Trinity College Environmental Science Program Vol. 2, Issue #1, Fall 2012

ENVS Senior Seminar Visits Fracking Sites in Pennsylvania

This year’s senior seminar dealt with hydro-fracking, or the fracturing of

(otherwise impermeable) shale formations to recover oil and natural gas. We

started the semester with a showing of Gasland, a “documentary” on the pre-

sumed negative impacts of fracking on groundwater, air quality and human

health. We then spent the following weeks learning about the technological

aspects of fracking and investigating some of the claims made in Gasland.

Joan’s persistent nagging and e-mailing finally paid off towards the end of the

semester when two representatives from the oil and gas industry came for a

campus visit. Tom Shepstone, a consultant for the energy industry, talked

about energy choices and the environmental impacts of various sources of

energy, Bill DesRosiers, a field director from Energy in Depth, an industry out-

reach organization told us about the impact of gas drilling and fracking on

communities in northern Pennsylvania. Bill also agreed to show us around a

Congratulations to 2012 ENVS graduates!

Class of 2012 Honors in Environmental Science:

Dan Echavarria

Thesis title: The PKP caustic at the Trinity College seismograph station (TCCT) from the Sumbawa-Indonesia earthquake on November 8th, 2009

Kate Pool

Thesis title: Quantifying total mercury within fluvial sediment of the Park River Watershed, greater Hartford, CT

Kelsey Semrod

Thesis title: Geomorphological approach to toxic trace metal distribution across medial bar deposits in the Park River wa-tershed, Hartford, CT

Class of 2012 ENVS Majors

Monica Au-Yeung Nour Bahgat Chris Binnie Penelope Carpenter Jon Chu Amy Duggan Alex Gottsch William Martin-Black Rafaela Minkowsky Renee Murray Brittney Payton Kate Pool Kelsey Semrod

Class of 2012 ENVS minors

Nichola Clark Tashi Genden Amy Kivela

week later when we visited the area around Dimock, PA, which has been featured in the Gasland movie.

We left Hartford on a Friday afternoon in April and spent a cold night in Lackawanna State Park, where we had a barbecue dinner

and got a first taste of methane- and sulfur-infused water. Next morning, after the usual complaints about low temperature, snor-

ing tent-mates, giggling tent-mates, chatting tent-mates (yes, Amy, we know all about your boyfriends now), hard pointy rocks,

hard lumpy rocks, not thick enough sleeping pads, missing stake bags, and what-not, we had breakfast, broke down the tents and

headed to Tunkhannock where we met up with Bill.

After a quick donut and coffee refueling stop (Joan insisted), Bill took us north to Dimock. Here we talked to a few local residents

who live within a few hundred feet of a producing gas well. They talked about the noise and dust during the drilling process, but

also about the steady stream of revenue checks they receive from the two wells on their property. Interesting side note: the same

well and nearby house and barn are prominently featured in an on-line anti-drilling video. The video folks seemed more concerned

about the operation than the folks who actually lived there. Unfortunately we did not have any hard hats, so we got chased off the

well pad after maybe 20 minutes. The next stop was a visit to a young couple that was featured and, as they claim, misrepresented

in the Gasland movie. Their drinking water supply was impacted by nearby drilling (not the fracking operations as we were as-

sured), and Cabot Oil and Gas bought them rather fancy water treatment equipment, which took up an entire garden shed behind

their house. Talking to these folks was interesting: they did not like Josh Fox and his movie, but they didn’t drink the water either.

They preferred bottled water from the store, even though (or maybe because) they have several inches worth of DEP and EPA wa-

ter analyses stacked in their house. DEP and EPA tested for pretty much everything and presented them the results, but nobody

(except for the Cabot representatives, whom they neither trust nor mistrust) really explained the data to them. To make matters

worse, their neighbors are outspoken anti-fracking activists, engaged in a lawsuit, and with a front lawn full of signs and banners.

The water may be safe to drink, but neighborhood relations are certainly poisoned, possibly beyond repair. The following visit of a

drill site was a bit anticlimactic.

After lunch we headed farther north to Salt Springs State Park, where we tried to light a spring on fire. It had lots of bubbles rising

to the surface, and we managed to light some of them. Concentrating the rising methane in a coffee cup yielded nice little explo-

sions, but nothing spectacular. Josh Fox’s burning water faucet was way more impressive, and we had all hoped for more. As an

aside: the water rising to the surface at the park, and in many other wells nearby is supposedly shallow methane, produced by bio-

logically driven decay of shallow coal seams. (How can you tell the difference? Biologically produced methane from coal seams has

a different isotopic signature than thermally produced methane from deep shale deposits.) The trip ended with a visit to an actual

fracking site, but again, not being allowed directly onto the site, we watched the operations from a safe distance.

The day-long trip exposed us to the environmental, economic, and social impacts of gas exploration and fracking. Since he is em-

ployed by the gas industry, Bill’s viewpoint was clearly biased towards gas exploration and fracking, and he did his best to paint the

industry in a favorable light. However, he was a knowledgeable and enthusiastic host who provided a valuable counterpoint to

Josh Fox’s equally biased movie, and he may have well changed a few student’s minds. Final disclaimer: we took Bill out for donuts

and lunch - not the other way round. (CEG)

Penelope perfects method for

cooking bagels over a campfire Drilling rig outside Dimock, PA

Visiting Dimock residents who

have an active gas-producing

well on their property

John Chu igniting methane exiting a natural spring, Salt

Springs Park, PA

Prof. Morrison and Mary Rickel Pelletier of the Park River Watershed Initiative received a

grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service entitled, “Hartford’s Birds – Park Habitat Revitali-

zation and Conservation” through the FWS’ Urban Conservation Treaty for Migratory Birds

Program. The project focuses on working with City of Hartford to improve habitat for and

identify hazards to birds within the city. This Northern Parula warbler was one of the most

common species that suffered fatalities by striking windows in downtown Hartford, during

the fall migration. ENVS students will participate In the project by evaluating water quality

and soils around the ponds in Pope Park and Keney Park, which are targeted for native

plantings that will provide food and habitat for birds.

ENVS STUDENTS ATTEND SUMMER PROGRAM IN CHINA

Funded partially by a grant from the Luce Foundation,

several ENVS majors participated in the summer pro-

gram that visited China and southeast Asia during June

2012, entitled River Cities of Asia. Other countries vis-

ited included Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Students

tested water quality, visited environmental NGOs,

toured an HP laptop factory, Angkor Wat, and other

historic sites, and even traveled by speedboat down

the Mekong River. Student investigations included

possible consequences of extensive dam construction

by China along the Mekong River in Laos and Vietnam,

issues of sustainable fisheries in the Mekong delta,

challenges of growing rice in a world confronted with

climate change, consumer attitudes toward a pro-

posed ban on use of plastic bags in Shanghai, atti-

tudes on smoking and air pollution, and comparisons

of energy consumption between Tongji University in

Shanghai and Trinity College.

Prof. Sarah Gray’s Environmental Chemistry class ex-

plored water quality of Batterson Pond, spring 2012.

GIS STUDENTS COMPLETE CAMPUS TREE PROJECT

Students in the fall 2011 GIS course surveyed trees

on campus and produced a brochure about cam-

pus trees that is available on the Environmental

Science website, here. A huge thanks goes to Dr.

Kim Diver, who taught GIS for us during the past 2

academic years. We wish Dr. Diver the best of

luck in her new position at Wesleyan University

and we hope she visits us for McCookout once in

awhile.

NEW MUGS AVAILABLE!

Having finally run out of the ENVS mugs after all these years, we ordered a brand new ENVS mug! Green, with a unique design of Earth as Apple; as Prof. Geiss put it “It’s a world – apple shaped. New England is known for its fine apples. So, our mug is both global and local. Also, we’re all about teaching, right, so we should get an apple.”

2012 Nichola Clark took a trip out west after graduation, visiting Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion National Parks. She is cur-rently in a Master’s program at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and working in the Duke Ma-rine Lab.

2011 Katie Sausen has been living in Brooklyn and working in Manhattan for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cen-ter. She runs a reconstructive surgery clinic as well as an outpatient dermatology clinic and hopes to start prerequi-sites for nursing school in the fall. She recently joined MSKCC's Green Team and helped initiate a daily shut-down of all computers on the servers. She is currently working on a proposal that would start a community gar-den sponsored by the hospital. She has been lucky enough to see many ENVS alums since graduation and she’d like to keep it that way, so if anyone is passing through NYC and needs a place to stay, give her a shout!

2010 Liz Cianciola is back in school, in the University of New Hampshire's Master's in Natural Resources program.

Maggie Thomas moved to Washington, DC and in early 2012 completed an internship with the Government Affairs department at The Wildlife Society, a professional society for wildlife biologists. Much of her work focused on advocating for conservation funding, specifically pro-grams that benefit wildlife and public lands. She loves liv-ing in DC and occasionally getting out of the concrete jun-gle to ride her bike. She is currently doing communica-tions and policy support for the National Wildlife Refuge Association and looking for a salaried position. She is working on putting together a handbook for the US Fish and Wildlife Service on community based landscape level conservation that's going to take her all over the country in September to do interviews with a variety of players in the private-public partnership movement.

Nathan Sell completed two years of Teach For America in Philadelphia, having worked at two schools teaching Biolo-gy, Environmental Science, Anatomy and Physiology, and Ecology . He is currently in a Masters of Environmental Studies program at University of Pennsylvania leaning to-

wards the Sustainability concentration.

2009

Isabel Gottlieb has a field tech position with the National Ecological Observatory Network, based in Boulder, CO. She does a lot of field work in Rocky Mountain National Park that includes some small mammal trapping, biodiver-sity sampling and looking for Hantavirus.

Susan Juggernauth has been working for IVI Assessment Services in NY doing Environmental Phase I Assessments on commercial and multi-family residential properties. She recently began a master’s program in Environmental Science at Pace University.

2008

Ben Butterworth is beginning a master’s program at the Yale School of Forestry this fall.

2007

Mike Ottariano was working for the EPA in DC awarding, administering, and closing out contracts to clean up Super-fund sites around the country, but he has recently taken a job with EPA Region 1 back in Boston. In working on con-tracts, he doesn’t get out in the field as much as he would like, but he has visited some of the sites that they are cleaning up in Helena, MT and in Lowell, MA.

2006

Nikki La Bella works for Spectra Energy doing environmen-tal permitting for maintenance on existing natural gas transmission lines and new proposed expansion lines. They deal quite a bit with all the Clean Water Act requirements and corresponding agencies - USFWS, Na-tional Marine Fisheries, Army Corps of Engineers - as well as state and local agencies for wetlands, water bodies, endangered species, and even cultural resources. In May 2013 she will be receiving an MBA from Babson College. She also recently managed a volunteer event that Spectra initiated with the USFWS and Maine DEP for New England cottontail restoration at one of our compressor station facilities in Eliot, ME. They planted about 575 native plants and shrubs and did some other feathering and brush pile stacking along a portion of their property to induce habitat for the NE cottontail. She had a great time planning and participating in the event, and they won

Thanks to everyone who sent material. We hope to hear from more of you for future editions of the Newsletter. Feel free to send photos, stuff about what you are doing both professionally and personally, weblinks, etc. And if we have incorrectly printed something, let us know!

ENVS STUDENTS PRESENT THEIR RESEARCH AT NATIONAL AND REGIONAL CONFERENCES

This year several ENVS senior majors and minors presented posters and papers at various conferences. In November Jon Gourley,

Christoph Geiss and several students presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Minneapolis.

Tashi Genden’s poster was entitled Water and Sediment Quality in the Eastern Teesta River Watershed, India. William Martin-Black

presented a poster on Toxic Trace Metal Analysis and Tributary Confluence Sediment Mapping Within the South Branch of the Park

River, Hartford, CT. Brittney Payton presented her poster entitled Magnetic Analyses of Fluvial Soils may aid in Reconstruction of

Ethiopian Paleoenvironments. Kelsey Semrod presented her poster entitled Geomorphological Approach to Toxic Trace Metal Dis-

tribution in the Park River Watershed (Hartford, CT). The 2012 regional GSA meeting was held in March, right down the street

from Trinity in the Marriot Hotel in downtown Hartford, and again, we had a strong showing of student research: Kate Pool gave a

talk on her senior thesis work entitled Distribution and Bioavailability of Total Mercury in the Park River Watershed, Greater

Hartford, CT. Kelsey Semrod was slated to give a talk Geomorphological Approach to Toxic Trace Metal Distribution Across Channel

Bar Deposits in the Park River Watershed, Hartford, CT, but was too busy playing tennis in California. So Jon had to step up to the

plate to present her research. Jess Smith presented a poster entitled Mapping of Arctic Peatlands Using Ground Penetrating Radar

and Borehole Data. Jason Baird presented a poster entitled Analysis of Banding and Recovery Data for Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo

jamaicensis) in the northeastern U.S at the 11th Annual Bridgewater State University Undergraduate Research Symposium in MA.

METHODS (ENVS 275) PROJECTS FROM FALL 2011

We continue long-term studies of the Park River and its tributaries

Loss on Ignition: Associations between Percentages of Organic Material, Carbonates, and Trace Metals in the Sediment of the Park River Watershed

Spatial distribution of alluvial sediment mercury concentrations throughout the Park River watershed

Comparison of Trace Metal Concentrations in Fine Sediment and Aquatic Plants, Myriophyllum spicatum and Cladophora glomer-ata, within the Trout Brook, West Hartford, CT

Toxic Trace Metal Analysis in the Park River Watershed

both company and industry awards for being a good stew-ard.

2004

Jeff Abrams recently completed his second season of field work (hook-and-line sampling of marine rocky habitats in state waters off northern California) for his graduate pro-

gram at Humboldt State University. His work involves age interpretation of specimens, which is done by breaking and burning their otoliths. He hopes to show a difference in age and growth in response to historical fishing pres-sure . (Jeff you’ll have to tell us more about what it’s like to burn otoliths!)