Asylum Township, PA: A Gasland In Progress

Susquehanna River, Asylum Township, Bradford County, PA
Photo:  Carol Manuel

Asylum Township is located in Bradford County, PA.  Population (2010 census): 1058.  This township is comprised of a mere 26.4 square miles.  How many gas wells are located within this small area?  Forty active wells, 28 with reported production values!  There are 112 approved well permits as well.  The newest permit was issued this month: John Barrett BRA 5H. 

A very small area with 40 active gas wells says it all.  This is a GASLAND.  This is a beautiful rural, farming area turned industrial.  Gas drilling has literally overtaken the lives of the people who live there.  Water has been poisoned.  The air is poisoned.  The soil is poisoned.  And the prognosis is more of the same.  Will it be habitable in the future?  I doubt it. 

The River Twice: New Feature Documentary About the Susquehanna River

Here is the trailer about the amazing new feature documentary by Meryl O'Connor.

Biography

  Meryl OʼConnor has been everything from a clown in Los Angeles to a corporate art director in the high rises of Manhattan to a muralist in Chiapas to a bike messenger in India. She has studied painting in Florence, Italy and attended scholarship summer intensive art programs at Yale, The Art Institute of Chicago and Cal Arts. She received her BA in studio art from NYU in 2004. Upon graduation, she started an art collective with friends in Brooklyn that focused on interactive projects seeking to create spontaneous communities through art and adventure. Her passion for both activism and art making through collaboration and storytelling eventually led her into filmmaking. She graduated from UCLAʼs MFA film production program in 2012, making both documentary and narrative films. Her work has been supported by the Mary Pickford Foundation, the Sony- Streisand fund in recognition of women filmmakers the Jim Morrison fund and the Hollywood Foreign Press. Her short films have played in various international film festivals, including Cannes.

Websites
 meryloconnor.com
www.therivertwice.com

You can help Meryl launch this very important and entertaining documentary. She needs a little financial assistance to get it out in August. Click here to donate.  I have met Meryl, and I know she would appreciate our help.  You will love this film!

 

In the film, Carol Manuel shows family pictures in French Azilum, Bradford County.

Trailer Court Sold; Residents Evicted (Jersey Shore, PA)

Young families and elderly residents alike are being evicted. They were given a few weeks to get out. They all need help.

Uploaded by GADCLuzerneCounty on Mar 22, 2012


A video by Scott Cannon http://gdacoalition.com
Riverdale Mobile Home Village, Jersey Shore, PA
Residents of an area mobile home park have been given a bit more time to move to make way for a proposed water withdrawal facility in Piatt Township.

Bryn Mawr-based Aqua PVR LLC has decided it will give most residents of Riverdale Mobile Home Village until June 1 to move, according to Donna P. Alston, director of communication for Aqua America, Aqua PVR's parent company.

The company plans to build a pump station on the site it recently purchased, withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water per day from the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and pipe the water to natural gas drilling sites north of the township.

It originally wanted all 37 units in the park moved out by May 1 so work could begin on the project.

The company offered a financial incentive for park residents.

Originally, residents who moved by April 1 would be given $2,500. Those who moved by May 1 would receive $1,500.

Some residents of the park protested that the former deadline did not give them enough time to move.

Others said they could not afford to move or could not find a mobile home park that would take their mobile homes, many of which are older models and do not meet park or local code standards.

"We revisited the site plan for the project and figured out a way to displace fewer people initially than before," Alston said, adding, "The park will eventually need to be (completely) vacated to accommodate the project."

Alston said when work on the project begins in May, only two to four lots at the park will be impacted. One of those lots already is vacant, she said.

The financial incentive offer to residents also has been revised, Alston said.

Now, residents will receive $2,500 as long as they are out of the park by June 1, Alston said.

"We're trying to minimize the disruption and provide some assistance where we can," she said. "For some, it may not be enough. Along with the additional time, hopefully, it will make a difference for everybody."

Park resident Marshall Flanigan said the new offer will help some, but not all, residents at the park.

"It's not a 100-percent cure-all, but it helps the bleeding," he said.

Our Dear Susquehanna: Please Protect Her

One of the longest rivers in America, the Susquehanna River provides over half of the freshwater to the Chesapeake Bay and drinking water to millions of people. Communities and businesses depend on the river for drinking water, commerce, hydropower generation, and recreational boating. Now this resource is at risk of contamination. Take action here.

Music: Fanfare For the Common Man by Aaron Copeland

This YouTube video was featured on the blog Susquehanna River Sentinel. 

The Susquehanna River was America's most endangered river in 2011.

My Dear Susquehanna: French Azilum, PA

I know this landscape very well.  It is French Azilum in Bradford County.  If you look carefully, you can see the effects of the gas drilling industry. Well pads, water impoundments, frac water treatment facility.  They are all there in this snapshot.  And this is all just getting started.  What a sad story...one of the most precious places on earth for me is being invaded, yes, raped, by people who want the money.  My family summer home is being contaminated slowly but surely.  That's the Susquehanna River winding through this picture.  It is the most polluted river on the east coast already.

A family song we have been singing for decades goes like this:

Old Frenchtown, how we love the dear old name!

There's no other place can ever be to us the same.

Through this world we may wander up and down,

But always, we'll be coming back again to old Frenchtown.

Camp Hutchinson, French Azilum, PA
My sacred spot





SRBC Hearing: Citizens Oppose Water Withdrawals, Then Commission Approves Permits Anyway!

The Susquehanna River in French Azilum, Bradford County, PA
Photo: Carol Manuel

Jay Sweeney's testimony before the members of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission at the hearing in Wilkes-Barre, PA, December 15th:

"The mission of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), which is defined in the Compact, is to enhance public welfare through comprehensive planning, water supply allocation, and management of the water resources of the Susquehanna River Basin.

 DEP reports over 1300 wells were drilled in 2010 and over 300 in the first quarter of this year. At 5 million gallons per fracked well, that is approximately 8 billion gallons of water used in the hydrofracking process in 16 months. The International Lake Environment Committee estimates the volume of Harvey’s Lake at .03 cubic kilometers or 8 billion gallons. In less that 2 years time, the equivalent of Pennsylvania’s largest natural lake by volume will have been squandered, turned into untreatable radioactive wastewater. This does not enhance the public welfare. It is a threat to the public welfare. This is unconscionable!

 We are tired of hearing pandering politicians, insulting industry insiders and radio, television and print advertizing trying to convince us that the natural gas industry is here to create jobs and benefit our community when in reality, they are here to rape, pillage and plunder our natural resources. make their profits and leave a devastated environment in their wake.

 The SRBC has been culpable in this travesty. Pennsylvania’s water is our commonwealth property. It is time for SRBC to live up to its mission.

We the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania say, stop stealing our water! Stop selling it to an industry that turns it into radioactive sludge! Stop dumping it into our rivers and streams! No more permits! No more withdrawals!

From The Times Leader report:

"Opponents of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, urged SRBC not to approve 26 applications for water withdrawal permits within the Susquehanna River Basin on its agenda, most of which were submitted by gas drillers.

SRBC regulates water withdrawals within the basin through permitting.

The commissioners approved 24 of those applications, denying one driller’s application and deferring another from an individual, and in doing so prompted angry shouts:

This proceeding is a joke! You’re not taking our water!

The meeting closed with protestors chanting an apparently prepared statement read from cards and nearly chasing commission members from the room.

“Members of the Susquehanna River community, this is a crisis,” they chanted.

The Susquehanna River is being sacrificed. Natural gas drilling is poisoning our water. We know this. We will stop this. We have no choice. We will protect our water. We are here to help, and everyone must help. Our future depends on it. We honor the river; we honor our lives.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/SRBC-meets-in-Wilkes-Barre-Twp-gas-opponents-protest.html#ixzz1giES5Mf1

Click here to see photos of the members of the SRBC.

The SRBC is a rubber stamper .

They are not protecting the Susquehanna River or the people who live near it. It's shameful!

SRBC Meets in Wilkes-Barre Today: Hurray To the Protesters!

At a meeting on December 15, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) was to consider several water withdrawal applications from gas operators, and vote on proposed regulations that speed up approvals of gas development projects and the transport of hazardous drilling wastewater.

Jay Sweeney, who testified at the hearing, filed this report: "There was about an hour or two of awesome testimony. All opposing the withdrawals. After a break they began reviewing the applications one by one. One was recommended to be denied and a couple reduced volumes of water withdrawal, but, when they continued to recommend applications the crowd got confrontational. There were questions, calling out, finally a mic check. It ended in shouts of "Whose water?" "Our water". The chairwoman called for a motion to approve the applications. There was a motion, a second, a vote and the meeting was adjourned. "


Then a demonstration ensued!  This is what happened (see video above). People care about the river, and they care about water. Today they spoke up.

Background: The Susquehanna River Basin Commission coordinates the use of water resources among Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania—the three states across which the river flows for over 400 miles—and the federal government. The Commission’s work is governed by a Compact adopted in 1970 by the U.S. Congress and legislatures of the three member states.

In November, the SRBC received a letter signed by more than 40 organizations across the region urging the Commission to stop its rulemaking on gas drilling until it conducts necessary comprehensive environmental studies.

Our grandson fishing in the Susquehanna River in Bradford County, PA

Thanks to Don Williams for providing this video.

Methane Still Bubbling in Susquehanna at Sugar Run, PA: Day 444

Today it will be 444 days since methane began bubbling up in the Susquehanna River at Sugar Run in Bradford County. Still no resolution to the problem. Where is it coming from? When will it be stopped? Unanswered questions.

And another video:
 

From the Wyoming County Press Examiner, CLICK HERE.

And from Don Williams, filmed on July 17, 2011:

VIDEO

When will we get this problem resolved?

House Floats Down Susquehanna River, Hits Bridge

A house floats down the Susquehanna River on September 8, 2011, and hits bridge in Tunkhannock, PA. The bridge won.

A Letter To the Editor From the Past: Floodplains

A road floods in Sugar Run, Terry Township, PA
September 2011

A friend of mine wrote this LTE years ago, but it has significance now as well. In light of the devastating flood in PA September 8th,  would we not be wise to re-evaluate the safety or risk of natural gas drilling in floodplains? My cousin, a resident of Wysox, PA, is now facing a major reconstruction of his home on the Susquehanna River after 5-6 feet of water flowed into his home uninvited last week.  Floods are not the least bit uncommon in that area.  Will frack wastewater be released into raging rivers and streams in the future?  It could happen. Can we prevent that from happening?

Dear Editor:

Floods happen. They are an integral and permanent part of a river's natural cycle. Even with dams, levees and all the engineering innovations of the past, the present & the morrow...rivers will continue to inundate their floodplains until the end of time. Man may delay the outcome, but nature always prevails.  People construct homes and buildings of commerce on floodplains. After  each flood, these same people cry for more protection. "Raise the levees -  dredge the river"...not realizing neither action will prevent future floods. Prior to the 1700's, Pennsylvania - "Penn's Woods" - was covered by forests from the Delaware River to Lake Erie. It was once written that a  squirrel could travel from the Atlantic shores to the Mississippi River without ever having to touch the ground. And amidst the forests were the swamps, a.k.a. wetlands. More than half the wetlands are gone, and even today the forests are sold to the highest bidder behind closed doors.

Think about the travels of a raindrop back then. It would first contact the upper reaches of the arboreal canopy maybe 150 feet above the forest  floor. Layer upon layer of pine, oak, hemlock and maple would slow its descent. When it eventually reached the ground, which was cooled by almost constant
shade, it would slowly seep into the dense humus-rich soils and percolate into and become part of the water table. Any dust or impurities were removed either by chemical or physical processes. The forests & wetlands acted as buffers, reservoirs and filters. How was water quality back then? You can't even imagine.

Picture that same raindrop hitting a parking lot, driveway or city  landscape of today. Surface runoff - storm drain - sewer system - stream. It gets to the nearest waterway a lot faster, dirtier and warmer than its counterpart of yesteryear. Envision that same area covered by thousands of umbrellas at various levels, with the ground itself covered with sponges wrapped in fine, porous filters. A very simple example, yes. But that's what is missing today. The forests and wetlands were nature's flood protection and water purification system for hundreds of thousands of years. Today, we pay for a far inferior substitute that once was perfectly free.

The Army Corps of Engineers knows it...they just won't tell you. As more land is developed, as more forests are felled, wetlands filled and streams channelized...floods along the Susquehanna are going to increase in magnitude. If an event equal to Hurricane Agnes in 1972 occurred  today...the newly raised levees in the Wyoming Valley would not provide the level of protection anticipated. In the last 30 years, people have been very busy upstream - and they have not been planting trees and saving wetlands.

Regards,

Don Williams
H*******, PA

http://srs444.blogspot.com/

Bradford County, PA, Flood 2011

PA Sierra Club Worried About Frack Fluids in Flood Water

Bridge in Wyalusing, PA

For Immediate Release

September 9, 2011

Contact:

Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club - Pennsylvania Chapter, 717-602-5431

Tracy Carluccio, Delaware River Network, 215-692-2329



Pennsylvania Groups Express Concerns over Fracking Fluids in Flood Water

Demand Disclosure of Chemicals and Number of Well Pads in Floodplains

Harrisburg, PA-As tropical storm Lee continues to dump massive amounts of rain throughout Pennsylvania, concerns are growing over natural gas drilling pits overflowing and spilling their toxic contents into flooded creeks, streams and rivers.

There are no currently safeguards in place by the State of Pennsylvania to prevent natural gas drilling and the placing of open pits containing toxic fracking fluids in flood plains.

The groups call on the DEP to immediately disclose to the public and emergency response professionals how many wells are located within the floodplain, how many may have potentially leaked into our waterways, and what types of chemicals residents and emergency responders may have come in contact with.

Pennsylvania Environmental groups released the following statements in reaction to the heavy rainfall and potential for contaminated flood regions:

"Given the significant flooding over the past several days, there is much concern over how many well pads, open pits and chemical storage tank fields have been inundated with toxic chemicals washing into our waterways and flooded communities," states Jeff Schmidt, Director with the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter. "It is imperative that the PA DEP not allow natural gas wells and infrastructure to be located in floodplains."

"The human devastation experienced by flooding is largely the result of bad decision making - building in the wrong place and the wrong way," said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper. "Because we have once again put the priorities of industry above the health, safety and protection of people, which includes protecting the environment that feeds and sustains them. We have created a catastrophic situation - and the damage we see here will far surpass what we are able to see with our eyes, the chemical slurry of the drillers will spread its poison, becoming an insidious and unseen threat that will cause sickness and harm for years to come."

"We can only assume that the runoff from gas well sites during this terrible flooding is a toxic flood," said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director of DRN. "PA should shut down all drilling now and must immediately revise its regulations to prohibit any gas well development within the floodplains adjacent riparian areas, for the sake of public health and safety."

B. Arrindell, Director of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, said, "We have verified that there is a spreading oil slick in the Wyalusing area along the flooding Susquehanna River. This is indicative of not just oils, but also all the chemicals being used and released materials brought to the surface by the drilling that are now being spread everywhere the flood waters travel. This has profound ongoing health implications for everyone living, working, farming or visiting the area. Pennsylvanians are being denied their constitutional right to a clean environment."

"While the industry mouths rhetoric about 'safe and responsible' drilling, they do the absolute opposite in fact, storing hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic flowback fluid in open frack pits, now flowing into floodwaters," said Iris Marie Bloom, director of Protecting Our Waters. "Fracking fluid chemicals, and even worse, the radioactive materials, arsenic and other deadly contaminants brought up from the deep shale, should never come into contact with air, water or earth. But here they are flowing with flood waters irreversibly into our ecosystem. This is a public health disaster in the making. Not one more fracking permit should be issued. All open frack pits must be permanently abolished and life-cycle cumulative impact studies done."

Nature Abounds President Melinda Hughes-Wert commented on the situation, "Prior to the epic flooding, we already knew that toxic water from the wells was seeping into our waterways through inefficient containment ponds placed in mountainous topography. Now with the epic flooding, we have even more toxic chemicals in our ground and surface waters. This is truly a significant problem for the commonwealth and it should be addressed by our officials with urgency. Anything less, is an insult to the intelligence of the citizens of Pennsylvania."

"The devastating flooding occurring in Pennsylvania is just another chilling reminder that we are all downstream of poorly regulated, poorly understood, and inherently dangerous natural gas drilling operations. Natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania needs to stop," said Karen Feridun, Founder of Berks Gas Truth.

More Flood Pictures in Bradford County, PA

Looks like a gas truck at the pump
Wyalusing, PA

Sand tankers under water near Wyalusing Valley Elementary School

Train track washed out and train cars topple
Near Wyalusing Valley Elementary School
Wyalusing, PA

Photos: Wyalusing Rocket-Courier
September 8, 2011

Flooding in Bradford County, PA

The Bradford County Court House and Susquehanna River flooding behind it

Susquehanna River from Wyalusing Rocks
Bradford County, PA

Photos: Wyalusing Rocket-Courier
September 8, 2011

Rafters Paddling Down the Susquehanna, Listening To Local Stories

Film crew ties up along the Susquehanna River

I spent about four hours with these delightful, thoughtful, creative, and intelligent women last week in French Azilum, PA.  The feature length film "The River Twice" will come out in about a year.  Watch for it! Here's the trailer (filmed during their 2010 river adventure). LINK

Read this article from the Rocket-Courier:  LINK

Meryl O'Connor, Dagmar Weaver-Madsen, and Cecily Anderson are an impressive group.  They are great listeners, interested in stories about living on the Susquehanna River.  I wish them the very best in making this feature film.  They are still on the river until July 4th.

Morning on the river

Good luck to the crew!

The Magnificent Susquehanna Comes In First: Most Endangered River

My grandson fishing in the Susquehanna in 2009

The Susquehanna River is one of the longest rivers in America and provides over half of the freshwater to the Chesapeake Bay and drinking water to six million people.  It is now threatened by natural gas development, which requires millions of gallons of water per well, produces toxic waste, and threatens clean water and the river's health.

My family has gathered every summer on the banks of the Susquehanna River as it flows past French Azilum in Bradford County, PA.  Since 1930, we have enjoyed the river- swimming, boating, tubing, fishing, picnicking, skipping stones.  We stand to lose a lot.  It's a personal issue with us.

For more information about the river, click here.

To visit the American Rivers site, click here.

Save the mighty Susquehanna!

Stop the drilling!

Protest in Towanda (PA) April 22nd

God bless the people of Bradford County and others who stood in solidarity on Friday, Earth Day, across the road from Chesapeake Energy's headquarters in Towanda, PA, to protest the environmental and human costs that they have suffered from the gas industry so far.  We stand with them.

More on this event from The Morning Times (Sayre)....

BREAKING NEWS: Well Blowout in Bradford County, PA

A gas well emergency is underway in LeRoy Township near Canton, PA, at this hour.  Thousands and thousands of gallons of fracking fluid have been spilled due to a blowout.  The fluid has contaminated Towanda Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River. 

We must stop gas drilling unless we don't mind this happening many times more in the future.  A contaminated creek cannot be saved.  Damage done.  Reports are that the creek was stocked with trout April 5th.

LINK:  http://www.wnep.com/wnep-brad-leroy-gas-drillingemergency20110420,0,1884646.story
TV Report:  http://www.wnep.com/  (video)

The Grand Old Susquehanna Keeps On Rollin'

http://vimeo.com/20310339 from Don Williams on Vimeo.


This short video was taken February 20, 2011, by Don Williams.  Wyalusing, Route 6
This river and ALL our rivers are the lungs of our fragile planet and need to be protected.  The gas drilling industry does not care about our rivers.  They are pouring toxins in the Susquehanna via inadequate water treatment facilities (and some illegal discharges caught on video, too).

Kudos to The Susquehanna River Sentinel for its excellent coverage of this environmental crisis.

Susquehanna Still Bubbling in Bradford County, PA

More claims of gas drilling contaminating drinking water have prompted a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy in Bradford County. Some believe the proof is in the Susquehanna River.

LINK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In loving Memory of Robert Shippee

1922-2010

He loved the river.