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By arimoore, on August 25th, 2009%
Read Ithaca council raises natural gas-drilling concerns by Krisy Gashler:
Raising concerns about drinking water, roads and safety for emergency responders, Ithaca’s Common Council is getting involved in the discussion about gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
The majority of the city’s watershed for its Six Mile Creek drinking water source is outside the city in the Towns of Ithaca and Caroline. Roughly 38 percent of the total land area in Tompkins County has already been leased for oil and gas drilling, including 12 percent in the Town of Ithaca and 49 percent in Caroline, according to gas lease deed information compiled by the citizen’s action group Shaleshock.
Common Council Planning Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Dotson, I-1st, said city officials have concerns in four major areas: water use and wastewater disposal; impact on roads and infrastructure; safety, especially for firefighters who may have to respond to fires or accidents at drilling sites; and the tax structure for oil and gas revenue.
The planning committee this week discussed strategies they could use to protect the city, including identifying critical natural areas, adopting road preservation laws, and demanding disclosure of all chemicals in hydro-fracturing (fracking) fluid before considering whether to accept it at the wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into Cayuga Lake. (Read more)
By arimoore, on August 12th, 2009%
The 2009 draft State Energy Plan that was just released seems to be getting little public attention. The interim plan (March 2009) was developed after a number of hearings last winter and was focused on renewable sources. The interim plan was replaced on the website by the draft plan this week and has expanded coverage to all energy sources including development of the Marcellus Shale.
Pages 49-51 address natural gas development and quote the potential recoverable production that are prevalent in the industry publications but are now being questioned based on experience in the fully developed Barnett Shale. There are a lot of assumptions about the economic benefits of increased landowner wealth and tax collection although property taxes on gas production are extremely modest and NY presently has no severance tax on natural gas production. It does acknowledge concerns about the local impacts to communities, including increased truck traffic, noise, aesthetics, and impact on quality of life. Assumptions are made that environmental protection is fully satisfied by the DEC during the GEIS process.
The Ithaca Journal had an article on the Plan this week based on the Governor’s executive order and a press release. It also quotes environmental advocates.
There is a series of public meetings through Aug and Sept. (PDF) and a mid Oct. deadline for written comments with the final report due in November.
It seems to me that this deserves a high priority for all government officials and environmental advocates.
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 June 16th, 2009%
First Issue! Shaleshock Newsletter #1 July/August 2009
-Submission Deadline Monday July 6th.
–Goals:
1. To (in print form) create a space for Shaleshock members and working groups to voice updates, distribute information, and to help folks get involved/aquainted with the organization and the movement.
2. To demand of us, shaleshock, to; a)reflect on our progress, b) to have deadlines for self-reflection, and c) To give communication between members/working groups.
–Logistics:
The Shaleshock Newsletter will begin as a small newsletter. Printed on 100% recycled paper. Submission Deadline will be July 6th. Other logistics still up for discussion and suggestions! Active members of Shaleshock will be asked to submit articles, updates from their working group, and other relevant information for the newsletter.
–Submit to:
Ryan Clover
clover56@riseup.net
or
Shaleshock c/o Ryan
115 E. Martin Luther King st. (The Commons)
Ithaca, New York 14850
–How to Get Involved:
Join the team! offer your skills, graphic design, layout, editing, etc… to the production of this newsletter. Submit your ideas, suggestions, articles, events, updates, stories, photos, artwork, etc…
By shirari, on May 27th, 2009%
Natural Gas Politics by Abrahm Lustgarten:
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.
Read more…
By shirari, on May 20th, 2009%
Washington, DC — Continuing his efforts to close a legal loophole that exempts hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas exploration and drilling from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) used a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior hearing today to ask U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to conduct a review of her agency’s policy on the risk that fracturing poses to drinking water supplies. Jackson told Hinchey that she believed her agency should review the risk that fracturing poses to drinking water in light of various cases across the country that raise questions about the safety.
“It’s imperative that we protect our drinking water supplies from harmful chemicals that are being pumped into the ground by oil and gas companies looking to produce on more and more land in New York and across the country,” Hinchey said. “I was extremely pleased that EPA Administrator Jackson recognized the need for the EPA to reexamine the Bush administration’s misguided views on the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing. We are in a much stronger position to protect our drinking water now that we have an administration in place that is committed to environmental protection. While there is value in drilling for natural gas, it’s imperative that we do so in a manner that doesn’t have long-term environmental consequences on our drinking water — a resource that is critical to human health and survival.”
In the now infamous 2005 Energy Policy Act, which Hinchey strongly opposed and voted against, Congress shockingly exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act, which was designed to protect people’s water supply from contamination from toxic materials. This loophole, which some have called the Halliburton Loophole, has created an extremely dangerous set of circumstances.
Hydraulic fracturing — also known as “fracking” — involves injecting fluids into a well at extremely high pressure to crack open an underground formation and then prop open the new fractures in order to facilitate the flow of oil and gas out of the well. More than 90 percent of oil and gas wells in the U.S. undergo this treatment with many undergoing it more than once over the life of the well.
More than 1,000 cases of contamination have been documented by courts and state and local governments in New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. In one case, a house exploded after hydraulic fracturing created underground passageways and methane seeped into the residential water supply.
A 2004 EPA study, which was haphazardly conducted with a bias toward a desired outcome, concluded that fracturing did not pose a risk to drinking water. However, Hinchey noted that the more than 1,000 reported contamination incidents have cast significant doubt on the report’s findings and the report’s own body contains damaging information that wasn’t mentioned in the conclusion. In fact, the study foreshadowed many of the problems now being reported across the country.
——————————————————-
Jeff Lieberson
Administrative Assistant/Communications Director
Office of Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY22)
jeff.lieberson@mail.house.gov
By shirari, on March 13th, 2009%
The family, which is poor enough to qualify for government food stamps, began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking. Their illnesses finally ended, and Farnelli found something to blame: natural gas drilling in the township of 1,400 people. Dimock, in a former coal mining region that was economically struggling even before the recession, is one of hundreds of sites in Pennsylvania where energy companies are now racing to tap the massive Marcellus Shale natural gas formation.
Read more
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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)
2009 Signs of Sustainability
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