Posts Tagged ‘Scott Perry’

Canonsburg, Pa. – Tonight, Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) president and executive director Kathryn Klaber will deliver the following remarks at a public EPA forum on hydraulic fracturing. Excerpts and full text — as prepared for delivery — of her remarks are below:

• “Fracturing is considered a safe and essential part of the responsible development of natural gas, which studies have shown has the potential to create nearly 212,000 new jobs throughout Pennsylvania over the next decade.”
• “Our industry is working tirelessly to ensure that fracturing is done effectively, prudently and in a way that continues to create thousands of good-paying jobs and stable supplies of homegrown energy for U.S. consumers.”

My name is Kathryn Klaber, and I have the tremendous privilege of serving as the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s first president. And on behalf of the MSC – the organizational body that represents the vast majority of shale gas producers and midstream companies operating in the Commonwealth – I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the significant role hydraulic fracturing continues to play in the responsible development of clean-burning, job-creating natural gas.

As the MSC said at the outset of this study in March, our industry is confident that an objective, science-driven, and peer-reviewed evaluation of fracturing will reach the same conclusions produced by a host of other studies, including most notably one issued by your agency in 2004.

In that report — the product of an intensive, four-year course of study first initiated under the Clinton administration — EPA found “no evidence” suggesting the fracturing of shallow coalbed methane reserves posed a threat to underground drinking water supplies. Certainly you’re aware that coalbed methane strata reside thousands of feet closer to the water table than shale formations, and that the technology used today to access clean-burning natural gas from these formations is much more advanced and sophisticated than what was available in the past.

Here in Pennsylvania, fracturing has been in use for more than 50 years, and has been tightly regulated by the state almost before we had a name for it. Today, as you know, fracturing is considered a safe and essential part of the responsible development of natural gas, which studies have shown has the potential to create nearly 212,000 new jobs throughout Pennsylvania over the next decade.

Because of tight regulations and laws in place, coupled with the commitment from industry to protect the environment, there’s never been a single case of groundwater contamination associated with fracturing, as noted by PA DEP, top EPA officials, other state regulators, and the Groundwater Protection Council.

As EPA’s study moves forward, it’s critical to consider what the top officials responsible for regulating fracturing in the Commonwealth have said. Scott Perry, director of DEP’s bureau of oil and gas management – with whom my members work closely with – said this in May:

• “We’ve never seen an impact to fresh groundwater directly from fracking.”
• “No one’s ever documented drinking water wells that have actually been shown to be impacted by fracking.”

Pittsburgh Congressman Mike Doyle has said that state officials have “done a great job in regulating” Marcellus Shale exploration.

Unfortunately, while perceptions remain that our industry continues to resist regulations, the truth is quite the opposite. In fact, my member companies met earlier today with top DEP officials about well-casing standards; the second of such productive meetings in just months.

Our industry is working tirelessly to ensure that fracturing is done effectively, prudently and in a way that continues to create thousands of good-paying jobs and stable supplies of homegrown energy for U.S. consumers.

Once again, thank for the opportunity to speak here tonight about the critical role that hydraulic fracturing continues to play in realizing the Marcellus’s promise.

NOTE: Click HERE to view these remarks on-line.

Study says millions of PA residents relying on private water wells that may contain contaminants – none of which are related to the Marcellus Shale

Nearly 20,000 new wells are drilled in Pennsylvania every year. And among these, not a single one of them has anything to do with oil or natural gas.

Instead, these wells are drilled for the purpose of accessing underground sources of water. In Pennsylvania, more than three million residents rely on private wells for essential sources of potable water – second most in the entire nation behind Michigan. So lots of wells must mean lots of good, high-quality drinking water, right? Not according to a report issued last year by researchers from Penn State.

The study, available here and commissioned by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, was conducted over two years and drew on samples from more than 700 individual private water wells installed all across the state. What did the researchers find? For starters, a full 40 percent of tested wells failed to meet the state’s drinking water standards for safety. Keep in mind that Pennsylvania supports more than 1 million private water wells – which means it’s possible that more than 400,000 water wells, serving roughly 700,000 residents, are of a quality and nature of potential concern. And the worst thing about it? According to the survey, very few of these well owners even knew they had a problem.

With more than 1,300 Marcellus wells developed in Pennsylvania this year, it’s become a popular thing to assume that wells drilled for the purpose of tapping enormous and clean-burning reserves of natural gas 5,000 to 9,000 feet below the water table are having a deleterious impact on underground drinking water. The alleged culprit? A commonly deployed well stimulation technology known as hydraulic fracturing, a technique that’s been used more than a million times over the past 60 years not just for oil and natural gas, but forgeothermal production and even by EPA for Superfund clean-ups.

But as mentioned, the report on private water wells from Penn State was issued in 2009, roughly 50 years removed from the first-ever application of fracturing technology in the Commonwealth — and five years after the fracturing of the first-ever Marcellus Shale well. In other words, hydraulic fracturing has been around an awful long time in Pennsylvania, and so has the development of oil (1859) and natural gas (1881). So if the critics are right, those activities must have been identified by researchers as the greatest threats to the state’s underground water resources, right?

Take a look for yourself:

Of the 28 variables measured for each well, the results demonstrated that natural variables, such as the type of bedrock geology where the well was drilled, were important in explaining the occurrence of most pollutants in wells. Soil moisture conditions at the time of sampling were the single most important variable in explaining the occurrence of bacteria in private wells. … Inadequate well construction was strongly correlated with the occurrence of both coliform and E. coli bacteria in wells.

That’s right – we forgot to mention the fecal coliform (exactly what you think it is) and E. coli bacteria. According to the report, it turns out that 33 percent of private water wells in PA were found to be contaminated with the coliform, while a staggering 14 percent tested positive for E. coli. Another contaminant of concern is naturally occurring arsenic. Two percent of tested wells had increased levels of that, which potentially translates into 20,000 water wells across the state. According to the report, arsenic “most often occur[s] naturally from certain types of rocks but it can also come from treated lumber and pesticides.” Incidentally, Pennsylvania is among the only states in the nation without regulations governing the construction of private water wells or the periodic testing of the quality of water that comes from them.

This presentation prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey will take a minute or two to load, but take a look at slide 23 if you get the chance. Turns out Pennsylvania’s water wells are among the only ones in the nation with “high contaminant concentrations” for every one of the Big 3: arsenic, nitrates and radon. Again: Nothing in the report remotely related to Marcellus Shale activities. But don’t take our word for it – ask DEP (by way of Scott Perry, director of DEP’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management):

“If there was fracturing of the producing formations that was having a direct communication with groundwater, the first thing you would notice is the salt content in the drinking water. It’s never happened. After a million times across the country, no one’s ever documented drinking water wells that have actually been shown to be impacted by fracking.”

Protecting underground sources of drinking water is and will always be our top priority – after all, we live here too. But if we expect the quality of our water to improve, first we’ll need to be honest about how it got where it is today, and then we’ll need to get serious about what needs to be done to improve it. That, we think, is what you’d do if you genuinely cared about the state and status of Pennsylvania’s private water wells. Unfortunately, too many folks seem all too willing to blame the entire phenomenon on the development of the Marcellus Shale – irrespective of the science, and blind to the history of the past 60 years.

Copyright: Marcelluscoalition.org

Official lays out efforts to protect environment

By Steve Mocarskysmocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

DALLAS TWP. – The man in charge of ensuring the oil and gas industry complies with environmental regulations in Pennsylvania spoke at a well-attended Back Mountain presentation on Tuesday, informing the public about protections in place and what is being done to improve public safety.

Scott R. Perry, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, provided an overview of how drilling into the Marcellus Shale formation differs from other forms of natural gas drilling and discussed the bureau’s current work and future plans to protect the environment.

Misericordia University President Michael MacDowell welcomed Perry to the school’s Lemmond Theater, and assistant professor Julie Kuhlken, who teaches environmental philosophy, moderated a question-and-answer session afterward.

Oil and gas drilling began in Pennsylvania in 1859, Perry said. But new technology that enables horizontal drilling into the 5,000- to 7,000-foot-deep Marcellus formation has brought to the state energy companies that have until recently focused their efforts in western states.

“One of the things we noticed is that people from Texas and Oklahoma aren’t really familiar with hills. Pennsylvania has them, and we also have rain, more so than Texas, and so there have been some struggles in developing these well sites,” Perry said.

Pennsylvania, he noted, is the only state that requires an approved erosion and sediment control plan before a drilling permit is issued.

In his computerized slide show, Perry showed a photo of an erosion-and-sediment control violation at a state drilling site. Controls on the main level were fine, but farther down a hill, a DEP inspector found “a bunch of hay bales” and “silt fence that’s not doing any good.”

“I asked the inspector who took this picture what he thought they were thinking. He said, ‘I think they were thinking I wasn’t going to walk down that hill,’ ” Perry said, eliciting laughter.

DEP forced the operator to put proper controls in place.

Perry noted the DEP hired 37 inspectors in 2009 and is hiring 68 more this year to nearly double the size of the inspection staff to 193. Three-fourths of those employees will oversee the oil and gas industry; higher permit fees pay for it all.

Perry said he believes there are adequate regulations in place to protect public health and safety and the environment, but he supports several provisions in proposed legislation, such as one that would increase bonding requirements for drilling companies.

Perry said DEP officials are “always evaluating” regulations, and when they’re inadequate “we’re strengthening them. … For example, we’re evaluating the permit requirements for air quality. … We’re not done with the evaluation and regulation process for this industry. They’re just getting started and so are we.”

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7311.

Copyright: Times Leader

Mauri Rapp Abington Journal Correspondent

Sir Francis Bacon once said “Knowledge is power.” To that famous quote, Calvin Tillman adds “Once you know, you can’t not know.”

Tillman, the mayor of DISH, Texas, was one of four panelists in attendance at “Impacts of Gas Drilling and Your Community,” a Marcellus Shale drilling information seminar held April 29 at the Clark Summit fire hall. DISH, a town of fewer than 200 residents located approximately 25 miles from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, garnered national attention after changing its name from Clark in exchange for free cable television service for ten years from DISH Network.

DISH has also attracted another kind of attention: the eye of natural gas companies drilling in the Barnett Shale region, a natural gas field which stretches approximately 5,000 square miles across the state of Texas. Tillman called DISH the “Grand Central Station” of the Barnett Shale play, with 11 compressor stations, three metering stations and more than 20 natural gas pipelines located within less than two square miles.

Tillman described to the 150-plus people in attendance April 29 the impact natural gas drilling has had on his town. To date, the Barnett Shale play has added approximately $8 to $10 billion and 100,000 jobs to the Texas economy, Tillman said. The industry has also added toxic chemicals to DISH’s air, he said. A study performed in August 2009 by Wolf Eagle Environmental showed that the air contained high concentrations of carcinogens and neurotoxins. Tillman continues to advocate for the town’s population, and on April 22 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality installed a continuous air monitor in DISH. “I believe more testing should be done,” he said.

The mayor has relayed his story to audiences in the Marcellus Shale region during the past several months. Tillman said he is not against the industry and believes in working with it to get things done, but feels that citizens and communities should go into leases with their eyes open. He said that certain measures, such as green technologies, declaration of areas such as schools and parks off limits to drilling, and a separation between the DEP regulating and permitting bodies could help make the industry safer. Tillman also spoke in favor of a severance tax for Pennsylvania. “I hate to break it to you, but the oil and gas industry came into Pennsylvania and picked your pockets,” Tillman said. “You need to have a severance tax to pay for roads, to pay for environmental issues, to pay for more DEP workers.”

Putting a personal face on the Marcellus Shale play was Victoria Switzer, a natural gas lessor from Dimock Township who said she wished she knew when she signed her lease what she knows now. “We’ve all heard the glories of the natural gas industry,” Switzer said. “I’m not going to dispute some of those things, but I’m going to show you what comes with the package deal.”

Switzer said that for the past couple of years, she has been living in a gas field with 63 wells located within nine square miles, the closest one 710 feet from her own home. Twenty-four of those wells have had violations, said Switzer. She now conducts what she calls “Victoria’s Toxic Tours” for citizens, journalists and public officials interested in seeing the impact natural gas drilling has had in her township. “You need to know what is coming your way,” she told the audience.

Panelist Paul Lumia, executive director of North Branch Land Trust, provided tips for those who decide to lease to natural gas drillers, including getting to know one’s gas man and remaining vigilant in reporting suspected violations to DEP. Lumia also encourages the crowd to pressure policymakers into decisions that preserve the environment. “Don’t just assume that your neighbors will do it,” Lumia said. “Protecting our land is up to us.”

Also on hand was George E. Turner, a professional geologist with more than 20 years of experience with groundwater and water testing. Turner advised those considering natural gas leasing to get their water tested beforehand. “This gives you legal proof in case your water is contaminated,” he said.

Scott Perry, deputy director of the DEP Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, was on hand to answer questions from the audience.

Copyright: Times Leader