Posts Tagged ‘hazardous chemicals’

BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK (STAFF WRITER)
Published: July 29, 2010

A provision to require disclosure of all chemicals used in fracturing Marcellus Shale to extract natural gas could wind up as part of the scaled-down national energy bill the U.S. Senate might consider soon.

Sen. Bob Casey said he convinced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fold disclosure provisions of his Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act into the energy bill.

“It’s a great breakthrough,” he said. “It’s a substantial step forward. … It gives people information they wouldn’t have otherwise about what’s happening underneath their property.”

Senate leaders are hoping to pass the bill before the summer recess Aug. 6, after realizing they did not have the votes to pass a more comprehensive energy bill. Even if the smaller energy bill gets through the Senate, the House would have to pass it before President Barack Obama can sign it. Neither is assured.

Industry groups said the fracturing chemicals are already well known to the public and state regulators, and further disclosure would harm the development of natural gas.

“We fundamentally believe that regulation of hydraulic fracturing is best addressed at the state level, and we have been unable to reach a consensus with congressional advocates on how this program would be overseen by the federal government,” America’s Natural Gas Alliance said in a statement.

Congress and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are studying whether the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of shale contaminate drinking water.

Energy In Depth, an industry group, argues regulation should be left to states, which “have effectively regulated hydraulic fracturing for over 40 years with no confirmed incidents of groundwater contamination associated with (fracturing) activities.”

At public meetings on gas drilling, local residents regularly dispute the claim.

Though the industry argues the chemicals it uses are well known, a Times-Tribune investigation determined that DEP scientists who analyzed spilled fracturing chemicals at a Susquehanna County well site in September found 10 compounds never disclosed on the drilling contractor’s material safety data sheet.

None of the 10 was included in a state Department of Environmental Protection list of chemicals used in fracturing, a list developed by the industry. When DEP posted a new list earlier this month, none of the 10 was on it.

Mr. Casey dismissed the industry criticism.

“That’s why I called it a substantial step forward, if they’re attacking it,” he said. “If they’re feeling that this is giving information to people that they are reluctant to disclose, that’s why I think it’s an important change, and it’s progress on an issue that some would have thought would have taken years to get done.”

Mr. Casey’s legislation would amend the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which requires employers to disclose what hazardous chemicals they use.

The amendments would require:

– Well-drilling operators to disclose to state regulators and the public a list of chemicals used in fracturing, commonly known as fracking. The requirement would cover chemical constituents but not chemical formulas whose manufacturers are allowed by law to keep the formulas secret, according to Mr. Casey’s office.

– Disclosure to be specific to each well.

– Disclosure of secret formulas or chemical constituents to doctors or nurses treating a contamination victim in an emergency.

– An end to thresholds for reporting chemicals normally required by law so all amounts of chemicals are reported.

In an analysis of the legislation, Energy In Depth said it would “chill” investment in innovations in fracturing and place “unrealistic burdens” on natural gas producers by requiring them to disclose secret chemical compounds whose composition they legally can know nothing about.

In an interview, DEP Secretary John Hanger said he welcomed the federal legislation, argued Pennsylvania already requires more disclosure than his bill and believes companies should disclose the volume and mix of chemicals they use in fracking.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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Copyright:  The Scranton Times

House committee members hear testimony on impact of gas drilling, proposed environmental safeguards.

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

KINGSTON TWP. – Members of the state House of Representatives Environmental Resources and Energy Committee came to the Back Mountain on Wednesday to hear testimony on the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling and proposed legislation that would put additional environmental safeguards in place.

Testifying were representatives of two environmental groups, a local physician active in environmental issues and a resident of Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, where the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered a gas company to provide drinking water to residents after their wells were contaminated by methane.

State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, committee majority chairman, said the committee convened at the township municipal building at the invitation of state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston.

Mundy said she requested the hearing because she and many of her constituents “have serious concerns about the potential impact of Marcellus Shale drilling on our streams, our land and especially our drinking water,” noting that a proposed well site is less than two miles from the Huntsville and Ceasetown reservoirs.

Noting the contamination of drinking water in Dimock Township and a recent drilling-related mud spill in Clinton County, Mundy said there was “still time to put safeguards in place to protect the environment and the public health from the negative impacts” of gas drilling.

“That is why I strongly support Chairman George’s House Bill 2213, the Land and Water Protection Act, which would, among other things, require state inspections of well sites during each drilling phase and require full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing,” she said.

The act would also:

• Extend from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet the presumed liability of a gas well polluting a water supply.

• Update bonding requirements to cover the costs of decommissioning a well from a $2,500 bond to a $150,000 bond for a Marcellus Shale well and to a $12,000 bond for all other wells.

• Reaffirm that local government may regulate aspects of drilling within traditional powers, such as hours of operation.

Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club state chapter director, said the club supports the bill and suggested adding some provisions:

• Require a drilling permit applicant to publish in a local newspaper and in the Pennsylvania Bulletin that a permit application was submitted to DEP.

• Require that erosion and sediment control and storm water discharge plans for drill sites be as stringent as requirements for all other earth disturbance activities, and require DEP to offer county conservation districts the opportunity to review those plans and fund the work.

Brady Russell, Eastern Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action, said the gas industry will “cut corners” if not properly supervised. He made several recommendations, including requiring an inspector – or eco-cop – on each drill site to make sure drillers follow approved plans.

He also suggested requiring drillers to pay for pre- and post-drilling testing of nearby water sources.

Dr. Thomas Jiunta, a podiatrist from Lehman Township, where issuance of a drilling permit is expected to be approved next week, said that since he has been researching Marcellus Shale exploration, he has “gotten a lot of lip service from senators and representatives about how we need to do it right. Before I start, I just want to say that maybe, maybe – and this is the first time I’ve said this word – we need a moratorium to stop it until we get it right.”

Audience members burst into applause and cheers at Jiunta’s suggestion.

After sharing his concerns about an inadequate number of treatment plants capable of removing hazardous chemicals from water used in hydraulic fracturing and risks associated with storing those chemicals underground, Jiunta made several suggestions for the bill.

One is adding a requirement that recovered waste water from the fracturing process be stored in sealed tanks rather than in surface pits that have liners that he said could tear and overflow with heavy rain.

Dimock Township resident Victoria Switzer testified first that a gas company “landman” talked her and her “misinformed, uninformed and na�ve” family into leasing their land for $25 an acre and a 12.5-percent royalty minus transportation cost.

“We now sit in the middle of 63 natural gas wells. In spite of what has gone terribly wrong here, the 2010 plan calls for a doubling of their efforts,” Switzer said.

She said gas drilling has resulted in diminished or contaminated drinking water supplies, destruction of roads and bridges, increased traffic beyond road capacity; decreased air quality, loss of aesthetics and more.

Mundy said she can’t imagine what Switzer is going through.

“How do you like less government – fewer DEP employees, lower taxes, no severance tax? This is what we’ve got; let’s fix it,” Mundy said.

State Rep. Tim Seip, D-Pottsville, said a severance tax on gas extraction is necessary to fund more inspectors and conservation district work. He said the public should lobby their state senators to adopt the bill when it comes before them.

Asked if he thought a moratorium was possible in Pennsylvania, George said he thought, “It’s really going to help Pennsylvania if every place where there’s drilling we get this type of attention.”

Copyright: Times Leader