Robson: part one

A closer look at Wayne’s first well

By SANDY LONG

HONESDALE, PA — A citizens group that photographed dead and dying trees on the first exploratory natural gas well drilled in Wayne County, PA waited several months after filing a complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), only to learn through a story printed in The River Reporter on December 24, 2009, that a contaminant had been identified at the site.

Related events have stirred concerns about the adequacy of the current monitoring process that applies to natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania.

A brief history

Environmental attorney Jeff Zimmerman filed an official complaint with the DEP on October 5 on behalf of the watchdog organization Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), citing a possible contamination event at the site. The complaint can be viewed at damascuscitizens.org/Robson.html ( click on Robson-complaint.pdf ).

In late August and early September 2009, Pat Carullo, a DCS founder, arranged with LightHawk, a volunteer aviation organization, to gather aerial images of the site. Carullo submitted the photos to The River Reporter. According to an email statement from DEP community relations coordinator Daniel Spadoni, “Mark Carmon [of the DEP] received an email from Tom Kane with The River Reporter on September 23, which he forwarded to Oil and Gas staff [O&G]. The email included the aerial photo showing defoliated trees.”

An O&G inspector investigated the site on September 24, in response to that email. According to Spadoni, the inspector found no surface impact to the area of concern. Vegetation appeared “healthy and unimpacted,” although “trees in the area of concern appeared to have lost their leaves much earlier than the surrounding trees.” He noted it “might be possible something in the subsurface was having an impact and should be further investigated.”

A DEP water quality specialist followed up in October and observed similar circumstances. “When digging down a bit in the soil in the area headed toward the defoliated trees, he noted a slight petroleum odor. That is when he collected a soil sample to analyze for petroleum products,” wrote Spadoni.

Zimmerman said he requested the opportunity to be present during sampling and to participate in split sampling. On November 9, the DEP issued a notice of violation (NOV) for the contamination event to Chesapeake Appalachia, one of Wayne County’s largest leaseholders. Zimmerman was never notified of the NOV, or kept apprised of the progress of the investigation. “There doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for feedback to those who file complaints,” he said.

“NOV’s are communications from DEP to the alleged violator,” wrote Spadoni in an email. “We do not notify anyone else of those actions. We explained that to Mr. Zimmerman. We did respond to his request to do split sampling with DEP by telling him that was not appropriate. It is private property and as a regulatory agency we have authority to go on the site to conduct environmental investigations but we do not have authority to take others. We explained to him that if his group gets permission from the property owner they can take their own samples, but not with DEP.”

Status of the investigation

The DEP met with Chesapeake several weeks ago regarding the Robson site and spoke with Zimmerman following that meeting.

“In a phone conversation with Mr. Zimmerman he requested to be allowed to participate in the discussions and review of any work plan submitted by Chesapeake for the characterization of the Robson site,” wrote Spadoni. “We explained that was not appropriate. He then asked if his group could submit suggestions to us following a file review. We indicated that was reasonable and that we would consider their comments when submitted. Nothing more than that. No time frame has been discussed.”

“We will submit a proposal of what we think should be in the work plan,” said Zimmerman.

For now, testing has been limited to soil, but that may change as the investigation evolves. “If groundwater or surface water are determined to be a media of concern based upon the results of the initial soil samples, additional site characterization activities, including the installation of monitoring wells to characterize groundwater and the sampling of any surface water locations, will be required.”

Chesapeake officials are working with the DEP to pursue the additional testing, and conducting an independent analysis of the data. Spadoni confirmed that Chesapeake’s environmental consultant, SAIC, was on-site recently conducting additional sampling. When results are back, the DEP will again meet with Chesapeake to determine what is needed next.

“We’re nowhere close to finished, so you can’t draw any conclusions about it yet,” said Yowell. “Some test results take many weeks to get back. We chase it ‘til we’re done. And I don’t know when that’s going to be.”

[Next week: A look at testing, staffing and more]