Down Fracking’s Memory Lane – Remembering What Some Would Rather Forget

Commentary by S. Tom Bond, Concerned Citizen of Lewis County, WV, July 30, 2015

Remember when horizontal slickwater fracking began? How it was a triumph of private enterprise, when in fact it had been invented at Morgantown WV in the US Department of Energy facility.

Remember how they have just wanted the government to get out of the way so they could do their thing? And how George P. Mitchell was actually supported by government grants, and how it took the industry a couple of years to catch on to the thing after he showed it would work? That still isn’t mentioned in standard short references about Mitchell. Government invention and subsidy contravenes “the Gospel of Big Business.”

Remember how they said “fracking” was 60 years old? Implying it was the same process that Halliburton used to gain it’s position and employ the backroom bard Richard Cheney? And speaking of Cheney, remember the US Energy Policy Act of 2005? And the sneaky industry meeting called by Vice-president Cheney (acting as Big Daddy to the President) that came before the bill, where the energy executives decided they wanted to obliterate the protections in law about clean air, safe drinking water, clean everything. How it reduced taxes on the industry? Made biofuels viable and increased world grain prices? The result is now called the “Cheney Loophole.” Hillary Clinton called it the “Dick Cheney lobbyist energy bill.”

Remember the claim, “We never did anybody any harm.” Now it is shown by science that people anywhere near fracking are subject to air pollution from a bouquet of toxic chemicals, and assaulted by the smells, and sent to the hospital more frequently than people living further away. Now people can take pictures of the layer of pollution in fracking areas, and scientists can measure it and connect it with safety hazards? Asthma, low birth rates and “natural” abortions, all are related to fracking.

Remember how it didn’t harm ground water? But there were plenty of pictures of forlorn people holding up containers of gunky stuff that had come out of their wells. And the drillers went ahead and put out “water buffalos,” out of the kindness of their hearts, then abandoned them when they left the neighborhood? Analysis showed there was a wide variety of pollutants affecting health in well water afterwards. Many endocrine disrupters are known in fracking fluids and vanishingly low concentrations are required to have an effect.

Remember when it began, how they got their water to drill? Picked it up where ever they could, sometimes reducing the stream flows to the point where wild life was affected? In one case at least it was stolen from a public water system. And how the waste water was dumped where ever it was convenient? In the creeks, in abandoned mines, through municipal sewage treatment plants.

They even spread it on roads to control dust, where it promptly was washed into adjoining streams by the next rain. They brought a microorganism from Texas in uncleaned waste water trucks. That organism contaminated Dunkard Creek, near Morgantown, and killed off the wildlife. (Some 40,000 fish and other creatures.)

Now we read about the danger of radiation in streams in fracking areas.

The pumping of the huge quantities of water through pipelines from rivers and disposal are now somewhat improved. But by pumping frack liquid waste down wells, thousands of gallons per day, day after day which go into the barely visible cracks in the rocks at depth, miniearthquakes result. And, some of these earthquakes are significant, maybe all.

What the U.S. frackers are doing is sucking our limited reserve through a bigger straw – to export. This will leave us to import somewhere down the line – think about who gets the fortunes to be made by this development, and where it leaves our children and grandchildren? Energy “independence” now, disaster a generation or two down the line. The claims that all the pipelines are for U.S. home use are obviously camouflage. All roads once lead to Rome, now all pipelines lead to the sea.

Europe is way ahead of us. Both French and Dutch companies are forbidden to frack in their own countries. Denmark kicked the French company Total out after ONE DAY of fracking and is going to all wind power in the next few years. Spain, with lots of sunshine, is big on solar.

D’ya suppose it is possible to live without fracking?

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See also:  www.Marcellus-Shale.us

BXE Rally in DC: November 1 - 7

Beyond Extreme Energy: People Taking Action to Retire Fossil Fuels, Nov. 1 – 7 in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issues permits for pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals. That means more deep shale extraction activities in our communities, which means more contaminated well water, more tainted streams, more sickening air emissions, more plummeting property values, more low-level radioactive waste in landfills…

Even as communities across the nation have risen up to fight pipelines, gas storage under lakes, compressor stations and fracked-gas export plants in our backyards, FERC has remained unmoved, unresponsive and unaccountable. FERC has answered only to the fossil fuel industry, rubber-stamping almost every project.

In the face of increasing threats to our health, communities, democracy, property values, environment and climate, people from across the nation will gather in Washington, D.C. next week to stop FERC’s business-as-usual and to deliver a list of demands.

Nov. 1 – 7: Beyond Extreme Energy: People Taking Action to Retire Fossil Fuels

Join the Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) action — sign up here. Click here for details on each day’s actions, as well as information on trainings, lodging, food and more. If you need a ride or can share a ride, check out this rideboard. (Signing into ridebuzz is quick and painless.) If you are coming to the action, get your story told (meme it!) with this BXE story submission form.

Even if you can’t come out, please support BXE on social media with the hashtags: #FERCdoesntwork, #Fracking. Also, please consider making a donation for this week of action. And, spread the word.

>>>>>> Call to Action

https://sites.google.com/site/beyondextremeenergy/

The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project is a non-profit that has opened in Washington County, PA. This project is in response to growing concerns over the potential health effects from hazardous pollutant releases associated with Marcellus shale gas development. It is funded by the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Claneil Foundation. Per the Don Hopey story in the  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The office will help area residents recognize and understand exposure pathways in the air and water, and schedule medical exams and evaluations to diagnose health problems that may result from them, said Raina Rippel, project director. An on-site Washington County nurse practitioner is available by appointment for home visits, exams and consultations, and already has conducted several patient assessments.

“I’ve been out there in the communities, listening to residents. We know there are public health impacts, but there is uncertainty,” Ms. Rippel said. “Our goal is to help individuals — help them navigate the health care systems, help them get the answers to the health care questions they have and put them in contact with the resources they need, whether that’s water testing or filtration or medical services.”

Washington County has the most Marcellus wells (about 700), more than any other county in southwestern Pennsylvania, and at least a dozen compressor stations. Impacts include stomach aches and headaches, nosebleeds and cognitive difficulties, as well as stress-related disorders, said Dr. Leslie Walleigh, a project consultant and a physician specializing in occupational and environmental medicine.

“We would expect, based on predictable exposures, that some individuals will experience respiratory symptoms, with worsening of underlying asthma and other lung diseases, and possibly the new onset of asthma,” Dr. Walleigh said. “We also expect to see conditions related to the emotional and psychological stress resulting from the personal, family and community life disruption stemming from the shale gas activities.”

This new program will be the first to study the health impacts from shale gas development in any comprehensive and methodical way, said David Brown, a public health toxicologist in Connecticut and director of Public Health Toxicology for Environment and Human Health Inc., which helped design the program.