UPDATE: The headline and assumptions made for this article were based on lack of information and misinformation. The wells drilled by Anschutz were not hydraulically fractured, and the Trenton Black River formation is a limestone formation, not shale as stated in the law firm’s press release. Please see this article for more details: Anschutz Exploration…
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) conducted air quality testing from August to October of 2010 at a number of natural gas drilling sites that use hydraulic fracturing in Susquehanna and Sullivan counties, including a Cabot Oil drilling site in Dimock, PA. The DEP looked for compounds associated with petroleum-based products that may have…
The May 23 Sunday edition of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (PSB) ran an article titled, “Pa. seeks stronger drilling rules to combat methane migration.” At least the headline is accurate. Pennsylvania is indeed attempting to prevent a recurrence of the situation at Dimock, PA which was a failure to properly case a well that…
After the PA Secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection, John Hanger, summoned Marcellus Shale drilling companies to a meeting, he proceeded to “challenge” them to comply with new drilling rules that likely won’t be adopted until this fall. Talk about arrogant. “I urged the industry to implement the stronger standards immediately and not wait…
New York State’s future with drilling in the Marcellus Shale continues to be cloudy at best. While MDN believes drilling should start—now—hoping and wishing will not make it happen and New York landowners have to face the cold, hard reality it may not happen until summer 2011 at the very earliest (if indeed it ever…
The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is summoning all Marcellus gas drillers operating in Pennsylvania to meeting. MDN wouldn’t exactly use the term “mandatory attendance required” to describe the meeting, but reading between the lines it certainly seems that way. MDN welcomes the DEP keeping a close eye on drillers, especially in the aftermath…
The third and final speaker at the April 10 Central New York Landowner’s Coalition (CNYLC) meeting held at the Unadilla Valley Central School was Don Zaengle, a consulting petroleum geologist from Worcester, NY. Zaengle opened his talk with a map showing an outline of those regions in New York State that fall within the Marcellus…
The Sunday, March 28 Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Broome County, NY) devoted a number of pages to the issue of drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The chief writer for the P&SB on these matters, Tom Wilbur, is anti-drilling, and it shows in his articles. As people on the anti-drilling side of the debate often do,…
PA Department of Environmental Protection (Nov 4): Press Release: DEP Reaches Agreement with Cabot to Prevent Gas Migration, Restore Water Supplies in Dimock Township Below is the unaltered press release from the PA DEP: Meadville – The Department of Environmental Protection and Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. have executed a consent order and agreement that…
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (Oct 16): DEP gives Cabot OK to resume gas operations in Pennsylvania Cabot Oil & Gas has had several spills of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process at one of their drilling sites in Dimock Township, Pennsylvania. The spills have led to fish dying in the local Stevens Creek. The…
Originally run on RSSBinghamton.com on October 1st: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has finally released its Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement for drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Instead of making drilling companies do an environmental impact statement for each well they drill, the DEC decided to do one “generic” environmental impact…
Several local water wells near the drilling operations of Cabot Oil in Dimock, Pennsylvania have been contaminated with natural gas. According to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, somehow (no one yet knows exactly how), Cabot penetrated the very deep Devonian geological formation that released the gas into an aquifer that feeds local drinking wells in…