Responsible Drilling Alliance
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Responsible Drilling Alliance Newsletter
Late Entrants in House Races and Something's Fishy  
April 19 ,2012 
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Dear RDA Members and Friends,

 

Late Entrants...

 

Just in time for Earth Day! RDA congratulates Kristen Hayes-Yearick for declaring her candidacy for the PA 84th District House seat currently held by Garth Everett (R). Kristen is a write-in candidate in next week's Democratic Party primary. In order to provide voters with a choice in November, we strongly encourage those of you in the district who are registered Democrats to take advantage of this write-in opportunity.

 

In any write-in campaign, spelling and full names matter. Consider writing Kristen Hayes-Yearick on a note card and taking it into the voting booth with you to copy this coming Tuesday.

 

If you are in Bradford and Sullivan Counties, John Trallo of Sonestown is asking for write-in votes in the 110th District House race in order to prevent incumbent Tina Pickett from running unopposed this fall. In the 117th, Mark Barrett of Dallas, is taking a shot at gathering the 300 write-in primary votes needed to get on the ballot and at least attempt to enter into a spirited debate over the major statewide issue of the day, the course of gas development in Pennsylvania.

 

Something's Fishy...

 

John Arway's letter to DEP Secretary Krancer has made headlines this past week, and we assume many of you have seen it.

 

As reported by Rick Dandes in The Daily Item:

 

The executive director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said Tuesday that the state Department of Environmental Protection needs to designate the Susquehanna River as "impaired" and establish total maximum daily limits for pollution from runoff to correct the water quality issues.

Expressing frustration, John Arway said, "we need to move beyond research and begin some action before the entire fishery of the Susquehanna River collapses."

In a letter to DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, Arway said he was "very concerned about the diseases plaguing smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River and its tributaries." The Susquehanna, Arway said, was once considered to be one of the best smallmouth bass fisheries on the East Coast.

"Reports of sick fish," he explained, "means we have a sick river."...

Arway bridled at suggestions that the Fish and Boat Commission has not been doing all it can to "identify the causative agents responsible for the decline of this important fishery."

Arway also noted that of particular concern are recent sightings of melanosis or black spots in smallmouth bass throughout the Susquehanna River basin. "That's one of the reasons we've been calling for the river to be designated impaired. We don't know why these disease conditions are occurring in the river."

Secretary Krancer denied Arway's request, claiming, "Since we do not know what the stressor to the fish is at this point, there is nothing to appropriately or with factual support impair the river for."

He further told Arway that it was not the responsibility of the DEP, but rather of Arway's FBC to investigate the matter further.

 

So, why are more fish getting sick? Possibly a multitude of factors have combined to cause immune system overload in the animals, but who knows? And in the case of the DEP head, who cares? Secretary Krancer's response is typical of the lack of both inquisitiveness and concern for those who inhabit the environment the extremist free market ideologue is supposed to be protecting. Our Earth day wish is that he grow a conscience. Or at least take a vacation and search for the Wizard of Oz.

 

Coincidentally, a story published by AP last week found that 78 million gallons of conventional ( non shale ) oil and gas wastewater were taken to treatment plants that discharge into rivers in the last half of 2011 - about 33 percent less than the Marcellus quantity that was raising concerns in 2010 ( and, in fairness, has almost completely, but not totally, been stopped in response to Krancer's, please-mighty-shale-gas-job-creators-we-timid-PA-regulators-humbly-request-you-kindly-consider-stopping-using-our-rivers-as-a-toxic-waste-dump approach ) - but still a substantial amount. If that rate continues, conventional well operators will send about 150 million gallons of the wastewater to discharging treatment plants this year.

 

Read more at: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2012/04/16/expert-says-all-pa-oil-gas-waste-needs-treatment/

 

 

 

 

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Responsible Drilling Alliance Board of Directors
Ralph Kisberg
Robbie Cross
Janie Richardson
Mark Szybist
Barbara Jarmoska
Jennifer Slotterback

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