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Salty wastewater produced by fracking for oil and gas has to go somewhere. Often, it’s injected into disposal wells deep underground. But sometimes that wastewater can find its way back to the surface and cause environmental problems.
A study by Penn State researchers found that songbirds nesting near the sound of natural gas compressors had fewer hatched eggs.
University of Pittsburgh researchers slated to conduct 3-year study.
Industry rejects report, calls gas development a ‘game-changer for local economies’
“We need Joe Biden to demonstrate that he truly is a man that believes in science and believes in honoring the commitment to protect future generations.”
State announced $3.9 M studies after pressure from families of rare cancer patients in SW PA
Plans are in early stages, but people weary of water contamination are on edge
Grand jury makes proposals on regulation, oversight of fracking industry
Support for a ban strong in cities and suburbs; weak in rural SW Pennsylvania
“Critical work remains on climate and education and health care among other issues about which I care deeply.”
DEP quietly withdrew the fine for faulty drilling after the company promised to fix the problems.
Fracking pollution not included in study; could lessen health benefits, author says
“What would I say now? I would say because of the regional and local health concerns and concerns about climate change, we should stop fracking–everywhere.”
Natural gas is mostly used for heating homes or fueling power plants. But when it comes out of the ground, it contains another key ingredient — ethane, a building block of plastics.
Tom Wolf, a Democrat, addressed the situation for the first time Wednesday afternoon, saying he is not aware of any wrongdoing.
Pennsylvania’s Republican US Senator introduced a resolution he hopes will enable Congress to defeat future presidents’ fracking bans in court.
“The benefit is there’s employment in the area. But the rest of the town’s neglected and I don’t feel our town of Grangemouth benefits as much as it should, with an oil refinery on our doorstep.”
For decades, the United Kingdom has relied on oil and gas from the North Sea. Those fields, first developed in the 1960s and 70s, are declining.
The massive refinery and petrochemical complex in Grangemouth, Scotland, run by INEOS, was one of the first overseas plants to receive Pennsylvania ethane.
The facility is part of what industry boosters hope will be a new plastics and chemical manufacturing base in the upper Ohio Valley, but many residents here worry about the heat-trapping gases and plastic waste.
A New York metastudy details the adverse effects fracking has on Pennsylvania’s environment, its climate and human health.
Pennsylvania’s impact fee on natural gas producers raised more money in 2018 to offset the effects of shale development than at any time in the fee’s seven-year history
The court document was issued under seal, but was discovered last week in a public database by a public radio reporter. After issuing an injunction, Judge Katherine B. Emery on Tuesday ruled it could be published.
Pipeline opponents are raising new concerns about the safety of Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East 2x natural gas liquids line.
Energy Transfer, parent company of Sunoco Logistics and builder of the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipelines, is the target of a Chester County grand jury investigation.
Sunoco’s parent company admitted it made mistakes in building the Mariner East pipelines through Pennsylvania, and told investors that it will do better in future, but its assurances failed to persuade critics that the project will become any safer for the public or more protective of the environment.
Homeowners focus on integrity of repurposed 12-inch pipeline first built in 1930s
Investigators at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said on Tuesday they didn’t confirm that the 12-inch pipeline component of Mariner East 2 was safe, despite a statement by Sunoco that they had done so.
The Chester County District Attorney said Wednesday he is opening a criminal investigation into Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline project because it has caused sinkholes, contaminated water and has resulted in “not so subtle bullying” of residents.
Investigators at the Public Utility Commission blamed corrosion for a leak of natural gas liquids from Sunoco’s Mariner East 1 pipeline in April 2017, and said they are concerned about the company’s corrosion-control program throughout the ageing statewide line.
The PennEast Pipeline Co. can take private land through eminent domain to build a natural gas pipeline, a New Jersey federal judge ruled on Friday.
A federal judge granted PennEast Pipeline Co. the right of eminent domain to build its pipeline on a property in Carbon County, in the first ruling of its kind over the controversial project in a Pennsylvania court.
A worst-case explosion of the Mariner East 2 pipeline in PA’s Delaware County would kill anyone within about a mile of the rupture, a new report says, but it concludes the chances of someone dying from a pipeline incident are less than that of dying in a car crash or from falling down stairs.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – An administrative law judge for the state Public Utility Commission heard testimony this week on whether Sunoco can operate its controversial Mariner East pipelines — a set of export lines moving natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania — while the judge reviews a request to permanently shut down the lines.
The Tompkins County Legislature passed a resolution Tuesday urging the New York DEC to reject a proposal that would convert an old coal fired power plant to natural gas.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA — State environmental officials have fined natural gas operator EQT for drilling into an old mine in 2017 and releasing 4 million gallons of abandoned mine drainage into the Monongahela River and surrounding wetlands in Allegheny County.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline across Pennsylvania will begin operating in the current quarter, the company’s parent, Energy Transfer, said on Thursday.
William Suan is no stranger to the problems abandoned oil and gas wells can cause. “It’s just an eyesore,” he said, standing inside a barn on his cattle ranch near Lost Creek, West Virginia. “I had to fence one off because it’s leaking now.”
There are five inactive wells on his land, most installed in the ’60s and ’70s, and the companies that owned the wells have long since gone out of business. On a recent rainy Monday, Suan treks down a muddy hill on the backside of his property. Hidden in the wooded thicket is a three-foot-tall rusted tube jutting out of the ground.
Marcellus region shows smallest increase in water use but quadruples frack waste from 2011-16
EPA science panel calls on the agency to produce more evidence for its assertion that fracking by gas rigs like this one does not have a widespread effect on drinking water. photo by JOE ULRICH/ WITF
By John Hurdle, State Impact Pennsylvania
A scientific advisory panel on Thursday stepped up its criticism of the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial report on fracking, calling on the agency to provide evidence for its landmark conclusion that fracking for oil and gas has had “no widespread, systemic impacts” on drinking water.
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