More Fracadelia

Here is the incident du jour: Natural gas fire under control

Here is latest entry to About: I live in the Frances Slocum State Park area, but have been to Moon Lake many times. Anyplace where people can run, play, hike, swim, camp, learn, bike, and socialize reverberates through life like an endless smile. The gas it will be sacrificed for, will give but a few people its’ neon pleasure and leave the rest of us in debt and diminished. As far as the County is concerned, mismanagement begets mismanagement. It is like a lie.

At Gort42: Gort is a respected area blogger . (I suspect his real identity is 24 Torg.) Today/yesterday he wrote a post which was titled and about Moon Lake. A commenter on the post suggested that “the Commissioners consider selling the naming rights to the Park just as was done with the Arena.” Whether he was serious or tongue-in -cheek, his proposal got me to thinking…

Perhaps EnCanaLand or CabotPatch. There could be rides like the Drill Rigger,the Thumper Truck Junior, the Endocrine Disruptor, and the Radioactive Mud Slide. Kids could buy Candy Apple Hardhats. The pool would have special undisclosed chemicals. The grounds crew would pick up spills only if they were in plain sight. And of course, no venue would be complete without the fire breathing water fountains…

Public Meeting a Success!:
One hundred and ten people attended the education and awareness meeting sponsored by the GDAC (Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition). The Citizen’s Voice, Times Leader, and WNEP were there. State Senator Lisa Baker and State Representative Karen Boback were in attendance throughout the two hour meeting and spoke impromptu to the audience. (they both seem to be earnest and open but since I was the MC, I was unable to pay full attention to their remarks since I was in and out of the forum.) Also present was David Madiera who is the Republican primary candidate in the 10th Congressional District (Democrat Chris Carney’s seat). We spent a lively time afterward, in the parking lot with several others, debating and getting to know one another.

Vera Scroggins of Kingsley, PA spoke in front of a backdrop of original footage from Dimock shot by Audrey Simpson. She has been an outspoken champion of a saner humanscale approach by calling for an environmental impact study and a moratorium until said study is complete. She stirred the audience into resounding applause.

The evening began with a welcome by Pastor Earl Roberts who opened his facility to the public. The United Methodists are called to take environmental stewardship very seriously. Then Leanne Mazurick of GDAC presented the film Rural Impact . This film covered it all: increased crime, decreased property values, trashed unsafe roads, sick air, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, environmental degradation, noise, corporate irresponsibility, on and on…

Also speaking was John Nowak of Sweet Valley, an owner of thirty acres refusing to sign. He presented his research on the actual employment impact of the “Gas Play”. Most jobs will be, and already are, for outsiders and extrapolated over time will net a pittance of actual full time jobs to locals.

Then Tom Jiunta (founder of Luzerne County Citizens for Clean Water) spoke about the various legislative, ordinance, and petition initiatives in progress. He then fielded questions from the audience. (Tom knows his stuff.) There was lively, honest, and spirited discussion and testimony.

Afterward there was coffee, more discussion, and petition signing/recruitment in the adjacent reception area. I spoke to an eighty-five year young man who was intending to move to his daughter’s home in Bethlehem. His local home was under contract to be sold but the offer was dropped once the prospective buyer found out the neighboring property was large and under lease. It was the first this man had known of it. Now he is stuck.

The realities are beginning to emerge.

Muchas Gracias to Cindy, Jeanette, Karen, and Leanne for organizing this meeting.

Later, standing in the evening air gazing at the big orange moon, I wondered about the naming rights to it…

Here is a more detailed coverage:

Citizen’s Voice – Natural Gas Meeting Draws Big Crowd

Here is television coverage:

WNEP – Residents in Luzerne County React to Gas Drilling

Fracktured News

Another wrist slap for blatant disregard: Drilling Without a Permit

A Tragedy:

Fatal Accident: Woman Killed in Tioga County Crash – Gas Drilling Truck Driver at Fault

an ironic juxtaposition which I had read just the day before the accident: A Sobering Journey to an Inspiring Conference

Janine Dymond of the local Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition is featured in this article: Despite outcry, county eyes Moon Lake Park drilling as money-maker

Good news for starving and homeless lawyers! link here

A Nationwide Petition: SEE PETITION HERE:

More!More!More! 26 wells drilled in Bradford County in February

Letter from the Fields of Factories:

Dear Rep. Pickett, The roads in Dimock continue to deteriorate on a daily basis due to the heavy truck traffic generated by the operations of Cabot Oil & Gas Co. Repairs being made are not keeping up with the pace of damage. I observe drivers on a daily basis swerving into oncoming traffic to avoid entire sections of missing roadway. This issue needs to be addressed before someone gets injured. Cabot’s operations have been suspended by the State in the past due to environmental violations. The State should take immediate action to order Cabot’s vehicle’s off our roads until they repair them. Our citizens health and safety should not be put at risk due to the profit motivated operations of this company. Charles Winschuh, Dimock Township.

Science should trump finance in a sane world, but nooooooo…

By way of Susquehanna River Sentinel here is an enlightening article by a scientist, Robert Howarth, who is the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell University He is an “internationally known expert on environmental issues and water quality”. (article source:)

But go ahead and listen to light weight politicos like Urban, Rendell, and Cheney.  All they ever see is their own political interest.  None of them ever had an original thought which went beyond manipulation.  Go ahead and ask one, “Hey Dick, give me an original solution.”  Guaranteed it will be ideological, self-serving, transparent, and tired.

Read and think:

Natural gas is marketed as a clean fuel with less impact on global warming than oil or coal, a transitional fuel to replace other fossil fuels until some distant future with renewable energy. Some argue that we have an obligation to develop Marcellus Shale gas, despite environmental concerns. I strongly disagree.

Natural gas as a clean fuel is a myth. While less carbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas than oil or coal, emissions during combustion are only part of the concern. Natural gas is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas with 72 times more potential than carbon dioxide to warm our planet (per molecule, averaged over the 20 years following emission). I estimate that extraction, transport and combustion of Marcellus gas ? together with leakage of methane ? makes this gas at least 60 percent more damaging for greenhouse warming than crude oil and similar in impact to coal.

The most recent method of hydro-fracking is relatively new technology, massive in scope and far from clean in ways beyond greenhouse gas emissions. The landscape could be dotted with thousands of drilling pads, spaced as closely as one every 40 acres. Compacted gravel would cover three to five acres for each. New pipelines and access roads crisscrossing the landscape would connect the pads. Ten or more wells per pad are expected. Every time a well is “fracked,” 1,200 truck trips will carry the needed water.

Drillers will inject several million gallons of water and tens of thousands of pounds of chemicals into each well. Some of this mixture will stay deep in the shale, but cumulatively, billions of gallons of waste fluids will surface. Under current law, drillers can use absolutely any chemical additive or waste, with no restrictions and no disclosure. Recent experience in Pennsylvania indicates regular use of toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic substances. Out of 24 wells sampled there, flow-back wastes from every one contained high levels of 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxide, (according to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation). It is one of the most mutagenic compounds known. Flow-back wastes also contain toxic metals and high levels of radioactivity extracted from the shale, in addition to the materials used by drillers.

Industry tells us that surface and groundwater contamination is unlikely, since gas is deep in the ground and drilling operations are designed to minimize leakage. Nonsense. The technology is new and understudied, but early evidence shows high levels of contamination in some drinking water wells and rivers in other states.

Accidents happen, and well casings and cementing can fail. The geology of our region is complex, and water and materials under high pressure can move quickly to aquifers, rivers and lakes along fissures and fractures. Flow-back waters and associated chemical and radioactive wastes must be handled and stored at the surface, some in open pits and ponds unless government regulation prevents this. What will keep birds and wildlife away from it? What happens downstream if a heavy rain causes the toxic soup to overflow the dam? What happens to these wastes? Adequate treatment technologies and facilities do not exist.

What about government regulation and oversight? The DEC is understaffed,underfunded and has no history with the scale and scope of exploitation now envisioned. Federal oversight is almost completely gone, due to Congress exempting gas development from most environmental laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, in 2005.

We can be independent of fossil fuels within 20 years and rely on renewable green technologies, such as wind and solar. The constraints on this are mostly political, not technical. We do not need to sacrifice a healthy environment to industrial gas development. Rather, we need to mobilize and have our region provide some badly needed national leadership toward a sustainable energy future.

Lead into the sustainable, organic, regional-centric economic future? Nah… let’s go back to the mines, the usury, the elitism… it makes perfect non-sense… and so the fools continue to rule us…

Public Meeting on Gas Drilling

On Wednesday,  March 31 st, the Dallas United Methodist Church is sponsoring a public information meeting from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on the process of gas drilling which is coming to this area.  Speakers from the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition (formerly the Luzerne County Citizens for Clean Water) and NoDrill NEPA will address issues such as the community impact of the drilling industry here and elsewhere.  Also presented will be local legislative and township initiatives presently in progress and how you can help.  An open discussion will follow.

The church is at 4 Parsonage Street, Dallas, PA 18612

Frack House

fracadelia 2

Here is a story from Wayne County: Outcry greets possibility of gas drilling at Wayne County schools

I added a Moon Lake Park page above. Sign the petition there or HERE.  Let’s not forget Moon Lake!!!

Also, I have added a Petition Page. There are five petitions and/or legislative links. Go there to voice your concern. PETITIONS HERE

A powerful post from Another Monkey – Please read it.

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I love the gas industry tv commercial where the woman is traveling up a well as if in a stainless steel and glass elevator. So clean and so slick. I guess we will see truck loads of well dressed women heading down our roads soon.

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I have an old friend up north who recently emailed me about his experiences with gas drilling. Here is the sad email. I took out their names at their request:

“Herb. Thanks for the info. (Wife) and I have spent the last 2 years educating ourselves about this issue. We are at ground zero in Dimock and are surrounded by gas wells being drilled. What we have learned so far is scary and our actual experiences dealing with this has been terrible. The beautiful area I have lived in for the last 35 years is being butchered. Many of my neighbor’s water supplies have already been polluted. It is a shame that our government would, in these days and times, allow such environmental exploitation all for the sake of money.

But I have to let you know of my situation – (wife) and I held out from signing a gas lease as long as we could, due to our environmental concerns. However, when we realized all our neighbors had signed and we were surrounded by leased land – we finally gave in and signed. Now seeing what has happened I would gladly return the money if they would pack up and leave. I consider it dirty money. I believe the gas company’s tactic was to offer people money to get their foothold and then they come in and do their thing. (friend’s name)”

See you tonight.