Chieftain Sand & Proppant Operation in Wisconsin

Facility Description: Piranha Proppant LLC, located at US Highway 53 and County Highway SS, Dovre Township, Barron County, Wisconsin, FID 603107010

SUBMITTED application, including plans and specifications for the construction of a sand dryer and a rail loadout and the operation of a dry sand processing plant.

Air pollution control construction permit no. 18-POY-007

Air pollution control operation permit no. 603107010-F01

Application Review.

DNR has made a preliminary determination that the application meets state and federal air pollution control requirements and that the permit should be approved.

You can review the permit application, the DNR’s analysis and draft permit prepared by the DNR at the Department of Natural Resources Bureau of Air Management Headquarters, Seventh Floor, 101 South Webster Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703; and at West Central Region Headquarters, 1300 W. Clairemont Avenue, Eau Claire, WI 54701; This information is also available for downloading from the Internet at:

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/AirPermits/Search.html

For questions on the permit application, the DNR’s analysis and the draft permit prepared by the DNR, or to make arrangements to review the documents at a DNR office, please contact Paul Yeung at (608) 266-0672 or by e-mail at paul.yeung@wisconsin.gov

The department has made the determination under ch. NR 150, Wis. Adm. Code, that this type of proposal normally does not have the potential to cause significant adverse environmental or secondary effects. This is a preliminary determination and does not constitute a final approval from the Air Management

DNR published a public notice on June 30, 2018. On June 27, 2018, DNR e-mailed the public notice to the interested parties who have requested to receive the public notices via e-mail, with the information that the public notice would be published on June 30, 2018. DNR received a request on June 28, 2018 for a public hearing for the project.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, pursuant to ss. 285.13(1), 285.61(7), and 285.62(5) Wis. Stats., DNR will hold a public hearing to receive public comments on the air pollution control permit application for the proposed project.

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that the public hearing will be held:

Monday, July 30, 2018 at 6:00 PM
Chetek City Hall Chamber
220 Stout Street,
Chetek, Wisconsin 54728

All comments received by the DNR at the public hearing, and during the public comment period will be considered prior to making a final decision regarding the proposed project. The comment period ends July 30, 2018.

After the public hearing and the close of the public comment period, a final decision will be made on whether to issue or deny the air pollution control permit. Information on the public commenting and hearing process is available at

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/AirPermits/Process.html

Reasonable accommodation, including the provision of informational material in an alternative format, will be provided for qualified individuals with disabilities upon request.

STATE OF WISCONSIN
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
For the Secretary By /s/ Susan Lindem
Environmental Engineer Supervisor

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NOTE: It is critical there be a good representation of the public at this meeting. If you feel you can’t comment on the permit, you can raise questions. I learned a great deal at the SSS permit hearing this past week. Only 2 citizens (one representing Sierra Club and I) were present.

Mark your calendar for: Monday, July 30, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. at the
Chetek City Hall Chamber and/or submit comments by mail or email.

>>> Patricia Popple, 715-723-6398, sunnyday5@charter.net

Editor of the Frac Sand Sentinel, a newsletter highlighting resource links, news media accounts, blog posts, correspondence, observations and opinions gathered regarding local actions on, and impacts of, the developing frac sand mining and processing industries.

CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE: CCC-WIS.COM and CLICK HERE for panoramic views of frac sand mines, processing plants, and trans-load facilities.

PM-2.5 and smaller are extremely dangerous

From an Article by Robert Ferris, CNBC, September 21, 2017

Add kidney disease to the list of health problems associated with air pollution.

A team of scientists from Washington University in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System found an association between tiny particulate matter and kidney disease in two different data sets.

The scientists compared Veteran Affairs data on kidney disease with data on air pollution from two separate sets: satellite data from NASA and information from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Their study consistently found that risk of kidney disease rose along with air pollution levels across the continental United States.

As might be expected, many of the areas of the U.S. at greatest risk tend to be more heavily populated. The part of the country with the lowest risk overall is a section that runs roughly from Montana through West Texas. There are pockets of lower-risk areas in other places, but much of California and the Eastern half of the United States are more vulnerable.

The scientists published their results in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

It is important to note that this only found an association with air pollution — the study did not conclusively determine pollution to be the cause of kidney disease.

But the fact that the study found the association in both the EPA data set and the NASA data set is compelling, said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a senior author on the study and an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University, in a statement.

“The beauty of using both EPA and NASA data is that the agencies used two distinct techniques for collecting data, yet the results were similar,” he said. “This constellation of findings suggests that chronic exposure to air pollution is a significant risk factor for the development and progression of kidney disease.”

The study focused on a type of pollution called PM 2.5, which is particulate matter up to 2.5 microns in size. This particular form of pollution can come from myriad sources, including vehicle emissions, fossil fuel power plants, wildfires or even campfires.

Scientists say the particles can enter the bloodstream once they are breathed into the lungs.

Air pollution has been linked to health problems as varied as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and weight gain. The study’s authors say that one of those conditions could be responsible for kidney damage, rather than the pollution itself.

They also noted that the population they studied was mostly older white male military veterans, so the results might not apply to other populations. The scientists tried to account for confounding factors, but there could still be additional variables, such as diet or genetics, or even other environmental factors such as exposure to heavy metals.

But the data show a clear association.

“In our analyses, the risk of chronic kidney disease and its progression was most pronounced at the highest levels of fine particulate matter concentration,” Al-Aly said in the release. “This suggests further study is needed for a broader assessment of the global burden of kidney disease attributable to air pollution.”

Air quality has improved in the United States in recent decades, but Al-Aly pointed out that there is no safe level of exposure to PM 2.5; even low levels can increase risk.

Other parts of the world have serious problems with hazes of pollution. China has even had to essentially shut down entire cities for days at a time. Just breathing Beijing’s air might be as bad as smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

Bird's Eye View: Frac Sand Mine in Wisconsin

COURAGEOUS CITIZENS RAISE ISSUES AND QUESTIONS

EXPANDED FRAC SAND MINING IN THE TOWN OF BRIDGE CREEK IN EAU CLAIRE COUNTY IN WISCONSIN

READ THEIR COMMENTARIES!

KUDOS TO THESE PEOPLE FOR ALLOWING THEIR MESSAGES TO BE PRINTED IN THE FRAC SAND SENTINEL, ISSUE 132, APRIL 5, 2017.

>>> On April 6, 2017, Frac Sand Sentinel wrote:

Address to Hi-Crush at Bridge Creek Town Public Hearing, March 18, 2017

EVERY LIVING THING IS DEPENDENT UPON FRESH AIR, CLEAN WATER AND FOOD SOURCE.  THE SAND MINING PROCESS IMPERILS ALL THREE.  For the past  five years every living thing in Bridge Creek has been affected by the mining process and now Hi-Crush is asking our local government to expand and to continue consuming the basic necessities of life.   I SAY NO.

I say no because Hi-Crush Mine:

>> depletes our ground water faster than nature can replenish it;

>> cannot and does not control nor ensure the air quality around the mine;

>> sand particulates are not captured and over time impact health;

>> blasting the hill sides impacts the stability of homes, wells and peace of mind;

>> destroys the ecosystem;

>> reclamation of the land to return to productive crop land has not been demonstrated;

Hi-Crush has not been forth coming to local government regarding its business plan for expansion on contiguous land; I SAY NO TO EXPANSION BECAUSE:

I AM CONCERNED THAT THIS SAND MINING:

>> will  drive people and other living things away from the land due to its nuisances;

>> perils of blasting, trains night and day, loud conveyors, fugitive sand particulates;

>> that private wells will collapse and property values will continue to devalue as the mine expands due to blasting, noise and transport methods;

>> that the history of Hi-Crush’s disregard for following the rules will continue with no regard to the impact on every living thing (ie: hi-capacity well violation, fugitive sand for one year when not in operation, etc).

>> that nothing will grow of any value on this land for decades.

I SAY NO TO EXPANSION BECAUSE: EVERY LIVING THING IS IN RELATIONSHIP TO EACH OTHER AND THE EARTH.  IF BASIC NEEDS FOR LIFE ARE CONTINUOUSLY IMPERILED FROM OVER USE, OUR LIVES, THAT OF OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN ARE IMPERILED TOO.  CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE.  THEY HAVE NO VALUES NOR ETHICS AND CONTINUE TO SEEK OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.  LOGIC DOES NOT ALLOW CITIZENS TO TRUST THE JUDGEMENT OF CORPORATIONS THAT WILL NEVER BE HUMAN.  MONEY IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE BASIC NEEDS OF EVERY LIVING THING.

>>> Christine Yellowthunder, resident, tax payer, land owner in the Town of Bridge Creek, WI

Source: Save The Hills Alliance, Inc. | S6650 County Road G, Augusta, WI 54722

Web Site: www.ccc-wis.com

Diesel trucks deliver frack sand & chemicals

Boulder County’s New Fracking Rules: Three (3) Things To Know

From an Article by Jackie Fortier, KUNC, Boulder, Colorado, March 27, 2017

With its moratorium on new drilling permits set to expire in a few weeks, Boulder County commissioners unanimously passed new oil and gas regulations. The county calls them the “most restrictive” of such regulations in Colorado. They are about 60 pages and require a much higher environmental and public health standard than the state. Boulder County began the new rule process following two state Supreme Court decisions in 2016 that invalidated hydraulic fracking bans or long term moratoriums.

“In light of those decisions, the board terminated our moratorium that was in effect until 2018, and established a new moratorium until May 1, 2017, for the purpose of allowing us [Boulder County planning department] to update the regulations that we had adopted in 2012 and prepare for their implementation,” said Kim Sanchez, chief planner for the county.

Now that the commissioners have adopted these regulations, here are three key takeaways:

These regulations are ‘the most restrictive’ in Colorado

Boulder County wants to push the envelope. For example, an oil or gas company that wants to drill in unincorporated Boulder County would have to give notice to surrounding landowners and residents, have multiple public meetings, and do soil and water testing, which could be a very long and probably more expensive process than anywhere else in Colorado. State officials told Boulder County it is overstepping their local authority, a position that Commissioner Elise Jones said they would defend.

“Our focus is on adopting regulations that we think are the strongest possible, for our citizens and the environment, and our understanding of the law as we see it,” she said. “If the state disagrees well, so be it, we’ll deal with that. If the state wants to pre-empt local governments, on oil and gas then they need to do their job and protect us from the impacts of oil and gas, and they are not doing that. And until they do that, local jurisdictions like Boulder County will continue to push to do that work themselves.”

What can the state regulate and what can local governments like Boulder County regulate?

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulates location and construction of drill sites and associated equipment, for example what machinery is used. Local governments like Boulder County have substantial regulatory authority through their land use code, such as building permits for structures, traffic impact fees, and inspecting for compliance with local codes and standards related to water quality and wildlife impacts. Boulder County’s new regulations are the most stringent in terms of land use.

New regulations aim to minimize the noise, dust and pollution associated with oil and gas drilling, like the sand loading in the photo above.

You could get paid to live by oil and gas drilling

One of Boulder County’s regulations could require a company to pay residents “disruption payments.” Not every company would have to do this; it’s an option for the county to require. Within a mile radius of the drill site, companies would need to pay residents enough money to move and pay rent somewhere else during some operations. The closer you are to the drill site, the more money you would get. The amount would be calculated based on federal data for the area. Every month residents would get a check. It would be up to them if they would want to move temporarily or just keep the money.

Commissioner Jones said they thought disruption payments were necessary to include.

“Industry has never been required to say ‘Yes, I’m impacting those people’s lives and I’m going to pay to help move them to a place so their quality of life isn’t diminished by my noise and my dust and my vibrations and my emissions,’ Jones said. “We think that it’s an important first step in industry taking ownership of the significant impacts that drilling has, particularly when you’re drilling near homes and schools and the like.”

>  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >

>>> Hear a reporter debrief with KUNC’s Erin O’Toole and Jackie Fortier on the new oil and gas regulations, and how they compare.

OSHA’s Final Rule to Protect Workers from Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica

From the Summary of the U. S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, March 25, 2016

“Rule requires engineering controls to keep workers from breathing silica dust”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule to curb lung cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease in America’s workers by limiting their exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The rule is comprised of two standards, one for Construction and one for General Industry and Maritime.

OSHA estimates that the rule will save over 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year, once its effects are fully realized. The Final Rule is projected to provide net benefits of about $7.7 billion, annually.

About 2.3 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces, including 2 million construction workers who drill, cut, crush, or grind silica-containing materials such as concrete and stone, and 300,000 workers in general industry operations such as brick manufacturing, foundries, and hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. Responsible employers have been protecting workers from harmful exposure to respirable crystalline silica for years, using widely-available equipment that controls dust with water or a vacuum system.

Key Provisions

>> Reduces the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an 8-hour shift.

>> Requires employers to: use engineering controls (such as water or ventilation) to limit worker exposure to the PEL; provide respirators when engineering controls cannot adequately limit exposure; limit worker access to high exposure areas; develop a written exposure control plan, offer medical exams to highly exposed workers, and train workers on silica risks and how to limit exposures.

>> Provides medical exams to monitor highly exposed workers and gives them information about their lung health.

>> Provides flexibility to help employers — especially small businesses — protect workers from silica exposure.

Compliance Schedule

Both standards contained in the final rule take effect on June 23, 2016., after which industries have one to five years to comply with most requirements, based on the following schedule:

Construction – June 23, 2017, one year after the effective date.

General Industry and Maritime – June 23, 2018, two years after the effective date.

Hydraulic Fracturing – June 23, 2018, two years after the effective date for all provisions except Engineering Controls, which have a compliance date of June 23, 2021.

Background

The U.S. Department of Labor first highlighted the hazards of respirable crystalline silica in the 1930s, after a wave of worker deaths. The department set standards to limit worker exposure in 1971, when OSHA was created. However, the standards are outdated and do not adequately protect workers from silica-related diseases. Furthermore, workers are being exposed to silica in new industries such as stone or artificial stone countertop fabrication and hydraulic fracturing.

A full review of scientific evidence, industry consensus standards, and extensive stakeholder input provide the basis for the final rule, which was proposed in September 2013. The rule-making process allowed OSHA to solicit input in various forms for nearly a full year. The agency held 14 days of public hearings, during which more than 200 stakeholders presented testimony, and accepted over 2,000 comments, amounting to about 34,000 pages of material. In response to this extensive public engagement, OSHA made substantial changes, including enhanced employer flexibility in choosing how to reduce levels of respirable crystalline silica, while maintaining or improving worker protection.

More Information and Assistance

OSHA looks forward to working with employers to ensure that all workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica realize the benefits of this final rule. Please check back for frequent updates on compliance assistance materials and events, and learn about OSHA’s on-site consulting services for small business.

OSHA approved State Plans have six months to adopt standards that are at least as effective as federal OSHA standards. Establishments in states that operate their own safety and health plans should check with their State Plan for the implementation date of the new standards.

See the HAZARD ALERT here.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Photo exhibit in Pittsburgh documents fracking’s effects

From an Article by Kurt Shaw, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 8, 2016

When: Through July 31 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays; noon-4 p.m. Sundays, Admission: $5 suggested donation

Where: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside

Details: 412-361-0873 or pittsburgharts.org

It’s been a few years since photographer Brian Cohen and Laura Domencic, executive director of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, first began the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project, along with a group of five regional photographers. Now, they are back with an expanded view in an exhibit of the same title, which opened May 5 at the center.

“When we began work on the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project several years ago, unconventional gas exploration — now commonly known as fracking — was neither well known nor understood in the region,” Cohen says. “But time has since passed, and the supposed advantages and disadvantages of drilling for natural gas have been exposed widely for public scrutiny. People today are much more likely to have an opinion, one way or another, about fracking.”

To that end, Cohen, who lives in Squirrel Hill, says he wanted to do a couple of things with this round of the project. First, to return to a community — The Woodlands in Connoquenessing — that had, famously, been suffering with health and water-quality problems in a neighborhood associated with gas drilling. “I felt it was important not simply to walk away from that story, and I wanted to see how, if at all, things had changed,” he says.

Second, Cohen wanted to see what lessons might have been learned from these stories elsewhere, in an area of Ohio where fracking was newly arrived.

Take, for example, an image of a farmhouse in Ohio where a gas company has begun preparing to build a well pad. “Due to the existence of an old shallow well on the property, the owners had little say in whether the company would drill: Negotiations revolved more around where to situate the well pad,” Cohen says. “This image shows the road the company ran through the property. The oak tree was spared after the owner threatened to frustrate the proceedings.”

Scott Goldsmith of Edgewood chose to focus his camera closer to home with an untitled image of frack sand spilled from railroad cars near Downtown Pittsburgh. “These sand particulates are highly carcinogenic to lungs because they are much smaller than playground sand and can lodge in your lungs and stay there,” Goldsmith says. “None of the workers on the train tracks wear protection. The sand is used during the fracking process, and the people working on the drill site do not use respiratory protection.”

Another untitled image shows a woman being arrested during the inauguration of Gov. Tom Wolf. She was part of a group that interrupted Wolf’s inauguration speech by chanting “Ban fracking now.” Goldsmith says six people were arrested during the protest. “Events like this help create awareness of fracking dangers,” he says.

As Goldsmith is quick to point out, “The dangers of fracking are around us everywhere in Western Pennsylvania — from water contamination, air contamination, land contamination and food chain contamination. We need to do more to spread the word of dangers associated with fracking, and I feel this project is a good vehicle to do that.”

For “Marcellus Shale Documentary Project: An Expanded View,” Martha Rial of Edgewood focused on trains moving through Pittsburgh.

“Many of us have a romantic view of trains,” she says. “The sound of a train whistle used to be comforting, but I sense an uneasiness now due to so many trains crisscrossing our region carrying crude oil, liquified petroleum gas or frack sand. I am struck by how ominous the tanker cars look, especially perched on top of aging trestles.”

Her photograph “Rook Railyard at Dusk” was made in 2014. “Rook opened in 1904, and in recent decades only saw a few trains a week until the natural-gas boom transformed the rail yard,” Rial says. “Rook Rail Yard was originally part of the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway and is now owned by Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. Traffic has declined at the rail yard in the past year due to low natural gas prices.”

Wanting to take a panoptic view, Joe Seamans, the newcomer to this group of six photographers, says he became interested in this issue before Cohen and Domencic put the project together.

“In 2009, I became obsessed with trying to figure out how to look at fracking from some sort of objective perspective,” says Seamans, a Point Breeze-based documentary filmmaker and photographer. “Not so much pro or con, but from a documentary point of view, trying to find a vantage point to look at it above the fray, as it were. Trying to find a perspective to look at what was happening without drinking anyone’s Kool-Aid, if that makes any sense. I wasn’t interested in provocative images like flaming faucets, which Josh Fox was putting out there, though I was really affected by all that.”

Seamans says there’s a scale problem documenting fracking with a camera. “It’s hard to get close and get the big picture,” he says. “It’s hard to get the big picture and get the impact on people. Literally, it’s hard to see a well site and understand the context that surrounds it. There’s a real visual perspective issue.”

His answer was to try using a gigapan camera head, which takes a matrix of images and stitches them together after the fact. “It allowed me to look at a very large panorama in great detail,” Seamans says. “So a viewer can see the well site and surrounding activity in the context of the local geography.”

At the same time, the high resolution of the image allows the viewer to look at very specific details: the toys in the backyard; the tails on the cows in the pasture, the brand of truck parked in the lot where drillers are working, etc.

“The landscape image in the show, which I made on a hillside in Washington County, is an attempt to bridge the vast scale of fracking,” Seamans says. “I think it evokes the Western Pennsylvania geology, as well as the individual households which are impacted by drilling.” The image is 5 feet tall and 20 feet wide.

“It doesn’t read like much when it’s small,” Seamans says. “But writ large, perhaps there’s an epic quality in the size of the image which matches the epic scale of the drilling. I imagine this image or something like it repeated almost 10,000 times, which is the number of wells drilling in this state since fracking began.”

When Philadelphia based-photographer Noah Addis first started photographing for the project in 2011, he was living in Columbus, Ohio.

“I didn’t know much about fracking or the gas industry,” he says. “So, I really wanted to learn more about what was going on and to produce a series of photographs to begin a conversation about the issue.

“Photography tends to be very ambiguous, and I think that’s one its strengths. Obviously I hope that the project will raise awareness of how the gas industry is affecting people and the environment. But if it raises more questions than it answers, that’s OK, too.”

Addis decided to focus on the landscape. “On a basic level, I was interested in what these operations look like and how they are changing the rural landscape,” he says. “It’s a difficult subject to photograph, since a lot of the activity happens deep underground, and many of the environmental effects aren’t visible. But there’s also a huge network of pipelines, processing plants and other infrastructure that is dramatically changing the rural landscape in the region.”

Addis made a series of portrait photographs of people who have been directly affected by the gas industry.

“It might seem counterintuitive since the story is about the environment, but I decided to remove people from their environment by photographing them in a simple, direct way on a plain white background,” Addis says. “I really wanted to focus attention on the people themselves. They’ve been through a lot, and it shows on their faces.”

Addis’ portrait of Mollie Caryll is one such example. In it, Caryll poses for a portrait at her home in Valley Grove, W.Va.

Caryll, who lives near several well pads and a large compressor station, told Addis her health has been affected by energy industry activities. “She said she was forced to leave her job as a bank manager due to extreme fatigue, headaches, skin rashes and endocrine disorders, all of which began suddenly after the start of drilling activity in the area,” Addis says. “She and her husband, Dan, moved to the house six years ago, hoping for a quiet place to retire. ‘We did everything right,’ she said, ‘then it all changed overnight.’

“There’s so much propaganda out there about fracking, on both sides,” Addis says. “Even if it’s for a good cause, I have no desire to add to that flood of propaganda. Fracking is such a divisive issue, I think if one tries to tell the viewer what to think, it just ends up making people tune out. I try to take a more subtle approach.”

Kurt Shaw is the Tribune-Review art critic.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

EQT on schedule to drill Utica well in Wetzel County WV

From an Article by Jim Ross, State Journal, May 9, 2015

EQT Corporation still plans to drill at least one gas well in the Utica Shale in Wetzel County, and it may drill four more in its territory before the end of the year despite problems with the first well it is drilling in Pennsylvania.

Steven Schlotterbeck, EQT executive vice president and president of exploration and production, said drillers completed drilling the well with a final lateral length of 3,300 feet. They are currently running reservoir tests and plan to begin fracking in early June, he said. The well had a setback when drillers encountered pressures that were higher than expected and had to bring in a larger rig, he said.

“Despite this timing setback, we continue to be excited and optimistic about the dry gas Utica potential beneath our acreage,” Schlotterbeck said.

This year will be one of testing the Utica wells, and EQT will likely spend next year gathering and evaluating data before deciding whether to shift part of its capital expenditures from Marcellus Shale wells in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to the Utica, he said.

EQT’s first Utica well is using ceramics instead of sand underground, and that has added to the test well’s cost, Schlotterbeck said. “Our reservoir engineering at this point is suggesting that it might be possible to use sand in these wells, so that’ll be something we’re testing, probably not in these first two wells, but in subsequent wells,” he said.

As to the length of the lateral, the original plans were for it to be 3,000 to 4,500 feet. Engineers figured they needed at least 3,000 feet to get the reservoir test they really wanted, but they were willing to go as far as 4,500 feet.

“We had a lot of difficulties on this well, and the costs were pretty high, and when we got to 3,300 feet, there were some indications that more problems could be developing,” Schlotterbeck said.

EQT figures the first Utica test will cost $12 million to $17 million. For the first quarter, EQT reported net income of $173.4 million, down from $192.2 million a year ago. Operating income also was down, to $314.8 million from $356.8 million.

The company sold 145.2 billion cubic feet equivalent in the quarter, which was 37 percent more than the first quarter of 2014 and 6.2 percent higher than the fourth quarter 2014. The average realized sales price was 39 percent lower than last year, which more than offset the impact of the increase in sales volume.

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“Fight the gas companies”

Letter to Editor, Washington PA Observer Reporter, May 9, 2015

Our farm was in a quiet country setting for 18 years. In 2013, EQT Corp. started drilling gas wells all around us. I, like many residents, did not own my mineral rights, so we did not have the money to move away from all the dust, noise and pollution. We complained at the supervisors’ meeting in Washington Township, which is nearby, but we were shunned and ignored.

Our roads were never constructed for such heavy and overloaded trucks, and the repairs have been nothing more than a Band-Aid. We constantly complain about noise from engine brakes from caravans of trucks. The noise is so bad it rattles the windows in our house. Because of this, I now use medication to sleep.

This insanity has to end. But everyone we’ve contacted on the township, county and state levels tells us there is nothing they can do.

If any of these companies try to come into your communities, fight them with everything you have. Once they are there, your quiet, pristine community will be destroyed.

Robert L. Thomas, West Bethlehem Township, Washington County, PA

See also: www.Marcellus-Shale.us
 

Conaway Lake on Tyler County road

W.Va. wildlife land fracking could yield $6M, royalties

From an Article by the Associated Press, Huntington Herald Dispatch, November 21, 2014

Charleston, WV — A company has bid $6.2 million plus royalties to drill for natural gas and oil under state wildlife conservation land in Tyler County. Denver-based Antero Resources is offering to pay more than $12,000 an acre for fracking rights under Conaway Run Wildlife Management Area, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette said.

The bid includes a 20-percent royalty on what’s extracted, and the lease would likely last three years. The bid on the 518-acre wildlife area’s oil and natural gas rights was unveiled Friday in Charleston. The land is used for hunting, fishing and camping, and includes a 100-yard rifle range.

It’s the second time West Virginia has offered to let companies drill horizontally under its land. Leasing the land for the technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a new venture for West Virginia, and officials think it could produce plenty of money during uncertain budget times.

In West Virginia’s first try at fracking leases, officials opened bids for 22 miles of state land under the Ohio River in September. Six miles are under contract negotiations and another 11 miles are out for bid or will be shortly. Seven additional miles are being considered for bid openings.

Environmental groups cautioned Gov. Early Ray Tomblin to reconsider the Ohio River leases, since they would allow drilling beneath a river that provides drinking water to millions of people. Burdette said the drilling would occur about a mile under the river. State environmental regulators would still have to approve permits for the operations. All drilling equipment would need to be off-site of the state lands, Burdette added.

Other properties the state is thinking about leasing rights for include: 131 acres under Fish Creek in Marshall County; Jug Wildlife Management Area in Tyler County; and 24 acres in Doddridge County.

No fracking contracts have yet been finalized, however. All the money from the state’s fracking leases would go back into Division of Natural Resources needs, like upgrades at state parks.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net