Gasland:
Sestak: PA Should Take a Pause
By ANNE HOLLIDAY
WESB/WBRR News Director
Second in a series
Pennsylvania should take a pause in its Marcellus Shale drilling activity until it gets all its ducks in a row, according to Congressman Joe Sestak.
Sestak believes more environmental safeguards have to be put into place, more Pennsylvanians should be trained to work on Marcellus Shale wells and the state should impose an excise tax on drilling companies.
"We want it to be jobs that are created for Pennsylvanians. We want it be environmentally sound so we don’t have higher costs for our children and grandchildren to pay. And, we want to make sure an excise tax is placed upon these oil companies so Pennsylvanians reap the bounty, or part of the bounty, from their ownership of the Marcellus Shale," he told WESB and The HERO Friday afternoon.
“Let’s do this smart,” Sestak said. “Far too often government lets a crisis happen before they act.”
Sestak is a co-sponsor of the House version of the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act that he says will overturn the “Halliburton Loophole” which, in 2005, exempted hydraulic fracturing activities from the Clean Drinking Water Act. Currently, drilling companies don’t have to tell the Environmental Protection Agency what chemicals they’re using in fracking.
Until it’s fixed legislatively, he said, EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection need to find other ways to regulate the drilling.
“We have had actual explosions. We have had actual fires occur because of the contamination that fracking has done to our water,” he said.
The explosion happened on New Year’s Day in 2008 in Norma Fiorentino's backyard well in Dimock, Susquehanna County. The explosion shattered an 8-foot concrete slab and threw the pieces onto her lawn.
DEP said drilling activities by Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas caused methane gas to seep into the aquifer. DEP fined Cabot and temporarily halted their activities, but the company is drilling again.
The most recent incident in Clearfield County on June 3 and 4 wasn’t an explosion, but a blowout. When the natural gas started coming out of the well, workers couldn’t get it under control. The gas and frac water spewed into the air and on the ground for 16 hours until “well blowout experts” could cap it.
A water source near the Punxsutawney Hunt Club now reportedly has eight times the salt concentration it had before the blowout, meaning frac water probably penetrated to that level. Investigators are still doing tests, and waiting for the results, to see what, if any, other chemicals have seeped into the water.
Do we need the jobs and money Marcellus Shale drilling could bring to Pennsylvania? Absolutely, Sestak said.
“But we have to do it wisely, safely and with environmental soundness for the safety and the health of our children,” he said.
He noted the problems caused by coal mining in its heyday that didn’t have proper oversight. He said 2,500 miles of tributaries and 250,000 acres of land are contaminated. It will take $15 billion to make them usable again for fishing and for construction, he said.
He reiterated that Pennsylvania has to be smart.
We want to create jobs, but now almost all of the people in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry come from outside Pennsylvania. Colleges should be “gearing up to train Pennsylvanians to do this as we take a pause and make sure the right environmental oversight is given," he said.
“Even New York State paused,” Sestak said.
New York State has enacted a moratorium restricting the use of horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The moratorium will remain in effect while the Department of Environmental Conservation develops new regulations regarding these drilling practices for inclusion in the state's generic environmental impact statement and permit process.
"Gasland" refers to the award-winning film by Josh Fox. The film is winner of The Special Jury Prize for documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. For more on the movie -- including video -- go to Gasland the Movie.com. The movie debuts on HBO at 9 p.m. June 21.
WESB/WBRR News Director
Second in a series
Pennsylvania should take a pause in its Marcellus Shale drilling activity until it gets all its ducks in a row, according to Congressman Joe Sestak.
Sestak believes more environmental safeguards have to be put into place, more Pennsylvanians should be trained to work on Marcellus Shale wells and the state should impose an excise tax on drilling companies.
"We want it to be jobs that are created for Pennsylvanians. We want it be environmentally sound so we don’t have higher costs for our children and grandchildren to pay. And, we want to make sure an excise tax is placed upon these oil companies so Pennsylvanians reap the bounty, or part of the bounty, from their ownership of the Marcellus Shale," he told WESB and The HERO Friday afternoon.
“Let’s do this smart,” Sestak said. “Far too often government lets a crisis happen before they act.”
Sestak is a co-sponsor of the House version of the FRAC (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals) Act that he says will overturn the “Halliburton Loophole” which, in 2005, exempted hydraulic fracturing activities from the Clean Drinking Water Act. Currently, drilling companies don’t have to tell the Environmental Protection Agency what chemicals they’re using in fracking.
Until it’s fixed legislatively, he said, EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection need to find other ways to regulate the drilling.
“We have had actual explosions. We have had actual fires occur because of the contamination that fracking has done to our water,” he said.
The explosion happened on New Year’s Day in 2008 in Norma Fiorentino's backyard well in Dimock, Susquehanna County. The explosion shattered an 8-foot concrete slab and threw the pieces onto her lawn.
DEP said drilling activities by Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas caused methane gas to seep into the aquifer. DEP fined Cabot and temporarily halted their activities, but the company is drilling again.
The most recent incident in Clearfield County on June 3 and 4 wasn’t an explosion, but a blowout. When the natural gas started coming out of the well, workers couldn’t get it under control. The gas and frac water spewed into the air and on the ground for 16 hours until “well blowout experts” could cap it.
A water source near the Punxsutawney Hunt Club now reportedly has eight times the salt concentration it had before the blowout, meaning frac water probably penetrated to that level. Investigators are still doing tests, and waiting for the results, to see what, if any, other chemicals have seeped into the water.
Do we need the jobs and money Marcellus Shale drilling could bring to Pennsylvania? Absolutely, Sestak said.
“But we have to do it wisely, safely and with environmental soundness for the safety and the health of our children,” he said.
He noted the problems caused by coal mining in its heyday that didn’t have proper oversight. He said 2,500 miles of tributaries and 250,000 acres of land are contaminated. It will take $15 billion to make them usable again for fishing and for construction, he said.
He reiterated that Pennsylvania has to be smart.
We want to create jobs, but now almost all of the people in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry come from outside Pennsylvania. Colleges should be “gearing up to train Pennsylvanians to do this as we take a pause and make sure the right environmental oversight is given," he said.
“Even New York State paused,” Sestak said.
New York State has enacted a moratorium restricting the use of horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The moratorium will remain in effect while the Department of Environmental Conservation develops new regulations regarding these drilling practices for inclusion in the state's generic environmental impact statement and permit process.
"Gasland" refers to the award-winning film by Josh Fox. The film is winner of The Special Jury Prize for documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. For more on the movie -- including video -- go to Gasland the Movie.com. The movie debuts on HBO at 9 p.m. June 21.
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