Chesapeake's Ocmulgee

    
Folks, the amount of website traffic I've seen over the last few days has been incredible. Hundreds of Google searches for "Susquehanna bubbling" and similar queries have caused me to buy even more storage capacity from my hitmeter. This thing is going global. It's also decimating my lunch money fund.

Oh, and lest ye forget...back in May of this year, our very own DCNR - for a mere $6.15 million - sold the rights to drill under the Susquehanna to Chesapeake Energy. Read about it here.

Now for our international visitors not familiar with our Susquehanna River, the "bubbling waters" can be found between Towanda and the Wyoming County line.

Think there's any connection? Cause and effect coming into play?

Of course not!

Why do I say that? Simply because Chesapeake says it's not a problem:

Matt Sheppard, a Chesapeake spokesman, said that his company had extensive experience drilling in densely populated Fort Worth, Texas, and that wells beneath the Susquehanna posed no unusual challenges.

  
Well Mr. Sheppard, I beg to differ with you.



Bubbling Waters from Don Williams on Vimeo.


The Hitchiti ( Lower Creek ) called it Ocmulgee ( oak-mull-ghee ).

I call it unacceptable. 

If anyone is interested in seeing the bubbling waters up close and personal this weekend, get in touch with me directly at djw444@gmail.com
    
  

Methane Madness: Paradise Lost

   
Folks, I'm still well below par. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but I started to feel nauseous shortly after I left the bubble field on the river. I was in that area for ~ 10 minutes taking pics and videos. It's been followed by a 24+ hour headache, which I am not used to getting.

This will be a brief post by my standards.

I drove up to Bradford County on Sunday to see the "bubbling waters" on the Susquehanna for myself. I rented a kayak, paddled for about three miles, and found more than I bargained for.

The video below is brief, but the largest area of bubbles I saw was approximately 50 feet wide by ~100 to 150 feet long near the western shore of the NORTH branch of the Susquehanna River downstream from the Wyalusing bridge.


  
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Bubbling Waters from Don Williams on Vimeo.


In the greatest area of concentration I witnessed, there were multiple x multiple streams of large bubbles. These were steady streams of bubbles...not an occasional hiccup. The pics below may not do what I saw justice, but I hope you get the idea.  Note: If you click on the pics below, most browsers will open a much larger version with much better detail.

And of course, Chesapeake Energy has nothing to do with this.

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.

-Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997)

+++

No one has the right to use America's rivers and America's Waterways that belong to all the people as a sewer. The banks of a river may belong to one man or one industry or one State, but the waters which flow between the banks should belong to all the people.

-Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) 36th U.S. President, signing the 1965 Clean Water Act

+++

In a mucked up lovely river, I cast my little fly.
I look at that river and smell it and it makes me wanna cry.
Oh to clean our dirty planet, now there's a noble wish,
and I'm puttin my shoulder to the wheel
'cause I wanna catch some fish.

-Greg Brown, "Spring Wind" from Dream Café, 1992

I tried to save this carp...pushing it to deeper waters. It was its time, I guess.

I'll be back.

  

"The industry is close to insane..." - John Hanger

    
He said it, I didn't.

Fracking in the Marcellus Shale has reached the national/international stage in the past few days. First, on CNN, and now on the CBS Evening News.

If nothing else, check out the video.

  

Owed to the Susquehanna

             
The Susquehanna is believed by many to be one of the most ancient rivers on Earth. It may have flowed some or most of its present course - especially the segments flowing to the southeast - more than 300 million years ago, which, if correct, would mean it is older than the Endless Mountains through which it meanders.

Let's assume, for a moment, that those geoscientists are correct, which I believe they are. And - for the purposes of making things simple ( for me ) - let's condense the entire existence of the Susquehanna River into a 24 hour day.

Okay…are we there yet?

Good.

Beginning our journey just past the stroke of midnight in our 24h Susquehanna timeline:

 - The Susquehanna began to flow its course on Pangea at 00h:00m:01s.

 - The present Atlantic Ocean began to form at about high noon.

 - The most recent mass extinction of dinosaurs took place at 18h:48m:00s

 - (Wo)Man first walked erect somewhere in Africa at about 23h:48m:00s.

 - The first known human inhabitants crossed the Bering Land bridge from Siberia at about 23h:59m:40s

 - The last Ice Age ended at about 23h:59m:55s

 - Standing Stone slid into place in the Susquehanna at 23h:59m:56s

 - Columbus "discovered" America at 23h:59m:59.85s, about 0.14 seconds before midnight.

All else that WE have done to this river; from clear-cutting the primeval pine and hemlock forests to ripping out the coal from beneath its hills and valleys, has happened in less than a blink of an eye in the accelerated 24 hour existence of the Susquehanna River.

Yet, Standing Stone still stands and the Susquehanna still flows; but its waters are far warmer, far dirtier and hosts an ecosystem that is a mere shadow of what the Iroquois called Gawanowananeh Gahunda; the Great Island River.

And today, this river faces what may prove to be its greatest threat: GREED - fueled by a corrupt industry, an even more corrupt and leaderless political system in need of a massive enema, and the inability and/or unwillingness of good men and women to rise up - together - and do what we know to be necessary to protect her.

Once again, that's rising up TOGETHER, and that ain't ( sorry, Dr. Kaska & Mom ) happening right now, folks...sorry to say.

Famous Indian painter George Catlin was born along the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley. His mother was a survivor of the Battle of Wyoming in 1778. Here's his closing to Letter-No.36, written almost 180 years ago:

George, almost two centuries later...I hear ya'.

Gas Bubbling from the Susquehanna River

    
At this point, I'll just pass along this latest tidbit of news.

I'll comment on it at a later date, more than likely in a live news feed from the office of the company with the drillpad closest to this location.

This may be the tipping point for this river advocate. More as this sad story develops.



       

Citizen EnCana

      
I thought all the folks in Luzerne County PA would benefit from learning more about their new neighbor.

Thank goodness for archiving & the internet.

Check it out here.