Four miles of the Susquehanna River are being downgraded by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. DEP says a stretch between Enola and Capital City Airport and another around the Route 462 bridge in Columbia don’t meet water quality standards for recreation use. Environmental regulators reached the conclusion based on data from intensive monitoring over the [...]
The surge in gas drilling has not put a major strain on water supply in the Susquehanna River Basin, according to a new report from the regulatory body that oversees water withdrawals. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) is charged with regulating water quantity, not quality. However last year the commission issued a report saying it [...]
Cabot Oil and Gas is paying an $11,000 settlement to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for commencing gas drilling operations before it received permission to do so. Last year the company paid a $50,000 to the commission for a similar infraction. Every gas wellpad needs to have the SRBC’s approval before drilling operations can begin. Commission [...]
Here’s a graphical view of one of the most controversial aspects of hydraulic fracturing: the enormous amount of water it uses.
In the Susquehanna River Basin, just one well can use an average of 4.4 million gallons of water during a frack job, which can last several days to a week. The majority of that water comes from Pennsylvania’s rivers and streams. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 miles of streams polluted by abandoned coalmine drainage flow through Pennsylvania’s forests, [...]
The Susquehanna River Basin Commission released its “State of the Susquehanna” report Wednesday, using data collected from among more than 49,000 miles of river and streams that begin in upstate New York and eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay. At a time when natural gas drilling has put the SRBC in the spotlight, its executive [...]
Pennsylvania’s Fish and Boat Commission executive director John Arway says the Department of Environmental Protection needs to do more to protect aquatic life and water quality along 98 miles of the Susquehanna River. Arway takes aim at DEP Secretary Michael Krancer’s decision not to seek an “impaired” status for the river may not be driven [...]
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has decided not to seek an “impaired” status for the Susquehanna River under the Clean Water Act, rejecting a plea from the state’s Fish and Boat Commissioner John Arway. Last April, Arway wrote a letter to DEP Secretary Michael Krancer, describing in detail increased incidents of “black-spotted” fish turning [...]
Hundreds of protestors are rallying in the street outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center today. Organizers of “Shale Gas Outrage” say gas drilling is polluting water wells, the air, and destroying the pristine landscape of rural Pennsylvania. The event began with a song by gospel singer Rhetta Morgan. Later Maya van Rossum, from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network [...]
It’s that time of year again – warm weather means the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is temporarily suspending water withdrawal permits at about 60 locations. Pennsylvania Public Radio’s Mary Wilson reports: Near-drought conditions persist throughout the Susquehanna River Basin, and businesses that usually take large amounts of water out of the system’s streams and rivers [...]
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