FIRST TORT RULING IN A MARCELLUS GAS DAMAGE CASE — by Joel R. Burcat, Esq., Saul Ewing LLP, Harrisburg

Posted by George on 03 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Environmental, General, Oil and Gas

Background

In Fiorentino v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., No. 09-CV-2284, 2010 WL 4595524 (M.D. Pa., Nov. 15, 2010), the United States District Court addressed a variety of issues in the first ruling to arise from a tort claim for personal injuries and property damage from Marcellus Shale Gas drilling. This case arises out of the allegations in Dimock, Pennsylvania that drilling for Marcellus Shale gas by the defendant, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., caused property damage and personal injuries to residents.

As has been highlighted both in a documentary movie and on 60 Minutes, drinking water supplies have been alleged to contain methane, natural gas and other toxins and allegedly have been released onto plaintiff’s land. Plaintiffs brought suit seeking an injunction prohibiting future natural gas operations, seeking compensatory and punitive damages, the cost of future health monitoring, attorneys’ fees and other unspecified relief.
The plaintiffs’ complaint alleged the following claims against the defendant: 1) Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, 35 P.S. §§ 6020.101 et seq. (“HSCA”); 2) negligence; 3) private nuisance; 4) strict liability; 5) breach of contract; 6) fraudulent misrepresentation; 7) medical monitoring trust funds; and 8) gross negligence.
The defendant filed a motion to dismiss the claims brought pursuant to HSCA, strict liability, medical monitoring and gross negligence. The defendant also filed a motion to strike a number of allegations largely related to the claims they were seeking to dismiss, as well as negligence per se and attorneys’ fees. The ruling by Judge John E. Jones, related only to the motion to dismiss these claims and the motion to strike. For the most part, in his ruling, the Judge sided with the plaintiffs.
Issues

Whether the court should dismiss claims against a natural gas drilling company relating to HSCA, strict liability, medical monitoring and gross negligence.
Whether the court should strike allegations relating to punitive damages, negligence per se and attorneys’ fees.

Continue reading District Court Dismisses Cabot Oil Motion against Claims for Damages in Dimock, PA →

Pa. allows dumping of tainted waters from gas boom

By: DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press

Monday January 3, 2011 10:34 PM

Published by The Beaver County Times

The natural gas boom gripping parts of the U.S. has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

Not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush.

There, the liquid that gushes from gas wells is only partially treated for substances that could be environmentally harmful, then dumped into rivers and streams from which communities get their drinking water.

In the two years since the frenzy of activity began in the vast underground rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale, Pennsylvania has been the only state allowing waterways to serve as the primary disposal place for the huge amounts of wastewater produced by a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

State regulators, initially caught flat-footed, tightened the rules this year for any new water treatment plants, but allowed any existing operations to continue discharging water into rivers.

At least 3.6 million barrels of the waste were sent to treatment plants that empty into rivers during the 12 months ending June 30, according to state records. That is enough to cover a square mile with more than 8 1/2 inches of brine.

Researchers are still trying to figure out whether Pennsylvania’s river discharges, at their current levels, are dangerous to humans or wildlife. Several studies are under way, some under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Continue reading Fracking Brine Is Being Dumped into Beaver River →

Drilling can dig into land value

09:25 AM CDT on Saturday, September 18, 2010

DECATUR — One year to the day after a company set up its drilling rigs on their land in eastern Wise County, Tim and Christine Ruggiero confirmed the depth of their loss.

Originally on the 2010 tax rolls for $257,330, their home and 10-acre horse property are now worth $75,240.

“It’s the biggest cut I’ve ever seen,” said Bob Boughton, board chairman, at the conclusion of a nearly two-hour hearing Thursday afternoon.

It took the couple about 30 minutes to present all the significant events — from the day crews moved in without proper agreements to the recent installation of a “thermal oxidizer,” which continuously burns emissions — leading up to their 10-year-old daughter’s health problems.

The couple’s daughter has been having breathing difficulties for several months. After her latest trip to the emergency room, she was diagnosed with asthma, the couple testified. A neighbor’s child also had recently been diagnosed with asthma.

Some board members said they would neither be able to sell the property, nor even consider listing the property, after hearing the couple’s disclosures, including the fact that they had filed a lawsuit against the company for damages.

Continue reading Drilling can dig into land value →

Time to Audit the Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit Trusts

By L. Randall Wray

Midland Hexavalent Chromium Contamination Spreads. Hydraulic Fracture Giant Still Prime Suspect.

Imagine waking up one morning and having no safe water at all. In a recent radio program about Peak Water, Maude Barlow said: The day will come–mark my words–when every single thing we do will be measured against what it does to water. For people in Midland, Texas, that day is here.

Hexavalent Chromium contamination is spreading in the groundwater used by some Midland, Texas residents and environmental investigators say the mounting evidence points to the oil and gas industry. Affected residents say they have proof that hydraulic fracture giant Schlumberger is responsible.

Erin Brockovich was in Midland investigating and her team is still in Midland. (video)

“The only difference between here and Hinkley,” Brockovich said, “is that I saw higher levels here than I saw in Hinkley.”

In 2005, at the urging of Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, Congress exempt hydraulic fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This exemption is commonly known as the Halliburton Loophole because Halliburton earns about 1.5 billion annually from hydraulic fracturing. The exemption allows hydraulic fracture giants like Halliburton and Schlumberger, to keep the chemicals they use secret.

Hydraulic fracturing is a process where 1 to 5 million gallons of potable water, mixed with chemicals and sand are pumped under pressure down the drilling hole to release the gas trapped deep in the earth. According to Victor Carrillo, Railroad Commission of Texas, 90% of all U.S. oil and gas wells undergo hydraulic fracturing to stimulate the production of oil and gas.

Schlumberger denies responsibility and denies use of hexavalent chromium although it is commonly used in hydraulic fracturing compounds. 3M Oil and Gas even offers protective gear (page 5) to protect oil field workers from exposure to hexavalent chromium in hydraulic fracturing fluid.

Bob Bowcock, an environmental engineer investigating the Midland County contamination with Brockovich said, “The culprit is definitely oilfield activity.” In an earlier statement to Big 2 News in Midland, Bowcock said Brockovich investigators have “evidence” that Schlumberger is to blame.

Continue reading Shale Fracking Threatens Water Supply →

Washington December 16, 2010 —Today, U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Judy Chu (D-CA), along with Max Richtman, Executive Vice President of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, held a press conference during which they expressed concern over the Senate-passed tax cut deal’s impact on the bedrock of seniors’ retirement: Social Security.  During the press conference, Rep. Doggett announced his plan to present an amendment to the Rules Committee to strike the payroll provision from the tax deal.
 
“Social Security’s dedicated funding base is jeopardized by this deal in an unprecedented way and there is a grave risk now that the retirement benefits of America’s workers will have to compete with our other priorities for a share of the general budget.  It would result in Social Security being as dependent on annual Congressional action as public television or our National parks,” said Rep. Doggett.

Continue reading Payroll Tax Holiday Bad Break for Families →

Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010 02:15 ET

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention

 

Reuters/Jonathon Burch/AP/Salon

http://www.bradleymanning.org/

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime.  Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months — and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait — under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.  Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning’s detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems.  He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a “Maximum Custody Detainee,” the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.  Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not “like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole,” but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado:  all without so much as having been convicted of anything.  And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig’s medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Continue reading Ask President Obama to Stop Torturing Whistleblower Bradley Manning →