Share widely with all of your friends and neighbors!
In case you did not hear the front page Times Express News a few weeks ago, Seismic Testing is planned for Monroeville Pennsylvania. Tim Little, Municipal Manager, met with the gas company Huntley and Huntley to approve this Seismic Testing. Mr. Little was able to approve the Seismic Testing in our Municipality without putting the information in front of the citizens of this municipality because the Municipality of Monroeville does not yet have a law, in our case called an ordinance, on the books yet, to limit these activities.
Individual citizens are being, and have been approached in Monroeville, PA, since April, 2017 by Huntley and Huntley to ask if it is fine to map through seismic testing, for both Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale under their private properties. Please know that you, as a private land owner in Monroeville, or anywhere, can deny the testing.
Grandmother Earth is calling us!
Some breaking fabulous news!
1) On June 20, 2017, the Supreme Court affirmed by majority, the Environmental Rights Amendment, Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to assure Clean Water and Clean Air for all Pennsylvania citizens.
2) On Monday, July 3, 2017, the borough of Oakmont, PA, held a special meeting and enacted by unanimous vote, a very limiting Seismic Testing ordinance.
3) On July 14, 2017, the Huntley and Huntley and Oil and Gas company with offices in Monroeville, PA "dropped plans to conduct a Seismic survey in Oakmont, PA. Huntley and Huntley had planned to include the borough of Oakmont in the geological seismic testing survey meant to identify potential drilling sites in parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties. Huntley and Huntley has made the decision to forgo any seismic survey work altogether, company spokesman Benjamin Komlos said in an email this week." from article in Pittsburgh Post Gazette, July 14, 2017. by Jake Flannick titled: Gas drilling company plans for seismic testing in borough
If you'd like to see a similar ordinance, google South Fayette Seismic ordinance to read the ordinance that Oakmont based its seismic testing ordinance on.
If you care about limiting or eliminating chemicals in our water causing hormone disruption, limiting, or eliminating both air and water pollution from the Marcellus Shale industry, please join either or both of these meetings as a supportive observer, or to share your opinion.
Monroeville in its ordinances regulates circuses & peddlers and almost all activities that occur in our municipality. For example, yard sales must be 10 feet from the road. Grass cannot be more than a certain height before our yards are cited.....We must put a seismic ordinance in place, as our municipality does not yet have one!
The following essay was written by an intentionally unnamed individual about the Fracking process:
"This is what has happening in Pennsylvania and all over the world.
The Fracking process:
1. A gas company identifies an area with underground gas.
2. The company leases the right to extract gas from many sites in the area without revealing the risks.
3. The company uses seismic tests to map the locations of underground shale and natural fractures.
4. The company applies for permits to drill and extract gas. Companies will subvert any local zoning laws made by communities to keep fracking out, appeal straight to the federal government and bankrupt municipalities in court. See Grant Twp, PA.
5. The gas company removes all the trees from a 5-10 acre swath to build the "well pad".
6. Initially one or two wells are drilled for every square mile. Eventually there can be 10-12 wells per square mile.
7. First, a vertical well is drilled in the bare ground, cutting through different rock layers and pushing toxic drilling muds into aquifers.
8. A cement casing is poured to protect the groundwater, but casings are fragile and can crack under the extreme pressure of hydraulic fracturing or earthquakes. Eventually the casing will fail, allowing chemicals and gas to leak through the cracks. 6% fail the day they are put in.
9. The horizontal well is then drilled, cutting across natural faults and fractures in the rock. These wells can be up to two miles long.
10. Each Frack= 5 million gallons of water, 1,000 truck trips, 100 tons of toxic chemicals X up to 10 fracks for each well X 4 to 12 wells per pad. This mixture of water, chemicals, and sand are forced into the well under extreme pressure to shatter the shale rock and release the gas.
11. 60-80% of this fluid remains underground contaminating groundwater. The radioactive wastewater and drill cuttings that return to surface are stored in tanks or open pits. Later it will be buried on site, dumped in landfills, injected back underground or into aquifers and they have even illegally dumped at sewage treatment plants.
12. Processing facilities, compressors, and pipelines are built to separate and transport the gas. Pipelines fail, explode, and leak methane into the atmosphere which is 80 times more potent than Co2 as a greenhouse gas.
13. A chemical dryer removes moisture and light oils from the extracted gas using the hazardous chemical 2-butoxyethanol.
14. The gas is compressed before being put into pipelines.
15. Gas is vented out along the pipeline to relieve pressure in the system.
16. Gas is then liquified for export overseas or odorized and delivered to your home.
Some of the most important laws that protect the public don't apply to oil & gas companies due to loopholes put into the Safe Drinking Water Act including community right-to-know laws. We must end this invasive, destructive, and devastating process now! Ban fracking worldwide!!"
Also, if you live in Monroeville, PA, please call and e-mail your councilperson to ask them if they've read the South Fayette and Oakmont ordinances and ask them what their opinion is on adopting this ordinance in Monroeville, PA for the health and wellness of our citizens.
Ward 1: Councilwoman Linda Gaydos, 412-973-1194, gaydos@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 2: Councilman Nick Gresock, 412-215-0524, greson@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 3: Councilman Ron Harvey, 412-856-7978, harver@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 4: Councilman Jim Johns, 412-856-0556, johnsj@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 5: Councilman Paul Caliari, 412-657-9476, caliap@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 6: Councilman Steve Duncan, 412-823-1314, duncas@monroeville.pa.us
Ward 7: Councilman Tom Wilson, 412-491-0455, wilsot@monroeville.pa.us
"Seismic Survey in Monroeville...Residents may experience a Monroeville company, Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration, LLC, conducting what is called a Seismic Survey in their area. A Seismic Survey is not a drilling operation, but it is a process of exploring for natural gas using sound waves to “map” the geological structure of Monroeville at different depths.
This does not necessarily mean there will be drilling, or the process known as “fracking,” in Monroeville. There are many steps that have to be strongly considered before that is to occur in Monroeville, if indeed it does happen. Please read the linked brochure from Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration, LLC which concisely explains the Seismic Survey process.
**Please note the brochure states that the Seismic Survey will begin in June 2017. That period has been delayed to the latter part of 2017.
Additional info:
*Note - This does not necessarily mean that every street on the map and the list will have seismic testing. The areas of Monroeville that may have seismic testing are primarily the south and north areas of Monroeville. "
Thanks,
Elisa Beck:)
Ward 2 Resident, Monroeville, PA
Sustainable Monroeville, Founder
sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com
Sustainable Monroeville on Facebook!
Elisa Beck:)
Ward 2 Resident, Monroeville, PA
Sustainable Monroeville, Founder
sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com
Sustainable Monroeville on Facebook!
