Walter Hang Speaks Up About Gas Drilling Dangers in NY

"I believe this could be the Achilles heel of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale."
Walter Hang

Read the article in the NY Times.

"While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.


The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle."

ToxicsTargeting website:  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!

Dunkard Creek Massacre

A major fishkill was first detected in West Virginia on September 1st and reported a week later. The problem occurred in Dunkard Creek, a beautiful stream along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border. An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Don Hopey explained that a bloom of toxic algae was being blamed for killing thousands of fish, mussels, and other aquatic creatures in more than 30 miles of the creek. The type of algae, golden algae, is usually found in hotter and desert environments, so it is baffling how this algae ended up in the creek. There are two mine treatment facilities in the area near St. Leo, West Virginia. There is also a new borehole which was being used as an injection well for drilling wastewater.

Consol Energy operated the two deep mines. A subsidiary of Consol, CNX Gas Company, is also involved with these mine operations. CNX had been cited for violations at its Morris Run injection well in 2007-2009 and fined $157,500. It is possible that these mines are not the source of the polluted creek water. Several environmental groups, watershed and sportsmen's organizations, and the PA Campaign for Clean Water are calling on the EPA to stop all gas well drilling discharges into Dunkard Creek and require Marcellus shale gas drilling operations to document where they are disposing of all wastewater.

Meanwhile, many people who have enjoyed the creek are devastated by what has happened. Betty Wiley, president of the Dunkard Creek Watershed Association, said,

We've just been decimated down here. Everything is being killed almost from the headwaters of the creek to where it flows into the Monongahela River. It's such a tragedy for the creek. An ecosystem has been destroyed.

Preliminary counts have estimated that more than 10,000 fish have died. Environmental agencies say it is the worst they have seen. Eighteen species of fish and at least 16 species of freshwater mussels have been been all but wiped out. The salamander mussel and the snuffbox mussel are both being considered for the federal endangered species list.

Federal and state investigators have reported extremely high total dissolved solids (TDS) and chlorides- properties found in wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas well drilling operations but not mine water. Furthermore, dead fish were found about a mile and a half up the creek above the treatment plant, making it quite unlikely that the mines could be solely responsible for the lethal discharge. State agencies are now looking at the possibility that someone has illegally dumped drilling wastewater into the creek to avoid the expense of complying with laws governing disposal. West Virginia DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco says,

The elevated levels of TDS and chlorides in the creek indicate oil and gas drilling wastewater. We are following up on every lead that people give us. If they saw a truck pull up to the creek and put a hose in, we want to know about it. We want the name on the truck, a license plate number, anything we can use to identify it.

Ed Presley, who owns property along the creek said,

It's disgusting to see that much life wiped out. To see the quality and beauty of that stream and then to see what happened to it, well, it really tears at you.

The gas industry is the most unregulated industry in the nation. However, even the regulations that are in place, such as the treament of wastewater are almost impossible to enforce because there are not anywhere near enough inspectors. Another problem is the remoteness of many areas which makes it easier for gas industry employees to cut corners and discharge wastewater into streams and rivers without permits or proper treatment. If this is happening, it must be stopped. Citizen watches may become necessary in every area where drilling is taking place.

More information on this fishkill:
Here (United Business Media) and here (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Read Don Hopey's poignant article published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday, September 20, 2009. We are going to experience more and more fishkills and polluted streams. Gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is only just beginning to invade Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and Ohio.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
REPORT VIOLATIONS!