Sierra Clubbers Call on Virginia to Not Frack Until More “Study”
Must be anti-drillers all use the same playbook. Maybe they all read Saul Alinsky’s book “Rules for Radicals” (Saul Alinksy is the same guy who heavily influenced Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton). The anti-drilling playbook goes like this: When you think fracking may actually, finally start to happen, call for more studies to ensure it’s “safe.” New York has done this to get effect–so other locales think they can borrow the same tactic. The corollary is: If drilling is already happening, say it’s unsafe and should be suspended pending further studies. Study study study. That’s the mantra. Even though there have already been plenty of studies and mountains of data and proof that fracking is safe. All you have to do, if you’re a radical environmental group, is issue a press release and call for a study to plant the seed that the industry is hiding something. So it was no surprise to learn that the Virginia Sierra Club wants (surprise!) a study before shale drilling is allowed in the Old Dominion…
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MDN editor Jim Willis is attending Shale Insight this week. Today (Thursday) is the last day. Sadly, that means no stories posted today. But have no fear, MDN will be back tomorrow (Friday).
A new research study from Stanford University titled “Enhanced Formation of Disinfection By-Products in Shale Gas Wastewater-Impacted Drinking Water Supplies” proves what we already knew more than three years ago: When you send frack wastewater untreated, or lightly treated, to a municipal sewage treatment plant–the plant can’t get the residual water clean enough to not cause problems down river. Back in 2011, then-PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer ended the practice of municipal treatment plants without special equipment from processing frack wastewater (see 
You may have thought snake handling was something done in tiny fringe churches tucked away in the backwoods of Appalachia. Think again. Snake handlers, or wranglers, are very much in demand in the Marcellus Shale to protect oil and gas workers on location, and to protect the snakes themselves–Timber rattlesnakes, a candidate for the threatened species list. Drillers and pipeline companies have to jump through many hoops to drill a well or lay pipeline. MANY hoops. One of those hoops is to ensure their work does not unduly harm a threatened or endangered species, plant or animal (called T&E in the business). When it comes to rattlesnakes, drillers call in the specialists to handle them…
Last Thursday, Precision Pipeline of Waynesburg, Pa was drilling under the Little Mingo Creek behind the Mingo Creek Church on behalf of Sunoco Logistics when the drill bit hit something really solid. It stopped the bit and led to drilling mud, often called bentonite, to leak into the the Little Mingo Creek causing a gray “sludge” to travel down the creek in Nottingham and Union townships (Washington County), PA. Bentonite is non-toxic and used in products from shampoo to deodorant and toothpaste. It’s also used to lubricate the drill bit and carry drill cuttings out of the ground. While non-toxic, a whole lot of bentonite in the water can, of course, suffocate fish and cause problems for wildlife that happen to drink it…