Methane

The Middletown Board of Supervisors last night declared a limited emergency to enable its environmental consultants to enter more than two dozen properties in the Maple Point development in Bucks County, where high levels of methane gas were found last week. Township Manager John J. Burke said the board's action did not indicate that the methane situation had worsened beneath this upscale subdivision in Middletown Township. Rather, it was meant to allow consultants to gain access to homes in three areas of the development for testing and other purposes, he said.

The Cherry Hill Township Council last night approved a $275,000 bond ordinance to pay for the construction of between 11 and 17 methane extraction wells at the former Kresson Landfill. The wells were recommended by the engineering firm of O'Brien & Gere of Blue Bell, Pa., to extract the poisonous gases at the south side of the landfill located off Parnell Drive. Councilman Leonard Sonnenberg, the lone dissenter among the six council members at the meeting, said that most of the methane has already been removed or has leaked from the landfill and that the extraction system is larger than necessary.

A small swarm of environmental officials, lawyers, consultants and Middletown Township officials poked around yesterday in the notorious back yard of Bucks County resident Marlene Freeman. When they departed, a key question lingered: How much danger - if any - is to be found in the pit of blackened, gassy debris that lies beneath a stretch of the pricey Maple Point subdivision, where the Freeman family lives? A week ago, a private environmental consultant detected explosive levels of methane under the Freemans' back lawn.

Deep down, the Gulf of Mexico is rich. It is rich in untapped fuel sources, strange geologic formations, and unique sea life, such as a Technicolor blue octopus and 200-year-old tube worms. But it is also rich in danger. To their surprise, scientists who just spent two weeks of deep exploration between Galveston, Texas, and Key West, Fla., aboard the submarine Alvin encountered firsthand an underwater storm as powerful as a hurricane, they reported yesterday. Those types of storms could make it more difficult to exploit their most important finding: that the gulf is truly a gold mine for fuel - oil, gas, and a third fuel form that dwarfs the two others.

Concerns that West Conshohocken might be in the path of methane gas that is migrating underground are being raised by borough officials, who fear a repeat of a 1971 explosion. At a Borough Council meeting, council President Joseph Costello questioned Montgomery County public works director Donald Silverson and an environmental consultant about efforts they are making to reduce any danger caused by the gas. "Silverson is going to keep us posted with engineers that are doing a study on it and, hopefully, there will be some answers shortly," Costello said Thursday.

The death of her trees is what Slava Kulikov dreads the most. She planted the row of evergreens surrounding her home almost eight years ago, just after she and her family moved into the Maple Point development in Middletown Township. Last year, she planted a weeping willow in the corner of her back yard as a birthday gift for her husband, Igor. Caring for her greenery is a daily labor of love for Kulikov. "They're like children. You spray them. You take care of them. " This week, her trees will be ripped out of the ground.

When humans produce methane, folks often want to run and hide. Landfills, however, are another matter. The methane they produce can be profitable. Toro Energy Inc. of Dallas wants to snake a low-pressure methane pipeline 5 1/2 miles from the Pottstown Landfill in West Pottsgrove through Pottstown to the boilers at the Occidental Chemical plant on the other side of town. Toro's proposal has quietly been discussed for about a year, and the company sent letters to the state Department of Environmental Protection and West Pottsgrove Township last month informing them of its plans.

After more than two years of negotiations with residents of the Maple Point development, the state Department of Environmental Resources and Middletown Township, Toll Bros. Inc. has completed a remediation plan that details how and when the developer will remove a huge methane-filled pit full of construction debris. The 350-foot-long pit lies beneath the back yards of 11 homes in the Maple Point development in Middletown. Before the work can begin, DER must approve the plan, Middletown Township has to comment on it and residents whose homes surround the pit have to sign an agreement giving the workers access to their property.

The wind blows westerly over the Cedar Lane cul-de-sac before crossing Interstate 295 and heading toward the Burlington County landfill. Usually that keeps the dump's stench away from the Renkel home. But this winter was unusual. "There were a couple of weeks when we just couldn't stand it," Joseph Renkel said. "The wind didn't help much. It was pretty bad. " The smell was so bad the state fined the county $10,000 in February. The funk has begun to freshen somewhat since county officials adjusted the odor-control system at the landfill complex, which straddles the Florence-Mansfield border.

Last month, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer testified before Congress on what he called the "unbiased real facts" of shale-gas exploration. Speaking before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, he gave four examples of "suspect science" on the safety of hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas. One of the examples he discussed at length was our study at Duke University. Our study with two coworkers, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May, found no evidence that fracturing fluids had contaminated drinking water, but it did find evidence of higher methane, ethane, and propane concentrations in some drinking-water wells near drilling sites.

9/11 sphere to be moved from park NEW YORK - The 45,000-pound sphere sculpture that emerged largely intact from the rubble of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks faces an uncertain future as officials prepare to remove it from the park where it has been on display for a decade. "The Sphere," originally dedicated as a monument to world peace through trade, became an interim memorial in the months after 9/11. A year after the attacks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai and officials from about 90 foreign nations at its base to light an eternal flame.

Last month, Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer testified before Congress on what he called the "unbiased real facts" of shale-gas exploration. Speaking before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, he gave four examples of "suspect science" on the safety of hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas. One of the examples he discussed at length was our study at Duke University. Our study with two coworkers, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May, found no evidence that fracturing fluids had contaminated drinking water, but it did find evidence of higher methane, ethane, and propane concentrations in some drinking-water wells near drilling sites.

LOS ANGELES - Scientists have isolated a bacterium from the gut of Australian Tammar wallabies that allows them to consume and digest grasses, leaves and other plant material without producing copious amounts of methane, as cattle do. The microbe was discovered through a process described in a study published online yesterday by the journal Science . Ultimately, it might be put to use to reduce the carbon footprint of cows and other ruminants, said...

MUNCY, Pa. - State environmental officials are investigating new instances of methane contamination in residential water wells and a northern Pennsylvania stream near a Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling operation. The Department of Environmental Protection found the flammable gas in seven water wells in Lycoming County and gas bubbling into nearby Little Muncy Creek. That prompted XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., to stop operations in the county and provide the well owners with bottled water.

A Duke University study has found that methane levels in private water wells are, on average, 17 times higher when within 1,000 yards of a natural gas drilling site. Of 60 wells that the researchers tested for methane in northeastern Pennsylvania and New York, they found the gas in 85 percent. When they fingerprinted the methane - comparing the chemistry of the methane in the wells with that from natural gas wells in the region - "the signatures matched," said Robert Jackson, a professor at Duke and a study author.

First Contact Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth By Marc Kaufman Simon & Schuster. 224 pp. $26 Reviewed by Fred Bortz   Go into any fifth-grade classroom and you may encounter a future space alien. Despite NASA's temporarily austere budget, 30 years from now, when those fifth graders are of prime age to be astronauts, NASA and other space agencies will probably be preparing to send humans to Mars.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE A Cornell University study is drawing criticism from the Marcellus Shale industry by concluding that methane produced from shale gas has as large a "greenhouse gas footprint" as coal, or larger. The study, led by Robert W. Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology, says methane leaking or venting from Marcellus Shale wells - and during the processing and transportation of natural gas - will contribute "substantially to the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas" in the next 20 years.

As reluctant Senate Republicans in Harrisburg approach their arbitrary deadline for approving a tax on methane production, there's fresh evidence why it matters. A preliminary study by Academy of Natural Sciences researchers indicates pollution of streams could be a routine result of drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale formation. That's aside from the contamination caused by accidental spills. The researchers compared streams where there was little or no drilling, and watersheds with many methane wells nearby.

Only three abbreviated weeks of work remain for Pennsylvania's legislature, which is on a familiar course toward dodging its responsibilities. When legislators approved a state budget in July, they also agreed to enact a new tax on the booming methane-gas industry by Oct. 1. Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state without such a tax. Municipalities need help paying for the environmental impact of drilling, and the state could use the revenue....