One of the major problems ( selected from a host of them) with drilling for natural gas via fracking in the Marcellus Shale is the huge amounts of water that are returned to the surface from the millions of gallons pumped in to break the gas containing rocks. The water is not only filled with the unknown cocktail of chemicals and other substances that are used to fracture the rocks, the returning water picks up all kinds of stuff on its way back to the surface and flows out of the well with a warm and homey glow ..... if your home is in the suburbs of hell, since the water is now contaminated with unsafe levels of radioactive materials. ( And please let us not forget all the water that doesn't make it back to the surface; water that seeps and seeks its way through major aquifers, polluting home drinking water wells. ) The recent articles in the NY Times series Drilling Down are focusing on the returning water and its proper and most improper disposal. It is being dumped into streams that find their way to rivers and in some cases, directly into the rivers themselves. These are rivers that supply drinking water to millions of people.
Showing posts with label natural gas drilling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural gas drilling. Show all posts
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Thursday, May 20, 2010
MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRLLING EVENT
This press notice is being posted as an FYI for those interested in events related to Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Drilling.
MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING EVENT
Coverage Requested:
of what might prove to be a contentious meeting of Cochecton (Sullivan County ) Planning Board which is proposing to change local zoning to permit Marcellus Shale gas drilling in 90% of town plus allow for building of man camps for gas workers.
w
Local group, Keep Cochecton Green, is urging townspeople on both sides of the drilling controversy to attend meeting to question this change.
Thursday, May 27, 7PM
Cochecton Town Hall (845 932 8360)
CR 16, Lake Huntington, New York
Contact: Grace van Hulsteyn
845 932-8910
212 663 3457
gracewildhack@gmail.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Text of group's mailing to Cochecton residents:
Keep Cochecton Green
P.O. Box 253
Cochecton, New York 12726
Did you know that the town of Cochecton is in the process of changing its zoning plan to expressly allow horizontal hydrofracture drilling for natural gas in 90% of the town? No other town in our area has taken such a radical step, which we believe could overwhelm the community, just as Dimock, Pennsylvania has been overwhelmed.
However you feel about gas drilling, ATTEND THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING on May 27, 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall. Learn the facts. Express your views. http://www.kcr@cochection.org
******************************************
MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING EVENT
Coverage Requested:
of what might prove to be a contentious meeting of Cochecton (Sullivan County ) Planning Board which is proposing to change local zoning to permit Marcellus Shale gas drilling in 90% of town plus allow for building of man camps for gas workers.
w
Local group, Keep Cochecton Green, is urging townspeople on both sides of the drilling controversy to attend meeting to question this change.
Thursday, May 27, 7PM
Cochecton Town Hall (845 932 8360)
CR 16, Lake Huntington, New York
Contact: Grace van Hulsteyn
845 932-8910
212 663 3457
gracewildhack@gmail.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Text of group's mailing to Cochecton residents:
Keep Cochecton Green
P.O. Box 253
Cochecton, New York 12726
Did you know that the town of Cochecton is in the process of changing its zoning plan to expressly allow horizontal hydrofracture drilling for natural gas in 90% of the town? No other town in our area has taken such a radical step, which we believe could overwhelm the community, just as Dimock, Pennsylvania has been overwhelmed.
However you feel about gas drilling, ATTEND THE PLANNING BOARD MEETING on May 27, 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall. Learn the facts. Express your views. http://www.kcr@cochection.org
******************************************
Sunday, February 07, 2010
GASLAND THE MOVIE EXPOSES MARCELLUS SHALE DANGERS
It's a bonus when two of one's passions coincide and such is the case with my love for film eliding smoothly with my recent interest in the dangers of natural gas drilling in The Marcellus Shale. For several months now I've been plugging a friends blog ( Gracenomics ) which has published a flurry of entries warning of the ecological nightmare that is going to be unleashed on the lower third of New York State if uncontrolled horizontal drilling for natural gas in The Marcellus Shale is permitted. Grace van Hulsteyn who publishes the blog has a place in Cochection New York, two miles from the Delaware River, one of the threatened resources and a short distance down river is the town of Milanville, home of Josh Fox, whose film, Gasland just won a special jury prize for a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Fox is more of a performance artist than a film maker ( though he does have an earlier film, Memorial Day, to his credit ), but he grew alarmed about the potential damage to the delicate eco-system of the Delaware based on evidence of gas company abuses in other parts of his home state of Pennsylvania. The review from Variety that was datelined Park City, Utah, home of Sundance, tells the story of what happened next.
I'm looking forward to the opening of this film since it will no doubt bring to the forefront the dangers of unfettered gas drilling to the water supply of New York City as well as Philadelphia and dozens of other cities and towns. Along with Gracenomics there are numerous blogs on the subject and there have been editorials in The New York Times, meetings and demonstrations in New York and Albany and all sorts of conclaves, seminars and other discussions of this problem, but all of that will fade to silence before the power of a well crafted, accurate polemic film. No doubt the oil and gas megadons will smear Mr. Fox and offer distorted rebuttals, but so it was with SuperSize Me and eventually McDonald's had to back down and remove the offensive marketing device from its menu. From Triumph of the Will to Farenheit 9/11, the power of cinema to persuade has been proven time and again. One can only hope that the early enthusiasm for Gasland's ability to influence opinion is warranted.
I'm looking forward to the opening of this film since it will no doubt bring to the forefront the dangers of unfettered gas drilling to the water supply of New York City as well as Philadelphia and dozens of other cities and towns. Along with Gracenomics there are numerous blogs on the subject and there have been editorials in The New York Times, meetings and demonstrations in New York and Albany and all sorts of conclaves, seminars and other discussions of this problem, but all of that will fade to silence before the power of a well crafted, accurate polemic film. No doubt the oil and gas megadons will smear Mr. Fox and offer distorted rebuttals, but so it was with SuperSize Me and eventually McDonald's had to back down and remove the offensive marketing device from its menu. From Triumph of the Will to Farenheit 9/11, the power of cinema to persuade has been proven time and again. One can only hope that the early enthusiasm for Gasland's ability to influence opinion is warranted.
Saturday, January 02, 2010
MARCELLUS SHALE BATTLE RAGES ON
The State of New York is soon to start the process of assigning leases for drilling using the highly controversial "fracking" method which involves pushing huge quantities of chemically infused water several miles beneath the earth's surface so as to break up the Devonian Era rocks that contain natural gas. The process is fraught with many dangers, from pollution to radiation. A friend whose land sits atop the vast Marcellus Shale field has started a blog commenting on the ongoing attempts to limit the number and placement of drilling sites in New York. Here is the latest entry:
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Economics and Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale
From the beginning of the Marcellus gas hoopla in our region, I’ve been hearing about the local benefits that drilling will bring to local communities, including my little town in the New York Catskills. Set aside for the moment the environmental issues that are getting all the press. I’m talking here about economics. Gas drilling will bring jobs, jobs, jobs, we are urged. It will bring other wealth in the form of stimulus to business activity and royalties to local landowners. We, the locals, will enjoy the benefits of the cleanest form of fossil energy, even while we’ll be doing our part to free the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil. These are the reasons we should bow to the wisdom of our state governments and welcome out-of-state developers to dig for gas in our hills and valleys.
None of these “benefits”seem to me to pan out, at least not at the end of the day. Here’s my take on them, below. If you disagree, I invite you to refute what I say, but with facts, please, not rhetoric. And that's not just rhetoric on my part;I really do want to receive some feedback from both sides of the gas drilling debate.
Jobs: Start with on-site jobs. The best of the jobs, I’ve been informed, come along with the gas operators. These are professional and management posts, and the rig jobs that are filled by highly paid itinerant workers. No kidding, these rig operators pull down some $75,000 a year and up. Do these jobs figure into the impressive Pennsylvania statistics that we’ve seen, for example, on gas play job growth? They shouldn’t. These workers are residents of other states whose local jobs will end and who are not likely to stay or to invest their riches locally. We’re told that the well drilling and fracking processes will be completed in a matter of weeks or a few months, so that rig workers, and presumably the managers, professionals, foremen, et al, will at that point move on. What seems to be in the offing for locals in the way of industry jobs are truck driving, security, and some low-level office work
Non-industry jobs and business development: Yes, the workers will need to be housed and fed as long as they are around, so there will be new staffing at delis, restaurants, bars, and real estate agencies. For how long? Weeks? I’m hearing the sound of a quickee boom, and then a bust. Gravel quarries will do well in the longer haul. But what the yea-sayers are leaving out is that much of the other work that will generated by the gas play will be in the nature of policing, social services and cleanup. And that will need to be funded, not by the gas companies or out of gas income, but by the same strapped taxpayers who will not have benefitted from the gas play in any way, including those whose real estate values have plummeted through proximity to it.
Landowners: Those who have entered into well-negotiated leases will certainly come out ahead economically. Even many of them may be unsettled to learn of the extent to which their lives and their land will be disrupted, but they will probably be rewarded in due proportion to the harm that comes their way. That is, a protracted disruption will be due to high production which will also produce substantial royalty payments. So, the more damage is done, the more likely it is that they will move away, leaving their property desolated and taking their disposable income with them.
Clean energy: Many reporters have noted the distinction between the environmental effects of the harvesting process and those of the use of gas as a heating fuel: the former is very dirty; the latter is clean as fossil fuels go. The people in the Marcellus will be getting the dirty. Many will not get the clean, as there is no natural gas service throughout large rural reaches of the region.
Patriotism: Finally, there’s the What’s Good for the Country is Good for You argument. “Our” gas will be used in the U.S.and help to wean our country from reliance on wicked oil suppliers in the Middle East. Nonsense, I say. We’re not geared to keeping the gas here for future use, and have nowhere to put it all. I’m certain that much of Pennsylvania’s gas is already destined, if it has not been delivered, to overseas markets. Who is it that controls where the volumes pumped out of the Marcellus via the massive pipelines, such as the newly expanded Millennium, will go? It’s the gas companies, including the foreign entities like Statoil that hold substantial interests in them, who will decide. It won’t be Uncle Sam.
So, if these arguments are supposed to be delivering the good news on gas drilling, they’re lost on me.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Economics and Gas Drilling in the Marcellus Shale
From the beginning of the Marcellus gas hoopla in our region, I’ve been hearing about the local benefits that drilling will bring to local communities, including my little town in the New York Catskills. Set aside for the moment the environmental issues that are getting all the press. I’m talking here about economics. Gas drilling will bring jobs, jobs, jobs, we are urged. It will bring other wealth in the form of stimulus to business activity and royalties to local landowners. We, the locals, will enjoy the benefits of the cleanest form of fossil energy, even while we’ll be doing our part to free the U.S. from dependency on foreign oil. These are the reasons we should bow to the wisdom of our state governments and welcome out-of-state developers to dig for gas in our hills and valleys.
None of these “benefits”seem to me to pan out, at least not at the end of the day. Here’s my take on them, below. If you disagree, I invite you to refute what I say, but with facts, please, not rhetoric. And that's not just rhetoric on my part;I really do want to receive some feedback from both sides of the gas drilling debate.
Jobs: Start with on-site jobs. The best of the jobs, I’ve been informed, come along with the gas operators. These are professional and management posts, and the rig jobs that are filled by highly paid itinerant workers. No kidding, these rig operators pull down some $75,000 a year and up. Do these jobs figure into the impressive Pennsylvania statistics that we’ve seen, for example, on gas play job growth? They shouldn’t. These workers are residents of other states whose local jobs will end and who are not likely to stay or to invest their riches locally. We’re told that the well drilling and fracking processes will be completed in a matter of weeks or a few months, so that rig workers, and presumably the managers, professionals, foremen, et al, will at that point move on. What seems to be in the offing for locals in the way of industry jobs are truck driving, security, and some low-level office work
Non-industry jobs and business development: Yes, the workers will need to be housed and fed as long as they are around, so there will be new staffing at delis, restaurants, bars, and real estate agencies. For how long? Weeks? I’m hearing the sound of a quickee boom, and then a bust. Gravel quarries will do well in the longer haul. But what the yea-sayers are leaving out is that much of the other work that will generated by the gas play will be in the nature of policing, social services and cleanup. And that will need to be funded, not by the gas companies or out of gas income, but by the same strapped taxpayers who will not have benefitted from the gas play in any way, including those whose real estate values have plummeted through proximity to it.
Landowners: Those who have entered into well-negotiated leases will certainly come out ahead economically. Even many of them may be unsettled to learn of the extent to which their lives and their land will be disrupted, but they will probably be rewarded in due proportion to the harm that comes their way. That is, a protracted disruption will be due to high production which will also produce substantial royalty payments. So, the more damage is done, the more likely it is that they will move away, leaving their property desolated and taking their disposable income with them.
Clean energy: Many reporters have noted the distinction between the environmental effects of the harvesting process and those of the use of gas as a heating fuel: the former is very dirty; the latter is clean as fossil fuels go. The people in the Marcellus will be getting the dirty. Many will not get the clean, as there is no natural gas service throughout large rural reaches of the region.
Patriotism: Finally, there’s the What’s Good for the Country is Good for You argument. “Our” gas will be used in the U.S.and help to wean our country from reliance on wicked oil suppliers in the Middle East. Nonsense, I say. We’re not geared to keeping the gas here for future use, and have nowhere to put it all. I’m certain that much of Pennsylvania’s gas is already destined, if it has not been delivered, to overseas markets. Who is it that controls where the volumes pumped out of the Marcellus via the massive pipelines, such as the newly expanded Millennium, will go? It’s the gas companies, including the foreign entities like Statoil that hold substantial interests in them, who will decide. It won’t be Uncle Sam.
So, if these arguments are supposed to be delivering the good news on gas drilling, they’re lost on me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
