Will you let this happen (again & again)?

It’s Not Water Under the Bridge

Editorial, Morgantown Dominion Post, February 27, 2015

You better believe history has a way of repeating itself. Take for instance our state leaders, and agencies, long history of allowing industry to have its way with our natural resources.

Never mind the collateral damage done to our environment, especially our water resources. At least it was that way until March 8, 2014, or so we thought.

That was the date when the state Legislature unanimously approved Senate Bill 373 in response to a massive chemical spill into the Elk River. That spill contaminated the water supply of 300,000 state residents in a nine-county region resulting in a tap water ban for nearly a week. But soon after that legislation was passed, some warned that protecting our water does not end with passing a bill.

Industry never sleeps and would keep the pressure on government through its well-financed lobby. As one WVU law professor put it at the time, “While you’re not paying attention, they are.” Guess what? We have not been paying attention.

This week the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced legislation to the Senate floor that basically guts SB 373. Though the new legislation — Senate Bill 423 — still requires all above-ground storage tanks to be registered with the state, it drops practically all regulation for about 36,000 of those 48,000 tanks.

The new bill purportedly targets tanks in zones of critical concern and a newly defined zone of peripheral concern to public water intakes, rather than protecting groundwater in general.

What that means is, if you rely on a private groundwater well or other such water supply you had better hope there are no above-ground storage tanks nearby. It also drastically reshapes how many industries need to apply for permits, allowing them to opt out of the separate permit process for their storage tanks if they already fall under some other regulatory tool.

Some have estimated that as a result of this provision, fewer than 100 tanks will be subject to the regular strict inspections.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) secretary was quick to point out recently that the bill the governor sought last year — SB 417 — was not as stringent as the one lawmakers ultimately passed. That was the legislation whose opening paragraphs talked about protecting industry, rather than our water resources. It was the one that died a quiet death once the public got a look at it and started to make some noise.

Something tells us the public needs to start making some more noise again — at SB 423. And if they don’t hear you now, you can always get their attention at the ballot box on November 8, 2016.

Lax Oversight of Pipelines is Chronic Problem

Editorial, Lancaster PA New Era, May 13, 2014

Reports critical of federal government oversight of the natural gas industry should give pause to Lancaster County residents as they face the prospect of a Marcellus Shale natural gas pipeline traversing the county.

One report, by the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General, says the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — the federal agency responsible for making sure states effectively oversee the safety of natural gas and other pipelines — is not ensuring key state inspectors are properly trained or that inspections are being conducted frequently enough.

Also, the agency isn’t making sure that inspections target the most risky pipelines, the report said.

The second report, by the Government Accountability Office, found that the U.S. government has neglected to inspect thousands of oil and natural gas wells that pose a potential threat to the environment.

In addition, the GAO uncovered outdated technologies still in use and lax safety regulations. Both reports raise the specter of an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

The safety administration defended its record, pointing to a two-thirds decline in accidents and incidents involving gas-distribution pipelines over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management — identified in the GAO report as the root of the problem of high risk oil and gas wells — claimed to be hampered by “limited money and staff.”

The reports should concern Lancaster County residents who worry about the impact of the proposed Central Penn Line South pipeline project that follows the Susquehanna River corridor.

Residents’ concerns center largely on the environmental impact of the project and potential safety risks from explosions and leaking gas.

Representatives from Williams Partners, the company behind the pipeline, have offered assurances that they are committed to environmental stewardship. Williams’ Cindy Ivey said the goal is to “avoid, minimize and then mitigate” natural resources.

They also said the pipeline will be closely monitored to assure its safety and that of the public.

Those assurances now ring somewhat hollow in light of the scathing reports about lax oversight of the nation’s 2.5 million miles of pipelines that move, among other things, 55 billion cubic feet of natural gas every day.   

Gas Pipelines Multiply in WV

Diesel exhausts near Barr family home

Marcellus Shale impacts still large in Wetzel County

From an Article by Mandi Cardosi, WTRF 7 News, Wheeling, WV, April 11, 2014

Wetzel County has always been a producer of natural gas, but a boom in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling really put it on the map for the Mountain State. Since 2008, the county at the base of the Northern Panhandle saw an increase in drilling by 6,000 percent.

A recent collaborative research effort looking into the shale drilling was released to show the effects of the oil and gas industry on West Virginia, among other surrounding states. The Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative, of which the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy participated in, released case studies April 10, which examined the impacts of shale oil and gas drilling in four active communities.

Read the case studies HERE.

The study looked at Carroll County in Ohio, Greene and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania and Wetzel County in West Virginia.

West Virginia is unique in that companies have been taking actions to sever surface rights from mineral rights, meaning some individuals do not own the mineral right so their land. This means some residents don’t have control over fracking on their property and are limited in being compensated from the oil and gas companies.

“Overall, the impact is unclear with how much royalty payments are flowing in,” said Sean O’Leary, fiscal policy analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. “Local officials will note jobs in gas industry are going to out of state workers.”

Unemployment in the county remains 3 percent higher than the state average at over 10 percent. ”There hasn’t been a population boom as you see in other counties (including Pennsylvania and Ohio drilling counties),” O’Leary said. “The population continues to decline – you’re also not seeing new home constructions, sales, real estate prices are the same.”

The community in Wetzel County was, according to the WVCBP, still impacted by the industry in the fact that officials were caught off-guard when it came to town, so to speak.

O’Leary said his best advice for communities would be proper planning, as Wetzel County has a task force of county leaders to discuss road damage from heavy truck traffic as well as other primary concerns.

By promising more jobs, the oil and gas industry hasn’t delivered in many cases and Wetzel County continues to suffer from the double-digit unemployment despite having some of the highest natural gas production in the region, the WVBPC said.

“In Wetzel County the Marcellus shale boom has brought some growth but less development,” said Ted Boettner, executive director of the WVCBP. “This highlights why it is so important for communities to enact policies that ensure that they are better off, not worse off, after the drilling subsides.”

Encana Oil & Gas frack site

Colorado First State to Clamp Down on Fracking Methane Pollution

From the Article by Jennifer Oldham, Bloomberg News, February 23, 2014

Colorado regulators approved groundbreaking controls on emissions from oil and natural gas operations after an unusual coalition of energy companies and environmentalists agreed on measures to counter worsening smog.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Noble Energy Inc., and Encana Corp., among the state’s largest oil and gas producers, worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to craft regulations approved yesterday by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission that would fix persistent leaks from tanks and pipes.

Emissions from oil and gas operations contribute to thickening smog that exceeds federal ozone guidelines along Denver’s picturesque backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. Such pollution includes methane, a source of climate-changing greenhouse gas. The haze prompted Governor John Hickenlooper to ask energy companies and environmentalists to come together to write the first-of-their-kind rules.

“This is a model for the country,” said Dan Grossman, the defense fund’s Rocky Mountain regional director. “We’ve got this simmering battle between the oil and gas industry and neighborhoods throughout the state that are being faced with development. That degree of acrimony is pushing the industry and policy makers to look for ways to get some wins.”

Drilling in Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Ohio that is fueling the nation’s energy boom is also moving closer to communities, forcing state regulators to address complaints of noise and traffic and concerns about potential contamination risks to air and water. Citing these worries, five Colorado communities voted to restrict a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Under Pressure

To appease residents, state lawmakers are looking for measures that allow them to monitor and control drilling activities while still reaping millions in taxes from increased energy production. Over the course of a year, the new regulations will remove enough volatile organic compounds from the air to equal those emitted by every car and truck in the state, backers said.

The Air Quality Control Commission approved the rules 8 to 1 yesterday after five days of hearings, rejecting revisions that would have exempted smaller wells and applied the regulations only to operators in areas that routinely violate federal air quality standards.

Unusual Approach

Air quality rules in other states are often driven by regulatory agencies, which highlights the unusual collaboration between environmentalists and energy companies on Colorado’s measures governing methane emissions, Curtis Rueter, a Denver-based development manager at Noble Energy, said in a telephone interview.

“This is the right thing to do for our business,” he said. “We want to find the leaks and fix them because that will reduce our emissions and the rules provide guidance and technology for us to do that.” The air pollution mandate divided powerful energy interests, environmental groups and lawmakers as some energy companies resisted the new rules.

Increased drilling in Colorado is likely to be an issue in the gubernatorial campaign this year. Fracking opponents say Hickenlooper, a former oil company geologist, is too cozy with the industry. His Republican challengers say regulations such as those requiring companies to test groundwater and disclose chemicals used in fracking — which the governor hails as among the toughest in the nation — restrict production.

Emissions during oil and gas operations represent the state’s largest source of volatile organic compounds that contribute to the formation of ozone, a ground-level pollutant linked to respiratory problems and decreased crop yields. Parts of Colorado violate national air quality standards for ozone.

Methane Effect

The mandates are also the first attempt by a state to regulate methane emissions from fracking. The main component of natural gas, methane is 20 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Infrared cameras show that methane and other gases escape during operations that pushed Colorado’s 2012 oil production to the highest in 55 years. The state is the U.S.’s sixth-largest producer of natural gas and ninth-biggest oil producer.

“This is a national issue that a lot of states that have significant oil and gas emissions are struggling with,” said Garry Kaufman, deputy director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Air Pollution Control Division, in testimony during the hearings.

The regulations require companies to install equipment to minimize leakage of toxic gases and to control or capture 95 percent of emissions. Energy producers would be required to routinely inspect well sites for leaks, as often as once a month, depending on how much oil or gas a well produces. When leaks are discovered, they must be fixed within 15 days.

‘Industry Concern’

There is “industry concern that the proposed rules may be a foregone political conclusion,” wrote lawyers representing the company, which operates 800 wells in the state that produce $120 million in royalties and property and severance taxes, “the 10 month stakeholder process appears to have been subverted at the final hour.”

Chevron and members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and the Colorado Petroleum Association calculated that costs to comply with the rules would be almost double what state regulators projected. The Air Pollution Control Division estimated costs at $40 million, while industry economists said they would be $100 million.

“These rules cost more than all prior oil and gas measures combined,” testified John Jacus, an attorney with Davis, Graham & Stubbs LLP who represents trade groups and other energy companies, during the hearings. “The rules have not been property evaluated by the division for their cost, both indirect and direct, and their cost to implement.”

Training Personnel

Companies supporting the rules said while they need time to invest in expensive equipment and to hire and train personnel on new systems, they are willing to shoulder the costs. “We estimate it’s going to cost Noble Energy $3 million dollars a year to comply with this rule,” testified Brian Lockard, the company’s director of environmental, health, safety and regulatory, at the hearing.  “That’s a heavy lift,” he added, saying cost estimates are based on a voluntary monitoring program the company’s been using. “We project we’re going to have to hire 16 additional people.”

Noble runs about 8,000 wells in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, where it plans to invest $12 billion over the next five years. Noble and Anadarko undertake 80 percent of all operations in the basin. Anadarko operates about 5,000 wells there and expects to invest $2 billion in the region this year.

Anadarko said the emissions mandates are necessary to ensure the companies’ investments pay off.  “We all live here, we all have families here and work here and we want to have clean air,” Korby Bracken, Anadarko’s Rockies’ environmental health and safety director, said in a telephone interview. “This provides us an additional piece to talk with community members about what oil and gas companies are doing to make sure we’re protecting the environment.”

WV-DEP Does Not Regulate the Dust from Marcellus Well Pads

From the Article by Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews | October 21, 2013 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two years have made a difference for the state Department of Environmental Protection in its oversight of the Marcellus Shale drilling industry in West Virginia.

Horizontal drilling for natural gas accelerated in the Mountain State in 2010. In March 2011, state lawmakers failed to pass a proposed bill regulating the industry. A special legislative committee working with Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin got a bill through later that year. [NOTE: This bill was weakened by the Governor compared with that developed by the Legislature.]

Tom Aluise of the WV-DEP told MetroNews that the Office of Oil and Gas has nearly doubled its staff in two years going from just 25 workers to 46. Thirty workers are now in the inspection and enforcement department with 27 of those out in the field.

“That helps us be more responsive to the public. Be more responsive to citizens’ complaints and be responsive to the industry as well as our efficiency at reviewing applications is improving,” Aluise said. The money from the additional staffing comes from that state law that significantly increased permit fees.

A change that’s expected to have a significant impact on the Marcellus Shale industry in West Virginia will come on line in the next few months. Aluise said an e-filing system for drilling permit applications will be a welcomed improvement.

Currently drilling permit applications are more than 1,000 pages long and if a company makes a mistake on that application the DEP has to return the paperwork for corrections. Aluise said the new e-filing system will not allow an application to be filed unless all of the information is included.

“We will be getting applications that are more complete. It’s going to create situations where we are able to more thoroughly and more quickly review these,” Aluise said.

DEP records show there are currently more than 1,000 horizontal wells in West Virginia. The agency has received more than 500 permit applications this year. Companies that are granted permits have two years to actually put a drilling site in place.

The top 5 counties for Marcellus Shale drilling since 2011 are Doddridge, Wetzel, Harrison, Marshall and Ritchie.

Groundswell protest

Commentary by S. Tom Bond of Lewis County, WV

Many areas now have moratoria or bans on shale drilling and / or hydraulic fracturing as presently conducted. The latest is Longmont, Colorado. Its city charter now bans the practice. Some 60% of the votes on Ballot Question 300 were against drilling and storage of drilling waste in the city. The population of Longmont was 86,270 as of the most recent census, the 13th largest city in Colorado.

The oil and gas industry fought the ban hard, giving half a million dollars to an opposing group. Last year a drilling company began to drill near Union Reservoir where people can enjoy fishing, swimming, no-wake boating, camping, windsurfing and picnicking. There has been a great deal of shale drilling in Colorado, and despite low population density, its effects are well known.

Those interested in more information are referred here.

And, for background information and current news see here.

Readers of FrackCheckWV.net are knowledgeable about many of political areas which have rejected drilling, at least for a time. Here is a partial list: New York State; Maryland; Vermont; Delaware River Basin; Catskill water supply region for New York City; Quebec (Canada); New South Wales (Australia);
France; Bulgaria; South Africa

Some other places where there is a strong anti-fracking movement: Illinois; California; Ohio (including Columbus); Nova Scotia (Canada) and New Brunswick (Canada).

FrackCheckWV.net does not oppose natural gas drilling per se. But, it is clear that many serious issue exist that are not receiving appropriate attention by the industry, by state governments, nor by the federal government. There are health problems due to air and water pollution, destruction of aquifers, threat to drinking water supply, destruction of wildlife and domestic animals, depreciation of property values, and such other values as hunting and fishing, recreation and quiet enjoyment of life.

The general environment should be protected. Public lands should be off limits for degradation. The public is catching on.

Everywhere shale drilling goes opposition occurs spontaneously, due to the same constellation of problems. Some of the groups formed are highly specialized. Chefs, wineries, some religious groups, organic farmers, fishermen, outdoor recreation enthusiasts, physicians, among others. Some are older environmental groups moving in a new direction. Where ever the population is most dense and best educated, the reaction is strongest.

Lawyers are very interested in these problems, too. Some are interested in helping get appropriate laws passed, like the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Some are interested in helping landowners, like Clark Law Firm. Some go for the big bucks. Shale drilling is a veritable feast for lawyers, on both sides.

The shale beds are believed to be the original source of gas and oil above them in the geological strata. Although the resource is large, it is not unlimited. Any kind of conservation for the future is un-thought-of. Resource recovery is only 10%, one of, perhaps the lowest of any petroleum recovery. There is no coordination of companies. It is “every man (corporation?) for himself, devil take the hindmost.”

Then there’s Global Warming. There is no sign of any substantial effort to get away from burning carbon as the principal source of energy by any industry or nation (except, perhaps Germany, the leader in solar). Gas burns cleaner, as the industry constantly reminds us, but the effect of escaped gas and the pollution at the source they ignore. All forms of carbon burning pollute at both ends, extraction and consumption.

We need rational policy and real regulation of extraction industries. We need a political agenda that works for the public, not the energy magnates. We need a world where our children and our children’s children can survive and enjoy a good life. If the industry can’t perform, regulation must come from somewhere. Whether you like it or not, government seems to be the only alternative.

The article below is from a story in The Morgantown Dominion Post on October 12, 2012 by David Beard.

THIS IS the first in a series of stories profiling the views of the candidates for West Virginia governor on a variety of issues: Democrat  Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Republican Bill Maloney, Mountain Party’s Jesse Johnson and Libertarian David Moran.

Tomblin and Maloney previously faced off in October 2011, when Tomblin narrowly defeated Maloney in the special gubernatorial election. Tomblin had served as acting governor from November 2011, when Gov. Joe Manchin resigned to take a U.S. Senate seat. That special election was for an abbreviated 14-month term; this is for a full four years.

Maloney is a Morgantown businessman who entered the spotlight in 2010, using his drilling expertise to aid the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners. Johnson has run twice before for governor, in 2004 and 2008, and twice for U.S. Senate, in 2006 and 2010 — the special election that sent Manchin to Washington. Moran is a political newcomer. He operates a Preston County farm, raising sheep and alpaca, and is an adjunct WVU professor. A retired engineer, he worked for the U.S. Navy and was a professor at the Naval Academy.

The Dominion Post interviewed all four — in person or by email — on a variety of topics. Here are their answers on Marcellus shale drilling and fracking in West Virginia:

     The future of fracking regulation

 1. Earl Ray Tomblin, Democratic Party

    The Legislature tried for three years to produce a bill and succeeded in December 2011 — the first such bill in the Appalachian basin. “I think we came a long way to get everybody where we’re at today. … I think the bill that we passed is working well now.”

    Of course, not everyone was happy with all of it. “I’m willing to look if there’s particular areas [with] additional changed we need to make. … I would not anticipate a whole lot of changes to where we’re at now.” If there are particular concerns, he’s willing to work with the Legislature to address them.

 2.  Bill  Maloney, Republican Party

    “The DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) can’t figure out what they’ve got on the books. I don’t think they want to change it again anytime soon. My initial reaction is we don’t need anything else. Everybody knows what the rules are; now let’s figure those out before we expand anything — make sure they’re working right.

    “We want every advantage we can have and creating more regulation is not going to make it any easier to get investment in West Virginia. It’s a huge resource. We’ve got to maximize the use of it for the benefit of the state. … That’s what business needs is certainty; the uncertainty is the biggest drawback to investment.”

 3.  Jesse  Johnson, Mountain Party

    “I believe there needs to be a moratorium put in place right now until we know more about what we’re doing.”  We’re not dealing with the evident problems: Surface owner rights, flowback frack water, scaling inside pipes, unprotected workers. “There are too many unanswered questions that need to be addressed.”

    And while there is constant talk of economic boom, Wetzel County, the state epicenter of Marcellus drilling, has among the highest unemployment in the state [Wetzel’s July unemployment was the sixth highest].

 4.      David Moran, Libertarian Party

    Additional legislation should include: “compensation to all property owners for energy extraction from under their property; bonding required from all energy extractors (drilling and fracking) with interest accrued as income to the State.

Please consult the Morgantown Dominion Post newspaper to see these responses in their hardcopy versions and to follow the series on the candidate’s responses to other topics.

Drilling Rig Lights The Night

New Words from the Japanese Nuclear Disaster Enter the Shale Drilling Vocabulary

The commission set up by Japan’s parliament to study the Fukushima accident came up with a term for the cozy relationship between Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The subduction of the NRA to the TEPCO allowed the accident to happen, it says.

The report states that upgrades needed to fix recognized deficiencies in the plant’s seismic and tsunami resistance were never carried out. They were never required by the government. This was due, the commission’s spokesman said, to “regulatory capture,” characterizing a situation where the regulatory agency acts on behalf of the industry it oversees, instead of representing the public interest.

This is the result, according to the spokesman for the commission, of “reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to sticking with the program; our groupism; and our insularity.” Sound familiar? Nuclear engineers (oil & gas industry engineers?) were cut off from the rest of the scientific community because the program was rapidly installed, with little input into the national policy from other scientific disciplines.

With shale drilling, the input which would have been beneficial from toxicology, physical chemistry, biology and ecology was bypassed in the rush for instant abundance of gas and wealth for the promoters. Very complicated new technology was finessed by practical people who were mainly interested in getting the job done quickly, without regard to how it would affect the rest of the world around them. Regulatory capture, long a strong suit of the petroleum industry, allowed them to do it.

Now the industry is in the position of denying the obvious results: the health effects, the environmental degradation, the property value destruction, the esthetic values and the corruption of the governmental process. An entire industry has arisen to spin the truth to favor rough extraction of far more natural gas than is presently needed. Time for additional research has been crowded out. Plans are now afoot to export the natural gas that was originally touted as the answer to our “national energy security.”

Hundreds of thousands of acres, an area the size of three Ohio Counties, is to be trampled under in the Marcellus area alone. Regulatory capture, indeed.

For more information about the commission’s findings see Science, 13 July 2012, p. 143.

S. Tom Bond, Farmer, Citizen, Lewis County, WV