Another World Water Day, another case of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania
Posted March 22, 2010 in Health and the Environment
I can't really add anything to the tragic words in today's Altoona Mirror. The Smith family in Clearville, Pennsylvania has lost cows, a horse and a dog that exhibited unexplainable neurological symptoms before they died. The Smiths suffer from dental problems and headaches. Their drinking water has high levels of arsenic that they believe are related to nearby drilling.
The state's Department of Environmental Protection says that it has gotten "a number of complaints in the past year, year and a half regarding possible contamination of private drinking water wells from natural gas well drilling," in the Clearville area. The Smiths live near wells that have stopped producing natural gas and are now being used to store natural gas underground. They are suing Spectra Energy.
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Comments
Iris Marie Bloom — Mar 24 2010 12:35 AM
Thank you for making the connection between World Water Day and the terrible consequences of shale gas drilling, transportation and storage in Pennsylvania. What's happened in Clearville is terribly painful and it's very important that the word is getting out. It's not just Dimock, PA and Dunkard Creek; it's not just the Monongahela River and Stephens Creek; it's Hickory, PA and Clearville, PA and more. The regulatory system is broken and we need a moratorium immediately.
Perhaps environmentalists need to look at the big picture, too, and understand: the U.S. pays 51% of its budget for war, including VA health care, debt on past military expenditure, and the present. The U.S. military is the world's biggest polluter and the number one consumer of oil. This shale gas drilling is being done in the name of "energy independence" but if we really want energy independence then destroying our clean water, our air and climate, and our health for the sake of natural gas makes no sense at all. We need conservation, efficiency, geothermal, solar, wind, biofuels... and peace.
It's a radical idea, but we need to live within our means and put the sanctity of creation at the center.
Meantime, we need a moratorium on shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania!
MikeB — Mar 25 2010 09:01 AM
As a property owner in Clearville, PA, I can confirm that Houston-based Spectra Energy's current track record in Pennsylvania includes Notices of Violation of "unlawful conduct" from the Department of Environmental Protection; and an emergency shutdown of its nearly 5,000 horsepower compressor station in Bedford county, PA, that resulted in an uncontrolled release of gas and an oily contaminant on nearby gardens, farms and homes.
The company used the threat of eminent domain (under the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to seize property rights for a 12-billion cubic feet underground natural gas storage reservoir. It currently has 13 injection/withdrawal wells; and permission from FERC to frack and use frack fluids to stimulate the storage reservoir.
The problem is wider than energy companies and regulators. Groups like The Nature Conservancy (TNC) cash checks from gas companies (like Spectra Energy) and issue press releases suggesting these companies are friends of the environment.
I confirmed with TNC that it has no vetting process for assessing financial donations from energy companies as long as it can use the money for its purpose.
Coincidentally, as many know, Deryck Spooner -- the grassroots organizer for TNC -- just moved to the American Petroleum Institute as senior director for external mobilization.
Property owners and the grass/net roots can fight back. Our two-year battle against Spectra Energy led to the development of a website which has begun to attract whistle blowers inside the energy industry. We are collaborating and helping property owners in many states. For info, visit the site:
http://www.spectraenergywatch.com/blog/
The fight is never over.
Amy Mall — Mar 26 2010 08:18 PM
Dear Iris: Thank you for reading and commenting. We agree that our top energy priorities must be efficiency and renewables. Many people don't know that NRDC has been working on energy efficiency for 30 years, including everything from working with utilities to fighting for new standards for buildings and appliances. We are really proud that, as a result, the average U.S. household uses a third less natural gas today than it did in 1980, and many gas-fired appliances are more than twice as efficient as their predecessors. We will continue to work to get more energy out of less natural gas. Many of my NRDC colleagues are international leaders on this topic and also blog here. We are, of course, also dedicating significant resources to advancing renewable energy to the maximum extent possible.
Amy Mall — Mar 26 2010 08:39 PM
Dear Mike: Thank you for writing. Did Spectra Energy pursue eminent domain for both surface and subsurface rights?
MikeB — Mar 28 2010 07:55 AM
Amy: Yes, Spectra Energy seized surface and subsurface rights (depending on the section) from more than 50 property owners. The company's track record includes a catastrophic failure at its Moss Bluff underground gas storage reservoir outside of Houston: 2 explosions, 6 days of fire with flames as high as 1,000 feet and two evacuations.
Spectra Energy is tied at number 7 on the EPA's list of the top civil penalties over 25 years. This is for massive PCB contamination along its 9,000 mile pipeline.
It acknowledged in its 2009 10-K document filed with the SEC that some of its pipeline systems are still contaminated with toxic PCBs.
In other words, its performance record reads like a rap sheet; and this is the company that The Nature Conservancy takes money from and tells the world that it "is honored to have Spectra Energy as a partner."
For specific references and supporting documents, see this post: http://www.spectraenergywatch.com/blog/?p=537
Nastassja Noell — Mar 30 2010 10:36 PM
Iris brings up a good point - the destruction of renewable clean water supplies by gas/oil production are symptoms of a much deeper issues plaguing our nation.
As a result of the supposedly environmental protection policies, industries are allowed to spray hazardous waste into the air (even near schools) as long as they report it to the EPA under the Toxic Release Inventory requirements.
Our military isn't protecting the homeland, they are poisoning our water and soil -- check out Seth Shulman's book "The threat at home: confronting the toxic threats of the U.S. military".
Now that the national media is paying attention to the catastrophes caused by gas drilling, the EPA is attempting to right some of its neglectful ways, but its much too late, there are so many more victims now than 10 years ago when serious problems started arising -- the EPA should have been paying attention to the folks in Wyoming and Colorado (like Laura Amos) when they started screaming for help years ago. The EPA should have followed the court rulings in LEAF v EPA. The EPA should have listened to their longtime employee Weston Wilson who had to seek protection under the federal Whistleblower Act in order to criticize the EPA's seriously conflicted policy decision board which erroneously concluded that hydrofracturing does not effect water supplies (check out his statement with the Union of Concerned Scientists). The EPA's history is riddled with pro-industry anti-environmental health policies: the EPA created the exemptions from federal hazardous waste regulations (RCRA) that the oil/gas industry currently exploits. Due to these exemptions from federal hazardous waste handling laws, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) allows the radioactive heavy metal laced gas drilling tailings to be buried on site, in people's backyards and on our statelands, instead of at a hazardous waste handling facility. Amy, contact me if you'd like a copy of a Spectra Energy application to bury these hazardous waste tailings on-site with a DEP agent's signature and stamp of approval.
These common symptoms of systemic malfunction must be addressed if any lasting effective policies can be created and actually passed through the legislature without being watered down. Otherwise we'll continue to have catastrophes like the ones being experienced throughout gas drilling regions, repeated over and over again as they have been for the past 150 years since the Industrial Revolution began.
Short of complete systemic overhaul, I feel we need the precautionary principle to lead policy decisions. We especially need some sort of national referendum so that we can all vote on legislation (we already have the technology to achieve that), and the legislative bills should be specific and short so that the number of loopholes can be limited down to zero.