Fracking not Healthy for Real Estate

According to the New York Times, people looking for second homes don't want to buy property in the Marcellus region. Leased properties are a "tough sell", and even those that aren't leased aren't getting many bites. That's because people are concerned about potential contamination and lowered property values.

The same day this article appeared, the League of Women Voters and Vestal Residents for Safe Energy (VERSE) hosted a meeting on the impacts of gas leasing on home ownership. Some of the concerns: homeowners insurance won't cover industrial accidents such as brine spills; mortgages don't allow oil and gas leasing; and declining property values where there are problems with drilling impacts.
Read more about how gas leases conflict with mortgage rules here and here.

SRBC Temporarily Suspends Water Withdrawals

Today the Susquehanna River Basin Commission announced that they are temporarily suspending 17 separate water withdrawals due to reduced stream flow levels throughout the Susquehanna basin. A winter with little snow, followed by a spring with below-normal rainfall means there’s just not enough water to go around.

SRBC executive director Paul Swartz said that the majority of those suspended withdrawals are related to water for natural gas development.

Under SRBC’s passby flow restrictions, when streams drop to pre-determined protected low flow levels, regulated projects withdrawing water must halt their activities. They cannot resume taking water until streams have recovered above the protected level for at least 48 hours.

“If rainfall shortages persist,” Swartz added, “the Commission anticipates more water withdrawals being suspended, as was the case in 2010 and 2011.” And they’re not going to wait for DEP to declare a drought…. “Our science-based stream protection system kicks in well before streams drop to critical low levels,” he said.

Companies and their water withdrawal sources in Pennsylvania that are temporarily suspended as of today:

Bradford County

•  Chesapeake Energy: Sugar Creek
• Healthy Properties: Sugar Creek
• Talisman Energy: Fall Brook at Bense, Seeley Creek at Jones, Sugar Creek at Hoffman, Wappasening Creek at Adriance, unnamed tributary to North Branch Sugar Creek
• Tennessee Gas Pipeline: Towanda Creek

Luzerne County

• Eagle Rock Community Association: Abandoned Quarry associated with unnamed tributary to Tomhicken Creek

Lycoming County

• EXCO Resources: Muncy Creek at McClintock
• Hughesville-Wolf Township Joint Municipal Authority: wastewater from treatment plant
• Keystone Clearwater Solutions: Lycoming Creek
• XTO Energy: Lick Run, Little Muncy Creek

Susquehanna County

• Carrizo: unnamed tributary to Middle Branch Wyalusing Creek

 Tioga County

• Keystone Clearwater Solutions: Babb Creek
• Tennessee Gas Pipeline: unnamed tributary of North Elk Run

read full announcement here.

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.

Volunteers Monitor Watershed Before Drilling Begins

Measuring temperature of Catatonk Creek

For the past year or so, volunteers have braved icy waters and slippery rocks to collect samples of the streams in the Cayuta-Catatonk watershed. Their purpose: to develop a baseline study of water quality for local streams before large scale unconventional drilling moves into the Southern Tier of NY.

No one can say with certainty how hydraulic – or any other kind of fracturing – might impact local waters. But everyone, from industry to cooperative extension, recommends obtaining a baseline study.

Measuring pH and jotting notes on data sheet

So every month, members of the Cayuta-Catatonk Water Watch calibrate their instruments, don rubber boots, and head out to their testing sites. The teams note physical characteristics of the streams: water level, flow rate, temperature and other observations. They also measure pH (acidity), conductivity, hardness and dissolved oxygen. These serve as the best “red flag” indicators of potential problems resulting from drilling accidents.

In addition to the physical and chemical tests, some volunteers are keeping tabs on the Benthic Macroinvertebrates (BMI) – the caddis flies, stoneflies, beetles and other small organisms that live at the bottom of streams.

Some insects, such as stoneflies, are more sensitive to pollutants. So their presence or absence is a useful indicator of stream health. As with the chemical testing, BMI sampling doesn’t take long and is something that people of all ages can do. After recording the physical characteristics of the stream and measuring flow rate (easy to do with a length of rope, an orange and a stopwatch) they “kick and pick”. One person kicks at the stones and gravel, stirring up the river bottom while his partner stands just downstream with a large net to collects benthic insects, snails, pebbles and debris. That’s the “kicking” part. The “picking” comes when they empty the contents into a bin and pick small insects off the net to make sure they get included in the sample.

BMI monitors check the net at Cayuta Creek

Recruiting Volunteers

Over the next couple months the Community Science Institute (the lab overseeing volunteers) is recruiting volunteers in Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben and Schuyler Counties. Cornell Cooperative Extension is collaborating on a series of introductory meetings. One is happening this Tuesday, April 10 in Owego at 6pm in the Tioga County Office Building Hubbard Auditorium, 56 Main Street, Owego.

There are more scheduled over the coming weeks. If you would like to get involved please contact Becky Bowen at becky@communityscience.org or call 607-257-6606.

News from around

Here's some updates from a few of my colleagues found on The Gathering Line. The Gathering Line is a round-up of oil & gas drilling news brought to you by National Alliance for Drilling Reform (NA4DR), a broad alliance of grassroots activists from states across the nation that are affected with drilling development.

Amy Goodman interviews of Toxics Targeting, an Ithaca, NY-based environmental database firm which released a report last week, uncovering 270 documented hazardous chemical spills which occurred over the past thirty years. PA's own Department of Environmental Conservation's database contained records of fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination, and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Take a moment to watch the interview Amy Goodman Interviews Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting Mr. Hang is calling on NY Governor David Paterson to withdraw the Draft Supplemental Geologic Environmental Impact Statement, citing woefully inadequate reporting which will not come close to protecting the environment, water, and public health. This is a must-see interview! Visit Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends to find out more from Peacegirl!

Would you consider this a small footprint?See the effects of 40 years of drilling!Read it at Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

Gas drilling is destroying Pennsylvania's wilderness. The Pennsylvania Wilds include more than 2,000,000 acres of publicly owned virgin forest, clear mountain streams and abundant wildlife. Read about how these public lands are being violated and watch for public action you can take soon to defend the Allegheny National Forest, part of the Pennsylvania Wilds.

TXsharon continues to follow the abuses of Aruba Petroleum in a Barnett Shale backyard and Wednesday the Wise County Messenger picked up the story--don't miss the comments. It's all on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Colleyville tables application for first well site. See story at Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling

270 Drilling Accidents in NY - So Far

For the past 18 months or more the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has steadfastly clung to their mantra that there have been no drilling accidents in NY. Ever. And we've had lots of experience with drilling, they say, noting that since the 1800's there have been close to 70,000 wells drilled in the state.

Furthermore, many of these wells have used fracking, they add, claiming that what was safe in the past few decades will continue to be safe for the future.

Apparently they forgot about the 270 drilling accidents reported in the last three decades. Walter Hang, who owns a small research company called Toxics Targeting recently posted a file to his website listing 270 incidents of wastewater spills, well contamination, and other ecological damage related to gas production since 1979.

Hang, who has also mapped TCE plumes in the local neighborhoods in Ithaca, NY, is an environmental advocate. While he's never come out against gas drilling, he has said on many occasions that there are environmental risks, and has asked for public disclosure by DEC on well accidents. They didn't; Hang did, and now we can read all about it.

The interesting thing Hang noted is that of the 270 incidents he posted, DEC only caught 60 of them. The remainder were reported by citizens - people who were involved in the incident or folks who just happened to notice something looked wrong and called it in.

Hang's release of this data comes just as DEC announces a 30-day extension for comments on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) for horizontal drilling/hydrofracking in the shales. You can find that 809-page document on the DEC website.

It also comes on the heels of an announcement by PA's Department of Environmental Protection fining Cabot Oil and Gas $120,000 for damages and ordering the company to restore or provide a permanent alternative for the drinking water wells destroyed by methane migration earlier this year. You can read the full announcement here.

The most interesting thing to notice about the spills Hang posted is that in the first dozen the cause is "equipment failure". The next interesting thing is that there are no penalties. Here's a sampling of incidents from Hang's files:

November 1996- a resident in Freedom complained about a problem with drinking water from his home well. He thought it might be related to the gas drilling over on Bixby Rd about a mile from his house. The DEC investigator commented that gas escaped through a fault in the shale and affected properties 1 and 1/2 miles away. He found gas bubbling up in ponds and ditches, and they evacuated 12 families. The problem? An equipment failure. The penalty? None.

October 1997 in Willing, NY - a brine tank overflowed spilling 15,000 gallons which flowed through a field and into a local creek. The brine spill killed vegetation, and a local farmer was concerned about his cows drinking from the creek. Solution: gas company erected a fence so cows wouldn't get to creek and provided temporary water supply. They decided to let natural vegetation grow back following season. The problem? A faulty valve. The penalty? None.

September 2003 in Independence, NY - another brine spill. This time 100,000 gallons spilling into Shanada Creek. DEC comments: no one saw any dead fish. (That means it's good, right?)
The problem? A broken valve. The penalty? Oh, come on.... do I have to really say it again?

You can read the entire report here. Just don't eat your lunch while reading....

Gas Leases & Legal Issues for Landowners

It was standing room only (or close to it) in the James Law Auditorium at Cornell's Vet School last Thursday (Oct 29) when more than 200 people showed up for a forum on "Legal Issues for Landowners. The forum was co-sponsored by Shaleshock Citizen Action Coalition, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and a host of others including local Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton.

Four attorneys addressed issues of gas leases, property law, pipeline easements, compulsory integration, and landowner coalitions. One of the things that still seems to stymie landowners is that when they sign a lease with a gas company they could be creating a "title defect".

"The severity of the defect depends on what you ultimately want to do with your land," said attorney Randy Marcus. A typical gas lease goes far beyond allowing the gas company to drill; they can build access roads to their well pad, take trees (timber), erect fences, put up buildings, and construct pipelines if you don't negotiate limits to these rights, Marcus said. He pointed out that most banks won't put a mortgage on a property with a lease. If a family purchases country acreage for their dream home, and the previous owner had leased the mineral and surface rights to a gas company, the home-in-the-country dream may not get financed.

Another issue Marcus raised is homeowner liability and insurance. "Accidents happen," he said, and noted that a number of insurance companies will not insure properties with a lease. Others have substantially increased their premiums.

While DEC's new draft rules for drilling the Marcellus (dSGEIS) takes up a lot of pages (809) it does "virtually nothing to protect the value of your property," said Marcus. Right now the gas companies can drill a well as close as 100 feet from your home. "That's five pick-up trucks parked end-to-end," Marcus said. "Not what the average homeowner expects in their backyard."

Attorney Jane Welsh agreed with Marcus. Later in the evening she said that DEC "doesn't really have protection at heart" of their dSGEIS. She feels the environment is getting the short end of the stick and urged landowners to submit comments on the dSGEIS. She also emphasized the importance of conducting baseline water testing, in case well water becomes contaminated through drilling or spills.

Attorney Helen Slottje addressed the issue of pipeline right-of-ways. The message of the night: there will be a lot of them, and nobody is coordinating where they go. Without some sort of oversight the pipeline right-of-ways will slice through forest and farmland. clarification: the discussion was in reference to gathering pipelines that go from wells to compressor stations and the large pipelines, such as Millennium, that transport gas to market.

Slottje also raised the question: what would happen if landowners got together to create a coalition of folks who refuse to lease their land? To form a drilling unit a gas company must have 60% of the land under lease - they can incorporate any hold-outs through "compulsory integration" - more on that tomorrow.

But, said Slottje, what if landowners joined in solidarity to keep acreage unleased? If they got enough acres they could effectively stop the drilling in their area.