The Hydrogram: Shenandoah Water Resources

Drought Impact

Posted on November 23, 2010.

Hay A Hot Commodity This Winter

News Leader, Staunton, VA Nov.21 RAPHINE,

If it weren’t for a neighbor who wouldn’t mow his lawn this summer, Jenny Driver’s cattle might be dieting in a month or two.

Like many Shenandoah Valley cattle farmers, she harvested far less hay than usual. Her crop of the dried grasses that are her cattle’s main winter food is down 30 to 40 percent because of the drought. That’s pretty typical.

Making things worse, she had to feed cattle from her reduced hay stores because the drought killed so much grass in her pastures this summer. She wasn’t alone in that, either.

Now, cattle farmers are preparing to walk a winter tightrope: how much hay to buy at what price, whether it makes sense to sell cattle early, even if they’re smaller and don’t bring in as much, and wondering whether the snow will hold off long enough to get a few more weeks of grazing out in their fields.

MARCELLUS SHALE GAS MINING.

In a historic action, the Pittsburgh City Council, on Nov. 16th, voted unanimously, to ban natural gas production in the city, as reported in,

"City OKs ban on gas drilling,"

in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

After Pittsburgh City Council gave final approval Tuesday to a ban on natural-gas production in the city, industry opponents vowed to press for similar prohibitions at the Allegheny County and state levels.

Council cited health and environmental concerns in passing the ban, which the industry has dismissed as illegal and supporters portrayed as part of a populist tide against Marcellus Shale gas production.

"We're going to be slowly poisoned if we don't rise up against this undemocratic, unconstitutional" industry, said Lincoln Place resident Loretta Weir, who is active in the group Marcellus Shale Protest.

The group is concerned about well, river and air pollution. Clipboard in hand, Lincoln Place resident Jeanne McMullen said she and other group members are circulating petitions to ban gas production in the county and statewide.

Councilman Doug Shields sponsored Pittsburgh's ordinance, saying shale gas production portended a return to the city's polluted industrial past.

On Monday night, South Fayette commissioners voted to exclude gas drilling from residential neighborhoods, farms and parks.

Foes of shale drilling take message to Green Tree (PA),

Anti-pollution group meeting here, Nov. 20, Pittsburg Post-Gazette,

The natural gas industry has been making inroads into Pennsylvania for a few years, and now their opponents are opening up a new front in the state, too.

The national convention of the Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project, the country's biggest group dedicated to protecting rural and urban properties from the effects of natural gas development, is being held for the first time on the East Coast this year, after years of focusing on anti-pollution efforts in areas such as the Rocky Mountains, Texas and Alaska.

The message from the more than 200 local and nationwide activists ending their meeting in Green Tree today -- many of whom have already experienced the gas boom repeating itself now in Pennsylvania due to Marcellus Shale exploration -- stayed the same, despite the change in location.

"You're going to suffer. You're going to pay the price for the [gas industry's] profits," warned Pavillion, Wyo., rancher John Fenton, whose 200-acre ranch is surrounded by 24 natural gas wells. "They're there to get you to sign the [mineral lease] papers and be quiet." [...more...]

Natural gas backers warn against tough fracturing rules

Houston Chronicle, Nov. 18,

The oil industry's leading trade group, trying to fend off mounting concerns about hydraulic fracturing used to extract natural gas, warned Thursday that tougher government regulations threaten jobs, the economy and the abundance of low-cost fuel.

As many as 80 percent of the natural gas wells drilled in the U.S. over the next decade are likely to use hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract the energy source, said Sara Banaszak, a senior economist for the American Petroleum Institute.

"Hydraulic fracturing is safe, and lawmakers should be cautious in their efforts to restrict it," Banaszak said. "Adding unnecessary additional regulation of this practice could kill jobs and important economic activity and also hamper our nation's energy security."

The API's effort comes as several state and local governments consider new restrictions on hydraulic fracturing, including banning the practice altogether. For example, the Pittsburgh City Council this week voted unanimously to forbid natural gas drilling.

Chesapeake Bay Restoration Program

Va. readies revised Chesapeake Bay plan for EPA

A revised Virginia plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay is headed to the federal government by month’s end despite mixed reviews of whether it improves on the first proposal that was universally panned by environmentalists.

A group of more than 30 stakeholders with different views on the plan including conservationists, manufacturers, farmers and municipal officials met for a final time on Tuesday. It will go to the Environmental Protection Agency by Nov. 29, without a final review by the panel.

Chesapeake Bay Polluted by 568 Million Chickens

According to a report by Environment America, the 568 million chickens raised on the Delmarva Peninsula — many of them owned by Perdue — generate an estimated 1.1 billion pounds of chicken litter every year. That manure in rainwater runoff was cited as a major contributor to the Chesapeake Bay’s pollution problems in a report that explored how giant corporate factory-farms pollute waterways in the United States.
Handful of Big Ag Companies Responsible for A Lot of Water Pollution
Fewer than a dozen corporations control the majority of the beef, pork and chicken produced in the United States. Environment America presented 8 case studies of factory-farm corporations and their impact on the environment:

• Archer Daniels Midland and chemical-intensive corn – This agriculture commodities giant has lobbied for massive corn subsidies for production of high fructose corn syrup and ethanol. Industrialized corn is the number one source of nitrogen pollution responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Cargill and factory pork farming - Cargill owns 3 facilities that are among the top 20 dischargers of toxic chemicals to waterways in 2008 in the United States.
• JBS and factory-farm beef - The Brazilian food company recently paid a $1.9 million fine for pollution – including E. coli, ammonia, phosphorus - from its rendering plant located along Pennsylvania’s Skippack Creek, which triggered a series of fish kills.
• Perdue and contract chicken farming – The company’s 568 million chickens contribute to the algae blooms that deplete oxygen levels in 78% of the Chesapeake Bay during the summer months.
• Pilgrim’s Pride and chicken processing – One of the company’s plants is the largest source of nitrogen pollutionin northeast Texas’ Lake o’ the Pines.
• Smithfield Foods and hog waste – The company owns many of the 3 million hogs in North Carolina’s Neuse River basin responsible forhalf of the phosphorus and a third of the nitrogen nutrients fueling algae blooms that starve the river of oxygen and can trigger fish kills.
• Tyson Foods and poultry farms – Spreading much of the poultry waste from 2,800 poultry farms, which is equivalent to waste produced by 10.7 million people, on agricultural land without treatment is a threat to the Illinois River watershed throughout Arkansas and Oklahoma.
• Vreba-Hoff and factory dairy - Consolidation in the milk industry and pollution from the resulting giant dairies in in Michigan and Ohio may be contributing to the re-emergence of the dead zone in Lake Erie.

Inaugural class of Chesapeake Conservation Corps chosen

Inaugural class of Chesapeake Conservation Corps chosen

EPA Vows to Be Chesapeake Watchdog
Among 16 young adults introduced Monday at a ceremony in Millersville were Elliott Wright, 24, with tattoos snaking around his thick forearms, who said he was excited and ready. “They say they’ve got a lot of things for me to do,” said Wright, a Baltimore resident.

Also there was Jennifer Carr, 24, of Lancaster, Pa., who said she came across the conservancy’s recruitment ad for the corps while surfing online – one day before applications were due. “I was looking for conservation opportunities. It’s a great start,” she said.

The corps members will pair with 16 watershed organizations and government agencies such as the South River Federation and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for one year to develop career skills that organizers hope will encourage them to become the next generation’s guardians of the water system.