Source : www.theintelligencer.net

Sheriff: Alien Labor Used Drilling contractors used illegal immigrant workers, Hoskins says

February 8, 2011 – By CASEY JUNKINS

NEW MARTINSVILLE – Studies show West Virginia’s natural gas drillers employed nearly 10,000 people in 2009. However, some of the workers may not have been legal residents of the United States.

“We have caught 13 undocumented workers in the last few years, several of whom were working for drilling contractors in the area,” said Wetzel County Sheriff James Hoskins.

On Friday, Hoskins testified before the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee regarding his experiences with Marcellus Shale natural gas drillers working in his county. The Legislature is considering some bills that would impose new regulations on the drillers and that could increase the cost for drilling permits.

Hoskins did not immediately recall which companies were employing the undocumented workers at the time of their arrests, but he emphasized though Wetzel County law enforcement has caught just 13, he is confident many more have so far evaded authorities.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency order against a Texas gas driller Tuesday, accusing the company of contaminating an aquifer and giving it 48 hours to provide clean drinking water to affected residents and begin taking steps to resolve the problem. See the rest of this entry »

Source : EPA.gov

As hydraulic fracturing expands across the U.S. to recover gas reserves in hard to reach rock formations, there is a growing concern about the health and environmental impacts of this practice. EPA is undertaking a scientific study at the request of Congress to investigate the impacts that hydraulic fracturing may have on drinking water. EPA will use a transparent, peer-reviewed process and independent sources of information. The results of the study will be announced in 2012 and will be used to inform the public of identified risks and to contribute to evaluating the need for legislative or regulatory reforms.

As part of the study’s information gathering process, EPA has issued voluntary requests for information to help the Agency examine the potential impacts that hydraulic fracturing may have on drinking water. This request will help both provide data where there is a lack of adequate information and contribute to resolving any scientific uncertainties surrounding hydraulic fracturing. The information requested in the voluntary letters includes the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid, data on the impacts of the chemicals on human health and the environment, and substances released from natural gas wells into the environment after hydraulic fracturing.

Go here to read the press release.

For information on hydraulic fracturing: http://www.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing

Source : EPA.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Aug. 20, 2010

WASHINGTON  – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting the public to comment on the agency’s draft strategy to protect and restore our nation’s lakes, streams and coastal waters. The strategy, “Coming Together for Clean Water: EPA’s Strategy for Achieving Clean Water,” is designed to chart EPA’s path in furthering EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s key priority of protecting America’s waters.

The strategy was developed by considering the input and ideas generated at the April “Coming Together for Clean Water” forum as well as comments received through the online discussion forum.  Participants shared their perspectives on how to advance the EPA’s clean water agenda focusing on the agency’s two priority areas: healthy watersheds and sustainable communities. EPA is now inviting the public to consider and provide their comments on the approaches outlined in the strategy.

Public comments on the draft strategy should be submitted by September 17. EPA will review all comments and post a final strategy later in the year.

More information on the draft strategy and to comment: http://blog.epa.gov/waterforum/

CONTACT: Jalil Isa | isa.jalil@epa.gov | 202.564.3226 | 202.564.4355

Source : EPA.gov

Location: Anderson Performing Arts Center at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y.

Date & Time: August 12, 2010 @ 8am; 1pm; 6pm

Description: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting four public information meetings on the proposed study of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and its potential impacts on drinking water. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that drills vertical and horizontal cracks underground that help withdraw gas or oil from coalbeds, shale and other geological formations. By pumping fracturing fluids (water and chemical additives) and sands into rock formations, fractures are created in the formation from which natural gas or oil can be more easily extracted. The meetings will provide public information about the proposed study scope and design. EPA will solicit public comments on the draft study plan. 3 sessions – 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Excerpts: In Texas, where drillers have sunk more than 13,000 wells into the Barnett Shale in the past decade, fear of the cancer-causing chemical benzene in the air above gas fields from processing plants and equipment has spurred tests by environmental regulators and criticism of the state’s safeguards. In Colorado, numerous residents contend gas drilling has spoiled their water wells.

The Marcellus Shale is 10 times the size of the Barnett, spanning 50,000 square miles, compared with the 5,000-square-mile Barnett. It is also three times thicker than the Barnett at up to 900 feet and is estimated to have a potential yield of 10 times as much gas (500 trillion cubic feet versus 50 trillion cubic feet).

Though the drilling rush into Pennsylvania is barely two years old, more than 3,500 permits have been issued and about 1,500 wells drilled, with thousands more expected. Environmental problems are already bubbling up: methane leaks contaminating private water wells, major spillage of diesel and fracking chemicals above ground, and fish kill in a creek.

A well blowout in north-central Pennsylvania last month spewed natural gas and toxic fracking water out of control for 16 hours. State regulators found EOG Resources of Houston had failed to install a proper blowout prevention system — taking cost shortcuts. The state fined EOG Resources, which was drilling the well as part of a joint venture it has with National Fuel, and a contractor more than $400,000. National Fuel was not involved in the drilling or operation of the well.

EPA summarized numerous reports of “water quality incidents” in residential wells, homes, or streams in Alabama, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming but said there was inconclusive evidence linking the incidents to fracking.

In the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Dimock, state regulators have repeatedly penalized Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for contaminating the drinking water wells of 14 homes with leaking methane and for numerous spills of diesel and chemical drilling additives, including one that contaminated a wetland and killed fish.

Even as Pennsylvania officials work to improve their regulation of drilling, the state’s environmental protection secretary does not want to cede authority.

“I’m not ready to turn Pennsylvania’s resources over to the federal government,” said John Hanger. “Right now, Pennsylvania has just about the very best drilling oversight in the country and we continue to keep working at it every day.”

The industry says it believes state oversight is sufficient and worries the new EPA study will lead to new and costly safety and environmental rules that would rob them of decades of profits.

In West Virginia, however, state officials concede they’re overwhelmed trying to regulate the Marcellus juggernaut that has added hundreds of Marcellus wells to tens of thousands of traditional, shallow gas wells.

For the full article, go to the source here: http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article80981.ece

Source : Pittsburgh Business Times

Activists that wear anti-Marcellus fracing T-shirts have had dozens of opportunities to don their opposition at public hearings in Pittsburgh recently — a sign of the number of legislative issues confronting the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.

For those keeping tabs, initiatives that may affect Marcellus Shale development have been debated in Pittsburgh City Council, Allegheny County Council, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Congress and a smattering of municipal boards in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The hearings to discuss these have followed a similar pattern.

Industry advocates say natural gas extraction creates jobs and produces a clean-burning fuel and that the hydraulic fracturing process, which injects a high-pressure stream of water, sand and chemicals to break up the rock and release the gas, has never been proven to contaminate water supplies.

Opponents — some are landowners with gas leases, others are fearful of planned drilling activity around them — list well-publicized incidents of dirty-looking well water, farm animals falling sick and human skin lesions documented by residents with drilling nearby.

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