View Full Version : loyalsock trail
does anyone know if the water there has been, or will be compromised due to the natural gas pipeline explosion?
Are you referring to a specific incident, or to the increased activity drilling for gas in the general area?
sorry, i guess not an explosion...
this:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/natural-gas-map.html?ref=us
So far there don't appear to be reports of frackwater uncontrolled releases from well pads other than in a cow pasture in Tioga County (not one of the ones the MST goes through) and in an area near part of the Quehanna Trail. Those monitoring reports were of frack water that was hauled off the well pads in trucks for reprocessing/reuse or disposal.
Even in the frackwater, the radiation is relatively dilute (deriving from some naturally occurring radioactive material in the shale itself, no longer entombed a mile down). A spill at a well pad even to a headwaters stream would be diluted further.
So even if someone spills enough frackwater in a stream you're drinking from to make it taste salty, you're not likely absorbing a deadly radiation dose too.
Concern and watchfulness remains in order, more so than alarm. (And, no, I'm not paid by the gas industry, though recently I was paid to try to fight them by a public water supply.)
Second Half
03-15-2011, 12:23
This is a huge issue. Supporters of the gas industry keep saying things like "as long as it is done in an environmentally friendly manner"
Opponents of the gas industry point out that, by it's very nature, injecting chemicals into the ground is environmentally unfriendly. These chemicals (which are largely unknown as they are proprietary trade secrets of the drilling companies) absolutely will end up in the ground water. It's impossible for them not to.
Some land owners will reap large profits from their leases to the drillers. Everyone else in the area will have to live with the pollution.
I too am interested in this, and specifically data on water sources that have been tested and deemed safe or unsafe. Looking for hard facts instead of opinions.
I too am interested in this, and specifically data on water sources that have been tested and deemed safe or unsafe. Looking for hard facts instead of opinions.
Based on a conference I attended last week, you are presently unlikely to find this information on the backpacking-water-source scale anytime soon. Here is some monitoring of larger streams: from Susquehanna River Basin Commission (http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/main.php?firstlogin=1&tab) and the ALLARM at Dickinson College (http://www.dickinson.edu/about/sustainability/allarm/) is developing a protocol for citizen monitors with at best weekly snapshots. But if there is a watershed group that might be doing this for the Loyalsock, they're not listed on the POWR website. Real-time monitoring appears to be confined to some of the larger rivers, see http://www.3rain.org/ in western PA for an example.
Based on a conference I attended last week, you are presently unlikely to find this information on the backpacking-water-source scale anytime soon. Here is some monitoring of larger streams: from Susquehanna River Basin Commission (http://v4.wqdata.com/webdblink/main.php?firstlogin=1&tab) and the ALLARM at Dickinson College (http://www.dickinson.edu/about/sustainability/allarm/) is developing a protocol for citizen monitors with at best weekly snapshots. But if there is a watershed group that might be doing this for the Loyalsock, they're not listed on the POWR website. Real-time monitoring appears to be confined to some of the larger rivers, see http://www.3rain.org/ in western PA for an example.
Thanks! I have an email in to the alpine club up there. Sullivan county seems to be ok though. I should've known that hummelstown would be on top of it :D
Second Half
03-15-2011, 21:14
I too am interested in this, and specifically data on water sources that have been tested and deemed safe or unsafe. Looking for hard facts instead of opinions.
You're not going to find much. Pennsylvania is the "Wild West" of gas drilling. The industry has pushed way ahead of any oversight, monitoring or accountability. It will probably not get any better with the new administration in Harrisburg. As an example the Governor's chief oil and gas geologist recently compared the documentary "Gasland" to Nazi propaganda.