Toxic Dumping in Steuben County; could this affect your health?

image: http://globalresourcesnews.com/getgrntop6.php?needle=marcelluspenn    This Wednesday, Jan 5th, 2011, Vince Spagnoletti head of the Steuben County Department of Public Works Department presented the findings of the Marcellus Shale drill cuttings study. As expected the conversation started and seemed to revolve around money. An increase to 15,000 per violation was said to be seen as sufficient deterrent to illegal dumping, or violations of transporting procedures. Personally I can't see any evidence of fines having ever been a deterrent to the committing of crimes by industry. Oil and gas companies have been fined billions, this hasn't improved safety in any of the areas that have been and will likely continue to be of concern.

Do fines Really deter industry from making decisions that could have implications for the community?

How much of the cost will be absorbed as externalities, both economic and ecological, by the surrounding community.

The study being presented at today's meeting was done by Casella Waste. Constantly we are finding this "fox guarding the hen house" scenario in this industry. *

Are we really going to put industry in charge of regulating themselves? Do we really trust the motives of private corporations?

University at Buffalo (UB) researchers have found indications that the process called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to release natural gas from Marcellus shale deposits can cause naturally trapped uranium inside the shale to be released. The findings add to the environmental concerns about the process, particularly chemical contamination of the groundwater in populated regions in and near the shale deposits.

Recently Mr. Spagnoletti attened a tour of a Pennsylvania landfill that accepts this waste. Also in attendance was Dave Walczak, a member of a local group of citizens concerned about the environmental implication hydro-fracking could cause, recalls that when questioned about the radioactivity of the Marcellus waste, "...he (the Pennsylvanian official leading the tour ) became defensive when questioned about the safety issues involved in the treatment of this waste and dismissed academics doing studies on drill cuttings as not knowing the realities of the real world.  It seems as though Mr. Spagnoletti agrees with this way of thinking. Or at least he didn't decide to disagree with the official at the time.



I think you can look around and see quite a few reasons to question industry, their testing methods, & integrety.

Jeff Andrysick: Local film maker and activist. 

Mr. Spagnoletti would not answer any questions at todays meeting and seems very dismissive of anyone that decided to ask any.

 Jeff and Jodi Andrysick have gotten a group of people together that have offed to pay for independent testing of the drilling sites, methods, and waste; this is a solution to the objections related to the cost of third party testing which the board had raised in an earlier meeting. However they were given the silent treatment, as all members of the board and representitives from the industry refused to speak with them.

It is probably worth mentioning that the meeting had already began long before the members of the community arrived, and long before the "official" minutes had been started.
When we arrived this morning, we were lead into a rather small office area to a meeting room -- which was soon realized to be far too small for the amount of people that were attending the meeting -- where the board and members of industry  had already been meeting behind closed doors for an indeterminable amount of time.

Related Links:
    - http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/ees/hwmc/
    - http://nyshalegasnow.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html
    - http://nyshalegasnow.blogspot.com/
    - http://kellieplace.wordpress.com/
    - http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Marcellus%20Formation/
    - http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8769.html
    - http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/9043.html
    - http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=8714&typeid=2
    - http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/newsroom/14287?id=1809&typeid=1
    - http://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/universal-waste-minimization-and-disposal-policy.html
    - http://books.google.com/books?id=nUxCMWUMVcMC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=ny+state+hazardous+waste+minimization&source=bl&ots=s0JFUcGLTg&sig=0_1LYmn4vRfa8yc8Hu4KNhh6HEs&hl=en&ei=5b0kTaOwIoOdlgetoPiSAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=ny%20state%20hazardous%20waste%20minimization&f=false
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