Bad Air, Bad Water, Bad Health

Fracking a well near home in PA

Yesterday NY State Senator David Carlucci told the press that the state senate is considering a delay of fracking until some health studies are complete. He told AP reporter Michael Gormley, "We have to put science first; we have to put the health of New Yorkers first."

Meanwhile:

• NY  Dept. of Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah is still working on the health review that should determine whether the final draft SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement) adequately identifies potential public health impacts of fracking;
• Geisinger Health System in PA is studying the impact of Marcellus shale gas mining on health;
• DEP investigators have found two new cases in Dimock, where methane concentrations in private water wells pose an explosion hazard.

But while the NY legislators await results from those studies, there is a wealth of data indicating that gas drilling is not healthy for children and other living things. Especially living things that depend on breathing.

Consider: Pennsylvania recently completed an air pollution study. The overall results weren’t bad. But pollution from shale gas activity has brought pollution to areas that were previously unpolluted.

This reflects what’s been happening in rural areas out west. Vernal, UT saw high levels of ozone and other pollutants resulting from gas drilling. And last July, Sublette County and portions of Lincoln County WY were declared to be in marginal “non-attainment for ozone” under the Clean Air Act. That means they exceeded the federal 8-hour average threshold of 75 parts per billion (ppb), a standard meant to protect human health.

Certainly these impacts aren’t going to hit everyone equally. “Healthy” people in Fort Worth, TX for example may not feel any ill effects, but susceptible populations – children, elderly, people with chronic respiratory and/or cardiac problems – will feel the impacts. And, as has happened in a number of cases, one neighbor’s well may be contaminated while another well escapes harm – at least for a while.

As a wise and compassionate teacher reminded those who were blessed: care for the least of these (who are not so blessed)… for whatever you do for them, you do for me.

EPA fines Atlas Resources for Air and Chemical Violations

from the EPA's press release today:

Atlas Resources to Pay $84,506 Penalty to Settle Alleged Environmental Violations

PHILADELPHIA (Oct. 18, 2012) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that Atlas Resources LLC will pay an $84,506 penalty to settle alleged air and hazardous chemical violations at its natural gas production facility in Avella, Washington County, Pa.  

EPA cited the company for violating the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), a federal law designed to inform the public and emergency responders about hazardous and toxic chemicals in their communities. EPCRA requires facilities to submit annual reports on regulated chemicals, and routine and accidental chemical releases. The law also requires facilities to report on their hazardous chemicals to state and local emergency response agencies. This information helps communities and first responders to prepare for chemical emergencies. Atlas was also cited for violating Clean Air Act provisions which require regulated facilities to take steps to reduce the risk of accidental releases of hazardous substances, and minimize the consequences of any accidental releases that do occur.

EPA alleged that Atlas failed to provide state and local emergency responders required information on hazardous chemicals stored at the company’s Avella production facility during 2008 and 2009. The agency also alleged that Atlas did not comply with proper storage and handling of natural gas condensate at the site. EPA’s investigation at various Atlas production wells in Washington County also indicated the presence of vapor releases from condensate tanks. As a part of the settlement, Atlas did not admit or deny EPA’s allegations.

Currently, Atlas has discontinued operation of its natural gas extraction wells in Washington County until the company completes audits at eight of their production facilities located there. These audits are being done to ensure compliance with safeguards preventing accidental air releases and confirming that operations are environmentally sound.

The Atlas facilities in Washington County to be audited are located in Hopewell Township and Cross Creek Township. The company will conduct the audits based on EPA’s recently adopted New Source Performance Standards and National Emission Standards for hazardous air pollutants in the oil and gas sector. Compliance with these industry and federal standards will help improve local air quality and protect public health.

For more information on EPA’s air rules for the oil and natural gas industry http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/.

Hinchey Calls for Air Quality Standards to Protect People in Gas Drilling Areas

A fracking operation near a home in PA

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) is calling on President Barack Obama to enforce stronger protections from air pollution caused by shale gas drilling. In a letter signed by 20 of his House colleagues, Hinchey asks for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) New Source Performance Standards to be finalized. These standards will address growing air pollution and public health impacts related to the rapid expansion of drilling in the United States, Hinchey says.

“We need the President to act immediately to sign off on the proposed air quality standards so that drillers cannot pollute our air without consequence,” Hinchey told the press. “We cannot let the rush to drill blind us from the need to ensure the safety of our environment and public health.”

Hinchey pointed to the pollutants that shale gas drilling emits: smog-forming chemicals, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s), hazardous air pollutants such as benzene, and methane. These pollutants contribute to serious health problems. He highlighted a recent report published by the Colorado School of Public Health. The report, based on three years of air quality monitoring, found higher cancer, respiratory and neurological health risks (including headaches, chronic dizziness, eye irritation and difficulty breathing) among people living closest to drilling sites.

People living near wells breathed in volatile organic chemicals at five times the level at which the emissions are considered potentially harmful to public health, Hinchey noted. He also pointed to the Medical Society of New York which recently urged caution with expanded drilling and called for more study on those impacts before more drilling moves forward. 

The EPA’s proposed New Source Performance Standards, when fully implemented, would cause significant air pollution reductions, including: 540,000 tons of smog-forming chemicals, an industry-wide reduction of 25 percent; 38,000 tons of toxic air pollutants, an industry-wide reduction of almost 30 percent, and; 3.4 million tons of methane, an industry-wide reduction of about 26 percent.  The lion’s share of these reductions come from ending the wasteful practice of venting or flaring pollution from new hydraulically fractured gas wells directly into the atmosphere, said Hinchey. The new rules would require companies to capture these emissions, a time-tested technique that can be readily implemented.

You can read his letter to the President here.

EPA Hearings: Air Pollution Standards for Oil and Gas Production

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold three public hearings in September on the agency’s proposed standards to reduce air pollution from oil and gas drilling operations.  The proposed standards would rely on cost-effective, existing technologies and practices to reduce pollution that contributes to smog and can cause cancer, while supporting the administration’s priority of continuing to expand safe and responsible domestic oil and natural gas production.  The first hearing will be held in Pittsburgh on September 27. The other hearings will be in Denver, Colorado and Arlington, Texas.  

Pittsburgh Hearing: 9 am - 8 pm, Tuesday, Sept. 27

David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Rooms 315-316

1000 Ft. Duquesne Blvd.

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Denver Hearing: 9 am-8 pm, Wed. Sept. 28

Colorado Convention Center, Room 207

700 14th Street

Denver, Colorado 80202

Arlington Hearing: 9 am - 8 pm, Sept. 29

Arlington Municipal Building in the City Council Chambers

101 W. Abram Street

Arlington, Texas 76010

To register to speak at a specific time at any of the hearings, please contact Joan C. Rogers at 919-541-4487 or rogers.joanc@epa.gov. People also may sign up to speak in person on the day of a hearing; however, they may not be given their preferred time slot to speak.

Public comments will be accepted through October 24, 2011. When you submit your comments, identify them by Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505.

Ways to submit written comments:

• online at the Federal rulemaking portal -  www.regulations.gov
• by email to A-and-R-Docket@epamail.epa.gov
• by FAX at 202-566-9744
• by postal service (include 2 copies) to: Docket ID number EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20460

If you mail comments, please mail an additional copy to: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn.: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th St. NW, Washington, DC  20503

EPA must issue a final rule by Feb. 28, 2012. More information at http://epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/

You can read the 106-page announcement of the rules in the Federal Registry at

 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-08-23/pdf/2011-19899.pdf      

For further information contact Bruce Moore at 919-541-5460 or by email at moore.bruce@epa.gov

EPA Proposes Air Pollution Standards for Oil & Gas Production

Natural gas is touted as a “cleaner, greener” fuel. But drilling, producing and transporting gas from well to market puts a tremendous amount of pollutants into the air. Volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), diesel fumes, particulates, and fugitive methane emissions contribute to smog, ground level ozone and climate change.

For the past year Cornell scientists Robert Howarth, Tony Ingraffea and Renee Santoro have warned that emissions from shale gas development are much higher than conventional drilling and likely to aggravate global warming. Their peer-reviewed research was published in Climate ChangeLetters this April, and just last month they released a new report that looks at the indirect emissions of carbondioxide from Marcellus shale development.

Since last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been taking a harder look at air pollution resulting from oil and gas drilling operations. Today the EPA proposed updated standards - issued in response to a court order – that would rely on cost-effective existing technologies to reduce emissions. EPA believes these standards would help improve operators’ ability to capture and sell methane currently leaking into the air as “fugitive emissions” and result in more efficient operations while reducing air pollution.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation noted that the proposed standards will help ensure responsible production of domestic energy. “Reducing these emissions will help cut toxic pollution that can increase cancer risks and smog that can cause asthma attacks and premature death - all while giving these operators additional product to bring to market,” she stated in a press release.

The updated standards would cut volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from several types of processes and equipment, including a 95 percent reduction in VOCs emitted during the completion of new and modified hydraulically fractured wells. Technologies referred to as “green completions” already exist that allow companies to capture gas that currently escapes to the air.

According to the EPA, domestic gas production is growing, with more than 25,000 new and existing wells fractured or re-fractured each year. The proposed VOC reductions will help reduce ozone and reduce methane, which EPA labels “a potent greenhouse gas”.  Not only that, upgrading storage tanks and other equipment could save the industry tens of millions of dollars each year, says EPA.

EPA is required to take final action by Feb. 28, 2012. As part of the public comment period, EPA will hold three public hearings, in the Dallas, Denver and Pittsburgh areas. Details on the hearings will be announced soon at http://epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas