Posts Tagged ‘East Resources Inc.’
Cattle may have drunk drill water
July 1st, 2010 | 
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State quarantines cattle in Tioga County after exposure to drilling wastewater.By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com WELLSBORO – The state Department of Agriculture on Thursday announced that it quarantined cattle on a Tioga County farm after it was discovered that they might have ingested drilling wastewater from a nearby Marcellus Shale natural gas well. Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a press release the quarantine was warranted to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef. “Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” Redding said. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product.” Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. The cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater pit on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field, where it pooled. The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc. Grass was killed in a roughly 30-foot-by-40-foot area where the wastewater pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool, and the cattle had access to it for at least three days until the gas company erected a snow fence around it. Testing showed the wastewater contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium. Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially children. The secretary said the quarantine will follow guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, which recommends holding the animals from the food chain based on their stages of development – six months for adult animals, eight months for calves exposed in utero and two years for growing calves. None of the animals appeared sick, department spokesman Justin Fleming said. In response to the leak, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating a final cleanup report and continues investigating drill site operations and circumstances surrounding the leak. An East Resources spokesman did not return a call seeking comment. Carol Johnson said East Resources personnel were on-scene within an hour of being alerted to the problem and did “everything they could possibly do.” They found that the leak occurred because of a 2-foot tear in the pit liner. The contaminated soil was removed and disposed of at a facility in Ohio, she said. DEP is putting together a new list of chemicals found in hydraulic fracturing fluids. A list the department released to The Associated Press on Monday contained not only chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing – a process used to break up the shale formation so the natural gas is released – but also all chemicals found on well-drilling sites. Copyright: Times Leader |
Posted in Blog, Pennsylvania Natural Gas Drilling, Times Leader | 
Tags: Agriculture Secretary, beef, Carol Johnson, chemicals, contaminated product, dangerous chemicals, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Protection, department spokesman, Don Johnson, East Resources Inc., food chain, fracturing, gas, head, heavy metal strontium, Justin Fleming, Marcellus Shale, natural gas, Ohio, product, Russell Redding, Secretary, soil, spokesman, Steve Mocarsky, The Associated Press, Times Leader, Tioga County, water | 
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Gas drilling raises water concerns
Agency said Susquehanna River has enough water, but withdrawal timing is key.
WILLIAMSPORT – The Susquehanna River watershed has enough water to supply drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, members of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission assured at a public hearing on Tuesday.
The trick is to take it when there’s a lot available, and that requires planning.
“It’s not so much the consumptive use,” said Thomas Beauduy, the SRBC’s deputy director.
“It’s when it’s being used. It’s how it’s being used.”
To illustrate the point, Michael Brownell, the commission’s Water Resources Management Division chief, used a local drilling site owned by Chief Oil & Gas LLC as an example.
The site, tucked along rolling ridges east of Hughesville, is permitted for water withdrawal from a creek almost six miles away, meaning the water must be trucked. Water could probably be piped in from a smaller creek about half a mile away, but only in certain seasons when its flow is high enough, Brownell said, which would require forethought.
It’s a matter of submitting the application early, doing the research and picking the right time, he said.
Water use is a major factor for drilling in the shale about a mile underground.
Companies use an innovative horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing process that’s succeeded in similar gas-containing formations in Texas. Each fracturing process can use as much as four million gallons of water. Only about half of that is recovered, Beauduy said.
And while the commission is interested in recycling and reusing water, he acknowledged that every use is assumed to be a complete loss of the water from the watershed so that any recovery is seen as a bonus.
That said, both SRBC representatives noted that, in the aggregate, water withdrawal for well drilling would equal perhaps 28 million gallons per day, which is about half as much as PPL Corp.’s nuclear Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Salem Township.
The hearing, which was meant to discuss proposed SRBC regulation changes, brought out concerns from both the industry and residents.
Potter County Commissioner Paul Heimel, who was representing the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, noted two concerns.
First, that the chemicals used in the fracturing process haven’t been identified, and second, that it was unclear if the industry would be allowed to withdraw water during drought conditions.
Scott Blauvelt of East Resources, Inc. represented the Marcellus Shale Committee, which is made up of 28 members of regional gas and oil associations.
Copyright: Times Leader
Posted in Pennsylvania Natural Gas Drilling |
Tags: chemicals, chief, Chief Oil & Gas LLC, Commissioner Paul Heimel, County Commissioner, County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, deputy director, director ’s deputy, East Resources, East Resources Inc., fracturing, gas and oil associations, gas drilling, Hughesville, local drilling site, Marcellus Shale, Marcellus Shale Committee, Michael Brownell, natural gas, Paul Heimel, Pennsylvania, Potter County, Potter County Commissioner, PPL Corp., Salem, Salem Township, Scott Blauvelt, similar gas-containing formations, Susquehanna River, susquehanna river basin commission, susquehanna river watershed, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Texas, Thomas Beauduy, Times Leader, water, Water Resources Management Division |
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