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Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to dump pollution into drinking water supplies

By Associated Press
Monday, January 3, 2011 15:19 EDT
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The natural gas boom gripping parts of the U.S. has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

Not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush.

There, the liquid that gushes from gas wells is only partially treated for substances that could be environmentally harmful, then dumped into rivers and streams from which communities get their drinking water.

In the two years since the frenzy of activity began in the vast underground rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale, Pennsylvania has been the only state allowing waterways to serve as the primary disposal place for the huge amounts of wastewater produced by a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

State regulators, initially caught flat-footed, tightened the rules this year for any new water treatment plants but allowed any existing operations to continue discharging water into rivers.

At least 3.6 million barrels of the waste were sent to treatment plants that empty into rivers during the 12 months ending June 30, according to state records. That is enough to cover a square mile with more than 8 1/2 inches of brine.

Researchers are still trying to figure out whether Pennsylvania’s river discharges, at their current levels, are dangerous to humans or wildlife. Several studies are under way, some under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency.

State officials, energy companies and the operators of treatment plants insist that with the right safeguards in place, the practice poses little or no risk to the environment or to the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on those rivers for drinking water.

But an Associated Press review found that Pennsylvania’s efforts to minimize, control and track wastewater discharges from the Marcellus Shale have sometimes failed.

For example:

_ Of the roughly 6 million barrels of well liquids produced in a 12-month period examined by The AP, the state couldn’t account for the disposal method for 1.28 million barrels, about a fifth of the total, because of a weakness in its reporting system and incomplete filings by some energy companies.

_ Some public water utilities that sit downstream from big gas wastewater treatment plants have struggled to stay under the federal maximum for contaminants known as trihalomethanes, which can cause cancer if swallowed over a long period.

_ Regulations that should have kept drilling wastewater out of the important Delaware River Basin, the water supply for 15 million people in four states, were circumvented for many months.

In 2009 and part of 2010, energy company Cabot Oil & Gas trucked more than 44,000 barrels of well wastewater to a treatment facility in Hatfield Township, a Philadelphia suburb. Those liquids ultimately were discharged into a creek that provides drinking water to 17 municipalities with more than 300,000 residents. Cabot acknowledged it should not have happened.

People in those communities had been told repeatedly that the watershed was free of gas waste.

“This is an outrage,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, an environmental group. “This is indicative of the lack of adequate oversight.”

The situation in Pennsylvania is being watched carefully by regulators in other states, some of which have begun allowing some river discharges. New York also sits over the Marcellus Shale, but Gov. David Paterson has slapped a moratorium on high-volume fracking while environmental regulations are drafted.

Industry representatives insist that the wastewater from fracking has not caused serious harm anywhere in Pennsylvania, in part because it is safely diluted in the state’s big rivers. But most of the largest drillers say they are taking action and abolishing river discharges anyway.

Cabot, which produced nearly 370,000 barrels of waste in the period examined by the AP, said that since the spring it has been reusing 100 percent of its well water in new drilling operations, rather than trucking it to treatment plants.

“Cabot wants to ensure that everything we are doing is environmentally sound,” said spokesman George Stark. “It makes environmental sense and economic sense to do it.”

All 10 of the biggest drillers in the state say they have either eliminated river discharges in the past few months, or reduced them to a small fraction of what they were a year ago. Together, those companies accounted for 80 percent of the wastewater produced in the state.

The biggest driller, Atlas Resources, which produced nearly 2.3 million barrels of wastewater in the review period, said it is now recycling all water produced by wells in their first 30 days of operation, when the flowback is heaviest. The rest is still sent to treatment plants, but “our ultimate goal is to have zero surface discharge of any of the water,” said spokesman Jeff Kupfer.

How much wastewater is still being discharged into rivers is unclear. Records verifying industry claims of a major drop-off will not be available until midwinter.

Natural gas drilling has taken off in several states in recent years because of fracking and horizontal drilling, techniques that allow the unlocking of more methane than ever before.

Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand deep into the rock, shattering the shale and releasing the gas trapped inside. When the gas comes to the surface, some of the water comes back, too, along with underground brine that exists naturally.

It can be several times saltier than sea water and tainted with fracking chemicals, some of which can be carcinogenic if swallowed at high enough levels over time.

The water is also often laden with barium, which is found in underground ore deposits and can cause high blood pressure, and radium, a naturally occurring radioactive substance.

In other places where fracking has ignited a gas bonanza, like the Barnett Shale field in Texas, the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, and deposits in West Virginia, New Mexico and Oklahoma, the dominant disposal method for drilling wastewater is to send it back down into the ground via injection wells.

In some arid states, wastewater is also treated in evaporation pits. Water is essentially baked off by the sun, leaving a salty sludge that is disposed of in wells or landfills.

Operators of the treatment plants handling the bulk of the Pennsylvania waste say they can remove most of the toxic substances without much trouble, including radium and barium, before putting the water back into rivers.

“In some respects, its better than what’s already in the river,” said Al Lander, president of Tunnelton Liquids, a treatment plant that discharges water into western Pennsylvania’s Conemaugh River.

The one thing that can’t be removed easily, except at great expense, he said, is the dissolved solids and chlorides that make the fluids so salty.

Those substances usually don’t pose a risk to humans in low levels, said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia, but large amounts can give drinking water a foul taste, leave a film on dishes and give people diarrhea. Those problems have been reported from time to time in some places.

Those salts can also trigger other problems.

The municipal authority that provides drinking water to Beaver Falls, 27 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, began flunking tests for trihalomethanes regularly last year, around the time that a facility 18 miles upstream, Advanced Waste Services, became Pennsylvania’s dominant gas wastewater treatment plant.

Trihalomethanes are not found in drilling wastewater, but there can be a link. The wastewater often contains bromide, which reacts with the chlorine used to purify drinking water. That creates trihalomethanes.

The EPA says people who drink water with elevated levels of trihalomethanes for many years have an increased risk of cancer and could also develop liver, kidney or central nervous system problems.

Pennsylvania’s multitude of acid-leaching, abandoned coal mines and other industrial sources are also a major source of the high salt levels that lead to the problem.

Beaver Falls plant manager Jim Riggio said he doesn’t know what is keeping his system off-kilter, but a chemical analysis suggested it was linked to the hundreds of thousands of barrels of partially treated gas well brine that now flow past his intakes every year.

“It all goes back to frackwater,” he said.

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  • Anonymous

    There’s your Tea Party at work, I hope those contaminants get into their ‘tea’, I really do. It is a shame for the decent people who live in PA., but I sincerely hope those repukes who bend over for big energy drink all that stuff, bathe in that stuff, cook in that stuff till it comes out their ears.

  • http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/pennsylvania-gas-drillers-dump-pollution-drinking-water-supplies/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to dump pollution into drinking water supplies | Raw Story — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Raw Story and others. The Raw Story said: Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to dump pollution into drinking water supplies http://su.pr/2glded [...]

  • ghostof911

    Pennsylvania just elected Tea Party supporter, global warming denier Pat Toomey to the US Senate. He can be counted on to side with industry whenever the health and welfare of Pennsylvanians are at stake.

  • Anonymous

    You elected Toomey, so drink up.

  • Anonymous

    You elected Toomey, so drink up.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3QIJ4LGZX6PZOJSD57QIC3NRAA Straw

    Ed Rendell called. He said, “Don’t be wussies. Drink up.”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3QIJ4LGZX6PZOJSD57QIC3NRAA Straw

    Ed Rendell called. He said, “Don’t be wussies. Drink up.”

  • Anonymous

    We are going to be a massive third world dump in the near future. Welcome to America, where even our leaders don’t like the country and are willing to destroy it for a few dollars.

  • Anonymous

    We are going to be a massive third world dump in the near future. Welcome to America, where even our leaders don’t like the country and are willing to destroy it for a few dollars.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q7G2NHLD62L3CDU7VHFZ4QPVQM Unknown

    Breaking News:

    The FDA has just announced that a major 50 year study has found that politicians have been found to be A major cause of cancer. When asked for further comment one the CDC’s top researchers stated “It appears when an industry such as Tobacco, Asbestos, Pesticide, ect gives major amounts of money to a politician it causes a massive release in cancer causing particles to be release into the enviroment. To be honest were not quite sure what the link is but we know it’s there”
    Stay tuned for further updates

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Q7G2NHLD62L3CDU7VHFZ4QPVQM Unknown

    Breaking News:

    The FDA has just announced that a major 50 year study has found that politicians have been found to be A major cause of cancer. When asked for further comment one the CDC’s top researchers stated “It appears when an industry such as Tobacco, Asbestos, Pesticide, ect gives major amounts of money to a politician it causes a massive release in cancer causing particles to be release into the enviroment. To be honest were not quite sure what the link is but we know it’s there”
    Stay tuned for further updates

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    Someone once said of the destruction to the water supply caused by gas drilling using “fracking” in the semi-arid west that it was “like mining for silver and throwing away the gold” as water is polluted with toxic chemicals and the water table is lowered. The same can be said about “fracking” and the water supplies anywhere as water – especially clean drinking water – become more precious.

    This will come back to bite us in a big way. Really, really stupid.

    Welcome to the Brave New World of Corporate Amerika.

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    Someone once said of the destruction to the water supply caused by gas drilling using “fracking” in the semi-arid west that it was “like mining for silver and throwing away the gold” as water is polluted with toxic chemicals and the water table is lowered. The same can be said about “fracking” and the water supplies anywhere as water – especially clean drinking water – become more precious.

    This will come back to bite us in a big way. Really, really stupid.

    Welcome to the Brave New World of Corporate Amerika.

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    Someone once said of the destruction to the water supply caused by gas drilling using “fracking” in the semi-arid west that it was “like mining for silver and throwing away the gold” as water is polluted with toxic chemicals and the water table is lowered. The same can be said about “fracking” and the water supplies anywhere as water – especially clean drinking water – become more precious.

    This will come back to bite us in a big way. Really, really stupid.

    Welcome to the Brave New World of Corporate Amerika.

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    I hear there’s a new fad in Pennsylvania bars where the hairy-chested men hang out; light a glass of water on fire and drink it down. It’s called an “afterburner”.

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    I hear there’s a new fad in Pennsylvania bars where the hairy-chested men hang out; light a glass of water on fire and drink it down. It’s called an “afterburner”.

  • Obi-jonKenobi

    I hear there’s a new fad in Pennsylvania bars where the hairy-chested men hang out; light a glass of water on fire and drink it down. It’s called an “afterburner”.

  • Winski

    This is why I suggested a couple of weeks ago that the STATE of Pennsylvania, West of the outskirts of Philly, made be turned into a EPA Superfund site as soon as 2012…

  • Winski

    This is why I suggested a couple of weeks ago that the STATE of Pennsylvania, West of the outskirts of Philly, made be turned into a EPA Superfund site as soon as 2012…

  • Winski

    This is why I suggested a couple of weeks ago that the STATE of Pennsylvania, West of the outskirts of Philly, made be turned into a EPA Superfund site as soon as 2012…

  • http://gorillasocialclub.com/?p=192 Gorilla Social Club » Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to dump pollution

    [...] LINK About Riot Visit Riot's Website. View other posts by [...]

  • Anonymous

    The more I hear of Pennsylvania these days, the more I loathe it. A sump hole.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    Big deal, everyone should have three “cancer clusters” in their state:

    Cancer cluster confirmed near Pa. Superfund sites

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-26-toxic-cancer_N.htm

    “We did not find any environmental links to the PV cases we interviewed,” Vince Seaman, the lead researcher, said Thursday in an e-mail. “That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any — we just didn’t see anything with the information we collected.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21473018/ns/health-cancer/

    Asswipes, and I mean really big asswipes.

  • Anonymous

    Big deal, everyone should have three “cancer clusters” in their state:

    Cancer cluster confirmed near Pa. Superfund sites

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-26-toxic-cancer_N.htm

    “We did not find any environmental links to the PV cases we interviewed,” Vince Seaman, the lead researcher, said Thursday in an e-mail. “That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any — we just didn’t see anything with the information we collected.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21473018/ns/health-cancer/

    Asswipes, and I mean really big asswipes.

  • Anonymous

    Congratulations, Pennsylvania! Don’t give in to those wimpy tree-huggers! Better living through chemistry! (sarcasm)

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6SRHE4DGXV6AIXDSTVU75ONUTM Wendy

    I live in PA and I have stayed here primarily, in addition to being near my family, because of the natural beauty and abundance of wild places in a state that’s right smack in the middle of one of the most populated areas of the country. I lived through TMI, etc.. and I can honestly say this is the the worst thing that’s ever happened here. The Marcellus Shale catastrophe is destroying this state on so many levels but hey, who cares as long as everybody gets their $$ since that’s what life is all about. The incoming piece of sh*t governor feels that our state forests are his to bestow as he pleases and has not only vowed to increase drilling in them but also refuses to charge the taxes that most other states charge companies for exploiting their natural resources.

    The contamination of drinking water doesn’t suprise me at all. What in the hell do you have to study to realize that massive dumping of chemicals into drinking water isn’t healthy? A kindergartner could tell you that’s not a good idea. I don’t care how much they”clean” it. Fracking chemicals were causing one area’s tap water to be flammable for awhile. Yeah, real safe. These bastards wont’ be happy until every square inch of this state is contaminated and void of wildlife and everybody is sick.

    (They’ve also started putting ammonia in our water in my area which is unrelated to this subject but WTF? You couldn’t pay me to drink our tap water.)

    This BS (combined with the incessant gobbling up of prime farmland in this state for development which WILL come back to bite people in the ass at some point in the future) has made me really start rethinking my plans to stay here.I never thought I’d say that, I live in a great area that has a lot going for it and I have family and friends that I love. But this is just disgusting me and breaking my heart and I don’t know if I can stick around and continue to witness it. It’s a crying damned shame..

  • Anonymous

    This is a crime. These loser leaders in Pennsylvania are allowing the people to be poisoned and the the state to become a fucking sewer so a few greedy energy corporations can line their pockets. Do whatever you have to do to stop this because these anti-enviro fuckheads don’t give a shit about you or nature.

  • http://ingaza.wordpress.com/ the dissenter

    It appears PA has many things to be proud of. Today, I learned that the highly and deadly toxic gas canister used by the IDF against Palestinians during their peaceful demonstrations are made in PA. I wonder if those people know that the stuff they’re so proudly making in the USA is killing innocent civilians a half a world away. Better yet, I wonder if they knew, would they care?

  • http://ingaza.wordpress.com/ the dissenter

    It appears PA has many things to be proud of. Today, I learned that the highly and deadly toxic gas canister used by the IDF against Palestinians during their peaceful demonstrations are made in PA. I wonder if those people know that the stuff they’re so proudly making in the USA is killing innocent civilians a half a world away. Better yet, I wonder if they knew, would they care?

  • Anonymous

    Pennsylvania is not a toxic waste dump and either is the Gulf of Mexico but the Feds their are saying pulling out now saying everything is alright and go eat the fish. Everything is not alright at all. The local people are suffering from damage to their health and the chemical BP used to to contain the oil causes species to become sterile. Then there is the lie about how much oil actually exploded into the Gulf. Fucking Corporations and special interest groups run this country. They fucking don’t care. They don;t care. People give a pass to government that doesn’t exist. Stop this destructive practice and try to shore up the damage already done. The EPA said, we don’t know the damage to humans and other species. Fuck them. It’s a backwards practice because the toxic crap already was allowed into the water supply. These people should be hauled into court and imprisoned.

  • Anonymous

    Pennsylvania is not a toxic waste dump and either is the Gulf of Mexico but the Feds their are saying pulling out now saying everything is alright and go eat the fish. Everything is not alright at all. The local people are suffering from damage to their health and the chemical BP used to to contain the oil causes species to become sterile. Then there is the lie about how much oil actually exploded into the Gulf. Fucking Corporations and special interest groups run this country. They fucking don’t care. They don;t care. People give a pass to government that doesn’t exist. Stop this destructive practice and try to shore up the damage already done. The EPA said, we don’t know the damage to humans and other species. Fuck them. It’s a backwards practice because the toxic crap already was allowed into the water supply. These people should be hauled into court and imprisoned.

  • Anonymous

    Cancer cluster confirmed near Pa. Superfund sites

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-26-toxic-cancer_N.htm

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UAYWWQ6PIS523OZNUGILXEGOPU Patty

    I live in PA. My father lives in the Poconos. He had no idea this was taking place. I told him to educate himself. Because, the Energy Companies will never be satisfied until they rape the Earth of all Her resources and make her practically unlivable.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/RepublicConstitution?feature=mhum TruthRegimes

    My goodness this is disgusting. I have some friends in Pennsylvania and I think their water is polluted and they refuse to drink the mess. It looks and smells strange. Probably due to fracking or a nearby rock quarry. Gasland demonstrates much of this in the great documentary. http://republicconstitution.blogspot.com/

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/RepublicConstitution?feature=mhum TruthRegimes

    Most Americans simply do not care. They love to make weapons for war because they think it makes them tough.

  • Anonymous

    Go to this link and click on the “Crying Indian.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM

    ALERT—–this Indian is actually an Italian that played parts of Native Americans

  • Anonymous

    Go to this link and click on the “Crying Indian.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM

    ALERT—–this Indian is actually an Italian that played parts of Native Americans

  • Anonymous

    Go to this link and click on the “Crying Indian.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM

    ALERT—–this Indian is actually an Italian that played parts of Native Americans

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EHJJXSTSSOCXLTSQBUVIDYUF7M Dave

    I was seriously thinking of retiring in Penn. (i.e. spending a lot of money there by buying a house). I had been planning it for more than 15 years.

    No more. There are too many other sane northern states that aren’t selling out to the rich people in the gas industry. Matter of fact i have been talking to friends and they pretty much agree that buying real estate in Penn is just too much of a crap shoot now. Once your well is screwed up your real estate investment is trashed.

    Man you Penn whore politicians are dim. You think you are cashing in but you are just going for the quick killing while sacrificing the long term environmental and economic interests. The natural beauty in Penn is amazing and it’s so close to the great cultural centers of the world. It’s not like living in Bumfuck Alabama where Cletus is your neighbor but if you can’t be sure your water supply is protected you have nothing.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EHJJXSTSSOCXLTSQBUVIDYUF7M Dave

    I was seriously thinking of retiring in Penn. (i.e. spending a lot of money there by buying a house). I had been planning it for more than 15 years.

    No more. There are too many other sane northern states that aren’t selling out to the rich people in the gas industry. Matter of fact i have been talking to friends and they pretty much agree that buying real estate in Penn is just too much of a crap shoot now. Once your well is screwed up your real estate investment is trashed.

    Man you Penn whore politicians are dim. You think you are cashing in but you are just going for the quick killing while sacrificing the long term environmental and economic interests. The natural beauty in Penn is amazing and it’s so close to the great cultural centers of the world. It’s not like living in Bumfuck Alabama where Cletus is your neighbor but if you can’t be sure your water supply is protected you have nothing.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EHJJXSTSSOCXLTSQBUVIDYUF7M Dave

    I was seriously thinking of retiring in Penn. (i.e. spending a lot of money there by buying a house). I had been planning it for more than 15 years.

    No more. There are too many other sane northern states that aren’t selling out to the rich people in the gas industry. Matter of fact i have been talking to friends and they pretty much agree that buying real estate in Penn is just too much of a crap shoot now. Once your well is screwed up your real estate investment is trashed.

    Man you Penn whore politicians are dim. You think you are cashing in but you are just going for the quick killing while sacrificing the long term environmental and economic interests. The natural beauty in Penn is amazing and it’s so close to the great cultural centers of the world. It’s not like living in Bumfuck Alabama where Cletus is your neighbor but if you can’t be sure your water supply is protected you have nothing.

  • http://morallowground.com/2011/01/03/pennsylvania-allows-disposal-of-toxic-fracking-waste-into-drinking-water-supply/ Pennsylvania Allows Disposal of Toxic ‘Fracking’ Waste into Drinking Water Supply | Moral Low Ground

    [...] regulators in Pennsylvania are allowing millions of barrels of toxic, cancer-causing waste to be dumped directly into waterways that are the source of drinking water for millions of people. Wastewater from the natural gas [...]

  • Anonymous

    Enjoy your third world nation status America. Perhaps we can plea for Africa to provide us with clean drinking water.

  • http://www.zazzle.com/InfinitudeTortoises* An Infinitude of Tortoises

    Hey, it’s not as if anyone still drinks tap water these days … right?

    Frak the frakkin’ frackers!

  • Anonymous

    Come to Oregon. You can see the mercury drift into our lakes.

  • http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

    Why? All I can ask is why? What on earth is wrong with them? Knowingly poisoning people and opening themselves up to giant lawsuits?

  • http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

    Why? All I can ask is why? What on earth is wrong with them? Knowingly poisoning people and opening themselves up to giant lawsuits?

  • http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

    Why? All I can ask is why? What on earth is wrong with them? Knowingly poisoning people and opening themselves up to giant lawsuits?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KFOFZHLUNJCQATOHPSVHSFKP3I pw

    Yeah and most people bath in bottled water…

  • Anonymous

    Actually, in rural Africa, the water is so often filtered and filtered again by the people that it tastes like the purest on earth, and may be.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    I wonder if any of this will help push the issue til it really sinks back in. The entire reason agencies like the EPA came into existence in the first place (with modest GOP support long ago) was because the crimes committed by industry were so egregious, so overwhelming, so severly damaging to health of humans and animals…that NO ONE doubted whether there should or shouldn’t be tough standards and steep fines. We’ve had forty years of industry paid advertising and lobbied politicos since then, working overtime to make everyone forget why all those pesky ole rules got made.

    Here’s why: If you don’t stamp a bootheel on the throat of chemical and energy industries, they will poison you to death and sue you for claiming they did it while you slowly die of the poison, in the hopes that the lawsuit will linger til you die off and become moot. If you take the bootheel off, even for a second, they run hog wild. Only the most vicious, vindictive, brutal regulation can even remotely hope to take the edge off of their misbehavior. That is what it took in the past, and that is what it will take now.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, a new take on the “energy drink.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1046573071 Matt Mosley

    They already dump fluoride into the water and there’s not many up in arms about it. (fluoride is a poison, a chemical waste offshoot).

  • Anonymous

    fuckin rights, drink up lol!

  • Anonymous

    fuckin rights, drink up lol!

  • mjcc1987

    The death of people (born babies, elderly, handicap) is such a small price for businesses to be profitable. Their profitability is constitutional and increases my freedoms. Besides, as long as we don’t kill fetuses, they will have christians on their side. I think it was the great SCOTUS Antonin Scalia who said only white landowners have constitutional rights, everyone else’s rights are subject to multiple votes depending on the mob’s mood from month to month.

  • Anonymous

    Silent Spring soon!!!

  • Anonymous

    Fast forward 20 years: It has now been revealed in court documents that Frakers knew the toxins they were releasing into US water ways would likely cause birth defects and cancer in those who consumed it. However all of the drilling entities have either gone out of business or declared bankruptcy leaving the PUIBILC to pick up the healthcare tab of the millions now sickened by the industry’s practices.

    American Fascism all of the profits of Capitalism but without all of the risks!

  • Anonymous

    Naw we are a nation of scared sheep and the NEOCON’s intend to keep it that way!

  • Anonymous

    Actually taking a shower in contaminated water is worse than drinking it!

  • Anonymous

    The difference now Max is that the chemical companies and their corporate buddies control the media therefore Faux News will not cover the story and Uncle Rupert’s papers will mock the sick and dying.

    The balance of the MSM will basically say that there is nothing to see move along. The internet is great but Joe & Jane 6 pack don’t get their news from the tubes so until it’s on their TV it didn’t happen.

    The Citizens United ruling will GURANTEE that any congress person objecting to corporate practices will be taken out in the next election so our elected officials are not going to save us either….shit what am I still doing in this Fascist country. Hmm.. let’s see Canada….New Zealand.. Australia… nope the Netherlands better healthcare!

  • Anonymous

    Completely fracking disgusting! Drill, baby, drill will kill, baby, kill. And our new (GOP) governor Corbett doesn’t even want to tax Marcellus shale drillers. We are a bunch of woebegone serfs at the mercy of corporate masters.

  • Anonymous

    Completely fracking disgusting! Drill, baby, drill will kill, baby, kill. And our new (GOP) governor Corbett doesn’t even want to tax Marcellus shale drillers. We are a bunch of woebegone serfs at the mercy of corporate masters.

  • Anonymous

    Completely fracking disgusting! Drill, baby, drill will kill, baby, kill. And our new (GOP) governor Corbett doesn’t even want to tax Marcellus shale drillers. We are a bunch of woebegone serfs at the mercy of corporate masters.

  • Hologram5

    It’s not just the neocons anymore dude, take a look around you, Obama has tapped Wall Street for his highest advisors, the Dems have sold us down the river. You are still caught in the two party paradigm. Neither side cares anymore, it’s all about money. Get past that and you’ll be woke up in no time.

  • Hologram5

    It’s not just the neocons anymore dude, take a look around you, Obama has tapped Wall Street for his highest advisors, the Dems have sold us down the river. You are still caught in the two party paradigm. Neither side cares anymore, it’s all about money. Get past that and you’ll be woke up in no time.

  • Anonymous

    Those pesky regulations just stifle American business. Who needs clean drinking water anyways?

  • Anonymous

    Drink baby drink!

  • Anonymous

    Drink baby drink!

  • Anonymous

    GASLAND People GASLAND

    http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

  • D.Crockett

    T. Boone Pickens the big oil pud of Texas says that fresh drinking water is the new big investment
    he calls “Blue Gold” yes if he has his way everyone will be paying to have it? these kind of pigs
    should be put behind bars How could our government support this kind thinking depriving americian
    citizens of life? yes we need fresh clean water to exist and this ass hole wants you to pay him to live! whats next a “AIR TAX”

  • Anonymous

    Start using a filter and STOP COMPLAINING!

    There are hundreds of harmful chemicals in your drinking water, fluoride is ONLY ONE of them.

    Why don’t you complain about MBTE or pesticides or lead? These are FAR more likely to cause problems.

    In fact the biggest known health problem with fluoride is the mental capacity of those who freak out about it.

  • http://ingaza.wordpress.com/ the dissenter

    Go, go, Pennsylvania! Show us that you’re still the same coal-mining dump you were a hundred or so years ago.

  • Anonymous

    You have to remember, we need water to survive. If we don’t have gas and oil, on the cheap (profits for the rich) life would be meaningless?

  • Anonymous

    Keep singing that cumbiya crap and the Power Elites will complete their enslavement of us all.

    The system we have is designed for TWO parties to battle for control. Ya can’t expect to get along with the other side unless they have the same goals and they don’t.

    There is a big difference between the two parties. While I agree the O man has had to cow tow to the Banksters to save the ship from sinking he has accomplished more than the public realizes.

    In a post Citizens United world we have but one choice and that is to fight the corporatists and the plutocrats at every turn and the Dem’s are only hope!

  • Anonymous

    Keep singing that cumbiya crap and the Power Elites will complete their enslavement of us all.

    The system we have is designed for TWO parties to battle for control. Ya can’t expect to get along with the other side unless they have the same goals and they don’t.

    There is a big difference between the two parties. While I agree the O man has had to cow tow to the Banksters to save the ship from sinking he has accomplished more than the public realizes.

    In a post Citizens United world we have but one choice and that is to fight the corporatists and the plutocrats at every turn and the Dem’s are only hope!

  • Hologram5

    You have proven my point with your statement:
    Power Elites will complete their enslavement of us all.
    There are power elites on BOTH sides of the aisle. John Kerry, Hill CLinton, Bill Clinton and the likes are just a couple of examples. They don’t care about you, they don’t care about me. All they DO care about is money.

  • Anonymous

    This has been happening for quite a while now.

  • Anonymous

    If this is the Republican dominated western Pennsylvania, I say “Frack away!” I am sick and tired of being derided, belittled and patronized as a tree-hugging, exxxtreeme environmentalist, having to fight tooth and nail for legislation that would protect everyone. Let some Republican areas stew in their own pollution for a while and see how they like it.

  • Wyrdless

    Get a high quality water filter like a berkey unless you like having cancer

  • CaptainHowdy

    LOL… what lawsuits? They own the courts.

  • CaptainHowdy

    LOL… what lawsuits? They own the courts.

  • CaptainHowdy

    LOL… what lawsuits? They own the courts.

  • http://twitter.com/cryptographrix cryptographrix

    um…see Gasland.

    The stuff in fracking water eats through those filters like they’re nothing.

  • http://twitter.com/cryptographrix cryptographrix

    um…see Gasland.

    The stuff in fracking water eats through those filters like they’re nothing.

  • http://twitter.com/cryptographrix cryptographrix

    um…see Gasland.

    The stuff in fracking water eats through those filters like they’re nothing.

  • Anonymous

    This just in, the number of people in PA who died from brain damage has increased three-fold. More news at 6.

    Hey, we need jobs right? Who cares about polluting the planet and killing people as long as we have JOBS?!

  • http://www.socialistcafe.com SocialistCafeDOTcom

    No problem. The conservative south is downstream.

    There is an excellent documentary on the subject of fracking. Check out Gasland, 2010.

  • Anonymous

    Hmmn? Let’s see if I’ve got this right. They buy up the safe springs, bottle it and sell it. Meanwhile, ever expanding their market by destroying what potable water is left.

    I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

  • Anonymous

    And you have missed my point. How do you expect to wrest power away from the elites?

    Our political system provides the mechanism for PEOPLE to seize control. The Baggers are attempting to utilize the system however misguided their priorities. It’s time for the progressives in this country to wake up and realize that in the Citizen United ERA our only chance it to link together on a person to person basis and counter the FALSE message flooding the media paid for by the corporations and directed by the plutocrats.

    The fastest and surest way to retake control is within an established party. The Baggers have chosen the GOP therefore liberals and progressives need to0 retake control of the Democratic Party!

  • Hologram5

    I get your point clearly and add this, those in power will not give up said power easily. How do you plan to root out the elitists? Voting another into office just votes in another elitist. All these tools are in bed together. I will use Murkowski’s election bid as an example, she was voted out of office, ran a write in bid and won. I know, it’s a poor example as Miller continuously shot himself in the foot running his idiot mouth off but you can see what I mean right? It’s not like you can meet and judge one of these empty suits before you can vote for them. If I could sit and talk with these clowns prior to voting for them, I most likely would end up punching them in the mouth as they don’t give a rat’s behind about their constituents. They don’t care what we have to say. Every politician in history has reneged on their campaign promises. Every one.

  • Hologram5

    I get your point clearly and add this, those in power will not give up said power easily. How do you plan to root out the elitists? Voting another into office just votes in another elitist. All these tools are in bed together. I will use Murkowski’s election bid as an example, she was voted out of office, ran a write in bid and won. I know, it’s a poor example as Miller continuously shot himself in the foot running his idiot mouth off but you can see what I mean right? It’s not like you can meet and judge one of these empty suits before you can vote for them. If I could sit and talk with these clowns prior to voting for them, I most likely would end up punching them in the mouth as they don’t give a rat’s behind about their constituents. They don’t care what we have to say. Every politician in history has reneged on their campaign promises. Every one.

  • Anonymous

    Fairly typical response. Make sure you don’t collect any representative data so you can say “all of the data we’ve looked at shows no adverse effects”.

  • Anonymous

    Yep the heat opens up the pores and you just absorb it up like a sponge.

  • justadood

    So, PA….how that conservative, Republican-controlled, pro-business Administration working out for you so far? Hope you won’t be feeling to ill to vote, come next election, ‘coz your opposition is drinking bottled water..

  • justadood

    So, PA….how that conservative, Republican-controlled, pro-business Administration working out for you so far? Hope you won’t be feeling to ill to vote, come next election, ‘coz your opposition is drinking bottled water..

  • Anonymous

    Yes of course you have to have good candidates but in the post CU era overcoming the power of corporate cash can only be achieved with good ole fashion shoe leather and eye contact. I have watched the “social conservative” take over my states GOP so I know it’s doable.

    Not every elected member of congress is a corporate shill and it is up to the all citizens who do not identify themselves as Corporatists to keep their voices from being extinguiished.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Peter-Bailey/1083393808 Peter Bailey

    It’s Socialism for Corporations, dog-eat-dog capitalism for the masses.
    We must remember people, that the only thing holy and good and untouchable in our new American future is Profit (Amen), and everything else including water, air, food, space comes after that.
    Think profit, worship profit, grow profit and forget all those silly chemical sores on your tongue.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7YZKSWQ65FPMXG3LIM6MTNIIK4 Jay Malecki

    Although I am not an advocate of drill, drill, drill, profit, profit, profit, at the expense of the environment, do not believe everything you see in Gasland. Read this: http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland?gclid=CIvOj-uDoqYCFUNl7AodNCm4nw

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7YZKSWQ65FPMXG3LIM6MTNIIK4 Jay Malecki

    Although I am not an advocate of drill, drill, drill, profit, profit, profit, at the expense of the environment, do not believe everything you see in Gasland. Read this: http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland?gclid=CIvOj-uDoqYCFUNl7AodNCm4nw

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7YZKSWQ65FPMXG3LIM6MTNIIK4 Jay Malecki

    Although I am not an advocate of drill, drill, drill, profit, profit, profit, at the expense of the environment, do not believe everything you see in Gasland. Read this: http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland?gclid=CIvOj-uDoqYCFUNl7AodNCm4nw

  • Wyrdless

    Wow really? I’ll have to check that out!

  • http://hetuurvandewaarheid.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/natural-gas-industry-freely-pollutes-pennsylvanias-drinking-water/ Natural gas industry freely pollutes Pennsylvania’s drinking water | Hetuurvandewaarheid's Blog
  • http://www.getthefrackout.com/2011/01/gas-drillers-in-pa-are-getting-away-with-dumping-chemicals-into-drinking-water-supplies/ Gas Drillers in PA Are Getting Away With Dumping Chemicals into Drinking Water Supplies | Get The Frack Out

    [...] the controversial gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), then this news from the AP is really going to be [...]