Want to Know What Permits Have Been Issued?

www.ahs2.dep.state.pa.us/eFactsWeb/default.aspx

For a List of Drilling Violations, Compliments of the DEP

http://media.kjonline.com/documents/Driller+Violations+Report.pdf

State Certified Water Testing Laboratories

There are four elements that make up a legally defensible baseline water test.
1. The test must be conducted by an independent 3rd party.
2. Training and protocols must be in place
3. There must be an identifiable chain of custody
4. The test must be conducted by a Pennsylvania State Certified Laboratory.

The State Certified Laboratories that serve Northeastern PA are:

Aqua-Tech Lab, Mountaintop, PA 868-5346
Kirby Health Center, Wilkes-Barre, PA 822-4278
Benchmark Analytical, East Stroudsburg, PA, 421-5122
Prosser Labs, Effort, PA, 629-2981
QC Labs, Southampton, PA, 215-355-3900
FX Browne, Lansdale, PA, 215-362-3878
Friend Lab Inc., Waverly, NY, 607-565-2893
Honesdale Consolidated, Honesdale, PA, 253-3230
Suburban Labs, Temple, PA, 610-929-3666
Kappe Associates, Frederick, MD, 301-846-0210
Eastern Laboratory, South Waverly, PA, 888-0169
Clinical Labs, Inc., Throop, PA, 800-692-6345 Ext. 216
Northeastern Labs, Scranton, PA, 348-0775

It is recommended that you have your well water tested as soon as you see beginning of operations by the natural gas industry. Test results are usually good for only six months. However, there are less expensive tests you can have done on an intermittent basis that can tell you, if certain indicators are suddenly present, that you need to have the more expensive tests done.

If drilling has already started in your area, it is not too late to have a water test done.

Although we do not recommend any one water testing company, if you have questions about general prices, about the tests themselves (their are 3 tiers of tests to consider), we do recommend you contact Andy Goldberg, owner and technician of Independent Water Testing in Clarks Summit. His phone number is 888-MY H2O TEST. (Yes I know there's an extra digit there.) You can also email him at andy@independentwatertesting.com. He has a wealth of information that you can use as you decide when and how to have your water tested.

Wyoming County Officers and contact info

County Commissioners

Anthony Litwin, Chairman 836-3200
Judy Kraft Mead, Vice-Chair
J. Stark Bartron II

Commissioners Staff
William Gaylord, Chief Clerk/Administrator
Jim Davis, County Solicitor
Georgette Smith, Deputy Chief Clerk
Marisa Crispell-BarberAdministrative Assistant/Website Administrator

County Officers of the Court

Judge Russell D. Shurtleff 836-3151

District Justices

District 44-3-0l
P.O. Box 276 Factoryville, PA 18419 945-3038
*Clinton Township, Factoryville Borough, Lemon Township, Nicholson Borough, Overfield Township

District 44-3-02
Carl W. Smith Jr. Courthouse 836-3797
*Eaton Township, Exeter Township, Falls Township, Monroe Township, Northmoreland Township, Noxen Township, Tunkhannock Borough

District 44-3-04
John Hovan 271 Hollowcreast Rd. Tunkhannock, PA 18657 836-l66l
*Braintrim, Forkston, Mehoopany,Meshoppen, North Branch, Tunkhannock, Washington and Windham Townships, Laceyvile, Meshoppen Boroughs.

Sheriff

Richard Montross
Courthouse 836-3200

District Attorney

Jeff Mitchell Courthouse 836-3200

Chief Assessor

Tax Mapping and Assessment Office
1 Court House Square
Tunkhannock, Pa 18657
(570) 996-2262
Office hours are from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.

Eric A. Brown, CPE, Chief
Catherine J. Voda, CPE Chief Deputy

County Planning Commission

Paul Weilage, Planning Director:
pweilage@wycopa.org 996-2267

Planning Commission Board Members:

Walter Derhammer
Richard Fitzsimmons
Thomas Davis
Dale Brown
Marta Ruiz
Jim Cappucci
Glenn Shupp
Jon Howard
Randy Ehrenzeller

County Solicitor

John Hovan 836-5507

Emergency Management Agency

Martha Decker, Coordinator Human Services Building 836-2828
Betty Carpenter, Operations and Training Officer

Communications Center

836-9111

Emergency Calls 9ll

Hours of Operation:
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Monday - Friday
After hours emergency: (570) 836-6161

Housing Authority
John Jennings, Executive Director
Michael Dziak, Chairman


Members:

Philip Shebby
Stacy Huber
Osbert Patton
Ronald Burr

Bailey Apartments Nicholson 942-63l0
Susquehanna Apartments 836-5282
Old Orchard Apartments Falls
White's Ferry Apartments Falls
Meshoppen Townhouse Apartments
Exeter Township Apartments

Redevelopment Authority

Bailey Apartments, Nicholson 942-6l55
John Jennings, Executive Director
Philip Shebby, Chairman

Members:

James Cruver
Michael Dziak
C. Ronald Burr
Stacy Huber

email your reps

If you need to do a mass email to your reps, here's a partly completed list. Just cut and paste! If you get mailer daemons on any of them, let me know.

Republicans House

wadolph@pahousegop.com, mbaker@pahousegop.com,
parep160@aol.com, jbear@pahousegop.com, kbeyer@pahousegop.com,kboback@pahousegop.com, sboyd@pahousegop.com, jchristi@pahousegop.com, srohrer@pahousegop.com ,cross@pahousegop.com, cschrode@pahousegop.com, shsmith@pahousegop.com, csonney@pahousegop.com, jstern@pahousegop.com, Wtallman@pahousegop.com, Ktrue@pahousegop.com, mturzai@pahousegop.com, Kwatson@pahousegop.com, dobrien@pahousegop.com, boneill@pahousegop.com, doberlan@pahousegop.com, mpeifer@pahousegop.com, sperry@pahousegop.com, Spetri@pahousegop.com, mphillip@pahousegop.com, tpickett@pahousegop.com, jpyle@pahousegop.com, tquigley@pahousegop.com,
dreed@pahousegop.com, Mreese@pahousegop.com, dreichle@pahousegop.com, broae@pahousegop.com, pclymer@pahousegop.com, bcutler@pahousegop.com, Gday@pahousegop.com, Sdelozie@pahousegop.com, gdenling@pahousegop.com, gdigiro@pahousegop.com, jevans@pahousegop.com, geverett@pahousegop.com, rfairchi@pahousegop.com, Ffarry@pahousegop.com, rgeist@pahousegop.com, mmustio@pahousegop.com, dmilne@pahousegop.com, rmiller@pahousegop.com, dmillard@pahousegop.com, NickMicc@pahousegop.com, kgillesp@pahousegop.com, mgingric@pahousegop.com, ggrell@pahousegop.com, kharper@pahousegop.com, aharris@pahousegop.com, Shelm@pahousegop.com, thenness@pahousegop.com, dhess@pahousegop.com, Dheckern@pahousegop.com, rkauffma@pahousegop.com, mkeller@pahousegop.com, tkillion@pahousegop.com, jknowles@pahousegop.com, Tkrieger@pahousegop.com, jmarshal@pahousegop.com, dmetcalf@pahousegop.com

Democrats House

Unfortunately, it looks like you have to email each of them individually. Am working on getting specific emails.

Senate:

alloway@pasen.gov, dargall@pasen.gov, lbaker@pasen.gov, boscola@pasenate.com, pbrowne@pasen.gov, mbrubaker@pasen.gov, jcorman@pasen.gov, costa@pasenate.com, andy@pasenate.com, jearll@pasen.gov, jeichelberger@pasen.gov, eerickson@pasen.gov, ferlo@pasenate.com, mfolmer@pasen.gov, fontana@pasenate.com, jgordner@pasen.gov, sgreenleaf@pasen.gov, hughes@pasenate.com, kitchen@pasenate.com, logan@pasenate.com, cmcilhinney@pasen.gov, mellow@pasenate.com, bmensch@pasen.gov, musto@pasenate.com, opake@pasenate.com, jorie@pasen.gov, jpiccola@pasen.gov, dpileggi@pasen.gov, jpippy@pasen.gov, jrafferty@pasen.gov, jscarnati@pasen.gov, lsmucker@pasen.gov, stack@pasenate.com, stout@pasenate.com, tartaglione@pasenate.com, rtomlinson@pasen.gov, vance@pasen.gov, washington@pasenate.com, mwaugh@pasen.gov, dwhite@pasen.gov, mwhite@pasen.gov, williams@pasenate.com, wozniak@pasenate.com, gyaw@pasen.gov

A Warm, Fuzzy Day with Cabot

(The Cabot Community Picnic, Montrose Area High School, August 14, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.)

Corporate Big Brother loves you. Or just has really bad taste. But in a gesture right out of George Orwell’s 1984, Cabot invites us all to a community picnic. Can this be Cabot, the company behind the environmental screw-ups poisoning PA daily? The very same. Cabot? Community? The two words blink across the page at each other in disbelief.

See, a friend of mine with years of Hazmat safety experience—even gigs with the good ol’ gas boys of Oklahoma and Texas (the same types swarming here)—told a curious yarn about Cabot. Currently unemployed, he drove hours to drop his resume at a local Cabot office. On entering, he said he’d picked up a serious vibe of “We don’t like yer kind ’round here, boy.” He just wasn’t sure if they meant Yankees, local guys—or safety men.

Talk of good ol’ boys suggests another tale. After the War Between the States, we Yanks blew off Honest Abe’s plan to “bind up wounds,” and what goes around comes around. But mark my word, Scarlett, these nomads—these “reverse carpetbaggers”—aren’t flowers of Southern chivalry. No, Gone with the Wind is the wrong movie here; we’re talking Deliverance. Certain crew members have flashed guns at complaining landowners—not owners under contract, but neighbors griping of trespass. A pickup with Texas plates swerved to nearly hit me as I expressed (with my middle finger, for a keepsake photo) my free citizen's views on a fracking tower. A small hotel owner’s lovely Victorian rooms were drunkenly smashed when she refused to slash her price. All besides the usual DUIs, fistfights, meth abuse,and rape.

To be fair, these aren’t all Cabot people (the pickup guy was Chief), just the vagrant "roughnecks" gas drillers hire. Probably it’s not a Southern thing, but an “invading army” thing; people with no stake in a community aren’t prone to behave well when faced with long hours of boredom and discomfort laced with moments of sheer terror. Hiring local people might help. But naw, they’d never think of that—except for ex-cons and dropouts. Probably to serve as role models.

Cabot, like other drillers, is deaf to gripes about these problems. Once you’ve bought state houses and lawyers out the wazoo, PR mustn’t matter much. Or perhaps to fix things in Texas, y'all just throw a big barbecue.

Marcellus Shale: The Hazards of Toxic Oligarchy

Marcellus Shale: The Toxic Hazards of Oligarchy
(A letter sent to The Nation)

I read with passionate agreement Bernie Sanders' essay "No to Oligarchy." Never was a tax better in tune with democratic institutions than the so-called "death tax"; not to impose it simply amounts to a large welfare handout to the near and dear of the rich. Somehow, I suspect they're already not hurting.

Although Sanders' piece hints at the hazards of oligarchy to the American people, it lacked the length to give examples. I can cite a telling one: the breakneck-paced, unjust imposition of gas drilling by hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") on communities throughout Pennsylvania. The whole history of industry lobbying in our state, now exposed in a Common Cause study titled "Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets," reveals how painstakingly gas industry lobbying and campaign funding assure that their siren voice rings round the clock in lawmakers' ears--at whatever incalculable cost to the common good.

As citizens of rural Pennsylvania, my wife and I will soon be among the many to pay that cost. Even if we dodge the horrors of water contamination documented in Josh Fox's award-winning film Gasland, we'll still face certain air pollution and the virtual industrial dismantling of the peaceful rural community we picked to live in. Far more broadly, the water supplies and recreational fishing and boating of the unsuspecting millions served by the Susquehanna and Delaware watersheds will soon be at risk. And all for the sake of a supposedly "clean fuel" that a Cornell University study shows, once its extraction process is considered, to be a worse greenhouse gas offender than even mountaintop coal.

In all of this, the only "advice and consent" that occurred was between gas industry lobbyists and U.S. and PA legislators, or between drillers and leasers of drillable land--many cash-strapped farmers scarcely equipped to negotiate shrewdly with well-heeled, well-rehearsed industry touts. Perhaps the best evidence of the iron grip of toxic oligarchy on our lawmakers is that increasingly many activists believe our only chances to force a moratorium lie in civil disobedience--or in citizens invoking their Second Amendment rights. Clearly we should have said "no to oligarchy" long before it came to this pass.