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P rotecting Communities and Special Places
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e-Newsletter March 6, 2014
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"It is as if the route of the gas line was deliberately aimed at the remaining forested areas of the township."
~ Public comment to DEP on proposed
PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering pipeline from Inflection
Energy's Shaheen Well Site to the "Quaker" Compressor Station
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IN THIS ISSUE
Act 13 on March 13
Shalefield Justice
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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March 13
Doors Open 6 p.m.
Forum and Webcast start at 6:30 p.m.
Wine and cheese reception follows
Delaware Riverkeepers Network will host a live event and webcast at the WHYY Studio, 150 North 6th Street, in Philadelphia that will bring together the lead litigators and litigants of the Act 13 case.
Get the inside story on the landmark case that overturned the pro-drilling Act 13 and affirmed our right to a healthy environment. Both live and online participants will be able to submit questions.
Details and registration will soon be available at
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TAKE ACTION!
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URGENT ACTION NEEDED
HB 1576
Tell your representative:
stand up to the gas industry -- stand up for us and for wildlife!
Download details here
Find your representative and contact info here.
See the bill and its history here.
Help our Commonwealth
KEEP IT WILD!
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Join RDA!
We welcome your active participation and are in
need of help for special events, publicity, research, and other projects. Contact us
for details.
Membership levels: Adventurer..............$10 Explorer.................$20 Woodlander............$50 Guardian..............$100 Naturalist.............$500 Preservationist...$1,000
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, RDA relies on donations for the important work we do. In order for RDA to continue its valuable education and advocacy outreach in 2014, please consider a tax-free contribution to our efforts.
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Is The Gas Industry "Safe"?
by Ted Stroter, RDA Chemical advisor and
member, RDA Board of Directors
--DeSmogBlog, named in TIME Magazine's 25 best blogs 2011, quoting from a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report.
"Each day, America's oil and natural gas companies safely supply much of the energy that heats and cools Americans' homes, and fuels our transportation needs."
--American Petroleum Institute website, "energy tomorrow"
I recently read the above conflicting statements on the safety of natural gas. Given the February 2014 Chevron well fire and explosion that caused the death of one of their workers and the NIOSH report indicating a significant number of test results at fracking sites showed that workers are exposed to silica dust, a known carcinogen, at levels above those established to be safe, I decided to do some research on this "safety" issue.
The article the first quote (above) links to was quite informative. Then I came across some natural gas energy company references that use the phrase, "relatively safe," like this one from Dominion: "It is clean, efficient, and relatively safe." The qualifier "relatively" is a bit ambiguous, but undoubtedly a more accurate term to use and I'm sure the many "relatives" of the gas industry workers killed or injured would not agree with the term "safe."
So if the gas industry is only "relatively" safe for its workers, maybe they mean it's safe for the people living near their operations? The industry adamantly denies any connection to air or water pollution that numerous reports or studies or tests show they may have created; but, of course, they do use the same public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, that the tobacco industry used to come up with this much advertised phrase: " '. . . there is no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes [of cancer].' "
Despite the industry's denials, numerous environmental organizations have been documenting the problems found with individuals living near the active shale plays in the U.S. There have also been a number of well researched reports showing the large overall impact of fracking operations on health and the environment, as well as many other effects on local communities.
As someone who spent most of his career in the safety and health field, I understand the inherent limitations in any single study or report on an issue and the difficulty in relating symptoms of exposure to a potential source; however, the connecting thread in all the references I have reviewed has been that the people experiencing the health issues have one thing in common: they all live near natural gas operations and in many cases did not experience the symptoms until the gas activities started. So despite the attempt by the industry's website Energy In Depth to try to discredit these references and/or their authors, the amount of evidence indicating the gas industry is not so "safe" as they claim continues to mount.
To me, one of the most brazen affronts to protecting the safety of our citizens from the gas industry was the enactment of PA's Act 13. This act was called "the Nation's Worst Corporate Giveaway" by the news magazine AlterNet, whose two articles on this subject provide a great overview. Fortunately, some of the most egregious parts of this legislation were overturned by the PA Supreme Court, like the section stripping local zoning authority to limit where drilling wells, compressor stations and other gas industry activities could occur. We can now go back to better protecting our residences, our farms, our hospitals, our schools, etc. from being inundated with heavy traffic and noisy, air-polluting industrial activity.
I think we should ask two things of every legislator who voted for
Act 13:
- Was it the money you received from the gas industry that caused you to vote for this atrocity or do you just consider yourself smarter than the PA Supreme Court, which ruled parts of it unconstitutional?
- Buy an expensive house across the street from a well pad and enroll your children in a school with a nearby well-pad or compressor station.
Do we all feel "safe" now?
Inflection Energy "Ultimate Warrior" site entrance, PA Route 87 Fairfield Township, Lycoming County |
Taking Aim at Fairfield Township's Forests
 PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering, LLC Compressor Station in Fairfield Township
Pipelines intended to link Inflection Energy's proposed Shaheen Well Site in Fairfield Township with the PVR Marcellus Compressor station off Route 87 and Quaker State Road will have significant impact on Fairfield Township's remaining forested lands and riparian areas (along stream banks). Public comments to DEP by Dr. Harvey M. Katz also go to the heart of a bigger issue: the process DEP uses to measure projected gas industry impacts.
A Fairfield Township resident, Katz is a scientist who has spent much of career working on U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service environmental projects. The first point he makes about STV Energy Services' plans for the gas gathering and water pipelines is that the length stated is wrong. Careful measurement shows the proposed pipelines will be 3.21 miles long, not 2.31 miles long, as stated in the engineering plans prepared for PVR Marcellus Gathering, LLC.
"It is unclear how STV Energy Services arrived at the smaller length of proposed gas gathering line," Katz says, diplomatically, without further speculation.
Whether it was a typo or deliberately intended to misrepresent the pipelines as nearly a mile shorter than they actually will be, that's just the start of the concerns the plans raise.
Although only 27.6% of Fairfield Township's 11.7 square miles remains forest-covered, more than 42% of the projected route cuts through those forests. The proposed pipelines will impact 8 PEM wetlands.
The pipelines would also cause trees to be cut down along part of a tributary to Bennetts Run. "Currently," Katz says, "Bennetts Run is classified by DEP as a sediment impacted high quality waterway. . . . deforestation along this waterway will exacerbate erosion and sedimentation issues."
While significant tax dollars are being spent in the Susquehanna River watershed to mitigate erosion and sedimentation problems affecting the Chesapeake Bay, including reforestation of stream banks, this project would run counter to those efforts.
The compressor station, itself, caused at least six acres of forest to be clear cut. Katz notes that 14 acres to be cut for these proposed pipelines will be, for practical purposes, "permanently removed from the ecosystem."
As other well sites permitted and yet to be submitted by Inflection are developed, more gathering lines and water pipelines will be requested. One permitted site alone projects another 25 acres of forest will be cut. Like this one, each project presents the real danger of increasing flooding through runoff and sedimentation issues and stream bank erosion. Yet DEP attempts to measure "project-only" impact, rather than the projected cumulative impact of multiple gathering lines, water pipelines, well pads, access roads, and other deforestation on issues such as erosion and sedimentation - as well as on the other "ecological services" forested lands provide the public.
DEP's current project-only procedure "allows a serious underestimation of the true loss of ecological services," Dr. Katz states. In ignoring the value of those services and underestimating the impact of these losses, DEP is "giving the impression that they are meeting their mission to protect the environment, when in reality DEP is creating only the illusion of protecting the environment."
Download and read Dr. Katz' Public Comment in its entirety here.
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RAISE THE REGION and support RDA!
6 p.m. March 12 through
11:59 p.m. March 13
Matching funds will stretch your gift!
First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania announces Raise the Region 2014, an event to help the community support local nonprofit organizations' fund raising efforts. FCFP, in partnership with Blaise Alexander Family Dealerships, will launch a 30-hour fundraising event on March 12 & 13, 2014.
Blaise Alexander Family Dealerships has donated $125,000 that will be used to stretch every donation made to preregistered nonprofits. Additional monetary prizes and incentives will be awarded throughout the event.
How it works:
Beginning at 6 p.m. on March 12 visit. . .
www.raisetheregion.org
. . . from a computer, smart phone, iPad, tablet, etc.
Identify the nonprofits participating in the event and see how our work helps our community.
Donate online to support RDA (and any other nonprofits you choose)
on the Raise the Region web site. See running totals throughout the day.
At the end of the period stretching funds will be applied to each gift as a prorated match and FCFP will send checks to all participating nonprofits with the amount raised, the prorated stretch, and any extra money from prizes awarded throughout the day.
Only credit card donations through ww.raisetheregion.org
will be matched. No donations via cash, check or stock will be accepted for the matching program. The minimum gift per nonprofit is $25 and the maximum that will be stretched is $10,000.
Each gift is 100% tax deductible.
Mark your calendar for this fun way to help RDA and stretch your donation!
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RDA Newsletter
 Ted Stroter, RDA Board of Directors editor Ralph Kisberg, contributing editor
Robbie Cross, President - RDA Board of Directors
Jenni Slotterback, Secretary - RDA Board of Directors
Barb Jarmoska, Treasurer - RDA Board of Directors
Mark Szybist - RDA Board of Directors
Roscoe McCloskey - RDA Board of Directors Jim Slotterback - RDA Board of Directors
This weekly e-letter is written and designed by the RDA consultants and Board of Directors and sent to RDA members/subscribers. Every effort is made to assure complete accuracy in each issue. This publication and the information contained herein is copyrighted by RDA and may not be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved. Readers are invited to forward this newsletter in its entirety to broaden the scope of its outreach. There is a forward link below. Readers are also invited to submit articles to be considered for publication in a future issue.
Please note: The RDA newsletter includes reporting on a variety of events and activities, which do not necessarily reflect the philosophy of the organization. RDA practices only non-violent action in voicing the organization's beliefs and concerns.
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Contact RDA with questions and comments using either the address below, by email at responsibledrillingalliance@gmail.com or by phone at 888.332.1244 (toll free).
Donations can be sent by mail to: Responsible Drilling Alliance, P.O. Box 502, Williamsport, PA 17703
Thank you for your support!
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