Scientific Evidence?

Wheeling Water Warriors Oppose GreenHunter Water Works

From Article by Shelly Hanson, Wheeling Intelligencer, May 15, 2013

WHEELING – Members of the Wheeling Water Warriors asked the Wheeling-Ohio County Board of Health on Tuesday to take a stand against GreenHunter Water’s plans to open a natural gas frack water recycling plant in Warwood.

GreenHunter already owns the property on North 28th Street, but Wheeling officials maintain it must receive a zone change from the city for a portion of property containing Ohio River docks in order to use the site to load waste on barges. Company officials have estimated up to 30 trucks per day will bring wastewater to the site, where it will be stored in tanks. They hope to eventually place it on barges for further transport after it is recycled.

Some people are concerned about the hazardous chemicals and radioactive elements contained in the water and about it possibly spilling into the Ohio River or the neighborhood, both of which are about a mile north of the city’s water treatment plant. GreenHunter also must receive permission to transport the water via barges from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Office of Management and Budget and the Coast Guard.

Board Chairman Dr. John Holloway said he personally is concerned about the water, but the board needs scientific evidence showing the impact such a facility could have on public health in order to take a position on the issue. Right now, he said, there is no such evidence.

“Personally, I recognize the importance of the issue, and it is very troubling for me speaking as an individual and as a Wheeling resident. I get my water from the river, too,” Holloway said. “As far as this board of health, we are in no position to make a scientific determination about safety – we don’t have those resources. To make a judgment … I don’t think we are in position to say it’s OK or not OK. We cannot go by anecdotes. We have to go by science, and the science is lacking.”

Health Officer Dr. William Mercer said the health department has been researching drilling-related issues and keeping an eye on what has occurred in other states.

“We’re in a bit of a Catch-22. The fracking is here and it’s ongoing. We’re concerned about all the water being used and, ironically, here’s a plant that would reduce the amount of water being used – it helps the situation. … Ironically, a plant that reuses water instead of putting it into injection wells, that sounds like a good idea, but can it be safe?” Mercer said.

He added the health department is partnering with West Virginia University in an air quality study on drilling sites and their impact on people’s health via data from local hospitals. This study does not take into account the impact on water, he added. The results are not expected to be ready anytime soon.

Board members were invited to attend a “community meeting” on the matter set for 7 p.m. May 22 in City Council chambers at the City-County Building, 1500 Chapline Street, Wheeling, WV.

Photoionization Detector

Air Quality Monitoring Near Marcellus Well Pads

Exerpted from an article in the Wheeling Intelligencer by Tyler Reynard, December 10th

WHEELING, WV.   West Virginia University and the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department are gathering data to determine if drilling for natural gas impacts the local air quality.

“We want to eventually be able to look at whether there are health effects that are associated with living near a Marcellus (Shale) gas drilling site while it’s in operation,” said Michael McCawley, chairman of the West Virginia University School of Public Health.

In numerous legal advertisements over the past year, driller Chesapeake Energy confirmed the company has the “potential to discharge” various amounts of the following materials – both from its well sites and from the compressor stations at Battle Run and Sand Hill – into the Ohio County air: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, formaldehyde and nitrogen oxides.

For their study, officials are relying on photoionization detectors, which monitor organic compounds in the air. Some people residing near well pads in Ohio County have volunteered to participate in the study by allowing the instruments to be placed on their property. The detectors are already in place at a few sites in the county, and organizers will soon add a few more. The equipment will be moved to different locations throughout the county over the next six months to ensure the results are comprehensive.

McCawley said the process of selecting where to place the instruments was a “complex issue.” Study organizers considered wind direction and topography, and sought locations with a clear path between the measurement instruments and active well sites.

The instruments would also assist natural gas companies in monitoring any emissions being produced from their well sites, McCawley pointed out. He added that local companies have been very cooperative with the initial phases of the study.

NOTE: The original article includes a photograph of Somu Chatterjee, of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department and Michael McCawley of West Virginia University as they test a photoionization detector.

Compressor Station Flare

Doctor Says Drilling Making Air Worse

CASEY JUNKINS, Staff Writer for the Wheeling Intelligencer & News-Register wrote the following article, as published on September 2^nd:

During his 30 years practicing medicine in the Wheeling area, Dr. Michael Blatt has routinely treated patients for asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease and other respiratory problems. Blatt believes the natural gas drilling sites and compressor stations scattered throughout the region are going to contribute to more breathing problems in the Ohio Valley, especially for those living in the rural areas with nearby gas operations.

“I have worked in this community for 30 years and I’m very cognizant of the respiratory disease issues that will be compounded by the addition of these emissions to the atmosphere,” Blatt wrote recently in an objection letter to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection regarding Chesapeake Energy’s permit application to emit several air pollutants from the Dytko well pad, located along Stone Church Road.

The “potential to emit” amounts of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and other chemicals that may be released at the sites can vary, depending on the type of operations involved, according to legal advertisements posted by Chesapeake. In addition to the pollution from the well sites, Chesapeake also will release emissions from its local compressor stations. One of these is just off the Interstate 70 Dallas Pike exit near The Highlands, while another is in the Sand Hill area near the Marshall/Ohio County border.

Chesapeake confirmed the potential to discharge various amounts of these materials on an annual basis from their compressor operations: carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide equivalent, benzene and formaldehyde. There will also be various amounts of volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, acetaldehyde, acrolein, ethylbenzene, methanol, n-hexane, toluene, xylenes and nitrous oxide.

Blatt – who also lives along Stone Church Road near the Dytko pad – has “major concerns about venting these gases from this well pad by the flaring or burn off process.” “Approximately 100 people live within 3,000 feet of this well pad. A number of families have young children and are growing up within 200 feet of this well pad,” he wrote the West Virginia DEP.

“In particular, carbon monoxide of 40.28 tons per year will be produced by this well pad. This is of grave concern because the exposure to respiratory disease and creation of the ozone layer are toxic to lung disease,” Blatt continued regarding the Dytko well.

Stacey Brodak, senior director of corporate development for Chesapeake, emphasized the proposed emission levels “meet the same stringent requirements as any other facility and are within the allowable emission limits.”  “We support the role of the DEP to regulate the emissions at our facilities, including asking for and receiving public comments. We trust in the DEP’s ability to evaluate those comments and place them in the appropriate context,” she added.

Even if the emission levels fall within the DEP’s standards, Blatt said public officials need to consider the possible negative impacts. “My major concern is for the health and welfare of the children of Stone Church Road as well as for the elderly who have chronic debilitating diseases as the result of living and working in the Ohio Valley. Exacerbation of this health crisis is, I believe, an eminent danger,” he said.

Chesapeake is also now awaiting a DEP permit to drill on property owned by the Park System Trust Fund of Wheeling, roughly 1,300 feet from Wheeling Park High School. So far, at least 20 individual residents have sent objections to the DEP regarding the well site, as have the Ohio County Board of Education, the Ohio County Commission and the city of Wheeling.

Chesapeake officials have only said they have engaged with the parties affected by the drilling site, including the Ohio County Board of Education members and Superintendent’s Office. They also emphasize the well site will be more than twice the 625-foot legal limit away from an “occupied dwelling,” as defined by state law.

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The Associated Press released the following article on September 1^st:

Studies on health impacts of drilling seek funds

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A much-publicized plan by two Pennsylvania health companies to study possible impacts from gas drilling is only in the preliminary stages as the groups continue to look for major funding. Meanwhile, a group that has been examining similar questions is starting to focus on air quality, as precise numbers of people who’ve had health complaints linked to drilling remain elusive.

Geisinger Health Systems of Danville and Guthrie Health of Sayre are in the planning stages of examining how people might be affected by gas drilling activity. Geisinger spokeswoman Marcy Marshall said the company has received $100,000 from a local charitable organization and is seeking other grants. The initial funding will pay for the planning stage and some pilot studies, she said.

Guthrie spokeswoman Maggie Barnes said the company hasn’t received any funding or started research. Guthrie will seek future grants and do research in collaboration with Geisinger.

Raina Rippel of the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project said their next big push will be on air quality. “We have plans in the works to look at personal monitors people could wear” to detect harmful levels of natural gas, she said. Rippel said there’ve been “dozens” of complaints in the community they serve, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, and some patterns are emerging. But the nonprofit group hasn’t conclusively linked the complaints to nearby drilling.

Until a few months ago, Pennsylvania public health officials had expected to get a share of the revenue being generated by the state’s new Marcellus Shale law, which is projected to provide about $180 million to state and local governments in the first year.

But representatives from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s office and the state Senate cut the health appropriation to zero during final negotiations, so now the state Department of Health is left with a new workload but no funding to examine whether gas drilling impacts health. A Congressional committee in June also turned down an Obama administration request to fund $4.25 million in research on how drilling may affect water quality.

Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, was at an academic conference in Canada on shale gas drilling this week.  He says “All I’ve heard here confirms the relative lack of available U.S. funding for the needed health research.”

Ohio County, WV

This story about Ohio County in West Virginia was published by Casey Junkins on July 23rd in the Wheeling Intelligencer and has appeared in other papers:

Sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde are some of the chemicals Chesapeake Energy is likely to pump into the air in Ohio County from its numerous drilling sites, company information states.

Earlier this year, Chesapeake officials confirmed plans to build local compressor stations that may release these and other chemicals into the atmosphere. Now, the company is identifying “potential to emit” levels for several potentially hazardous materials from its well drilling sites.

“The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has primacy to regulate air emissions from all industries, including oil and gas operations, to protect public health and the environment. Chesapeake works with the agency on a regular basis to comply with, and usually exceed, the requirements,” said Stacey Brodak, Chesapeake’s senior director of corporate development.

Chesapeake Energy is again drilling at the Minch pad in Ohio County, where the company plans to extract natural gas from beneath Oglebay Park. The company plans to frack under the park before the end of this year.

In four separate legal advertisements, Chesapeake is seeking permits from the West Virginia DEP’s Division of Air Quality to release several pollutants from four of its Ohio County well sites. The notices state that the DEP intends to issue the permits, but is providing public notice to allow for comments and discussion.

The well sites are situated in the areas of:

– Gantzer Ridge Road on the south side of Interstate 70, near The Highlands.

– Stone Church Road, near the Elm Grove section of Wheeling.

– Garrison Road, near West Liberty.

– Laidley Run Road in the southeastern part of the county.

Fact Box: MAKE A COMMENT

Those wishing to comment on the four Chesapeake Energy air quality permits for Ohio County natural gas drilling sites have until 5 p.m. Aug. 15 to submit them to: Roy Kees, P.E.; West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection; Division of Air Quality; 601 57th St., SE; Charleston, WV 25304.

“It is vitally important to understand that the emissions listed in the legal notice are representative of a conservative potential to emit level typical of the air permitting process and not necessarily indicative of the actual annual emissions of the site,” Brodak said. “Emissions levels vary depending on several factors including gas composition, well head pressure, volume of condensate and the production equipment.”

The amounts of the particulates that may be released at the four sites slightly vary. The carbon monoxide projections, for example, range from 40 tons per year to 61.5 tons per year to be released from a single site.

The potential to emit levels for sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde are substantially less than those for carbon monoxide.

Chesapeake is also now awaiting a DEP permit to drill on property owned by the Park System Trust Fund of Wheeling, roughly 1,300 feet from Wheeling Park High School. So far, at least 20 people have sent objections to the DEP regarding the well site, as have the Ohio County Board of Education, the Ohio County Commission and the city of Wheeling.

So far, Chesapeake officials have only said that they have engaged with the parties affected by the drilling site, including the Ohio County Board of Education members and superintendent’s office. They also emphasize the well site will be more than twice the 625-foot legal limit away from an “occupied dwelling,” as defined by state law.

In addition to the pollution from the well sites, Chesapeake also will release emissions from its local compressor stations. One of these is just off the Interstate 70 Dallas Pike exit near The Highlands, while another is in the Sand Hill area near the Marshall/Ohio County border.

Chesapeake, in a legal advertisement earlier this year, confirmed the “potential to discharge” the following amounts of these materials on an annual basis from the operations at the compressor stations: carbon dioxide – 93,800 tons; nitrogen oxides – 82.96 tons; carbon monoxide – 16.87 tons; methane – 86.64; carbon dioxide equivalent – 95,667 tons; benzene – 0.33 tons; and formaldehyde – 3.22 tons.