Marcellus meetings

There are a couple of public meetings on Marcellus gas issues in the area this week.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night, the West Virginia University Extension Service will continue its statewide public education program on the impact of Marcellus gas drilling at the Hampshire High School auditorium at 6pm. The presentation here was initiated by the Hampshire County Marcellus Committee. The only speaker listed on the agenda at this writing is John King, from the WVDEP Office of the Advocate, but the wide-ranging discussion will be followed by questions from the public.

On Thursday evening at 7pm, a group of concerned citizens from Morgan County will host a discussion with Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, who has drafted an ordinance to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing in Morgan County. CELDF drafted many of the community fracking bans in Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh's, and has advised a number of WV communities, including Wellsburg and citizen groups in both Hampshire and Pocahantas counties. The meeting takes place at Great Cacapon Elementary School, 217 Spring Street in Great Cacapon WV.

Morgan County active on fracking

Morgan County WV, Hampshire's next door neighbor, is abuzz with activities this week about the fracking issue, starting tonight.

At 6pm this evening, the regular meeting of the Morgan County Marcellus Shale Advisory Committee will feature a presentation of the public education program that members of the Hampshire County Marcellus Committee have put together, followed by questions from the Morgan committee and the public. The meeting is held at the Morgan County Courthouse, on Main Street in Berkeley Springs.

Then at 7pm tonight, the Ecology Coalition of Morgan County and the Shepherdstown group SkyTruth (www.skytruth.org) will present a public seminar about technologies that allow anyone to track a fracking site on a home computer. That meeting takes place at the Board of Education office, 247 Harrison Ave. in Berkeley Springs.

On Sunday afternoon, Morgan County citizens concerned about fracking will gather at Great Cacapon School to learn more about the issue and to discuss the possibility of passing a countywide ban of the fracking process. They will meet from 2-5pm. The school is at 217 Spring Street in Great Cacapon WV. More information about a possible ordinance can be found at www.frackban.org.

Occupy WV

The Occupy Wall Street movement has come to West Virginia, with ongoing occupations in towns and cities around the state. Today the movement goes global, and in solidarity with that, Eastern Panhandle activists are convening at the plaza in front of the Martinsburg library at noon. Here's the Facebook page for Occupy Martinsburg:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260992977273492

Occupy DC

Longtime WV activist Mary Wildfire has an op-ed in this morning's Charleston Gazette about why she's traveling all the way from Roane County to Freedom Plaza in Washington DC tomorrow, to take part in the "Stop the Machine" protest.

http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201110041624

In a bit of serendipitous timing, the occupation of Freedom Plaza, planned months ago to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, is happening just as the "Occupy Wall Street" protest has caught the public imagination and inspired similar camp-ins all across the country. The common theme in all the issues being addressed by these protests is the call for economic justice.

People are tired of seeing America's wealth being redistributed upward to the top one percent, who have doubled their share of the nation's wealth in the last thirty years. People are tired of corporate tyranny, and corporate control of the US government. 99 percent of Americans want democracy returned to the people.

http://october2011.org

HCMC report

The Hampshire County Marcellus Committee will present its preliminary report to the Hampshire County Commission tomorrow, September 27th, at the commission's regularly scheduled meeting at the county courthouse on Main Street. HCMC is on the agenda at 11 am for a 45-minute presentation of a public education program and followup briefing by HCMC chair George Constantz. Open to the public.

Call for fracking ban

Concerned citizens are being asked to call the White House today to request a ban on the process of hydraulic fracture--fracking--in natural gas extraction. Here's details from Save the Water Table, a very active group in Monroe County WV.

Food & Water Watch National Action Day – Call-In to BAN FRACKING

SavetheWaterTable.org encourages you to call in to the White House on September 13 as part of the Food and Water Watch National Action Day to ask for a ban on fracking. Here is a link to more information:

http://public.fwwatch.org/EdOut/Toolkits/Fracking/KIT_1108_BanFrackingActionGuide.pdf

This guide provides tips on how to prepare for the call-in day, what to do the day of, and how to report results.

From Candace Jordan :

Welcome to when the little guys become the big guys.

There are hundreds of local grassroots groups in the US working on issues related to fracking, clean water, and environmental health. Most of the individuals that make up these groups are, like us, committed unpaid volunteers who are passionate about protecting our water, air and public health. Together all of our groups and organizations make up a profound grassroots movement that carries immense power for positive change.

Well, the time has come for these grassroots groups to become the big guys and bring about this change. We’ve been waiting a long time, and now is our time in the sun. Let’s get together and be the large constituency we are. Take action!

The National Grassroots Coalition is partnering with Josh Fox and Gasland, Credo, Democracy for America, Food and Water Watch, United for Action, and several other organizations to push a National Call Day to President Obama on September 13th. We will be calling President Obama and letting him know that we oppose Hydraulic Fracturing.

Join us in announcing to your email list, website, and on Facebook and other social media this major national action.

Here are the details of the call day:

Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 between 9 am and 5 pm EDT on September 13th.

Say, “Hello my name is ______, I live in (City, State) and I oppose hydraulic fracturing and I want renewable and sustainable energy policy solutions.”

Feel free to cater this message to one that is appropriate for your organization. The important thing is that we let President Obama know that there is a lot of opposition to fracking.

If the phone lines get jammed, send an email through the White House Contact page here. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact)

This is going to be the first action of many more to come as we, together steer this country to more sane and sustainable energy policies where we don’t have to poison ourselves to power our lives.

If you have questions about this event, or would like to be listed on our website, please email nationalgrassrootscoalition@yahoo.com or contact your regional coordinator.

Thanks so much! Together we can do this!

THANK YOU
For all that you do as active and engaged citizens!

HCMC reschedules

The meeting of the Hampshire County Marcellus Committee scheduled for September 13th has been postponed until Tuesday, September 20th, at noon, at the Hampshire County Health Department in Augusta.

Groups react to Tomblin's Marcellus order

Statement from WV Environmental, Labor, Health and Public Interest Organizations


We the undersigned unanimously agree that the Executive Order issued by acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is inadequate and leaves communities vulnerable, while continuing to let the gas industry run roughshod over West Virginia.

The Senate should not be using the Executive Order as an excuse for stalling. Instead, the Senate should impose a moratorium on permits until a comprehensive bill becomes effective.
Many people, including Senate members of the Select Committee on Marcellus Shale, are under the illusion that the Executive Order and the resulting emergency rules are adequate enough to ensure safe, responsible development of the Marcellus Shale.

However, a number of important issues remain unaddressed.

Nothing in the Executive Order addresses protection from air pollution, noise, truck traffic destroying roads, radiation, or the cumulative impact of multiple wells in a community.

While the Executive Order does require public notice of well permits inside a municipality, it does not provide an opportunity for the public to comment on such permits and influence the permit conditions, nor does it require public notice and comment for well permits in rural areas.

Surface owners remain at risk from unilateral decisions by the gas companies. There is no requirement for drillers to negotiate with surface owners on the location of well sites and access roads or that drillers accommodate surface owners’ concerns, plans for or uses of their property.

Other items missing from the Executive Order include:
Protection for karst (limestone) areas.
Protection for parks or other public lands.
A TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) standard for water.
Elimination of the industry-influenced Oil and Gas Inspectors Examining Board in favor of a civil service type of hiring procedure.
Protective/adequate distances between large drill sites and homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive places.
Expanded water well testing requirements.
Improvements to bonding requirements.
Disposal of toxic waste from well sites restricted to landfills designed to accept hazardous waste.

Additionally, regulations are only as good as their enforcement and with only 15 inspectors for 59,000 active gas wells, we remain concerned about the DEP’s ability to adequately protect citizens and the environment from the threats Marcellus development poses to human health and our land, air and water. Unfortunately, the emergency rules filed as a result of the Executive Order will not raise permit fees and will not provide money for more inspectors to enforce even those emergency rules.

DEP has already permitted 1,602 Marcellus wells in West Virginia. Of those, 942 of those are completed and producing and the agency is on track to issue another 400 permits this year.
We believe it is irresponsible for the acting Governor and the Legislature to allow the DEP to continue to issue new permits without having a comprehensive regulatory structure in place and without having enough inspectors on staff to ensure adequate enforcement. We appreciate that acting Governor Tomblin has recognized that there are problems, but the Executive Order does not go far enough.

It remains imperative for the Legislature to act.

Until that time there should be a moratorium on new permits.

In conclusion, acting Governor Tomblin’s Executive Order and the resulting emergency rules should not be construed as a solution to the many problems related to Marcellus Shale and other gas well drilling.

Far from it.

The Select Committee assigned to craft meaningful legislation, especially the Senators, need to step up to address these problems, and they must do so quickly — next year is unacceptable.

Although the draft legislation the committee is using as a starting point is also deficient in terms of addressing several issues of concern, a number of strengthening amendments were offered and adopted when the committee met earlier this month. We want to see the committee reconvene to continue its work and make the needed improvements to the bill.

Signatories:
Greenbrier River Watershed Association
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter
West Virginia Citizens Action Group
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization
SavetheWaterTable.org

Citizen setbacks

The efforts of local West Virginia citizens to exert some control over Marcellus gas drilling in their own communities received two serious blows this week.

The first one came Tuesday night, when industry pressure convinced the Wellsburg city council to rescind its fracking ban.

http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=47084

The second occurred yesterday, when a Monongalia County circuit court judge ruled that "the ordinance passed by the city of Morgantown [banning fracking within one mile of the city limits] is pre-empted by state legislation and is invalid." City officials are reviewing their options. You can find the story here:

http://www.frackcheckwv.net

EPA study confirms fracking contamination

The New York Times reporter Ian Urbina, who, in a series of recent articles, has uncovered some damning information about the fracking process, had a story on Wednesday about an EPA study done in 1987 about a West Virginia water well contaminated by fracking chemicals.

It has long been a staple of industry propaganda that no such case exists.

The EPA report says, "When fracturing the Kaiser gas well on Mr. James Parson's property, fractures were created allowing migration of fracture fluid from the gas well to Mr. Parson's water well. This fracture fluid, along with natural gas, was present in Mr. Parson's water, rendering it unusable."

Although, as the article notes, drilling technology has improved since the EPA report was written, included in the report is the suggestion that this case is only the tip of the iceberg. Urbina interviewed the report's lead author, who "said that she and her colleagues had found 'dozens' of cases that she said appeared to specifically involve drinking water contamination related to fracking. But they were unable to investigate those cases further and get access to more documents because of legal settlements. All but the Parsons case were excluded from the EPA study, she said, because of pressure from industry representatives who were members of an agency working group overseeing the research."

It seems to be standard US government procedure to have a fox guarding every hen house.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/04natgas.html?_r=1&hp

WV Marcellus "emergency"

At a press conference yesterday, West Virginia's acting governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced (with gas industry lobbyists standing behind him at the podium) that he had signed an executive order directing the WV Department of Environmental Protection to implement some "emergency" regulation of Marcellus shale hydrofracking.

As Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette noted in a blog post, the new regulations first appeared at a gas industry website, thereby confirming that Tomblin had sought the approval of his corporate masters before his announcement.

On a positive note, the fact that Tomblin finally and officially recognized that the lack of regulation is an "emergency" is a demonstration that the growing public awareness of the dangers of the fracking process is putting some pressure on the political class, especially Tomblin, who is facing a special election in October for the position of real--not acting--governor.

http://wvgazette.com/News/201107121085

Frack damage in WV forest

A press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Washington, DC — A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:

- Within two days all ground plants were dead;
- Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
- “Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.

“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”

For the past twenty-five years, the Forest Service has not applied any environmental restrictions on private extraction efforts, even in wilderness areas. As a result, forests, like the Monongahela, which sits astride the huge Marcellus Shale gas formation, have struggled with many adverse impacts of widespread drilling. By contrast, the nearby George Washington National Forest (NF) has recently proposed to ban horizontal drilling, a practice associated with hydrofracking, due to concern about both the ecosystem damage and also the huge amount of water required for the fracking process. Two subcommittees of the House of Representatives will hold a joint hearing this Friday to examine the George Washington NF’s singular pro-conservation stance.

“Unfortunately, the Forest Service has drilled its head deeply into the sand on oil and gas operations harming forest assets,” Ruch added, noting the National Wildlife Refuges also lack regulations to minimize drilling impacts. “The Forest Service needs to develop a broader approach than asking each forest supervisor to cast a lone profile in courage or cowardice.”

Gas industry hype

In its Sunday edition, the New York Times carried a story, based on a review of thousands of internal gas industry documents, which reports that some industry insiders think of the Marcellus boom as a "Ponzi scheme," similar to the Enron bubble. The report notes that many gas wells aren't producing, nor are they as profitable, as expected.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26gas.html?ref=us

Her's a link to some of the industry documents:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/natural-gas-drilling-down-documents-4-intro.html?ref=us

Morgantown bans fracking

A little after midnight last night, the Morgantown WV city council passed an ordinance that bans the practice of fracking for Marcellus shale gas within the city, and within a one-mile radius of the city limits, making it the second city in the state to put the health of its citizens over industry profits. Wellsburg, in the northern panhandle, passed a similar ordinance last month.

http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=46214

More fracking news

The Charleston Gazette had a pretty good synopsis by AP writer Larry Messina of the status of the Marcellus gas issue in the legislature, now that a joint committee has been formed to come up with a bill.
http://wvgazette.com/News/201106190662

Also, Pro Publica, the investigative group that has in many respects led the way in reporting on this issue, has a new article, with some good links, about gaps in state laws requiring disclosure of fracking chemicals (West Virginia, lacking any such law, isn't mentioned).
http://www.propublica.org/article/critics-find-gaps-in-state-laws-to-disclose-hydrofracking-chemicals

Marcellus committees bloom

This past week saw the creation of two new committees established in West Virginia to investigate the effects of Marcellus shale gas drilling.

On Thursday, the Morgan County Commission adopted a resolution creating a subcommittee within the county planning commission to research the Marcellus gas issue. The resolution was modeled on the one passed by the Hampshire County Commission in February.

Yesterday, acting Senate President Jeff Kessler announced the formation of a committee in the West Virginia legislature, made up of five members from the Senate and five from the House of Delegates, to come up with some compromise legislation on Marcellus shale drilling that can be passed in a special session of the legislature that he hopes will be held later this year. Here's a link to the brief story at WV Metro News:

http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=46137

Negotiating drilling

Monroe County WV has taken an innovative path to dealing with the problem of fracking by making a deal with a gas company that wants to drill there.

The county commission has negotiated a Memorandom of Understanding with Gordy Oil, under the authority of Chapter 8 of the State Code, that creates a kind of partnership between the county and the company, involving training for county workers, special consideration for water testing in sensitive areas, and landowner rights to have a say in where the drilling is done.

The full story is at
http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApTopStories/201106060829

Monroe County citizens also have a website dealing with fracking:
http://savethewatertable.org/

Morgantown vs. fracking

A crowd so large it spilled out the door at the meeting last night heard the Morgantown WV City Council discuss a possible fracking ban, along the lines of what Wellsburg WV did a few weeks ago.

http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=45803

WV gas industry propaganda

The West Virginia Oil and Gas Association has created yet another "astroturf" (in contrast to "grassroots") group to propagandize the public about the "benefits" of natural gas.

The name of the group is Just Beneath the Surface WV, who announced their formation on Wednesday, and already have ads posted at the Charleston Gazette, among other websites.

It's an indication of just how worried the industry is about the public reaction as more negative information surfaces about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing. I guess that's why they want to keep people's attention focused beneath the surface.

Wellsburg meets the frackers

On May 10th, the city of Wellsburg WV passed an ordinance that prohibits the process of hydraulic fracturing within one mile of the city limits--the first city in West Virginia to adopt such an ordinance.

Yesterday, the Wellsburg city council met with representatives from Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest gas drilling companies, and the WV Department of Environmental Protection, to discuss the new law.

Despite the often-heard siren song of future economic benefits the Chesapeake rep sang, at the end of the meeting, the council decided to keep its ordinance on the books.

The reason for sticking with the ordinance was stated quite succinctly by City Manager Mark Henne: "The thing that's most important to us, that would affect us in the most adverse way, would be if something went awry and contaminated our water."

As more evidence about fracking comes in, that threat seems more and more real. We can only hope that other elected officials in this state will take courage from the Wellsburg model, and keep their priorities straight.

http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=45686