Notable upcoming events and other announcements

FracTracker Alliance

Request for Papers:  Special Issue of the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering

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Topic: Environmental Aspects of Shale Gas Development

Submission Deadline:  September 30, 2012

Guest Editors:
Jeanne VanBriesen, Carnegie Mellon University
Michel Boufadel, Temple University

Unconventional gas in tight shales like the Barnett, the Marcellus, and the Eagle Ford formations is changing the view of domestic natural gas supply. Directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing has opened up new resources, but also opens new debates on the impacts of extraction technologies on water and air resources. Environmental engineers are leading technology developments in green completions, as well as investigating the effects of drilling on water and air quality.

ASCE is pleased to announce a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Engineering broadly encompassing the following aspects: Water resources and allocation, migration of fluids (liquids and gases) in aquifers and waterways, produced water treatment, and air quality.

Prospective authors are requested to prepare manuscripts according to the guidelines published at Journal of Environmental Engineering. Submission of a manuscript for the special issue does not guarantee publication. Manuscripts will be subject to the same peer-review process for all manuscripts published in the Journal of Environmental Engineering. Submit articles to editorial manager.

A detailed timeline for publication of the special issue is given below:

Schedule

Submission deadline: September 30, 2012
First round of reviews: December 30, 2012
Final decision: February 28, 2013
Accepted manuscripts due: March 30, 2013
Publication: Late 2013/Early 2014

Prospective authors for the special issue should address cover letters to Special Issues Editor Dionysios (Dion) D. Dionysiou. If you have questions regarding this special issue, please contact Jeanne VanBriesen or Michel Boufadel.

Trail Logbook Project
FracTracker Alliance

Collaborative Trail Logbook – Reporting Gas Industry Impacts on PA Trail Experiences

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(Harrisburg) – FracTracker.org and the Keystone Trails Association are proud to launch Trail Logbook: Reporting Gas Industry Impacts on Pennsylvania Trail Experiences – an effort to collect information from hikers and other trail users who have had negative or hazardous encounters while recreating in PA.

“Throughout the Marcellus Shale region, more and more we’re hearing of problems from our constituents,” said Curt Ashenfelter, Executive Director of the Keystone Trails Association (KTA) – a volunteer-directed, public service organization dedicated to providing, preserving, protecting and promoting recreational hiking trails and hiking opportunities in PA. “Pennsylvania hikers are concerned about the effect of drilling and want to play a role in monitoring the impact of this industry on PA’s forests and hiking trails.

With a simple-to-use form – available online and as a mail-in postcard – data on a variety of trail impacts related to shale gas drilling activities will be uploaded to FracTracker.org, a website providing a common portal to share data, photos, maps, and information related to the issues corollary to the shale gas industry. Photos of reported impacts can also be submitted.

“We’re pleased to be a partner in this grassroots endeavor to aggregate what have to date been mostly anecdotal but often alarming reports from our state’s extraordinary network of trails,” said Brook Lenker, Director of FracTracker. “We hope the information gathered helps to clarify the nature of the impacts and leads to sustainable solutions.”

“With over 3,000 miles of hiking trails in Pennsylvania and tourism being the Commonwealth’s 2nd largest industry, it’s critical to expose and address recurring problems caused by gas drilling activities, “ Ashenfelter added. “With a quick feedback loop like FracTracker, we can report problems to the appropriate agencies and gas drilling companies and seek remediation quickly.”

For more information on the Trail Logbook project, contact:

To  see the Trail Logbook submission page or to submit data, visit: https://www.fractracker.org/logbook. If you would prefer to print out the logbook and mail it in, click here.

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FracTracker Alliance

Shale Health Office Available for Southwest PA Residents

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It isn’t often that you personally know the personnel responsible for a project prior to its launch, but those of us at FracTracker had that benefit with regard to the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, or SWPA-EHP for short. (Oh how we love our complex acronyms.) Raina Rippel, the project’s director, spoke at the second annual Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction conference hosted by the Graduate School of Public Health about this very topic. Raina and her team are fantastic resources, enabling us to better understand localized concerns and impacts and providing an outlet through which we can share the information we gather during our data analyses.

SWPA-EHP is being funded by The Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Claneil Foundation because people were concerned about shale gas drilling affecting their health and the lack of data available to address those concerns. Interestingly, that is also why CHEC initially became involved with shale gas drilling several years ago – of which FracTracker is a primary result. Recently, SWPA-EHP announced that they are the opening the first-recorded shale health office where area residents can schedule medical evaluations, get help understanding their health problems and learn how to limit their exposure to hazardous substances associated with the industry. In response to the critical, unmet need for access to accurate, timely and trusted public health information, as well as the need for appropriate health care in the communities of southwestern Pennsylvania, the Project has committed itself to the following:

  • Purpose: The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP) is a nonprofit environmental health organization created to assist and support Washington County residents who believe their health has been, or could be, impacted by natural gas drilling activities.
  • Resources: The office also serves as a resource center for information on the potential routes of exposure to hazardous substances, as well as strategies for limiting the risk of health effects. Our staff will be available by appointment in the office and by phone to address concerns residents have about their environmental conditions. We will answer questions, provide guidance and steer people toward other resources when possible.
  • Features: SWPA-EHP has an on-site nurse practitioner who is available by appointment for home or office visits, exams and consultations with people who think their health may be compromised by nearby gas drilling activities. She will also provide referrals, help clients navigate the health care system and consult with environmental health specialists about residents’ medical conditions.
  • Project Goals:
    • Establish a community environmental health center in SWPA to identify, document and respond to residents’ health concerns related to natural gas extraction;
    • Conduct a community health needs assessments of Washington County communities to evaluate public health risks and resources and determine the actions necessary to address immediate public health problems;
    • Provide the services of a nurse practitioner who can offer support, assist residents in understanding their health problems, and help them navigate the health care system as needed;
    • Establish clinical resource networks to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients;
    • Establish technical resource networks to obtain, analyze, develop and disseminate timely and accurate information to community members with respect to their health and environmental risks; and
    • Initiate a planning process for comprehensive actions.

The SWPA-EHP office is located at 4198 Washington Road, Suite 5, in McMurray. The office is open Tuesday-Friday. Nurse Practitioner services are available by appointment only.

Find SWPA-EHP’s new office or add additional community resources to this editable dataset on Data.FracTracker.org by clicking on the map below:

FracTracker Alliance

A New Day for FracTracker

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By Brook Lenker, FracTracker Director

Like the public’s comprehension of the impacts of the shale gas industry, FracTracker is growing and evolving. We’re becoming better suited to expand that comprehension and nurture more inquiry into this game-changing period in energy development.

Our innovative website was launched by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities who passionately and skillfully managed its maturation.  Like a college student setting out on his or her own, the time has come for FracTracker to seek its independence and more fully develop its own identity.   In December 2011, I was hired as director of the FracTracker Fund at the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies to shepherd this transition and to foster partnerships that will help FracTracker blossom, benefit public awareness, and synergistically energize our partners.  We’re doing this one deliberate step at a time.

Another critical task is to improve the functionality of the data tool – to make it easier to use and navigate and offer other features that attract users to it. We are working with Rhiza Labs and taking additional measures to reach those objectives. We’ll keep you posted about all our enhancements.

My past 15 years – at the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and then PA DCNR – were spent in professional roles where I facilitated dialogue, interpreted natural and scientific phenomena, encouraged stewardship practices, and tapped communication tools of many kinds. I intend to judiciously and vigorously apply these skills in my new position.  I believe deeply in conservation and environmental justice and am weighted by worries about many facets of the shale gas boom. I’m equally buoyed by the power of people and the transparency of science, however. Truth conquers deception.

The dedication and acumen of my FracTracker colleagues – Samantha and Matt based in Pittsburgh and Karen based near Ithaca, NY – inflate my outlook. We’re a strong team. The league we cavort with is collectively even more impressive. From accomplished grassroots warriors to cutting-edge scientists, connecting and collaborating, sharing data and information, we’re an unequaled force for good.

Gas companies aren’t inherently evil, and the jury is divided on the pros and cons of their primary product, but the stakes are big, enormous, titanic.  If drilling occurs, it must be done in a manner that is truly sustainable – for everyone and everything. Sustainability only prevails through thorough, comprehensive, ongoing research and an absolute commitment – by government and industry – to the public interest.

FracTracker resolves, with the help of other teams in our league, to be a broker of reality – to what’s really happening on the ground, in the air, to our water, to our health, to public policy – wherever and whenever gas extraction occurs. Ideally, this service will eventually become unnecessary, unjustified. In the meantime, we’re glad to be “in” the field defending our common future and, as they say, a good defense always wins.

Contact Information:
Brook Lenker
Director, FracTracker
lenker@fractracker.org

Screenshot of http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/office_of_oil_and_gas_management/20291
Matt Kelso, BA

PA DEP Oil and Gas Site Updated

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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has at long last updated their webpage for the Office of Oil and Gas Management.

Screenshot of http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/office_of_oil_and_gas_management/20291

Screenshot of newly updated Office of Oil and Gas Management website at the Pennsylvania DEP

The changes are more than cosmetic; the entire data delivery system has been updated as well, where the use now fills out querry boxes and searches for items of interest rather than downloading flat datasets of the DEP’s choosing. In the next couple of days, I be uploading the relevant data onto FracTracker’s DataTool with a hopeful expectation that it will go a long way towards addressing the data problems that the site has historically been plagued with.

FracTracker Alliance

Community Foundation for the Alleghenies Announces Director for its New FracTracker Fund

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Community Foundation for the Alleghenies logo

The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies has named a former state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources official to manage its newest fund, FracTracker.org, effective this week.

Brook Lenker, who served as manager of education and outreach in the department for nearly eight years, will manage FracTracker.org staffing and operations; expand the website capabilities; coordinate and develop content; publicize and expand use of the website by journalists and other users; broaden community and academic outreach; and undertake additional strategic initiatives.

“We are pleased to be able to engage a talented and committed environmental leader such as Brook and to work with donors such as The Heinz Endowments, whose generosity can be put to use through important community tools like the FracTracker.org Fund,” Angie Berzonski, program & communications officer for the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, said in making the announcement today (Friday, December 9, 2011).

“FracTracker is an invaluable resource to all who care about our future and the complex challenges associated with the shale gas industry,” said Lenker. “I’m honored to lead it and hope to expand its utilization, grow its capabilities, and build powerful partnerships that enhance its effectiveness.”

In his previous work, Lenker had extensive experience collaborating with groups as diverse as conservationists, businesses and hunting-fishing interests. “It was my responsibility to help lead a program to engage all Pennsylvanians in better environmental stewardship practices,” he said, “and I look at my work with the diverse stakeholders connected to FracTracker in the same way.”

The FracTracker website is hosted by the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds. The web portal is a combination data and blog tool that allows users to interact with, upload, analyze and visualize data that have been located geographically in relation to gas extraction activities in the Marcellus Shale region and oil and gas extraction nationally. The portal is also a hypothesis generating tool for academics; a storytelling device for journalists; and a resource for industry and government agencies. The hub serves as a center of data aggregation so that impact can be viewed and understood at scale and, through analysis and exposure, informs all levels of society and social discourse.

“We are looking forward to Brook’s leadership in the future development and use of FracTracker.org.,” said Caren Glotfelty, director of  The Heinz Endowments’  Environment Program, which has provided nearly $1.5 million for the project since it began two years ago. “The website has become an important, independent, fact-based source of information on the effects of Marcellus Shale natural gas production, and we expect it will become even more useful under Brook’s management.”

Additional support for various aspects of the FracTracker project comes from the Philadelphia-based William Penn Foundation, which has awarded a $300,000 grant.

The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies is a nonprofit public foundation. Through the charitable giving of its donors, it builds professionally managed assets to support the communities it serves. Grants typically are advised by donors or are entrusted to the Foundation to use its community knowledge and engagement to place their giving toward greatest needs, emerging issues or to best leverage additional support. The Foundation is overseen by an active volunteer board and committees. The Foundation is also among those community foundations achieving compliance with national standards as established by the Council on Foundations.

For information about grantmaking or to inquire how to establish your own charitable fund at the Foundation, please contact the Foundation at 814-536-7741 or visit its website, www.cfalleghenies.org.

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Samantha Malone and Matthew Kelso welcome Brook Lenker into the FracTracker.org team. They are excited about the experience and passion he brings to the table and look forward to working with him in making FracTracker.org a key player into the shale gas world.

FracTracker Alliance

Data.FracTracker User Survey

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As FracTracker’s manager, the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health has created a brief online SurveyMonkey questionnaire (approximately 10 minutes). The purpose of this research is to determine whether and how people are using Data.FracTracker.org to make decisions surrounding natural gas drilling. If you are willing to participate, the survey will ask about your utilization of FracTracker’s features (e.g. data mapping component), whether you have used the system to help you make decisions about natural gas drilling, whether you believe that the decisions you made impacted your health or those around you, and your demographics (e.g. sex, age, race, education, and residence).

There are no foreseeable risks associated with filling out this survey, nor are there any direct benefits. There is no compensation for completing the survey. All responses are confidential, and results will be kept within University of Pittsburgh computers. Aggregated responses will be used for the purposes of writing an academic paper on the utilization of FracTracker for decision-making. Your participation is voluntary, and you may stop participating at any time.

To participate in the online survey, follow this link.

– Contact Information –
PI: Samantha Malone, MPH, CPH
Center for Healthy Environments & Communities
slm75@pitt.edu

FracTracker Alliance

2nd Annual Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction Conference

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Pitt GSPH LogoHosted by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Grand Ballroom (3rd floor), Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Friday, November 18, 2011 — 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM

There is no cost to attend. Refreshments and lunch will be provided during the event. A light reception will follow.

Registration is required. Visit the conference website for more information.

FracTracker Alliance

Dr. Christen to serve as Executive Director of PATF

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Please join us in congratulating Dr. Charles Christen for his appointment as Executive Director of the Pittsburgh AIDs Task Force (PATF). PATF, the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in Southwestern Pennsylvania, is dedicated to supporting and empowering all individuals living with HIV/AIDS, as well as preventing the spread of infection. PATF is a leader in providing comprehensive support services that improve the health and quality of life for those living with HIV/AIDS in the following counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Fayette, Indiana, Washington, and Westmoreland.
Dr. Christen joined the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) as the Director of Operations in 2008. He has a doctoral degree from the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and a certificate in LGBT Health Research. Dr. Christen has an extensive background in HIV service, as well as a developing expertise in community based environmental health practice.

The Pittsburgh Aids Task Force is very fortunate to have Dr. Christen as their new leader. During his time at CHEC, Dr. Christen has demonstrated superb skills, most importantly the manner in which he develops close working relationships with community organizations. While it will be difficult to replace Dr. Christen as a dedicated employee, his responsiveness to environmental health issues and passion for fulfilling the University’s role in supporting community needs will be a legacy upon which we will build.

Dr. Christen’s last day with CHEC will be July 15, 2011. An active search for his successor is under way.

FracTracker Alliance

Upcoming webinar explores air pollution from Marcellus gas activities

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Reposted from the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences

A web-based seminar June 16, presented by Penn State Extension, will explore state findings regarding air pollution related to Marcellus Shale natural-gas activity in the commonwealth.

In the 1 p.m. webinar, titled “The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Short-Term Ambient Air Sampling Project,” Nick Lazor, chief of the Air Quality Monitoring Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, will discuss findings and conclusions of recent studies of emissions from gas sites.

Lazor, who has 16 years of environmental experience in the air-quality field, manages a staff of 32 for DEP and is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the commonwealth’s Ambient Air Monitoring Network.

Air pollution has been a concern since the beginning of 2008, when natural-gas exploration activities in the Marcellus Shale formation increased significantly in the commonwealth, according to Lazor. He noted that more than 2,349 wells have been drilled, primarily in the southwest, northeast and northcentral regions.

In response to the increased number of well sites and concerns about the impact of the Marcellus Shale natural-gas development activities on air quality, DEP launched a short-term, screening-level air-quality sampling initiative, he explained.

Air quality was sampled in DEP surveys at natural-gas facilities in the northcentral, northeast and southwest regions of the state.

“Due to the limited scope and duration of the sampling, and the limited number of sources and facilities sampled, the findings only represent conditions at the time of the sampling and do not represent a comprehensive study of emissions,” stated a report about the air sampling prepared by Lazor’s group within DEP.

“While this short-term sampling effort does not address the cumulative impact of air emissions from natural gas operations, the sampling results do provide basic information on the type of pollutants emitted to the atmosphere during selected phases of gas extraction operations in the Marcellus Shale formation,” the report noted.

According to the report, key findings of short-term air sampling include:

  • Concentrations of certain natural gas constituents — including methane, propane and butane, and associated compounds were detected in the air near Marcellus Shale drilling operations.
  • Elevated methane levels were detected at compressor stations and well sites.
  • Certain compounds, mainly methyl mercaptan, were detected at levels which generally produce odors.
  • Results did not identify concentrations of any compound that would likely trigger air-related health issues associated with Marcellus Shale activities.,
  • Sampling for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone did not detect concentrations above National Ambient Air Quality Standards at any of the sampling sites.

“The elevated methane results at the sampling sites would seem to confirm that the natural-gas production infrastructure in general — from well sites to condensate tank farms to compressor stations — is a source of pollutant emissions through fugitive and/or direct means,” the report stated.

The June16 webinar is part of a series of online workshops addressing opportunities and challenges related to the state’s Marcellus Shale gas boom. Information about how to register for the webinar is available on the webinar page of Penn State Extension’s natural-gas website.

Future webinars will include speakers on the following topics: pipeline development and regulation; a research update on the effects of shale drilling on wildlife habitat; and current legal issues in shale-gas development.

Previous webinars, publications and information on topics such as the gas boom’s effect on landfills, water use and quality, zoning, gas-leasing considerations for landowners, and implications for local communities also are available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website.

For more information, contact John Turack, extension educator in Westmoreland County, at (724) 837-1402 or jdt15@psu.edu.

Jeff Mulhollem
Writer/editor
(814) 863-2719
jjm29@psu.edu

Additional Resources:

  • Watch a presentation by Nick Lazor at the 2010 University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of  Public Health’s conference “Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction: What is known, and what can we predict?”
  • GSPH Shale Gas Conference Recaps:  Morning |  Afternoon