In May 2021, using FracTracker’s mobile app, a group of 11 volunteers drove the backroads in the Lycoming Creek watershed documenting the oil and gas industry’s industrialization of the watershed and impacts of well pads, pipeline cuts, and other associated infrastructure.
This Atlas represents both the observations made that day, and data collected from public sources that help to illustrate the often out-of-sight resource uses in the Lycoming Creek watershed.
The Atlas is filled with maps, photos and narrative related to oil and gas industrialization impacts.
The Lycoming Creek watershed is almost entirely in Lycoming County with small portions in Sullivan and Tioga counties.
The 272-square mile watershed flows 37 miles to its confluence with the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in Williamsport. Only 1 percent of the watershed is developed and 81 percent is covered by forests.
The watershed includes a portion of the Tioga State Forest and Loyalsock State Forest and several designated natural and wild areas as well as State Game Lands 335 and 133.
Over 412 miles of streams in the drainage area are designated High Quality-- 76% of the watershed’s 542 stream miles.
The water quality in an HQ stream can be lowered only if a discharge is the result of necessary social or economic development, the water quality criteria are met, and all existing uses of the stream are protected.
The first unconventional shale gas well was drilled in the Lycoming Watershed in May 2007.
As of June 28, 2021, 384 unconventional gas wells have been drilled in the watershed of the 592 unconventional wells that received permits,
DEP issued a total of 634 notices of violation associated with unconventional wells and well pads: 41 (6%) related to erosion and sedimentation concerns, which could harm aquatic life; 379 (60%) citations were for spills, leaks, or pollution discharges that degraded surface or groundwater; and 41 (6%) were for other water issues.
The remaining 173 (27%) violations were for various other shortcomings—most issued for improper handling of waste materials.
DEP has collected fines totaling $2,460,700 from four operators in the watershed. Range Resources leads the way with $1,461,000 in fines, followed by Seneca Resources with $600,000, East Resources with $380,700, and Chief Oil & Gas with $19,000.
In the Lycoming Creek watershed, operators reported generating 9,064,377 barrels (380.7 million gallons) of liquid waste and 416,248 tons of solid waste between January 2011 and April 2021.
There is record of 124 waste facilities in the Lycoming Creek watershed, including 121 well pads, one landfill, one residual waste processing facility, and one temporary storage site, pending future reuse or disposal.
The field teams also recorded natural gas leaks from compressor stations and natural gas processing facilities in the watershed.
As author and professor Colin Jerolmack references in his recent article for The New Republic, some landowners who willingly leased their mineral rights to oil and gas companies now view the industry’s activities with consternation.
Incessant noise, traffic congestion, and foul odors have tarnished the once peaceful countryside.
Even more disconcerting for property owners, the industry often operates however they please, with little consultation or consent—making some feel that they have lost their decision-making power and agency.
According to Colin Jerolmack—when writing about this very place in Up to Heaven and Down to Hell—one’s decision to lease, “… alienates others’ rights to liberty and property.” [ii] This paradigm, “prevents many community stakeholders from having a say in decisions even though they absorb the externalities.”
Another big ecological concern in the punctured watershed centers on the fragile Eastern hellbender populations.
Peter Petokas has been studying Eastern hellbender populations in the Lycoming watershed for 16 years.
He is very concerned for the future of the species in the watershed, which holds one of the richest populations in Pennsylvania, concentrated in one of the few remaining streams with optimal water quality.
Click Here to view the entire Lycoming Creek StoryMap.
FracTracker Alliance has put together similar watershed impact analysis StoryMaps for--
-- Towanda & Schrader Creeks Watersheds, Lycoming County
-- Loyalsock Creek Watershed, Lycoming County
-- Pine Creek Watershed, Clinton, Lycoming, Potter & Tioga Counties
The Johnstown-based FracTracker Alliance supports groups across the United States, addressing pressing concerns about the health effects and exposure risks to communities from oil and gas development.
They provide timely and provocative data, ground-breaking analyses, maps, and other visual tools to help advocates, researchers, and the concerned public better understand the harms posed by hydrocarbon extraction.
Click Here to sign up for regular updates.
(Photos: Top- Unconventional oil and gas facilities in the Lycoming Creek Watershed; a string of shale gas drilling pads and access/pipeline routes; Middle- Natural gas leaks from gas processing facility; One of many natural gas pipeline routes; Bottom- Compressor station and example of truck traffic serving the natural gas infrastructure.)
NewsClips:
Related Articles This Week:
-- EQB To Meet Nov. 30 To Consider Emergency Regulation Setting VOC/Methane Limits For Conventional Oil & Gas Facilities [PaEN]
-- Delaware River Basin Commission Meets Dec. 7 On Shale Gas Fracking Wastewater Regulations [PaEN]
-- FracTracker Alliance Announces 7 Winners Of 2022 Community Sentinel Award For Environmental Stewardship; Including PA’s Laurie Barr [PaEN]
-- FracTracker Alliance Releases 4th Watershed Oil & Gas Drilling Impact Analysis In Susquehanna River Basin - Towanda & Schrader Creek Watersheds [PaEN]
-- UPDATED: After 14 Days, Efforts To Stop A Natural Gas Leak At A Cambria County Underground Gas Storage Area Have Apparently Been Successful [PaEN]
-- EDF Blog: What A Catastrophic Natural Gas Leak In Pennsylvania Means For Our Climate And Health - By Adam Peltz and Jon Goldstein, Environmental Defense Fund [PaEN]
-- NRDC Blog: How Clean Is Pennsylvania’s New Hydrogen Subsidy? It’s Up To The Feds - By Mark Szybist, Natural Resources Defense Council [PaEN]
-- Beaver County Residents And Allies Launch New Shell Ethane Plant Accountability Campaign [PaEN]
-- Guest Essay: PA Politicians Capitalizing On Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine To Benefit Natural Gas Industry - By Lauren M. Williams, Esq., Greenworks Law & Consulting LLC [PaEN]
Related Articles:
-- Center For Coalfield Justice Holds First Water Distribution Day Nov. 19 To Help Provide Families Drinking Water In Greene County Following Alleged ‘Frack-Out’ At Natural Gas Well Site In June [PaEN]
-- Washington County Family Lawsuit Alleges Shale Gas Company Violated The Terms Of Their Lease By Endangering Their Health, Contaminating Their Water Supply And Not Protecting Their Land [PaEN]
Related Articles - Health & Environmental Impacts:
-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: We've Got Enough Compelling Evidence To Enact Health Protective Policies For Families Now - By Edward C. Ketyer, M.D., President, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania [PaEN]
-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: When It Started, It Was Kind Of Nice, But What Happened Afterwards Really Kind Of Devastated Our Community - By Rev. Wesley Silva, former Council President Marianna Borough, Washington County [PaEN]
-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Economically, Socially Deprived Areas In PA Have A Much Greater Chance Of Having Oil & Gas Waste Disposed In Their Communities - By Joan Casey, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health [PaEN]
-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Living Near Oil & Gas Facilities Means Higher Health Risks, The Closer You Live, The Higher The Risk - By Nicole Deziel PhD MHS, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health [PaEN]
-- Senate Hearing: Body Of Evidence Is 'Large, Growing,’ ‘Consistent’ And 'Compelling' That Shale Gas Development Is Having A Negative Impact On Public Health; PA Must Act [PaEN]
-- Penn State Study: Potential Pollution Caused By Road Dumping Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Makes It Unsuitable For A Dust Suppressant, Washes Right Off The Road Into The Ditch [PaEN]
-- On-Site Conventional Oil & Gas Drilling Waste Disposal Plans Making Hundreds Of Drilling Sites Waste Dumps [PaEN]
-- Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Dispose Of Drill Cuttings By ‘Dusting’ - Blowing Them On The Ground, And In The Air Around Drill Sites [PaEN]
-- Creating New Brownfields: Oil & Gas Well Drillers Notified DEP They Are Cleaning Up Soil & Water Contaminated With Chemicals Harmful To Human Health, Aquatic Life At 272 Locations In PA [PaEN]
-- Gov. Wolf, Senate, House Republicans Again Fail To Hold Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Accountable For Protecting The Environment, Taxpayers On Hook For Billions [PaEN]
-- Conventional Oil & Gas Drillers Reported Spreading 977,671 Gallons Of Untreated Drilling Wastewater On PA Roads In 2021 [PaEN]
-- NO SPECIAL PROTECTION: The Exceptional Value Loyalsock Creek In Lycoming County Is Dammed And Damned - Video Dispatch From The Loyalsock - By Barb Jarmoska, Keep It Wild PA [PaEN]
-- Rare Eastern Hellbender Habitat In Loyalsock Creek, Lycoming County Harmed By Sediment Plumes From Pipeline Crossings, Shale Gas Drilling Water Withdrawal Construction Projects [PaEN]
Related Articles - Major Oil & Gas Criminal/Monetary Penalties Last 2 Years:
-- DEP Assesses $200,000 In Penalties For Drilling Wastewater Spills By CNX In Greene County
Impact Of Oil & Gas Industry:
-- PA Environment Digest Articles On Health & Environmental Impacts Of Oil & Gas Industry
[Posted: November 24, 2022] PA Environment Digest
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