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Emailing G80-A_comments_GASP_et_al.pdf
by Duane 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

For your information, the attached document was submitted to the West Virginia DEP today on behalf of the MVCAC and seven other organizations. Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535. www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Fwd: Time to honor shalefield voices, not oil and gas industries!
by Duane Nichols 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

> From: Clean Air Council <skl(a)cleanair.org> > Date: March 30, 2015 at 11:09:11 AM EDT > > Subject: Time to honor shalefield voices, not oil and gas industries! > Reply-To: skl(a)cleanair.org > > > March 30th, 2015 > Dear MonValley Clean Air Coalition, > > Have you seen the news from last week? The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association stated that shalefield residents and public interest groups should "have no place" on oil and gas oversight bodies. > > > Take action now to tell PA Governor Tom Wolf and DEP Secretary John Quigley that shalefield residents and public interest groups should be front and center in overseeing oil and gas operations! > Interested in doing more to make some noise around this issue? Jump on facebook and twitter and use the hashtag #peskypublic to tweet @GovernorTomWolf and @JohnHQuigley. > > Here is a sample tweet for you to use: > > Hey @GovernorTomWolf and @JohnHQuigley! Thanks for adding important public voices to O&G oversight. Stand up to @PIOGA4PA! #peskypublic > > Thanks for taking action on this important issue. Residents in the shalefields deserve to be heard on how fracking is impacting their lives every day! > Sincerely, > > Sam Koplinka-Loehr > > Shale Gas Organizer, Clean Air Council > > skl(a)cleanair.org > > 215.567.4004 x115 > PHILADELPHIA > > 135 S. 19th Street > Suite 300 > Philadelphia, PA 19103 > P: (215) 567-4004 > F: (215) 567-5791 > HARRISBURG > > 107 N. Front Street > Suite 113 > Harrisburg, PA 17101 > P: (717) 230-8806 > F: (717) 230-8808 > WILMINGTON > > 100 W. 10th Street > Suite 607 > Wilmington, DE 19801 > P: (302) 691-0112 >

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Not So Healthy Counties in Pennsylvania
by Duane 29 Mar '15

29 Mar '15

Fayette, Greene least healthy counties in Pennsylvania By Tom Fontaine Saturday, March 28, 2015 Greene and Fayette counties have Pennsylvania's worst health habits, a new report shows. “I'm not surprised. I see the same bad numbers year after year after year,” said Karen Bennett, administrator of Greene County Human Services. “We try to do our best without having an organized health department.” The report from the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranks the health of every American county based on more than 30 factors, including length and quality of life, health behaviors, clinical care, socioeconomics and physical environment. Greene County's health behavior ranks last among Pennsylvania's 67 counties, while Fayette County's is second-to-last. The Western Pennsylvania county with the best health behavior is Butler, which ranked seventh, followed by Washington (11th), Westmoreland (12th), Allegheny (18th), Beaver (30th) and Armstrong (45th). Among behaviors, 35 percent of Greene County's adults smoke (above the state average of 20 percent), 32 percent are obese (above the 29 percent state average), 31 percent are physically inactive (above the 24 percent state average) and 20 percent drink alcohol excessively (above the 17 percent state average). “I think it's all tied to poverty,” Bennett said. Twenty-three percent of Greene County's children live in poverty, and 30 percent of Fayette County's do, the report says. By comparison, 10 percent of Butler County's children live in poverty. The state average is 19 percent. The report says child poverty rates are more than twice as high in the country's unhealthiest counties as the average. “The poorer the county and the lower the education rates, the worse the health,” said Steven M. Albert, professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Science at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Albert said because many Pennsylvania counties lack their own health departments it's harder to address the broad range of public health concerns. Restoring at least some of the departments could help, he said. Albert said he thinks hospitals are going to assume bigger roles in promoting healthy living in their communities. Changes made three years ago in Internal Revenue Service regulations require hospitals to do more public health work in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. “Health is not just what happens inside their four walls,” Albert said. Butler County also had the region's highest ranking in a category called health outcomes, coming in ninth for residents' length and quality of life. It was followed by Westmoreland (25th), Washington (33rd), Allegheny (34th), Armstrong (36th), Beaver (43rd), Greene (63rd) and Fayette (64th). Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine(a)tribweb.com. Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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"Climate Change" is not a "hoax"
by Duane330＠aol.com 21 Jan '15

21 Jan '15

OMG. Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma co-sponsored an amendment to the Keystone XL bill today, the Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) amendment, which declares that "climate change" is not a hoax. The vote was 98 in favor and 1 against. And, this in face of the fact that Inhofe wrote a book two years ago that "climate change" is a hoax. This is a "Sense of the Senate" amendment, that has no action content; it just gets the Senators on record regarding "the truth of the matter." Surprises are rare in this Senate; and, progress is more rare! The news media will be full of this tomorrow. DN

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LNG Fire at Longview Power Plant Results in Evacuation & Confusion
by Duane330＠aol.com 07 Jan '15

07 Jan '15

Emergency evacuation for area near coal-fired power plant in Maidsville (Monongalia County) facility >From an Article by Alex Lang, Morgantown Dominion Post, January 6, 2015 Several people had to be evacuated from their homes as crews tended to a natural gas fire at Longview Power Plant on Monday (January 5th). Shortly after 2 p.m., emergency crews were called to a reported fire at the power plant, located off Fort Martin Road in Maidsville. According to Longview Power LLC, the fire occurred at a recently installed, temporary liquefied natural gas storage system. The fire occurred during testing of the system and was located several hundred yards from the power plant. The system is used during plant startups, when pipeline gas in unavailable, Longview said.No injuries, environmental or property damage occurred, according to Longview. As a result of the fire, responders shut down Fort Martin Road from the intersection with WV Route 100 to the state line, as they tended to the scene. Residents who lived within a mile of the plant were evacuated and told they could go to the Granville Fire Hall. Mon County Office of Emergency Management Director Mike Wolfe said less than a dozen people were evacuated. The agency sent a phone alert that mostly went unanswered or to answering machines in the one-mile radius, which led them to believe that many people were not home at the time of the fire. Ralph Hicks lives along Fort Martin Road and was forced to leave his home near the Fort Martin Business Park. He said that he received a call and was told to evacuate because of an emergency at the power plant. Hicks said he wasn’t bothered by the evacuation because the smoke from the plant goes toward the state line and not toward his home. The fire was extinguished at 3:25 p.m. and by about 4 p.m., emergency responders cleared the scene, reopened the roadway and ended the evacuation. Another alert went out at 5:55 p.m. Wolfe said that was because of a problem with the system. The alerts end with the name Jimmy Giana. That is an abbreviated version of the name of the State Director of Emergency Management, James Gianato. The alerts only allow for a set number of characters to appear (on cell phones). The Granville, Star City and Westover volunteer fire departments responded to the fire. Mon EMS, the West Virginia State Police and the Monongalia County Sheriff Department also assisted. >>>>>>>>>>>> Emergency alert glitch corrected, being called a learning lesson >From an _Article of WAJR_ (http://wajr.com/common/more.php?m=15&r=1&item_id=33441) 1440 AM, _www.wajr.com_ (http://www.wajr.com/) , January 7, 2015 When a methane tank caught fire at Longview Power Plant in Maidsville, emergency management workers had two priorities - get the fire out and warn the region of a potential emergency. The fire was contained and fortunately did not spread within the plant. Firefighters going door to door to advise residents of the issue and calls to landlines with the same message were successfully delivered. But, a text message sent through the Emergency Alert System has come under criticism. "I certainly wasn't prepared, wasn't educated and didn't know what in the world was going on," said a caller to WAJR's Morgantown AM. Cell phone users received a message advising them to "evacuate now". The message was incomplete, lacking a specific location and details on what sparked the evacuation order. The same, vague message was received multiple times by some residents, hours after the fire was extinguished and there was no longer a risk of danger. A federal provision requires the Emergency Alert System to utilize text alerts to warn residents of a crisis or dangerous situation. That's in addition to the alerts many are accustomed to seeing on television and hearing on the radio. According to Mike Wolfe, the director of the Monongalia County Office of Emergency Management and Mecca 911, this particular text alert system had never before been used in the state. "Because of FCC rules, they're not allowed to test that program like they do the regular tests on the radio or on the television. So, that was one of the first few times that it was ever tested or ever used here in West Virginia. And, obviously it did not work," explained Wolfe. Wolfe said the Mecca 911 office was immediately aware of the inaccurate, repeated text messages but was at the mercy of the state agencies that issued the messages. "I was on the phone with the state homeland security director and receiving some emails from FEMA, that they were able to figure out what it was that went wrong and that's the positive," said Wolfe. The emergency at the Monongalia County power plant occurred at approximately 2:30 pm. Seven hours later, some were still receiving the texts. "That night, when I got ready to go to bed, I thought, am I going to have this signal all night long," said the WAJR listener. The issue, said Wolfe, has been addressed and the result is to use it as a learning lesson. "Luckily this wasn't an incident that caused any death or injuries and we were able to find that glitch and hopefully that saved someone else." >>>>>>>>>>>>> An investigation is called for regarding this LNG fire By Duane Nichols, _www.FrackCheckWV.net_ (http://www.frackcheckwv.net/) , January 7, 2015 There are a number of questions for which the public does not have a full and adequate explanation: 1. Why is there LNG being stored at the Longview power plant, a very dangerous material as it can leak, catch fire, and/or explode! (Longview has a pipeline connection for conventional natural gas supply.) 2. Why was there an evacuation call for the general public but not the Longview plant personnel who continued to operate the power plant through-out the fire event? 3. What is the radius of danger for this event? Was the evacuation announced to all residents within this radius? What was the information provided to those affected? 4. Why was an emergency announced to the entire Morgantown area, about 4 hours after the event’s occurrence? Suppose this was a real announcement, where were all of the residents of Morgantown expected to go? 5. How much liquefied natural gas (LNG) was lost to the environment, and became methane and incomplete combustion products to the atmosphere? See also: _www.FrackCheckWV.net_ (http://www.frackcheckwv.net/)

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Evacuation Order Lifted Following Longview Power Plant Fire - WBOY.com: Clarksburg, Morgantown:
by Duane 05 Jan '15

05 Jan '15

http://www.wboy.com/story/27763643/precautionary-evacuation-underway-near-l… Evacuation Order Lifted Following Longview Power Plant Fire Posted: Jan 05, 2015 2:39 PM EST Monday, January 5, 2015 2:39 PM EST. Updated: Jan 05, 2015 4:26 PM EST Monday, January 5, 2015 4:26 PM EST Monongalia County Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency has cancelled an evacuation order for a one mile radius area of Longview Power Plant on Fort Martin Road. Emergency responders were at the power plant Monday afternoon with an active methane gas fire within the power plant. Anyone in the one mile area of the power plant was urged to evacuate toward Route 100. The fire was extinguished and safety checks were completed to ensure safety of residents in the area, said MECCA 911. There were no reported injuries and all employees were safely evacuated, according to MECCA 911 director Mike Wolfe. Numerous cell phone users in the area received an evacuation alert shortly after the fire . The Emergency Alert System, which is activated by the state, sent a message to phones within Monongalia County as a precaution, said MECCA 911. The message, which said "Emergency Alert in this area until 3:01 PM EST Evacuate Now Jimmy Gian" confused many cell phone users. MECCA 911 said the state has been contacted about the message.

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AIR POLLUTION: Court rejects EPA's deadline extension for ozone compliance -- 12/23/14
by Duane 25 Dec '14

25 Dec '14

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060011013 Court rejects EPA's deadline extension for ozone compliance Jeremy P. Jacobs, E&E reporter, Greenwire, December 23, 2014 A federal appeals court today threw out U.S. EPA's decision to extend a compliance deadline for its ozone air standard, as well as the agency's revoking a stringency requirement for transportation projects. In both instances, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that EPA's actions exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act. The case brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council concerned what amounted to a compliance extension built into EPA's 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standard for smog-causing ozone. EPA finalized implementation regulations for the 75-parts-per-billion standard May 21, 2012. In doing so, the agency started the clock for compliance for some areas at the end of that year. So an area deemed to be in "marginal" nonattainment -- which is granted three years for compliance -- would have until Dec. 31, 2015, rather than May 21, 2015, to meet the standard. Judge Srikanth Srinivasan, writing for the majority of the three-judge panel, said the law doesn't allow such an extension. "We conclude that both challenged aspects of EPA's regulations implementing the 2008 ozone standards exceed the agency's authority under the Clean Air Act," Srinivasan wrote. The law explicitly prescribes "against allowing the agency's lengthening of the periods for achieving compliance with revised air quality standards. ... [W]e conclude that the rule's deadlines cannot be squared with the statute." Srinivasan also sided with the environmental group's argument that the plain text of the Clean Air Act prohibits EPA from revoking a requirement that transportation projects comply with regional implementation plans for areas failing to meet attainment for the 1997 ozone NAAQS. NRDC had argued that such a move would allow unlimited ozone emissions for new transportation projects in those areas. "[W]ith regard to the revocation of transportation conformity requirements, the terms of the statute straightforwardly require maintaining those requirements for affected areas," Srinivasan wrote. The impact of the ruling will likely be limited because EPA is currently revising its ozone standard and has proposed lowering it to between 65 ppb and 70 ppb. Srinivasan was joined in the majority by Judge David Tatel. They are both Democratic appointees. Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a Republican appointee, dissented and said he would have deferred to EPA's reasoning. The court held arguments in the case more than a year ago, suggesting some difficulty in coming to a conclusion in the case (E&ENews PM, Nov. 22, 2013). Click here for the opinion. Submitted by: Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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EPA punts decision on methane regs | TheHill
by Duane 23 Dec '14

23 Dec '14

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/227489-epa-punts-decision-on-m… EPA punts decision on methane regs By Laura Barron-Lopez, The Hill, 12/17/14 The Environmental Protection Agency is punting a decision on whether to pursue regulations on methane emissions from industrial sources until after the holidays. An EPA official told The Hill on Wednesday that the agency is holding off on its decision until after the holidays despite consistent statements by Administrator Gina McCarthy that the EPA would make a call this fall. As the clock wound down, however, advocates and critics of possible regulations alike began to question if the EPA would move to target methane emissions. The move to hold off on regulations, or more voluntary actions to tackle methane from the oil and gas sector appears to push any decision back until January. In recent months Democratic lawmakers have pressed the EPA to take action, arguing regulations would help strengthen the president’s climate agenda. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is roughly 80 times more damaging than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. Submitted by: Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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WH: Agencies should factor for climate change in project reviews | TheHill
by Duane 23 Dec '14

23 Dec '14

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/227589-wh-advises-agencies-to-… WH: Agencies should factor for climate change in project reviews By Laura Barron-Lopez, The Hill, 12/18/14 The White House is floating new guidelines for federal agencies on how to weigh climate change impacts when reviewing energy and infrastructure projects. The proposed guidelines from the White House Council on Environmental Quality specifically address National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews by agencies, which require an analysis of the environmental impact by projects that need a federal greenlight. NEPA reviews are used when the federal agencies consider offshore drilling leases, construction projects, pipelines, mining and more. <A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&ServiceVersion=2007082…">Amazon.com Widgets</A> In a fact sheet, released by the White House on Thursday, the administration said the new blueprint urges agencies to consider how greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impact projects undergoing NEPA reviews. “Climate change is a fundamental environmental issue, and the relation of federal actions to it falls squarely within NEPA’s focus,” the draft blueprint states. When weighing a project, the administration says agencies should look at measures that will reduce the impact of extreme weather events on federal investments. If a project has the ability to emit 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide on an annual basis, its contributions to global warming must be considered in NEPA reviews. "Federal agencies, to remain consistent with NEPA, should consider the extent to which a proposed action and its reasonable alternatives contribute to climate change through [greenhouse gas] emissions and take into account the ways in which a changing climate over the life of the proposed project may alter the overall environmental implications of such actions," the plan states. The new guidelines expand on a 2010 proposal to include climate change considerations during certain federal reviews. The updated guidance is part of the administration’s effort to include climate change in agencies’ decision-making process. But the move will draw the ire of industry and Republicans, who argue the administration is regulating with a heavy hand. In a summary, the administration takes care to address such concerns, stressing that “NEPA ensures information on the potential environmental impacts of agency decisions and projects is transparently available to the public; however it does not dictate decisions or project choices.” The proposed guidelines are now open to a 60-day public comment period. Submitted by: Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Fwd: TRIAD HUNTER GAS LEAK: DAY TEN – Update on "Randy C. Huffman: NO DRILLING UNDER THE OHIO RIVER!"
by Duane Nichols 23 Dec '14

23 Dec '14

Date: December 23, 2014 RE: Regional Air Pollution > To: duane330(a)aol.com > Subject: TRIAD HUNTER GAS LEAK: DAY TEN – Update on "Randy C. Huffman: NO DRILLING UNDER THE OHIO RIVER!" > > > > Petition update > > > Robin Mahonen just posted an update on the petition you signed, Randy C. Huffman: NO DRILLING UNDER THE OHIO RIVER!. > > TRIAD HUNTER GAS LEAK: DAY TEN > > Dec 23, 2014 — This link contains a video to the TRIAD HUNTER gas leak, now in Day Ten, in Sardis, Monroe County, OH. Over thirty families have been evacuated. Triad Hunter is one of three... Read more > > > > > Read more > > > > > >

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