Bradford County USA

Beautiful Bradford County is now an industrial zone.  One of  the saddest sights I have seen ever because my family summer homestead is there on the Susquehanna River.  It won't be long before our family cannot go there anymore.  Worse yet, some family members refuse to accept the dangers of air, water, and soil contamination and plan to continue to visit there as we all have for decades.  Some local people get upset with people like us because we can come and go.  They have to live in this Sacrifice Zone twelve months a year.  What are they supposed to do?  Many have no safe water to drink.  Many have devalued properties which are hard to sell.  Many are low-income and have no means to relocate.  What are they going to do?  Some have signed gas leases; others have not.  All are at risk.   They are considered collateral damage.  Humans and animals are just collateral damage, dispensible, vulnerable.  Lives ruined.  For what?  A few years of un-natural gas energy?  Perhaps it's legal, but is it right?

Chesapeake Energy Cited by DEP For Methane Contamination in Bradford County, PA

 

[Footage from WNEP-TV, Scranton, PA] 

A few residents in Bradford County are dealing with methane gas in their water wells. Now, state investigators are looking into whether drilling for natural gas caused the problems near Towanda. Chesapeake Energy officials said this all started almost two weeks ago so much methane gas built up in a drinking water well that the lid blew off. The gas company is now investigating, along with state environmental crews, after the same gas was found in other wells at neighboring homes.

According to its website, Chesapeake Energy is one of the largest natural gas producers and the largest active driller of new gas wells in the country.

On Monday, Newswatch 16 found workers monitoring gas levels at a home along Brocktown Road in Monroe Township, near Towanda. It is one of three homes officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection believe has been affected by methane gas problems in drinking water wells. While Chesapeake Energy has not taken responsibility for the issues, the company has hired the inspectors to find the source of methane gas. Chesapeake has even provided the homeowners with drinking water and vents for their wells.

"Concerns me, my renters, they're safe," said property owner Paul Sites. "The people Chesapeake hired are doing a good job, but they're not telling us anything." Sites owns two of the rental properties affected. He points out that Chesapeake has merely drilled three natural gas wells nearby and has not started hydraulic fracturing. If that's the source of the methane gas, Sites is worried what could happen next. "They didn't frack it yet, so that's my major concern," he says. "Now they're drilling a methane bubble down. What happens when they frack it?"

Even though the problem is confined to three properties, people who live in this area want to be assured the gas in the water well issues are not a sign of things to come. "Just waiting for Chesapeake," says Sites. "Guess they're trying to take care of the problem, but they ain't telling us nothing. That's what's scary about it. As long as they take care of the problem, we're happy about it."

A spokesperson for the DEP says Chesapeake Energy has been sent a notice of violation. That means even though the source of the methane gas in Bradford County has not been officially determined, DEP is asking the company how it plans to fix any problems at its natural gas wells.
 
Credit: Jim Hamill, WNEP-TV, Scranton, PA
 

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

WE CAN'T DRINK NATURAL GAS

The Faces of Dimock

Dimock, Pa, was the scene of contaminated wells. PA DEP ruled that the contamination was most likely due to nearby gas well drilling by Cabot. Here is a photo essay, poignant and compelling, which is a must see. Be sure to click on the captions link so that you can read them as you look at the pictures.

Here is the link.

Photographs by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - April 26, 2009
Pat Farnelli, top left, Ronald Carter, bottom left, Richard Seymour, top right, and Norma Fiorentino, bottom right, live in Dimock, Pa. A year after Cabot Oil & Gas landmen knocked on their doors to sign drilling leases, they are finding that their drinking water now contains methane, the largest component of natural gas.

Here is the article to read if you want to find out more about what happened in Dimock.
And here is another related ProPublica article for those of you who want to read "Natural Gas Politics." Here is a synopsis of that article:

"Four years after Vice President Dick Cheney spearheaded a massive energy bill that exempted natural gas drilling from federal clean water laws, Congress is having second thoughts about the environmental dangers posed by the burgeoning industry. With growing evidence that the drilling can damage water supplies, Democratic leaders in Congress are circulating legislation that would repeal the extraordinary exemption and for the first time require companies to disclose all chemicals used in the key drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing. The proposed legislation has already stirred sharp debate."

Thanks to ProPublica and author Abrahm Lustgarten for this excellent piece.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Trouble on Hedgehog Lane

Thanks to Ohio-based Schreiner Oil Company, at least seven Hedgehog Lane residents in Bradford Township, PA, (Mckean County) have tainted well water. The company is not disputing the damage or its responsibility for it. Cause: recent oil and gas drilling in the area. Schreiner has been ordered to restore clean water to the affected households. Meanwhile the families are being supplied with bottled water. This has reportedly been going on for weeks.

I'm wondering how one takes a bath or shower with bottled water...

One family, the Baileys, chose to move out of their home seven weeks ago. It remains to be seen how much longer they will be in exile away from their home. Bradford Township Supervisors' Chairman Don Cummins believes that the best way to resolve the dilemma is to hook up the homes to city water "in case any further issues arise with future drilling." Getting funding for such a project is a major issue which government officials are working on. Further complicating the situation and the cost of bringing city water to Hedgehog Lane is the high elevations. Water pressure would be very limited to higher-up houses. Cummins says the residents definitely want city water.

They don't want to deal with the taste and the smell and the methane gas (infiltration)- they're just living that every day.

Meanwhile the drilling is expected to continue. Schreiner has plans for more wells in the area. The residents of Hedgehog Lane will just have to wait. Disrupted lives is just the price we pay for the mistakes and industrial accidents of the big gas companies.

Read more about the story here.
Here is the news release from the PA DEP regarding this incident.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!