Mon River Biology Report

Hmm, pretty interesting stuff. Seems as if other than grays landing, numbers are no doubt going down elsewhere. Definately not a good sign.

ORIGINAL: musky maniac

one of the big thing they are worried about is the flooded mines with the acid water in them, is all the drilling going on.... if one of these drilling riggs drill through one of these flooded mines it will release that water then its gonna come out somewhere, such as dunkard and 10m creek and flow straight into the river. lets hope it doesnt happen.

It can't happen like that. The rigs drill through mines all the time in Greene County. They are usually 100-300 feet down. They isolate them with cement then continue drilling down to the Marcellus.

Sorry if this is a little off topic but here is my 2 cents on the dunkard creek fish kill, and some other ramblings.......

According to the word in greeneco the dunkard incident was caused by the dumping of frac fluid(99% salt water) down an old mine shaft.  it seeped/ran out, and contaminated the creek with enough salinity to cause a "golden algae" bloom, which releases a chemical that kills fish.  Would it be dilluted just enough to cause this, or would they have to be dumping it directly into the creek?  I'm not a biologist, but that is something to look into.

Now who gave the order to dump the fluid down the mineshaft/into the creek?  Was it the foreman on a particular rig, or was it an order carried from higher up.  It could have been a careless truckdriver who thought he could get away with not having to haul the fluid quite so far.(scapegoat)

Who is in charge of paying for the water treatment, and how much does it cost?  Would it be worth a hauling company to dump it in creeks and old mine shafts to save the cost of hauling it all the way to the treatment facility?  Could it possibly be just a couple of people in charge, like a couple drivers and the owner?

The most chilling part of this is that someone had to give them access to the mineshaft, if this story holds true.  Quite possibly a very major player in the energy market.  Maybe a company that is also drilling for marcellous shale.  Maybe a company that has to bombard people with advertising, even though the public never actually buys there product.  Maybe a company that needs to put their name on the side of an arena.  It feels like a conspircy theory, but it is more than just possible that some big people are involved in this.  And we all know that those with money are above the law.  The DEP is only interested in making you build a 20K sandmound for you septic.  They don't get too "involved" in the filling in of giant valleys with slate, and the dumping of frac fluid.  There is just too much money being exchanged for me to feel comfortable with.

The way the energy companies have been buying up land in GreeneCo is something else that makes me have to wonder.  Did they find something interesting here, like deep oil, or perhaps something even more valuable, like Plutonium or Uranium?  Why else would they pay people so much to evacuate such a large area.  The energy companies used to fight you in court for damages, now they just want to buy you out.  What changed?  They found a large, poor, rural place that has an abundance of fossil fuels.  Why are they trying to buy so much land, when they came mine/drill on it so much cheaper?  Is it as simple as multi-use, or perhaps multi mining passes at different seams of coal?

The good news is that we are smack dab in the middle of the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.  We also have a pretty huge amount of coal.  I grew up within 2 miles of the largest underground bituminous coal mines in the world.  While this produces a great number of very well paying jobs for the rural and blue collar man, there is like a 50/50 chance that Western Pa is going to be the epicenter of world war 3, if that "after peak oil" article is even remotely accurate.

/rant off

Also, I think the article is about AMD and its possible effects on the river, not so much about natural gas.

I believe that the WVDEP approved the dumping of frac water in the dunkard creek disaster. There were two ponds that were not supposed to be connected. One emptied into the stream and the other didn't. But they didn't realize the two ponds were connected and presto... chango... everything dies. That's the way I heard it anyways.

all true..it was allowed to dump in mines..however the big problem is also they are taking the frac water to wastewater plants that are not equiped to treat it ... some good news is they are now beginning to recycle the frac water which is supposed to be the most envirometal way of doing it, they been running this frac water through a treatment plant on whitely creek 2 miles from where it dumps into the river and now it has been confirmed by bob from fish commision our biologist that whitley creek has golden algea.. what they need to do is slow the process of fracing untill they have more recycleing sites but we all know that will never happen.

I dont mean to be a I told you so guy but I have been saying wake- up on internet fourms for 3 or 4 years about the "poisioning of ground water aquifers, surface water (creeks and rivers)
On Dunkard fork, permit or permits for the dumping of x amount residual waste water into abandoned mine shafts Blacksville #1 (blacksville #2 is still an active mine right? it treats mine water) but do you think any of the oil and gas industry or thier sub contractors abided by how much could be pumped/ dumped into the old mine shaft?
 
And as far as the ground water and aquifers are concerned Pa requlations as far as well casings and "cementing" procedures are more lax than any other state although I believe tougher legislation is coming
 
You have to remember this is an industy that spent approx 70 million lobbying congress another 15 million in campain contribitions...and were rewarded with what is know as Energy policy act of 2005  AKA the haliburton loop hole it is all related to hydr. facturing and a better EPS for the 16 major companies that spent the 70million This energy act of the 2005 and the exemptions it provides the gas exctraction industry is why they have the attitude of prove we did it
 
Range Resources is even making presentations in area grade schools to K through 6th grade kids telling what nice people they are and how they keep all the water clean and safe provide gas so evrybody is warm etc...all I say about this is tell a big lie long enough and often enough and the masses will believe it. And range adds one more dimension start telling it early enough so they can get the lease of property /rights that thier parents or grandparents didn't sign away yet 

ya man its in whitley creek.. bob venittorini told me himself, actually they found it last yr.. sucks i know

Fishin' on the mon aint exactly too shabby right now. And compared to decades ago when water quality was horrible, the fishin's downright fabulous. Be a real shame to lose it. Seems its always teetering on the brink.

Like to see DEP hang some of these polluters by their balls.