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Just Say ‘No’ — Locals Ban Frack Waste in Pa.

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Dr. Stephen Cleghorn of Paradise Gardens and Farm, who recently formed an easement on his property to ban the development of unconventional gas wells. © J.B.Pribanic

On January 9, 2013, in otherwise quiet Highland Township in Elk County, Pennsylvania, officials signed a community rights bill into law stopping the deposit of fracking waste within the township. Seneca Resources, the drilling and fracking arm of National Fuel Gas of Williamsville, N.Y., had planned to inject its “production fluids” (oil and gas drilling and fracking waste) into an injection well about 2,200 feet from Crystal Springs — a main source of water for James City — according to the Kane Republican. Injection wells have a history, both long and recent, of failing to contain waste and increasing the risk of exposure to drinking water supplies. So, residents of Highland Township asked their municipal officials to say “No.” A Community & Environmental Rights Movement Highland Township is the latest on a list of over 140 other communities that have said ‘no’ to factory farms, waste incinerators, corporate water withdrawals, and now fracking by passing rights-based ordinances. Marsha Buhl, president of the Highland Township Recreation Association, collected signatures from more than 230 township residents in order to ban the injection well.

Triple Divide: The Judys

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Judy standing with contaminated water drawn from her well. © J.B.Pribanic

A Look at Drill Waste Pits and Groundwater by Melissa Troutman, Laurel Dammann, and Joshua Pribanic “It was 2007, and my water well was fine. I mean, I didn’t have any problem with it. I was cooking, drinking, [...]

Shoveling Water: Predrill Tests

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This story was updated on January 4, 2012. What if a predrill water well test conducted during the biggest boom for natural gas became meaningless? At least one predrill test in Pennsylvania has been deemed insufficient by natural [...]

Drilling Risks: Research Suggests Natural Gas Leases Violate SEC Rules of Fraud

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A natural gas well drilled on private property in Tioga County, PA. photo: Melissa A. Troutman

Gas Drilling Doublespeak Landowners Say Companies Kept Them in the Dark on Risks by Environmental Working Group (EWG) Gas drilling companies routinely warn their investors of a litany of possible disasters – such as leaks, spills, explosions, bodily [...]

EPA Study Finds Hydraulic Fracturing Contaminates Drinking Water Aquifer

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Natural gas well site in Tioga County Pennsylvania. photo: Joshua B. Pribanic

Feds Link Water Contamination to Fracking for the First Time by Abrahm Lustgarten and Nick Kusnetz for ProPublica In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely [...]

Chesapeake Energy Helps Pennsylvania Afford Study of Natural Gas Blowout

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An out of focus photograph of the well pad in Tioga State Forest, that highlights the difficulty in bringing subjects about natural gas into focus when the Department of Environmental Protection ignores questions from the press about the topic. photo: Joshua B. Pribanic

Chesapeake Fixes Water Well After Blowout to “Be a Good Neighbor” Well Incident Shares Anniversary with BP Gulf Spill, Both Failed Wellheads Manufactured by Cameron International According to Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and its consultant SAIC, the company is [...]

Poetry: A Hunter’s Bird

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I You live on these mountains, these Alleghenies, among the laurel— imbued with its same tenacious, rugged beauty and toughness— and the bedrock: sandstone and quartzite, –sheltered by long forgotten flags of maple and oak inextricable with the [...]

Haliburton Introduces 'CleanStim' Fracking Solution & Gas Worker Takes a Drink: Environmental Groups Weigh In

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A liquid concoction, often laced with toxic chemicals, is a central villain in the controversy over extracting natural gas by fracturing rock beneath the earth’s surface. Opponents fear this fracking fluid may foul water supplies, endangering human health and the environment. Adapting, the industry is responding to public concern. Giant energy services company Halliburton, in a safety demonstration at an August 3 industry conference in Colorado, had an employee demonstrate just how palatable fracking fluid can be. He drank it.

Livestock in the Face of Natural Gas Drilling

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Unlike many in agriculture, cattle farmer Ken Jaffe has had a good decade. But lately he's been nervous, worried fracking will destroy his business. Jaffe's been good to his soil, and the land has been good to him. By rotating his herd of cattle to different pastures on his...