As part of its series of recommendations to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Commission, the State’s Department of Health wants to create a health registry of individuals who live in close proximity to drill sites or are occupationally exposed.  According to the spokeswoman from the department, Brandi Hunter-Davenport, more data and investigations are needed in order to conclude whether adverse health effects can be linked with Marcellus Shale drilling.

Dr. Bernard Goldstein of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities said that, ”What the health department needs, what we need in the public, is a prospective ongoing study of people in communities potentially affected by Marcellus Shale activities.  That means looking at what their exposures are and trying to understand whether or not there will really be health effects.”

Read the full article here…

After an improper casing on one of Chesapeake Energy’s Marcellus wells led to the contamination of private water supplies for 16 families in Bradford County, Pa in 2010, and a tank fire injured three workers in February, Pennsylvania DEP has charged the company with the largest single fine it has ever issued to an oil and gas driller– nearly $1.1 million.  In addition to the fines, the families affected by these incidents are pursuing legal action.  The contamination of the Bradford County wells with methane and the fine imposed are unrelated to the recent  blowout of a Chesapeake well and the stream contamination related to that event in the same county.  This announcement comes only days after Chesapeake Energy declared that it would resume hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania, having voluntarily suspending operations for three weeks in response to a blowout in Bradford County.  This incident, along with the recent Duke study linking hydraulic fracturing to groundwater contamination, have caused Congress to create a new panel to evaluate the safety of hydraulic fracturing.  Set up by the US Department of Energy, the panel will present its preliminary recommendations to Congress in 90 days.

With a week remaining in the 2011 West Virginia Legislative Session, almost everything dealing with water is still up in the air.  Will there be consideration for the public water supplies, for surface land owners, for the conservation of our watersheds, for the quality of life in West Virginia’s hills?

Regulation of Marcellus Shale drilling  is still alive, but just barely. The Senate has passed and sent to the House SB 424, a greatly pared down version of the bill proposed by the WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Putting it on the “special calendar” can keep the issue alive until the end of the session on March 12.

What is still needed in SB 424? Horizontal wells need to be 1000 feet from occupied dwellings and water wells unless a variance is granted. Horizontal wells must be inspected during each phase of cementing, completing and altering before the company can proceed. Produced (blow-back) water must be maintained in a closed system, and recycled to the extent possible before disposal. Studies of radioactivity and air pollution must be conducted. Inspectors must be selected and trained by the WV DEP.

The Water Quality Standards Rule (47CSR2) has now been “bundled” with all the rest of the WV-DEP proposed rules and sent to the House, where restoring the 500 ppm TDS standard will be opposed by the same industry lobbyists who opposed it in the Senate.

You can help by visiting, calling or faxing your representatives in the House of Delegates.

In the third article in a series about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, Ian Urbana of the New York Times tracks 25 years of government officials and industry influence has not only limited the scope of EPA research, but kept results of those studies secret.

“It was like the science didn’t matter,”said Carla Greathouse, author of a 1987 study that concluded some gas drilling waste was hazardous and should be tightly controlled. “The industry was going to get what it wanted, and we were not supposed to stand in the way.” Greathouse’s experience was not an isolated incidence.

Now, the EPA is about to undertake a broad new study to examine the potential risks of natural gas drilling and preliminary results are scheduled to be released next year.  As pressure to find alternatives to foreign oil rises along with gas prices, will history repeat itself? Read the full article here…

EPA officials announced a draft plan on Tuesday, February 8 to study hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas drilling from a “life cycle” approach, following the water from acquisition to the post-fracturing stage, including flow-back and disposal.

Requested by Congressional Democrats, this call for science is a reaction to hydraulic fracturing’s exemption from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.  Congressional Republicans and industry have opposed the plan,  insisting that the process poses no threat to drinking water.

The results from this study would be very valuable to have today, as West Virginia Senators and Delegates debate whether there is comprehensive science demonstrating the need for strict protections of the state’s ground water and streams.  However,  the study won’t be completed until next year, with a follow-up in 2014.  The draft plan suggests that other risks, such as air quality, occupational risks, and ecosystem effects also be comprehensively examined in the future.  Click here to download a copy of the plan…

An air monitoring study by Pennsylvania’s DEP concluded that emissions from Marcellus Shale natural gas operations in Northeast Pennsylvania do not pose a risk to human health in the short term.  Potential cumulative impacts, like a lifetime cancer risk analysis, require a long-term study of at least one year.

The study was conducted at four drilling sites in Susquehanna county from August to October.  Found in samples were the basic components of natural gas: methane, butane, propane, ethane, as well as CO, the gasoline additive methy tertiary butyl ether, and the odor-producing compound methyl mercaptan.

A similar study was conducted in North Central Pennsylvania’s Washington and Greene counties. Those results are currently being analyzed.

Find the full report on the PA DEP website here…

The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University has released a study of the economic benefits to the State of the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry, according to an article in the Charleston Gazette. In 2009, the study shows, West Virginia’s natural gas industry generated more than $12 billion in business, created more than 24,000 jobs in the state and paid more than $550 million in wages.

The economic impact of the Marcellus Shale development in the state in 2009 was calculated to be $2.35 billion of business volume and accounted for the generation of 7,600 jobs. Marcellus Shale is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas thus the development of the Shale is expected to continue to have a significant economic impact on the state in the future. This report examines these impacts for 2010 to 2015 in addition to the legal, regulatory, and environmental considerations.

Titled “The Economic Impact of the Natural Gas Industry and the Marcellus Shale Development in West Virginia,” the study is available at  www.bber.wvu.edu.

West Virginia severance taxes are now 5 percent of the gross value of natural gas production – higher than the other states. However, the new report adds, “For overall state and local tax burden, West Virginia’s general tax policy climate is relatively more conducive to natural gas industry operability than other states with significant Marcellus Shale deposits.”

West Virginia legislators are now considering whether to regulate fracking. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is examining the fracking process to determine whether it endangers supplies of drinking water, as many critics argue. Environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, believe Marcellus Shale drilling could have long-term negative environmental impacts.

The following was released yesterday by Jalil Isa at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 9, 2010

Eight of Nine U.S. Companies Agree to Work with EPA Regarding Chemicals Used in Natural Gas Extraction

EPA conducting congressionally mandated study to examine the impact of the hydraulic fracturing process on drinking water quality; Halliburton subpoenaed after failing to meet EPA’s voluntary requests for information

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that eight out of the nine hydraulic fracturing companies that received voluntary information requests in September have agreed to submit timely and complete information to help the agency conduct its study on hydraulic fracturing. However, the ninth company, Halliburton, has failed to provide EPA the information necessary to move forward with this important study. As a result, and as part of the agency’s effort to move forward as quickly as possible, today EPA issued a subpoena to the company requiring submission of the requested information that has yet to be provided.

EPA’s congressionally mandated hydraulic fracturing study will look at the potential adverse impact of the practice on drinking water and public health. The agency is under a tight deadline to provide initial results by the end of 2012 and the thoroughness of the study depends on timely access to detailed information about the methods used for fracturing. EPA announced in March that it would conduct this study and solicit input from the public through a series of public meetings in major oil and gas production regions. The agency has completed the public meetings and thousands of Americans from across the country shared their views on the study and expressed full support for this effort.

On September 9, EPA reached out to nine leading national and regional hydraulic fracturing service providers – BJ Services, Complete Production Services, Halliburton, Key Energy Services, Patterson-UTI, RPC, Inc., Schlumberger, Superior Well Services, and Weatherford – seeking information on the chemical composition of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process, data on the impacts of the chemicals on human health and the environment, standard operating procedures at their hydraulic fracturing sites and the locations of sites where fracturing has been conducted.

Except for Halliburton, the companies have either fully complied with the September 9 request or made unconditional commitments to provide all the information on an expeditious schedule.

More information on the subpoena and mandatory request for information on Halliburton’s hydraulic fracturing operations: http://www.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing

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