From our friends over at the Sierra Club – please take a few minutes and make some phonecalls today for the cause!

Actually, with your help we won’t have to apply pressure endlessly to get the Marcellus gas bill we need – but we do need to apply it now!

The Select Committee working on the Marcellus bill has made some real progress. They have added several amendments to the bill that came out of the West Virginia Senate in March but didn’t pass the House because of time constraints. The bill is a good start, and the amendments are filling in critical elements.

We need to apply that seemingly “endless pressure” when the committee meets again this week. Why?

We need to thank the committee for the good work they have done so far. Specifically, we need to give them kudos for passing some very important amendments to the bill, amendments that fill in some of the critical protections missing in the bill. The committee members are human, too, and a little positive feedback can only help our cause.

There are still some very important amendments left that the committee needs to pass and add to the bill. We need to “endlessly apply” the pressure by strongly urging them to do that.

Read on for more details:

• What the amendments we still need are about.
• The dates when you should take action.
• Select Committee membership and phone numbers.
• Suggested “talking points” you can use, if you want, to frame your comment.

1. The amendments we still need.

Pending – Casing and Cement Requirements – Bolstering casing and cementing requirements. Groundwater is at risk when casing and cementing are not adequate or done properly, or when cementing is not allowed to cure properly. This is where we now see most of the risk to groundwater.    It should be required to monitor and control annulus pressure, permanently retain complete well cementing records, carefully define protected water supplies and create standardized investigation procedures.

Pending – Surface Owners Agreement – Protecting the landowner in case of damage from drilling operations.    Like the rest of the bill, applicability is limited to horizontal wells only.  Surface owners have been asking for similar requirements for ALL wells for more than 4 years.  And folks really need more time.  They only have 20 days to accept or reject the proposed surface use and compensation agreement and after 30 days if there is no agreement the driller can begin operations after posting a surety bond of $25,000.   60 days would be more reasonable.

Pending – Well Location Restrictions – Keeping wells and well pads a safe distance (1000 feet) from water wells, springs, homes, barns, etc. With current technology, operators can drill horizontally 12,000 feet (more than 2 miles), so there’s no reason they need to be closer than 1,000 feet from peoples’ homes. Even that may not be far enough away and the amendment allows the driller to get a variance.  A firm 1,000 feet would be more protective.  There is concern that DEP will just rubber stamp and go along with any excuse/reason the companies come up with for why they need a variance. If they can be closer there should at least be some other conditions/standards that the driller has to meet.  There is language in the proposed amendment that gives that discretion to the DEP, but it would be better to spell out what those conditions should be. For example, there are specific things they could do to mitigate noise from the sites, which is what most complaints are about.

Pending – Protection of Water Supplies – Well operator is responsible for the pollution of a water supply that is within 2,500 feet of a horizontal gas well. The draft of the amendment we saw included a six-month limitation on claims of contamination.  This is insufficient, to say the least.   When a contaminant plume enters an aquifer it may take years, or decades to pass by an individual well.

2. We are asking everyone to call ANY or ALL members of the Select Committee Today

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11. They will meet at 4PM Wednesday Oct. 12 and 10AM Thursday Oct. 13 in the Capitol in Charleston. Calling on Wednesday before their 4PM meeting will also be good. The committee members will be there, and their staffers, who can answer the phone and take your message.

3. Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale – members and their Capitol phone numbers

Senate Members

Senator Doug Facemire – Chair – (304) 357-7845

Senator Karen Facemyer – (304) 357-7855

Senator Orphy  Klempa – (304) 357-7918

Senator Corey Palumbo – (304) 357-7880

Senator Herb Snyder – (304) 357-7957

House Members

Delegate Tim Manchin – Chair – (304) 340-3166

Delegate Bill Anderson – (304) 340-3168

Delegate Thomas Campbell – (304) 340-3280

Delegate Barbara Fleischauer – (304) 340-3169

Delegate Woody Ireland – (304) 340-3195

4. Talking Points when you call the senators and delegates on the Select Committee. [names and phone numbers above]

• Be courteous and respectful. Remember you get more with honey than with vinegar.
• Be brief, and stay focused. Make your point, and don’t let the person you’re talking with change the subject. Stick to your intended message.
• Thank the senator or delegate for what the Select Committee has accomplished thus far. The Committee has passed 22 important amendments strengthening the bill. However, thank the Committee, not the individual – that senator or delegate may, or may not, have voted for the good amendments.
• Ask the Committee to “finish its work,” by passing the remaining pending amendments. See above for what those amendments are.
• Call as many Select Committee members as you can, please!

Once the Select Committee has finished its work, we will need to do more, when the bill and amendments have to go to the whole Legislature for its approval. We’ll need to renew the famous “endless pressure” again at that time.

Thank you so much for all you do for the West Virginia environment.

Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach@marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com

This fantastic article shares 11 corporate videos that utilize “greenwashing” (from Wikipedia, “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company’s policies or products are environmentally friendly“); The Huffington Post editors help set the record straight by offering commentary and counterpoints on each video.

Source : Huffington Post

Maintaining effective public relations and a positive image with the public are important parts of doing business. But for some companies, this task can prove quite difficult when their products and services clash with public and environmental safety.

For example, ExxonMobil claims environmental safety and low emissions in their ads for natural gas fracking and Canadian oil sands operations. Important figures have come out against both hydraulic fracturing and oil sands production as dangerous practices with lasting consequences.

Read more >>

Attached is a copy of the proposed emergency oil and gas rules.  The Advisory Board hearing is 1:30 September 22 at WVDEP in Kanawha City.  The DEP will have staff there to answer questions about the proposed rule, but the questions have to come from the Board. The public is entitled to attend. It is an open meeting.

Proposed emergency oil and gas rule : WVSOS-Notice-of-an-Emergency-Rule-082211

Kristin A. Boggs, Esquire General Counsel West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 601 57th Street Charleston, West Virginia  25304 (304) 926-0440 (304) 926-0447 (facsimile) (304) 941-8017 (cellular)

Hello Everyone,

Now that everyone is back from vacation, those of you who haven’t signed the BAN HYDRAULIC FRACTURING PETITION on change.org have a chance to click on the link below / or copy and paste it into your browser:

https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-hydraulic-fracturing

You can also send an email to your friends, community connections, family and like minded acquaintances. The email could read something like this:

Dear Friends, I just signed a very worthwhile petition to save our planet’s 1% fresh drinking water supply from being depleted by natural gas extraction using a technology known as hydraulic fracturing which requires phenomenal quantities of fresh water.

The water is pumped out of local rivers, streams and underground aquifers, then mixed with toxic chemicals and sent down the well under high pressure to fracture the shale rock and release the gas. Up to 80% of the water used is removed from the  “evaporation-precipitation” cycle that provides our planet with fresh water and will remain sequestered underground for generations to come – inaccessible to man and the eco-system upon which we depend for our survival. If you would like to save our planet’s finite supply of water and sign this petition, just click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your browser: https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-hydraulic-fracturing Thank you for letting our elected officials know what your priorities are!

Thank you for taking the opportunity to participate in the democratic process by making your voice be heard!

~Roseanna (Member of SWTO Steering Committee)

Harrisburg Rally. Photo by sixteen_tons.

 

We the undersigned unanimously agree that the Executive Order issued by acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is inadequate and leaves communities vulnerable, while continuing to let the gas industry run roughshod over West Virginia.

The Senate should not be using the Executive Order as an excuse for stalling.  Instead, the Senate should impose a moratorium on permits until a comprehensive bill becomes effective.

Many people, including Senate members of the Select Committee on Marcellus Shale, are under the illusion that the Executive Order and the resulting emergency rules are adequate enough to ensure safe, responsible development of the Marcellus Shale.

However, a number of important issues remain unaddressed.

• Nothing in the Executive Order addresses protection from air pollution, noise, truck traffic destroying roads, radiation, or the cumulative impact of multiple wells in a community.
• While the Executive Order does require public notice of well permits inside a municipality, it does not provide an opportunity for the public to comment on such permits and influence the permit conditions, nor does it require public notice and comment for well permits in rural areas.
• Surface owners remain at risk from unilateral decisions by the gas companies. There is no requirement for drillers to negotiate with surface owners on the location of well sites and access roads or that drillers accommodate surface owners’ concerns, plans for or uses of their property.

Other items missing from the Executive Order include:

• Protection for karst (limestone) areas.
• Protection for parks or other public lands.
• A TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) standard for water.
• Elimination of the industry-influenced Oil and Gas Inspectors Examining Board in favor of a civil service type of hiring procedure.
• Protective/adequate distances between large drill sites and homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive places.
• Expanded water well testing requirements.
• Improvements to bonding requirements.
• Disposal of toxic waste from well sites restricted to landfills designed to accept hazardous waste.

Additionally, regulations are only as good as their enforcement and with only 15 inspectors for 59,000 active gas wells, we remain concerned about the DEP’s ability to  adequately protect citizens and the environment from the threats Marcellus development poses to human health and our land, air and water. Unfortunately, the emergency rules filed as a result of the Executive Order will not raise permit fees and will not provide money for more inspectors to enforce even those emergency rules.

DEP has already permitted 1,602 Marcellus wells in West Virginia. Of those, 942 of those are completed and producing and the agency is on track to issue another 400 permits this year.

We believe it is irresponsible for the acting Governor and the Legislature to allow the DEP to continue to issue new permits without having a comprehensive regulatory structure in place and without having enough inspectors on staff to ensure adequate enforcement.  We appreciate that acting Governor Tomblin has recognized that there are problems, but the Executive Order does not go far enough.

It remains imperative for the Legislature to act.

Until that time there should be a moratorium on new permits.

In conclusion, acting Governor Tomblin’s Executive Order and the resulting emergency rules should not be construed as a solution to the many problems related to Marcellus Shale and other gas well drilling.

Far from it.

The Select Committee assigned to craft meaningful legislation, especially the Senators, need to step up to address these problems, and they must do so quickly — next year is unacceptable. Although the draft legislation the committee is using as a starting point is also deficient in terms of addressing several issues of concern, a number of strengthening amendments were offered and adopted when the committee met earlier this month.  We want to see the committee reconvene to continue its work and make the needed improvements to the bill.

Signatories:

Greenbrier River Watershed Association

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter

West Virginia Citizens Action Group

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization

SavetheWaterTable.org

Threats posed by gas drilling require comprehensive legislation

A coalition of environmental and public interest groups staged concurrent press events today in Morgantown and Charleston, West Virginia, demanding speedy action by the state’s Legislature in providing citizens with strong protection from the effects of shale gas drilling operations.

“The Select Committee appointed in June has failed to reach any agreement on the issues, and therefore no Special Session has been called,“ said Jim Sconyers of the WV Sierra Club. “Yet permits continue to be issued. Our air, land, and water need immediate protection.”

Participating organizations, including WV Citizen Action Group, WV Highlands Conservancy, Upper Mon River Association, and Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition are unanimous in agreement that the Governor’s Executive Order requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to promulgate emergency rules does not address a majority of the critical issues. Health concerns, trucks overturning on narrow roads, fears about the capacity of streams used for local water supplies, serious concern about declining property values, and landowners at the mercy of unilateral industry decisions are some of the urgent issues that must be addressed.

“The Legislature is the only body that can ensure the rights of surface owners, and authorize adequate funding for the DEP,” stated Julie Archer of WV Surface Owners Rights Organization. “We desperately need comprehensive regulations for this industry. Comprehensive regulations require enforcement if they are to be effective, and we don’t have enough inspectors to do the job.”

Candace Jordan of West Virginia for a Moratorium on Marcellus commented, “We are no closer to having adequate regulations for Marcellus shale gas drilling than we were last March at the end of the 2011 Session. If the Legislature is unable to agree upon and deliver broad regulation, DEP needs to stop issuing permits.”

The organizations called upon the members of the Select Committee and the Legislature as a whole to devote immediate time and energy to passing a comprehensive package of regulations that will protect the environment, people’s health, landowner rights, and property values, and ensure a strong DEP enforcement team.

Leslee McCarty of the WV Environmental Council noted the lack of activity by the Senate members of the Select Committee and the fact that more than one of them has connections with the gas industry.  “Senator Doug Facemire has been quoted as saying he has a business to run, and isn’t available to meet with the Select Committee. I hope his constituents will consider his behavior at election time.   For him to cite his own business needs and to neglect the business of the state on an issue of such tremendous importance to our citizens is inexcusable.”

“It’s very simple,” said Carol Warren of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “We want the Legislature to do its job and give West Virginians the protection they deserve. Our health, our homes, and our well-being should come first.”

For more information contact:

Julie Archer, WV Citizen Action Group, Charleston WV, 304-346-5891

Jim Sconyers, WV Sierra Club, Morgantown WV, 304-698-9628