Farm Owner Scatters Wife's Ashes to Protect Land From Natural Gas Fracking

Sierra Club Compass

This week, Aaron Mair represented the Sierra Club in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania where a local farmer, Dr. Stephen Cleghorn, held a special event to remember his late wife and deposit her ashes in defiance and opposition to the natural gas industry.

A Member of the Sierra Club Board of Directors, Aaron Mair is a twenty-six-year veteran urban environmental activist, regional and national Environmental Justice organizer and strategist from the State of New York, and Former Atlantic Chapter Chair of 41,000-member New York State Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.

The Sierra Club stands with Dr. Cleghorn in opposition to the dangerous natural gas drilling known as "fracking," which is known to contaminate drinking water, pollute the air, and cause earthquakes.

The above photo: Dr. J. Stephen Cleghorn (left), owner of Paradise Gardens & Farm, greets Aaron Mair, a national board member of the Sierra Club, during an event Thursday at the farm. (Photo by Tom Chapin/The Punxsutawney Spirit)

Home rule goes up against the fracking industry – and the political system

By: danps Saturday April 21, 2012 3:50 am
FireDogLake.com

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

The fight against fracking in Ohio comes at a time when the state is approving new wells at a rapid pace. Local activists are organizing in an environment where the ground is constantly shifting under their feet – sometimes literally.

Anti-fracking activism has been influenced by developments both inside the state and beyond. At a recent public anti-fracking meeting a representative from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) described the experience of activists in western Pennsylvania several years ago.

Residents there began seeing lots of drilling sites, processing plants and other fracking infrastructure pop up. Neighborhood opposition responded through the regulatory process. Drillers needed permits, so locals educated themselves on permit writing. They enjoyed some early victories as improperly written permits were thrown out.

The wins were only temporary though. Drillers came back weeks or months later with rewritten permits that fixed the problems in the earlier ones. The new permits passed regulatory muster and the frackers moved in. At one point counsel for the companies jokingly thanked a CELDF representative for its help in putting together a bulletproof permit-writing process. As you might imagine, this was not the intended outcome.

The regulatory process may not be a suitable one for anti-fracking activists for other reasons as well. For one, regulations are not ultimately about protecting citizens; they are about legalizing harm. Regulation on, say, arsenic in drinking water is not based on the maximum amount that humans may safely consume, but on the maximum amount the industry can get legislators to allow. If they allow an amount that is unhealthy for humans or animals, those who suffer as a result have no legal recourse. The harm was permitted.

If you do not want the fracking to occur at all – if you think it is too unregulated, too opaque, and generally too hazardous – then fighting over regulation is a sucker’s game. You are not fighting over whether or not your community will expose itself to the tender mercies of the oil and gas industry, but over how much damage the industry will be allowed to do to it; and since the oil and gas industry is flooding the statehouse with lobbyists how do you think that fight will go?

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WE ARE CALLED FRACTIVISTS! DON'T FORGET IT.

Drilling on Campus: Marcellus Shale boom puts colleges at crossroads

First of two parts

Sunday, November 06, 2011

By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Mike Morgan is a superintendent for Mashuda Corp.,

the company building the well pad next to Bethany College's

campus in Bethany, W.Va. Elisabeth Ponsot/Post-Gazette

Now a junior, Jenna Kemmerle knows her way around California University of Pennsylvania's campus, the shortcuts to its red-brick classroom buildings, the walkways approaching Old Main.

But this she didn't know: Land where she and hundreds of CalU students live and play is part of the Marcellus Shale drilling boom.






Ten months ago, The Student Association Inc., an organization affiliated with the university, approved a lease for subsurface drilling on land it owns that includes tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields and an apartment complex where 768 students, including Ms. Kemmerle, live.

The deal may be the first Marcellus Shale lease affecting a state-owned university in Pennsylvania, and it shows how drilling is starting to alter the financial landscape at colleges struggling to maintain their missions in a bad economy.

It also illustrates how a drilling lease can remain under the radar. Even the school's president, Angelo Armenti Jr., said he did not know a deal had been struck. The lease, approved in a closed meeting, was never announced on campus.

Ms. Kemmerle, 22, of Dover, Del., is neither fan nor foe of hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking -- the process used to extract natural gas from rock. But she was surprised to learn from a reporter that a group better known for managing student activity fees had approved fracking deep below what CalU describes as part of its South campus.

"I do live up here," said the education major as she stood outside her Vulcan Village housing complex. "I'm surprised they didn't send out an email or anything to let us know."


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Frackville, Pennsylvania - REVISIT

Posted June 8, 2010
NRDC

Welcome to Frackville: Natural Gas Drilling Threatening Communities

On June 3, about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a natural gas well “blowout” shot natural gas and drilling fluids 75 feet into the air and onto the ground. As the name makes clear, a “blowout” is the industry’s term for a surge of pressurized oil or gas that causes an eruption -- basically the same thing that caused the explosion and fire at BP’s Deep Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. Fortunately, there were no injuries from the natural gas blowout. But that doesn't minimize the potential dangers.

“The event at the well site could have been a catastrophic incident that endangered life and property,” John Hanger, secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, said in a statement to reporters. “This was not a minor accident, but a serious incident that will be fully investigated by this agency with the appropriate and necessary actions taken quickly.”

Just yesterday there was another explosion 55 miles south of Pittsburgh, in West Virginia, when a crew digging a natural gas well hit a pocket of methane. Also yesterday, in Texas, one worker was killed and several injured when a natural gas pipeline erupted.

On the same day as the blowout last week, I happened to be touring natural gas development not too far away in upstate Pennsylvania. I was in the bucolic township of Dimock, northwest of Scranton, accompanied by NRDC experts and colleagues from the Waterkeeper Alliance. We met with local residents who have learned by hard experience that natural gas drilling is a threat not just to their rural way of life but also to their water supply and their health.

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GROUNDSWELL- Proposed Documentary into the Lives of Residents Trying to Resist Fracking

David Kegan - Pennsylvania
Pine Creek Valley Resident

The proposed documentary Groundswell will bring viewers into the lives of people who are trying to resist the consuming march of Gas Drilling known as Fracking.

-------------------------CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THIS EFFORT-------------------------

Sold to us as a National Security need the gold rush mentality of drilling thousands of gas wells before they are proven safe is meeting resistance from environmental groups, people who want to protect our drinking water, and residents of municipalities who do not want their towns turned into Industrial sites. Groundswell is the story of the resistance to the drilling and dangers, myths, sales job and alternatives to this unproven method of extracting energy.

Please contact: info@resolutionpictures.com to learn more about Groundswell. The Resolution Media Fund is looking for support to continue production of the film.
Thanks Mark,

Best
Renard

Renard Cohen
Vice President
Resolution Pictures
610-285-4746
610-533-7660 cell
610-681-4419 hm

100+ Groups from 23 States File Petition for Drilling and Fracking Chemical Testing, Info

Concerned about health impacts of drilling boom, groups press for answers from Halliburton and others 


WASHINGTON, DC – A large coalition of public health, environmental, and good government groups filed a petition (PDF) today demanding that full health and safety information be made available for all of the chemicals used in oil and gas development, including the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Fracking is when oil and gas companies blast millions of gallons of water treated with chemicals into the ground to force oil and gas from hard-to-reach places deep inside the earth. Along with a fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, and sick families.

“The more information we have about the chemicals used in fracking and drilling, the easier it will be to keep people safe and healthy,” said Earthjustice Associate Attorney Megan Klein. “But EPA needs to move quickly – we learn of new problems related to this industry almost daily.”

Earthjustice filed the petition on behalf of Environmental Defense Fund, The League of Women Voters and more than 100 other groups from across America including those with national membership and others with membership from among 23 states ( list). The petition asks the EPA to draft rules that -- for the first time -- would require manufacturers and processors of drilling and fracking chemicals to conduct testing and produce health and safety data needed to evaluate the health and environmental risks of their substances and mixtures.

“The complications linked to the chemicals used in oil and gas development are emblematic of a larger problem in this country -- in which we allow dangerous or untested chemicals to be used in everyday consumer products and, in this case, mixed with water and pumped underground,” said Richard Denison, Senior Scientist with Environmental Defense Fund. “Ultimately, the goal of this petition is to encourage companies to do the right thing. If health impacts associated with their products are widely known, it will serve as a powerful incentive for companies to act more responsibly.”

Little is known about many of the chemicals used in drilling and fracking. What information is available is sobering: 78 percent of known fracking chemicals are associated with serious short-term health effects such as burning eyes, rashes, asthma-like effects, nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, tremors, and convulsions. Between 22 and 47 percent of those chemicals also are associated with longer-term health effects, including cancer, organ damage, and harm to the endocrine system.

“People are understandably concerned about the potential health impacts posed by fracking. Here in Pennsylvania and across the region, as the pace of drilling has skyrocketed, so too have reports of illness and pollution,” said Roberta Winters of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. “The League of Women Voters is deeply concerned about this national issue that threatens the environment and public health. The state Leagues of New York and Pennsylvania are working hard to educate the public about the environmental, public health, and economic impacts associated with fracking. As we continue to advocate for public participation and transparency, we encourage citizens to make their voices heard to regain necessary environmental protections. Our nation’s leaders are on notice that our organization, and more than a hundred others nationwide are pressing for swift action on this petition.”

The petition also asks the EPA to require Halliburton and 8 other fracking chemical companies to provide any documentation these companies have of environmental or health problems associated with the chemicals they manufacture, process, or distribute.

“Here in Pavilion, we’re surrounded by fracked gas wells. The EPA told us over a year ago not to use our well water anymore for drinking or cooking,” said John Fenton of Pavilion (WY) Area Concerned Citizens. “The way the rules work right now, it’s easy for companies to sidestep responsibility. I don’t think we should stand for it any longer, which is why I’ve signed onto this petition.”

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RESOURCES

• The petition filed today can be found at: http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/fracking_petition.pdf
• A list of groups, organized by state, that signed onto today’s petition can be found at: http://earthjustice.org/documents/reference/xls/fracking-petition-groups
• Study guides on Natural Gas Extraction from Marcellus shale, Pipelines, and Pooling, are available on the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania website: http://palwv.org/issues/MarcellusShale/index.html