8 Things
8 Things The Natural Gas Companies Don’t Want You to Know
1. Horizontal Drilling is NOT an environmentally safe
process.
This kind of drilling has been going on for years in other states around the country, including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alabama, and Texas. Each state has documented evidence of serious environmental impacts, including groundwater contamination, from horizontal drilling practices.
Source:
- http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/LOguideCh1.pdf
2. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the process by which huge quantities of water, sand, and chemicals are used to “stimulate” gas production in a well, can involve the use of a number of cancer-causing substances
and reproductive toxins.
Chemicals like benzene, toluene, naphthalene, and xylene can be present in fracking fluid. Fracking fluid CANNOT be completely removed from the well and can end up contaminating drinking water – yours, your neighbor’s, and even the town’s.
Sources:
- http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/products/chemicals_used_in_natural_gas
- _development.html
- http://www.propublica.org/feature/new-yorks-gas-rush-poses-environmental-threat-722
- http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/natural_gas/colburn_testimony_071025.pdf
3. Fracking fluid is currently exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act and Community Right-to-Know Laws, as a result of industry lobbying.
The gas industry, under current law, does not have to tell landowners or government officials what chemicals are contained in fracking fluid. Even though research has indicated that very dangerous chemicals are found in fracking fluid, the industry maintains that the formulas are “trade secrets.”
Sources:
- https://www.policyarchive.org/bitstreamihandle/l0207 /2407/RL32873_20050506.pdf?sequence=1
- http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Too-Wild-to-Drill-Hydraulic-
- Fracturing-Threatens-Driniking-Water.pdf
4. Water that comes out of drilling sites is considered
toxic.
In spite of this, drillers have been known to store this water in pits on the landowner’s
property. Even if these pits are lined, the water can contaminate soil and drinking water. Animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife, can die from drinking it. It also gives off dangerous fumes.
Source:
- http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/LOguideChl.pdf)
5. The natural gas companies are making plans to ship our natural gas overseas, where they can make a larger profit.
So if we gamble our water, land, and air quality, we are unlikely to benefit from lower energy costs. They are planning to exploit our area for their own gain.
Source:
- Transcript of Chesapeake Energy investor update, http://seekingalpha.com/article/88789-chesapeake-energy-corp-q2- 2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=7
6. You have rights.
Clean water and air are basic human rights.
7. So does your neighbor.
Protect your neighbor’s water, land, and health
as you would your own. Remember, this is the person who helped you during the
flood.
8. Worried? You’re not alone.
Many other people in town - and the entire Southern Tier – are very concerned about what could happen to our area as a result of natural gas drilling. If we band together, we can make ourselves heard. Learn all you can. Talk to your neighbors. Fight for home.
I have been seeing some articles about drilling, and heard a little about it from the neighbors. I have 42 acres, but have not been approached by anyone to drill my land. Then saw an article in the Daily Star that said my town Edmeston is almost entirely leased to the gas companies. I have some questions:
1. Do the gas co.s have right of way to drill on my land, or do they have to get my permission?
2. What happens if my neighbor allows drilling, but I don’t, and my now perfect water becomes polluted?
3.What is this about being charged by the gas co.s to get the gas beneath my land? Very confusing.
Any help would be appreciated. Do you have meetings? Thanks! Kathy
Brian’s reply:
There is something called “mandatory inclusion,” or “compulsory inclusion.” There are subtleties to it (although they are about as subtle as a sledge hammer to the head).
Essentially, if a certain proportion of the land adjacent to yours has been leased, then the bastards can drill under (not on) your land. If it happens, it would probably be thousands of feet down, but that does not make it safe, or fair.
It doesn’t mean that they would do it, just that they could. I would not jump to any conclusions, though. There are many factors involved.
My land is in exactly the same situation as yours. Some neighbors have signed, some haven’t and we don’t know the proportions. We have perfect water from our well, and want to keep it that way. We also don’t like predatory corporations invading like locusts.
As far as groups,there are many. Check the http://www.squidoo.com/fracbusters
site for more info.
The Oneonta County Gas Group meets:
Date: Feb. 17
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Embury Room of First United Methodist Church, corner of
Church and Chestnut Sts, Oneonta
They are a great group of people, and it’s a good place to find out more.
This is none too soon. The environmental review process is cranking
along, and new wells will be permitted this coming summer. It’s time
that all of Oneonta and the whole county were talking about hazards that
are just over the horizon.
You are on the right track. Hope to see you at a meeting!
Brian
I have 112 acres that are right in the drilling path. From my research, these companies drill so far below the water in a well that there is no danger, or, too little chance of pollution for it to be a threat. So far, there hasn’t been an incident of water being polluted in NY, and there are thousands of existing wells already in NY.
How can we tell what is true? I can’t believe gas companies just go around polluting wells; they would have been stopped by now.
I don’t want to be dependent on foreign oil-I would love to tell the middle east that we don’t need them anymore.
Who to believe? Where my land is, all of my neighbors will sign, so I will be included, like it or not. How can you tell these people not to allow drilling on their land, when, for them, it would be like asking them to tear up a winning lottery ticket.
Everyone has kids to put through college, favorite charities, bills to pay. How to say no is the question.
Mel,
Those are entirely reasonable concerns and deserve a thoughtful reply. There are very good answers to them, and I’ll try to address them a.s.a.p.
One thing to keep in mind is that gas companies have every reason to lie to you. The profit-motive is their only consideration. There’s nothing wrong with a profit motive, but when it trumps your health, and when it gives them a license to destroy your way of life and scare you into sacrificing it so that some people from out-of-state can manipulate people’s insecurities – well, it’s time to give them a free ticket a place where people don’t care about their country and their heritage.
I’ve talked to a lot of people who could use the money as well as anyone else (I’m one of them) but have weighed the consequences (I’ll mention them in a post, soon) and have come to the reasonable conclusion that this fracking method is not safe yet, and the alleged profit is not all it’s cracked up to be.
I know that the thought of “free money” dangled in front of someone can be very hypnotic. But seriously, do you really believe in “free money?” Anyone who promises that should be trusted about as far as you can spit a rat.
On the other hand, the people who are trying to keep this not-ready-for-prime-time scheme at bay have nothing to gain except exactly what they are saying – they want to keep us safe, and protect our way of life. Not against profit, but against people who would rip the guts out of what makes life worth living for people who love their land, country, heritage, and health, just so a very small minority could collect some money at our expense.
The details of your question deserve to be addressed, and I’ll get to them in the next post.
Thanks for asking serious questions that I’m sure are on many other people’s mind, too.
All the best,
Brian
Mel, be careful of wolves in sheeps clothing offering $$. They have only their best interests in mind, and really don”t care that much about the environmental contamination they cause. There is a Haliburton loophole that permits them freedom in this area.
Most hire out of state employees with no attachment to your natural areas to begin with.
It’s not like the gas companies are hurting and need our support — they control Pennsylvania now–as practically every square inch of wildland and farmland has been sacrificed to them there- and they aren’t even required to pay a severance tax.
Virginia, Colorado, Texas and other states are also under their charm. Land is being offered to them at such an increasing rate than never before in the history of the U.S. The gas companies don’t need your support, but the still uncontaminated land you own–with wildlife– DOES need your support.
I reccomend you Google “Dimock, Pa Fracking disaster” and read about the horrors and permanent gas fracking contamination that occured there recently. Noone wants to buy their homes now–they are forced to live there and their environment, streams, water areas are all permanently contaminated– Livestock dying, fish dying. Methane gas coming out of household faucets,etc. They have to use a water buffalo now to obtain their drinking/cooking and cleaning water.
It doesnt matter how deep they drill — if they make a shortcut along the way to save money and time, a disaster inevitably results. Once contamination occurs, it’s not like you can actually clean it up as you would the Valdez oil spill. It’s permanent.
Many of our legislatures in PA are asking for a temporary moratorium–so that the drillers are made to slow down a little and perfect this fracking method so that we dont have another Dimock, Pa on our hands again.– especially with the excessive amount of land that will be drilled this year as never before in Pa.
Money isn’t everything– the love of money truly is the root of all evil. We need to learn to say No to ourselves and the gas companies- and ignore their lures. It will pay off for you in the long run.
Again, the gas companies don’t need your support- they have more than enough gas at their disposal now, in the U.S. Your up to now uncontaminated acreage needs your support more!
Is the water used for fracking safe? Here’s one ruling from Pennsylvania about some cattle that may have had some contact with the water.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/1/2010
CONTACT:
Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture
717-787-5085
Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater
HARRISBURG — The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.
“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” said Redding. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”
Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.
The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.
Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.
The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.
Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.
Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal’s system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.
The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:
• Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
• Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
• Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.
In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.
Hi,
I’m from Cape Town, South Africa. I’m an investigative journalist doing a story on the sudden surge of natural gas exploration licenses here in the Southern Cape and the Karoo. Both are in extremely water stressed areas, rich in biodiversity and archeological sites. We have a number of companies now looking to extract natural gas using the same questionable methods to get farmers in the area on their side. Few own up to how they intend extracting this gas but I would be interested to know if the technology used is ex Haliburton et all, a proprietary licensed technology. In other words, no matter who does what here, will they have to pay Haliburton a license right to use this ‘fracking’ technology.
Many thanks
That is my impression, but I am not sure. Don’t quote me. Not sure where to find that out, but it’s a great question.
If you google
hydraulic fracturing patents
http://www.google.com/search?client=gmail&rls=gm&q=hydraulic%20fracturing%20patents
You get a lot of hits
Best blog I have found so far.. Your two posters are perfect..
The big problem I think is that the “carrot” of monetary relief is so tempting for people who struggle to make ends meet! How can we help them see that they are destroying their own environment and way of life.
New york State has some of the last good water on earth and WATER is much more precious than natural gas… Natural gas is only a temporary solution,
why are we not generating safe , alternative energy soruces instead??
Why can’t the sam industry that makes a missle make a windmill??