The Halliburton Exclusions have exempted Drilling & Fracking for far too long

​——→ Check out the schedule and events here​

Speakers from the following Groups: Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign, Beyond Plastics, Beyond Extreme Energy, Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, Communitopia, Concerned Citizens of Navarro County, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability(DCS), Earth Dog Films, Fracking the System, Earthworks, Environmental Health News, FracTracker Alliance, Keep It Wild, Lisa Johnson and Associates, OJI:SDA’ Sustainable Indigenous Futures, Ohio River Valley Institute, Park Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, Property Rights and Pipeline Center, ReImagine Appalachia, Sierra Club, The Natural History Museum, Yale School of Public Health and Yale Cancer Center

Topics / Presentations: Precautionary approach to fighting oil & gas; Playing the long game: Overcoming defeat and setting new goals in the oil & gas fight; Telling the truth about plastic pollution;Pushing back against the Bitcoin Empire in Texas; “We Refuse to Die” – On our exhibition, movement building, and media campaign to stop the petrochemical expansion; Stopping gas exports to protect public health and avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis!; Shared Prosperity in the Ohio River Valley; Using maps to inspire action; Journalism on plastic, toxic chemicals, and oil & gas pollution; Victory against the Epiphany Allegheny corporation and the ongoing battle against the Northern Access Pipeline in NY; Building power across labor, environmental advocates, faith leaders, and racial justice leaders in Appalachia; The Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign; Colorado’s oil and gas wars – Upcoming documentary film; FLIR Cameras – Making the invisible visible; Skill building for grassroots organizers; Legal advocacy for fracking victims and learning industry tactics; Getting a statewide fracking ban on the ballot in Michigan; Protecting landowners’ rights against pipeline development; and Addressing the Health Impacts of Fracking

Full details and guest speaker profiles are underway and will be added soon!

At the conclusion of the summit you’re invited to participate in a National Strategy call to discuss what is next and needed for the anti-fracking movement to be successful. Please participate and share what you’re working on with others.

Please register and invite your colleagues at https://lu.ma/2022-network-summit

Sincerely, Ryan Clover, Halt the Harm Network

Crossridge Landfill near Steubenville Ohio has issues

From an Article & Broadcast by Tyler Madden, WTOV News 9, Steubenville, OH, 5/19/22

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said it was important to visit the Crossridge Landfill in Jefferson County on Thursday as his office is still involved in litigation pertaining to the site. “I’m very troubled by what I saw,” Yost said.

Signs up and down the road leading to the landfill site underscore the longstanding tension over the site in the community. Yost was joined by officials from the Jefferson County Health Department on a tour of the site. “I’m amazed this has been pending for so long and hasn’t been cleaned up,” Yost said. “There’s a part where you can see the leachate and it looks like some kind of horror movie.”

NEWS9 cameras were not permitted to go on the tour as it is private property. But there were a number of different areas on the site highlighted on the tour, including those problem areas that have caused so many concerns from residents.

“Whether it’s dumping leachate into the water, that’s vitally important environmental issue that needs to be addressed and he’s seen them himself now firsthand,” Jefferson County Health Commissioner Andrew Henry said.

“It’s red and oily and it’s coming off of there and it looks like it’s headed down the creek into the river,” Yost said. The AG’s office is still involved in litigation involving the site and how it moves forward.

“We keep kicking the can down the road and our can is getting kicked,” Yost said. “We’ve got a hearing on (June 21). I wanted to see this for myself, and I’ve instructed my staff to do everything in their power to move this thing forward.

“I want the local folks that have been working so hard on this to know that they have a partner in the state and we’re looking to get this done and cleaned up.”

New York State should not be contaminating the environment

Press Release Contacts: Liz Moran, emoran@nypirg.org; Melissa Troutman, mtroutman@earthworks.org; Eric Weltman, eweltman@fwwatch.org

(Albany, N.Y.) Today, a coalition of environmental organizations released an analysis revealing that, despite New York’s ban on fracking, oil and gas liquid waste is permitted for deicing of roads for 33 different cities, towns, and private entities. This practice is ongoing despite New York’s recently adopted law that closes a loophole that once exempted oil and gas waste from being classified as hazardous waste. Oil and gas waste is known to contain constituents that can make the waste toxic and radioactive.

The analysis also revealed that since 1988, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has issued 119 permits for road spreading of oil and gas waste, and the practice has primarily been permitted in central and western New York.

In 2017, DEC revised regulations regarding oil and gas waste and prohibited road spreading of waste from the Marcellus shale; however, the regulations still allow for road spreading of liquids from other oil and gas drilling operations for the purposes of deicing, dust control, and road stabilization.1 Any waste generated through the extraction of oil or gas can contain a number of pollutants, such as toxic chemicals, metals, excess salts, and carcinogens like benzene and radioactive materials.2

In light of these hazards, 15 New York counties and New York City (see page 3 for map) have banned this practice; however, spreading is still approved in Erie County despite their ban (see page 4 for map of road spreading locations). Environmental advocates are calling for Governor Cuomo and the DEC to follow the lead of these counties and ban this practice statewide.

“The data is clear that all oil and gas waste can contain radioactive materials,” said Melissa Troutman, Research and Policy Analyst at Earthworks. “Until testing of ‘brine’ wastewater includes analysis for radioactive materials, all spreading of oil and gas wastewater on roads in New York State must cease.”

Senator Rachel May said, “This year, we were finally able to end the loophole for fracking waste in New York state and demand that it be subject to the same hazardous waste treatment as everything else. Central New York and Upstate are home to some of the world’s most important fresh water resources. It is unconscionable to use harmful and potentially radioactive waste to treat icy roads, where it will then flow directly into our waterways. I urge the Governor and the DEC to protect our water by banning this practice across the state.”

“New York has proven itself a champion of environmental protection and fighting climate change. However, the waste that comes from oil and gas extraction still being used to treat our roads during the winter months can contain hundreds of carcinogenic and radioactive chemicals that can seep into fragile ecosystems and could even contaminate our drinking water. That’s why Albany County banned the practice years ago, with a vote that crossed party lines,” said Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy. “It’s time for the State to follow the science and follow suit to protect public health and our natural resources for future generations.”

Liz Moran, Environmental Policy Director for NYPIRG, said, “Road spreading of oil and gas waste has gone on in New York for far too long. It is well established that oil and gas waste contains contaminants that will leave, and likely already have, lasting damages on New York’s environment. New York made the right move to ban fracking – now those efforts must be matched with a ban on the dangerous practice of oil and gas waste road spreading.”

“New Yorkers shouldn’t be driving on toxic, radioactive oil and gas industry waste,” said Eric Weltman of Food & Water Watch. “Oil and gas waste threatens clean water and public health. Governor Cuomo should stop these permits and end this dangerous practice one and for all.”

“The scientific and medical community have documented and warned that waste from oil and gas drilling and storage sites contains toxic and radioactive pollutants that can bioaccumulate in the environment and in humans,” said Ellen Weininger, Director of Educational Outreach at Grassroots Environmental Education. “Road spreading of this waste for de-icing and dust suppression is a dangerous practice that should no longer be permitted by the NYS DEC. We strongly urge an immediate ban on road spreading oil and gas waste to protect our vulnerable water sources, agricultural lands and residents from certain contamination.”

“Toxic chemicals, metals, and known carcinogens have been found in waste produced through the extraction of oil and natural gas,” said Liz Ahearn, Conservation Analyst, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. “The spreading of this waste on roads poses major threats to water quality, public health, ecosystems, and the environment. The NYS DEC should immediately stop issuing permits allowing the spreading of oil and gas waste on our roads.”

_________________

1 NYS DEC, “DEC Strengthens State’s Solid Waste Regulations,” September 20, 2017, https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/111459.html

2 Robert B. Jackson et al., The Environmental Costs and Benefits of Fracking, 39 ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES 327 (2014); U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, RADIUM CONTENT OF OIL AND GAS FIELD PRODUCED WATERS IN THE NORTHERN APPALACHIAN BASIN (USA): SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF DATA (2011), available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5135/.

Well pads are purple, UIC wells are chartreuse & earthquakes are orange

From an Article by Kate Mishkin, Charleston Gazette – Mail, May 2, 2019

State and federal regulators are skirting their obligations to protect West Virginia’s drinking water from the effects of fracking, a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council says.

The report, made public this week, examines the way the state Department of Environmental Protection (WV-DEP) regulates oil and gas underground injection activities, and how hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can threaten underground drinking water if operators aren’t held accountable.

By examining records from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the group detailed the times the state was inconsistent in its reporting, and found it often sidestepped the state underground injection control program, and federal Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.

In some cases, companies submitted reports that said they’d been injecting wastewater under an expired permit, and that wells had been abandoned without being plugged.

Companies extract natural gas by shooting water, chemicals and sand at a high pressure into wells, often generating large amounts of wastewater, which can contain contaminants such as radiation and heavy metals. Companies often dispose of the large quantities of wastewater by injecting it underground.

And as companies continue to tap into the sprawling Marcellus Shale, the amount of wastewater injected grows, too — “exacerbating the need for safe waste-management practices,” the report says.

“It is crucial that underground injection be properly designed, constructed, operated and maintained — and eventually plugged and abandoned — to ensure that they do not threaten underground sources of drinking water protected by federal and state statutes,” the report says.

In many cases, though, the WV-DEP allowed companies to inject without a permit, continue to operate without applying for a renewal permit before the permit expired and continuing to inject after the WV-DEP issued an order stopping it.

The wells, the report says, “reveal a pattern of unsafe practices and lax enforcement over the years. Any improperly operated well has the potential to cause environmental problems, and potential violations should be taken seriously.”

There are currently three active disposal wells that have received Notices of Violations but haven’t been abated, said Terry Fletcher, a spokesman for the WV-DEP. Of those, two have been abated but aren’t in the department’s database; one well isn’t injecting.

“The WVDEP acknowledges that abandoned and unplugged wells are a legitimate issue and has been working with well operators and others within the industry to find viable solutions to this issue,” Fletcher said.

He said the WV-DEP hasn’t logged any incidents of groundwater contamination from a UIC disposal well.

Amy Mall, senior policy analyst for the NRDC, said some of the failure comes from a lack of accountability.

“I think there’s a combination of the fact that a lot of these sites are in rural areas, companies may think nobody’s watching them [and] nobody’s going to find out if they don’t fully comply with the law,” she said.

And in many cases, companies don’t have a reason to be deterred from breaking rules, Mall said. “Companies don’t have the incentive to comply with the law unless there’s strict enforcement and penalties, otherwise there’s no incentive for them to comply,” she said.

The report recommends the WV-DEP establish stronger operating standards, enforce its rules and be more transparent. It asks the federal Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act in the state.

XTO Shale Gas Well out of control near Powhatan Pt., Monroe County, Ohio

Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Kim Palmer, Reuters News Service, March 7, 2018

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp’s XTO Energy unit said on Wednesday it plugged a blown out natural gas well in rural southeast Ohio that had been leaking for nearly three weeks.

The Feb. 15 blowout in Belmont County had spewed millions of cubic feet of gas into the air, triggering evacuations of nearby residences and raising concerns among environmental groups about health and environmental impacts.

Exposure to low levels of natural gas is not harmful to human health, according to the National Institutes of Health, but extremely high levels can cause loss of consciousness or death by displacing oxygen.

“We would like to press for a full accounting of the damage,” said Melanie Houston, director of climate programs for the Ohio Environmental Council, an environmental advocacy group.

XTO spokeswoman Karen Matusic said the company could not immediately say how much gas leaked from the well, which was about to be put into production after being drilled and fracked.

An initial report from the Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 17 estimated the natural gas flow rate from the well at 100 million cubic feet per day. Earthworks, an environmental group, compared the magnitude of the XTO well blowout with some of the biggest methane releases in the United States.

Matusic said the company has been taking air samples since the blowout and “never picked up anything that would harm humans or animals.”

Following the well blowout, emergency responders evacuated about 30 homes within one mile of the well. Residents of all but four homes located within a half mile of the well were able to return home within a few days, Matusic said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the lead government agency at the XTO well pad. Officials at the DNR were not immediately available for comment

The U.S. EPA said it responded to a fire at the well on Feb. 15 to provide technical assistance and air monitoring at the site. Because there were no apparent release of oil or hazardous substances, the EPA said it demobilized on Feb. 21.

An unknown quantity of brine and produced water, estimated to be more than 5,000 gallons, was initially discharged to streams that flow into the Ohio River, according to the EPA.

Protected wildlife species located in proximity to or downstream from the well site are the Eastern Hellbender Salamander, Northern longeared bat, and protected fish.

See Video Here: XTO Gas Well Blowout near Powhatan Point, Ohio – YouTube

XTO Fracked Gas Well Out of Control in Ohio Valley

From WTRF News 7, Wheeling, WV, February 24, 2018

POWHATAN POINT, Ohio ——————————————-

UPDATE 2/24:

XTO Energy’s well control team continues working to control the well while monitoring weather conditions to ensure safe operations as rain is expected throughout the day, according to XTO Energy officials.

Worker and residential safety remains a top priority, and the air monitoring continues without disruption. There are four homes that are still in the half-mile evacuation zone.

The claims office remains open, and claims adjusters and XTO representatives are on site to assist with the community’s needs.

Any local residents who may have been impacted by this incident are encouraged to call 855-351-6573 or visit XTO Energy’s community response command center at the Powhatan Point Volunteer Fire Department at 104 Mellott Street, Powhatan Point, OH, 43942.

———————————————————————–

UPDATE 2/23:

According to XTO Energy officials, current weather conditions have slowed operations to contain the well, but XTO Energy’s well control team is continuing to work to get the well under control.

In these conditions, officials say that worker and residential safety remains a top priority. Four homes remain in the half-mile evacuation zone, and air monitoring will continue.

Any local residents who may have been impacted by this incident are encouraged to call (855) 351-6573 or visit XTO Energy’s command center at the Powhatan Point Volunteer Fire Department at 104 Mellott Street, Powhatan Point, OH 43942.

_______________________________________________

UPDATE:

According to a press release, XTO Energy crews have restored electricity to homes that lost power as a result of weekend flooding in Powhatan Point.

Now that power is restored, XTO Energy is working with residents in the cleared home to return at their convenience. Four homes remain in the half-mile evacuation zone.

The well control team is continuing to clear debris and made progress Tuesday in assessing the wells on the pad to safely stage the area to contain the well.

Ohio EPA and XTO Energy will continue to monitor air quality.

Any local residents who may have been impacted by this incident are encouraged to call XTO Energy’s claims phone number at 855-351-6573 or visit XTO Energy’s community response command center at the Powhatan Point Volunteer Fire Department, located at 104 Mellott Street, Powhatan Point, OH, 43942.

XTO representatives and claims adjusters are on site to assist with the community’s needs.

_______________________________________________

UPDATE:

Manager of Public and Government Affairs at XTO Energy, Karen Matusic, issued the following statement:

XTO Energy’s well control team has cleared a safe path to the pad and continues to work on clearing debris to stage the area for shutting in the well. On Monday, the evacuation zone was reduced to a half-mile radius of the well pad, with XTO Energy working with state and local agencies to conduct air quality tests at homes and around the perimeter to ensure safe re-entry. Crews are actively working to restore power to residences that lost power as a result of weekend flooding. Five homes remain in the evacuation zone. XTO Energy continues to work with the Ohio EPA to continue monitoring air quality. Any local residents who may have been impacted by this incident are encouraged to call XTO Energy’s claims phone number at 855-351-6573 or visit XTO Energy’s community response command center at the Powhatan Point Volunteer Fire Department, located at 104 Mellott Street, Powhatan Point, OH, 43942. XTO representatives and claims adjusters are on site to assist with the community’s needs.

_______________________________________________

UPDATE:

According to XTO officials, the evacuation has been lifted for anyone living outside of a 1/2-mile radius of the gas well pad.

If you have not been contacted by XTO Energy officials, you are urged to call (855) 351-6573 to schedule an appointment with a representative to go into your home and conduct a precautionary room-by-room air check.

Residents living inside of the 1/2-mile radius are not permitted to return to their homes.

_______________________________________________

ORIGINAL:

Thirty homes remain evacuated as a result of the XTO gas well fire that happened last Thursday in Powhatan Point.

Officials with the company say they are working as quickly and safely as possible to get everyone and everything back to normal.

After monitoring the air quality along with the Ohio EPA, they are happy to report that they have not found any contaminants in the air. Officials are continuing to monitor the situation, and once they are certain that everything is under control, they plan to conduct air quality testing inside the homes affected.

XTO is continuing to reimburse and pay residents for the inconveniences related to the evacuation. If any resident is not returned to their home before school on Tuesday, XTO will arrange transportation to get them to school.

Claims adjusters are on site, or can be reached by phone at (855) 351-6573.

Experts from CUDD were finally able to get to the well pad on Sunday to remove debris from the explosion. The fire is reportedly out.

Judy Eckert is just one person with water problems

Fracking Is Dangerous To Your Health — Here’s Why

From an Article by Judy Stone, Forbes Magazine, February 23, 2017

Fracking, or drilling for gas by hydraulic fracturing, has been associated with a growing number of health risks. Last week, I began this series looking at some of the hazardous chemicals injected into the wells to make drilling easier and cheaper, and the growing risks to our health by the GOP rushing through the approval of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This post looks in greater depth at the health problems linked to fracking. These are not hypothetical concerns—there are now more than 700 studies looking at risks—and more than 80% of the health studies document risks or actual harms.

It’s also important to note that these risks are likely to be seriously underestimated, because the environmental agencies have been downplaying the risks to the public. A new in-depth exposé from investigative journalists at Public Herald looks in-depth at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) misconduct and negligence, as the DEP studiously ignored citizens’ complaints, sometimes not even testing water samples. Earlier studies from ProPublica and others showed similar EPA failures in the western U.S.

<< A variety of health problems are associated with fracking >>

Respiratory problems:

Cough, shortness of breath and wheezing are the most common complaints of residents living near fracked wells. Toxic gases like benzene are released from the rock by fracking. Similarly, a toxic waste brew of water and chemicals is often stored in open pits, releasing volatile organic compounds into the air. These noxious chemicals and particulates are also released by the diesel powered pumps used to inject the water. An epidemiological study of more than 400,000 patients of Pennsylvania’s Geisinger clinic, done with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, found a significant association between fracking and increases in mild, moderate and severe cases of asthma (odds ratios 4.4 to 1.5). Hopkins’ Dr. Brian Schwartz cautions that residents should be aware of this hazard as “some ‘pristine’ rural areas are converted to heavily trafficked industrial areas.”

Problems during pregnancy: 

Fracking chemicals are harmful to pregnant women and their developing babies. West Virginia researchers found endocrine-disrupting chemicals in surface waters near wastewater disposal sites; these types of chemicals can hurt the developing fetus even when present at very low concentrations.

Another Hopkins/Geisinger study looked at records of almost 11,000 women with newborns who lived near fracking sites and found a 40% increased chance of having a premature baby and a 30% risk of having the pregnancy be classified as “high-risk,” though they controlled for socioeconomic status and other risk factors. Contributing factors likely include air and water pollution, stress from the noise and traffic (1,000 tankers/well on average).

Premature babies accounted for 35% of infant deaths in 2010. In addition to the personal toll on the families, preemies are very expensive for society—prematurity is a major cause of neurologic disabilities in kids, and their cost of care was more the $26 billion in 2005 alone, or $51,600 per preemie. Cost to employers during the infant’s first year of life averaged $46,004—more than tenfold higher than for a full-term delivery.

[Note that if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, women may once again be denied health insurance for pregnancies and a premature baby will likely never be granted health insurance. According to the March of Dimes, Medicaid expansion of health insurance to low-income citizens helped the percentage of babies born as preemies drop to a low level of 11.4% in 2013.]

Noise, stress and sleep deprivation

Other studies have found that the noise from the drilling itself, the gas compressors, other heavy equipment and the truck traffic is high enough to disturb sleep, cause stress and increase high blood pressure. Longer-term exposure to noise pollution contributes to endocrine abnormalities and diabetes, heart disease, stress and depression, and has been linked to learning difficulties in children. Sleep deprivation has pervasive public health consequences, from causing accidents to chronic diseases.

Another epidemiologic study from University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University compared the hospitalization rates between a county with active fracking and a neighboring county without. This study found that fracking well density was significantly associated with higher inpatient hospitalization for cardiac or neurologic problems. There was also an association between skin conditions, cancer and urologic problems and the proximity of homes to active wells.

Spills and accidents

With disturbing frequency, new spills or accidents are reported at the same time as industry tries to reassure that fracking brings safe and clean energy. Tell that to the residents of Dimock, Pa., who have had their drinking water destroyed, or those in many other communities.

A newly released study found 6,648 spills in just four states over the past 10 years. Once again, the EPA had reported a far lower number—457 in eight states over a six-year period. Why the huge difference? Because the EPA chose to only look at the actual fracturing stage, rather than the whole life cycle of the gas and oil production.

The DeSmogBlog notes that just this month, the day after U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) the final permit it needed to build across Lake Oahe (threatening the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s land and water), a pipeline of a DAPL co-owner exploded near New Orleans, killing one and injuring others. 

Aging pipelines pose special risks as they deteriorate. An ExxonMobil pipeline built in 1947 spilled 134,000 gallons of gas in Arkansas. You can see the location and magnitude of the spills at this handy interactive from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP). Another disturbing data viz shows the type of spill and whether water was impacted.

But new fracking has additional risks, as the conventional pipes often used are unable to withstand the high pressure of the fracking mixture being injected. In fact, new wells were not safer, and 6% of unconventional (fracked) wells drilled since 2000 showed problems, with even the Pa. DEP (shown by Public Herald to not be thorough in investigating citizens’ complaints, nor entirely forthcoming) confirming more than 100 contaminated drinking water wells.

Conclusion

The oil and gas industry says that these health problems are not proven to be caused by fracking. That is partially true—especially since agencies like the Pa. DEP have actively hidden complaints or even failed to test the water of residents, as Public Herald reported. With the new head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, determined to dismantle the agency and its protections, we will likely never have definitive proof. Some health problems, such as cancer and some neurologic problems, also take years to develop after an exposure.

Fracking profits go to private industry but the public—families and communities—bear the costs of the many health complications from the drilling.

There is growing evidence of a variety of health problems being associated with fracking. Common sense dictates that drinking and breathing cancer-causing agents will take their toll. The correlation is too strong to ignore, especially when we have other, cleaner energy options. For our safety and that of future generations, we should not allow the new administration to sell off public lands, nor allow drilling on our land, and should ban fracking completely.

Photo Description in Original Article: Judy Eckert holding water contaminated with arsenic drawn from her private well. In 2007 Guardian Exploration drilled and fracked a Marcellus well 450ft from her home, which she believes is part of the cause of her contaminated her water supply. In 2010 DEP found a waste pit buried illegally into her season high water table. To learn more about her case you can donate to receive a copy of Triple Divide — a Public Herald documentary on fracking.

MD Senator Robert Zirkin, Baltimore County

Banning Fracking from A to Zirkin in Maryland and Elsewhere

Engage Mountain Maryland says a ban on fracking is essential in Maryland

Senator Bobby Zirkin has been a long-time opponent to hydraulic fracturing and was instrumental in helping pass the two year moratorium currently in place in Maryland. He is now working with the public, answering questions and working on ban legislation he plans to introduce in the next legislative session in Annapolis, MD.

The moratorium will expire next year and permits to drill could be issued as soon as October of 2017. Regulations on fracking are currently in review and expected to be published before the end of the year, however it’s widely felt that there are no regulations that will protect the public from the known dangers of fracking. Public input and participation are essential in the near term.

Contact: EngageMountainMaryland@gmail.com, P. O. Box 81, Oakland, MD 21550

>  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >  >

Public Opposition to Fracking Grows Worldwide

From an Article by Paul Brown, EcoWatch.com, October 16, 2016

Public opposition to pumping water and chemicals into the ground to extract gas from shale—the technique known as fracking—is growing even in the countries whose governments are most in favor. But there are anti-fracking protests in London.

Although only four countries—France, Bulgaria, Germany and Scotland—have an outright fracking ban at the moment, many districts in countries that allow fracking in some areas ban it in others. This is true in the U.S. and in Canada, where potential wells will not be developed because local authorities have refused permission.

The carrot for governments generally has been the promise from the fossil fuel companies of large quantities of cheaply-extracted gas that will last for decades and cut their reliance on imports.

Fracking Boom

This has certainly been true in the U.S. and Canada, where a large-scale fracking boom has altered the balance of world energy resources and cut the price of gas so much that both coal and nuclear have struggled to remain competitive in electricity production.

In theory, China has even larger reserves of shale gas and is anxious to phase out coal plants, actively exploring a cleaner home-grown gas industry of its own. But allegations that fracking contaminates water supplies and creates small earthquakes have led to a backlash in local communities across the world.

In Algeria, for example, where water is extremely precious, it led to large-scale protests. And in Europe, a much more crowded continent where homes and villages are always close to the proposed drilling sites, there has been a lot of local opposition.

The issue has also become much more controversial because of the increasing awareness of climate change. Exploiting new fossil fuel reserves is seen as being against the spirit of last year’s Paris Agreement on climate change, when all the governments of the world signed up to prevent dangerous global warming.

Starting a new fracking industry seems incompatible with the declared aim of governments in keeping global temperature rise below 2°C.

The UK government, while signing up to the Paris Agreement, is enthusiastically backing fracking to provide a home-grown source of gas for 50 years, and has overturned local authority objections to allow exploratory wells to be drilled in Lancashire, northwest England. However, the ban remains in place in Scotland because of public opposition and a large renewables industry.

But it seems unlikely that fracking will have an easy ride even in England. A report by the University of Nottingham on public attitudes to the new industry has shown that support has sunk to an all-time low in the UK. It has dropped from 58 percent in favor in July 2013 to just more than 37 percent in October 2016—the first time that a majority of people has been against fracking. The surveys have been running annually since 2012.

The reasons for opposition are all environmental, because of local effects and also the unacceptability of more fossil fuels as an energy source. While local environment concerns dominated early opposition, the wider implications of climate change and the issue of exploiting new fossil fuel reserves is becoming more important.

Downturn in Support

The survey asks whether shale gas should be part of the UK energy mix. Since this question was first posed in July 2013, shale gas continues to lag behind in popularity, compared with other energy sources. And according to this latest survey, it remains the energy source the public are least likely to want in the UK’s 2025 energy mix.

Professor Sarah O’Hara, of the School of Geography at Nottingham and co-director of the survey, said:

“The sharp downturn in support for the extraction and use of shale gas in the UK over the last 12 months is hugely significant, as is the fact that for the first time since we began running the survey in March 2012 more people are against shale gas extraction than in favor.

“It is clear that people are not only concerned about possible impact on their immediate environment, something that dominated early debates around shale gas, but importantly are beginning to think more broadly about the implications for greenhouse gas emissions and future climate change.”

Mathew Humphrey, professor of political theory at Nottingham’s School of Politics and International Relations and survey co-director, said: “The results of the survey show that the government will increasingly have its work cut out selling fracking to the UK public.”

London anti-fracking protests

Real Issues Confronting Industry & EPA

NOTICE – See “Gaswork” in Buckhannon on November 5th

From April Keating, Mountain Lakes Preservation Association, October 27, 2015

In case you haven’t seen it on social media yet, “Gaswork: The Fight for CJ’s Law” will be shown on Thursday, November 5 at 7 p.m. at Lascaux Micro-Theater in Buckhannon, WV. Thanks to Bryson Van Nostrand for making his theatre space available. Members of the Bevins family will be speaking, and there will be a Q & A afterward. Come out and learn what you can do to support safer drilling practices!

See also this video: https://vimeo.com/141045811

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Buckhannon, WV – Press Release: For Immediate Release, October 27, 2015

On Thursday, November 5, at 7 p.m., there will be a free showing of “Gaswork” at Lascaux MicroTheatre in Buckhannon, WV, located in Traders’ Alley behind Fat Tire Cycle on Main St. The film describes dangerous worker conditions in the oil and gas field. Numerous injuries and deaths result from poor safety practices on rigs all over the country. The oil and gas field has a higher death rate than all other industries.

“Gaswork” opens with the story of CJ Bevins, a Buckhannon native who died on an unsafe rig in New York, then goes on to investigate worker safety and chemical risk in the industry. Many workers who were interviewed have been asked to engage in unsafe practices, such as cleaning drill sites, transporting radioactive and carcinogenic chemicals, and steam cleaning the inside of condensate tanks which contain harmful chemicals, often without safety equipment.

A member of the Bevins family will be present to speak about that family’s experience and answer questions after the showing.

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Impacted Landowners Demand EPA Revise Flawed Fracking Study

From an Article by Winonah Hauter, EcoWatch.com, October 30, 2015
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board met this week to review the agency’s draft assessment of the impact of fracking on drinking water resources, but the largely academic exercise got a dose of reality from residents of Dimock, Pennsylvania; Pavillion, Wyoming; and Parker County, Texas who have fought for years to get U.S. EPA to act.

Inexplicably, their cases of contamination were excluded in the thousands of pages that make up the EPA’s assessment. Given only five minutes each, the residents demanded that the EPA stop ignoring their cases.

Fracking-affected residents came to Washington, DC this week to confront the U.S. EPA over its failed fracking report. From left to right: Ray Kemble, an affected landowner and former gas industry worker from Dimock, Pennsylvania; Steve Lipsky, an affected homeowner from Weatherford, Texas; and John Fenton, a rancher and affected landowner from Pavillion, Wyoming. Photo credit: Craig Stevens

Ray Kemble, an affected landowner and former gas industry worker, testified, “In 2008, gas drilling caused my water to become poisoned. The Pennsylvania DEP and the EPA confirmed this contamination, but abandoned us in 2012 and did not even include us in their long-term study. I am here today to demand that EPA recognize us, include our case in this study, and reopen the investigation.”

John Fenton, a rancher and affected landowner in Pavillion also spoke out. “When EPA launched its national study of fracking’s drinking water impacts, we thought they’d look first here in Pavillion where they’d already found pollution. But instead they ignored us without explanation. Science means taking the facts as they are. But EPA seems to be intent on finding the facts to support the conclusion they’ve already reached—‘fracking is safe.’”

Steve Lipsky, an affected homeowner in Weatherford, Texas added that “EPA omitted my case from their national drinking water study,” and then asked, “Is that science? Whose side is EPA on?”

“We have tried for years now to get the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to meet with impacted residents across the country to hear their stories and to come up with ways that the agency can help those being harmed,” said Craig Stevens, 6th generation landowner and member of Pennsylvania Patriots from the Marcellus Shale. “This has still not happened and we deserve better.”

“While the EPA spent years conducting this study only to claim in their press releases that water contamination from fracking ‘is not widespread or systemic,’ I have been receiving calls on a regular basis from people across the state of Pennsylvania whose water and air has been polluted by this industry and who are paying the price with their health,” said Ron Gulla, an impacted resident from Hickory, Pennsylvania. “I have been trying to help people who are being poisoned by this industry for years, while our federal agencies who are tasked with protecting these people has failed them.”

It was vital that the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board hear these voices from the front lines, from people who have to deal with their water being poisoned. Not only has the agency been unresponsive, and failed to uphold its own basic mission to protect human health and the environment, the EPA—or perhaps more accurately the Obama Administration—misrepresented its own study when it claimed that “hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources and identifies important vulnerabilities to drinking water resources.”

Some of the Scientific Advisory Board members are listening, with one member describing the EPA’s topline finding as “out of left field” and a “non sequitur relative to the body of the report.” But at the same time, the oil and gas industry is well represented on the board—several repeatedly used “we” and “industry” interchangeably as they chimed in in defense of fracking.

The EPA has been unresponsive and is failing to uphold its own basic mission to protect human health and the environment. It’s time for the agency to finally step up and serve the people, not the oil and gas industry. They could start by having a face-to-face with Administrator Gina McCarthy and affected individuals, rather than pretending they don’t exist. And the Obama administration must stop greenwashing fracking and acknowledge that it’s a dirty, polluting source of energy that harms our water, our climate, and our communities.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Residual Waste (Marcellus Brine) Tankers

Decisions about ‘brine’ toxicity: who makes them, when and how

By S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

The need for this article was brought out by an article forwarded by Debbie Borowiec. The kicker in that one was the statement that the Pennsylvania Department responsible for regulating the use of fracking “brine” on roads didn’t keep records or understand the potential effects of it until Newsweek got in touch with them.

I have reasonably good “credentials” for discussing this. I have a Ph. D. in Inorganic Chemistry, and was a teacher rather than a researcher. At one point I was preparing for work in Industrial Hygiene, so I took the American Chemical Society course in Toxicology, received a lot of literature on it, and took several courses relating to Industrial Hygiene at the University of Pittsburgh. With this background, I believe that almost all decisions involving toxicity are made by people who are just about as knowledgeable as someone picked off the street at random.

The way toxicity is handled is a kind of fundamentalism, with a set of written rules that are supposed to be capable of interpretation by someone with no training. These are put into law in such a way they are easily used in court proceedings by reasonably able people (lawyers) who don’t know (in principle) BaCl₂ from KCl unless it is spelled out in writing. These compounds are barium chloride, a deadly poison, and potassium chloride, a substitute for table salt.

What the rules do is specify is a tolerable limit of exposure for a 40 hour work week for an average person. They are intended to protect a person who comes in contact with them while working in a typical job. I will not try to explain how these quantities, defined as safe, are arrived at. It would take a book or two, and the procedure is very, very expensive.

Now I will describe some details about sensitivity in the real world. The research almost always deals with a single, pure compound. People are frequently exposed to mixtures, and, as with medicines, effects are known to be enhanced by mixing in many cases. Fracking exposures are always mixtures, with many components. Second, the published values are for 40 hours a week. People working on rigs are exposed 84 hours while people living in the vicinity 168 hours a week. Water exposure limits work the same way. The more you ingest or the more it comes in contact with your skin the more effects there can be.

Third, some poisons, like carbon monoxide, activate a process in the body to remove them, so that if you survive the dose for a few hours, the effects go away. Others, like the dread heavy metals, are not removed from the body, they are cumulative. You may receive a small dose continuously for most even a number of years before they show effects. Mercury put in the air by coal burning is often given as an example of this type of poison.

Fourth, the limits are set for working people. They do not apply to old or sick people or to fast growing children, babies in utero or the early years of life, or to asthma victims or many other categories not in the prime of life but who comprise part of a normal population. Fifth, no one knows (except the toxicologist who runs the experiment to determine the toxicity) how much more the effects are increased by some incrementally higher dose, say a quarter more than the specified quantity. More to the point, how great are the effects from two or three times the legal exposure limit, as often occurs in the real world?

The rules often don’t resolve real world situations. Many severe exposure situations end up in court where experts for victim(s) try to convince the jury against the company army of “in house” experts.

Sixth, there is a “chain of command” for the samples taken of materials to be analyzed for chemical content. That is, everyone from the various persons who take and analyze the samples to the person(s) who makes the decisions are ethically constrained. If only one in the chain is inclined to cheat (for the sake of the organization, of course), the result is not dependable. Integrity is a big deal when you are teaching chemical analysis as there are many ways to get it incorrect results. Was the sample taken in such a way it is representative, or off in some corner where the concentration is more dilute than that to which the victim was exposed? Was the container properly handled – left open for a time, for example; or was it spilled and a substitute put in its place, heaven forbid?

That is why dependable third parties are so important. That is why the bureaucracy of government, and time consuming nature of enforcement, forced on the system by drilling interests works against citizens.

In fact the “brine” that is hauled around in big trucks that comes from Marcellus shale wells is composed of many salts and many other compounds as well. You don’t want most of these compounds in your water supply or the streams you fish in! And it is obvious the people who made the decision to use such “brine” aren’t adequately educated to make such decisions.

As I said to Debbie, “The investors don’t know toxicity, the executives don’t know about it, the bosses on the job don’t know it, the workers and truck drivers don’t, and a horrifyingly large portion of the REGULATORS don’t know anything about it.”

The weight of big money is a great motivator for quick decisions that may not be in the public interest. Ethics, the other guy’s rights, the necessity of consideration of all the effects of such decisions, are not priority considerations. “First do no harm” is for physicians.

See also the following interesting reports:

(1). Marcellus-Shale.us: “Photos of Brine and Water Tankers”

(2). US-EPA: “Drinking Water Contaminants”

(3).  US-NIEHS: “Radionuclides in Fracking Wastewater: Managing a Toxic Blend“