Tag Archives: natural gas drilling

New Proposal on Fracking Gives Ground to Industry

1 Reply

Article in the NY Times.  New proposed bill requires O&G companies to disclose the chemicals they use in fracking.  GREAT.  Oh wait.  They don’t have to disclose them until after they have completed the drilling.  Hmmm.  That seems to defeat the purpose.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday issued a proposed rule governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on public lands that will for the first time require disclosure of the chemicals used in the process.

But in a significant concession to the oil industry, companies will have to reveal the composition of fluids only after they have completed drilling — a sharp change from the government’s original proposal, which would have required disclosure of the chemicals 30 days before a well could be started.

Read more at the NY Times >>

Advice to Track Drilling’s Effects on Water

Leave a reply

Source : WHSV

WV Professor Offers Advice to Track Drilling’s Effects on Water

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP)
A professor and a team of students at Wheeling Jesuit University have advice for West Virginians worried that natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale field could hurt their water supplies.

A professor and a team of students at Wheeling Jesuit University have advice for West Virginians worried that natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale field could hurt their water supplies.

Biology professor Ben Stout tells West Virginia Public Broadcasting that people should test their water daily with a conductivity pen they can buy online for $80 to $150. It measures the ability of dissolved materials to conduct electricity.

A kit from a federally certified lab can create a baseline for water quality by identifying those materials. He says people then must keep detailed records about conductivity, color, taste and odor.

Companies are rushing to tap the deposits underlying West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

Meanwhile, legislators are struggling with how to regulate the water-intensive hydraulic fracturing technologies the wells require.

Envirnonmental concerns about “fracking” Hydraulic Fracture Natural Gas Drilling

1 Reply

Quoting from the Register Herald Article…

Environmental concerns related to fracking include concerns about groundwater quality, surface contamination and possible induced seismic activity. Further, the long-term effects of fracking have not been fully studied.

Natural fractures occurring in the shale are typically vertical. By drilling horizontally, the wells are more likely to intersect natural fracture patterns to take advantage of fracture networks in the shale, increasing the volume of gas extracted from a single site.

Families Say Fracking Killed Their Water Wells

Leave a reply

Source : WHYY

Thirteen families in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania have sued a Houston-based natural gas driller, claiming their wells were contaminated with fracking fluids. Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method used to extract natural gas from the deeply buried gas reserve known as the Marcellus Shale.

Susquehanna County borders New York state in northern Pennsylvania, where drilling for natural gas has hit like a gold rush. After the Houston based Southwestern Energy Company drilled a well in Lenox Township, nearby residents complained of dark sediment in their well water, and clogged wells. Then they say they began to suffer from stomach complaints, seizures and broken bones that did not heal. The state department of Environmental Protection tested their water and found high levels of strontium, barium and manganese. They were told not to drink it. This week 13 families sued.

Read more >>

DEP to Propose New Water Standards on Dissolved Solids

Leave a reply

Source : Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia regulators plan to propose a new water quality standard aimed at least in part at protecting state rivers and streams from pollution created by large-scale natural gas drilling.

State Department of Environmental Protection officials unveiled their proposal during a meeting Wednesday in Charleston, and plan to issue it formally for public comment early next month.

The DEP proposal would set a legal limit for “total dissolved solids,” or TDS, of 500 milligrams per liter. It would apply in-stream to waterways statewide, making it more stringent than the existing standard in Pennsylvania, which applies a 500-milligram-per-liter standard only at the intake pipes for public drinking water systems.

“This is proactive to keep West Virginia waters suitable for consumption by our citizens and use by our industries,” said Pat Campbell, an assistant director in the DEP Division of Water and Waste Management.

DEP officials have been considering the proposal for more than a year already. Their studies were prompted by TDS problems that brought complaints about unpleasant odors and tastes in drinking water drawn from the Monongahela River in the fall of 2008. Then last fall, a massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border was blamed at least in part on TDS pollution.

Read more >>

Is WV Ready for Wave of Marcellus Drilling?

Leave a reply

Source : Public News Service

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – According to national and state observers, West Virginia is not ready to deal with the effects of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Nationally, there has been a 40 percent increase in gas drilling in the last six years, a large part of it in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio.

Documentary director Josh Fox is bringing his film, “Gasland,” to Buckhannon this weekend. While making it, he researched the wave of new drilling in many states.

“Every place I went was the same story: water contamination and citizens outraged, feeling that they were being overrun because they lost control of their property, feeling that they’d lost control of their lives.”

Read more>>


Gas Drillers : New Road-Repair Rules Too Expensive

1 Reply

Source : Register Herald

MORGANTOWN (AP) — Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox wants natural gas drilling companies to anticipate and pay for the wear and tear they’re causing West Virginia’s country roads, many of which have “more or less evolved from a mere wagon trail.”

But at least one industry official complains the new rules — issued in an Aug. 4 memo and reaching gas companies this week — are vague, unreasonable and potentially too expensive for some to bear.

“These go well above and beyond what is necessary to safeguard roadways in the state, and we are assessing our response,” said Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia.

Gas companies have no choice but to rely on rural roads as they rush to tap the rich Marcellus shale reserves. But residents are frustrated by both the volume of traffic and damage, Mattox wrote, and so are county road crews whose budgets are geared toward regular maintenance, not major repairs and construction.

Read more >>

EPA Hearing on Gas Drilling Draws Big Crowd

Leave a reply

Source : Almanac.net

By Amy Philips Haller for the Almanac : writer@thealmanac.net

It was standing room only at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Cecil Township as citizens voiced their opinions about the hydraulic fracturing process used by the natural-gas drilling industry.

About 1,400 people attended the July 22 meeting to hear more about the process used by gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale, which covers Southwestern Pennsylvania and extends from West Virginia as far as New York.

The EPA was mandated by Congress this year to study hydraulic fracturing. Meetings were held in Texas, Colorado and Cecil Township. The one at the Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe was the third hearing with the final one to be held Aug. 12 in Binghamton, N.Y. The study is expected to be completed by late 2012.

After EPA panel members explained the details behind the study, the public was given a chance to testify. More than 130 people were registered to speak. Each person had two minutes to make their statement. Police officers were on hand if there was an unruly conduct.

Wearing a numbered wrist band, one by one citizens took the microphone.

Robert Donnan of Peters Township, who noted he was a Vietnam veteran, started with a question: ‘Is Pennsylvania worth fighting for? For 235 years my family always said, ‘yes.’”

Concerned about the Marcellus Shale drilling, he continued: “Battle lines are drawn. This fight is for our lives and for our children.”

He mentioned Agent Orange. “My comrades were ignored when they got sick. 20 years after our war, the National Academy of Science finally did a health study. My comrades were right, many were dead right….” The room filled with applause when he finished, “They are poisoning the state we love.”

One person after another expressed concerns for drinking water. Some claimed their wells were poisoned with fracking chemicals. One woman, West Virginia resident Marilyn Hunter, stated, “We are running out of time. An economic war is being waged against the US. Our rights are being violated by these fracking corporations. Canonsburg is a historic site for nuclear contamination. Let us make this meeting a historic victory for human rights. We are fighting for our lives.”

Read more >>

Natural Gas Drilling Tip Line

Leave a reply

Source : EPA

EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region has a natural gas drilling tip line for reporting dumping and other illegal or suspicious hauling and/or disposal activities.

Tip line number (toll free) :
877.919.4372 (877.919.4EPA)

Tip email address :
eyesondrilling@epa.gov

Tip mailing address :
EPA Region 3
1650 Arch Street (3CEOO)
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029