Louis W. Allstadt On Gas Drilling In New York State and the SGEIS

Lou Allstadt discusses the enormous inadequacies of the New York State SGEIS. His talk can also be viewed here: www.otsego2000.org. For an excellent article on this topic, click HERE. Lou Allstadt is a former Mobil Oil Corp. executive. Initially a proponent of gas drilling, he now is "convinced the economic prospects are largely hype and that the state's environmental regulators are disturbingly unprepared to deal with the side effects of such an invasive industrial activity."

Frack Spill in Leroy, PA: Press Conference in Towanda

Chesapeake Energy - Frack Spill in Leroy, PA from Melissa Troutman on Vimeo.

Attorney Todd O'Malley held a press conference outside Chesapeake Energy's office in Towanda, PA following a hydraulic fracturing flowback fluid spill that leaked toxins into a nearby waterway and led to the evacuation of seven families. Many people whose private water wells have been contaminated and who've had health problems due to contamination were present to share their stories.

PA Roads Sprayed With Drilling Waste

Recent information in the New York Times has revealed that drilling wastewater contains substantially higher levels of radioactive materials than previously disclosed.  Testing of drinking water for radioactive materials has been lax or non-existent at 65 public water intakes downstream from treatment plants that have handled drilling wastewater from the Marcellus Shale. It remains legal for drillers to spray drilling waste (flowback water) on roads in Pennsylvania for ice and dust suppression.  This waste eventually washes into streams.  Proper oversight and testing has not been done in the past, but now the PA DEP is starting to test water downstream from discharge sites.  It's about time.  But it is really too late in many cases.  There is a very high salt content in this waste.  The grass and plant life next to roads is dying and turning brown.

Read more here:
LINK

STOP SPRAYING TOXIC WASTE ON ROADS!

"Minor Spill" Reported in Bradford County, PA

A "minor spill" occurred  on Saturday, February 12, 2011, at a Talisman well pad near Alba, Bradford County, PA.  A spill of 1-3 barrels of frack flowback water was discharged (sprayed) onto the snow according to Daniel Spadoni of the PA DEP.  This sounds so innocuous.  However, it is the cumulative effect of all the minor spills and the major spills that will eventually cause a lot of damage.  Gas companies minimize the scope of these accidents.  I think we need to be very concerned about every one of them.

Here is the link to the Daily Review article.
LINK

Gas Well Talking Points for the Gullible

On the website marcellus-shale.us, there are numerous links to many informative pages. Here is one example:

Gas Well Talking Points

• SPICE RACK - One local gas drilling company likes to use a photo of a kitchen spice rack while discussing frac fluids. They will tell you: "We only use a few, just 4 or 5" and "This is stuff you use in your house" and "Most of it stays deep in the ground." But a spice rack example?? Frac fluids put a nurse in Colorado into organ arrest after she came in contact with a drilling worker soaked with frac fluids. The good news is that she lived. Bad news is that it took more than 30 hours for her to be released from intensive care. These gas drilling company PR guys sure must think you're stupid if you fall for their cooking spices comparison!
  

• ROAD SALT - Since some people know that hydraulic fracturing fluids coming back out of the ground ('flowback') contain high levels of salt or brine, the gas drilling PR guys will address this one very simply. They tell the crowd they could drill for 10 years and not create as much salt runoff as the Pennsylvania highway department uses for de-icing roads during one winter. OK then, we need the roads salted for safety and winter transportation, but do we really need gas drillers adding that much salt to the environment, especially when most of it now gets processed and dumped back in our rivers, where we get our drinking water?
  

• RESTORED TO THE SAME OR BETTER CONDITION - Drilling companies profess that they will put the land they use for gas drilling pads, frac pits, pipelines and other operations back into the same or better condition. While they might get some vegetation to grow, it will never be the same. Here's one of those reclamation jobs near the entrance to Cross Creek Park in Washington County, PA.
  
  

• ONLY ONE CASE OF WATER CONTAMINATION - Open wide folks, because this is a BIG ONE to swallow whole! The local gas drilling company PR guy told a crowd in Hickory Pennsylvania in early 2009 that he only knew of one case of water contamination due to fracking gas wells in the entire United States, and that may have been in Arkansas, he thought. Just one week prior to his presentation, the photo below was taken of a run-off area down stream from a gas well that had just been fracked, and this was less than 10-miles from where he was giving his presentation. Do you think these guys need to get out in the field more, or just focus on the facts. How dumb do they think you are anyway?
  
  

• MON RIVER WATER PROBLEM HAD LITTLE TO DO WITH GAS DRILLING ACTIVITIES??? - Late in 2008, about 1/3 of a million Pittsburgh area residents were treated to "chunky" water, that being tap water that was much higher than normal in TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). The PaMarcellus industry consortium commissioned a study by Tetra Tech in an attempt to show that drawing millions of gallons of water from surrounding streams and waterways had little to do with the terrible tasting drinking water. OK then, let's use their numbers, assuming the study was correct.... they say hydraulic fracturing of gas wells contributed to less than 7-percent of the chunky water problem (Keep in mind the study was done by a paid contractor). Since a Pittsburgh TV news team caught them raiding rivers that were already under a drought watch for massive quantities of water, they had to admit they played a big part (1 in 14 according to THEIR numbers). They will pump streams dry too, even though Pennsylvania's Clean Streams Law makes it illegal. Gas drilling is a "wild west style" under-regulated industry, and everyone knows where that got us with coal mining.
  Photo below: Three tankers pumping water out of a stream running low due dry summer conditions on Marcellus Shale near Houston, Pa. Is gas well fracking more important than aquatic life in this stream?
  
  July 11, 2009 -
  Washington Firefighter Academy parking lot, Chartiers Township

LINKS

Marcellus Shale gas drilling wastewater

Go to the original web page here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!