Jeffrey Jacquet of Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources said gas development firms prefer hiring workers they have used elsewhere and that the workers (imported or local), work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for two weeks without a break. Thousands of workers working 84 hours a week for two weeks without a break? Talk about accidents waiting to happen.

ShaleShock distributed a published column that Louis Allstadt, a retired Mobil Oil executive, wrote. Allstadt sees many problems with DEC’s current draft environmental impact statement, including its “proposed setback distances, which would allow drilling just 300 feet from New York City reservoirs, a mere 150 feet from the rest of the state’s municipal water supplies, and at any distance from individual water wells.”

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A salt-loving alga that killed tens of millions of fish in Texas has struck for the first time in an Appalachian stream that flows along the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Prymnesium parvum or “golden algae” caused the sudden death of thousands of fish, mussels, and salamanders in early September along some 30 miles of Dunkard Creek. University and government scientists fear the disaster could presage further kills in the region. Streams at risk due to high concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) include portions of the northern branch of the Potomac River and 20 other streams in West Virginia, according to state scientists. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky also have many vulnerable rivers and streams, according to U.S. EPA scientists.

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