Wednesday, November 23, 2022

FracTracker Alliance Releases 4th Watershed Oil & Gas Drilling Impact Analysis In Susquehanna River Basin - Towanda & Schrader Creek Watersheds

On November 23, the
FracTracker Alliance released its fourth watershed oil and gas drilling impact analysis in the Susquehanna River Basin, this one for the Towanda and Schrader Creek watersheds.

Using FracTracker’s mobile app, on May 20, 2022, five teams of volunteers drove the backroads in the Towanda 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  Towanda Creek watershed.

The Atlas is filled with maps, photos and narrative related to oil and gas industrialization impacts.

The Towanda and Schrader Creek watersheds are almost entirely in Bradford County with small portions in Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga counties.

The watersheds include portions of the Loyalsock State Forest and Tioga State Forest and a designated natural area and State Game Lands.

Of the 567 miles of designated streams in the watersheds-- 85.6 miles are Exceptional Value, 78.3 miles are High Quality and 373 miles are cold water fishery.

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.  

Exceptional Value waters are to be protected at their existing quality; water quality shall not be lowered.

A total of five oil and gas wells were drilled in the Towanda Creek watershed prior to 2008, according to data from DEP.  

Since that time, 372 additional wells have been drilled in the watershed and an additional 378 wells have been proposed but not yet drilled.  

Of the 755 total drilled and proposed wells, only six are categorized as conventional wells, with the remaining 749 designated as unconventional wells, which are highly industrialized and require the injection of millions of gallons of fracking fluid in order to yield meaningful production values.

Oil and gas water resources are concentrated along the main stem of Towanda Creek, including 30 interconnections or impoundments and eight surface water withdrawal sites approved by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

In 2021, 281 wells reported producing 1,908,292 barrels (80 million gallons) of liquid waste and 54,248 tons of solid waste. 

Waste from wells in this watershed was shipped to 86 different sites.  

Of the liquid waste, 95,3% was sent to other well pads for reuse, 4.3% was sent to a residual waste processing facility, 0.3% was sent to temporary storage, and a tiny amount - 32 barrels - was sent to a landfill.  

For solid waste, 98% went to landfills, with the remainder sent to a residual waste processing facility. 

Operators of gas wells in the watersheds have been issued 537 notices of violations since 2008.  The distribution is uneven - some well pads have no violations, while others have dozens.

The teams also documented natural gas leaks from the Taylor Compressor Station in Bradford County.

Click Here to view the entire Towanda & Schrader Creeks StoryMap.

FracTracker Alliance has put together similar watershed impact analysis StoryMaps for--

-- Lycoming Creek Watershed, 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.

NewsClips:

-- AP: Court Plea Hearing Scheduled Tuesday On Criminal Charges Against Coterra Energy [Fmr Cabot Oil & Gas] For Contaminating Water Supplies In Dimock, Susquehanna County

-- AP: PA American Water To Provide Clean Drinking Water To Residents Of Dimock, Susquehanna County Who Have Gone Without For 14 Years Due To Contamination From Shale Gas Drilling

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]

-- 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]

-- DEP: PA Fracking Operations Sent Nearly 236,000 Cubic Feet Of Radioactive TENORM Waste To Low-Level Radioactive Waste Facilities For Disposal In 2021 - 811,070 since 2016  [PaEN]

-- Study: Industry Data Shows Hazardous Air Pollutants Are ‘Ubiquitous’ In The Natural Gas Transmission System; More Justification For Robust Leak Prevention Programs  [PaEN]

-- Environmental Health Project: Setback Distances And The Regulations We Need To Protect Public Health From Oil & Gas Facilities [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]

-- DEP Lists 84 Townships As ‘Waste Facilities’ Where Conventional Oil & Gas Wastewater Has Been Disposed Of By Road Spreading; Municipalities Need To Do Their Due Diligence [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]

-- Conventional Oil & Natural Gas Drilling: An Industrial Machine Moving Across The PA Countryside Leaving Behind Big Liabilities & Spreading Pollution Everywhere It Goes [PaEN]

-- DEP Issued NOVs To Conventional Oil & Gas Companies For Abandoning 55 Wells Without Plugging Them During September Alone, A Dramatic Increase In New Well Abandonments  [PaEN]

-- Republican Chair Of House Environmental Committee Believes Opponents Of Natural Gas Infrastructure Projects ‘Just Need To Be Ignored And Politically Ran Over’ [PaEN]

Related Articles - Major Oil & Gas Criminal/Monetary Penalties Last 2 Years:

-- House Committee Fails To Address $70 Million In Penalties On Natural Gas Pipelines Or Real Concerns Of People Living Near Gas Production & Distribution Facilities

-- AG Shapiro: Energy Transfer/Sunoco Convicted Of Criminal Charges Related To Construction Of Mariner East 2 & Revolution Natural Gas/Liquids Pipelines In PA

-- Sunoco/Mariner East Pipeline To Pay $4 Million In Damages And Restore Lake At Marsh Creek State Park Polluted By A Spill In Chester County

-- Federal Court Approves DEP, EPA, DOJ Settlement With Chesapeake Appalachia For Failure To Identify, Protect Wetlands At 76 Gas Well Drilling Sites, $1.9 Million Penalty

-- PUC Imposes $1 Million Penalty On Energy Transfer Company For 2018 Revolution Pipeline Explosion In Beaver County

-- DEP Collects $497,000, Fish & Boat Commission Collects $25,855 In Penalties For Latest Violations Involving Mariner East 2 Pipeline Construction In Lebanon County

-- DEP: Range Resources Pays $294,000 Penalty For Delaying The Plugging Of 42 Conventional Oil & Gas Wells In 8 Counties

-- DEP Assesses $200,000 In Penalties For Drilling Wastewater Spills By CNX In Greene County 

-- DEP: Olympus Energy Natural Gas Driller Fined $175,000 For Water Quality Violations In Allegheny County

-- DEP Collects $147,250 Penalty From Rice Drilling B LLC For Erosion & Sedimentation Violations In Greene County; DEP Found Rice Had Hundreds Of Other Violations, Including Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them

-- DEP Collects $140,000 Penalty From ETC Northeast Field Services For Pipeline Construction Violations In Beaver County

-- DEP Order Requires Payment Of $125,000 Penalty For Latest Revolution Natural Gas Pipeline Construction Violations In Beaver County

-- DEP Collects $85,000 Penalty For Mariner East 2 Pipeline Construction Violations In Blair, Cumberland, Juniata, Lebanon Counties

-- AP: PUC Judge: Sunoco/Energy Transfer Failed To Protect Delaware County Community During Construction Of Mariner East Pipeline, $51,000 Penalty Proposed

-- AG Shapiro: Southeast Directional Drilling Pleads Guilty To Contaminating Water Supply In Washington County, To Pay $15,000 Fine

Impact Of Oil & Gas Industry:

-- PA Environment Digest Articles On Health & Environmental Impacts Of Oil & Gas Industry

[Posted: November 23, 2022]  PA Environment Digest

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