LEWISBURG — Ramifications of natural gas drilling into the mile deep Marcellus Shale — economic and environmental — are being studied by about 15 members of the League of Women Voters of the Lewisburg Area.

Leagues across the state were asked to do the same by their state office and complete reports by March. The state office will analyze the comments and look for a consensus, according to Lewisburg league member Ann Heath, facilitator for the local group.

At the group’s regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, members will hear Bucknell University geology major Molly Pritz present background on the issue. Her talk will be at noon in La Primavera Restaurant, Route 45. The public may attend.

Pritz works closely with Bucknell professor Carl Kirby. He said this week the new form of drilling used to access this deep source of gas creates environmental concerns that have not been adequately investigated.



Permitting, drilling go on

“The permitting and drilling goes on apace,” Kirby said, “while the regulators attempt to keep up with an overwhelming workload.”

Marcellus Shale lies under more than half of Pennsylvania, most of West Virginia and a portion of western New York state. It is densely compacted, which is why the gas has stayed there for 400 million years, Pritz said. The air, water, land and wildlife consequences from drilling could be far reaching.

According to geology.com, production of commercial quantities of gas from the shale requires large volumes of water to drill and hydraulically fracture the rock. A mix of undisclosed — because they’re proprietary — chemicals are needed in the hydrofracking process.

It is known that these chemicals are highly toxic, said Pritz, whose senior thesis is on the geochemistry of frack water. Altough the gas drilling companies won’t tell her what’s in the water when it goes in, she has been able to obtain samples of what comes out. The samples, however, are diluted by the earth’s natural subsurface water and earthly brine.



Truck manifests tell tale

By watching in-coming truck manifests elsewhere, Theo Colborn, an independent Colorado scientist, has identified 300 chemicals in the mix, according to Scientific American magazine.

Pritz is confident the frack water, once understood, can be treated to be made safe. The greater risk, she said, is from frack water that leaks, untreated, into aquifers, possibly from underground fissures, and frack water that is accidentally spilled from trucks hauling it.

Geology.com explains that hydrofracking is done by injecting water or gel under very high pressure into an isolated portion of a well bore. The high pressure factures the rock and pushed the fractures open. Millions of sand grains are then forced into the fractures to keep them open so the gas can flow into the well.

The site said hundreds of thousands of acres above the Marcellus Shale have been leased with the intent of drilling for natural gas this way, but most of the leased properties are not near natural gas pipelines and many more will be needed. Other property owners will be asked to sign right-of-way agreements.



League to look at all aspects

Heath said the League of Women Voters study group will look at all aspects of the gas drilling, including the process, its costs to state and local governments, affect on the environment, economic benefits and related political and economic matters.

“They say there are huge stores of gas that could last a century,” she said. “People are looking at it as a source of energy that would solve some of the problems the country faces right now.”

At the same time, she said, people are aware of the fact there may be damage to the environment, as well as heavy usage of roads and infrastructure.

“We’re trying to find out about the process and implications on the quality of life for people who live close to the drilling and farther away,” she said.

One of the questions is, does the state have adequate regulatory oversight in place?

The answer to that is no, according to Barb Jarmoska, a member of the Responsible Drilling Alliance, headquartered in Williamsport.

Jobs at the state Department of Environmental Protection are being cut, she said, and those who remain are afraid to say anything because money is changing hands.



‘Cleverly orchestrated’

“This is being cleverly orchestrated by the gas drilling companies,” Jarmoska said. “Money is being spread around, and people are being paid. They are trying to get people in office who are friendly toward them, because they know the arguments against them from an environmental perspective are going to rise up like a behemoth.”

The companies will tell you natural gas is a clean-burning fuel, she said. “Sure, it burns clean when you use it, but getting it out is disastrous to the environment.”

The Williamsport DEP office is weighing a permit application that would allow a company called TerrAqua Resource Management LLC to discharge 400,000 gallons of treated frack water a day into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, upstream of Union County. DEP spokesman Daniel T. Spadoni said the agency does not give time estimates on application decisions, but a draft permit has been written, according to Kathy Arndt, who handles the office’s copying requests.



Public hearing was held

A public hearing on the application was held in Williamsport about a month ago, Spadoni said, but no notification of the hearing was given to municipalities downstream.

According to Williamsport attorney Mark Szybist, TerrAqua also has submitted a permit application to “process gas well wastewater for beneficial use.” This permit, if granted, would enable TerrAqua to sell its treated effluent back to gas well drillers, he said.

According to frack water treatment applications elsewhere, there also is radiation in the toxic sludge from the process. This is naturally occurring radon gas, Pritz said. It poses no risk unless trapped, she said. Potentially, it is a risk to the gas-well drilling workers.

According to a permit application from Athens Township, reported by splashdownpa.blogspot.com, the permit application states “Radium 226, Radium 228, Gross Alpha and Gross Beta radiation” are present in the water incoming for treatment, and “... radioactive materials will accumulate in the clarifier sludge, rendering the sludge a radioactive waste.”



Radioactive component

In an article by Abraham Lustgarten, released Monday, Scientific American reported that wastewater from natural gas drilling in New York state is radioactive, “as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.”

New Yorkers are worried that drilling in the Catskills region could pollute the drinking water source for all of New York City.

“All new human activity has some environmental price to pay,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail, “but it is not clear that the Department of Environmental Protection nor other governmental and nongovernmental agencies can effectively minimize or track negative impacts from this rapidly growing extractive industry.”