Save Plumstead Water

Don’t Frack the Delaware

2011-11-10T21:02:00.011-05:00

Don’t Frack the Delaware and Risk Our Water and Health

By Betty Tatham, Guest Opinion, Intelligencer, Nov. 16, 2011, and Bucks County Courier Times, Nov. 17, 2011

The Delaware River Basin Commission was created 50 years ago by Congress “to protect the water quality, quantity and scenic beauty of the Delaware River Basin.” That protection is now in jeopardy, if 3 of the 5 Commissioners: Governor Christy, Governor Corbett, Governor Cuomo, Governor Markell and Col. Larsen, who represents President Obama and the federal government, vote to approve the just published Revised Natural Gas Regulations on November 21. The public meeting will be held at the War Memorial Theater in Trenton between 10:00 a.m. and noon and it will be followed by a question and answer period. The regulations are available on the Commission’s website. [Please sign and circulate this petition and fact sheet, to be delivered to the Commission by the Delaware Riverkeeper prior to the November 21 meeting.]

The revised regulations will allow discharge of toxic hydraulic fracturing flowback and wastewater (that come up with the natural gas) into streams and rivers in the Delaware Basin through treatment or sewer plants. Studies have shown that some of the chemicals used in drilling and fracturing are carcinogenic and sometimes also radioactive and some cannot be removed, only diluted.

They will allow deep injection wells, called “Underground Injection Control,” in the regulations. These waste wells are hydraulically fractured at great depth to make room for flowback and wastewater disposal under high pressure. They have been linked with earthquakes in at least 4 states, including Arkansas, where more than 1,000 quakes were recorded by the Geological Survey in the Guy-Greenbrier area in 7 months and one was at 4.7 magnitude. The earthquakes greatly subsided after the two deep injection wells were shut down last spring. These wells will be located within the Delaware basin, but be regulated by the state in which they are located.

“Impoundments,” or frack ponds, are also approved by the regulations to store and treat flowback and wastewater; however, many of the toxins, including heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, etc., can only be diluted. These huge open “Central Impoundments” will serve several well pads and numerous wells and they can overflow during flooding, endangering groundwater, soil and nearby aquifers. The wind can also whip toxic chemicals and methane into the air and carry them 100 miles or more during a storm.

Compressor stations will be used to compress the natural gas before moving it through pipelines for shipping or to storage facilities. Air contamination is unavoidable near this equipment and childhood asthma rates in heavy drilling areas in Texas are three times higher than in the rest of the state (verified by a multi-hospital study mentioned in the New York Times).

After studying hydraulic fracturing and its effects on people and the environment, I am convinced that if it were not for the congressional approval in 2005 of the exemptions of the hydraulic fracturing process from the protection of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Superfund Act and other federal regulations, only conventional drilling for natural gas would exist today.

While Pennsylvania has seen heavy use of hydraulic fracturing for less than four years, in Texas it has been practiced twice as long and some of the health effects are alarming. Breast cancer rates, childhood asthma, and possibly childhood leukemia rates (especially in children under age 5 in the Flower Mound area of Texas) should be warning signs that a cumulative impact study for the Delaware River Basin or waiting for the EPA study results would be wise. The gas has been here 350,000,000 years and it can wait another year or two while we safeguard our water, our health and that of future generations.

Pennsylvania is still grappling with clean-up after the coal industry, but with hydraulic fracturing, the damage to aquifers can be permanent. Let’s hope that three people who have the power to save our water and health, will not trade it for natural gas!

Please "like" Save Plumstead on Facebook

2011-09-08T20:54:00.002-04:00

Support Save Plumstead with a "like" at Facebook.com/SavePlumstead.

Drought watch lifted

2011-07-20T11:27:00.007-04:00

9/2/11 Drought watch lifted for 40 PA counties, including Bucks.

8/5/11 DEP Declares Drought Watches and Warnings: Bucks County is among 40 counties under a drought watch.

From PlumsteadTownship.org:
"8/30/11 - Drought Watch Continues...Even with the recent heavy rainfall in our area we are advised by the PaDEP that the entire portion of southeastern Pennsylvania still remains under a 'drought watch.' Residents are being asked to voluntarily reduce their consumption by 5%."

"8/4/11 - As of Thursday, August 4, the water restrictions on Cabin Run and Landis Greene developments are modified to now allow for hand watering of gardens and flower beds. Lawn watering, car washing and all other non-essential uses remain prohibited. Voluntary water restrictions will remain in place for all of the other Township public water systems."

"7/19/11 - Plumstead Township is placing mandatory drought restrictions on water usage for all residents in the Cabin Run and Landis Greene developments. The restrictions prohibit the use of all non-essential water use including lawn and garden watering, car washing and the filling of pools until further notice. A drought watch is in place for all other public water systems in the Township. We are asking for the voluntary reduction in the use of water in those systems."

Cawley's job numbers called "misleading"

2011-07-15T17:15:00.001-04:00

"Cawley touts job creation at gas drilling sites," "Research group calls Cawley's statements 'misleading,'" Bucks County Herald, July 14, 2011, C1.

"Game Changer" on This American Life

2011-07-10T12:37:00.001-04:00

Episode 440, originally aired July 8, 2011.
"A professor in Pennsylvania makes a calculation, to discover that his state is sitting atop a massive reserve of natural gas—enough to revolutionize how America gets its energy. But another professor in Pennsylvania does a different calculation and reaches a troubling conclusion: that getting natural gas out of the ground poses a risk to public health. Two men, two calculations, and two very different consequences."

Joint letter to PA General Assembly opposing stripping of municipal drilling authority

2011-06-26T13:55:00.002-04:00

Signed by 30 organizations detailing the reasons why they oppose SB 1100.
PETITION: Do Not Let Corporate Gas Drillers Trump Local Rights of Pennsylvanians - Say No to SB 1100.

Delaware Riverkeeper's petition to the DRBC

2011-06-16T20:36:00.004-04:00

Download the Delaware Riverkeeper's petition to the Delaware River Basin Commission, then press Ctrl+P to print.

"Commission needs to keep moratorium"

2011-06-13T00:48:00.001-04:00

Madeline Rawley's letter to the editor of the Intelligencer, June 12, 2011:

As your Tuesday editorial on natural gas fracking rightly said, "if something goes wrong, the result can be catastrophic."

Our elected officials in the Delaware River Basin, influenced by a perhaps illusory promise of economic development and a new source of energy, may soon decide to lift the moratorium they have placed on fracking here, and risk a catastrophe, just as the Japanese government officials did when they responded to a Tokyo energy company and placed nuclear energy plants on an earthquake fault that had a tsunami danger as well. The result was a short-term gain for very long term pain.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, created to protect the waters of the Delaware River, which runs past Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, hearing about the environmental, drinking water and public health problems that natural gas fracking can cause, wisely put a moratorium on drilling. Now, however, the commission, composed of the four governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and the general who heads the Army Corps of Engineers, says they will vote soon on whether to lift the moratorium and permit the drilling to begin.

Unbelievably, the commission is planning to vote before a research study, being conducted by the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency about the effects of fracking on drinking water, is completed, thus risking the drinking water of more than 15 million people, among whom are the residents of Philadelphia, New York City, four Bucks County towns and a portion of Doylestown Township. Other Pennsylvania rivers, like the Susquehanna and the Monongahela, have already been affected by the toxic chemicals, salt and radioactivity that result from breaking Marcellus shale to release the gas. The EPA will not be issuing its preliminary report until next year, with the final report due in 2012.

Why is the Delaware River Basin Commission considering lifting the moratorium before the EPA study is released? Shouldn't they learn before permitting drilling whether it is safe to do so? Why the rush? Why is the commission already considering an invalid application from a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil to draw water from a trout creek in upstate New York? Is it because Exxon Mobil, knowing that millions and millions of gallons of water are needed to drill wells if the moratorium is lifted, believes the moratorium will be lifted soon?

Please google "Delaware River Basin Commission" for contact information. Tell the DRBC to keep the moratorium in place until the EPA study says gas drilling will not destroy our clean Delaware River water, our most basic need.

Madeline Rawley
Doylestown Township

PennEnvironment's 2011 Lobby Day, June 7

2011-05-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

Details at https://secure3.convio.net/engage/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1965

PennEnvironment petition: "Protect our rivers from gas drilling"

2011-05-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

At https://secure3.convio.net/engage/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1971

"Why we need to study first and drill when it's safe"

2011-04-08T13:11:00.001-04:00

Elizabeth Tatham, Intelligencer Soapbox guest opinion, April 8, 2011:

Letters will be accepted by the Delaware River Basin Commission until April 15 at 5 p.m., and emails can be sent to Stephanie@delawareriverkeeper.org before April 14 at noon, to be printed and delivered to the DRBC office. Unless there are enough of them to convince the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware and President Obama's representative to wait two years for the EPA study to show how gas drilling can be done safely in the Delaware Basin, drilling can begin this fall.

From Nockamixon and Buckingham in Bucks County to the Delaware River's headwaters in New York state, gas drilling will seriously impact the people and environment in this basin. The proposed regulations will unfortunately not protect our water because they allow practices that have been harmful to drinking water in western and northeastern Pennsylvania and other states.

Gas companies can discharge diluted and treated drilling wastewater into the Delaware River and its tributaries through sewage plants, even though the Environmental Protection Agency advises against this practice because not all of the carcinogenic, radioactive and otherwise toxic chemicals can be removed. Drinking, cooking and bathing in contaminated water can cause illness in people and animals. Small children are especially vulnerable. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection called the Monongahela River "impaired by gas drilling" a year ago.

"Impoundments" - uncovered holding ponds as large as football fields - will be used to store highly toxic wastewater, which contains drilling chemicals, huge amounts of salt and heavy metals from deep in the ground, like barium, mercury and arsenic and often radioactive materials, all of which come up with the gas and returning wastewater. These ponds are also called "central treatment facilities" in the regulations because the liquid is diluted and treated there for later use in gas drilling or to be shipped to sewage plants.

Enclosed containers will be used on the well pads, but these wastewater ponds will be between the pads. Methane laced with drilling chemicals can be blown by the wind for more than 100 miles, causing asthma and other illnesses. A multihospital study in Texas showed that children in heavy drilling areas had a rate of asthma three times higher than in the rest of the state.

Overflowing during flooding is another hazard, since it spreads the toxins over soil and into groundwater, endangering aquifers. One of these impoundments exploded in Wayne County last year, with flames 75 feet high. The liner of the pond burned up, exposing the toxins to the ground underneath.

Deep wastewater injection wells will also be permitted by these regulations, even though they have been linked to earthquakes in Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Texas. The Geological Society of Arkansas recorded 800 earthquakes in the Greenbrier area where these wells operate since September. A Feb. 27 earthquake was measured at 4.7, the strongest in 35 years.

Aquifer contamination by methane, with drilling chemicals migrating upward, is another threat from both deep injection wells and regular gas wells.

The DRBC's proposed well pad setbacks of 500 feet from any body of water - and in the case of Pennsylvania, only 200 feet from an occupied home - are totally inadequate to protect our water and our health. The DEP shut down three gas wells a year ago for contaminating 19 water wells in Dimock. A gas well exploded in Clearfield County last summer, spewing gas, wastewater and toxic chemicals for 16 hours before it was finally controlled. More than a thousand families in this country can't drink their own well water because it contains drilling chemicals and other contaminants from deep in the ground.

With tens of thousands of gas wells projected for our basin, the DRBC has a tremendous responsibility to get it right the first time. Waiting for the EPA study to show how and if gas drilling in this densely populated area can be done safely is prudent and necessary. Our children and grandchildren deserve this cautious step.

Let's not trade their water for gas.

Elizabeth (Betty) Tatham directed the YWCA of Bucks County for more than a decade before she retired. She now volunteers for the Delaware Riverkeeper, the League of Women Voters and the World YWCA. She lives in Holland.

Gasland at County Theater Feb. 15 & 17, 5:30 p.m.

2011-02-14T11:50:00.001-05:00

The documentary Gasland will be screened at the County Theater this Tuesday and Thursday, February 15 and 17 at 5:30 p.m.

Submit your comments to the DRBC by April 15!

2011-02-13T18:31:00.010-05:00

DRBC Extends Comment Period on Draft Natural Gas Development Regulations

West Trenton, N.J. (March 2) – The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) today announced that the period for submitting written comments on the proposed natural gas development rulemaking will be extended an additional 30 days through the close of business (5 p.m.) April 15, 2011. The comment period was to have ended March 16. . . .

Written comments will be accepted by two methods only:
1. Electronic submission using a web-based form available on the DRBC web site (preferred method); or
2. Paper submission mailed or delivered to: Commission Secretary, DRBC, P.O. Box 7360, 25 State Police Drive, West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360. Please include the name, address, and affiliation (if any) of the commenter.

The Delaware Riverkeeper offers a sample letter on their action page. A volunteer with Damascus Citizens for Sustainability offers a personal letter of her own as a sample and adds, "Urgent! Please write your own letter or print, sign and send this one. Thanks for helping save our drinking water! New York City saved theirs with 10,000 letters; we can do it too."

DRBC Commissioners

25 State Police Drive

P.O. Box 7360

West Trenton, NJ 08628-0360

Dear DRBC Commissioners:

As a citizen of PA who lives in the Delaware River Basin, I strongly urge you to heed the advice of the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial “Is our water safe?” published March 20, 2011, which states, “Growing doubts about the safety of high-pressure drilling for natural gas should persuade the Delaware River Commission to extend its drilling ban.” The gas has been in the Marcellus Shale for millions of years and it can wait several more years for the EPA Study that is underway to show us how hydraulic fracturing for gas can be done safely and if it can be done without risking our water and health.

These are my recommendations regarding the regulations you have proposed:
1. Don’t allow any toxic chemicals from gas drilling to be discharged into our streams and rivers through sewer plants or in any other way. Our drinking water and health must be our top priority and the DRBC is responsible for protecting us.
2. Don’t allow uncovered “impoundments” or holding ponds to be used to store toxic wastewater and don’t allow importing of toxic wastewater from gas drilling outside the Delaware Basin. The wind can carry methane gas with carcinogenic and/or radioactive materials more than 100 miles and we can’t risk asthma in children or other health problems.
3. Don’t allow deep injection wells to be used to dispose of toxic wastewater because they have been linked with induced earthquakes in four other states and there is also the risk of aquifer contamination.
4. Don’t allow toxic and sometimes radioactive drill cuttings to be disposed of in landfills since they can leach into the ground and pollute aquifers.

In summary, please wait for the EPA study to provide guidance and direction before finalizing regulations!

Sincerely,

_____________________________________

Signature

_____________________________________

Name printed

_____________________________________

Address

_________________________________________________

City, State and Zip Code

"Pa. official defends rules on gas drilling waste"

2011-01-09T21:49:00.000-05:00

By David B. Caruso, Associated Press, January 5, 2011:

Pennsylvania's top environmental enforcement official said Tuesday that he is confident that wastewater discharged into rivers and streams by the booming natural gas industry hasn't degraded the state's drinking water.

At least 3.6 million barrels of the ultra-salty, chemically tainted wastewater produced by gas drilling operations were discharged into state waterways in the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press. Drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians is drawn from those rivers and streams.

Those discharges have troubled some environmentalists. Most of the big drilling companies digging thousands of new wells in Pennsylvania have committed to curtailing or ending the practice.

John Hanger, the outgoing secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, said he believes the new regulations are adequate to protect water supplies. . . . [continued]

"Authority: Discharge met its regulations"

2011-01-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

By Rich Pietras, Intelligencer, January 5, 2011:

The Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority said it did nothing wrong in accepting treated wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling operations.

Wastewater used for Marcellus Shale gas drilling was treated by the Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority over a one-year period starting in April 2009, but the water was treated twice and met authority regulations for discharge into the Neshaminy Creek, the authority's director said Tuesday.

The authority stopped handling the water, however, because of regulations restricting trucking wastewater from one watershed into another.

The Hatfield Authority's handling of the water was part of an Associated Press story published Tuesday that looked at how Pennsylvania regulates wastewater generated as part of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Cabot Oil & Gas hired PSC Environmental Services to truck nearly 1 million gallons of wastewater to PSC's facility in Hatfield.

PSC then delivered the water to the authority, which treated it a second time before discharging it into the Neshaminy.

The wastewater from Marcellus Shale is a byproduct of the "fracking" process where a water mixture is used to break through rock to release natural gas.

There has been a fierce debate over whether the wastewater that returns to the surface is hazardous.

It can contain high levels of some toxins, like barium, strontium and radium, but the treatment plants handling the bulk of Pennsylvania's gas drilling waste remove most of those substances before discharging the water, The Associated Press reported.

State officials and industry participants say the amount of waste put back into waterways, while significant, is also safely diluted by the massive volumes of water in the rivers, reducing both any residual toxins and the salt to safe levels.

Researchers are still trying to figure out whether Pennsylvania's river discharges, at their current levels, are dangerous to humans or wildlife. Several studies are under way, some under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Faced with opposition to river dumping and tightening state regulations, all of the state's biggest drillers say they are now recycling a majority of the wastewater produced by their wells in new fracturing jobs, rather than sending it to treatment plants.

John Hanger, the outgoing secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, says he believes new regulations are adequate to protect water supplies and he's confident that wastewater discharged into rivers and streams hasn't degraded the state's drinking water. He said no river used for drinking water has exceeded the EPA standard for dissolved solids for an extended period, although there have been some instances of seasonal spikes that can last for a few days.

In Hatfield, it was the fact that the water came from another watershed that raised a red flag from the EPA and DEP, which contacted the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Commission spokesman Clarke Rupert said new requirements are aimed at preventing future problems.

Cabot spokesman George Stark told The Associated Press that the company was aware that its waste shouldn't have been going to facilities in the Delaware River Basin, but it's unclear if it knew where PSC was taking the water to be treated.

DEP spokesperson Jamie Legenos said Tuesday that PSC is permitted to accept wastewater and Hatfield's authority had a pre-treatment agreement with PSC that is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We have had a relationship with PSC for probably 30 years," said Hatfield Municipal Sewer Authority Director Pete Dorney. "They pre-treat everything they send to us based on criteria by the (Department of Environmental Protection). Everything we get, all wastewater, has to meet that criteria."

Dorney said about 900,000 gallons of Marcellus Shale wastewater was treated and released over the one-year period.

Dorney said after the authority was told by the Delaware River Basin Commission early in 2010 it would need new permits and new standards to dispose of the wastewater in the Neshaminy, it decided to stop on its own.

"Did it come here? Yes. We can't deny it. But we were not told by the DEP or anyone else to stop taking it. We voluntarily stopped. + We decided it would cost too much and didn't want to deal with the added scrutiny."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

"Pa. allows dumping of tainted water from gas boom"

2011-01-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

By David B. Caruso, Associated Press, January 3, 2011:

The natural gas boom gripping parts of the U.S. has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

Not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush.

There, the liquid that gushes from gas wells is only partially treated for substances that could be environmentally harmful, then dumped into rivers and streams from which communities get their drinking water. . . . [continued]

"Natural gas drilling issue heating up for new year"

2010-12-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, December 22, 2010:

At the beginning of 2010, we knew gas drilling was an issue in Nockamixon. Today, we know it's an issue for all of us.

Early in the year, natural gas drilling was widely considered a pocket problem for local environmentalists and a potential payday for land-rich homeowners in rural Nockamixon.

As 2010 comes to a close, the drilling boom is at the doorsteps of all Bucks County homeowners and business owners.

An estimated 10,000 natural gas wells will soon line the Delaware River watershed, crossing through New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware; affecting the 15 million people that rely daily on the river and its tributaries for unfiltered drinking water.

Five years after hundreds of Nockamixon homeowners had signed a contract with a gas drilling company and sold their mineral rights for a comparatively minimal profit, the drilling company began 2010 by automatically renewing those gas leases.

Drilling had not begun in Upper Bucks, and many weary homeowners wanted out of the binding contract. Some felt they had gotten a bad deal.

Looking from their own $100 lease checks to the reports of small farmers in Bradford and Susquehanna Counties racking in more than $100,000 in lease payments and royalties, some Nockamixon homeowners were feeling stiffed.

Some had second thoughts after learning more about the hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," process, which uses millions of gallons of water and a drilling company's secret recipe of chemicals to flush gas trapped in the rock thousands of feet below the surface.

Environmentalists pointed north to towns like Dimmock, Susquehanna County, where a frack fluid spill by drillers leached 8,000 gallons of toxins into a nearby creek, killing fish and poisoning neighboring water wells.

Nationwide, accidents are happening, and people are beginning to pay attention to its potential health threats.

In his HBO documentary "Gasland," released this year, filmmaker Josh Fox highlights incidents where residents' properties have been contaminated because of gas drilling mishaps. In the film, a Pennsylvania homeowner can ignite the water pouring from his kitchen faucet.

But gas drilling is solving real financial problems for people, proponents argue.

It's bringing jobs and business to small towns hard-hit by a recession, and offering easy wealth to small farmers and low-income property owners.

At the same time, Pennsylvania lawmakers have spent the year debating a tax on gas drilling; adding millions to a slumping state budget.

Gov.-elect Tom Corbett opposes a severance tax on gas drilling, citing that a tax on the industry at this stage would reduce capital investment in the commonwealth and reduce the potential for new jobs, tax revenues and other economic benefits.

In Nockamixon, township supervisors and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network have been working feverishly to block Michigan-based Arbor Resources' attempt to begin exploratory drilling in our area.

Though Nockamixon does not sit atop the Marcellus Shale region, like much of Pennsylvania, it's believed that there is an untapped hot spot of natural gas below rural Upper Bucks.

Arbor argued that the state Oil and Gas Act trumps all local laws concerning gas drilling.

Nockamixon maintained that it had the authority to enforce its zoning, which restricted drilling to the township's industrial and quarry zones - not within residential and agricultural areas, which include most of those approximate 300 homeowners who had already signed gas leases.

Nockamixon won this round.

This fall, Arbor quietly withdrew its permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to drill.

But the opportunity to drill is not dead in Nockamixon.

No judge has blocked a drilling company from moving in, and reportedly, at least half of those signed gas leases have already been sold by Arbor to two other gas drilling companies, Hook 'Em Energy Partners and Pearl Energy Partners.

Those two companies originally had partnered with Arbor to battle Nockamixon Township in court.

Surely, 2011 promises to bring more heated debate over natural gas drilling - its potential boost to cash-strapped state and local economies and its potential devastation to the Delaware River, its wildlife and the clean drinking water we all rely on.

This year, grassroots groups like the Delaware Riverkeeper network and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability will continue to unite under a banner call to kill the drill before it begins in our region.

Currently, the Delaware River Basin Commission is working on new gas drilling regulations.

The commission oversees the river's water quality and quantity, and its representatives vote on behalf of President Barack Obama and the Army Corps of Engineers, and the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Gas drilling operations are on hold until the new regulations are finalized.

Though environmental groups and some lawmakers, including New York Gov. David Paterson, are demanding a federally funded, cumulative impact study before the region is opened up to natural gas drillers, the DRBC is moving forward.

In early 2011, the DRBC will hold public hearings in New York, Trenton and the Lehigh Valley. Though no specific dates or locations have been announced yet, thousands are expected to storm the events.

"DEP: Well cleanups progressing"

2010-12-15T21:32:00.000-05:00

By Freda R. Savana, Intelligencer, December 15, 2010:

Officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection took Plumstead residents through a detailed presentation Tuesday on its efforts to address well contamination that, authorities say, was the result of fighting an industrial fire on Stump Road in June.

About 30 residents attended the public hearing, part of a process DEP must make as it provides clean water to 10 homes with various levels of polluted water. Several expressed concerns about what happens if contamination is discovered in the future.

Tracy Thiebeau, who lives near the scene of the blaze, which destroyed Customs Particle Reduction Inc., questioned "who will be responsible five or 10 years from now, if we have problems."

Officials assured homeowners the agency will continue to monitor the area surrounding the fire and be available if further action is needed.

"We'll be here," said Bill Blasberg, an assistant counsel with DEP.

Some three million gallons of water were used to battle the four-alarm blaze at the business, which processed food additives. Officials believe runoff polluted soil and water in the area.

Bonnie McClennen, project manager for the Plumstead contamination, said the agency has completed drilling and connecting seven new wells, all of which have filtration systems to rid the water of lingering pollution. She said it's still unclear if the cause of the remaining contamination is the result of runoff from fighting the fire or from natural sources.

Three property owners have had permanent filtration systems installed on their wells, said McClennen.

Testing has shown the water from the new wells and those with only filtrations systems to be safe. Ragesh Patel, a manager with DEP, said sampling will continue for at least one year.

Two ponds on the site have been drained and excavated. Soil and water testing has shown them to be free of pollution so far, said Tim Sheehan, a field supervisor for DEP's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program.

. . . [Two residents] have not been in their home since the June 29 fire. Smoke filled their house, forcing them to evacuate and not return until it's been fully remediated, perhaps in January.

"I'm not happy," said . . . [one], citing concern over a lack of oversight as the company begins to rebuild.

"There should be mile markers they have to meet. I want to see you ride them," she told DEP officials.

Sheehan agreed but said it was not his agency's responsibility to oversee the business. He pointed to township and county officials to meet that need.

"We never thought in our wildest dreams there would be a fire there," noted Patel, who said DEP has spent $650,000 to $700,000 to address the water and soil contamination so far.

At the time of the fire, Custom Particle Reduction had an inventory that included 160,000 pounds of sodium benzoate, a commonly used preservative. Early rounds of sampling revealed elevated levels of benzene, sodium, antimony, manganese and benzoic acid in nearby ponds that had received runoff from firefighting activities, according to DEP.

Benzoic acid, a breakdown product of sodium benzoate, along with other contaminants found in the ponds was also found in some residential wells, DEP said.

Blasberg said DEP is pursuing efforts to have Customs Particle Reduction foot the bill for the clean-up. While there's no "active litigation," the attorney said the state's Environmental Hearing Board is expected to consider DEP's request.

"Water rates on the rise in some locales"

2010-12-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

By Peter Hall, Bucks County Courier Times, December 3, 2010:

Residents and municipal water companies supplied by Bucks County's public water and sewer authority will see the price of H2O increase in the new year.

Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority will increase the rate it charges municipal water companies by 28 percent, from $2.68 to $3.44 per 1,000 gallons. BCWSA's 16,000 direct customers in Middletown, Lower Southampton and New Hope will also see their water bills increase by about $4 a month for a typical user.

That's because the authority's largest supplier, the Philadelphia Water Department, has increased the rate it charges the authority for water piped into Bucks County.

Spokesman Patrick Cleary said the local water companies will likely pass the cost along to their customers, but was unable to say what the increase would be.

For consumers who receive water directly from BCSWA, two components of their bills will increase. The flat rate will increase from $8.33 to $9.83 a month and the usage rate will increase from $3.35 to $3.95 per 1,000 gallons. The average customer's bill will increase from $22.29 to $26.29.

Cleary said BCWSA attempted to negotiate the rate with the Philadelphia Water Department, but the city made clear that most terms were set in stone. He said the authority has also questioned the operating costs passed along to the county, which have increased 152 percent since 2008 while the city's costs have increased by only 31 percent.

Cleary said the authority has taken steps to begin arbitration to reduce the charges, but could not say when a resolution might be reached. A spokeswoman for the PWD did not return calls Wednesday.

BCWSA purchases water from the PWD and pipes it to homes throughout Lower Bucks and local water companies in Bensalem, Newtown, Northampton and Upper Southampton.

The rate increase will have an impact on water bills for BCWSA's direct customers in addition to those served by local water companies. Cleary was unable to provide the authority's retail rate or say how much a typical customer's bill might increase.

The authority was created by the Bucks County commissioners in 1962 to assist municipalities in building water and sewer systems.

"Nockamixon officials deserve credit"

2010-11-28T19:35:00.001-05:00

Letter to the Editor of the Intelligencer, November 28, 2010:

On Nov. 11, the Intelligencer published an ill-informed letter from Tom Linzey, the executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. The letter baselessly attacks Nockamixon Township officials and the Delaware Riverkeeper, who achieved a significant victory over Arbor Resources, which was seeking to develop gas drilling in the Township.

First, Linzey wrongly claims that township officials took "no action to protect their residents." In fact, Nockamixon Township supervisors passed a groundbreaking ordinance that protects residents by establishing zoning regulations that limit the dangers associated with gas drilling.

The supervisors authorized the filing of a friend of the court brief in the state supreme court when drilling companies challenged the ability of municipalities to pass zoning regulations governing gas drilling. The supervisors stood up to Arbor Resources, which sought to circumvent the township's ordinances and which sought to avoid full regulatory oversight.

When Arbor sued the township, the supervisors succeeded in convincing the court to throw out the challenge. The township also won a precedent-setting appeal that helps protect municipalities statewide.

With assistance from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the township appealed Arbor's permit renewal to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board and the township obtained a historic hearing before the Delaware River Basin Commission. These actions ultimately led to Arbor's abandonment of the project.

Linzey also incorrectly states the status of the law, wrongly asserting that state laws prohibit the township from adopting any local laws interfering with gas company operations. In fact, as Nockamixon's supervisors helped establish, municipalities can regulate gas drilling through the exercise of their zoning authority.

Linzey mistakenly asserts that the drilling company "could return tomorrow." Without a DEP permit, without approval from the Delaware River Basin Commission, and with its proposed drilling site outside of the zoning districts where drilling is permitted, the drilling company cannot return tomorrow or any time soon.

It is true that gas drilling companies have enormous power and that municipalities are limited in their ability to effectively protect their residents. Nockamixon's supervisors, however, have shown that municipalities are not completely powerless.

Nockamixon's officials are to be praised and emulated, rather than being subjected to criticism.

Jordan Yeager
Solicitor, Nockamixon Twp.

"Pa. activist unsure why surveilled by state"

2010-11-19T17:53:00.000-05:00

By Bernard Harris, Scranton Times-Tribune/Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, November 17, 2010:

Lancaster, Pa. (AP) -- Until recently, Virginia Cody's community activism extended to being president of the arts council in Wyoming County.

That was before she found her rural north-central Pennsylvania home surrounded by land leased to natural gas drilling companies. That was when she began asking questions and trying to get information.

That led to her and her husband writing letters to the editor of the local paper, posting those letters and other information on an Internet blog and posting comments on Facebook.

Handing out brochures at a picnic was the most direct action she took, she told a group of about 30 people at a public meeting Tuesday evening in Lancaster city's Southern Market Center.

"We merely spoke our minds," she said.

Yet, on Aug. 31, a whistle-blower leaked a confidential bulletin from the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security that listed her and her activities as subversive and under surveillance.

She posted the bulletin, based on information compiled by a state contractor, the Institute for Terrorism Research and Response, on her blog. Most people thought it was so ludicrous it must be a hoax, she said.

Then five days later, she got an e-mail that apparently was sent unintentionally by state Homeland Security Director James Powers, urging recipients not to disclose the bulletins and warning of potential violence posed by anti-drilling activists such as herself.

"I was afraid for about 24 hours after I got that e-mail. Then I got angry. Then I got loud," Cody told the group. The public release of the e-mail and bulletin and subsequent hearings in Harrisburg prompted the resignation of Powers, a formal apology from Gov. Ed Rendell and his promise that the state contract would not be renewed.

"That apology is not the end of the issue," Paul Sayko said. He is coordinator of the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice, which, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, held the meeting. Information about surveillance by the contractor ITRR showed that it also watched organizations across the state. Among those on the list were the Lancaster YWCA and the Lancaster County Council of Churches.

When ACLU attorney Valerie Burch asked people at the meeting to stand if they were among those watched, more than half did.

Cody, who had a career in the U.S. Air Force before becoming a teacher, urged people in the audience to take action. She called on them to petition their Congressional representatives for a Constitutional amendment that would deny corporations the same rights as citizens. She also called for the repeal of the USA Patriot Act, which suspends Constitutional protections to anyone accused of terrorism.

Burch urged people to be aware if they are being watched. She called on them to file federal Freedom of Information Act requests to learn whether information has been compiled about them. She also urged them to file requests under the state's Right to Know law. . . .

"Public water to cost up to $8,350"

2010-10-27T22:26:00.000-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, October 27, 2010:

West Schwenkmill Road residents will have access to water, but at a price.

The Perkasie Borough Authority expects to bring public water to West Schwenkmill Road by Nov. 15, officials say.

The plan will help residents whose shallow wells faltered during the dry summer.

The PBA will extend water lines 700 feet along the road, from Deibler Elementary toward Three Mile Run Road, according to Gary Winton, manager of the authority.

Pipersville-based excavators J.L. Watts were awarded a $78,535 bid for the project, he said. Watts was the low bidder among nine contractors. The highest bid was $198,510.

"We thought prices would be better, but they weren't," Winton said.

The PBA plans to foot one-third of the bill for the project. The remaining 67 percent will be split between the 10 residents affected, though only six have committed to tying into public water right now, he added.

"The assumption is that sooner or later, they all are going to connect," Winton said.

The authority's "worst-case scenario" estimate is that connecting to public water would cost the residents $8,350, he said. Residents will likely be able to put 20 percent of the cost down and pay the balance of the costs over the next four years.

The figure doesn't include the price of paying a plumber to bring the water from the road to the house.

Four private wells went dry along West Schwenkmill this summer. The water authority provided a temporary water line and a water tank at two of the homes. Other residents opted to drill deeper private wells.

Many residents initially blamed the authority for their water woes, concerned that nearby wells operated by PBA were drawing down the water supply along the road.

The PBA says the culprit was a combination of the dry weather and the shallowness of the wells, many of which were less than 90 feet deep. Residents of West Schwenkmill say they are not thrilled with the expense of public water, but are pleased with the prospect of resolving the situation. . . .

"Officials credit resolve in forcing gas firm out"

2010-10-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, October 22, 2010:

But some people in Nockamixon are not happy they may lose royalties after Arbor Resources withdrew its state permit to drill in the township.

David may have toppled Goliath, but the gas drilling beast might still get back up in Nockamixon.

Arbor Resources withdrew its state-issued permit to drill for natural gas in the Upper Bucks community this week, and township officials are celebrating their victory in a hard-fought battle.

"Obviously it's a wonderful day for Nockamixon Township," said Supervisor Chairwoman Nancy Janyszeski.

Since land men came knocking in 2004, Janyszeski has been leading the fight against the Michigan-based drilling company, which, she believes, sought to bypass local laws.

"We wanted respect. We wanted the drillers to come to the township and ask for a permit and open up dialogue, and do what's best for Nockamixon Township, and they chose to not do that - ever," she said.

Nockamixon officials and environmentalists may be toasting a victory over natural gas drilling, but not all residents are celebrating.

"I was disappointed," said resident Jim Diamond, who is one of 300 property owners in Nockamixon who signed gas leases with Arbor, with the hopes of royalty checks once the natural gas was tapped. "We are being deprived of economic development in our township."

Diamond, a retired dean of Delaware Valley College, signed a gas lease on his 40-acre farm along Tabor Road, which cuts through both Nockamixon and Tinicum.

Not only did Nockamixon cancel a deal to preserve his property as open space once officials got word that he had signed a gas lease, but now there is little hope of any income from selling his mineral rights to Arbor.

"With the increase in taxes and the rising cost of living - and I'm retired - I was hoping that this would be part of my retirement and now that's been pushed out," said Diamond.

Though Nockamixon does not sit atop the Marcellus Shale region, like much of Pennsylvania, it's believed that there is an untapped hot spot of natural gas in the rock thousands of feet below rural Upper Bucks.

And it might not be long until another drilling company would venture in to Nockamixon to explore if there is, in fact, a gold mine of the energy resource.

Reportedly, at least half of those signed gas leases have already been sold by Arbor to two other gas drilling companies, Hook 'Em Energy Partners and Pearl Energy Partners, said Janyszeski. Arbor Resources representatives did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.

Arbor's forfeit might not mean the final chapter for gas drilling in Upper Bucks.

"This is new to everybody as to how this is going to evolve," she said.

Although many other communities across Pennsylvania are welcoming gas drilling to invigorate their economies, Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said Nockamixon's win over Arbor can be viewed as encouragement by others who are concerned about drilling for natural gas.

"The lesson to be learned here is that even if it seems like an uphill battle, because your opponent seems to be much larger than you and much more funded, it might not always be what it seems," said Carluccio. "It really speaks well of Nockamixon Township. I think it's an inspiring story."

Since the legal battle began with the drilling company, which argued that the state's Oil and Gas Act trumped all local laws, township officials have remained steadfast in protecting Nockamixon's rights and responsibilities, said Carluccio.

Local laws stipulate that natural gas drilling is bound to industrial zones within Nockamixon.

Township officials declined to speculate why Arbor unexpectedly gave up the fight to drill in Upper Bucks, but the drillers seemingly have backed out at the same time Nockamixon gunned for legal hearings before the judicial arms of the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Nockamixon appealed the permit DEP had granted to Arbor, and was also protesting the DRBC's ruling that allowed the drilling company to be "grandfathered" under old regulations that had not been updated to include the "fracking" process.

"What we saw from the beginning indicated a hope on Arbor's part that they could do this without strict oversight, at least from the township and from the DRBC commission," said Nockamixon attorney Jordan Yeager.

"As the township pursued its appeal of the DEP permit and pursued the DRBC commission's review, it seems clear that Arbor understood that the township would hold them accountable, and that's when they backed out."

"Driller cancels permit"

2010-10-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, October 21, 2010:

Michigan-based Arbor Resources has withdrawn its state permit to drill for natural gas in Nockamixon.

A gas driller has given up the fight in Nockamixon.

Arbor Resources has withdrawn its state permit to drill in Nockamixon, seemingly ending its battle to begin exploratory drilling for natural gas in the Upper Bucks community.

The news was met with a cheer from residents at the supervisors meeting Wednesday night.

The Michigan-based gas drilling company notified Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection of its decision to cancel the permit Monday, said Nockamixon attorney Jordan Yeager.

"The bottom line is that they're no longer in the position to pursue their drilling in the township," he said.

It's a significant victory for township supervisors and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which have been battling with Arbor for years as to whether the drilling company should have to abide by local zoning and regulations.

Though Nockamixon does not sit atop the Marcellus Shale region, like much of Pennsylvania, it's believed that there is an untapped hot spot of natural gas in the rock thousands of feet below rural Upper Bucks.

In its efforts to drill for the energy source in Nockamixon, Arbor had argued that the state's Oil and Gas Act trumps all local laws.

The gas company's decision this week to void its permit to drill in Nockamixon also voids Arbor's status as "grandfathered" under old Delaware River Basin Commission regulations, said Yeager.

The DRBC oversees the water quality and quantity of the Delaware River, which supplies 15 million people with drinking water each day.

Arbor was among a few drilling companies that were granted the OK to begin exploratory drilling along the watershed. Before all gas drilling along the Delaware River was put on hold in June, the DRBC had only placed a moratorium on operational drilling, but not on exploratory gas wells.

The township had been awaiting a special hearing before a DRBC judge, protesting Arbor's exception to the rules. Now, the matter will likely be canceled, said Yeager.

If Arbor renews its efforts to drill in Nockamixon anytime in the future, it will have to start back at square one, said Yeager.

However, for the 300 homeowners who signed leases with the drilling company, though the prospect of natural gas royalties is likely dead, their contracts are very much alive, and likely will be until Arbor chooses to return to Upper Bucks or cancels the leases.

Though no drilling has been done, Arbor's first well pad is already in place at the Cabot property on Beaver Run Road. Since the permit to drill at the Cabot site has suddenly been withdrawn, the DEP will with likely order the well pad to be removed and site remediation, said Yeager.

Across the region, environmentalists and a growing number of concerned residents feared that natural gas drilling's "fracking" process would poison or deplete Upper Bucks' fragile groundwater supply and the Delaware River watershed.

"It's wonderful news," said Todd Stone, president of the Gallows Run Watershed Association and a member of Nockamixon Township's Environmental Advisory Committee.

"Business, DEP fight over water pollution"

2010-10-11T10:36:00.000-04:00

By Freda R. Savana, Intelligencer, October 10, 2010:

Owners of an industrial business destroyed by fire three months ago are challenging the state over who is responsible for water contamination linked to fighting the four-alarm blaze.

In a dispute with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the owners of a Plumstead business destroyed by fire this summer say they are not responsible for the neighborhood water contamination that followed the devastating blaze.

Still, DEP has ruled that chemicals stored in the business mixed with the water used in fighting the fire is what has caused local well contamination and therefore the business owners are responsible to pay for clean water for the affected families.

Eleven township homeowners whose wells were tainted with chemicals associated with battling the fire are receiving water from a tanker truck, provided by the DEP, said Deborah Fries, an agency spokeswoman. Five others are receiving bottled water. The water isn't rationed, but it can't be used for washing cars or watering grass or gardens.

In August, the DEP ordered Dennis Rice, Dale Cotton, Douglas Partridge and Custom Particle Reduction, Inc., the Stump Road industrial firm which the three men own, to continue providing bottled water to five families who have received water since the pollution was discovered.

It also ordered them to provide bottled water to any additional properties that showed contamination attributable to runoff from the fire.

Within 20 days of the Aug. 5 order, the business owners were to give potable "whole house" water to the five properties and to other homes if DEP found they were polluted from the fire's runoff.

Custom Particle Reduction, Rice, Cotton and Partridge were also told to hire a professional geologist within 15 days of the order to determine the extent of groundwater contamination associated with runoff from the firefighting.

Citing the Clean Streams Act, DEP said it was Custom Particle Reduction and its owners' responsibility to remediate two detention ponds on the site that were used to fight the fire and to restore safe drinking water to affected homeowners.

DEP contends chemicals stored at the business mixed with water used to fight the fire and caused the well contamination.

However, Rice, Cotton and Partridge are appealing the order to Pennsylvania's Environmental Hearing Board, saying DEP "erroneously concluded" that one or more chemicals allegedly stored at the business were released.

In its appeal, the men's Philadelphia attorney, Mark Freed, disputes DEP's claim.

"The alleged discharge of contaminants, if any, was the unavoidable result of the firefighter's activities in fighting the fire," states the appeal.

Fries said DEP cannot comment on the litigation.

However, she did say, "DEP definitely will seek recovery from them. They are the responsible party."

In the absence of Custom Particle complying with the order, DEP is using funding from the state's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act to provide water to residents.

DEP has also pumped out the ponds and intends to provide new, deeper wells to between five and eight residences before the winter. Which homes will get new wells has not been determined.

Fries said the agency is monitoring the groundwater and sampling soil. It plans to excavate the ponds, which she referred to as "a continuing concern," and re-line them. Until then, the ponds will be emptied as needed, to avoid water escaping from them. Following last weekend's heavy rains, DEP's contractor pumped out approximately 55,200 gallons from the ponds, said Fries.

For . . . [one resident], whose young family now gets its water from a shiny steel tanker truck parked in front of his house, a new well would be good but he'd rather have public water to his Ann Drive home.

"I like well water, but who is going to buy a home with this problem. Our homes are worth nothing right now."

There is no public water in the area and there are no plans to install it.

. . . [He], like other residents in the area, said he is "getting by" but wonders if he'll ever recover all he's lost following the water contamination.

He had just installed new well equipment and a water softener when his water was declared unsafe to use. He also lost two gardens that he could not water over the long, hot summer.

When he asks if he'll be reimbursed, "all you get are government answers."

Gas Drilling and Your Rights

2010-10-04T22:37:00.000-04:00

Drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus Shale and in Bucks County:

Your Community Rights as a Tax Payer in Pennsylvania

Saturday, October 23, 2010, 1:00–3:00 p.m.

James Michener Free Library

401 West Mill Street, Quakertown, PA 18951

In response to high interest from landowners, lease-owners, their neighbors, and the people who live downstream of proposed gas drilling, the Bucks Transition Group is offering a free public forum for helpful information about the rights and protections for the people of Pennsylvania.

Drilling for natural gas is happening in the Marcellus Shale formation. Leases have also been signed in Nockamixon Township, Bucks County, PA.

Speakers:

1. Paul Schmidt will address legal avenues for affected communities and potential lawsuit claims related to injury to individuals and property. Schmidt co-chairs the Zarwin Baum Environmental Practice Group in Philadelphia and provides environmental legal services to a wide range of clients.

2. Shireen Parsons will discuss Pennsylvania citizens’ constitutional rights and possibilities of redress. Parsons is a community organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in PA. CELDF is a nonprofit, community-interest law firm.

3. Nancy Janyszeski, Supervisor for Nockamixon Township, where over 300 property owners have signed leases.

Speakers will also discuss local rights to clean air, water, and soil and will address your questions and comments. Please join us.

Contact: Henry D'Silva

The Bucks Transitions Group

267-679-0617 – henrydsilva@comcast.net

"Water authority may extend lines"

2010-09-27T19:08:00.000-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, September 27, 2010:

East Rockhill: A group of homes with shallow wells along West Schwenkmill Road may get the chance to connect to public water.

The Perkasie Borough Authority is considering extending its lines to bring public water to residents with shallow, failing wells on West Schwenkmill Road in East Rockhill.

Several residents along the road were forced to drill deeper wells during the hot, dry summer, but others have been crossing their fingers and conserving water. Many questioned whether nearby wells operated by the water authority were drawing down the water supply along West Schwenkmill.

Gary Winton, manager of PBA, said it was likely a combination of the dry weather and the shallowness of the wells, many of which were less than 90 feet deep. Still, the water authority has been monitoring the groundwater.

Preliminary data from the PBA's hydrogeologist seems to confirm that the water authority did not cause the Schwenkmill residents' hardships, Winton said.

But the hydrogeologist has a few more weeks of monitoring before the data is complete, he added.

To help affected residents, the water authority may extend its water line 700 feet from Deibler Elementary toward Three Mile Run Road.

Winton estimated the project would cost about $70,000 and would likely be split between the potential users on the road. With about 10 households that could be tied into the water, the price tag may be $7,000 per family.

The water authority generally allows new customers to put 20 percent down and pay the balance of the costs over the next four years, Winton said.

Residents would also have to pay a plumber to extend the line from the road to their house, which could add another $3,000 to their overall costs.

There are a few obstacles to cross before the water authority will commit to the line extension.

"We have to ask the $64,000 question: How many people are interested?" Winton said. "That pretty much determines whether or not we go ahead."

At least one resident of West Schwenkmill plans to take advantage of the water authority's offer, though he still has doubts about why his well is failing. . . .

Though he said he is still suspicious of the timing of the well dry-ups, he is pleased with the water authority's response to the situation. . . .

He and many of his neighbors attended a recent East Rockhill meeting where the water authority presented its tentative plan. . . . Several residents on Schwenkmill are considering the water authority's offer, though the poor economy makes the decision that much more difficult. . . .

"DEP Issues Drought Warning for 24 Counties"

2010-09-21T20:24:00.000-04:00

"Drought Watch for Remainder of State," September 16, 2010. Bucks County is under a drought warning. View drought map.

"Dry conditions draw warnings"

2010-09-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, September 9, 2010:

Scott Miller is hoping for a hurricane.

The Doylestown-based landscaper says his business is down about 25 percent this summer, a direct result of a lengthening spell of hot and dry weather that has scorched lawns, triggered drought concerns, cut into local crop yields and prompted fire danger warnings.

Miller's lawn mowers have remained idle because grass isn't growing. He has landscaping jobs lined up, but they're on hold until the rain comes.

"We need a hurricane to come through," said Miller. "That's usually what bails us out late in the season."

Farmers, like landscapers, are also feeling the heat.

Yields of pumpkins, corn and hay are down, according to experts at Pennsylvania State University's Cooperative Extension in Bucks County.

Field corn and soybean harvests, both of which were started early because of the weather, will likely come in below average, too.

"It's one of those years where a couple of timely rains could have made it an outstanding year, but it will probably end up being a below average year," said Michael P. Fournier, the extension's executive director.

Scott D. Guiser, a horticulture expert with the extension, said ornamental trees and shrubs have reached a "critical point" and are badly in need of rain.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear they're going to get it.

The current 15-day period without rain is expected to continue through the weekend. Temperatures will be cooler over the next few days, topping out in the 70s today, but the sky will yield little in the way of water.

"There is a front coming through over the weekend, but it's weakening as it moves eastward and I don't think it will bring a whole lot of relief," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines.

For nearly two months, storms, such as last weekend's Hurricane Earl, have come and gone without impacting the region, the consequence of a ridge of high-pressure that has deflected the rain away, said Kines.

Since July 15, just 2.5 inches of rain has fallen on the Doylestown area, said Kines. That's about a third of the normal precipitation.

Between July 10 and July 14, 3.5 inches of rain fell, but that relative deluge followed on the heels of three straight months of below average precipitation and record-breaking warm temperatures, according to Richard Hanauer, a Furlong-based weather spotter for the National Weather Service.

From May through early September, the thermometer's red stretched to 90 degrees or more on 32 days in the Doylestown area, said Kines. Usually, only 24 days a year climb above 90 degrees in the Philadelphia region, the meteorologist said.

"We are concerned about the deteriorating conditions statewide," said Tom Rathbun, a press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

A drought task force consisting of DEP representatives, agriculture officials and other agencies such as the National Weather Service will be convened to decide whether to declare a drought watch or to recommend that the governor proclaim a drought warning, said Rathbun. The warning could lead to mandatory restrictions on water use.

Steven B. Long, chief of Bucks County's rangers, said water levels at local lakes and reservoirs are down, but have not approached a critical level. "Everything is down. It's a result of the prevailing conditions," said Long.

Lake Luxembourg in Core Creek County Park in Middletown appeared particularly low, said Christopher Edwards, a Bucks County spokesman. "The one side is almost depleted. It's several feet down on the other side," he said.

On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning, saying the parched ground, low humidity, temperatures in the 80s and gusting winds created prime conditions for brush fires.

In fact, dry conditions played a part in a number of brush fires in Bucks County, including one at a farm on Forest Road in Hilltown.

Wind carried ashes into mulch-dye crates at the farm, igniting them around midday, said Phil Meyers, chief of Dublin Fire Co. Firefighters extinguished the flames, and no damage to buildings or homes occurred, said Meyers. The ashes that sparked the blaze came from the remains of a controlled burn fire that had been done days earlier, the chief said.

While the weather pattern persists, residents should refrain from open burning, be careful with charcoal grills, responsibly dispose of cigarettes and stay away from fireworks, said Bucks County Fire Marshal Nick Rafferty.

Kines said that 1.74 inches of rain fell on Doylestown in August, only 45 percent of normal.

Hanauer, the weather spotter, said Furlong received 38 percent of its regular rainfall in the last 30 days and 84 percent of what is normal in the last two months.

Miller knows the economic reality those rainless days translate into for landscapers like him, and it isn't good.

"We needed rain three weeks ago," he said. "We really need the rain."

"Precious resource needs comprehensive oversight"

2010-09-03T20:22:00.000-04:00

Intelligencer editorial, September 3, 2010:

Residents who rely on shallow (generally speaking, less than 100 feet) private wells for their water have long been familiar with the anxiety brought on by extended periods without rain.

Despite this peril, however, many folks in rural areas have had no problems with their wells for decades. They've learned through experience to adjust their water usage and thus keep their well pumps pumping in times of drought.

What they can't do is compensate for a rapid drop in the groundwater level - the type of drop a few residents of West Schwenkmill Road in East Rockhill say has been precipitated by water withdrawals by the Perkasie Borough Authority, which supplies water to more than 4,000 households in East Rockhill and neighboring municipalities. Five of the authority's six wells are in East Rockhill. . . . [One resident] had to spend almost $10,000 to have a new deep well drilled after his shallow well ran dry. . . . Another neighbor reportedly had to drill a new well recently, and three others are in the same boat as . . . [their neighbor who reported that his well is not in good shape]. They all believe the authority's wells have something to do with their problem.

Authority manager Gary Winton doesn't think his agency's wells have any effect on the West Schwenkmill Road wells. "What occurred is we haven't had any measurable precipitation since April," he said, and noted that mostly shallow wells have been affected. That doesn't explain why dry conditions in past years did not cause what's happening to those wells now, according to the residents. Or why the drought, which isn't isolated on Schwenkmill Road, hasn't spawned widespread reports of failed shallow wells elsewhere. . . .

The authority already monitors about 50 private wells that surround its system. Winton said a few West Schwenkmill wells will be added to the list, and the authority's hydrogeologists will be doing some additional groundwater monitoring. He assured affected residents that the authority would fix any problems it finds and make restitution to those whose wells have run dry if the agency is to blame.

That's all well and good. But what's needed not only in East Rockhill but everywhere that water problems crop up is some sort of comprehensive investigation conducted by an independent agency, county or even regional, tasked with just that responsibility. Underground water supplies do not respect municipal boundaries; "local" monitoring and remediation may not be enough in all cases.

The Bucks County Planning Commission has taken a keen interest in the region's water supply and recognizes that land development is inextricably tied to the discharge and recharge of water supplies, especially groundwater.

As development continues, albeit at a more measured pace than in the past, more and more people will be relying on limited groundwater, delivered either through municipal systems or on-site private wells. An umbrella government agency should exist to keep an eye on the big picture to help head off trouble and step in when it does arise.

"Region's water supply mapped out"

2010-09-02T11:57:00.000-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, September 2, 2010:

As Bucks County planners consider future land development, water is a major part of the equation.

"We've got a limited amount of fresh water and we have to do what we have to do to sustain that as a renewable resource," Dennis Livrone, senior planner for the Bucks County Planning Commission, told the board at its meeting Wednesday.

As development and the county's population expands so does the need for clean drinking water and wastewater treatment technology, he said.

"A continuous increase always puts some kind of strain on your water resources," said Livrone. "The idea is to integrate wastewater planning with land planning."

As the county puts together a new comprehensive plan, the planning commission got a look at the region's water supply, how it's mapped out and which agencies regulate water quality.

The water that flows to residents' taps and toilets either comes from surface waters, like streams, creeks or reservoirs, or groundwater, which is pulled from the rock below the surface.

In many ways, a portion of the county's drinking water supply is completely up to the will of Mother Nature, described county environmental planner Rea Monaghan.

About 36 percent of water supplied to Bucks County residents comes from groundwater, she said.

Its production is dependent on the geology of the aquifer, and as more homes and businesses move in to an area, it can put stress on the water supply.

"The development of water wells disrupts the natural balance between recharge and discharge rates," said Monaghan.

But there are some ways that residents can help, she noted.

"Water conservation and water use efficiency are the most reliable and least expensive ways to preserve the county's water resources," she said.

Homeowners should read and monitor their quarterly records for a sign of leaks or inefficiencies. It's also advisable to regularly check for leaks in equipment and appliances, maintain insulation on hot water pipes, and always choose water efficient models when buying new appliances, said Monaghan.

As county officials consider the amount of local water resources available as part of its future planning, it still can prove to be a tough equation.

"It's been an elusive goal for many municipalities to figure out how much water they actually have," said Executive Director Lynn Bush. "It's something no one has been able to effectively accomplish."

"River basin project gets grant"

2010-09-02T11:33:00.001-04:00

By Rachel Canelli, Intelligencer, September 2, 2010:
GRAPHIC

One of the groups involved in the project would like to see a tax placed on natural gas drilling in the river basin to support restoration of wildlife habitat and towns impacted by the drilling.

The Nature Conservancy has received a $450,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund a comprehensive conservation project in the Delaware River Basin, officials said.

The project is a joint effort among the Nature Conservancy's Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and East New York chapters, the Natural Lands Trust and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

Scientists will use digital mapping technology to identify priority conservation areas for a wide range of river and estuarine habitats in the Delaware Basin and Bay. That includes tidal marshes, flood plains and headwater streams, said Michele DePhilip, director of freshwater conservation for the Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania.

"Knowing exactly where certain natural systems exist, and accurately describing their current conditions and threats, will guide more effective conservation of biodiversity within the basin, and could help direct limited conservation dollars toward the most critical work," DePhilip said.

The Delaware River Basin and its surrounding watershed represent one of the most intact freshwater systems in the region. The river's 300-plus miles has no dams on it, but there are numerous dams on the river basin's roughly 42 feeder streams. The basin drains more than 13,000 square miles and provides water for almost 15 million people, officials said.

Since all freshwater systems are linked to their surrounding lands, development, pollution and climate change can have negative impacts. There's a history of habitat loss and degradation in many altered and polluted river systems within the greater northeastern United States, said DePhilip.

But opportunities still exist to conserve high-quality habitats and restore those that have been degraded, she said.

The Delaware Basin Restoration Initiative will identify opportunities to protect and improve water quality and habitat, and provide a blueprint for the region's conservation organizations and agencies to implement components of the plan, said Peter Williamson, vice president of conservation services for the Natural Lands Trust.

"With looming threats like climate change and energy development, a coordinated approach to protecting freshwater systems like the Delaware River Basin is critical," he said.

Williamson's group is one of dozens of organizations that supports a tax on natural gas drilling with portions dedicated to the Environmental Stewardship Fund, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat and Game commissions to restore wildlife habitat, and to local impacted governments, according to online reports.

"Lack of rainfall, geology bring water restrictions"

2010-08-30T23:38:00.000-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, August 30, 2010:

Geology contributes to regular groundwater shortage problems in the Furlong area.

In four of the last six years, Furlong residents have had to watch their water use because Buckingham officials have told them to.

Some of the residents stop watering their lawns; some don't.

Some find creative ways to keep their lawns green while reducing their water use. Joe Jegelka, a resident of Buckingham Forest and a member of the water and sewer committee, said one of his neighbors saves and stores the water that comes from his sump pump and uses it to water his lawn.

Jegelka said the restrictions don't really bother him and his family, but he knows they bother some other people. He joined the water and sewer committee soon after he moved to Furlong because he didn't understand why he and his neighbors were always being told to watch their water usage.

Now he gets it.

Furlong is in a bad position geologically.

The little village is positioned at the intersection of two faults (one called the Furlong fault because it starts there) that prevent groundwater from flowing into the area, said Rob Conway, a hydrologist and geologist from the Delaware River Basin Commission. The bedrock is also composed of small grains that slow the flow of groundwater.

And lower-than-normal levels of precipitation mean there's not much groundwater to begin with.

The Doylestown area has received 7.79 inches of rain since the beginning of June, which is about two-thirds of what the area usually gets, said AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines.

The area got 1.89 inches of rain in June (the average is 3.96 inches), 4.40 inches in July (the average is 4.46 inches) and 1.5 inches so far this month (the average is 2.71 inches), Kines reported.

Most of July's rain came in four days in the middle of the month. Buckingham water director Graham Orton said it came too fast for the ground to absorb it and ran off into streams and storm water drains.

So the standard well formations don't work as they should, as township officials discovered after several developers drilled wells that did not produce the amount of water their hydrogeologists said they would produce.

Orton said the Furlong area has seven public wells, but uses only six.

"One proved to be of no value at all," he said.

Buckingham ordered Furlong residents to restrict their water use in the summer of 2005, and imposed fines on residents who used more than 200 gallons of water per day. The township asked Furlong residents to follow voluntary water restriction guidelines in 2007 and 2008.

Buckingham asked Furlong residents a few weeks ago to follow the voluntary restrictions this summer. The township wants residents to water their lawns by bucket or a hand-held hose between the hours of 7 and 9 p.m. only every other day; turn off decorative water fountains, artificial water falls and landscape ponds; and to not top off their swimming pools. The township asked residents who are connected to the Cold Spring water system to follow the same restrictions this summer. Orton said he does not expect the restrictions to become mandatory.

Some residents are following the restrictions, but others are ignoring them - as evidenced by the occasional healthy green lawn in the Buckingham Forest, Devonshire Estates, Windsor Square, Heritage and Upper Mountain Estates communities.

Heather Jo Mangum, a resident of Buckingham Forest who maintains a website and Facebook page for the community, said she understands why people wouldn't follow the voluntary rules.

"You go and spend $600,000 on a house, you're going to want to have a decent lawn," she said.

Mangum doesn't have a sprinkling system for her house.

"But you should see our lawn," she said. "We're like the trailer trash in the neighborhood. It looks horrendous. If I could have a sprinkling system, I would have one. And I would be watering."

Mangum said her lawn has developed a fungus.

"Everybody thinks it's a diva factor where you have to water your lawn to have it look pretty, but there are environmental consequences," she said. "The grass dies and fungus can grow, and the disease can become airborne."

Mangum has been talking with township officials to try to figure out a reasonable level of water usage for a household and possible solutions for the perennial water shortage problem.

In the meantime, Buckingham has requested and received permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to establish an emergency connection between the Furlong water system and the Buckingham Village water system. Orton said the township also began drawing water from an emergency well in the Furlong area.

The township has drilled another well for the Furlong area, which is expected to compensate for the inadequate wells.

"Residents blame PBA for dry wells"

2010-08-29T21:55:00.004-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, August 29, 2010:

Last month, Robert Schlitz, 75, turned on the tap at his East Rockhill home, and nothing happened.

After 42 years with no problems, his 90-foot well, which had weathered several droughts, had run dry. He spent nearly $10,000 to drill a 280-foot-deep replacement well.
Hoping to retire soon, Schlitz was reluctant to dip into his nest egg for the work, but saw no other choice.

"When you do without water for a couple of weeks, you'd do anything to get water," he said.

If it were just an isolated incident, Schlitz and his 39-year-old daughter, Regina, might have dismissed it as one of the pricey surprise pitfalls of homeownership.

But farther down West Schwenkmill Road, another neighbor had to drill a new well within two weeks of the Schlitzes. And three more neighbors were policing their water usage to keep their own private wells from going dry.

"When wells go dry this quickly, something happened to trigger it," said . . . [a neighbor], who has been turning his water pump off at night to help nurse his shallow well back to health. . . . [He] and his wife have been conserving water - taking short showers and doing their laundry at a Laundromat.

"My well's not in good shape," he said.

The hot, dry summer hasn't helped the wells on West Schwenkmill, but neighbors believe it isn't the only culprit. They're concerned that nearby wells operated by the Perkasie Borough Authority have been drawing down their water supply.

In particular, the neighbors point to a July incident when Perkasie had to refill its competition pool at Menlo because it had drained overnight.

"I think that's the thing that broke the camel's back," . . . [a neighbor] said.

The PBA provides water and sewer to more than 4,000 households in Perkasie, East Rockhill, West Rockhill and Hilltown. The authority draws water from six wells, five of which are in East Rockhill.

The wells that concern Schlitz and . . . [his neighbor] are about a mile away from their homes and sit on 168 wooded acres off Three Mile Run Road that the water authority has owned since 1889.

"We've been there for a long, long time," said Gary Winton, PBA manager.

Winton says the borough authority does not believe its wells have any affect on the wells on West Schwenkmill.

"What occurred is we haven't had any measurable precipitation since April," he said, adding that the wells that have been going dry have mostly been shallow ones, fewer than 100 feet deep.

He also refuted the idea that Perkasie's pool refilling would have had an effect on the wells. The water authority keeps 3 million gallons of water in storage to handle situations like water main breaks or fires. The pool refill would be of an equivalent nature.

The water authority already monitors just under 50 private wells that surround its system. Winton said PBA will be adding a few of the West Schwenkmill wells to the list. The authority's hydrogeologist also will be doing some groundwater monitoring over the next month, he added.

If the investigation shows that the water authority adversely affected the residents, the PBA would develop an action plan to fix the problem and make restitution for those whose wells had gone dry, Winton said.

The answers the water authority provides are not sufficient for several of the residents of West Schwenkmill. They argue that if dry weather is the only culprit, the authority should have issued drought warnings or voluntary water restrictions.

"My question is why not put an alert out to people who have shallow wells," Regina Schlitz asked.

But Winton says the water authority only can issue warning when the water levels drop to 225 feet above their well pumps. Last week, the water level was 342 feet above the pumps.

"We're not anywhere close to seeing a drought on our system," he said.

"Polluted ponds drained at site of fire"

2010-08-29T21:47:00.004-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 29, 2010:

The effort to determine the scope of water pollution in Plumstead continued last week as a contractor for the state began draining two contaminated ponds located near the site of a June 29 fire that destroyed an industrial building.
Tetra Tech, a California-headquartered company, also took samples of pond water, sediment, soil and air to test for contaminants, said Deborah Fries, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

More residential wells were tested for possible pollution, and pipes in homes that might have contaminated water were sampled too, Fries said. Residents believe their wells were contaminated by runoff of the estimated 3 million gallons of water from the firefighting effort and subsequent rains that carried chemicals from the building property located at 5189 Stump Road.

The water from the ponds is being trucked to the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority, she said.

DelCORA will accept up to 25,000 gallons of water per day, and Tetra Tech expects it will be draining the ponds and shipping out the water into this week, Fries said.

The state is continuing to analyze samples of water taken from private wells at more than 30 homes. Fries said final, comprehensive test results were not yet available.

Antimony, a metal sometimes used in fire retardants, was detected in the well water of Ann Drive resident . . . . He said Saturday that tests have shown his neighbor's well also has antimony, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea if ingested.

Tanker trucks have been brought in to provide water to residents on Ann Drive whose wells are suspected of being tainted.

Antimony was occasionally stored in the fire-destroyed building located. A DEP official has said the building owner maintains antimony was removed five days before the fire.

Officials say the building primarily contained chemicals used as food preservatives, in addition to heating oil.

DEP announced Aug. 19 that a preserving agent used in an initial round of laboratory tests of water samples inflated the level of benzene detected in samples of at least 21 wells.

Subsequent tests showed that benzene was present in those wells, but at less than 5 parts per billion, which is the drinking water standard, according to DEP.

Benzene, which occurs naturally in crude oil, gas and cigarette smoke, has been linked to leukemia and other health problems.

Tests by DEP have so far shown that the suspected contamination traveled east from the fire site. Pollutants were reportedly present more than a half-mile away. . . .

"Residents get lesson in 'fracking' dangers"

2010-08-29T20:08:00.006-04:00

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.

"Learning the ins and outs of gas drilling"

2010-08-27T21:27:00.005-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, August 27, 2010:

Bucks attorneys gathered Thursday to learn more about lease agreements with companies that are drilling for natural gas.
Some landowners might feel like drilling companies are holding all the cards when it comes to natural gas leases.

But a property owner's power lies within a well-negotiated contract.

On Thursday, real estate and business attorney Krista Harper and geologist James Shellenberger presented "Marcellus Shale - Dissection of a Gas Lease" as part of the continuing legal education program at the Bucks County Bar Association.

Though Marcellus Shale, the underground rock formation that holds a goldmine of the energy resource, does not fall within Bucks County borders, a gas drilling company is battling in court to begin exploratory drilling in Upper Bucks.

For county residents who also own property in northern and western Pennsylvania, gas leases companies are knocking at their doors. Landowners have the potential to rake in as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties.

"It's really taking Pennsylvania by storm," said Harper, partner of Bucks law firm Curtin & Heefner. "We're still seeing people in our office - people coming in with gas leases."

It's important for a homeowner to understand what a gas drilling operation entails before he/she signs on the dotted line, said Shellenberger, geologist for Princeton Hydro, who specializes in land use and its effect on water resources.

"The operation is pretty much 24/7 once the drilling is under way. Once fracking is begun there's really no stopping it until the well is completed. It's a lot of activity," he said, noting that 3 to 9 million gallons of water is needed for each Marcellus Shale gas well.

Each well pad site costs about $2.5 million to install and initially stretches for about 5 acres.

"There may be truck trips a day into this well site," he said. "This intense period may last a month or may last several months," Shellenberger described to the attorneys.

"It's an incredible site," he said.

Before drillers get the go-ahead, it's essential to educate the property owners about what's in the contracts gas companies ask them to sign, said Harper.

And there are a few key elements Harper works to include in her clients' gas leases.

She recommends independent water quality and quantity testing before, during and after the drilling, and aims to get companies to pay for access to the water needed for drilling while keeping ponds and other property resources off limits.

She also works to ensure that wastewater is not injected into the ground or disposed of on the parcel.

One important safeguard missing in many gas leases is an expiration date, she notes.

In Nockamixon, many homeowners have learned that the hard way; as contracts are hitting the five-year mark and are being automatically renewed - no matter if the property owner wants to renew it or not.

"I get the gas drilling companies' argument that they're putting a lot of money in this land, but it just can't go on and on," said Harper, who often negotiates for a 10-year expiration.

. . . [One attendee] is not an attorney, but she came to the Bucks County Bar Association on Thursday seeking answers . . . in December, signed a gas lease. Now she's wondering if she negotiated the best contract.

"I have concerns that there doesn't seem to be an end point, that you're never free and clear," she said, referring to the drilling company's right to automatically renew her lease.

For attorneys, it's also an important lesson.

The gas leases are "heavily weighted on the side of the drillers," said Sellersville attorney Ronald Bolig, who attended the talk and has a number of clients who have properties upstate. "It's important to make them aware of what the potential problems are."

"Residents question why E. Rockhill wells went dry"

2010-08-26T21:14:00.002-04:00

By Erin DuBois, MontgomeryNews.com, August 26, 2010:

For 40 years Robert Schlitz, who lives . . . [on] West Schwenkmill Road in Perkasie, has been able to rely on his well, even filling his 24,000-gallon swimming pool without a sputter. But that all changed July 23 when his approximately 100-foot-deep well went dry.

About the same time, . . . another West Schwenkmill Road resident, who did not wish to comment, discovered that his well had dried up; and neighbors . . . began experiencing intermittent water supply from their wells.

The growing epidemic led well owners to question whether they should blame the hot, dry summer or if a troubling coincidence was the culprit.

The day before Schlitz’s well went dry, Menlo Aquatic Center’s competition pool accidentally drained overnight. Perkasie Borough Authority used 300,000 gallons of water to refill the pool July 23. . . .

"Commissioners OK storm water plan"

2010-08-23T20:30:00.002-04:00

By Peter Hall, Intelligencer, August 23, 2010:

The Bucks County Commissioners approved a storm water management plan for the Neshaminy Creek watershed that will allow the region to develop a coordinated approach to controlling erosion and flooding.

With the commissioners' adoption of the plan last week, 41 municipalities in Bucks and Montgomery counties within the watershed will have six months to modify and adopt a model storm water management ordinance contained within the plan. . . .

The plan is available on the Bucks County Planning Commission's website.

Wells running dry in East Rockhill

2010-08-23T13:41:00.003-04:00

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=7615278

Town Hall meeting on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas

2010-08-22T20:39:00.005-04:00

A Town Hall Meeting Presenting Information and a Discussion on Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas
Focus on Nockamixon Township, Bucks County
Saturday, August 28, 2010, at 1:00 PM
The James Michener Free Library
401 West Mill Street, Quakertown, PA 18951-1248
Learn the Impact of Gas Drilling on Gas Drillers & Landowner Lessors, Local Townships and Residents, Water and the EnvironmentHear Presentations by
Michel Boufadel, Ph.D., P.E., Professor and Chairman of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Temple University, Philadelphia
Nancy Janyszeski, Chair of Board of Supervisors, Nockamixon Township
Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, The Delaware Riverkeeper Network
This Public Discussion Is Free and Open to All
Contact: Henry D'Silva 267-679-0617 or email: henrydsilva@comcast.net

"Water report nears completion"

2010-08-22T19:45:00.005-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, August 22, 2010:

As officials grapple with a declining supply, the goal is to translate complicated information into an understandable form.

After a decade of collecting and charting well water samples they say show a looming groundwater crisis in Upper Bucks, residents and local officials will soon have the information in hand.
Lehigh University graduate student Larissa Walker has been spending her summer working as a paid intern for Tinicum Township, where she's spent hours sifting through 10 years' worth of scientific charts, maps, graphs and reports collected by the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Committee and compiling that data into a comprehensive monograph.

For years, Upper Bucks residents and local officials have relied on occasional updates from groundwater committee members as to the declining state of the region's aquifer.

Walker's report not only compiles the entire history of the committee's findings into one published report, but the data will now be in an easy-to-read format for the non-scientifically trained crowd.

Walker's work is funded through a $10,000 grant by the Woodtiger Fund, an Upper Black Eddy nonprofit.

Committee Co-chairman Bob Stanfield is impressed by Walker's project.

"I'm really, really pleased with what she's doing," he said. "She's done a marvelous job."

But the monograph's purpose goes beyond documentation. It's about motivation, said Walker.

"It's to encourage other townships, besides Tinicum Township, to hop on the bandwagon and start monitoring their own wells," said Walker, 23, a New York native.

Tinicum and surrounding municipalities might use the nearly 100-page study as a foundation for new or updated laws on groundwater use, she said.

"Its going to be determined if (supervisors) want to create new ordinances, use it as an informational source or present it to other townships," said Walker, who is studying Environmental Political Theory.

Over the past several years, communities like Tinicum and Nockamixon have been grappling with a declining groundwater system. There is no public sewer system in this region and more frequently residents are watching helplessly as their wells are running dry, forcing them to dig deeper for water or dig another well.

"These wells are old and are just drying up in a way we've never seen before," said Walker. "There have been reports of centuries-old wells going dry in Upper Bucks County after a development had just been built nearby," she said.

Though these communities' fates are tied to stubborn geology, development is an issue that stretches farther than rural Upper Bucks.

Stanfield and Walker hope the new report will be a catalyst for other Bucks County townships to strengthen their own groundwater ordinances before a crisis hits.

It's to alarm "other townships as to what could possibly happen if development could continue and drought continues," said Walker.

Tinicum supervisors are generally viewed as highly restrictive to development, but they are not anti-development, said Walker. They are pro-environment, she said.

"I think the most proactive thing Tinicum does is that they are aware of these groundwater issues," she said. "In my opinion, in Tinicum, they have a very cautious groundwater ordinance that affects their view on development. They're not anti-development in any way. They are just cautious in their approach to groundwater issues."

On Thursday, the team of scientists that make up the groundwater committee will meet to review a draft of Walker's report.

"Tests of wells were wrong on benzene"

2010-08-20T11:12:00.008-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 20, 2010:

The state DEP said the tests mistakenly showed increased the levels of the chemical. A second round of testing showed acceptable levels in the water.
Laboratory tests by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection appear to have shown a false level of benzene present in water wells in Plumstead following a June 29 fire at an industrial building, officials said Thursday.

Upon discovering the tests artificially increased levels of benzene in wells suspected of contamination, another round of testing was ordered, showing that most wells have an acceptable level of the chemical compound.

Whether wells were ever contaminated with benzene or whether the pollution is dispersing from the wells - and possibly infiltrating others elsewhere - is still not certain. DEP couldn't say Thursday.

Results are not back on nine of the 30 wells that have been sampled.

But DEP Spokeswoman Deborah Fries said the verdict is in on 21 wells and none of those have benzene levels above the drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion.

"The most important thing to make a point of is that benzene in these wells should not be a concern," said Fries. She noted, however, that the two ponds near the fire-destroyed building were contaminated with benzene.

The benzene news came as environmental officials also announced that an owner of the fire-destroyed building at 5189 Stump Road has not complied with an order to drain two contaminated ponds near the fire site and submit a plan for removing sediment and cleaning up potentially polluted soil.

DEP has hired Tetra Tech, a company with headquarters in Pasadena, Calif., to investigate the fire site and clean up any contaminants in the ponds and soil.

Some Plumstead residents, who have criticized officials for what they say was a slow response to the contamination scare, were suspicious of DEP's benzene findings and anxious for answers about what's going on with water in their township.

"I find it very fishy," said . . . a Stump Road resident. "It's odd because they're supposed to be the experts."

. . . [Another resident] whose water has tested positive for antimony and benzene, said DEP's explanation about benzene is "concerning."

"My feeling is something is really wrong with my water as a direct result of the fire. Anyone who disagrees with that can come over and have a drink and tell me what they think," . . . [he] said.

Fries said DEP is still waiting for test results that will give a full picture of what pollutants might be in the wells. She said more revealing test results could be available as early as today.

A natural part of crude oil, gas and cigarette smoke, benzene has been linked to leukemia and other health problems. Antimony, which is sometimes used as a fire retardant, is a metal that can cause vomiting and diarrhea if ingested.

Residents believe their wells were contaminated by the runoff water from the firefighting effort and subsequent rains that carried chemicals from the industrial building.

DEP branded building owner Dennis K. Rice the "responsible party" for the contamination.

Fries said she believed Rice was still complying with a DEP request to supply bottled water to residents with suspected tainted water. Still, Fries said Rice has not complied with an Aug. 5 order to submit a soil/sediment clean-up plan and to drain the contaminated ponds.

"I can't speak to the legal issues, but my understanding is his lack of compliance is due to his relationship with his insurer," said Fries. "It doesn't preclude that he might be in compliance again in the future."

Still, DEP has hired Tetra Tech to remove the water from the ponds and sample the removed water and sediment from the ponds' bottoms.

Tetra Tech, whose work is being funded with taxpayer dollars via the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, will also take soil samples from around the ponds.

Next week, the company will monitor air quality near the fire site on Stump Road.

DEP tests have showed the suspected contamination appears to have traveled in an easterly direction. Pollutants were found a little more than a half mile from the site, officials have said.

Residents who live outside what DEP believes is the affected area can have their wells tested privately by a DEP-accredited laboratory, the state said. Officials recommended having the following tests performed in addition to bacteriological testing:

? Volatiles in drinking water, ask for Method 524.2

? Semi-volatiles in drinking water, ask for Method 525.2

? Metals in drinking water, ask for Method 200.7, 200.8 and ask specifically for any other metals of interest not listed in those test methods.

The fire that erupted June 29 at the industrial building was fought by hundreds of firefighters from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Flare-ups continued over the course of a week, and an estimated 3 million gallons of water were used in the firefighting effort.

Officially the cause of the fire was ruled undetermined, though there were indications it began with an electrical issue.

Officials have said the building contained mainly chemicals used as food preservatives, in addition to heating oil. Antimony was occasionally stored in the building, but a DEP official has said Rice told them it had been removed five days before the fire.

"Bucks could blame engineering firm"

2010-08-19T19:42:00.001-04:00

By Peter Hall, Intelligencer, August 19, 2010:

Bucks County Commissioners will investigate whether its engineering firm may be liable for a mistake that lead to the release of sediment into two Central Bucks streams, killing thousands of fish last fall.

The commissioners on Wednesday approved settlement agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the state Fish and Boat Commission that include more than $62,000 in fines.

An investigation by the DEP found that erosion and sediment control measures were not in place when the county began to drain water from flood control basins above Robin Run in Buckingham and Little Neshaminy Creek in Warrington, according to the settlement agreements. . . .

"Board votes to approve farm preservation"

2010-08-19T19:30:00.004-04:00

By Bill Devlin, Intelligencer, August 18, 2010:

One of Bucks County's most popular pumpkin picking patches will continue as a working farm thanks to a decision Tuesday night in Plumstead.

The township supervisors agreed to pay more than $600,000 for the preservation rights for Hellerick's Family Farm on Route 611 and Haring Road.
The agreement ensures that the land - approximately 25 acres - will not be used for purposes other than farming.

A Newtown Realtor had appraised the property at $25,000 an acre. The appraisal had been received by township solicitor Jonathan Reiss just prior to Tuesday night's meeting.

Chairman Frank Froio was enthusiastic over the board's decision to preserve the farm.

"It's a biggie," said Froio, who has been involved the negotiations with the family for some time.

Supervisor Stacey Mulholland said she and Froio "worked very hard" to get the deal done.

"It is a community landmark," Mulholland said. However board member Daniel Hilferty said the township was paying too much per acre for the property.

"It's an extraordinary amount," said Hilferty. "In my mind we're preserving a business. It's a bad decision.

Supervisor Tom Alvare said he was dissatisfied with the tenor of the negotiations between the township and the Hellerick family, noting that Plumstead was making concessions to the Hellericks that didn't square with the spirit of farm preservation.

He noted that the family will be allowed to build a store on the property and have discussed plans to have a Christmas light display that people could drive through.

Alvare said it was "distasteful" to vote for a conservation plan that allows changes to the land that is being preserved.

"However, a less than perfect plan is better than the alternative," Alvare said, defending the board's decision to keep the farm out of the hands of developers.

"Bucks faces hefty fines for fish kills"

2010-08-19T19:20:00.005-04:00

By Peter Hall, Intelligencer, August 18, 2010:

State environmental agencies could receive more than $60,000 in fine payments from Bucks to settle an investigation into two fish kills last year.
Bucks County is facing fines of more than $62,000 for incidents last autumn that killed thousands of fish in two Central Bucks streams.

The commissioners will vote today whether to approve settlement agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the state Fish and Boat Commission for sediment spills at Robin Run Dam in Buckingham and Bradford Dam in Warrington.

Sediment from the bottom of the man-made lakes behind the dams flowed into Robin Run and the Little Neshaminy Creek when county workers drained them to perform maintenance work last October. The sediment killed fish native to the stream in addition to those that had been swept from the lakes when the water was drained.

Solicitor Glenn Hains said his office negotiated the settlement with the agencies to resolve a dispute over alleged violations of the state's Clean Water Act and the Fish and Boat Code.

According to the commissioners meeting agenda, the county would pay $38,639 to the Pennsylvania Clean Water Fund and $5,000 to the Fish and Boat Commission for the Robin Run Dam incident. The county would pay $13,593 to the Clean Water Fund and $5,000 to the Fish and Boat Commission for the Warrington incident.

The Clean Water Fund is a collection of fines, penalties and permit fees from various offices and programs administered by the Department of Environmental Protection for the elimination of water pollution.

DEP spokeswoman Lynda Rebarchak said the amounts being considered by the commissioners are likely the DEP's draft settlement proposal and could increase or decrease. Hains said the commissioners have the option of litigating the matter and challenging the DEP's findings in court.

Rebarchek said the DEP found that required conservation measures including sediment control and erosion control devices had not been installed at the dams before the maintenance work began.

The settlement amounts would come on top of $63,258 the commissioners paid a New Britain company in November to remove the sediment from Robin Run, which was more severely affected than Little Neshaminy Creek. . . .

"Tankers pump in water"

2010-08-15T15:37:00.004-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 15, 2010:

For more than a month, . . . [a Plumstead resident] was unable to take a shower at his home on Ann Drive in Plumstead after water traveled from the site of a fire and polluted his private well.

But the 34-year-old finally got to rinse off at home last week after tanker trucks were brought in to pump water into his house and other residences that have contaminated wells.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says that 11 township homes are receiving the water.

Bradley said the tanker trucks are a welcomed temporary solution to the water woes, but he and other residents want to know what is going to be done to clean up the tainted wells and provide permanent potable water.

"There's a lot of questions. Are we going to public water? Are we going to have deeper wells? We're not hearing anything yet," said . . . [the resident], who will not drink the tanker water or bathe his year-old son in it.

He's worried, in part, that the tainted well water might have coated his home's pipes with contaminants.

. . . [He's] not the only one with ongoing questions and concerns.

[Another] Plumstead resident . . . doesn't have bad water, but he's concerned that pollution could one day reach his well and other residents' water supplies that currently show no signs of contamination.

"What will DEP do in the future to ensure that this problem has not spread?" . . . a Stump Road resident, asked in an email.

Well contamination has been detected more than a half-mile east of the fire site at 5189 Stump Road. So far, it appears points west have not been disturbed, but officials say it is challenging to tell where the contamination is headed, if anywhere.

"Because groundwater moves with the underground geologic contours, it is difficult to predict or to be definitive as to where/if the contamination will spread," according to an e-mail alert state Rep. Marguerite Quinn sent to residents.

The Bucks County Health Department has collected samples from more than 30 wells and DEP is testing the water at its Harrisburg laboratories.

Still, test results are not complete, and officials are continuing to determine the reach and severity of the pollution. Officials say that the Cabin Run and Country Greene water systems were tested and showed no signs of contamination.

As the wait continues, . . . [the Ann Drive resident] and other affected residents are making due with the temporary water supply. He said a 5,800 gallon truck, which is parked outside his home, has hoses that feed water to his house.

"They're back-feeding the water in through an outside hose bit," he said.

Dennis K. Rice, an owner of the burned down building, has been providing some residents with bottled water at the request of DEP.

At a meeting Tuesday night attended by more than 100 people, a DEP official said the testing and possible expensive solutions to the contamination are being paid for with taxpayers dollars, and the state could go after the building owner to recoup its expenses.

Tests have shown that benzene, a carcinogen linked to leukemia, is in water on homes on Ann Drive. At least one of those homes . . . has antimony, a metal that can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Jenifer Fields, water program director for DEP's southeastern region, said this week that a preservative used in laboratory tests might have increased the levels of benzene in samples. More tests are being done without the preservative, but the results aren't in.

"There's not much new to report today," DEP Spokeswoman Deborah Fries said Friday.

Hundreds of firefighters from Bucks County, neighboring counties and New Jersey responded when the industrial building ignited on June 29.

An estimated 3 million gallons of water were used to battle the fire, which continued to ignite for about a week, sending firemen back to extinguish the flare-ups.

Residents believe the water used to fight the fire and subsequent rains moved chemicals from the industrial building into their drinking supply.

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined, though there were indications it might have begun with an electrical issue.

"From 'Dump the Pump' to kill the drill"

2010-08-15T15:12:00.003-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, August 15, 2010:

Thirty years ago, the Point Pleasant Pump motivated thousands of Bucks County residents to link arms against an energy utility and the government. As natural gas drilling looms, "the emotional components are right in place for 'Pump Two,' " says a veteran of the Pump era.

Thirty years ago, an environmental movement swept through Bucks County, uniting thousands of residents and activists against a government they didn't trust and corporations they believed sought profit over public health.

Similar forces are aligning themselves today.

This time it's not the Point Pleasant Pump, which intertwined the lives of people across the spectrum, from housewives and lawyers to social and political activists such as Abbie Hoffman.

Now, it's natural gas drilling. And much has not changed.

Nukes, yesterday. Fracking, today. . . .

"Plumstead copes with fire's environmental aftermath"

2010-08-12T21:18:00.003-04:00

"Water samples show contamination," by Rebecca Fink, Bucks County Herald, August 12, 2010, A1.

"Residents want answers on wells"

2010-08-11T22:06:00.005-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 11, 2010:

More than 100 people packed the Plumstead Municipal Building on Tuesday night looking for answers about well water contamination that authorities say is the result of runoff from a June 29 fire that destroyed an industrial building at 5189 Stump Road.
Worried about the drinking supply and the health of their families, some residents criticized officials for being slow to respond to the pollution scare and took authorities to task for what critics say was inadequate notification about the possible hazards.

"Next time there should be testing right away," said [a] Plumstead resident . . . .

A host of other concerns were raised, from people worried that future rains could carry the contamination farther afield to the owner of a business at a building in the same complex of the fire-destroyed warehouse who wanted to know if his employees were at risk from water or airborne toxins.

Representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection had some answers, but authorities are still working to define the reach and magnitude of the contamination.

"We've had people working around the clock," said Jenifer Fields, water program director for DEP's southeastern region.

She said wells that supply water on 30 properties, including 25 homes, have been tested.

The results are still coming in, but benzene, a carcinogen linked to cancer and other illnesses, is in water on homes on Ann Drive and at least one of those homes has antimony, a metal that can cause vomiting and diarrhea if ingested.

Fields noted that a preservative used in laboratory tests might have increased the level of benzene detected in samples of private well water. To get an accurate reading, more tests are being done without the preservative.

Antimony trioxide was at a Custom Particle Reduction Inc., a business in the ruined building, but the chemical was reportedly removed on June 24, five days before the fire, said Fields.

"It's usually not this complicated, but it happens to be in this case," she said.

E coli. and total coliform have been detected in the water too, but Fields does not believe those contaminants came from the fire.

DEP's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program has become involved and is working toward getting residents a temporary water supply. DEP is also looking at long-term solutions to deliver potable water to residents.

The testing and potentially expensive solutions for the contamination are being paid for with taxpayer dollars, and DEP could look to recoup its expenses from the owners of the building that burned down, officials said.

Despite the focus from health and environmental officials now, some residents were steamed at county health officials who declared in the aftermath of the fire that there was no contamination in wells or waterways.

"Three million gallons of water saturated a small area. How could it not affect something?" said [a resident] . . . , referring to the estimated amount of water used to fight the fire.

Responding to residents who thought the township and health officials should have done more to make residents aware of the contamination, Fields admitted the communication effort could have been better and said officials will post pertinent information on the Plumstead website as it becomes available.

Plumstead Supervisor Tom Alvare said authorities are looking into why the outreach wasn't more robust from the outset. "This was a wakeup call about how things that happen on the surface can affect our water supply," said Alvare.

While DEP listed three people as owners of the burned-down building, owner Dennis K. Rice has been the main point of contact and is already supplying, at the state's request, bottled water for some residents, said officials.

Rice, who owns Custom Particle Reduction Inc., has been ordered to drain two ponds into which contaminated water flooded and to prevent further water from getting into those retention pools.

He also must develop a plan for cleaning soil and sediment contamination.

The contamination seems to have traveled down a drainage ditch that takes overflow from the ponds and runs past nearby homes before turning into a creek.

Residents believe water used to fight the June 29 fire and subsequent rains contributed to moving chemicals from the site and into their drinking supply.

It took hundreds of firefighters and an estimated 3 million gallons worth of water to battle the fire that erupted at the industrial building June 29.

The flames continued to ignite over the course of a week, drawing firefighters back to the scene.

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined, though there were indications it might have begun with an electrical issue.

Tuesday's meeting with DEP was organized with the help of state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney and state Rep. Marguerite Quinn.

Ms. Fields gave out these phone numbers:
Bucks County Health Department 215-345-3318
PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) 484-250-5991
The Plumstead Township website, www.Plumstead.org, will be used to communicate to the public.

"Water contamination linked to fire"

2010-08-06T00:40:00.004-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 5, 2010:

DEP plans to test at least 30 wells near where an industrial building caught fire. Fighting the fire apparently caused water runoff that carried chemicals into homeowners' wells.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection tested water in more than 20 private wells in Plumstead on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of an intensifying investigation into groundwater contamination that is believed to be tied to runoff from a June 29 fire.

Residents believe water used to fight the June 29 fire and subsequent rains contributed to moving chemicals from the site and into their drinking supply. Officials had balked at drawing the connection between the fire fallout and the wells, but that changed Wednesday.

"It's pretty obvious what happened," said state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10. "There was a fire at the building. Chemicals got into the aquifer and the surrounding neighbors have well water and were affected.There's going to be a mediation process that needs to take place."

DEP plans to test at least 30 wells and could check more as officials work to map the plume of contamination that appears to have begun when the blaze destroyed an industrial building on the 5000 block of Stump Road. The building neighbors, or is near, residences whose wells are being tested, and contamination has been discovered more than half a mile from the fire site.

The testing includes wells that had already shown some contamination, but whose tests were done using filtered water, rather than raw water, said DEP spokeswoman Deborah Fries. Filtered water could have masked the true extent of the contamination.

With an increasing number of residents afraid to drink their water or wash with it, DEP is considering options for supplying folks with enough water to allow them to shower and do laundry at their homes as they await test results and a plan to remediate any pollution, said Fries.

By next week many well test results should be back and concerned residents can attend a meeting to learn more about the scope and degree of the contamination.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Plumstead Municipal Building on Stump Road. DEP officials, McIlhinney, state Rep. Marguerite Quinn, R-143, and township officials are among the expected attendees.

"It's not anyone's fault, but the residents have been kind of left in the dark and this will be an informational meeting where everyone can get on the same page," said McIlhinney.

Tests of two ponds near the destroyed warehouse indicate the water has high concentrations of benzoic acid and benzene, said Fries. Dennis Rice, owner of the burned building, has been told to drain the ponds or install an onsite treatment system, she said.

Dangerously high levels of benzene, a potentially cancer-causing chemical found in fuels, have been detected in a resident's drinking water, too. Antimony, a metal used in fire retardants, was also found in the well.

As authorities work toward solutions, residents are worrying about the chemicals they might have already contacted or ingested.

"Obviously as a carcinogenic issue everybody around us is really concerned," said . . . [one resident], whose Ann Drive home neighbors the industrial facility. "There are a lot of kids around here. I'm pretty sure (the contamination) is all around us."

. . . [The resident] will have a doctor examine welts on his skin. He said the welts appeared after he showered in his home's water.

Fearing the water was contaminated, he stopped showering and has been taking sponge baths with distilled water.

Point Pleasant-Plumsteadville EMS, which is next door to the industrial complex, is concerned its water and soil might be contaminated, said Mike Tuttle, the squad's chief of operations.

"We're wondering what's in there," said Tuttle.

On Wednesday, Eastern Diversified Services of Souderton was cleaning residue from Point Pleasant-Plumsteadville's office building and the pole barn where the squad keeps ambulances and equipment, said Tuttle.

Fallout from the fire coated the buildings in the smelly residue, said Tuttle. The interior of the office building - which includes an apartment the squad rents out - is being cleaned as is an ambulance that was at the blaze.

"We're cleaning the ambulance as a precaution to make sure no one comes into contact with whatever might be on there," said Tuttle.

It took hundreds of firefighters and an estimated 3 million gallons worth of water to battle the fire that erupted at the industrial building June 29. The flames continued to ignite over the course of a week, drawing firefighters back to the scene.

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined, though there were indications it might have begun with an electrical issue.

In the days just after the fire, county health officials declared waterways and wells were not contaminated, but complaints from residents prompted testing that has grown into the larger-scale probe.

"Resident: High benzene levels in pond at fire site"

2010-08-04T22:25:00.003-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, August 4, 2010:

Worried that their well water might have been tainted by toxins following a Plumstead industrial building fire, residents went before township officials seeking answers Tuesday night.

Instead, Plumstead supervisors were the ones getting information.

. . . [A resident] of Stump Road, and his attorney came armed with a report Tuesday from the state's Department of Environmental Protection that revealed high benzene levels were discovered in the pond at the warehouse site, located on the 5000 block of Stump Road.

Samples were taken from the pond by the DEP on Friday.
Benzene was measured at 138.8 parts per billion, said . . . [the resident's] attorney Thomas Donnelly. An average level is about 5 parts per billion, he estimated.

A component of solvents and degreasers, benzene can cause leukemia and other blood cancers and blood disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is colorless, has a sweet odor and is highly flammable.

It can be inhaled, ingested and absorbed through the skin.

At least four Plumstead homes have tainted water in their private wells and neighbors are scared about what might be lurking in their own well water.

"We've been out of our house since that (fire) happened. Mainly because of the smoke," . . . [the resident] told the Plumstead supervisors and about 30 worried residents. "What we're concerned about now, like everybody else, is with the water."

Bottled water is already being provided to residents along Ann Drive by the warehouse property owner.

But DEP officials and representatives from the Bucks County Department of Health were at the scene again on Tuesday collecting samples from more neighboring homes, said . . . [the resident] and Donnelly.

Several residents have asked DEP to test their own private wells for chemicals, and the agency is working to map out how far a potential contamination might have spread, they said.

"They said their (DEP) labs would be working around the clock on this project," said . . . [the resident].

"We're hoping that within the next couple of days we'll have the testing done and we'll have some kind of preliminary analysis," said . . . [the resident], whose property backs up to the industrial building site.

Township officials are working to put together a public meeting to update residents on the water issue that would include DEP staff, Rep. Marguerite Quinn and Sen. Chuck McIlhinney.

A date has not yet been set [now it has], but the township plans to post the meeting date, time and place, along with any pertinent information regarding the water issue, on its website at www.plumstead.org.

"As far as the township, it's not under our control," said Supervisor Stacey Mulholland, regarding the water testing. "DEP is running the show."

She encouraged residents to regularly test their private well water regardless of a crisis situation.

"Let's not wait for an emergency or a front page story; wells should be tested regularly."

As the days tick by since the June 29 fire that drew hundreds of firefighters and required 3 million gallons of water to fight over the course of a week, some residents fear their families are potentially in danger.

"The biggest concern is to make sure the water is safe - to make sure it's safe for them to be able to there, to shower in the water, drink the water, to do the dishes," said Donnelly.

Benzene is dangerous

Eating foods or drinking beverages containing high levels of benzene can cause the following symptoms within minutes to several hours:

Vomiting

Irritation of the stomach

Dizziness

Sleepiness

Convulsions

Rapid or irregular heartbeat

Death (at very high levels)

Source: Centers for Disease Control

On the Web:

www.plumstead.org

"Well testing continues"

2010-08-01T21:44:00.003-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, August 1, 2010:

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has sampled well water that served a Plumstead industrial building ruined by fire as part of a widening investigation into water contamination in the township.

Samples were also taken from nearby ponds during the Friday visit from DEP, which will test the water in its Harrisburg laboratories, said spokeswoman Deborah Fries.

At least four Plumstead homes have tainted water in their private wells and additional residents are reporting possible contamination.

"My water smells like garbage," . . . a Plumstead resident, said Saturday.

Officials say it's too soon to say what caused the infiltration, but residents suspect water carried pollutants from the warehouse site during and then after the June 29 fire that destroyed the building.

. . . [One resident], whose Ann Drive home is near the ruined warehouse on the 5000 block of Stump Road, said his water turned foul shortly after the blaze.

"I've been getting some welts on my skin after showering," said . . . [the resident, who] said his water has not yet been tested. Tests have shown that his neighbor . . . has benzene, antimony, E. coli and total coliform in his well water.

Benzene, found in oil and gas, can cause cancer. Antimony oxide is added to textiles and plastics to make them fire resistant.

. . . [The resident] is concerned about what is flowing from his taps.

"I would just like the water to be made proper again," he said.

Testing on Plumstead wells that are known to have at least some pollutants has not concluded, Fries said. DEP plans to test more wells in the area.

"We want to delineate the plume of contamination that may exist in the groundwater and you do that by sampling in a widening radius until you find private wells that are not impacted," Fries said in a Thursday interview.

The fire that erupted June 29 at the industrial building drew hundreds of firefighters from throughout the region.

Plumsteadville Fire Chief Brian DuBree estimated that 3 million gallons of water were used to fight the fire, which continued to reignite over the course of a week, keeping the volunteer firefighters busy.

The Bucks County Fire Marshal's office said the cause of the fire could not be determined because the damage to the building was too extensive, but there were indications that the blaze sparked as a result of an electrical problem.

"Tainted water probe widens in Plumstead"

2010-07-30T19:28:00.004-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 30, 2010:

At least four homes have wells that are contaminated, and officials are concerned more wells might have been affected.

The Department of Environmental Protection believes more private wells that provide water to homes in Plumstead need to be tested for contamination after tests showed at least four homes have tainted water and two additional residents reported possible pollutants in their drinking supply.

Folks in homes with fouled wells suspect the contamination occurred when pollutants traveled in runoff water from a neighboring industrial building that was destroyed by fire on June 29.

DEP says it's too soon to say how the infiltration happened, but officials are concerned that more wells in the area might be affected.

"We will be getting more involved with coordinating sampling water from wells over a wider radius," said DEP spokeswoman Deborah Fries.

How many wells might be at risk and over how large an area testing will occur remains to be seen.

"We want to delineate the plume of contamination that may exist in the groundwater and you do that by sampling in a widening radius until you find private wells that are not impacted," said Fries.

So far, four homes on Ann Drive, just off Stump Road near the Plumstead Municipal Building, tested positive for E. coli and total coliform and at least one private well has unsafe levels of a metal used in fire retardants and a cancer-causing chemical found in oil.

Full test results on all homes are not back yet, and two additional residences, both on Stump Road, might have affected water, said Fries. The two wells on Stump Road will be tested, she said.

While the contamination probe is poised to broaden, officials are not yet sure who will test the wells.

DEP could perform the tests or could have Dennis Rice, owner of the industrial building that was destroyed, hire a private consultant to take care of the work.

Fries said Rice has already agreed to provide bottled water to residents with affected wells and to have two ponds at the industrial facility on the 5000 block of Stump Road tested for contaminants.

Nonetheless, officials say that does not mean they have concluded that the well water contamination resulted from the fire at Rice's building.

"We do not have enough data at this time to attribute the contamination in the wells to the June 29, 2010, fire," said Fries.

Benzene and antimony were among the pollutants found in the drinking water at the Ann Drive home of . . . [one resident, who] says the water at his home turned nasty within a day of the fire. He believes runoff water from the firefighting effort and subsequent rains carried pollutants from the industrial site to his well, which continues to send odorous, foaming, discolored water out of his taps.

Health officials initially said wells and waterways were not contaminated, but . . . [he] didn't buy it.

"It's taken a month for them to see what we've said all along," he said. "What took so long?"

Exposure to unsafe levels of benzene can lead to cancer, anemia, excessive bleeding and weaken the immune system. Antimony oxide is added to textiles to prevent them catching fire.

Antimony, a metal, is often mixed with alloys and used in solder, sheet metal and more.

It took an estimated 3 million gallons of water to put out the fire that destroyed Rice's building. The blaze continued to flare up over the course of about a week and firefighters were at the scene time and again to extinguish the hot spots.

The Bucks County Fire Marshal's Office ruled the cause of the fire could not be determined because the damage was too extensive. Still, there were indications that the blaze began with an electrical issue.

"Tests detect benzene in well"

2010-07-29T12:30:00.005-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 29, 2010:

Residents complained their drinking water had been fouled by runoff from a nearby industrial fire.

Tests detected E. coli and total coliform in the drinking water of four homes in Plumstead, and at least one private well has unsafe levels of a metal used in fire retardants and a cancer-causing chemical found in gas, oil and cigarette smoke, authorities said Wednesday.

The Bucks County Health Department had water from four private wells tested following complaints by residents who believed their drinking water had been contaminated by pollutants that traveled in runoff water from a neighboring industrial building that was destroyed by fire on June 29.

Tests showed that unsafe levels of benzene and antimony were in the well water at a home on Ann Drive, said Peter Noll, an environmental specialist with the county health department. . . .

Authorities are waiting for test results on the other three wells to see if they're contaminated as well, said Noll. It has been confirmed that E. coli and total coliform are in four wells, officials said.

"The coliform and E. coli could have come from human or animal waste that somehow traveled over the surface and washed into the wells," said Deborah Fries, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP is monitoring the situation but has not yet decided if its hazardous sites specialists will become involved. "We don't have a full picture yet of what's happening here," Fries said.

Dennis Rice, owner of the industrial building at 5189 Stump Road that was destroyed in the blaze, has agreed to provide bottled water to the residents with contaminated water, said Noll.

Nonetheless, state and county officials said that does not mean that authorities have concluded that the well water contamination resulted from fallout of the June 29 fire at Rice's building.

"We asked him to do this out of concern for the residents while we continue to evaluate the situation," said Noll. "It's not an admission of responsibility."

Rice has also agreed to have water from two ponds on site at the industrial complex tested for contamination, said Noll.

A preliminary investigation suggests the antimony . . . might have come from fire-retardant foam that was used to battle the fire, said Noll.

"It's not a metal I have encountered before in drinking water," he said.

Antimony oxide is added to textiles and plastics to prevent them from catching fire. Antimony is a silvery white metal that is often mixed with alloys and used in storage batteries, solder, sheet and pipe metal, bearings, casting and pewter.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says exposure to harmful levels of benzene can cause cancer, anemia, excessive bleeding and deleterious effects on the immune system.

Drinking a high level of benzene can cause dizziness, vomiting, convulsions and, if consumed at very high levels, death, the center says.

In the aftermath of the June 29 fire, health officials claimed that no wells or waterways were contaminated by runoff water from the fire site, despite the death of an undetermined number of fish in two ponds at the industrial facility.

Officials said the fish kill resulted when low-oxygen, very hot water used in the firefighting effort choked the ponds.

Immediately after the fire, . . . [one resident] said the water at his home became discolored, foaming and foul smelling. It has remained so for a month now, he said, and his neighbors report similar problems.

. . . [He] suspects the wells were contaminated by runoff water from the industrial site that was produced during the firefighting and in subsequent rains.

An estimated 3 million gallons of water were used to battle the blaze. Hot spots flared at the building over the course of the ensuing week, drawing firefighters to the scene.

The cause of the blaze was officially ruled undetermined, though there were indications it might have begun with an electrical problem.

"Post-fire water woes"

2010-07-28T19:59:00.005-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 28, 2010:

Residents near last month's fire in Plumstead said their water has become too tainted to drink or bathe in.

Discolored, foaming and smelling like soot and sewage. . . .

Following the blaze, environmental officials claimed that no harmful chemicals had penetrated area waterways or drinking wells.

But following complaints . . . , the Bucks County Health Department is having the residents' drinking water tested for dangerous pollutants. . . .

Peter Noll, an environmental specialist with the county health department, said results from tests of water samples taken from the affected wells have not been returned yet.

The tests will show if volatile organics and inorganics - anything from oil to metals and other dangerous solids - have contaminated the water, Noll said.

He couldn't say for certain when the test results would be returned. . . .

"We have advised the lab of the urgency," said Noll.

The state Department of Environmental Protection will be notified of any pollution problems, should any be found, said Noll.

If chemical contamination is discovered, the DEP's hazardous sites cleanup program might get involved, said spokeswoman Deborah Fries. . . .

Fish that inhabited two ponds where the fire erupted were killed as a result of fallout from the fire. The ponds drain into the run-off ditch that still smells.

Environmental officials said the death of an undetermined number of carp was the result of runoff water from the firefighting effort. The water was low on oxygen and very hot, said officials.

"At the time of the fire, we did not suspect that contamination had left the site," said Noll.

Plumsteadville Fire Chief Brian DuBree said the estimated several million gallons of water used to fight the fire was necessary, as the blaze continued to flare up over the course of about a week. He noted a fire-retarding foam was also used in the effort.

Environmental officials have said that the industrial building housed primarily food preservatives. They said heating oil was on site, too.

One of the businesses there, Hawk Mold & Die, has a website that says it supplies products such lubricants, mold cleaners and rust preventatives, though it was unclear if any of those were stored in the building that caught fire. Also in the building were Custom Particle Reduction Inc. and Bucks County Trading Post, officials have said.

Shortly after the fire the state Department off Environmental Protection said the following chemicals were in the building: 2,000 pounds of sodium nitrate; 160,000 pounds of sodium benzoate; 10,000 pounds of tri-calcium citrate; an unknown amount of isopropyl alcohol; polyphenol sulfide; 300 gallons of liquid silane; and 275 gallons of heating oil.

The Bucks County Fire Marshal's Office suspected the fire might have started because of an electrical problem, but the building was too badly damaged for a definite ruling to be made.

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined.

"Federal study to tackle fracking impact"

2010-07-26T13:29:00.001-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, July 25, 2010: "Those who say gas drilling will poison the region's drinking water and threaten public health might finally get their wish for a $1 million federal study of its potential impact on the Delaware River Watershed. . . ."

"Summer forecast: Wilting profits"

2010-07-21T21:32:00.002-04:00

By Colleen Boyle, Intelligencer, July 21, 2010: "Hot days and less rain have stunted some crops and may inflate prices of local produce as the summer continues. . . ."

Buckingham: "Drought warnings for township neighborhoods"

2010-07-16T23:53:00.002-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, July 16, 2010: "Buckingham has issued a drought warning with voluntary restrictions for residents in the Furlong and Cold Spring water systems. . . ."

"Hundreds say ban gas drilling"

2010-07-16T00:47:00.002-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, July 15, 2010: "Passions ran high at a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is in the process of writing regulations governing drilling in the river basin. . . . ."

Springfield: "PPL power line fight continues"

2010-07-12T13:30:00.001-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, July 12, 2010: "Officials and residents are anxiously awaiting a court ruling on PPL's plan to string power lines and plant a substation in a rural section of the township. . . ."

Bucks County Comprehensive Plan Community Survey

2010-07-08T12:04:00.001-04:00

Let your voice be heard! Only 9 questions: Bucks County Comprehensive Plan Community Survey http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AVGDYSWFW

"Mother Nature getting even"

2010-07-08T09:59:00.001-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 8, 2010: "The winter brought record-breaking snowfall, now we're getting hot, dry weather to balance a wet spring. . . ."

"Water supplies are safe--for now"

2010-07-08T00:59:00.002-04:00

By George Mattar, Intelligencer, July 7, 2010: "Rainfall has been below normal the last two months, but heavy winter snows have staved off drought, according to officials. . . ."

"Fish kill prompts testing of ponds"

2010-07-02T16:54:00.002-04:00

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 1, 2010:

. . . As firefighters continued battling flames the day after a major blaze destroyed an industrial building in Plumstead, environmental officials tested for chemicals in two ponds at the facility where fish were killed.

The death of an undetermined number of carp caused concern because the ponds feed tributaries that connect to larger streams, including the Tohickon Creek, that ultimately link to the Delaware River, environmental officials said.

Trace amounts of chemicals were found, but they were so diluted that they did not pose a threat to waterways or wells, said Peter Noll an environmental specialist with the Bucks County Health Department.

"Nothing got into the waterways," said Raymond Hackman, coordinator of the Bucks County Hazardous Incident Response Team.

The fish were likely killed by runoff water from the firefighting effort, said Noll. The water was low on oxygen and very hot, he said.

Officials said other wildlife were living near the ponds, which would be unlikely if chemicals had contaminated the area. Firefighters had drawn water from the ponds to fight the fire because there were no hydrants at the site. . . .

Since there are no hydrants at the facility, firefighters drew down the two on-site ponds and trucked water in from other sources. More than 30 tankers from fire companies, including at least one from as far away as East Windsor, N.J., took part, officials said.

DuBree said a hydrant that is part of a municipal water system was about a mile, but firefighters did not tap it.

"The water supply for the township is not strong enough to support fighting a fire of this magnitude," he said. "We didn't want to take a chance of depleting the water system."

The Limerick nuclear power plant in Montgomery County activated a water line that connects from the plant to the Delaware River.

The line, which brings extra water to the plant in times of need, is not always active but was operating Tuesday, said DuBree.

Firefighters asked the plant to increase pressure in the lines to feed dry hydrants in the area. The pressure was increased and firefighters tapped the hydrants, he said. . . .

Mulholland named to BCWSA board

2010-06-16T13:06:00.002-04:00

Stacey Mulholland has been appointed by the Bucks County commissioners to a seat on the board of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, announced Frank Froio at a meeting of Plumstead's Board of Supervisors last night.

"Celebration set to welcome public water lines"

2010-06-15T19:01:00.003-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, June 15, 2010:

Township officials and local businesses will boil hot dogs and make iced tea to celebrate public water at Cross Keys.

About a dozen property owners in the Cross Keys neighborhood now have potable water. Dozens more are due to get it within a month.
And they're drinking it up.
Officials from Buckingham, Doylestown and Plumstead townships, local business owners and residents are celebrating the installation of public water lines in Cross Keys with a little barbecue on Airport Boulevard at noon June 30. They'll have boiled hot dogs, iced tea, lemonade, desserts and other snacks.
Doylestown Township officials say there's a lot to celebrate.
"People are now going to be able to bathe in their water without having to worry about breathing vapors or getting contaminated water into their skin," said Doylestown Township Municipal Authority Director Dick John. "And they'll be able to drink water now from their tap."
The state Department of Environmental Protection is paying for the installation of water mains and residential connections. About 100 properties are in the area; half are residential. The project costs approximately $1.7 million.
Business owners are required to pay for their own connections to the new public water system.
County and state officials have been monitoring the Cross Keys area since 1979.
The Bucks County Department of Health found tetrachloroethylene (PCE), dichloroethylene (DCE) and dioxane in several wells in May 2008. The DEP took over the testing in September 2008 and sampled dozens of well in the area.
In April 2009, nine homes and 21 businesses were found to exceed the state's standards for safe drinking water. Doylestown Township manager Stephanie Mason said the water is so contaminated that property owners aren't supposed to drink it - even if they boil it.
PCE exposure can cause dizziness, headaches, sleepiness, confusion, nausea, difficulty in speaking and walking, and possibly death, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. It might also cause cancer.
Little is known about the health effects of exposure to DCE, a colorless, oily liquid.
Dioxane exposure can lead to kidney and liver damage, and death, according to the agency.
DEP officials said they have also found low levels of trichloroethane, tetrachloroethane, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and trichlorethene (TCE) in area wells. All of the chemicals are considered toxic in higher levels.
The source of the chemicals has not been found yet. DEP officials do not believe the chemicals come from nearby gas stations.
The DEP installed and maintained whole house carbon filters at 3 residences in the area. It had also been providing bottled water to seven residences.
The DEP proposed the project last year and approved it after officials from Buckingham, Doylestown and Plumstead townships agreed to work together to get the work done.
PACT Construction, which is based in Ringoes, N.J., began construction on the project at the beginning of April. John said they should be finished by July 10.
Hartsville-based Joseph A. Van Loon & Sons Plumbing is connecting the residences to the mains PACT installed. John said the plumbers have connected about a dozen homes, and have more than 30 to go; he expects them to be finished by the middle of July.

Tinicum: "Development ruling will be appealed"

2010-06-05T19:51:00.001-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, June 3, 2010: "A Bucks judge ruled that Tinicum has gone too far in its efforts to limit development, in response to a developer's appeal of the restrictions. The township is appealing. . . ."

Upper Delaware named Most Endangered American River

2010-06-04T08:42:00.002-04:00

American Rivers named the Upper Delaware the #1 Most Endangered River in 2010: "The Upper Delaware River provides drinking water for 17 million people across Pennsylvania and New York. However, this clean water source is threatened by natural gas extraction activities in the Marcellus Shale, where chemicals injected into the ground create untreatable toxic wastewater. Until a thorough study of these critical impacts is completed, the Delaware River Basin Commission must not issue permits that will allow gas drilling in this watershed. In addition, Congress must pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 to help protect all rivers within the Marcellus Shale region." [Read more.]

"Company hopes to find gas in Upper Bucks"

2010-05-23T16:34:00.005-04:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, May 23, 2010:

New permits have given a gas drilling company a way in. Nockamixon officials and environmentalists are taking more legal steps to keep them out.

Big rigs could be rolling into Nockamixon anytime now.

A drilling company has renewed its efforts to start exploratory drilling for natural gas in Upper Bucks, a move that has brought local officials and environmental advocates out in force.

Last month, Arbor Resources renewed their annual state Department of Environmental Protection permit to drill at a property along Beaver Run Road in Nockamixon.

And at the same time, it attained permission from the Delaware River Basin Commission, a regulatory arm of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York that oversees the river and its watershed, to skirt the agency's rules on operational gas drilling because it is only doing exploratory drilling.

The Michigan-based company plans to use the site to discover if there is in fact a significant amount of natural gas hidden deep below the rock in our region.

On Tuesday, however, Nockamixon supervisors and The Delaware Riverkeeper Network fired back, filing an appeal with the Environmental Hearing Board in Harrisburg over the DEP permit.

On Friday, the township and the Riverkeeper filed an appeal with the DRBC, challenging the agency's decision to allow exploratory drilling within the Delaware River watershed.

"It's not acceptable. These agencies are supposed to stand for the protection of the environment and the municipalities, and they're not doing that. So, we as citizens have to protect ourselves," said Riverkeeper head Maya van Rossum.

The exploratory-drilling allowance created a loophole, allowing the drillers to set up shop, she said.

"It's a known and carefully crafted slippery slope," she said.

The Riverkeeper and local officials argue that Rapp Creek, which sits adjacent to the proposed drilling site, will likely be harmed, along with the watershed and the Upper Bucks community's groundwater.

Arbor is also violating Nockamixon's current zoning by placing a well on a non-industrial zoned property, they argue.

It's about respect, says Supervisor Chairwoman Nancy Janyszeski.

"I think that it's always been an expectation that they're going to drill, and our goal is that they drill responsibly," she said. "We have rights. Don't just snub your noses at us like we don't exist. This is our home. We live here."

An attorney for Arbor Resources declined to comment.

Nearly 250 homeowners in Nockamixon - about 19 percent of the township's nearly 1,300 homes - have signed leases. Residents received upfront cash and a promise of payment should the rock below their properties yield gas.

The gas well that the company hopes to use for exploratory drilling sits on a mostly wooded 100 acres that Cabot Industries owns on Beaver Run Road.

As opposed to operational drilling, exploratory drilling does not involve hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which mixes the company's secret recipe of chemicals with an estimated 4.5 million gallons of water to flush the natural gas from deep below the Earth's surface.

Rossum hopes it won't be too late to stop the drillers from moving into Nockamixon.

"With both the DRBC and DEP making these decisions on the record, we are very fearful Arbor is going to take advantage of the situation, and rush in and start drilling before these issues are resolved."

As Nockamixon and the Riverkeeper network fight these latest developments, the township is still tied up in litigation against Arbor.

The two sides are awaiting a decision from a Bucks County Court of Common Pleas judge on Nockamixon's appeal to last year's zoning hearing board decision, which ruled that the state's Oil and Gas Act trumped local ordinances.

There is not yet a timeline for a ruling from the Environmental Hearing Board regarding the DEP appeal, the DRBC's process of appeal or for the appeal filed in Bucks County Court, said Nockamixon Township's attorney Jordan Yeager.

Nockamixon has been battling Arbor Resources since the DEP issued its first drilling permit in the township in 2007. . . .

"Gasland" at County Theater June 2

2010-05-13T23:11:00.012-04:00

Special screening of Gasland, a documentary film by Josh Fox
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
6:00 p.m. Reception
7:00 p.m. Screening
Panel discussion following the film
County Theater, Doylestown

Delaware Riverkeeper Network invites you to attend a special screening of Gasland, a documentary film by Josh Fox. The showing in Doylestown on June 2 will be the kick-off of a 20-stop tour of Gasland across Pennsylvania and New York in a run-up to the June 21st HBO premiere of Gasland, winner of this year’s Sundance Special Jury Prize. Josh Fox will appear at the screening and you can meet him at the reception beforehand; a lively panel discussion will follow the film. For more info: delawareriverkeeper.org. Watch the trailer at youtube. RSVP on Facebook (optional).

Letter to the Editor, May 13, 2010

2010-05-13T22:56:00.004-04:00

State forests under attack

Intelligencer

To the Editor:

Most Pennsylvanians would be surprised to hear that our wild forests are often being sold off to the highest bidder for destructive practices that will do irreparable harm to these beautiful places.

For example, state officials have already opened up 700,000 acres of state forest lands for harmful gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. That's more than 40 percent of Pennsylvania's state forests. This means more roads, pipelines, well pads and truck traffic in our state forests. In turn, this means further lost habitat for our state's species and more pollution in pristine streams that serve as drinking water sources for downstream communities.

Sadly, this trend may continue. Many politicians in Harrisburg only see the short-term financial gain that can be reaped from our state forest lands, profit that will go to many of the richest corporations in the world, like Exxon-Mobil and Halliburton.

Luckily, there is a proposal to halt further leases for drilling in our state forests, House Bill 2235, introduced by Rep. Greg Vitali of Delaware County. If passed, this legislation will help keep parts of Pennsylvania's state forest wild for now and for future generations.

David Masur, Director
PennEnvironment
Philadelphia
www.PennEnvironment.org

"Gas industry pumping in funds"

2010-05-12T23:39:00.005-04:00

By Gary Weckselblatt, Intelligencer, May 12, 2010:

GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett has received the most from the industry - $361,000.

The national gas industry is betting that Republican Tom Corbett will be the next governor. But it is hedging its bet by also fortifying the campaign coffers of Democrats Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner.

Corbett, endorsed by the state GOP in the May 18 primary, has collected $361,000 in contributions from the industry, significantly more than Onorato ($59,000) or Wagner ($45,000).

The numbers were released Tuesday by the Common Cause Education Fund along with a study titled "Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets," which highlights the power of campaign contributions and lobbying regarding the Marcellus Shale gas play.

The government watchdog group tracked nearly $2.9 million in contributions to Pennsylvania candidates from January 2001 through March of this year, and $4.2 million in lobbying expenditures since the commonwealth began requiring lobbyist reporting in 2007.

The study, written by Alex Kaplan and James Browning, takes the state to task for being one of 11 that does not limit campaign contributions. It also describes the state's online campaign contribution database as "not fully searchable or sortable, so that a search for contributions from a particular interest that might take minutes in another state could take hundreds of hours in Pennsylvania.

The failure to limit campaign contributions and make the information truly accessible, they argue, allows "big political donors (to) wield extraordinary influence over the political process."

"The stakes on Marcellus Shale are huge for our environment," Browning said Tuesday. "Will the state tax it like other states do? The scary thing is this is just the beginning of a wave because interest in Marcellus has just picked up."

Locally, state Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-6, received the most industry money during the past decade, taking in $12,600. That ranked the vice chairman of the appropriations committee 23rd overall in industry contributions.

Other lawmakers getting campaign cash include state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10, ($1,000), state Rep. Bernie O'Neill, R-29, ($1,000) and state Rep. Bob Godshall, R-53, ($900).

Recently retired state Rep. Tony Melio, D-141, ($650) and former state Sen. Joe Conti, R-10, ($800) also received funds.

"It's so de minimis, I didn't even know they gave it to me," Tomlinson said of the campaign money. "It wasn't even on my radar screen."

He said "everyone wants drilling done right environmentally. We realize it's going to have a very big economic impact on the state.

"It's too big an issue to allow any amount of money to not make sure this is handled properly. Nothing they give me would have an influence on my vote anyway."

Though Gov. Ed Rendell ($84,000) has gotten the sixth highest cash total, Republicans received 84 percent of industry contributions.

Last week the Democratic-controlled state House passed a three-year moratorium on leasing state lands for natural gas drilling. If the Senate follows suit, it would give the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources time to assess the impact of drilling.

Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Rendell took a stand on the legislation after announcing a $120 million deal giving Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. the right to drill on 33,000 acres in north central Pennsylvania - mostly land surrounded by leased tracts that already are being used for gas operations - that lies over the Marcellus Shale formation.

The Anadarko payment and the expected carry-over of $68 million in lease revenue from the fiscal year that ends June 30 will surpass state officials' target of $180 million in drilling revenue to help balance the 2010-11 state budget, Rendell said.

"This is a reasonable approach that meets our revenue targets and limits the impact of additional natural-gas exploration in our state forests," he said.

Rendell is advocating a severance tax on natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania to cash in on Marcellus Shale, after conceding that debate in last year's budget negotiations.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause, said the gas industry "has been getting its way in public policy battles."

In a press release, he cited last year's difficult budget deliberations where "the industry successfully fought off attempts to impose a severance tax similar to those in all other states with major drilling operations. The industry also secured access to coveted state-owned lands for drilling.

"Time will tell if the industry's gains become unjustifiable, even dangerous burdens on Pennsylvania residents and taxpayers."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

"Court upholds Nockamixon zoning in battle with quarry"

2010-05-12T23:28:00.002-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, May 6, 2010:

Hanson Aggregates had challenged the validity of the township's ordinances after attempting to expand quarry operations along Route 611.

A Bucks County judge on Wednesday dismissed procedural challenges that not only would have allowed a Nockamixon quarry to expand but also would have invalidated the township's entire zoning ordinance.

Nockamixon officials said the decision vindicated everything they had been fighting for. . . .

"Tainted wells in Bedminster, Hilltown may get filters"

2010-05-04T19:56:00.002-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, May 4, 2010: "The DEP plans to add carbon filtration systems to 35 homes in Bedminster and Hilltown with high levels of TCE. . . . On Wednesday, the state Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public hearing outlining its proposal to install whole-house carbon filtration systems. . . ."

"Report: A clean Delaware River is vital to area's economic growth"

2010-05-04T17:48:00.003-04:00

By George Mattar, Intelligencer, May 3, 2010:

While government officials say the economy is improving, an environmental group says officials have undervalued the importance of the Delaware River, which provides drinking water for millions and economic benefits for the region.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network in Bristol focuses on that issue in a new report called, "River Value - The Value of a Clean and Healthy Delaware River." . . .

"DEP sets hearing on contaminated water in Bedminster"

2010-05-02T13:27:00.004-04:00

Bucks County Herald, April 29, 2010:

The state Department of Environmental Protection will accept public comments on a proposal to protect Bucks County residents in Hilltown and Bedminster townships from contaminated well water at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 5, in the Bedminster Township administration building, 3112 Bedminster Road. . . .

To present comments, register in advance by calling DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lynda Rebarchak at 484-250-5820.

DEP will accept written comments until June 18. The comments should be sent to David Ewald, HSCA project officer, DEP Southeast Regional Office, 2 E. Main St., Norristown, PA 19401-4915. . . .

Visit depweb.state.pa.us, or call 484-250-5900.

"DEP: Some sewer hookups possible"

2010-04-22T20:04:00.001-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, April 21, 2010: "Property owners in Doylestown might now be allowed to connect to the sewer system, but property owners in Buckingham, Doylestown Township and Plumstead are still out of luck. . . ."

"Black fly spraying along Delaware"

2010-04-22T20:00:00.004-04:00

Intelligencer, April 21, 2010:

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will conduct a black fly suppression operation beginning at 10 a.m. today, in Northampton County and continue south and east throughout the day.

Residents of Bucks County's Delaware River communities are advised that helicopter pilots may use several landing sites during this operation, including Riegelsville Borough Park, the Erwinna/Delaware Valley Fire Co. in Tinicum, and the Slack Road Farm in Upper Makefield.

The operation will include a gray (with green stripes) Bell 206-BIII helicopter with the tail number N302MG.

Pilots will be applying VECTOBAC 12AS to waterways to reduce the numbers of adult black flies that hatch from the river and streams. The product being used is a brown, slightly sticky liquid with a fish-like odor. Its active ingredient is a naturally occurring soil bacterium and not a synthetic pesticide.

It will be applied perpendicular to the stream flow in multiple locations along the rivers and streams by a low-flying helicopter. A product label is available upon request.

More info: http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/blackfly and the Delaware Riverkeeper's 4/20/10 press release.

"Gas drilling debate rages in Del. River watershed"

2010-04-19T17:06:00.002-04:00

By Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press, April 18, 2010:

Pleasant Mount, Pa. — A few hundred yards from Louis Matoushek's farmhouse is a well that could soon produce not only natural gas, but a drilling boom in the wild and scenic Delaware River watershed.

Energy companies have leased thousands of acres of land in Pennsylvania's unspoiled northeastern tip, hoping to tap vast stores of gas in a sprawling rock formation — the Marcellus shale — that some experts believe could become the nation's most productive gas field.

Plenty of folks like Matoushek are eager for the gas, and the royalty checks, to start flowing — including farmers who see Marcellus money as a way to keep their struggling operations afloat.

"It's a depressed area," Matoushek said. "This is going to mean new jobs, real jobs, not government jobs."

Standing in the way is a loose coalition of sporting groups, conservationists and anti-drilling neighbors. They contend that large-scale gas exploration so close to crucial waterways will threaten drinking water, ruin a renowned wild trout fishery, wreck property values, and transform a rural area popular with tourists into an industrial zone with constant noise and truck traffic.

Both sides are furiously lobbying the Delaware River Basin Commission, the powerful federal-interstate compact agency that monitors water supplies for 15 million people, including half the population of New York City. The commission has jurisdiction because the drilling process will require withdrawing huge amounts of water from the watershed's streams and rivers and because of the potential for groundwater pollution.

The well on Matoushek's 200-acre spread in the northern Pocono Mountains is up first. The commission is reviewing an application by Stone Energy Corp. of Lafayette, La., to extract gas from the well — the first of what could be thousands of applications by energy companies to sink wells in an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

Stone Energy's application has already generated more than 1,700 written comments to the DRBC. The company, which paid a $70,000 penalty for drilling the Matoushek well without DRBC approval in 2008, has already received a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Eager gas companies have leased more than 300 square miles of watershed land, conservation officials estimate.

"This is certainly just the start. There's a lot of acreage out there, and a lot of people interested in leasing their land," said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the anti-drilling Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

The Marcellus shale is a rock formation 6,000 to 8,000 feet beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio, including about 36 percent of the Delaware River basin. New drilling techniques now allow affordable access to supplies in the Marcellus and other shales in the U.S. that once were too expensive to tap.

Energy companies combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a technique that injects vast amounts of water, along with sand and chemicals, underground to break up the shale and release the gas.

While gas companies refuse to identify the chemicals they use — claiming that is proprietary information — critics cite contamination problems in other natural gas drilling fields. They worry that unregulated fracking can taint drinking water, deplete aquifers and produce briny wastewater that can kill fish. In Dimock, Pa., about 40 miles west of the Matoushek well but outside the Delaware basin, state environmental regulators say that cracked casings on fracked wells have tainted residential water supplies with methane gas.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that it will study the impact of fracking on the environment and human health. The EPA said in 2004 there was no evidence that fracking threatens drinking water quality, but critics, including a veteran engineer in the Denver regional EPA office, argued that report's methodology was flawed.

The industry contends environmental concerns are overblown. It says the drilling techniques are safe and that there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination caused by fracking — in part because fracking occurs far below the water table. Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from federal oversight in 2005.

Dozens of people told the DRBC at a recent public hearing why they oppose the watershed drilling. A few supporters called it an economic boon and a property-rights issue.

Richard Kreznar, who owns property in the Pennsylvania riverfront community of Damascus, said gas drilling primarily benefits large landowners and exploration companies.

"After the Delaware River and the stream next to my house are messed up, what compensation will I get? Who will put it back together again?" he asked DRBC staff.

Lee Hartman, the Delaware River chairman for Trout Unlimited, worries that large water withdrawals required for fracking will create low stream flows in the Delaware's tributaries, damaging fish habitat. For the Matoushek well, Stone Energy wants to take 700,000 gallons a day from the Lackawaxen River's narrow west branch.

Hartman and others say the DRBC should first study the cumulative environmental impacts of drilling in the Delaware watershed, and pass drilling regulations, before it allows any gas extraction to take place. The agency has asked for $250,000 in federal funds for a study, but commissioners have not said whether they will wait before voting on Matoushek's well.

Opponents say they will sue if Stone Energy's application is approved.

Downstream communities that rely on the Delaware for drinking water are worried about the coming gas boom. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposes any drilling in the watershed, while the Philadelphia City Council has asked the basin commission for an environmental study.

New York state regulators have put a moratorium on drilling in the Marcellus region, saying they won't approve permits until they are finished drafting new regulations. . . .

"County officials seek to push Delaware River dredging plan"

2010-04-15T14:23:00.003-04:00

By Peter Hall, Intelligencer, April 15, 2010:

The Bucks County commissioners will join the county redevelopment authority in an effort to persuade the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to support dredging to maintain the Delaware River shipping channel from Philadelphia to Trenton.

Redevelopment authority director Bob White said the NJDEP has refused to provide space to place material dredged from the shipping channel that serves the Port of Bucks County at the former U.S. Steel site in Falls.

White asked the commissioners last week to join the authority by sending a letter to NJDEP Commissioner Robert Martin, urging him to make sites available for the dredge material. The commissioners agreed to send a letter.

County Commissioner Chairman Charley Martin said the channel is a crucial part of the plan to redevelop the U.S. Steel land. The availability of a deep water port is attractive to businesses that need to move large quantities of material and finished products easily, he said.

Without sites to place dredge material, the Army Corps of Engineers will not be able to perform maintenance on the channel to ensure it is deep enough for ocean-going vessels to safely navigate, White said. The channel is maintained at a depth of 40 feet.

Dredging to maintain the Philadelphia-to-Trenton channel is separate from the Army Corps project to deepen the channel from the Delaware Bay to Philadelphia, White said. That project is mired in legal challenges by environmentalists, and decisions from federal judges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are pending.

The availability of dredge spoil sites is crucial to the development of a turning basin at the former U.S. Steel site that would allow ships to turn before heading south toward Philadelphia and the Atlantic Ocean. Above the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, the river channel is too narrow to allow most oceangoing ships to make a 180-degree turn, White said.

While a turning basin exists near the Falls ports, it is several feet shallower than the channel, White said. . . .

"Sewer problems becoming a messy situation"

2010-04-05T18:03:00.002-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, April 5, 2010:

Property owners in four municipalities in the Doylestown area will have to go through an extended sewer usage planning process that will cost them more time and money to build or to expand or change the use of an existing building.

The state Department of Environmental Protection determined that Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority exceeded capacity at three of its treatment facilities in 2008, so owners of property that would be connected to those facilities now will have to submit full sewer planning modules.

Planning modules are typically required only for large developments while DEP and the sewer authority typically exempt smaller developments and changes in use from the months-long planning process. The DEP has decided that it will no longer grant the exemptions.

Property owners in parts of Doylestown, Doylestown Township, Buckingham and Plumstead are affected by the decision. . . .

"EPA to study natural-gas drilling's effect on water"

2010-03-29T00:25:00.001-04:00

By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, March 19, 2010: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will launch a $1.9 million study into how drinking-water supplies are affected by hydraulic fracturing, a method used to turn shale rock into natural gas wells. . . ."

"Vapor testing to begin April 12"

2010-03-26T18:41:00.002-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, March 26, 2010: "The EPA will test for intrusion of chemical vapors into the site of the former Chem-Fab plant and nearby buildings. . . ."

"EPA to test near former Chem-Fab plant"

2010-03-23T20:47:00.003-04:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, March 23, 2010:

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to soon begin testing buildings on and near the former Chem-Fab plant on Broad Street in Doylestown for "vapor intrusion" - that is, the possible leaching of chemical vapors through the soil and into the air.

"Any place where there are volatile organic chemicals in the soil or groundwater, there's a potential for vapor intrusion," said EPA spokesman David Polish.

Trichloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, dichloroethene and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) are all classified as volatile organic chemicals, and have all been found at the Chem-Fab site. Hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen that is dangerous if inhaled or ingested, has also been found at the site.

Polish said officials at the EPA don't believe people who live and work near the Chem-Fab site have any reason to panic; the vapor intrusion testing is a precaution the EPA is taking at other contaminated sites where the federal agency is overseeing cleanup.

EPA officials said they have not yet identified which neighboring buildings will be tested.

"We want to make sure this is not happening at the (Chem-Fab) site," he said. "And the way to do that, obviously, is to do the testing."

The EPA will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Central Bucks West High School, where officials will explain their plans for vapor intrusion testing and answer any questions people have.

Federal and state environmental agencies began investigating the Chem-Fab site for contamination about a decade ago.

Chem-Fab was an electroplating and metal etching operation from 1965 to 1994.

Shortly after it closed, drug dealers began using the property as a meth lab. The EPA and the FBI closed the lab in 1995 and removed more than 100 drums of hazardous substances and more than 8,000 gallons of chromic acid waste that had been left on the site.

The EPA referred the site to the state Department of Environmental Protection in 1999 and the DEP discovered the contaminants in the groundwater and the soil.

Contaminated wells, including a municipal well, were closed in 2004 so no one could drink or bathe in the water. Nearby residences and businesses were connected to Doylestown's public water system.

The DEP tested the groundwater, soil and air again in 2009 before it turned the site over to the EPA. A DEP spokeswoman said at the time that the only building where the air was found to be contaminated was at 330 N. Broad St., but officials from the state Department of Health and OSHA determined that the level of contamination was not significant enough to require remedial action.

Polish said the EPA expects to begin vapor intrusion testing in April. It will not receive the results of the testing for two to three months after the tests are conducted.

"Judge rules against developers"

2010-03-23T20:38:00.005-04:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, March 22, 2010:

Bedminster officials were "cautiously optimistic" after a panel of Commonwealth Court judges sided with their zoning law, affirming a decision made by a Bucks County judge in August.

Two developers - Bedminster Associates and the Piper Group - had been seeking the ability to increase housing density in the township's agricultural preservation district to build a total of more than 500 homes, arguing that a 2002 state Supreme Court ruling on behalf of C&M Home Builders cleared the way for their plans.

C&M was able to build 234 homes in Bedminster's agricultural district because it argued successfully that the township's zoning at the time was too strict.

In August, Bucks County Judge Theodore Fritsch ruled that Bedminster Associates and the Piper Group could not "piggyback" on C&M's success.

The developers' proposals "would place the highest density development in Bedminster Township squarely in the area marked for low density development and agricultural preservation," Fritsch said. "This contravenes the township policies protecting farmland and preventing overdevelopment."

Bedminster does allow for higher-density development in its southwest corner, where the township abuts Dublin.

Commonwealth Court Judges Don Pellegrini, Johnny J. Butler and Rochelle S. Friedman affirmed Fritsch's ruling, calling it "thorough," "thoughtful" and "well-reasoned."

Township Supervisor Eric Schaffhausen said he was "very gratified at the outcome," but that he would wait and see what happens next.

"I certainly wouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched," he said.

Robert Gundlach, attorney for Bedminster Associates and the Piper Group, said his clients were planning to file a petition for review by the state Supreme Court.

"(The judges) really didn't write a decision," he said. "We're disappointed not only with the ultimate decision, but also with the lack of analysis."

But Peter Nelson, township solicitor, said the judges' opinion was short because the developers didn't really bring anything new to the table.

"Essentially, their whole argument was C&M won, and therefore, we should win," he said.

Bedminster Associates wants to build 157 homes on 164 acres at Spruce Hill Road and Route 611. The Piper Group proposed 361 dwellings on about 400 acres it owns in the township.

Bedminster zoning - revised after the Supreme Court ruling - requires developers to preserve as open space about 60 percent of the land in the agricultural preservation district. The minimum lot size for the remaining land is about three-quarters of an acre.

More than a decade ago, C&M Builders of Warrington approached Bedminster about erecting more than 400 homes in a rural part of the township. Zoning at the time would have allowed for only 57 homes - or one home per acre, plus a portion of the land set aside for open space.

C&M filed a challenge to the validity of the ordinance, which eventually worked its way up to the state Supreme Court, which ruled that the acreage requirement was too strict, through it did uphold the open space requirements.

Bedminster officials changed the zoning to allow one house per three-quarters of an acre. C&M was not affected, since its plans were submitted prior to the new law.

Less than a week after the Supreme Court decision, Bedminster Associates and the Piper Group filed curative amendment plans.

The challenges were filed before Bedminster fixed its zoning, but the judges say the township should have been given a reasonable amount of time to fix its zoning. . . .

"Aqua Pennsylvania seeks rate hike"

2010-03-04T19:49:00.002-05:00

By Rich Pietras, Intelligencer, March 3, 2010:

A public hearing tonight in Hatboro will hear testimony concerning a proposed 11.8 percent rate increase for Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. customers in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Aqua filed the request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission last month requesting a $5.51 a month (18 cents a day) increase in rates for a typical residential customer.

The hike would raise monthly residential bills to $53.79 and, if approved, would begin in August.

In Bucks County, Aqua provides water to about 30,000 customers in parts of Chalfont, New Britain Borough and Township and Solebury, as well as in Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Lower Southampton and Upper Southampton. . . .

"Critic seeks to join sewer and water agency board"

2010-02-27T19:04:00.002-05:00

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, February 26, 2010: "Borough council's president has applied for a seat on the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority. . . ."

"Activists: No backing for natural gas fracking"

2010-02-27T18:54:00.002-05:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, February 26, 2010: "'Down river' residents who have great concern about natural gas drilling's effect on the environment traveled hours by bus to tell the Delaware River Basin Commission about it. . . ."

Nockamixon: "Panel to address water problems"

2010-02-24T19:33:00.002-05:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, February 24, 2010:

After rounds of detailed research on a growing water crisis in Nockamixon and the surrounding communities, scientists are ready to flush out an overview.

Scientists with the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Committee will have the floor at Thursday night's work session in Nockamixon, which will bring together township supervisors and planning commission members.

The committee is expected to highlight years of collected data, showing increased stress on the rural Upper Bucks region's groundwater supply. . . .

"Drilling application draws crowd upriver"

2010-02-24T01:03:00.001-05:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, February 23, 2010: "Fearing the effect on our area's drinking water supply, local environmentalists will head north to fight natural gas drilling. . . ."

"House panel to investigate ‘fracking’"

2010-02-19T18:50:00.002-05:00

By Marty Reddington, AP/Phillyburbs.com, February 19, 2010: "An oil and gas drilling technique that is becoming more widespread is drawing scrutiny from lawmakers concerned that it may pose a hazard to human health by tainting drinking water and harming the environment. . . ."

Nockamixon: "County promises more openness on defunct dump"

2010-02-18T19:50:00.001-05:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, February 18, 2010.

"Shale group: Rendell tax unfair, Pa. laws outdated"

2010-02-17T21:01:00.002-05:00

By Marc Levy, AP/Intelligencer, February 12, 2010: "The natural gas industry in one of the nation's hottest exploration spots is bracing for a political tussle over whether and how Pennsylvania will tax methane from the potentially lucrative Marcellus Shale formation. . . ."

Bridgeton: "Updated regulation limits drilling for oil, natural gas"

2010-02-17T20:57:00.003-05:00

By Theresa Hegel, Intelligencer, February 12, 2010:

Bridgeton updated regulations Thursday night, restricting oil and natural gas drilling within the rural Upper Bucks township.

The guidelines for oil and natural gas piggyback on the township's well-established regulations for mineral exploration and extraction, which have been on the books since at least 1999, supervisors said.

That ordinance restricts drilling to areas of Bridgeton designated industrial.

Those seeking to drill would also have to submit water resources and traffic impact studies if the location merited such actions. . . .

"Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct"

2010-02-17T19:41:00.002-05:00

"Gas drilling in Appalachia yields a foul byproduct that can pollute drinking water, kill fish," by Marc Levy and Vicki Smith, Associated Press/Intelligencer, February 2, 2010.

Nockamixon: "Township wants answers on landfill"

2010-02-17T18:52:00.003-05:00

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, February 2, 2010:

There are too many things hiding in Hidden Valley, say Nockamixon officials.

Newly discovered bright orange leachate could be masking unknown and possibly dangerous compounds that might be seeping out of the landfill and into nearby waterways, according to the township's environmental advisory committee and the Gallows Run Watershed Association.

"That's part of the reason we want to talk with the county - to see what their stewardship is," said chemist Stephen Donovan, co-chairman of Nockamixon's environmental advisory committee and the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Committee. . . ."

"Susquehanna residents wary of gas-drilling operation"

2010-02-16T21:54:00.002-05:00

By Andrew Maykuth, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 13, 2009.

"Pa. to hire more oil and gas drilling inspectors"

2010-02-16T15:42:00.001-05:00

By Andrew Maykuth, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 28, 2010.

"Request to block Delaware River dredging denied"

2010-02-16T15:31:00.000-05:00

By Marty Reddington, phillyBurbs.com, January 29, 2010.