The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania State Police announced yesterday that a crackdown on trucks hauling wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling operations yielded the following results: of 1,175 trucks inspected, 1,057 were found to be violating state laws.

To put it another way: 89.96% of all Marcellus Shale wastewater trucks were breaking the law and, until yesterday, getting away with it.

It gets better:

207 trucks had violations severe enough that they were removed from service.

52 drivers were removed from service.

The most common problems, says yesterday’s press release, were “unsecured loads and inoperable vehicle lights and lamps”– not exactly comforting, considering that these trucks “loads” are highly-toxic (and possibly radioactive) water.

Common Cause Pennsylvania just released the latest numbers on gas industry donations on MarcellusMoney.org — Corbett raked in at least $835,720 (incidentally, he doesn’t think Shale driller should be taxed at all; wonder why that is?), while Onorato has received at least $112,800 — but those numbers aren’t even the only cause of concern: As pointed out by both Common Cause and an article in yesterday’s DN, both candidates are having problems disclosing their contributors’ employment information, which means, well, there could be more money pouring in from Big Gas that we just don’t know about. Corbett’s latest report isn’t perfect (he failed to disclose employer information for about 3 percent of his large individual donors), but it’s nowhere near as egregious as Onorato’s — he provided employer information for barely a third of his individual donors. 

Alex Kaplan, Project Coordinator for Common Cause, tells The Clog that he doesn’t think the holes in the report are intentional obfuscation, but rather, carelessness due to the quick pace of the campaign. Nevertheless, he says, disclosure is important — especially in Pennsylvania, where there are no contribution limits. Kaplan said that disclosure is crucial in understanding “the size of the influence� of any one donor. Technically, the candidates are breaking state law by failing to disclose employer information for any campaign donations over $250, but it’s not likely any legal action will be taken, Kaplan says. 

Part of the problem is that we’re still living in the dark ages: Pennsylvania doesn’t require computerized filing for candidates, which is the main reason these reports aren’t readily accessible to the public, according to the DN. Kaplan says Common Cause has been working to change this for a long time, but the legislature (shockingly) hasn’t gone along. Similarly, Common Cause has been working to set contribution limits for over two decades, but since that’s proving nigh impossible, Kaplan said the organization will focus on disclosure “in a big way� next year.

So, let’s, uh, be optimistic, shall we?

Isaiah Thompson

Fracktrack is CP’s ongoing coverage of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. For updates, bookmark this link or join our Google Group to receive email notifications.

At a press conference in Penn Treaty Park yesterday, Governor Rendell signed an executive order placing a moratorium on leasing more state forest land for natural gas drilling.

This author did readers the disservice of calling the event “a huge victory for environmental groups.” That is simply not the case.

In fact, Rendell’s order marks a largely-symbolic act, delivered too late to make much of a difference and only after the governor himself authorized several leases of state forest for drilling, over repeated warnings from his own forestry officials to the potential impact to Pennsylvania’s award-winning forests of doing so.

(In fact, after being warned against leasing a proposed 40,000 acres of forest in 2009, Rendell doubled the request to the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, asking for 80,000 acres instead).

Rendell’s power to enforce this executive order ends the moment he ceases to be an executive – I think we’ve got about 80 days.

Efforts to impose a meaningful moratorium on further forest leasing have to happen in the state legislature, where a small core of environmentally-minded legislators – among them Democratic House representatives Greg Vitali (above, far left) and Dave Levdansky – have fought a so-far losing battle to protect the sensitive forest land that hasn’t been leased.

The key part of this equation is a decades-old provision in state law known as the Oil and gas Lease Fund, masterminded by longtime forest steward Maurice Goddard who is legendary for reviving Pennsylvania’s forests during his tenure from coal and gas industry-devastated wastelands to some of the most expansive forests east of the Mississippi.

The law said this: if you lease forest land for oil & gas exploration, you put the profits of the lease back into the forests. The law not only allowed forest stewards to balance competing interests in the forests, but – most importantly – prevented the governor and legislature from using the state’s forests as one big, green slush fund for their own budgets.

That precedent held for more than fifty years until, under Rendell’s leadership, it was broken: last year, the state legislature raided the Oil & Gas Lease Fund for the state budget – largely in order to plug the hole left by Rendell himself when he backed down on imposing the tax on gas production that now, as a lame duck governor, he finds himself begging from a legislature with its eyes on the next executive.

What’s more, an obscure provision in the FY09-10 fiscal code imposed a cap on the amount of money the DCNR may take in from gas royalties – effectively stealing for the state money that was suppoed to be earmarked for conservation, recreation, and new projects.

As DCNR’s budget gets slashed year after year, the agency, rather than using the proceeds of gas drilling in its own forests for the restoration or expansion of forestland elsewhere, is increasingly forced to use that money just to fund its basic operations.

In a few words: the DCNR is increasingly becoming dependent on hand-outs from the legislature, whose members increasingly demand forest land for drilling as a condition for those hand-outs. If nothing changes, those charged with protecting our forests will increasingly be forced to sell them off.

Without new laws in place this – more than any moratorium – will be Rendell’s lasting environmental legacy.

According to several sources, Governor Rendell is preparing to sign an executive order imposing a moratorium on further leasing of state forest land for Marcellus Shale gas drilling at a rally at Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia tomorrow afternoon.

The Governor’s press office would not comment but told CP to expect a press advisory about the event within the hour.

This announcement marks a huge victory for environmental groups and so-called Green Dog legislators, and an about-face by the governor, who — as CP reported in an online series entitled “The Marcellus Memos” and feature story, “Drill Baby Drill,” — pointedly ignored the advice of former Department of Conservation and Natural Resources secretary Michael DiBerardinis, who warned that further leasing of state forest:

“will damage our State Forest landscape. It would scar the economic, scenic, ecological, and recreational values of the forest – especially the most wild and remote areas of our state in the Pennsylvania Wilds. Your years of work and investments in rural economic revitalization through outdoor experiences in the Pennsylvania Wilds could be erased.”

(Rendell did, however, heed the advice of senior aide K. Scott Roy to hold off on imposing a tax on natural gas extraction; Roy promptly quit to work for the gas industry.)

Current DCNR Secretary John Quigley has since voiced similar warnings. Recently, DCNR published a study of the impact of current and further leasing on state forest land, emphasizing that any further leasing would cut into protected and sensitive forest land:

Using an example from Northern Pa., the report shows how this piece of state forest looks after you subtract land already leased, and land which cannot be leased without posting serious threats to the sustainability of the forest:

CP’s breaking news and analysis of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. Click here to join the “Frack Track� Google group and receive email updates.

Governor Rendell announced yesterday that the proposed (and agreed upon in the last budget session) tax on natural gas extraction is officially “dead” for this session, after Senate Republicans refused to make a counter-proposal the governor would accept.

And while the gas industry and the politicians it bankrolls light cigars and roll naked in piles of money – or whatever they do after such victories – the rest of us ought to take a good hard look at how exactly one of the largest and most lucrative industries to arrive in this state in recent history has, in the middle of a recession, managed to avoid paying taxes on the extraction of the most valuable natural resource we have left.

With money, that’s how: in just a few years, the gas industry has poured millions of dollars into lobbying and campaign contributions to our elected officials – Republicans especially.

According to the website MarcellusMoney.org, a project of Common Cause Pennsylvania, the industry has spent more than $5 million lobbying Harrisburg since 2007 alone in installments of ever-increasing value (see the graph above).

Topping the list is none other than Republican Gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett ($372,270), followed by Senate President Pro Tem Joseph Scarnati ($117,575), followed by Governor Ed Rendell ($84,100), followed by  Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato ($74,300), all followed by a sizeable chunk of the Republican wing of the State Senate – the same that just couldn’t seem to propose a tax on the enormous profits the gas industry expects to make here.

MarcellusMoney.org, a project of Common Cause PA

Gas industry lobbying since 2007

The industry, of course, argues that taxation will hamper its growth, cost jobs, drive the industry out, etc.  But there are few issues in state politics that are more cut and dry: the argument is utter nonsense.

Marcellus Shale gas, it so happens, is confined to the Marcellus Shale. The gas is here, and if there exists a tax that would actually discourage the fossil fuel industry from coming here to get it, nothing close to it has ever been proposed. Even if the tax did slow down the pace of development, it would be slowed from what is now a dangerous free-for-all that, in just a few years, has destroyed the water supply of an entire town (state regulators have ordered Cabot Oil & Gas to supply Dimock, PA’s water), involved dozens of spills of toxic waste, ruined the infrastructure of municipalities hosting the industry, and begun already to deplete fresh water supplies across the state – activity which has, and continues to go, untaxed.

Tom Corbett gets the biggest cut of the proceeds of that activity while the public gets zilch – and, if elected, he’s promised to keep it that way.

It’s looking like a good night for Ting Wong.

Evan Lopez

Today, 47 big-shot mayors and commissioners from around the state — mostly Democrats, as far as I can tell — wrote a letter to gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett, asking him to rethink his opposition to a Marcellus Shale severance tax. And true, he should. As his Democratic foe Dan Onorato points out in a press release, though, Common Cause Pennsylvania found that Corbett is the “No. 1 Pennsylvania recipient of contributions from the gas industry over the last decade” — meaning it’s unlikely he’ll do a 180 anytime soon. What Onorato fails to mention in the press release, however, is that he’s also taken a good amount of campaign contributions from the gas industry himself — at least $74,000 — as have many other Democrats. (During the gubernatorial primary election, Montgomery County commissioner Joe Hoeffel was the only Dem who vowed to not take any donations from Shale drillers.)

Anyway, check out the letter:

October 6, 2010

Tom Corbett
Corbett for Governor
200 North Third Street, 13th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101

Dear Mr. Corbett:

As locally elected officials from across the state, we believe the Marcellus Shale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Pennsylvania.  We can grow our economy, create local jobs and preserve our natural resources — but only if it’s done right.

But your plan will protect Big Oil & Gas at the expense of taxpayers in our communities, and we are writing to ask you to start putting Pennsylvania taxpayers first.

In the towns, cities and counties that many of us are elected to serve, we are already seeing wear-and-tear on our roads as a result of the heavy equipment that the industry requires.  We don’t want our taxpayers to be stuck with the bill to fix these infrastructure challenges.

And for all of us — those in the Marcellus Shale region and those outside it — protecting the drinking water of the families in our communities is a top priority and a deep concern.  We need proper oversight so that our water is safe to drink and our rivers are not polluted.

As the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association recently reported, over the last 2 1/2 years, drilling companies have been cited for 1,500 environmental and safety violations in Pennsylvania.  The Pennsylvania State Police have found “significant increases in heavy truck traffic in areas where Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operations are taking place� — and in one 3-day enforcement period this summer, they ordered 250 vehicles to be taken off the road and kept out of service.  The oil and gas industry cannot be allowed to police itself.

This does not have to be a partisan issue.  Many Republicans — including the Senate Republican leadership and 12 members of the House Republican caucus — agree that there should be a severance tax, just like every other major gas-producing state already has.

Please put Pennsylvania’s taxpayers first and do not leave us — and our tax-paying constituents — to pay for all the costs while the gas drillers make hundreds of millions of dollars from our natural resources.

There’s a common-sense approach that will enable us to develop the potential of the Marcellus Shale and protect Pennsylvania’s taxpayers. We hope you will stop sticking up for your Big Oil & Gas donors and instead look out for Pennsylvania taxpayers.

(List of Signers After the Jump)

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This morning, following a press conference in which Governor Rendell acknowledged and apologized for a state-contracted agency’s spying on anti-drilling activists (among others), a Pittsburgh City Councilman, Doug Shields, demanded a probe into the company, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response. (Read more about the somewhat-mysterious company here)

Reports the Post-Gazette:

“I want to see the 990s on this group,” he said, referring to the IRS document nonprofits must file. “Where do the fingerprints lie on this organization?” Mr. Shields said.”

However, City Paper has found no 990s so far: In fact, the organization is not listed on several nonprofit databases, including one maintained by the IRS.

An email seeking clarification of the group’s nonprofit status was not returned. Co-Director Michael Perelman, reached by phone for clarification, declined to say whether the group is, in fact, a nonprofit, saying a press release was forthcoming and that there would be no other comment.

He was unable to say when the release will be issued.

Last night, Governor Rendell called reports prepared for the state by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) — which covertly monitored the activities of anti-drilling activists (along with  such terroristic events as a gay rights parade) — “ludicrous.”

He also said the state would not renew its $125,000 contract with the company.

But who and what is the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response? The answer isn’t obvious.

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An email obtained by City Paper suggests collaboration between the state Department of Homeland Security and gas drilling interests.

The email, authored by Pennsylvania Homeland Security chief James Powers, was written in apparent error: addressed to a participant in anti-drilling forums, the letter indicates that Powers mistakenly mistook its recipient for someone associated with pro-drilling interests.

In the email (full text below), Powers warns against distributing information gathered by the Pa. DHS on anti-drilling activities, saying that: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies.”

The “support” he speaks of consists at least partly of confidential updates on anti-drilling activists and activities. A report yesterday evening by nonprofit investigative journalism outfit Pro Publica broke the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Homeland Security included in its regular newsletter, the Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletin, descriptions of various activities and gatherings of activists opposed to gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Included in a list entitled “Dates of interest” are a series of local meetings about gas drilling issues — a drilling ordinance in Cranberry County, a hearing in Damascus, Pa. on zoning regulations — as well as the recent screening in Philadelphia of the “controversial Gasland movie,” a documentary by filmmaker Josh Fox on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, the process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

City Paper emailed Mr. Powers to confirm authenticity of the email and was contacted instead by Governor Rendell’s chief spokesman Gary Tuma, who acknowledged that the email was authentic and said that the Pa. Dept. of Homeland Security was sharing such information with certain local interests – including gas drilling companies — because of “recent acts of vandalism” against drilling operations.

“There have been five acts of vandalism against Marcellus Shale drilling facilities,” in the last two weeks, he said, “including two of which involved firearms … shotguns fired at equipment.”

A third incident involved theft, he said after being asked for details, and the other two were “minor incidents.”

Tuma added that “There have been peaceful protests related to MS drilling by people who oppose drilling and the increased amount of drilling — certainly no one is trying to restrict the rights of peaceful protest conducted within the parameters of the first amendment.”

Asked whether there have been any protests that were not peaceful, Mr. Tuma acknowledged, “There have not been any that I’m aware of.”

The full text of the email appears below:

For Your Information & Situational Awareness

Just a short note of clarification regarding the intent of the PIB. The information provided to you via the PIB is not for dissemination in the public domain. As indicated in the caveats on the first page, the PIB is solely meant for owners/operators & security personnel associated with our critical infrastructure & key resources.

Although an internet forum is certainly a great way to spread the word and receive input from forum participants, it’s still in the public domain and thus be accessed by both pro and anti-natural gas drilling folks.

Please assist us in keeping the information provided in the PIB to those having a valid need-to-know; it should only be disseminated via closed communications systems.

Thanks for your support. We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies.

Jim

James F. Powers, Jr. | Director

Office of Homeland Security

2605 Interstate Drive | Suite 380

Harrisburg, PA 17110-9382

717-651-2715 | Cell: 717-307-5335

gaslandthemovie.com

Filmmaker Josh Fox is in town and will be visiting our own weird, quasi-public venue — The Piazza at Schmidts — for a screening by Rooftop Films and the Philly Underground Film Festival of Fox’s documentary, Gasland.

The film is a disturbing — but also, lest you be on the fence, surprisingly entertaining — portrait of the natural gas industry and the method of gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” It’s already a major, major presence in Pennsylvania and whose environmental consequences deserve, at the very least, a level of scrutiny that has been absent so far.

This paper has covered the subject, most recently under our little monikers of “Frack Track” and “Marcellus Shale,” Click on the blue for recent articles.

In the meantime, here’s a snippet of my recent interview with Fox, in which he describes the strange phenomenon of people coming from around the state to his screenings … with jugs of contaminated water!

If you like this teaser, just wait: the full interview will be available next week in … The resurrection of our long-dead podcast!

Here are show details:

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CP’s breaking news and analysis of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. Click here to join the “Frack Track” Google group and receive email updates.

This isn’t quite breaking news – it’s been covered by a few papers in western Pa. and I mentioned it briefly  in a recent “Man Overboard” column – but it’s gotten surprisingly little play in the media, considering the severity of the claims being made.

The Allegheny Defense Project, a grassroots group dedicated to preserving the environment, ecology, and wilderness of the Allegheny mountains, has charged the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection with illegally permitting water withdrawals.

Here’s the breakdown: Hydraulic fracturing, the process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation underlying much of Pa., requires water –  lots and lots of water. In eastern and central Pennsylvania (the Delaware and Susquehanna river basins, respectively), that water can be drawn from Pa streams and rivers only with the permission of that watershed’s river basin commission.

But in the part of western Pa. which lies in the Ohio River Basin, there is no basin commission to permit water withdrawals. Instead, argues the ADP, those rivers and streams are governed by riparian rights: governed, in other words, by the property owners themselves.

The group charges that DEP has been illegally giving drilling companies permission to withdraw water – charges which they outlined in a letter to DEP Secretary John Hanger (download the full letter here).

According to Board Director Bill Belitskus, the DEP – more than a month later – has yet to respond.

From the Allegheny Defense Project press release:

“The fact is, the DEP has absolutely no authority to permit water withdrawals in Pennsylvania,� said Cathy Pedler, ADP’s forest watch coordinator.  “Outside of the Delaware and Susquehanna River watersheds, water withdrawals are governed by riparian rights common law, which means only those who live adjacent to the water can make reasonable use of the water on their land.  A gas company cannot take water that flows through property it does not own.�

Nevertheless, documents obtained by ADP reveal that the DEP is unlawfully authorizing water withdrawals from western Pennsylvania streams and rivers.  On March 31, 2010 the DEP approved a Water Management Plan for Hanley & Bird, Inc.  The Water Management Plan allows Hanley & Bird to withdraw 1.44 million gallons of water a day from the Redbank Creek in Jefferson County for five years.

What to say? The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has said it all:

A Monroeville drilling company could tap natural gas beneath 15 cemeteries in Allegheny and Washington counties under a lease signed by the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the association’s director said Tuesday.

The association leased nearly 1,060 acres of cemetery land in 2008 to Huntley & Huntley Inc., including the 200-acre Calvary Cemetery in Hazelwood, which City Councilman Doug Shields called “ground zero” in the debate over whether natural gas drilling should be permitted in Pittsburgh

In case you missed that last phrase: “the debate over whether natural gas drilling should be permitted in Pittsburgh,” – it is, in fact a debate and a distinct possibility: Pittsburgh, unlike Philadelphia, is located on top of the Marcellus Shale and the drilling industry is moving in quickly to begin drilling within city limits.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Communications Secretary Neil Weaver quietly left his post on Friday, according to an “Out of Office” email CP received Monday morning.

Mr. Weaver joined the Department in 2007 and became press secretary in 2008. Recently, he was handling a great deal of Marcellus Shale-related information for the press – in which capacity I exchanged several emails and phone calls with him (He was, just to put it out there, quite cordial, responsive, and helpful).

It’s not unusual that as the Rendell administration winds down, we’re seeing higher-ups leave their posts for positions in the private sector. But it’s not a bad idea to keep an eye on where they’re winding up – especially given the recent spate of officials leaving the Rendell administration to work in natural gas– after that administration was exceedingly friendly to and well-financed by that industry.

So where did Mr. Weaver go? We don’t know. Do you?

DEP spokesman and acting Press Secretary Tom Rathbun said only that:

“Neil has gone to work for a private firm that is not involved in the Oil & Gas industry,” and that “It is a public relations position and not related to lobbying.”

CP’s ongoing coverage of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. Email us for regular updates, or use this handy link to the Clog’s “fracktrack” category.

I do not envy the Environmental Protection Administration right now.

In 2004, it conducted a study into Marcellus Shale drilling, which concluded that the “EPA did not find confirmed evidence that drinking water wells have been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing.�

That 2004 study was used to enact the so-called “Halliburton Loophole” — which exempted Marcellus Shale drillers from complying with a slew of environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act.

What you may be thinking is: If drinking water is not contaminated by hydraulic fracturing, why would gas drillers need to be exempted from environmental regulations?

It’s a good question. And a whistleblower came forward from the EPA to offer an answer: the study was “scientifically unsound.�

A subsequent study by ProPublica — just to throw one example out there (because there are many) — found more like 1,000 examples of groundwater contamination from Marcellus Gas wells instead of zero.

This spring, the EPA acknowledged — or at least implied — that they may have overlooked some stuff in 2004 study. And in response, officials within the EPA have scheduled a series of four public gatherings nationwide aimed at understanding public concerns over issues related to drilling for natural gas buried a mile into the earth.

Those four locations were: Fort Worth, Texas on July 8; Denver, Colo. on July 13, Bunghamton, N.Y. on Aug. 12; and last night at the Hilton Garden Inn, about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Why 15 miles south of Pittsburgh? Because there’s a major boom out here. Thousands of wells are being contracted in the more rural counties outside Allegheny County, and drilling leases have been signed not only within Allegheny County (where Pittsburgh sits), but actually within the City of Pittsburgh.

Which concerns some people. Ron Gulla is one of them.

Gulla sold pieces of his land to various drilling companies years ago. He pulled in some major cash — as much as $20,000 per month in the early 1990s — and then he got hit with reality: Not only was his drinking water turning into sludge, and not only was his house beginning to smell of kerosene and gasoline and other chemicals, but his take from the Marcellus Shale wells on his rural property was depreciating alarmingly year by year. Why? Because his neighbors were also selling their mineral rights and also smelling the unpleasant odors of commerce and also washing their faces at night with stinking watery mud seeping from their faucets. In short: The bubble had burst, and all that remained was severely unclean tap water and landowners who didn’t really know what they had gotten themselves into.

You see where this is going? Stories like that have ended up in outlets like CNN, the New York Times, Reuters — pretty much everywhere.

And so:

“EPA is developing a research study to examine the potential relationships between [hydraulic fracturing — the process by which Marcellus Shale is extracted from the ground] and drinking water. A key goal of the EPA study is to generate data and information that can be used to assess risks and ultimately to inform decisions.�

Part of that approach involves what the EPA calls “stakeholder input.� Which is what last night’s romp was all about.

Hundreds of people signed up — some traveled from as far as Albany and Virginia — to speak publicly at the meeting about any anxiety related to Marcellus Shale drilling.

A lot of these speeches were nearly identical, but each represented some very real concerns.

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