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By arimoore, on November 11th, 2009%
The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers. Guest: Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm in Ithaca, New York. (More at Democracy Now)
Walter Hang writes:
I just posted data at www.toxicstargeting.com for 270 oil and gas spill spills in New York State that have caused fires, explosions, home evacuations, polluted drinking water wells as well as long-term impacts on forests, streams, wetlands, ponds and other waterways.
You can view video of flammable drinking water in Candor, NY reported by a homeowner “who is concerned about natural gas drilling near him.”
I believe these findings destroy the myth that the Department of Environmental Conservation’s current oil and gas regulations are adequate to safeguard the environment and public health. For that reason, I am asking Governor Paterson to withdraw the dSGEIS.
By shirari, on August 4th, 2009%
Read Water Problems From Drilling Are More Frequent Than PA Officials Said by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, July 31, 2009:
When methane began bubbling out of kitchen taps near a gas drilling site in Pennsylvania last winter, a state regulator described the problem as “an anomaly.” But at the time he made that statement to ProPublica, that same official was investigating a similar case affecting more than a dozen homes near gas wells halfway across the state.
In fact, methane related to the natural gas industry has contaminated water wells in at least seven Pennsylvania counties since 2004 and is common enough that the state hired a full-time inspector dedicated to the issue in 2006. In one case, methane was detected in water sampled over 15 square miles. In another, a methane leak led to an explosion that killed a couple and their 17-month-old grandson.
Read the rest…
By shirari, on May 13th, 2009%
Officials in three states pin water woes on gas drilling by ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten:
Norma Fiorentino’s drinking water well was a time bomb. For weeks, workers in her small northeastern Pennsylvania town had been plumbing natural gas deposits from a drilling rig a few hundred yards away. They cracked the earth and pumped in fluids to force the gas out. Somehow, stray gas worked into tiny crevasses in the rock, leaking upward into the aquifer and slipping quietly into Fiorentino’s well. Then, according to the state’s working theory, a motorized pump turned on in her well house, flicked a spark and caused a New Year’s morning blast that tossed aside a concrete slab weighing several thousand-pounds. (Read the rest)
By shirari, on February 13th, 2009%
Energy company tests theory of gas seepage into Pa. water wells by Tom Wilber, February 10, 2009:
Will reaping the riches of the Marcellus Shale carry threats of random explosions? Scientists and industry officials are working on an answer in Dimock Township, Pa., where gas originating 1,500 feet deep or more seeped into water supplies feeding homes. Cabot Oil & Gas, of Houston, has taken four water wells off line at homes in the Carter Road area and is venting nearby natural gas wells suspected to be related to the problem. The intensive investigation began after a water well exploded Jan. 1.
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“We need to see whether this is something that could happen someplace else,” [Mark Carmon, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] said. “In a way, this is like one big experiment in the field.”
Read the rest
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About Us Shaleshock is an information hub connecting people to regional groups and projects working to stop exploitative drilling in the Marcellus Shale.(more)
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