COMMUNITY CONSIDERATIONS

Hello neighbors,

 

My family lives in Jewett and in the surrounding communities. It has come to my attention that many people are interested in drilling for natural gas on their property and have sought surrounding property owners to do the same. While it is an exciting prospect for landowners in the area to make money during these economic times and I can certainly understand the interest, I am posting here to request that you consider ALL aspects and potential ramifications.

 

I assure you I am typically all for SMALL GOVERNMENT and also FOR exploration of various energies, but when an industry fights as hard as this industry has to ensure minimum regulation and disclosure-avoidance of the actual toxins used in their processes, I have to begin to wonder why that may be the case.   I have been following this industry for quite some time now. While the companies appear to be open and free with information, I assure you there is bias in their answers (akin to a politician running for office).  

 

The process that these companies use for the Marcellus Shale is called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" and is currently highly under-regulated (indeed not at all regulated on a federal level), and is not held to clean drinking water standards under the Clean Drinking Water Act.    There have been NUMEROUS documented incidents regarding freshwater/groundwater contamination as a result of this process across many different states and many different companies.   From my research, one major player in this industry had an incident occur on average every 2.5 days and a fineable infraction (regarding groundwater contamination and/or gas well leaks) occur once almost every 2 weeks in PA last year.  That doesn't seem to be a very good track record. 

 

We have now seen firsthand the obviously VOLATILE and unregulated nature of the process most recently with the horrific explosion in Avella, PA just recently.  

 

The lack of regulation has created a burden on us the landowners and the communities in which they seek to operate to ensure STANDARDS and PROCESSES are in place prior to exposing our communities at-large to this experiment in Harrison County.  For these reasons, may I suggest the true neighborly and community-conscious thing to do prior to welcoming this to the community would be any (preferably all) of the following:

 

1) Wait to sign the lease until the FRAC Act is passed. This is currently sitting in the Senate and it will assure the proper federal regulations that will protect the clean drinking water and also require these companies to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking mixture (something that is currently kept under wraps as a "trade secret").

 

2) Ensure the lease protects the community you are in by MANDATING the proper training and providing the proper equipment for battling major natural gas explosions and fireballs to ALL Volunteer Fire Departments in a 100 mile radius BEFORE the well sites are built. Better still, require the companies to provide the money for a full-time firefighting department.  

 

3) Ensure the communities where your leased lands are found understand the heightened traffic of major rigs with toxic chemicals that will be on our beautifully curvy and narrow country roads and to increase their level of caution when driving.   Signs should be erected immediately near your properties. 

 

In addition, the communities should also be trained (or at least given pamphlets and appropriate protective gear) in the event one of these rigs tips over and a toxic spill occurs near their homes. For those whose homes are within a certain radius of the site itself, evacuation processes and routes should also be in place for when an explosion, gas fire, or any other catastrophic failure at the site occurs.

 

4) Ensure visitors to your property know that natural gas rigs are on the property and the potential for exposure to chemicals, the probability of an explosion or other event due to volatility, and ensure a proper area surrounding the well sites are cordoned off from your visitors, the general public, your livestock, and the local wildlife.

 

If you are also a landowner kind enough to provide passage of ATV riders through your fields, provide alternative routes to keep them at a safe distance from the well sites.

 

5) Ensure the companies (or you) will provide freshwater to the communities or at least the households near you in the event the process itself interrupts the water table at-large in the community. This will include shipping in all the fresh water required for drinking, bathing, watering crops, and tending to livestock.    

 

If the Companies themselves are not willing to provide you or the community with the information above, then may I suggest you speak with an attorney or reconsider signing a lease altogether until they are able to provide these very basic safeguards to our small communities. 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chuck Reed on March 2, 2011 at 10:32pm

Hate?  it's a long and drawn out post. This is a forum not a paper.

call a lawyer, and a real one... a land lawyer from oil country, not some dude in your paper.  Don't look here for answers to those questions.  That's like going to the coffee shop.

 

the issues of water and all that other stuff is not for here, but for pro's.  Rednecks will be the wealthy ones and the docs and lawyers and top bosses of wee towns will hate the GED-less roughnecks who make six fold what they do.

Forgive me, but long long posts look like spam and people who worry about the environment to much will never get anything done since windfarms wreck more land and just have better PR.

Permalink Reply by KSM on March 2, 2011 at 11:16pm

okay, i do tend to say a lot. sorry.

it's just you don't find too many places where you can reach out to so many different people at once (landowners, industry people, attorneys -- these all seem to lurk here) and ask all the questions i have (since my questions/concerns tend to span the spectrum - not JUST leasing, not JUST environmental concerns, not JUST regulatory concerns). 

i'm not a treehugger.  i'm a people hugger.  big diff.

Permalink Reply by KSM on March 2, 2011 at 11:26pm

..and when i say people hugger...i mean my own family/friends.  if this weren't happening in my town,  i wouldn't be wasting my time even giving it a second thought.  i think josh fox would say the same thing.  i'll ask him when i'm done making out with him.  =)  although where it feels like he went out searching to bring an industry down, i'm searching for how we make sure we co-exist with it and deal with the inevitable change that it will bring to our towns.  another big diff. 

Permalink Reply by Chuck Reed on March 2, 2011 at 11:38pm

josh fox lied in bradford pa (the town) to get people to hang his posters.  He told them his film was pro gas. He was born in NYC and he's a rich spoild brat film maker. His mommy and daddy have a weekend getaway in the sticks. that is the family (air finger quotes here) HOME.....  In classic actor style he learned the ways, dress and slang of the pa farmers, changed his mailing adress and fooled the world.

 

Drilling Man owner James Asbury ran into him and he RAN!  he's a showman and a snake oil salesmen from NYC. FYI our water still burns here in PA. Know why?  we have tons of gas....and that's also why they are drilling here.

 

but no one reads the 7th page stories from the paper about how ppl in dim' moved away to get away from the bad water.  NO one talks about the vents on the hot water heaters from the 70's.  NO one tells you that some ppl dumped chemicals downt their wells to screw the big oil companies for a quick buck.

Permalink Reply by Robin Jackson on March 8, 2011 at 11:25am

"Drilling Man owner James Asbury ran into him and he RAN"..You've got to be kidding Chuck..For real???? James has a long way to go before he is experienced to think like a drilling man..He just like many others is trying to capitalize on the money he can make on any info concerning Marcellus Shale..He is smart to do that. But by no means is he experienced in the NG Industry.

 

Chuck keep in mind this is a small town and locals have one thing on you we know each other.

Permalink Reply by Robin Jackson on March 8, 2011 at 11:33am
Chuck anyone can Google JOsh Fox honestly ..He did live in Pa and it was a vacation home and he is a playwrite which gave him the opportunity to provide a documentry..It is up to the reader to decide what they take from "Gasland"..
Permalink Reply by Chuck Reed on March 2, 2011 at 11:34pm

90% of the people here are landowners looking for advice or people pushing a website. 

I can't answer all that stuff.  I don't have the time it takes.  but the industry will take care of these things.  much of the stories are just written to sell papers.

 

know why lawyers are here? most are chace'n business.  get a real lawyer for your questions.  Keep posts short and keep in mind this is just a cyber coffee shop. the real industry news isn't here.  it's kinda like day old bread. 

 

if you want real info, you gota pay for it.

Permalink Reply by Mike Knapp on March 3, 2011 at 3:41am
You're the only one pushing a website here, Chuck.
Permalink Reply by Chuck Reed on March 8, 2011 at 10:36am
If u say so mike. Whole thread on wicki marcellus here and another on another company.
Permalink Reply by Sherry on March 3, 2011 at 3:49am

KSM: If I may please provide you with a little insight as to why your initial post is ruffling some feathers, and please just take this in addition to the advice you received regarding educating yourself.  You are free to take it as constructive criticism, but in order to reach a middle ground, I would suggest the following:

You stated in your letter some misinformation based on your not-quite-so thorough research and at least one contradiction.  You then called for actions based on these.  So please forgive people for being upset with how you presented yourself.  If you had been following the issues for as long as some of us on here have, you would have realized you came across as a no-drill extremist.

If you haven't please visit websites regarding issues on all sides, gas companies, anti-drill, and landowner coalition sites (JLCNY is one).  If you had you would have known most major gas companies, as well as numerous state websites, and at least one anti-drill site I have visited, the frac fluid ingredients would have been turned up, as well as the percentages and common household uses for many of the chemicals.  Also, you would have found more information about the Halliburton Loophole to which you refer.  I'm no fan of Dick Cheney, even though we both hale from the same state, but not just he but many other members of congress rallied against federal regulation against frac fluids because they 1. never had been and 2. during the mid 80's when this took place, states were in charge of regulating and we had a congress at that time who believed in not infringing on individual state's rights.  If congress wants to finance ANOTHER hydraulic fracturing report, this time on drinking water, go for it - hopefully it will prove one way or another if frac fluid contamination can occur.  I just hope the EPA officials conducting it are without a doubt more honest than the one investigating Range Resources in Texas and raising the question if the EPA is again overstepping their bounds.  And in my opinion, the current data suggests in no way should we halt all HFing until the EPA study is released. According to a webinar I listened to last night the FINAL report is due out "probably" in 2014.

As far as the contradiction, you state "lack of regulation" after you have already mentioned occurrences of weekly incidents and minor infractions and fines.  It can't be both, sweetie.  As Mike said, many of those infractions have nothing to do with environmental damage.  In fact, lies, damn lies and Walter Hang's statistics come to mind when wanting to sway the public's opinion with statistics.

So take it for what it is worth, KSM.  It's admirable to want to push for appropriate oversight and regulations, let's just make sure it's based on facts (which can come from all sides of the issue) and as Tom said, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Take care and good luck,

Sherry

 

Permalink Reply by Mike Knapp on March 3, 2011 at 4:41am

I've never addressed the "Halliburton loophole", so I will do it now. 

 

The "loophole" is because the very broad regulations in the Clean Water act would have effectively outlawed fracking, which would have effectively stopped all natural gas drilling in the United States.   They did not want to water down (pardon the pun) the verbiage to allow fracking which would lower the bar on other industries whose activities are actually a threat to subsurface aquifers.  So they set the bar high, and exempted fracking. 

 

It sounds much more insidious than it really is.. as with many other things in our industry. 

 

Permalink Reply by Sherry on March 3, 2011 at 4:54am
Thanks Mike!  Looks like *I* didn't have all the information!

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