 Marching Toward a Sustainable Future
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September 26, 2014
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 | | all climate march photos were taken by Barb Jarmoska |
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RDA Members were proud to take part in "The Peoples' Climate March" over this past weekend in New York City. In this issue, we highlight the meaning and motivations behind the march, as well as the amazing solidarity that was experienced throughout the event. We then revisit the peoples' zoning victory in Fairfield Township & what that means for our residential freedoms. There is also a very important meeting regarding future industrial development of the Loyalsock Valley coming up this Tuesday. Public input and testimony will be heard, and a decision could be made by the close of the meeting. Please see the notice immediately following the Fairfield Twp article below. The last article below informs us of the record fines Range Resources has agreed to pay due to some pretty extreme pollution via their water handling operations, including some "centralized impoundments."
So what exactly are these "centralized impoundments," some of which are referred to as "freshwater impoundments?" I can recall Jeremiah Gee from Tioga County, PA, informing us that "freshwater impoundments," are not quite what one would think. In one of the Gasland films, Jeremiah claims he asked a gas worker about the "fresh" water being stored uphill from his home & was told the water is by no means "fresh" in the terms of what we think of when we hear the words "fresh water." He went on to say it merely means "fresh to the site," and that it has most likely already been used to frack a well. They store it there until they use it again. Beware of these mysterious impoundments. Often full of toxic chemicals, they are a danger to wildlife (esp migrating birds) our communities via flooding, leaking, etc. Pages 22 and 23 of the Earthworks report "Blackout in the gas patch" have some great impoundment photos along with some very interesting information. It does seem that DEP is beginning to crack down on these issues & hopefully stricter water-handling regulations will have to be met in the near future.
Don't forget to check out "In Other News" for links to other important news and information, and view some "Action Points" to take part in.
Thank you for caring, and staying informed.
Sincerely,
Brooke Woodside
Managing Editor
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by Barb Jarmoska, RDA Board of Directors
This past Sunday, the largest climate march in history was held in New York City. Joining the throngs, numbered at nearly 400,000, along the streets of Manhattan were millions of world citizens, marching at 2808 similar events in 166 countries.
In size, beauty, scope, and impact - September 21st was an historic day. The theme of the march was, "To change everything, we need everyone." The link between the catastrophic challenges we face as a global community was evident in the signs carried by marchers. Gone was the reductionistic thinking that has plagued mankind, and created the myriad of crises we now face. Fossil fuels, hydraulic fracturing, nuclear energy, pipelines, war, poverty, peace, GMOs, and more - every progressive cause can and does find a home in the climate change movement, and each was championed at Sunday's march.
 | | a dinosaur with a spine made of motor oil bottles |
The sights, sounds, and aromas along the parade route provided a joyful and unmatched sensory experience. The pulsing energy of the event and its participants was unified before the march began in an action described by my traveling companion and friend, Ruth Steck, an organic farmer, teacher, and writer from Pennsdale. Ruth writes:
As we were standing, waiting for the march to begin, one of the organizers stationed along the route called out to those of us in front of him, that at 1 o'clock there would be a moment of silence, after which we would sound the alarm. Using the technique of the 'human microphone,' so brilliantly developed during the Occupy movement, whereby large crowds can 'hear' in the absence of a PA system, the group within his hearing shouted out the words to the people behind us, and so on down the line. I didn't have a watch, but it didn't matter: at the appointed time, a wave of silence originating a mile ahead came rolling down Central Park West. There was no need to shush anyone. It wasn't so much that we decided to be silent as that we were, simply, silenced. The wave arrived and we were in it, felt it passing through to those behind us, taking them up as it had taken us. And for one astonishing moment all of us--the marchers, the watchers, the birds, the trees, the rocks of Central Park--all were still, listening together to the collective pulse of the larger body we were at that moment comprising. And then! Down the avenue there came rolling and swelling a great wave of sound that trembled the leaves as it came. It was not that we decided to erupt when it arrived--the wave arrived and we erupted: Trombones and banshee wails, raptor cries and wolf howls, yips and roars, tambourines and tubas. It was like we were instruments being played by some big wind. Yeah. Like that.
 | | the moment of silence before the march |
Will the People's Climate March provide a tipping point in our mad dash to climate disruption and the suffering, tragedy, price tag, and deaths it promises?
Will those with money and the power it provides join with the Rockefeller heirs who, in a move coinciding with the climate summit, announced that they will divest their $860 million charity from fossil fuels? The Rockefellers have now joined a coalition of more than 100 institutions and wealthy individuals who have purged their investment portfolios of assets tied to fossil fuel companies in order to invest in cleaner alternatives. What will Wall Street do?
Will our political leaders have the courage to stare truth in the face and step away from their enslavement to the fossil fuel industry? Will they act in time to halt the rapid and rampant infrastructure, now being built near our homes and schools, for the extraction, transport, processing, and storage of natural gas? Will they acknowledge the IPCC's statement that methane is a greenhouse gas whose climate impact is 86 times greater than CO2 over a 20-year time frame? Or will they continue to use our tax dollars to subsidize and create demand for this third and final fossil fuel whose profiteers have filled their reelection coffers?
Perhaps the greatest question is - what will we do? As local residents and global citizens, will we use our voices and our votes to be a part of the change we so desperately need? Will we invest our resources and time to help create a more safe, just, and peaceful world for our children and grandchildren?
RDA members joined with our brothers and sisters from around the world to march this past Sunday. We are back home now, inspired, invigorated and ready to carry on with our message and our actions here in Lycoming County and our home state of PA.
We are stepping up our legal efforts and supporting a lawsuit against the Loyalsock Township supervisors. We are also ramping up our "Keep It Wild" campaign with renewed determination to save the exquisitely pristine 26,000 acres of land commonly known as Rock Run.
Will you stand with us? To change everything, we need everyone.
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| What Does the Peoples' Victory Against the Gas Industry in Fairfield Township Mean? |
by Ted Stroter, RDA Chemical Advisor
The recent case against Inflection Energy won by two families living in Fairfield Township was an enormous victory for all people not wanting the obvious industrial activities of the gas industry in their residential neighborhoods. Click here to read more on this decision.
Now what did the people of Pennsylvania gain from this victory? Some control over the gas industry. Under our current state administration, there does not appear to be anywhere near the necessary oversight. This has been shown by PA Auditor General Depasquale's audit concluding that the PA DEP is understaffed as rapid shale gas development outpaced the department's ability to oversee the industry. It was also found that the PA Health Department personnel were instructed not to respond to residents calling with health complaints from gas drilling operations. Click here to read more about this Health Department issue.
The Fairfield Township case mentioned above gave two very important powers back to people living in residential areas where gas extraction is desired by the industry. First, it allows the residents to maintain their quality of life while living in these areas. The importance of this cannot be overstated as I have found it to be the issue most negatively effecting people in Lycoming County when discussing the gas industry. Secondly, the victory helps keep gas activities out of populated areas where the residents do not want it, which then decreases the chances of both negative air pollution effects, as well as, potential water well contamination.
There are numerous variables and unknowns in doing hazard assessments to determine residents' potential exposure to industrial airborne contaminants or in trying to determine if there has been water well contamination. However, one constant is the distance of the source of contaminants from the residents. Peer-reviewed studies have shown that the closer people live to active gas development, the more likely they are to be exposed to air pollutants, and their risk of aquifer contamination is also greater. Click here to read more on this issue from Physicians, Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy.
Although the number of gas wells drilled is very large while the number of confirmed contaminated wells and negative health impacts from the industry's emissions are small, do we really want to increase our chances of these negative impacts, and also diminish our quality of life?
Keeping gas activities out of populated areas certainly seems like a good idea to me!
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| PUBLIC NOTICE - Important meeting regarding future industrial development of the Loyalsock Valley |
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IMPORTANT MEETING THIS TUESDAY!!
On Tuesday, September 30th at 7 PM, the Upper Fairfield Township Board of Supervisors will hold a public meeting at the Community Baptist Church on Rt 87 north of Montoursville. RDA members are urged to attend, as public comments and testimony will be heard on additional proposed industrial development in the Loyalsock Valley, Route 87 corridor. Official action on the proposal may be forthcoming before the close of the meeting.
Township supervisors have received a request from Compass Energy Partners to build a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station on a 6.5 acre tract of land owned by the Montour Trading Corporation, located on the west side of Rt 87 just south of the gas wells beside the church.
To permit this enterprise, the township would need to grant a conditional use approval, or pass a curative amendment to current zoning laws.
As gas development continues to encroach on our rural neighborhoods, the look and feel of the entire landscape is changing rapidly. If we are to preserve the beauty of our fields and farms and the peaceful setting of our residential neighborhoods, public participation is crucial.
Come to speak, to question, or simply to show your concern by observing the debate.
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| Range Resources Agrees to Record Fine for Frack Pond Violations |
by Mike Lee, E&E Reporter
September 19, 2014 - Range Resources Corp., the company that pioneered drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas field, agreed to pay $4.15 million to settle a series of environmental violations at its water-handling operations in southwest Pennsylvania, according to state regulators.
The settlement is the biggest ever reached with a shale driller, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. It covers leaks, spills and other violations at eight water impoundments in Washington County, which is southwest of Pittsburgh. Range, based in Fort Worth, Texas, will close five of the impoundments and make improvements at two others. One impoundment will be converted to hold only fresh water. The announcement comes as the Pennsylvania DEP considers new rules on water-holding facilities. Some of the improvements that Range has agreed to, such as tougher liners and better leak detection, may be required when the rules are finalized, John Poister, a spokesman for the DEP, said in an interview. "We've definitely been aware of the limitations of, particularly, the older impoundments that came at the very beginning of the gas drilling era here," he said. Range said in an emailed statement that it was already closing most of the impoundments. The contamination reached nearby groundwater but hasn't affected any drinking water, the DEP and Range said. None of the contamination levels poses a health risk, Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella wrote.
Separately, Range said it will change its procedures for withdrawing fresh water from rivers and other water bodies after discovering it "likely exceeded" its permitted limits. Environmental groups including PennFuture have pushed the DEP to adopt stricter rules on water handling, including requiring drilling companies to use enclosed tanks to hold waste fluids. The DEP should investigate other impoundments in the state and should also require them to have leak-detection systems similar to solid-waste landfills, George Jugovic, chief counsel for PennFuture, said in an interview. The DEP should have waited until it knew the full extent of the contamination before it agreed on the size of the fine, he said. "It's unclear to me how the department could assess what a proper fine is, when they don't know the extent of the groundwater contamination," he said. "Hopefully, the agency takes a hard look and investigates what occurred here and takes that into account in adopting their final regulations." Range drilled the first modern gas well in the Marcellus Shale in 2004, according to the Pennsylvania Geological Survey.
With 955,000 acres, it's the second-largest leaseholder in the state, according to the consulting firm IHS Herold. Range and other drillers use a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to develop shale formations. A typical fracking operation uses millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals that are blasted into the formation under high pressure to break open the rock and release the gas trapped inside. The impoundments are essentially man-made ponds. They're typically built by creating an earthen berm and lining the inside with plastic, Poister said. There are about 25 of the impoundments in southwest Pennsylvania, and some of them hold as much as 15 million gallons -- or more than 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. Range used the ponds to hold water used for hydraulic fracturing, along with fresh water, partially recycled water and naturally occurring water released along with the gas. One of the impoundments has had a tear in its liner since at least February 2012, and high levels of chlorides and other contaminants were found in soil samples and test wells at five others. Range also had a series of spills and leaks at the impoundments dating back to 2009. One of the impoundments had leaked so extensively that Range had to remove 12,000 tons of contaminated soil, Poister said.
Source: http://www.eenews.net/ew/2014/09/19
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In Other News
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The Popping of the Shale Gas Bubble
For much of the past decade we have been inundated by reports of how the wonders of technology, specifically horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, have unleashed a new era for energy supplies. Industry leaders have touted that shale gas, along with burgeoning shale oil production, will lead to America's energy independence, kindle a manufacturing renaissance, lower bills for everyday Americans and create millions of much-needed jobs. While there is little doubt that booming shale gas production, along with a very deep recession put an end to the natural gas price spike of 2008, much of the accepted conventional wisdom about the longevity of the shale gas bonanza is wrong. America's shale gas resources and reserves have been grossly exaggerated and today's level of shale gas production is unsustainable. In fact, due to the distortions of zero interest rates and other factors, an enormous shale gas bubble has developed. Like all bubbles, this one will pop sooner than expected and when it does, the aftermath will be very unpleasant.
If You Read Only One Story on Health and Fracking, Read This One
If you live right next to a drilling rig, or your kids go to school beside a fracking site, or your county is suddenly littered with well pads -- are there health risks? That's a question that's been asked from Pennsylvania to North Dakota, from Colorado to Texas as more and more people find themselves and their towns in the midst of an unprecedented energy boom. In this second part of a series on public health risks, Inside Energy reporters Jordan Wirfs-Brock and Leigh Paterson clarify the confusion and describe a new scientific effort to help communities make informed decisions about this booming industry.
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Yale, Penn State Studies Offer Conflicting Views on Fracking
Two academic studies exploring health and water issues in the gas drilling industry on Wednesday painted very different pictures of its potential impact and brought rebukes from advocates on both sides.
A Yale University survey supported by environmental groups including the Heinz Endowments found increased reporting of certain health issues by people who live within a kilometer of working wells in Washington County.
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Fracking Study Finds New Gas Wells Leak More
WASHINGTON (AP) - In Pennsylvania's gas drilling boom, newer and unconventional wells leak far more often than older and traditional ones, according to a study of state inspection reports for 41,000 wells.
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The Science of Shale Gas/Oil: The Latest Evidence on Leaky Wells, Emissions, and Implications for Policy @ Cornell University
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Thursday, October 16 - 7:30 pm
Dr. Anthony Ingraffea will present some myths and realities concerning large-scale development of the unconventional natural gas/oil resource in shale deposits. On a local scale, these concern geological aspects of the plays, and the resulting development and use of directional drilling, high-volume, slickwater, hydraulic fracturing, multi-well clustered pad arrangements, and the impacts of these technologies on waste production and disposal, and possible contamination of water supplies. On a global scale, we will also explore the cumulative impact of unconventional gas development on greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere.
Click here for more details.
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"Marcellus Shale Documentary Project" @ the Palmer Museum of Art in State College
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September 23 - December 14
The "Marcellus Shale Documentary Project" features photographic images that tell the personal stories of Pennsylvanians affected by the Marcellus Shale gas industry. By creating a visual document of the environmental, social and economic impact of the drilling, the work aims to engage communities in the current Marcellus Shale debate while providing important historical images for the future. In capturing images of the people and places most affected by gas drilling, photographers Noah Addis, Nina Berman, Brian Cohen, Scott Goldsmith, Lynn Johnson and Martha Rial examine both the positive and negative results of the recent boom in the gas industry and how the environment and the communities that live with the resources are being shaped.
The exhibition is augmented by a small selection of photographs by Penn State faculty members John Beale, Katarin Parizek and Steven Rubin, who have directed considerable energy and talent to documenting the socio-cultural, environmental and economic effects of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. "Marcellus Shale Documentary Project" will be complemented by a series of exhibitions of student work in several venues across campus and downtown State College, broadening the potential audience, expanding the conversation to multiple disciplines, and promoting critical discourse on sustainability and the extraction of Marcellus Shale. Collectively titled "Storied Images: Marcellus Shale," these satellite exhibitions are supported in part by a Reinvention Fund grant through Penn State's Sustainability Institute.
The "Marcellus Shale Documentary Project" was organized by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, a nonprofit community arts campus offering arts education programs and contemporary art exhibitions and providing services and resources for individual artists throughout western Pennsylvania.
Click Here for more details.
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Frack Free Parks
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The Campaign Continues
It's not too late to participate in the "Frack Free Parks" campaign initiated by the Save the Loyalsock Coalition. Take a "selfie" in the woods with THIS SIGN and email it to
so they can upload it to the tumblr site. Then feel free to share it all over your other social media.
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PA Moratorium Petition
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Request a Moratorium on Further Leasing of our State Park and Forest Land
Our state forests are rare places that provide respite and recreation for our citizens. The proposed lift on the moratorium of gas leasing will lead to further drilling that will jeopardize fragile ecosystems. Our state forests and parks should be set apart, protected and held in trust for the future.
We need your help to stop additional gas leasing of state park and forest land. We urge you to please take action by sending a message to your legislators so the General Assembly will not open the door to additional leasing.
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Request Full Disclosure of the Chemicals Used in the Fracking Process
The United States is in the midst of a rapid expansion of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") to extract oil and gas from deep rock formations. Communities have raised concerns about the more than 750 chemicals and other components used in the drilling process.
But right now, companies can keep these chemicals a secret-along with any health and environmental effects they may have. Even when fracking-related accidents or chemical spills happen, doctors and public safety officers don't even have access to the chemical exposure information necessary to treat and protect people.
People have a right to know what chemicals are being used in their neighborhoods.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has drafted a comment form to the EPA. Click the link below & be sure to customize your comment for a stronger impact.
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Tell President Obama to put the brakes on fracked LNG Exports.
Right now, communities across the country are facing air, water, and climate pollution at the hands of natural gas companies.
And the stakes have gotten even higher -- the potential for more fracking so the natural gas industry can export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other countries.
President Obama is only hearing one side of the story from the Department of Energy, and it favors the natural gas industry. DOE's recent study on the economics of fracked gas exports completely ignores the public health, environmental, and climate costs of an export rush.
Let's remind President Obama of all the other costs -- the cost of buying drinking water because your well is polluted with fracking chemicals, lost work days because your child is sick due to respiratory problems, and increasing utility bills to heat our homes while communities are left to pay the price for fracking.
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It costs nothing to sign up for our e-newsletter or become a member of our organization, but tax-free donations are accepted & greatly appreciated.
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RDA Newsletter
Brooke Woodside, RDA Working Group, Managing Editor
Barb Jarmoska, Treasurer - RDA Board of Directors, Editor
Ralph Kisberg, RDA Working Group, Contributing Editor
Robbie Cross, President - RDA Board of Directors
Jenni Slotterback, Secretary - RDA Board of Directors
Mark Szybist - RDA Board of Directors
Roscoe McCloskey - RDA Board of Directors
Jim Slotterback - RDA Board of Directors
Dianne Peeling - RDA Board of Directors
This biweekly e-newsletter 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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Please mail donations to: RDA, PO Box 502, Williamsport, PA 17703
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