OUTDOOR Forum at canaaninstitute.org

[Mike_L]

Marcellus Shale
The Marcellus Shale – America's next super giant

EDITORS NOTE: The following was adapted from here http://catskillmountainkeeper.org/node/290 BUT! The reason I am starting this thread is the "landsmen" are knocking on doors in our area NOW. They have approached us at our residence on Canaan Rd., town of Caroline, but there is HUGE pressure NOW on landowners in the Candor and Spencer areas. -m

Down in Texas the big gas companies are talking about northeast Pennsylvania and New York as the place to be. The Catskills and the Delaware River Valley sit on top of Marcellus Shale. Marcellus Shale lies under much of northern Appalachia 6,000 to 8,000 feet below the surface; the pores in the shale contain large quantities of natural gas. The shale layer becomes thicker from west to east beginning at about 50 feet in Ohio to more than 100 feet thick in central PA and NY. Geologists have known about the gas here for years but now with the new technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, recovering the gas is now the big new "Shale Play" as the industry refers to it. We are seeing the "land men" knocking on doors to obtain gas leases for various companies, with Chesapeake leading the charge in our area (mostly the Delaware River Valley in PA, Sullivan and Delaware counties). Community groups are forming on both sides of the issue from landowner associations to better negotiate a lease to groups fighting drilling altogether.



What does this all mean to the average resident? It means that landowners, towns, counties and regional organizations have a very short time to come up to speed with all the issues involved with gas exploration. As a new "shale play" we don't have a history in this particular formation but we certainly have a history with gas exploration and the complexity of the issues involved. Here are a few topics we all need to look closer at:

Hydraulic Fracturing: "Fracking” as it is called within the industry involves injecting water, sand and special chemicals into the shale layer at extremely high pressure. This then separates the pores in the rock and the sand particles "hold" the cracks open so the gas can flow back to the drill bore. Some of the injected fluids remain trapped underground. A number of these fluids qualify as hazardous materials and carcinogens, and are toxic enough to contaminate groundwater resources. There are cases in the U.S. where hydraulic fracturing is the suspected source of impaired or polluted drinking water. In Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, incidents have been recorded by people who have gas wells near their homes. They have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations. Most of these incidences involve coal-bed methane production, which is a much shallower drilling process, but it highlights how poorly the gas companies are protecting the communities they are working in.

Pollution: The pollution from oil and gas exploration and production has involved known carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, and other toxic chemicals like arsenic, hydrogen sulfide, mercury and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene and xylene.

EDITORS NOTE: There is a LAW PENDING IN NYS ASSEMBLY RIGHT NOW TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO USE THESE TOXIC "FRACKING" FLUIDS - IT IS NOW LEGAL TO USE THESE HIGHLY TOXIC LIQUIDS AT THIS MOMENT! SEE http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A11606 Tell your local assembly person to vote YES! This is urgent. Find your assembly person here http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

Air and Noise Pollution: Drilling for gas is a highly industrial undertaking which includes numerous truckloads of equipment, chemicals, sand and water along with generators, pumps, drilling rigs and hoists. All of which are running at all hours of the day producing noise and exhaust fumes. When gas is found there can be a release of the various gases in the formation.

THE REST OF THIS GREAT ARTICLE ABOVE IS HERE http://catskillmountainkeeper.org/node/290
READ IT AND SEND THIS FORUM LINK TO A RURAL LANDOWNER YOU KNOW!

Bingamton Press and Sun has a great gas drilling site at www.pressconnects.com/gaslease

Gas Leasing Issues http://gas-lease.org/ Thinking of signing a lease? Watch this video first, then get a good lawyer who understands gas leases: http://ec.environmentalcountdown.org/kickapps/_Impacts-of-Natural-Gas-Drilling-in-PA/video/210347/4315.html



LOCAL Gas Lease site http://www.tiogagaslease.org/ [I do not know who put this one together -editor ]

==
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

This Sunday, July 20, from 9-11pm, on WEOS 89.7, Ithaca Community
Radio 88.1 "Unwelcome Guests" will air a community forum on the effects of
natural gas drilling.

The forum took place a couple of weeks ago in Walton, NY and featured
speakers from Colorado and Wyoming sharing their experiences of the
reality of gas drilling in their communities. I know that many of us have been
approached to sign gas leases. You need to hear this and make sure your
neighbors do as well.

If you can't hear the radio this Sunday, the show is also available for
download as an mp3 at http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/28284

Lyn
producer/host Unwelcome Guests
Sundays 9-11 WEOS 89.7. ICR 88.1
www.unwelcomeguests.org
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

If you are interested in gas leasing & all the issues it brings, join this forum by sending an email to:

CitizensEnergyAlliance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

It's mostly folks in Spencer area, but the info & discussions apply to the entire area.

I own 108 acres in Spencer, and 90 acres are in a gas drilling unit (it was put into compulsory integration, and I only signed a lease at the last minute, with major restrictions in it). Gas started production about a month ago, and I start getting royalties in Sept. It's a Trenton-Black River well, which is much less nasty than Marcellus Shale. -- Dennis

==
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Question: What is " compulsory integration"?

From Dennis:

The drilling unit for Trenton-Black River gas is about 600 to 650 acres, since one horizontal bore will drain about that size an area. I think Marcellus is similar.

Once a driller has leases on 60% of the land in the unit, they can force everyone to participate-- that's compulsory integration. You get 12.5% royalties by default, or you can put up your share of drilling costs and get 100% royalties (I didn't have the $900K to do that). I signed a lease with a 3rd party who put up the $900K, and offered me $250 an acre up front and 18.75% royalty, and accepted a lease blocking all surface activities. There is a third option that allows 100% royalties after deducting 3x drilling costs, with a quirk that makes it attractive to set up a LLC to lease from yourself. I only had 3 weeks to decide and couldn't do the 3rd option in time.
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Michael,

I received a couple messages from Ed Cope that you sent him. Clearly you are tracking the issue of big gas & oil companies coming to our area for hydrocarbon capture. I wear two hats on this topic. Lincoln (my husband) and I have not signed any lease though there is pressure to do so. I am also on the Town of Caroline Board; I want to help prepare our community as best I can for what may happen with exploration. As with any opportunity there are positive and negative attributes tied to this development. As an individual I want the natural gas in our area brought to market. But NOT at the expense of our water and land resources. I'm trying to find the balance between what I can reasonably expect to have influence over and what is beyond my control. The meeting below hosted by the Co-Op Ext. folks is some of the best material I have come across.


Use this direct link to a recording of the 7-15-08 web caste meeting focusing on Gas Exploration, not scary just informative. The best explanation I've seen about what is going to happen to harvest the Marcellus Shale is in SRBC Mike Brownell piece. http://breeze.cce.cornell.edu/p36189707/
It is 2 hrs long. If you are crunched for time here is my recommendation on how to view.

Turn it on, forget the first 8 minutes, chair shuffling.
8-15 min. Introductions, blah, blah, blah...
16-32 min. Lindsey Wickham of the Farm Bureau is the 1st speaker, very informative.
32-48 min DEC, didn't learn much new (my opinion)
48-1hr 7min Mike Brownell Susquehanna River Basin Commission, SRBC excellent.
1hr7m-1hr 17m, NYS Office Real Property, didn't interest me
1hr 17m - End, Q&A not much new info found here for me.

Shallow & Deep vertical drilling NYS & DEC have decades of experience with this. Single Horizontal "frac" drilling process NYS & DEC have experience too, not new.

What SRBC, NYS, DEC, does not have experience with is the process that will be used in the Marcellus Shale- a horz. frac system but on a scale never before seen in NYS. A single pad site (5ac surface plot drill) can have 8 to 10 wells radiating from it underground. That is why so much water gets used. Mike Brownell of SRBC visited a site in West Virgina that used 8 million gallons of water, in 3 days, for two drill pads, multiple wells. It is great they can have such a tiny 5ac surface foot print but holly cow that is a lake of water they use! And the water is polluted after use.

FYI,
Linda Adams
1281 Level Green Road
h 607-255-6862
w 607-657-4402
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Upstate New York's looming natural gas nightmare

Regulators asleep as law makers attempt to declare vast acreage open to the energy industry's iffy underground fracturing technique
SOURCE http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=705332&TextPage=1

By ABRAHM LUSTGARTEN, ProPublica / Special to the Times Union
First published: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

On May 29, top state environmental officials assured state lawmakers that plans to drill for natural gas near the watershed that supplies New York City's drinking water posed little danger.

A survey of other states had found "not one instance of drinking water contamination" from the water-intensive, horizontal drilling that would take place across New York's southern tier, the officials said.

Reassured, the legislature quickly approved a bill to streamline the permitting process for a huge influx of wells which could bring the state upwards of $1 billion in annual revenue. Gov. David Paterson has only until Wednesday to sign the bill, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation says drilling permits could be approved in as little as 12 weeks.

But a joint investigation by ProPublica and New York City public radio station WNYC revealed hundreds of instances of drinking water contamination in states where comparable drilling has been done.

In New Mexico, oil and gas drilling using waste pits like those proposed for New York has caused toxic chemicals to leach into the water table at some 800 sites. Colorado has reported more than 300 spills affecting its ground water.



DEC officials told ProPublica and WNYC they were not aware of those incidents, even though that information could have been found through a rudimentary internet search. They apparently hadn't understood that the new drilling techniques pump trace amounts of toxic chemicals into the ground, and they couldn't say for sure how New York would dispose of the millions of gallons of hazardous fluids that are the byproducts of this type of drilling. Four days after one interview, the DEC sent a letter to the drilling companies asking for detailed information about the type and amount of chemicals they will use.

With energy prices at record highs, a growing number of difficult-to-reach deposits of oil and gas in the United States are becoming commercially viable. At least nine companies have been locking up leases in New York, Pennsylvania and the southern Appalachian states for drilling rights to the Marcellus Shale, a gas-rich rock layer that lies 9,000 feet beneath the earth's surface. Some geologists predict it could meet the entire nation's natural gas needs for more than two years.

Protecting the environment from the effects of this drilling falls to individual states, which have a patchwork of laws and viewpoints. New York's laws have served it well for the most part. Since 1963 the state has permitted over 13,000 gas wells with few problems.

"When we say we are going to protect the environment, you don't have to trust us, you don't have to believe us," said Val Washington, director of the division of mineral resources at DEC. "But look at our track record. I think it's pretty good."

But the Marcellus development will be far more complicated than any previous drilling operations in the state. It will involve deeper, horizontal wells, possibly thousands of them. Each well could suck up, and later spit out, between one million and five million gallons of water. That would place an unprecedented burden on New York's watersheds, including those that feed New York City's reservoirs and farmland in Chemung, Tioga, Broome, Delaware and Sullivan Counties.

Some of the regional DEC offices that would oversee Marcellus wells have no experience with gas drilling at all. Yet New York officials said they see no reason to update their environmental impact statement, which was drafted in 1992, long before this form of drilling, called horizontal hydraulic fracturing or "hydrofracking," was feasible on the scale now contemplated.

"There is a little bit of learning curve ... and that is where the concern falls," said William Kappel, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Ithaca, N.Y. "The tremendous amounts of water used for these processes - where are you going to get it and what are you going to do with that?"

DEC officials could not answer those questions. They acknowledged that the state's current rules allow independent contracting companies to take water from upstate streams and wetlands at will. They also acknowledge they don't track the process drillers use to dispose of "produced water," as the gas and oil industry refers to its waste.

The gas in the Marcellus is held in tiny pockets, like bubbles in a brick of Swiss cheese. To extract it, a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is shot into the earth with such explosive force that it fractures the rock, releasing the bubbles to the surface. Along with the gas comes most of the water that was shot down the well. But by the time the water re-surfaces, it is laden with natural toxics from the shale layer below, as well as the chemicals added by industry. The U.S. Department of Energy lists produced water from gas drilling as among the most toxic of any oil industry byproduct. When that water is returned to the surface, it must be dealt with as toxic industrial waste.

Waste water from the Marcellus formation may turn out to be slightly cleaner than that from other formations because the water pulled back out contains fewer of the naturally occurring toxins - early trials indicate this - but the U.S. Department of Energy lists produced water from gas drilling as among the most toxic of any oil industry byproduct.

According to a 2004 report from Argonne National Laboratory prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, "Studies indicate that produced waters discharged from gas ... platforms are about 10x more toxic than the produced waters discharged from oil platforms."

In most states the tainted water produced by gas drilling is injected back into the ground in areas where solid rock layers keep it isolated from people or their drinking water. But the geology in New York and Pennsylvania is different and the water will be discharged into an ecosystem where it might wind up coming out of New York City's taps.

DEC's current regulations require only that produced waste be treated to "high standards" before being discharged back into rivers. DEC officials said the water would be shipped to Pennsylvania and treated in specialized plants there. But an executive for three of the Pennsylvania plants told ProPublica and WNYC that New York officials hadn't talked to him about the Marcellus wells. He said his plants don't have the capacity to accept wastewater from New York.

"Don't bet on it," said Paul Hart, president of Hart Resource Technologies, which owns and operates three of the region's five qualified facilities, and whose phone number was given to Propublica by New York DEC. Hart said his company can't even build plants fast enough to handle Pennsylvania's drilling expansion.

An executive with another plant said he had talked to DEC about taking some of the waste, but he too had serious concerns about limited capacity.

Few Regs for Hydrofracking

The challenges New York faces to control a drilling's effect on water are illustrated by what's happening at Tamarac Swamp, a state protected ecological area.

The swamp sits on a quiet rural road outside Oxford, N.Y., about a 45-minute drive from Binghamton. Last year, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, the nation's third largest gas producer, approached the sprawling wetland's owners with an offer to lease drilling rights for $75 an acre, a bargain compared to today's asking prices of $2,500.

The Zunno family declined Chesapeake's offer, intending to reserve the wetland instead. But last month the family spotted a tanker truck from another drilling company with a long septic hose draped over the side of the public roadway, draining water from the Zunno's culvert. Lori Zunno said a well had been built on a neighbor's land and its operator had sent contractors in search of water for the drilling.

"We can't even build within 100 feet of [the swamp] so I don't understand why they can take septic trucks and pump it out," Zunno said.

Zunno filed a complaint with the DEC, but she said no one seemed to know who was responsible for protecting her land, or what, if anything, the tanker company had done wrong. "They don't even know their own rules what's regulated and what's not," she said. "There was such a lack of knowledge on their part about what could be done. There is no clear cut 'you cannot take water from this spot.'"

It turns out that thewithdrawals from the Zunnos' property should be regulated by the Susquehana River Basin Commission. But Zunno didn't know that. And neither, apparently, did the DEC, which declined to comment on the Zunnos' complaint because the investigation has not been closed.

Outside of specific areas regulated by the Susquehana River Basin Commission and the Delaware River Basin Commission, which requires permits for regular or large water withdrawals, New York does not regulate surface water extraction. Anyone can take water from, say, the Hudson or Susquehana rivers, according to DEC's regional captain for law enforcement in the Zunno's part of the state. When it comes to smaller water resources such as the Tamarac swamp, the rules say only that wetland cannot be drained.

Scientists and local land owners fear thousands of small water sources such as the Tamarac will be tapped to support the drilling industry.

"It's not clear to me that there is any group who is looking at the overall impact of withdrawing the amount of water that might be required for the hydrofracking. Who is looking at the broader picture?" said Susan Riha, director of the New York State Water Resources Institute, a federally funded study group at Cornell University.

Riha is especially concerned about limitations of the DEC's Environmental Assessment Form, a crucial environmental impact document drilling companies must file to get a permit. It doesn't ask where drillers plan to get their water, and only asks for a vague estimate of how much they plan to use, which Riha considers standard questions.

"Looking at that short form, I was shocked," Riha said. "It seems like we would have some procedures in place to put some pressure on the gas drilling operators to show that they are taking all possible steps to mitigate environmental impacts."

DEC officials acknowledged the gaps. "You're getting into the concept of cumulative impacts," said James Tierney, assistant commissioner for the division of water. "One water withdrawal may not have an impact, but 50 would have a huge impact. We're trying to figure it out."

This issue alone, says Riha, is reason enough under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which mandates impact evaluations, to order a supplement to the 1992 environmental impact statement the DEC is still using.

Scientists are also concerned about chemicals added to the water to prevent corrosion in the drill bits, lubricate the drilling, and keep the drilling mud, as the mixture is called, at the right consistency to coax out gas.

As recently as last month, Bradley Field, the DEC's director of the division of oil and minerals - the agency responsible for overseeing resource extraction in the state - appeared unaware of these additives. At a meeting with conservation advocates and state legislators he said drilling fluids contained nothing more than water and sand, according to Roger Downs, a conservation associate of the Sierra Club's Atlantic Chapter.

DEC has since adjusted its stance.

"They add chemicals, we know they do that," said Tierney, the water division official, in a meeting July 4. "We don't know exactly what they are."

In part that's because the industry views its chemical recipes as trade secrets, akin to the formula for Coke or Pepsi, and the 2005 federal Energy Policy Act exempts the oil and gas industry from disclosing those recipes to the public. For the most part, states have learned about the chemicals by analyzing waste pits and the contaminated ground water around them.

The Dirty Side of Water

In 2004 Theo Colborn, a widely respected scientist who specializes in the health effects of low-dose chemical exposure, began to investigate the makeup of drilling fluids. She was spurred by the story of a Colorado resident who suspected her cancer was tied to water contamination from a nearby gas well.

To figure out what was in the water, Colborn collected shipping manifests that trucks must carry when they haul hazardous materials for oil and gas servicing companies. When an accident occurred - a well spill in Colorado, or an explosion at a drilling site in Wyoming - she took water and soil samples and tested them for contaminants.

Colborn's list eventually grew to more than 200 chemicals, from suspated cancer-causing compounds like Benzene to a compound called 2-BE, which she connects to serious human health problems.

Colborn's findings are supported by studies in New Mexico and Wyoming. Tests done by the New Mexico Office of Oil Conservation on mud and water from two gas drilling pits showed Benzene, Toluene, Naphthalene and other substances.

In Wyoming, where natural gas development has occurred on a large scale, the Environmental Protection Agency recently raised flags about one of the state's largest gas fields, the Pinedale anticline, where data appears to indicate that much of the drinking water aquifer has been contaminated. In a letter circulated to drillers there this summer, the EPA wrote that it found Benzene and other compounds in more than a third of groundwater samples tested at one site. "Such impacts are environmentally unsatisfactory" the letter said.

Washington, the New York DEC official, insisted New York can handle such problems.

"This is not New Mexico, this is not Colorado, this is New York," said Washington. "Out of 13,000 wells that we have permitted we have not, for example, had a single ground water problem with any of them."

In conversations with ProPublica, DEC officials repeatedly downplayed the importance of chemical additives. Additives make up just a tiny fraction of a percent of the fluids; 99.4 percent is water and sand, Field said. But six-tenths of one percent of two million gallons of drilling water still equals 10,000 gallons of toxic chemicals and that's just for one well.

When pressed on whether New York would make such information a prerequisite for approving an application in the Marcellus, Field said: "I don't know. We'd have to take a look. I can't say for sure right now." Asked why he might not require it, he said: "Because it would be a departure from how we typically do this. I haven't really come to terms with that just yet," he said.

Disposing of the produced water presents even larger challenges the DEC has also not addressed. When water is sent thousands of feet below the surface for hydrofracking it picks up other contaminants held deeply underground such as fuel-related hydrocarbons, cancer-causing compounds including Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzine, and Xylene - and even radioactivity from uranium ore.

When asked how the DEC intends to shepherd its waste water, the DEC could offer few details. Making sure the water gets treated isn't part of DEC's permit review process, so long as the end result complies with state laws that say, somehow, it eventually gets treated and meets discharge standards.

Paul Hart, the Pennsylvania treatmnent plant executive, said the last time he talked with New York's DEC, the caller, whose name he couldn't remember, displayed a general lack of understanding of water issues, and did not have a clear grasp of the waste water disposal alternatives.

"He did not understand the variations of the different chemicals and the potential for contamination," Hart said. "Now with the Marcellus they are just completely unprepared for it. What I really think they are waiting for is the industry to make recommendations. I don't think they are going to be proactive."

On July 11 Bradley Field's office issued a hefty letter to the gas industry requesting exhaustive data and information that closely adhered in both substance and actual language to the questions presented to him by ProPublica and WNYC.

The letter gave the companies four and a half week to respond. But it didn't indicate that a response would be required in order to continue drilling.

For now, DEC's officials are asking their critics to have faith.

"If there is any doubt in anybody's mind that we are going to proceed with these applications without full protection and consideration for the environment they are just wrong," Washington said. "It may be that the applicants down the line are going to have to wait a long time for their permits. There are some things to sort out here."

WNYC will air radio versions of this story beginning this morning. http://www.wnyc.org/

Abrahm Lustgarten is a reporter for ProPublica, http://www.propublica.org/ a non-profit investigative newsroom based in New York City. He is a former staff writer and contributor for Fortune, and has written for Salon, Esquire, the Washington Post and the New York Times since receiving his master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2003. He is the author of the new book China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet, a project that was funded in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Everyone,

I mentioned one water recycling unit:
Mobile Reverse Osmosis Desalination Trailer, developed by Dr David Burnett of Texas A&M (which he licenced to GeoPure Water Technologies, LLC) see

http://www.mycelx.com/case-studies/details.php?q=25

Here is another long long article about several other technologies such as:
NOMAD which is another on the drill site unit using Vapor Distillation and there is another company with a Thermal Distillation & Evaporation Combo.
http://fwbog.com/index.php?page=article&article=18

If the municipality of Fort Worth, TX can mandate these water treatment partnerships to deal with oil/gas Op's waste water why can't we as landowners consider the same in a lease agreement?

We can,
Linda
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Oil secret has nasty side effect
By Susan Greene
Denver Post Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/24/2008 12:17:24 AM MDT
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_9976257

Oil and gas companies have spent lots of time and money arguing Colorado doesn't need new rules regulating their industry.

What happened to Cathy Behr might convince you otherwise.

Behr is a nurse at Durango's Mercy Regional Medical Center.

A gas-patch worker showed up in her ER in April, soaked in a sweet- smelling fluid after a drilling accident.

Behr removed his boots and helped him shower, breathing in the chemical fumes.

She lost her sense of smell. Her vision blurred. Then came heart, liver and respiratory failures that nearly killed her.

Three doctors diagnosed her with chemical exposure. Trying to figure out how to treat her, one called Weatherford, her patient's oil-field employer, to learn which chemicals it uses to make ZetaFlow, the fluid both were exposed to. The company denied him the information, saying it was a trade secret.

ZetaFlow is one of several formulas companies inject into wells to release gasses. After much lobbying, the so-called frack juices are exempt from environmental laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act. Congress is investigating possible health risks.

As it happens, Colorado's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is considering a broad set of new rules, including one that would address scenarios like Behr's. In case of accidents, it would require companies to reveal the ingredients of materials they use.

The industry objects, saying that being forced to reveal proprietary secrets may prompt it to leave Colorado.

"It is much like asking Coca-Cola to disclose the formula of Coke," one Halliburton [name familiar??? -ed] executive testified.

Weatherford this week had an even more contemptuous way of describing the health effects of its ZetaFlow.

"It's got parameters that you need to work in, that you need to be mindful of when you're using it. That's sort of a given. I mean, if I ate too much chocolate, that could be hazardous to my health, too," said spokeswoman Christine McGee.

Behr — a wife and mother who is back at work and mostly recovered after nearly losing her life in April — had this response to McGee:

"Chocolate, huh? Let's give those boots to her and have her take a couple of deep breaths."

Behr is no opponent of the industry that provides much of her county's tax base. "I don't want to be the canary in the coal mine. I just want to make the system better," she says.

She tried to do just that by asking to tell her story at a recent commission hearing. Industry brass objected, saying she was added to the witness list too late for them to prepare a rebuttal. She was denied her request in a 5-4 decision.

"We were trying to be fair from a due process standpoint," said commission chairman Harris Sherman, Gov. Bill Ritter's natural resources director, who cast the deciding vote. His board aims to decide on the new rules in August.

Meantime, the state is investigating Behr's case, as well as that of the field worker, who told the Durango Herald he did not fall ill.

"I'm angry that here's an industry that would not help someone who suffered a chemical exposure get the care she needed," said Martha Rudolph of the health department.

La Plata County Commissioner Wally White had harsher words for an industry that's making record profits in his county, yet using scare tactics by threatening to leave: "If they don't care about the health of our people, then I'd be happy to see them go."

Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

For Release: IMMEDIATE Contact: Yancey Roy
Friday, July 25, 2008 (518) 402-8000

DEC Announces Public Process to Review Potential Impacts of Drilling the Marcellus Shale Formation

Featuring a series of public meetings across the Southern Tier and Catskills, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has initiated a public process to supplement the generic environmental review for horizontal natural gas drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale formation, Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today.

At the direction of Governor David A. Paterson, DEC has begun the work to supplement what is known as the Department’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) applicable to natural gas and oil drilling. This supplement will specifically address the potential environmental impacts of horizontal natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, a natural gas reserve that stretches from West Virginia to New York. Drilling into the deep formation was long considered economically unfeasible but rising fuel prices have spurred new interest from energy companies who have been trying to secure land leases from property owners across a number of counties.

While the process of scoping and preparing the Supplemental GEIS is ongoing, any entity that applies for a drilling permit for horizontal drilling in the Marcellus Shale and opts to proceed with its permit application will be required to undertake an individual, site-specific environmental review. That review must take into account the same issues being considered in the Supplemental GEIS process and must be consistent with the requirements of State Environmental Quality Review Act and the state Environmental Conservation Law. Four drilling applications have been filed by companies at this point.

“New York State is committed to working with the public and local governments to make sure that if drilling in the Marcellus Shale goes forward, it happens in the most environmentally responsible way possible,” Commissioner Grannis said.

Published in 1992, the GEIS guides the environmental review of the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program at DEC. The document covers a wide range of issues and addresses the potential environmental impacts from a typical drilling operation, including the hydraulic fracturing process.

With the potential increased use of horizontal drilling to tap into the Marcellus Shale, Governor Paterson has called for a supplement to the GEIS to address potential adverse impacts resulting primarily from the large volumes of water needed to hydraulically fracture the shale. These potential impacts relate to both the sources of water and any additives used to facilitate fracturing, and the recovery, handling and disposal of water during and after drilling concludes. In its review, DEC will also evaluate the full range of other environmental impacts that may result from this drilling activity.

The contents of the Supplemental GEIS will be determined through a public scoping process, which will be conducted in accordance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the Environmental Conservation Law.

By the end of this summer, DEC expects to make a draft scoping document made available for public review and comment. The purpose of the scoping document is to outline the factors that must be included in the Supplemental GEIS.

To develop the scoping document, DEC will hold a series of public hearings across the Southern Tier and the Catskills, anticipated to begin in September. “DEC is committed to an open, transparent process and welcomes the participation of local government officials, industry representatives, advocacy groups and the general public,” Commissioner Grannis said.

Following the public hearings and comment period, the DEC will release a final scoping document and then prepare the Supplemental GEIS. While dependent upon the final scope, DEC will seek to have a draft Supplemental GEIS ready for public review by early spring, 2009.

For more information, go to: www.dec.ny.gov
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

The potential of the Marcellus is significant. It is thought to contain about 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - enough to supply the entire United States for two years with a wellhead value of one trillion dollars. The Marcellus is also the closest natural gas to the high demand markets of New York, New Jersey and New England.

MORE http://geology.com/articles/marcellus-leases-royalties.shtml
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

City's Drinking Water Feared Endangered; $10B Cost Seen

By ABRAHM LUSTGARTEN, ProPublica | August 6, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/citys-drinking-water-feared-endangered-10b-cost/83288/

New York City officials have demanded a ban on natural gas drilling near upstate reservoirs because they fear the drilling could contaminate the city's drinking water.

They've asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to establish a one-mile protective perimeter around each of the city's six major Catskill reservoirs and connecting infrastructure — a buffer that would put at least half a million acres off-limits to drilling. They also want to wrest more regulatory control from Albany.

New York is one of just four major cities in America with a special permit allowing its drinking water to go unfiltered, and that pristine water comes from a network of reservoirs and rivers in five upstate counties. If the special permit was revoked, the city would have to build a treatment facility that could cost nearly $10 billion, a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Walter Mugden, said. That's roughly what the state estimated it would earn from gas development during the nxt decade.

The commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection, Emily Lloyd, in a letter to state officials that was obtained by ProPublica, said she was not satisfied with the state's assurances that the environment would be protected from drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of rock that reaches up to 9,000 feet below much of the Appalachian east, including south-central New York State and the 2,000-square-mile watershed.

The letter doesn't offer any specifics on how drilling might taint the city's water or explain the basis for the one-mile buffer, but it makes clear that as guardians of New York's water, city officials view drilling as a serious threat to the tap water supply for 9 million downstate residents. It could involve thousands of gas wells producing billions of gallons of toxic wastewater.

Ms. Lloyd asked that a state, city, and federal working group be formed to reassess regulations in the watershed and to recognize it "as a unique resource requiring special protection." She called for the city to be given a say in the state's permit review process, and for the public to be allowed to comment on each well's permit, something that is not now guaranteed.

The Marcellus Shale is among several large new gas reserves in America that have become economically viable in a time of record oil and gas prices. A geologist at Penn State University, Terry Engelder, said he believes it could meet all the nation's natural gas needs for two years. The Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees exploration, has estimated that Marcellus development could add as much as $1 billion a year to the state's economy.

A prolonged regulatory debate, though, could threaten that income.

"If the state process involves a lot of concurrence with other agencies or environmental reviews along the line, it can create potential for considerable delay," the vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, Lee Fuller, said. He added that the process could "really affect the cost of development and the schedule of development and the willingness of some producers to engage in that development."

The environmental consequences of developing Marcellus wells on a large scale could be severe. Getting the gas involves a process called hydrofracking, or shooting millions of gallons of water and drilling chemicals at explosive pressure deep underground to break up the rock, and drilling the Marcellus would require more water than most other types of drilling. The identity of the chemicals, which are sometimes toxic, is protected as a trade secret, making it difficult to assess how wastewater can be safely treated and discharged. Drilling in other states has resulted in more than a thousand wastewater spills that have affected drinking water.

An investigation last month by ProPublica and WNYC public radio found that New York State had not adequately assessed the environmental risks and did not have a complete regulatory structure in place to determine where the immense amounts of necessary water would come from, or how it would be disposed of after it was used. It found that New York State did not know the chemical contents of the drilling fluids that would be used, and was not aware of the level of contamination in other states.

Governor Paterson last week ordered the DEC to update the 16-year-old environmental impact assessment it was relying on and pledged to require the industry to disclose the chemicals it uses. He did not promise to stop drilling from going forward in the meantime.

remainder of article http://www.nysun.com/new-york/citys-drinking-water-feared-endangered-10b-cost/83288/
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Don Barber is currently supervisor for town of Caroline and is running
for senate for 51st district. Here are some of his thoughts on oil &
gas. Couldn't remember if they got posted already.... I have been too
busy to keep up with the list serve for a week.... sorry if this is a
repeat.
Also - I interviewed him for an article in Tompkins Weekly (this week's
Aug 11-17 issue) so try to get a copy of that if you can.
~Sue Heavenrich

http://barberforsenate.com/main/invest-gas-royalties-upstate
August 7, 2008

Barber Says ‘Invest State Gas Royalties Upstate’

Proposes Dedicated Fund for Community Development

After addressing an Otsego County Board meeting where he reaffirmed his
commitment to a responsible gas drilling policy, Don Barber (D-Caroline)
explained how he would invest gas drilling royalties to build a
sustainable upstate economy. Speaking outside the Otsego County office
in Cooperstown yesterday, Barber laid out a plan that would support
long-term economic development in the 51st district.

“We all hope for successful gas discovery and extraction. Currently, the
bulk of the royalties go to the gas companies and a portion to the
landowners who deserve this benefit, and also to the state of New York.
But local governments, which will be heavily impacted by the gas
drilling process, must get a long-term benefit from this resource.”

Upstate counties deserve a share of the royalties, Barber contends. “I
propose that the state’s royalties be put in a dedicated fund for
counties where the natural gas is produced. A significant percentage of
all gas royalties going into this fund would be used for community
development projects such as schools, healthcare facilities and
modernizing local infrastructure that would support family farms and
small businesses. That way we boost the economy and benefit our
communities over a long period of time.”

“My opponent has not stood up for us. The gas and oil industries are the
only industries in New York State exempt from local laws. By allowing
gas companies to extract this resource from our counties without local
governments getting anything in return, he has certainly not stood up
for us. I will work to bring a portion of this revenue back home.”

Barber pointed to the example of Wyoming’s Permanent Mineral Trust Fund,
which mandates that a percentage of all taxes collected from coal, oil
and gas companies go into a permanent fund for the welfare of future
generations. Today, that fund has accumulated $3 billion and earns $100
million in interest every year.

“A progressive Republican governor named Stan Hathaway came up with this
idea after taking a look at what coal mining had done to the people in
West Virginia. The coal companies kept the profits, the state capital
kept the royalties, and the local economies deteriorated. Marcellus
Shale gas is a finite resource. Let’s get long-term benefit out of it
for ourselves and future generations,” Barber said.

Since he began his campaign, Barber has been emphasizing how he would
build a sustainable local economy. A strong supporter of developing a
value-added farming economy, he advocates buying local farm produce. As
a successful small businessman, he has also been calling for a Main
Street revival as part of his “buy local plan.”

“Small businesses have been decimated and our regional economy is
deteriorating as mega corporations, through massive marketing efforts,
smother local business,” Barber said. “Under this model our purchasing
dollars circulate only once, and then go to China and other economies
abroad. In a sustainable economy, the money circulates several times
around our own communities. In natural gas, upstate has a valuable
resource. We need to use it and its royalties wisely.”
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Hydraulic fracturing is coming; we need to plan
Laura Seltz / Guest Column

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/OPINION02/808140308/-1/&source=nletter-news

I don't know if folks out in Ithaca know it yet, but our area may be in for some dramatic changes. Our land sits over the Marcellus Shale, home to a huge deposit of natural gas. Companies are set to use hydraulic fracturing to access this gas. They've been buying out leases all over the area and have already gotten a permit to drill in Candor and to take 101,000 gallons from the Catatonk Creek that feeds the Susquehanna.

For many hurting farmers, this drilling comes as a boon, for the leases offer them a great deal of money, and others hope it will keep the economy afloat. The creation of a properly constructed depletion tax could eventually add to dwindling state revenues.

However, a headlong rush into drilling could result in irrevocable damage to our communities without any gain. We need to work together to impose a statewide moratorium on drilling until a comprehensive plan is in place and necessary legislation enacted.
Chemical hazards

Hydraulic fracturing involves the high-pressure injection of chemical laden fluids about 6,000 to 8,000 feet into the shale to get trapped gas flowing. The extraction process may also involve horizontal drilling that can go up to a mile underground.

Under the 2005 Energy Bill, companies are exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Superfund law, the Right-to-Know Act, Storm Water Rules and other regulations.

Gas companies are not required to disclose the chemical content of the fluids used in the drilling process. However, endocrinologist Dr. Theo Colburn, in sworn testimony before Congress, stated that of the 254 chemicals and 171 products identified in such fluids, 92 percent were linked to health problems including skin and lung irritations, nervous system disorders, cancers and reproductive organ damage.

We do not know if these chemicals will enter our aquifer or the watershed that supplies New York City drinking water. State regulators in New Mexico have reported hundreds of occurrences of groundwater contamination linked to gas drilling.

Hydraulic fracturing also produces millions of gallons of contaminated waste water.
Water use

Each individual horizontal well requires about three million gallons of water, and each well may be “refractured” as many as 10 times. There may be hundreds of wells. There is no cohesive plan in place addressing the source of this water. Currently, some is to be drawn from the Susquehanna and its tributary creeks. One city is selling millions of gallons from its aquifer. Companies can drain smaller wetlands and streams at will.
Radioactivity

The Marcellus shale may contain low levels of radioactive materials including uranium, thorium, radium 226 and radium 228, which can be brought to the surface and concentrated through drilling. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 140 hydraulic fracture drill sites with unacceptable levels of radiation required decontamination between January 2005 and November 2007.

Drill cuttings, possibly contaminated with radiation, mercury and lead, will require disposal.
Our great outdoors

Hydraulic fracturing leaves a big footprint. The amount of drilling proposed may transform rural areas into industrial zones. This process involves the use of hundreds of trucks. Companies will have to clear and even level land for drill sites; they will probably have to build roads through forested areas to access drill sites.
Enforcement

Presently, the Department of Environmental Conservation's Division of Mineral Resources has 19 inspectors. Judith Enck, state deputy secretary for the environment, stated in a recent interview that budgetary issues may impede the hiring of additional staff. We have no depletion taxes on the books to bring in more revenue.
We need planning

Ours is a diverse area. We have farmlands and small towns like Candor, Walton and Windsor. We have old industrial cities like Binghamton and, of course, we have beautiful Ithaca.

We may differ, but we will all be affected by drilling.

The good news is that drilling gives us the opportunity to come together as a region, to understand each other, to help each other, to create new solutions that will empower our region in the future.

But we can't do that unless we have time. That's why a statewide moratorium is a good idea. It will give us time to conduct environmental impact studies and to legislate appropriate taxes and regulations. Most importantly, we will have time to create a plan that protects and enriches all of us.

Laura Seltz lives in Windsor.
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Gas pipeline project hits snags
Officials hope for mid-November wrap-up
August 15 2008

Work on the Millennium Pipeline has fallen behind schedule due to rain, a shortage of workers and tough terrain. The project, expected to be completed by Nov. 1, will likely be finished in mid-November, said Michael Armiak, a spokesman for the company.

Whether the project gets caught up or falls further behind in coming months depends on the availability of workers and the weather.

Delays are nothing new to the project.

Work on the 186-mile stretch of natural gas pipeline bisecting Broome and Tioga counties began in May after an eight-year delay in the face of regulatory detours, project revisions and opposition from property owners along the way.

Recently, the significance of the pipeline has grown in proportion to the interest in the Marcellus Shale Formation under the Southern Tier.

The pipeline, originally planned to pipe gas from Canada to areas downstate, now provides added incentive for energy companies to develop natural gas reserves in the Marcellus formation, a large untapped reserve. The value of productive wells depends largely on the availability of infrastructure -- such as the pipeline -- to get the gas to buyers.

When the project was first planned in the 1990s, the Southern Tier was a relatively minor gas producer. That will change if the Marcellus formation meets expectations as a major natural gas source.

"It's a dynamic we didn't anticipate when the pipeline was proposed," Armiak said.

The pipeline delay is not expected to affect the development of the Marcellus formation, which is still in its infancy and faces a comprehensive environmental review by the state. Nor is the pipeline dependent on contributions from the Marcellus formation to proceed.

However, they are both symbolic of an international surge to develop energy sources and related infrastructure in light of high prices and relentless demand. Energy demand here and abroad have made workers specializing in pipeline development more scarce.

"We'll take them where we can get them," said Armiak, noting that welders and other specialized tradesmen can pick their jobs and might move all over the world or try to stay close to their homes.

Availability of workers may change month to month or season to season as jobs begin and end at different locations.

SOURCE http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/NEWS01/80815001
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===

[Mike_L]

Officials worry about impact of 'fracking' of oil and gas.
Jim Moscou
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 5:26 PM ET Aug 20, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/154394

Cathy Behr says she won't forget the smell that nearly killed her. An emergency-room nurse in Durango, Colo.'s Mercy Regional Medical Center, Behr was working the April 17 day shift when Clinton Marshall arrived complaining of nausea and headaches. An employee at an energy-services company, Weatherford International, Marshall, according to Behr, said that he was caught in a "fracturing-fluid" spill. [Fracturing chemicals are routinely used on oil and gas wells where they are pumped deep into the ground to crack rock seams and increase production.] The chemical stench coming off Marshall's boots was buckling, says Behr. Mercy officials took no chances. They evacuated and locked down the ER, and its staff was instructed to don protective masks and gowns. But by the time those precautions were enacted, Behr had been nursing Marshall for 10 minutes--unprotected. "I honestly thought the response was a little overkill, but good practice," says Behr, 54, a 20-year veteran at Mercy.

A few days later, Behr's skin turned yellow. She began vomiting and retaining fluid. Her husband rushed her to Mercy where Behr was admitted to the ICU with a swollen liver, erratic blood counts and lungs filling with fluid. "I couldn't breath," she recalls. "I was drowning from the inside out." The diagnosis: chemical poisoning. The makers of the suspected chemical, Weatherford, tell NEWSWEEK that they aren't sure if their brand of fracking fluid can be blamed for her illness.

Throughout the Rocky Mountain states, Behr's run-in with fracturing fluid is getting a lot of attention and exacerbating already frayed nerves. After nearly eight years of some of the most intense oil and gas development ever recorded in the American West, concerns over the environmental and health impacts are bubbling over. On Tuesday, Colorado's top oil and gas regulatory authority—the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)—endorsed a sweeping set of rules that environmentalists call long overdue; industry warns of dire economic impacts.

And the stakes are getting higher. Last week, against public protests by much of the state's congressional leadership and governor, the federal Bureau of Land Management sold off drilling leases in a wilderness area called one of the region's most pristine ecosystems and which is home to enough natural gas to power Colorado for 34 years. "It's just huge," says Gwen Lachelt, executive director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP), a nonprofit regional watchdog group, of the recent oil and gas plays in the state. "All eyes are on Colorado right now."

These have been boom years for the West. From New Mexico to Montana, more than 33,000 new oil and gas wells have been approved since 2001. Last year, nearly 90 percent of onshore federal drilling permits were issued in the Rockies. In the heart of the rush is Colorado. A 2007 survey from the Fraser Institute, an energy think tank, put the state as the No. 1 global spot to explore and develop oil and gas.

Central to that development is the use of fracking fluids. Largely unregulated, they've been employed by the energy industry for decades and, with the exception of diesel, can be made up of nearly any set of chemicals. Also, propriety trade laws don't require energy companies to disclose their ingredients. "It is much like asking Coca-Cola to disclose the formula of Coke," says Ron Heyden, a Halliburton executive, in recent testimony before the COGCC. Despite its widespread use and somewhat mysterious mix, fracturing fluid was deemed in 2004 by the Environmental Protection Agency as safe for the environment and groundwater. Dave Dillon, the COGCC's top engineering manager, says nearly every one of Colorado's 35,600 wells are "fracked" and that a minimum of 100,000 gallons are used per well, resulting in millions of gallons pumped into the ground each year. And since it's typically pumped far below groundwater tables, Congress exempted fracking fluids from the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005.

The chemical that was allegedly on Marshall when he arrived at the Mercy Regional Medical Center, was ZetaFlow, a chemical made by Weatherford. In a copy of its Material Safety Data Sheet—which details ingredients, health warnings, fire hazards and more—ZetaFlow contains methanol and two undisclosed "proprietary" compounds. The document also warned that ZetaFlow can be an "immediate" and "chronic" health hazard. Prolonged exposure can cause kidney and liver damage, irritate lung tissue, decrease blood pressure, and result in dizziness and vomiting—all symptoms Behr experienced according to her medical records. Her physician wrote that her symptoms were "entirely consistent with exposure [to ZetaFlow] from all the information we were able to gather." As for ZetaFlow's impact on the environment, according to its data sheet, "no product information is available."

Marshall, a 31-year-old Aztec, N.M., resident, spoke with the Durango Herald last month and says he doubts that ZetaFlow sickened Behr. "I'm not saying that nothing did happen to her," he told the newspaper. "I'm just saying ... I didn't have any of it on me. I did not take any chemical into that hospital." The Durango Fire and Rescue Authority did however confirm that they were called to aerate the ER. NEWSWEEK was unable to reach Marshall for comment.

Weatherford spokesperson Christine McGee says the company has had no issues with ZetaFlow in its three years of use. "It's very unfortunate [Cathy Behr] was ill," McGee says. "But I think at this point I can't make a statement about the link to her being ill. I don't think anybody is sure right now."

What is clear is that 130 gallons of concentrated Zetaflow was released, says BP, which operates the well where the spill occurred. The international oil and gas giant has used Zetaflow at other drill sites, but NEWSWEEK has learned that the company is suspending its use. BP spokesman Daren Beaudo says it's trying "better understand this product." He added: "We leave it to [Weatherford] to adhere to the regulatory standards." Also, this month La Plata County commissioners, home to Durango, are considering a new regulation that would require oil and gas companies to reveal fracking fluid chemicals to emergency-room workers if someone is exposed. "It's a public-health issue for us. We don't know what the chemicals are and what can happen," says Wally White, county commissioner for La Plata County. A similar rule requiring companies to keep an inventory of chemicals at well sites was endorsed by the COGCC this week. A final vote is expected in September.

How often workers and communities are exposed to fracturing fluids, and the chemicals in them, is unknown. One study by Lachelt's OGAP reported Colorado had about 1,500 reported spills of various types, including fracturing fluids, in five years. Nearly 800 spills were identified in New Mexico. But, as the Behr case demonstrates, some fracturing fluid spills and worker contamination may be falling through regulatory cracks. While numerous government guidelines require contaminate spills and worker injuries be reported, NEWSWEEK has learned that not a single incident report was filed with any government agency by Weatherford or BP documenting the April 17 spill, nor may either company have been required to do so. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state's COGCC all tell NEWSWEEK that the incident falls outside their regulatory jurisdiction, or was not significant enough to trigger reporting requirements. Moreover, Marshall was contaminated on a well site located on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, putting federal, state and local oversight further out of reach. (The Southern Ute authorities say they were never notified of the spill either.) The Colorado offices of the EPA and OSHA did launch investigations this month.

For state health officials, the chemical exemptions, regulatory loopholes and missing data are a concerning mix. "We are just working in the dark," says Dr. Martha Rudolph, director of environmental programs for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. "We don't know the impact on the potential health on humans might be. We need to." La Plata Commissioner White is more succinct: "I think this is a travesty," he says. "Somebody has dropped the ball."

Meanwhile, Behr returned to work at Mercy Hospital only last month. State and federal regulators, hospital officials and Behr have yet to learn what chemicals made her so ill. She says she worries about the long-term effects of her exposure, but harbors no ill-feelings toward the industry, noting the jobs and economic benefit it has brought to her area. "I always thought that the industry probably took chances," she says. "But I always thought someone was watching them. I really did think that."
_________________
Michael Ludgate - forum administrator
The Canaan Institute http://www.canaaninstitute.org/

===