Fracking waste disposal in Guernsey County, OH. (These activities are known risks of creating earthquakes.)

Environmental Essay by Lisa C. Lieb, Revelator Voices, March 27, 2023

Let’s Protect This Place: A region historically plagued by industrial pollution is overwhelmed with unconventional oil and gas development. The Allegheny Plateau is a lower-lying portion of the Appalachian Mountain Range that extends from southern and central New York to northern and western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.

Why it matters: The plateau consists of areas of gently sloping hills in the north and west of the region as well as rugged valleys in the south and east. It overlies the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale, sedimentary rock formations. The region is rich in natural resources, including hardwoods, iron ore, silica, coal, oil and natural gas.

The abundance of these resources supported development in the region and were integral to the local steel, glass, rail and extraction industries.

Prior to widespread logging between 1890 and 1920, the area hosted old-growth forests containing red spruce, eastern white pine, eastern hemlock, sugar maple, black oak, white oak, yellow birch and American beech.

But the forest’s makeup is now different, favoring oaks, maples, hickories, American beech and yellow birch. Though fragmented and much less mature than the old-growth forests, today’s forests continue to play a vital role in ecosystems, serving as habitats for the federally endangered Indiana bat as well as locally endangered or at-risk species such as little brown bats, northern flying squirrels and blackpoll warblers.

The region hosts the Ohio River watershed and confluence, the Allegheny National Forest in New York and Pennsylvania, and the Wayne National Forest in Ohio.

The threat: Unconventional oil and gas development has boomed in the region over the past decade. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Marcellus and Utica shale plays contain approximately 214 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, making the Allegheny Plateau a lucrative location for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

Already more than 13,000 unconventional wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania. Fracking itself is a resource intense process, requiring between 2 and 20 million gallons of water per well. A 2014 study estimated that in Pennsylvania, 80% of the water used for fracking comes from streams, rivers, and lakes, thus potentially altering water temperature and levels of dissolved oxygen. This water is combined with sand and a mixture of hazardous chemicals, which may include methanol, ethylene glycol and propargyl alcohol.

Between 20-25% of the water that is injected into the well returns to the surface. This flowback water often has higher salinity and has been known to contain barium, arsenic, benzene and radium. While recycling of flowback is becoming more common, other methods of disposal include underground injection, application to road surfaces, treatment at public waste facilities, and discharging it onto rivers, streams and lakes.

Near fracking sites in West Virginia, elevated levels of barium and strontium were found in feathers of Louisiana waterthrushes, native songbirds who make their home in brooks and wooded swamps. In northwestern Pennsylvania, crayfish and brook trout living in fracked streams were found to have increased levels of mercury. Fish diversity is also reduced in streams that have been fracked.

Fracking consumes land, too. Each fracking well requires 3-7 acres. In Pennsylvania over 700,000 acres of state forest land are leased or available for gas production. Well pads, pipelines and other fracking infrastructure fragment forests, alter their ecology, and reduce biodiversity. Appalachian azure butterflies and federally threatened northern wild monkshood — purple-flowering herbaceous perennials found in New York and Ohio — are both sensitive to forest fragmentation.

In addition to the direct impacts of fracking, the availability of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays attracts petrochemical development to the region. Shell Polymers Monaca initiated operations in November 2022 at a newly constructed 386-acre petrochemical complex in southwestern Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River.

The plant manufactures virgin polyethylene pellets, which will be largely be used for production of single-use plastic products. In addition to releasing hazardous air pollutants, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, this ethane “cracker” plant will emit 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The plant’s existence will also fuel fracking in the region; it is anticipated that it will require between 100 and 200 new wells each year in order to supply natural gas for its productions. Other petrochemical companies, including Exxon, PTT Global and Odebrecht, have reportedly been considering building similar complexes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

My place in this place: I was born and raised in the area, and my family’s roots in southwestern Pennsylvania go back several generations. Some of my most cherished memories involve Pennsylvania’s forests, rivers and streams. As a child I loved my family’s summer pilgrimages to our cabin, a rustic building that had been converted from a one-room schoolhouse in the Pennsylvania Wilds. At “camp” we fished for yellow perch, smallmouth bass and walleye in the Sinnemahoning Creek and caught crayfish by hand. We sunned ourselves on the rocks along the river bank when the water was warm. In the evenings we walked on quiet, narrow roads in hopes of spotting an eastern elk in a grassy field.

I now live in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, one mile from the Shell cracker plant. I can observe the plant’s flaring from my kitchen window, which often creates an ominous orange glow in the night sky. To me the plant doesn’t symbolize job creation or a rebounding local economy, despite the assertions of local and state politicians. I see the plant as the perpetuation of a hopeless dependence on fossil fuels and corporate profit at the expense of ecological integrity. I worry that fracking and an associated petrochemical buildout will destroy already fragile ecosystems throughout my home in the Allegheny Plateau.

Who’s protecting it now: There are a variety of environmental groups located in the region. No Petro PA is an organization that resists fracking and pipeline development in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. More locally the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community in western Pennsylvania opposes fracking and seeks to protect local community members from its harmful effects.

With the rise of the Shell cracker plant, the group also formed Eyes on Shell, a community organization that aims to hold Shell accountable for its activity and advocates for the surrounding communities’ health and safety. These are just three of the many grassroots organizations working to protect the air, soil, water, wildlife and communities in the region.

The national organization, FracTracker, also provides extensive data on oil and natural gas wells, pipelines, legislation and environmental health.

What this place needs: Ideally Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will follow in the footsteps of New York and institute a ban on fracking in light of the environmental and health risks associated with unconventional gas and oil development. However, given their strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, it is unlikely that this will occur. Banning fracking on public land in the region, such as in state forests and county parks, in a practical first step in combatting forest fragmentation and pollution.

At a regional level, regulations should be put in place to protect the water quality of the Ohio River. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, a multistate organization working with the federal government, could ban fracking in the Ohio River Basin in order to protect the river and its watershed. The Delaware River Basin Commission has successfully prohibited fracking within the Delaware River Basin; the rules developed by the commission could be adapted for use by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission.

Additional government oversight would help to protect water quality in the region. Presently fracking is exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act and therefore isn’t regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ending this exemption could increase water quality and safety within the Allegheny Plateau.

Increased transparency from oil and gas companies is also required to protect the region’s water. As of July 2022, California is the only state in the country that requires full public disclosure of all chemicals used in fracking. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio must implement policies that require full public disclosure of chemicals used in all phases of the fracking process.

Some 5,000-plus diesel truck trips for each horizontal well

From an Article by Kristina Marusic, Environmental Health News, June 5, 2020

Scientists say spikes in particulate matter pollution near wells are cutting lives short. Particulate matter pollution emitted by Pennsylvania’s fracking wells killed about 20 people between 2010 and 2017, according to a soon-to-be-published study.

Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. Between 2010 and 2017, there were 20,677 permitted fracking wells in the state, about half of which had been drilled. Fracking, another name for hydraulic fracturing, is a process of extracting oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure.

One of fracking’s byproducts is particulate matter pollution, also referred to as PM 2.5, which consists of tiny, airborne particles of chemicals that, when inhaled, make their way into the lungs and bloodstream, increasing cancer risk and causing heart and respiratory problems. Exposure to PM 2.5 kills an estimated 20,000 Americans each year.

Previous studies have found that heavily-fracked communities face higher rates of numerous health effects including preterm births, high-risk pregnancies, asthma, and cardiovascular disease—but this is the first to investigate the direct relationship between the local increase in PM 2.5 caused by fracking and deaths from respiratory and heart issues that can be attributed to that increase.

“Our study is not only looking at negative health outcomes, but investigating how fracking actually caused these deaths through increased air pollution,” Ruohao Zhang, a researcher at Binghamton University who specializes in environmental economics and the study’s lead author, told EHN.

Zhang and a team of four other researchers used satellite data from NASA to calculate daily PM 2.5 emissions from all fracking wells in the state over the seven-year period between 2010 and 2017. To determine how many people died as a result of exposure to those emissions, they used county-level mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paired with established methods for calculating how many of the deaths seen in Pennsylvania during that time period were caused by increases in PM 2.5 exposure.

“The levels of increased PM 2.5 concentrations that came from fracking wells in the state are associated with about 20 additional deaths during that time period,” Zhang said. These are deaths that presumably would not have occurred in the absence of air pollution from fracking. The estimated economic loss caused by these additional deaths is around $148 million, according to the study.

Washington County was the most heavily affected county in the state, with an additional 4.26 deaths caused by PM 2.5 emissions caused by fracking between 2010 and 2017.

“When we accounted for airborne spillover of pollution from multiple wells in the same area we found that, overall, fracking made the particulate matter pollution of a three-kilometer area around each well [roughly 1.8 miles] higher by between 1.27 percent and 5.67 percent,” Zhang said, explaining that the high end of that spectrum usually reflected a higher density of wells in the area.

While the increase in PM 2.5 was highest closest to the fracking wells, Zhang noted that increased levels of the pollutant were also detectable at least as far as 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) downwind of emission sources.

The study also found that without accounting for “spillover,” each individual well caused an increase in PM 2.5 in the surrounding three-kilometer area of between 1.35 percent and 2.19 percent. The higher end of that spectrum generally represents wells in the active drilling phase, while the lower end generally reflects the pollution caused by wells that are already up and running, or in the “production” phase.

The NASA satellite data the researchers used became available about two years ago. Without it, Zhang said, it would have been impossible to calculate the specific air pollution increase caused by fracking in the state due to a lack of continuous, on-the-ground air monitoring systems.

“In the U.S., air quality regulations are highly dependent on ground-based monitors, which only cover a small portion of the whole country,” Zhang said, noting that this is especially true in rural areas that tend to be home to lots of fracking. Even in places that are covered by ground monitors, he added, monitoring is rarely continuous—they often only take samples every six, eight, or 16 days.

“There are huge monitoring and data gaps there, allowing for what’s referred to as ‘unwatched pollution,’” Zhang said. “But this satellite data allows us to continuously monitor air quality everywhere.”

The NASA satellite data itself doesn’t directly relay air pollution data. Researchers like Zhang look at the degree to which aerosols in the air prevent the transmission of light to determine concentrations of PM 2.5. While this method has previously been used to estimate PM 2.5 levels across the globe or over specific countries or continents, Zhang said, it’s most accurate when used to calculate air pollution in a smaller area, such as a single state.

Based on their findings, Zhang said he would encourage local and state elected officials to regulate the shale gas industry to reduce PM 2.5 emissions and protect the health of residents. In the meantime, he said, people living near fracking wells who are concerned for their health can minimize the impacts of PM 2.5 exposure by keeping their windows closed and not exercising outdoors in close proximity to operational wells.

“I would also tell residents in Pennsylvania that if they learn they have shale gas under their property, they should be aware that their decision about whether or not to lease their land for drilling may impact not only their own health, but the health of their neighbors as well,” he added.

Zhang also pointed out that while their study focused on deaths caused by PM 2.5 pollution from fracking, the extraction also generates many other kinds of pollution—such as volatile organic compounds and radioactive waste—that can endanger the health of residents and should be accounted for.

“We think it’s important to know how every kind of pollutant caused by fracking impacts human health,” he said. “We hope that future studies will help us more fully understand the impacts of fracking on local communities.”

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See also: Fracking Fumes: Air Pollution from Hydraulic Fracturing Threatens Public Health & Communities, NRDC Issue Brief IP-14-10A, Dec. 2014

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See also: On Health Effects, Blame the Trucks, Not the Fracking? – The Allegheny Front, Reid Frazier, June 16, 2017

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See also: CMU Study Shows Natural Gas In The Region Has Brought Economic Benefits, But Also Premature Deaths, Julie Grant, Allegheny Front (90.5 WESA), Dec. 12, 2019

Repaving Sellers Road near Middlebourne in Tyler County, WV

From an Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post, December 13, 2019

MORGANTOWN — It’s early November and a mini-parade of heavy equipment is churning up Sellers Road in Tyler County. The nearly 6.25-mile stretch running along Middle Island Creek near Middlebourne was widened and received a rebuilt base, new pavement, culverts and improved drainage, costing $7 million. “Basically we’re building a whole new road,” said Shawn Bennett, road and special projects construction manager for Antero.

After the New Year, the road will host a full-size parade of oil and gas traffic to serve two Antero well pads: Roma Lou and Eldon.

The visit was the conclusion of a day viewing Antero road projects in Doddridge and Tyler counties. Asked if he had a message for West Virginia residents, Bennett said, “If they would go around and look at any place that we’ve been, and have a little patience, we will always leave it better than what we found it.”

Anyone who has driven West Virginia’s shale country has seen the beat-up roads. And, anyone who’s spent a day at the Capitol has heard complaints about the wear and tear.

Among our first stories on the fracking industry were visits in 2011 to Brock Ridge and Proctor Creek roads in the hills of Wetzel County. Proctor Creek was potholed and rutted while kidney-jarring Brock Ridge had no asphalt left (we’ll mention them again later).

But a hallway conversation with leaders of the Independent Oil and Gas Association–West Virginia during the 2019 legislative session led to this story: a new tour of shale roads to see what gas companies are doing these days to try to keep roads in shape.

Riding along with Bennett that November day was Anne Blankenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, and two staffers with Charles Ryan Associates, which represents IOGA and WVONGA and helped set up the tour and field written questions.

Bennett also drove us along the Oxford Road Upgrade, between Sunnyside and Taylor Drain roads in Doddridge County. This was a five-mile, $3.2 million combined effort between Antero and EQT. With Antero taking on 55% of the cost, EQT the rest.

This is a busy area – 18 sites for Antero alone, and this particular stretch had numerous road base failures, Bennett said. The Antero/EQT contractor milled off 3 inches of the failing road and put down 7 new inches of asphalt. “It made for a nice project out here.”

The state agreed to take care of culverts and ditching, but on the day of the ride was running behind and had completed only half the ditching, he said. The poor draining also explain why the repair job was showing some signs of edge collapse at a few points along the way.

To determine what needs to be done to a stretch of road, Bennett said, Antero takes into account the number of well pads and the expected amount of traffic in the area. It does advance work, maintains it during the project, and completes any after-project repairs. Antero is responsible for the road until it’s released from its state Division of Highways bond.

Here’s what Antero has spent each year in upgrades, snow plowing, maintenance and flagging since 2015: 2015, $22,395,974; 2016, $21,389,936; 2017, $32,548,633; 2018, $30,794,236; 2019, $39,926,604.

Antero will generally present a proposal to the DOH for it to sign off on the engineering plans, he said. The state doesn’t always need to give its OK. But “we generally like to keep them as informed as we can and make sure that thy’re OK with what we plan to do.”

For any project, routine maintenance falls to the DOH, who will do ditching during the bond period, unless the state agrees otherwise, as with the Oxford project.

Often, several companies may be operating the same area, all contributing to road wear, Bennett said. “That’s probably the biggest challenge we run into, is figuring out who’s responsible for what. There’s so many operators active on any given road.”

Some are mom and pops. “Usually the Anteros and the EQTs are the ones that end up footing the bill for the most part. It’s just hard to pinpoint.”

A frequent complaint voiced back in 2011, and after, could be summed up as “bad-neighbor policy.” Producers didn’t pay attention to local school and work schedules and jammed them at crucial times, hogged the roads and forced residents into ditches or onto shoulders, and more.

While Antero doesn’t have formal community meetings, Bennett said, it takes school bus and commuting schedules into account. Residents in tri-county area – Doddridge-Ritchie-Tyler – have the Antero number and can call with complaints and concerns. “Our public relations department has helped out tremendously with public relations and with our relationship with the state.”

Antero employees have GPS trackers in the vehicles and Antero encourages its contractors to do the same, to keep drivers accountable for their driving.

One homeowner on the driving route had giant anti-EQT signs posted in the yard. Because of publication deadline, EQT was unable to meet for an interview but supplied a brief statement:

“Because EQT values all of the communities where we operate, we know how important it is to manage any potential impacts to the roads in these areas. Our approach is to work with counties and municipalities in advance to proactively upgrade roads and ensure that they are suitable.

“In many cases, the roads we upgrade are improved compared to their condition before we started work. We don’t have many ongoing projects in West Virginia at the moment, but we will continue this proactive approach with any new operations. Our acreage and the communities where we operate in West Virginia are very important to EQT.”

Natural gas flares from Marcellus shale wells in Tioga County, Penna.

From an Article by Sarah Boden, WESA Public Radio, Pittsburgh, August 2, 2019

A new study finds that pregnant women living near hydraulic fracking activity in Pennsylvania are more likely to develop depression and anxiety.

“These are vulnerable women who are growing another human being inside of them,” said Joan A. Casey, the study’s lead author and an environmental health scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Casey and her colleagues conducted the study with 7,715 research volunteers; all were expectant mothers within the Geisinger Health System, which serves much of central Pennsylvania.

“Basically … if we took 100 women and we expose them to the higher levels of fracking activity during pregnancy, four of them would develop anxiety or depression that otherwise would not have developed it,” she said.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America said in an e-mail that it takes issue with the fact the study didn’t look at environmental data.

“While these epidemiological studies claim to find possible connections based on limited data sets and assumptions, the reality here in Pennsylvania is that study after study of actual air and water sampling near these sites continue to show that shale development is being done in a way that’s protective of public health,” wrote spokesperson Nicole Jacobs.

Casey pointed out that increased traffic connected to fracking can degrade local air quality, while increasing sound pollution and other commotion in a community.

Part of the reason these mothers experienced adverse mental health issues, she said, could be due to concerns around environmental impacts, paired with a lack of control surrounding the changes.

“Mothers have reported feeling like they can’t keep their children safe,” she said. “We can’t say we’re 100 percent sure that these women are developing anxiety or depression during pregnancy as a result of living near unconventional natural gas development in the Marcellus shale, but I don’t have another explanation for what we’re observing here.”

Casey said her team controlled for a variety of factors including age, race, whether a volunteer smoked and socioeconomic status. Even after taking these factors into account, women that were living closer to a greater number of fracking wells appeared to be at an elevated risk for developing anxiety and depression.

While the study found that a woman’s depression or anxiety issues did not lead her to giving birth prematurely or having a baby with low birth weight, Casey said a mother’s mental health still affects her child.

“There is quite a bit of evidence that women who have anxiety or depression during pregnancy are at an elevated risk of postpartum depression,” she said. “We’ve all seen the literature on how postpartum depression is can be very serious and can affect both the mother the husband or father of the child as well as the child’s development.”

The Department of Health and Human Services says pediatric developmental issues related to maternal post-partum can include speech delays, behavioral and social problems, problems with mother-child bonding, shorter height, risk of obesity, and a child feeling agitated or crying more.

The study was published in the journal “Environmental Research.”

Fracking industry trucks in Wetzel County, WV. (Bill Hughes)

From an Article by Barbara Harbac, Wetzel Chronicle, October 25, 2017

Members of the Wetzel County Oil and Gas Task Force came together Friday, Oct. 20 at the Mollohan Center. Members and community residents addressed issues concerning increased traffic caused by an increase in industry activities. Ray Renaud, from the Wetzel County Office of Emergency Management (WCOEM), informed the task force that there had been a significant decrease in the number of accidents related to gas and oil traffic in the last three years. He credits the reduction in accidents to Southwestern Energy Company’s (SWN) procedures regarding pilot truck drivers.

Renaud pointed out, “Southwestern has a policy they escort every truck with an escort pilot vehicle and we have problems with that, the way it’s escorted but it made a remarkable difference in the number of accidents we face.”

This decrease in accidents led the committee to believe that any oil and gas company truck that can’t maintain its lane, due to sharp turns or narrow roads, should be accompanied by an escort truck.

Renaud stated that the task force’s Road Safety Committee wanted to develop a uniform set of best practices for trucks traveling on Wetzel County roads. He informed the committee that he was meeting with the Commissioner of Highways on Monday to present the framework for having these best practices adopted.

Resident Dian Wilson is an emergency responder, but noted she was not speaking on behalf of her department. Wilson questioned why trucks are traveling so close to their escort vehicles. She stated that, even when she was stopped on the road in her emergency vehicle, some trucks nearly hit her. Wilson suggested that if the pilot cars were further ahead of the trucks, they could warn the drivers of oncoming traffic.

Others were also concerned. Bill Hughes spoke to the committee about the oil and gas traffic on Doolin Run road. He remarked that EQT also had pilot trucks that were not far enough away from the trucks they were guiding, to make a difference. He stated that the companies did not coordinate or communicate with each other. Hughes cautioned, “Doolin is a dangerous road in daylight, good weather, in a small vehicle.”

He then presented pictures of trucks allegedly carrying hazardous materials, sitting in the ditches on Doolin Run road, as well as four truck long convoys passing each other. Hughes cautioned, “The more and more we see this, the more and more we know we’re on borrowed time.”

In other news, Brian Jones, transportation director for Wetzel County Schools, handed out a schedule of days school will be in session and educated the committee on how to be notified, via automated phone calls, of last minute changes due to inclement weather.

Jones went on to address the task force about an incident that happened on Co. Rd. 89, Proctor Run Rd. He explained that a school bus was unlawfully passed on the left-hand side while it was stopped on the road with its lights flashing. Jones presented pictures and videos to the committee, taken from the cameras installed on the bus. Although these pictures clearly displayed the truck involved in the incident, the license plate number was not captured from the video. It was noted that it was a Ford 350 with dual wheels and a generator or fuel tank on the back.

Jones emphasized, “This is a $60,000 or $70,000 truck. A typical land owner out 89… I don’t envision them driving this truck, typically.” He then urged, “This practice must stop. We can’t be in such a hurry that we place residents or pedestrians at risk.”

The operator driving the bus that day stated that he always pulls over to let traffic pass when there is a place to do so. He understands that people live out that road and are trying to get to work on time. Jones reminded, “We want to be a good neighbor; we want to be kind, and we want to be courteous.”

The next meeting of the Oil and Gas Task Force is scheduled for January 19 at 10 a.m.

The Wetzel County LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) also met at the Mollohan Center on October 20.

Ray Renaud updated the committee on WCOEM obtaining two radiation gauges used for contamination and survey, and two wearable devices that alert the user if they are in a radiation field.

Larry Couch, present on behalf of Blue Racer, reported that the plant now has two portable air monitors available to test for hazardous chemicals. He advised the committee that he could bring them the air filters in the event of an emergency. Couch stated that there was a table-top exercise in Marshall County that Blue Racer, Westlake, Covestro, Marshall County Emergency Management and Wetzel County Emergency Management participated in, that was intended to prepare the agencies for a chlorine leak.

Couch went on to state, “A lot of the public doesn’t understand everything industries have to do to protect their people and the public and I think all that came out, and I think that helped to open some eyes.”

Sapp inquired about a full-scale exercise on November 2. Couch explained that Westlake would be conducting that exercise, so he was not aware of all the details. He believes that there will be a mock casualty, and mock injuries during the exercise. It is expected that both Wetzel County Hospital and Reynolds Memorial Hospital will be participating in this exercise as well.

The next meeting of the L.E.P.C. is January 19, at 11 a.m.

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See also: Marcellus-Shale.us

Sent from my iPad

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Reasons why farmers and land owners hate fracking

Essay by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Placement of wells, access roads and pipelines destroys the surface value of the land. Well pads and roads are rocked to a depth that will support heavy trucks in any weather, often 18 inches. Drainage is changed, with new gullies formed, and silt produced and discharged into streams. “Reclamation” never restores a fully productive surface.

Pipelines from wells to connectors go up and down steep grades, many of them over 45 degrees. They are kept cleared for the length of the project with consequent loss of timber. They are a source of erosion, timber is lost, and timber along the right-of-way grows in to cover the vacated area, the so-called “edge effect.” This spoils the timber along the right of way. Value of half-grown timber is lost. When the project is “completed,” 70 years at the best are required to produce a merchantable crop.

These rights-of-way are attractive to trespassers, and interrupt habitat and animal migration patterns. There will be a gate on the property line or more access roads to get company line walkers from one farm to another,

Building sites are foreclosed. If the landowner wants to cross the pipeline with farm equipment, that is usually no problem. If he wants to sell timber or has other reasons heavy equipment must cross the pipeline, special precautions must be taken to prevent damage to the pipeline. If these precautions are not written into the contract, such activity is precluded. Smart landowners seek advice on this, but those who do not will not be able to use their land to its fullest potential.

Big diameter pipelines for transmission are a particular horror. They often go straight up and down hills, cutting very deep. Here in West Virginia, in many places that means cutting through solid stone. One can see both bulldozers and backhoes with special cutting blades that rotate using tungsten carbide cutting edges. And what is the back filling material? The same broken stones, since it the grade is too steep to move in material that will pack. The result is a subsurface stream along the pipeline, rock scratched protective coating on the outside of the big pipes, and plenty of oxygen and water to the steel underneath the coating to cause rusting.

Diversion ditches are intended to remove surface water over the pipes. There should be tight packing around the pipes below to prevent underground flow under the breakers. Another problem with breakers is exemplified by is a place a few miles from where a large-diameter pipeline where the line goes straight up a mountainside for half a mile, and all the diversion ditches on both sides go out the same distance. This dumps the water from the right-of-way into the same course, so that it simply builds up as it goes down the hillside, and will become massive gullies after heavy rainfall. In another, a culvert through a fill goes under the pipeline. It is a wooded watershed, so sticks will wash down and block the culvert, causing it to flow over the fill and wash down to the pipe, exposing it.

All of this is minutia for the planners, executives and politicians, but it is minutia on a grand scale. It is devastating to landowners who are denied production and lose the capital they had in the land. To add insult to injury, landowners must continue to pay the same, or even higher property taxes, if it is mistakenly determined by the assessor that there has been value-added to the land. The opposite is true, recognized by banks that often won’t loan on land within so many feet of an explosive hazard or frack site (industrial hazard), and insurance can raise the rates landowners pay, considering them to be in a commercial zone.

Apparently, the assumption by thw fracking business and its hangers-on is that the landowner loses nothing in the exchange, which is absolutely not true. The gas drilling company may pay a few dollars nominal compensation, but this is only a pittance compared to the costs to landowners, which are many, still downplayed by industry, and misunderstood by the general public.

Appalachia, and West Virginia in particular, is a source of water for much of the country, and our well water has historically been good up until recently, misplaced septic systems and water well drillers who stop too soon, not withstanding. With the takeover of the fracking industry, many who had good wells for decades have now lost their water completely or had it contaminated due to fracking. The new thing is to pipe city water to these locations, to somehow ameliorate the destruction of a vital resource, on which lives and property values depend. So one must pay a water bill, instead of a few more cents on their electric bill.

Air pollution is also a problem near fracked wells and pump stations. Methane is odorless, but here in central West Virginia older wells the gas is naturally odorized. That odor is familiar to anyone who goes out of doors because many older installations leak badly. Pipes, old wells, plugged wells all na befund to leak. It seams reasonable this will happen in time to newer installations, too.

The people who initiate and control destruction of these resources apparently have no understanding of the food situation, either:
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1. More than 50% of U.S. agricultural market value and 93% of U.S. farms – both conventional and organic – operate within shale basins and active shale plays;
2. Some 3,000 acres of productive farmland are lost each day;
3. In 2017, the U. S. used 46 million acres to grow wheat, and 40.3 was in lawns, about the area of Florida.

It is impossible to have organic farming where shale drilling has occurred. With the world population increasing so rapidly, we must address these problems immediately.

Unfortunately, most rural people are undereducated and inarticulate on these issues. They lack the ability to influence others, to understand well or explain the losses they must endure due to fracking. And most of them are involved in their own corner of the world, too busy making a living to see the big picture. Moreover, West Virginia has been in the grip of extraction for over 150 years. Most people believe there is no way to change things and so they do not write or call their senators. Many don’t talk to their neighbors about fracking, or even vote.

The Farm Bureau does a lot to help farmers with their small, close-up problems. However, the leadership consists of men with larger farms who come in dead tired at night and fall asleep watching Fox News. Many of them are attracted by the idea of giving up what they think will be a small part of their resources for a very large chunk of easy money now, not realizing or caring for the long-term consequences of making such a deal.

Rural people are engaged in a vital industry little understood by the public and by businessmen in other industries. Many rural people have little understanding of these problems themselves, simply following tradition. There is no inorganic food, all is by production of plants and animals, and this production cannot be easily increased by throwing more inorganic input and capital into the pot, the development pattern characteristic of many businesses.

With the population bomb going off, food production should be a major worry for planners and government. The normal business cycle, 5 to 7 years, passes by very quickly in the world where a new generation comes along every 20 to 25 years

Mark Ruffalo Speaks Out on Fracking

Action Needed to Stop SB 508: Bill Eliminates Laws That Ensure You Can Feel Safe and Enjoy Your Home

Last week we told you about SB 508, a bill that would take away citizens’ ability to bring “nuisance” suits against oil and gas drillers or others who engage in activities that harm their property values or interfere with the enjoyment and use of their property. If SB 508 passed, property owners would be left with no legal recourse to hold irresponsible drillers and frackers accountable for their actions.

On Friday, the bill was taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the committee meeting, members heard from Ritchie County landowner Jim Shreves about what it is like to live in an area of the state that is the heart of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Jim, who is one of the hundreds of West Virgina residents who have filed nuisance suits against the oil and gas drillers, told the committee, “I couldn’t give my property away.”

After some discussion, the bill was sent to a subcommittee for further consideration. The subcommittee which is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, will make recommendations to the full Judiciary Committee as to what should happen with the bill.

Please continue to call, email and use social media to oppose this bill. If you’ve been personally affected, please share your story. Your stories matter!!!

Things you can do:

1) Keep calling your legislators and urge them to vote no on SB508;
2) Cut and paste the link below to your friends and family and urge them to take action on this horrible piece of legislation;
3) Get on Facebook and like the posts opposing SB508 (see below);
4) If your affected, we may need you to come to Charleston on short notice. If this bill passes the Senate we will need people to come and testify before the House of Delegates.

Here is the link to the WV Association for Justice (WVAJ) Facebook page with information on SB 508. Like it!

WVAJ has also created a page to easily to contact your legislators again and urge them to vote NO on SB508.

Here is our WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization (WV SORO) action alert on SB 508.

Again, please, share these links with your friends, family, neighbors, and fellow West Virginians, and keep an eye out for more information on this bill later this week.

>>>Yours for Action, Team WV CAG

>>> West Virginia Citizen Action Group | 1500 Dixie Street |
Charleston, WV 25311 | 304.346.5891 | wvcag.org

Truck & School Bus Collide in Wetzel Co. (11/19/15)

Wetzel School Bus Routes Hit by Heavy Drilling Truck Traffic

From an Article by Dan Heyman, WV Public News Service, September 21, 2015

Charleston, WV — A local emergency medical technician says natural gas drilling in Wetzel County has damaged roads so much that it’s occasionally unsafe for school buses to take their normal routes.

Ray Renaud is a Wetzel County emergency medical technician who handles oil and gas-related road issues for local emergency services. He says at times, two or three rural school bus routes have been unsafe for the buses to use, because of damage caused by the large number of heavy trucks.

“These are very limited-access highways, not much more than one lane to start with,” he stresses. “And typically what you have is, one of the shoulders will totally give way.”

An official with the state Department of Transportation insists that drilling traffic is not causing safety issues for school buses. He says the state checks the roads before drilling starts, and requires that road conditions be as good when drilling is finished.

The Wetzel County Schools’ transportation office refused to comment, although an official said bus drivers always have the right to refuse to take their normal route if weather or any other road condition makes it unsafe.

According to Renaud, that’s how the process has worked – including on roads with damage from heavy truck traffic. “The bus driver usually is the one that initiates the action,” he explains. “He has the authority to not run a road.”

Everyone contacted for this report said the drilling companies have been responsive when an issue has come up. For example, the drillers try to keep their trucks off the roads at certain times of day to make way for the school buses.

Renaud says he knows of “10 or so” sections of Wetzel County road that are unsafe because of drilling traffic. He says one very steep hill has an intersection with a main artery at the base – and a drilling truck fails to stop there every couple of months.

Road conditions are a topic of local concern, says Steve Conlon, a farmer and activist. “The only roads that haven’t been impacted are the roads that they can’t use with the big trucks,” Conlon maintains.

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See also: Tensions High At Oil And Gas Meeting, Safety of Children an Issue Among Residents, Lauren Matthews, Wetzel Chronicle, January 13, 2016

Fracking is Climate Change and Plastics Pollution

Indiana University researchers say fracking fears likely to grow as opponents push for bans

From the Press Release, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, December 16, 2015

With voters and courts weighing the future of fracking, a practice used to extract oil and gas, Indiana University researchers say some Americans are apprehensive about the technology and may grow more so.

Opponents of unconventional gas development — also known as UGD and including but not limited to the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing or fracking — have pushed for statewide or local bans of the practice in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, New York, California and other states.

“There is ample reason to predict growing public concerns about risk as UGD expands in the United States,” said study author John Rupp, a senior research scientist at the Indiana Geological Survey and an adjunct faculty member at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Opposition is intensifying even though the researchers point out there hasn’t been a highly publicized accident similar in scope to the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil blowout and spill. They say such an unlikely event would trigger even stronger demands to prohibit the technique for use in extracting oil and gas from shale deposits.

One key, they say, will be establishing a culture of transparency by the industry and its regulators. “Concerns tend to escalate when information about potential hazards associated with the practice are not fully disclosed,” Rupp said.

A bright spot in the findings is that leaders of the energy industry, along with municipal and regional government officials who see unconventional gas development as an economic booster, have the opportunity to help shape the discussion.

“Despite the fact that, in little more than a decade, UGD has made the U.S. the No. 1 gas producer in the world, surveys indicate many Americans don’t know much about it,” Rupp said. “That means proponents of the technology still have time to shape public understanding of the details of the practice and its benefits.”

Rupp and co-authors John D. Graham and Olga Schenk analyzed risk-perception and risk-governance theories and recent public opinion surveys. Their article, “Unconventional Gas Development in the USA: Exploring the Risk Perception Issues,” was published in the journal Risk Analysis.

The researchers say studies indicate people base their sense of risk on several factors including:

• Familiarity — Traffic accidents, for example, are more acceptable because they’re more familiar than an unconventional gas development incident.
• Voluntariness — When a hazard is imposed on a community without citizen consent, people are more apprehensive.
• Catastrophic potential — Perceived risk rises when a large amount of damage can occur at one time or location, even if the probability is low.
• Natural versus human-induced hazards — A greater sense of guilt is associated when humans are to blame.
• Impact on children and future generations — Concern is heightened when victims include children, pregnant women and people not yet born.

“The potential risks associated with UGD, such as drinking water contamination, would seem to activate virtually all of the risk-perception factors,” Graham said, noting that opponents have effectively elevated fears by emphasizing the scenario of drinking water polluted by migrating fracking chemicals.

Another potential trigger for increased opposition comes in the form of seismic activity. Scientists are studying whether the drilling/fracturing process and deep-well injection of unconventional gas development wastes can cause earthquakes. A major tremor that causes widespread damage or injuries will likely intensify the perception that unconventional gas development is risky.

While water contamination and seismicity top the concerns of environmentalists, the IU research team points out that residents who live in unconventional gas development areas have other worries.

“The concerns of residents living in close proximity to UGD require consideration,” Rupp said. “They may be concerned about daily nuisances such as traffic, congestion, odor and unwanted changes to the character of their community.”

To counter the likelihood that the perception of risk connected to unconventional gas development will grow, Graham, Rupp and Schenk urge government officials and the scientific community to take several steps:

• State regulatory systems must quickly ramp up. “To accomplish a high degree of public trust, state regulators must demonstrate that they can be both proactive in preventing problems and responsive to unexpected concerns,” the Risk Analysis article noted.
• Industry associations must require use of best practices and consider voluntary certification and other steps that encourage companies to emphasize safety and sustainability.
• National political figures must avoid turning unconventional gas development into a polarizing issue along political lines. President Barack Obama has taken a strong pro-gas position, irritating organized environmental advocates. “No matter their stance on UGD, Obama’s successor should listen to the concerns of the industry, regulators, environmentalists and local citizens,” Graham said. “Taking appropriate actions will diminish the perception of risk and, more importantly, the actual risk.”

Graham is dean of IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Schenk was a visiting researcher at SPEA and is now a policy officer for Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Entrance to Existing Antero Facility

WDTV.COM 5 News: Concerns Over Antero Wastewater Complex

Part I: Citizen Concerns Over Antero Wastewater Complex

In August, Antero Resources announced plans for a state-of-the-art advanced wastewater treatment complex in Doddridge County. The new treatment facility is expected to create hundreds of new jobs and about $1.5 million dollars in tax revenue for Doddridge county, but citizens in the county and nearby areas have concerns over the radioactive waste the facility will produce.

“You know radioactivity isn’t something that is easily disposed of, you know we hear about these landfills, we just don’t know,” said Don Jackson, a Richie County resident and also retired inspector for the DEP.

Bill Hughes is a chairman for Wetzel County’s Solid Waste Authority and an avid follower of Marcellus Shale operations. “It has been known for decades that Marcellus Shale is remarkable higher in radioactivity than almost any other black shale that they’ve tested,” said Hughes.

And many people wonder what is exactly in the brine. “Well it’s a cornucopia of different elements. Essentially we don’t know without further testing. But with the data that we have seen, the variability in these samples is tremendous. We had a sample in Wheeling with a pH of 2.6 which is very strongly acidic, you know hydraulic acid and if a truck like that spills it would form an acid fog cloud that would harm first responders,” said Dr. Ben Stout, a Biology professor at Wheeling Jesuit University.

WDTV 5 News spoke with Antero’s Chief Administrative Officer and Regional Vice President Alvyn Schopp, he said their pilot studies find the radioactivity from the materials produced to be below background levels and are qualified for West Virginia landfill purpose.

In regards to disaster readiness, Schopp said once Antero is further along into the facility development and construction, they will be sure to have an excellent relationship with first responders. Antero said they will also hold tours for the first responders and provide specific training. Schopp also said while they will be prepared for emergency situations, safety prevention is always a priority for first responders, employees and the surrounding community.

Construction is set to begin sometime in early spring and the facility should be operational by the end of 2017.

Part II: Citizen Concerns Over Antero Wastewater Complex

Antero officials told 5 News their pilot studies show safe levels of radiation for West Virginia landfills, but some people have their concerns about the state’s current regulations.

“At this point in time, West Virginia has absolutely no framework to properly to legislate regulate and enforce radioactive waste disposal of any level and any landfill. We are doing a fairly poor job of it as we speak, complete proper testing is not yet been done at a lot of the landfills,” said Bill Hughes, Wetzel County’s Solid Waste Authority and an avid follower of Marcellus Shale operations.

“I think that’s a potential solution, proper testing all the way through every step of the way. If this company intends on doing this, they get the necessary permits, which isn”t much from the state. They should have them [the landfills] monitored all the way through. If were going to be an experiment, let’s take some data,” said Dr. Ben Stout, a Biology professor at Wheeling Jesuit University.

Antero’s Chief Administrative Officer and Regional Vice President Alvyn Schopp said they are looking at plans for a landfill close to the plant but they have not yet filed any permits.

Other concerns involve the actual recycling process of the wastewater itself. “If we can recycle large quantities and be relatively confident that the end product is in-fact clean and usable and any leaks or spills would be safe, that’s highly desirable. I get the impression that this [waste water recycling] is still unproven technology, on a small lab scale it might work, but unproven technology is risky,” said Hughes.

“And you know this plant may not be what it set out to do, but once it’s in practice and producing large quantities of a waste, who knows where it goes from there. Our drinking water is certainly a concern,” said Don Jackson, a Richie County resident and also retired inspector for the DEP.

In response to some of the citizen concerns, Schopp said: Antero does not want to do anything that would endanger citizens. We feel this new facility is taking the flowback water and dealing with in the most responsible way. We will work closely with the DEP to ensure everything we do is properly tested and will be no harm to the watersheds or community.

At the most recent Doddridge County Commission meeting, about 60 people gathered for an informational session with Antero about the new wastewater treatment facility.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net