MWA to help residents with drilling questions
“Are they allowed to do that?” “Is this legal?”
The Mountain Watershed Association (MWA) in Melcroft said it receives many phone calls from people asking questions like that about Marcellus shale natural gas well drilling near their homes and is offering training to answer those questions.
In addition, the MWA is working with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities to allow people to report problems at well sites online through the newly launched Marcellus Citizen Stewardship Project.
“We get a lot of phone calls from people asking: ‘Is this legal? Are they allowed to do that?'” said Krissy Kasserman, the MWA’s Youghiogheny riverkeeper. “We decided to address those questions at one time through this project.”
The MWA has scheduled two free, three-hour “visual assessment training” sessions designed to teach people to identify possible problems by using their senses of sight, smell and hearing, she said.
“We’re teaching folks what to look out for and how to take action such as filing a complaint with the DEP if they see a problem,” Kasserman said.
Training topics include the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) gas well permitting process, drilling regulations, air and water pollution and safety, she said.
Lessons also will include how to report problems and observations using online forms on an interactive website, www.fractracker.org, which was set up by Pitt, she said.
The reported information eventually will be added to the FracTracker site, which also features blogs and other Marcellus drilling data. Registration is required to use the FracTracker website.
The first visual assessment training session will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 27 in Room 114 of the Burnett Building at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington.
The second session will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Quality Inn and Conference Center in Somerset.
For people who complete the visual assessment training, the MWA will eventually offer water monitoring training in which participants will receive a hand-held meter that measures total dissolved solids in water, Kasserman said. That training will cost about $25 to cover the cost of the meter, she said.
More information about the training sessions and the Marcellus Citizen Stewardship Project is available by calling the MWA at 724-455-4200 or online at www.mtwatershed.com.