How could this be an environmental problem? You could eat your dinner off that tank.
Range Resources, one of
"Fracking's Ten Most Wanted", will be getting a record fine levied against them by
Pennsylvania regulators:
Range Resources, the Texas-based company that drilled the first Marcellus Shale well in 2004, faces a $8.9 million civil penalty stemming from a leaking gas well in Lycoming County. It follows a pair of multi-million-dollar fines against drilling companies last year.
"(Range) has the responsibility to eliminate the gas migration that this poorly constructed well is causing," said state Environmental Secretary John Quigley, in a written statement. "Refusing to make the necessary repairs to protect the public and the environment is not an option."
Range denies that the poison found near their wells is
their poison. They have also filed an appeal saying that the integrity of the well in question is sufficient and meets government standards and they should not have to fix some made-up leak.
According to the DEP, drilling at the well began in February 2011, with fracking operations taking place that June to extract natural gas from rock buried deep underground. A later investigation showed that methane had contaminated a nearby stream and private water wells fed by groundwater.
In 2013, the DEP issued a violation against Range for the leak, reportedly stemming from a defective cement casing at the well. The problems, however, have persisted and "dead spots" have emerged in the surrounding area with gas escaping through the soil, according to the DEP.
Of course, if you follow fracking news you already know that
there's nothing to see here. An incomplete study was done to prove that nothing has been proved. There have been steps
forwards and
backwards in the fracking arena. There is
mounting evidence that government agencies and scientists must be ever more vigilant in checking the oil and gas industry's overreach and what practices are
truly healthy for communities' economy and standards of living.