, and non-naturally occurring chemicals associated with fracking such as bis (2-Ethylhexyl) adipate, bis (2- Ethylhexyl) phthalate, and ethylene glycol.” While Cabot has offered to install “whole house methane treatment systems” in the affected homes, but those systems not only don’t target many of the contaminants at issue but, experts say, don’t work in homes with high iron content in the water – like so many of the homes in Dimock.

NY Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton was outraged by Cabot’s decision to cease water deliveries. “These gas-drilling companies seem to be expert at evading responsibility, and clearly, states seem to have a very hard time holding these companies to account,” she told the press Monday. “The Declaration of Universal Human Rights says that access to clean water is a basic human right, one that has been taken from our neighbors just south of here. It’s a moral outrage and I will continue to work to prevent the terrible situation that the people in Dimock are now experiencing from happening in New Yorkers’ backyards.”

photo by Kathy Cronin, Sierra Club

This Monday and Tuesday good Samaritans delivered water to the Dimock waterless. On Monday the Sierra Club paid to have a truck deliver water from Binghamton. Tuesday saw another truck arrive – this one from NYC, accompanied by celebrities and a hundred volunteers who delivered cases of bottled water and helped top off the plastic tanks lovingly referred to as “water buffaloes”.

The people of Dimock are grateful for the kindness. But this is a temporary fix at best. Cabot broke their dependable groundwater supply and they want Cabot to fix it. Cabot refuses; they insist the water is not contaminated, citing a recent email from EPA stating that water sampling data provided by some of the residents failed to show that contaminant levels exceeded federal drinking water standards.

Apparently that was good enough for DEP and the agency gave Cabot permission to stop paying for the water deliveries.

The devil is in the details. Although the data does not indicate that the well water presents an immediate health threat to users, Trish Taylor (who works in the EPA’s hazardous site cleanup division in Philadelphia) told the press that EPA is not giving Dimock a clean bill of health.

The agency needs more data, she said. “We have a very finite amount of data that was provided to us by these residents and by DEP. It’s not a broad statement at all about sampling results.”

So, back to the good Samaritans delivering water…. On Monday night Binghamton mayor Matt Ryan offered to supply water to the residents as a temporary measure until they can work out a permanent solution. But for one municipality to help another requires a mutual aid agreement – something the town councilors of Dimock are adamantly against. Not only that – other residents of Dimock vociferously protested the idea that anyone should be delivering water to their needy neighbors.

Said one Dimock resident, “Those who represented the Enough Already group shouted down everyone who tried to speak in defense of those who do not have water or who tried to explain why they wanted to bring water including Mayor Ryan - and the township supervisors allowed it. They were vile, rude, laughed at them… it was a really despicable performance. I can't believe they would treat their neighbors like that no matter how they felt about them. Why do they care if people want to bring water to them and their children?”

Why indeed. You can see for yourself how they behaved, courtesy of this video posted by Energy in Depth

To read past posts on this issue just click on the Dimock label over in the right-hand column.

Can DEC adequately monitor NYS drilling?

2011-12-02T13:35:00.000-05:00

Used with permission

One of the things DEC stresses in its newest edition of the draft SGEIS is that the well casings will protect our water from any contamination.

OK, but folks who find old wells wonder just how committed DEC is to keeping that promise. After all, there’s loads of wells across the state that haven’t been properly plugged and abandoned.

Back in 1984 Chesapeake drilled this well into the Queenston formation in the town of Sennett, NY just east of Auburn. DEC has been notified that this well should be plugged and abandoned. But the question remains: why did the DEC and Chesapeake allow the condition of this well to degrade to this extent? And how many more wells are out there like this?

The person who sent me this photo has asked DEC for more information about whether and how this well has been abandoned, and what sort of testing – above and below ground- has been done.

He’s also posted a full DEC file on this well – photographs he took at the Avon DEC office. You can see more photos and documents at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~springport/pictures385/potter_web/

DEC Extends Fracking Comment Period

2011-11-30T14:52:00.001-05:00

New Yorkers have an additional thirty days to prepare comments on high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. At the outset of today’s DEC hearing in New York City – the fourth and final public hearing – a DEC spokesperson announced that the deadline for public comment has been extended an additional month, until January 11. The decision came in response to numerous requests from environmental groups and others who wanted more time to sort through the humongous 1500-page environmental impact study and the proposed rules.

Read the SGEIS at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html

Read the proposed regulations at http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/77353.html

Submit comments:

Via the Web at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/76838.html

By mail to Attn: dSGEIS Comments; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; 625 Broadway; Albany, NY 12233-6510

Some Fracking Humor

2011-11-29T10:23:00.000-05:00

used with permission of artist, Russeau

My friend, an artist, cartoonist and all around excellent person, has been doodling weekly gas-field humor for the Broader View Weekly (Chemung & Tioga Counties, NY) for the past couple years or more. Every now and then he lets me post 'em.

Gas Leases Conflict with Mortgage Rules

2011-11-24T21:15:00.001-05:00

well pad construction behind home in Towanda, PA

According to attorney Elisabeth Radow, gas leases conflict with home mortgage rules. One problem: hydraulic fracturing for shale gas carries heavy industrialized risks, and those risks can spread with a ripple effect through residential communities.

“A growing number of banks won’t give new mortgage loans on homes with gas leases because they don’t meet secondary mortgage market guidelines,” says Radow. Mortgages prohibit the storage, use, disposal or release of hazardous substances (including gas) on the mortgaged property. They also prohibit landowners from transferring an interest in the property, such as mineral or gas rights, without the written consent of the mortgage lender.

During a recent phone conversation, Radow delved into the messy conflicts between gas leases and mortgage rules. The main problem she sees is that a gas lease redistributes traditional rights of homeownership to the gas company.

“But not the responsibilities,” Radow emphasizes. One of the responsibilities that falls on the landowner is liability. That’s because the industry has not fully insured their operations, she notes. And it’s not clear whether the companies have funds reserved to self-insure to make up for a shortfall in insurance coverage.

In disclosure statements filed with the SEC, both Chesapeake Energy and Range Resources state that drilling is inherently risky; drilling operations can result in injury, loss of life, damage or destruction to property and environmental clean-up. But, they caution, their insurance may not cover all those risks.

In the Form 10-K included with its 2010 Annual Report, Chesapeake reported that it has $400 million in general liability insurance, Radow said. While they have interests in 45,800 productive wells, they control drilling on 25,700 of those wells – that’s about $15,500 in liability coverage for each well they’re drilling. On top of that they carry $75 million for sudden risks, such as blow-outs and $130 million for pollution liability insurance.

“But,” says Radow, “from what appears to be the current practice, the amount of liability insurance gas companies carry may be potentially inadequate for even one catastrophic event. Consider the costs associated with BP and the recent upstate flooding.”

What does this have to do with mortgages? We have a $6.7 trillion secondary mortgage market, Radow said. As shale gas extraction takes hold nationwide, if the gas company passes the liability from drilling accidents onto the homeowner and the homeowner defaults on his loan, and pension plans and others investment vehicles have invested in the secondary mortgage market …. “I see potential for another serious secondary mortgage market impact,” Radow said.

Bubble or no, there are other potential financial problems with gas leases on residential properties. Recent data show that the value of homes and property near wells is declining. If the assessed value of a property goes down, that property’s taxes could follow suit. On a municipal-wise basis, decreases in the assessed value of homes near drill sites could affect the rest of the town by increasing what they pay to make up for that loss in tax revenue. Even people who don’t lease to gas companies could find their finances adversely affected by drilling on their neighbor’s property, Radow said.

“We are all in this together,” says Radow, noting that tens of thousands of New Yorkers have signed gas leases. “While New Yorkers hope to reap royalties from their underground shale gas, on the expense side we haven’t an inkling of how it will all shake out.”

You can read the longer, print edition of this article at Tompkins Weekly.

For a more detailed study of this issue read Radow’s article, “Homeowners and Gas Drilling Leases: Boon or Bust” in the Nov/Dec 2011 issue of NYSBA Journal.

Scientist Devotes Award to Fight Fracking

2011-11-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

What does an environmental scholar do with an extra $100,000? If you’re Sandra Steingraber, you dedicate it towards the fight against fracking.

Steingraber – ecologist, author, and cancer survivor – is one of this year’s winners of the prestigious Heinz Award. She lives modestly, and readily admits that she could certainly use the money to open a college fund for her children, start a retirement account or put the cash towards living expenses while she works on another book. But she’s not going to. Instead, she will devote her award to fighting hydro-fracking here in upstate New York.

This week Steingraber and other cancer survivors and medical sent a letter to Governor Cuomo warning that the rush to issue hydrofracking permits threatens to expose New Yorkers to a host of carcinogens. The state should conduct a full assessment of health risks, they say, instead of negligently exposing NY residents to the same carcinogens that have been identified in communities in other states once gas drilling began.

In Texas, for example, women living in the six counties with intensive gas drilling suffered a significant increase in breast cancer rates while during that same time period breast cancer rates declined across the rest of the state.

“New York State ranks 11th in highest overall annual incidence cancer rate in the United States at 486.2 cancer diagnoses for 100,000 New Yorkers each year – well above the national average of 455.7 (National Cancer Institute, 2011),” the letter reads. “We urge to you to improve this situation rather than risk raising our cancer rank further by allowing a carcinogen-dependent industry into our state.”

Our country’s dependency on fossil fuels, says Steingraber, creates insecurity in the end. “When we light them on fire, we fill the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases that destabilize the climate and acidify the oceans,” she explains. “When we use fossil fuels as feedstocks to make materials such as pesticides and solvents, we create toxic substances that trespass into our children’s bodies, raising their risks for cancer, asthma, infertility, and learning disorders.”

Drilling into unconventional fossil fuels – shale gas and shale oil – does little to reduce this insecurity, Steingraber notes. If we put our minds to it, our nation could be running on renewable energy sources within two decades. “But, right now, that is not the trail we are blazing,” she says. “Instead, evermore extreme and toxic methods are being deployed to blast fossilized carbon from the earth. We are blowing up mountains to get at coal, felling boreal forests to get at tar, and siphoning oil from the ocean deep.”

The most ominous technology, she feels, is fracking. It fractures the bedrock, fragments the landscape and divides communities, all in the name of energy security. But real security, Steingraber says, is being able to buy tomatoes, cheese, and peaches at her local farm stand. Real security is being able to drink the water that bubbles up from the aquifer beneath her feet. And that, she says, is worth fighting for.

Fracking Hearings Begin in NY

2011-11-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

New York residents and state officials are gearing up for the hydrofracking hearings that begin this week. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is holding four official hearings on the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) regarding high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in shales.

DEC hearings will be held on Wednesday at the Dansville Middle School auditorium and Thursday at The Forum Theatre in Binghamton. Two additional hearings will be held later this month in Sullivan County and New York City.

But some communities are holding their own “public hearings” sans DEC officials. About 400 people showed up last Thursday, November 10 at the State University College at Oneonta for a public hearing organized by the City of Oneonta, the Otsego County Conservation Association and Otsego 2000. State Senator James Seward opened the public forum by criticizing the SGEIS, saying they offer uneven and inadequate protection to most upstate New Yorkers.

A stenographer recorded public testimony to submit to state officials, who are expected to give it the same consideration as comments taken at the four upcoming DEC hearings.

The Tompkins County Council of Governments has decided to sponsor a public hearing on Thursday, December 1 in Ithaca’s State Theatre. As with the Oneonta hearing, a stenographer will record comments to submit to DEC. This hearing runs pretty late, though – from 7 to 11 pm. Plan on showing up around 6:30 to get a good seat and sign up to comment.

This week's DEC hearings could be crowded. If you hope to speak at this Thursday’s hearing in Binghamton, plan to arrive early and sign in. Speakers will be limited to three minutes.

You don’t have to speak to get your voice heard – written comments carry equal weight. According to DEC the agency has already received 4,200-plus comments. The draft SGEIS generated around 14,000 comments so DEC expects more to arrive as the December 12 deadline approaches.

As for drilling permits for high-volume horizontal hydrofracking – they’re on hold until the environmental review is finalized. At last report DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said it’s not clear whether any will be issued in 2012.

Oklahoma Quake Update

2011-11-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

Researchers have documented links between earthquakes and mining, underground injection wells and hydraulic fracturing. But government scientists say that last weekend’s quakes in Oklahoma were too big to be caused by manmade activities. And those quakes, they noted, occurred near a well-known fault.

Tremors caused by hydraulic fracturing and other mining activities tend to be much smaller – measuring 1.5 to less than 3 in magnitude. But the potential link between drilling and quakes has triggered a flurry of interest. Now it looks like the National Academy of Sciences is going to tackle the question; the Academy has launched a study into the possible role of energy drilling in seismic activity, reports the Oneonta Daily Star. According to research agency spokeswoman Jennifer Walsh, that study should wrap up by the late summer of 2012.

Oklahoma Earthquakes Raise Fracking Questions

2011-11-06T14:50:00.000-05:00

A swarm of earthquakes has been plaguing Oklahoma thisweekend. The quakes started with small tremors about 2.7 magnitude and increasing to a record-breaking 5.6 magnitude quake that struck at 10:53 pm CST. That quake was centered near Sparks, about 40 or so miles northeast of Oklahoma City, and felt as far away as St. Louis and parts of Texas.

Oklahoma is no stranger to earthquakes – the state typically has about 50 shakers a year. But the number has increased dramatically in the last three years, with more than 1,000 earthquakes reported in 2010. Earthquakes tend to occur at the edges of tectonic plates – but Oklahoma is located securely in the middle of a tectonic plate, and there aren’t many faults.

While researchers can’t say for sure why Oklahoma is experiencing an increase in earthquakes, some people are wondering whether the tremors are related to hydraulic fracturing. The area lies above the Woodford Shale, and in the past couple of years energy companies have drilled more than 1500 wells using hydro-fracking to break the rock.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey has studied whether the quakes in 2010 could have been caused by fracking. Their report, dated August 2011, is still under review, so it’s not official yet. But you can read it here.

Meanwhile, earlier this week Cuadrilla Resources, a British energy company, recently admitted that its hydraulic fracturing operations likely triggered “a number of minor seismic events” that shook the UK this spring.

And last spring an earthquake swarm around Guy, Arkansas was thought to be due to injection of drilling wastes into underground wells.

Signs of the Times

2011-11-05T11:27:00.042-04:00

Seen along Route 706 in Montrose, across from NAPA Auto
photo provided by NEPAgasaction.org

updated
Just in case you don't remember how to contact EPA to report drill spills, some folks have posted a reminder in large print. Given the recent spill in Hopewell, this is valuable information.

The billboard is paid for by NEPA gas action, a group that has had a billboard with three glasses of water displayed for more than a year in Susquehanna County. But ParkOutdoor - the folks who own the billboard - declined to run that particular ad. Apparently they received complaints that it was "controversial".

Those complaints came on the heels of them cancelling a pre-paid ad contract for the "Fix It" billboard. The NEPA gas group believes Cabot complained about the billboard. "ParkOutdoor caved to the industry, who spends more money on ads than we do or can," said one activist. While ParkOutdoor is honoring the contract for this billboard, they told the group that they did not know whether they could accept anymore contracts.

"It's amazing to think that a billboard advertising a government emergency hotline would be declined as being controversial,"said the activist.

Halloween Trick: Wastewater Spill in Hopewell

2011-11-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

photo courtesy R. Donnan

Yesterday morning (yes, Halloween) Range Resources reported a spill of “treated” wastewater near a drill site in Hopewell Township, Washington County, PA – just a bit west of Pittsburgh. The 16,800-gallon spill (400 barrels) happened at 9:20 am when a contractor tried to move a temporary water line using an excavator.

The pipeline was installed to deliver treated flowback fluids to the impoundment at the well site. There it would be mixed with fresh water, stored, and recycled in future fracking operations. Though no fluids were being pumped through the pipeline at the time of the accident, there was residual fluid from a previous transfer.

The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told the press that the spill area was ditched and contained… then added that some recycled fluids entered a high-quality stream. Although DEP didn’t know how much waste fluid had reached the creek, a spokesperson said that preliminary tests showed no impact on aquatic life in the water.

Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella called the incident “unacceptable”. But he’s said that before, because this is the third spill Range has had in as many years.

Back on May 26, 2009 Range spilled nearly 5,000 gallons of wastewater, including hydraulic fracturing fluids, into a tributary of Cross Creek Lake. DEP reported that the creek, a protected watershed near Pittsburgh, was “impacted by sediments all the way down to the lake and there was also evidence of a fish kill as invertebrates and fish were observed lying dead in the creek.”

That spill happened when the company was pumping fluids from the hydraulic fracturing of three wells through a six-inch pipe to a “DEP-approved” impoundment. Along the way, two screws along the pipe came loose. Pitzarella chalked it up to vandalism.

Range spilled another 10,000 gallons or more of flowback fluids in yet another accident that same year. That spill also resulted in a fish kill.

Pitzarella said that Range found “…both of these to be unfortunate and unacceptable.” But, he added, neither spill had any negative impacts on health or property.

Pipeline Project Hits Resistance

2011-10-30T18:26:00.001-04:00

corrected 10/31/11
People whose land the Empire Pipeline is crossing aren’t happy with the way the project is going. Residents in the towns of Corning and Caton, NY and Canton, PA* have told the press that construction of the gas pipeline has created flooding, washed out their driveways, and left huge holes that – they say – are dangerous.

Back in 2010, when the company presented the project to residents, they promised landowners to “minimize impact”. They would accomplish that by using existing right-of-ways (ROW). They also promised to keep the ROW to 50 feet wide, compensate landowners for economic loss, and to restore the land to original or better condition.

But, say landowners, they took a 75-foot ROW, threatening eminent domain against those reluctant to sign a contract. Given recent problems, some homeowners are planning to sue the pipeline.

Empire Pipeline’s project, the “Tioga County Extension” was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in May, with an original completion target of this fall. However, according to the Natural Gas Intelligence “Shale Daily” (Oct. 28, 2011) the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has asked FERC to hold off on the extension until it has complied with state soil disturbance and stabilization requirements.

*though I've been assured that many folks in Canton (south of the NY border) feel the same way...

Study on Marcellus Drilling Impacts on Drinking Water

2011-10-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

Penn State scientists just released a report on water quality in private water wells in rural PA before and after drilling of nearby Marcellus Shale gas wells. Although the study didn’t find significant contamination of drinking water wells, researchers caution that there needs to be more intensive study.

They also noted unexpected high levels of bromide after drilling, and expressed concern for health impacts. In addition to testing water, the study also documented the enforcement of existing regulations and the extent of voluntary testing by homeowners.

The study, which took place in 2010 and 2011 focused on 233 water wells located in close proximity to Marcellus gas well pads. Phase I of the study (2010) tested 48 water wells within 2500 feet of a well pad both pre- and post-drilling. Phase II tested an additional 185 wells located within 5000 feet of a Marcellus gas well pad post-drilling.

A statistical analysis of pre- and post-drilling water chemistry did not find significant differences due to drilling or hydro-fracking when considering the pollutants “most prominent in drilling waste fluids.” Unlike the Duke study, this study found no significant increase in methane after drilling, and no significant correlations with distance from the well pad.

But, the researchers pointed out, this lack of data could be due to the lack of testing beyond 1000 feet. According to PA law the industry is presumed responsible for pollution of water supplies within 1000 feet of a well pad for six months after drilling. So, few people pay for testing beyond that distance.

One thing the scientists did find was increased levels of bromide in water wells after drilling and/or fracking. “These increases may suggest more subtle impacts to groundwater and the need for more research,” they write. Increased bromide levels were often accompanied by increased levels of sediment and metals in the water. These increased levels were observed within 3000 feet of the gas well pads – suggesting that 3000 feet is a more reasonable distance for testing than the current 1000 feet.

Bromide is rarely tested as part of the industry-sponsored pre-drilling baseline sampling. The PSU researchers selected bromide as a parameter for their study because it is typically not found in detectable concentrations in undisturbed groundwater and because it is found in relatively high concentrations in drilling gas wastes. For those reasons it serves as a good indicator of the influence of gas drilling on groundwater.

In the pre-drilling samples bromide levels were always well below detection levels (0.1 ppm). But in seven wells bromide was detected in measurable concentrations. Those wells were located within 1670 feet of five different Marcellus well pads that were operated by three separate companies.

While bromide does not present a health hazard by itself, it combines with disinfection agents to create a carcinogenic byproduct - and that concerns the researchers. They suggest two potential sources of the bromide: drilling mud and flowback fluids.

You can read more of their findings at

http://www.rural.palegislature.us/documents/reports/Marcellus_and_drinking_water_2011_rev.pdf

Chesapeake Rallies The Troops

2011-10-21T07:33:00.000-04:00

photo by Frank Finan

Not content with going after the New York Times, now the gas industry is targeting public meetings – at least in a more obvious manner (because – heck – they’ve always sent industry supporters to meetings).

Yesterday Jennifer Cox, Chesapeake Energy’s “coordinator of corporate development for Marcellus Shale” sent out an urgent e-mail appeal asking pro-gas supporters to attend a talk in Deposit. Not one that Chesapeake is presenting – but one organized by a group of citizens who want to know more about what gas drilling looks like in agricultural communities.

The event, “Neighbor to Neighbor: Living the Drill” features two Bradford County (PA) dairy farmers, Carolyn Knapp and Carol French. I’ve heard these women – they speak honestly about how industrialized drilling has changed their agricultural landscape. They share accounts of how drilling has impacted their neighbors – some of whom have had to sell their livestock because the drilling made it impossible to move cows to pasture or bring hay back to the barn.

The idea that people might be talking to their neighbors seems to bother Chesapeake, so Cox is asking drilling supporters to “attend and share with others the economic benefits that natural gas development has brought to your community and the positive impact the industry can have on our nation’s economy and energy security”.

Why is she – and Chesapeake – so concerned? “Public opinion about the industry is still being shaped,” Cox wrote, “and you have an important role to play.”

If you want to hear just normal folks share what it’s been like to continue farming while surrounded by a ring of wells a mile away, head to Deposit this Sunday, October 23. The talk begins at 2 pm at the State Theatre, 148 Front Street. Doors open at 1:45 for refreshments and conversation.

Defying Open Meeting Law, Town of Sidney OKs Pipeline

2011-10-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, October 13, the Sidney NY town board unanimously approved a controversial natural gas pipeline project. But even if you were sitting in the front row you wouldn’t have been able to hear the roll call vote. That’s because outraged citizens were chanting “delay the vote!”

To say the town board meeting was unruly would be an understatement. Part of that is due to the refusal of town supervisor Bob McCarthy to move the public meeting to a larger venue. A full fifteen minutes before the meeting was gaveled to order, the room was crowded, with more people waiting in the hallway. Many citizens begged McCarthy to move the meeting to a larger room, upstairs, that would accommodate the people who wished to attend their town board meeting.

In a clear violation of NY’s open meeting law McCarthy refused. He cited recent knee surgery, and then later simply said, “no; I don’t want to [move the meeting].” The result: 75 or more people crammed into a room with a 52-person occupancy.

Then, after calling the meeting to order McCarthy immediately tossed the agenda aside and called for a vote on the pipeline project. The proposal – to provide a 50-year franchise to Leatherstocking Gas Co. for a gas pipeline through Sidney, Coventry, and Bainbridge and eventually connecting with the Millennium pipeline and eastern ports – has been a point of controversy all summer long.

Without allowing for any discussion, McCarthy called for a vote. Residents immediately protested, chanting “delay the vote!” and “illegal meeting!” Most of the meeting was met with angry outbursts and citizens shouting down town council members. At one point McCarthy makes a show of calling the police on his cell phone. The single officer who responded simply stayed in the meeting to ensure that some semblance of order was kept.

You can read more about this meeting here and watch a video of the meeting here.

Still Waiting for Water in Dimock

2011-10-15T21:26:00.000-04:00

The Sautner's & their neighbors still awaiting clean water

How many ~~days~~ ~~months~~ years does it take for a gas company to make good on its promise to provide a permanent supply of clean, fresh drinking water to homeowners affected by bad drilling practices? Well, if you’re Cabot, two years, nine months, fifteen days and counting.

That’s how long 17 homes in Dimock, PA have been without their well water. Water fouled by methane that escaped from what PA’s Department of Environmental Protection has characterized as cementing deficiencies in Cabot’s wells. Despite fines (by DEP) and promises to provide a permanent water supply (by Cabot) people still rely on water trucked in each week.

Nearly three years later, they’re getting tired of it. They would like to be able to turn on their faucets and know that the water streaming out is safe to cook with, safe to bathe in … safe to drink. But recent testing show that gas continues to contaminate Dimock’s groundwater.

Last year Cabot balked at orders to put in a pipeline that would bring fresh water from Montrose to Dimock. Instead, they made a deal with DEP that the company would buy out homeowners or install treatment systems that would remove the methane. Treatment systems that, despite their $30,000 price tag, don’t seem to be working.

Despite the lack of water, some residents worry that state regulators will sign off on Cabot’s efforts and allow drilling to resume. Read more here.