Ohio residents point out water pollution & earthquake problems

From an Article by Julie Grant, The Allegheny Front, October 5, 2018

Much of the wastewater from Pennsylvania’s fracking industry is trucked across the border to Ohio. Last year, Pennsylvania and West Virginia contributed nearly half of the more than a billion gallons of frack waste that were injected into underground wells in Ohio. Residents in at least one county say they’ve had enough.

Michelle Garman used to marvel at the 22-acres of land around her home in Vienna, Ohio, less than 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border.

“I would lean out my back window and say, ‘oh my god, I never dreamed of owning this much land’,” she said.

LISTEN: “Ohio Residents Fed Up with Fracking Wastewater”

You can see and hear the injection well from Michelle Garman’s property, less than 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border. Photo: Julie Grant

She didn’t know much about fracking then, let alone frack waste injection wells.

But she remembers News Years Eve 2011, when a 4.0-magnitude earthquake shook nearby Youngstown, Ohio. Around a dozen smaller quakes followed. The state determined that the quakes were caused by an injection well. And one in New Castle, Pennsylvania was linked to fracking as well. The well believed to have caused the Youngstown quakes has been closed permanently.

“That’s poison they’re pumping into the ground”

But Garman’s view changed in 2013 when an injection well was built on the property next door.

“Where your looking at tanks and cement and fencing, it was trees and deer and turkey. And blue jays…and I never see them anymore,” she said.

Garman describes big trucks carrying chemical-laced wastewater that squeal into the site at all hours. She can hear the pump from her yard. And Garman fears for her family.

“How does it affect our health, my son’s health?” she wondered. “I mean, it is toxic. Plain and simple, that’s poison that they’re pumping into the ground.”

Garman says her concerns didn’t get much response from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the agency with authority over injection wells. In Ohio, there’s no local control of the oil and gas industry.

And few leaders in her town would criticize the local company, Kleese Development Associates, that built the well next to her property.

Then, in April of 2015, a waste oil spill caused a slew of dead animals and a polluted nearby wetlands. It was caused by another injection well owned by Kleese.

Garman says neighbors contacted her for help.

“People were scared,” she said. “[The were asking], ‘can I drink the water, can I bathe my children in it, can I cook with it?”

The state forced Kleese to shut down the injection well, and it’s still closed. The company could not be reached for comment.

“They don’t want it”

On a recent evening, leaders from townships in Trumbull County gathered at the gazebo in the Brookfield town square. Brookfield Township trustee Gary Lees coached people on how to send letters to their representatives in Columbus asking them to consider legislation that would stop more injection wells in Trumbull County.

Trumbull County already has 17, among the most in the state, and 6 more are in the works. In Hubbard Township, Bobcat LLC has applied to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for an injection well.

Pittsburgh-based Seneca Resources has drilled a new injection well in Brookfield Township, one of five it plans on the site. The company still needs state approval of its surface facility.

State representative Glenn Holmes says people there are fed up. He references a petition against a plan for the five injection wells by Seneca Resources.

“In a community of about 8,000 people, [we have] 5,000 signatures,” he said. “They don’t want it.”

Holmes has proposed two bills in the Ohio House of Representatives meant to rein in injection wells. One, introduced last spring, would divert more than a third of fees Ohio collects from other state’s frack waste disposal to local governments. Last year, fees for this waste brought in more than $650,000. Holmes says counties should get a cut.

“You have the truck traffic, you have the noise, and you also have the stress and the tension,” he said. “‘Is this going to cause an earthquake?’ Is my aquifer or my well going to be polluted because of this?’”

More recently, Holmes introduced another bill to stop ODNR from permitting any more injection wells in Trumbull County, capping the number of injection wells at 23 per county.

Ted Auch doesn’t think that’s a good idea. He works for the non-profit FracTracker Alliance. Auch worries that a cap per county would actually open up more of the state to injection wells, which have more than doubled in the last five years.

Auch said money from fees should be spent on inspectors.

“You can’t have your number of inspectors be static and your number of wells go up, up and away,” he explained. “That means the number of wells per inspector is going up.”

Auch warns that Ohio has become a dumping ground for other state’s fracking wastewater.

The ODNR says it has strong regulations for injection wells, but declined an interview for this story, as did the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

###

Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake (9/2/16)

Several new earthquakes rattle Oklahoma

Recent Quakes Could Signal Larger Event(s)

From an Article of the Associated Press, September 8, 2016

Oklahoma City, OK (AP) — Two earthquakes this year in Oklahoma greater than magnitude 5.0 — including a record-setting quake last weekend that damaged more than a dozen buildings — are expected to increase the likelihood of a more violent quake in the future, a top earthquake researcher said Wednesday.

The earthquake centered in northeast Oklahoma on Saturday was upgraded to magnitude 5.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey on Wednesday, making it the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the state. It was the second earthquake exceeding magnitude 5.0 recorded in Oklahoma this year, which likely will increase the chances of a more powerful quake to come, said USGS geophysicist Daniel McNamara.

“You’ve had two 5s this year, which means a lot more energy,” McNamara said during a break in a seismicity workshop in Norman that attracted some of the top earthquake researchers from across the country.

A 5.1-magnitude quake was reported in February near the town of Fairview in northwest Oklahoma. 

The previous strongest recorded quake in Oklahoma was a 5.6-magnitude temblor in 2011, which also was upgraded Wednesday to a 5.7-magnitude quake. The revisions were based on further analysis of recordings of seismic activity, the USGS said in a statement.

One man suffered a minor head injury in Saturday’s quake when part of a fireplace fell on him, and emergency management officials said there have been reports of damage to more than a dozen buildings.

The uptick in earthquakes in Oklahoma over the last five years has been linked to the high-pressure injection of oil and gas wastewater deep underground, although researchers say it’s too early to tell what may have caused Saturday’s quake, which was located much further east than most of the previous quakes in Oklahoma.

“I’m a little surprised to see a really large earthquake really on the fringes of our earthquake area of interest,” said Jeremy Boak, the director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey. “It could be a natural earthquake. It could be some (injection) wells nearby. It could be the regional pattern of injection.”

Another possibility, Boak said, is that a pulse of high water pressure deep underground has slowly moved eastward, until it hit a natural “fault that was cued up and ready and had enough seismic energy that once triggered, it really let go of the big one.”

As a result of the increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma, state oil and gas regulators have ordered hundreds of disposal wells to either shut down or reduce the amount of wastewater they are injecting. About 54 wells in a 725-square-mile area near Saturday’s quake were ordered shut down by state and federal regulators. 

In early 2015, state regulators said the amount of disposed wastewater was decreased by about 800,000 barrels a day, a roughly 25 percent decrease from 2014 levels. Boak said the reduction in wastewater disposal appears to be producing the desired effect, dropping the number of quakes 3.0 and larger from 907 in 2015 to 472 this year through September 4th.

Still, both Boak and McNamara said the possibility exists that a quake as large as 6.0 could rattle Oklahoma sometime in the future.

“That’s what we worry about,” McNamara said. “There are definitely faults in Oklahoma big enough to produce that size of a rupture.”

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

West Virginia Environmental Council

ACTION ALERT for JUNE 10th

CALL TO ACTION:
Fayette County’s Frack Waste Ban is Being Challenged in Court

<<<< UPDATE: The Fayette County injection well ban appeal hearing is now at 2:00 p.m. in the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse on Virginia St. Please adjust your schedules accordingly. >>>

This Friday, June 10th at 10am, the Fayette County Commission’s historic ban on oil and gas waste disposal is being challenged by EQT Corporation.

EQT is seeking a permanent Injunction against the ordinance to make these kind of county-wide bans unenforceable. We will be doing our best to make sure our ordinance stands, to set a precedent in Fayette County that will uphold other county’s rights to enact similar ordinances. But we need your help!

If you are available, please attend the court date! It will be heard in front of John T Copenhaver at 10 am Friday, June 10th at the Southern District Court of West Virginia (300 Virginia St E. Charleston, WV 25301). Note: You will also need a valid state-issued photo ID in order to enter the courthouse.

If you choose to attend, WEAR BLACK. All the attendees will be showing their support and collective mourning of the damage done to our water and health by showing up in all black attire.

For the water, land, and people, we are part of Headwaters Defense.

We hope you’ll consider joining Headwaters Defense this Friday as they fight to uphold their frack waste ban in Fayette County!

>>> Web-Site for the WV Environmental Council is:

>>> http://wvecouncil.org

Oklahoma energy companies want earthquake lawsuit dismissed

From an Article of the Associated Press, June 3, 2016

Oklahoma City (AP) — Three Oklahoma energy companies want a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit demanding they reduce injection volumes at wastewater disposal wells that could be triggering earthquakes.

The lawsuit was filed in February by members of the Oklahoma Sierra Club. It asks that Devon Energy Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp. and New Dominion LLC reduce production waste at wells.

But the companies say in legal filings that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is already taking action to reduce volumes of wastewater in disposal wells, The Oklahoman reported Friday (http://bit.ly/22COFoL ).

The commission has issued a series of voluntary directives covering more than 600 disposal wells. In addition, the Coordinating Council on Seismic Activity brings together regulators, researchers and energy industry representatives to respond to seismicity.

“Through the efforts of the governor, the state Legislature, the OCC and other state agencies, Oklahoma is in the midst of implementing a coherent, well-coordinated and comprehensive public policy to address seismicity,” Chesapeake Energy said in a court filing.

While the three companies were responsible for about two-thirds of the wastewater injected in 2014, they said any injunction against them wouldn’t cover other operators who might also be contributing to induced seismicity.

The companies also said anybody with concerns should go through the OCC to modify injection well permits.

In response, the Sierra Club said it had no issues with the state’s response, but believes more could be done. It said commission action hasn’t stopped the earthquakes, with more than 300 recorded since the beginning of the year with magnitude greater than 3.0.

The group said it hasn’t had any opportunity to oppose permits because all the volume reductions so far have been voluntary.

“The OCC has not yet issued a mandatory order to reduce injection,” the Sierra Club said. “In addition, the voluntary directives issued to date have not stopped the earthquakes, or even reduced their frequency or intensity.”

In its answer to the lawsuit, Devon disclosed it is selling some disposal wells as part of a previously announced $200 million deal to sell noncore assets in Oklahoma’s Mississippian formation. White Star Petroleum LLC, formerly American Energy-Woodford LLC, is the buyer.

——  See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

See the Note in the Article.

Unconventional Oil & Gas Wastewaters Affect WV Surface-Water Stream

From the US Geological Survey, Reston, VA, May 9, 2016

These are the first published studies to demonstrate water-quality impacts to a surface stream due to activities at an unconventional oil and gas wastewater deep well injection disposal site.

Evidence indicating the presence of wastewaters from unconventional oil and gas production was found in surface waters and sediments near an underground injection well near Fayetteville, West Virginia, according to two recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Missouri, and Duke University.

These are the first published studies to demonstrate water-quality impacts to a surface stream due to activities at an unconventional oil and gas wastewater deep well injection disposal site. The studies did not assess how the wastewaters were able to migrate from the disposal site to the surface stream. The unconventional oil and gas wastewater that was injected in the site came from coalbed methane and shale gas wells.

“Deep well injection is widely used by industry for the disposal of wastewaters produced during unconventional oil and gas extraction,” said USGS scientist Denise Akob, lead author on the current study. “Our results demonstrate that activities at disposal facilities can potentially impact the quality of adjacent surface waters.”

The scientists collected water and sediment samples upstream and downstream from the disposal site. These samples were analyzed for a series of chemical markers that are known to be associated with unconventional oil and gas wastewater. In addition, in a just-published collaborative study tests known as bioassays were done to determine the potential for the impacted surface waters to cause endocrine disruption.

Waters and sediments collected downstream from the disposal facility were elevated in constituents that are known markers of UOG wastewater, including sodium, chloride, strontium, lithium and radium, providing indications of wastewater-associated impacts in the stream.

“We found endocrine disrupting activity in surface water at levels that previous studies have shown are high enough to block some hormone receptors and potentially lead to adverse health effects in aquatic organisms,” said Susan C. Nagel, director of the EDC study and associate professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at University of Missouri.

Scientists analyzed the microbial communities in sediments downstream. These microbes play an important role in ecosystems’ food webs.

“These initial findings will help us design further research at this and similar sites to determine whether changes in microbial communities and water quality may adversely impact biota and important ecological processes,” said Akob.

Production of unconventional oil and gas resources yields large volumes of wastewater, which are commonly disposed of using underground injection. In fact, more than 36,000 of these disposal wells are currently in operation across the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the volume of unconventional oil and gas wastewater requiring disposal has continued to grow despite a slowing in drilling and production.

“Considering how many wastewater disposal wells are in operation across the country, it’s critical to know what impacts they may have on the surrounding environment,” said Duke University scientist Christopher Kassotis, the lead author on one of the studies. “These studies are an important first step in that process.”

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with normal functioning of organisms’ hormones.

The studies were published in Environmental Science and Technology and Science of the Total Environment and can be found here. They are titled:

• “Wastewater Disposal from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Degrades Stream Quality at a West Virginia Injection Facility,” with Akob as the lead author
• “Endocrine Disrupting Activities of Surface Water Associated with a West Virginia Oil and Gas Industry Wastewater Disposal Site,” with Kassotis as the lead author

This study is part of USGS research into the possible risks to water quality and environmental health posed by waste materials from unconventional oil and gas development. The USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program and the USGS Environmental Health Mission Area provide objective scientific information on environmental contamination to improve characterization and management of contaminated sites, to protect human and environmental health, and to reduce potential future contamination problems.

NOTE: Map of sampling locations near Fayetteville, WV within the Wolf Creek watershed (A) and specific sites (B) in a stream running adjacent to a class II disposal facility. Panel A shows that Site 2 was located in a separate drainage from the disposal facility sites (outlined in black box), which are shown in panel B (Sites 4, 5, 6, 7 and 3). In panel B, the blue line highlights the stream and the yellow outline is the location of the former impoundment ponds.

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net

Fracking wastewater is very toxic

In W. Virginia, frack wastewater may be messing with hormones

From an Article by Brian Bienkowski, Environmental Health News, April 6, 2016

<<< Waste leaching from frack disposal wells are the likely source of a spike in endocrine-disrupting compounds in downstream waterways — a troubling sign given the roughly 36,000 disposal sites across the U.S. >>>

Water around and downstream from a fracking wastewater disposal facility in West Virginia contains compounds that may harm fish health by messing with endocrine systems, according to a new study.

Researchers found high levels of endocrine disruption activity in the water near or downstream from the wastewater site in Fayetteville, West Virginia. The study, published today in the journal Science of the Total Environment, adds to evidence that some chemicals in hydraulic fracturing waste are hormone-mimickers or blockers and are leaching out of wastewater disposal wells and into nearby water, potentially impacting fish and human health.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process that uses horizontal drilling and high volume fluid injections to release oil and gas. Along with water, the injections contain sand and a mix of chemicals—some of which have been linked to cancer, hormone impacts, and reproductive problems. It’s estimated that every well produces more than one million gallons of wastewater, which is eventually pumped into disposal wells.

There are an estimated 36,000 fracking disposal sites in the U.S. and little testing has been done on nearby surface water, said lead author Christopher Kassotis, a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University.

Kassotis and other university and federal researchers collected water upstream, downstream and around a wastewater facility that has a disposal well, holding ponds and storage tanks—all used to house excess wastewater from drilling. There is a small stream flowing through the site, which flows into Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek flows into the New River, which is used for some people’s drinking water.

Samples near the site and downstream had “considerably higher” activity for a number of hormones, including estrogen, androgen and thyroid receptors, than reference samples in the watershed far from any disposal sites.

“What’s really interesting is that they sampled from different sites that are in different places in watershed,” said Andrea Gore, a professor of pharmacology at The University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study. “It clearly shows substantial difference in endocrine activity looking upstream and downstream.”

The activity is worrisome for local fish—such contamination seems to affect the reproductive development of some fish species, which can lead to threatened populations. In recent years researchers are finding more “intersex” fish—male fish with some female reproductive parts—and believe the culprit is endocrine-disrupting chemicals in water.

“Sometimes we forget fish are a really important part of the ecosystem,” Gore said.

Properly functioning hormones are crucial throughout people’s entire lives, Gore said. “During development all parts of the body are going through rapid change. Most of these changes are orchestrated or at least influenced by these hormones,” Gore said. “These changes, even at really low levels, have impacts on biological development.”

And adults need normal endocrine function too, she added. “Too much or too little of any hormone, you get sick.”

Industry representatives pushed back, saying that the concentrations of compounds found do not warrant health concerns.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals “are found in just about everything we use on a day to day basis, including dyes, perfumes, plastics, personal care products, detergents and cleaning agents,” said Seth Whitehead, a researcher at an outreach program launched by the Independent Petroleum Association of America called Energy In Depth, in an emailed response.

“Concentration level is far more relevant than merely detecting EDCs,” he added.

Susan Nagel, senior author of the study and an associate professor at the University of Missouri, said the levels found were within the range or higher than the level known to impact the health of aquatic organisms.

“In many cases, even with considerable dilution, levels of endocrine-disrupting contaminants would still be capable of disrupting the development of fish, amphibians, and other aquatic organisms,” the authors wrote.

“In many cases … levels of endocrine-disrupting contaminants would still be capable of disrupting the development of fish, amphibians, and other aquatic organisms.”-study authors

While single fracking wells use about 50 chemicals, about 1,000 different chemicals are used by the industry, according to previous research. An estimated 100 of these chemicals are known endocrine disruptors.

While some known endocrine-disrupting compounds were identified in the current study, it’s unclear which of these chemicals were responsible for the endocrine activity in West Virginia.

Also the authors point out that the injection well studied may accept wastewater from other industries, which could also contain endocrine-disrupting compounds.

The findings aren’t the first time frack waste has been linked to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Nagel and colleagues previously reported that water near Colorado fracking drill sites had much higher endocrine-disrupting activity than other nearby water.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Source: www.wvpolicy.org

Tax Reform Committee Public Hearing This Tuesday in WV

The Joint Select Committee on Tax Reform will host its first public hearing on Tuesday, October 20 starting at 9:00 AM in the House Chamber at the State Capitol.

West Virginia policy makers are already struggling to maintain funding for important programs. Governor Tomblin recently announced additional across-the-board budget cuts for the current fiscal year.

Individuals wishing to speak to the Committee will be given a chance to sign up that day and speak in the afternoon. Groups or agencies will speak during the morning session and were required to preregister.

For more, please visit the Committee’s Facebook page. See also the WV Center on Budget & Policy, advocates of a WV state tax on natural gas liquids production.

Last month, a diverse coalition of organizations that cares about kids, families, seniors and working people, community organizations and local governments released basic principles of fair taxation which we urge legislators to consider as they deliberate changes to the tax code.

#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Carbon Fee and Dividend Promoted by Citizens Climate Lobby

Concerned about our changing climate? Come hear how you can get involved in doing something about it, Wednesday, October 21st at 6 pm at the Morgantown Public Library.  This is a free presentation and all are welcome.

The speaker will be Jim Probst of the Citizens Climate Lobby.  Other advocates are the Monongalia Friends Meeting and the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition.

#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near a Hub of U.S. Oil

From an Article by Michael Wines, New York Times, October 14, 2015

A sharp earthquake in central Oklahoma last weekend has raised fresh concern about the security of a vast crude oil storage complex, close to the quake’s center, that sits at the crossroads of the nation’s oil pipeline network.

The magnitude 4.5 quake struck Saturday afternoon about three miles northwest of Cushing, roughly midway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The town of about 8,000 people is home to the so-called Cushing Hub, a sprawling tank farm that is among the largest oil storage facilities in the world.

Scientists reported in a paper published online last month that a large earthquake near the storage hub “could seriously damage storage tanks and pipelines.” Saturday’s quake continues a worrisome pattern of moderate quakes, suggesting that a large earthquake is more than a passing concern, the lead author of that study, Daniel McNamara, said in an interview.

“When we see these fault systems producing multiple magnitude 4s, we start to get concerned that it could knock into higher magnitudes,” he said. “Given the number of magnitude 4s here, it’s a high concern.”

The federal government has designated the hub, run by energy industry companies, a critical national infrastructure. Major tank ruptures could cause serious environmental damage, raise the risk of fire and other disasters and disrupt the flow of oil to refineries nationwide, said Dr. McNamara, a research geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado.

The Cushing quake is among the largest of thousands of temblors that have rocked central and northern Oklahoma in the past five years, largely set off by the injection of oil and gas industry wastes deep into the earth. The watery wastes effectively lubricate cracks, allowing rocks under intense pressure to slip past one another, causing quakes.

The tens of millions of barrels of injected wastewater have helped make Oklahoma the second most seismically active state, behind Alaska. Although quakes have damaged or destroyed buildings and roads and, in a few instances, injured people, regulators do not have the authority to seriously curb waste disposal, and politicians in a state dominated by the energy industry have made no move to give it to them.

The state had three earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in 2009. Last year, it had 585, and this year’s total exceeds that.

Many scientists say the largest earthquake recorded in Oklahoma, a magnitude 5.7 temblor in 2011, was apparently unleashed by injected waste. Research suggests that the Cushing faults hold the potential for a quake as large as magnitude 6, Dr. McNamara said.

The Cushing oil hub stores oil piped from across North America until it is dispatched to refineries. As of last week, it held 53 million barrels of crude. The earth beneath the tanks was comparatively stable until last October, when magnitude 4 and 4.3 earthquakes struck nearby in quick succession, revealing long-dormant faults beneath the complex. Three more quakes with magnitudes 4 and over have occurred within a few miles of the tanks in the past month.

The Department of Homeland Security has gauged potential earthquake dangers to the hub and concluded that a quake equivalent to the record magnitude 5.7 could significantly damage the tanks. Dr. McNamara’s study concludes that recent earthquakes have increased stresses along two stretches of fault that could lead to quakes of that size.

The vice chairman of the state’s oil and gas regulatory body, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, said in an interview that the potential for a large earthquake in Cushing was among her biggest worries. “It’s the eye of the storm,” said the vice chairwoman, Dana Murphy. Nevertheless, Oklahoma’s attempt to deal with the earthquakes this autumn faces continuing obstacles.

The government’s chief seismologist, who came under oil industry pressure to minimize the quakes’ origins in waste disposal, left this fall, and his successor is scheduled to depart soon. The state budget for the fiscal year that began in July slashed appropriations to the Corporation Commission by nearly 45 percent.

The commission has used its limited power over oil and gas exploration and production to persuade some companies in quake-prone areas to reduce the amount of waste they inject underground. This week, however, a Tulsa energy company filed the first challenge to those efforts, calling them arbitrary and a violation of due process. The two sides are negotiating an accord.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

“Make gas drillers pay for using, ruining water”

Letter to the Editor, Morgantown Dominion Post, Page 6-A, August 27, 2015

The 2000 Water Resources Group (a public-private partnership that assists government water officials) predicts that water demand will exceed supply by 40 percent in 15 years.  We are fortunate to live in a state with a plentiful supply.  By comparison, California is in its fourth year of a drought and water rationing is the law.

While our supply is abundant, we cannot take this resource for granted.  With our climate in flux, we should be doing everything we can to protect and preserve our water resources.  According to the West Virginia Water Resources Protection Act, “The waters of the State of West Virginia are claimed as valuable public natural resources held by the State for the use and benefit of its citizens.”  Citizens – that’s us.

So what are we doing with our plentiful and precious water? Besides drinking and recreating in it, we give it away to industry.  Extracting natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales is a water-intensive process.  Every time one of these wells is drilled and fracked, an average of 4 million gallons of water is used.

With approximately 1,200 active wells and more than 3,000 permitted, the gas industry needs a lot of water.  Environment America (a federation of state-based environmental advocacy organizations) estimates that West Virginia has used 17 billion gallons of water for hydraulic fracturing from 2005 – 2013.

In most cases, this water is sucked right out of our rivers and streams.  There are about 155 water withdrawal sites permitted in West Virginia. The water is mixed with a cocktail of chemicals and pumped underground to fracture the shale and permit the escape of natural gas.

Once a gas well has been drilled, the water resurfaces essentially as industrial waste.  This water is too polluted to return it to the rivers and streams from which it was taken.  So instead this toxic water is disposed of in underground injection wells in many cases.

Whey is the natural gas industry allowed to waste our water? These companies do not pay a cent for taking this water from our rivers and streams and ruining it.  It’s only fair that these companies compensate us for its use.  West Virginia citizens should not be required to give away such a vital resource to enhance the profits of gas companies.

It’s time for gas drillers and frackers to pay – even a very modest amount – for the water they take from West Virginians.  You want it? You use it? You spoil it? You should pay for it.

>>> Jim Sconyers, West Virginia Sierra Club, Terra Alta, Preston County, WV

Protesters at K & H Injection Well

Fracking waste stirs controversy in Athens, Ohio

From an Article by Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch, April 5, 2015

Torch, OH — The tractor-trailers arrive at a steady pace, turning off Rt. 50 and climbing a hill to a collection of tall, green metal tanks. The trucks haul long, white tanks that are bare except for a number that identifies their company and one word that has riled a vocal population in Athens County: brine.

Brine is another name for the fracking wastewater (“residual waste”) that bubbles up in oil and gas wells in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The wastewater is laced with toxic chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing, a process in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to crack shale and free oil and gas trapped within it. Much of the fracking fluids come back up and most often are sent to disposal wells, where they are pumped back underground.

Athens County, known for its progressive politics and college-town vibe, took the third-highest amount of fracking wastewater in the state last year. A new injection well, approved last month by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, could boost Athens to the top in wastewater injections.

That’s a dubious distinction, according to Athens County activists and some elected officials. “There’s probably not a county in the state that has as much activism objecting to the injection wells as Athens,” said Roxanne Groff, a trustee in Bern Township in eastern Athens County.

Almost 25 million barrels of wastewater were pumped into about 200 injection wells in Ohio last year, according to ODNR records. More than one-tenth of that — about 2.9 million barrels — was injected into seven Athens County wells last year. Nearly 2.5 million barrels went into two of those wells, both owned by K&H Partners, a company based in West Virginia.

On March 18, the ODNR issued a permit to K&H for a third injection well in eastern Athens County. As many as 12,000 barrels of fracking wastewater could be injected into that well every day, though K&H in its application estimated an average of 5,000 barrels would be injected every day.

That would increase Athens County’s annual total by as many as 4.4 million barrels, putting Athens well above Coshocton County, where about 3.5 million barrels of fracking wastewater were injected last year, leading the state.

Andrew Adgate, an ODNR geologist involved in permitting injection wells, said that Athens County’s location makes it a prime spot for fracking wastewater. “It’s close to where the waste from the oil and gas operations is produced,” Adgate said.

Bob Worstall, a geologist and deputy chief of Natural Resources’ oil and gas division, said the state requires companies to build casings at the top of each injection well to protect surrounding groundwater. A layer of shale above the injection zone keeps the wastewater from bubbling up to the surface, he said.

But Crissa Cummings, an Athens County environmental activist who was arrested last summer after blocking access to a K&H injection well near Torch, said she is not convinced those measures will keep the county’s drinking water safe. Cummings also said she worries about contaminants getting into the air as well as earthquakes, which have been tied to fracking and injection wells in Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

Worstall said the state will require K&H to conduct seismic monitoring both before its new injection well is operational and “for a period of time” after injection starts.

The K&H wells are not far from the Hocking River and Ohio River. California officials shut down 23 injection wells over concerns that they might have contaminated aquifers there.

Natural Resources received 244 letters about the well, and all but one were from people opposed to it. “The majority of them are just opposed to the idea in general,” Worstall said. “That’s difficult for us to deny an application, because somebody doesn’t like the idea.”

Athens County residents asked Natural Resources for a public hearing on this injection well, but the department declined to hold one. The Athens County Board of Commissioners appealed that decision and has tried to get the state law changed to force the department to hold public hearings if a local elected body asks for them.

Discretion for holding a public hearing on an injection well lies with the chief of the Natural Resources Oil and Gas Division. “He didn’t think that it posed health or safety issues,” said Lenny Eliason, an Athens County commissioner. “Obviously, people in the county thought it did. We feel it does. And they wanted to have a full airing of their concerns and they didn’t get it.”

Eric Heis, an ODNR spokesman, said the department received no comments that warranted a public hearing. Every issue raised, he said, had been addressed on the department’s website. Heis said the department also was reluctant to hold a public hearing in Athens County because another public forum on an earlier K&H injection well had gotten ugly. “There were protests, people with signs outside,” he said. “There was a sit-in at the forum and the police had to come.”

Teresa Mills, Buckeye Forest Council program director, said that shouldn’t matter. “It’s been obvious for years that the people in Athens County don’t want this, but it’s being forced upon them,” Mills said. “Nobody has a say.”

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Earthquakes in CO, OK, OH, WV, etc.

University of Colorado  Scientists Link 10,800-Foot-Deep Fracking Wastewater Well to More Than 200 Earthquakes

From an Article by Brandon Baker, EcoWatch.com, July 25, 2014

When the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ordered NGL Water Solutions to stop fracking wastewater injection operations a month ago, a team of University of Colorado Boulder researchers began conducting its own investigation.

NGL, formerly known as High Sierra Water Services, was given permission to resume its activities at a 10,800-foot-deep well a few weeks later, but the CU findings suggest that shouldn’t have happened. Anne Sheehan and her team found that the well is linked to more than 200 earthquakes, the geophysics professor in the CU Department of Geological Sciences told Boulder County Business Report.

She said the group found “quite a few” earthquakes with epicenters within two miles of the well.

Two earthquakes—with magnitudes of 3.4 and 2.6—took place within mere miles of the well. Shemin Ge and Matthew Weingarten, also of CU, also found that activity within fracking wastewater injection wells likely caused earthquakes in central Oklahoma.

NGL operates 11 of the 29 fracking wastewater injection wells in Weld County, CO. When the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission allowed NGL to resume activities, it began injecting 7,500 barrels per day at maximum pressure.

“We’ll continue to closely monitor and accumulate all available information at this location,” Colorado Department of Natural Resources spokesman Todd Hartman told the Report, “and work with partners to continue understanding how best to limit and prevent potential seismic impacts related to deep injection generally.”