PA gas drilling the focus of NPR's Diane Rehm Show

From the show's site:  "The state of Pennsylvania is in the forefront of the current rush to extract natural gas, and it also seems to be in the middle of an increasingly contentious debate over related environmental risks. The process of extracting natural gas involves forcing millions of gallons of water deep into the earth to break up rock and release the gas. Environmentalists say that in some states, including Pennsylvania, this waste water which is often laden with heavy salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials is being improperly discharged into rivers and streams...."

Guests included Ian Urbina, author of the recent NY Times series which started on February 27, 2011; John Quigley, former Secretary of PA's Department of Conservation & Natural Resources; Dr. Tony Ingraffea, Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering & Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University; Kathryn Klaber, President of the Marcellus Shale Coalition; Amy Mall, policy analyst for the National Resources Defense Council; and John Hanger, former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

To hear the entire hour's broadcast, click HERE.

NYT responds to yesterday's DEP press release contradicting story

Journalist Ian Urbina authored a response to DEP's press release (see previous blog post) which appears in today's New York Times.  In its press release, the DEP stated that their own testing in various sites proved that the water was potable and that any levels of radium/radioactivity were all below safe levels.  Here is an excerpt illustrating yet another example of ineptitude when it comes to state oversight:

"The Times found that samples taken by the state in the Monongahela River — a source of drinking water for parts of Pittsburgh — came from a point upstream from the two sewage treatment plants on that river. The state has said those plants are still accepting significant quantities of drilling waste.

Because that sampling site is upstream, the discharges from those two plants are not captured by the state’s monitoring plans.

Asked on Monday if the state planned to correct the problem, Katy Gresh, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said it was still considering where to take samples in the future and whether to require testing at drinking-water intake plants."

To read the original article in its entirety, click HERE.

So who's telling the truth?

Recently the New York Times featured an investigative report on fracking--on their front page.  (Click HERE to read).  Several previously confidential reports/memos were uncovered showing that fracking wastewater ultimately can NOT be adequately treated before it's released into our waterways.  Worse, an accompanying interactive map showed dozens of PA wells tested positive for radium thousands of times higher than acceptable levels.

Well, yesterday, PA's Department of Environmental Protection issued a press release indicating the exact opposite.  Three of the wells featured on the NYT interactive map are located in Tioga County; and yet the DEP says they tested water downstream of Tioga County and found the water safe.  How is that possible??  To read the original DEP press release, click HERE.

Earthquakes from fracking?

So what does the largest earthquake to hit Arkansas in 35 years have to do with us?  It seems that Arkansas, home to the Fayetteville Shale, has fallen victim to more than 800 small earthquakes since September alone.  Some are drawing a possible connection between the earthquakes and the large amount of fracking going on in the area.  They have issued a  6 month moratorium against new injection wells while they study any possible connections.

The following excerpt is from article posted by the Associated Press yesterday:

Largest earthquake in 35 years hits Arkansas
by Sarah Eddington

GREENBRIER, Ark. — The central Arkansas town of Greenbrier has been plagued for months by hundreds of small earthquakes, and after being woken up by the largest quake to hit the state in 35 years, residents said Monday they're unsettled by the increasing severity and lack of warning.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.

The activity has garnered national attention and researchers are studying whether there's a possible connection to the region's natural gas drilling industry. The earthquake activity varies each week, though as many as nearly two dozen small quakes have occurred in a day....

...What woke Tarkington was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake that was also felt in Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi. No injuries or major damage have been reported, but the escalation in the severity of quakes in and around the small north-central Arkansas town has many residents on edge. Some said they're seeing gradual damage to their homes, such as cracks in walls and driveways....

...[S]cientists continue to study whether there may be a connection between the earthquakes and local injection wells, where the natural gas industry pumps waste water that can no longer be used by drillers for hydraulic fracturing....

To read the original article in full, please click HERE.

GASLAND

No, it didn't win the Oscar.  But it's won on so many other levels. Thanks to this documentary, people are talking about a topic that most had never heard of a few years ago.  Case in point: the front page of today's New York Times.  Thank you, Josh Fox, for all of your efforts, your tenacity, and your refusal to back down or be silenced.  You may not have a golden statue for those efforts, but you have the thanks and respect of thousands of people around the world fighting this fight.  And the fight continues!