Driller wins approval to halt water to Pennsylvania town

[Divernan]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Driller wins approval to halt water to Pa. town
Thursday, October 20, 2011
By Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press

Pennsylvania environmental regulators said Wednesday they have given permission to a natural-gas driller to stop delivering replacement water to residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania community whose drinking water wells were tainted with methane.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. has been delivering water to homes in Dimock since January 2009. The Houston-based energy company asked the Department of Environmental Protection for approval to stop the water deliveries by the end of November, saying Dimock's water is safe to drink.

DEP granted Cabot's request late Tuesday, notifying the company in a letter released Wednesday morning. Scott Perry, the agency's acting deputy secretary for oil and gas management, wrote that since Cabot has satisfied the terms of a December settlement agreement requiring the company to remove methane from the residents' water, DEP "therefore grants Cabot's request to discontinue providing temporary potable water."

Residents who are suing Cabot in federal court say their water is still tainted with unsafe levels of methane and possibly other contaminants from the drilling process. They say DEP had no right to allow Cabot to stop paying for replacement water.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11293/1183485-454.stm#ixzz1bJLOrul8

---

This decision can force each household to pay $250 per week to maintain its water buffalo. One resident has the option of spending $20,000 to $30,000 to install a permanent system to pipe water from an untainted spring on his land.

When it comes to the destructive consequences of fracking for gas, Pennsylvania residents are at the mercy of GOP Governor Tom Corbett, whose campaign was the recipient of major contributions from Big Frackers. His appointment to head the state's Department of Environmental Protection was Michael Krancer, whose family bought the position for him.

http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2011/07/money-talks-krancer-family-donates-25k-a-day-before-dep-confirmation/

Money Talks: Krancer Family Donates $25K A Day Before DEP Confirmation (Headline)
The Krancer family knows how to play the game. In recent years, DEP Secretary Michael Krancer’s family has given several hundred thousand dollars to top Republicans like Tom Corbett, Bob Asher, and other party officials.

But the most galling? Just a day before the state Senate unanimously confirmed Michael Krancer as Secretary of Environmental Protection, Krancer’s father wrote a $25,000 check to the state GOP.

Nice work if you can buy it.

But the April 25 donation came the day before the state Senate unanimously confirmed Michael Krancer as DEP secretary. Despite that overwhelming support, he spent most of his first few months at DEP enacting policy changes that drew intense criticism from lawmakers, gas drilling opponents and others.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Companies associated with drilling in the Marcellus Shale contributed more than $800,000 to Corbett for the governor's race, compared to just over $100,000 given to his Democratic opponent, according to the website Marcellus Money , which is run by Pennsylvania Common Cause and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.
http://www.propublica.org/article/pennsylvanias-governor-elect-nominates-insiders-for-top-environmental-posts

[Divernan]

1. "Water coming out of his well looks like milk."

Residents who are suing Cabot in federal court say their water is still tainted with unsafe levels of methane and possibly other contaminants from the drilling process. They say DEP had no right to allow Cabot to stop paying for replacement water.

Bill Ely, 60, said the water coming out of his well looks like milk.

"You put your hand down a couple of inches and you can't see your hand, that's how much gas there is in it. And they're telling me it was that way all my life," said Mr. Ely, who has lived in the family homestead for nearly 50 years and said his well water was crystal clear until Cabot's arrival three years ago.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11293/1183485-454-0.stm#ixzz1bJSr5lJp

[Sam Hain]

10. That's Milk from Jeezus!

:sarcasm:

[Occulus]

23. The same EPA that let tainted seafood enter the consumer market

Am I wrong?

[coyote]

2. Didn't you get the memo....

private the profits, socialize the cost. Yeesh! Wanting clean water from the mess we made....the nerve!

[stillwaiting]

11. It's positively Anti-American I tell you!

They are clearly all a bunch of commies...

A corporation has deemed the water suitable for drinking. Shut up and drink if you love America!!

[Kolesar]

3. See: www.marcellusmoney.org

www.marcellusmoney.org

[Divernan]

7. Excellent link re the millions spent buying off/bribing PA state legislators

When asked to put in place a temporary moratorium on drilling in public lands until a full study of the impact could be made, those who voted “no” had accepted an average of three times as much cash from gas interests than those who supported that reasonable measure.

As the spill in the Gulf has shown, drilling is a risky business with real consequences. Passing laws to ensure safety, to hire regulators, to protect drinking water and to set aside funds for emergency clean up is the responsible thing to do. Growing political spending from gas lobbyists is blocking the way to that responsible regulation.
Contributions to PA Politicians from the Natural Gas Industry
Campaign contributions from natural gas companies have more than tripled in the last 3 years.

In order to prevent the Pennsylvania legislature from creating reasonable taxation measures and necessary safety rules, the drilling industry has made more than $3 million in political contributions to Pennsylvania lawmakers since 2001. It has spent an additional $5 million on lobbying in Harrisburg in just the last three years.

MarcellusMoney.org exists to shine a light on the gas industry’s attempts to influence our political leaders and to hold those leaders accountable to the citizens of Pennsylvania. This site is a project of Common Cause PA and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.

[enough]

8. Thanks for that link. (nt)

[No Elephants]

4. Occupy Dimock?

[sakabatou]

5. If the drilling keeps going without replacement water

Dimock might become a ghost town.

[druidity33]

6. this is the town

that featured prominently in the movie "Gasland". Retribution anyone?

:shrug:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

9. What a difference a day makes.

Our local rag of a paper has multiple stories almost every day relating to fracking.

Yesterday, a large front page story on Jack Hanna supporting fracking was hard to miss. Today, this Dimock debacle story is buried (sorry!!) on the next to last page in the middle of the freaking obituaries.

What we need is a video with Joel Grey singing Money... with images of the destruction caused by fracking in the background.

[Scuba]

12. Clean water for the People or profits for the Corporations? Hmmmm. Who donated the most?

[durablend]

13. Like OP said...

They made HEALTHY donations to Governor Corporate so that should tell you all you need to know about these kinds of stories.

[Gari]

14. You broke it, an innocent bystander buys it? NT

[Derechos]

15. In N YT today - Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages

As natural gas drilling has spread across the country, energy industry representatives have sat down at kitchen tables in states like Texas, Pennsylvania and New York to offer homeowners leases that give companies the right to drill on their land.

And over the past 10 years, as natural gas has become increasingly important to the nation’s energy future, Americans have signed more than a million of these leases.

But bankers and real estate executives, especially in New York, are starting to pay closer attention to the fine print and are raising provocative questions, such as: What happens if they lend money for a piece of land that ends up storing the equivalent of an Olympic-size swimming pool filled with toxic wastewater from drilling?

Fearful of just such a possibility, some banks have become reluctant to grant mortgages on properties leased for gas drilling. At least eight local or national banks do not typically issue mortgages on such properties, lenders say.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/us/rush-to-drill-for-gas-creates-mortgage-conflicts.html?ref=us

[myrna minx]

16. K&R n/t

[madrchsod]

17. add archaeology to the list of fracking problems...

http://www.archaeology.org/1111/trenches/natural_gas_fracking_pennsylvania.html

[JJW]

18. Give Corporations a break!

They are people too, according to the Supreme Court.

[fascisthunter]

19. Water is a Human Right

it may not be a law, but it damn will should be.

[CrispyQ]

20. I wish I could rec this multiple times.

If we don't rein the corporate behemoths in they will destroy everything that sustains us.

[blue neen]

21. K & R for telling the truth about Corporate Corbett and his despicable buddies.

:yourock:

[Little Tich]

22. More links to fracking in Pennsylvania:

Environmental Health Perspectives (Medical Journal): Methane Found in Well Water Near Fracking Sites

http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.119-a289


Reuters: Driller halts Pennsylvania fracking after blowout

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/21/us-chesapeake-blowout-idUSTRE73K5OH20110421


Chesapeake Energy Corporation: Independent Report on Atgas Incident Finds No Impact on Local Water Wells

http://www.chk.com/News/Articles/Pages/release_2011101501.aspx

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The last link to Chesapeake Energy Corporation seems like whitewash to me, but it's good to know what the other side has to say...