New York DEP...Fracking Waste is NOT Medical Waste

The Medical Waste tracking Act of 1988 defines medical waste as "any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals." This definition includes, but is not limited to:

• blood-soaked bandages
• culture dishes and other glassware
• discarded surgical gloves
• discarded surgical instruments
• discarded needles used to give shots or draw blood (e.g., medical sharps)
• cultures, stocks, swabs used to inoculate cultures
• removed body organs (e.g., tonsils, appendices, limbs)
• discarded lancets

So, one might ask, "What does Medical Wastes have to do with Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing, and the diabolical industrial practice nicknamed Fracking?"  As unbelievable as it may seem, the New York DEC plans to treat the waste water streams from fracking along the same lines as Medical Wastes are treated, rather than classifying them for what they are, "Lethal Hazardous Wastes"!  Now to understand how ridiculous it for the NY DEC to wrongfully classify and treat Fracking waste along the same lines as Medical Waste, we should look at some of the requirements the US EPA has when a waste is classified as being hazardous...keep in mind, the waste does not have to meet ALL THESE CRITERIA, but instead only has to meet ANY OF THE CRITERIA.  Any, as in ONE!

Lets start with Benzene shall we?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified Benzene as a Class A carcinogenic. Benzene exposure can result in the development of leukemia. Variations of leukemia have been linked to Benzene exposure, including:

• Acute myelogenous leukemia
• Acute lymphocytic leukemia
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia

Symptoms of Benzene Exposure

People that are exposed to Benzene in high levels or for long periods of time might experience the following symptoms:

• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Irregular heartbeats
• Loss of consciousness

Benzene exposure to the eyes and skin can cause tissue injury and irritation. Drinking water containing high levels of Benzene can cause:

• Stomach irritation
• Vomiting
• Convulsions
• Rapid heartbeats
• Death

Guess what folks...benzene is injected underground in hydraulic fracturing, and the extraction process also causes naturally occurring deposits of benzene to surface (Hess 1998, EPA Final 2004 4-11).  OK, lets try to understand this...Benzene is by US EPA classifications a hazardous waste.  The (un)Natural Gas industry injects Benzene into the ground to FRACK A WELL, and when the well has been fracked, even more Benzene is released.  Said Benzene gets into the environment (air, water, ground), thus opening up exposure pathways that will see humans exposed to a chemical that is a know cancer causing agent, a chemical that can cause us to lose consciousness, a chemical that CAN CAUSE DEATH...those are some serious medical concerns that all New Yorkers should be concerned with...

Light bulb moment!

So that is why the NY DEC wants to classify and treat fracking wastes as Medical Wastes...said wastes are going to cause us folks serious health issues! ...so that's the thinking?  Let's not put all the blame on the NY DEC...the US EPA seems to have blood on its own hands when it comes to being p front and honest when it comes to chemicals in fracking fluids, and the health risks they WILL PRESENT TO US HUMANS.

In a draft 2002 report, EPA reported that at the point of injection, nine hydraulic fracturing chemicals violated water quality standards (EPA Fracturing Draft 2002). This assertion was edited out before the final report was published. The published report did note that fracturing fluids are likely to remain underground and are “likely to be transported by groundwater supplies” (EPA Fracturing Final 2004).

So, the (un)Natural Gas industry does not like US EPA findings...no problem, they just get those results edited out, and that changes everything...right? As the Church Lady would say, "Isn't that SPECIAL"?  Not to be out done, wanting to get in on all the killing of human beings, Dick Cheney and our United States government jumped into the fray in 2005 solving the issue once and for all by granting the (un)Natural Gas industry an exemption from the Clean Drinking Water Act...much like the NRC does with regulations when the nuclear industry cannot meet standards, GRANT AN EXEMPTION!

In 2005, Congress exempted most hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act but said the act would apply to fracturing with diesel fuel (SDWA Exemption 2005).

Meanwhile, here in our little community we are waiting for Steve Vegliante and the Fallsburg Town Board to let us know when the promised Public Informational Meeting on FRACKING is going to be held as said board considers a proposed ban on fracking for our community...with this kind of information out in the public domain, one has to wonder why the delay...PASS THE BAN!  Seriously...can we really trust the DEC to do the right thing, or is our community better off passing a ban on fracking while we still can?

Some other reasons to JUST SAY NO to FRACKING:

• Thousands of post-1980 wells are exempt from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that holds most industries accountable for cleaning up hazardous waste.
• Thousands of post-1980 wells were exempted from the Clean Air Act, which limits emissions of nearly 190 toxic air pollutants, including many emitted by oil and gas companies (Mall et al. 2007, Clean Air Act 2008).
• Thousands of the nearly 270,000 wells drilled in the West since 1980 are exempt from the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986. 
• The nearly 270,000 oil and natural gas wells drilled in the West since 1980 have enjoyed an exemption from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), passed in 1976 to establish a cradle-to-grave hazardous waste management program (RCRA History). 

Are you starting to see a TREND HERE?  The (un)Natural Gas industry has been exempted from almost every rule meant to protect human health and the environment, has been exempted from almost every law that could and should hold them legally liable when they screw it all up, which they certainly will do.  Give Steve Vegliante a call, tell him the time for Fallsburg to pass a fracking ban IS NOW.

Governor (Frack Me Now) Cuomo Trying To Fast Track Allowing Fracking in New York...Sign Petition to Ban Fracking

Make no bones about it...Governor Cuomo has fracked gas on his hands, frack money in his pockets, and rosy red lips from kissing to much gas ass...he is trying to force through fracking regulations that fall far short of protecting our communities, and we in the Anti-Fracking Camp are trying to stop him and the (un)Natural Gas industry that has spent tens of millions of dollars here in New York on FALSE ADVERTISING...propaganda that is.

Ban Fracking-Protect Our Water and Resources

You can help in the fight by reading the latest press release from "Food and Water Watch" clicking on the link and signing the petition, then taking the link to this article and emailing it to your friends...BETTER YET, put the link to this article up on your Facebook Page....we need to reach 150,000 signatures and have just 6 more days to reach our goal.

PRESS RELEASE

Sign the petition to Ban Fracking Now! We are just shy of our goal to deliver 150,000 signatures to our legislators on May 3rd.

After attending the Senate Fracking Forum in Albany yesterday, I thought it essential to reach out to you at this critical time. Despite the proliferation of questions regarding health and safety, Governor Cuomo's administration is poised to finalize regulations that would allow fracking in New York, and we must stop it! Will you add your name to the letters urging our elected officials to support a ban on fracking?

My colleague, Eric, sent the below email to you back in February asking for you to take action. Since then, many legislators have stepped forward in support of legislation to ban fracking; yet others are still under the impression that we would be able to regulate this mess. How can we regulate a process that still poses more questions than answers?

Regulations aren't free. They cost the public money and they tie up government personnel. Wouldn't it be better to invest in a clean energy future and Ban Fracking Now?

We are organizing several events around the state where we will be delivering petition signatures to our elected officials on May 3rd. Please take moment to sign the letters to our elected officials urging them to support a ban on fracking in New York:
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8617

Thanks for taking action,

Corinne Rosen
New York Organizer
Food & Water Watch

The Latest Fracking News

First Up...if you have not yet submitted comments to the NYDEC opposing the inadequate fracking regulations found in the SGEIS, now is the time to do it (deadline is January 11th...this upcoming Wednesday) is now. To make it easier for citizens to submit comments, Catskill Citizens has put up a page with 20 READY TO GO comments here. They are great comments, but if you want some serious IMPACT to your statement, want to have it receive MORE ATTENTION, it is recommended you use their suggested comments as a model to write your own. The more the merrier, so consider to some or even all of them! As a stakeholder, it is also recommended you ask to be put on the document SERVICE LIST.

Catskill Citizens will make sure that anything you send to us by Monday January 9th will be delivered to the DEC on time. After Monday the 9th, use the DEC's web-based comment form.[http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/76838.html]

Next up...is the US EPA going to start delivering water to the citizens of Dimock, Pennsylvania? Cabot has reneged on doing right by the citizens of Dimock, even though they are the guilty party that has contaminated the community water, and sadly, the state of Pennsylvania's own DEC is letting them get away with it...however, all is not lost. Seems that the US EPA is weighing to their own investigations, and bringing in water.

If the EPA delivers water to the village, it would be the clearest sign yet regulators are concerned about the effect of drilling on drinking water there.
Dimock may become pivotal in a national debate about the environmental impact of fracking, the drilling technique that could unlock decades' worth of natural gas trapped in shale deposits, but which environmentalists say contaminates water supplies.

11 minor earthquakes in Ohio attributed to FRACKING. First, this raises some serious question about allowing fracking anywhere near any earthquake faults. More importantly, it raises a much more serious question...why is the Hydraulic Fracturing industry being allowed to DUMP THEIR CANCER CAUSING WASTE STREAMS into the ground with our potable water supplies. Seriously, how safe can it really be to be dumping all these toxic chemicals into the ground, and will not those toxic chemicals PERCULATE up into the aquifers if said chemicals are causing earthquakes?

Now, seismologists have attributed a recent series of 11 minor earthquakes in Ohio to injection wells that disposed of wastewater byproducts from fracking operations.

Will opponents of Fracking here in New York be successful in getting another one year moratorium on the dangerous industrial drilling practice known as Hydraulic Fracturing, or would such a moratorium amount to putting lipstick on a pig. As it is, the DEC cannot issue permits before 2013, as there is no money in the budget for the added employees needed to enforce the proposed rules moving their way through the process now. Symbolically it would be a big victory for the Anti's, but we need to make sure it is not window dressing meant to appease.

Pointing to experiences in other states, including Pennsylvania and Colorado, critics say the practice could contaminate drinking water and air, cause small earthquakes and lower property values. Supporters say allowing fracking in New York would create an important domestic source of energy and thousands of jobs for depressed rural areas.

State Assembly Environmental Committee Chair Robert Sweeney said on Friday he would soon introduce a proposal to have a moratorium on fracking until June 1, 2013. Sweeney pointed to recent reports that fracking may have caused a series of small earthquakes in Ohio and contaminated drinking water in Wyoming and Dimock, Pennsylvania.

Bottom line is simple...at every step of the way, Fracking seems to get more dangerous, and at some point politicians and regulators have to accept that some risks are not worth taking, and Hydraulic Fracturing is one of those risks that small rural communities like our own cannot afford to have the DEC force us into accepting. How many examples of problems do regulators need to have presented before they just tell the Exxon's, Cabot's and Chesapeake Energy's of the world NO?

Fractoid News Blog Articles Being Consolidated On This Blog

Greetings Readers:

Sometimes in life, consolidating one's efforts, streamlining our work makes a lot of sense. For that reason, I am doing just that. As many of my faithful readers know, I have worked on various and assorted other blogging projects, and some of them have suffered as I have tried to serve, as it were, two masters.

As example, I have been the editor of both "Mountaindale NY News", and "Mountaindale After Dark", and simply stated, just do not have the necessary time to give both of these blogs the time effort and commitment they both deserve, so I am stepping down/resigning from "Mountaindale NY News" effective immediately, concentrating all my time and efforts on making "Mountaindale After Dark" the kind of blog that Mountaindale, Sullivan County and the surrounding Hudson River Valley deserve.

Another project I had started was the "Fracktoid News" blog, and if truth be told, though I have been posting articles on Fracking for months, that blog has languished in obscurity since May of this year simply because I have not had the time needed to give it the attention it so richly deserves. For that reason, I am importing to "Mountaindale After Dark" all the fracking articles from that blog so that the materials and information there can be read and disseminated from one location going forward...I am proud to be called and "Anti Fracker" and will continue my efforts on this important environmental issue, feel the best way I can be effective in those efforts is to centralize everything here where I routinely post articles in opposition to Hydraulic Fracturing in NY's Marcellus Shale.

If there are people in the Anti Fracking movement interested in taking over Fractoid News, please email me privately or leave yor email address in comments below this article and I would be happy to discuss transferring ownership of that blog to your organization, as well as the Twitter account of @fractoidnews and a Yahoo email associated with both properties.

Hopefully, when I post my last article to the Fracktoid News blog, all of my followers from there will come over and bookmark us here at "Mountaindale After Dark".

Open Letter To President Obama-DOE's Committee To Make Hydraulic Fracturing Safe Should be Disbanded, and A Independent Committee With Citizen Stakeholder Representation Put In Its Place

Dear President Obama:

The DOE has recently formed a committee whose stated purpose is too make Hydraulic Fracturing safer, its unstated purpose seems to be a feeble attempt to placate members of the public who are up in arms over a industrial technology that is not fully understood, nor properly investigated and approved through scientific study. Secretary Steven Chu invited closer scrutiny of the legitimacy of this committee with three early signals that telegraphed the intent of the committee...to rewrap hydraulic fracturing in a way that makes it appear safe when in reality it is not.

1.  The time frame given to the committee to complete its work, and craft their recommendations...three months, with another three months to finalized their recommendations for a industry that intends to extract Natural Gas using Hydraulic Fracturing from over 350,000 square miles of our lands...most of private lands, or protected state and federal parks.

2.  Naming as Committee Chair one Mr. Deutch-director of Cheniere Energy, which operates a major liquefied natural gas terminal in Louisiana.  Could you place a more biased person in charge of this committee...someone who has a vested interest in seeing the expansion of Natural Gas extraction here in the United States.

3.  Look at Texas and its Barnett Shale play, or Pennsylvania and New York with our own Marcellus play. Look at the numerous citizen stakeholder groups such as CCSE (Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy) who are working diligently to have our voices heard on this important issue to our communities...yet, Steven Chu and the DOE in formation of this committee CHOSE not to give us a voice in the process.  One has to wonder what it is that the DOE and the White House want to hide from us?  The biased and pre-determined direction of the committee, or perhaps instead the committee will see documents that show hydraulic fracturing to be even more dangerous than we as citizens are currently being led to believe?

These three glaring facts as relates to the committee should be more than enough for you Mr. President to disband this DOE controlled committee, and instead form a Blue Ribbon Hydraulic Fracturing Committee to study the issue, give them ADEQUATE TIME to do their jobs, and summit their report...think 911 Commission.  However, there is much more, and even a cursory investigation of the facts shows the DOE is vested in the Natural Gas industry moving forward at all costs.  They show disdain for public health and protection of the environment, but instead are out touting proudly their involvement in the industry, pretty well taking credit for Modern Day Hydraulic Fracturing...this claim can be verified on their own website, looking at their own chest beating and credit taking.   Skipping over their horrible 1969 Atomic Fracturing experiment, we instead visit a page posted this year wherein they spell out their involvements in moving the Natural Gas industry to where it is today. (Link)

DOE's Early Investment in Shale Gas Technology Producing Results Today

Washington, D.C. — A $92 million research investment in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is today being credited with technological contributions that have stimulated development of domestic natural gas from shales. The result: more U.S. jobs, increased energy security, and higher revenues for states and the Federal Government.

More than 30 years ago, fears of dwindling domestic natural gas supplies pushed researchers to examine alternative sources of natural gas such as Devonian shales, coals, and low permeability or "tight" sands. Recognizing the need for research and development to quantify these unconventional reservoirs and to develop ways to produce them, DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy invested in Devonian shale research from 1977 through 1992, matching technology to complex geology for various geologic settings.

Through programs focused on Eastern gas shales, Western gas sands, and methane from coalbeds, DOE developed and stimulated the deployment of advanced exploration and production technologies. These technologies recovered new gas supplies from unconventional gas resources by increasing per-well gas-recovery efficiencies and lowering unit development costs. 

DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) employed a detailed resource characterization and technology development approach that geologically partitioned each natural gas resource and matched technology to geology to chart a path for resource development. More than 25,000 feet of oriented core and well log data from 35　cored shale wells provided the basic core and geologic data used to prepare the first publicly available estimates of technically recoverable gas for the Huron shales in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

In 1986, DOE collaborated with industry to achieve a significant milestone: the first air-drilled 2,000-foot-long horizontal Devonian shale well in the Appalachian Basin. This also marked the first recovery of core from a horizontal air-drilled shale well and the first successful use of external casing packers in an air-filled wellbore. Through 1992, DOE also worked with industry to complete three additional 2,000-foot-long horizontal wells containing multiple hydraulically fractured zones and to develop more efficient downhole tools, such as electromagnetic measurement-while-drilling and directional air hammer technology, both of which are currently used by the oilfield service industry.

Another example of early DOE leadership in the development of technologies applicable to shale gas development is fracture mapping—techniques for using seismic responses to identify the orientation and extent of hydraulically created fractures. Today, a number of companies successfully map hydraulic fractures, including many in the major shale gas plays. \

In a recent paper entitled Thirty Years of Gas Shale Fracturing: What Have We Learned?, DOE research is recognized for enabling several technology breakthroughs in shale gas development. Presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ 2010 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, the paper reviews more than 350 technical papers and presentations on shale-specific well completions, fracturing, and operations. The paper’s author, George E. King, Global Technology Consultant for Apache Corporation, credits DOE for its early leadership in the development of several key technologies that are driving the current growth in shale gas production, including reservoir characterization, horizontal drilling, and multi-stage fracturing and slick water fracturing.

DOE’s leadership in shale gas development is receiving similar recognition from others. According to Dr. Terry Engelder, Professor of Geosciences at Penn State University, DOE’s Eastern Gas Shales Research Program "helped expand the limits of gas shale production and increased understanding of production mechanisms . . . It is one of the great examples of value-added work led by the DOE." 

This article from the DOE website leaves no doubt...the Department of Energy is the MOTHER of modern day Hydraulic Fracturing, today's natural gas extraction means of choice THEIR BABY.  It is impossible for the DOE to be impartial in this debate, impossible for any committee on Hydraulic Fracturing created by them to be unbiased....they  are going to protect their baby that they have nurtured and moved forward for a period of over 30 years.  The DOE WANTS HYDRAULIC FRACTURING to move forward AT ALL COSTS, and the committee in its current make up has but one job...placate the public, trot out some false assurances, and put the petal to the metal when it comes to letting Hydraulic Fracturing move forward at full bore.

It is imperative that (in your words) we get this RIGHT when it comes to Hydraulic Fracturing, that the proper SCIENTIFIC (emphasis added) investigation of the processes involved in Hydraulic Fracturing gives us the assurances we need.  Let science lead the way forward, let science tell us that our Safe Drinking Water Supplies will not be compromised, let science tell us that our health will not be compromised by the use of carcinogenic chemicals deployed in the process.  Let a committee be formed that A) has one third of its make up average stakeholder citizens, B) one third from the science community (half from industry, half from the opposing spectrum) and C) that last third made up with equal parts government officials and industry types.  The number of members of this committee should be 18.

So Mr. President, I implore you...end the dog and pony show, disband the DOE's biased and prejudice committee that has been stacked in favor of the Natural Gas Industry.  Declare a Presidential Moratorium on the practice of Fracking for a period of at least 24 months, disband Steven Shu's biased committee and put together the Blue Ribbon Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing.

OMFG...Corbett Cronies THROTTLE FREE SPEAK....Deny Anti Frackers Voice At Committee Hearing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this damning video is priceless...seems that the Pro-Natural Gas folks inside the Pennsylvania Governor's office will stop at nothing to silence those opposed to Natural Gas Fracking. Sure if I told you that the governor instructed staff to have two sign up sheets...one inside the room for PRO NATURAL GAS FOLKS, and one outside for ANTI FRACKERS (who were not allowed in to sign the other sheet), and told you that they then called up folks from the FIRST LIST ONLY, you would say I was a conspiracy nut...well, watched the video, and you decide. FACE IT FOLKS, WE ARE BEING RAIL ROAD'ED TO HELL ON A FRACK HIGHWAY.

The Frack FUCK Primer...Do Not Let DOE Committee Fool You

DOE trotting out Fracking Committee dog and pony show for public consumption.  Sorry, but do not buy into this supposed IMPORTANT Committee....you do not form a committee of this magnitude, and then give it just three months to review fracking if the outcome of the committee's findings are not already pre-determined. The three articles below will give you a quick PRIMER on FRACKING.

More on Fracking
More Fracking Problems: Surface Blowouts as Gas Wells Likely to Increase
Natural Gas Far Less Green Than Claimed - Fracking Emissions 1000s Times Higher Than Reported
Natural Gas From Fracking Emissions Can Double Those From Coal

Government and Big Business Using Propaganda to BRAINWASH Public on Natural Gas

Thank God for Gasland...it was and is a wake up call, hopefully one that America hears, hopefully one that sees us as private citizens get galvanized behind an issue like we have not done since the protests against the Vietnam War.   Leave no doubt, our lands are under siege, the Natural Gas industry with the help and full backing of our government (local, state and federal) government willing to stoop to any level to frack our lands.  We as citizens are under attack, a full bore Propaganda Campaign targeted at us, telling us how good Natural Gas is for America, how green a fuel it is...BOTH LIES, both claims meant to play on emotions, divide our communities into us and them camp as battle lines are draw, neighbor against neighbor, while the Natural Gas industry does and end around, selling the concept of Natural Gas as a clean green PATRIOTIC fuel to our children, finding insidious means to take their message right to our children in the schools.

I would suggest one do some research, begin looking at the wealth of reports and data out there that show we are being sold out, that the decision to drill for Natural Gas in New York's Marcellus Shale already made, the government merely placating us for now hoping to avoid armed confrontation, troops being used to protect Natural Gas companies like Chesapeake Energy and their access to our lands for the purpose of extracting Natural Gas at all cost...for now, they have time, time to use commercial, pamphlets, and committees filled with Natural Gas Industry insiders that have been charged to write guidelines for drilling...all of these meant to brainwash us into blind acceptance of our fate, brainwash us into believing the lie that Natural Gas is a clean green fossil fuel that is GOOD FOR AMERICA.  

Take a look at this week's announcement from the White House about their new Natural Gas committee...the purpose of the committee is not to study Hydraulic Fracturing, but instead is a committee who's sole purpose is to find ways to EXPEDITE the drilling of our lands, for us to acquiesce to the landman, sign their leases like good Patriotic Americans.  At almost every stump speech now, he hammers on NATURAL GAS and increasing its production as is witnessed by this quote from his appearance in Indiana:

"If we’re serious about meeting our energy challenge we’re going to have to do more than drill.  And that’s why the real solution is clean, homegrown energy.  The real solution is advanced biofuels -- and there’s a lot of good biofuel work being done here in Indiana.  It means that we’ve got to have natural gas vehicles.  We’ve got a lot of natural gas that can be produced here in the United States of America.  It means making our cars and trucks more energy-efficient, because if we use less oil, that reduces demand; that brings the price down; and you will see the impact at the pump.  That’s what’s going to make a difference and that’s why what you’re doing here is so important."

Forget the safety issues, don't worry about (un)Natural Gas companies spoiling the land, and poisoning our drinking water...DRILL BABY DRILL, and President Obama is LEADING THE CHORUS.  With orders from the White House, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a new committee on Natural Gas, and this committee was/is charged with bringing Natural Gas to the market place AT ALL COSTS...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, seeing increased domestic natural gas production as a linchpin in its long-term energy strategy, has named a panel of experts to find ways to make hydraulic fracturing, a fast-growing method of extracting natural gas, safer and cleaner. 

Giving lip service to safer and cleaner, the Obama White House wants Natural Gas, and they wanted it FAST.  As you read up on this new committee, read about its charge, you realize we are being conned...as example, the committee has been given only NINETY DAYS to present a plan to get more natural gas to market in a faster way...in short, DRILL BABY DRILL. As this is going on, those of us living at ground zero here in the Marcellus Shale are being deluged day and night with on-the-air PROPAGANDA as commercial after commercial touts Natural Gas as a Patriotically GREEN energy source...this onslaught times so that our children are FORCED to see, participate in and be brainwashed themselves...imagine an adult, articulate, versed on the issue, opposed to FRACKING having their child come in and say, "Mommy, we should let them drill for Natural Gas on our property, it's a CLEAN ENERGY SOURCE, and America needs the energy."

Before America races headlong into raping our lands in the name of Natural Gas, I have a few questions for the industry, for our politicians, for President Barack Obama.

1.  Is it fair to used Pooling to force property owners to accept drilling using Hydraulic Fracturing under their lands...even when they OWN THEIR MINERAL RIGHTS?

2.  Is it fair to use a drilling method that you know will drive down the property values of those living in these new Gas Drilling Fields?

Will be Imprisoned For Opposing Fracking?

3.  Is it fair to force Hydraulic Fracturing on communities, is it fair to even let the industry use this technology when you know that said technology will negatively impact the drinking water supplies of many of the communities which will be fracked?

4.  In the name of National Energy Security, is it right and moral for the US EPA and other regulatory agencies to let Natural Gas companies use FRACKING CHEMICALS that are known carcinogens that cause cancers, birth defects and other health issues too access this resource?

5.  Just how much collateral damage in despoiled land (including in our state and national parks), in ruined drinking water supplies, in lost lives is acceptable in the name of Natural Gas?  Have we learned NOTHING from the nuclear disaster in Japan?  Have we not learned that you cannot simply assumed the worst case scenario will NEVER HAPPEN?

I ask you America...at what cost Natural Gas?

Protesters Interupt Commission Meeting in Harriburg

Anti Frack Protesters yesterday interrupted the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission's second meeting, speaking TRUTH against a commission stacked in favorite of the (un)Natural Gas industry, most of the seats filled with industry insiders, and chaired by what can only be described as a industry whore and slut in Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley who along with Governor Corbett have an affinity for sucking on the teat of (Un)Natural Gas Industry money changers as the industry lines their pockets with Fracked Gold. 

Fracking Well Pad Daily Occurance?

When one protester (Mr. Stilp)suggested that the Commission be disbanded, a new one with more CITIZEN STAKEHOLDER representation created, Lt. Governor Jim (slick lips) Cawley reportedly SNORTED, "the makeup of the commission is nowhere near as important as the information that is collected." He went on to spew forth some Paul Bunyan sized tall tale about how any one could get him information they wanted the commission to review, and he would see it was put into the right hands...YEAH RIGHT.

Nathan Sooy of Clean Water Action (one of the organizations who spear headed the protest) said Lt. Governor Cawley's assurances were not enough...and they are not.  Any anal retentive chimp tripping on LSD could look at the Commission's make up and see where the ship is being steered.  It is the tail wagging the dog, the (un)Natural Gas industry getting to create/write the guidelines that they will be willing to abide by as they rape the environment, disrupt communities, and poison water.  Voluntary compliance is a farce, and putting together a Marcellus Shale Commission wherein the industry holds the MAJORITY VOTE is worthy of the Justice Department stepping in with a RICO investigation of the Governor, Lt. Governor and various members of the commission now seated.

READ MORE

Fracking...Why I Have Joined The Fight

It's Easter Saturday, I am up drinking coffee as I look out my window at a lush woodland view, can see in my mind the pristine stream and its waterfall that is just down the path about half a mile from my apartment.  I ponder what my old eyes (I am 55) have seen in five plus decades...memories take me back to my own youth when I lived in the small town of Jeffersonville, Indiana which is located just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. 

As a very young child I fell in love with nature, water, the proverbial Great Outdoors.  Imagine a young boy walking along the rivers edge looking for frogs, fishing with a string tied to a stick, the thought of needing a hook never crossing his mind.  Imagine if you will that same young boy looking down and across the river and seeing the Belle of Louisville paddle-wheeler coming into view, steam billowing from her stacks, the American Flag fluttering in the wind, calliope Music giving the moment a very festive feel.

That was me, the life I lived.  Other days found me out by the railroad tracks, putting pennies on the rail for the train to roll over, flattening them into medallions that my Dad would later drill a whole through so I could wear them on a piece of leather cord.  Times were different, the engineers waving too us as the Locomotive slowly chugged past heading for the factory just down the way where they would load up potato-chips that were destined to far off places.  Just across the tracks and through a small strip of trees was a field, the farmers cows content as they grazed upon fresh meadow grass, some lounging under a old willow tree that sat perched next to the stream from which they drank.

One summer we went to Mammoth Cave State Park, but along the way, my father insisted on taking us through COAL COUNTRY, down into some of the crooks and hollers where everything has a black dusty downtrodden feel to it.  He stopped along babbling brooks that just did not seem quite right, a dirty film upon the surface, the leaves on the trees withered and sparse.  He would be angry...not at us, at the damage being done to the earth, and the people...poverty was everywhere.  Another summer we traveled to West Virginia, and there way back some 40 plus years ago, he drove us through tens of thousands of acres of strip mined lands, the landscape taking on a eerie inhuman feel, almost nothing there but destruction.

Later on, a young man I found myself out in Utah where I saw up close and personal the ravages of Uranium Mining, the BOOM TIMES GONE, communities and lands left scarred pocked and UGLY.  I traveled through and lived in Ohio...again, tens of thousands of acres of strip mined land, some of it restored but NOT LOOKING RIGHT, and down outside of Portsmouth Ohio the unseen dirty underbelly of the Nuclear Industry reared its ugly head as I drove around the Gaseous Diffusion Plant with all of its rusting, earth contaminating barrels of Depleted Uranium sitting there behind a even rustier 12 all chain-link fence.  The government found a way to deal with that waste...they reclassified it as potential future use resources when it was learned it could be used to make armor piercing ammunition's.

Living outside of Cambridge Ohio, I uncovered a specialty steel alloy company that processed South African Ores...the naturally occurring radioactivity in these ores would re-concentrate into the slag that was being skimmed off during the process.  That slag was then dumped into a wetlands that drained into our community's drinking water supply, given away as road and construction fill, over 200 of our county's 1200 homes contaminated, in need of remediation...you can read about this by doing a search for Shieldalloy...you will find they did this at a site in Byesville Ohio, as well as another in New Jersey.

Until recently, lived in Peekskill, could look out my window and see the looming danger that was/is Indian Point perched there upon the Hudson River.  Studied that site, am familiar with the 300,000 plus gallon plume that IP 3 floats on top of, a radioactive concoction of the worst kind. I know that the Fuel transfer canal that goes from IP2 into the overly crowded spent fuel pool is leaking, though Entergy will deny it.  I could spend hours discussing Indian Point and why it should be closed down....could also tell you about DOE, NERAC and why it was decided to re-license EVERY REACTOR IN AMERICA in the name of National Security.  I could point to the 30 plus nuclear reactors now leaking tritium, and would suggest to you that the NRC is telling us not to worrying about that for very selfish reasons...Did you know that tritium is needed to recharge our NUCLEAR ARSENAL, and where do you think that tritium comes from?

Now, I find myself living atop of the Marcellus Shale formation, seeing the few Anti-Fracking signs popping up here and there, and I see the clouds darkening.  I know what is coming, and I know the lies.  I watch my TV, and see slick commercials promising the citizens CLEAN AIR, GREEN FUEL, and prosperity for one and all...and I know it is all a lie.  I watched Exxon-Mobil run a PRO-FRACKING commercial on Earth Day yesterday...watched the day before as the entire National Media simply choose to ignore the Chesapeake Energy well blow out that was unfolding on the one year anniversary of BP's accident that did critical harm to the Gulf...never mind the fact it was Chesapeake Energy's SECOND BLOW OUT IN AS MANY MONTHS IN Pennsylvania.

Do I think we can win this fight?  Probably not, we are simply out gunned and out financed at every step of the way, and desperate people want to believe in dreams.  Couple that with a national energy policy that holds communities like our own in little regard, a pentagon convinced that the Natural Gas fracking promises is far more important than any land or waters that might be destroyed, and I can only hope we can preserve small pieces of land, communities here and there as we preserve a patchwork quilt of the beauty that once was...it is not much, it is not what I would wish for, but it is something I feel is worth the fight.  Hopefully more of you will as well, and over time, I pray that all of our small splintered local groups can join into one LARGE NATIONAL Anti FRACKING group, as that is OUR ONLY HOPE.

ASK GOVERNOR CUOMO TO CLOSE THE VERTICAL- WELL LOOPHOLE!

Upon taking office, Governor Cuomo reaffirmed Executive Order 41, which bars horizontal high-volume fracking until the DEC releases a final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement. But, as we recently discovered, the industry has already been using high-volume "slickwater" fracking to develop vertical wells.

Whether injected in horizontal or vertical wells, huge quantities of fracking fluid pose the same serious risk to public health. Ask Governor Cuomo to close the vertical- well loophole by amending Executive Order 41 to bar all high-volume and all slickwater fracturing until the SGEIS is completed.

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS

No, we're not asking you for money! We're talking about Albany. The legislature is now awash in bills that would prohibit, postpone, or regulate fracking.

But are any of them going anywhere? Maybe not. At least not any time soon. We're told that the Assembly and Senate leadership intends to wait for the release of the Revised Draft SGEIS before attempting to regulate high-volume horizontal fracturing. "Give (DEC Commissioner Joe) Martens a chance to present his plan" seems to be the prevailing attitude.

But while the DEC continues to wrestle with the SGEIS, vertical fracking continues unabated. That is why bills that would regulate operations already underway in the state, need to be considered now.

END THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY'S "HAZARDOUS WASTE" EXEMPTION

None of the pending bills is more important than A07013/S4616. It would overturn the law that exempts oil and gas waste from being classified as "hazardous," no matter how toxic and radioactive the material may be.

It's only common sense to classify waste according to the danger it poses, rather than according to the industry that produces it, but we can expect fierce resistance from the gas lobbyists. No doubt they'll complain that it's unfair to expect them to obey same laws that apply to every other industry!

THIRTY THOUSAND CITIZENS, AND ONE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Just days after citizens submitted thirty thousand written comments about the Delaware River Basin Commission's bone-headed plan to frack the watershed that provides fifteen million Americans with their drinking water, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that he would sue the federal government unless it agreed to conduct a full environmental review of the plan. All in all, it appears it will be a long, long time before the frackers have their way in the Delaware Basin.

IT'S OFFICIAL: SHALE GAS IS DIRTIER THAN COAL!

The long awaited report "Methane and the Greenhouse-Gas Footprint of Natural Gas from Shale Formations" has been published in Climatic Changes Letters. And the conclusion should be eye-opening for anyone who ever fell for the line that shale gas is a "clean" fuel.

The [greenhouse-gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years."

 

Draft versions of this report by Cornell professors Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Anthony Ingraffea have been circulating for more than a year now; this final version is the first peer-reviewed study of the subject.

LOOKING TO GET MORE INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FRACKING?

Then join us for our Volunteer's Meeting at the North Branch Inn in North Branch, New York, at 11 AM on Sunday May 1. Bring your ideas, energy, and enthusiasm. Whatever skills you have can be put to good use. Remember, Catskill Citizens is an all-volunteer organization! For more information, contact: info@catskillcitizens.org or call (845) 468 7063.

Remember, public awareness is the key to our success!

Two out of three New Yorkers who learn about fracking say
"No way!" So please spread the word.

Please donate to Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.

Students AGAINST HydroFRACKING...Rally April 20th, 2011...We NEED A CUNY/SUNY System Wide ALERT

THE APRIL 20TH STUDENTS AGAINST HYDROFRACKING RALLY 

Curious...doesn't the CUNY and SUNY College/University systems have a means of issuing a notice on this to ALL THEIR STUDENTS?...if they do, someone should see if that can happen.

Please TWEET, RETWEET this, and if you can, link to it.

Press Advisory

For immediate release—April 18, 2011

Students say to New York: Jump on the BAN Wagon

Coalition Stands Up for Clean Energy Future, Demands Ban on Fracking

   Who: Students Against Fracking, United for Action and other activist groups

  What: Rally against Fracking, entitled “Jump on the BAN Wagon”

 When: Wednesday, April 20^th at 12:30 p.m.

Where: Washington Square Park, NYC

On Wednesday, April 20 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. a coalition of student activists from NYU, the New School, and other universities will rally in Washington Square Park for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the dangerous process by which natural gas is extracted through the pumping of high volumes water, sand and chemicals below ground. Hosted by Oxfam Club at NYU, the Students Against Fracking coalition will be joined by former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection Al Appleton, activist performers Reverend Billy and the Earthaluja Choir, student performers, activists and representatives to press the state legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to replace the existing moratorium on fracking that expires on July 1st with an all-out ban.

“As students, we’re concerned that there won’t be a future for us in New York after we graduate if our water supply is contaminated because of fracking,” student activist Ben Davalos said. Several companies have already applied for permits to drill in the Delaware River Basin, a primary source of drinking water for New York.

Millions of gallons of chemicals, such as benzene, a known carcinogen, have been injected into wells in the U.S. in recent years. Between 2005 and 2009 14 of the leading oil and gas companies engaged in fracking used more than 2,500 products containing 750 chemicals and other components. Twenty-nine of the chemicals used are either known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act or considered hazardous air pollutants. The dangerous cocktail of chemicals used in the process enjoys many exemptions from federal regulations.

Because of the hazards demonstrated by this drilling practice in other areas, Students Against Fracking and its allies are calling for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing until it is proven safe. Communities such as Quebec and Buffalo have already passed bans on fracking, which is why the students are calling this rally “Jump on the BAN Wagon,” a call for New Yorkers to join the global awakening to the dangers of this unsafe extraction method.

THE DETAILS REPEATED!

• Where:  Washington Square Park, NYC

• When: Saturday April 23rd, 12:20 pm - 2:00 pm. 

• Why: We believe the voice of the people need to be heard.  Fracking is dangerous not just for all who live in NY state today, but for the future of our lives and our planet as well.  We want to make the point to politicians that natural gas from fracking is NOT a transition fuel. We want a future that can benefit all living things, not just the gas companies... Stop Fracking and give us a Renewable Energy Future TODAY!

• Please bring costumes, signs, and everything in between.  Every body counts!

RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Natural Gas MAGIC SHOW-A must see CARTOON

A friend of mine sent me the above cartoon on fracking...

It says SO MUCH about the vile industry that is bent on destroying our lands, poisoning our drinking water in the name of profits, while at the same time wrongly playing on peoples hopes, dreams and patriotism to get their signature on a lease.  Lets dispel some of the myths the industry puts out to us.

1.  Natural Gas is clean and green...it is not.  Over a 20 year period, Natural Gas is perhaps dirtier than coal, but more importantly, the methane makes it a larger contributor to GREEN HOUSE GASES that cause Global Warming/Climate Change.

2.  Natural Gas Fracking will not poison your water, there has never been one case of ground water being damaged by fracking...this is not true, or at best a HALF TRUTH.  Fracking STARTS THE CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT WILL POISON YOUR WATER.  If you are hit by a bus, but die from internal bleeding, the Natural Gas folks would have you believe that a BUS CANNOT KILL YOU.

Look for more of these smaller articles in the says and weeks to come...please link to them, or put them on your own ANTI FRACK SITES.

BAN FRACKING-May 2nd March on Albany! Further Details Coming

IS THIS The View You Want From Your Door?

Just found this on FACEBOOK...putting out an early HEADS UP!  There is going to be a MARCH on ALBANY May 2nd to demand an end to FRACKING in the state of New York.  Start clearing your schedules now for this important march.  We need thousands, even TENS OF THOUSANDS marching, not hundreds. The (un)Natural Gas industry is spending TENS OF MILLIONS trying to sell us a Red Herring, trying to sell us on them fracking our pristine rural areas here in NY...it is time we let Albany see our numbers, and our anger.

March on Albany! It's Time to Ban Fracking in New York State

Share · Public Event

Time	Monday, May 2 · 11:00am - 9:00pm
Location	Albany, NY
Created By	Frack Action
More Info	On Monday May 2nd, 2011 come to Albany to march on the capitol and demand a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing in New York State! Let's mobilize our communities, unite a diverse coalition, and bring out the big numbers to show the power behind our demand. We know that nothing short of a ban on hydraulic fracturing for oil or gas will protect our water, our air, our land, our communities, and our health—and we will not accept anything less than a full and permanent ban. New York's future is in our hands! Let's work together to make New York State the first state in the country to WIN in this battle. Full march and rally details TBA

Natural Gas WAter Issues...Learn Their Dirty Tricks...Attend This Workshop

So, you want to wage a concerned citizen/activist battle against the Natural Gas industry, and their environment destroying hydraulic fracking?  Want too take every step you can to keep them out of your community, out of your own back yards, want to keep your children from getting sick, even dying?  First, you have to know your enemy, how they work, how they operate, what tricks professionals are teaching them.  The best way to do that is by attending THEIR WORKSHOPS (webinars, or in person events) that discuss the BIG ISSUES, and no issue is bigger than water...our Clean Drinking Water, and their ability to FOUL IT UP.  

With these thoughts in mind, there is a particular workshop that is a must attend if you can find the money and means to attend at "The Shale Gas Symposim" being held Thursday May 19,2011.

Hotel Information:
Venue: Omni William Penn Hotel
Address: 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15219
Telephone: 412-281-7100 or 1-888-444-OMNI
Website: www.omnihotels.com

B	Workshop 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Registration Opens at 1:00 p.m

Real-World Solutions in Fluid Management: Supply, Storage, Treatment, Recycling, and Disposal

Dan Steward Geologist Republic Energy

Fluid management is one of the key operational challenges of shale gas operations. Fortunately, there are a wide range of solutions to these issues, and successfully implementing them can lower your costs, improve your environmental impact, and build and maintain social license with your community. This workshop demonstrates the real-world working solutions discovered in plays throughout North America. Issues to be explored will include:

• Water management’s history
• Water issues of key importance to the northeastern United States
• Water elements specific to shale gas hydraulic fracturing
• Options for water sources
• Solutions to storage and logistics challenges
• Best practices for fluids treatment
• Innovations in reusing and recycling fluids
• Disposal: Weighing the pros and cons of the permitted options
• The regulatory environment for fluid issues

Other IMPORTANT TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

• STAKEHOLDER CONCERNS about shale gas development
• FLUID MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES facing your project
• SHALE GAS POLICIES at the local, state, and federal levels
• GAS MARKETS & INFRASTRUCTURE shaping the future of the shale gas revolution
• BEST PRACTICES & OPERATING STRATEGIES to build your operation the right way, maximizing your productivity and minimizing your footprint

A few of our people attending this event, listening, gathering up handouts, attending the workshops and reporting back to the rest of us COULD GIVE US WHAT WE NEED TO LAUNCH A NATIONAL ANTI FRACK MOVEMENT.

Now the CATCH...how do they keep US OUT?  PRICE....make it so expensive AVERAGE CITIZENS CANNOT AFFORD TO ATTEND.

Register & Pay by Apr. 19, 2011

$1995  Program ON SITE...does not include your lodging and travel.

$2490  Program plus one workshop...A or B...

$2985  Program and 2 workshops

Live Webcast:  PROGRAM ONLY...no workshops, no handouts!

$1595

Any one with deep pockets up to sponsoring some Anti Frack Attendees?
 

THE SPONSORS

Hatch and Hatch Mott MacDonald are award winning full service consulting engineering firms offering public and private clients multi-disciplinary expertise and comprehensive capabilities in planning, project development, studies and analysis, design, procurement, construction engineering and inspection; project, program and construction management, and facility maintenance and operations. Shale gas-specific services include engineering design, permitting, gas compression & transmission, water supply, flowback and produced water management, program management, and total water solutions. www.hatchmott.com

Enhance your meetings and add to your bottom line by offering audience response solutions from Turning Technologies Canada, the global leader in audience response technology. The first choice of presenters everywhere, our simple, intuitive, polling products add engagement, encourage interaction, collect valuable data and provide instant feedback in meetings and events using RF or web-based devices. Invest in workplace training and employee development with the press of a button. Visit us at www.turningtechnologies.ca 

The Pennsylvania Economic Development Association (PEDA) is the statewide association of local, state, corporate and non-profit economic development professionals.

PEDA’s mission is to promote sound economic development policies, provide leading edge economic development education, and nurture an effective statewide economic development network to foster the economic health of the Commonwealth. www.peda.org

UPSTREAM, the international oil & gas newspaper, is a weekly publication read by over 40,000 industry executives in over 100 countries worldwide. The newspaper is complemented by the website www.upstreamonline.com, providing 24-hour news five days a week and includes a searchable archive of all published stories as well as containing key industry statistics.

The Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (MCOR) of the Pennsylvania State University is committed to research that investigates the best available technologies for unconventional gas development. MCOR also provides science-based programming on natural gas development to all stakeholders to promote protection of water and other natural resources. www.marcellus.psu.edu.