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Posted by feww on April 6, 2018
KMPH – 040602
Calif Coast, W of LA – CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA (43)
Magnitude: 5.3 mw
Location: 33.837°N 119.726°W – 29km SW of Santa Cruz Is. (E end), CA
Depth: 9.9 km
Time: 2018-04-05 19:29:16 (UTC)
Initial felt reports: 12,090
[USGS]
OGS – 040602
M 2.6 Mining Explosion – 30km SSW of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
Location: 41.478°N, 77.384°W
Depth: 0.0 km depth [near ground level]
Time: 2018-04-05 22:19:52 UTC
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: Calif Quake, california, earthquake, Mining Explosion, Pennsylvania, USEQ | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 24, 2016
UPDATED
Kansas Anderson Creek Fire (FM-5120)
Pennsylvania Severe Winter Storm and Snowstorm (DR-4267)
The White House has declared a major disaster exists in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the area affected by the severe winter storm and snowstorm during the period of January 22-23, 2016.
Areas that have sustained severe damage include the following 23 counties: Adams, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Perry, Philadelphia, Schuylkill, Somerset, Westmoreland, and York.
Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments, said the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
Federal funding has also been made available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures for all counties within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, said the official report.
Federal Disaster Declarations (2015)
The federal government proclaimed 43 Major Disaster Declaration [DR 4205-4247] for a U.S. state/tribal area/territory in 2015, two Emergency Declarations, EM-3372 and EM-3373 and 34 Fire Management Assistance Declarations [FM-5084 to FM-5117.]
Major Disaster Declarations (2016)
Posted in News Alert | Tagged: destructive weather events, DR-4267, Federal Disaster Declaration, Kansas Anderson Creek Fire, major disaster, major disaster declaration, Pennsylvania, severe winter storm, snowstorm | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on September 18, 2014
The crop disaster designations include the following areas:
Ohio. Ashtabula, Jackson, Lorain, Summit, Geauga, Lake, Portage, Ashland, Gallia, Mahoning, Ross, Cuyahoga, Huron, Medina, Scioto, Erie, Lawrence, Pike, Stark, Trumbull, Vinton and Wayne counties.
Pennsylvania. Crawford and Erie counties.
Beginning January 10, 2014 USDA has declared at least 2,360 separate crop disasters across 35 states. Most of those designations are due to the ongoing drought.
Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.
ii. The total number of counties designated as agricultural disaster areas includes both primary and contiguous disaster areas.
iii. Counties may have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.
iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.
v. The disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on September 13, 2014.
Posted in Climate Change, environment, global disasters, News Alert, significant events | Tagged: Agri Disaster Area, crop disaster, Crop Disasters 2014, freeze, Ohio, Pennsylvania, USDA | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 9, 2014
Fierce, tornado-spawning storms have killed at least 5 people, destroying homes, uprooting trees and downing power lines across larges swathes of the country from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic region.
The storms cut power to more than 500,000 homes and businesses, mostly in New York and Pennsylvania, according to reports.
Tornado, Wind and Hail Reports for July 6-8, 2014
Posted in Climate Change, Global Disaster watch, global disasters | Tagged: deadly storm, New England, New York, Pennsylvania, storm, Tornado | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 21, 2014
The disaster designations are as follows:
Beginning January 10, 2014 USDA has declared at least 2,001 separate crop disasters across 29 states. Most of those designations are due to the worsening drought.
Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.
ii. The total number of counties designated as agricultural disaster areas includes both primary and contiguous disaster areas.
iii. Counties may have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.
iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.
v. The disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on June 11, 2014.
California Drought Disasters
Related Links
Posted in Climate Change, environment, Global Disaster watch, global disasters | Tagged: crop disaster, Delaware, Extreme Rain Events, flooding, hail, high wind, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, USDA | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on April 17, 2014
“We identified a significant regional flux of methane over a large area of shale gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Marcellus formation and further identified several pads with high methane emissions,” said the study others. “These shale gas pads were identified as in the drilling process, a preproduction stage not previously associated with high methane emissions.”
The original sampling area (OSA) encompasses all of Green County, PA, most of Washington County, PA, and parts of Fayette County, PA, Marshall County, WV, and Ohio County, WV, for a total area of 2,844 km², the authors reported.
The authors identified 57,673 wells (see gray dots in below diagram) across the counties of interest.
“It is particularly noteworthy that large emissions were measured for wells in the drilling phase, in some cases 100 to 1,000 times greater than the inventory estimates,” said one of the report authors. “This indicates that there are processes occurring—e.g. emissions from coal seams during the drilling process—that are not captured in the inventory development process. This is another example pointing to the idea that a large fraction of the total emissions is coming from a small fraction of shale gas production components that are in an anomalous condition.”
The comparative impact of methane on climate change is more than 20 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, according to EPA.
Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development
Dana R. Caulton, doi: 10.1073/pnas.131654611
Significance
We identified a significant regional flux of methane over a large area of shale gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Marcellus formation and further identified several pads with high methane emissions. These shale gas pads were identified as in the drilling process, a preproduction stage not previously associated with high methane emissions. This work emphasizes the need for top-down identification and component level and event driven measurements of methane leaks to properly inventory the combined methane emissions of natural gas extraction and combustion to better define the impacts of our nation’s increasing reliance on natural gas to meet our energy needs.
Regional enhancement of methane at ∼240 m above ground level (AGL) on the morning of June 21. The dashed orange box represents the original sampling area (OSA), and the gray dots show well locations. Credit: Caulton et al. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/1316546111
The identification and quantification of methane emissions from natural gas production has become increasingly important owing to the increase in the natural gas component of the energy sector. An instrumented aircraft platform was used to identify large sources of methane and quantify emission rates in southwestern PA in June 2012. A large regional flux, 2.0–14 g CH4 s−1 km−2, was quantified for a ∼2,800-km2 area, which did not differ statistically from a bottom-up inventory, 2.3–4.6 g CH4 s−1 km−2. Large emissions averaging 34 g CH4/s per well were observed from seven well pads determined to be in the drilling phase, 2 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than US Environmental Protection Agency estimates for this operational phase. The emissions from these well pads, representing ∼1% of the total number of wells, account for 4–30% of the observed regional flux. More work is needed to determine all of the sources of methane emissions from natural gas production, to ascertain why these emissions occur and to evaluate their climate and atmospheric chemistry impacts.
Posted in environment, Global Disaster watch | Tagged: ENVIRONMENTAL HOLOCAUST, EPA, fracking, greenhouse gas, hydraulic fracturing, Marcellus formation, Methane Emissions, Pennsylvania, unconventional gas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 27, 2014
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of 22 counties in New York and Pennsylvania as crop disaster areas due to losses caused by a freeze and freezing temperatures that occurred Dec. 1, 2013, and continues.
Those areas are
New York: Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Oswego, Yates, Allegany, Jefferson, Onondaga, Seneca, Cortland, Lewis, Ontario, Steuben, Erie, Oneida, Schuyler, Tompkins, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
Pennsylvania: Erie, McKean and Warren counties.
Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.
ii. The total number of counties designated as agricultural disaster areas includes both primary and contiguous disaster areas.
iii. A number of counties may have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.
iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.
v. The disaster designations were approved by USDA on March 26, 2014.
Posted in 2014 disaster diary, 2014 Disaster Forecast, Climate Change, Global Disaster watch, global disasters, Global Disasters 2014, significant events | Tagged: crop disaster, freeze, Freezing temperatures, New York, Pennsylvania, USDA | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on February 7, 2014
Areas worst affected by the severe winter storm are the counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and York.
The storm knocked power to nearly a million homes and businesses in Pennsylvania , according to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
“The storm that we had yesterday is pretty much done for Pennsylvania,” said a forecaster with the National Weather Service in State College, Pennsylvania.
Posted in Climate Change, Global Disaster watch, significant events | Tagged: Emergency Declaration, EXTREME CLIMATIC EVENT, extreme weather, Pennsylvania, state of emergency, Title V of the Stafford Act | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on February 6, 2014
The Empire State was battered by the second of three snowstorms to strike within a week. The massive snow storm disrupted subway service and road travel on Wednesday. Meanwhile Gov. Cuomo revealed the Big Apple was running out of salt and declared a state of emergency.
The massive winter storm which battered two-thirds of the United States, knocked out power to more than 750,000 customers in the Coal State.
The massive storm system had dumped 6 to 12 inches of snow over portions of of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine by Wednesday evening.
Thousands of people in New York and Long Island were also without power, as of posting.
[Note: According to the Office of Secretary of Transport for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Gov Corbett declared a state of emergency on February 3, 2014; however, there is no additional record of the Declaration available.]
Flight Cancellations and Delays
More than 6,600 flights into, within, or out of the United States have been canceled Monday through Wednesday, and at least 16,000 other flights delayed, impacting an estimated 4 million air travelers.
Posted in Climate Change, Global Disaster watch, global disasters, Significant Event Imagery, significant events | Tagged: Coal State, Disaster Emergency, flight cancellation, Gov Cuomo, New York, Pennsylvania, state of emergency | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on August 8, 2013
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 30 counties across five states as agricultural disaster area due to damages and losses caused by various climatic and extreme weather disasters including the ongoing drought, frost, excessive rain and a tornado. [Several counties received two separate disaster designations.]
USDA has designated 8 counties in Oregon as agricultural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by the ongoing drought.
Idaho counties designated as disaster agricultural disaster areas: Washington, Adams, Gem and Payette.
Oregon counties designated as disaster areas because they’re contiguous: Baker and Malheur.
USDA has declared agricultural disaster in Pennsylvania due to frost, excessive rain and a tornado in Erie, Crawford and Warren counties.
The disaster designation is extended to include Chautauqua County in New York and Ashtabula County in Ohio.
USDA has designated 5 counties in Pennsylvania—Mercer, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence, Venango—as agricultural disaster areas due to damages caused by excessive rain that occurred July 3-13, 2013.
USDA has designated Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio as agricultural disaster areas because they are contiguous.
For a list of recent Disaster Declarations see entries posted at
Posted in environment | Tagged: Agricultural Disasters Index, Disaster Declaration, Drought, Drought 2013, drought disaster, excessive rain, frost, Idaho, Ohio Disaster Declaration, oregon, Pennsylvania, Tornado | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 2, 2010
“The cows had access for at least three days to a pool that formed from a leaking waste water holding pond on a farm in Tioga County, north-central Pennsylvania, where East Resources Inc is drilling into the Marcellus Shale formation,” Reuters reported.
Subsequent tests showed the water contained a smorgasbord of toxic chemicals including chloride, magnesium, potassium and strontium, according to the Agriculture Department.
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.
Other Oil/Gas Drilling Pollution Headlines
Related Links:
Posted in Agriculture Department, East Resources Inc, Marcellus Shale, strontium, Tioga County | Tagged: Diarrhea water, heavy metals, Natural gas drilling, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania cattle quarantined | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 26, 2010
The northeastern U.S. was pummeled by blizzards, swamped by heavy flooding, and battered by late winter storms. Two movies of the events were captured by NASA Satellite GOES-12 between February 1 and 16, and March 8 and 16, 2010.
This is a still image of the well-developed storm on March 15, 2010 at 2115 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET) the New England coast. Source: NASA GOES Project
“Following the Nor’easter ‘parade of blizzards’ in February this year, another week-long parade of storms flooded the upper Midwest and Northeastern U.S. in March,” said a NASA GOES Project official. “The merge of three storms in the Midwest was unusual, where the normal pattern is a series of spring storms carried by the prevailing westerlies (winds).”
“The movie was created by overlaying the clouds observed several times per hour by NOAA’s GOES Imager onto a true-color map previously derived from NASA’s Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land-mapping instrument. The infrared channels on GOES detect clouds day and night, which are portrayed as grey for low clouds and white for high clouds. The movie compresses nine days into two minutes. It illustrates how continental-scale land/sea/air phenomena come together to make large late winter storms.” NASA Website said.
“Heavy rains that hit the northeast cause flooding, fatalities, power outages and damages. Downed trees from rain-soaked roots toppled power lines. Outages were reported in Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Literally thousands of trees were reported felled in Connecticut and New York. Flooding forced evacuations and put roadways under water. As far north as Maine, parts of the state received more than eight inches of rain. ”
Total rainfall for the first 19 days of March:
Most of that rainfall was caused by the storms.
The link to the movies: (Unfortunately, the movie were available only in one format, MP4, as of posting.)
Note: The second movie linked to above, is a 2-minute movie compressed from GOES satellite data recorded February 1-16, 2010, capturing two blizzards which hit the Baltimore, Md. and Washington areas.
During the first two weeks of February, Washington, DC, was put out of action by two blizzards which dumped heavy wet snow as follows:
“These storms are called Nor’easters because the counter-clockwise circulation around a low pressure system on the Atlantic coast pushes moist sea air from the north-east into arctic air over the land. This windy mixture creates a very efficient snow-making machine from Boston to Washington. ‘The GOES movie illustrates how succeeding storms form along the Gulf coast, travel up the Atlantic coast, pause over the mid-Atlantic states, and finally slide out to sea,’ said a NASA official with GOES Project.” Source: NASA/EO website.
Related Links:
Posted in flooding, GOES satellite, NE rainstorm, Rainstorm, US blizzard | Tagged: Connecticut, Late winter rain, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, record rainfall, record snow, US rainstorm, washington snowfall | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 26, 2010
Philadelphia officials asked the Delaware River Basin Commission on Thursday to stop prospectors using the hydraulic fracture (fracking) shale gas extractions in the City’s watershed, until a full environmental impact assessment is conducted.
The commission, which comprises of representatives from Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as federal officials, is responsible for protecting the Delaware River Basin over 360 miles from its headwaters all the way to the Delaware Bay.
Map Of Shale Gas Basins In The United States. Click image to enlarge.
The Middle Delaware River above Walpack Bend. Credit: NPS/George Ratliff
Background: Natural Gas Drilling in the Delaware River Basin
Much of the new drilling interest taking place in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York is targeted at reaching the natural gas found in the Marcellus Shale formation, which underlies about 36 percent of the Delaware River Basin. Because Marcellus Shale is considered a tight geologic formation, natural gas deposits were not previously thought to be practically and economically mineable using traditional techniques. New horizontal drilling and extraction methods, coupled with higher energy costs, have given energy companies reason to take a new interest in mining the natural gas deposits within the Marcellus Shale.
However, these new extraction methods require large amounts of fresh water to fracture the formation to release the natural gas. A significant amount of water used in the extraction process is recovered, but this “frac water” includes natural gas and chemicals added to facilitate the extraction process, as well as brine and other contaminants released from the formation. —DRBC
The City Council, in a unanimous resolution, has formally asked the Commission to stop all fracking operations in the watershed and deny a drilling permit to Stone Energy Corp, a Louisiana-based energy company prospecting for natural gas, and all others that propose to use fracking to extract shale gas in the Basin which supplies drinking water to more than 15 million people, including 2 million plus in the Philadelphia metro area.
“Stone Energy began operations in a protected area of the river basin without the necessary approvals, and now has applied for permits to drill for gas, extracting water it needs from a tributary of the river, the council said.” Reuters reported.
“We call on the Delaware River Basin Commission to halt Stone Energy’s operations, and not approve their application, or any other applications, until a full environmental impact assessment of fracking in the Delaware River Basin has been conducted,” the council said in a unanimous resolution.
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.
Stone Energy
Stone Energy spokesperson, Tim O’Leary, was reported as saying that fracking posed no danger to the drinking water in the region.
“Stone Energy believes that hydraulic fracturing technologies are a safe and proven method of accessing ample domestic sources of clean natural gas needed by the United States,” O’Leary said.
“Concern about possible ground water contamination from hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ has led New York City to call on state authorities to prevent drilling in the city watershed. U.S. Congress members have introduced a bill that would require energy companies to disclose chemicals they use in fracking.” The report said.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has expressed ‘serious reservations’ about the prospect of fracking in the New York City watershed, said on March 18 it will conduct a national study of the process.”
“I knew the responsible thing to do was to send a strong message that drilling should not occur without an environmental impact statement,” said Philadelphia City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, who sponsored the resolution.
“Energy companies exploiting vast reserves of shale gas in Pennsylvania and other states say there has never been a proven case of water contamination from fracking, and that the toxic chemicals are injected through layers of steel and concrete thousands of feet below drinking-water aquifers.” The report added.
The energy companies clearly aren’t telling the truth!
Fire Earth had earlier noted that
In Dimock, Pennsylvania, drilling for natural gas has clouded the drinking water, sickened people and animals and made their wells flammable.
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.
Residents of Dimock, a small rural Pennsylvania town, have sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, claiming the company’s natural-gas drilling has contaminated their wells with deadly chemicals, causing sickness and reducing their property values
Related Links:
Posted in Delaware River Basin, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, shale gas, watershed | Tagged: contaminated water, Diarrhea water, Dimock, frac water, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, public health, Stone Energy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 15, 2010
At least 7 people were killed many buildings were damaged and up to a million homes lost electricity after a torrential rainstorm battered northeastern United States.
Most of the damage occurred in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, where strong winds and torrential rains uprooted trees, snapped power lines and flooded many of the streams in the weekend.
Three people were crushed to death by falling trees in Greenwich, Conn, Westport, Conn., and Hartsdale, N.Y.
NWS Radar Mosaic. Click Image to enlarge and update. (24-Hr FE ED).
“In Teaneck, N.J., two neighbors were killed by a falling oak tree as they headed home from a synagogue at 7 p.m. on Saturday.” A report said.
A police officer was killed in Rhode Island, after his car hydroplaned in a pool of water formed by the weekend storm.
“In New Hampshire, a large pine tree fell on a car travelling on a highway on Sunday afternoon, killing a man and injuring his wife and child, police said.”
In Ocean Grove, N.J., five homes were consumed by a large fire that was fueled by strong winds which also damaged a historic inn, reports said.
Storm advisories and flood warnings are in place in many areas throuought the Northeast and elsewhere.
Predominant Weather. Click Image to enlarge and update. (24-Hr FE ED).
Hazards. Click Image to enlarge and update. (24-Hr FE ED).
Related Links:
Posted in New Hampshire, Ocean Grove, Rainstorm, storm, U.S. Storm | Tagged: Connecticut, Greenwich, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on February 8, 2010
Washington DC came to a virtual standstill after 61cm (2ft ) of snow, one of the heaviest snowfalls since 1922, fell on nation’s capital.
Snowfall totals of 51cm (20 in) to 97cm (38 inches) covered a vast area from West Virginia to southern New Jersey 24 hours of continuous precipitation.
Federal agencies will stay closed on Monday as a result of the blizzard.
Maryland: A record 92 cm (3ft) of snow blanketed Maryland.
Related Links:
Posted in New Jersey, power cut, snow, snowmageddon, Washington DC | Tagged: blizzard, Maryland, mid-atlantic blizzard, Pennsylvania, snowball fight, snowpocalypse, snowstorm | 4 Comments »
Posted by feww on November 23, 2009
Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1979 near complete core meltdown at Unit 2 of TMI, or smart enough to have carefully studied the case of the nuclear industry’s Titanic, are probably also familiar with the routine cover-up the goes on within the nuclear power industry.
Nuclear energy is unsafe and UNNECESSARY. The answer to the US and world energy problems is in the new kind of economy and lifestyle.
Three Mile Island (TMI), on the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. On the right is mothballed Unit 2, which almost completely melted down in 1979, and is now is owned by FirstEnergy. Unit 1, to the left, is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Exelon Corp. Image and Caption [dated March 28, 2004]: Ohio Citizen Action
TORONTO, CANADA — “In May, 1983, my father-in-law, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, told me that at the time of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident, a full report was commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. He [my father-in-law] said that the report, if published in its entirety, would have destroyed the civilian nuclear power industry because the accident at Three Mile Island was infinitely more dangerous than was ever made public. He told me that he had used his enormous personal influence with President Carter to persuade him to publish the report only in a highly ‘diluted’ form. The President himself had originally wished the full report to be made public. In November, 1985, my father-in-law told me that he had come to deeply regret his action in persuading President Carter to suppress the most alarming aspects of that report,” Jane Rickover, sworn statement, July 18, 1986. Source
Exelon Corp News Release: No threat to public health and safety (Nov. 21, 2009)
About 150 employees working inside the shutdown Three Mile Island Unit 1 containment building were sent home about 4:00 p.m. EST Saturday after an airborne radiological contamination alarm inside the reactor building sounded.
The unit has been shut down since Oct. 26 for refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement.
No contamination was found outside of the containment building. Radiological surveys showed that the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the containment building.
The event posed no threat to public health and safety.
A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal. Two other monitors displayed normal readings. Full Text
Related Links:
Posted in nuclear power, nuclear power plant, public health and safety, radiation leak, radiological contamination | Tagged: Exelon, Harrisburg, NRC, partial meltdown, Pennsylvania, Three Mile Island | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on November 22, 2009
Residents of Dimock, a small rural Pennsylvania town, have sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, claiming the company’s natural-gas drilling has contaminated their wells with deadly chemicals, causing sickness and reducing their property values, Reuters reported.
“The lawsuit accuses the company of violating state environmental laws by allowing drilling chemicals to escape from gas wells, where they are used in a technique called hydraulic fracturing.”
A Cabot spokesman, Ken Komoroski, said the company was in full compliance with Pennsylvania’s environmental laws and “disappointed” by the lawsuit, which he said they had not had time to study yet.
“We don’t see merit in these claims,” Cabot spokesman said. More …
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.
“The suit is the culmination of complaints by residents of the northeastern Pennsylvania community where Cabot has drilled dozens of gas wells in its efforts to develop the Marcellus Shale, a massive gas formation that underlies about two-thirds of Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states.” The report said.
“These releases, spills and discharges caused the plaintiffs and their property to be exposed to such hazardous gases, chemicals and industrial wastes,” said the complaint.
The residents have suffered neurological, gastrointestinal and dermatological symptoms from exposure to contaminated water, the complaint said. The results of blood samples taken from residents are consistent with exposure to the chemical pollutants.
“Victoria Switzer, a plaintiff who lives about a mile from Carter’s home, said she had joined the lawsuit because she had failed to get satisfaction from the state Department of Environmental Protection or her elected representatives.” Reuters said.
“Lawyers were the last thing I wanted,” she said. “We are not greedy people, we just want some justice.” More …
Background:
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.
In Dimock, Pennsylvania, drilling for natural gas has clouded the drinking water, sickened people and animals and made their wells flammable.
Related Links:
Posted in doorstep drilling, EPA, fracking, gas drilling, natural gas | Tagged: Cabot Oil, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, Diarrhea water, Dimock, Marcellus Shale natural gas, Pennsylvania | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on August 29, 2009
The post titled Diarrhea Water revealed what some of the local folks in Dimock, who were affected by the drilling operations for Marcellus Shale natural gas in the area, had to say.
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.
Researchers say these chemicals may cause cancer, kidney failure, anemia and low fertility problems, and pose serious health risks to people who live close to the drilling sites, Reuters reported.
As of March 2009, EPA has designated 77 Sole Source Aquifers nationwide. Five of these are in Region 8 (which includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming). EPA defines a Sole Source Aquifer as one which supplies at least 50 percent of the drinking water consumed in the area overlying the aquifer. EPA guidelines also stipulate that these areas can have no alternative drinking water source(s) which could physically, legally, and economically supply all those who depend upon the aquifer for drinking water. Sole source aquifer designation provides only limited federal protection of ground water resources which serve as drinking water supplies. It is not a comprehensive ground water protection program. Protection of ground water resources can best be achieved through an integrated and coordinated combination of federal, state, and local efforts. (Source: EPA website.)
Gas drilling companies maintain that the gas drilling technique they use, called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is safe, but based on observation of the drinking water in numerous drilling areas, and the fate of many people who live near the drilling rigs, and who are afflicted with serious health conditions, we know that fracking contaminates groundwater with dangerous chemicals.
“Evidence of a link between gas drilling and water contamination would set back development of a clean-burning fuel promoted by the Obama administration as crucial to the future of U.S. energy production.” Reuters reported.
Wyoming the Gas [‘n Quake] State. The red stars on the map denote some of the recent earthquakes measuring up to 4.2 Mw, which are [probably!] almost entirely gas-drilling activity related. Source of original map: Google Earth. Image may be subject to copyright.
“Some experts believe the United States holds more than 100 years worth of natural gas reserves. The new findings may raise questions about the process companies such as EnCana Corp, Halliburton Co and others commonly use to pump the gas from deep geological formations. Encana, Canada’s biggest energy company, is drilling in Pavillion.”
“There may be an indication of groundwater contamination by oil and gas activities,” Reuters quoted from the 44-page report, which received little public attention when released on August 11. “Many activities in gas well drilling (and) hydraulic fracturing … involve injecting water and other fluids into the well and have the potential to create cross-contamination of aquifers.”
Contaminants found in the wells include the organic solvent2-butoyethanol (C6H14O2), or 2-BE, which is used to extract natural gas, and “which researchers say causes the breakdown of red blood cells, leading to blood in the urine and feces, and can damage the kidneys, liver, spleen and bone marrow.”
“Greg Oberley, an EPA scientist who has been testing the water samples, said the agency did not set out to prove that hydraulic fracturing caused groundwater contamination, but was responding to complaints from local residents that their well water had become discolored or foul-smelling or tasted bad.” Reuters reported.
“While the EPA team has not determined how the chemicals got into the water, many are associated with gas drilling, Oberley said in a telephone interview.”
“The preponderance of those compounds in the area would be attributable to the oil and gas industry,” he said.
But why can’t the EPA simply ask the drillers what they put in the water?
“Drillers such as EnCana are not required to disclose the chemicals they use because of an exemption to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, granted to the oil and gas industry in 2005.” Reuters said.
The oil and gas industry deny that their operations has anything to do with the contaminants that are found in the drinking water, and insist that they use heavily diluted fracking chemicals, which are injected thousands of meters below the drinking-water table in the aquifers. They blame the contamination on other causes such as “naturally occurring,” leaking from “ordinary household products” and “organic solvents” used in agriculture.
A representative for EnCana, which operates 248 wells in the area, told reporters that the contaminants discovered by the EPA had been “tentatively identified.” He said they came from various sources, but admitted: “One of those sources could be oil and gas development.”
“John Fenton, a farmer in Pavillion, a rural community of about 150 people, said residents blame gas drilling for a range of illnesses including rare cancers, miscarriages and nervous system disorders.” Reuters reported.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, has reportedly advised people with contaminated water wells not to drink the water. Fenton said water from some of the wells was black, oily and with a petroleum-like sheen, which also smelled of gas.
“The stress is incredible,” Fenton said. “People have built their lives and businesses here. What’s it all worth now?”
[Note: EnCana Co. is North America’s largest natural gas extractor. The company extracted 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2008. EnCana was formed in 2002 with the merger of PanCanadian Energy and Alberta Energy Company. The corporate headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta. In the United States, EnCana operates in Colorado, Louisiana, Texas and Wyoming. The Candian company also jointly owns two oil refineries with ConocoPhillips in Louisiana and Texas.]
Related Links:
Posted in elk mountain aquifer, Encana, EPA, Greg Oberley, Halliburton | Tagged: Diarrhea water, Dimock, fracking, gas and oil drilling, natural gas, Pennsylvania | 8 Comments »
Posted by feww on May 21, 2009
having carefully researched and reviewed the SW New York seismic history, geological details of shale gas plays in the Appalachians and other related data, Moderators and blog contributors have concluded with 75% certainty the cluster of 3 earthquakes that struck Medusa, New York, earlier this week may have been caused by shale gas drilling activity.
The mainshock, a magnitude 3.0 tremor, struck on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 00:53 UTC, about 170km northeast of Dimock, Pennsylvania, followed by two smaller aftershocks measuring 2.1 and 1.9 Mw respectively. See below for details.
NE PA Gas Exploration & Central NY Wells. Epicenter of the mainshock is marked in red at [42.571°N, 74.112°W.] The recent earthquake cluster struck an area located about 31 km WSW of Albany NY, and 170 km northeast of Dimock, Pennsylvania. Map: Google. Image may be subject to copyright. For legend see original map.
Shale Gas Plays, Lower 48 States. Map date: March 16, 2009. EIA Data Sources: Published studies. [Click image to enlarge.]
See also: The 100 Volumetrically Largest U.S. Oil and Gas Fields [PDF 12MB]
CHK – Marcellus Shale Depth from Data and Cores – 10/16/2008 [source.] Image may be subject to copyright.
FEWW expects more seismic activity occurring in a 100-km radius area centered at 42.07°N, 75.27ºW, about 55km North of Hancock (town), New York, an area located outside the region’s recent historic seismicity. Should this occur, the Moderators would be able to recalculate the certainty factor.
This map shows the approximate depth to the base of the Marcellus Shale. It was prepared using the map by Robert Milici and Christopher Swezey above and adding depth-to-Marcellus contours published by Wallace de Witt and others, 1993, United States Department of Energy Report: The Atlas of Major Appalachian Gas Plays. Image and caption: Geology.com. Image may be subject to copyright.
Earthquake details:
Event #1 – Magnitude: 3.0
Date-Time: Monday, May 18, 2009 at 00:53:29 UTC
Location: 42.571°N, 74.112°W
Depth: 9 km (5.6 miles)
Region: NEW YORK
Distances:
Source: Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
Event ID: ld1023914
Earthquake Location. Map Centered at 43°N, 74°W. Source: USGS? ANSS
Event #2 – Magnitude 2.1
Date-Time: Monday, May 18, 2009 at 07:21:57 UTC
Location: 42.567°N, 74.109°W
Depth: 6 km (3.7 miles)
Source: Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
Event ID: ld1023916
Event #3 – Magnitude 1.9
Date-Time Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 14:52:32 UTC
Location 42.575°N, 74.113°W
Depth 14 km (8.7 miles)
Source Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
Event ID ld1023935
Related Links:
See also:
Posted in earthquake forecast, Gas Drilling earthquake, Medusa quake, NY Earthquake, oil and gas drilling | Tagged: Dimock, Marcellus Shale natural gas, New York Earthquakes, Pennsylvania | 19 Comments »
Posted by feww on March 13, 2009
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.
The following is adapted from a report by Reuters
Pat Farnelli whose children had persistent diarrhea and vomiting said: “I was getting excruciating stomach cramps after drinking the water … It felt like an appendicitis attack.”
Geologists : Marcellus Shale natural gas could potentially provide total U.S. natural gas needs for at least a decade, possibly more.
Observers: What the problem then?
Experts: Oh, the gas cannot be extracted easily because it’s encapsulated deep inside layers of rock; you need a cocktail of highly toxic chemicals mixed with sand and fluids to drill the rocks [see below for “fracking.”]
Dimock residents: The drilling has clouded our drinking water, sickened our kids and animals and made our wells flammable.”
Energy Industry spokesperson: The groundwater is safeguarded meticulously. The chemicals used are heavily diluted and pose no health threat.
Residents: What chemicals are you using?
Energy companies: Sorry, that information is proprietary, we can’t disclose what chemicals we use because other companies might copy our work.
Residents: How can we test our drinking waters, if we don’t know what to look for?
Cabot Oil & Gas spokesman Kenneth Komoroski [Cabot has drilled about 30 wells since 2006, 20 of them just last year, Reuters reported]: It is impossible for the drilling to contaminate the groundwater, how could it I ask you!
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell speaking to Reuters: The state is careful in granting drilling permits. “We are very scrupulous about whether it will have an effect on the groundwater.” It’s safe, it’s safe … I say!
Mark Carmon an official with the Department of Environmental Protection: [they say they tested well water in Dimock houses in February] “We have not seen anything that would be of concern.”
A dozen local interviewed by Reuters: We draw water from a well sunk into an aquifer; two gas wells are within a few hundred yards (meters) of our houses.
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability [a Pennsylvania group opposed to drilling] : Toxic chemicals have leaked into groundwater at hundreds of natural gas drilling sites in Colorado and New Mexico. How could Pennsylvania be an exception?
Ron and Jean Carter: We were alarmed when the water supply to our trailer home suddenly started to taste and smell foul after Cabot had started drilling 180m away. To protect our grandchild living with us, we managed to scrape 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: We have three teenage children, and have been drinking and cooking with only bottled water since our well water turned brown in November 2008, shortly after Cabot started drilling.
But we can’t afford bottled water for our animals. Our cats have been losing fur projectile vomiting because of the contaminated water. One of our three horses is also losing its hair. When I go out to give water to them, “I tell my husband, ‘I’m going out to poison the horses.'”
Another byproduct of the drilling in Dimock is methane which has been released into the water supply, which the state regulators and Cabot have acknowledged.
Local homeowners: We can ignite our well water. Recently, a gas buildup blew the large concrete cap off a well.
Norma Fiorentino, 66, a resident: “The well was capped with six to eight inches of concrete. … The explosion broke it into three big pieces and blew a huge hole in the ground.”
Environmental groups: Energy companies use a method called Hydraulic fracturing [aka, hydrofracturing, or fracing pronounced “fracking”] to create fractures from a borehole al the way down to rock formations by injecting a toxic mix of chemicals together with water and sand deep into the rock to release the natural gas which is trapped there.
Komoroski, the Cabot spokesman: Of course the “fracking” chemicals are dangerous. But they are only dangerous in concentrated form. Here [in Pennsylvania,] we use them heavily diluted in the injection fluid. Further, we inject them into depths of 1,700 to 2,700m (5,000 to 8,000 ft)— well below the normal depth aquifers at 70 to 170m (100 to 500 ft)—and we pump them into the ground inside several layers of steel and concrete, preventing any discharge at levels that could contaminate the groundwater.
FEWW Moderators: Why did the water turn brown, people and animals that drank the water got violently ill, cats lost their fur and horses their hair just after you started fracking? And what say you about the exploding well caps? Please respond.
[This space is reserved for Komoroski‘s reply!]
Komoroski: The Marcellus Shale Committee, a statewide group of energy companies will publish a report on the chemicals that are being injected into the ground.
The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a Colorado research group: of the 201 “fracking chemicals” we have found in the groundwater about 188 could potentially harm skin, eyes, and sensory organs; 100 could damage the brain and nervous system, and 59 may cause cancer.
Retired schoolteacher Victoria Switzer and her husband, Jimmy: We spent five years building our dream home [nestled on an idyllic wooded hillside,] now we have to share the rural setting with a gas well just a few hundred meters away. How could we fight the wealthy energy companies? Cabot, for one, posted annual revenues of about $1 billion in 2008.
Victoria Switzer: “They are big and we are small and they count on that.”
Posted in Cabot Oil & Gas, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, doorstep drilling, Gov. Ed Rendell | Tagged: Diarrhea water, Dimock, flammable wells, Marcellus Shale natural gas, Pennsylvania | 6 Comments »
Posted by feww on April 3, 2008
The states of Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The lawsuit came one year after the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had the power to do so.
Main Entry: 18 States Sue EPA Over GHG Pollution
Original Report: 18 states sue EPA over greenhouse gas pollution
Posted in air pollution, air travel, Al Gore, cars, EPA, GHG, government, health, lawsuit, pollution, trucks | Tagged: Arizona, california, Connecticut, Delaware, EPA, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington | Leave a Comment »
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