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 E-News July 2010
A monthly Update from the Water Resources Education Network
a project of the League of Women Voters of PA - Citizen Education Fund ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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July WREN Feature is Posted
Community Pharmacies launch medicine take-back program
Visit www.disposemymeds.org to find a community pharmacy near you that will take back unused medicines.
Hosted by the National Association of Community Pharmacies, www.disposemymeds.org
is an online resource to help you to find medication disposal programs
at a local independent community pharmacy. Enter your zip code in the
Pharmacy Locater to find your nearest participating pharmacy.
 Some states sponsor medicine return programs as well. To see what some are doing, check out http://www.medicinereturn.com (Washington State) and http://www.safemeddisposal.com/ (Maine).
Another site of interest is http://www.smarxtdisposal.net/index.html. This site gives instructions for proper disposal of medicines when a
take-back program is not available. It also has downloadable brochures
and other handouts on disposal options and why flushing is bad.
Thinking about a sponsoring a medicine collection day in your community? Learn from the experiences of one WREN project, McKean County's pharmaceutical collection day.
Lawrence County will be sponsoring a collection program this year - with partial finding from WREN. |
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Big Money Drives Up the Betting on the Marcellus Shale
An in-depth report from the New York Times
 The oil and gas industry is spending billions of dollars in preparation for
decades of drilling in the Marcellus Shale, the 95,000-square-mile sheet of
natural gas-rich sediment sprawling across Pennsylvania, southern New York, West
Virginia and eastern Ohio, Geologists have long known about gas deposits
trapped in the 390-million-year-old formation. But only since 2008, and at a
rapidly escalating pace, has the oil and gas industry brought to bear the
technological and financial resources to crack it. The industry expects to drill
some 30,000 Marcellus wells by 2020.For many companies, the bet is that
relatively low-cost gas production means a steady revenue stream, as electricity
generators in the eastern half of the United States switch from coal to gas to
comply with clean air standards and slash carbon dioxide emissions tied to
global warming. More than a dozen companies have amassed leasehold positions in
excess of 100,000 acres in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, a tough public debate is brewing in Pennsylvania,
New York and across northern Appalachia about how the environmental impacts of
gas drilling balance against the economic benefits of gas and the role it could
play in helping electric utilities transition to cleaner fuels. ClimateWire/The New York Times(7/9). |
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FracTracker website - Marcellus Shale Data Tracking
 FracTracker, a project of the PA Foundation for Watersheds and Rivers, with funding from the Heinz Endowments, provides citizens with a common place to share their experiences regarding natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale play. The website will include a blog, and a data tool, data.fractracker.org to track the impacts of Marcellus Shale Natural Gas drilling in PA, NY and WV. The site is managed by Center for Healthy Environments & Communities (CHEC) at University of Pittsburgh as part of its on-going research on the impacts of Marcellus Shale gas extraction. CHEC will sponsor training sessions over the summer on how to use the tool. Planned dates are: July 22 in Pittsburgh and July 29 in Danville.
If you have an experience with drilling that you would like to share with CHEC, please contact 412-624-9379 or chec@pitt.edu.
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Penn State Cooperative Extension launches Discovery Watersheds website
 No matter where you live in Pennsylvania, you live in a watershed. Each stream, pond, lake, and groundwater aquifer
has a watershed that captures and delivers water to it. Protecting the
land area that makes up each watershed is critical to maintain water
quality and quantity for both human use and aquatic life.
This new site contains resource material and links to other sites for watershed education. The site will showcase of some of the tools and approaches developed for nutrient and sediment reduction within Pennsylvania's watersheds. Visit http://extension.psu.edu/water/discovery-watersheds |
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Penn State Cooperative Extension Webinar Series
July 30 "Chesapeake Bay Model for PA" 1:30 PM
Sponsored by the Penn State Agriculture and Environment Partnership
https://breeze.psu.edu/agenvpartnership
August 19 "Local Natural
Gas Task Force Initiatives"
Mark Smith,
Bradford County; Pam Tokar-Ickles, Somerset County; & Paul Heimel, Potter
County. 1-2
PM
September 16 "Natural Gas
Experiences of Marcellus Residents: Preliminary Results from the Community
Satisfaction Survey"
Kathy Brasier,
Penn State University. 1-2
PM
Registration is Free. REGISTER HERE for Marcellus Shale webinars.
Once you have registered to attend a seminar, you will be directed to a website providing details on how to connect and participate in future seminars.
Previous
webinars, which covered topics such as water use and quality,
gas-leasing considerations for landowners and implications for local
communities, can be viewed online. |
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