In a front page story, the New York Times describes how dangerous the drilling process known as fracking really is. This will be the issue that defines our lives in the coming months and years.
…the relatively new drilling method — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas.
With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.
While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.
Other documents and interviews show that many E.P.A. scientists are alarmed, warning that the drilling waste is a threat to drinking water in Pennsylvania. Their concern is based partly on a 2009 study, never made public, written by an E.P.A. consultant who concluded that some sewage treatment plants were incapable of removing certain drilling waste contaminants and were probably violating the law.
The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways.
But the E.P.A. has not intervened. In fact, federal and state regulators are allowing most sewage treatment plants that accept drilling waste not to test for radioactivity. And most drinking-water intake plants downstream from those sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania, with the blessing of regulators, have not tested for radioactivity since before 2006, even though the drilling boom began in 2008.
In other words, there is no way of guaranteeing that the drinking water taken in by all these plants is safe.
John H. Quigley, who left last month as secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, put it this way: “We’re burning the furniture to heat the house.” the article goes on to say:
The risks are particularly severe in Pennsylvania, which has seen a sharp increase in drilling, with roughly 71,000 active gas wells, up from about 36,000 in 2000. The level of radioactivity in the wastewater has sometimes been hundreds or even thousands of times the maximum allowed by the federal standard for drinking water. While people clearly do not drink drilling wastewater, the reason to use the drinking-water standard for comparison is that there is no comprehensive federal standard for what constitutes safe levels of radioactivity in drilling wastewater.
Drillers trucked at least half of this waste to public sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania in 2008 and 2009, according to state officials. Some of it has been sent to other states, including New York and West Virginia.
Yet sewage treatment plant operators say they are far less capable of removing radioactive contaminants than most other toxic substances. Indeed, most of these facilities cannot remove enough of the radioactive material to meet federal drinking-water standards before discharging the wastewater into rivers, sometimes just miles upstream from drinking-water intake plants.
In Pennsylvania, these treatment plants discharged waste into some of the state’s major river basins. Greater amounts of the wastewater went to the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to more than 800,000 people in the western part of the state, including Pittsburgh, and to the Susquehanna River, which feeds into Chesapeake Bay and provides drinking water to more than six million people, including some in Harrisburg and Baltimore.
Lower amounts have been discharged into the Delaware River, which provides drinking water for more than 15 million people in Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania.
The article states the situation in our state is “extreme” because Pennsylvania is considered the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas.” Here are some of the other discoveries by the Times:
¶More than 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater was produced by Pennsylvania wells over the past three years, far more than has been previously disclosed. Most of this water — enough to cover Manhattan in three inches — was sent to treatment plants not equipped to remove many of the toxic materials in drilling waste.
¶At least 12 sewage treatment plants in three states accepted gas industry wastewater and discharged waste that was only partly treated into rivers, lakes and streams.
¶Of more than 179 wells producing wastewater with high levels of radiation, at least 116 reported levels of radium or other radioactive materials 100 times as high as the levels set by federal drinking-water standards. At least 15 wells produced wastewater carrying more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable.
And it gets worse:
Drilling contamination is entering the environment in Pennsylvania through spills, too. In the past three years, at least 16 wells whose records showed high levels of radioactivity in their wastewater also reported spills, leaks or failures of pits where hydrofracking fluid or waste is stored, according to state records.
Gas producers are generally left to police themselves when it comes to spills. In Pennsylvania, regulators do not perform unannounced inspections to check for signs of spills. Gas producers report their own spills, write their own spill response plans and lead their own cleanup efforts.
A review of response plans for drilling projects at four Pennsylvania sites where there have been accidents in the past year found that these state-approved plans often appear to be in violation of the law.
At one well site where several spills occurred within a week, including one that flowed into a creek, the well’s operator filed a revised spill plan saying there was little chance that waste would ever enter a waterway.
“There are business pressures” on companies to “cut corners,” John Hanger, who stepped down as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in January, has said. “It’s cheaper to dump wastewater than to treat it.”
Records back up that assertion.
From October 2008 through October 2010, regulators were more than twice as likely to issue a written warning than to levy a fine for environmental and safety violations, according to state data. During this period, 15 companies were fined for drilling-related violations in 2008 and 2009, and the companies paid an average of about $44,000 each year, according to state data.
This average was less than half of what some of the companies earned in profits in a day and a tiny fraction of the more than $2 million that some of them paid annually to haul and treat the waste.
And prospects for drillers in Pennsylvania are looking brighter.
In December, the Republican governor-elect, Tom Corbett, who during his campaign took more gas industry contributions than all his competitors combined, said he would reopen state land to new drilling, reversing a decision made by his predecessor, Edward G. Rendell. The change clears the way for as many as 10,000 wells on public land, up from about 25 active wells today.
In arguing against a proposed gas-extraction tax on the industry, Mr. Corbett said regulation of the industry had been too aggressive.
“I will direct the Department of Environmental Protection to serve as a partner with Pennsylvania businesses, communities and local governments,” Mr. Corbett says on his Web site. “It should return to its core mission protecting the environment based on sound science.”
State Rep. Quinn expects us to keep paying for her taxpayer-subsidized health care benefits even though she has now sponsored legislation designed to limit access to insurance for tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians. Read the sad story here as reported in the Doylestown Intelligencer. There is apparently neither reason nor shame in Harrisburg these days.
State GOP tries to thwart health law
By: GARY WECKSELBLATT The Intelligencer
A Pennsylvania state House committee Monday passed a bill that would make it illegal to force state residents to buy health insurance or be fined for not doing so.
The House Health Committee said Monday it does not want the federal government regulating in-state commerce by requiring commonwealth residents to buy health insurance.
The Republican-sponsored bill passed the panel in a 14-9 party line vote.
Two Bucks County state Reps. – Frank Farry and Scott Petri – are committee members and supported the measure.
“I believe in local decision making,” Farry said. “The one size fits all doesn’t always apply to every state or every local government. This bill is about freedom of choice.”
Petri said when he coaches his eighth-grade son’s basketball team, he finds “the carrot works a lot better than the stick. If you want to incentivize certain behavior, there are ways to do that.
“The federal law uses a stick,” he said. “If you don’t do what the federal government wants, it beats you with a stick financially.”
Sharon Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and a member of Pennsylvania Health Access Network, sat in on Monday’s hearing.
She said the federal health care law passed last year by Democrats has “ample carrots.”
And basketball teams, she said, play with referees who whistle penalties when the rules aren’t followed.
House Bill 42, whose sponsors include Bucks County Republican state Reps. Paul Clymer and Marguerite Quinn, states, “The legislature may not require any individual to participate in any health care system or plan, nor may it impose a penalty or fine, of any type, for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any particular health care system or plan. +
“Neither the Governor nor the Department of Health, the Department of Public Welfare or any other Commonwealth agency shall participate in the compliance with any Federal law, regulation or policy that would compromise the freedom of choice in health care of any resident of this Commonwealth.”
The Health Committee did not hold a hearing on the bill, which is entitled the “Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act,” and Republicans rejected a Democratic effort to table the bill in favor of holding hearings on it.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled the insurance mandate violates the Constitution. Pennsylvania is party to that lawsuit. Previously, two other federal judges upheld the insurance requirement.
Six states – Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri and Louisiana – have enacted laws similar to the one Pennsylvania Republicans are advocating.
The legal impact of any state measure is questionable, since courts generally have held that federal laws trump those in states. Additionally, the matter is likely to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court before the insurance requirement in the federal law takes effect in three years.
Defenders of the law say a system of health insurance doesn’t work if people are allowed to avoid paying for it until they need medical attention because premiums collected from the healthy pay the cost of care for the sick.
Ward said the bill would undermine one of the federal law’s key provisions, that “everybody have some financial responsibility for our health care.”
She said families with incomes up to $88,000 will receive tax credits to help pay for their insurance. Some 800,000 Pennsylvanians, she said, will obtain insurance once the law is fully enacted.
“Penalties are a last resort,” she said and will affect “very few people.”
She also questioned why Republicans used the first Health Committee meeting of 2011 on a situation that won’t take place for three years rather than look for ways to extend adultBasic, the state’s low-cost health insurance for working adults, which is running out of money for its 42,000 enrollees in three weeks.
“I hope in the coming weeks they show a change in their priorities when it come to health care for Pennsylvanians,” Ward said.
A separate bill in the Senate also would seek to block the requirement through a constitutional amendment, although it remains in committee.
Jen Stefano, spokeswoman for Americans for Prosperity, had a different take. The Bucks County resident sat in on the Harrisburg hearing.
“The federal government has overstepped its bounds through this legislation, by forcing citizens to buy something as a component of their citizenship,” she said. “If they’re going to enforce this they’re going to have to create a police state that will infringe on people’s individual liberties. State’s have a right to nullify that.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Gary Weckselblatt can be reached at 215-345-3169 or gweckselblatt@phillyBurbs.com. Follow Gary on Twitter at twitter.com/gweckselblatt.
February 08, 2011
With Saturday’s vote, the United States Senate joined the House of Representatives in formally bringing an end to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
The US Congress has now passed the bill to the President for his signature.
Throughout this long process, our Congressman, Patrick Murphy, has shown resolute and principled leadership. As the first Iraq War veteran to serve in Congress, Patrick Murphy has always been a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. But today we can be even prouder as our nation reaffirms its commitment to the freedoms and the ideals of equality and justice that are at the core of the American experience.
There is always more to do, but sometimes it is important to reflect on extraordinary moments and simply pause to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Today is one of those days.
Thank you for your leadership Congressman Murphy. Thank you Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid. Thank you President Obama. And thank you also to every one of us who worked hard and kept faith that justice would be done.
Neil Samuels
Executive Director
Bucks County Democratic Committee
www.BucksDemocrats.org
10 East Court Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
215-348-2140
Last week, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously adopted a first-in-the-nation ordinance banning corporations from drilling for natural gas within city limits, a direct response to the threats to drinking water and public health posed by hydraulic fracturing methods used widely by drilling companies to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. The council received a standing ovation after voting 9-0 to approve the ban within city limits. Pittsburgh is the first city in Pennsylvania to do so.
City Council President Darlene Harris said her biggest concern about natural gas fracking involves the threat to people’s health posed by water contaminated by Marcellus drilling. She noted that the gas industry’s claims about creating the thousands of jobs isn’t worth the risk.
“They’re bringing jobs all right,” Harris told CBS News. “There’s going to be a lot of jobs for funeral homes and hospitals. That’s where the jobs are. Is it worth it?”
The Wall Street Journal reports;
Industry groups said they were disappointed but didn’t expect the ban to have a significant impact on gas exploration in Pennsylvania because there were no imminent plans by companies to drill in the city.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade group, said companies wouldn’t challenge the ban. “I don’t anticipate that individual companies would step into that fray,” she said. “There are lots of other places where development is welcome.”
The ban, however, could create uncertainty. “While no one is interested in drilling in the city of Pittsburgh, it’s a bad precedent,” said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources Corp., which operates rigs in southwest Pennsylvania. He said the company worked “to develop ordinances that provide us with predictability and local governments with reasonable regulations.”
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) help draft the ordinance and in their release says:
“Energy corporations are setting up shop in communities across Pennsylvania, to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. The gas extraction technique known as “fracking” has been cited as a threat to surface and groundwater, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, local rivers, and streams. Collateral damage includes lost property value, ingestion of toxins by livestock, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and threatened loss of organic certification for farmers in affected communities.”
The Huffington Post concludes their article on the ordinance by writing, “This is a great bit of news in the fight to hold the natural gas industry accountable for its dangerous fracking activity….Congratulations to Pittsburgh for taking a stand. With the foolish rush to rapidly expand natural gas drilling well under way, it will take a lot more communities speaking up to defend themselves in order to alert the rest of the country that natural gas is hardly the energy panacea its proponents claim.”
A new website, Mike Fitzpatrick Watch, is up that intends to keep an eye on “Fitz” to “ensure that he doesn’t provide Bucks County the radical agenda Teabaggers are pledging to promote. We need to tell Mike Fitzpatrick, we don’t want to go back to President Bush’s time. This page will be dedicated to holding Fitz accountable and ensuring voters are educated about what their Congressman is doing.”
Already they have illustrated how Fitz dodged any real answers in his first interview. “Asked about big issues he would fight for, Fitz’s only answer is that Congress should “listen to the people” and his big policy issue is that bills should be out in the public for 72 hours.”
You can also follow the “watch” on Twitter at @MikeFitzWatch
Pennsylvania is not the only state to deal with Marcellus Shale drilling. Our neighbor to the north, New York, has seen drilling as inevitable because they saw no way to stop drilling on private land. Instead of trying to stop it, they decided to study it and work toward tough regulation. In an interview with Pete Grannis, the recently deposed head of the Department of Environmental Conservation (he lost his job when his memo criticizing the governor over cuts to the budget of his department was leaked), one can learn how one state approached the situation and what they are working on:
We need to finish the review to make sure that we have all the facts, have anticipated every risk, have set out a way to mitigate every risk that we identify, and that we have sufficient legal and human resources to make sure that we have the authority to do what we need to do. The human resources have to be scaled based on that drilling activity. The plan was to have on-site monitors, to do test borings and testing wells around potential well sites so that we could have baselines for before and after comparisons. Obviously truck traffic is going to have an impact on the communities. That’s one of the areas where our — I’m speaking as if I’m still there but I’m not — where there’s going to be a big community impact. It wasn’t really a concern with conventional drilling because it didn’t take place at this scale.
New York’s deliberate approach is in contrast to Pennsylvania’s, which has alternated between rushing into drilling and trying to deal with the problems after they have come to fruition. Grannis says about our state’s approach, “I think they rushed ahead and did things without the kind of attention that we’re giving this very important issue, and they’re paying a price for it.” His advice for regulators in any state that is considering hyrdo-fracking is
I would hope they understand that it’s better to be safe than sorry and to get it right in the beginning, because the consequences later on can be dangerous, damaging and harmful to the economy. Then, make sure you have the people on hand to make sure that the process is functioning properly. It’s no good to give a permit — the way they did to Cabot in Pennyslvania — and then have them botch up a well bore or have them not case it properly. You need people on site who are not answerable to the driller, and not answerable to the people they are having dinner with that night, but accountable to the regulator. Last, there needs to be a very clear message that if anything does go wrong it will be 100 percent the responsibility of the drilling operations, whether that requires posting a bond or a standard of strict liability. If we’re going to have a clean energy economy that’s not dependent on sources outside of our borders, there are things that need to be done, and they need to be done properly. It’s the same thing with windmills, solar panels, atomic energy or gas drilling. Nothing’s easy because no one wants to turn off their lights and just save energy that way.
Grannis certainly does have his detractors, and many feel that no drilling should be done. But working on tough regulation seems to be better answer than trying to stop what has already begun. We cannot afford to not have regulation that comes withe responsibility of tapping our natural resources. The interview is worth a read.
Congressman Patrick Murphy is not letting the election slow him down. He’s fighting to insure that Congress repeals the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
The House passed legislation to repeal the policy in May. Should the Senate fail to pass the measure this year, the House would need a new primary sponsor as Murphy was defeated in the midterm election by Republican Mike Fitzpatrick.
Rick Jacobs, founder and chairman of the Courage Campaign, said Thursday that 5,000 people signed the petition in 24 hours.
“Our job is to highlight with Patrick Murphy what veterans and families of active duty are saying, and to make sure the Senate understands it is out of step with Americans if it doesn’t lift the ban,” Jacobs said.
According to a survey of U.S. troops and their families, Jacobs may be right.
A Pentagon study group has concluded the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repeal would be positive, mixed or nonexistent.
“That report is very significant,” Jacobs said. “It’s almost as if a minority in the Senate is trying to create an obstacle for America itself or American security. There’s no reason politically or militarily not to lift the ban. Virtually everyone in the country is in favor of lifting the ban.”
In an e-mail, Murphy stated, “We can do this, but we need Senate Republicans to do the right thing. Secretary (of Defense Robert) Gates, the Department of Defense report, and the recent survey of servicemembers confirms what I have said for years, which is that the time has come to repeal this outdated policy that harms national security and wastes taxpayer dollars. Twenty-six other nations, including Israel and Great Britain, allow their troops to serve openly and I hope the Republicans show that they agree that our troops are just as professional as any other and join me in supporting repeal.”
Fighting for what you believe in, for the right thing, even after you lost the election is a sign of true character. Here’s hoping our next Congressman can measure up.
You betcha Sarah Palin was in town on Tuesday. In times of immense change it is good to know that we can count on some things remaining the same, and Palin attacking a strawman is one of those things we can count on. Politico reports:
Sarah Palin used baked goods Tuesday night to attack the “nanny state.”
Palin brought dozens of cookies to a speech at the Plumstead Christian School in Plumsteadville, Pa., amid news reports — since retracted — that Pennsylvania’s State Board of Education is looking at ways to limit sweets at classroom parties.
Palin called the plan an example of the “nanny state run amok” and said that she brought the cookies in order to “shake things up,” according to news outlets including WPVI-TV.
“I heard that there’s a debate going on in Pennsylvania over whether public schools were going to ban sweets,” Palin said. “I wanted these kids to bring home the idea to their parents for discussion. Who should be deciding what I eat? Should it be government or should it be parents? It should be the parents.”
Rest assured parents, there are no plans to ban sweets from classroom parties. The newspaper that made the claim is the right-wing Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and even they retracted the allegation.
