Living with Methane Migration in Bradford County

Published on Jul 31, 2012 by StateImpactPA …

Michael Leighton of Bradford County, PA, gives StateImpact Pennsylvania a tour of the devices Chesapeake Energy has installed in his basement.

Methane gas has been bubbling into Leighton's water well and onto his property since mid-May. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection has linked the stray gas to a nearby Chesapeake well. Read StateImpact Pennsylvania's full report here: http://bit.ly/OtjM33

Oh, joy.

Later

Frackin' the Marcellus: SNAFU

From NPR...

In Northeast Pennsylvania, Methane Migration Means Flammable Puddles And 30-Foot Geysers

Last Sep­tem­ber, Chesa­peake Energy CEO Aubrey McClen­don declared to a Philadel­phia energy con­fer­ence that the prob­lem of methane migrat­ing through the ground near nat­ural gas drilling sites had been fixed. “Prob­lem iden­ti­fied. Prob­lem solved,” he told an industry-heavy crowd at the Philadel­phia Con­ven­tion Center.

Good luck with that.

Might want to retire the trusty Zippo.

Later

Thinkin' out loud

I know the lefties among us hated old George Dubya cause he took trillions and pissed it away bombing people and places we ain’t never heard of before. I hate to rain on your utopian parade, but every president takes trillions and searches for half a reason to bomb people and places we ain’t never heard of before. Tell me I’m wrong.

But these days, we got this here fraud in the White House who continues to take trillions and piss it away bombing even more people and places we ain’t never heard of before. Simultaneously, he takes trillions and trillions and hands it out to supporters, foreign invaders, slackers, freaks and fringe groups.

It seems as if he’s the first president saying that we should ask what our country can do for us, while we bitch about our government-supplied cell phones. What else can our country give to us before the Govmint mint overheats and bursts into flames?

After four years of trickle-down handouts and an unemployment rate hovering in the teens, very many of us had better hope that Barry wins a second term and continues to stave off any possible economic recovery. Because if a change comes in November, an economic recovery will not be very far behind. And when the economy perks up, when employers look to hire again and when the overly-generous freebie spigot gets abruptly cranked shut, Slacker Nation is going to have to get off of it’s drug-addled ass and work for a living. There! I said it! Work.

And this divide and conquer along racial lines stuff is not going to help anyone but the guy fighting for his political life. We’re less a country than a loosely amalgamated group of urban tribes ready and willing to war if and when the lights go down for an extended period or when the satellite dish signal is disrupted for more than an hour or two.

Blacks hate the whites. The whites are tired of being accused of genocide or some such thing by the blacks. The blacks hate the Mexicans. The Mexicans hate the blacks. The whites don’t really care for the Mexicans. And the Mexicans hate anybody who says they should be fitted with box cars and shipped off to their points of origin.

The Divider-in-Chief came our for gay marriage, but he did nothing to help make it the law of the land. He doesn’t care what the straights or the Bible thumpers think, he’s for it so you should vote for him. So everybody gets all worked up all over again, and he’s off to provide amnesty to a segment of our society that’ll upset still more, and all to secure a few more votes. Maybe.

While many of us have no jobs, no homes and no prospects, he’s ready and willing to eagerly demonize his opponent for supposedly leaving some former workers with no jobs. Really? Last I heard, it was not his opponent who ordered the GM and Chrysler car dealerships owned by right-wingers shuttered by executive fiat.

Using his own mocking words as proof, Barry demonizes the corporate folks, he loathes the rich folks, he distrusts the Wall Street folks, he blames the banking folks, he derides the small business folks and he wants to further tax the middle class folks in possession of anything more than the belongings of your average fourth-generation welfare family. Meanwhile, he applauds the Occupy thugs who defecate in and defile your public parks.

Now, is that a recipe for a booming economy when the top commie dog sees a glowing neon target on the backs of the folks that are the economy?

If his health care boondoggle didn’t add enough crippling uncertainty to the fragile economic mix, how would you rate his asinine decision to support the various and sundry violent uprisings across the Middle East. Gee, that won’t add any more uncertainty to the geopolitical mix going forward. Or will it?

I guess what I am trying to say is that we are being “led” by a clueless fraud. It’s not about what’s good for the country, it’s all about what’ll be good for him. And his government-or-nothing ideology clashes with those of the good, hard-working folks who just want to be able to work, frolic, fornicate a tad bit and be left alone.

Freedom, I reckon they might call it.

Them’s all I got.

Later

Upcoming remarks

I'm working on my BlogCon speech.

Look, if you’re getting lots of traffic, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I blogged harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something—there are a whole bunch of hardworking bloggers out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great HTML or JavaScript teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable Internet system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in fiber-optics and servers. If you’ve got a blog—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen....
 
Ah, it's a collectivist work in progress.
 
Later

'Zach Attack'

I remember being 9-years-old.

1967. Derby, Connecticut. Direnzio Heights. Bradley School.

I remember the marital strife, the constant bickering and the occasional violence, even though I loved practically everything else around me in that long ago, one-time environment.

And when it was my turn to make like a parent, I spared my kids the torment and the uncertainty that was my childhood on all too many occasions. But these days, I feel as if I'm seeing history repeated. Or, some such unexplainable thing.

Happy birthday, Zach.

Later

What's that orange stuff?

I am posting this 5-year-old video thingie only because my nephew Mason is sleeping over after the big party here at the new house, and also because he is now five years older and no longer built like the fireplug he once was.

But, while we were busting his ball-like nuggets, my grandsons got to asking about the orange waters and the orange staining contained within this video exercise. And I have to tell you, after further review, these are some of the best pictures, taken locally, that clearly depict what Acid Mine Drainage looks like up close and personal.

  

Forgive me if I've missed something somewhere along the way, but this is the photographic tutorial on our localized AMD issue. It's like I've repeatedly said ever since I was first invited out on to the river: Rather than stare down at it from it's banks or from a bridge, get out on it and stare back at the valley from the middle of the river. When you do, you learn.

Mason seems almost all grown now, and the orange waters continue to plague the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre. Five years.

So much for raising awareness.

R.I.P., Ray.

Later

As it was originally intended

Copyright infringement, my well-tapered ass!

If I dig your musical craft and dare to spread it to previously unheard-of audiences, I'm somehow ripping you off?

Bull!



Later

I think they call it deflection

Deflect from the facts...



Buh-bye, Barry.

Later

D-words again

Thanks to the loose lips of Philthydumpia's Michael Vick, the dreaded Eagles have been upgraded from "Dream Team" status to now being a possible "Dynasty."

See, the thing is, to even dare utter that latter D-word, you first need to have at least one NFL championship trophy under tow, something that the Eagles sorely and bitterly lack. Having four in their possession, I figure members of the New York Football Giants could be brought in in advisory roles.

Anywho, while much was made of the supposedly sexier first-round draft picks some months ago, the G-Men went and scored on the steal of the draft by grabbing the new version of Walter Payton---David Wilson.




 
NFC East, you do not have my sympathies.
 
Bummer.
 
Later

Fracking and climate change?

I'm sure I've never linked to G4's Attack of The Show before, but I found this snippet in which a professor from Cornell University claims that fracking will add to the so-called climate change.

And this is a first, but he also goes on to say that the EPA's new air emission restrictions on gas drillers will only apply to new wells, as the existing wells will be grandfathered.

As for Attack of The Show, say it with me in lustful tones...Olivia...Munn.

What's not to like?

Later

Fornwhat?

I absolutely love all three of my three kids.

I do. Always did, always will.

And even though I've had my doubts over these many years, after the big wedding at Stroudsmoor was concluded, I kind of knew that my youngest, that my biggest doubter had finally come to terms with the reality that was always staring her directly in the face: That while her parents where far from perfect, they would love, protect and defend her to the very end.

Ebon, the picture says it all.

Your mom loves you. So do I. So do a lot of other people

Your passage to a budding and beckoning wonderful life makes me feel as if I've done something right during all of these mostly turbulent years.

Jason and Ebon?

Sounds like a plan to me. I'm all in.

G'nite

Omaha Beach

Somebody else did that.



Later

Scumbag

Two words: Scum and bag.

Put 'em together.

At this troubled and worrisome point, anybody who defends this charlatan is stupid, a liar, a thief or a scumbag.

Later

Invasion of the President Snatchers

This guy is a walking/talking argument FOR abortion...



His Kiev goose is cooked. Come election season, the rout will be on!

Later

No Doubt

After a nine year hiatus...



Later

RiverFest 2012 on PA Outdoor Life

Since this segment was aired on the very day we were filling the rental truck, I never had a chance to see it.



I'm surprised they missed Kayak Dude wrestling with the crocodile.

'Til next year.

Later

Off the rails

Jeez! I should have stuck to fantasy baseball. It’s…it’s safer in there.

Group wants city hall railing removed

Members of the recently formed Wilkes-Barre Taxpayers Association are seeking to bridge the contentious divide between their group and Wilkes-Barre’s City Council – in a physical sense, anyway.

Association member Linda Urban said in an email Saturday the group will send a letter to council and the city administration asking that the railing dividing the City Council chamber be removed. She calls the barrier “a form of intimidation.”

More needless gibberish coming from the Wilkes-Barre Dingleberry Association, a nebulous and self-serving group that represents no one and nobody, a ragtag collection of perpetually angry, put-off folks who can’t even remember who or what angered them in the first place.

These people fire off misrepresentations, repeat half-truths, name call, and mislabel everyone and everything they see fit to prop up their relentless efforts bordering on abject lunacy, but they are ultimately intimidated by an ages-old railing?

You tell me, man. I’m not insane, not yet. So I need some help with this one.

829-1314?

Please, please…enough.

I don’t give a flying funk about Penn State, Coach Paterno, Gerry Sandusky or what may or may not have happened when no one was looking or otherwise. I don’t care. The NCAA’s Death Penalty? Who cares?

For the most part, the decades-old legend was built on the thrashing of overmatched patsies.

Tell me I’m wrong.

I see the Republicans of Luzerne County done got together and voted themselves a new fearless leader.

While that’s all well and good, I fail to see how the questionable timing fits into a presidential election year at this late date.

What the new honcho needs to focus on is doing away with the imposter in the White House. Because, if we don’t lose the loser, we’ll all turn out to be life’s losers.

Where's Renita?

Later

Oblahblah: Nailed it!

Very early on in his disasterous presidency, I started referring to the all-knowing cryptic Marxist as Baroke Oblahblah, as in, everything is broke and all he does is go blah, blah, blah.

Going on Four...Years...Later...

See?

Despite senility, my instincts are still good.

Later

Necessary reading

Remember, it can't happen here!

New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water

The study, conducted by scientists at Duke University and California State Polytechnic University at Pomona and released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tested drinking water wells and aquifers across Northeastern Pennsylvania. Researchers found that, in some cases, the water had mixed with brine that closely matched brine thought to be from the Marcellus Shale or areas close to it.

You know, the only alternatives to these sorts of studies are the, ahem, the "studies" conducted by the drillers themselves.

Later

New garbage schedule

Things, times, situations and people change.

That’s how I explained it earlier today. It?

In short, since June the 30th…I have been busting my ball bearings. Lucky for me, I don't need them anymore. And as a result, Wifey and I are now residents of the Parsons section of Wilkes-Barre.

Save for the recent black-on-black (drug related!!!) shooting on Jay Street, it’s been downright boring up here. Not quiet, boring.

Before today, I was last cruising the Internet on that aforementioned date---June 30th. I made call after call to Bhopal, India. I talked to Patel after Patel, and all the while desperately trying but failing to decipher their repeated miscommunications to me. Barely discernable mutterings, in fact. Finally, I uttered some international language whereas business is concerned---Either turn it on or cancel my effing account! And just like that, here I am.

Note: Call centers servicing English-speaking peoples ought to be staffed by English-speaking people.

Thanks to this hot stretch of working by day and moving by night, I am far, far behind on the latest news, the local electronic buzz and all of that. And as of this moment, I could really care less.

As for the recent move from the Nord End to Parsons, I offer this: If all of this so-called “diversity,” criminality and reverse-gentrification gets a serious foothold in this neighborhood, my next move will be to one of those bucolic corners of the county where folks are allowed a chicken or two, a hog, a burn barrel and a few junkyard dogs out front. A place where there are no ordinances prohibiting a person from riding the rider mower in their boxer shorts.

Can you say “double-wide?”

Opal! You hot ‘lil bitch!

Later