Group: Gas drilling polluting Chesapeake Bay area (gas leaking from well sites)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20111130/NEWS01/111300373/Group-Gas-drilling-polluting-Chesapeake-Bay-area?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CLocal%20News%7Cp

Group: Gas drilling polluting Chesapeake Bay area

8:25 PM, Nov. 30, 2011

BALTIMORE -- An environmental group said Wednesday that infrared video shows air pollution streaming from natural gas sites that have been sprouting up across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said it sent the videos to the federal Environmental Protection Agency along with a letter saying they show emissions are not being adequately controlled. The video "establishes that the industry is not sufficiently limiting the amount of leaks from drilling and processing operations and the full extent of those leaks" has not been adequately considered in the EPA's proposed regulations, the letter said.

A boom in drilling using a technique known as hydraulic fracturing prompted environmentalists to sue the EPA last year over regulation. The agency proposed new rules in July to control air pollution at oil and gas wells for the first time. The video and letter were filed on the last day of the public comment period for the proposed regulations, said Harry Campbell, a senior scientist at the foundation's Pennsylvania office.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said it hired a videographer to record video at 15 sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia and found otherwise invisible emissions at 11.

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