Posts from category "What's New"

An additional 32 days extension will be granted to allow for sufficient time for the public to comment on the proposed permit. 

EPA will extend the public comment period for Roulette Oil & Gas UIC well (PAS2D050BPOT) for an additional 32-days until April 5, 2021. This information will be updated on the website and information will be available online till this date for review.

Clara Township is about as rural a community can be in Pennsylvania, with a population of 186 residents living in a cellular dead zone.

The drive to buy the local weekly newspaper involves traveling on  roads covered with ice & snow much of the winter.  

So after an oil & gas (O&G) well operator proposed converting an old well into an underground injection well to dispose of wastewater, news of the proposal began spreading at a snail’s pace.

The full time population of the area is low. But because of Clara’s proximity to high quality streams and thousands of publically accessible forested acres visited by hunters and anglers, the area has many camps & cabins occupied by part-time, seasonal residents.

Following routines that span generations for some, part time residents will begin returning to their rural cabins in the spring where some will learn for the first time about plans to situate storage tanks on the mountain above their favorite fly fishing hole or cabin.

They’ll learn tanker trucks hauling waste too dirty for reuse or recycling will be discharging the waste into huge holding tanks where it will be staged, before injection into a depleted gas well.

A similar scenario played out Bear Lake Borough, Warren County, PA in 2012 with a population of 193.

Seeking permits for injection wells in rural areas where there are relatively few residents, almost guarantees opposition to be small. Low population has made bucolic communities like Bear Lake and Clara sitting targets for operators looking for an easy path to wastewater storage tank and injection well permits.

And this is why the people in Clara need our support.  Please take a few minutes of your time to send a comment to Kevin Rowsey, Source Water & UIC Section, U.S. EPA Region 3

Email: rowsey.kevin@epa.gov Subject line: PAS2D050BPOT

Comments will be accepted up until March 4^th, 2021. For more info go to: http://savetheallegheny.org

WATCH INVISABLE HAND ONLINE: https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/    

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https://extension.psu.edu/case-study-on-methane-migration-and-changes-in-aquifer-properties-1?iwd_preview12345=1

http://blessthewater.com

FERC invites you to attend one of the public scoping sessions its staff will conduct in the projects’ area, scheduled as follows: Meeting is tonight at the Port Allegany High School for the FM100 Pipeline Project Wednesday, March 20, 2019 from 5:00-7:00 PM.

Northern Access Project: Exporting PA’s Marcellus Gas Northward

Karen Feridun

Tuesday January 29, 2019 · 11:32 PM EST

Children dressed as The Lorax took to the halls of the PA Capitol Building to deliver petitions demanding their environmental rights be upheld by Governor Tom Wolf and all PA legislators. Nine-year old Nora Schindler has a message for Pennsylvania’s legislators. “I  want the lawmakers to do a better job to keep us and the animals safe,” said Nora, as she and more than 20 other children dressed as The Lorax rallied in the Capitol rotunda in Harrisburg yesterday. How does a politician say no to that? All too easily in Pennsylvania, it turns out, where Nora is already a seasoned activist who fought the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline as a member of Lancaster Against Pipelines. The pipeline got built with Harrisburg’s blessing despite massive public opposition. It’s a story that has been repeated so frequently that the Better Path Coalition decided it was time to remind state elected officials that preserving a healthy environment isn’t just something they should be doing to be responsive to constituents’ needs; it’s a constitutional obligation. Read More

What's So “Experimental”

About Epiphany's Tech Anyways?

Opinion Letter

By Georgeanna DeCarlo

In a presentation at a CAMA meeting last year, Thomas Joseph said his facility would use an experimental technology that he created to treat fracking wastewater. Until his DEP permit application was made available to the public, skeptics had little but Joseph's carefully chosen wordage to investigate his claim. And Epiphany's original DEP permit application probably got a cheer from Joseph's proponents because it probably looked a lot like they expected it to look.

But after Epiphany's permit was made available to the public and reviewed by scientists, doctors, engineers not affiliated with Epiphany or the gas and oil industry who tore the thing apart noting deficiencies, discrepancies and stating their objections during public commenting period – the bedraggled permit is causing the facility to look less like a magic machine and more like a – uh oh! - regular zero discharge fracking wastewater treatment facility. Maybe Rumple can't spin frack fluid and produce chemical free, non-toxic, non-radioactive water out of it after all.

So, did DEP hand Epiphany's permit back? Nope. They continued doing what they'd been doing for months- notifying Epiphany about what they needed to change to make their permit compliant. Epiphany's permit is still awaiting DEP approval.

Which brings up one of many great points that Allegheny Defense Project made in its 45-page comment regarding CAMA's Waterways and Wetlands Encroachment permit affiliated with Epiphany's to create the frack WWTF. “This cozy relationship that DEP has with the regulated community can be seen playing out in this case. For example, on December 20, 2017, David Shimmel, Chief of the New Source Review Section for the North Central Regional Office, sent an email to various DEP officials regarding a phone conference with Epiphany.46 According to Mr. Shimmel’s email, Epiphany “provided some very important clarifications on their project at [CAMA].”47 Those clarifications were as follows: • [Epiphany] will be processing ONLY produced fluids from producing wells. • [Epiphany] will NOT be processing frac fluid or flowback water. • [Epiphany] will be receiving produced fluids from one customer only: JKLM Energy • Reportedly, JKLM Energy does NOT use methanol for deicing or as a hydrate inhibitor. • [Epiphany] will use electric motor driven vapor recompression units, not natural gas-fired engines. • [Epiphany] will only need a 500 bbl/day throughput limit, not 1,000 bbl/day.48 Mr. Shimmel then explained that “[t]hese clarifications change our approach and it sets the table for exemption to be possible.”49 In other words, DEP was working with the applicant (i.e., its “client”) to find a way to exempt the project from certain permitting requirements. One day later, however, Mr. Shimmel sent a follow-up email stating that “JKLM could not guarantee there would be no frac fluid and flowback in the wastewater that Epiphany will receive” and that, as a result, “Epiphany recanted on the first four bullet items” identified above. This is a significant clarification. Nevertheless, Mr. Shimmel reiterated that DEP was still working with Epiphany to navigate the application process on “[t]he road to exemption[.]”50 It is not the role of a trustee to bend over backwards to find ways to exempt industrial activities from environmental regulation-” pg. 11 ADF comment to DEP https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xUxl1lAyj0-p9BWGjOkRlzg2llMwcNRz

In what resembled more of an Epiphany press release than news story, “Epiphany touts science of fracking plant to stakeholders,” By Bob Clark, Special to The (Salamanca) Press, Mar 27, 2018 Epiphany gives an update regarding their permit. “'We’ve been told we’ll have permitting in early May,” Broeker told the guests, adding the project should be receiving the necessary approvals from the state Department of Environmental Protection.'”

Really? Where's the follow up from Clark, the fact check with DEP? Again, very concise verbiage from Broeker here. These are guys that you have to listen to carefully, read the fine print, figure out what's between the lines and what isn't there at all. Not the kind of people I like doing business with but hey, I didn't pick them, CAMA did.

In Environmental Health News, “New York Tribe Takes On Pittsburgh Startup To Defend The Allegheny River,” Tom Joseph blamed opponents for holding up his permit but last I knew, correspondence between Epiphany and DEP showed that Epiphany hadn't responded with their resolutions to deficiencies noted in a DEP notification to them dated February 14, 2018.

Just what exactly is so experimental about Joseph's self-acclaimed unique tech?

“The facility, first proposed by JKLM and Epiphany in 2016, would deploy an experimental technology developed by Epiphany to treat wastewater from nearby fracking wells, discharging the treated water into the municipal sewage treatment plant which in turn discharges its effluent into the Allegheny River. -”https://news.littlesis.org/2018/04/04/pegula-backed-fracking-waste-firm-uses-racist-language-to-attack-opponents/

One of the explanations Joseph gave to stymie refunds and ward off threats of pursuing legal action against him years after his 3-month onEpuck kickstarter campaign ended was a plea for patience from his backers while he got his tech patented.

And, according to his website, tech for his on-site fracking well pad equipment is still waiting patent approval. “Epiphany's E5H is a well-pad based Produced Water treatment solution that is designed to meet the needs of the Oil & Gas industry, particularly hydro-fractured shale wells....Epiphany’s patent pending technology enables Oil & Gas operators to:” http://www.epiphanyws.com/produced-water/

Is Joseph's tech “new” because of its portable units and hybrid energy source? Although solar power is a clever strategy that I support and would love to see more widely implemented, maybe Epiphany encountered the same dilemma I faced when investigating solar power for my home: our area receives an annual daily average of about four hours of sunlight so in order to produce enough power consistently to run a household requires hefty additional support of very expensive charge holding units.

But wouldn't that have been one of the first factors that Epiphany considered before creating a partnership with CAMA? And were critical components of what Epiphany called its “new tech” lost after being revamped from being “portable” technology to a permanent base as a facility?

Joseph's remark in a recent interview paints a different picture than the concept of “new tech” that he presented at CAMA's meeting last year.

“What's different about Epiphany's proposal is the size of their water treatment technology, which is significantly smaller than Eureka's.

"'Henry Ford didn't invent automobiles; he just figured out how to mass produce them," Joseph said. "We've done that with distillation technology. We didn't invent it, but what we're proud of is that we miniaturized it so we can mass produce it at about 10 percent of cost anyone else can do it at.'" http://www.ehn.org/new-york-tribe-takes-on-pittsburgh-startup-to-defend-the-allegheny-river-2554105551.html

So if Epiphany's “new tech” all along has been nothing more than miniaturization of standard “zero discharge” desalination equipment already in use, then objections that Public Herald Investigative Reporter Joshua Pribanic raised at DEP's hearing in January against local long time water protectors for testifying in support of Epiphany, were well founded after all.

DEP just cited the Eureka facility in Williamsport on January 24 for “violation of effluent limits.”

JKLM announced that it's withdrawing from this project. Pribanic said that he was told by an Epiphany rep on Friday to expect an announcement Monday. CAMA slated a Special Meeting for Monday at 6:30.

I am grateful for all the people and officials who've stepped in and demanded a cautionary approach. I hope that plans for this facility end similar to the quest to learn the number of licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop. That is, of course, before Purdue University created a “licking machine” and figured it out.

UPDATE: Saw an eagle - a very big eagle - sitting in a tree near my driveway yesterday when I got home from a Save The Allegheny meeting with Degawenodas Ni Ah Agatayonih, his beautiful wife Huitzilin/jitöwëdöh (and even their cute little dog! :) ) yesterday. Nature talks!Georgeanna DeCarloFebruary 26 at 8:31amNow we can add Toles Hollow Road in Coudersport, to the list of locations cited in “Where Are Your Best Chances To See Bald Eagles in Pennsylvania?” - PennLines.com.Last year people saw for the first time, a bald eagle fishing and perched in trees alongside the Allegheny, or as the Senecas call it, Ohi:yo River, where Epiphany Environmental wants to build a frack wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) with support from Coudersport Area Municipal Authority (CAMA). Appearance of an eagle at this site speaks volumes. We've much to be grateful for as residents of this area. Timing is everything. And we just got a big wake up call.For a bald eagle to show up at this exact spot is incredible. That one even exists anymore is extraordinary in itself. Brought back from the edge of extinction, the bald eagle is only around due to the efforts of people who decided his presence was worth fighting for. “You don't know what you got 'til it's gone,” is a popular saying. But I think that having being said so often, it's created a change in the dynamics of our society. We're getting better at reading signs. Things don't have to be gone anymore for us to realize their value. I heard about the eagle being here from a new friend at a meeting to oppose the frack WWTF. She said that she'd seen an eagle there many times and had pictures of him. For me, these are elements of the silver lining in an otherwise dismal forecast. We'd become strangers to our neighbors, taken our land, water, air, plants, animals for granted. Infrastructure and landscape of our little town was ever changing to appease corporate interests of a select few. We have been awoken to measure the importance of reclaiming our roles as stewards of this area. We are better acquainting ourselves with our neighbors and uniting with people we might not have met otherwise. Intervening with a corporation's plan that endangered public and environmental safety brought what was hidden to light. Now our community has the opportunity to choose its direction. We can push for the plan to bring our town into alignment with ideals supported by our neighbors and consider new opportunities for alternative safe, sustainable energy sources. But it takes dispelling misinformation proponents of this facility are projecting. These calls to action signify eagle's presence/presents, eagle's “medicine” as elders of indigenous societies refer to it.I went to that spot recently to see if I could see an eagle there myself. I didn't see one then but he showed up in an even more thrilling way, about 60 miles north and downriver. As I neared the meeting place in Salamanca, NY where I was headed to talk with friends, members of the Seneca Nation, I crossed the Ohi:yo. From my right the ginormous wing span of a bird overhead caught my attention. I saw the white on its back as he passed right in front of my car. A shiver of goosebumps went through me. A bald eagle. The actual point of contact became insignificant which was part of his message. It didn't matter where I saw him on the river, it was all connected. Just like all of us. Lakota people have a saying that recognizes unity of all – people, animals, plants, universal rhythm of the elements, “Mitakuye Oyasin,” we are all relatives - we are all related, which is reminiscent of The Golden Rule; do unto others what you would have done unto yourself. However, I think that living in a society where self-loathing is prevalent, the ideal to do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves creates a precarious situation and speaks to the heart of the matter here. Abusing others, abusing our environment becomes a justifiable cause, an end to a means for a person who hasn't healed past traumas, believes that money can buy happiness. Too much has already fallen waste at the heels of this destructive mindset and it's time to bring our society back into balance. As fracking and pipeline proponents consider what an acceptable threshold for loss of life is, I say that the loss of one life is one life too many. Perhaps that's why so many brilliant people precluded the suggestion to be thoughtful first of impact of our actions on others by suggesting that before we even do that, we must remember who we were and what was important to us as children. Before heartaches and belief systems, societal constructs and paychecks skewed our view.Mitakuye Oyasin. Namaste.