Chesapeake Energy Gets Award: It's just wrong

Last fall the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce awarded Chesapeake Energy this plaque for Outstanding Steward of the community.

The irony of this award defies description.  Chesapeake Energy represents an extractive industry which turns rural and urban areas into industrial zones, often called "sacrifice zones."  Every gas well pad becomes a superfund site when the well is closed down.  Water, air, and soil pollution occur on every well pad, sometimes ruining aquifers, rivers, lakes, and streams.  The health costs to local residents are great.  People have died from illnesses caused by toxic chemicals introduced into the environment by the process known as hydrofracking.  This is not a company or an industry that deserves in any way an award for being good stewards.

What is stewardship?

Marcellus Shale: Stream Relocation in Wyoming County, PA

Chief Oil and Gas spokesperson tells Wyoming County residents about the wonders of natural gas drilling.  Notice the poster:  A Clean Source of Energy!  They're kidding, of course.

Wow!  Look what's going on in Wyoming County, PA!  They're getting their bridges ready for those gigantic gas drilling-related trucks.  And what's this?  RELOCATING A STREAM??????  Say what?  And one more thing:  What is a "temporary" wetland impact? Sounds strange to me. Can any impact be truly temporary for sure?

From today's PA DEP update:

Authorization ID: 832039

Permit number: E66-147

Site: PA DOT WYOMING CNTY RD SYS

Client: PA DOT ENG DIST 4 0

Authorization type: Water Obstruction & Encroachment Pmt

Application type: New

Authorization is for: FACILITY

Date received: 03/26/2010

Status: Pending

Sub-Facilities for Authorization

Sub-Facility ID Sub-Facility Name Description eMap PA Location

1019098 0.05 AC WETL IMPACT Wetland Impact
1019099 0.22 AC TEMP WETL IMPACT Temporary Wetland Impact 

1012702 SR 0029 SEG 0050 OFF 0000 - EXISTING BRIDGE Bridge 

1012701 SR 0029 SEG 0050 OFF 0000 - PROPOSED BRIDGE Bridge

1012797 SR 0029 STREAM RELOCATION Stream Relocation

The late Splashdown blogger would end every post with this:

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Thanks, SPLASHDOWN, for all your hard work on behalf of people and the planet.

Rest in Peace, Dear Friend

SPLASHDOWN's Last Blog Entry

SPLASHDOWN Karen Korell with her beloved dog Hattie

Karen died at her home in Towanda, PA, August 30, 2010.

Wyoming County, PA, Commissioners Concerned About Gas Industry Incidents

This truck is spraying something on a dirt road in Bradford County.  Mr. Dirt, the company that owns this truck, said it was spraying sodium chloride.

[Photo: Carol Manuel]

The Wyoming County EMS Director Gene Dziak says there has been a five-fold increase in gas industry related incidents in the past month.  These include spills from trucks as well as accidents on well pads. What is being spilled on roads is not always easy to identify.  Dziak also said that, unlike other utilities and mining endeavors, the natural gas industry is not regulated by anyone.  He wants more regulation.

Read the article from the Rocket-Courier, Wyalusing, PA,  here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

WHAT ARE YOU SPILLING ON OUR ROADS, MR. GAS DRILLER?

Residents Speak Out Against Proposed "Frac Water" Processing Plant

Kudos to the Wyalusing Rocket Courier for this excellent article published today. DC Koviack reported on a hearing and meeting held Tuesday at the Tunkhannock Middle School in regard to a proposed water treatment plant that would discharge treated frac water (from natural gas wells) into Meshoppen Creek. Wyoming Somerset Regional Water Resources Corporation has applied for a permit to locate this plant in Lemon Township (Wyoming County, PA).

The area chosen for this plant has five wetlands within it, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. And it was designated a SUPERFUND SITE and slated for clean-up over a decade ago because of pollution, but was allowed to remain untreated because its wetlands have held the toxins, thus avoiding further pollution in surrounding areas. If this site were to be excavated, which is the plan, this would undoubtedly unleash all this contamination from the past, to say nothing of the contamination of a new water treatment plant..

Although this proposed treatment plant would ideally treat the water and make it 100% reusable, this cannot be done. So some of the treated water would be discharged into Meshoppen Creek, a now pristine creek which was used as a dump in the 1950's and 60's and cleaned up in the 1980's. Many citizens spoke out against dumping treated frac water into the creek and start the whole polluting process all over again. Meshoppen Creek flows into the Susquehanna River and ultimately into the Chesapeake Bay. This water ecosystem provides irreplaceable biodiversity which, once destroyed, cannot be restored.

The consensus at the meeting was that the permit should be denied.

Read the article here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
NO PERMIT FOR THIS WATER TREATMENT PLANT!