New Bill Allows Drillers to Use Acid Mine Water for Fracking in PA
An idea whose time has come–in fact is long overdue–is that of re-using acid mine water (AMW) for fracking. The Old Forge borehole was drilled years ago near Scranton, Pennsylvania to alleviate the problem of water seeping into abandoned coal mines in the area, contaminated mine water that was threatening the water table. Old Forge was drilled to channel that water out–and into the Susquehanna River. Some 60-100 million gallons of acid mine water comes out of that hole every single day! It is the largest single source of pollution for the Chesapeake Bay. In 2013 money was allocated to begin a pilot project to clean up the acid mine water at Old Forge, using money from the impact fee assessed on Marcellus drillers in the state (see Specifics on Marcellus $ Helping to Clean Chesapeake Bay Pollution. While that’s a great plan, what’s even better is that drillers are ready and willing to use AMW for fracking operations–except for liability laws. The current laws on the books say “if you touch it, you own it” and drillers are afraid if they begin using AMW, litigious lawyers for Big Green groups like Food & Water Watch will take them to court and try to bankrupt them–claiming the AMW, even if treated, is causing negative environmental and health issues…
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There is no escaping the fact that when a group of hardened socialists get together, bad things happen. Witness the meeting called the G7 that took place in Germany yesterday. The assembled “leaders” of seven of the world’s biggest economies, including Barack H. Obama, agreed to commit their respect countries to committing economic suicide–i.e., ending the use of fossil fuels by the end of this century. By the middle of this century (35 years from now), they aim to reduce burning fossil fuels by “40 to 70 percent in the 2010 global emission levels of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.” What happens when, by 2050, everyone figures out that mankind burning fossil fuels actually doesn’t cause so-called global warming? The threat of global warming is yet another sham, another way to convince people to willingly give up their freedom so so-called smart people will “save them” from themselves. It’s sick…
Yesterday Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s pick to head the all-important Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, faced a confirmation hearing in the PA Senate. Quigley sparred with Republican Senators who challenged him over his two-year stint at the anti-drilling organization PennFuture. He also assured the Senators that if Gov. Wolf’s insidious severance tax is passed, the “industry’s not going anywhere” he said. In other words, we have them by the short hairs and they have no other options. Au contraire, Mr. Quigley. Au contraire. We’ve made no bones about our disdain for Quigley. He shouldn’t be the next Secretary of the DEP. But we’re under no illusion. He’ll likely get approved. What was interesting, however, is that at the conclusion of the hearing, the Senators on the panel voted to refer Quigley’s appointment to the full Senate–without recommendation. That’s extremely rare. It was a vote of no confidence by the senators, as in “here, we’ll let ya’ll vote on him any which way you want to, we wash our hands of it.” It will be interesting to see how many vote against his confirmation. It’s good to know we’re not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. There is someone else–a very important someone else–who also doesn’t think Quigley should be confirmed. That important someone else is John Peterson, former U.S. Congressman and Executive Director of the Allegheny Forest Alliance…
Let the drilling begin! The three members of the Middlesex Zoning Hearing Board (Butler County, PA, where the Mars School District is located) voted unanimously on Wednesday to reject challenges by anti-drillers to changes in zoning laws that allow Rex Energy to drill a series of wells on a pad about 3/4 of a mile from the Mars School. Four Martian parents have worked themselves up into a frenzy, convincing themselves that faraway drilling will harm their precious, innocent lil’ chil’ren. The Martians have enlisted the help of anti-drilling groups from the opposite side of the state–the Philadelphia area–tapping into their deep pockets to fund endless lawsuits and appeals that are costing Middlesex taxpayers big bucks to defend (see