Susquehanna River, Bradford County, PA: This Bubbly Is Not Fun

Bubbling Waters 2 - Susquehanna River from Don Williams on Vimeo.

Don Williams of the fantastic blog Susquehanna River Sentinal shows video of the Susquehanna River bubbling with methane in Sugar Run, Bradford County, PA.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In memory of a dear friend

Karen Korell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010

Chapman Township (PA) Zoning Board Resigns: Gas Drilling Issues Cited

Boating on the Western Branch Susquehanna River

My hat is off to these three zoning board members in Chapman Township, PA!  Thank you for standing up for the safety of your citizens and the protection of the environment.
Act of defiance

All three Chapman Zoning Hearing Board members resign in protest to water withdrawal

August 27, 2010 - By SCOTT JOHNSON - sjohnson@lockhaven.com

NORTH BEND - In a stunning move Thursday night, all three members of the Chapman Township Zoning Hearing Board resigned minutes before a special hearing to allow a natural gas company to withdraw hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily from the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

The move left most of the approximately two dozen people at the municipal building speechless, and further drags out the seemingly-endless process by Andarko E&PA Co. LP to acquire a special exception to withdraw up to 720,000 gallons of water daily from the river near Gold Star Mothers Bridge.

They sought, but the zoning hearing board denied, a special exception to the Agricultural-Forest District to allow the water-pumping and hauling operation. The property is owned by Bob Maguire and would be leased by Anadarko. The parties have secured a permit from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw water at the site, but with limitations. Also, the township planning commission previously recommended the operation be approved, but with limitations.

About 10 minutes after the scheduled 6 p.m. start to the hearing last night, township Solicitor Frank Miceli addressed the crowd, holding three letters in his hand. The letters were, individually, resignations by board members Chairman John P. Rathmell Jr., Alice Tarr and John Drake, and each was turned in about a half-hour before the start of the hearing, leaving officials no chance to have alternates fill their places. Drake had been serving as an alternate for Dennis Trout.

"I've been doing this for 20 years never (have I seen something like this),"

said board Solicitor Stephen Smith after the hearing. The three were ordered by Clinton County President Judge J. Michael Williamson earlier this month to grant Anadarko the special exemption, saying the board's decision to deny the request in May was "arbitrary, capricious (and)... an abuse of discretion and error by law." Instead of going against their wishes - and instead of being held in contempt of court - Rathmell, Tarr and Drake resigned their seats.

Smith said he met the three at Dremel's gas station at 5:30 p.m. and was handed three, sealed envelopes addressed to Miceli. Miceli opened the letters, which turned out to be resignations, mere moments before the scheduled 6 p.m. start, forcing the adjournment due to a lack of a quorum.

Tarr's letter said that, since she was being forced to go against the wishes of herself and the community - and due to the risk of environmental harm - "I can no longer serve and, therefore, resign my position as of 5:30 p.m."

Drake's letter stated,

"After much thought, I cannot morally position our citizens' safety, health and welfare in jeopardy. Therefore, please be advised, as of Aug. 26, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., I am resigning as alternate of the Chapman Township Zoning Hearing Board."

Rathmell's letter gave no reason for his resignation.

"Nobody knew this was going to occur," leaving no time to find alternate members, Miceli said. "I think the only thing we can do is say there can't be a meeting tonight because there's no zoning hearing board members," he said, noting the township supervisors may appoint new members at their next meeting on Sept. 7.

Anadarko spokesperson Mary Wolf commended the board members for their concerns about the safety of the public, saying her firm will enact any measures either the board or the judge will impose to ensure the public's safety and "make the road safer than it is right now." "We will just let the judicial process play out," she said. "That's the beauty of our democratic system, that we have the checks and balances with the judicial branch, with the citizens, the zoning hearing board and the planning commission. It worked. It's just taking a little longer."

After three hearings that spanned three months, the zoning hearing board unanimously denied Anadarko's request in May, saying the water-withdrawal operation will cause a travel hazard on Route 120 and negatively impact the environment and property values. Earlier this month, Judge Williamson reversed that decision and ordered the board to approve the request with several conditions, including:

n No vehicles associated with the site shall be parked along Route 120 or by the Fish and Boat Commission access road from Route 120 to the river.

n The intake pipe shall be marked and flagged at least 50 feet in all directions with appropriate warning signs posted.

n Anadarko remains subject to SRBC regulations regarding river water levels during pumping activity.

n Anadarko will work with the township to request PennDOT install a traffic control device or sign to alert oncoming traffic near the entrance of the site of slow-moving trucks.

n No hauling of water will be scheduled or performed during the Hyner Mountain Challenge, the first weekend of fishing season, the three-day bear season and for a five-day period commencing the Monday after Thanksgiving Day of each year.

n The perimeter of the facility shall be fenced to a high of six feet with a gate regulating access.

n No more than seven vehicles capable of storing or hauling water shall be on the site at any time.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILTY!

Susquehanna River: Gas Industry Sucking Up Millions of Gallons Of Fresh Water

Our Dear Susquehanna

A workshop was held yesterday, July 20, in Tioga County, N.Y., to explain and receive input on a real-time water quality monitoring network that is now expanding into the Southern Tier Region of New York.  The Susquehanna River Basin Commission recently opened a new satellite office in Athens Township, PA.  The office is staffed by individuals working to monitor and enforce compliance with laws that protect water resources in the Susquehanna River Basin which includes areas of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

The demand for water from smaller rivers and streams is steadily increasing, mostly due to the natural gas industry, so this issue of water extraction is a serious one.  Gas drilling corporations pay an application fee and then a fee of $0.20 per thousand gallons of water up to a limit of two million gallons per day. I'm not a math wizard, but I think that comes out to $400 per day.  I am assuming that any and all gas drillers who want water can take that amount daily.  Other energy production companies are allowed much more water.   For example, the nuclear power plant in Berwick, PA, is allowed to take 40 million gallons every day.  The operation doesn't use that much, but they could.

I think it is important to bear in mind that water stolen taken from our rivers and streams for the purpose of drilling and hydrofracking is water that will never be returned to us in usuable form.  It is transformed into toxic waste.  Much of it never comes to the surface again, but remains deep inside the earth still laden with toxic chemicals which can and do migrate in unpredictable ways to unpredicatable places, including precious watersheds.

Read the whole article from the Towanda Daily Review here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

WATER IS PRECIOUS

WE CANNOT DRINK GAS

Welcome To Bradford County, PA

Our family summer home in beautiful French Azilum, Bradford County
(Photo by C. Manuel)

If you were designing a brochure to entice tourists to visit Bradford County, PA, where tourism brings in nearly $2.5 billion to the region annually, it might go something like this.......

Welcome to Bradford County, "where you’ll find everything from fresh maple syrup and honey, to enthralling modern artwork. The hospitality services here are second to none, whether you want a bed and breakfast, a hotel (UPDATE: There are no rooms available right now because gas drillers occupy ALL of them), or a campground. The artisans found here follow traditional styles with new twists. Chain saw carvings, whittlers, stonewall builders, and quilters are just a few of these amazing artists that reside and work in Bradford County.

Bradford County is an agrarian society, for the most part. Farms cover a vast expanse of the county. Many Farmers in the area raise grass fed livestock, sell organic fruits and vegetables, and process dairy products organically. These products can be found on location, in local stores, and at the local farmers markets.

Bradford County is filled with local landmarks and is great for sight seeing. Set in the Appalachian Mountains' there are still traces of our history everywhere. Arrowheads found in fields give hints of Native American movements and settlements in the area. Old mines and dilapidated mining towns serve as markers and historic evidence of how mining life truly was. French Azilum Historic Site shows a never completed French settlement along the river,; a town of about forty families at its peak, that was planned to hold four hundred. Take a trip to Azilum to see the beautiful landscape, get a tour of a second generation French home, check out the archeological dig being done by a Cornell professor, or just to have lunch and see the eagle's nest. Bradford County’s history-rich background makes it a great place to spend an afternoon, a day, a week, or a lifetime." [taken from this website]

It sounds like a piece of heaven, and it is- for how long remains a big question. Now the future of tourism, fishing, hunting, camping, and just plain living in Bradford County, PA, is threatened by the corporate craving for the natural gas that lies beneath in the Marcellus Shale formation. According to a July report, there are currently eleven gas companies operating in the county, all poised to make billions of dollars while poisoning the earth and air we all require for survival. Some residents are worried about the negative effects of gas drilling: erosion and sediment and the disposal of millions of gallons of tainted (toxic!) water produced in the course of gas extraction, some of which comes back to the surface while much of it remains underground permanently. A Pennsylvania attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Matt Royer, said

We're really concerned about getting protections in place here. There are serious risks to our water from the drilling- from stormwater runoff and erosion that occurs during the construction phase, and from the treatment of wastewater after the drilling phase.

The problem, as CBF Water Quality Scientist Harry Campbell explains it, is that very few treatment plants are capable of removing the salt and chemicals in the frac water, many of which are proprietary and therefore unknown except to the drilling companies. Campbell said

One of the main concerns is the high salinity of the water. If frac water gets discharged into streams in this concentrated form, it will affect aquatic life. Also,we don't have water-quality criteria for the many chemicals used in frac water, so there's no way to know if the water's being adequately treated.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in the middle since it is charged with promoting income for the state while at the same time protecting the environment and public health. With state funds being slashed 25% in the 2010 state budget, it is doubtful that the money will be available to hire more inspectors to do the work of monitoring compliance with environmental regulations. Adding to the problem is the fact that the Energy Act of 2005 exempts the natural gas industry from most environmental regulations, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. To make matters worse, private water wells, which are the norm in much of Bradford County, are not protected by the federal regulations anyway. Industry is vehemently opposed to regulations and have a well-funded robust lobbying strategy to insure the defeat of any legislation that might thwart their pillaging of the land.

Pristine lakes and forests abound in northeastern PA, and the Chesapeake Bay watershed extends over a large part of the region, causing many people as far south as Virginia to worry about the future of the bay and the Susquehanna River which flows into it. In the process of preparing a drill pad, trees are felled, destroying countless acres of forest and animal habitat. The pipelines needed to get the gas from pad to market also swallow up vast stretches of the landscape which never return to their original beauty or ecology. Access roads carve up even more land and are paved with gravel mined from local hills and mountains. Mike Lovegreen, District Manager of the Bradford County Conservation District said,

There are two or three hundred wells in the county already, and a lot of infrastructure going up right now. We'll see frenzied activity this year.

While industry has their money-grabbing, pollution-producing frenzy, citizens of the county will undoubtedly find themselves in their own frenzy, trying to protect themselves and their familes and their property, a daunting task at best, since this is a case of Big Gas versus citizens with little financial means to fight. Ironically, some land owners are eager for the drilling to begin because they believe they will get a lot of money from the minerals beneath them. Some will (those with large land holdings); most won't in all likelihood. Especially vulnerable are those who own no land at all. These residents have nothing to say about what happens where they live. However, they must endure the effects of environmental pollution and negative health effects from water, air, and soil.

Another concerned group is the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited. Deb Nardone, a Cold Water Resource Specialist who works with the group, commented on the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and DEP and the job these groups have done in trying to regulate, for example, the withdrawal of water from area waterways. She reports that they have done "a pretty good job" of oversight." However she expressed her concern about the impacts of drilling on water and wilderness areas.

...the new roads built to get to the well pads, the stream crossings, the pipelines, the truck traffic, the actual disposal of the wastewater- everything has an impact downstream. We're talking about [protecting] true wilderness areas, pritine streams where our members hunt and fish.

Read the article about PA (North Branch Susquehanna: As Gas Wells Proliferate, Water Worries Grow) in the latest issue of CBF Save the Bay here. You will have to scroll down to page 6 to find the article. The pictures are very educational, and you will find a map of the North Branch Susquehanna (page 8), showing the Marcellus Shale formation and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The author of the article is Carol Denny, editor of Save the Bay magazine and a native of Pennsylvania.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!