It is absolutely essential to breathe clean air

According to the Environmental Health Project, active frack pads, compressor stations, and processing facilities regularly emit particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other chemical pollutants that we aren’t able to see. When ingested, these emissions can cause or exacerbate a host of short- and long-term health problems, including headaches, eye and throat irritation, respiratory complications, chest pain, asthma, and various types of cancer.

This Thursday, join the first session of our webinar and Q&A on air pollution and inadequate regulation in the Ohio River Valley. Ohio regulatory agencies’ inadequate monitoring and oversight of fracking-related air pollution in Belmont County endangers our health and livelihoods, especially if an ethane cracker plant is also built in the region. Join our webinar to learn more!

Register here for the webinar and Q&A this Thursday, November 5th, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm EST.

If you can’t make it this Thursday, we’re hosting a second session of Making the Invisible Visible on Thursday, November 19th at 6:30pm Save the date and register here.

The Ohio River Valley is already endangered by the cumulative pollution caused by the fracking industry, including toxic chemicals and radioactive particulate matter. Join us to learn more about how you can protect yourself by participating in a community monitoring program to establish baseline air quality data and advise residents of their exposures and associated health effects.

What you’ll get from this presentation:

>> Information on the potential health risks posed by proximity to shale gas wells and other fracking-related facilities.

>> An understanding of state regulatory agencies’ complicity in allowing petrochemical facilities to emit potentially dangerous levels of chemical pollutants into the air we breathe.

>> Access to free air monitoring equipment, enabling you to evaluate and track the air quality of your home or backyard.

>> The opportunity to discuss air pollution in Belmont County with scientists, air monitoring experts, public health professionals, and community advocates during a 30-minute Q&A session.

This presentation was made possible with the help of the Freshwater Accountability Project, the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange, Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab, FracTracker Alliance, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Halt the Harm Network, and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project.

Thanks for reading! We look forward to seeing you on Thursday,

Ben Hunkler, Organizer, Concerned Ohio River Residents

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See this video: “Hydrofracking and Exposure to Ionizing Radiation,” David O. Carpenter, MD, SouthWest Penna. Environmental Health Project, October 15, 2020

Methane and Ethane are in the air

Methane has Increased in Marcellus Shale Region Despite  Dip in Gas Well Installations

Media Contact:  Britt Faulstick, Drexel University, February 10, 2017

Drexel researchers have been studying air pollution in the Marcellus Shale regions of Pennsylvania for several years. 

Despite a slow down in the number of new natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region of Northeast Pennsylvania, new research led by Drexel University finds that atmospheric methane levels in the area are still increasing. Measurements of methane and other air pollutants taken three years apart in the rural areas of Pennsylvania that have been the target of natural gas development over the last decade, revealed a substantial increase from 2012 to 2015.

“Methane is increasing globally, but the rate of increase for this region is much more rapid than global increases,” said Peter DeCarlo, PhD, an assistant professor who studies atmospheric chemistry in Drexel’s College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences, who led the study. “The rapid increase in methane is likely due to the increased production of natural gas from the region which has increased significantly over the 2012 to 2015 period. With the increased background levels of methane, the relative climate benefit of natural gas over coal for power production is reduced.”

Since the first shale gas wells were drilled in the Marcellus Shale Basin, a region that diagonally bisects the state from the northeast to the southwest, there have been concerns about what unlocking the new stores of fossil fuel by an unconventional method, called hydraulic fracturing, could mean for the environment. Nearly a decade later, researchers are still working to understand just how the chemicals released and the chemicals used to release them are lingering in the water and air.

This study, which was published in the journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, is the latest in a series conducted by DeCarlo and the Drexel Air Resources Research Lab, indicates that levels of atmospheric methane in the region are likely linked to increased natural gas production, rather than the number of new wells drilled in the area. The researchers did not observe this increase for other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide. This suggests that different gas extraction activities — drilling versus production — produce different chemical emissions, according to DeCarlo.

Data from this study was compared to the team’s 2012 findings in the same area, which was the first effort to measure background levels of various atmospheric pollutants associated with shale gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The team traversed the area using Drexel’s Mobile Laboratory, a Ford cargo van equipped with all the equipment necessary for measuring concentrations of chemicals and particles in the air at 1-10 second intervals while driving.

This sort of ground-level monitoring is a useful way to collect data because the sample air is the same that residents of the area are exposed to. The team covered a large portion of the northeast region of Pennsylvania that included parts of Bradford, Clinton, Columbia, Luzerne, Lycoming, Potter, Susquehanna and Tioga counties and northeast and north central Pennsylvania.

“Our 2015 field study covered a larger spatial area and was funded to focus on pipeline and pipeline technology,” DeCarlo said. “But we also overlapped with the 2012 study area and were able to cross check the background concentrations of several pollutants and found the methane levels were higher while the carbon monoxide levels were lower in the overlap regions.”

Initial measurements in 2012 showed methane levels at 1960 parts per billion — roughly 50 parts per billion higher than would be expected in a rural area without natural gas development. Three years later that concentration jumped another 100 parts per billion. Atmospheric concentrations without natural gas development rose at 6 parts per billion, so this increase is quite substantial compared to the global increase, according to DeCarlo.   

Overall natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale region has climbed to 16 billion cubic feet per day, which is twice as much as any other unconventional natural gas resource in the country, according to the researchers. Over the last three years alone, production of natural gas from the region more than doubled, despite the fact that there were about half as many new wells drilled in 2015 as there were in 2012, according to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection figures cited in the paper.

“Though the rate at which new wells are being drilled and completed has slowed down, the overall infrastructure, and production has increased,” DeCarlo said. “That means that the volume of gas moving through pipelines, compressor stations and processing plants is increasing. If the leakage rate of methane is constant per cubic foot of gas, it would not be surprising that the background methane has increased as much as it has while other pollutants like carbon monoxide, which is more associated with drilling and trucking, are showing a decline.”

This finding could also suggest that measures taken by natural gas producers to decrease leakage from well completions, while still necessary, are not sufficient to reduce methane leakage in the Marcellus Shale region. And with the bulk of environmental protection regulations from the PADEP focusing on ground water contamination, it is possible that atmospheric emissions from the natural gas infrastructure could persist until research can more clearly identify the source of the leaks and identify the impact of specific emissions on public health.

The team also used the methodology developed for this study to analyze data from other studies such as the SENEX campaign, undertaken by NOAA researchers from a research aircraft in 2013. The new methodology lays out a roadmap for analysis that can be applied to datasets from other groups and will allow researchers to monitor the background levels of various pollutants in the region as natural gas extraction continues.

“This study is a snapshot from three years development in the Marcellus Shale region,” DeCarlo said. “While it has clearly demonstrated trends in various pollutant emissions and subsequent atmospheric background levels, continued monitoring in these regions in Pennsylvania are required to track the continued impact of natural gas development and production infrastructure on sparsely monitored areas of the state.”

Read the entire study here: https://www.elementascience.org/articles/182/

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People Aren’t The Only Beneficiaries of Power Plant Carbon Standards

From: Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.    Date: 01/04/2017

When the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Clean Power Plan in 2015 it exercised its authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions to protect public welfare. The Plan, now the focus of escalating debate, also put the nation on course to meet its goals under the Paris Climate Agreement. Given that other pollutants are emitted from power plants—along with carbon dioxide—research has shown that carbon emission standards for the power sector benefit human health. New research released today shows that they would also benefit crops and trees.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

WVU researchers to investigate methane emissions in shale gas development

From the article at The State Journal, Dec 06, 2013

A team of researchers at West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions will study the amount of methane emitted from dual fuel engines in the development of shale gas.

According to WVU, one of the biggest costs associated with shale gas development and utilization comes from the use of diesel fuel. Diesel engines power everything associated with well development, including the trucks that move equipment to a well site, the drilling rig itself and the compressors used for the hydraulic stimulation of wells.

Several companies are looking into possibly converting those engines to a mix of diesel and natural gas to reduce operating costs while using a domestic fuel source.

The WVU research team will look into the amount of methane emissions associated with dual fuel and dedicated natural gas technologies because of a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Andrew Nix, principal investigator and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will lead the CAFEE team, which has a history of conducting alternative fuels research, in collecting data from in-use equipment operating in the Marcellus Shale region.

“This collection will help us identify and quantify in-use fugitive methane emissions,” Nix said. “Our next step will be to develop test cycles to conduct additional laboratory testing at CAFEE’s Engines and Emissions Research Laboratory to mitigate fugitive methane.”

Phyllis Carr, 58, and her family share a house and a trailer in a valley along Hope Hollow Road in Fayette County near Lake Lynn, PA.  On the hill above her home, three natural gas compressors operated by Williams Pipeline noisily work away.  But it’s not the noise that has turned Phyllis’s life into a nightmare; it’s the fumes.   Since 2005, when the first compressor was installed, the family has suffered headaches, sore throats, and sinus congestion.  In 2010, the severity and frequency of symptoms intensified as two more compressors and a dehydrator were placed in service.  ”A strong chlorine-like smell comes in waves, usually in the early evening,” Phyllis said. “A good whiff will put blisters up your nose.” Last week, grandson PJ, 11, was allowed to play outside for one hour.  He was sent home from school the next day because he developed a skin rash. Other grandchildren, Rhonda,15,  and Daniel, 10, developed skin rashes and blisters after walking to the school bus.  In October, her daughter Jeannie, 37,  was treated at the emergency room  for  rashes and blisters on her neck and arms, the exposed skin.  Jeannie covered her skin when outdoors after the ER visit, but in a second incident, she developed blisters in her nose.  ”The doctors had never seen anything like it,” Jeannie said.  In November, she was treated at Jefferson Hospital for weakness and respiratory distress.  At that time, a blood test revealed traces of toxicity and a nurse advised her to leave the family home rather than risk further exposure.  Today, Jeannie reports, “Even after all the creams and all the steroids, my face still has lesions.  It won’t go away. I have scars on my throat.”

The family contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.  Per Ms. Carr, in October they were visited by an inspector from PADEP.  However, two days before the inspector arrived to investigate, 2 of the 3 compressors were idled.  When the family followed up with the inspector, he assured them that no problems were detected.   But the Carr family did not accept that conclusion.   They began communicating with Calvin Tillman, mayor of Dish, Texas.  Dish experienced problems with benzene in the air from natural gas operations.  Mr. Tillman responded to their plight by quietly providing them with an air sample collection canister which they hung from a tree in the backyard for 24 hours, then returned to Mr. Tillman.  The results of that air analysis revealed measurable levels of several toxic compounds including acetone, benzene, chloromethane, ethanol, hexane, methylene chloride, and toluene.