+ Diaries Of The Diabolical

On October 3, the Environmental Integrity Project, Food & Water Watch, Mountain Watershed Association , the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper , and individual citizens raised serious environmental compliance concerns about Olympus Energy as part of their comments on an erosion and sedimentation control permit for a proposed Heracles shale gas drilling pad in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County. Olympus Energy is proposing to construct a 500-foot by 340-foot unconventional natural gas drilling well pad with a 3,750-foot long by 24-foot wide access road.  The project will disturb a total of 24.2 acres of land, according to DEP’s PA Bulletin notice ( page 5696 ). DEP said the site will discharge or have the potential to discharge stormwater to a tributary to Fallen Timber Run which is already determined to have impaired water quality as a result of siltation ( PA Bulletin, page 5696 ) Construction of the well pad will also involve surface mining coal from the site.  Olympus is being require

Registration is now open for the 2022 Watershed Congress to be held in-person and online at the Montgomery County Community College campus in Pottstown on October 22. The Watershed Congress is an annual event that seeks to advance the best available information and techniques for protecting and restoring watersheds.  The focus on networking across disciplines means that the Watershed Congress melds science, policy, and practical applications into one program. As a result, the annual Watershed Congress is a highly anticipated event for people interested in understanding, protecting, and restoring their local streams. Join the Congress as environmental leaders in the Southeast region present and in depth look at the promise of the federal Clean Water Act, the effectiveness of its implementation to date, what it has meant for our communities, and the future of ongoing efforts and advocacy to secure truly fishable and swimmable waters. To register and for more information, visit the 2022

The Department of Environmental Protection issued notices of violation to conventional oil and gas companies for abandoning 55 wells without plugging them during September alone, according to DEP’s Oil and Gas Program Compliance Database . That brings the total number of NOVs issued by DEP for abandoning wells without plugging them in the Third Quarter of 2022 to 163 conventional wells and three unconventional shale gas wells. That’s more NOVs issued for abandoning conventional wells than in the first six months of 2022-- 163 from July through September versus 159 from January through June. Read more here .  So far in 2022 a total of 322 notices of violation were issued for conventional wells and 32 for unconventional shale gas wells for abandoning without plugging them for a total of 354 wells. And these were only the wells DEP inspectors caught companies abandoning during their regular inspections. Every oil and gas well abandoned by the oil and gas industry m