My Legislature is Also Against Me Now

SB 508 Takes Away Citizens’ Right to Sue Over Drilling Impacts

>>> Letter from the WV Surface Owners Rights Organization, February 7, 2016

Earlier this week, seven Senators introduced SB 508, which would take away citizens’ ability to bring “nuisance” suits against against oil and gas drillers. As we reported in our Summer 2015 newsletter, a number of these cases have been filed in Doddridge, Harrison, Marion, Pleasants, Ritchie and Kanawha Counties against companies drilling and operating wells to the Marcellus and other shale formations.

A “nuisance” case is somewhat different from a damage, “trespass,” or other case that would be brought by the owner of the surface where a well pad is located. A nuisance case is often brought by the owner of the surface that adjoins or is near a tract where a well pad is located. These suits by neighboring surface owners are usually brought because of the noise, dust or other air pollution, truck traffic, etc. related to the drilling, which has interfered with the neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their land.

SB 508 undermines the law hundreds of West Virginians have used to file suit against the oil and gas companies whose activities have negatively affected their quality and way of life, making it virtually impossible for other affected residents to bring similar suits in the future. Bringing this type of legal action is the only recourse many people have. We can’t let the Legislature take this right away.

Please contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and your Senators and tell them to oppose SB 508 and preserve our right to bring nuisance suits.

Need some inspiration? Here’s a letter one SORO member sent to her legislators:

It is clear some of the state legislators want to reduce the cost of extraction by transferring damage done by gas drillers and strip miners to the rural folks living in and near these sacrifice zones. Not everyone has that option, or the desire, ability and funds to move to an unaffected area. Can you imagine working your entire life, settling down in your home to finally retire, only to have drillers show up and build a well pad next door?

Residents of our state deserve protection from outside multimillion dollar corporations. What SB 508 does is to revise the definition of a nuisance suit almost out of existence. This bill favors corporations over middle class and poor West Virginia citizens. Please vote NO on SB 508.

Nancy B., Upshur Co.

Thank you for taking action!

Selected Frack Chemicals -- Wilma Subra

Two more lawsuits filed against Antero for fracking damages

From an Article by Kyla Asbury, WV Record, January 27, 2016

Charleston, WV — Two more lawsuits have been filed against Antero Resources Corporation for damages due to the company’s fracking practices.

Antero Resources Appalachian Corporation and Hall Drilling LLC were also named as defendants in the suits.

Slathial A. Simmons, Tracie D. Simmons and E.T.S., a minor; and Kenna Sue Adams filed motions to join already filed cases to an existing mass litigation, according to two complaints filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

James C. Peterson and Aaron L. Harrah of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; and Anthony J. Majestro and J.C. Powell of Powell & Majestro moved that the civil actions join in to the existing Marcellus Shale litigation currently pending in Ohio Circuit Court.

In support of the motion, the plaintiffs state that these firms already represented more than 200 plaintiffs in similar actions and the allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaints of nuisance and negligence are similar to those already alleged, according to the motions.

The plaintiffs claims are similar to previously filed lawsuits, which claim that the plaintiffs own property in close proximity to numerous well pads owned, operated, drilled, maintained and otherwise controlled by the defendants.

The defendants’ activities and instrumentalities frequently produce spills, emissions and discharges of hazardous gases and materials, chemicals and other industrial/hazardous wastes, according to previous suits.

The plaintiffs claim the defendants have frequently, repeatedly and substantially interfered with their use and enjoyment of their property.

The defendants have also repeatedly concealed the dangerous nature of their natural gas activities and the impact these activities have on nearby landowners and the environment, according to previous suits.

The cases are assigned to Circuit Judges Tod J. Kaufman and James C. Stucky.

Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers: 15-C-1993, 15-C-1994

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Fracking’s road to ruin, in Butler County, PA, and elsewhere

Letter to Editor, Butler PA Eagle Online, January 23, 2016

In light of all the negative effects of the oil and gas industry lately, from earthquakes in the Midwest where the waste fluid is disposed of, to the massive methane leak in California, and contaminated drinking water, how can the evidence be ignored? This should be front page news every day.

All of these events are the product of the deceptive practices of the oil and gas industry.

They are exempt from some sections of environmental and conservation acts which means we have less protection. This has allowed this industry to prey on the ignorance of the American people.

So why does the Butler Eagle print editorials supporting the industry? Recent editorials on the topic suggest an extraction tax is a bad idea and that fracking is the answer to our energy independence, and has influenced the events in the Middle East.

A recent editorial speculated that half of the Marcellus Shale gas producers will go bankrupt. What they will leave behind in the wake of this boom is an environmental catastrophe. We will be the ones living in it.

No amount of money, regulations or government agency will be able to fix what we have allowed them to do. Our reliance on gas fracking is keeping us from moving to renewable energy sources.

>>> Laurel Colonello, Middlesex Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania

See also:  www.Marcellus-Shale.us

Auto Driver Killed w/ Truck Collision

Tyler Co. Woman Dies in Crash with Oversize Load Truck on WV Route 2

From an Article by Miles Layton, Tyler (County) Star News, January 6, 2016

The Tyler County Sheriff’s Department investigated a traffic fatality near Sistersville, WV on January 4th.

The sheriff’s department said vehicles driven by Nancy Lyle Dabbs of Friendly and Thomas Michael Nicholson II of French Creek collided at around 2 p.m. about a mile and half south of Sistersville. The sheriff’s department said Dabbs was pronounced dead at the scene. Nicholson was evaluated at the scene and released.

The sheriff’s department said weather conditions were a factor in the collision when Dabbs’ Chevrolet Cobalt crossed the center line and traveled into the northbound lane before colliding with Nicholson’s Mack Truck, which was owned by Deep Well Energy, LLC.

During the Tyler County Board of Education meeting Monday evening, Superintendent Robin Daquilante praised Dabbs’ work as a foster grandparent who volunteered her time at Sistersville Elementary School for several years. Foster grandparents assist children with activities at school such as reading and more.

Daquilante said when she was SES principal, she worked with Dabbs. She described as a “great, great lady.”

“I had the pleasure to work with her,” she said. “She was an asset to the school. She was very kind with the students and the staff alike. We will certainly miss her in Tyler County.”

Daquilante said counseling was available Tuesday for SES students.

The sheriff’s department was assisted by the Tyler County Medical Examiner and Tyler County’s Division of Highways’ office. Sistersville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was assisted by St. Marys Volunteer Fire Department while Paden City Volunteer Fire Company assisted with traffic control nearby the accident scene.

#   #   #   #   …  Latest Fracking News . . .

Large Fire Causes Significant Damage at Fracking Site in Oklahoma

A fire ripped through a fracking site near Chickasha near Oklahoma City, OK, on Wednesday afternoon, damaging oil rig equipment. The fire broke out around 4 p.m. at an oilfield equipment site owned by Continental Resources on Highway 39 between Chickasha and Blanchard, OK.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

WV Marcellus Drilling Operation

Fracking fluids contain many toxic chemicals – and that’s not the worst of it

From an Article by Lynne Peeples Environment and Public Health Reporter, The Huffington Post, January 6, 2015

Arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, lead and mercury are among more than 200 toxins found in fracking fluids and wastewater that may pose serious risks to reproductive and developmental health, according to a paper published on Wednesday (January 6, 2016).

And that list may just be just the tip of the iceberg, said Nicole Deziel, an environmental health expert at the Yale School of Public Health and senior author of the new study.

Many more chemicals known to be used in fracking could pose similar risks, yet remain unstudied, Deziel said. Other substances involved in oil and natural gas production remain undisclosed by fracking companies.

In their study, Deziel and her team investigated more than 1,000 chemicals used in and created by the controversial drilling process, which shoots a mix of pressurized water, sand and chemicals into shale rock to unlock hydrocarbon reserves. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used the same list in its assessment of the available science, which found no evidence that fracking has led to widespread, systemic contamination of drinking water.

For most of the chemicals, insufficient information thwarted the researchers’ efforts to determine potential toxicity.

“That’s not really surprising,” said Deziel. “There are thousands of chemicals in commerce that people are routinely exposed to and for which we have limited data.” (Hence, the major push to overhaul the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which environmentalists argue doesn’t give the EPA enough authority to study and regulate chemicals.)

Of the 240 chemicals for which the Yale team did have adequate data, they found that 157 were associated with some kind of reproductive or developmental problem, such as adverse birth outcomes, derailed brain development or infertility.

And, of course, these health concerns come in addition to worries over air pollution, noise, greenhouse gas emissions and even earthquakes, which have also been linked to fracking.

The fracking industry was quick to note that the study doesn’t prove a link to any such health risks.

“The real question is whether people are actually being exposed to those chemicals at concentrations that would be harmful. There is nothing in this study that suggests that is occurring,” Steve Everley, senior adviser for Energy in Depth, the oil and gas industry’s education and public outreach arm, told HuffPost in an email.

It’s a point that Deziel acknowledged, while again lamenting the significant gaps in understanding the science of fracking and its potential consequences. Some previous research does, however, suggest that even tiny doses of chemicals released during phases of oil and natural gas production could pose serious health risks – especially to developing fetuses, babies and young children.

Andrea Gore, an expert in hormone disruption at The University of Texas at Austin, co-authored a scientific statement in September that underscored that point. Combine these chemicals — just as fracking fluid and wastewater naturally does — and the risks may become more unpredictable and worrisome, according to the statement from the Endocrine Society, a professional medical organization.

Gore praised the new paper. “This was a good first step to identify some chemicals that give cause for concern, and to draw attention to the lack of knowledge about hundreds of chemicals getting into the environment, and from there, into our water sources,” said Gore, who was not involved in the study.

Zacariah Hildenbrand, a researcher with Inform Environmental, an environmental consulting group, co-authored a separate paper published this week that he said builds on findings from his group and others that fracking chemicals can make their way into the water. While simply living close to a gas or oil well doesn’t mean a person faces contamination, living in an area with a high density of wells could indeed raise that risk, he said.

“We found a number of things that shouldn’t be in the water,” said Hildrenbrand.

“This research needs to be done. In my opinion, it’s one of the most important issues in terms of climate science,” Hildrenbrand added. “We’re looking at shale energy as a kind of bridge towards more renewable sources, so it’s best for us to understand what the risks are.”

See also the short video in the Huff Post article here.

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W.Va. shale fields fertile ground for nuisance lawsuits

We have no rational energy policy

Local ethane headed to Europe  while local ethane cracker(s) sought

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, June 19, 2015

Wheeling, WV – As officials in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia hope to attract multibillion-dollar petrochemical projects with Marcellus and Utica shale ethane, European companies plan to sail much of the natural gas liquid across the Atlantic Ocean for cracking.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Natural Gas Weekly Update, Switzerland-based Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe is going to ship ethane drawn from the Marcellus and Utica formations to feed crackers in Scotland and Norway, likely before the end of this year.

The federal energy agency said the ethane destined for the Ineos sites would first flow from the local region across Pennsylvania via the Sunoco Mariner East 1 pipeline to the Marcus Hook Industrial Center, near Philadelphia. Ethane drawn from Range Resources’ operations is expected to fill a portion of the 70,000 barrel per day capacity of Mariner 1. Once reaching Marcus Hook, the ethane would be loaded onto ships destined for Europe.

“We need to take advantage of the significant shift in ethane availability triggered by the U.S. shale gas boom,” said Mark Garrett, CEO of Borealis, a petrochemical firm based in Vienna, Austria. “In an increasingly challenging environment in Europe, this is an exciting opportunity to increase the competitiveness of our integrated polyolefins business.”

Statements from both Borealis and Antero Resources show the firms reached an agreement to export 11,500 barrels of ethane daily drawn from Antero operations to fuel the Borealis cracker in Stenungsund, Sweden.

“The ethane contract with Antero Resources, in combination with the recently renewed North Sea-based ethane contract with Statoil, provides us with an ideal portfolio of sources balancing cost competitiveness and supply security,” Markku Korvenranta, executive vice president for base chemicals for Borealis, said.

Borealis said the Antero agreement takes effect upon the start-up of Mariner East 2. The U.S. EIA believes this larger capacity pipeline should be operational before the end of 2016.

The administration said total U.S. ethane production grew by an average of 212,000 barrels per day from 2010 to March of this year. Moreover, industry leaders believe ethane yields from just the Marcellus and Utica could reach 590,000 daily barrels by 2020, which is up from none at all in 2012.

As the Europeans determine how to use the U.S. ethane, public officials in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania continue hoping companies will make multibillion-dollar investments to crack the product locally. Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical and Tokyo’s Marubeni Corp. announced tentative plans to build a $5.7 billion petrochemical complex in the Dilles Bottom area of Belmont County; Royal Dutch Shell is still evaluating a final decision on whether to build an ethane cracker on the former Horsehead Corp. property near Monaca, Pa.; and West Virginia officials are still hopeful for the Odebrecht ASCENT Project, which would be built near Parkersburg.
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Shell buys more land at possible cracker site but still hasn’t decided whether to build

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, NPR StateImpact PA, June 18, 2015

Shell Chemical on Wednesday confirmed its purchase of the site of a former zinc smelter in Beaver County but said it still hasn’t decided whether to go ahead with construction of a major petrochemical complex that would include an ethane cracker. <This location is in the Ohio River valley northwest of Pittsburgh and a few miles from the northern panhandle of WV.>

Risks of Living Near Ground Zero

Public health advocates push for Marcellus Shale registry

From an Article by Marie Cusik, NPR State Impact (Pennsylvania), May 20, 2015

More than seven years into the drilling boom, health advocates continue to push the state to track drilling-related complaints.

Public health advocates continue to urge the state to do a better job of tracking health complaints related to natural gas development. The state Department of Health and Department of Environmental Protection are discussing ways to work together to better monitor Marcellus Shale related health issues. But so far, there’s no money for those efforts.

Governor Wolf has proposed $100,000 to the health department in his budget plan, but it’s not guaranteed to make it through the legislature. Acting DEP Secretary John Quigley says he takes the issue seriously. “If that doesn’t pass, we’ll have to look for Plan B. This is an issue that’s not going away,” he says. “There are questions. They need to be dealt with in a transparent way.”

Health advocates say $100,000 is not enough money to fund a health registry, but they’re encouraged the state is taking steps to investigate complaints.

Raina Rippel directs the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, which tracks drilling related complaints. She spoke to DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council Wednesday about the benefits of monitoring health issues. “We truly believe this is a timely, urgent issue,” says Rippel. “We want to see action on this as soon as possible. We understand the political machine is such that it could take some time to see this fully up and running.”

In 2012, when Pennsylvania updated its oil and gas law, $2 million was set aside for the health department to track the issue—but the funding was ultimately cut from the legislation.

As StateImpact Pennsylvania has previously reported, some people who live near gas infrastructure believe their ill health is linked to drilling, but doctors say they simply don’t have the data or research – from the state or other sources – to confirm that.

Over the past four years the PA state health department says it has received 86 complaints from people who believe their symptoms are associated with gas development.

See also: Southwestern Penna. Environmental Health Project

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See also the “List of the Harmed” being compiled by the Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water & Air. This list currently counts 16,220 individuals that have been harmed as of May 18, 2015. And, this list is incomplete, very much so!

health effects of toxics

Environmental hazards from fracking may extend well beyond drilling sites

From an Article by Jessica Cohen, The Utne Reader, Fall 2014

Pramilla Malick was reading in bed last summer when suddenly she had to struggle to breathe. Gasping, she went outside and then back inside, getting no relief from the country air around her home in Minisink, New York. Her symptoms began at a time when her children and some of their Minisink neighbors were also experiencing new ailments, such as nausea, nosebleeds, rashes, sore throats, asthma and dizziness. Their symptoms would erupt during or after an “odor event,” a period of malodorous emissions at the new Millennium Pipeline gas compressor station nearby that began functioning in June of 2013. Malick’s asthmatic symptoms, which she never had before, surface only on weekends in Minisink, she says; they live in New York City, 95 miles away, on weekdays.

The community’s ailments mirror those of the Parr family, living near Aruba Petroleum’s hydraulic fracturing (gas fracking) sites in Wise County, Texas. In April the family was awarded $2.95 million in a lawsuit alleging that environmental contamination from drilling sickened them and killed their pets and livestock, compelling them to leave their home. The maladies of Minisink residents suggest that environmental hazards from fracking may extend well beyond drilling sites.

Malick is a member of Minisink Residents for Environmental Preservation and Safety (MREPS), a group of 10 Minisink residents legally representing the community who fought construction of the compressor and our now pressing for monitoring. They presented their case against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Millennium Pipeline Company, LLC, at a District of Columbia Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals hearing in May.

In addition to explosivity issues, the group cites concern that emission levels acceptable in Millennium’s compressor station application to FERC bump up against the findings of Wilma Subra, an environmental consultant, whom Malick engaged in their efforts. Subra provides communities in the United States and beyond with technical evaluations of environmental issues and strategies for addressing them. She does contractual consulting for the Environmental Protection Agency and was a MacArthur “genius grant” recipient. She helped the Parrs in Texas identify the toxins that were sickening them and found similar toxins in compressor emissions.

Malick and some of her Minisink neighbors attended Subra’s presentation in December, where Subra explained the compressor’s environmental effects. She found that not only do compressor stations produce several tons of carcinogenic volatile organic compounds annually, they also emit chemicals from “fracked gas,” drawn from deep in the earth with hydraulic fracturing. Fracked gas chemicals differ from those of gas from conventional drilling.

So you think environmentalism has gone mainstream, what with Al Gore spreading the climate change gospel ….

“The Marcellus shale has large quantities of radioactive components such as Radium 226 and 228,” Subra explained in her PowerPoint presentation. “The radioactive components contaminate the natural gas stream and build up in the units of compressor facilities. Radium 226 is a bone seeker and causes bone and lung cancer.”

“This is not your grandfather’s gas,” says Malick. “We’re extremely concerned with radioactive particles. There is no explanation by industry or regulators as to how radon gas would or could be removed from the methane. In the absence of an explanation we must conclude that it will be emitted along with methane. The decay particles of radium include dangerous particles such as polonium, which decays into radioactive lead, and then permanently into just lead. So the concern is short-term exposure to highly radioactive particles, and then long-term exposure to and accumulation of lead particles.”

However, uncertainty about the contents of emissions persists. “The industry is largely self-regulated, and their air emissions are entirely self-reported,” says Malick. “No one monitors what is emitted.”

Also, she notes that air quality standards established by the EPA address annual average emissions rather than “episodic emissions,” brief concentrated bursts of emissions known to damage tissue. She points to a study in the March issue of Reviews of Environmental Health, by David Brown and his colleagues at the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project.

“Case study descriptions of acute onset of respiratory, neurologic, dermal, vascular, abdominal, and gastrointestinal sequelae near natural gas facilities contrast with a subset of emissions research, which suggests that there is limited risk posed by unconventional natural gas development,” the authors wrote.

Meanwhile, Subra finds that symptoms troubling Minisink residents are typical of what 90 percent of people living within two to three miles of gas compressor and also metering stations experience. But the 24-hour monitoring MREPS seeks costs $1 million annually. “New York State has done 24-hour monitoring after a cancer cluster develops,” says Malick. “That would be too late for us.”

Because gas facility regulation is federal, MREPS pursued support from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. They expressed concern but did nothing, says Malick.

“I think there’s a consensus to facilitate natural gas extraction for the international market,” she concluded. “We’re being sacrificed by them.”

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See also the book by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald, The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Gas Boom is Threatening our Families, Pets, and Food, Beacon Press, Boston, 2014

Leases are already being finalized!

WJU to Host Forum On Fracking Under Ohio River in WV

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, January 31, 2015

Wheeling, WV — Wheeling Jesuit University biology professor Ben Stout is eager to hear Gastar Exploration Senior Vice President Mike McCown explain how the driller can safely frack beneath the Ohio River to retrieve Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas.

Stout and McCown are slated to speak on the matter during a public forum at 1 p.m. February 7th inside the Recital Hall at the Center for Educational Technologies building.

Gastar is one of several companies making deals with the West Virginia Department of Commerce to extract oil and natural gas from state-owned minerals lying thousands of feet below the riverbed. Noble Energy recently bid to drill on 1,400 acres beneath the river, while Statoil is also making plans to bore under the river.

Combining the lease payments with the 20 percent worth of production royalties each company will render once gas starts flowing would give the state a steady stream of millions of dollars over several years.

“This is a great opportunity for us and for the state,” McCown said. “We are confident, with our track record for working in Marshall County, that we can do this. We have fracked close to 70 wells with no incidents.”

However, Stout said there is too much unknown about fracking to proceed with the plans. “I am not a big fan of fracking,” Stout said. “Bu air pollution and water disposal – those are the things that concern me more so than the river. To me, frack water being stored in old tanks along the river is more of a concern than putting a pipeline under the river.”

According to West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection records, Gastar had one violation for “pollution of waters of the state” on March 1, 2012, though it does not list additional details. The company resolved the situation by April 30, 2012, the DEP shows.

“I am willing to take Mike on his word about that,” Stout said. “The biggest thing we need is more dialogue between the industry and the community.” By comparison, DEP data show several other drillers with significantly more violations.

Beth Collins, director for the Appalachian Institute at WJU, said the forum will be a chance for the community to express concerns regarding fracking beneath the river, but also in general. “There are a lot of concerns about hydraulic fracking around the state of West Virginia. Our drinking water comes from that body of water, and I’m glad that Mike and Dr. Stout will be on hand to give clarity to these major concerns,” she said.

State legislators invited to attend include Sens. Ryan Ferns, R-Ohio, and Jack Yost D-Brooke, as well as Delegates Ryan Weld, R-Brooke; Erikka Storch, R-Ohio; Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio; Dave Evans, R-Marshall; and Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock.

McCown believes because the Marcellus Shale is more than one mile deep in Marshall County, the horizontal drilling bores will be so far beneath the surface that nothing Gastar is doing would impact the river. “What is on the surface has no bearing on the success of our operations,” he said. “You can drill under the city of Wheeling, for that matter, and not have any issues at all.”

>>>>>  Ohio River in Wetzel County, WV <<<<<

Hannibal Locks & New Martinsville Bridge

See the initial “prospectus” for bidding on leases for drilling and fracking under the Ohio River.  What about the possible earthquake damages to the locks & dams, to the bridge abutments, to the hydropower facilities, to the water quantity and quality?  Plenty of questions but no definitive answers.

Pipeline pressures up to about 1200 pounds per square inch are common

How Oil & Gas Industry Could Cut Methane Pollution in Half

From an Article by Cole Mellino, EcoWatch.com, November 20, 2014

Leading environmental groups—Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, and Clean Air Task Force—released a summary report today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) laying out how the agency can cut methane pollution in half with low-cost technologies and practices. The report, Waste Not: Common Sense Measures to Reduce Methane Emissions from the Oil and Natural Gas Industry, shows how the U.S. EPA must meet its obligations under the Clean Air Act by requiring the oil and gas industries to halt methane emissions. The full report will be available later this fall.

One of the simple solutions highlighted in the report shows that “most of the industry’s methane pollution comes from leaks and intentional venting that can be identified and curbed with existing, low-cost technology and better maintenance practices.” Mark Brownstein, associate vice president for U.S. Climate and Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, agrees. “Methane leaks are simply a waste of a valuable national energy resource. The good news is that there are simple technologies and practices that the oil industry can use to substantially reduce this waste, creating new opportunities for American companies and new jobs for American workers.”

The big takeaway from this report is that these standards would cut up to 10 times more methane and up to four times more smog-forming pollutants than other proposals because these standards would apply to oil and gas infrastructure across the country, not just to equipment located in certain areas.

Why care about methane when there is so much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere? Because “methane warms the climate at least 80 times more than an equal amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period … its impact on the climate [is] huge. About 25 percent of the warming we are experiencing today is attributable to methane emissions. Taking steps to address methane, in addition to carbon pollution, is critical to combating climate change,” said Earthjusticeattorney Tim Ballo.

Deb Nardone, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Natural Gas campaign, believes the best thing for the climate would be to keep all dirty fossil fuels in the ground because “fracking threatens to transform our most beautiful wild places, our communities and our backyards into dirty fuel industrial sites, so in the short term the EPA must work quickly to control methane from existing fracking operations, close the exemptions that allow the oil and gas industries to benefit at the cost of our health, prevent future leasing of our public lands and advance truly clean energy like wind, solar and energy efficiency.”

NOTE: A Marcellus gas well flare has been burning for about a week near Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania.  It lights up the night sky. But, flares do not achieve complete combustion of the natural gases so there is air pollution in addition to the carbon dioxide produced. This is in Greene County, just north of the Mason Dixon Line, between Morgantown, WV and Waynesburg, PA off I-79.  P.S. Another big problem is the diesel emissions from all the trucks and heavy equipment, known to be extremely dangerous to the workers and residents near to drilling operations.  DGN

Morgantown Dominion Post

MORGANTOWN, WV. DOMINION POST NEWSPAPER, Tuesday 7 January 2014
 
EDITORIAL — Morgantown Dominion Post, January 7, 2014

Work in progress, not the last word — WV Legislature should revisit regulation of Marcellus shale drilling now, not later

For all their scientific bent, a series of legislative studies on horizontal gas well drilling are short of useful data. Couple that with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (WV-DEP) reluctance to recommend any action, and we haven’t even begun tapping into how best to regulate this industry.

Oh, there are regulations out there as a result of “modified” legislation that became law more than two years ago. However, this legislation’s shortcomings were apparent from the start. Many, including our newspaper, referred to it then as a work in progress. However, these studies’ shortcomings, the tabling of any proposed amendments and the WV-DEP’s inaction have kept this issue on the shelf.

Ask what’s next and many lawmakers, researchers and the WV-DEP tell us further study. Further study on: The safe disposal of radioactive gas well drill cuttings. Measuring noise, dust, light and volatile organic compounds emanating from these well pads. A workable and fair setback rule for surface owners.

But as most of these studies almost predictably conclude: “As evident by the many … studies under way, these initiatives will result in more complete information over time. Once available, this data will help advance and guide future rule development.” Or, as some researchers noted about their own studies’ limits, “A health effects-based setback distance proposal might require a study with a lengthy (three years or more) sampling effort” at more sites with more detailed analysis.

Anyone see a pattern here? In the meantime, the studies suggest current regulations will serve “to minimize and mitigate human health and environmental impacts.” That’s nice to know. But minimizing and mitigating health and environmental impacts doesn’t seem like quite enough if it’s your family living by a well pad.

Admittedly, the regulations signed into law at a special session of the Legislature on December 14, 2011 were a giant leap forward then. And the Marcellus industry itself is also still a work in progress. Yet, the current regulations heralded a beginning — not and end — to this issue. More definitive sampling and health-effects studies may be needed to address the long-term impact of these wells.

However, the continued intermittent exposure of households and communities to these well pads until such studies are “complete,” if ever, is risky business. Furthermore, we question whether the WV-DEP will ever even take up suggestions from these studies. The Legislature needs to revisit the regulation of shale drilling, especially setbacks and monitoring, this week. Not another two years from now.