Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania Natural Gas Drilling’ Category

Canonsburg, PA – At a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) will consider and review a set of recommendations to enhance transparency, streamline permitting processes and strengthen overall enforcement, which, taken together, aim to increase the region’s air quality. These Environmental Air Quality Task Force recommendations were released in a December 2009 report.

“Our industry supports increased transparency and a common sense, workable regulatory framework at the county level that is consistent with state regulations,” said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC).

The Task Force reviewed the following areas within ACHD’s Air Bureau, seeking to determine if the current regulatory structure “facilitated, challenged, or compromised” the delivery of effective and efficient operations:

• County air quality regulations;
• Permitting and appellate process;
• Enforcement;
• Air quality monitoring; and
• Organizational design.

“If these recommendations are implemented and ACHD is able to modernize its current air quality regulatory framework, our industry is confident that environmental, public health and economic benefits associated with shale gas development all will progress together,” noted Klaber, who served as a Task Force member.  “The natural gas industry is committed to partnering with key stakeholders, community members and the ACHD to advance the Task Force’s important work.”

In August 2008, Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato created an Environmental Air Quality Task Force. The group’s mission was to review the county’s air quality programs and provide recommendations to enhance efficiencies. Given the interdependence of the county and state governments with respect to air quality management, it was the Task Force’s charge to identify the effective management tools to meet the needs of the community.

Copyright: MarcellusCoalition.org

Canonsburg, PA – At a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) will consider and review a set of recommendations to enhance transparency, streamline permitting processes and strengthen overall enforcement, which, taken together, aim to increase the region’s air quality. These Environmental Air Quality Task Force recommendations were released in a December 2009 report.

“Our industry supports increased transparency and a common sense, workable regulatory framework at the county level that is consistent with state regulations,” said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC).

The Task Force reviewed the following areas within ACHD’s Air Bureau, seeking to determine if the current regulatory structure “facilitated, challenged, or compromised” the delivery of effective and efficient operations:

• County air quality regulations;
• Permitting and appellate process;
• Enforcement;
• Air quality monitoring; and
• Organizational design.

“If these recommendations are implemented and ACHD is able to modernize its current air quality regulatory framework, our industry is confident that environmental, public health and economic benefits associated with shale gas development all will progress together,” noted Klaber, who served as a Task Force member.  “The natural gas industry is committed to partnering with key stakeholders, community members and the ACHD to advance the Task Force’s important work.”

In August 2008, Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato created an Environmental Air Quality Task Force. The group’s mission was to review the county’s air quality programs and provide recommendations to enhance efficiencies. Given the interdependence of the county and state governments with respect to air quality management, it was the Task Force’s charge to identify the effective management tools to meet the needs of the community.

Leading industry group announces $100k fund to heighten water monitoring, establishment of Energy Research Collaborative

Canonsburg, PA – As the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) unveiled a sweeping set of water quality monitoring results from November through December of 2010 associated with Marcellus Shale development across the Commonwealth, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) today announced a number of steps it is taking to further safeguard the environment as responsible energy production continues in the region. According to DEP, “All samples showed levels at or below the normal naturally occurring background levels of radioactivity.” Of the results, acting DEP secretary Michael Krancer says: “Here are the facts: all samples were at or below background levels of radioactivity; and all samples showed levels below the federal drinking water standard for Radium 226 and 228.”

“These fact-based results are not only encouraging, but they also underscore how closely and aggressively state regulators monitor water use and management associated with the development of clean-burning natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. As acting DEP secretary Krancer reinforced, it’s imperative that facts serve as the foundation of these ongoing conversations. These findings also address a host of recently raised claims in a series of intellectually dishonest news reports,” said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the MSC.

Klaber noted that Pennsylvania’s shale gas industry is recycling more produced water each month, significantly reducing disposal to DEP permitted treatment plants and the Commonwealth’s waterways. As in other industries, water that is not recycled is treated in accordance with strict regulations to remove solids prior to permitted discharge. The landfills to which these solids are transported are also highly regulated and monitored for radioactivity.

Following today’s DEP notice, the MSC announced its own plans to further ensure that Pennsylvania’s drinking water supplies and natural resources are protected, while underscoring the importance of transparency during the ongoing development of the Marcellus Shale.

• The MSC announced the creation of a $100,000 fund to help support heightened water testing associated with ongoing Marcellus natural gas development and water treatment.
• The MSC also will facilitate an Energy Research Collaborative, including representatives from academia, government, industry, and other key stakeholders, to advance the science across the many disciplines associated with responsible shale gas development. This collaborative will focus on areas in need of more fact-based investigation, beginning with the important considerations around naturally-occurring radioactive material (NORM).

“The MSC’s Guiding Principles emphasize our commitment to state-of-the-art environmental protections, as well as continuously improving our practices in ways that increase transparency,” continued Klaber. “With these common sense obligations in mind, we’re pleased to announce the creation of a $100,000 industry-funded account aimed at heightening water testing and monitoring efforts at municipal authorities and other water treatment facilities. Coupled with our establishment of a diverse, multi-discipline Energy Research Collaborative, we remain as committed as ever to protecting our environment for our children and grandchildren and getting this historic opportunity right in the Marcellus.”

Posted: March 06, 2011

The group hopes to build support for an anti-fracking ordinance in the borough.

MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com

Frustrated with the borough’s inaction on the anti-gas drilling ordinance they first proposed at a meeting last summer, Harveys Lake residents and members of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition will hold their own town hall meeting today at 11 a.m. in the Harveys Lake municipal building.

The residents hope to drum up support for the model ordinance before the next borough council meeting, when they plan to introduce it again.

“Our council has ignored our pleas to simply conduct a public hearing to discuss this ordinance with the residents and allow their input on it,” coalition member Michelle Boice said in an e-mail. “After months of approaching them and their failure to respond, we have decided to have our own town hall-style meeting to discuss it with the residents.”

The proposed ordinance, drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, of Summit Hill, would prohibit any corporation from extracting natural gas within the borough and make it unlawful to use water from any source within the borough for extraction of natural gas. It targets the process of hydraulic fracturing, which shale gas drilling critics link to drinking-water contamination.

The group drafted similar ordinances for other municipalities, including Pittsburgh, which banned hydraulic fracturing in November, and Buffalo, N.Y., where the city’s common council voted Tuesday to ban the practice.

It distributed copies of its draft ordinance at council’s November meeting, and on Jan. 19, council at its regular meeting voted to advertise a public meeting to discuss the proposal, but that vote ended in a 3-3 tie, with one council member absent.

Mayor Clarence Hogan did not elect to cast a deciding vote, and the council “left the tie vote dangle and moved on to other business with no response,” Boice said.

Boice said the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition will hold its meeting to offer residents the chance to comment on the ordinance. The group will again ask council to hold a meeting about the ordinance at its Tuesday meeting, she added.

Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, author of Pittsburgh’s anti-fracking ordinance, will speak at today’s meeting. All are welcome.

Copyright: Times Leader

Canonsburg, PA – Pennsylvania leads the nation in recycling water used to produce clean-burning natural gas from shale formations – a process that has been refined, enhanced, and expanded widely over the past year. At the same time, Pennsylvania has regulations and laws in place to ensure water is managed effectively and in a way that protects the environment. These policies are clear, straightforward and the toughest in the nation. A recent review of Pennsylvania’s oil and natural gas regulatory program by the non-profit, multi-stakeholder group STRONGER determined that the state’s oversight of Marcellus development is “well-managed.”

While the New York Times raised some valid points in Sunday’s story — particularly on the issue of increased radium testing, something the Marcellus Shale Coalition supports — the paper’s second installment on produced water recycling is woefully unbalanced and inaccurate. Meanwhile, and not to be outdone, the Associated Press, in a story also filed this week, lodges a host of misleading, out of context claims about Marcellus wastewater management.

 AP Assertion: “Pennsylvania’s natural gas drillers are still flushing vast quantities of contaminated wastewater into rivers that supply drinking water…”

• Fmr. PA DEP Sec. John Hanger: “Here’s the reality: Every drop of tap water that was publicly treated is required to meet the safe drinking water standard.” (Allentown Morning Call, 1/5/11)
• “The new drilling wastewater rule…singles out drilling wastewater for the strongest requirements.” (John Hanger personal blog, 1/27/11)
• By design, the AP fails to mention this critical fact in its lead, but mentions these industry-leading regulations later in the story.

NYT Claim: “In Pennsylvania, for example, natural-gas companies recycled less than half of the wastewater they produced during the 18 months that ended in December, according to state records.”

• But later in the piece, the reporter concedes “the amount reported recycled in the past six months is roughly 65 percent of the total produced, up from roughly 20 percent during the 12 months before that.” As of October 2009, only one Marcellus operator was recycling water across their operations while others were still in the initial phases – so why does the Times focus on recycling data going back 18 months?
• “According to production reports due Feb. 15 and posted last week…Marcellus Shale operators directly reused 6 million barrels of the 10.6 million barrels of waste fluids produced from about 1,500 different wells between July and December. At least an additional 978,000 barrels were taken to facilities that treat the water and return it to operators for reuse.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, 2/27/11)
• “The amount reused or recycled is about seven times larger than the 1 million barrels of wastewater Marcellus Shale drillers said they directly reused during the 12 months between July 2009 and June, the first time the drillers’ waste reports were made publicly available on the website.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, 2/27/11)
• “The majority of companies are working toward reusing 100 percent of their flowback water for several reasons. Environmentally it makes sense, and economically it makes more sense,’ [Penn State hydrologist Dan] Yoxtheimer said.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/1/11)
• “Of the 10.6 million barrels of wastewater that gushed from the wells in the final six months of 2010, at least 65 percent was recycled, a dramatic increase from previous years, when little or no recycling took place.” (Associated Press, 3/1/11)

AP Assertion: “They are unable, however, to remove the salty dissolved solids and chlorides that the wastewater picks up as it travels through the shale beds. There have been concerns about the salt levels rising in some Pennsylvania rivers that supply drinking water.”

• “The water that’s coming out of the tap in Pennsylvania is meeting the safe water drinking standards when it comes to total dissolved solids,” said Hanger. “Every single drop that is coming out of the tap in Pennsylvania today meets the safe drinking water standard.” (KDKA, 1/4/11)
• “The new permitted limit for discharges of wastewater from gas drilling is 500 mg/L of total dissolved solids and 250 mg/L for chlorides. All new and expanding facilities that treat gas well wastewater must now meet these discharge limits.” (Hanger blog, 1/27/11)

NYT Claim: “More than 90 percent of well operators in Pennsylvania use this process, known as hydrofracking, to get wells to produce. It involves injecting water mixed with sand and chemicals at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas.”

• The fact is 100 percent of shale gas wells in the U.S. are hydraulically fractured to enhance the flow of gas. The 90 percent figure – just one of the many inaccuracies in the story – perhaps refer to the percentage of total oil and natural gas wells fractured in the U.S.
• In failing to provide proper context, the Times does not indicate the fact that more than 99.5 percent of the fluids used in the fracturing process are water and sand. The small portion of additives used prevent bacteria and corrosion from forming in the well-bore, and reduce friction during fracturing operations.

NYT Claim: “Wells also create waste that is not captured by recycling, because operators typically recycle only for the first several months after a well begins producing gas.”

• All Marcellus shale natural gas sites in Pennsylvania are equipped with storage tanks that capture residual wastewater after the initial flow-back. Like all wastewater, this water is treated and disposed by reuse and recycling, deep underground injection wells or treatment and surface disposal.

NYT: Within hours, the Times was forced to make at least two factual changes to the story, including at least one direct quote:

• Original quote from Dr. Radisav Vidic, engineering professor, University of Pittsburgh: “The wastewater that comes up from the well will, without a doubt, increase to some degree in radium and other radionuclides with each new fracking.”
• Updated: “The wastewater that comes up from the well will likely increase to some degree in many contaminants such as salts and possibly radium and other radionuclides with each new fracking. But the data is very limited on this issue so not much is known.”
• Original statement regarding abandonment of natural gas wells in Pennsylvania: “Though the amount of wastewater decreases over time, the wells can continue to ooze for decades, long after many of them are abandoned.”
• Updated: “Though the amount of wastewater decreases over time, the wells can continue to ooze for decades after they have been hydrofracked. There are regulations, however, that govern how gas wells are plugged and abandoned.”
• Marcellus Sale natural gas wells do not “ooze” for any period of time. All liquids that flow to the surface as natural gas is produced are captured in DEP regulated tanks. When a well no longer produces, it’s plugged according to strict guidelines laid out by the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, section 601.210 and 25 Pa. Code Sec. 78.91 et seq.

This course presented by Penn College of Technology, will allow the entrant, attendant, or supervisor to safely and confidently understand and evaluate the hazards and procedures associated with confined spaces. This training will help you to differentiate between a Permit- Required confined space and a Non-Permit-Required confined space. The course will address the hazards associated with confined spaces and it will ouline the duties and responsibilities of all members of a confined space entry team, emergency rescue procedures, and plan development. This course will also discuss the need for appropriate personal protective equipment and the selection characteristics for each level of protection. Because the use of instrumentation for monitoring is also essential to any confined space operation, the instruction will address numerous tupes of direct-reading instruments, including their mode of operation and limitations of each tupe. This course will effectively fulfill the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.146 for confined space entry.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/feb/20/career-paths/

The Marcellus Shale Coalition has hired three new staff members. Steve Forde was hired as policy and communications director. Christopher Heck was hired as membership services director. Helen Goodman was hired as conference director.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition is a Canonsburg, Pa.-based organization representing more than 165 companies that extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

Forde previously was senior director of corporate communications for Education Management Corporation. He has also worked as communications director for Rep. John Boehner, R-OH, and for the House Education Workforce Committee. He graduated from Xavier University and has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Heck was previously vice president and relationship manager at Fifth Third Bank. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University.

Goodman founded Event Resources, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based conference and events-management company. She worked at Event Resources for about 20 years. Goodman has a degree from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/feb/20/career-paths/

The Marcellus Shale Coalition has hired three new staff members. Steve Forde was hired as policy and communications director. Christopher Heck was hired as membership services director. Helen Goodman was hired as conference director.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition is a Canonsburg, Pa.-based organization representing more than 165 companies that extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

Forde previously was senior director of corporate communications for Education Management Corporation. He has also worked as communications director for Rep. John Boehner, R-OH, and for the House Education Workforce Committee. He graduated from Xavier University and has a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Heck was previously vice president and relationship manager at Fifth Third Bank. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University.

Goodman founded Event Resources, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based conference and events-management company. She worked at Event Resources for about 20 years. Goodman has a degree from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com

HANOVER TWP. – Audience members asked a lot of questions at Tuesday’s meeting of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority Board meeting, but few walked away with the answers they sought.

The board has for the past 18 months been studying the feasibility of opening an additional facility to treat flow-back water produced by hydraulic fracturing, the process used by natural gas drillers to unlock gas trapped in shale formations.

About 50 packed the meeting room at the authority to comment on the project, which would be built on sanitary authority property in the Lyndwood section of the township.

They voiced concerns about air and noise pollution, the number of trucks that would visit the facility daily, chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive materials in the flowback water, and contamination of the Susquehanna River in the event of an accident.

Chairman James Hankey said the board is still conducting its study and considering different types of facility and different methods of bringing water there for treatment, and as such did not have the answers to many questions asked.

There are no concrete plans or timeline in place for the project, the board said.

When asked by audience members, Hankey responded he could not say if water treated by the facility would contain hazardous or radioactive chemicals, what would be done with sediment removed from treated water, how many trucks would be needed to bring water to the plant daily and what would happen if there were a chemical spill at the site or if the site were flooded.

The crowd grew most impassioned when Hankey said the board was asked to look into the possibility of building the treatment facility.

When asked by whom, Hankey stated “I’m not sure,” prompting cries of “ah, come on, you know,” “pathetic,” and the names of natural gas drilling companies.

Township residents also questioned why the sanitary authority wants to build the facility in Hanover rather than in the northern tier, where gas drilling is much more prevalent.

“Can’t you build a plant closer to where this activity is actually going on?” asked Frank Marra of Hanover Township. “We don’t get the benefit of the leased property up there, and we want to get the tail end of it?”

Hankey said profits raised by the facility could reduce frequency and severity of sewer fees Wyoming Valley property owners pay.

After the meeting, board members referred questions to John Minora, spokesman for Pennsylvania Northeast Aqua Resources, the authority’s consultant.

Minora said much of the water produced from Pennsylvania shale gas wells is currently being trucked to Ohio and West Virginia for treatment and disposal.

“We’re closer,” Minora said. “We’re reducing truck traffic, we’re reducing wear and tear on the roads and we’re reducing pollution.”

Minora added that existing infrastructure at the sanitary authority, including unused tanks that could be used to store treated water and excess heat currently being wasted by the authority, make the site an attractive one.

Minora said the authority is considering three methods of bringing water to the proposed facility: tanker trucks, rail transport, and piping in water from staging areas away from residential areas.

“We want to do it in a way that impacts on the community as minimally as possible,” he said.

Hankey said the authority would consider all scientific information the public submitted.

Members of the audience submitted a draft plan of the recently begun federal Environmental Protection Agency study of hydraulic fracturing’s effect on water supplies recently, a scientific article about the health risks posed by chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and the Pennsylvania State Police’s FracNET enforcement effort, which targets trucks hauling water for gas drillers.

Tom Jiunta of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition also submitted a list of more than 40 questions about the project he hopes the authority will answer.

“I think their lack of transparency had the crowd quite perturbed,” Jiunta said of the board after the meeting.

“I think they need to be more forthcoming. … They need to go above and beyond to show that their decisions are science-based, not profit-based. People in Luzerne County demand accountability.”

Copyright: Times Leader