Dimock Revisited
Dr. Michael Morrongiello
Psychologist and Steuben County Landowner
In recent years, the small Pennsylvania town of Dimock became ground zero for the debate on hydraulic fracturing. Natural gas companies were accused of contaminating the drinking water and the narrative took a life of its own from there. The anti-natural gas crowd then tried to create a narrative of ordinary people exploited and victimized by corporate recklessness and greed. Just saying “Dimock” was supposed to raise an awful image in people’s minds. But, eventually, the facts got in their way.
The EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection have found no contamination of well water caused by hydraulic fracturing after hundreds of tests. Recently, the EPA stated:
“EPA has completed…the third set of sampling at 16 private drinking water wells in Dimock, Pennsylvania. This set of sampling did not show levels of contaminants that would give EPA reason to take further action.”
A fourth round of testing again showed no contamination, but anti-natural gas activists insisted otherwise.
This proves two things: hydraulic fracturing is safe, and zealous anti-natural gas advocates oppose it on ideological, not factual grounds. If you need more evidence that fracturing is safe, it is permitted in 21 states. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson told Congress, “I’m not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.” James Martin, head of the West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas, said he was unaware of any instance where fracturing released methane into groundwater. Geologists at the Ohio Department of Natural resources say that 80,000 wells have been developed with no groundwater contamination. The examples continue but, in the interest of brevity, I will stop there.
EPA at Work in Dimock (Source: Associated Press)
Hydraulic fracturing has unlocked oil and natural gas resources in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio. Chesapeake Energy will invest $200 billion over 20 years extracting the resources, which means jobs for Ohioans (a recent study predicts 205, 000 new jobs) and cheaper utility bills for everyone. The drilling boom has even revived the steel industry in Youngstown; 1,500 jobs were created to supply pipe to drilling companies. Wells Fargo economists predict that gas drilling will bring an additional 200,000 jobs to Pennsylvania. The good news doesn’t stop there. Natural gas heats the homes of 4.7 million New Yorkers and 62 million Americans (56% of all homes). Natural gas prices have dropped more than 50%, putting money back in the pockets of millions of Americans. Drilling produces cheaper energy for everyone as well as jobs. The antifrackers offer winded fantasies and sunshine dreams backed by phony narratives.
The anti’s tried to exploit Dimock as their trump card to “prove” hydraulic fracturing should be banned in New York. They failed because once more; the evidence has proved them wrong. While Ohio and Pennsylvania prosper, Albany and New York City have delayed natural gas development for 5 years. Meanwhile, the upstate economy continues to drown; Governor Cuomo must toss a life-ring to upstate by issuing hydraulic fracturing permits.
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Stan Scobie
Posted at 09:02h, 18 MayYou say:
“Natural gas companies were accused of contaminating the drinking water…. But, eventually, the facts got in their way.”
The driller, Cabot, signed two consent orders in which they admitted contaminating the waters of Pennsylvania. DEP had them shut down and plug several of their gas wells in the Dimock area. As recently as March 2012 PADEP had Cabot attempting to repair a likely leaky Dimock-area gas well with a new cement squeeze. Currently 30% of “Dimock water wells” have methane at or above the PA State action levels; this compares to a baseline rate in Susquehanna County of about one percent of water wells not near gas drilling having such levels (report to PAIOGA by a PADEP engineer, February, 2012). And the driller paid a $4 million dollar settlement and was restricted from drilling in the area for several years.
The former PADEP commissioner, John Hanger, recently told us: “… isotopic testing of methane in 18 water wells during 2009-2010 did conclude that the gas had migrated in those properties from gas wells and was not biogenic or gas that was present in the water wells prior to gas drilling.”
Leaky natural gas (methane) is dangerous and results in unsafe conditions.
Those are facts. This is some of the evidence. It can not be denied, spun, or pushed under the rug.
Attempting to limit any analysis to just “hydraulic fracturing,” meaning only what happens 5000 feet below ground for a short period of time, is a rhetorical trick, has nothing to do with a scientific analysis of the situation, and certainly doesn’t do justice to living with the the reality of gas drilling in the neighborhood.
Stanley R Scobie, Ph.D., Binghamton, NY
Tom Shepstone
Posted at 16:06h, 18 MayThe question is a matter of determining current conditions. Cabot, DEP and new EPA water testing confirms the water is safe. That is the bottom line Stan and no amount of spin on your side can change that.
Julie
Posted at 18:17h, 18 MayYou better investigate further Tom ….your wrong! Maybe you should retire,you sound tired
Tom Shepstone
Posted at 07:11h, 19 MayWell, that sure clarifies things.
Victor Furman
Posted at 21:56h, 18 MayStan.. when you continually host the likes of the Slottje’s in town meetings and refer to their advise as good for our communities you lose credibility as an objective nimby and fall into the ever familiar category of nimby obstructionist.
That being said all Cabot agreed to is methane migration caused by a defective cementing job which has been mitigated by adding an extra layer of steel and cement piping. They plugged the wells in a successful attempt to stop the gas migration and the well causing the migration was never fraced. The levels of gas have dropped below levels of concern and methane is not a threat to human life when vented. N-Gas separates from the water. Methane is all over the north east where ever there is shale bed gas whether there is drilling or not, here in NY on Richards road in the town of Fenton almost every resident there has flammable water from their water wells and there is no gas wells within 50 miles.
There is no a viable alternative for those of you who fear life and every step you take. it’s called Vermont, a state that gets most of it’s power from Canadian nuclear Power plants. They just banned fracking so all you fear mongering naysayers now have a place of refuge when we start drilling in NY. Trust me we won’t miss you NIMBYS in NY. There is a few things to ponder about Vermont though….
The Associated press reported:
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s first ban, The Democrat, surrounded at a Statehouse ceremony by environmentalists and Twinfield Union School students who pushed for the ban, said the law may help Vermont set an example for other states. The ban may be largely symbolic, though, because there is believed to be little to no natural gas or oil beneath the surface in Vermont.
About 65 percent of Vermont residents’ energy bill goes to heat their homes.
Vermont has expensive electricity prices (29 percent above the national average). Like most of the states in the Northeast, Vermont’s electricity prices are among the highest in the country. Vermont is one of just two states in the country without coal-generated electricity. Instead, the state primarily uses nuclear power, which produces over 70 percent of the state’s electricity, with most of the generation coming from the Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Vermont uses nuclear power for a larger proportion of its electricity than any other state.
Banning gas drilling in Vermont is like banning lobster fishing in Kansas
phil McFarren
Posted at 13:15h, 20 MayVictor–
Very good analogy. Another example of methane is many a deep coal mine where methane escapes through the rock and bubbles thru any standing water–made safe only by extensive air ventilating systems. Any veteran coal miner can attest to these conditions—I am not a veteran coal miner but I have been in many of the deep mines in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama as part of an executive management team.
I once had a veteran, well respected environmentalist tell me–I can never agree with you regardless of how valid your facts and solutions may be–I need to always be against anything you are for to keep my following and my job. It was a sobering reflection on how public opinion is so often dramatized rather than focusing on the real issue and/or solution.
Phil
GettheFacts
Posted at 10:01h, 19 MayNumersous statements have been made about the brown jugs wanting to move. They have twice the assessed value in escrow waiting for them. Now that the water tests good once again, when does the For Sale sign go up? What is keeping them here if it’s so bad here? Shouldn’t they be happy the house is/was always saleable?
Victor Furman
Posted at 10:35h, 20 Maygetthefacts
Those brown jug totters where once an unknown family who thanks to the naysayers and media were projected into the national spotlight. Their 15 minutes of fame have made it nearly impossible to find a non bias jury for them to go to court and expect to win because they have been caught in so many untruths with their deceitful brown jug totting that changes color more then a kids fingers at a finger painting contest.
I remember 2 1/2 years ago in a conversation with the Mrs… she told me that her and her husband were God fearing people and never swore or told a lie… that something I said to them about what her husband said directly to me using foul language could never be true! I wondered then and gave her the benefit of doubt “maybe she didn’t know him that well…. Recently at a meeting though when she took to the mic carrying that brown jug with her husband in NY she turned towards me without provocation and yelled across the room “Shut your mouth you fat (expletive deleted)” I have it on tape as well as her being told by the town supervisor she was there in front of to “stop and that will not be tolerated here.”
Their world is falling apart… not because of drilling but because of what the media and NYRAD has done to them and the science that they face daily and I truly feel sorry for them. They should make a one time public apology and fade away but that is beyond them I feel as they are now outcast in a loving community that will only forgive them should they put an end to the nonsense that has spotlighted the community in a negative way