August 11th, 2015
Today, the County Commissioners held their monthly meeting to establish
the agenda for next week’s Commissioners’ Meeting. One particular item on this
agenda (Page 6, item two on the attachment found at
http://julietoye.com/files/August_11_2015_1_.pdf) regarded a potential lease
agreement between Fayette County and the Chevron Corporation for a 125.5-acre
plot of land on which the Masontown-German Park is settled. Specific stipulations
and clauses mentioned by Chevron reps at the meeting include:
 Surface non-disturbance
 Horizontal drilling at depths between 1-1.5 miles
 Contact and negotiation with landowners of adjacent properties
 Leasing and utilizing the full 125.5 acreage
 A one-time payment of $188,250 and 15% royalties to the county on
production and sales
The major benefits laid out by the proposal and defense are entirely
economical. Everybody involved with presenting (and half of the people involved in
receiving) this sales pitch have failed to acknowledge the importance of
environmental degradation and damages to public health linked to hydraulic
fracturing. Another concerned individual and I addressed the Board and the
Chevron reps regarding environmental impacts. Chevron is responsible for
violations against the county in Redstone, Dunbar, German, Luzerne, and Menallen
Townships in the last four years.
 German Township:
o Failure to design/implement Best Management Practices to
minimize accelerated erosion
o Failure to implement and maintain environment & safety controls
o Failure to stabilize site until totally restored
o Failure to store/process/transport/dispose of residual waste
(RW)
 Redstone Township:
o Stream discharge of industrial waste (IW, includes drill cuttings,
oil, and brine)
o Discharge of IW into Commonwealth waters
o Discharge of pollutional materials into Commonwealth waters
o Improper I/RW disposal and control
o Improper discharge of tophole water
o Failure to report improper/insufficient/defective cement casings
within 24 hours or to submit a correction plan within 30 days
 Dunbar Township:
o Improperly lined waste water pits
o Failure to control/dispose of I/RW to prevent pollution
o Failure to store/transport/process/dispose of RW


Luzerne Township:
o Failure to store/transport/process/dispose of RW
o Failure to control I/RW to prevent pollution
o Structurally unsound impoundments
Menallen Township:
o Failure to restore worksites within 9 months of project completion
o Failure to remove drill pits, supplies, and equipment not needed to
continue production
All of this information was found through the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection at:
(http://www.depreportingservices.state.pa.us/ReportServer/Pages/ReportViewer.
aspx?/Oil_Gas/OG_Compliance)
The current Board of Commissioners are prepared to vote on this next
Tuesday, despite community warnings regarding potential violations of the
Sunshine Act and the responsibility of the Commissioners to inform officials at the
pertinent state bodies (in this case, the PA Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources and the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, as well as Commissioner
Zimmerlink herself) of the pending discussion of the transaction. The Board also
denied the veracity of the violations I listed at the meeting, so I immediately
returned home to find citations directly from the Department of Environmental
Protection at the DEP hyperlink listed above.
Your Commissioners are conducting business behind closed doors. That is
not how public officials should serve you. Let’s fight together to change this.
Spread the Vote
Jonathan Jones
Write-In Candidate for the Fayette County Board of Commissioners