The Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force – For Whose Benefit?

Photo of “Williams-Transco Pipeline Crossing Struble Trail, Downingtown, PA” by Jim Wylie

By Bernie Greenberg and Jim Wylie (Southeastern PA Group)

Last year, Governor Tom Wolf established the Pennsylvania Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force (PITF) chaired by DEP Secretary John Quigley, with the goal of achieving a world-class pipeline infrastructure for this state. The responsibilities of the PITF included the siting and routing of pipelines, engaging in public participation and ensuring pipeline safety. The draft recommendations were released in November and the public comment period closed on December 31st. Over those 46 days over 1,500 comments were collected by the DEP website from environmental organizations, gas and pipeline industry representatives, property owners and other concerned citizens.

Just 20 calendar days later (on Jan 20, 2016), the task force will approve the final version of the recommendations. It seems like the real intent of this task force is to streamline the process for pipeline developers.

The Task Force draft recommendations do not adequately address in advance the environmental effects of pipeline proliferation as stated in Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution which provides that people have a right to clean air, water, and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania courts have mandated that Section 27 constrains every entity with the state government and requires that a thorough and comprehensive review be conducted BEFORE activities such as the expansion of gas pipelines which may have a deleterious impact on our land, water, air and communities.

The Task Force proposes a fast-track massive expansion of pipelines across our state without a proper environmental review. This expansion will disturb many of our precious streams, some permanently, clear thousands of acres of woodland, encroach upon farm fields, affect air quality and divide residential communities. The PITF has charged the DEP with monitoring water quality throughout the state as well as evaluating methane emissions from the many compressor stations to be built. This agency is poorly equipped to handle this expansion of activity – a projected quadrupling of pipeline miles by 2030. The same is true for the public utility commission (PUC) which is charged with monitoring pipeline failures. Furthermore there may not be adequate funds or volunteers to provide for emergency responses to the inevitable catastrophe.

Finally, do we even need or want more pipelines when we should be drafting a strategy for transitioning our energy to renewable sources, not expanding our fossil fuel infrastructure? The renewable energy industry should have a seat at the table when it comes to determining the future of our state. I recommend the creation of a task force dedicated to fully transitioning Pennsylvania ­to ­renewable energy instead of locking in these dirty fuels for the next several decades.

As it stands, It seems that the real beneficiary of the Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force is the pipeline industry. Period.

To learn more about the Pipeline Infrastructure Taskforce and to read letters submitted to the Taskforce by Sierra Club members in Southeastern Pennsylvania, click here.

Read the Pennsylvania Sierra Club's Comments to the Taskforce here.

Don't Trade Away Climate Progress

The Sierra Cub opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Since it’s founding in 1892 the Sierra Club has been dedicated to helping people appreciate, experience, and protect the gifts of Nature in this complex and beautiful World. We have a long history of accepting the responsibility of looking beyond human needs and wants of the moment to identify mistakes made in the past and advocate for policies that, as stated in the Constitution of Pennsylvania, are dedicated “to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment.”

We support American policy meant to protect the health of our families and the safety of our communities—We oppose policies like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that promote the interests of those who use common natural resources for private gain, think of depletion and destruction as collateral damage, and do not serve the interests of the public and the environment.

Recently TransCanada challenged the decision not to permit the Keystone XL pipeline. Provisions of NAFTA enable foreign corporations to undermine this protective action that the United States had every right to take. These same destructive provisions, that allow corporations to sue in private trade tribunals over laws they claim reduce their profits, these court cases that would attack our safeguards in secret and independent of our democratic processes, are also built into the dangerous and far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership - only worse - adding just one more reason that this effort must be stopped in its tracks.

Our nation should not sign on to this destructive agreement.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activists Challenge President’s TPP Pitch in State of the Union

PA AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Speaks at Rally  

ALLENTOWN, PA – Today the Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition held a rally at the Allentown office of Congressman Charlie Dent to challenge President Obama’s call for Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in yesterday’s State of the Union Address.  The event also featured the release of the national letter of opposition to the TPP signed by over 1500 national, state and local organizations. The letter was circulated by the Citizens Trade Campaign, of which the PA Fair Trade Coalition is our state affiliate.  Today the letter was delivered to congressional offices throughout Pennsylvania by PA Fair Trade Coalition activists.  In Allentown the crowd of fair trade supporters demanded that Congressman Dent vote against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Phila Back, PA Fair Trade Coalition volunteer said, “Knowing how unpopular the TPP is, the President spoke about it for a scant 28 seconds last night.”

TPP, a NAFTA-style free trade agreement with eleven Pacific rim countries, was negotiated over five years in unprecedented secrecy.  The released text confirms that it is a threat to American jobs and wages as well as labor, environmental, food safety and financial safeguards while it reduces access to affordable medicine and internet freedom.

PA AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder said, "The TPP agreement is on track, the wrong track, to become the most harmful trade pact ever. Enough is enough. If we are serious about rebuilding the middle class and creating the millions of good paying jobs we desperately need, we must fundamentally rewrite our trade policies. NO to fast track, and NO to the TPP."

The national letter was signed by several local organizations including the Lehigh Valley Group of the Sierra Club.  Their spokesman Tom Church said, “ TransCanada’s recent challenge to the decision not to permit the Keystone XK pipeline – an action that could cost US taxpayers $15 billion – exploits provisions of NAFTA that enables foreign corporations to undermine American policy meant to protect the health of our families and the safety of our communities.  These same destructive provisions that wrongly empower corporations to attack our safeguards are also built into the dangerous and far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership – only worse – adding just one more reason that this effort must be stopped in its tracks.”

“Lehigh Valley Gas Truth is concerned that the TPP provides a fast track to future LNG exports, because the US would be required to sell its gas to other signatory countries regardless of any public health and safety or environmental considerations, and that means a lot more illness, eco-destruction, and violation of the rights of PA communities,” said Julie Edgar.

George Piasecki, United Steelworkers, Rapid Response PA Director, said, “TPP has been negotiated in secret for over six years and now they want  to sell it to the American public in just a few months with just an up or down vote in Congress. For too long we have let multi-national corporations dictate our trade rules at the expense of working families, resulting in a growing trade deficit, stagnating wages and job loss. These agreements prioritize corporate profits over workers paychecks and workers’ rights.”

“Last night the President repeated the misleading claims he has made about the TPP,” said Back.  “His claim about 18,000 tax cuts refers to tariffs on a miniscule quantity of goods.  Further, TPP Is not about the U.S. writing the rules versus China doing so - TPP’s rules are those demanded by its 500 official corporate trade advisers.”

Nancy Tate of LEPOCO stated, “LEPOCO has worked against unfair trade agreements since NAFTA, supporting workers in Latin America, the U.S., and now Asia, all of whom are threatened by the TPP.”   

The President has previously announced his intention to sign the TPP in early February, seeking a Fast-Tracked vote in Congress in the spring.  

# # #

Stop secret provision in the state budget to exempt oil and gas drillers from compliance with health and safety regulations

legislators in the Pennsylvania General Assembly are trying to use the budget process to hold up oil and gas regulations that have been in the works for years, and to delay the state’s action on the Clean Power Plan despite overwhelming public support. They think that you aren’t watching and they are trying to sneak these provisions in under your nose. Don’t let them get away with it - make your call NOW!

The secret provisions that were added to a piece of legislation that is required to implement the state budget - HB 1327 - would  exempt “conventional” oil and gas drillers from compliance with updated health and safety regulations and prevent the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from submitting the Commonwealth’s plan to reduce carbon emissions from power plants to the federal government, delaying it for years.

For both the oil and gas regulations and the Clean Power Plan, DEP has conducted a fully transparent and public process, inviting and incorporating comments from people just like you. Throughout those processes DEP heard that the public wants conventional oil and gas operators to comply with new regulations that will protect the health and safety of the public, and wants a Clean Power Plan that will reduce emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The legislature on the other hand, has acted contrary to the public interest with no transparency to undermine these efforts.

The attempt to stop the plan by secretly using budget-related legislation is politics at its worst. It ignores the wishes of the public, and it may be illegal and unconstitutional. 

Tell your Senator to VOTE NO on HB 1327 the Fiscal Code bill that includes secret provisions that would delay the Pennsylvania Clean Power Plan and exempt the conventional oil and gas sector from much-needed regulations and demand that legislative leaders remove this from the budget process moving forward.

Notes From The Field #2: Orphaned and Abandoned Gas Wells

My name is David Platt and I am a father, husband and a member of the Sierra Club. A few weeks ago, I attended an event hosted by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club and Marcellus Matters, an NSF-funded group out of Penn State that focuses on science education. We spent the afternoon stumbling around public game lands but we weren’t hunting for deer. What were we in search of? We were looking for Pennsylvania’s missing orphaned and abandoned gas wells.

According to an estimate from the Independent Petroleum Association of America, there are 200,000 oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania that undocumented. Out of these, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has located about 12,000 wells. There are potentially thousands of undocumented wells leaking harmful chemicals into the air and into Pennsylvania streams and groundwater. We urgently need people to help find and document these wells.

The industry has been drilling oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania since 1859, when Colonel Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville. For the first century of drilling, there was practically no regulation or oversight of these operations. There is no comprehensive map or database of these wells. When a well failed to bring enough petroleum to the surface to make it profitable, it was unceremoniously abandoned. Sometimes these wells were plugged to keep gas and oil from leaking out. But many of these “plugs” have failed over the decades. Now, the Sierra Club is partnering with Penn State’s Marcellus Matters to help locate and document these missing wells.

Last month, as part of the Forest Watch Campaign, a group of Sierra Club volunteers gathered in Williamsport where Nooreen Meghani and Terry Noll of Penn State’s Marcellus Matters program showed us how locate and document these missing gas wells. Once the wells are documented, this information is then sent off to the DEP. We started by reviewing old USGS maps of Pennsylvania. These maps, initially drawn up in the 1940s and revised in the 1970s, show tiny circles where oil and gas wells are located and thin lines to show pipelines. But, as we discovered, these maps are only a starting point because most wells never made it onto these maps. Other sources of information used to locate these wells include county records and satellite data. We then headed to the Sproul State Forest near Lock Haven to look at three previously unknown wells.

The first well was found by a small pond near Camp Run at these coordinates. We inspected the rusty monument to see if there was any concrete support around the steel pipes. This monument was found less than 20 yards away from Camp Run. The second well was clearly visible from the road and located near Rock Run. There was a large, wooden oil or gas derrick on the ground next to it. The monument had some kind of gas leaking from the top and it smelled terrible!

As bad as these wells were, however, the third well was by far the scariest! It had water pouring from its monument like a bathtub spigot. This well created its own stream that flowed directly into Cooks Run. (You can see it on a map here.) Not only was the smell absolutely noxious, the water pouring out created a petroleum sheen. How long has pollution from this well been flowing into Cooks Run? No one knows —until Nooreen reported it to DEP, nobody knew it was here.

If you enjoy our state forests and game lands, then please contact us or the folks at Marcellus Matters to participate in future outings in your area. I understand not everyone can do this but you can at least take the opportunity to tell the the state of Pennsylvania to clean up and protect our public lands. A few days after the outing, I gave public comment at the DCNR Bureau of Forestry’s hearing on the proposed State Forest Resource Management Plan. This plan guides the Bureau in managing our state forests and is an important opportunity to speak up in defense of our public lands. At the hearing, I talked about the orphaned and abandoned gas wells I saw on our outing and spoke out against future gas development on public lands. The Bureau will be accepting written comments through January 30th, 2016 so please send an email, fill out a survey, or mail your comments to the Bureau of Forestry.

To learn more about Marcellus Matters, please go to their website and check out their map of orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania.

The goal of the Forest Watch Campaign is to empower Sierra Club members to become the eyes and ears of the forest. We are organizing a series of conservation outings throughout the state designed to take members to areas currently impacted or under threat by coal, gas, and oil and connect them to advocacy opportunities.

Nuclear?

By Savanna Lenker, Sierra Club PA Chapter intern

At the Clean Power Listening Session, an idea was brought to the table. Someone offered that Pennsylvania makes up its aforementioned 4% “other” deficit (outlined in the Clean Power Plan article) by means of nuclear energy.

The Sierra Club opposes nuclear. Tragic events at Three Mile Island, just down the Susquehanna from where I sit, and in Fukushima, Japan have proved our fears have merit. The primary issues with this source remain uncorrected.

Three Mile Island. Photo courtesy of Savanna Lenker

The stance will remain the same unless sufficient federal and global policies are developed to restrain energy over-use and nonessential economic growth. Changes need to be made to solve the problems with reactor operation, disposal of spent fuels, and the diversion of nuclear materials that can be use in weapons manufacture. Also, there would need to be an establishment of regulatory machinery to make sure the above conditions will be upheld.

The Sierra Club also is advocating for these changes:

1. Federal legislation to require Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing of both military and nonmilitary radioactive waste management facilities, including research and development facilities;

2. Federal legislation to require Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation and control of all shipments of radioactive waste, whether of military or nonmilitary origin, and all commercial radioactive materials.

The Sierra Club also supports state and local efforts to provide greater protection in the transportation of radioactive waste and commercial radioactive materials.

3. Presidential appointment of a special citizens' advisory group to advise the president, Congress, and the NRC on the implementation of reforms recommended by the Kemeny Commission and such additional reforms as may be recommended by other studies now underway of the events leading to the Three Mile Island accident;

4. The making of appointments to this advisory group, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and to staff positions in the NRC from a pool of individuals not committed by past experience to the nuclear industry. Such appointment should have a demonstrated commitment to public health and safety.

The Sierra Club is working toward a nuclear free future. 

“… nuclear proliferation and the long-term storage of nuclear waste (which remains lethal for more than 100,000 years) make nuclear power a uniquely dangerous energy technology for humanity.” 

Nuclear energy is not a probable solution to Climate Change (which the Clean Power Plan aims to combat) and every step closer to nuclear is one step farther from truly safe, inexpensive, and renewable energy sources.

Permit to Pollute?

FirstEnergy has a coal ash problem, and it wants us to deal with it.  Since 1975, the Beaver County power plant has pumped about 20 billion gallons of ash mixed with water to an impoundment called Little Blue Run on the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  The problem is that the ash is toxic: it contains loads of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium, and other harmful pollutants like selenium and boron.  For years, this pollution has been finding its way into groundwater, wells, and streams, and even the air as the ash dries and blows around.

In 2012, FirstEnergy was ordered to close Little Blue Run because of the well-documented damage it was doing to the surrounding environment, nearby property, and neighbors’ health.  So FirstEnergy began to look for other places to dispose of this toxic waste.  It has now set its sights on the landfill at the Hatfield’s Ferry power station, a plant that FirstEnergy abruptly retired in 2013.  The ash would be dried out, loaded onto barges, hauled up the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers for 113 miles, then unloaded onto trucks and dumped at the landfill across the river from Masontown.

The proposed route between Little Blue Run (upper left) and Hatfield's Ferry (lower right) along the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. 

But this landfill has its own set of problems.  The original landfill had no liner, and toxins from the ash disposed there have been contaminating the groundwater and surface water since at least 2001.  The most severe contamination is from arsenic, which has been found in concentrations up to 342 times the legal limit in monitoring wells around the site.  Exposure to arsenic can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, brain and nervous system, and can cause cancer.  Other contaminants that exceed federal standards are aluminum, boron, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, sulfate, and total dissolved solids (TDS).  There are at least seven private water wells within a two mile radius that are at risk of groundwater contamination, and one public water intake.

In 2006, the landfill was expanded and the new portion included a liner.  However, the original landfill remains unlined, and continues to leach pollutants.  The new lined portion partially overlaps the old portion, so it is difficult to know whether the liner is actually preventing additional toxins from contaminating groundwater.

In 2008, the landfill’s operator was fined for the contamination, and order to take corrective measures.  However, it is not clear that these corrective actions have been consistently followed, or whether new pollution continues to leach out from the site. 

A view of Little Blue Run courtesy of vice.com. Click the image for Vice's coverage of this impoundment. 

FirstEnergy is desperately trying to avoid having to build a new coal ash landfill that meets current federal standards for disposal of this waste that has already proven to be dangerous.  So they are trying to find the cheapest way possible to get rid of it.  First it announced it would ship it to the unlined pit in Labelle, but ongoing pollution problems at that site have prevented it from being able to accept waste from new sources.  So now the company has turned its attention to the Hatfield’s Ferry dump, yet another site with unresolved problems.  FirstEnergy, three strikes and you’re out.

In addition to the risks posed at the sites themselves, the transportation of the ash on open barges risks contaminating the Monongahela.  The Mon has long suffered from industrial pollution and acid mine drainage, and was at one time mostly dead ecologically.  However, it has begun to recover, and was voted River of the Year in 2013.  Multiple efforts are underway to encourage river-centered tourism and recreation, and transportation of millions of tons of toxic waste on open barges seems incompatible with that vision.

The Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, appealed a decision by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) allowing FirstEnergy Generation, LLC to dispose of more than 17 million tons of toxic coal ash from the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant into a closed power plant landfill in Western Pennsylvania.

Bruce Mansfield power plant. 

In response to the DEP’s approval of the permit Charles McPhedran an attorney from Earthjustice and Tom Schuster, Pennsylvania Beyond Coal Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club released the following statements:

“This permit puts neighbors at risk” Charles McPhedran, an attorney with Earthjustice said.  “There are several private water wells and one public water intake that are at risk from contamination from this site, not to mention the risk up and down the rivers from transport of this ash. DEP needs to protect the families of Western Pennsylvania, not make them a dumping ground for FirstEnergy.”

“Toxins from the ash disposed at the Hatfield’s Ferry site have been contaminating nearby water since at least 2001. Arsenic has been found in concentrations up to 342 times the legal limit in monitoring wells around the site, and continues to violate health standards” Tom Schuster, Pennsylvania Beyond Coal Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club said. “Exposure to arsenic can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, brain and nervous system, and can cause cancer.  DEP needs to protect this community and require FirstEnergy to clean up this site before any more toxic ash is dumped.”

The Department of Environmental Protection should not issue a permit to all FirstEnergy to simply move its toxic liability from one community to another.  If it must dispose of its ash at Hatfield’s Ferry, it should be required to completely clean up the existing site, line the entire landfill, and monitor extensively to ensure new pollution does not occur.  Better yet, the company should avoid barging the ash up our rivers altogether, and build a state of the art landfill on site.

Sierra Club PA Chapter Testifies at EPA Methane Hearing in Pittsburgh

The following is testimony provided to the EPA by Sierra Club PA Chapter Director, Joanne Kilgour, on September 29, 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA: 

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here to day on this important topic - controlling methane emissions from oil and gas sources. My name is Joanne Kilgour and I serve as the Director of the Sierra Club PA Chapter, representing 25,000 members and 80,000 supporters across the Commonwealth of PA. Our members have - for decades - been leading climate advocates and clean air champions in their communities, and I know that each of them would be here testifying today if they could. 

By holding this hearing in Pittsburgh, you are recognizing the significant impact air pollution from methane emissions has on this region - and regions across Pennsylvania - largely as a result of the dirty oil and gas industry. While we support and appreciate EPA taking this necessary first step to control methane emissions from oil and gas sources, we also recognize the need for action that will address pollution from existing sources.

I live in Lancaster, PA - one of the areas with the worst air quality in the nation. In fact, more than half of the counties in Pennsylvania are at risk because of air quality concerns, which are exacerbated by harmful methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. Just like me, more than four million residents of Pennsylvania live in areas that exceed national ozone standards, meaning that our health and our communities cannot afford to bear pollution from the thousands of existing sources in our state - let alone from new and modified sources. Our children, our elderly, and individuals as greater risk from respiratory complications cannot take another ozone action day.

Since this is the first-ever proposal to control methane pollution from the oil and gas industry we thank you, we support this initial step, and we call for these proposals to be adopted quickly so we can get to work on tackling the threat from methane emissions from oil and gas sources now in existence - sources that by 2018 are projected to account for nearly 90% of all methane emissions in this sector. 

In addition to threatening our climate, the public health threat posed by these emissions is staggering. For this reason, we call on EPA to revise its cost-benefit analysis and include in this revision metrics that monetize the public health benefit the methane standard will generate by reducing VOCs - and this smog and soot - as well as hazardous air pollutants. Without this adjustment, the benefits of implementing the rule will remain understated and the cost-benefit analysis will remain an inadequate assessment. Public health benefits are not simply qualitative or experiential, but have quantifiable financial benefits that must be documented.

I applaud the EPA and the Obama Administration for beginning to address this problem of new and modified sources of methane, and I now look to our state Department of Environmental Protection and the Wolf Administration to follow this lead and address fugitive emissions from existing sources, moving as fast and far as necessary to put the health and prosperity of Pennsylvania families first.