Fracking Compendium, 8th Edition

From the Physicians for Social Responsibility, April 28, 2022

PSR is proud to co-release the eighth edition of the fracking “Compendium,” a collection of some 2,000 abstracts of and links to medical, scientific and investigative reports about the consequences of oil and gas drilling, fracking, and infrastructure.

This unique resource presents evidence that fracking-related activities harm public health, the environment, and the climate; links provide easy access to the source material. The 2022 edition includes reports on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which the U.S. proposes to export in massive quantities to Western Europe, thus prolonging dependence on this potent climate-damaging fossil fuel.

PSR co-produces the Compendium with the Concerned Health Professionals of New York.
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Rogersville shale exploration for oil & gas

Be careful, Cabell and Wayne counties, about shale development in SW WV

Letter to the Editor by Bill Hughes, Huntington Herald-Dispatch, April 7, 2017

The fracturing operations of the Marcellus shale gas exploration and production in West Virginia began 10 years ago in Wetzel County, in the Northwestern part of West Virginia. It remains a major center of natural gas activity.

Since I live in the center of Wetzel County, I was interested in reading the recent article in The Herald-Dispatch about the success story on Cenergy manufacturing company located in Milton. It is definitely good to know that there is an expanding, well managed business, providing professional design and manufacturing to the shale gas industry. Cenergy provides good jobs and is benefiting from the shale gas operations taking place to the north in the active gas field. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate here stays well above the West Virginia average. Here, we live in what is called the sacrifice zone. That means your gain is our pain.

Any time there is a new target of drilling opportunities like the Rogersville shale in the Cabell and Wayne counties area, the same industry sales and marketing pitch is broadcast. A leasing frenzy starts. Wetzel residents heard all the landsmen’s partially true promises of the natural gas industry when Chesapeake Energy first appeared here to claim rights to dominate our rural communities. And like most advertising and public relations strategies, there is always a sliver of truth to the tale.

We should always think twice when an industry needs to spend millions of dollars to tell you it will be marvelous to have their industrial operation in your residential or farming neighborhood. Landsmen have the script memorized. The general themes go like this. Shale gas drilling and fracking is: a dependable, proven technology; fundamentally safe; delivers cheap, clean fuel; and will create jobs and be an economic boon for West Virginia.

Before Cabell residents swallow these statements whole, we might wish to dissect them. Is this a proven process? Well, when Chesapeake invaded Wetzel, we were definitely a shale gas guinea pig in the state. The process we experienced was not 50 years old. It was still very much experimental. The process is improving now. It has gotten better in some respects. But keep in mind that any time the fracturing equipment fleet shows up with canisters of Cesium 137 on them, this is definitely not your grandfather’s well drilling.

These newer well bores need high-volume, high-pressure slick water fluids for fracturing their very long laterals. Your grandfathers’ wells were safe and simply vertical only. And the low level radioactive drill waste products now should have some special disposal requirements.

These “advertised as safe” wells have had their problems with gas releases due to well blowouts, explosions, fires and accidents. But unlike local chemical plants contained within walls and roofs, these accidents happen in our communities.

What about the clean fuel claim? Yes, it is true that natural gas, when finally burned, is cleaner that coal when it is burned. Unfortunately, that is a very narrow slice in the overall cradle-to-grave environmental impact and is hardly the only metric to use. It is a very narrow window to look through.

Also, to categorize shale gas as a safe fuel requires us to ignore the diesel fumes from over 30,000 horsepower of fracturing pump engines and the subsequent combustion fumes from the well pad gas processing equipment. And for the cheap fuel label to be true, we must ignore the major externalized costs to public health, water quality and exposure to silica dust. We must also ignore the daily community inconvenience to the traveling public and the public costs to repair infrastructure damage caused by oversized vehicles. And these funds might have to come from an already stretched thin general state budget. After 10 years of drilling, we are still a poor state. So much for the economic boon from shale gas.

Some free advice from the sacrifice zone in Wetzel to prospective targets in Wayne and Cabell: Do your homework. Residents living there above the Rogersville shale must become better informed; review the 10 years of drilling history here. Discount the self-serving sales pitch of the natural gas industry. Consider the future you wish to leave to you grandchildren. And try to resist the flash of cash since there is no hurry to sign any lease. The Rogersville shale is not going anywhere soon. It can wait until you are better informed.

Bill Hughes, a resident of Wetzel County, WV, has been monitoring the Marcellus shale development from the beginning.

See also:  Marcellus-Shale.US

You can help protect our water!

Your Comments are Needed on Antero Landfill Project

Announcement from WV Rivers Coalition, August 22, 2016

Public Hearing Tomorrow, August 23, 2016, in West Union, WV

The WVDEP is currently accepting comments on two permit applications for Antero’s landfill project, 401 water quality certification and NPDES stormwater construction permit. The permit application for these large projects should be very detailed, but both lack all the information that WVDEP needs to certify the projects will not significantly impact our water.

The proposed Antero landfill and wastewater treatment facility encompasses approximately 486 acres located in Doddridge and Ritchie Counties, view our fact sheet on the project here. The facility would treat fracking wastewater for re-use and dispose of the salt byproducts in the attached landfill. It is still unclear how they plan to dispose of the sludge byproduct. The project would impact 89 streams and 11 wetlands and is located within Hughes River Water Board’s drinking water protection area. To submit comments to WVDEP on Antero’s 401 application click here and to submit comments on Antero’s stormwater permit click here. 

View WV Rivers’ comments on the 401 application and stormwater permit. 

The WVDEP is holding a public hearing on the Antero stormwater permit tomorrow, 8/23/16, in West Union, WV. Attend the public hearing and use your voice to protect our water!

What: Antero Landfill Stormwater Permit Public Hearing
When: August 23, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Doddridge County High School Auditorium, 79 Bulldog Dr, West Union, WV 26456

West Virginia Marcellus Shale Drilling Wastes (Bill Hughes Photo)

‘Marcellus shale waste is the elephant in the room that gas operators and regulators alike ignore,’ says environmentalist

From an Article by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams Blog, April 3, 2015

A slew of studies released this week, each examining different aspects of the fossil fuel extraction method known as ‘fracking,’ provide new evidence of problems with the practice.

The first, an investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the FracTracker Alliance into oil and gas company violations, found that information about such transgressions is only publicly accessible in three states.

“Although 36 states have active oil and gas development, most state and federal oil and gas regulatory agencies publish little or no information regarding oil and gas companies’ compliance records,” reads the report, Fracking’s Most Wanted: Lifting the Veil on Oil and Gas Company Spills and Violations (pdf).

“Yet in states where data are available, we found significant violations both in number and severity,” it continues. “These violations include a wide range of dangerous infractions like improper well casing, illegal air pollution, failure to conduct safety tests, improper construction or maintenance of waste pits, various spills, contamination of drinking water sources or other water bodies, and non-functional blow-out preventers.”

Based on its findings, the report recommends the creation of a centralized and publicly accessible data hub on “all oil and gas enforcement activities, including citizen complaints, inspections, violation notices, and penalties issued, and incidents, including spills, leaks, blowouts, and worker injuries.”

The NRDC also makes policy recommendations related to holding violators accountable and keeping “repeat offenders” out of local communities.

Hazardous Waste

In Wasting Away: Four states’ failure to manage oil and gas waste in the Marcellus and Utica Shale (pdf), the environmental non-profit Earthworks examines how Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and New York neither regulate oil and gas development wastes as hazardous, nor can they assure the public that they are protected from exposure to fracking byproducts.

“Thirty years ago the Environmental Protection Agency exempted oil and gas waste from federal classification as hazardous, not because the waste isn’t hazardous, but because EPA determined state oversight was adequate,” said report lead author and Earthworks’ eastern program coordinator Nadia Steinzor.

However, she continued, “our analysis shows that states aren’t keeping track of this waste or disposing of it properly. States must take realistic, concrete steps to better protect the public.”

Activists in the affected areas expressed concern with the report’s findings and called for stronger regulations.

“Whether it is wastewater or solids such as drill cuttings, we know that Marcellus shale waste is the elephant in the room that gas operators and regulators alike ignore,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “If the cost of treatment of this toxic material to standards protective of clean water was fully borne by the operators that are producing it, fracking for shale gas just wouldn’t be economical. The only responsible course is for government to require that frack waste not pollute or degrade the environment, and apply our environmental laws to the fullest, no matter how it impacts companies’ profits.”

“Bad” Ozone

Also, a study published Tuesday by researchers at the University of Wyoming found that emissions from wastewater treatment facilities at oil and gas drilling sites likely contributed to a string of “high-ozone events” in the winter of 2011 in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin.

According to reporting by Environment & Energy Publishing, the team began studying the region’s wintertime ozone levels and the mix of non-methane hydrocarbons in 2009.

They measured several high-ozone events in the winter of 2011, with ozone topping 85 parts per billion numerous times. The national standard for ozone is currently 75 ppb.

According to the EPA: Ground level or “bad” ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the presence of sunlight. Emissions from industrial facilities and electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents are some of the major sources of NOx and VOC. Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems, particularly for children, the elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma. Ground level ozone can also have harmful effects on sensitive vegetation and ecosystems.

“What we’ve done is hopefully just highlight that it’s an important source that should be considered,” said Robert Field, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Wyoming and lead author of the report.

Merry FRACKmas from EQT

From the Article by Dory Hippauf, December 12, 2014

Union Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Population 5,600. It was the kind of place that some people might have dreamed of raising their children; the kind of place where a photo of a winter’s eve, with snow covered hills might have graced someone’s Christmas card.

For Gary Baumgardner and his wife, Union Township was that kind of place, until EQT moved in and began drilling. Quiet nights have been replaced with the sounds of fracking. The fresh air replaced with plumes of smoke and sulfuric odors.

Nine months ago, the Baumgardners celebrated the birth of their first grandchild, a little girl. The first Christmas with a first grandchild is a very special occasion. The Baumgardner family had a tradition of hosting Christmas dinner in their home surrounded by family and friends.

This year the tradition will be broken. Their nine-month old granddaughter is not permitted to be near active drilling sites per doctor’s orders, and there is an active EQT drill site next door. A number of times, Baumgardner and other residents had complained about noise and odors emanating from EQT’s well site, located on property owned by Trax Farm.

In December of 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared unconstitutional parts of Act 13, which limited local zoning control in favor of a statewide standard guiding where natural gas wells could be drilled. Georgann and Gary Baumgardner had seen the ruling as a turning point in their struggle against EQT Corp., which began drilling in early November on nearby Trax Farm in Washington County, just over the Allegheny County line. The process has been wafting diesel fumes, noise and vibrations into their home — and seems to be consuming their lives.

One day, their bedroom air monitor flashed orange and the odor drove the family out of their Cardox Road house for hours. Another day, their daughter Rachel Cecchini, then eight months pregnant, moved out of the house next door and into a rental home several miles away — abandoning the painted nursery and her 93-year-old grandfather.

EQT has built sound walls, put residents up in hotels and offered cash settlements, while Union Township has debated the merits of residents’ complaints and the company’s efforts to address them at many public meetings since drilling began.

EQT claimed they were also frustrated and were attempting to resolve the problem. “This is not a blip on our radar,” said Linda Robertson, manager of media relations with EQT. “We have spent a lot of time and energy, and I think there are some people who have understood the attempts we’ve made.”

Ringle – Ringle, Coins when they Mingle

EQT did resolve some of the problems. EQT’s approach was not to change or improve their activities and thus stop the noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot or other air pollution, vibrations, and/or adverse impacts, but rather to throw money at the residents who were complaining.

EQT offered approximately 19 property owners a total of $50,000 each for signing a Noise and Nuisance Easement. (The original offer was $40,000.) In signing the Noise and Nuisance Easement, these property owners granted EQT easements for noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot or other air pollution, vibrations, adverse impacts or other conditions or nuisances which may emanate from EQT activities.

Additionally , the property owners gave away their rights to file any claims against EQT, agreed to being gagged. The Noise and Nuisance Easement is attached to the property forever, no matter who may own it in the future.

Baumgardner said he had attorneys review the Noise and Nuisance Easement offer and decided not to sign for fear of having his freedom of speech suppressed.

Silent Night?

At a Union Township Supervisors Meeting on December 8, 2014, Baumgardner inquired about EQT’s fracking plans for Christmas.

Would EQT stop fracking operations for Christmas?  No.

Stephanie Paluda, an EQT spokeswoman who attended the meeting, said the company will most likely continue fracking operations on Christmas. She said hydraulic fracturing started Friday, and the site is an around-the-clock operation.

For the Baumgardners, their Christmas celebration will be bittersweet. The first Christmas with their first grandchild held in the family tradition has been fracked and lost forever.

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Wish EQT a Merry FRACKmas

If you, Dear Readers, would like to send a big Merry FRACKmas to EQT, contact info is below:

• EQT Facebook page
• EQT website

Corporate Headquarters: EQT eMail Contact form
EQT Corporation, EQT Plaza
625 Liberty Avenue, Suite 1700
Pittsburgh, PA 15222