CURRENT RESEARCH The oil and gas industry now enjoys numerous exemptions from provisions of federal laws intended to protect human health and the environment: http://www.nrdc.org/land/use/down/contents.asp August 10, 2008 Basin Commission presses gas driller. By Peter Becker, Wayne Independent Stone Energy Corporation, the company that has been drilling for natural gas in Clinton Township, Wayne County, is being pressed by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to comply with their regulations. Carol Collier, Executive Director of the DRBC, told the Upper Delaware Council (UDC), Thursday night, that it has informed Stone Energy that it will need to apply for and receive approval from the commission before it can extract natural gas in Wayne County. The company began drilling this Spring on the lands of Louis Matoushek near Creamton. As of the end of July, this is the only natural gas drilling that has begun in Wayne County despite many hundreds of applications to the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), according to the DEP. Collier said that a letter was sent by the DRBC to the company over a month ago and so far there has been no reply. A compliance letter was sent Wednesday. “There are fines running,” said Collier. The June 6th letter from Collier to Stone Energy stated in part, “We understand the project to include among other things water withdrawals, the addition of chemicals to the water, the injection of the water into the ground and the recovery, storage, reuse and/or disposal of the water.” The letter goes on to say that in accordance with the Delaware River Basin Compact and the DRBC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure, “a project sponsor may not commence any withdrawal of ground or surface water from the basin, drill any well, construct any impoundment or other associated appurtenances, discharge to the ground waters or surface waters of the basin or otherwise undertake the project until the sponsor has applied for and received approval from the commission.” The company also plans to drill in neighboring Mount Pleasant Township. DEP has advised the DRBC that it will be requiring all natural gas drillers to obtain DRBC or Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) approval as a condition of Pa. DEP-issued permits for projects in those two basins. In addition, drillers will be required to obtain DRBC or SRBC approvals prior to the initiation of any activities. She said that the DRBC requires review if as much as 100,000 gallons per day is withdrawn in a 30 day period. She added that the DRBC is not aiming to stop natural gas drilling, but rather “to do it as smart as we can so we don’t dry up our trout streams.” Collier suggested that perhaps certain areas should be restricted from drilling, due to sensitivity of environmental issues. UDC’s delegate from the Town of Hancock, Fred Peckham, replied that if access were restricted, perhaps the property owner should be compensated, whose right to extract minerals from the ground would be infringed. Collier stated she did not feel restricting access was in the purview of the DRBC, but was suggesting it should be considered. The Millennium Pipeline, which will carry natural gas, is currently being constructed through New York State’s Southern Tier and Upper Delaware region. Charles Wielamd, UDC’s Town of Tusten representative, asked if the DRBC could regulate any feeder pipeline from Wayne County drill sites, that might go underneath the Delaware River to access the Millennium Pipeline. Collier stated they wouldn’t have control over that unless it affected the flood plain. She said she understood the gas well in Wayne County had been drilled and is capped, without means at present to pipe the gas elsewhere, which might be extracted. Editorial: During a 5-year period in Colorado, the oil & gas industry reported 1,435 spills in excess of 5 barrels. The spilled products included crude oil, produced water, diesel fuel, glycol, lubricating oil, hydraulic fracturing fluids, drilling muds and natural gas leaks. 23% of these spills contaminated water sources. The New Mexico Oil Conservation Division has detected and documented 743 incidents of groundwater contamination from oil and gas facilities across the state. The nonprofit group Endocrine Disruption Exchange analyzed 171 products and 245 chemicals used in the gas drilling process in Colorado. They found 92% of the products had health effects covering a vast range of symptoms and disorders. Hydrogen sulfide, a deadly gas, is found at many gas sites throughout New Mexico. In the San Juan Basin alone, there are approximately 375 wells that contain hydrogen sulfide. Naturally occurring radioactive material can travel up a well hole with gas and its byproducts. Decontamination specialists have disposed of more than 378,696 barrels of this radioactive waste in Texas since 1996. On June 7, 2006, employees at Halliburton Energy Services in Farmington, New Mexico spilled 30 to 60 gallons from a 600 gallon tank of acid. This chemical was used for the hydraulic fracturing of gas wells. The spill sent a toxic cloud into the neighboring community resulting in a mass evacuation of 200 residents. There are a number of cases in the U.S. where hydraulic fracturing is the prime suspect in incidences of impaired or polluted drinking water. These cases have been reported in Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and other states. Residents have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations of gas wells near their homes. Laura Amos and her family lived in Garfield County, Colorado. In May 2001 while fracturing four wells on their neighbors' property, the gas well operator "blew up" their water well. Fracturing opened an hydrogeological connection between their water well and the gas well. "Immediately our water turned gray, had a horrible smell, and bubbled like 7-Up," she writes. "Tests of our water showed 14 milligrams per liter of methane. . . In the spring of 2003 I became very ill. I spent months in doctors' offices and hospitals. I was eventually diagnosed with . . . a very rare condition of a tumor in my adrenal gland." Although the gas company repeatedly denied it, evidence later surfaced that a fracking fluid, 2-BE had been used for the gas drilling. 2-BE can cause a long list of health problems including tumors of the adrenal gland. "After tons of problems, mistakes, spills and damages, they finally finished the well and pipeline yesterday," an Arkansas landowner, James Weaver, wrote. "My land is a mess. My artesian water well is contaminated. My ponds are still full of their chemicals. My creek is flowing with their chemicals from the west side to the east and down into the City Lake." Dr. Theo Colborn, the author of Our Stolen Future, describes the gas-drilling process as follows: Fracturing of wells is the practice in which millions of gallons of fluids are injected underground, creating a mini-earthquake that facilitates the release of natural gas. The gas industry claims that 70% of the material it injects underground is retrieved. While the fate of the remaining 30% is unknown, the recovered product is placed in holding pits on the surface and allowed to evaporate. This results in many highly toxic chemicals being released into the air, as well as being dispersed into local surface waters. The condensed residues remaining in the pits are taken off-site and dealt with in two ways: (1) They can be re-injected in the ground posing concerns for aquifers, or (2) they can be "land farmed" by which they are incorporated into the soil through tilling. Land farming can release toxic chemicals to the air via volatile substances and dusts, or result in accumulation of mixtures of toxic metals in the soil. If allowed here in Wayne County, this fracturing process would extend a mile or more below the earth's surface into the Marcellus Shale bed. This ancient rock formation extends across the entire length of PA to Wayne County and into Sullivan County as well. Similar beds of shale exist in Arkansas and in Texas where the same deep-bed fracturing process has been underway for many years. Many of these tales of environmental devastation, of few of which are related here, emanate from these communities where the same gas drilling procedures proposed for Wayne County has been taking place. If we think our government is going to protect us, it is unlikely to happen given the current state of government regulations which have been either gutted or rewritten to benefit the gas industry. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations who will live on this beautiful land and depend on its air and water, to protect against this harm that people have suffered elsewhere due to irresponsible, under-regulated gas drilling. Ron Hine Damascus, PA 23-MINUTE RADIO INTERVIEW: http://www.prx.org/pieces/20015 What are the health hazards of gas drilling? Dr. Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future discusses the health impacts to humans, wildlife and domestic animals in areas of gas drilling. She shares with your listeners the truth behind the industry claim that they only use sand, water and soap in the drilling process. She exposes the chemicals they actually use and the extreme heath dangers of these chemicals. Research has documented that 91% of these chemicals are hazardous to health as result of being skin and sensory organ toxicants, respiratory toxicants, gastrointestinal and liver toxicants, neurotoxicants, kidney toxicants, cardiovascular and blood toxicants, immunotoxicants, carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, wildlife toxicants, developmental toxicants and endocrine disruptors. Historically, these chemicals have not been properly handled, causing air and ground water pollution. As air and water are mobile - this affects us all!
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DCS • Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Inc. • P.O. Box 147 • Milanville, PA 18443