Volunteers Test Water for Marcellus Impact Past 8 Yrs, Find Nothing
Here’s something truly ALLARMing: Over the past eight years the group Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) has conducted more than 70 workshops to train volunteer “citizen scientists” in how to test local creeks and rivers to detect the least little hint of pollution coming from the Marcellus Shale industry. Eight years! And what have they found in all that time? Nothing. Not one, single, thing. If they had, it would be front page news for days and weeks and months. Don’t get us wrong, if they want to be out there in Mother Nature testing, keeping an eye on things, we’re all for it. Knock yourselves out. Our point: Nothing has been found. Yet ALLARM continues to conduct their “free” workshops to this day. Somebody is making money somewhere on this environmentalist scheme, we’re not sure how. At any rate, the ALLARMists are hooking up with the anti-drillers of Protect Penn-Trafford to conduct another of their “free” training sessions, called Shale Gas Stream Monitoring Workshop, in Westmoreland County in February…
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Dominion recently received an important approval from Murrysville, PA (Westmoreland County) Council to expand the existing JB Tonkin compressor station. The expansion is part of Dominion’s Supply Header Project, a $500 million project of approximately 38 miles of natural gas pipeline and modified existing compression facilities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The project will provide natural gas supplies to various customers, including (most importantly) the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) Dominion plans to begin building this year. Some residents resisted the approval voicing concerns about noise. As part of the approval, Dominion agreed to conduct a post-construction noise survey, even though technically they don’t have to. Here’s an update on the Murrysville approval of this important piece of what ultimately will feed ACP…
Huntley & Huntley (H&H), a shale driller headquartered in Monroeville (Allegheny County), PA plans to drill Marcellus Shale wells in neighboring Murrysville (Westmoreland County), PA. H&H has filed for state permits for the Titan Well Pad project. This is will be the first Marcellus wells to be drilled in Murrysville. On May 3, 2017, Murrysville Town Council passed a new drilling ordinance that requires a 750 foot setback from the edge of the well pad–not from the bore hole (see 
A group of ninny nannies calling themselves Protect PT (Penn Township, Westmoreland County), backed with money and legal help from Big Green group PennFuture, filed a lawsuit to try and stop Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (H&H) from drilling wells in the township. We first alerted you to the lawsuit in October, when we were only aware of Apex being in the group’s sights (see 
Normally when you read about a raucous crowd at a public meeting dealing with shale gas, it’s raucous because of misbehaving antis. This time the shoe is on the other foot. Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill four shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see 
As we have said for years, ever since the Pennsylvania legislature modernized and updated drilling regulations to account for shale drilling in 2012, known as Act 13, anti-fossil fuel nutters have attempted first to destroy Act 13, and later subvert it. Act 13 originally provided for uniform zoning across the state with respect to siting wells. But seven selfish townships sued and eventually won (at the PA Supreme Court) the right to retain their own zoning regulations with respect to oil and gas wells (see 
Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see 
In August 2016, energy giant Tenaska (headquartered in Omaha, NE) broke ground to build a 925-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant in South Huntingdon (Westmoreland County), PA (see 
In an incredible story of how Marcellus Shale drilling benefits local communities, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County (i.e. the water authority) reports that it expects royalties received from 52 shale wells drilled on authority-owned land will jump another $1 million this year, to a total of over $3 million. The authority is still pushing forward with a three-year rate hike plan that began in 2016–so customers will get a 7% rate hike this year. Even though the authority has all of that extra cash. Why not suspend the rate hike because of the extra royalty money? Because, says an authority official, “The rate hikes were designed to help pay for a $140 million loan finalized last year for capital improvements to the water system that serves more than 120,000 customers in five counties as well as nearly 25,000 sewer customers.” What will the authority do with the extra $1 million they hadn’t planned on receiving? It’s “more money to be reinvested into the system.” Here’s the lowdown on Westmoreland’s windfall from gas royalties, and why royalties are jumping this year…
Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see 
Huntley & Huntley has plans to drill shale wells in Upper Burrell Township (Westmoreland County), PA. As MDN reported in June, a landowner in Upper Burrell filed an appeal against Upper Burrell’s zoning ordinance that allows drilling in rural, agricultural districts (see 
Westinghouse Electric tried “an ambitious new approach to building nuclear power plants” by building sections of the plants in one location before sending them to the construction site for assembly. They tried the process with two nuke plants–one in Georgia and the other in South Carolina. The process they “innovated” failed and took the company down–into bankruptcy. What does that have to do with the Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline project? Westinghouse Electric is headquartered just outside of Pittsburgh and owns a fair amount of land. Mariner East 2 intends to cross a portion of that land. Sunoco Logistics Partners, builder of ME2, attempted to negotiate a payment for an easement to cross Westinghouse’s land–but Westinghouse wanted more than ME2 offered. So ME2 filed paperwork to use eminent domain and “condemn” the Westinghouse property. In other words, let a judge decide how much is fair. Westinghouse joined the chorus that “ME2 isn’t really a public utility”–sounding no different than the Sierra Club and others who oppose the project. That strategy went nowhere, so Westinghouse eventually came back to the bargaining table and this time, worked out a deal–to sell some of their land to ME2. Now Westinghouse is asking the bankruptcy judge in charge of their case to approve the land sale, ahead of the judge’s decision on other matters to do with the bankruptcy. Here’s an account of the high stakes of “chicken” between Westinghouse and ME2…