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The issue of natural gas fracking in Wayne County has taken a few new twists and turns, including a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency in the state of Wyoming concerning drinking water.
In another move, a county landowners group drafted a letter to the governor of Pennsylvania asking the state remove itself from the Delaware River Basin Commission.
The EPA decision
Last week, the EPA released a draft analysis of data from its Pavillion, Wyo., groundwater investigation. At the request of the residents of that community, the EPA began investigating water quality concerns in private drinking water wells three years ago. The EPA has been working to assess groundwater quality and identity potential sources of contamination.
One of the findings released by the EPA states that “samples taken from the agency’s deep monitoring wells in the aquifer indicates detection of synthetic chemicals, like glycois and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracking fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels.”
It said EPA is “concerned” about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.
The EPA also updated samplings of Pavillion area drinking water wells and the report comes to the same conclusion about finding chemicals consistent with fracking.
Mike Urestky of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, the group advocating for fracking in Wayne County, called the study “well-done” and said it was thorough in “addressing the right issues.”
However, he said that “extreme caution” should be used in “generalizing from the Pavillion case to northeast Pennsylvania.”
He also pointed out the draft study says the problems “may” be because of the fracking in Wyoming.
Urestky points to the fact there is a different geology in that area, there are shallow wells abutting and running into the water aquifers, there are different casing practices and the practices being followed are different than in Pennsylvania.
But Bruce Ferguson from the Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, a group opposed to fracking in Wayne County and in western New York, has a different point of view.
“EPA confirmed what we already know,” said Ferguson, “that fracking contaminates groundwater. The is the first time we have had an organization in recent years find these connections between fracking and drinking water.”
Ferguson also charges there have been “many instances” of groundwater contamination across the country which have been “covered up because of non-disclosure reasons. This is an industry when it is caught red-handed that says we’re going to pay you off to shut you up.”
The issue of natural gas fracking in Wayne County has taken a few new twists and turns, including a decision by the Environmental Protection Agency in the state of Wyoming concerning drinking water.
In another move, a county landowners group drafted a letter to the governor of Pennsylvania asking the state remove itself from the Delaware River Basin Commission.
The EPA decision
Last week, the EPA released a draft analysis of data from its Pavillion, Wyo., groundwater investigation. At the request of the residents of that community, the EPA began investigating water quality concerns in private drinking water wells three years ago. The EPA has been working to assess groundwater quality and identity potential sources of contamination.
One of the findings released by the EPA states that “samples taken from the agency’s deep monitoring wells in the aquifer indicates detection of synthetic chemicals, like glycois and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracking fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels.”
It said EPA is “concerned” about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.
The EPA also updated samplings of Pavillion area drinking water wells and the report comes to the same conclusion about finding chemicals consistent with fracking.
Mike Urestky of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, the group advocating for fracking in Wayne County, called the study “well-done” and said it was thorough in “addressing the right issues.”
However, he said that “extreme caution” should be used in “generalizing from the Pavillion case to northeast Pennsylvania.”
He also pointed out the draft study says the problems “may” be because of the fracking in Wyoming.
Urestky points to the fact there is a different geology in that area, there are shallow wells abutting and running into the water aquifers, there are different casing practices and the practices being followed are different than in Pennsylvania.
But Bruce Ferguson from the Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, a group opposed to fracking in Wayne County and in western New York, has a different point of view.
“EPA confirmed what we already know,” said Ferguson, “that fracking contaminates groundwater. The is the first time we have had an organization in recent years find these connections between fracking and drinking water.”
Ferguson also charges there have been “many instances” of groundwater contamination across the country which have been “covered up because of non-disclosure reasons. This is an industry when it is caught red-handed that says we’re going to pay you off to shut you up.”
Uretsky says the NWPOA is “strongly in favor of strong water-related protections along with strong ongoing oversight and enforcement.”
Ferguson believes the landowners group and the industry are turning a blind eye to the issues. He points to the method of fracking as an example.
“The experts say it doesn’t matter how good the casing is, the real problem is the fact you are going to get the migration outside the well casing,” said Ferguson.
He likened it to poking a straw through a paper cup. Ferguson said some liquid goes out the straw but other liquid leaks onto the cup.
“You are punching a hole through something,” he said.
Ferguson also said one of the problems with some studies by the industry is they “only show the layer they are fracking. There is no way to know what is going on down there.”
Uretsky says NWPOA does support proper reporting requirements.
“We strongly supported the enhanced PA regulatory requirements that require a chain of custody and reporting of same for any and all waste streams from drill sites,” he said. “We also strongly support strict cementing and casing regulations and their associated state oversight.”
Uretsky also said the “geology is very different in Wyoming. There is an absence of confining rock geology that would separate aquifers from gas producing strata.”
He said “common sense would dictate that this would be a high risk activity.”
Uretsky said in this region, the gas producing rock strata of Marcellus Shale is at 7,000 to 8,000 feet deep and that most potable aquifers are between 100 and 600 feet deep “with layers of rock separating them.”
But Ferguson isn’t buying the position of NWPOA.
“Geology everywhere is different,” he said.
Ferguson said in Pennsylvania and western New York, “we have highly fractured geography. We don’t have nice, neat layers like pancakes with one stacked on top of another. All of this creates fault lines and that is of real concern here.”
Ferguson also says the NWPOA and all of the proponents of fracking don’t necessarily have the best interests of the local people in mind. He says the eventual goal is to export the gas produced from fracking, meaning profits for big companies and landowners.
“The plan is to export gas,” he said.
Ferguson said there are already leases written for many countries in Europe as well as China.
He said Great Britain has banned fracking yet it “owns leases right here in the United States.”
The draft report issued by the EPA for the issue in Pavillion, Wyo., is available for public review. There is a 45-day public comment period and a 30-day peer-review process led by a panel of independent scientists.
Visit www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion for more information.
Request for PA
Another issue which developed Monday was a letter sent to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett from the NWPOA asking the state to take control of gas fracking regulations in Wayne County.
Maria Schweighofer, executive director of the landowners group, wrote they have “run out of patience with the Delaware River Basin Commission and its dithering over proposed natural gas regulations.”
She said it is “time to allow gas exploration to begin in the basin, particularly in Wayne County, which has sunk even deeper into economic depression in the last three years.”
“I think it is kind of silly on the face of it,” said Ferguson about the letter to the governor. “I don’t know if there is any provision for the state to pull out of it. Its responsibilities go far, far beyond water regulations for fracking.”
He said the commission was formed to allow for the distribution of water to the citizens in the four states.
Schweighofer said the DRBC has “chosen to selectively honor those portions of its mission that it favors while ignoring the rest.”
The letter goes on to state that “it’s time for the states to begin issuing well permits for projects in the basin, perhaps with concurrence from the DRBC when necessary on a case-by-case basis.”
She wrote that Pennsylvania “has experience with oil and gas production for more than 150 years and has the strictest environmental laws and regulations governing such activity of any state in the union.”
Schweighofer also said the commission is “trying to transform our privately owned rural properties, which we have maintained and on which we have paid taxes for generations, into what amounts to a nature preserve for the public’s benefit and accomplishing this by a de facto taking without compensation.”
But Ferguson sees it quite differently.
“I think the frackers are upset these days,” he said. “The gas industry wants to come in and put their drills in the ground right away before anybody knows what is going on.”
He said what the “industry cannot tolerate is information. They do not want the public to know what is involved. This is the first time the public has ever had an opportunity to educate itself prior to drilling.”
Schweighofer said the DRBC should acknowledge that “it’s incapable of leading effort to regulate natural gas activities in the basin and that it should step aside and follow the lead of the states ...”
“Why can’t we wait for the EPA study of drinking water safety?” said Ferguson. “What is the great rush we are being told about? It has nothing to do with energy independence.”
He said it’s about money, plain and simple.
Ferguson also said there is a history of towns across the country who were worse off after the energy companies left. He said it is like a “cheap high” but then reality sets in for those left in the dust.
Ferguson also believes the anti-fracking groups are gaining ground.
“I think the tide is with us,” said Ferguson. “All of the momentum is on our side.”
