Fracking your future (Keystone: renting, house, earthquakes)

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by SoButCounty

You must be up there in Bradford or Tioga county. I saw on the news this week that they had a well blow out & catch fire in Bradford county. I have customers in Tioga county and the stories they can tell you about formerly poor landowners striking it rich suddenly and the impact of all of the truck traffic will make your hair stand on end. I used to stay at the Comfort Inn in Mansfield, PA. Now, you can't get near it because the drilling workers take up all the rooms and leave the hotel filled with mud & dirt. Always pleasant after a long day's drive to pull up in front of a hotel and see the entrance surrounded by beer swilling workers in sleeveless T's smoking & drinking cans of Budwesier. Yep, now that's a classy place.

Tioga County.

It used to be a quiet place and while I am fine with the drilling, I was hoping for more moderation and instead it's crazy. The roads everywhere are a steady stream of huge trucks all day and night long with tons of dust and debris everywhere. The roads are in horrible shape due to the weight of the trucks and the volume of them on the roads is dangerous. The roads here were never designed to hold all this heavy traffic.

Crime has just gone through the roof. In my small town we've had 3 high speed car chases in one month, which is totally unheard of and 2 stabbing murders, which again is one of those things that might happen every 10-15 years, not every other month.

There was a well blow out in this county that released fluid into a stream. There is now a water recycling plant in Mansfield that can process 500000 gallons of water an hour and I think all the companies are going to that after complaints about pollution and sucking creeks dry of water.

I am concerned about some of the wholesale drilling and how quickly it is going down. Some drilling is fine but this is a mob scene no one can keep up with. It's not what I moved here for. I'm over Colorado for now and much of my work is now in the mid atlantic states. Lower New England and New York State is too expensive with high taxes and a lot of places like West Virginia are not much of an improvement. So I can't think of any better place to go right now.

From the people I have talked to some of the technology is moving on and developing very fast to where some of the current techniques are a bit burdensome and they are developing better ways to do it. I'd prefer all this junk not get injected into the ground even if it's a mile down.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

There has been serious issues in one of the southern states (ARK?) where the drilling and fracking was taking place along known earthquake fault lines. IIRC the story ran on CNBC cable TV. They had recorded thousands of small quakes down there and when the governor(?) made the fracking stop in a certain area the number of quakes went down substantially.

Waste water from the fracking process is pumped at high pressure back into the ground to dispose of it. It is believed that the pressure of this pumping, coupled with existing underground dynamics, is enough to trigger earthquake action. I'd expect the same procedures to be used wherever fracking is done.

One can only wonder what price we'll pay down the road to try and alleviate a potential whole new class of superfund sites.

Over where I live there is a tiny fault line they are avoiding.

I think where I live the recycling plant is a positive development. AFAIK in this county there is no more dumping of waste water in the ground.

[Idunn]

"I was extremely surprised. We did not expect to find so many houses with high methane concentrations near gas wells," said Jackson, an environmental science professor at Duke University. "It's pretty hard to explain away." [1]


This from a short article mentioning the findings of a recent study indicating a much higher incidence of methane in water wells adjacent to natural gas fracking sites. It should be noted that as this study only begun there is no baseline data, although the correlation still seems quite strong.

It might also be noted that Rep. Roger Wilson, D-Glenwood Springs wanted a Colorado review of the many toxic chemicals pumped into the ground during fracking, but that the Colorado legislature has declined to do this.[2] Despite the many incidents of people with adverse health effects of affected well water, and strong correlation with fracking, in 2005 the United States Congress exempted chemicals used in fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

1) 'Study finds methane in wells near natural gas drilling,' USA Today
Study finds methane in wells near natural gas drilling - USATODAY.com

2) 'Panel denies fracking study,' The Durango Herald
The Durango Herald 02/08/2011 | Panel denies fracking study

[Idunn]

There is nothing more basic to life than water.


MSNBC recently aired a brief program on fracking, with host Dylan Ratigan. It serves as a simple but concise overview of the methods involved, environmental consequences, and related issues. This program is in three short segments (see reference below to view). [1] Also note the map in segment two, which shows areas of possible fracking across the United States, most certainly including significant areas of Colorado.



In having looked into this matter at greater depth, I'll cut to the chase.

The rationale most usually given for fracking is because the technique can provide the United States with more natural gas than it could otherwise recover. That this energy is needed in an energy hungry nation. Also for the jobs it will provide. It should also be considered that neither the energy or jobs are sustainable, but a relatively short term proposition.

What is of a far longer duration is the environment anyone lives within, and to the extent degraded or not. In some instances fracking may provide natural gas with possibly negligible environmental harm. But a proven fact that this is certainly not always the case. The very method insures significant disruption to underlying geology by not only widely fracturing the rock, but also in introducing a large number of toxic chemicals into the ground. In many instances homeowner's have seen their water wells destroyed, in no longer providing potable water. The risk lies not just in negatively impacting some individuals or communities, but in destroying the groundwater resources of entire regions.

As traditional fossil fuel energy becomes increasingly scarce and expensive there will be growing pressure to exploit all possible resources. But this may be tragically short-term thinking. For just that much more natural gas, which will be used and gone, for jobs which will last only as long as that lasts, we may essentially destroy the vital groundwater resources across a good portion of the United States and Colorado. The gas, jobs and money will be long gone, but for centuries to come one's children, their children, and so on, will exist with such a regrettable legacy. That is what is at stake. What some already have suffered and contend with. What all the more will if this continues.

Your water.




1) 'Firewater,' Dylan Ratigan/MSNBC

PART 1
msnbc.com Video Player

PART 2
msnbc.com Video Player

PART 3
Dylan Ratigan

[Idunn]

"Really no one has jurisdiction but the state agency that oversees oil and gas operations . . . It's pretty frustrating to be dependent on on the industry that that creates the polluting effect to tell you the extent of pollution, and and to have a regulatory body that they either deny what happened, or they ignore you."
- Linda Bracken (sp?) [1]


This segment of the PBS 'News Hour' deals with the methods and surrounding controversy of fracking in general, and specifically with these issues in Colorado and Garfield County. Among other things, it will be seen that this industry more or less controls the rules it operates under.

This segment begins about the 29 minute mark on the Wednesday, June 15, 2011 broadcast. See also possible chapter selection within the online broadcast.

1) 'Fracking' Raise Questions, PBS News Hour
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 | PBS NewsHour | PBS Video

[CMK10]

Tough situation. LP could be the savior of this country but at what expense. Flaming kitchen faucets are not acceptable. Here's hoping someone smarter than me figures it out.

[Idunn]

"We have rights as a group and as a community, majority should rule as far as whether we should allow something like this — at industrial scale — to come into a residential neighborhood," PTMSA member Rod Fletcher told Raw Story. "This is how democracy works." [1]


Peters Township, PA is one of a number of communities in Pennsylvania which are contesting the rights of oil companies to conduct natural gas fracking operations near them.

There is a better article than this, entitled, 'New Challenges to Gas Drilling,' which I would refer you to, but unfortunately from the Wall Street Journal which requires a subscription to access their online site. For those with such a subscription, or willing to search back issues at the library, this article on page 2 of the Monday, September 12, 2011 edition.

That occurring in Pennsylvania is relevant to many citizens of Colorado due the many extant or proposed fracking operations in this state. The detrimental, and largely irreversible, effects to the environment in underlying geology and contamination of aquifers and water sources are of no less pressing concern than in Pennsylvania or other states and locals.

As the Wall Street Journal article pointed out, if perhaps biased, that local initiatives to prevent the despoiling of their homes may not hold up in court, as presumably interfering with the 'rights' of those with mineral rights to do as they wish. But this matter is far from settled, some are fighting back, and for those on the front line and most affected, in Colorado and elsewhere, steps taken by others may lend some heart and possible alternatives for themselves and their communities.

Further information on such initiatives is available online if looked for.

1) 'Penn. township challenges fracking with ballot initiative,' The Raw Story
Penn. township challenges fracking with ballot initiative | The Raw Story

[Lennny]

I live in Ft Lupton and Fracking/ Gas field production is a life blood for the city and the area. Right now Haliburton is building a new field camp just south of the city that is going to bring in huge construction sales tax revenue. Not to mention all the people in the community that are employed in the industry. Purely economical standpoint: Fracking is good for our country. That being said, the HBO special on people that can light their well water on fire just so happened to be located outside of Fort Lupton. From a physics standpoint, it does not seem logical that a 5,000' deep well could contaminate a 400' deep aquifer. I talked with a neighbor who actually is a Frack crew foreman. He said 90% of the fluid content of the frack chemicals (remember frack is about 50%fluid 50% sand or gravel) is forced back to the surface by newly released gas pressure. That leads me to the conclusion is that the fracking itself is not the issue, its the handling of the waste on the surface is what leads to groundwater contamination. Now changes in geology, changes frack chemicals and fluid to sand ratios, so what is true in Colorado may not be the same in Pennsylvania.

[elan]

In the Barnett Shale, Devon energy recyles it's flowback water. They were using a company called Fountain Quail, I'm sure there are others now.

[nonekhgkjgh]

It will take away your oxygen and cause brain damage, cell death. It can kill you if there is more gas in the atmosphere than oxygen. We are moving from this area due to Barnett Shale. I don't know if all people get sick but it was mentioned on this forum so some are concerned and they should all be. We did fine before it came about. These gas companies make huge profits, allow the gas to flow freely underground, and above ground, which causes illness, and they move on. They can frack under your house. There have been several earthquakes and this is what is causing it. We paid more for gas while the fracking was going on, so what do we need it for? I use electric to heat our home. Why pay with your health and life in order to get five miles on five dollars worth? not worth it