Grassroots Rising:
Citizens Gather on Easter Weekend to Hear 6 Speakers on Gas Drilling
Property Owner Ron Gulla Returns to Clearville
Joined by 2 from Pitt, 1 from Duquesne,
Plus Archaeologist, & Lab Manager from
State-Accredited Water Testing Company
Property owner and lease holder Ron Gulla speaks to audience in Clearville, PA.
Chuck Christen of the University of Pittsburgh takes a question at the Clearville community meeting on natural gas issues.
The glacier moves slowly, but takes everything in its path. That may have been the warning Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell gave gas industry executives at a Dallas, Texas, energy conference.
Rendell described himself as the “protector” of the natural gas industry; but said that “the tide of public opinion is turning” against the gas industry.1 [See "Links & Resources" below.]
Examples of the growing grass/net roots resistance to the gas industry - and regulatory agencies - can be found across the country. Just look at the websites and organizations that have emerged to challenge the status quo on shale gas drilling, gas pipelines and underground gas storage reservoirs.
Another example occurred in the town of Clearville, Pennsylvania, in Bedford County on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. More than 40 property owners came to a community meeting on natural gas drilling held at the Pleasant Union Church Building.
In this pristine country setting, they listened to, and questioned, six speakers, who traveled more than 100 miles to participate in the informational meeting.
Pennsylvania State Representative Dick Hess (78th District) was also in attendance and listened and spoke individually with audience members and speakers.2 [See "Links & Resources" below.]
Spectra Energy Taking Notes at Meeting
At least one gas company representative attended; but Kevin McCreary, a landman for Spectra Energy, did not speak or ask questions. Instead he took notes. And presumably sent a message back to Houston HQ. McCreary and a colleague sat at a round table by themselves. No other audience members sat with them.
The six speakers were:
Ron Gulla - a property owner from Hickory in Washington County, PA (outside of Pittsburgh), who speaks knowledgeably and passionately about his personal experience with Range Resources and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Conrad Dan Volz - Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Volz is also Director for the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities there. For additional background, see link: http://www.pitt.edu/~cdv5/Biography.htm
Chuck Christen - Director of Operations for the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) at the University of Pittsburgh. Website link: http://www.chec.pitt.edu/
John Stolz - Professor of Environmental Microbiology and Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University. For additional background, see link: http://www.duq.edu/science/faculty/stolz.cfm
Ken Gayman - Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Vice President of the Mon/Yough Chapter #3. The Society is attached to California University of Pennsylvania (California, PA). He has addressed forums on the protection of archaeological sites and ground water from gas drilling. He is a former combat Marine who will not permit gas companies to drill on his property.
Diane Kisner - Laboratory Manager with Mountain Research, a state-accredited environmental engineering and laboratory services company serving customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio. Toll-free phone: 800-837-4674. Website: http://www.mountainresearch.com/
Ron Gulla Returns to Clearville
After opening comments by Sandra McDaniel, a Clearville property owner and correspondent for the Clearville Concerned Citizens, Ron Gulla spoke.
Gulla’s experience with the gas industry and the Department of Environmental Protection has been widely reported, including a post on this blog: http://www.spectraenergywatch.com/blog/?p=522
He owns a 141-acre farm in Hickory, PA, where Range Resources drilled the second Marcellus Shale well in Pennsylvania. The year was 2005.
Today, he is in litigation with Range Resources; and he tells audiences, “After what they did to my land, I would never, ever, ever lease. And when I found out about the chemicals - why would I ever let anyone come onto my property and dump chemicals!”
He challenges the gas industry: If all of this gas drilling is so benign - why did the industry get an exemption from the 2005 Federal Safe Drinking Water Act to exclude hydraulic fracturing and the chemicals used from public disclosure?
Citizens = Lab Rats
“The gas industry used us as lab rats,” he said.
“Everywhere you go across this country, where drilling is taking place, people are complaining about water, about pollution, and about health problems,” he said.
“What the industry has done has jeopardized everyone’s safety and their health; and it has got to stop. The sad part of it is - you can’t clean up what the gas industry has already wrecked. And they know it.”
Gulla catalogued example after example. “In Hickory, PA, we’ve got these compressors everywhere. Property owners are livid. They can’t live around them. They stink. They emit carcinogens, neurotoxins.”
He told of farmers he had visited who lost their clean water and then their livestock, after gas drilling operations began. “One farmer told me he lost a water well, a spring and then his pond was polluted.”
“He had 18 cows that had bred,” Gulla continued. “Ten of those cows had stillborn calves. Four of those calves had blue eyes when they were born; one had a cleft palette; five were born with no irises or pupils - just white eyes.”
Another farmer he visited has lost 75 head of registered Angus cattle, at last count.
Gulla leaned toward his audience. “You don’t lose cattle like that! I farmed! You don’t lose cattle like that. You folks know.”
And the industry denies everything, Gulla said.
Governor Rendell - Ally of Gas Industry
“Our governor [Rendell] isn’t going to help us because he is an ally for the oil and gas industry; and that’s why our Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) hasn’t done anything.”
That’s why the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is starting to get involved, because the DEP isn’t doing its job, Gulla added. He gave the phone number for the EPA’s “Eyes on Drilling” Tipline: 877-919-4372.3
“You can’t drink gas,” Gulla told the audience. “Without water, we’re cooked. And don’t be surprised if the industry starts selling us water.”
The Hickory property owner recommended his audience take three steps:
1) Get your water tested.
2) Keep a camera with you at all times to take pictures of things that do not look right on your property.
3) Call the toll free EPA tipline with any information you gather or observe.
Don’t Let Gas Industry Divide & Conquer
He encouraged the audience to communicate with each other, with friends, neighbors and family in the face of an industry that denies everything and a regulatory agency that doesn’t function as a protector of the environment.
“Please keep the lines of communication open between each other. You’ve got to communicate because the industry divides and conquers,” he said.
“Don’t let them do that to you. If you have problems - health issues, lost animals, whatever it is - talk to each other. And report anything like that to the EPA Tipline number. They are getting bombarded with phone calls.”
Note: Next week’s blog post will cover the comments of Professor Dan Volz and Chuck Christen of the University of Pittsburgh. Learn about the gaps in the typical cost-benefit analyses the industry and others use to “sell” the benefits of shale gas drilling. Learn about developing partnerships and research involving Pitt, Duquesne University, citizens and others.
Links & Resources
1 Rendell warns natural-gas industry that resistance to tax will backfire, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 30, 2010. Pdf file: rendell-warns-natural-gas-industry-that-resistance-to-tax-will-backfire This news article is priceless and worth reading. Rendell says much more than he realizes. One excerpt: “So the [gas] industry is making mistake after mistake right now, and the tide of public opinion is turning, and even though it is truly the golden goose, we could blow it.” There is also an audio track of the roundtable in which Rendell participated. This event was at the George Bush Institute: http://georgewbushinstitute.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ngn_05_roundtable.mp3
In this revealing audio track, Rendell speaks second and describes himself as a “protector” of the gas industry; and says DEP has done a “great job” in working with the industry. He says Pennsylvania has “shale” under 52 of its 67 counties. [Note: Get ready for a lot more drilling.] If you want to hear “behind-the-curtain” insight into the politics of the gas industry, listen to Rendell speak to these energy industry execs. There is no media filter here to blow the governor’s comments “out of proportion,” as he says.
2 Pennsylvania State Representative Dick Hess’ Website: http://www.dickhess.com/
3 EPA’s Natural Gas Drilling Toll Free Tip Line: 877-919-4372 - Announced in January 2010. In its press release, the EPA said: “Public concern about the environmental impacts of oil and natural gas drilling has increased in recent months, particularly regarding development of the Marcellus Shale formation where a significant amount of activity is occurring. … EPA wants to get a better understanding of what people are experiencing and observing as a result of these drilling activities. The information collected may also be useful in investigating industry practices.”
The announcement also provided the toll-free number of the National Response Center, to be used “in the event of an emergency, such as a spill or release of hazardous material, including oil, to the environment:1-800-424-8802. Tip Line Instructions: http://www.epa.gov/region03/marcellus_shale/tipline.html
Tip Line Press Release: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/E4BFD48B693BCF90852576B800512FF2