Former Governor Tom Ridge Signs Lucrative Marcellus Contract By Iris Marie Bloom ,
Philadelphia Weekly 8/5/10
DEP reports 565 violations January – June 2010
Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, along with two of his former gubernatorial
campaign managers, signed a $900,000 contract on July 30 to go to bat for the heavily polluting
Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry. Ridge’s contract follows on the heels of an exodus from
the Rendell administration to the cash-rich industry. Three top Rendell staff members have
jumped ship to work in governmental relations jobs for the industry over the past year.
Fracturing shale to release gas requires deep drilling "unconventional" technology, new since
2005 when it won Bush-era exemptions from most federal environmental laws. The process uses
about 20,000 pounds of toxic chemicals per gas well to drill the Marcellus Shale, a formation
which lies under 63% of Pennsylvania. The industry has an image problem. Over 1000 instances
of water contamination have been documented across the country due to shale gas drilling. In
Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection found 565 violations at Marcellus
Shale gas drilling sites between Jan. 1 and June 18 this year alone, with only 1,458 wells drilled.
According to an analysis by Clean Water Action released last week, these violations include
particularly disturbing instances, including improper cementing/casing of wells (11) and "illegal
disposal of industrial waste" (80).
In this context, the industry is only too delighted to have the help of governors, former
governors, and their staff. In an interview about Ridge’s new contract on Friday, the Marcellus
Shale Coalition (MSC), which represents most of the companies now drilling for shale gas in
Pennsylvania, clarified that Ridge himself will not be lobbying: "The Governor [Ridge] is
joining as strategic advisor." MSC spokesman Travis Windle said, "The Governor will be very
visible, so active, personally taking the industry’s message about workplace safety and
environmental safety, and national security, educating stakeholders, elected officials, and the
media." "Right now we’re just focused on getting the Governor out and about," he said.
According to Mr. Windle, Ridge will help "build coalitions." Asked who will be in these
coalitions, he specified, "A great deal of education still needs to occur about the benefits of
drilling – landowners, who are seeing benefits more directly than anyone else; and small
business owners, who are part of an extensive supply chain." One-third of the contract will go to
the Ridge Policy Group, under which Ridge’s two former gubernatorial campaign managers will
now lobby for the Marcellus Shale industry as registered lobbyists. According to Common
Cause, the industry has already poured over $7 million into Pennsylvania lobbying and direct
campaign contributions. Nationally, the industry is also lobbying hard against restoring the Safe
Drinking Water Act.
Asked about the 565 violations found so far this year by the DEP, Mr. Windle said, "those
numbers don’t reflect how seriously the drillers take environmental safety. I don’t have them in
front of me, but many of them have to do with signage. A lot of them are about is something
properly marked. A majority of them do not pose any threat to the environment and workforce."
In fact, out of the 565 violations in the first six months of this year, 64 are administrative,
recordkeeping, or posting violations. Four workers have died in gas drilling accidents in
Pennsylvania so far this year. The number of injuries and illnesses is not known. A Marcellus
Shale gas drilling crew in West Virginia ignited a huge explosion and fire June 7th, burning
seven workers. The company which runs that operation, which violated its drilling permit, also
operates 249 wells in Pennsylvania. According to Clean Water Action’s analysis of DEP figures,
the largest number of this year’s violations, 166, is "General Violations" meaning violations of
the Clean Streams Law, Oil and Gas Act, and permit violations. The next largest category is
"Frac Pit violations," meaning leaks, improper construction, and other problems with frack pits.
These open pits, which DEP spokesman Tom Rathbun suggested in January should be outlawed
in Pennsylvania, hold millions of gallons of toxic waste. Rathbun said in an interview, "They
don’t make sense here, it rains and snows so much… if you have a million gallons this week, you
have a million and a half next week." But the DEP has not required the industry to store waste in
impermeable containers instead of open pits. What’s in those frack pits? At the end of the
fracking stage they are full of millions of gallons of "flowback," which comes up from deep
underground radioactive, arsenic laden, and intensely saline as well as full of toxic fracking
chemicals. Those chemicals include pesticides, biocides, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and
neurotoxins. Regarding the most severe violations singled out by Clean Water Action, improper
cement casing has led to the contamination of an entire nine-mile square aquifer in Dimock, PA,
leading to 39 families being deprived of safe drinking water which had always been available to
them from pristine private wells. Illegal disposal means toxic waste – fracking fluid and
flowback, – is dumped directly onto the ground or into waterways. Fish kills and animal deaths
in many areas of the state have been attributed by residents to illegal disposal as well as
accidental spills.
As this goes to press, another organization, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, released a
statement analyzing 1435 violations by Marcellus Shale drillers in Pennsylvania in the past 2.5
years. Of these, 952 were identified as most likely to harm the environment. Sixteen violations
involve improper blowout prevention.