The gold rush is on for natural gas in PA--
Posted by: Noël Jones
The New York Times yesterday finally published an article on its front page, written by Ian Urbina, about health risks associated with fracking for natural gas in the Delaware watershed, calling Pennsylvania "Ground Zero." The article is 5 pages long. I'm glad to see that awareness of the dangers of fracking is finally hit the mainstream, I just hope it isn't too late as activists have been covering this issue for two years now in PA and NY, and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is dangerously close to passing new regulations permitting gas companies to start drilling tens of thousands of new wells before the EPA's cumulative impact study, due to be completed in 2012, is finished and the full range of health risks associated with this method of drilling have been detailed. Unfortunately, most of our elected officials in PA on both sides of the aisle are so excited about the idea of plugging holes in the state budget with money from a severance tax they intend to extract from drillers, that they are not stepping up to the plate and calling for a state-wide moratorium until the study is finished, as New York has done. Our new Governor, Tom Corbett, not only wants to open up all state land to drilling, but he
doesn't want to charge drillers a severance tax at all. Corbett, by the way, received more campaign donations from the natural gas industry than anyone else running in the state of PA.
So drillers will get rich, the state will get nothing, and the residents can all look forward to more benzene and xylene, among 594 other chemicals, in our drinking water, until our property values are destroyed, and we all die of cancer. Nice. Or, if we start drinking, cooking, cleaning and bathing with only bottled water now, we might not get cancer, but our property values will still be destroyed, and we'll have an additional bill of hundreds of dollars every month to buy all the water.
OR we can all write to our elected officials and to the DRBC ASAP to tell them we want them to stop--and not finalize new regulations for new drilling until the EPA is done with their study on the health risks of the fracking process:
PLEASE EMAIL THE DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) AND TELL THEM TO NOT DEVELOP REGULATIONS UNTIL THE EPA CUMULATIVE IMPACT STUDY IS COMPLETE! ALSO ASK THEM TO EXTEND THE PERIOD FOR PULBIC COMMENT AND EXPAND THE NUMBER OF PUBLIC HEARINGS SO THAT MORE RESIDENTS IN MORE TOWNS CAN EXPRESS THEIR CONCERNS. HERE'S THE EMAIL ADDRESS: clarke.rupert@drbc.state.nj.us
ALSO, PLEASE WRITE TO GOV. TOM CORBETT, REP. BOB FREEMAN AND SEN. BOB MENSCH by using the links to the state government site on the right side of this blog's home page, and ask them to SUPPORT A STATE-WIDE MORATORIUM ON DRILLING UNTIL THE EPA STUDY IS COMPLETE AND HEALTH RISKS CAN BE ASSESSED.
This is quite literally FIGHT OR DIE. Are we going to fight for our health and our way of life, or are we going to let these gas companies get rich while we all get cancer? Please make it a priority to carve out a little time to write to our elected officials today.
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11 comments:
Sal Panto says
I am not against the drilling operations provided the proper environmental controls and assurancese are in place and the gas company's pay a severance tax to place in a fund to assist the local communities in their distress such as roads and infrastructure and a fund for future, if any, environmental issues arise. That is not the case here in Pa and I am attaching a link that is really annoying that DEP is now reducing the air quality controls on these well drillers.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11057/1128197-454.stm
Thanks for posting the link, Mayor!
I understand what you're saying, but I think that before any of that can happen safely, the EPA must be allowed to complete their study on health risks. For the DRBC to draft new regulations without even knowing what the health risks are is putting the cart before the horse in an exercise of very dangerous wishful thinking.
It's a gold rush, and like all gold rushes, the promise of riches is affecting sound judgment. The costs are far too high if we are risking high levels of carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors in the drinking water of 15 million people. Aside from the potential horror of thousands of families getting seriously ill, even from a financial standpoint, one has to wonder--how good is the gold if it results is lost property values, and lawsuits against the state and other municipalities for health issues?
If it really is gold, it will still be there in 2012 when the health risk study is completed.
And I would like to say again, thanks for supporting El Warner's resolution to support Pittsburgh's ban on fracking, and going further to explain at that meeting that the issue is not just a health issue, but a self-governance issue. I was really glad to see unanimous support from city council on this.
Carinne Buzzuto asked me to post this comment for her:
"I am curious to know if there have been any positive results documented from local communities and from residents who have experienced “fracking” with 'the proper environmental controls and assurances in place and the gas company's pay a severance tax to place in a fund to assist the local communities in their distress such as roads and infrastructure and a fund for future, if any, environmental issues arise'
All I have heard and been concerned with are the obvious devastating details regarding the risk.
Have any details regarding the benefits come from any source other than the million/ billionaires who would clearly lie cheat and steal to get/ stay rich? "
Carinne--
Sadly not all residents are against fracking in their communities--in fact it seems about 50/50 in that there are a lot of property owners who are so excited about the money they will potentially make by leasing their land to drillers, that they are choosing to believe that there are no health risks, and they are actually angry at the residents who are claiming that their water has been contaminated and that they are sick from it. It's very tempting for property owners--especially in this economy--to believe that everything will great and they will make easy money on a steady basis.
As for the benefits of the money going to local communities, these are not really benefits, rather they are for repair and remediation in response to the damage done by drillers. This may include water filtration system, delivery of fresh water and such, but also would be money set aside to repair the roads that are quickly being damaged by all the huge water trucks driving back and forth through these communities to thousands of wells.
One thing they won't be able to apply that money to, is the effect of noise pollution on local residents (consistent long-term noise pollution has been associated with depression, rage, etc.) --the only thing that is going to help that is either for the drilling to stop, or for their to be tight regulation on the number of trucks that can go back and forth in a day--but that would be a hard regulation to enforce and would likely have little to no effect.
I have just added the NYTimes video to the top of this post as well--please watch the video for a more immediately understanding of the risks to our community. It includes an interview with EPA whistleblower Westin Wilson, who says that gas industry lobbyists were so powerful in 2005 that the EPA bowed down to them and exempted them from clean air and water regulation (this was made easier by the fact that Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton [a gas driller, among other things] was Vice-President at the time and spearheaded the legislative effort to exempt them. Gas companies have been drilling like crazy ever since, and steadily moving East, leaving a trail of seriously ill people and devastated property values behind them.
From Carinne again:
"Thanks for posting and responding. This whole thing is just crazy to me. The individual residents who "hope" to make money so are pro fracking are just as greedy and wrong in this as the corporations and politicians causing harm. No, maybe more so since they are also naive and frankly stupid for trusting in such an absurd source (billionaire companies and politicians), instead of their own neighbors and fellow hard working (and now cancer fighting) Americans. It such obvious love of the dollar over human beings, and the future. It is disgusting and sad."
Sal says:
Yes Noel I agree that the studies need to be done first. I am very concerned about our water supply even here in the city due to some drilling that could possibly happen north of us.
You asked about the testing of our water for radiological materials in our water supply. The Easton Plant did testing for radiologicals around 2005 and all were non-detectable according to the plant superintendent at that time. Because of this, the plant currently only needs to sample 1x/ every 9 years and the next round is scheduled for 2014.
This is rediculous so I will be contacting the Water Authority and PADEP for updated testing schedules.
Thanks.
This saddly, is beyond local action. and in the wake of a limited fed....is beyond us.
Our govt on every level
we must prepares for local action such as it may be.
We must educate..as we may...but this fight is lost.We will pay for it all..but we have no say6. Except through our locals. the end of dereggg7lation....every man fir himself. f#ck the unions...thought if this had been union...we weoukld have control. I was among dalenpp...I no longer care....make an offer.no one cares....I will support the best offer. .
Mayor Panto--thanks for posting and following up on the water testing. As you know, the latest mad rush of drilling didn't start until 2005 when the gas companies were exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, and since drilling started out West first, there would have been no traces of carcinogens here yet. However, a lot of drilling has been taking place in PA in the last two years, some of it just upriver from us, and dumping violations are on record with the DEP--frackers dumping into the Delaware. Hopefully public awareness and political will will rise fast enough to stop this craziness before the toxins are no longer diluted enough to not hurt humans and wildlife. This is not an issue for the right or the left--we all need to be able to drink water in our households that will not make us seriously ill. Thanks for being proactive on this!
Gov. Corbett pushing hard for "fracking" for natural gas in our state when there are so many signs that it is seriously destructive is impeachably irresponsible. The New York Times found internal documents from the EPA that "show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood." : http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hpw
Corbetts refusal to place a moratorium on fracking at least until the question of its safety is resolved shows that he does not care about the risks to PA citizens and the environment. Please sign this petition to impeach Gov. Corbett and pass on to every PA resident you know!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/imptc/
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