Gas Frackers Violate Safe Drinking Water Act

[irishbobcat]

typical neo-con response, Dan....

Bring up facts to you and you still don't care....

pollute the water, kill cows, destroy families and their lands....

you don't care, as long as you get gas......

You give me gas, Dan......

[Dan Moadus]

Figured Dennis would dredge up some obscure article of cows dying after drinking some "mysterious" fluid next to a drilling rig.  In the end, I guess I really don't care. If cows have to die so I can have a hamburger I would have no objections if they had to die so I can have gas.

[irishbobcat]

Gas drilling fuels a boom — and health concerns
In Louisiana, windfall is clouded by tainted water and dead cattle
By Rick Jervis
USA TODAY

SHREVEPORT, La. — Residents here rejoiced two years ago when gas companies poked into a mammoth natural gas deposit 2 miles under their homes, sparking a modern-day gold rush.

The companies offered residents tens of thousands of dollars an acre to drill on their land, enriching some folks overnight in this rural corner of northwestern Louisiana.

Then cows started to die. Methane seeped into the drinking water. Homes were evacuated when natural gas escaped uncontrollably from a wellhead.

Today, many residents and local officials still praise the bounty reaped from the Haynesville Shale, one of the world's largest natural gas deposits, spread under Louisiana, Arkansas and eastern Texas. An estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is trapped there — enough to power the United States for more than a decade, says Kevin McCotter, a senior director with Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., the largest gas producer in the area. The shale has delivered a clean energy source while enriching residents, he says.

"At a time when our nation needs jobs and domestic investment more than ever, the Haynesville Shale has been a flu shot for northern Louisiana and East Texas," he says.

Others question whether the money landowners get for leasing their property is worth the risk they say the drilling poses.

"There are a lot of concerns," says Kassi Ebarb, who organized neighbors in her Shreveport suburb to demand more environmental safeguards from gas companies. "We would walk away (from the money) rather than take anything that was insufficient to protect our neighborhood and our kids."

Shreveport and the surrounding area have entered a national debate on the safety standards of a specialized form of natural gas drilling that pumps chemicals and water into the ground to release natural gas trapped thousands of feet below.

The debate centers on the controversial technique known as "hydraulic fracturing," or "fracking," in which companies drill down, then horizontally to reach natural gas deposits trapped in a shale formation. A mixture of water, chemicals and sand then is pumped into the shale with great force, breaking up the rock and releasing the gas.

The technology allows drillers to extract previously inaccessible natural gas deposits and has opened huge swaths of the USA to drilling. Nearly 500,000 natural gas wells are producing in 32 states, up from 393,000 in 2003, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The percentage of natural gas drilled from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing is expected to climb from 14% last year to 23% in 2020, according to the Department of Energy.

Environmentalists warn that chemicals blasted into the ground during fracking could harm water supplies and release toxic air and water, threatening rivers, air quality and human health.

"We've gone from getting the easiest oil and gas to the hardest," says Gwen Lachelt, director of Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project, a group advocating stricter drilling regulations. "It's getting dirtier and dirtier."

Gas companies and advocates of fracking say the technique is safe and poses little risk to drinking water or the environment. "We have a very good record when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, its regulations and the safety of the environment," says Jodee Bruyninckx of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

Recent developments in fracking:

•The New York Assembly last week passed a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing until next year, while regulators review permitting rules.

•The Environmental Protection Agency in March launched a two-year study of the effects of hydraulic fracturing.

•The Pittsburgh City Council last month unanimously approved a measure banning natural gas drilling from its city limits, citing health and environmental concerns.

•The EPA last year found high levels of benzene, hydrocarbons and other harmful chemicals in water wells near gas rigs in Pavillion, Wyo., after residents complained of a foul odor and taste in the water, the agency says.

•Pennsylvania environmental regulators recently blamed the methane contamination of an aquifer — a natural underground formation that stores water — near Dimock, Pa., on Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas, which has been drilling into the region's Marcellus Shale. Cabot disputes the allegation.

Fracking is exempt from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, an exemption passed under the 2005 Energy Policy Act, according to legislative records. Under the exemption, gas companies don't have to disclose the chemicals used in the process.

A bill known as the FRAC Act, introduced in Congress last year by Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., would compel gas companies to reveal those chemicals, which largely have been guarded as trade secrets, Casey says. The bill is not expected to make it to the Senate floor in the near future, given the current political climate in Washington, he says.

"There's a tough road ahead of us," Casey says.

Further testing and monitoring should be done on the technique, which also is exempt from sections of the Clean Water Act and other federal environmental laws, says Josh Fox, a filmmaker whose documentary film, Gasland, profiles families across the USA impacted by natural gas drilling.

The film, released this year, shows residents setting the water coming out of their faucets on fire because of flammable methane gas in the water.

"This process has never been investigated," Fox says. "We don't put out drugs in the market without testing them first."

Fears of faucets flaring because of fracking are overblown, says Gary Hanson, a hydrologist at Louisiana State University at Shreveport who has studied the technique. Hydraulic fracturing bores down more than 2 miles underground, well past aquifers that sit at less than 1,000 feet, making it difficult for the process to contaminate drinking water supplies, he says.

Even if it doesn't fall under federal safety rules, fracking is still monitored by state and local agencies, Hanson says.

"You're going to have some incidents. There are going to be some spills," Hanson says. "But I don't see major contamination occurring."

The financial benefits have been undeniable. Last year, Haynesville Shale drilling brought $10.6 billion in new business sales to the state, $5.7 billion in household earnings and 57,000 new jobs across the state, according to a study commissioned by the Louisiana Oil And Gas Association.

"Not only is natural gas production — and Haynesville Shale in particular — boosting Louisiana's economy and creating jobs, this type of exploration is helping to fuel America and decrease our dependence on foreign sources of energy," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, said in a statement.

Reegis Richard, pastor of the Temple of Knowledge Church International in nearby Mansfield, the heart of drilling activity, received $30,000 in gas money by leasing his church's 7 acres, and offerings from his enriched congregation have more than doubled, he says.

The influx of cash has allowed him to finish a new church building, open a private Christian school and travel twice to Israel with his wife and local ministers, he says.

"People's lives have been transformed," Richard says. "It's been a blessing."

The increased activity has also brought a greater strain on state regulators. In Louisiana, 38 oil and gas inspectors are responsible for monitoring the state's 19,000 producing natural gas wells, including 781 in the Haynesville Shale area, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

State agencies "don't have the political will nor the budget or the staff to adequately address the level of drilling that's going on in this area," says Murray Lloyd, a local lawyer.

Last spring, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office received calls about cows in a pasture near a drilling rig that were foaming and bleeding at the mouth and keeling over, Sheriff Steve Prator says. Deputies found 17 dead cows there.

Necropsies later determined they had died from drinking fracking fluids that had leaked into the pasture, he says. Chesapeake and one of its subcontractors were later fined $22,000 each for the incident, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Then in April, about 200 homes in rural Caddo Parish were evacuated when a gas well blew out, sending gas into the air and local water supply, Prator says. Regulators detected high levels of methane in water from residents' toilets and sinks, he says.

The incident prompted Prator to contact Jindal's Office of Homeland Security and create the Haynesville Shale Task Force to better plan for emergencies. Lack of coordination among state agencies and their overall handling of the events frustrated him, Prator says. Another worrying development: gas rigs creeping closer to schools and crowded neighborhoods, he says.

"It made me question, 'Are we doing the right thing?' " Prator says.

One of those evacuated during the blowout was Frances Contario, 50, who left her trailer near Wallace Lake and lived in a room at the Clarion Hotel in Shreveport with her 23-year-old son, Braden, for 17 days. EXCO Resources, the Dallas-based gas company responsible for the blowout, paid the residents' hotel tabs and expenses, Prator says.

Contario says she has been drinking only bottled water since returning and fears that the lake, streams and forests near her home will be fouled by under so much drilling.

"We didn't ask for this," says Contario, who grew up in the area. "Our biggest concern is that one day this will all be contaminated."

[irishbobcat]

A Fracking First in Pennsylvania: Cattle Quarantine
by Nicholas Kusnetz
ProPublica, July 2, 2010, 3:41 p.m.

Agriculture officials have quarantined 28 beef cattle on a Pennsylvania farm after wastewater from a nearby gas well leaked into a field and came in contact with the animals.

The state Department of Agriculture said the action was its first livestock quarantine related to pollution from natural gas drilling. Although the quarantine was ordered in May, it was announced Thursday.

Carol Johnson, who along with her husband owns the farm in north-central Pennsylvania, said she noticed in early May that fluids pooling in her pasture had killed the grass. She immediately notified the well owner, East Resources Inc.

"You could smell it. The grass was dying," she said. "Something was leaking besides ground water."

The Johnsons' farm sits atop the Marcellus Shale, a layer of rock that lies under swaths of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. As ProPublica has reported [1], reports have proliferated of groundwater pollution, spills and other impacts of hydraulic fracturing [2], a drilling technique that injects massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals underground to break up the formations that hold the gas.

In the Johnsons' case, a mixture of fresh water and wastewater that had been injected into the well leaked from an impoundment pit on the farm, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said. Tests performed for East Resources Inc., found hazardous chemicals and heavy metals, including chloride, barium and strontium. East did not dispute that a leak had occurred.

It's unclear whether the Johnsons' animals drank any of the wastewater. The quarantine was put in place to ensure the animals did not go to market with contamination.

An inspection conducted May 3 [3] by the DEP found two seeps from the impoundment. According to the inspection report, an East Resources employee said a contractor had inspected twice in April and he was unsure why the leak wasn't detected earlier.

The DEP inspector issued four violations [4] for the leak and resulting pollution. One cited East's failure to notify the department of the pollution, saying the agency learned about it from the Johnsons' daughter.

State records show that the well, also on the Johnsons' property, was issued five violations by DEP in January, including one labeled "Improperly lined pit." A February inspection found no violations.

Stephen Rhoads, director of external affairs for East Resources, said the January violations were for spilled drilling mud and were unrelated to the subsequent pit leak.

East Resources said tests of the leaked fluid did not show unhealthy levels of any contaminants and that the quarantine was unnecessary. Rhoads said hydraulic fracturing, called fracking for short, had begun April 2 and that wastewater wasn't impounded until a week later.

Upon being notified May 2, Rhoads said, the company immediately fenced off the Johnsons' pasture and began to empty the impoundment and remove all contaminated soil. The well has since been shut down.

The incident isn't the first report of farm animals being affected by fracking. As we reported more than a year ago [5], 16 cattle died in Louisiana after drinking a mysterious fluid next to a drilling rig.

The Johnsons' cows have fared better so far.

"They're happy, contented, fat," Johnson said.

[Dan Moadus]

So you say. Cite an article or report of cows dying from drinking "fracking" water.

[irishbobcat]

and cows die from it as well......Why don't you go to PA and drink from some of the wells poisoned in that state from fracking...mr. Tough-guy....

[Dan Moadus]

This "fracking" water is so dangerous that cows love to drink it.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Drilling and tapping into our own natural resources is coming at us like a train and no two bit communist thought will derail this locomotive.  Pumping our cars with foreign high polluting oil is too costly for us in many ways and with the capitalist in charge of our state now, the entitled bums will be thrown out onto the street.  "Long live Capitalism and drill baby drill!"

[irishbobcat]

The Mahoning Valley Green Party of Ohio support a permanent ban on hydrofracking for a variety of reasons (threats to the public health, water quality, and environment, while investing in another fossil fuel rather than clean renewable energy) and urged Governor Kasich to support that position now that he has taken office.

The type of drilling used on the Marcellus Shale formation involves fracking: pumping a mixture of sand, water, and chemical additives under high pressure into the shale to fracture or break up the shale so as to release a greater flow of natural gas.

Fracking even a single natural gas well consumes millions of gallons of water, which can be a significant burden on local water tables.

As things currently stand, frackers are exempted from having to comply with the Clean Water Act. This means they can legally poison the water. By hiding behind a claim the chemicals are proprietary knowledge they are not even required to inform the public of the chemicals that they are pumping into the ground, which can include methanol, diesel, anhydrous ammonia, ethylene glycol, toluene, xylene, various other complex hydrocarbons, some of which are proven carcinogens, hydrogen sulfide (aka hydrosulfuric acid), other industrial acids, arsenic, and possibly even radioactive barium!

Each well produces millions of gallons of industrial wastewater that require cleaning.

While the drilling is occurring, each well typically stores their fracking water in a pit near the drilling pad. If these pits overflow or leak they contaminate local water supplies and cause environmental damage.

Worse yet, each well typically leaves 20-25% of the toxic fracking water (i.e. over a million gallons per well) in the ground. That in-ground pollution has the potential to poison aquifers that provide local drinking water. Residents of Ridgway, PA, found their spring water supply poisoned by local drillers. The water was unfit even to shower in, as it burned and interfered with breathing.

[Dan Moadus]

Two things to keep in mind as you peruse Dennis' latest "paste". First: The articles says this, "The probe found no evidence that the use of diesel fuel contaminated water supplies in the 19 states where it was injected."

And second: You can buy a 1,000 gallons of water for about four bucks, and 1 gallon of diesel fuel for about 3 bucks. Considering fracking a single well uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of fluid, how much diesel fuel do you think they're using.

Honestly is anyone more gullible than Dennis? Really.

[irishbobcat]

WASHINGTON — Oil and gas companies have injected more than 32 million gallons of fluids containing diesel fuel underground without first getting government approval, a report by congressional Democrats said Monday.

Lawmakers said the use of diesel fuel by large companies, such as Halliburton and BJ Services Co., appears to violate the Safe Drinking Water Act, because the companies never obtained permission from state or federal authorities to use the diesel fuel.

The probe found no evidence that the use of diesel fuel contaminated water supplies in the 19 states where it was injected. The year-long probe was led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and other two other Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"The industry has been saying they stopped injecting toxic diesel fuel into wells. But our investigation showed this practice has been continuing in secret and in apparent violation" of the Safe Drinking Water Act, said Waxman, the panel's senior Democrat and a former chairman.

The investigation found that 12 of 14 companies hired to perform hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," used diesel alone or in a mixture from 2005 to 2009. Of the 32.2 million gallons reported, most was injected in Texas, followed by Oklahoma, North Dakota, Louisiana and Wyoming.

None of the companies surveyed could provide data on whether they performed hydraulic fracturing in or near underground sources of drinking water, the lawmakers said. In fracking, drillers inject vast quantities of water, sand and chemicals underground so that oil and natural gas will flow.

The technique has been around for decades but has come under increasing scrutiny as drilling crews flock to the Marcellus Shale, a rock bed the size of Greece that lies about 6,000 feet beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Fracking also is used in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and other states.

Waxman and Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said they hope to find more information on some of the chemicals used in the drilling process, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

A 2005 law exempted all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing except diesel fuel from federal regulations aimed at protecting drinking water. In 2003, three of the largest drilling companies signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate use of diesel fuel in coal bed methane formations in underground sources of drinking water. That agreement, coupled with the 2005 law, led many to assume the industry had stopped using diesel fuel altogether in hydraulic fracturing, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to EPA.

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AdvertisementMarkey said the committee's investigation, begun last year when Democrats controlled the House, uncovered many potential violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act that warrant further investigation by the EPA.

"Companies should not be able to pump the same fuels that are put into gas tanks into potential sources of drinking water," Markey said.

A Halliburton spokeswoman said the Energy and Commerce report was inaccurate.

"Halliburton does not believe that the company's hydraulic fracturing activities have resulted in a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act or any other federal environmental law. There are currently no requirements in the federal environmental regulations that require a company to obtain a federal permit prior to undertaking a hydraulic fracturing project using diesel," said spokeswoman Teresa Wong.

Gary Flaharty, a spokesman for Baker Hughes, which owns BJ Services, said the company was no longer using diesel fuel for fracking. The EPA's position has been that the regulations do not expressly address or prohibit the use of fuel in fracturing fluid, Flaharty said, adding that any attempt to retroactively impose a permit "is clearly improper."

Texas-based BJ Services used the most diesel fuel and fluids containing diesel fuel – 11.5 million gallons – followed by Texas-based Halliburton at 7.2 million gallons, the report said

An EPA spokeswoman said they agency is still reviewing the information provided by lawmakers. The EPA is studying whether hydraulic fracturing affects drinking water and the public health.