Dam on Pine Creek?

[trout17]

I struggle with the water withdrawal issue for drilling. I'm sure when the first settlers set out to the West they were never concerned with water but now we know that water is a critical issue there. It is a finite resource and despite the talk of the high flows we experience, we now know that all of the water used by the drillers is contaminated and out of the picture for any future use be it for drinking, watering your lawn or for personal use. The have already discussed minimum required flows with our State officials and Fish Commission. This is PA, not California! Minimum flows, are you kidding! The drillers know what the future holds and the are preparing now with water withdrawal sites in almost any stream that can handle them. With the gauges not being funded, who and how will anyone know when its time to stop withdrawing water? The DEP? The SRBC? Oh, I guess the drillers can do a drive by and phone back to stop withdrawing water. I will probably never see dry rivers or difficult water times but at this rate my children and certainly grand children will be burdened with this problem

Jim Kearney

 

[pennsangler]

While there are plenty of things to be concerned about when it comes to natural gas exploration in Pennsylvania, dry streams due to water withdrawals is right at the bottom of the list. Not only is there plenty of water in PA, many drillers are already reusing a majority of the flowback reducing water consumption up to 20%.

 

[trout17]

Not an argument, just discussion. As I said in my prior post, I am not expecting dry stream beds in my lifetime but in the future at the expected rate of drilling. Fishing Creek has many areas of dry stream bed in low water years, which has been every year lately, and will start sooner than in the past? Water is a finite resource and the demands for water will certainly increase in the future. Every gallon pumped underground for disposal is lost from the water table forever. The fact that minimum flows have been discussed by the drillers this far in the future of their exploration is very telling. I am not just speaking of fishing. Some municipalities have stopped selling to the drillers in the summer due to low water levels in their reservoirs. This with the fact that only a fraction of the wells are being fracked compared to the future demands. Once this water is gone its gone, out of use. Like I said prior, 50 years ago who would have thought that the Colorado River would be dry if all that had "rights" to the water would use them. We have discussion on this site frequently about flows on the Delaware River; is there enough water for drinking, fishing, rafting, etc and all the industrial demands on the river and these are uses that do not diminish the water supply. Gas drilling is a thirsty industry and we have not even scratched the surface of its impact in PA, especially, NC PA. We are supposed to think of the future, the next generations, I think money has clouded some peoples judgement.

Jim Kearney

 

[wsender]

Sorry, a little off topic (rather off topic from where the thread has gone), but someone posted that the dam was washed away a few days ago. Can anyone confirm this? Does anyone know how this impacts the withdraw operation?

 

[greenghost]

trout17 wrote:
Gas drilling is a thirsty industry and we have not even scratched the surface of its impact in PA, especially, NC PA. We are supposed to think of the future, the next generations, I think money has clouded some peoples judgement.

Jim Kearney

Agree Jim. And in the words of an Environmental Resource Management prof I had many, many years ago at PSU,
"Economic prosperity trumps ecological protection."

(It's the only thing I remember from the class.) ;-)

 

[trout17]

greenghost,

Sadly it seems that is all anyone remembers.

Jim Kearney

 

[jdaddy]

wsender wrote:
Sorry, a little off topic (rather off topic from where the thread has gone), but someone posted that the dam was washed away a few days ago. Can anyone confirm this? Does anyone know how this impacts the withdraw operation?

Knock it off. We are talking serious business here.

 

[Missy]

Aerial photographs of the natural gas exploration being done in and around the Pine Creek Valley in Central PA.

 

[bikerfish]

thanks for posting those Missy! so many people have no idea of the scale of these operations. I'd like to see satellite pics of the pine creek area, both current and before the drilling started, and then every year.
this state will never look the same again.

 

[bikerfish]

I wonder if that is the dam in the one pic that is the topic of this thread?

 

[Missy]

Bikerfish,
Thanks! If I come across anything else, I'll let you know. I was thinking the same thing...that instead of a dumping site, maybe the digging on the stream was part of the dam construction... Unreal that this could happen on Pine.

 

[franklin]

Missy wrote:
Bikerfish,
Thanks! If I come across anything else, I'll let you know. I was thinking the same thing...that instead of a dumping site, maybe the digging on the stream was part of the dam construction... Unreal that this could happen on Pine.

What is a dumping site?

 

[bikerfish]

I think Missy was talking about dumping waste water back in the creek. but we all know they would never do that! ;-)

 

[wsender]

bikerfish wrote:
I wonder if that is the dam in the one pic that is the topic of this thread?

Yup, that's definitely it, in some state.


View Larger Map

Behind the house with the Grey roof on Creekside Dr. You pull off of 44 on to Creekside Dr and the access road that goes down to the creek is right besides that first house.

edit: Meh, the embed didn't work right, just click on "View Larger Map".