Sierra Club Responds to DEP Release of Draft Oil and Gas Regulations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:    Monday, March 9, 2015

Contact:

Joanne Kilgour, Director Sierra Club PA Chapter, O: 717-232-0101, C: 412-965-9973, joanne.kilgour@sierraclub.org

Thomas Au, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club PA Chapter, P: 717-234-7445, thomxau@gmail.com

Sierra Club Responds to DEP Release of Draft Oil and Gas Regulations

One year ago, in March of 2014, the Sierra Club was among the 24,000 individuals and organizations that submitted comments on proposed revisions to state oil and gas regulations, referred to as “Chapter 78.”  Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released its updated draft of these regulations, which will be open for additional 30-day comment period. These draft regulations reflect an impressive attention to detail and responsiveness to public comments. 

In joint comments with other environmental organizations, we asked DEP to require that all wells, whether active or inactive, orphaned or abandoned, be identified prior to drilling, and we are pleased to see that DEP is proposing a requirement that operators submit a permit application that includes a map of all active, inactive, abandoned and orphaned wells prior to drilling.   

We agree that centralized open waste impoundments must be addressed, but we remain concerned that DEP's requirement that such impoundments be phased out or upgraded to meet residual waste regulations may not address pollution risks in a timely manner. Under DEP’s proposal, it may take more than 3 years before open storage of waste is eliminated.

In response to these changes, Sierra Club PA Chapter Conservation Chair, Tom Au stated:

"We welcome this new draft, which responds to community concerns.  We appreciate DEP's willingness to address pollution problems that have resulted from lax regulation of the shale gas industry. We need vigorous on-the-ground checks to ensure that new requirements are put into practice."

Sierra Club PA Chapter Director, Joanne Kilgour added:

“We applaud DEP for taking steps to better protect human health and the environment. Importantly, DEP proposes a prohibition on the use of temporary on-site waste storage pits, and would require operators to restore drinking water supplies to pre-drilling condition or to meet state Safe Drinking Water Act standards. We will continue to advocate for regulations and enforcement that best protect our communities, and hope to see the Department further strengthen its approach to a number of issues including centralized wastewater impoundments, which should be prohibited due to significant risk of air and water pollution, as well as risk of human exposure to hazardous substances.”

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PIPELINE MADNESS

I’ve been trying to figure out who’s truly protecting this beautiful, rich country and her citizens?

Pennsylvania has an estimated 60,000 miles of gas pipelines and the PA  Public Utility Commission’s 13 inspectors are responsible for most of them. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is now issuing “Certificates of Necessity and Public Convenience” to pipeline companies for interstate transport of natural gas like there’s no tomorrow. (Well, maybe there won’t be.) But anyway---in 2005, federal legislative changes to the Natural Gas Act authorized FERC to issue private companies permission to exercise “eminent domain” to facilitate import and export of natural gas.

The “taking” of private property for gas extraction and sale starts when property owners with only surface rights are forced to give ground to sub-surface rights owners to drill and produce. The “public interest” concept got expanded to carry the product interstate, to “out of state” consumers. Now it has been expanded again to transport to foreign buyers. Among others, the proposed PennEast Pipeline carrying Marcellus Shale gas through the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania on the doorstep of the newly approved Cove Point, Md. export terminal.

Proposed PennEast Pipeline

As we see in a lot of other areas of legislative action, after issuing the permit, FERC hands over the responsibility for implementation, safety, compliance, and maintenance to--well, let’s see – the pipeline companies. The pipeline company is to hire and pay inspectors and submit progress reports. And after the line is in place the Department of Transportation (DOT) takes over. Each new pipeline brings more work for the 135 inspectors of the DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration who are responsible for inspecting compressors, meters and regulators and relief valves, and other infrastructure nationwide of over 3,000 individual gas companies, some big and some small. The gas companies are supposed to monitor their equipment regularly and submit reports. Something tells me those 135 inspectors are busy folks; or else they sit at their desks all day -- in shock.

Lines are approved even when their necessity is questionable. PennEast representatives said the proposed pipeline will provide gas to 4.8 million households in New Jersey when there are only 3.1 million homes in the state.

How many large, high pressure pipelines are sitting in various stages of approval that plan to go through the same area? Six, seven, or maybe 10? There have been more than 10 worked on in the Delaware River Basin since 2011.

What about damage to streams and rivers and animal habitats? Every newly approved or expanded pipeline carrying product out of state for private gain increases the number of wells that will be drilled, the animals which will be displaced, the water that will be poisoned and removed from our common water supply, which decreases the farms that are able to produce safe food, and on and on and on.

Stop! The entire system needs to be transformed from Environmental Destruction to Environmental Protection. And I can't even figure out where the Department of Environmental Protection fits in. Maybe they can't either.

Let’s stop the madness!!!

Regretfully Yours, Tom Church

Statement on HB 100 to Improve the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard

On February 19, we joined Rep. Vitali in his important message that Pennsylvania must work toward carbon neutrality and take a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change. One vehicle for putting that message into action is Rep. Vitali's HB 100, a bill that would strengthen our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard to increase the share of our energy that comes from sources like wind and solar.

Supporting renewable energy creates jobs, spurs economic growth, and helps to clean up our air and water while reducing our contribution to climate change. Already, 10 states get at least 10% of their power from wind alone, but Pennsylvania is falling behind. In fact, a recent study found that we can produce up to 30% of our power from renewable energy by 2026 with only minimal transmission upgrades, all while saving money for Pennsylvania residents. (insert footnote with link: PJM Interconnection, "PJM Renewable Interconnection Study."

While neighboring states like Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey are better seizing the opportunities presented by renewable energy production, Pennsylvania has not updated its standards in over a decade. New Jersey’s Renewable Portfolio Standard is more than twice as aggressive as our own, and that state was recently listed as one of the top states for solar employment in the country. It is time for us to get on that list and take our place as a leader in clean energy.

Though efforts like HB 100, Pennsylvania has the opportunity to support the state's economy with family-sustaining jobs in the renewable energy sector while helping to reduce the Commonwealth's share of harmful pollution from fossil fuels. Strengthening our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard is not just a step toward securing healthier communities in Pennsylvania, but will make our energy sector more competitive in the region's economy. We urge those Representatives who have not yet co-sponsored this bill to do so today and stand up for clean, healthy, and prosperous communities.

By Joanne Kilgour, Director
Sierra Club PA Chapter

Wolf's Fracking Moratorium is a Good First Step, but More is Needed

Reprinted from Penn Live.

Environmentalists were pleased to see Gov. Tom Wolf move quickly to overturn ex- Gov. Tom Corbett's plans to open up more state parks and forests to gas leasing. Wolf did this during his first full week in office, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

In the executive order banning new gas leasing on our public lands, Wolf invoked the Pennsylvania Constitution's Environmental Amendment (Section 27, Article 1) as part of the legal framework that supported his action. 

This section of our Constitution reads, in part, "the Constitution of Pennsylvania guarantees the Commonwealth's citizens the right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment." 

Wolf also invoked the law that created the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which says the agency has a duty to conserve and maintain state parks and state forests in the public trust for the benefit of all its citizens, including generations to come, as required under our state Constitution.

Drilling for natural gas has many harmful impacts. 

The state Department of Environmental Protection has determined that hundreds of families have had their drinking water contaminated by poorly constructed wells.  

Methane air pollution from leaking wells and pipeline infrastructure is a potent greenhouse gas, contributing to climate disruption. 

In the last five years, 10,000 acres of our publicly-owned state forests, have been converted from a wilderness-type experience to outings that have to negotiate drilling pads, pipelines, compressor stations and pipelines, large impoundments to store water for fracking, new roads and power lines. 

Wildlife habitat has been fragmented, with interior forest species being forced to find new nesting grounds.  Invasive species are moving into areas where gas drilling occurs, threatening the native species. 

Recreational enthusiasts such as hunters, hikers, anglers and bird watchers are finding their traditional and favorite forest destinations turned into industrial operations. 

A single well drilled in a forest location requires thousands of truck trips to deliver the needed water, chemicals, and equipment.  Accidents at well sites have killed workers, caused explosions and spills that have polluted streams and rivers, and contaminated farms, threatening livestock. 

These kinds of impacts have occurred in the early "build-out" of the gas drilling industry's efforts to exploit the Marcellus shale deposits. 

Based on existing leases approved by prior administrations, they have only drilled 20 percent of their anticipated wells on our public state forests. 

Both Corbett and former Gov. Ed Rendell used our public lands as "cash cows" to balance their budgets, while our forests, wildlife and citizens suffered the consequences.  

A much better approach would be to halt future leasing, and impose a natural gas extraction tax, similar to what other gas drilling states have had in place. 

Make the drillers pay their fair share, rather than allow them to maximize their profits at the expense of us all.  

 It's also time to tighten the rules on drilling across-the-board.

The state should  require drillers to capture their methane pollution, ban open fracking waste water pits, disclose the names of all chemicals using in fracking at each well, require drillers to provide a permanent replacement water supply when they pollute drinking water, expand set-back requirements, require compressor stations to comply with noise and pollution limits. 

Pennsylvania needs to create and fund a health registry for impacts from gas drilling and fracking. 

I hope our new administration will make these their goals, and not just focus on an extraction tax.                

When he took office on Jan. 20, Wolf swore an oath to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution, and one of his first acts was to do just that. 

What a refreshing change from the prior administration, which ignored the Constitution's environmental requirements, and the findings of the professionals in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. 

Every poll taken has shown that an overwhelming majority of the public oppose more gas leasing of our public lands. 

Our 2.2 million-acre state forest system already has more than 650,000 acres available to the gas drillers, thanks to prior gas leasing and privately-held mineral rights under our public lands. 

Many citizens believe the gas drillers already have access to way too much of our public lands.  But Corbett and the drillers wanted even more. 

Wolf has now put those additional acres off-limits, and should be congratulated for taking this important first step.  

The new leasing moratorium is a reminder that elections have consequences.  And sometimes those consequences benefit all the people, not just wealthy campaign contributors. 

Jeff Schmidt is the co-chairman of the Public Lands Committee for the Pennsylvania chapter of the Sierra Club. He writes from Shermansdale, Pa.

ALCOSAN Changes Its Tune

Two weeks ago, ALCOSAN held three public meetings about fixing our sewer overflow problems.  We want to give you an update so that you, as a ratepayer, can know what ALCOSAN is saying and how they plan to spend our money. 

The hard work of ratepayers like you has shifted ALCOSAN’s message dramatically. Instead of talking about a Wet Weather Control Plan focused solely on tunnels, they now talk about the benefits and importance of green infrastructure.  

ALCOSAN sewer overflow sign.
Recent ALCOSAN messaging has been riddled with unsupported Claims. 

Unfortunately, their new message was not supported with evidence.  In fact, the information presented showed that the plan and budget have not really shifted at all. What the public heard at these meetings was more of the same.  People who came saw budgets that reflect gray priorities and tunnels. They heard excuses for why things can't be done rather than solutions. In short, they saw a presentation long on spin but short on details, metrics and commitments.  You can read the campaign’s full update here.  

Through the Clean Rivers Campaign, the Sierra Club has been working to ensure that the investment of our ratepayer dollars reflects our values and priorities. We want to maximize green infrastructure and produce benefits and jobs for our communities. We want to ensure that everyone pays their fair share. We want to protect our neighbors and our health by implementing a customer assistance program.  

We will have to be vigilant to make sure that ALCOSAN invests our money wisely and fairly. Stay tuned for ways you can get involved with the Sierra Club and the Clean Rivers Campaign!

You can read the Clean Rivers Campaign’s full statement and Fact Check by clicking here.  

Thanks for your continuing support,

Tom Hoffman
Conservation Program Coordinator
tom.hoffman@sierraclub.org

70 Billion Deaths in 2014

Anyone who is concerned with our species damage to the life systems of our planet is faced with making many personal choices to limit their individual foot print. We must first become aware of what we are doing that is polluting our air and water, degrading our forests, destroying our soils, and causing the extinction of many life forms. Our use of all types of chemicals like pesticides and herbicides must be considered. Our use of fossil fuels is probably at the top of many people’s lists. Our consumerism which needs an endless supply of raw materials and creates immense amounts of waste needs to be on the list. Maybe the single most destructive of human activities is the practice of animal agriculture - something on which the environmental community has not placed enough emphasis.

There is a considerable amount of evidence that human consumption of meat, dairy, and fish is the single most destructive of all our activities. Animal agriculture is the largest contributor to global warming, water pollution and depletion, habitat destruction, and erosion of our topsoil. Our over consumption of fish is putting over 70% of all fish stocks under threat. 

Humans raise and kill 70 billion creatures for food each year which produce 89,000 pounds of excrement each second. This is 130 times more excrement than humans create. Anyway you think about it, this is a lot of ….. stuff. Much of it ends up polluting our streams causing dead zones in places like the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. While cow burps play their share in producing the powerful greenhouse gas methane, all of this waste makes its contribution. Especially egregious contributors to this waste problem are confined animal feeding operations (CAFO).

Swine in a CAFO - unable to turn around, lay down, or move for the duration of their lives.
Image courtesy of shealynnbenner.com

Animal agriculture makes the single largest use of the earth’s land area and the destruction of its soils and forests. 70% to 90% of grains raised in this country goes to feed animals. We could produce all the food we need with plants on far less land. Over grazing has transformed entire areas of rangeland with an estimated 700 million acres of destruction. Desertification is a world-wide problem. Our precious top soil is being washed and blown away. All the crops being grown for animal feed greatly increase pesticide an herbicide use. Livestock occupies 30% of the earth’s land mass. Slash and burn destruction of the rainforest to raise cattle is the leading single cause of rainforest and species loss. 

Not only is animal agriculture directly responsible for polluting water, it is also putting a tremendous strain on clean water resources. While we in the eastern part of the United States may not be conscious of the problem, the Western United States consists of much arid and semi-arid land. Great deals of the cattle raised in this country are raised in this area. The Colorado River is so over used that it never makes it to the sea. The vast Ogallala Aquifer is rapidly being drained, mostly to grow feed for cattle. Vast quantities of water are needed to meet livestock’s direct needs, to grow crops to feed them, and to process and package. Each quarter pounder you eat requires at least 660 gallons of water.

The big environmental groups have been unwilling to take on the issue of animal agriculture directly. They skirt around the edges with the issue such as rainforest destruction for cattle, CAFO’s, over fishing, and antibiotic use, but they never go after the root cause of these problems: our unnecessary and unhealthy consumption of so much meat, fish, and dairy.

Why aren’t they putting the reduction of our consumption of animal products right up there with other environmental concerns? Why aren’t they suggesting that we should greatly reduce our consumption of animal products?  If adopting a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is the single biggest step any of us can take to lighten our impact on the biosphere, why isn’t this front and center?  I suspect that they don’t want to alienate any of their members. Are they more concerned with the health of their groups than they are with the health of the planet?

The "cage free" label carries no standards or regulation and simply indicates that hens are not kept in battery cages- but are still raised in CAFOs which deny birds' natural behavoirs likes nesting, roosting, foraging, even flapping their wings. No grass, no insects, no sunshine. Many die from stress and disease.
Image courtesy of 7thwavewellness.blogspot.com

I don’t know that such a conscious decision has been made, but they are committed to their organizations and they don’t want to lose any of their supporters. I don’t want to in anyway diminish what many of these groups do to protect the environment, but only propose that they must take on directly the problem of animal agriculture if we are going to solve a whole range of environmental problems. While the environmental community promotes many lifestyle changes such as using less energy and buying local, it must strongly add a great reduction of the consumption of animal products to the list. Using less doesn’t mean (for most of us) a lower quality of life. In fact lowering our individual consumption by of just about everything can improve the quality of life for all of us.

As a nation we have been very successful in exporting an over-consumption driven lifestyle. As consumption of consumer products grows throughout the developing world, there is an ever growing stress placed on the earth’s life systems. We are also exporting our “meat eating” lifestyle, an unsustainable development. It is time for us who are concerned with defending the planet lead by real example. Let us not ask others to do what we are not willing to do. Meatless Mondays are not nearly enough!

Written by Jack Miller - Sierra Club PA Chapter Vice Chair

White House Call In Day

November 24, 2014

Coal Ash Phone Script

Instructions:

Call and leave your comment of support for a strong coal ash rule by calling the comment line at the White House!

CALL:  1-888-454-0483 

SAY: Hello. My name is [Full Name] from [City and State].  I respectfully request that President Obama finalize strong safeguards by the end of this year that truly protect the health and environment of all American communities threatened by coal ash.

More talking points if you want to add (OPTIONAL):

• The rule must close and clean up legacy dumps, provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with enforcement authority, establish clearly defined deadlines and transparent processes for cleanups, end all wet disposal, make publicly available groundwater monitoring data and inspections, protect the public from dangerous reuse of ash, and allow for full public participation in permitting processes.
• Now is the time for your administration to stand up and protect the many citizens living in the shadows of these dangerous and contaminated sites. I ask that the President finalize strong federal protections this year for coal ash pollution to not only prevent the next big disaster, but to stop the slow poisoning of American communities.
• Coal ash threatens the respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological systems of people living near more than 1400 dump sites across the nation. Over 1.5 million children live near coal ash storage sites and 70 percent of all coal ash lagoons disproportionately impact low-income communities.

Social Media:

Attached below are several share-able images to amplify our message on social media. Here is some recommended text for Twitter and Facebook:

TWITTER

Join the national day of action! Call the @WhiteHouse and say you want strong protections against toxic coal ash pollution. 

FACEBOOK

Join today's national day of action for protections against toxic coal waste in our waters! President Obama and the White House must act now to finalize strong safeguards against dangerous coal ash. Take action now by calling the White House at 1-888-454-0483 and telling them you want strong protections against coal ash!

Background:

Coal ash disasters have been plaguing communities living near poisonous and dangerous dump sites - from the 2008 disaster in Tennessee, when a billion gallons of toxic sludge poured onto farmland and into the Emory and Clinch rivers, to the recent failure along North Carolina’s Dan River, when a burst storm water pipe underneath an unlined coal ash pit dumped 140,000 tons of coal ash and toxic waste water into the river - the problem with coal ash pollution is getting worse and more dangerous every day and there are no federal protections.

Coal ash, the waste left over from burning coal, is the second largest industrial waste stream in the United States and poses serious threats to our health, air, and drinking water.  Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury, chromium, and a range of harmful heavy metals and toxic pollutants that poison the air and drinking water supplies of communities living near coal ash dump sites. Coal ash threatens the respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological systems of people living near more than 1400 dump sites across the nation.  Over 1.5 million children live near coal ash storage sites and 70 percent of all coal ash lagoons disproportionately impact low-income communities.

When coal ash comes in contact with water, a toxic soup of hazardous pollutants can leach out of the waste and poison our water. The EPA has found some coal ash ponds pose a 1 in 50 risk of cancer to residents drinking arsenic-contaminated water - a risk 2000 times higher than EPA’s regulatory goal. The vast majority of states do not require adequate monitoring or liners to stop the release of toxic chemicals, nor do they ensure that massive earthen dams are maintained safely. States have routinely failed to protect their citizens from coal ash - as was evident in North Carolina’s recent handling of the Dan River coal ash spill.

Now is the time for the administration to stand up and protect the many citizens living in the shadows of these dangerous and contaminated dump sites.