Pollocks Mill Bridge (PA) -- Note damaged bridge deck behind truck

Marcellus Shale truck safety summit proposed in Pennsylvania

From an Article by Emily Petsko, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, October 14, 2014

Photo: Pieces of a damaged section of Pollocks Mill Bridge in Jefferson Township (PA) fall away as an overweight tanker truck is extracted from it recently. Photo by Tara Kinsell / Observer-Reporter.  Order a Print

Two local politicians are proposing a regional “truck safety summit” in which Marcellus Shale companies will be asked to review their traffic safety procedures.

State Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, and state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, said they want to open dialogue with the energy industry in response to a surge in constituent complaints about reckless truck drivers.

Snyder said common complaints involve speeding, failure to obey traffic signs and driving in the middle of the road. “I live here, so I’m seeing it, too,” Snyder said. “I am concerned, and I want the industry to do some things in regard to their subcontractors. I think there are some really easy things that can happen here that can stop some of this.”

Snyder said complaints escalated after the driver of a water tanker truck crossed the historic Pollocks Mill Bridge in Greene County September 28th, despite being four times the legal weight limit. The bridge collapsed as a result.

“They have to understand the monstrosity that they’re driving and the load that they’re carrying,” Snyder said. “A lot of Greene County roads aren’t made for this traffic.”

The truck’s driver told police he followed his global positioning system to the bridge, which concerned Solobay. “A GPS unit is a convenient way to find an out-of-the-way restaurant, but if the driver of a 10-ton truck is using it to find a safe way through a rural county, that’s a problem,” he said in news release.

Drilling companies typically hire subcontractors to drive trucks carrying water, sand and other supplies to and from well sites. But Solobay said he believes companies have some control over their subcontractors’ safety procedures. He said the most prominent drilling companies in the region are “willing and ready” to make suggested changes.

Snyder said previous meetings to discuss traffic issues with drilling companies were successful, but more needs to be done. “We know that drivers have been fired, contracts have been terminated and big fines have been paid,” she said in a news release. “But we need to focus on prevention, and that’s going to require a comprehensive look at the operations and regulations.”

Solobay and Snyder have already begun reaching out to industry representatives to schedule a meeting. They also are requesting input from state police and the state Department of Transportation.

“It looks like we have a lot of incidents involving individual drivers and independent contractors, but there is a bigger picture developing, and that’s what we want to look at,” Solobay said. “We’re asking everyone with vehicles on the road in the region to examine their procedures and help us find a solution that preserves both economic growth and public safety.”

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Comment – On PA Route 51 in Fayette County, truck traffic is intense; this is also the case in many of the other roads in Fayette, Greene and Washington Counties.  In West Virginia, WV Routes 7 and 18 have experienced severe damage and are dangerous to auto drivers.  The concentration of gas industry trucks also creates significant risks and dangers on US Route 50 between Clarksburg and Parkersburg as well as on US 250 between Fairmont and Moundsville, among others. Tanker truckers are transporting fresh water and wastewater (“residual waste”) while other trucks transport frack sand, frack chemicals, to say nothing of the transport of the drilling rigs, control systems, process tanks and pipelines.  The speed of many of these trucks is excessive!

Doddridge County Watershed Association joins Global Frackdown 3

Lewis County Lavender Farm Hosts Global Frackdown

News Report by Marisa Matyola, WBOY 12 News, October 11, 2014

Weston, WV – Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has gained popularity over recent years, and continues to spark debate.

October 11 marked “The Global Frackdown“, an international day of action initiated by Food & Water Watch to ban fracking, a controversial technique that uses gallons of water, sand, and chemicals to break open rock formations deep underground to release oil and gas.

More than 200 partner organizations around the world participated, some local activists gathered at La Paix Herb Farm in Lewis County on Saturday.

“Why are we putting our people at risk? Why are we as a public allowing the legislators to act this way? They’re not acting in the best interest of the public, they’re obviously acting in someone else’s best interest,” said April Keating, anti-fracking activist.

“It’s like singing to the choir, we talk to ourselves and we all know everything that is going on. We need to get the general public in on this because everyone is affected not just us in the choir,” said Ruth Lamb, Lewis County resident.

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Third annual ‘Global Frackdown’ invades Fountain Square

News Article by Henry Molski, Cincinnati Enquirer, October 11, 2014

Protesters crowded Fountain Square Saturday to oppose fracking in Ohio. Just after 3 p.m., protesters sang, danced, marched and called on Gov. John Kasich to ban fracking waste dumping statewide.

“We need some accountability and awareness to be brought to this problem,” said Alison Auciello, organizer for the Food & Water Watch group. “The government has allowed the literal dumping of fracking waste in this state and we need to hold the governor accountable.”

The protest was a part of the third annual “Global Frackdown,” a day of action against related oil and gas infrastructure. The event was initially started by the Food & Water Watch advocacy group.

“I am most pleased with how this fracking movement is growing,” added Auciello. “A lot is being done in more than a dozen countries around the world and across the country today.”

Also joining in the event on Saturday were representatives from The Sisters of Notre Dame De Namur, the Southwest Ohio No Frack Forum and dancers from the Global Water Dances Cincinnati project.

Protestors gathered with signs on the corner of Vine and 5th Street before musical performances, and rain dances behind the fountain. The activities came to a close as the groups marched up 5th Street holding signs high again.

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About the Global Frackdown

The Global Frackdown is an international day of action initiated by Food & Water Watch to ban fracking —a risky technique that uses millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals to break open rock formations deep underground to release oil and gas. The oil and gas industry has spent millions of dollars on slick public relations campaigns and high-profile lobbying efforts to buy the ability to extract fossil fuels from our communities with as little government oversight as possible, all while destroying our air, water, health, communities and our climate.

While the industry is working hard to protect its profits and drown out the worldwide demand for clean, renewable fuels, there is a tremendous movement afoot around the world to protect our global resources from fracking.

The first Global Frackdown in September 2012 brought together 200 community actions in over 20 countries to challenge fracking. The second Global Frackdown in October 2013, was even bigger with over 250 actions in 30 countries spanning six continents. And we continue to grow.

Together as a movement, we have:

• Passed more than 400 measures against fracking, wastewater injection and frac sand mining in communities across the United States.
• Kept fracking out of the Delaware River Basin.
• Passed ballot measures banning or placing a moratorium on fracking in Longmont, Boulder, Fort Collins, Broomfield, and Lafayette Colorado, and in Oberlin and Broadview Heights, Ohio.
• Passed an indefinite moratorium on fracking in Vermont.
• Continued to keep New York and Maryland frack free.
• Launched Americans Against Fracking – a national coalition to ban fracking – and strong statewide coalitions in New York, California, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, and Maryland.
• Made significant progress against fracking in Bulgaria, France, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, UK, Argentina, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, etc.
• Won recognition in the European Parliament for the right of local communities to be consulted about fracking in their area.

The Global Frackdown united concerned residents everywhere for a day of action on October 11, 2014 to sent a message to elected officials across the globe that we want a future powered by clean, renewable energy — not dirty, polluting fossil fuels. The journey to a renewable energy future will not be fueled by aggressively expanding the use of extreme technologies to extract oil and gas. Climate scientists warn that continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels will lead to catastrophic climate change.

Participants in the Global Frackdown organized events in their communities to challenge decision makers to oppose fracking, united around a common mission statement calling for a ban on fracking and investment in a clean energy future.

Chicago ICE-ENDO Meeting Makes History

Hormone-disrupting activity of fracking chemicals worse than initially found

From an Article in Science Codex, Posted By News On June 23, 2014

CHICAGO, IL—Many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body’s reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds. The results were presented Monday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago.

“Among the chemicals that the fracking industry has reported using most often, all 24 that we have tested block the activity of one or more important hormone receptors,” said the study’s presenting author, Christopher Kassotis, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Columbia. “The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects.”

Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting numerous chemicals and millions of gallons of water deep underground under high pressure to fracture hard rock and release trapped natural gas and oil. Kassotis said spills of wastewater could contaminate surface and ground water.

In earlier research, this group found that water samples collected from sites with documented fracking spills in Garfield County, Colorado, had moderate to high levels of EDC activity that mimicked or blocked the effects of the female hormones (estrogens) and the male hormones (androgens) in human cells. However, water in areas away from these gas-drilling sites showed little EDC activity on these two reproductive hormones.

The new study extended the analysis to learn whether high-use fracking chemicals changed other key hormone receptors besides the estrogen and androgen receptors. (Receptors are proteins in cells that the hormone binds to in order to perform its function.) Specifically, the researchers also looked at the receptor for a female reproductive hormone, progesterone, as well as those for glucocorticoid—a hormone important to the immune system, which also plays a role in reproduction and fertility—and for thyroid hormone. The latter hormone helps control metabolism, normal brain development and other functions needed for good health.

Among 24 common fracking chemicals that Kassotis and his colleagues repeatedly tested for EDC activity in human cells, 20 blocked the estrogen receptor, preventing estrogen from binding to the receptor and being able to have its natural biological response, he reported. In addition, 17 chemicals inhibited the androgen receptor, 10 hindered the progesterone receptor, 10 blocked the glucocorticoid receptor and 7 inhibited the thyroid hormone receptor.

Kassotis cautioned that they have not measured these chemicals in local water samples, and it is likely that the high chemical concentrations tested would not show up in drinking water near drilling. However, he said mixtures of these chemicals act together to make their hormone-disrupting effects worse than any one chemical alone, and tested drinking water normally contains mixtures of EDCs.

“We don’t know what the adverse health consequences might be in humans and animals exposed to these chemicals,” Kassotis said, “but infants and children would be most vulnerable because they are smaller, and infants lack the ability to break down these chemicals.”

Source: The Endocrine Society