by Karen Feridun When the residents of Lynn Township, Lehigh County discovered E.coli in their water wells, they approached their township supervisors, asking them to tell a local farmer to stop using fertilizer made from treated sewage sludge that goes by the greenwashed name biosolids. The fertilizer produced from the residue of the wastewater treatment process is a toxic … [Read more...] about Protecting the Interests of the People
extractive industries
Drilling & mining – worse than organized crime!
Let’s see… in 2010, 29 miners died in the Upper Big Branch mine because Massey Energy didn’t want to comply with safety regulations. BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up, killing 35 workers and contaminating the Gulf of Mexico with over 50 million gallons of crude oil that will affect the ecosystem for years, maybe decades. Natural gas companies foul our land and ground … [Read more...] about Drilling & mining – worse than organized crime!
Precautionary Principle for Marcellus Shale
Health and Environmental Experts:Follow the Precautionary Principle on Natural Gas from the Marcellus Shale Since 2007, Pennsylvania has witnessed a dramatic increase in unconventional development of natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation using high-volume hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking” or “fracing”. Hydraulic fracturing uses known toxins and … [Read more...] about Precautionary Principle for Marcellus Shale
Signers: Precautionary Principle for Marcellus Shale
Experts working in environmental or health field Patricia T. Bradt, PhD Environmental Science, Muhlenberg College John A. Cigliano, PhD Biology; Cedar Crest College Joseph C. Colosi, PhD Natural Science & Plant Ecology Chrysan Cronin, PhD Biology & Public Health; Muhlenberg College Dru Germanoski, PhD Geology; Lafayette College Doug Heath, PhD Geography & … [Read more...] about Signers: Precautionary Principle for Marcellus Shale
Marcellus Shale – Background
Info from Wikipedia: The Marcellus Formation is a black shale formation found throughout the Allegheny Plateau, running across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York, in northern and western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, through western Maryland, and throughout most of West Virginia extending across the state line into extreme western Virginia. The Marcellus … [Read more...] about Marcellus Shale – Background
Impacts of drilling in Marcellus Shale
In this section, we focus on the environmental impacts of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formations using the fracking or fracturing method (some background info is given on the Marcellus Shale page). Thoughts about use of the resultant natural gas itself can be found in the Energy section in the piece by Dennis Lieb: "The Drive-in Utopia is Closed". The … [Read more...] about Impacts of drilling in Marcellus Shale
What is ‘Peak Oil’?
Most experts now agree that 'Hubbert's Peak' — the point at which world oil production starts to decline—has either already passed or will occur within the next year or so. Some of the world's largest fields, in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Kuwait, have already peaked. (U.S. production peaked 30 years ago.) Even as oil and gas production are declining, consumption continues at … [Read more...] about What is ‘Peak Oil’?
MountainTop Removal mining (MTR)
Mountaintop Removal mining is a technique used to remove coal that is found in relatively thin layers. The technique is basically to blast the top of the mountain and push the rubble off into the valleys to expose the coal seam, which is then trucked away. Then another round of blasting takes them down to the next layer, and so on. The practice uses far fewer miners than … [Read more...] about MountainTop Removal mining (MTR)