"Residents get lesson in 'fracking' dangers"

By Annie Tasker, Intelligencer, August 29, 2010:

Dozens of locals gathered in Quakertown Saturday for a discussion on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, a practice that's boomed in recent years and prompted studies on its possible impact on the Delaware River and the 15 million people who rely on it for drinking water.
Pennsylvania has seen about 1,500 wells drilled since the gas drilling boom started about two years ago, and thousands more are expected. A recent study showed that natural gas production in the multi-state, 50,000-square-mile Marcellus Shale region could create 280,000 new U.S. jobs and generate $6 billion in state, local and federal revenue. Drilling companies have pointed out that's not a bad thing for people in need of jobs in a state in need of funds.

The crowd at Saturday's talk, at the Bucks County Free Library's Quakertown branch, was more concerned with the impact such drilling could have on their water and air.

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," lets gas and oil companies drill horizontally up to 10,000 feet below ground. The practice involves shooting a mix of sand, often-secret chemicals and three to five million gallons of fresh water - likely to come from the Delaware River, in this region - into the ground with pressure high enough to force layers of shale to crack, releasing the natural gas.

That gas is pipelined from the site, and the 20 or 30 percent of wastewater mix that resurfaces is poured into open pits lined with a plastic-like material. It's then taken away in trucks to places equipped to dispose of it.

At Saturday's meeting, Michel Boufadel, chairman of Temple University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, showed images that demonstrated the potential for missing leaks in the pits holding that toxic mix. They showed monitoring wells next to the pit failing to detect a problem for years as the contaminated water soaked deeper downward toward the bedrock, out of their reach.

He proposed creating fracking risk maps similar to those created for floodplains, ones that show the likelihood of flooding - or, in this case, an environmental crisis - over a certain period of time.

The rush to drill for natural gas has the potential to dramatically impact the environment along the Delaware River watershed, [said] Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

"It's galloping forward so quickly that, really and truly, communities and municipalities have not been able to catch up," she said.

The Marcellus Shale region stretches over two-thirds of Pennsylvania.

But some of the action outside of that area is happening in Upper Bucks County.

Five years ago, just more than 300 Nockamixon property owners thought to be living over a natural gas goldmine signed leases with Michigan-based Arbor Resources. Before the Delaware River Basin Commission imposed a drilling moratorium this spring, the company secured permits from the commission and the Department of Environmental Protection to open its first gas well on Beaver Run Road. The township is challenging the DEP permit and awaiting reviews, one from the state Environmental Hearing Board and another before a river commission official, who will examine Arbor's exploratory well permit.

Nockamixon supervisor Chairwoman Nancy Janyszeski encouraged people Saturday to write to their legislators about their natural gas drilling concerns.

She pointed out that the Delaware River was recently named the most endangered in the United States, a distinction given by the environmental group American Rivers because of its risk of contamination by chemicals used for fracking.

"These are things we need to stay on top of," Janyszeski said.