tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53841473412518354272024-03-13T07:45:40.969-07:00No Fracking Way West Virginia!This blog, focusing on drilling in central West Virginia, seeks to reveal the unpleasant truths about Hydraulic Fracturing. aka Fracking.
According to a recent study, conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), just one drilling site deploys harmful chemicals sufficient "to contaminate more than 100 billion gallons of drinking water to unsafe levels ... more than 10 times as much water as the entire state of New York uses in a single day."Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-18902944307869388732015-12-22T20:57:00.002-08:002015-12-22T20:59:11.298-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b>TOXIC FRACKING BRINE SPRAYED ON ROADS BY DOT IN WEST VIRGINIA </b></div>
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<i>"Photos of wet pavement Rt. 20 & 41 mid day 12-18-16 from the ole Pioneer Inn at Glade Creek to top of Curtin Mt. ... What the hey you say .., well here's the big Deal. This water was spread on the road by a WVDOH tanker truck & the water happens to be a product of gas well drilling & fracking operations & contains more lethal poisonous chemicals than most of us could ever name & some that the oil </i><span class="text_exposed_hide"><i>...</i></span><span class="text_exposed_show"><i>& gas won't tell us about. It does contain large amounts of salts which does aid in the melting of snow & ice on the roads but where do all those poisons go when the snow melts & the rains come folks. Very easy answer which you don't wanna hear ... The poisons flush into the streams & seep into the ground waters both of which are sources of your drinking water. Do you want to drink that stuff that is being poured on our highways</i>??" </span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><b>Feeling lucky? Maybe you will NOT end up behind one of these trucks, like we did recently. My nose, throat and eyes were burning and I could SMELL chemicals, despite having the vehicle's air conditioning set to recirculate. Our windscreen wipers were running the whole time. The whole car was covered. The residue dried white. I was fully aware that this residue is radioactive, and simply breathing dust could, at the least, set you up for lung cancer from alpha and gamma ray emitters.</b></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><b>So, you ask, what kind of pollutants are we talking about? </b><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><b>Benzene, Bromides, Radium.. and heavy metals .. just for starters!</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><b>From Pennsylvania to Ohio - the radiation issue alone is an eye-opener</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><i>"Radium in one sample of Marcellus shale wastewater, also called brine, that Pennsylvania officials collected in 2009 was 3,609 times more radioactive than a federal safety limit for drinking water. It was 300 times higher than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for industrial discharges to water.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<i>The December 2011 study, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, also found that the median levels of radium in brine from Marcellus shale wells was more than three times higher than brine collected from conventional oil and gas wells.</i></div>
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<i>“These are very, very high concentrations of radium compared to other oil and gas brines,” said Mark Engle, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist and co-author of the report.</i></div>
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<i>State law bans radioactive shale-well sand and sludge from Ohio landfills. However, brine can be sent down any of Ohio’s 171 active disposal wells regardless of how much radium it contains. Michael Snee, the Ohio Department of Health’s radiation-protection chief, said that’s the safest place for brine.“Injection wells are almost the perfect solution for that disposal issue,” Snee said.</i></div>
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<i>However, environmental advocates say the Geological Survey’s report intensifies their fears of surface spills and leaks to groundwater.</i></div>
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<i>“It’s an alarm bell in the night that we better get serious about testing the material in the Utica shale right here in Ohio,” said Jack Shaner, an Ohio Environmental Council lobbyist.</i></div>
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<i>Shaner and others said the study shows that state officials should look at what’s bubbling out of Ohio’s shale wells.</i></div>
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<i>Radiation is yet another wrinkle in the ongoing debate over “fracking,” a process that sends millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals down wells to shatter shale and free trapped oil and gas. Thousands of Marcellus shale wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania. Of the 12.2 million barrels of brine injected into Ohio disposal wells last year, 53 percent came from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.</i></div>
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<i>A similar drilling and fracking boom is expected in Ohio’s Utica shale. Engle said the Marcellus shale absorbs uranium from ancient saltwater trapped within the rock layer. The decaying uranium then leaks radium into the water. As the wells continue to produce oil and gas, Engle said the brine becomes saltier and more radioactive.</i></div>
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<i>For its study, the Geological Survey examined 52 samples of Marcellus shale brine collected from wells in New York and Pennsylvania from 2009 through 2011.In 37 of the samples, radioactivity from radium-226 and radium-228 was at least 242 times higher than the drinking-water standard and at least 20 times higher than the industrial standard.</i></div>
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<i>That included a sample collected Dec. 21, 2009, in Tioga County, Pa., that was 3,609 times higher than the drinking water standard and 300 times higher than the industrial.</i></div>
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<i>The U.S. Geological Survey’s Ohio office wants to study radium and other contents of Utica brine. “We want to understand these natural formation fluids, what’s in the ground before any drilling occurred,” said Ralph Haefner, the survey’s groundwater-studies chief.</i></div>
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<i>Snee said there’s no need for the state to test Utica brine because disposal wells are safe. He said shale wastes trucked to landfills pose a bigger threat to groundwater.</i></div>
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<i>In May, the health department told American Landfill in Stark County that two truckloads of waste sand from two Greene County, Pa., wells must instead go to a hazardous-waste landfill.</i></div>
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<i>Required lab tests showed radium at levels 36 times higher than the state’s safety standard. Some critics say they worry that Ohio municipalities will spray shale brine on roadways in winter to combat ice. There are no restrictions against using shale-well brine on Ohio roadways."</i></div>
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<b>There is also NO restriction on spraying brine on West Virginia's roadways.</b></div>
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<i><b>LINK - <span style="color: blue;">http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/09/03/gas-well-waste-full-of-radium.html</span></b></i></div>
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Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-82831041224852950822014-12-22T09:21:00.001-08:002014-12-22T15:49:48.876-08:00FAMILIES EVACUATED 6 DAYS AGO IN MONROE COUNTY, OHIO - AND THE GAS WELL IS STILL SPEWING NATURAL GAS<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
From The Columbus Dispatch<br />
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<b>VIDEO LINK - Monroe County Resident Describes Evacuation of his Family but Won't Leave his Animals Behind</b><br />
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">By </strong><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"></span><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><a href="mailto:larenschield@dispatch.com" style="border-bottom-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0787a1; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit;"><span class="author-name" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Laura Arenschield</span></a></span><br />
<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><a href="mailto:larenschield@dispatch.com" style="border-bottom-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0787a1; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit;"><span class="author-name" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></a></span></div>
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SARDIS, Ohio — This hollow used to be peaceful.</div>
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Not long ago, Randy Heater and his daughters would roam the Monroe County hills to hunt, setting up deer stands on quiet fall days when the air was still.</div>
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On Dec. 13, that stillness shattered.</div>
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Crews lost control of a fracked well on a hilltop near Heater’s house. Natural gas surged into the air.</div>
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From their backyard, less than a mile from the well, the Heaters heard it. The rushing gas sounded like a broken air hose, Heater said — a deep, steady <em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">WHOOOOSH</em>.</div>
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As the weekend approached, gas was still spewing uncontrollably.</div>
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<a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/12/17/families-flee-out-of-control-natural-gas-leak.html" style="border-bottom-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0787a1; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Families within a mile and a half of the well have been evacuated</a>, although not all have left their homes. They’ve been allowed back during the day, to grab clothes and feed animals, but they are supposed to be elsewhere at night.<br />
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The county emergency management agency says the families might be allowed home for good by Wednesday, Christmas Eve, but officials aren’t sure.<br />
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“We weren’t given any answers,” Heater said last week. “The only people who would talk to us is the volunteer fire department, and they weren’t getting any answers. And I understood at first. But this is Day 6, right here, and we still don’t have answers.”<br />
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The well is just outside Sardis, a community of about 560 people about 145 miles east of Columbus.</div>
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Over the past week, people there banded together.<br />
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Families who live near the well have stayed with parents or siblings or friends, sleeping on couches and recliners and living-room floors.<br />
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An elementary school that closed in 2011 has been open as a shelter for families during the day.</div>
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Triad Hunter, the company that owns the well, didn’t return calls last week. But people who were evacuated from their homes said the company told them they would be reimbursed for meals, mileage and hotel rooms.</div>
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There aren’t many hotels near Sardis, however, and the closest ones, in New Martinsville, W.Va., are filled, mostly by temporary oil and gas workers. Triad Hunter offered to put people up in hotels in Marietta, a 45-minute drive from Sardis.<br />
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Triad Hunter has offices in Marietta but is headquartered in Texas. The well that blew out on Dec. 13 had been dormant for about a year, according to state records. The company drilled the well, fracked it and plugged it in November 2013.<br />
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Crews were at the well on Dec. 13 to unplug it and prepare it for production, according to a statement on the company’s website. When they removed the cap, the pressure inside the well had gotten too high, and gas poured out. Crews couldn’t bolt the cap back in place.<br />
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It is the latest in a string of incidents this year involving fracked wells and the oil and gas industry in Monroe County, and it has some residents questioning how safe those wells are.<br />
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“If this is a one-time deal, and this happens once, fine,” said Nicole Reed, who lives near the well and was told to leave her home with her husband and three daughters. “But you just wonder how many times are things like this going to happen? Are we always going to have to have a bag packed."<br />
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Over the summer, a <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/08/31/fracking-fire-points-out-failings.html" style="border-bottom-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0787a1; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">well caught fire not far from Sardis, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the air</a> and causing 25 families to flee their homes. Many of Reed’s relatives lived near that well and had to find other places to stay.<br />
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The debate over horizontal hydraulic fracturing — commonly called fracking — is raging across the country as states weigh the benefits against the costs.<br />
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To horizontally frack for oil and gas, companies drill deep underground, then turn the drill 90 degrees to cut into shale deposits. They shoot a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the well to fracture the shale. That frees oil and gas in the shale, which then flow back up the well to a wellhead.<br />
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Oil and gas industry officials say the method is safe, and they point to the number of wells that operate without incident across the United States.<br />
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But as the industry has grown in Ohio, so, too, have the number of emergencies.<br />
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In October, a well blew out in Jefferson County, forcing 400 families to evacuate their homes. Last month, an electrician working on a pump near a fracked well in Noble County was killed in an explosion.<br />
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No one has been injured by the gas spewing out of this well, and the gas hasn’t caught fire.<br />
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And some families who live near the well say they accept the risks.<br />
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“They have got top-notch people in here working on it,” said Scotty McPeek, who can see the wellhead from his home. “I absolutely trust them.”<br />
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On Friday, McPeek and his wife, Ada, were at their home. Mr. McPeek said he could see the gas spewing out of the well from a window in his house. He said the plume went “about 50, 60, 70 feet high.”<br />
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Both McPeek and his wife are retired, and they’ve been staying with their son. The disruption to their lives is minimal, he said.<br />
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For other families, like the Reeds, the disruption has been much larger.<br />
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Reed, a reading teacher at a local elementary school, has wrapped her daughters’ Christmas presents and is keeping them in her classroom because she doesn’t know where they’ll be for the holiday.<br />
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She told her daughters: “Santa can find us wherever we are, as long as we’re together.”<br />
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“It actually puts Christmas into perspective,” she said.<br />
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Reed isn’t angry, yet. But she would like more information about what is happening near her home.</div>
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Heater and his family feel the same way.<br />
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For Heater, the jobs and money that oil and gas create don’t come close to outweighing the risks.<br />
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“I don’t think the trade-off is worth it. I haven’t thought that from the beginning,” he said. “ I feel like the valley sold its soul to the devil.”</div>
Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-24673093710825967782014-12-06T18:21:00.001-08:002014-12-06T18:21:59.944-08:00WEST VIRGINIA BENDS OVER TO TAKE IT FROM THE FRACKERS - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY OF COURSE!<br />
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A company has bid $6.2 million plus royalties to drill for natural gas and oil under state wildlife conservation land in Tyler County.<br />
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Denver-based Antero Resources is offering to pay more than $12,000 an acre for fracking rights under Conaway Run Wildlife Management Area, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette said. The bid includes a 20-percent royalty on what's extracted, and the lease would likely last three years.<br />
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The bid on the 518-acre wildlife area's oil and natural gas rights was unveiled Friday in Charleston. The land is used for hunting, fishing and camping, and includes a 100-yard rifle range.<br />
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Houston-based Noble Energy submitted a bid for about half the upfront money with the same royalty rate.<br />
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"One of those two bids is probably a record," Burdette said.<br />
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It's the second time West Virginia has offered to let companies drill horizontally under its land. Leasing the land for the technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a new venture for West Virginia, and officials think it could produce plenty of money during uncertain budget times.<br />
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In West Virginia's first try at fracking leases, officials opened bids for 22 miles of state land under the Ohio River in September. Six miles are under contract negotiations and another 11 miles are out for bid or will be shortly. Seven additional miles are being considered for bid openings.<br />
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Environmental groups cautioned Gov. Early Ray Tomblin to reconsider the Ohio River leases, since they would allow drilling beneath a river that provides drinking water to millions of people.<br />
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Burdette said the drilling would occur about a mile under the river. State environmental regulators would still have to approve permits for the operations.<br />
<br />
All drilling equipment would need to be off-site of the state lands, Burdette added.<br />
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Other properties the state is thinking about leasing rights for include: 131 acres under Fish Creek in Marshall County; Jug Wildlife Management Area in Tyler County; and 24 acres in Doddridge County.<br />
<br />
No fracking contracts have yet been finalized, however. All the money from the state's fracking leases would go back into Division of Natural Resources needs, like upgrades at state parks.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/11/21/bid-to-frack-under-west-virginia-wildlife-management-land-could-yield-62m/" target="_blank">LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE</a></b>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-20995325048002689402014-12-04T07:32:00.000-08:002014-12-04T07:34:51.084-08:00GAS AND OIL FRACKING - POLLUTION IN DETAIL<b>DRILLING AND COMPLETION</b><br />
Drilling involves boring down to rock formations that contain oil or natural gas. Fluid or “mud” is circulated down hole to keep the drill bit cool and lubricated, and it returns to the surface carrying rock debris known as “cuttings.” During completion, fluids and cuttings within the well bore are removed. Some gas usually exits as these materials come to the surface, and the gas is typically flared. <br />
<b>IMPACTS</b><br />
AIR: Exhaust fumes from drilling equipment; venting and flaring of natural gas. <br />
SOIL: Muds and cuttings, which may contain chemical additives, salts, metals and hydrocarbons, are often stored in pits and buried on site. This may sterilize soils.<br />
WATER: Contaminants in pit sludge may leach out of the soil or overflow the pit and contaminate nearby soils, surface waters and groundwater.<br />
<br />
<b>STIMULATION</b><br />
Hydraulic fracturing, a common stimulation technique, involves fracturing the target formation with high-pressure injection of various substances. After fracturing, some of the injected fluids and gas from the formation flow out of the well, and sand remains behind to prop open the fractures. <br />
<b>IMPACTS</b><br />
AIR: Exhaust fumes from heavy equipment; flaring or venting of gas; wastes stored in pits may contain volatile chemicals that escape into the air. <br />
SOIL: Many fracturing chemicals are hazardous, and may contaminate soil if spilled on site. <br />
WATER: Fracturing fluids may be injected into or come in contact with fresh water aquifers.Waste fluids stored in pits may contaminate surface or groundwater if pits leak or overflow.<br />
<br />
<b>PRODUCED WATER </b><br />
Typically, during coalbed methane operations water must be removed from the coals before methane will flow to the well. Over time, water production tends to decrease. In conventional natural gas and oil formations, however, water production often increases with time, as the oil and gas are depleted. Produced water is piped or trucked to disposal ponds or underground injection wells; or discharged on land or into surface waters. <br />
<b>IMPACTS</b><br />
AIR: When stored in open pits volatile hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene) escape into the air. The pumping of shallow water may result in the migration of methane and H2S to from soil to air. Exhaust is created from water pumps powered by diesel or natural-gas-fired engines. <br />
SOIL: salts, metals,hydrocarbons or traces of chemical additives in produced water may contaminate soil if spilled on the surface or stored in earthen pits. <br />
WATER: produced water may contaminate waters through spills, pipelines breaks, leaks from storage ponds, or movement of injected water into a freshwater aquifer.<br />
<br />
<b>SEPARATION AND DEHYDRATION AND DEHYDRATION</b><br />
Dehydration. During separation, gas is separated from heavier hydrocarbons (e.g., oil and natural gas liquids), and water may also be “knocked out.” Dehydrators remove water from the gas stream. Separation and dehydration may occur at well sites, compressor stations, gas processing plants or oil storage sites (i.e., tank batteries).<br />
<b>IMPACTS</b><br />
AIR: Dehydrators and separators often vent large volumes of methane and volatile organic compounds.Dissolved Hydrocarbons in wastewater may escape into the air. <br />
SOIL: Pits or tanks that store wastewater may leak or overflow and contaminate soil.<br />
WATER: Wastewater may contain dissolved hydrocarbons,<br />
sand and metals that can contaminate surface and groundwater.<br />
<br />
<b>GAS COMPRESSION</b>.<br />
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Typically, diesel or natural gas fired engines provide power to compressors that, in turn, compress the gas. Some compressors are used to pull the gas out of wells, while other compressors push the gas along a pipeline. Field compression may occur at well sites. Centralized compressor facilities are required, however, to move large volumes of gas to and through larger gas transmission pipelines. <br />
<b>IMPACTS</b><br />
AIR: Engine exhaust; occasional venting of natural gas. <br />
SOIL AND WATER: Soil and water pollution may occur due to spills or leaks of diesel or other fuel used to power the compressors.<br />
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<b>TOXIC CHEMICALS - WHERE THEY COME FROM AND THEIR IMPACTS</b><br />
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<b>BTEX</b> </div>
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Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes. Benzene is a known carcinogen. Toluene may affect the reproductive and central nervous systems; while ethylbenzene and xylenes may have respiratory and neurological effects. Venting of natural gas, Pits, Produced water, Dehydration<br />
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<b>CH4 Methane</b> <br />
Main concern is the explosive nature of this gas. Venting of natural gas, Dehydration<br />
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<b>DIESEL FUEL</b> </div>
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A complex mixture of hydrocarbons. Both fuel and exhaust contains carcinogenic substances like benzene and PAHs. Stimulation fluids, Oil-based drilling muds, Engines/heavy equipment<br />
<br />
<b>H2S HYDROGEN SULPHIDE</b><br />
Aggravates respiratory conditions, and affects neurological system, cardiovascular system and can cause central nervous system problems. Venting and flaring of natural gas (if present in the oil and gas formations), Migration from soils<br />
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<b>HEAVY METALS</b> </div>
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Examples: arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, zinc and others. There are different potential health effects associated with each metal. Possible toxic effects include skin problems, hair loss, kidney damage, high blood pressure, increased cancer, neurological damage risk and others. Drilling muds, Stimulation fluids, Pits, Produced water, Venting and flaring, Diesel exhaust<br />
<br />
<b>NOx NITROGEN OXIDES</b><br />
React with VOCs to form ground-level ozone and smog, which can trigger respiratory problems. React with other chemicals to form particulate pollution, which can damage lungs and cause respiratory illness, heart conditions and premature death. Reacts with common organic chemicals to form toxics that may cause biological mutations. Compressor engines, Flaring, Diesel and natural gas engine exhaust<br />
<br />
<b>PAHs POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS</b><br />
Several agencies have classified some PAHs as probable or possible carcinogens. Animal studies show reproductive effects. Diesel exhaust, Flaring, Pits.<br />
<br />
<b>PARTICULATE MATTER</b><br />
Small particles suspended in air. Can be inhaled and cause health effects like respiratory ailments, aggravation of asthma and allergies, painful breathing, shortness of breath, chronic bronchitis and premature death. May combine with other air pollutants to aggravate health problems. Some particulates, such as diesel exhaust are carcinogenic. Diesel exhaust, Pits (dust from), Venting and flaring<br />
<br />
<b>SO2 SULFUR DIOXIDE</b><br />
Reacts with other chemicals to form particulate pollution, which can damage lungs and cause respiratory illness, heart conditions and premature death. <br />
Diesel and natural gas engine exhaust, Flaring<br />
<br />
<b>VOCs</b><br />
Volatile Organic Compounds, include BTEX formaldehyde and others. React with NOx to form ground-level ozone and smog, which can trigger respiratory problems. Can cause health problems such as cancer.<br />
Venting and flaring of natural gas, Pits, Oily wastes, Diesel and natural gas engine exhaust, Compressors. </div>
Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-29757522838604559202013-09-16T10:37:00.001-07:002013-09-16T10:37:59.424-07:00FRACKING HELL -- A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IS UNFOLDING IN COLORADO AND THE MEDIA IS SILENT!<br /><b>FRACKING HELL -- A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IS UNFOLDING IN COLORADO AND THE MEDIA IS SILENT!</b><br />
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THOUSANDS of gas wells across Colorado are underwater. Huge storage tanks of carcinogenic and neurotoxic chemicals are being displaced and overturned by the massive floodwaters. These toxins will end up polluting the soil, air and groundwater for decades at least!<br />
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<b>Photo taken by a resident of Weld County, Colorado:</b><br />
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This is exactly happens when you frack in a flood plain! Obviously greed came into play over safety issues when permits were issued. <br />
<br />
<b>From the Denver Post: </b><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
“Oil drums, tanks and other industrial debris mixed into
the swollen river flowing northeast. County officials did not give
locations of where the pipeline broke and where other pipelines were
compromised.<br />
While the water levels in the South Platte appear to be receding
slightly, bridges over the South Platte have been closed as water
overflowed the bridges at least as far east as Morgan County.<br />
Oil and gas industry crews have been monitoring wells drilled into the flood plain east of Greeley in Weld County.<br />
One pipeline has broken and is leaking, Weld County Emergency Manager
Roy Rudisill. Other industry pipelines are sagging as saturated
sediment erodes around the expanding river.<br />
Industry crews “are shutting in the lines, shutting in the wells,” Rudisill said.<br />
In a statement, Gary Wockner, of Clean Water Action, said “Fracking
and operating oil and gas facilities in floodplains is extremely risky.
Flood waters can topple facilities and spread oil, gas, and
cancer-causing fracking chemicals across vast landscapes making
contamination and clean-up efforts exponentially worse and more
complicated.”</blockquote>
<br />
<b>Gas line rupture east of Greeley:</b><br />
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<br />
<b> From The Daily Camera:</b><br />
<br />
<span id="Global_Site"><span id="MNGiSection"></span></span><br />
"Inundated along with
roads, bridges, houses and farms are thousands of oil and gas wells and
associated condensate tanks and ponds in northeast Boulder County and
southwest Weld County.<br />
<br />
Anti-fracking activists say the industry
needs to account for what types of chemicals may be contaminating soil
and groundwater in the area around these wells.<br />
<br />
The concentration of oil and gas wells in flood-prone areas speaks to one more risk of what they see as a dangerous industry.<br />
<br />
Regulators
say they agree these well sites could pose a contamination risk, and
they will get out to assess the damage as soon as it's feasible.<br />
<br />
An Encana Oil and Gas representative said many wells were "shut in" in anticipation of the flood to minimize the risk.<br />
<br />
Lafayette-based
anti-fracking activist Cliff Willmeng said he spent two days
"zig-zagging" across Weld and Boulder counties documenting flooded
drilling sites, mostly along the drainageway of the St. Vrain River. He
observed "hundreds" of wells that were inundated. He also saw many
condensate tanks that hold waste material from fracking at odd angles or
even overturned.<br />
<br />
"It's clear that the density of the oil and gas
activity there did not respect where the water would go," Willmeng
said. "What we immediately need to know is what is leaking and we need a
full detailed report of what that is. This is washing across
agricultural land and into the waterways. Now we have to discuss what
type of exposure the human population is going to have to suffer
through."<br />
<br />
Colorado Oil and Gas Association President Tisha Schuller said in an
email that the industry prepares and drills for these types of natural
disasters and opened 24-hour incident command centers to monitor wells
and mitigate potential hazards.<br />
<br />
"We are working around the clock to monitor, prevent, and address
the effects of flooding," she said. "In cases where personnel could be
freed up, they have been made available to communities for flood rescue
and relief efforts."<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
said the agency is aware of the potential for contamination from flooded
drilling sites, but there simply is no way to get to those sites while
flooding is ongoing and while resources are concentrated on saving
lives.<br />
<br />
"COGCC will be working with state and local authorities to
assess risks and, where necessary, provide environmental response and
remediation," said Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Department of
Natural Resources.<br />
<br />
Hartman said many operators have added
security to tanks, like chains to make sure they don't float away,
though aerial photographs have shown floating and drifting tanks in some
flooded areas.<br />
<br />
Also, many operators "shut in" or closed down well operations in anticipation of flooding.<br />
<br />
Wendy
Wiedenbeck, a spokeswoman for Encana, a major gas driller in the
region, said in a news release that the company shut-in production at
wells throughout the affected areas and has remote monitoring to stop
production at additional wells if they are affected by flooding.<br />
<br />
Crews are conducting site-by-site visits as it becomes safe to do so, she said.<br />
<br />
Willmeng
said shutting-in does not isolate all the hydrocarbons in case of
flooding. He's also concerned that there simply aren't enough inspectors
to deal with all the wells.<br />
<br />
Andrew Barth, a city spokesman
working with the Boulder Office of Emergency Management during the
disaster, said local officials are well aware of potential problems from
drilling wells, as well as from flooded gas stations and industrial
sites. However, inspections and assessment will have to wait until the
immediate threat to life and safety has passed.<br />
<br />
"We've seen those
same pictures, and we are concerned," he said. "We are going to go out
and look at those as once we're out of the immediate search and rescue
phase."<br />
<br />
More Photos in this article:<br />
<br />
http://intellihub.com/2013/09/16/colorado-flood-creates-fracking-chemical-spill-report/ <br />
<br />
Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-40143030137682281292013-01-21T17:02:00.001-08:002013-01-21T17:02:27.467-08:00"BRINE TRUCK" WRECK.. BUT NO MENTION OF GAS, FRACKING OR DRILLING WHATSOEVER!<i>But surely it was ONLY salt brine.. from a "well". Wonder why the road was shut down in both directions and the Dept of Environmental Protection was called? </i><br />
<br />
<i>Walton, Roane County
, West Virginia
</i><br /><br />
<b><span class="StorySubHead">ROANE COUNTY WRECK: </span></b><b><span class="Headline">Route 119 Near Walton Shut Down After Tank Of Salt Brine Snaps Off Truck</span> </b><br />
<br />
Route 119 near Walton in Roane County was shut down Monday afternoon
when a tank of salt brine snapped off a truck and struck a utility
pole, an emergency dispatcher said.
<br />
<br />The accident happened about 12:50 p.m. on Route 119 near Plant Road,
the dispatcher said. The truck was hauling salt brine water from a
well.
<br />
<br />No injuries were reported, but the road was shut down in both directions.
<br />
<br />The dispatcher said the Division of Environmental Protection was on
its way to investigation. The Roane County Sheriff's Department was at
the scene.<br />
<br clear="all" />
<a href="http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/eyewitness/130121_13220.shtml" target="_blank"><b>LINK</b></a>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-10910040685447176982013-01-08T16:53:00.000-08:002013-01-08T16:53:42.675-08:00CRUCIAL TOOL COULDN'T BE USED TO CHECK PIPELINE THAT BLEW UP<div class="body text entry-content" id="storybody">
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<br /></div>
<b> The key point here is that according to a recent NTSB report, 61 percent of the nation's pipelines
cannot physically accommodate pigs and it could cost companies about $12
billion to retrofit the nation's pipes to make them do so... and they are NOT compelled to do so. In the meantime, it seems likely that other pipelines of the same age and older will continue to rupture based on the findings of extreme thinning in the wall of the exploded section with no way to check them.</b><br />
<br />
Columbia Gas Transmission officials have reported that the
pipeline that exploded last week could not be checked for corrosion
using one important pipeline safety tool, Kanawha County officials said
Monday.<br />
<br />
The 20-inch diameter natural gas transmission line showed signs of
external corrosion, according to the National Transportation Safety
Board, which is investigating the incident. The pipe had thinned in
places to about a third of the thickness it ought to have been, the NTSB
said.<br />
<br />
Pipeline safety advocates - including the NTSB - recommend pipes be
tested for such corrosion using "smart pigs," which are metal tools that
travel through a pipeline to check the pipe for irregularities,
including cracks and corrosion.<br />
<br />
"The pipe that ruptured did not have valves on it that would accept the
pig," said Kanawha fire coordinator C.W. Sigman, who met Monday with
Columbia representatives.<br />
<br />
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper confirmed Sigman's account of the meeting. <br />
"It is our understanding that the ruptured pipe was not piggable," Carper said through a spokeswoman.<br />
Columbia is a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource. Last week, one of
its 20-inch diameter transmission lines ruptured and filled the sky with
fire, scorched the earth and ruined the surface of a segment of
Interstate 77. Miraculously, nobody was injured or killed.<br />
<br />
The company did not comment on that pipe's ability to handle a smart
pig, citing the NTSB's ongoing investigation of the explosion.<br />
<br />
Pipeline safety advocates have argued smart pigs are a key way to ensure the structural integrity of pipelines. <br />
"I think those are kind of the gold standards for measuring corrosion,"
said Carl Weimer, head of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Bellingham,
Wash.-based group devoted to improving pipeline safety.<br />
<br />
Following a deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., the NTSB
recommended all gas transmission pipelines be upgraded to accommodate
smart pigs, with priority given to older pipelines.<br />
<br />
According to a recent NTSB report, 61 percent of the nation's pipelines
cannot physically accommodate pigs and it could cost companies about $12
billion to retrofit the nation's pipes to make them do so.<br />
<br />
Weimer said only about 7 percent of the nation's pipelines are required to run smart pigs. <br />
Sigman said Columbia plans to upgrade the exploded pipeline so it can accommodate a smart pig - when and if it reopens.<br />
<br />
"I think they are going to upgrade it to where they can pig it," Sigman said of the pipeline.<br />
<br />
But it will be a long time before the pipeline is back in service, Sigman said the company told him. <br />
Columbia operates two other lines in the area.<br />
<br />
The company does not believe the explosion harmed either of those two lines.<br />
<br />
Both of the lines that did not explode had been pigged in 2009, Sigman said. (He had previously said the year was 2008.)<br />
<br />
County officials and Columbia representatives met at 5 p.m. Monday to
talk about the company's plan to restart the second of the two pipelines
near the one that exploded.<br />
<br />
A 30-inch line and 26-inch line are both within 200 feet of the exploded pipe.<br />
<br />
The lines help supply demand to customers near Washington.<br />
<br />
The 26-inch line, known as SM-86, was back in service the night of the
explosion. It is 183 feet from the exploded pipe, according to a company
plan.<br />
<br />
"Pressure was restored slowly over a 2.5-hour period to verify the
integrity of the pipeline," the company told the state Public Service
Commission.<br />
<br />
As it slowly put gas back into the line, the company had people patrolling the pipe by foot and by helicopter looking for leaks.<br />
<br />
Columbia has developed a similar plan to return the 30-inch line known as the "SM-86 loop" to service on Wednesday.<br />
<br />
That line is 53 feet north of the exploded pipe, according to the company plan.<br />
<br />
The company said it could do so without closing either Interstate 77 or Kanawha 21 (Sissonville Drive).<br />
<br />
The company had previously floated the idea of rerouting traffic in the
Sissonville area while the company gradually refilled the SM-86 loops
with gas. The state Department of Transportation was not a fan of the
idea, which could have closed a major interstate for several hours the
week before Christmas.<br />
<br />
Columbia also hired Det Norske Veritas, an international risk management
company, to study whether last week's explosion could have damaged the
30-inch line nearest the ruptured pipe.<br />
<br />
The consultant, known as DNK, concluded it was unlikely the nearby pipe had suffered any damage.<br />
<br />
Citing another report by the Pipeline Research Council International,
DNK said, "a spacing of at least 25 feet, regardless of other factors
such as pipe diameter, gas flow in the second pipeline, etc., is
sufficient to reduce possible thermal damage to parallel pipelines." The
nearby pipe was more than twice that distance from the ruptured pipe.<br />
<br />
But the consultant said there was "finite, albeit small, probability
that a near critical defect existed" just before the flow of gas was
stopped to the pipe. Columbia shut off the flow of gas to all three
pipes in the hour following the explosion.<br />
<br />
"This defect could grow to a critical size as a result of the large
pressure cycle associated with depressurization and re-pressurization of
the pipeline, resulting in a rupture or leak," DNK cautioned.<br />
Columbia said it was confident it could return its pipeline to service
this week in a "slow and controlled manager, gradually increasing supply
and pressure."<br />
<br />
"In addition to performing the analysis to confirm that the incident did
not affect Line SM-86 Loop in the vicinity of the incident, Columbia
reviewed past inspection and testing data for Line SM-86 Loop to further
ensure the safety of the pipeline," company spokeswoman Chevalier Mayes
said in an email.<br />
<br />
"A detailed review of these past inspections confirms that the lines are
safe to return to service, and the data from these past inspections was
reviewed in detail with representatives of the (state and federal
pipeline regulation agencies)."<br />
<br />
Some of the data for that analysis came from a smart pig inspection in 2009, Columbia told the state PSC.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://dailymail.com/News/201212170174" target="_blank">LINK</a> </b> <br />
</div>
Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-29058549283982336002013-01-08T16:36:00.001-08:002013-01-08T16:36:47.359-08:00WVA PIPELINE SAFETY INVESTIGATION<br />
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<br /></div>
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will examine pipeline safety during a field hearing later this month in West Virginia, where a December explosion destroyed several homes and cooked a section of Interstate 77.<br />
<br />
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat who chairs the panel, said Monday he will convene the hearing Jan. 28 in Charleston. A list of witnesses for the hearing is still being developed, a spokesman said.<br />
<br />
On Dec. 11, 2012, a 20-inch Columbia Gas Transmission line ruptured, triggering a massive fire and shutting down a major traffic artery near Sissonville, about 15 miles from Charleston.<br />
<br />
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the cause, has said the line showed signs of external corrosion and had thinned to about one-third of the recommended thickness in some spots. The Office of Pipeline Safety also said in a preliminary report that "general wall thinning is a major factor in the cause of the failure."<br />
<br />
<br />
"The Sissonville explosion shook West Virginia quite literally," Rockefeller said, "and served as a stark reminder that pipeline safety is serious. And oversight is critically important."<br />
<br />
Although there were no serious injuries in Sissonville, Rockefeller said things could have been worse.<br />
<br />
"And West Virginians want to know everything is being done to prevent accidents — and disasters," he said.<br />
<br />
The hearing will be the fourth the committee has held on pipeline safety while Rockefeller has chaired it.<br />
<br />
Among other things, the Commerce Committee will review the implementation of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act of 2011, he said. It will also review the findings of a Government Accountability Office study expected Jan. 23 on how well prepared pipeline operators are to handle a hazardous liquid or gas release.<br />
<br />
Columbia Gas Transmission is a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource.<br />
<br />
The company said Monday it can't predict when the damaged pipeline will be back in service. But NiSource is working with federal, state and local officials "to take every step necessary to ensure the safety of our pipeline system," it said in an e-mail.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.timesleaderonline.com/page/content.detail/id/278583/Senators-to-hold-pipeline-safety-hearing-in-W-Va--.html?isap=1&nav=5020" target="_blank"><b>LINK</b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The company that owns and operates the natural gas pipeline that
exploded in has a lengthy record of pipeline
safety violations and federal enforcement actions, including several
recent incidents in West Virginia. <br />
ccording to records obtained from the federal Pipeline and Hazard Materials Administration, the Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. (CGT Corp.), which owns and operates the pipeline that exploded in an enormous fireball near Sissonville, West Virginia, has been involved in 14 separate natural gas pipeline safety incidents since February 2011, including five in West Virginia.<br />
<br />
Columbia is a wholly owned subsidiary of NiSource, one of America’s largest energy companies.<br />
<br />
One of these incidents, on Aug. 25, 2012, in Elyria, Ohio, sent four people to the hospital with serious injuries. Together, the 14 incidents accounted for nearly $1.5 million in property damage.<br />
<br />
According to the PHMSA records, nine of the 14 incidents were caused by equipment failure or corrosion, including the most recent incident, which occurred on Oct. 30 in Flat Top, West Virginia, which involved a malfunction of controls related to relief equipment.<br />
<br />
In the I-77 blast, which sent flames shooting 100 feet into the air and melted a section of Interstate 77 and destroyed four nearby homes, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said, it took Columbia more than an hour to isolate the section of the pipeline where the explosion occurred and shut off the flow of gas to the pipeline.<br />
<br />
During the same time period, PHMSA opened 11 separate enforcement actions involving alleged pipeline safety violations by Columbia. Five of those investigations are still underway. PHMSA is currently seeking more than $250,000 in civil penalties in connection with the investigations. The CGT Corp. paid a fine of $67,800 in connection with one investigation, in which the agency cited the company for failing to continuously monitor the concentration of gas in the air at the Claysville compressor station in Pennsylvania.<br />
<br />
Damon Hill, a spokesperson for PHMSA, explained the difference in the number of incidents compared to the number of enforcement actions, saying that not every pipeline incident triggers an enforcement action.<br />
<br />
“Every incident is investigated,” Hill told NaturalGasWatch.org, “but not every investigation results in an enforcement action.”<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-51479862246670421272012-12-13T16:00:00.003-08:002012-12-13T16:00:42.974-08:00MASSIVE EXPLOSION OF GAS PIPELINE IN WEST VIRGINIA - PIPELINE SAFETY IS A MAJOR ISSUE!<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d"><b>Bloody Columbia Gas Transmission
AGAIN! </b> </span><br />
<br />
<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d">So much for "clean burning natural gas with high BTU output.."
Well, except for smoke from 9 houses, the surrounding woods, and asphalt
from a 15 foot deep pit that was Interstate 77 - all in flames near
Charleston, WV yesterday afternoon.. </span><br />
<br />
<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d">SISSONVILLE, W.Va.
(WSAZ) -- The wall of the natural gas pipeline that exploded in
Sissonville, W.Va. on Tuesday had deteriorated to <b>LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH THICK</b>, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed
Wednesday evening.<br /><br />The NTSB also said there was a sudden pressure
drop in the pipeline just before the explosion but they still had not
determined whether that caused the explosion.<br /><br />The explosion and ensuing fire destroyed four homes, damaged at least five others and damaged an 800-foot stretch of I-77.<br /><br />The 10-member NTSB team determined that the pipeline had lost <b>SEVENTY PERCENT OF ITS THICKNESS</b> in spots.<br /><br />Pieces
of the pipeline will be sent to Washington, D.C. for further
examination. </span><br />
<br />
<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d"><img height="336" id="il_fi" src="http://latinotimes.com/thumbnail.php?file=pics/pipeline_blast_virgina_787312006.jpg&size=article_medium" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="600" /> </span><br />
<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d"><br /></span>
<span id="bc_0_1b+seedSCXID" kind="d"><b><a href="http://www.wsaz.com/breaking/home/BREAKING-NEWS--Explosion-Reported-in-Sissonville-183019371.html" target="_blank">LINK</a> TO ARTICLE </b></span>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-71267805934801721972012-11-13T10:39:00.001-08:002012-11-13T10:39:38.433-08:00WILD AND WONDERFUL WEST VIRGINIA?<b>Forwarded to me from a friend:</b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">We flew over the southern panhandle of </span></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;">West
Virginia</span></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;"> area (Marshall-Wetzel
counties) and it is <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">un-fracking-believable!</span></b>
Well pads in every direction, pipelines creating a jagged maze, drilling pits
of every shape and tint, rigs of varied colors, and vehicle-packed
fracking ops. on mountainous pads doing completion work. There was one
spot where you could see 3 industrial-sized compressor stations/gas treatment
plants in close proximity to one another. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Multiple areas in WV revealed <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">2 new things</span></b>: Some fluid impoundments that resemble round
aboveground backyard swimming pools, and several spots with <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">multiple impoundments</span></b>, one with as many as <b><u><span style="font-weight: bold;">SIX</span></u></b>! (Imagine if the property
owner living in the midst of that industrial mess doesn’t own the gas rights.
Yoi!) This used to be <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">my favorite area</span></b>
for a refreshing Sunday morning motorcycle ride through beautiful terrain, now
we are witnessing widespread gashes and ugliness.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: bold;">What a difference 6 years makes… </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Veterans Day 2006 on a
motorcycle in that area enjoying twisty roads:</span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><img border="0" class="GH" height="375" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=661cb745a7&view=att&th=13afa2913f78b707&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="500" /> </span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Veterans Day 2012 in an
airplane over that same area: </span></span></i></b></span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><img border="0" class="GH" height="332" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=661cb745a7&view=att&th=13afa2913f78b707&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="500" /> </span></span></i></b></span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">More photos of Wild,
Wonderful </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">West Virginia</span></span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">: </span></span></i></b> </span></span></i></b></span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><img border="0" class="GH" height="332" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=661cb745a7&view=att&th=13afa2913f78b707&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="500" /> </span></span></i></b></span></span></i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><b><i><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span></span></i></b></span></span></i></b><br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-77455120072561181692012-08-30T08:25:00.000-07:002012-08-30T08:25:48.386-07:00LIQUID PULSING: FRACKING ALTERNATIVE?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef01676946c5f6970b-800wi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef01676946c5f6970b-800wi" width="320" /></a></div>
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Energy companies have turned to new drilling technologies in the past
decade to squeeze out the last drops of oil and gas underground. Those
methods include hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that have been linked
to environmental damage and the threat of causing small earthquakes.<br />
Now a Canadian firm has developed an alternative that uses
underground fluid pressure waves to scrub oil out of rock formations
without breaking the rock or injecting toxic chemicals into the ground.<br />
<br />
<strong><a href="http://news.discovery.com/earth/fracking-oil-earthquakes-drilling-120806.html">ANALYSIS: Human-Triggered Earthquakes Surprisingly Common</a></strong><br />
The process sends a pulse of energy that changes the porosity of the
geological material -- the rock, sand or clay, etc. --– surrounding the
oil deposits. It then uses recycled water or carbon dioxide to flush out
the oil, according to Brett Davidson, CEO of Edmonton-based <a href="http://www.onthewavefront.com/">Wavefront Technology</a>.<br />
<br />
"What we are going to do underground is mimic a garden hose,"
Davidson said. "You have a steady state of fluid coming out of the hose.
When I put kink in the hose, I'm storing energy. When I undo the kink I
get an acceleration of fluid."<br />
Davidson said the idea came after finding out that oil companies
often reported more production from their wells after earthquakes. It
turns out that instead of the earthquake's initial seismic wave
affecting the oil deposits, a second much slower force called a porosity
dilation wave is created. This wave forces oil through the rock like a
beating heart, forcing blood through the body’s veins and arteries.<br />
<br />
Wavefront has developed several kinds of pulsing devices that are
lowered into the ground to produce this slow-moving fluid wave, the
choice of device depending on the kind of geological formation. The
pressure wave momentarily changes the porosity of the rock or soil to
push out more oil. It can also be used to clean up underground toxic
waste sites, Davidson said.<br />
<br />
A recent consultant's study found Wavefront's liquid pulse method
boosted oil production by an average of 2.5 percent at five oil wells in
Alberta and Saskatchewan. While that may not seem like much, boosting
production from the estimated 400 billion barrels left in the ground in
U.S. reserves would result in 10 billion barrels of extra oil, or enough
to run the entire U.S. economy for about 526 days.<br />
<br />
<b> <a href="http://news.discovery.com/earth/squeeze-oil-from-rocks-without-chemicals-120824.html">LINK TO ARTICLE</a></b>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-43996004474330692472012-04-12T08:25:00.000-07:002012-04-12T08:25:31.440-07:00NETTIE, WV FIGHTS PLANS FOR WELL PAD NEAR ITS WATER SUPPLY<b><i><span style="font-size: small;">Nettie PSD will hold another meeting to discuss this issue at the Nettie Fire House on April 24 at 7 p.m. so be there and bring a friend! <br />
<br />
At the meeting, which was extremely well-attended by around 80 people, BRC employee Sam Sweatt referred to a single well, 5-H. In fact, the site is post-marked through 8-H! Yep.. we have the photos guys!</span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: small;">I would like to add that ALL of Bluescape's activity in Nicholas County is within the Upper Gauley River watershed and that, whether through water extraction for drilling and fracking, or by pollution consequential to this industrial process, ALL water users in our area will be inpacted one way or the other. With Acid Mine Discharge leading to aquifer/well contamination already causing ongoing long-term problems here, we hardly need the additional prospect of water poisoning by fracking activities....</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">12th April 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">by C.V. Moore, Beckley Register Herald Reporter </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.register-herald.com/local/x2108295056/Residents-voice-concerns-at-Nettie-PSD-meeting">Residents Voice Concern at Nettie Meeting</a></b></span><br />
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<div class="entry-content" style="text-align: justify;"> NETTIE — Concerned about a proposed horizontal gas well near their water supply, the Nettie Public Service District turned out about 80 residents to an “emergency” meeting Tuesday evening.<br />
<br />
The group has elected to present an ordinance to the Nicholas County Commission to ban drilling in the county.<br />
<br />
Tuesday’s was the second such meeting held in Nettie since the community noticed an ad in the paper on March 8 stating that Bluescape Resources Co. (BRC) would be proposing a well in the Panther Creek watershed.<br />
<br />
PSD Chair David McMillion says the well would be located above the headwaters of Panther Creek — where the PSD gets its public drinking water — and “could affect or contaminate” the water supply.<br />
<br />
“Even if there’s only a 1 percent chance of that happening, it’s too much,” said attendee Ralph Kelly, who made the motion to create the county ordinance. “We can’t afford to move if our water is polluted, even temporarily.<br />
<br />
“That would be a tremendous burden on us and that’s why we need to take an action to protect ourselves. It’s not because we’re being radical, but because we have investments here.”<br />
<br />
But county- and city-wide bans on drilling have so far been ineffectual in West Virginia, since state and federal law regulate the practice.<br />
<br />
“The county government cannot interfere with any state law,” says Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Carl Harris. “On the county level, there is very little they can do.”<br />
<br />
“We’re going to take it as far as we can and see what happens,” says McMillion.<br />
<br />
The PSD has approached Appalachian Mountain Advocates about potential litigation and McMillion says they have responded positively.<br />
<br />
The PSD also sent letters to various personnel at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Environmental Protection Agency, Nicholas County Commission, corporate owners of land and mineral rights in the area, politicians and a lawyer.<br />
<br />
A petition opposing the well has been signed by hundreds of area residents so far.<br />
<br />
“The primary issue is not are you going to stop drilling,” Sen. Ron Miller told those gathered at the Nettie Fire Hall. “The primary issue is your watershed, and that’s where the DEP needs to be very active.”<br />
<br />
PSD Secretary Bill Fox says the utility provides water to 1,375 homes. A planned extension will serve approximately 100 more in Carl and Green Valley.<br />
<br />
Fox says a deep mine destroyed the water table in Green Valley years ago.<br />
<br />
“People lost their wells,” he says. “They’ve been hauling water for 25 years.”<br />
<br />
McMillion estimates that the well would be 1.5 miles as the crow flies from the dam where the PSD collects its water.<br />
<br />
A representative from BRC, Sam Sweatt, attended the meeting.<br />
<br />
“My reason for being here is to listen to your concerns and see if we can do anything to fall in line,” he told those gathered.<br />
<br />
Local residents and members of the group Stand Up Now (STUN) — which has been protesting and watch-dogging BRC’s operations since last autumn — hammered Sweatt with questions about earthquakes, fracking chemicals, jobs, water usage and the company’s flare near Richwood.<br />
<br />
Caroline Snyder, who has worked with STUN in the past, countered and contradicted some of Sweatt’s information during the meeting.<br />
<br />
“The long term job creation is minimal,” she said. “The environmental devastation could be catastrophic.”<br />
<br />
As for the particular well under discussion, Sweatt says it will be an “extended period of time” before it is drilled, if at all.<br />
<br />
“We’ll submit a lot of permits that won’t go to fruition,” he says. “We’re looking now at determining the viability of the field. That one is close to some others we already have data on.”<br />
<br />
BRC has drilled seven wells in Nicholas County so far, four of which have been fracked.<br />
<br />
Mark Spencer’s farm borders the site of the proposed well. He has three springs and a well where he sources his drinking water.<br />
<br />
“The way I feel about it is a person has enough to worry about without having to worry about losing your water or getting water contaminated,” he says. “They will be drilling through the water table where I get my water.”<br />
<br />
Spencer has had some encounters with men he says are doing geophysical research and surveying the drill pad site near his property.<br />
<br />
A member of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, he complains that they offered no proof of their right to be on the property. When he told them to leave, he says they did, but came back when he wasn’t there.<br />
<br />
“They were doing things at dusk out there, kind of sneaky it seemed to me,” he says. “And they left lunch trash on the farm.<br />
<br />
“They were very disrespectful to landowners in my opinion.”<br />
<br />
On April 23, a representative from the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization will give a presentation at the Richwood Public Library at 7 p.m.<br />
<br />
The PSD will hold another meeting to discuss this issue at the Nettie Fire House on April 24 at 7 p.m.<br />
<br />
— E-mail: cmoore@register-herald.com<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
<strong>Gas company says well drilling won’t begin anytime soon</strong><br />
<br />
NETTIE — Some Nettie residents may have their hackles raised over a potential horizontal gas well near the community’s water source, but the gas company says it won’t be drilling the well anytime soon.<br />
<br />
An ad announcing Bluescape Resources Co.’s (BRC) intention to apply for drilling permit 5-5H ran in a local paper on March 8, but the permit application for this particular well has not yet been completed.<br />
<br />
More importantly, BRC’s Completion/Production Manager Chad Touchet says of six potential data-gathering wells the company may drill, the 5-5H well is ranked pretty low in terms of viability.<br />
<br />
“It’s not on our radar right now to drill,” says Touchet. “We don’t really need this data right now.”<br />
<br />
The wells BRC is considering drilling are not typical production wells. Rather, they would help the company form a picture of the economic viability of further drilling in the area.<br />
<br />
Touchet says the company would like to drill one — perhaps two — more wells this year, beginning in July or August.<br />
<br />
Though he would not disclose their specific location at this time, he says they are “nowhere near” Nettie.<br />
<br />
The water management plan for the well or wells is currently being hashed out by BRC, says Touchet.<br />
<br />
Geology, operational feasibility and economics all played into the ranking of the six potential wells.<br />
<br />
Despite these limited plans, the company will likely apply for permits for all six potential wells.<br />
<br />
“Because it such a lengthy process for permitting, we wanted to have all of our possible potential drills submitted,” says Touchet.<br />
<br />
That doesn’t mean the company will drill them immediately, or at all.<br />
<br />
“We can let the permits expire and that’s fine with us, just as long as we have them,” Touchet says.<br />
<br />
He says with gas prices so low right now, BRC is being “picky” about where they drill.<br />
<br />
—E mail: cmoore@register-herald.com<br />
</div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-16220379042053116402012-04-11T18:06:00.001-07:002012-04-11T19:05:50.239-07:00WV COUPLE SUE CHESAPEAKE ENERGY OVER FOULED WELL<div class="" id="WNStoryBody"><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">From Texas to Wyoming.. from Colorado to Pennsylvania.. and now here in West Virginia, hundreds of wells and aquifers have been contaminated nationwide by vertical/horizontal gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The drilling utilizes over three hundred toxic chemicals to fracture the earth one mile in several directions from the vertical drill-bore. Our state forests, where generations of West Virginians have hunted, fished, and hiked, are being defaced by a growing network of well pads. But even more disturbing are the effects that we can't see. Unknown chemicals are being pumped thousands of feet underground. The extreme pressures involved in the hydro-fracturing process are forcing methane gas into people's homes and into their water supplies. Thousands of gallons of chemicals have been spilled in our forests and streams. It's clear to me that hydro-fracturing is the single biggest environmental threat to West Virginia that this generation faces, and it has hardly started...</span></i><i><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></i></h6><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2011/06/fracking-5694552147_26886482c9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2011/06/fracking-5694552147_26886482c9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Above: Fracking trucks at a well site</span></b></span></i></h6><a href="http://www.statejournal.com/story/17313266/marshall-county-residents-claim-marcellus-drilling-harmed-water-supply"><b>The State Journal, April 2nd 2012</b></a> <br />
<br />
Two Marshall County residents claiming Marcellus shale drilling adjacent to their property rendered their water supply unusable are taking their fight to federal court.<br />
<br />
Jeremiah Magers and Andrea Magers originally filed the suit Feb. 24 in Marshall County Circuit Court against Chesapeake Appalachia. The suit was removed to federal court March 30.<br />
<br />
According to their suit, the Magers say they used a water well near their home because public water is not available.<br />
<br />
The Magers claimed as soon as Chesapeake started drilling gas wells, they started to notice methane gas from their well and a nearby stream.<br />
<br />
"Sufficient gas was present that the plaintiffs could ignite both the water and Fish Creek," the suit stated. <br />
Now, the Magers claim they must purchase and haul water to their house.<br />
<br />
"The defendant has failed to provide the plaintiffs an alternate water supply or compensate them for the contamination of their water well and their costs in purchasing water," the suit stated.<br />
<br />
Chesapeake Appalachia has not yet filed a response. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr.<br />
<br />
Here is an eye-opening article from Cleantechnica which explores the problem further:<br />
<h1 class="entry-title"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/28/report-shows-natural-gas-fracking-creates-more-methane-in-underground-water/">Report Shows Natural Gas Fracking Creates More Methane in Underground Water</a></span></h1><h1 class="entry-title"> </h1><div class="MsoNormal">Research <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.abstract">scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences </a>of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the <b>aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction</b>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.full">The complete PNAS report </a>directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Of course, vested interests will continue to "lie and deny"... </i></b></span></div><div id="rpuCopySelection" style="color: black; display: block; font-size: 12px; left: -5000px; position: fixed; text-align: left; top: 0pt; width: 2000px;">Research <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.abstract">scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences </a>of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.<br />
<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.full">The complete PNAS report </a>directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”<br />
<div id="clply-tag" style="font-size: smaller;">Source: <a href="http://s.tt/12KvN">Clean Technica</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/12KvN">http://s.tt/12KvN</a>)</div></div><div id="rpuCopySelection" style="color: black; display: block; font-size: 12px; left: -5000px; position: fixed; text-align: left; top: 0pt; width: 2000px;">Research <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.abstract">scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences </a>of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.<br />
<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.full">The complete PNAS report </a>directly cites hydraulic fracturing as a contributor: “the process of hydraulic fracturing generates new fractures or enlarges existing ones above the target shale formation, increasing the connectivity of the fracture system. The reduced pressure following the fracturing activities could release methane in solution, leading to methane exsolving rapidly from solution, allowing methane gas to potentially migrate upward through the fracture system.”<br />
Active gas-extraction areas having one or more gas wells within a 1-kilometer average not only imperil drinking-water wells, they are also potential explosion hazards, the report states.<br />
<div id="clply-tag" style="font-size: smaller;">Source: <a href="http://s.tt/12KvN">Clean Technica</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/12KvN">http://s.tt/12KvN</a>)</div></div></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-60718105612984525252012-03-08T16:21:00.000-08:002012-03-08T16:21:58.299-08:00END IN SIGHT FOR BLUESCAPE GAS FLARE RICHWOOD WV<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The company has until May 31 to extinguish the flare that has been burning since August 2011</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Great reportage by Rick Steelhammer, Charleston Gazette.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state Department of Environmental Protection has set May 31 as the deadline for extinguishing a flare that has been burning gases from three Nicholas County Marcellus Shale exploration wells for more than six months, despite state laws limiting natural gas flaring to 30 days per year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dallas-based Bluescape Resources Co. began flaring gas from three Marcellus wells near Fenwick on Aug. 28 last year. Responding to citizen complaints about the prolonged flaring, mainly from the newly formed organization Stand Up Now, the DEP's Division of Air Quality inspected the Fenwick area site on Oct. 12 and issued BRC a notice of violation Oct. 26.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> On Nov. 14, in a response to the violation notice, company officials said BRC had to flare the natural gas produced by the wells since "no pipeline exists in the area" to collect and transport the gas. Lacking a pipeline, gas from the wells had to be released, measured and burned "to test the viability of the natural gas reserves in the area," they said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> A pipeline linking the Richwood area to Frametown is being planned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The company response went on to state that BRC could not "shut in the wells or the flare without suffering irreparable financial damage." The Fenwick area wells "are generating data on natural gas reserves in a portion of the state that has previously not been tested. The information being generated is crucial not only to BRC but to the mineral owners and other lessees in the area."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> BRC maintained in its response letter that prior to installing the wells, the company consulted with the DEP's Office of Oil and Gas about flaring plans at the Fenwick site, and was told that no permits were needed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> In late November, the company filed a request for a temporary permit to continue operating the flare. On Dec. 7, a meeting was held with Division of Air Quality personnel to discuss the permit and resolve the notice of violation. On Dec. 15, the DAQ sent BRC a Notice of Deficiency letter seeking more information from the company in order to process the temporary permit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> In the recently released consent order, dated Feb. 22, BRC agreed, among other things, to convert the flare from a vertical to a horizontal configuration, to monitor for visible emissions, and to cease operating the flare "on or before combusting a total of 1,321 million standard cubic feet, or no later than May 31, 2012, whichever is sooner."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> BRC also agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $50,000 to resolve all DAQ violations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">BRC's permit application lists maximum possible hourly emissions from the flare as 35,163 pounds of carbon dioxide and 110 pounds of carbon monoxide. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> "I'm glad to know that the state has established a limit" regarding how long natural gas flares are allowed to burn, said Stephanie Hamilton, among those opposing the continued flaring of the Fenwick wells.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Hamilton said she would like to see BRC's fine money be used to add a Richwood-area air quality monitoring station to the Division of Air Quality's current network of 23 monitoring sites across the state. The nearest station to the Fenwick wells is found at Sam Black Church in Greenbrier County, "many miles and several mountains away," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> With 13 Marcellus wells under permit in the Richwood area, and 12 in the vicinity of Craigsville, and up to 10 wells possible per drilling pad, "the potential for hundreds of new wells and new flares is possible in Nicholas County," Hamilton said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Hamilton said state law allows for fines of up to $250,000 per well for the nonpermitted flaring done by BRC. "I wonder how the DEP justified a $50,000 fine," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Hamilton said the orange glow from the flare can be seen from Richwood and Craigsville at night, particularly during overcast conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1069365493"><b><br />
</b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://wvgazette.com/News/201203070204"><b>LINK</b></a></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-41591369560731335732012-03-05T17:19:00.001-08:002012-03-05T17:22:35.930-08:00BLUESCAPE FINED A PALTRY $50,000 FOR ILLEGAL FLARING NEAR RICHWOOD, NICHOLAS COUNTY WV<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody">BRC Operating Company, LLC, who have been illegally operating a gas flare near Richwood, Nicholas County WV for several months, finally gets a paltry fine from the DEP of $50,000.. bear in mind that they could have been fined the maximum of $250,000 per well.. and that they were flaring THREE wells up there. They have been ordered to construct and monitor a horizontal flaring system. "The Company shall install a horizontal flare on or before March 1, 2012". Has this been done? If not, then they could be in violation of this consent order. </span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody">My spies are out!</span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody"></span></span></h6><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIzRbi1Bzwy1ssZpkNUB8EIB7nMDiexTt5l9CCf2k45gLf2oaAfhitE2jvm9Nu0ldNBdAggtou1v-OQf9t2gQqK5JmbabEgZgg_g51El9XEJ4hBO7pMAcAdycd0eI2jfjJVimOPZcZoQ/s1600/Fracking+Well+Intense+Flare+near+Richwood+tb0911B2x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIzRbi1Bzwy1ssZpkNUB8EIB7nMDiexTt5l9CCf2k45gLf2oaAfhitE2jvm9Nu0ldNBdAggtou1v-OQf9t2gQqK5JmbabEgZgg_g51El9XEJ4hBO7pMAcAdycd0eI2jfjJVimOPZcZoQ/s400/Fracking+Well+Intense+Flare+near+Richwood+tb0911B2x.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody"> <br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> west virginia department of environmental protection</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Division of Air Quality</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> 601 57th Street SE</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Charleston, WV 25304</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Phone: 3049260475 FAX: 3049260479</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Earl Ray Tomblin, Governor</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Randy C. Huffman, Cabinet Secretary</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /> <a href="http://www.dep.wv.gov/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">www.dep.wv.gov</a><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> CONSENT ORDER</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> ISSUED UNDER THE AIR POLLUTION CONTROL ACT, WEST VIRGINIA CODE, CHAPTER 22, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 4</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> TO: BRC Operating Company, LLC</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Mr. C. John Wilder, CEO</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> 200 Crescent Court</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Suite 200</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Dallas, TX 75201</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> DATE: February 22,2012</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> ORDER NO.: CO-R13-E-2012-05</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> FACILITY ID NO.: 067-00108</span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody"><br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
This Consent Order is issued by the Director of the Division of Air Quality (hereinafter Director), under the authority of West Virginia Code, Chapter 22, Article 5, Section 1 et seq. to<br />
BRC Operating Company, LLC (Company).<br />
<br />
FINDINGS OF FACT<br />
1. The Company owns and operates the Rupert Pad Site 2, consisting of three natural gas exploration wells to determine the viability of future production development, (Facility) located near Fenwick, WV. The Facility is a Marcellus Shale horizontal natural gas well, which includes a temporary flare.<br />
2. On October 12, 2011, personnel from the Division of Air Quality (DAQ) conducted an inspection of the Facility in response to citizen complaints related to operation of the temporary flare at the well site. The DAQ determined the natural gas temporary well flare exceeded the maximum number of cumulative days of operation allowed within a twelve (12) consecutive month period in accordance with Section 6.1 of 45CSR6 (Rule 6) to exempt the Facility from being required to obtain a 45CSR13 (Rule 13) temporary permit.<br />
3. On October 26, 2011, the DAQ issued a Notice Of Violation (NOV) to the Company for violating Rule 6 for not obtaining a permit in accordance with the provisions of W.Va. Code §22-5-1 et seq. and Rule 13. The NOV required the Company to respond within ten (10) days to address the violation.<br />
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Page 2 of6<br />
4. On November 14, 2011, the DAQ received the Company's response to the NOV. The Company stated "The Site is located in a remote part of Nicholas County, and to date no natural gas pipelines have been installed on or in the vicinity of the Site ..... The Site is the first location in Nicholas County to test the viability of the natural gas reserves in the area. Because no pipeline exists in the area, BRC must flare the natural gas that is produced by the three wells at the Site."<br />
5. On November 16, 2011, the Company submitted a 45 CSR 13 (Rule 13) temporary permit application to the DAQ for construction and operation of the flare. <br />
6. On December 7, 2011, the Company met with the DAQ to resolve the violation and discuss the temporary Rule 13 permit application.<br />
7. On December 15,2011, the DAQ sent the Company a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) letter to request additional information to process the permit application and to deem the permit application technically and administratively complete.<br />
<br />
ORDER FOR COMPLIANCE<br />
Now, therefore, in accordance with Chapter 22, Article 5, Section 1 et seq. of the West Virginia Code, it is hereby agreed between the parties, and ORDERED by the Director:<br />
<br />
1. The Company shall revise the 45 CSR 13 (Rule 13) permit application submitted to make it administratively and technically complete for construction and operation of a temporary natural gas flare on or before March 15,2012.<br />
2. The Company shall expeditiously correct any deficiencies and errors found in the Rule 13 permit application submitted providing necessary, omitted, or supplemental information identified to the Company by the Director or his authorized representative. After March 1, 2012, the Company shall submit a written and certified mail response to any further written Notice of Deficiency (NOD) forwarded by the Director or his authorized representative within fifteen (15) calendar days of receipt of the NOD. If the Company does not respond<br />
within fifteen (15) calendar days, then the Company may be subject to stipulated penalties.<br />
3. The Company shall comply with all state and federal applicable rules and regulations.<br />
4. The Company shall not exceed the mass emission limitations set forth in the submitted Rule 13 permit application (R13-2904T) and/or any updates thereto. The Company shall comply with all other requirements set forth in the submitted Rule 13 permit application (R13-2904T) and/or any updates thereto.<br />
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Page 3 of 6<br />
5. The Company shall install a horizontal flare on or before March 1, 2012 using good engineering practices so as to maximize the combustion efficiency. The Company may operate the vertical flare as a back-up to the horizontal flare and also to start-up the horizontal flare.<br />
6. The Company shall maintain records of all inspections of both flares and/or preventive maintenance procedures.<br />
7. The Company shall design, maintain, and operate both the horizontal and/or vertical flares to ensure proper destruction efficiency of .air pollutants and to ensure proper combustion efficiency.<br />
8. The Company shall operate the horizontal and/or vertical flares with a flame present at all times.<br />
9. The Company shall install, maintain, and operate a thermocouple or any other equivalent device to detect the presence of a flare pilot flame on both flares. The Company shall maintain records of the date, time, and duration each time the Company does not detect the presence of a flare pilot flame.<br />
10. The Company shall design, maintain, and operate both flares with no visible emissions as determined by the Method 22, except for periods not to exceed a total of 5 minutes during any 2 consecutive hours.<br />
11. The Company shall conduct an initial Method 22 visual emission observation on both flares to determine the compliance with the visible emission provisions. The Company shall take a minimum of two (2) hours of visual emissions observations on both flares. The Company shall conduct Method 22 visual emission observations on both flares on or before March 15, 2012.<br />
12. The Company shall conduct daily Method 22 visible emission observations of both flare stacks to ensure proper operation for a minimum often (10) minutes each day the flares are in operation.<br />
13. The Company shall maintain records of all visual emission observations. If Company observes any visible emissions, the Company shall notify DAQ within twenty-four (24) hours.<br />
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Page 4 of6<br />
14. The Company shall not combust greater than a total of 1321 million standard cubic feet (scf) and shall not exceed a maximum 7 million standard cubic feet per day. The Company shall cease operation of both the vertical and the horizontal flare on or before combusting a total of 1321 million standard cubic feet or no later than May 31, 2012, whichever is sooner. The Company shall maintain daily records of the amount of natural gas combusted by the flare and the total scf combusted.<br />
15. The Company shall install, maintain, and operate instrumentation to continuously monitor the gas combustion rate in to both flares in standard cubic feet per minute (SCFM). The monitor(s) shall be installed, maintained.. and operated according to the manufacturer's recommendations.<br />
16. The Company shall maintain records of all startups, shutdowns, and/or malfunctions of the flare. These records shall include the date, time, and duration of each event. For each such case associated with an equipment malfunction, additional information shall also be recorded: <br />
(1) The cause of the malfunction, <br />
(2) Steps taken to correct the malfunction, and<br />
(3) Any changes or modifications to equipment or procedures that would help prevent future recurrences of the malfunction. The Company shall notify the DAQ within twentyfour (24) hours of all startups, shutdowns, and/or malfunctions.<br />
17. The Company shall install, maintain, and operated all above-ground piping, valves, pumps, etc. that service lines in the transport of potential sources of regulated air pollutants to prevent any substantive fugitive escape of regulated air pollutants. Any above-ground piping, valves, pumps, etc. that show signs of excess wear and that have a reasonable potential for substantive fugitive emissions of regulated air pollutants shall be replaced. The Company shall maintain records of any replacement made under this Section. <br />
18. Within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this Order, the Company agrees to pay a total civil administrative penalty of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) to resolve the violations described in this Order. All payments shall be made by check payable to the Air Pollution Education and Environment Fund and shall be sent to the Division of Air Quality, Attention:<br />
John A. Benedict, Director, 601 57th Street, SE, Charleston, WV 25304. In addition, if the Company fails to pay the foregoing amount timely or to complete any of the requirements contained in this Order to the satisfaction of the Director or within the time limits set forth herein, the Company agrees to pay a stipulated penalty of one thousand dollars ($1,000) to the Air Pollution Education and Environment Fund for each day that the action remains incomplete. The Director shall first notify the Company in writing that the facility is in violation of the terms of conditions of the Order, and the stipulated penalty shall then become immediately due and payable. Payments made pursuant to this paragraph are not<br />
tax-deductible expenditures for purposes of State or federal law.<br />
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Page 5 of 6<br />
OTHER PROVISIONS<br />
1. The Company hereby waives its right to appeal this Order under the provisions of Chapter 22, Article 5, Section 1 of the Code of West Virginia. Under this Order, the Company agrees to take all actions required by the terms and conditions of this Order and consents to and will not contest the Director's jurisdiction regarding this Order. However, the Company does not admit to any factual and legal determinations made by the Director and reserves all rights and defenses available regarding liability or responsibility in any proceedings other than proceedings, administrative or civil, to enforce this Order.<br />
2. The Director reserves the right to take further action if compliance with the terms and conditions of this Order does not adequately address the violations noted herein and reserves all rights and defenses which he or she may have pursuant to any legal authority, as well as the right to raise, as a basis for supporting such legal authority or defenses, facts other than those contained in the Findings of Fact.<br />
3. If any event occurs which causes delay in the achievement of the requirements of this Order, the Company shall have the burden of proving that the delay was caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control which could not have been overcome by due diligence (i.e., force majeure). Force majeure shall not include delays caused or contributed to by the lack of sufficient funding. Within three (3) working days after the Company becomes aware of such a delay, notification shall be provided to the Director and shall, within ten (10) working days of initial notification, submit a detailed written explanation of the anticipated length and cause of the delay, the measures taken and/or to be taken to prevent or minimize<br />
the delay. If the Director agrees that the delay has been or will be caused by circumstances beyond the reasonable control of (i.e., force majeure), the time for performance hereunder shall be extended for a period of time equal to the delay resulting from such circumstances. A force majeure amendment granted by the Director shall be considered a binding extension of this Order and of the requirements herein. The determination of the Director shall be [mal and not subject to appeal.<br />
4. Compliance with the terms and conditions of this Order shall not in any way be construed as relieving the Company of the obligation to comply with any applicable law, permit, other order, or any other requirement otherwise qpplicable. Violations of the terms and conditions of this Order may subject the Company to additional penalties and injunctive relief in accordance with the applicable law.<br />
5. The provisions of this Order are severable and should a court or board of competent jurisdiction declare any provisions to be invalid or unenforceable, all other provisions shall remain in full force and effect. <br />
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Page 6 of 6<br />
6. This Order is binding on the Company, its successors and assigns.<br />
7. This Order shall become effective immediately upon signing by both parties.<br />
8. This Order shall terminate upon the issuance, withdrawal, or denial of the Rule 13 permit required to be obtained under this Order and the payment of all penalties required under this Order.<br />
-------.~-<br />
BRC Operating Company, LLC<br />
Mr. C. John Wilder, CEO -'''-'Da"te__<br />
J0 . Benedict, Director<br />
ivision of Air Quality</span></span></h6>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-86134076024421088272012-02-15T11:01:00.000-08:002012-02-22T08:42:07.039-08:00RED WATER AND FOAM: FRACKING POLLUTION NEAR RICHWOOD, WEST VIRGINIAThese photos were from an event late last year. Getting anyone, including the WV DEP (Department of Environmental Permitting) into action has been as effective as pushing string uphill.<br />
<br />
So I guess we'll just have to wait around for the next pollution incident.<br />
<br />
Here are the photographs I took:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_2mf9wSSTb051LrD5c5nsn45YsqWorkjMU_8aq1gghW-OxKKTsCKJFTAGu5IrgMDVEOJtko07ZlAeOl7kulYnJ_OhchpTs5sv9R4p5q6ZjCxKJdkqvu4AgkAnlBybFTwhLntQ9dX9bw/s1600/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_2mf9wSSTb051LrD5c5nsn45YsqWorkjMU_8aq1gghW-OxKKTsCKJFTAGu5IrgMDVEOJtko07ZlAeOl7kulYnJ_OhchpTs5sv9R4p5q6ZjCxKJdkqvu4AgkAnlBybFTwhLntQ9dX9bw/s400/01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Above: Sampling the foam</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQrnUiBaU7Uh5podCMighQaQA-fEi_rLLPYTfFGCnTX5XgomasJTxN_YTpLvoFN4gL0YIUKe6Xu_PEwxKzvbSQeofX7pVOxD2q-ngllLBFUbrCEIqA_dXR5CNLD2ck8w15ULQ2pI0Nz5o/s1600/02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQrnUiBaU7Uh5podCMighQaQA-fEi_rLLPYTfFGCnTX5XgomasJTxN_YTpLvoFN4gL0YIUKe6Xu_PEwxKzvbSQeofX7pVOxD2q-ngllLBFUbrCEIqA_dXR5CNLD2ck8w15ULQ2pI0Nz5o/s400/02.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: The foam was first spotted at the side of the road at the bottom of a series of streams and small waterfalls. In parts it looked like clumps of snow (the snow had been melting)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlAiMSl8zwRZWpsgxh6HHWktnrRNcIlPXegCb_9uExxowuDdNDBZ64puoBRUBOzP7eBPbA8xC7RgKgIM0gT2iNx6GA4AJgwtUm_hdH-Zel3jbm-chesnAtA_vrWbhs6QoAYCqWwZ32ig/s1600/03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlAiMSl8zwRZWpsgxh6HHWktnrRNcIlPXegCb_9uExxowuDdNDBZ64puoBRUBOzP7eBPbA8xC7RgKgIM0gT2iNx6GA4AJgwtUm_hdH-Zel3jbm-chesnAtA_vrWbhs6QoAYCqWwZ32ig/s400/03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">That foam sure does hang around!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5hb4-a6NqEiQvi5ihf1m9mDXS18V0FMBB81zQt9Yq1YXPcg6uDrTEgIYnmaKnDkiPe_yRpwvLl4HC2x5ADD0TotFWF_I-QAxIn-4hjqzJ6FIZED9ja0H4N2bELWoVllFoMLeNQZqRJ4/s1600/04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5hb4-a6NqEiQvi5ihf1m9mDXS18V0FMBB81zQt9Yq1YXPcg6uDrTEgIYnmaKnDkiPe_yRpwvLl4HC2x5ADD0TotFWF_I-QAxIn-4hjqzJ6FIZED9ja0H4N2bELWoVllFoMLeNQZqRJ4/s400/04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Water running down the hill around 100 yards away was CLEAR! Around 1/2 a dozen streams were running clear red/brown.. PH was 6.8 by the way so Acid Mine Drainage is definitely not the issue.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nrh9XHUS974PieUAiGmxoL3c0mGADxtzj42pIVEVl91KkrVhCSwSZUWUW9tV7xRVSYTwo1JI6ya36TNQoYXhIZDqxr1eqk7fbdqj5Fw3szyzhBLTsngne3L3uIw0YI88PPskn70L3ZA/s1600/05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nrh9XHUS974PieUAiGmxoL3c0mGADxtzj42pIVEVl91KkrVhCSwSZUWUW9tV7xRVSYTwo1JI6ya36TNQoYXhIZDqxr1eqk7fbdqj5Fw3szyzhBLTsngne3L3uIw0YI88PPskn70L3ZA/s640/05.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Foam and red Water</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRmq9pqKQLeSIBzgCtzTrh9R19yRoVEFPSIc6a0BpIlF4pYkJhcoz9e3pqVManO_B9wwg3RYRA2hSe2vrm0wzfAwnvAbUvpRpZ-kcUMQD6odgSrZ17LAihsdZVgchglnnGOFZmQkNgTME/s1600/06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRmq9pqKQLeSIBzgCtzTrh9R19yRoVEFPSIc6a0BpIlF4pYkJhcoz9e3pqVManO_B9wwg3RYRA2hSe2vrm0wzfAwnvAbUvpRpZ-kcUMQD6odgSrZ17LAihsdZVgchglnnGOFZmQkNgTME/s400/06.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Red Stream running into the Cherry River</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1cYnrlC7EUVsT0JyExngHg9qImZkSKbN_mtUqC1YjXQCIWTkJ47BkRlqqYV0_ck8WZD0YIZaHihpNm0WHN6tilPvgJiiZfVRhH1AruVsUwS4FTqQgA3QPCUq6Aiy4YBTmL2T4fdXJxaE/s1600/07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1cYnrlC7EUVsT0JyExngHg9qImZkSKbN_mtUqC1YjXQCIWTkJ47BkRlqqYV0_ck8WZD0YIZaHihpNm0WHN6tilPvgJiiZfVRhH1AruVsUwS4FTqQgA3QPCUq6Aiy4YBTmL2T4fdXJxaE/s400/07.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Foaming waterfall running into same stream</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZUf-KmtWpOfuLsO4Yr5lzbdlTkjTcjHM2pwDde2OpjGZhNOKKOQHNKa5MIrubM6i6f3jR3eBmNZAtQPgw01yZUIx2Jq-2ylV2zLK_3W4hVppRj3vy3FeE6lDewFNo1P2RCaWX5FbtIjc/s1600/08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_AygUThZ9uuXRxlJegG1jHpsPaOr9ldo5rA5CaOw5sL40_a_nk3kJ4zQRq5Om116EAiI0tf6rpFqPG-gWHrObZsgVMBpACm94YfUlp9jgKvKZZamVGqMawPXdSz5IncVeKptTDyJaI8/s1600/09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_AygUThZ9uuXRxlJegG1jHpsPaOr9ldo5rA5CaOw5sL40_a_nk3kJ4zQRq5Om116EAiI0tf6rpFqPG-gWHrObZsgVMBpACm94YfUlp9jgKvKZZamVGqMawPXdSz5IncVeKptTDyJaI8/s400/09.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Two Foamy Streams Coalesce.. they empty into the Cherry River</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzQSQtqdgqxvZ2D2-uXjfOZWjr73JQ-kqiPEd9g9j91XXV3xYvMv4knvaGIY_gjHzKJqqgdYuLleTqwHEqsmeefRm6TXP6h5e5haWsHb-kZNhW0Iupz475Zvm53QpV-qhUUQJua2iUHY/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzQSQtqdgqxvZ2D2-uXjfOZWjr73JQ-kqiPEd9g9j91XXV3xYvMv4knvaGIY_gjHzKJqqgdYuLleTqwHEqsmeefRm6TXP6h5e5haWsHb-kZNhW0Iupz475Zvm53QpV-qhUUQJua2iUHY/s400/10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiQpfRd6toUf5C9fnXWyp4HxGqDfNWR8j8LpYbv8NnMWmo6G-q8ghi2qQrbFpyFXiNtoUMfp35EH0UgI_bZaf8DhGIUQAbR-ZIeHbDVzEd_3aSGYuqjTxjNgbkVxYf50ecDTTKThefMZU/s1600/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiQpfRd6toUf5C9fnXWyp4HxGqDfNWR8j8LpYbv8NnMWmo6G-q8ghi2qQrbFpyFXiNtoUMfp35EH0UgI_bZaf8DhGIUQAbR-ZIeHbDVzEd_3aSGYuqjTxjNgbkVxYf50ecDTTKThefMZU/s640/17.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6b_iieqAeM5e-1PAlBmZoTQ3mFMH13j0tdGn5G_85OpqLHqAn1Vmk3mmuU45RgmuvQCfBuJRti-4_TpM9rcjhrNcowa9KaRRWLXgGXm_hE17R1ecQ8xu8dc4ER5IYCqeE-NjXNsvLzaA/s1600/18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6b_iieqAeM5e-1PAlBmZoTQ3mFMH13j0tdGn5G_85OpqLHqAn1Vmk3mmuU45RgmuvQCfBuJRti-4_TpM9rcjhrNcowa9KaRRWLXgGXm_hE17R1ecQ8xu8dc4ER5IYCqeE-NjXNsvLzaA/s640/18.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Two of us who handled this stuff ended up with red, sore, burning hands.. wonder what the deer thought when they drank it?</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauxDmGCbQ3WfPVWUSZkJzIZ1d46WImc8whb0kiDiHFXgzcbqBvIP1EZZ7xjzWpwqJx4rC99WIpWGu7A-Xg6fiUDhcCkFNA0Cathu5QjJZ24gJwL3IovBdDyMsQmQDlrv7NwcigkwMh6s/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauxDmGCbQ3WfPVWUSZkJzIZ1d46WImc8whb0kiDiHFXgzcbqBvIP1EZZ7xjzWpwqJx4rC99WIpWGu7A-Xg6fiUDhcCkFNA0Cathu5QjJZ24gJwL3IovBdDyMsQmQDlrv7NwcigkwMh6s/s400/19.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQN1b4aAGuuohV_s6Z29sq9GpxDtsjRMWoLZrVJ9k3OG3pet4PJmKfMUsqwjDkYwp13NwiWyaXYTL1P9fAaD_tb0edSxAJhVbOqyjadEsAfmnAt2_DWUC3PSsdqFUuw96X-DMdneXnrE/s1600/20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQN1b4aAGuuohV_s6Z29sq9GpxDtsjRMWoLZrVJ9k3OG3pet4PJmKfMUsqwjDkYwp13NwiWyaXYTL1P9fAaD_tb0edSxAJhVbOqyjadEsAfmnAt2_DWUC3PSsdqFUuw96X-DMdneXnrE/s640/20.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7XWnvNpvJp9BFVPr0jzw9svap391GsJLoXAh3QyMDKonJcSDisRTUtjx_qzhoVoxG-aFFsYcwCp0aJOOjKHfiV7NGcw0N0GR8rnOwUM3wp0Bi_G0bOAFIX0-JfIy-hmk5DOsEMML5SQo/s1600/21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7XWnvNpvJp9BFVPr0jzw9svap391GsJLoXAh3QyMDKonJcSDisRTUtjx_qzhoVoxG-aFFsYcwCp0aJOOjKHfiV7NGcw0N0GR8rnOwUM3wp0Bi_G0bOAFIX0-JfIy-hmk5DOsEMML5SQo/s640/21.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: One of the streams shows the unnatural red color and the white foam. This is NOT Acid Mine Waste by the way.. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrq67o4MDx_N3kblWSoQvl3CZinqEGpOiBGBCC6yJ3RfGEgDbckUTjqiJgx4sY1NsFLL7EwKT23g5aZTh818fsgTlA2rgpMlQDrqeo5Smv4z-449vYvpzrrmJQD3Homtw_kFOEaQyIxFc/s1600/23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrq67o4MDx_N3kblWSoQvl3CZinqEGpOiBGBCC6yJ3RfGEgDbckUTjqiJgx4sY1NsFLL7EwKT23g5aZTh818fsgTlA2rgpMlQDrqeo5Smv4z-449vYvpzrrmJQD3Homtw_kFOEaQyIxFc/s640/23.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWOCSjWnXA6jx_iLQiXZ9oqyEVBunYB4pgM7yjuVv-gnf2B4tqGXTT7vQc1nGlDwOeJWXSnJHrplWo362KXU9hU4974SJvmBIiJXQo1s74ECSCUPMQkJpAGXUm0tQqrT6UppXIlvPr38/s1600/24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMWOCSjWnXA6jx_iLQiXZ9oqyEVBunYB4pgM7yjuVv-gnf2B4tqGXTT7vQc1nGlDwOeJWXSnJHrplWo362KXU9hU4974SJvmBIiJXQo1s74ECSCUPMQkJpAGXUm0tQqrT6UppXIlvPr38/s640/24.jpg" width="628" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Accumulating further up the hillside.. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxBcIMXagrv9BedbqGY1zkqETiMSBDd9ACpgdQVj-db9X8nNKAsuY2u-9UE8FwQqBAvO7FEuhydA9kF4u4j1nB29NYIOXj8lZGKg20QYzP1edg_aqqVGE4TbPnyUPcdwmQdyg-EPd3Kc/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxBcIMXagrv9BedbqGY1zkqETiMSBDd9ACpgdQVj-db9X8nNKAsuY2u-9UE8FwQqBAvO7FEuhydA9kF4u4j1nB29NYIOXj8lZGKg20QYzP1edg_aqqVGE4TbPnyUPcdwmQdyg-EPd3Kc/s640/26.jpg" width="523" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0YLrPQXlzXtQ6aqxMoOX1wm5JCpZFEY8Q-3dHPneWNd36_y7LmWOpmaspIfzo7TfGjkb6XmAR6m38pxAYZ7LHyYQGpaiTV7oI44jpOVySSoyNd5Au8JnD2_7jS0dSKSK-WEfduCHLjo/s1600/27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw0YLrPQXlzXtQ6aqxMoOX1wm5JCpZFEY8Q-3dHPneWNd36_y7LmWOpmaspIfzo7TfGjkb6XmAR6m38pxAYZ7LHyYQGpaiTV7oI44jpOVySSoyNd5Au8JnD2_7jS0dSKSK-WEfduCHLjo/s640/27.jpg" width="521" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: The polluted water finds its way down into a culvert and into the Cherry River. DEP didn't even get back to us for A WHOLE MONTH after we reported this incident! </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCxRFkYKC71IgFGpWykxmsUb4pHuxgA6iPGm3vVYzGsVt5BoKVcVSAsC-Zda5bjdXZdQIDg_GDZ0CLedJCpaiRopmkuaFrW3UTiE8Gfvp0a0XIiV_kaQdCSCmxswzv0FHNAeyFpz9Gl0/s1600/29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCxRFkYKC71IgFGpWykxmsUb4pHuxgA6iPGm3vVYzGsVt5BoKVcVSAsC-Zda5bjdXZdQIDg_GDZ0CLedJCpaiRopmkuaFrW3UTiE8Gfvp0a0XIiV_kaQdCSCmxswzv0FHNAeyFpz9Gl0/s640/29.jpg" width="476" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: Polluted water entering via a small tributary of the Cherry River</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBLOqIkXq4UKEQOsiGFFCvf1Me3jPSvHJ8jJ4nN_qlgV8sRfDicq-kSJFEB9hyj_J2Bk2I1-uKh_b_wHsbIjixAFKxAKWlCg8BI8i3Y635xKMcV8K1z4sfKoAwl3pAMgbIsRW6oyGWQz0/s1600/30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBLOqIkXq4UKEQOsiGFFCvf1Me3jPSvHJ8jJ4nN_qlgV8sRfDicq-kSJFEB9hyj_J2Bk2I1-uKh_b_wHsbIjixAFKxAKWlCg8BI8i3Y635xKMcV8K1z4sfKoAwl3pAMgbIsRW6oyGWQz0/s640/30.jpg" width="601" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Above: At a rather higher altitude above the river, we found this drainage ditch.. this red/brown color is identical to many other spills recorded through PA, WY and other fracked states.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKjdzk9wAx__4dngKj-BQ1G6oC9Vy7upgmFUhLmyhmB9BTBFS-KMyrRw9jfOm2w8M9bkzG5rv8zyHrhO-BHijOplClocpq1CaRkfUzsumGnsQzEbVvGWEtgAjTEObuvSyUJY7hn3CUU6g/s1600/Culvert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="401" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKjdzk9wAx__4dngKj-BQ1G6oC9Vy7upgmFUhLmyhmB9BTBFS-KMyrRw9jfOm2w8M9bkzG5rv8zyHrhO-BHijOplClocpq1CaRkfUzsumGnsQzEbVvGWEtgAjTEObuvSyUJY7hn3CUU6g/s640/Culvert.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG230b_GuAM4W49V0ysQZ0FOklrjKXBT_jISIXyfHhkBY4URRnIMnMbzqQ9Hg2rDd77SZj7dh6EggB3jlRcSqV34Zxhcg5KrTIHelD5vguNwMK8fJcVUJh1KNdoK4UUTq1xM04hj6Pr5w/s1600/Culvert1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG230b_GuAM4W49V0ysQZ0FOklrjKXBT_jISIXyfHhkBY4URRnIMnMbzqQ9Hg2rDd77SZj7dh6EggB3jlRcSqV34Zxhcg5KrTIHelD5vguNwMK8fJcVUJh1KNdoK4UUTq1xM04hj6Pr5w/s640/Culvert1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Foam caught in Laurel leaves as the water churns down to the Cherry River</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6HqF35C90oSK_SdUuLESrLhyphenhyphenIZc5sXFpGyqt8XiLsKx25MA2INsAUeWwikx28UKtN5kVkTL88nkOaxH87ZzUXARGYOkLeVomUkEXC_TsogQUF-Nq8slz7u5IyxsNwaqKa28xENtDBJ9w/s1600/Culvert3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6HqF35C90oSK_SdUuLESrLhyphenhyphenIZc5sXFpGyqt8XiLsKx25MA2INsAUeWwikx28UKtN5kVkTL88nkOaxH87ZzUXARGYOkLeVomUkEXC_TsogQUF-Nq8slz7u5IyxsNwaqKa28xENtDBJ9w/s640/Culvert3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4Jj5Cg08ILYvsrjj0f29RT3ORx-2MMpJ7bTgaWUjtJNfCmwnB4uUQVZxVuoW-DBAa8oOJqOmVC528Wu92_ZpoGPgXJpQ7BOR3f2pxCmcGVDT7gFXiAIf59RiY28dA2-gD0XDZnOiDIo/s1600/Culvert5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4Jj5Cg08ILYvsrjj0f29RT3ORx-2MMpJ7bTgaWUjtJNfCmwnB4uUQVZxVuoW-DBAa8oOJqOmVC528Wu92_ZpoGPgXJpQ7BOR3f2pxCmcGVDT7gFXiAIf59RiY28dA2-gD0XDZnOiDIo/s640/Culvert5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-50958608921325996632012-02-10T13:08:00.000-08:002012-02-10T13:08:07.591-08:0037% CANCER RATE WHERE BENZENE FROM FRACK-WASTE IS LEAKING INTO THE SOIL FROM POROUS POLYETHYLENE PIPELINES<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">FRACKING, GERMANY - PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO</span></span></u></h6><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/bGtqn1eUDRI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">37% of households in one gasfield have at least one person with cancer. Folks, there is *NO* SAFE LEVEL FOR BENZENE! Deadly Benzene migrates through polythene piping and it seems that the industry has known this for many years. What pipeline is being used in West Virginia? PA? TX? WY? A multi-layer pipeline IS available with a protective aluminum layer but is much more expensive and there is no legal requirement to use it. Are the likes of Chesapeake Energy, Cabot etc KNOWINGLY poisoning the environment?</span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Thanks to <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/">Texas Sharon and her Blue Daze blog</a> and <a href="http://barnettshalehell.wordpress.com/">Arlington TX Barnett Shale Blogger</a>. </span></span></h6>For those who can’t watch videos on their computers, here are the <em>Cliff Notes</em>.<br />
<ul><li>In the middle of the largest area of drilling and fracking in Germany, there is a cancer cluster.</li>
<li>Small town, with cancer in one-third of homes – 27 homes with 10 cancer cases in 9 homes.</li>
<li>They’ve been fracking since the nineties. (Sound familiar?)</li>
<li>They pipe the flowback and produced water for disposal through pipelines. (Sound familiar?)</li>
<li>Testing the soil around these pipelines found 4000 micrograms of benzene. Five micrograms is hazardous to health.</li>
<li>Toxicologist says benzene is among the most “alarming chemicals we can imagine.”</li>
<li>The German Big Gas Mafia does not see the connection. (Sound familiar?)</li>
<li>There is a spiderweb of pipelines all over the place and the contamination found is widespread. (Sound familiar?)</li>
<li>The pipe looks like this: (Look familiar?)</li>
</ul><a href="http://www.texassharon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/plastic1.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5917" height="306" src="http://www.texassharon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/plastic1.png" title="plastic" width="500" /></a><br />
<ul><li>A plastic and chemistry expert admits benzene will leak through. She says weeks–it can “someday” leak through within weeks.</li>
<li>They have known about this since the 60s. (Sound familiar?)</li>
<li>Benzene leaked through PE pipelines requiring a 4 year remediation and disposal of 2500 tons of soil.</li>
<li>ExxonMobil claims it only became known in 2007. (Interesting admission considering they are still using the pipe.)</li>
<li>A Google search reveals that manufacturers admit the pipe is unsuitable for materials containing benzene.</li>
<li>Squirming by regulatory agency that allowed pipe and so forth. (Sound familiar?)</li>
</ul><u><b>Health effects of Benzene:</b></u><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Benzene causes cancer and other illnesses. Benzene is a "notorious cause" of bone marrow failure. "Vast quantities of epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory data" link benzene to aplastic anemia, acute leukemia, and bone marrow abnormalities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The specific hematologic malignancies that benzene is associated with include: acute myeloid leukemia (AML), aplastic anemia, myleodysplastic syndrome (MDS), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The American Petroleum Institute (API) stated in 1948 that "it is generally considered that the only absolutely safe concentration for benzene is zero." The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) classifies benzene as a human carcinogen. Long-term exposure to excessive levels of benzene in the air causes leukemia, a potentially fatal cancer of the blood-forming organs, in susceptible individuals. In particular, Acute myeloid leukemia or acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia (AML & ANLL) is not disputed to be caused by benzene. IARC rated benzene as "known to be carcinogenic to humans".<br />
<br />
Outdoor air may contain low levels of benzene from automobile service stations, wood smoke, tobacco smoke, the transfer of gasoline, exhaust from motor vehicles, and industrial emissions. About 50% of the entire nationwide (United States) exposure to benzene results from smoking tobacco or from exposure to tobacco smoke.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Vapors from products that contain benzene, such as glues, paints, furniture wax, and detergents, can also be a source of exposure, although many of these have been modified or reformulated since the late 1970s to eliminate or reduce the benzene content. Air around hazardous waste sites or gas stations may contain higher levels of benzene. Because petroleum hydrocarbon products are complex mixtures of chemicals, risk assessments for these products, in general, focus on specific toxic constituents. The petroleum constituents of primary interest to human health have been the aromatic hydrocarbons (i.e., benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylenes). OSHA requires that a mixture "shall be assumed to present a carcinogenic hazard if it contains a component in concentrations of 0.1% or greater, which is considered to be a carcinogen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
The short-term breathing of high levels of benzene can result in death; low levels can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Eating or drinking foods containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, and death.<br />
<br />
The major effects of benzene are manifested via chronic (long-term) exposure through the blood. Benzene damages the bone marrow and can cause a decrease in red blood cells, leading to anemia. It can also cause excessive bleeding and depress the immune system, increasing the chance of infection. Benzene causes leukemia and is associated with other blood cancers and pre-cancers of the blood.<br />
<br />
Human exposure to benzene is a global health problem. Benzene targets liver, kidney, lung, heart and the brain and can cause DNA strand breaks, chromosomal damage, etc. Benzene causes cancer in both animals and humans. Benzene was first reported to induce cancer in humans in the 1920s. The chemical industry claims it was not until 1979 that the cancer-inducing properties were determined "conclusively" in humans, despite many references to this fact in the medical literature. Industry exploited this "discrepancy" and tried to discredit animal studies that showed that benzene causes cancer, saying that they are not relevant to humans. Benzene has been shown to cause cancer in both sexes of multiple species of laboratory animals exposed via various routes. <br />
<br />
Some women having breathed high levels of benzene for many months had irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries. Benzene exposure has been linked directly to the neural birth defects spina bifida and anencephaly. Men exposed to high levels of benzene are more likely to have an abnormal amount of chromosomes in their sperm, which impacts fertility and fetal development. <br />
<br />
Animal studies have shown low birth weights, delayed bone formation, and bone marrow damage when pregnant animals breathed benzene.<br />
<br />
Benzene has been connected to a rare form of kidney cancer in two separate studies, one involving tank truck drivers, and the other involving seamen on tanker vessels, both carrying benzene-laden chemicals. </div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-69227336078025516082012-02-07T09:19:00.000-08:002012-02-07T09:21:20.137-08:00MARCELLUS SHALE REALITY TOUR - EPA TESTIING WATER IN DIMOCK PA<div style="text-align: justify;">If you remember, Dimock is the town in PA where around 70 wells have been contaminated by fracking. Right now, the EPA has moved in and is conducting extensive testing on residents' water wells. It seems that an entire aquifer has been contaminated. Some residents HAVE accepted payoffs from the gas companies to shut up and keep quiet. Those who bravely refuse to accept payoffs KNOW that wrong has been done, that their water has been poisoned forever.. and refuse to bow down without a fight. </div><br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/dimock-pennsylvania-fracking-epa_n_1197361.html">THE GAS COMPANY HAS NOW BEEN BANNED FROM DRILLING THERE</a><br />
<br />
But, but.. they keep telling us that fracking is safe!!<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="color: red; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>FACT: Fracking uses a large amount of water and turns it to hazardous waste. It disturbs and damages underground aquifers. And yet it is not regulated or governed by the Clean Water Act. This situation must change!</b></span></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-77981560634053772822012-01-31T16:03:00.000-08:002012-01-31T16:03:40.580-08:00INDUSTRY BACKING FOR FRACKING IS LACKING<b>A lighthearted look at the industry's search for a word to replace "FRACK" from the Charleston Gazette's <a href="mailto:rsteelhammer@wvgazette.com">Rick Steelhammer</a>:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"> According to an Associated Press story on Friday, the nation's natural gas industry is looking for a new word to replace "fracking" to describe the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract gas from subterranean rock.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Some industry executives apparently believe the word has been co-opted by environmentalists, and is now used as a slur, calling to mind a less socially polite word that sounds similar and begins with the same letter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> As controversy over natural gas production in the Marcellus shale formation continues to build, the gas industry is undoubtedly working with public relations pros to come up with a more benign name for the hydraulic fracturing process.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> One approach may be to come up with a harmless-sounding acronym to replace "frack."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Something like <b>N</b>uanced <b>U</b>nderground <b>D</b>etonation <b>G</b>as <b>E</b>xtraction, or <b>NUDGE</b>, could fit the bill, allowing "nudging" to replace "fracking." But one can only imagine the word combinations that will be tried and rejected before a sanitized "fracking" replacement can be identified.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><strong>Five soon-to-be rejected acronym root words for frack:</strong><br />
<ul><li><b>F</b>racture<b> R</b>eactive <b>I</b>njection <b>C</b>ompound <b>K</b>inesis </li>
</ul><ul><li><b>F</b>luidized <b>A</b>gent <b>R</b>ecovery <b>T</b>echnology</li>
</ul><ul><li><b>D</b>eep <b>E</b>arth <b>F</b>racture-<b>I</b>njected <b>L</b>iquid <b>E</b>xtraction </li>
</ul><ul><li><b>P</b>ressurized <b>L</b>iquid <b>UN</b>derground <b>D</b>ispersed <b>E</b>nergy <b>R</b>etrieval </li>
</ul><ul><li><b>K</b>inetic <b>I</b>ntroduction of <b>L</b>ateral <b>L</b>iquids<b> </b></li>
</ul><br />
<a href="http://wvgazette.com/News/201201280039"><b>GO TO ARTICLE</b></a><br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>Thanks for the chuckle Rick! </b>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-45109539589841089252012-01-25T18:02:00.000-08:002012-01-25T18:02:26.327-08:00FRACKING WILL *NOT* LEAD TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE..<i>"Shale gas is vital to our energy independence, the energy industry and politicians tell us repeatedly. But it's cheap right now, which is great for us and shitty for the industry, so they're exporting that asset so vital to our national energy security, raising both the price of gas and electricity while making us more reliant on foreign sources of energy" </i><br />
<br />
<b>Shippin' Shale: Energy Independence Means Exporting It So We Can Import It. Got That?</b><br />
<br />
By <a href="http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/author.php?author_id=893">Brantley Hargrove</a> Mon., Jan. 23 2012 <br />
Yeah, it doesn't make sense to us either. A couple of weeks ago <a href="http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/01/shippin_shale_whats_that_about.php">we asked if America could stop</a> pretending that politicians and their benefactors in the energy industry actually give two shits about "energy independence" or "energy security," or any of the other portent-laden, focus-grouped catch phrases they lob at us. <br />
<br />
Reason being, a Houston-based company just won approval to begin exporting shale gas -- the vastest source of domestic fossil fuel we have -- to other countries. This was supposed to be the Methadone weaning us off of that Middle Eastern smack while we figure out the whole renewable thing. <br />
<br />
Lawmakers, including the most senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, worried that exporting this natural resource would accomplish nothing but increasing our dependence on foreign fossil fuels, raising energy costs for the rest of us and squandering a cleaner-burning way to keep the lights on. Turns out, he's probably right.<br />
<br />
According to the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/fe/pdf/fe_lng.pdf">Energy Information Administration</a>, gas prices at the wellhead may increase by as much as 57 percent, which is exactly the point. Natural gas prices have been in the dumps since 2008, reducing the commercial viability of shale plays like the Barnett here in North Texas, and the Marcellus up in Pennsylvania. Things are so bad even shale cheerleader <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/chesapeake-energy-to-cut-rig-count-to-24-new-wells-for-2012.html">Chesapeake Energy</a> announced Monday that it's slashing spending on gas fields after natural gas prices hit a 10-year low at $2.231 per million British Thermal Units. It's why everybody's in South Texas now, where there's oil and condensate in the shale going for around a bill a barrel. But if you can open new markets up for your gas, you increase demand and the price.<br />
<br />
It's gonna suck for you and me, because as a result, we'll pay higher utility and heating rates, the agency reports.<br />
<br />
But the EIA also points out an insidious side-effect we didn't see coming. The whole point of shale gas as a bridge fuel is that it burns cleaner the coal. When we export natural gas and its price gets jacked up, electricity generators will lean harder on coal. Back to square one.<br />
<br />
The other ironic-as-hell consequence is that we'll have to import natural gas, primarily from Canada. So, let's recap: Shale gas is vital to our energy independence, the energy industry and politicians tell us repeatedly. But it's cheap right now, which is great for us and shitty for the industry, so they're exporting that asset so vital to our national energy security, raising both the price of gas and electricity while making us more reliant on foreign sources of energy. Because we sold ours.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="bylineDate"></span></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-49217272534260812022012-01-17T11:30:00.000-08:002012-01-17T11:30:48.008-08:00ANOTHER OHIO COMMUNITY ROCKED BY QUAKES; NEWPORT, WASHINGTON COUNTY<b><i>The connection between high volume deep well injection and earthquakes is absolutely known and conclusively determined by objective studies, but those blinded (and prostituted) by wealth do not want to know the truth that sets us free from their direct threats to our safety, health and life. </i></b> <h1><span style="font-size: large;">Another Ohio community rocked by quakes</span></h1>By Karl Henkel<br />
khenkel@vindy.com<br />
MARIETTA<br />
<br />
Youngstown has become the poster city for potential injection-well-induced earthquakes.<br />
<br />
But the Ohio Department of Natural Resources points to the success of 176 other injection wells throughout the state that have no history of inciting earthquakes.<br />
<br />
Cue Washington County.<br />
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The Southeast Ohio county — an area that the ODNR has said is less prone to earthquakes than the rest of the state — hadn’t had an earthquake with an epicenter in the county before Oct. 24, 2010.<br />
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Since then, there have been four, with magnitudes ranging from 2.6 to 3.1 — large enough to feel, but small enough not to damage homes and infrastructure.<br />
<br />
Sound familiar?<br />
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Like Mahoning County, Washington County shares another trait — brine-injection wells.<br />
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Injection wells are a disposal method for brine, a salty chemical byproduct of natural-gas fracking and oil drilling.<br />
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The ODNR has said it does not believe deep injections triggered the small quakes near Marietta, but that has not stopped the state environmental regulators from digging deeper.<br />
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The ODNR soon will monitor the area with four new seismographs — much as it did in Youngstown.<br />
“We don’t believe it’s related to injection wells at this point,” Larry Wickstrom, state geologist, told The Vindicator. “We want to dispel any concern as best we can.”<br />
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A local geologist at Marietta College, however, maintains there could be a connection.<br />
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“Some of the earthquake events have occurred after an injection of water,” said Wendy Bartlett, instructor of geology at Marietta. “Most geoscientists believe that can happen.”<br />
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State Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, was alarmed when told of the ODNR’s additional monitoring near Newport Township, just east of Marietta.<br />
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“This is just blowing my mind now,” he said. “They are lying to us and covering it up without giving us all the information.”<br />
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Injection wells have been linked to — but not necessarily proved to have caused — earthquakes in Ashtabula County as well as the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Colorado.<br />
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<b>WASHINGTON COUNTY</b><br />
There are four active injection wells, owned by two companies, near the township of Newport, just north of the Ohio-West Virginia state line.<br />
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More than 1.3 million barrels of brine were injected into those wells during the first nine months of 2011, according to data from the ODNR. That amount is nearly 15 percent of the 8.7 million barrels of injected brine in Ohio during that period.<br />
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D&L injected about 352,000 barrels into its Youngstown well during the same period.<br />
<br />
One barrel holds 42 gallons.<br />
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“Volumes for wells are fairly high for a few of them,” Wickstrom said, adding, “But it’s not that unusual.”<br />
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The wells are not as deep as the well in Youngstown. That well, on Ohio Works Drive, is 9,300 feet deep and could inject about 2,000 barrels of brine daily at pressures of up to 2,500 pounds per square inch before it was shut down Dec. 30.<br />
<br />
All four Washington County wells pump water into the Clinton or Medina sandstones at depths between 6,900 and 7,300 feet.<br />
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Injection pressures reach about 1,900 psi, higher than a majority of pressures allotted at wells statewide.<br />
The Washington County wells, however, inject near something called the Burning Springs Anticline, a well-known geological formation that Bartlett describes as “a fold that resembles an arch.”<br />
<br />
Wickstrom said the anticline is a “thin-skinned structure,” different from the solid Precambrian bedrock into which the Youngstown well may have injected.<br />
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Ray Beiersdorfer, geology professor at Youngstown State University, said faulting can occur from an anticline and that movement along a fault line needs to occur to trigger an earthquake.<br />
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Brine can act as a lubricant along faults and cause geologic shifting.<br />
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The ODNR is aware of the anticline.<br />
<br />
One Washington County earthquake, on Aug. 31, had an epicenter about 500 feet from one of the injection wells; an aftershock the same day had an epicenter about 20 miles from the same well site.<br />
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<b>UNANSWERED QUESTIONS</b><br />
The earthquake depths, much like the first nine Youngstown quakes, were about 3 miles.<br />
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That depth data, Bartlett said, is not precise because it came from only one seismic station, nearly 50 miles away in Athens.<br />
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Seismologists, including Michael Hansen of the Ohio Seismic Network, said it requires data from at least three seismic stations to determine precise earthquake depths.<br />
<br />
The state plans to send one seismograph to Marietta College to monitor seismic events.<br />
<br />
The ODNR this week hopes to implement the use of three portable seismograph stations, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.<br />
<br />
At this point, however, the state remains cautious, much as it did after the first handful of Youngstown earthquakes.<br />
<br />
The ODNR also has purchased four portable seismographs valued at $10,000 each as part of a new “zero-tolerance policy.” If an injection well or wells are suspected of causing seismic events, the agency immediately will deploy the seismographs.<br />
<br />
It maintains that Washington County and Mahoning County have little in common.<br />
<br />
The ODNR said the earthquakes were not clustered around a well and the deepest injection formation is nearly a mile above the Precambrian bedrock, where preliminary data pinpointed the quakes.<br />
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“The body of evidence is not nearly as large in Marietta,” said E. Mac Swinford, assistant division chief, ODNR Division of Geological Survey.<br />
<br />
<b>CALL FOR CAUTION</b><br />
Hagan says the new information about earthquakes makes him even more skeptical than he was after the Youngstown earthquakes.<br />
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“It just goes right to the base of what most of the critics have been saying,” Hagan told The Vindicator.<br />
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The office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who agreed with ODNR Director Jim Zehringer’s Dec. 31 decision to ban injection wells within five miles — now within seven miles — of Youngstown’s D&L well until the compilation of complete geologic data, deferred comment to the ODNR.<br />
<br />
Hagan, who on multiple occasions has called for a moratorium on natural-gas fracking, oil drilling and injection wells, says he has greater concerns, not specifically about the industry, but about the overall process.<br />
<br />
“Then we had the earthquakes and all of a sudden I am becoming a semi expert — baptism by fire,” he said.<br />
<br />
“I am concerned about where they are putting these wells. I’m concerned about the earthquakes.<br />
<br />
“I’m also concerned about government being honest to people.”Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-68382177373283346452012-01-15T10:34:00.000-08:002012-01-15T10:34:05.872-08:00FRACKING POLITICS IN OHIO, WV, PA, AR, TX - FOLLOW THE MONEY<h1><a href="http://www.workers.org/2012/world/ohio_earthquakes_0119/"><span style="font-size: large;">Behind the Ohio earthquakes: Big money leads to big risks</span></a></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuqFPH4kwptG7fExvnWOGfgp-E6VtHeq4uiJBWd-R9w_DBWXy-uUnK40HKwpE8rbmILSD0coNToDZ4aIi7rRXrDJJhSziXvURipeBtAYpXzozTSO7XteoXl6ZDP3EyH9wKfaijZl28As/s1600/1465WvMarshallCountyPleasantsRidge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRuqFPH4kwptG7fExvnWOGfgp-E6VtHeq4uiJBWd-R9w_DBWXy-uUnK40HKwpE8rbmILSD0coNToDZ4aIi7rRXrDJJhSziXvURipeBtAYpXzozTSO7XteoXl6ZDP3EyH9wKfaijZl28As/s400/1465WvMarshallCountyPleasantsRidge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<span class="byline">By Betsey Piette </span> <br />
<div class="published"> Published Jan 14, 2012 10:49 AM </div><div class="published"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">After 11 earthquakes recently rocked northwestern Ohio, seismologists acknowledged there is strong evidence linking the quakes to the disposal of waste water produced in the process of drilling for natural gas, known as hydraulic fracturing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">On New Year’s Eve, an earthquake registering a magnitude of 4.0 occurred five miles from Youngstown and very close to a 9,000-foot-deep disposal well owned by D&L Energy. The company receives most of its waste water from drilling operations in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals deep into underground shale formations to release natural gas. This brine water contains carcinogenic chemicals and radioactive particles. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Initially, the water was sent to treatment plants in Pennsylvania and discharged into rivers. This practice was halted in early 2011 after alarming levels of pollutants were found in streams. Now, there is more reliance on the deep-well disposal process. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the earthquakes, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a drilling booster, has been forced to shut down the Youngstown-area disposal well and four others. Similar unusual seismic activity in Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma has also led to temporary bans on the use of some disposal wells. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s a lot like closing the barn door after the horses escape.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As many as 800,000 underground injection wells exist across the U.S. Some 30,000 dispose of waste water from oil and gas operations. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the rapid expansion of drilling in neighboring Pennsylvania, Ohio was expected to become the leading importer of fracking waste water. The estimated amount of waste water pumped into Ohio’s disposal wells increased to more than 9 million barrels in 2011. Even with five wells now shut down, 176 others are still operating there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Natural gas industry representatives continue to deny there is any link between hydraulic fracturing and increased seismic activity, even though earthquakes were previously almost unheard of in these areas. Kasich even told reporters that he didn’t think the energy industry should be blamed for problems arising from the disposal of their byproducts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The link between increased earthquake activity and injection wells was established more than five decades ago, after scientists connected a Colorado earthquake of magnitude 5.5 to U.S. Army disposal of toxic fluids into a 12,000-foot-deep injection well. Nevertheless, there is still no government regulation of such practices. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">An estimated $1 trillion worth of shale gas is trapped underground in Pennsylvania. Geologists predict that around 5 million acres of rural Ohio also sit atop the Marcellus and Utica Shale gas and oil deposits, which contain the energy equivalent of billions of barrels of oil. (The Plain Dealer, Nov. 18) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Ohio, energy companies have already distributed $1 billion to landowners to sign lease deals for future wells. Some of these earlier lease agreements paid landowners as little as $25 per acre. Now property owners are being offered signing bonuses of up to $5,100 per acre, even though few shale wells have actually been drilled in the state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chesapeake Energy, forced to suspend its Pennsylvania drilling operations after a well blowout in April 2011, applied for 99 shale drilling permits in Ohio with lease rights to more than 1.5 million Ohio acres. Total S.A., a multinational company operating in 130 countries, just bought a 25 percent share of Chesapeake’s Ohio operations for more than $2 billion. ExxonMobil, Chevron and Hess are expected to begin filing for permits in 2012. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Campaign contributions pay off</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the last three years, campaign contributions from natural gas companies have more than tripled, especially in the wake of the January 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision giving corporations the same rights as individuals. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kasich came to office in 2010 thanks to heavy financial backing from the oil and gas industry. He received $213,519 in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests — the most of any politician in Ohio, according to Common Cause. It found Ohio’s fracking regulations to be among the weakest of any state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The report tracked $2.8 million in energy industry campaign contributions to Ohio politicians, including House Speaker John Boehner, who raised $186,900 from fracking interests. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Corbett, beat them both — taking in more than $1.6 million from the energy industry. It has shelled out $747 million in political contributions in the last 10 years, according to Common Cause. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake’s chief executive officer and one of Corbett’s earliest backers, contributed $450,000 to finance Corbett’s 2004 run for attorney general in Pennsylvania. McClendon has told shareholders that Ohio’s Utica Shale could be worth $15 billion to $20 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Corbett’s first political appointment after taking office in January 2011 was to name energy company executive, C. Alan Walker, to head the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, charged with overseeing “job creation” in the state. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Michael Krancer, Corbett’s appointee to head the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, issued an internal directive in October 2011 telling DEP field agents they could no longer issue a notice of violation related to Marcellus Shale drilling without first getting permission from a DEP deputy director in Harrisburg. Public protest quickly forced Krancer to rescind this memo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kasich appears to be reading from the same script. His appointee to head the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, responsible for regulating disposal wells, was David Mustine, a former executive at American Electric Power, who directed an oil and gas services business in Dubai. After less than a year on the job, Mustine left to become general manager of JobsOhio, the newly privatized department of development, where he will focus on developing oil and gas reserves in eastern Ohio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gas industry’s political “investment,” which has so far helped to avoid government regulation of fracking, will be even more critical in 2012 when the Environmental Protection Agency will publish new findings about the potential dangers of fracking.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Players in this industry have pumped cash into Congress in the same way they pump toxic chemicals into underground rock formations to free trapped gas,” said Common Cause president, Bob Edgar. “Thanks to the Supreme Court and its Citizens United decision, the natural gas industry will be free to spend whatever it likes next year to elect a Congress that will do its bidding. The industry’s political investments already have largely freed it from government oversight.” (“Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets in Congress & Ohio,” Nov. 10) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><hr style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" /><div style="text-align: justify;"> <i>Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.</i></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-28883847778477805092012-01-13T18:20:00.000-08:002012-01-14T10:08:05.801-08:00AN IRRESPONSIBLE INDUSTRY - SAME COMPANY, TALISMAN ENERGY, TWO SEPARATE INCIDENTS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span id="blurb_body">A man who worked at a Marcellus Shale gas well in Bradford County, PA, has been charged with dumping 800 gallons of hazardous materials from the drilling site. State police said 27-year-old Josh Foster of Temple, Ga., admits dumping the chemicals on state game lands in Warren Township. Troopers said Foster worked for a contractor sub-contracting to Talisman Energy at one of its drill sites near the dump location. </span></b></span></div><h6 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span id="blurb_body"> According to police documents, a Talisman superintendent reported someone intentionally dumped what looked like black sludge-like material. An internal investigation by Talisman led them to Foster. He is behind bars in Bradford County on $100,000 bail. </span><i> </i></b></span></h6><h6 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A pool of viscous black liquid was discovered Thursday on State Game Lands 219 in Warren Township, Bradford County. The substance waa found less than two miles from a Talisman Energy natural gas well pad</i></span></h6><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://cmsimg.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CB&Date=20111202&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=112020358&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Georgia-man-admits-dumping-drilling-sludge-Northern-Tier" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://cmsimg.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CB&Date=20111202&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=112020358&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Georgia-man-admits-dumping-drilling-sludge-Northern-Tier" width="400" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>....and this is the culprit; Josh Foster, 27, of Temple, Georgia, </i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.morning-times.com/sites/www.morning-times.com/files/images/2011-12-03/1p1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.morning-times.com/sites/www.morning-times.com/files/images/2011-12-03/1p1.jpg" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>There is definitely some fishy business going on here. The company that is removing waste is being <i>paid</i> to take it away and dispose of it (legally) BUT procedures are not being followed here and the waste ends up being dumped on gamelands 2 miles away, so someone is pocketing the money that should be used to dispose of this waste? Myles Lawrence, a Talisman Energy drilling superintendent, said that the substance, used in the gas drilling industry, is dangerous, according to the complaint, although the DEP is still trying to confirm what the substance is. </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ordinarily, it is supposed to be treated on-site, including by mixing it with dirt, and then taken to a landfill. The sludge was extracted from the Strope well site, but it was <i>not treated</i> before being dumped. </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20111202/NEWS01/112020358/Georgia-man-admits-dumping-drilling-sludge-Northern-Tier">LINK TO ARTICLE</a> </b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Then a little over a month later, on January 10th, we have</b></span></div><h1 style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.stargazette.com/article/20120110/NEWS01/201100344/Police-probe-hydraulic-fracturing-fluid-spill-Bradford-County?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE">Police probe hydraulic fracturing fluid spill in Bradford County</a></span></h1><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pennsylvania State Police, the state Department of Environmental Protection and Talisman Energy are investigating the Tuesday morning spill of up to 20,000 gallons of wastewater created by the hydraulic fracturing process at a natural gas well pad in Bradford County.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The actual volume of the spill at the well on Ayres Road in Canton Township was unknown Tuesday afternoon because the company had not yet finished measuring it, said Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman for Talisman Energy.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">State Police in Towanda are investigating the spill as criminal mischief. Someone intentionally tampered with a tank on the well pad between midnight and 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to cause the spill, according to a police report.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cox could not confirm the cause of the spill because it is still under investigation.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The spilled liquid is called production brine or "flow back water," Cox said, explaining that it's "the water that comes back after the hydraulic fracturing is complete."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"It flows to the surface after water and hydraulic fracturing fluid are injected into the well", she said.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.weny.com/News-Local.asp?ARTICLE3864=9163321"><b>LINK WITH VIDEO</b></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>It seems that this is not uncommon for this poorly-regulated industry in Pennsylvania, where shale drilling has been going on awhile, and where industry standards seem to have anything but Pennsylvanians and their environment's interests at heart. More later.... </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b></b></div>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-75460955515210671232012-01-13T11:12:00.000-08:002012-01-13T11:12:27.758-08:00STATE OF OHIO - 156 DRILLING PERMITS GRANTED IN 2011<span style="font-size: large;"><b>As these wells come online, get ready for a dramatic increase in quake activity, as well as increasing <a href="http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2011/11/a-chesapeake-bay-foundation-infrared-video-investigation-of-natural-gas-drilling-and-processing-sites-in-pennsylvania-maryla.html">air,</a> <a href="http://www.cbf.org/page.aspx?pid=2410">ground/surface water qualit</a>y issues; <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jwood/pennsylvania_farming_community.html">soil pollution</a> and of course,<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiLRJeE8h2w&feature=endscreen&NR=1"> gas well</a> and <a href="http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/215236/23/Morgan-County-1-hurt-in-pipeline-explosion">pipeline explosions</a>. </b></span><br />
<br />
<i>"Chesapeake Exploration LLC, a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., was the beneficiary of 111 of the 156 permits." This compares to only THREE permits issued in 2009 and 2010. </i><br />
<br />
Thu, January 12, 2012<br />
Staff report<br />
<br />
YOUNGSTOWN<br />
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued 156 permits in 2011 to drilling companies looking to capitalize on natural gas and oil in the Utica Shale.<br />
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The shale underlies portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.<br />
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ODNR issued 80 of those permits during the last three months of the year, including 32 in November.<br />
Ninety-two permits were horizontal permits.<br />
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By drilling horizontally, drilling companies can extract previously untapped sources of natural gas and oil from underground rock formations such as the Utica and Marcellus shales.<br />
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There are currently 26 horizontally drilled wells, according to department documents; 16 vertical, or test wells, have been drilled.<br />
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Carroll County received the most permits, 43, followed by Jefferson and Columbiana counties, which had 19 and 16, respectively.<br />
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ODNR issued at least one permit in 18 counties.<br />
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Chesapeake Exploration LLC, a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., was the beneficiary of 111 of the 156 permits.<br />
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ODNR had issued only three permits during 2009 and 2010, according to department documents.<br />
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ODNR has granted a drilling permit in Green Township in Mahoning County to Chesapeake Exploration.<br />
The permit location is on West Middletown Road between Salem-Warren and Youngstown-Salem roads.<br />
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ODNR issued a vertical-drilling permit, which means Chesapeake will need to acquire an additional horizontal permit if it wants to extract natural gas and oil from the Utica Shale.<br />
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It is the 14th-issued permit for Utica Shale drilling in Mahoning County. ODNR has issued both vertical and horizontal permits at six locations: four in Goshen Township, and one each in Milton and Ellsworth townships.<br />
Only the Milton well has been drilled, officials said.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/jan/12/-drilling-permits-granted-in-/">LINK TO ARTICLE</a></b>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384147341251835427.post-23930174355621741552012-01-12T11:38:00.000-08:002012-01-12T11:38:35.977-08:00HUMAN WASTE FROM SEWER PLANTS USED TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY AS WELL AS CLEAN-BURNING METHANE<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: small;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/MMqzX8RIEus?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Why are we fracking for natural gas - which is mainly methane - when we could be setting up biogas plants right alongside our sewage treatment facilities to produce the same thing and solve an enormous waste management problem, at the same time? </span></span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}">Who needs nuclear fuel rods to heat up water and spin turbines - and the specter of more Fukushimas - when we ALL create this cheap, abundant and sustain<span class="text_exposed_hide"></span><span class="text_exposed_show">able source of energy. To not make use of this vast resource is - utterly wasteful! Seriously, this Seattle, Washington operation is very impressive.</span></span></span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show">The technology was put into use in the UK back in 2006. Ludlow, my home town, operates the country's first biodigester that produces both electricity and a high quality soil enricher as a byproduct of food waste. </span></span>the plant is helping to keep 5,000 tonnes of food waste out of landfill every year. It also uses the methane gas created to generate over 1.5 million kWh of 'green' electricity.</span></b><b><span style="font-size: small;"> The site, run by Greenfinch Biogen is entirely self sufficient in power and even exports some of the electricity to the national grid. </span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show">In some parts of the UK anaerobic digesters are already being used to generate electricity from human refuse, but this summer British Gas in a partnership with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks will start piping biomethane from the sewage system - which is derived from fecal matter - right back into the homes of 130 customers in Didcot in Oxfordshire. The new gas will take 23 days to complete its waste treatment cycle and when it enters homes will smell just like natural gas. </span></span></span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show">I personally believe that power needs to be generated and used locally wherever possible. How about an anaerobic digester at every chicken and pig production plant, as well at every sewer plant in the US for starters? These could supply ALL of the heat and power needed by that plant with plenty of excess going back into the grid. Yes, I know that "BIG COAL" and "BIG GAS" hate the idea, but with 7 Billion people on the planet, we have to realise that fossil fuels are a finite resource.. but we will never stop pooping! </span></span></span></b></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
</span></span></span></h6>Caroline Snyderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16897279714432131361noreply@blogger.com0