Frackin's OK - as long as you don't breathe

fracking near home in Dimock, PA

If you visit Marcellus Drilling

You will find it very thrilling,

Just two things of which you must beware:

Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!

My apologies to  Tom Leher, who scribbled much better lyrics for “Pollution” - but the tune keeps running around in my head. Especially today as the PA Department of Environmental Protection begins reconsidering some air quality exemptions. In response to requests from the Marcellus Shale gas industry, the DEP has proposed re-opening or rescinding three technical guidance documents that limit air pollution.

Go to Bradford County’s gas information page and you’ll see an animated map of natural gas development since 2009. Estimates peg the number of Marcellus wells that will be drilled in PA in the tens of thousands. Each well by itself may not be a major source of air pollution, but combined they can have a significant impact on the air we breathe.

Fracking hear home in Dimock, PA

And that is the problem – that air quality standards don’t take cumulative impacts into account. Not in PA. Not in NY. Heck, here in NY the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) won’t even consider air quality as an issue when developing regs for high-volume horizontal slickwater hydro-fracking.

PA residents need to get their comments in today regarding air quality concerns. Send comments to Virendra Trivedi, Environmental Engineer Manager by email to vtrivedi@state.pa.us

Today, members of the Assembly committees on Environmental Conservation and Health are holding a public hearing to listen to testimony on health concerns regarding fracking. NY residents may submit written comments ASAP by email to Michael Szydlo at: szydlom@assembly.state.ny.us

When we think about fracking problems we think about spills, blowouts, methane migration and chemicals leaching into drinking water. Fracking chemicals pollute the air, too. One of the most widely used chemicals in fracking cocktails is methanol – a hazardous air pollutant and a candidate for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). It was a component in 342 hydraulic fracturing products listed in the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce report released last month. But Methanol wasn’t the only air pollutant - nearly 600 of the 750 products listed in that report contained a total of 24 different hazardous air pollutants, including hydrogen fluoride and lead.

Fracking pollutes the air children breathe (Dimock, PA)

Then there’s fracking sand, tiny grains of sand or ceramic that help “prop” the fractures open so gas can migrate into the wellbore. Unlike regular-sized particulates, frack sand can be very fine – maybe even “ultra-fine”, a designation for particles less than 100 nanometers. These extremely tiny particles escape our respiratory cleaning system- they’re not swept out of the bronchi by cilia or trapped in mucus. Instead, when breathed in, they go into the alveoli (the tiny air sacs at end of bronchioles) and pass directly into the blood stream. Even if the material itself is not toxic, exposure to ultra-fine particles induces respiratory diseases and may exacerbate cardiovascular problems (such as stroke and other inflammatory responses). Over 20,000 deaths each year are linked to air pollution – and many are due to ultra-fine particles that cause stroke and interfere with pacemakers.

Don’t forget air pollution generated by truck traffic, compressor stations, and other equipment that drills wells, processes gas and pressurizes it produces air emissions – primarily nitrous oxides that, when combined with sunshine, produces ozone. They also produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). All of these chemicals impact human health:

• Air pollution is linked to decreased fertility and increased miscarriages
• PAH exposure is linked to slower brain development
• Air pollutants have been linked to premature birth and lower birth weight, which further impact the health of children and increases risk for lung diseases.
• Air pollution in early life is linked to asthma
• Air pollutants cause cancer, killing 10,260 people/ year
• Increased rate of diabetes in areas with high traffic (air pollution)

Trying to Visualize Contaminated Water

How many drinking water wells are contaminated in PA?

That's a good question, says attorney Todd O'Malley, a partner in the "Marcellus Shale Oil & Gas Litigation Group".  There are a lot of families with drilling-related water contamination that the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) doesn't know about, he said in a phone conversation earlier this afternoon. And there are a lot of PA state legislators who have little idea of just how many wells in their areas have been affected by methane migration and other problems due to drilling.

For that reason O'Malley and his partner, NY attorney William Friedlander are passing free sample bottles - they want people to fill up the bottles with water from contaminated wells, attach a label telling where the water comes from, and give it to them for delivery to Harrisburg on June 7 - Lobby Day.

Our idea, says O'Malley, is that we can deliver contaminated water samples from constituents to their elected representatives. "We want to make it visual - something they see every day to remind them of the people they represent," he said. Maybe if they see it they will act.

Good idea, this "visual representation" thing. Only one tiny niggling thing bothers me: today's press release went out with bold red headlines advertising that the legal group is distributing "Free Local Contaminated Water Kits". Granted, it also said in that same bold typeface that those kits were to pressure legislators to advocate for safer oil and gas drilling practices. But within a couple hours of the press release at least three reporters called to confirm that, NO, these are not Water Test Kits.

They are "kits" only in that the bottle comes with instructions on how to fill it, said O'Malley. The water will not be tested, he clarified. It is simply for use as a visual aid to demonstrate the number of homes where people can no longer drink their water. "If people have reason to believe their water has been contaminated by drilling, they need to contact the DEP," he said.

So, if you've water that's turned smelly, flammable, discolored or otherwise yukky since drilling began in your area, you know where to send it.

Stop the SGEIS - I want to get off....

Nearly two weeks ago NY Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo asking him to temporarily halt the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) process. Her reason:  The SGEIS is flawed and inherently inadequate. There are too many issues - including cumulative impacts, wastewater treatment and disposal, and health issues – that were excluded from the initial scoping document.

“We need to fix it,” Lifton said. She wants the governor to pause the SGEIS process for 30 days to allow the public to comment. Sixty-three of her colleagues from both houses and both sides of the aisle have added their signatures to the letter – but so far, no response from the guv.

Since the SGEIS process began, a lot of information has come to light. Lifton ticked off items that concern her:

• Given the increased salts and other pollutants that have ended up in Pennsylvania streams, we need increased state and federal oversight in wastewater disposal.
• Given new data on methane emissions from gas drilling and production, we need to consider the entire life cycle of unconventional drilling.
• Given that conventional drilling in NY has not brought increased economic benefit to those counties, when compared to non-drilling areas, we need to have better economic studies.
• Given that public health concerns were given short shrift in the original scoping document, they need to be covered more fully.

Add to Lifton’s list one more item: concern that landowners trying to buy or sell their leased properties may not be able to obtain financing. This week Walter Hang (of Toxics Targeting) sent his own letter to the governor asking that Cuomo expand the SGEIS to include leasing and property concerns.

“Gas leasing could have potentially catastrophic impacts on mortgage lending and real estate values throughout the Marcellus Shale formation,” Hang says. He cited a recent memo circulating from within the residential mortgage lending department at Tompkins County Trust. Items of concern included: 

• Drilling might reduce property value. That has already happened in other states, especially in neighborhoods where water has been contaminated.
• Neither FHA nor HUD will finance property where there is surface and/or subsurface activity within 300 feet of a structure or property line. Activity within 200 feet prevents most other conventional financing.
• Whether drilling qualifies as a “commercial venture” and thus would void title insurance.

Given the number of emerging concerns - things that were intentionally excluded from consideration in the SGEIS - asking for a time out to gather comments and extend the scope is not an unreasonable request.

Another Fracking Song!

On the heels of the recently released Duke study about methane migration linked to fracking comes this very clear, very funny song that makes everything .... frackin' clear.

NY Assembly Hearing on Fracking & Health Impacts

Between the Duke study and the focus on fracking on NPR yesterday (Science Friday), there's a lot of attention on potential health impacts of this new application of hydraulic fracturing techniques used in shale gas drilling.

Now NY Assembly members want to know more. So they're holding a hearing on Thursday, May 26. Both the NY Assembly Standing Committee in Environmental Conservation and the Assembly Standing Committee on Health will conduct a public hearing on Health Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing Techniques.  In their announcement they note that "there are a number of concerns regarding the potential health effects of exposure to such chemicals".

This hearing will examine those potential health effects. Oral testimony will be accepted by invitation only. The assembly members will accept written testimony as well. To submit testimony  fill out a "public reply form" found below the hearing notice. Keep in mind that you'll need to send multiple copies if you present oral testimony.

The hearing will be Thursday, May 26 at 9:30 am in the Hamilton Hearing Room B, 2nd Floor
Legislative Office Building in Albany, NY.
Hearing announcement and form at http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/EnCon/20110512/
Email/fax/mail the completed form to:
Michael Szydlo,Committee Assistant

Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation
Room 520 - Capitol
Albany, New York 12248
Email: szydlom@assembly.state.ny.us
Phone: (518) 455-4363;  Fax: (518) 455-5182