Water to be Sucked from Streams

[eelweir]

Guys:
Check out the below news story. Pea's Eddy on the East Branch of the Delaware is another potential de-watering site. This is a really bad idea. Now would be a really good time to write the DRBC and tell them not to allow any gas drilling in the Delaware Watershed. They have the power to say no.

Here's the address for the head of the DRBC:

Carol Collier, Director
Delaware River Basin Commission
25 State Police Drive
P.O. Box 7360
West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360
carol.collier@drbc.state.nj.us

Trout Unlimited raises drilling concerns

Stone Energy seeks 21 million gallons from Lackawaxen River

By SANDY LONG

UPPER DELAWARE RIVER REGION — Drilling in the Marcellus Shale has now caught the attention of the national organization Trout Unlimited (TU). The Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited (PATU) recently weighed in on the potential impacts of drilling on trout populations and the issue has even landed on the cover of the Winter 2009 issue of that organization’s nationally-distributed magazine, Trout, as rising concerns have surfaced.

PATU represents 13,000 members in 53 chapters across the state and has issued a white paper outlining its concerns about drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. “We understand that natural gas drilling and other energy developments are important to the economy of the Commonwealth and the nation. However, we are adamant that this drilling be done in a manner that does not damage our natural resources,” notes the council.

Some of PA Trout’s concerns include the use of millions of gallons of water to frack wells, the storage and disposal of the resulting contaminated water, the impact of drilling activity in Special Protection Watersheds (High Quality and Exceptional Value streams) and Wilderness Trout Designated areas, the potential increase in sediment and storm water from the well pad sites and inadequate staffing resources to handle the increase in permit requests and on site enforcement.

PA Trout has made 13 recommendations, which can be viewed online at www.riverreporter.com/issues/09-03-12/MarcellusTU.pdf along with the full white paper. See the Trout Unlimited story by Morgan Lyle, “Fractured Landscape: The Appalachians’ Energy Development Rush” at online.qmags.com/TU1208S/Default.aspx in which Ken Undercoffer, president of TU’s PA Council, is quoted as saying, “My biggest concern is the need for massive water withdrawals to fracture the wells, and where this water is going to be treated afterward to render it harmless to the environment. Even if every environmental law that exists is absolutely enforced and followed, which is highly unlikely, the damage to our streams and forests will be considerable.”

According to Brian Wagner, Northeast regional vice-president of the PATU, the organization issued its white paper as a reference and guide for its membership and the public as Pennsylvania and surrounding regions move toward tapping into the Marcellus formation.

“In our region, I am concerned about the cumulative impacts that drilling operations may have on our smaller watersheds that currently hold populations of our native and state fish, the brook trout,” said Wagner. “There is a national initiative to preserve the brook trout in its eastern U.S. range, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture ( easternbrooktrout.org ).”

Wagner is also concerned about the potential impacts on rainbow and brown trout spawning tributaries to the Upper Delaware River system. “The Upper Delaware fishery, which is already being jeopardized by inadequate summertime releases by the NYC reservoirs, represents a significant financial benefit to the region,” he said. “We are asking our local chapters to be the eyes, ears and voice for their streams and rivers. If they see something unusual or a negative impact from a drilling operation, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) will be notified.”

Looking at the Lackawaxen River

TU members will likely be keeping an eye on the Lackawaxen River following a recent announcement from the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) that the drilling company, Stone Energy, has applied for a permit to withdraw 21 million gallons of water over a 30-day period from the West Branch of the Lackawaxen River.

The application is part of a settlement agreement, which includes a $70,000 penalty levied against the drilling company by the DRBC in relation to Stone Energy’s failure to follow permitting procedures last year as it began developing the Matoushek well in Wayne County.

Wagner is calling for close monitoring as such permits are sought. “The Lackawaxen River is listed by the PA DEP as a high-quality trout-stocked fishery and the West Branch and its tributaries are listed as high-quality cold-water fisheries (HQ-CWF),” he said.

“Numerous other streams in the Northeast are listed as HQ-CWF or exceptional value (EV), the highest rating. The impacts would vary depending on location and water availability. Trout need cold water to survive. We insist that the regulatory agencies [DRBC and PADEP] closely monitor these withdrawals and take into account the accumulative effects of these withdrawals and not allow a withdrawal that would negatively impact temperature, dissolved oxygen and available trout habitat,” said Wagner.

DRBC communications manager Clarke Rupert said the agency is experiencing a four-to-six-month delay in processing a backlog of applications, most unrelated to drilling, and that following a review of Stone Energy’s application for surface water withdrawal, the request will be placed on the agenda for an upcoming public hearing of the commissioners for final determination.

The status of all dockets being processed by the DRBC can be monitored on its website at Delaware River Basin Commission's Home Page (click on “Project Application Status Page”).



TRR photo by Sandy Long

The Lackawaxen River has been targeted by Stone Energy Corporation, which has applied for a permit to extract 21 million gallons within a 30-day period from the west branch of the river to develop the Matoushek well in Wayne County, PA. (Click for larger version)


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[Future Fanatic]

...write the DRBC and tell them not to allow any gas drilling in the Delaware Watershed. They have the power to say no.

Can you just explain how this power manifests itself?

Thanks.

 

[Uncrowded]

This pretty much sums up how DRBC can regulate drilling in the watershed.

DRBC - Natural Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale Formation

I'm writing a letter. I don't want this stuff anywhere near the Catskills. Scary story in Reuters today about what's going on in NE PA regarding drilling:

U.S. energy future hits snag in rural Pennsylvania
Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:08am EDT
By Jon Hurdle

DIMOCK, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - When her children started missing school because of persistent diarrhea and vomiting, Pat Farnelli began to wonder if she and her family were suffering from more than just a classroom bug.

After trying several remedies, she stopped using the water drawn from her well in this rural corner of northeastern Pennsylvania, the forefront of a drilling boom in what may be the biggest U.S. reserve of natural gas.

"I was getting excruciating stomach cramps after drinking the water," Farnelli said in an interview at her farmhouse, cluttered as a home with eight children would be, while her husband, a night cook at a truck stop, slept on the couch.

"It felt like an appendicitis attack."

The family, which is poor enough to qualify for government food stamps, began buying bottled water for drinking and cooking. Their illnesses finally ended, and Farnelli found something to blame: natural gas drilling in the township of 1,400 people.

Dimock, in a former coal mining region that was economically struggling even before the recession, is one of hundreds of sites in Pennsylvania where energy companies are now racing to tap the massive Marcellus Shale natural gas formation.

Some geologists believe Marcellus has the potential to meet total U.S. natural gas needs for a decade or more. But the gas is trapped deep within layers of rock, requiring a mix of highly toxic chemicals for drilling.

And, while companies pay royalties to landowners for drilling rights and for gas recovered from their properties, some residents have become alarmed about their water supply.

They say the drilling has clouded their drinking water, sickened people and animals and made their wells flammable.

In Dimock township, about 150 miles north of Philadelphia, Cabot Oil & Gas has drilled about 30 wells since 2006, 20 of them just last year.

Industry spokesmen maintain the groundwater is protected by meticulous safeguards and that any chemicals used are heavily diluted and pose no health threat.

It is "impossible" that drilling has contaminated the groundwater, said Cabot spokesman Kenneth Komoroski.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told Reuters the state is careful in granting drilling permits. "We are very scrupulous about whether it will have an effect on the groundwater," he said this week.

In addition, the Department of Environmental Protection tested well water in Dimock houses over the last month.

"We have not seen anything that would be of concern," said agency official Mark Carmon.

WATER TASTES BAD, ANIMALS LOSE FUR

But people who live there are convinced otherwise, according to nearly a dozen interviews conducted by Reuters.

Farnelli and her neighbors draw water from a well sunk into an aquifer; two gas wells are within a few hundred yards (meters) of her house.

According to Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a Pennsylvania group that opposes drilling, there have been leaks of toxic chemicals into groundwater at hundreds of natural gas drilling sites in Colorado and New Mexico.

Ron and Jean Carter suspected there was a leak when the water supply to their trailer home started to taste and smell bad after Cabot started drilling 200 yards (meters) away.

Not wanting to risk the health of a new grandchild living with them, the 70-year-old retirees scraped together $6,500 for a water purification system.

"It was kind of funny that the water was good in July but after they drilled, it wasn't," said Ron Carter.

Tim and Debbie Maye, a truck driver and post office worker who have three teenage children, have been cooking and drinking only bottled water since their well water turned brown in November after Cabot started drilling.

But she can't afford bottled water for her animals. Her cats have been losing fur and projectile vomiting because they lick drips from the spigot that carries water from their well. Her three horses -- one of which is losing its hair -- drink as much as 50 gallons a day.

"I tell my husband, 'I'm going out to poison the horses,'" she said.

The drilling in Dimock has released methane into the water supply, a fact acknowledged by Cabot and state regulators.

Some homeowners said they were able to ignite their well water. In one case, a gas buildup blew the cap off a well.

"The well was capped with six to eight inches of concrete," said Norma Fiorentino, 66. "The explosion broke it into three big pieces and blew a huge hole in the ground."

CHEMICAL BREW

Environmental groups fear energy companies are contaminating water supplies by using a toxic mix of chemicals that are forced deep into the rock along with water and sand to release the natural gas. The process is called hydrofracturing, or "fracking" in industry jargon.

Komoroski, the Cabot spokesman, acknowledged that the "fracking" chemicals are dangerous in concentrated form.

But he said they are heavily diluted in the fluid. They are injected to depths of 5,000 to 8,000 feet -- well below the 100 to 500 feet where aquifers occur -- and are pumped into the ground inside several layers of steel and concrete, preventing any escape at levels where they could contaminate drinking water.

The technique is being repeated at hundreds of other sites in Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states.

Companies won't disclose exactly what chemicals they use, saying the information is proprietary, and residents complain they can't run meaningful tests because they don't know what to look for.

A statewide group of energy companies calling itself the Marcellus Shale Committee planned to publish a report on exactly what's going into the ground and what's coming out, Komoroski said.

The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a Colorado research group, has identified 201 fracking chemicals and found almost 90 percent had the potential to harm skin, eyes, and sensory organs; 50 percent could damage the brain and nervous system, and 29 percent may cause cancer.

On a wooded hillside a few hundred yards (meters) from a gas well, retired schoolteacher Victoria Switzer and her husband, Jimmy, have spent five years building their dream home but now wonder if the drilling will ruin their rural idyll.

Victoria Switzer has led local complaints about the drilling. She fears she is no match for Cabot, which reported revenues of $945 million in 2008.

"They are big and we are small and they count on that," she said.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu and Daniel Trotta)


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[Kilgour Farms]

Alot of people spend about two hours on the internet reading a few articles about drilling and everyone becomes an expert.

I've spend over three years researching this subject and although not an expert, I do know alot of the information on this subject is misleading and blown out of proportion by both the pro drilling and anti drilling groups.

The alternative to drilling is residential developement. Which is worse?

Drilling if done right, can benefit everyone.