January 1 - 7, 2015

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Your Award-Winning News Source for the Upper Delaware River Valley Region Since 1975

Vol. 41 No. 1

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JANUARY 1 - 7, 2015

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www.riverreporter.com

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$1.50

NPS natural gas summit issues By DAVID HULSE

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ARROWSBURG, NY — National Park Service (NPS) regional and local staff, Delaware River Basin Commission and Army Corps of Engineers staff journeyed west for the National Park Service Natural Gas Summit in September. They viewed Pennsylvania’s gas fields and gas facilities as far afield as Susquehanna and Bradford counties and spoke with people there and in the Upper Delaware. NPS Superintendent Kris Heister presented a slideshow and reported to the Upper Delaware Council about the training trip on December 4. Cabot Oil and Gas provided access to facilities for the tour. Cabot has some 40,000 employees in the state, leases for 200,000 acres in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, has drilled more than 300 wells and plans to drill 3,000 more over the next 30 years. The slideshow showed clean settings and well maintained equipment. The hydraulic fracturing “fracking” process involves horizontal “non-conventional” drilling to depths of about 6,000 feet. Multiple wells are possible from a single pad. Chemicals used include: biocide (chlorine), acid (like hydrochloric), friction reducer (like dish soap), sand to keep fractures open and lots of water. Drillers recover about 40% of the water they pump in, the rest being absorbed. Recovered water is recycled. Major concerns of fracking opponents involve leaks in the joints of drilling pipe that allow the escape of chemical-infused water, migration of methane gas associated with natural gas, and the final destination of the 60% of absorbed water. The tour finished up with presentations at the Equinunk and Basket Historical societies, and concluded at Lander’s Café with “a diverse group of local business people who shared their perspectives on the gas industry.” Heister said those conversations really “gave a flavor for the pros and cons” and were valuable for everyone involved. Heister concluded by pointing out differences in the landscape between Bradford and Susque-

CURRENTS: TRR turns 40

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hanna counties and the Upper Delaware region. With decades of energy production anticipated, she said her main concern for water quality is the deforestation of the landscape. She said that the one thing that maintains and protects water quality is heavily forested land. Heister presented a list of potential impacts for UDC. They included habitat and landscape-scale fragmentation; water quality and flow; scenic quality; air quality; visitor experience and recreation; safety and law enforcement challenges; noise; cumulative impacts of infrastructure needs such as road construction, storage and staging; influx of temporary and permanent workers; and the rapid pace of change needed to support such development.

Now what? Some believe that the NPS is between a rock and hard place in dealing with fracking. The Obama administration has largely dealt with social issues over the past six years. However, Mother Jones reported that the President’s “accession to office coincided (coincidentally) with the widespread adoption of hydraulic fracking to drill for natural gas, resulting in a sudden boom in supplies and a rapid drop in price, to the point where gas began to supplant coal as the fuel of choice for American power plants.” Growth of the industry also provided much of the job growth as the country recovered from deep recession. In his last State of the Union address, the President spoke of natural gas, saying, “If extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.” However, recent studies have concluded that methane releases related to gas development have been much greater than earlier estimates. Methane combines with and retains the sun’s energy at much greater ratios (25 times by some measurements) than carbon dioxide, which has been labeled as the principal cause of global warming. Earlier this year the NPS, in comments on Bureau of Land Management fracking policy, cited

TRR photo by Fritz Mayer

This year, this stretch of Ten Mile River was ice free on December 29, as compared with last January when a weather pattern dubbed the “polar vortex” had the region in a deep freeze.

Looking back on 2014

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EGION — The early part of 2014 was marked by the polar vortex, which sent cold air into the region and the country resulting in record-breaking cold temperatures in many areas. Forecasters are not predicting a return of the phenomenon; in fact, winter may be warmer than average, especially if El Niño conditions form in the southern Pacific Ocean, which has been given a 65% chance of happening by the Climate Prediction Center, the National Weather Service and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. More of the big news stories of 2014 can be found on page 5, and a pictorial retrospective of the year in entertainment can be found on page 19.

Continued on page 3

EDITORIAL: Support the Ag plan

SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US

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