B-CAUSE (Bucks Concerned About Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction)

Blog

  • What Legislator’s Didn’t Know

    Most of the body of law and regulation that governs fracking (drilling and hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas) was established years ago. But the science that accurately assesses health and environmental risks lags behind. A recent survey of scientific publications says:

    While research continues to lag behind the rapid scaling of UNGD [unconventional natural gas development], there has been a surge of peer-reviewed scientific papers published in the past several years (Fig 1). By the end of 2015, over 80% of the peer reviewed scientific literature on shale and tight gas development has been published since January 1, 2013 and over 60% since January 1, 2014. This suggests an emerging understanding of the environmental and public health implications of UNGD in the scientific community. Yet, although numerous hazards and risks have been identified in studies to date, many data gaps remain. Notably, while there is now a far more substantive body of science than there was several years ago, there is still only a limited amount of epidemiology that explores associations between risk factors and health outcomes in human populations [1].

    Most Science on Health Risks is Very Recent

    “Fools rush in …” as the saying goes.  We know enough from the research and anecdotal reports available now to recognize substantial risks to communities where fracking is done near where people live and work.  Our legislators are being lobbied by energy industry reps who seek to minimize the health risks and focus attention of the prospect of economic benefit.  The effects of fracking are long-term, the economic benefit is relatively brief, and accrues mainly to large corporate interests, not to locals.

    Everybody needs to slow down, reconsider the public risk, and assess who benefits.  In my view, nothing justifies more fracking in Pennsylvania. The US doesn’t need it, and the planet is damaged by burning it.

  • 52 Homes Without Water Six Years

    Activist groups and especially faith leaders are helping the families in Woodlands, PA whose water was fouled by fracking. You may want to read and respond to their appeal. But my purpose in posting it here is to bring home that shale gas extraction has bad consequences.  Has anything really changed in the regulatory framework that allowed this travesty six years ago? Why aren’t those responsible making it right?

    There will probably never be satisfactory answers.  Laws and regulations fall far short of strict accountability and compensation for environmental damage. And the industry successfully lobbies to keep the enforcement understaffed and encumbered. This is why we must prevent unsafe shale gas extraction here in Bucks County – nothing good comes to locals.

    Read more …

  • Draft Oil and Gas Drilling Ordinance

    Here is a copy of the Jointure’s drilling ordinance.  In my opinion it falls far short of what is needed.  It represents a minimalist approach (more…)

  • EPA: Contamination at every phase of the fracking process.

    Reposted from Pennsylvanians Against Fracking

     

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    December 13, 2016
    Contact: Danielle Filson, danielle.filson@berlinrosen.com, 646-335-0443

    BREAKING: EPA Listens To Science Advisory Board & Confirms Fracking Impacts Drinking Water

    Alters Controversial Earlier Finding, Acknowledges Science & Research

    The EPA today finalized its report on fracking’s impacts to drinking water resources following the EPA Science Advisory Board’s (SAB) review of the EPA’s June 2015 draft study, reversing itself to confirm that fracking has an adverse impact on drinking water. For over a year, a panel of 30 scientists, engineers and industry consultants have reviewed the details of the 1000-page draft report. The panel took particular issue with a finding that seemingly came out of left field: the agency’s statement that fracking has not led to “widespread systemic impacts” in the United States, which did not have clear, scientific basis of support.

    After thoroughly reviewing the demands from the EPA Science Advisory Board, comprised of the EPA’s own scientists, the agency released the final report today, heeding their recommendations and clarifying that the agency found contamination at every phase of the fracking process.

    The EPA and independent peer-reviewed studies have identified many mechanisms of contamination, such as spills, well cementing failures below ground, and complications with waste disposal. The EPA originally found there was on order of 15 spills every day somewhere in the United States, yet chose to dismiss those daily incidents.

    This decision follows concerted outreach from affected individuals, public interest groups, and the EPA SAB, who submitted comments in taking issue with how the agency ignored three high-profile contamination cases in its study – notably Dimock, Pennsylvania; Parker County, Texas; and Pavillion, Wyoming. The agency’s omissions were contentious in part because in each case, the EPA prematurely abandoned investigations. The EPA SAB recommended that the agency include detailed summaries of these critical cases, which have now been added.

    “The EPA made the correct decision in acting on the recommendations from the EPA SAB and confirming what we have seen firsthand, that fracking for oil and gas damages water supplies in Pennsylvania and across the country,” said Karen Feridun of Pennsylvanians Against Fracking. “In Pennsylvania, there have been more than 283 documented cases in which fracking damaged private drinking water supplies and countless others that have yet to be determined by the Department of Environmental Protection, like the dozens of cases in the Woodlands. We also know that fracking operations in Dimock contaminated local water supplies. Pennsylvania has been infiltrated with fracking, and many of the public health reports coming out use Pennsylvanians as subjects. It is now more important than ever that Governor Wolf heed the requests of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and implement a statewide fracking moratorium.”

    This is a clear sign from the EPA that it is choosing to prioritize the health and safety of the American people over the political interests of the oil and gas industry. With the pick of Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the incoming administration has made it clear that it is willing to sacrifice public health and deny the existence of climate change. We are grateful that the agency has chosen to side with science, research and logic and hope that this is a first step toward a nationwide ban on fracking.”

    More than 179,000 signed a petition to EPA Administrator McCarthy, calling on the EPA to retract the draft report’s conclusion and commission an independent, peer-reviewed study on fracking’s impacts on drinking water that is free from industry bias. A March 2016 Gallup poll found that Americans oppose fracking 51-36%, and an October 2016 Yale study that links chemicals that cause cancers, including childhood leukemia, to fracking. The fourth edition of The Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking was recently released in November 2016, bringing together over 900 peer-reviewed findings and studies from the scientific and medical literature, government and industry reporters, and journalistic investigation. It demonstrates a now pervasive body of scientific evidence of risks and harms, health impacts and air, water, and soil contamination, along with climate impacts of fracking.

    About Pennsylvanians Against Fracking

    Pennsylvanians Against Fracking is a statewide coalition of organizations, institutions, and businesses calling for a halt to fracking in the Commonwealth. Steering Committee member organizations include Berks Gas Truth, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Food & Water Watch, Marcellus Outreach Butler, Marcellus Protest, Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air, and Thomas Merton Center. Learn more about Pennsylvanians Against Fracking atpaagainstfracking.org.

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  • Solidarity

    The Standing Rock Sioux are a long way from Bucks County, but the issue is not local to their land.  The State of Pennsylvania embarked on a plan to expedite construction 30,000 miles of pipeline here in Pennsylvania.  Virtually every county in the state would have land seized by eminent domain to facilitate getting shale gas to market. This is not a “NIMBY” not-in-my-back-yard issue. It is madness to rape the land and rush fossil fuels to market with the effects of global warming becoming more evident daily.

    Resistance to the energy juggernaut that subverts democracy, ignores stewardship of the planet, and serves only private profit, is a national imperitive.  As I write this on November 15, Marguerite and others are protesting in Doylestown, PA.

  • Global Warming: Hottest Years on Record

    Protesters have been marching and doing sit-ins all week. The GOP is calling them “sore losers” and others are saying they are wasting their time. What is remarkable is the peacefulness of these demonstrations. For those who are aware of the science, this is a matter of survival of life as we know it.

    “The WMO reported that the past five years were the hottest on record. It reported rising sea levels, soon to increase as a result of the unexpectedly rapid melting of polar ice, most ominously the huge Antarctic glaciers. Already, Arctic sea ice over the past five years is 28 percent below the average of the previous 29 years, not only raising sea levels, but also reducing the cooling effect of polar ice reflection of solar rays, thereby accelerating the grim effects of global warming. The WMO reported further that temperatures are approaching dangerously close to the goal established by COP21, along with other dire reports and forecasts. {Noam Chomsky}”

    An American political party committed to lifting the restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, one that denies the urgent warnings of all but a tiny handful of scientists, and ignores the weather events that should serve as warning — this dangerous party now controls all three branches of the US government and is planning to appoint officials who will accelerate fossil fuel extraction and use.

    Now, more than ever, it is important that those of us who see the danger do all that we can to build an irresistible grass roots movement to thwart these suicidal political plans. Take a moment to follow the link and see what Chomsky said.

  • Damage Control?

    In the campaign President Elect Trump showed no concern about climate change.  Although the article link below refers to coal, we may expect the Trump Presidency to give more license to energy industry interests.  The role of activists will have to focus even more on damage control.

    To the extent that Trump offered any major policy positions during the campaign—besides, that is, on building a wall—he made clear what his plans were in the areas of energy and the environment. He called climate change a “hoax”; he said he would “cancel” the international climate treaty negotiated last year, in Paris; and he promised to repeal the regulations that the Obama Administration put in place to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. In September, it was reported that Trump planned to pick Myron Ebell, a well-known climate-change denier and a lobbyist for Koch Companies Public Sector L.L.C., to lead his transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency. The choice made sense, as Trump said repeatedly that he wanted to abolish the E.P.A. — The New Yorker (11-9-16)

    Keep watch!

  • Act 13 Webinar Nov. 22

    Act 13 is the infamous law that stripped local PA communities of their power to regulate pipelines and fracking.  In recent time  litigation seeking to recover those powers has been favorably decided by the PA Supreme Court. Although this has not fixed all the problems, it has given more options to municipalities. But not all towns have effective strategies.  Get the facts and empower your local elected officials.

    drk-webinar

     

    Click on the image above to register or click  here to download a copy of the registration letter.

  • DRBC Moratorium Challenged

    In litigation aimed at challenging the moratorium on shale gas extraction (fracking) in the Delaware Valley, three PA senators are asking the court to declare that the Delaware River Basin Authority does not have the authority to regulate drilling in the basin. According to Environment and Energy Daily reporter Ellen Gilmer, “In a court filing this week, state Sens. Joseph Scarnati, Lisa Baker and Gene Yaw urged the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania to allow them to join a group of landowners challenging a long-standing drilling freeze in the 13,539-square-mile watershed, which includes parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware.“

    A portion of the Marcellus formation lies under the river basin in north-eastern PA and north-western NJ, and the hope of big profits from the gas trapped there has seduced people to want the ban lifted despite the dangers to water, air, and the health of residents near extraction sites.

    Bucks County is over the Newark Basin Shale, not the Marcellus. There are no producing wells in this formation and two exploratory wells drilled years ago have since been plugged with no conclusive evidence that further exploration would find economically attractive extraction possibilities.  Of course even if the exploration companies were optimistic, we wouldn’t expect them to be forthcoming with their knowledge.  But, a 2007 technical article concluded:

    The results of drilling the two wells in the Newark basin of Pennsylvania provided an initial insight into subsurface conditions.

    It allows a broad correlation of seismic data with subsurface conditions. It also exposed the fact that the subsurface characteristics of this basin are more complex than the “cookie cutter” geology that has been imposed upon it since the mid-1800s.

    Reservoir analysis suggests that there is a thick, organically rich, siltstone-shale-mudstone complex in basin center that is apparently equal to other great fractured shale reservoirs.

    With a thickness ranging from 2,500 ft to over 4,000 ft, the Lockatong member could host many significant local reservoirs that could produce economic amounts of relatively dry natural gas. In addition, there is a possibility that sandstones with porosity might lie in proximity to the organic shale, and could, under the proper conditions, be significantly large natural gas reservoirs.

    Finally, the author believes his original model for the basin is still viable. If this is the case, then fluvial sand buildups in proximity to the organic shale could be present and could form significant sand reservoirs.

    There is too little subsurface information available to the geological community to allow a more precise discussion of reservoir development or location at this time. What can be stated is that there is a good possibility that a significant reservoir in an economically attractive location may be present.

    The author will conclude with the comments of two geologists who do not wish to be identified. One geologist said, “This reservoir looks better than the Barnett, even at this early stage of development.” The other said, “Given the limitations of the dataset and the variables of basin configuration, what we may be looking at is one of the last significant, completely undeveloped reservoirs left in the world.”

    The lacustrine reservoirs of the Newark basin hold great potential and should encourage further testing by drilling. [source: Art Pyron www.ogj.com]

    I can’t help feeling that it’s only a matter of time before there is renewed interest in exploring the Newark Shale. It’s closer to the surface (3,000 feet instead of 5 to 7,000) and it will be close to the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) hub proposed for Philadelphia. So when people tell you there is no gas here, beware. In the industry it is said there is “no known gas” until it’s proven with a producing well.

  • New Video on Elcon

    Here is the trailer …