Plastic pollution of micron size has spread throughout our lives

From a Video Presentation by Dr. Sherri Mason, Penn State — Erie Campus, March 1, 2021

Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has been publicized widely; we’ve heard about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Lesser known is the prevalence of microplastics in freshwater systems, which are conduits from land to the sea.

Dr. Sherri Mason, cutting-edge plastic pollution researcher and Sustainability Coordinator at Penn State Erie, will present an overview of what plastic is, its proliferation in our society, and its emergence as one of the most prominent environmental pollutants.

Dr. Sherri A. Mason completed her doctorate in Chemistry at the University of Montana as a NASA Earth System Science scholar. Her research group is among the first to study the prevalence and impact of plastic pollution within freshwater ecosystems. Among her many accolades Dr. Mason earned the Heinz Award in Public Policy in 2018.

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See also: Microplastics: An emerging threat to the Chesapeake Bay, David Alan, VRBO News Now, April 8, 2021

“You can see everything from water bottles to plastic bags,” said Chris Moore with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. We found a sneaker, dozens of construction hard hats, even a traffic drum. Every bit of trash we saw as we walked the shoreline was the ugly side of our reliance on plastics. The bigger problem is some of these larger plastic objects will break down here in the hot sun. Some of the trash will end up back in the bay to be torn apart by tides, forming microplastics.

The tiny specks of plastic — some invisible to the naked eye — pose a significant risk to a host of juvenile finfish found in the Chesapeake Bay. There are concerns that oysters and clams may be trying to filter microplastics and cannot. Microplastic contamination is not just a concern for the environment. A 2016 study showed the commercial seafood industry in Virginia and Maryland contributed $1.4 billion in sales and 30,000 jobs to the local economy.

Selected Frack Chemicals -- Wilma Subra

Two more lawsuits filed against Antero for fracking damages

From an Article by Kyla Asbury, WV Record, January 27, 2016

Charleston, WV — Two more lawsuits have been filed against Antero Resources Corporation for damages due to the company’s fracking practices.

Antero Resources Appalachian Corporation and Hall Drilling LLC were also named as defendants in the suits.

Slathial A. Simmons, Tracie D. Simmons and E.T.S., a minor; and Kenna Sue Adams filed motions to join already filed cases to an existing mass litigation, according to two complaints filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

James C. Peterson and Aaron L. Harrah of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; and Anthony J. Majestro and J.C. Powell of Powell & Majestro moved that the civil actions join in to the existing Marcellus Shale litigation currently pending in Ohio Circuit Court.

In support of the motion, the plaintiffs state that these firms already represented more than 200 plaintiffs in similar actions and the allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaints of nuisance and negligence are similar to those already alleged, according to the motions.

The plaintiffs claims are similar to previously filed lawsuits, which claim that the plaintiffs own property in close proximity to numerous well pads owned, operated, drilled, maintained and otherwise controlled by the defendants.

The defendants’ activities and instrumentalities frequently produce spills, emissions and discharges of hazardous gases and materials, chemicals and other industrial/hazardous wastes, according to previous suits.

The plaintiffs claim the defendants have frequently, repeatedly and substantially interfered with their use and enjoyment of their property.

The defendants have also repeatedly concealed the dangerous nature of their natural gas activities and the impact these activities have on nearby landowners and the environment, according to previous suits.

The cases are assigned to Circuit Judges Tod J. Kaufman and James C. Stucky.

Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers: 15-C-1993, 15-C-1994

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Fracking’s road to ruin, in Butler County, PA, and elsewhere

Letter to Editor, Butler PA Eagle Online, January 23, 2016

In light of all the negative effects of the oil and gas industry lately, from earthquakes in the Midwest where the waste fluid is disposed of, to the massive methane leak in California, and contaminated drinking water, how can the evidence be ignored? This should be front page news every day.

All of these events are the product of the deceptive practices of the oil and gas industry.

They are exempt from some sections of environmental and conservation acts which means we have less protection. This has allowed this industry to prey on the ignorance of the American people.

So why does the Butler Eagle print editorials supporting the industry? Recent editorials on the topic suggest an extraction tax is a bad idea and that fracking is the answer to our energy independence, and has influenced the events in the Middle East.

A recent editorial speculated that half of the Marcellus Shale gas producers will go bankrupt. What they will leave behind in the wake of this boom is an environmental catastrophe. We will be the ones living in it.

No amount of money, regulations or government agency will be able to fix what we have allowed them to do. Our reliance on gas fracking is keeping us from moving to renewable energy sources.

>>> Laurel Colonello, Middlesex Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania

See also:  www.Marcellus-Shale.us

Diesel Trucks Destroy Country Road

Oil and gas: 10 lessons for 2015, for Montana, ND, OK, TX, OH, PA & WV

From an Article by David Katz, Preserve the Beartooth Front, January 1, 2015

The year 2014 was a tumultuous year along the Beartooth Front. It began with our communities reeling from an announcement by Energy Corporation of America that the company planned to bring “a little bit of the Bakken” here, a quick drilling permit granted in Belfry with no public input and a lawsuit against the Board of Oil and Gas Conservation.

The year ended with a crash in oil prices and an uncertain future for the American oil and gas industry, a small step forward for Silvertip landowners, and a growing effort by landowners in Stillwater County to put zoning rules in place.

Along the way residents of Carbon and Stillwater counties have educated themselves, joined together, and made significant progress in assuring that if oil and gas drilling occurs along the Beartooth Front, it will be done in a way that protects the long-term viability of our community.

Writing this blog has been a tremendous learning experience for me, and I have gained some insight about local action and the oil and gas industry. The beginning of a new year is a good time for reflection on lessons learned, so I’ll offer these ten lessons for 2015, in reverse order of importance, based on my experience.

<photo> Carol French displays her contaminated drinking water

10. For all we read about the effects of oil and gas exploration — economic, political, environmental — the stories that have the most impact are personal.
Over the course of the last year I’ve told many personal stories on this blog. They get the biggest readership because people can identify with the experiences of regular people, often in rural communities, whose lives are changed forever when a drilling rig shows up in their back yard. You can read these personal stories by clicking here. (Note that there are several pages of these — click on “older posts” to page back to the older ones.)

9. There is much that can be done locally if people put their hearts and minds to it.
A year ago, the most frequent comment I heard went something like, “The oil and gas industry is too powerful, and the laws are all in their favor. We’re powerless to do anything.”

That’s just not true. What’s true is that the oil and gas industry is very adept at coming into a community, getting people to sign agreements, and expanding rapidly before locals can get organized. They have been incredibly successful with this strategy in eastern Montana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Utah and other states.

But in 2014 we saw the power of local activism on display in New York, which has now banned high volume hydraulic fracturing; in Denton, Texas, where a public health nurse led a ballot initiative to stop fracking; and in Vernal, Utah, where a midwife shined a light on a large number of stillbirths in a town where drilling has been the norm for 50 years.

Along the Beartooth Front, 2014 was a very successful year for local action. The Silvertip Zone is a great example of the power of dedicated activism. Before that zone was put in place, local vigilance kept oil and gas drillers from taking water without a right. Local input helped to prevent the lease of BLM land in Dean last May. And the Northern Plains/ Carbon County Resource Council lawsuit forced the Montana Board of Oil and Gas to grant a public hearing on the Belfry well.

<photo> Protest in front of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation

In the future, more is possible. In 2015, Stillwater residents will be bringing a larger zone to the County Commissioners, and local residents are looking at working with the water conservation board to enact a county-wide ordinance to set standards for water use in oil and gas drilling.

Local action is not only possible, it can be very effective. And it’s happening along the Beartooth Front. Just watch this video put together by local citizens, who raised over $8,000 for the effort:

8. When people know the facts, they support local efforts to regulate oil and gas exploration. Effective communication is critical to successful management of oil and gas activity in a community.
In 2014 there have been two substantial local efforts to establish citizen initiated zoning along the Beartooth Front. In Carbon County, a small group of landowners has petitioned to form a citizen-initiated zone, the Silvertip Zone, in Belfry. Because of their great persistence they achieved a first approval in December to go forward from the County Commissioners. In Stillwater County, the Stillwater Protective Association has launched a more expansive effort to establish a zone in the Nye-Dean area, and expect to bring a petition signed by several hundred landowners to the County Commissioners in early 2015.

What has been remarkable about both these efforts is how few people, when presented with the facts, are opposed to plans to regulate drilling. Montanans don’t necessarily love regulation, they certainly don’t love zoning, and they don’t love signing their name to public documents, but when they understand that this is a viable path to protect their rights, their water, and their way of life, they are supportive.

The clear lesson here is the need to communicate, communicate, communicate locally. There is a great deal of FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt — about oil and gas drilling. But when people are presented with factual information, they are responsive.

7. The management of oil and gas drilling iis not a blue – red issue. We should focus on the long-term health of our communities.
The media loves a narrative that portrays oil and gas drilling along the lines of traditional American political divisions. If you want to regulate oil and gas drilling, the narrative goes, you’re an environmental whacko who hates jobs and economic growth. If you’re for expanding mineral extraction you’re a climate change denier who doesn’t care if your daughter gets cancer.

If we allow that narrative to predominate, we all lose. The real discussion we need to be having in American communities should center on how we can foster economic growth in a way that protects the long-term sustainability of the way of life in a community.

That’s the purpose of the citizen-initiated zoning efforts taking place in Carbon and Stillwater counties. I encourage local citizens to join those discussions. Responsible oil and gas drilling is something environmental whackos and climate change deniers should both support.

6. Scientific research now offers compelling evidence that oil and gas drilling is dangerous to human and animal health. It’s time for elected officials to take their heads out of the sand and pay attention.
The oil and gas boom began just a few years ago and expanded like wildfire. Fracking and horizontal drilling technology brought wells close to where people live like never before.

Scientific research is taking time to catch up, but it is getting there. Every week new studies are being released that show that people who live close to wells have more adverse health impacts than those who don’t. Babies who are born near wells have more health issues than those who aren’t.

The oil and gas industry argues that there’s no smoking gun, and they’re right in a very limited way. We can’t yet prove why these things happen, we just know that they do. You can read this report that reviews the science and read the peer reviewed scientific studies yourself. There is simply no denying the health impacts of drilling.

The state of New York chose to invoke the “precautionary principle” and ban fracking. That’s not likely to happen in Montana, but our elected officials need to recognize that they can’t play Russian roulette with the citizens they represent. Oil and gas drilling needs to be regulated to protect us from permanent damage to public health.

5. It is not fair for local communities to pay for the mess the oil and gas industry creates. Infrastructure maintenance is a cost of doing business and should be paid for by industry, not local citizens.
Over the course of 2014 I have written often about the impact of oil and gas drilling on infrastructure. As drilling expands in an area, roads are chewed up, the costs of sewage and garbage collection increase, police and court costs rise dramatically, schools need to expand and more healthcare services are required.

<photo>  side-by-side rural road before and after a winter of heavy truck traffic

The way this works in most places is that the oil and gas companies come in, mineral owners profit from their work, and local citizens are left holding the bag for the increased infrastructure costs.

In Montana we have an oil and gas tax holiday that grants drillers of horizontal wells an 18 month grace period in which they do not pay an oil tax. We’ve seen how that plays out in towns like Sidney, where the shortfall for increased costs is huge. The Montana legislature should remedy this, but until they do, efforts like the Silvertip Zone are necessary to make sure local residents don’t get stuck paying for costs that the oil industry ought to be responsible for.

4. Under current law, oil and gas drilling is fundamentally unfair in its impacts. Local communities need to enact rules to make sure the rights of landowners are protected.
In Montana, as in many states, each property is divided into two parts: the surface estate and the mineral estate. Some properties are fee simple, or unified, meaning the surface owner is also the mineral owner. But others have split estates — the surface owner is not the mineral rights holder.

Montana law favors the mineral rights holder. The split surface owner has little ability to keep the mineral owner from extracting minerals, and receives little compensation for providing access. If drilling results in water contamination, excessive air pollution or infertile soil, there is little to be done.

What’s more, research shows that, for surface owners, drilling reduces property value, and makes it more difficult to get mortgages and compensation for damages that occur during drilling.

A fundamental reason for forming zones in Carbon and Stillwater counties is to restore fairness to the equation. Surface owners should not have to pay for water, air and soil testing and remediation. They should be protected from the 24 x 7 light and noise impact that drilling brings. They should not pay for the increased infrastructure burden caused by drilling that does not benefit them.

We need to do what is fair for everyone, not just the lucky few who hold mineral rights.

3. We can’t pretend we’re not concerned about the long-term viability of our planet. We need to feel urgency to change our energy ways.
If you’ve gotten this far, you won’t be shocked by this statement: Science tells us that our planet is warming, and that human activities are a contributing factor. Our dependence on fossil fuels is one huge reason, and we need to move as quickly as possible to shift to alternative fuels.

We can no longer afford to engage in the pointless debate politicians like Steve Daines, a proud climate change denier, want us to. It is convenient for those who receive huge contributions from the oil and gas industry to pretend that they just don’t know whether humans are causing this, so we can’t do anything that might impact job growth (click to read letter at right). That’s irresponsible.

In the short-term we need to stop engaging in activities such as flaring, which introduces massive amounts of methane into our atmosphere. In the long-term we need to embrace non-carbon fuels that reduce our carbon footprint.

2. Water is our most precious resource. Preserving it should be our primary goal.
As our planet warms and our need for water expands, drought is a perennial condition for much of the West. In areas where there is no municipal water system, each resident depends on the health of an aquifer and a well for their crops, livestock and personal use.

Fracking and horizontal drilling are threats to water for two reasons:

• A single well can require a large water supply, potentially several million gallons. In areas impacted by drought, this means that the source of water becomes a critical issue, and states can face choices between fracking and other essential uses.
• If an aquifer or well becomes contaminated, a landowner’s livelihood can be ruined.

In Montana, there are few regulations governing water testing and use. The oil and gas industry would love to have you believe that there is no relationship between fracking and water contamination, but it’s just not true.

Any local community faced with an expansion of oil and gas drilling should put regulations in place to protect water from contamination. Rules requiring water testing paid for by oil and gas operators, remediation of contamination, and water usage should be at the top of the list.

Water protection is a key element of zoning petitions in Carbon and Stillwater counties.

1. The fight for the long-term sustainability of our communities against unregulated oil and gas drilling never ends. We need to be constantly vigilant.
We should take pride in what we have accomplished so far, and will accomplish in 2015.

But in Montana, as in most states, protecting communities from unregulated oil and gas drilling has many facets. In addition to the kind of action we’re seeing at the local level, we need to be active on many fronts:

>> The Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC), which has primary responsibility for permitting wells, is in need of substantial reform. As currently constituted, the BOGC’s mission is to encourage the development of wells for profit.

>> The Montana Supreme Court, which should be an apolitical steward of the environment, is an elective body, and, as we saw in the most recent election, outside corporate interests, including energy companies, have poured money into Montana to try to elect anti-environmental ideolgoues. We need to stay vigilant to protect the neutrality of this important body.

>> The Legislature can enact laws that overturn existing rights to act locally. To the extent that our local efforts to establish citizen initiated zones are successful, it is possible to imagine the Legislature overturning that right. We need to make sure that our legislators understand the importance of these rights.

>> The Governor, who appoints members to the BOGC, needs to understand the importance of reform, and of upholding local rights to protect our communities.

We can never win protection from the oil and gas industry. We can win battles, but the oil and gas industry is relentless. Protecting our land, our rights, and our way of life is an endless struggle.

Keep at it. It’s a righteous fight. Here’s to a great 2015.

See also: www.Marcellus-Shale.us and   www.FrackCheckWV.net

'Moratorium' not yet approved by NY Senate

Medical professionals & researchers cite new anti-fracking evidence in letter to Gov. Cuomo

From an Article by Matthew McKibben, Legislative Gazette, May 29, 2014

A coalition of hundreds of medical experts and academic researchers has sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and acting Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker asking them to place a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing for up to five years.

The letter comes in response to the growth of “disconcerting” trends in the existing and emerging data on fracking, according to a statement issued by the coalition.

The letter states, “The totality of the science – which now encompasses hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and hundreds of additional reports and case examples – shows that permitting fracking in New York would pose significant threats to the air, water, health and safety of New Yorkers.”

Some of the groups signed on to the letter include the American Academy of Pediatrics; American Lung Association in New York; the Otsego County Medical Society; Tompkins County Medical Society; Center for Environmental Health; and David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany.

The letter discusses trends in data that, according to the coalition, proves the state should take a leadership role in the nation by announcing a moratorium on fracking.

The letter points to recent studies that show the link between water contamination and fracking-related activities is now indisputable; that the structural integrity of wells can fail and failures become more common over time as wells age and cement and casings deteriorate; the disposal of fracking wastewater is causally linked to earthquakes and radioactive contamination of surface water; air quality impacts from fracking–related activities are clearer than ever; community and social impacts of fracking can be widespread, expensive, and deadly; and industry secrecy contributes to unsettled science

The coalition’s letter also notes that many additional studies are under way and it is critical to give those studies time to be completed for the full scope of the impacts of fracking to be understood.

“Given the lack of any evidence indicating that fracking can be done safely–and a wealth of evidence to the contrary–we consider a three to five year moratorium to be an appropriate time frame,” the letter states.

The letter is available online here: bit.ly/1kO3jFu

Groundwater Complaints to PA-DEP Compiled by the Scranton Times-Tribune

From the Article by Matt Kelso, FracTracker.org, May 21, 2013

In a May 19th article published in the Scranton Times-Tribune, Laura Legere discusses data that she has compiled from a Right-to-know law request to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP).  

The data show 969 complaints between 2008 and the fall of 2012.  According to the article, 161 of these complaints include determination letters where PADEP indicates some sort of link between oil and gas activity and impacted groundwater supplies. The Times-Tribune data has been geolocated and mapped by the FracTracker Alliance.

One map show groundwater complaints to PADEP from 2008 through Fall 2012. Orange-red dots indicate instances where PADEP has established some connection between drilling activity and groundwater impacts, yellow dots mean that PADEP analysis is still pending, and green dots indicate that PADEP has not established such a connection.

Please note that the locations are not exact, and that in many instances there are multiple records at a single location on the map. Click on “Fullscreen” to access additional mapping tools.

According to our correspondence with Ms. Legere, there are future plans to release the source documents to the public as well, once needs to protect the privacy of the complainants have been addressed.

We have also added this data to our US Map of Suspected Well Water Impacts. See the maps and details here.

1. Blowout When blowout prevention equipment is absent or fails, pressurized fluid and gas can explode out the wellhead, injuring people and spewing pollutants.

2. Gas leak Methane, the primary gas in natural gas, may be present in layers of rock above the target layer. Cracks in the cement that seal the well to the surrounding rock can provide a path for this methane to travel into the water table.

3. Air pollution Flare pipes that burn methane so it doesn’t build up, diesel truck exhaust and emissions from wastewater evaporation can dirty the air near a drill site. When methane is released without being burned, it acts as a potent greenhouse gas, trapping 20 times as much heat as carbon dioxide.

4. Wastewater overflow Fracking fluid, about 1 percent of which is made up of chemicals (sometimes including carcinogens), is increasingly recycled for use in other wells. But sometimes it is stored in open pits that emit noxious fumes and can overflow with rain.

5. Other leaks There are some worries that local geology in particular areas would allow fracking-produced fluid and methane to travel upward. But most evidence of exposure stems from surface problems such as spills or illicit dumping.

6. Home explosions If methane does get into the water table — because of cracked cement, local geology or the effects of old wells — it can build up in homes and lead to explosions.

Butler County PA

By Erich Schwartzel / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / August 19, 2012

If Janet McIntyre needs to shower and can’t drive the 11 miles to her son’s house, she steps outside and undresses. Her husband pours three gallons of water over her as she hides behind a shower curtain hanging between two cars that sit in their yard.

Before Kim McEvoy watched her home value plummet and moved to one with public water, she went behind rhododendron plants to urinate. Her fiance used bushes along the other side of the house — the “men’s room.”

And when the time comes to refill the tank that provides clean water to her home, Barb Romito waits to see if her anonymous donor has pulled through once again and paid the $125 fee needed twice a month to keep her faucets flowing.

These and other lifestyle adjustments started in the Woodlands neighborhood about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh after January 2011, when residents started calling each other with the same story: Water from their wells was running brown or black with floating pieces of solid material in it, and it smelled awful. When they showered, they got rashes. When they drank, they threw up. The farm show rabbits Russ Kelly keeps behind his house even stopped drinking the water.

It was a major disruption in a quiet neighborhood. The community of homes sits several miles off the main drag of Zelienople in Butler County, a grouping of trailers and ranch houses that share bumpy, dirt roads and large yards that sometimes look more like campsites.

Gas drilling had begun near the Woodlands, though some originally thought the tall rigs built to access Marcellus Shale gas thousands of feet below the ground were cell phone towers. They called Rex Energy, the gas company that had drilled at least 15 new wells in the Zelienople area from July to December 2010, and they called the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

“Next thing you know, the water buffaloes are sprouting up like mushrooms” across the neighborhood, said Ms. McEvoy’s fiance, Peter Sowatsky.

If a resident contacts a gas company with suspicions of water contamination, it is typically company practice that an alternate source of water — usually in the form of a large tank called a “buffalo” — must be provided within 48 hours. Many residents used the water buffaloes provided by Rex, replacing the private wells they’d depended on for decades, while Rex and the DEP conducted tests.

But when both test results came back, the Woodlands neighborhood residents who’d noticed unmistakable changes in the look and taste of their water were told nothing was wrong. “There are no noticeable differences in water chemistry in pre- and post-drill water quality of the water wells in question,” stated a report by Rex Energy based on testing done by a third-party firm hired by the company. DEP test results in February 2011 couldn’t link contaminants in the water to the Rex Energy drilling.

Pre-existing conditions
Pennsylvania, home to some of the most active gas drilling in America, has the second-highest number of private wells in the country. Yet it is one of two states where no regulation exists for how those wells are constructed or maintained — an issue advocates say has taken a backseat to other concerns over drilling.

When residents call with suspicions of contamination, analysts examining the water must grapple with scattershot information about how the well was built. Compounding the problem, experts and legislators say, is a lack of understanding over how shale drilling operations could affect land already perforated with holes from private water wells, coal mining, and shallow oil and gas drilling.

“In Pennsylvania, we have a lot of pre-existing conditions,” said John Stolz, director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University, and a professor conducting his own tests on the Woodlands water.

The DEP, which recently updated its tracking system to specifically chart Marcellus Shale complaints, has received 198 drilling-related complaints from residents since 2009, and 51 of those were related to water concerns. But the vast majority of DEP tests do not implicate the oil and gas firm, the agency said.

Thousands of Pennsylvania residents live in scenarios similar to the Woodlands, where their water, for whatever reason, isn’t trusted. With no clear cause of their water problems, neighbors in the Woodlands have moved on without one resource and leaned on another: the community.

Neighbors helping neighbors
For a while, residents protested, marching on the local Rex offices and sending YouTube videos to the Environmental Protection Agency. For a while, it seemed the Woodlands might become the Western Pennsylvania analogue to Dimock, the Eastern Pennsylvania town where some residents said water supplies were ruined because of poor well casing on nearby Marcellus wells. The EPA cleared the Dimock water to drink last month, though as in the Woodlands, many residents there still refuse to use their wells.

Eventually, the Woodlands residents tired of the blame game. When called to attend a recent anti-drilling protest in Washington, D.C., they didn’t go, opting to send jugs of their dirty water in representation.

Now, an assembly of anti-drilling activists and empathetic churchgoers drive a caravan of F-150 pickup trucks and Jeep Cherokees once a week to deliver gallons of water from house to house. Mrs. McIntyre leads the group she organized. “I felt myself becoming very bitter” when the water buffaloes went away, she said. To channel her frustration, she organized the water drive, which deposits between 25 and 35 gallons of water weekly at about a dozen homes.

Some residents, like Sherry Makepeace, need special fluoridated water for infants. Others immediately give half the supply to their farm animals.

The group has become more organized in the past few weeks, handling water donations through White Oak Springs Presbyterian Church and setting up a checking account to accept monetary donations.

Many of the homes receiving gallon jugs once had water buffaloes provided by Rex Energy. When the company came to remove the tanks in February, residents stood with angry out-of-town protestors and journalists who watched the trucks haul them away. That same month, the Associated Press reported that Rex Energy had casing problems on at least two nearby gas wells — violations that were not reported by the company or the DEP.

Water buffaloes were removed from all but three homes. Two are refilled with help from money that comes from an anonymous donor. The owner of the buffalo company, Wagner Trucking of Saltsburg, told residents he can’t financially justify sending refill trucks for any less than three clients. When one home can’t afford the twice-a-month payment, all three risk seeing their fresh water supply stop.

“You know that expression, ‘they got us over a barrel?’ ” said Mrs. McIntyre. “Well, they got us over a buffalo.”

Detective work
Along with the water deliveries, Mrs. McIntyre stops to chat with each neighbor in her unofficial capacity as Woodlands mayor. When the gas company started setting off seismic explosions to prepare for drilling, her answering machine received 17 messages from neighbors asking what was going on. She and a neighbor also contacted Mr. Stolz, and told him about their colored water with the sulfur smell. When he heard the description of the Woodlands, Mr. Stolz thought “it could be as good a survey sample as you could find” for testing changes in water quality. The neighborhood is isolated, and gas drilling is the only industrial activity around the farmland.

He sent a questionnaire to residents in October asking:
l Do you have well water?
l What kind of well is it (e.g., artesian, rotary, cable tool)?
l Have you noticed any change in water quality (taste, smell, color) in the last year and if so, when?
l Have you noticed any change in the water flow or quantity?
l Where is your well located?
l Do you know how deep the well is?
l Have you noticed a change in this depth?
l Have you had the water tested and would you be willing to share those results?

More than 130 homes out of the Woodlands’ 200 responded, and about 50 reported water problems ranging from minor to significant. Mr. Stolz’s questions allude to the many variables in trying to detect changes in well-water quality across a neighborhood. Wells in the Woodlands are drilled to various depths, ranging from 125 feet to more than 600 feet, and many are near old oil and gas operations or abandoned mines. “Two neighbors living next to each other could be drawing water from two different sources, and one is affected and one isn’t,” he said.

Without a baseline test conducted before drilling began or thorough documentation on their specific well construction, it can be difficult to track any changes that may have occurred after the rigs went up. Many residents were frustrated with the Rex and DEP test results, which both absolved the gas firm of wrongdoing but didn’t test for the same exact list of elements.

Results may have shown the water to be safe to drink, but Mr. Stolz said even the “cosmetic” issues of orange-tinted water or floating bits of floculant warrant more testing, often at the landowner’s expense. “Even if it’s from a cosmetic point of view, you’re not going to bathe in that water, you’re not going to drink that water, you’re not going to use it to make your tea,” he said.

With tests already done by the company and DEP, it’s up to the Woodlands residents to find others who might figure out what’s wrong. Mr. Stolz took samples of the water, and expects results from his own tests to come later this month.

Regulating water wells
The confusion isn’t unique to the Woodlands. Researchers at the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, an agency created by the General Assembly in Harrisburg, found “there is no standard list of parameters for which the companies must test,” so three drillers operating near the Woodlands could theoretically conduct three different tests.

More than 3 million Pennsylvanians drink water from a private well, and about 20,000 new wells are drilled each year, the report found. “A well can be drilled using any materials, and the driller does not have to follow designated guidelines,” wrote the researchers. At the same time, water well constructors don’t answer to universal standards or documentation requirements, which can complicate matters when homeowners near shale operations want to get their well water tested.

Legislators have recently tried to impose statewide regulation of water wells, but it’s considered a quixotic mission by some who think government regulation will never find support in rural Pennsylvania.

Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission recommended statewide regulation. In January, Rep. Ron Miller, R-York, introduced legislation that proposes standards for all stages of a water well’s life cycle, from construction of the casing to treating it when the well is abandoned. The bill is in committee, and Mr. Miller hopes to see movement on it this fall. “The Marcellus Shale has highlighted the fact that a lot of wells were not installed properly,” he said.

He said push back comes from the nature of Pennsylvania, which is divided into scores of individual municipalities, and from the nature of Pennsylvanians, who don’t want legislators telling them what to do in their literal back yards. “Any water well that is drilled into the surface is like tapping a wound on your body,” he said. “It opens the surface and allows contamination in.”

Some drilling technology exists that might clarify well water problems, said Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel for the Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. He said colleagues have asked for mandatory “tracers” in fracking fluid that show themselves if found in private water supplies. Others call for “gas fingerprinting” that would test whether gas found in water supplies was coming from shallow formations or deep underground rock like shale.

Those ideas haven’t been fleshed out, said Mr. Horwitt, as advocates continue to focus less on the water well issue and more on concerns about establishing mandatory buffer zones around drilling operations and demanding greater transparency about the fluids used in the fracking process.

Lives reinvented
While experts and legislators debate how to treat water wells, some residents in the Woodlands took drastic measures to escape the problem altogether. Ms. McEvoy decided to move. She bought her three-bedroom home in the Woodlands 16 years ago for $68,000. Without water, the house on the market got one offer for $15,000, and even that fell through.

Her new home, bought this summer with her fiance’s retirement fund, is about 20 minutes away. The new neighborhood is a far cry from the Woodlands, where her daughter Skylar could sit on a neighbor’s porch, no questions asked, and no one seemed to mind if a neighbor stowed five rusty boats in his front yard. She’s taking some habits from a life without water with her. “I find myself not flushing the toilet,” she said.

Mr. Sowatsky, her fiance, has left the Woodlands behind, but not his paranoia over water supplies. He still loaded 25 bins of empty jugs into a U-Haul truck on a recent summer day. He’ll fill them and keep them on hand in case the public water is shut off, he said. “It’s a culture shock,” said Mr. Sowatsky. “I keep looking for the gallon jug.”

Others, like Mrs. Romito and her husband, Dave, want to stay in the Woodlands home they moved to in 2000, and even plan to pass the house onto their granddaughter. “She might not be able to live here because of the water,” said Mrs. Romito. “But it’s hers.”

On a recent weekday in July, water was running low, and she hadn’t gotten word from Mrs. McIntyre about whether the donor had pulled through. Then Mrs. McIntyre came by with the news that the $125 check had again made it to the buffalo company, and they’d be out to fill her tank. Mrs. Romito started to cry. Mrs. McIntyre, who had written that check and the several that came before, put her arm around her neighbor but didn’t say anything else.

Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

StateIm­pact Pennsylvania has reported on an active problem at a Shell drilling site in northcentral Pennsylvania……

The Pennsylvania Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion is inves­ti­gat­ing a poten­tial methane migra­tion prob­lem in Union Town­ship, Tioga County. A Shell spokes­woman says the company’s tests show “a very low haz­ard risk to peo­ple, veg­e­ta­tion, and fish in the imme­di­ate area,” but Shell has nev­er­the­less asked the hand­ful of peo­ple who live within a one-mile radius of the drilling site to tem­porar­ily evac­u­ate their homes. Shell has also sent a well con­trol spe­cial­ist team to the site.

DEP spokesman Daniel Spadoni con­firmed the probe in an email to StateIm­pact Penn­syl­va­nia. “DEP was noti­fied of the prob­lem by Shell on June 17,” he writes. “Shell is fully coop­er­at­ing with the response and investigation.” Accord­ing to Spadoni, a drink­ing water well located 4,000 feet from a Shell drilling site began over­flow­ing this week­end.  “Shell has sev­eral well pads in the area in var­i­ous stages of com­ple­tion.  They stopped all oper­a­tions in the area when noti­fied of a prob­lem,” he wrote, not­ing “bub­bling was also noted at mul­ti­ple loca­tions in a nearby stream.”

The Wells­boro Gazette has posted a pic­ture of that “bub­bling,” which looks more like a minia­ture geyser shoot­ing fluid more than a foot above the ground.  Methane migra­tion occurs nat­u­rally, but has also been asso­ci­ated with faulty well cas­ing. DEP blames well con­t­a­m­i­na­tion prob­lems in Dimock on the issue.

The rest of Spadoni’s state­ment is below:

PA-DEP Oil and Gas staff col­lected water and iso­topic sam­ples from the hunt­ing club well and stream on June 18.  A Shell con­trac­tor drilled a hole in the water well cas­ing and installed an over­flow line to stop the over­flow, installed methane alarms in the cabin, and will vent the well to the out­side today. PA-DEP has rec­om­mended the cabin not be occu­pied until fur­ther notice.

Addi­tional sur­face expres­sions of gas along the road lead­ing to the hunt­ing cabin were dis­cov­ered on June 18, and Shell has placed secu­rity guards at both ends of the road to limit access. Shell is mon­i­tor­ing con­di­tions con­tin­u­ously in this area for any changes that may require addi­tional controls.

On Tues­day, June 19, Shell’s con­sul­tants had sev­eral teams begin screen­ing within a one-mile radius of the hunt­ing camp to check for methane gas and sam­ple any pri­vate drink­ing water wells poten­tially impacted. That screen­ing con­tin­ued yes­ter­day, June 20, within a one-mile radius of the three Shell gas well pads in the area. Shell is con­duct­ing fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion and oper­a­tions on their nearby well pads. Yes­ter­day, June 20, PA-DEP Oil and Gas staff mon­i­tored the hunt­ing cabin and sur­face expres­sions. No deter­mi­na­tion has been made regard­ing the source or sources of the methane, and the inves­ti­ga­tion is continuing.