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By arimoore, on October 7th, 2009%
New York Natural Gas Summit: Challenges and Opportunities is a pro-drilling event that folks with more critical perspectives may be interested in attending.
November 30, 2009
Owego Treadway Inn, Owego, New York
Goals and objectives: To inform and educate; prepare for challenges; prepare for opportunities; gather information for ongoing research; network between multiple stakeholders
Audiences: Local government officials; Landowner Coalition representatives; Citizens seeking more information; Researchers and Educators
Continue reading Of local interest: New York Natural Gas Summit
By arimoore, on September 28th, 2009%
Contact NPR to tell them what you think of their recent natural gas drilling coverage. Here’s a response from a Shaleshock member:
Like many in my Upstate New York community, I am incredibly disappointed with your one-sided coverage of horizontal natural gas drilling. Horizontal fracturing of shale deposits requires millions of gallons of water over the 30-year life of each well, there could be thousands of wells in each county, and this water will deplete and then pollute local water supplies. When the water is pumped into the ground to break apart and release the gas from the shale, the water includes dozens of harmful chemicals, the exact composition of which the natural gas industry claims it does not have to make available to the public. When the chemically-laden fracking fluid is pumped back up to the surface, it is stored in lined pools or trucked to treatment facilities. If you had checked with landowners in other states like Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania, you would have learned that leaks and spills occur frequently and with little oversight or penalties from over-stretched state EPA officials. Horizontal natural gas wells are poisoning homeowners’ drinking water wells and land. Hydro-fracturing enjoys exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Right-to-Know Act. This is unacceptable.
Martha Stettinius
Ithaca
By arimoore, on September 28th, 2009%
An interesting quote from Chesapeake. Now, why would they need to search for alternatives to the chemicals they are using if the chemicals are so safe?
We as an industry need to demystify (hydrofracturing),” Aubrey McClendon, chief executive and chairman of Chesapeake, told an energy conference this week. “We need to disclose the chemicals that we are using and search for alternatives to the chemicals we are using,” he said.
Read the article here.
By arimoore, on September 22nd, 2009%
A Pennsylvania state coalition of environmental, watershed, and sporting organizations is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take immediate action following a large scale fish kill in Dunkard Creek. View the press release
By arimoore, on September 21st, 2009%
Sudden death of ecosystem ravages long creek by Don Hopey, for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Environmental agencies are treating the creek as a crime scene. Longtime environmental and fisheries officials say the fish kill, which preliminary counts have put at more than 10,000, is one of the worst they’ve seen… state and federal investigators are confounded because chemical analysis shows the creek water at the treatment facility site contains extremely high total dissolved solids, or TDS, and chlorides — properties found in wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas well drilling operations but not mine water. (Read more)
By arimoore, on September 9th, 2009%
The time to make your voice heard is tonight! Wednesday September 9, 7:00pm, at Horseheads High School (map).
The village of Horseheads wants to allow a huge corporation, Schlumberger, to build a giant facility serving a 300-mile gas drilling radius with explosives, radioactive material, and concentrated toxic chemicals across the street from a school, without requiring a full environmental impact statement (EIS). Hundreds of trucks will be carrying these materials to and from the facility every single day. The effects will range from air pollution and health hazards from Diesel exhaust to water contamination.
Horseheads wants to do this so that they can secure a few hundred jobs (most of them dangerous and unpleasant) for the duration of the project. Many landowners who have signed leases and whose sites will be serviced have been coerced into signing, and the drilling profits will primarily benefit the companies doing the drilling – not the landowners themselves, or the communities that will be affected by the project. This three hundred mile radius includes most, if not all of us, but we have absolutely no voice – except for tonight!
If natural gas extraction by unconventional means must occur as part of a well-thought out and soberly constructed NYS energy plan, then LET US DO IT METHODICALLY AND CAREFULLY. Go tonight and make your voice heard. Call some friends and arrange a car pool. This is the only chance to speak publicly on this topic before the joint board workshop on Sept. 15. Even if you don’t want to speak, go and listen to what others have to say, and show Horseheads and Schlumberger that you care about this assault on our region.
By arimoore, on August 26th, 2009%
Gas shale drilling tech under scrutiny (Alaska Dispatch):
According to a long feature in the Ithaca Journal, people are wondering about just what’s in the waste liquid that results from horizontal high-pressure hydro-fracture drilling, and what’s the best way to handle it. As full-scale horizontal development of Marcellus Shale gas kicks in, the quantity of waste fluid will increase because horizontal wells require more of the fluid than vertical wells. The high volume of waste fluid will need to be dealt with. But because the industry is exempt from the federal rules that require full disclosure, no one is really sure about what threat the fluid poses to workers or groundwater. The DEC hasn’t issued any permits yet for full-scale development with horizontal hydro-fracture wells in the Marcellus because it is reviewing environmental impact statements, but it has already allowed the technology to be used in traditional vertical wells there. (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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