NY sanity questioned as state plan shale gas drilling
Posted by feww on January 2, 2010
The Test of Sanity: Clean Water or Shale Gas?
Never mind their door steps, 9,000,000 New Yorkers could have their drinking water fouled
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns New Yorkers about the real threat to their drinking water if they drill for shale Gas.
‘Diarrhea water’. A glass of water taken from a residential well after the start of natural gas drilling in Dimock, Pennsylvania, March 7, 2009. Dimock is one of hundreds of sites in Pennsylvania where energy companies are now racing to tap the massive Marcellus Shale natural gas formation. But some residents say the drilling has clouded their drinking water, sickened people and animals and made their wells flammable. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer. Image may be subject to copyright.
EPA is temporarily halting the drive by energy companies to drill for gas in the state’s Marcellus Shale formation, said to contain enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for at least 10 years, Reuters reported.
“We have concerns regarding potential impacts to human health and the environment that we believe warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis,” reported John Filippelli, chief of the agency’s Strategic Planning and Programs Branch on Wednesday.
“EPA has serious reservations about whether gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with the vision of high-quality unfiltered water supply,” he wrote in .
New York City asked the state to ban shale gas drilling in the city’s watershed last week.
You can’t have your clean water and drill for gas near it, too!
Shale gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” uses toxic chemicals that are known to pollute drinking water wells near the drill sites. AMAZINGLY, fracking is NOT covered by the U.S. Clean Water Act.
Despite the natural gas industry’s denials that drilling poses no risk to drinking water, EPA has previously admitted that fracking chemicals are in fact contaminating drinking water. According to many reports “private wells near gas installations having water that is discolored, foul tasting, or even flammable because of methane that has escaped from drilling operations.”
“Theo Colborn, a researcher with the Endocrine Disruption Exchange who has drawn links between fracturing chemicals and a range of illnesses including cancer, said the EPA report indicates the agency was taking a new look at fracturing in light of growing public concern and media coverage.” Reuters said.
“The natural gas industry can’t keep saying it’s clean,” she said.
An environmental impact statement issued in September by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation recommended that energy companies be permitted to drill in New York’s Marcellus Shale formation.
“We’re pleased to see that the EPA recognizes what the state so far has not, that gas drilling is entirely inappropriate with in the drinking supply for 9 million people,” said James Simpson, a staff attorney for Riverkeeper, a New York environmental group.
New York City officials have warned the city could be forced to build a $10 billion filtration system if shale gas drilling is allowed.
Background:
EPA admits water contaminated near gas-drilling sites
FEWW wrote:
Now, for the first time ever, EPA scientists have revealed that drinking water wells near natural gas [and oil] drilling operations contain chemical contaminants. They found dangerous chemicals in the water from 11 of 39 wells tested near the Wyoming town of Pavillion in March and May 2009. Unfortunately, their report falls shy of concluding what causes the contamination, though it admits the gas drilling is a potential source.
‘Diarrhea water’
In Dimock, Pennsylvania, drilling for natural gas has clouded the drinking water, sickened people and animals and made their wells flammable.
Isn’t it remarkable that two distant communities, one in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and the other in Pavillion, Wyoming, some 2,668 km (1,658 miles) apart, share a common fate by way of their contaminated drinking water, where the only common denominator between them is gas-drilling activities.
Related Links:
Fire Earth 
feww said
U.S. test shows water problem near natgas drill site
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6807KG20100901
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA | Wed Sep 1, 2010 6:37pm EDT
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – U.S. government officials urged residents of a Wyoming farming community near natural gas drilling sites not to use private well water for drinking or cooking because of chemical contamination.
“Sample results indicate that the presence of petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds in groundwater represents a drinking water concern,” the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement about tests of 19 water wells around the town of Pavillion.
The Wyoming investigation precedes a national study by the EPA into the safety of the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, in response to concern in Congress and in some communities near gas rigs in many states that human health is threatened by the process.
The tests in Pavillion found that 17 of the 19 wells tested contained petroleum hydrocarbons as well as napthalene, phenols and benzene, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report issued late on Tuesday.
The tests are part of the agency’s first investigation into claims that toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are contaminating ground water.
But officials expressed no views about the source of the contamination.
“EPA has not reached any conclusions about how constituents of concern are occurring in domestic wells,” the report said.
Concerns about the safety of fracking threaten to slow the development of vast shale gas reserves that may be sufficient to meet U.S. natural gas demand for a century or more, experts believe.
The EPA’s latest results were analyzed by federal toxicologists who recommended that Pavillion residents find alternative sources of water for drinking and cooking.
For residents whose wells contain organic hydrocarbons, the new water supplies will be paid for by EnCana, the Canadian energy company that owns Pavillion’s approximately 250 gas wells, said Richard Mylott, an EPA spokesman.
Some wells were found contain to methane, and their owners were advised to ensure proper ventilation while showering.
The new samples were collected in January and follow a less-detailed round of testing in March 2009 during which 11 of 39 wells were found to contain “contaminants of concern.”
The latest tests revisited 19 of the 39 initial wells as well as four irrigation wells, two municipal wells, and some surface water.
The samples were analyzed for more than 300 substances by four laboratories, the EPA.
In coming months, scientists will continue testing, and will focus on possible sources of the contamination, Mylott said.
(Editing by David Gregorio)
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[…] The Test of Sanity: Clean Water or Shale Gas? — Fire Earth, January 2, 2010 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns New Yorkers about the real threat to their drinking water if they drill for shale Gas. EPA is temporarily halting the drive by energy companies to drill for gas in the state’s Marcellus Shale formation, said to contain enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for at least 10 years, Reuters reported. “We have concerns regarding potential impacts to human health and the environment that we believe warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis,” reported John Filippelli, chief of the agency’s Strategic Planning and Programs Branch on Wednesday. “EPA has serious reservations about whether gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with the vision of high-quality unfiltered water supply,” he wrote in.New York City asked the state to ban shale gas drilling in the city’s watershed last week. Click Here […]