Category Archives: Environment

Environment, Marcellus Shale

Fracking Earthquakes: Do We Really Need This?

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More Ohio Injection Wells Shut Down

Via Beaver County Times and Wire Reports

Jan 2, 2012 – YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Ohio officials have suspended operations at four more injection wells near Youngstown, amid concerns of a connection to a series of earthquakes there in 2011, according to the Associated Press.

On Friday, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced that Northstar Disposal Services LLC, which operates fluid injection wells used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling, agreed to stop using a well near Youngstown after a 2.4 magnitude earthquake occurred on Christmas Eve.

After a 4.0 magnitude quake shook the town and surrounding region Saturday afternoon — the 11th in the area in 2011 — the state halted operations at four other wells within a 5-mile radius.

Michael C. Hansen, network coordinator for the Ohio Earthquake Information Center near Columbus, told The Times last year’s quakes were uncharacteristic for northeastern Ohio.

"Youngstown is not an area that’s traditionally a center of seismic activity," Hansen said. "The data is indicating that an injection well very close by is what is causing these earthquakes."

Department officials this weekend said they believe there is a connection to the injection of wastewater near a fault line and the shutdown was necessary to allow time for further assessment.

Community, Environment, Green Energy

More Worries and Battles, Our Air as well as Our Water

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Three of Dirtiest Coal-Fired Plants

in Western Pa., one in Beaver County

By Don Hopey
Beaver County Blue via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dec 8, 2011 – Three of the 10 dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation are located in Western Pennsylvania, according to a new report that also ranks the state first overall in emissions of toxic air pollutants like arsenic, chromium, hydrochloric acid, lead and mercury.

The report was issued Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, and was based on the self-reported industry emissions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 Toxics Release Inventory.

The report ranked Genon’s Shawville Power Plant in Clearfield County third dirtiest in the nation, followed by EME’s Homer City Power Plant in Indiana County (seventh) and FirstEnergy’s Bruce Mansfield Power Plant in Beaver County (ninth).

States ranking behind Pennsylvania for worst overall power plant emissions are, in order, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Texas. Pennsylvania is downwind from all but Texas.

Pennsylvania leads the nation in emissions of lead and arsenic, and has increased its arsenic emissions over the last decade, from 15,861 pounds in 2001 to 17,666 pounds in 2010.

The EPA proposed the first national standards to control toxic pollution from power plants — mainly mercury, fine particles, heavy metals and acid gases — in March 2011 but delayed promulgating them in September. The EPA is poised to adopt them later this month.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11342/1195455-455.stm#ixzz1fwvaLPQg

Environment, Marcellus Shale

What Happens When You Have the Best State Officials Money Can Buy

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Marcellus Skeptics Form Own Shale Commission

By Anya Litvak

Pittsburgh Business Times

Aug 29, 2011 – Disappointed with the work of Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, a group of organizations that have aimed to temper natural gas development in the state, has formed its own panel: The Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission.

And they’re taking it on the road, with the first public hearing scheduled for Wednesday evening at South Fayette Middle School, which lies smack in the center a lawsuit filed by Range Resources (NYSE: RRC). Range is claiming the township effectively zoned natural gas drilling out of its borders.

The other four commission meetings scheduled to take place in the next three weeks will be in central and northeastern Pennsylvania, with a concluding report to follow in early October.

The commission is made up of:

  • Thomas Au, Conservation Chair, Pennsylvania Chapter, Sierra Club
  • Lynda Farrell, Pipeline Safety Coalition
  • Greg Grabowitz, Environmental Chair, Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited
  • Barb Jarmoska, Responsible Drilling Alliance
  • Anne Leisure, PA Providers Assocition
  • Rebecca McNichol, CLEAR Coalition
  • Roy Newsome Jr., Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania
  • James Schmid, Environmental Engineer
  • John Stolz, Duquesne University
  • Marybeth Sweeney/Roberta Winters: League of Women Voters
  • Ritchie Tabachnick, Equipment and Controls Africa
  • John Anthony Trallo, Residents United for Pennsylvania/Sullivan County Chapter
  • Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper
  • Ray Werts: President of the Western Clinton County Sportsman

Continue reading What Happens When You Have the Best State Officials Money Can Buy →

Environment, Marcellus Shale, Organizing

THE TRUE IMPACTS OF FRACKING TO OUR COMMUNITY

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A COMMUNITY PRESENTATION

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17TH at 7:00 PM

CHIPPEWA EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH

239 BRAUN ROAD, BEAVER FALLS, PA 15010


Carolyn Knapp and Carol French own working dairy farms in Bradford County, PA. Both have signed gas leases for their property and have experienced the impacts of heavy drilling activity in their community. They have devoted large amounts of time learning about the hydraulic fracturing process and the overall impact it has on the community. They will provide a perspective on fracking that is not being provided by the gas companies. Questions will be taken after their presentation.


Visit www.southbeaverfracking.com for more information or contact Rich Barger -  barger105@comcast.net



Chippewa Evangelical Free Church is not a sponsor and does not endorse the speakers for this event.  Chippewa Evangelical Free Church maintains neutrality on the issue of Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling.  CEFC is only providing a meeting place and is neither for nor against gas drilling.

budget crisis, Environment, Right Wing

Debt Hoax Swindles: Turn on the Lights, and Watch the Roaches Run

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Hidden In The Budget:

The End Of Almost Every

Major Environmental Regulation

By Ariel Schwartz

Today via Fast Company

walruses

Once the debt ceiling debate is settled, Congress is going to have to re-focus on the budget that almost shut down the government a few months ago. As part of that process, members of Congress have attached various provisions to the appropriations bills. One bill includes policy riders that deal with longstanding environmental rules–things like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. It’s called the 2012 Interior and Environmental Appropriations bill [1] and as currently written, it would scale back or reverse decades of environmental protections, including:

Removing Clean Air Act protections

One rider on the bill would nix the EPA’s funding to enforce the Clean Air Act’s upcoming Mercury and Air Toxics standards for power plants, which are intended to cut soot and smog pollution. The same rider would stop the EPA from enacting the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (aka the "good neighbor policy"), which limits power plant pollution that drifts into other states.

Most of the regulations being targeted are Clean Air Act rules put on the books in 1990 (signed by the first President Bush). "These are things people have been aware of for a long time," says Tony Kreindler, director of strategic communications at the Environmental Defense Fund. "Most companies out there that are affected have been preparing for a long time." But Kreindler explains that some companies–such as American Electric Power–have been bitterly fighting the rules, saying they haven’t had enough time to prepare, "while all along everyone else has known somehow that the day has been coming for 20 years."

If funding for the Mercury and Air Toxics rule is upheld, Kreindler estimates that it could prevent 17,000 premature deaths. Another 17,000 could be saved by the good neighbor policy. So if these policies are not upheld, well, do the math.

Continue reading Debt Hoax Swindles: Turn on the Lights, and Watch the Roaches Run →

2012 Election, Economy, Environment

Save Us from the ‘Business Guy’ Candidates

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Mitt Romney at Screen Machine in Ohio

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

Some things just drive you nuts.

Take Mitt Romney. Yesterday the GOP’s presidential wannabe toured Screen Machine, a factory in Pataskala, Ohio, just outside Columbus.  The plant make heavy construction equipment, rock crushers to be exact.

Romney and the owners, Doug and Steve Cohen, held a typical photo-op. Mitt took the occasion to blast both Obama and ‘government’ as ‘bad for business.’

Really? What did Mitt have in mind? A wimpy stimulus package? A failure to build more infrastructure? In that case, he might have a point.

Continue reading Save Us from the ‘Business Guy’ Candidates →

Environment, Marcellus Shale

The Marcellus Shale’s Bigger Picture

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Clean Water, Green Energy and the Big Blue Marble

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

A Reuter’s story this morning about the rising threat to the water supplies of 12 East Coast cities connected a few dots for me. The threat comes from burning carbon and climate change, which will raise sea levels and wreak havoc in numerous ways.

"Rising sea waters may threaten U.S. coastal cities later this century, while the Midwest and East Coast are at high risk for intense storms, and the West’s water supplies could be compromised, "the story led off. "These are among the expected water-related effects of climate change on 12 cities across the nation over the remainder of the century, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental group.

"A lot of people think of climate change in the global context, but they don’t think about the local impact climate change might have, particularly on water-related issues," said Steve Fleischli, a senior attorney with NRDC’s water program."

Perhaps it’s because my daughters and grandkids live in New York City that the story caught my eye. ‘We’ll have to make room for them here in Beaver County,’ up in the hills on the west slope of the Alleghenies, I first thought.

But what about the Marcellus shale fracking by the gas drillers? We might not have any decent water here, either.

Continue reading The Marcellus Shale’s Bigger Picture →

Environment, Marcellus Shale, Steelworkers

Is Wider Unity on the Shale Issue Possible?

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A Stronger Steelworkers’ Voice Is Needed

in the Marcellus Anti-Fracking Movement

A Stronger Steelworkers’ Voice Is Needed

in the Marcellus Shale Anti-Fracking Movement

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

There’s a specter haunting Western PA. It’s the prospect of a working class divided by a fear of water pollution destroying the property values of small homeowners on one side, and on the other side, by the promise of new wealth from the exploitation of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale deposits.

A similar fear divides West Virginians over ‘mountaintop removal’ mining. Little towns are split between those who want food on the table and those fearful of poisoning their children.

Steelworkers can certainly see the problem in our own terms. It takes a lot of steel pipe to drill down two to four miles, then drill out a horizontally for another mile in a dozen directions. The tube mills are getting the orders and steelworkers are back to work. On the other hand, steelworkers know the dangers of poisoning the ground and the rivers better than most.

Continue reading Is Wider Unity on the Shale Issue Possible? →

Community, Environment, Marcellus Shale

Protect Our Water! Marcellus Debate Bubbles to the Surface

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Raucous Crowd Meets on Shale Debate

Forces for and against drilling clash at session run by U.S. advisory board in Washington, Pa.

By Erich Schwartzel
Beaver County Blue via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 14, 2011 – Competing crowds tried to out-shout each other for more than four hours Monday night as Department of Energy representatives came to Washington & Jefferson College for help in forming a national plan for gas drilling, but instead sat quiet as a vicious neighbor-versus-neighbor ordeal played out in the auditorium before them.

The itinerary was simple, with speakers getting two minutes each to address the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board members charged with forming a policy on gas drilling regulations and the hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," extraction process that allows access to most of the gas. It quickly became a referendum on the industry that has infused money and controversy into the towns that lie on the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

It was an auditorium divided: In the span of 10 minutes, the panel members were called drug cartels by one speaker and patriotic heroes by another.

A soldier’s mother choked up when she talked of her son working toward energy independence in Iraq, while another called shale gas "the new asbestos." A West Virginia woman showed the respirator she makes her children wear because of bad air, while another speaker praised an industry that’s supported college scholarships. Recent college graduates extolled a business that gave them jobs in the middle of a recession, while one protestor behind the microphone mockingly waved a wad of cash above his head.

Continue reading Protect Our Water! Marcellus Debate Bubbles to the Surface →

Community, Environment

Why We Need Watchdogs on Politicians AND Regulators!

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Texas politicians knew agency hid the

amount of radiation in drinking water

By Mark Greenblatt
KHOU 11 News – Houston

May 19 – HOUSTON— Newly-released e-mails from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality show the agency’s top commissioners directed staff to continue lowering radiation test results, in defiance of federal EPA rules.

The e-mails and documents, released under order from the Texas Attorney General to KHOU-TV, also show the agency was attempting to help water systems get out of formally violating federal limits for radiation in drinking water. Without a formal violation, the water systems did not have to inform their residents of the increased health risk.

“It’s a conspiracy at the TCEQ of the highest order,” said Tom Smith, of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.  “The documents have indicted the management of this commission in a massive cover-up to convince people that our water is safe to drink when it’s not.”

Smith is talking about what happened to residents who live in communities served by utilities like Harris County Municipal Utility District 105.  For years, tests performed by the Texas Department of State Health Services showed the utility provided water that exceeded the EPA legal limit for exposure to alpha radiation.

However, the TCEQ would consistently subtract off each test’s margin of error from those results, making the actual testing results appear lower than they actually were.  In MUD 105’s case, the utility was able to avoid violations for nearly 20 years, thanks to the TCEQ subtractions.

Continue reading Why We Need Watchdogs on Politicians AND Regulators! →