Source : ProPublica, Dec. 8, 2011, 8:18 p.m. by Abrahm Lustgarten and Nicholas Kusnetz

In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process.

The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to water resources.

In the 121-page draft report released today, EPA officials said that the contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyo., had most likely seeped up from gas wells and contained at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids.

“The presence of synthetic compounds such as glycol ethers … and the assortment of other organic components is explained as the result of direct mixing of hydraulic fracturing fluids with ground water in the Pavillion gas field,” the draft report states. “Alternative explanations were carefully considered.”

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From the Sierra Club’s Chuck Wyrostok.  This is really important guys.  PLEASE pick up the phone and take 5 minutes for the cause today – many thanks!

Greetings fellow environmental activists across West Virginia,

We would sincerely appreciate your passing this along to the members of your organization.  Thanks so much.

After three years of waiting, we are very close to passing a bill to regulate Marcellus shale gas drilling and fracking.

In the face of uncounted environmental travesties and families having their lives and land ruined, plus an almost constant barrage of citizen outcry, legislative meetings, hearings, news articles, letters to the editor and editorials, state leaders have so far avoided enacting meaningful law to reign in the runaway gas industry.

This Thursday, the first of December, call Governor Tomblin and tell him you want him to exhibit some leadership and “call a December special session of the Legislature to get the Marcellus bill passed.”

His phone numbers: 304-558-2000 or toll-free at 888-438-2731.

Thank you.

Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach@marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com

At each location, there will be a table manned by 2 persons from 10am to 4pm.

Mark your calendars to come sign the petitions and Stand Up for Monroe!

If you would like to join us in manning a table, please send us an email with your preferred times and dates and a contact number so we can get in touch with you.

Thank you for Standing Up for Monroe!

by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Nov. 10, 2011

As the country awaits results from a nationwide safety study on the natural gas drilling process of fracking, a separate government investigation into contamination in a place where residents have long complained that drilling fouled their water has turned up alarming levels of underground pollution.

A pair of environmental monitoring wells drilled deep into an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds and at least one chemical commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, according to new water test results released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The findings are consistent with water samples the EPA has collected from at least 42 homes in the area since 2008, when ProPublica began reporting on foul water and health concerns in Pavillion and the agency started investigating reports of contamination there.

Last year — after warning residents not to drink or cook with the water and to ventilate their homes when they showered — the EPA drilled the monitoring wells to get a more precise picture of the extent of the contamination.

The Pavillion area has been drilled extensively for natural gas over the last two decades and is home to hundreds of gas wells. Residents have alleged for nearly a decade that the drilling — and hydraulic fracturing in particular — has caused their water to turn black and smell like gasoline. Some residents say they suffer neurological impairment, loss of smell, and nerve pain they associate with exposure to pollutants.

The gas industry — led by the Canadian company EnCana, which owns the wells in Pavillion — has denied that its activities are responsible for the contamination. EnCana has, however, supplied drinking water to residents.

The information released yesterday by the EPA was limited to raw sampling data: The agency did not interpret the findings or make any attempt to identify the source of the pollution. From the start of its investigation, the EPA has been careful to consider all possible causes of the contamination and to distance its inquiry from the controversy around hydraulic fracturing.

Still, the chemical compounds the EPA detected are consistent with those produced from drilling processes, including one — a solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) — widely used in the process of hydraulic fracturing. The agency said it had not found contaminants such as nitrates and fertilizers that would have signaled that agricultural activities were to blame.

The wells also contained benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, as well as phenols — another dangerous human carcinogen — acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel.

The EPA said the water samples were saturated with methane gas that matched the deep layers of natural gas being drilled for energy. The gas did not match the shallower methane that the gas industry says is naturally occurring in water, a signal that the contamination was related to drilling and was less likely to have come from drilling waste spilled above ground.

EnCana has recently agreed to sell its wells in the Pavillion area to Texas-based oil and gas company Legacy Reserves for a reported $45 million, but has pledged to continue to cooperate with the EPA’s investigation. EnCana bought many of the wells in 2004, after the first problems with groundwater contamination had been reported.

The EPA’s research in Wyoming is separate from the agency’s ongoing national study of hydraulic fracturing’s effect on water supplies, and is being funded through the Superfund cleanup program.

The EPA says it will release a lengthy draft of the Pavillion findings, including a detailed interpretation of them, later this month.

From our friends over at the Sierra Club – please take a few minutes and make some phonecalls today for the cause!

Actually, with your help we won’t have to apply pressure endlessly to get the Marcellus gas bill we need – but we do need to apply it now!

The Select Committee working on the Marcellus bill has made some real progress. They have added several amendments to the bill that came out of the West Virginia Senate in March but didn’t pass the House because of time constraints. The bill is a good start, and the amendments are filling in critical elements.

We need to apply that seemingly “endless pressure” when the committee meets again this week. Why?

We need to thank the committee for the good work they have done so far. Specifically, we need to give them kudos for passing some very important amendments to the bill, amendments that fill in some of the critical protections missing in the bill. The committee members are human, too, and a little positive feedback can only help our cause.

There are still some very important amendments left that the committee needs to pass and add to the bill. We need to “endlessly apply” the pressure by strongly urging them to do that.

Read on for more details:

• What the amendments we still need are about.
• The dates when you should take action.
• Select Committee membership and phone numbers.
• Suggested “talking points” you can use, if you want, to frame your comment.

1. The amendments we still need.

Pending – Casing and Cement Requirements – Bolstering casing and cementing requirements. Groundwater is at risk when casing and cementing are not adequate or done properly, or when cementing is not allowed to cure properly. This is where we now see most of the risk to groundwater.    It should be required to monitor and control annulus pressure, permanently retain complete well cementing records, carefully define protected water supplies and create standardized investigation procedures.

Pending – Surface Owners Agreement – Protecting the landowner in case of damage from drilling operations.    Like the rest of the bill, applicability is limited to horizontal wells only.  Surface owners have been asking for similar requirements for ALL wells for more than 4 years.  And folks really need more time.  They only have 20 days to accept or reject the proposed surface use and compensation agreement and after 30 days if there is no agreement the driller can begin operations after posting a surety bond of $25,000.   60 days would be more reasonable.

Pending – Well Location Restrictions – Keeping wells and well pads a safe distance (1000 feet) from water wells, springs, homes, barns, etc. With current technology, operators can drill horizontally 12,000 feet (more than 2 miles), so there’s no reason they need to be closer than 1,000 feet from peoples’ homes. Even that may not be far enough away and the amendment allows the driller to get a variance.  A firm 1,000 feet would be more protective.  There is concern that DEP will just rubber stamp and go along with any excuse/reason the companies come up with for why they need a variance. If they can be closer there should at least be some other conditions/standards that the driller has to meet.  There is language in the proposed amendment that gives that discretion to the DEP, but it would be better to spell out what those conditions should be. For example, there are specific things they could do to mitigate noise from the sites, which is what most complaints are about.

Pending – Protection of Water Supplies – Well operator is responsible for the pollution of a water supply that is within 2,500 feet of a horizontal gas well. The draft of the amendment we saw included a six-month limitation on claims of contamination.  This is insufficient, to say the least.   When a contaminant plume enters an aquifer it may take years, or decades to pass by an individual well.

2. We are asking everyone to call ANY or ALL members of the Select Committee Today

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11. They will meet at 4PM Wednesday Oct. 12 and 10AM Thursday Oct. 13 in the Capitol in Charleston. Calling on Wednesday before their 4PM meeting will also be good. The committee members will be there, and their staffers, who can answer the phone and take your message.

3. Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale – members and their Capitol phone numbers

Senate Members

Senator Doug Facemire – Chair – (304) 357-7845

Senator Karen Facemyer – (304) 357-7855

Senator Orphy  Klempa – (304) 357-7918

Senator Corey Palumbo – (304) 357-7880

Senator Herb Snyder – (304) 357-7957

House Members

Delegate Tim Manchin – Chair – (304) 340-3166

Delegate Bill Anderson – (304) 340-3168

Delegate Thomas Campbell – (304) 340-3280

Delegate Barbara Fleischauer – (304) 340-3169

Delegate Woody Ireland – (304) 340-3195

4. Talking Points when you call the senators and delegates on the Select Committee. [names and phone numbers above]

• Be courteous and respectful. Remember you get more with honey than with vinegar.
• Be brief, and stay focused. Make your point, and don’t let the person you’re talking with change the subject. Stick to your intended message.
• Thank the senator or delegate for what the Select Committee has accomplished thus far. The Committee has passed 22 important amendments strengthening the bill. However, thank the Committee, not the individual – that senator or delegate may, or may not, have voted for the good amendments.
• Ask the Committee to “finish its work,” by passing the remaining pending amendments. See above for what those amendments are.
• Call as many Select Committee members as you can, please!

Once the Select Committee has finished its work, we will need to do more, when the bill and amendments have to go to the whole Legislature for its approval. We’ll need to renew the famous “endless pressure” again at that time.

Thank you so much for all you do for the West Virginia environment.

Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach@marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com

This fantastic article shares 11 corporate videos that utilize “greenwashing” (from Wikipedia, “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company’s policies or products are environmentally friendly“); The Huffington Post editors help set the record straight by offering commentary and counterpoints on each video.

Source : Huffington Post

Maintaining effective public relations and a positive image with the public are important parts of doing business. But for some companies, this task can prove quite difficult when their products and services clash with public and environmental safety.

For example, ExxonMobil claims environmental safety and low emissions in their ads for natural gas fracking and Canadian oil sands operations. Important figures have come out against both hydraulic fracturing and oil sands production as dangerous practices with lasting consequences.

Read more >>

Source : Propublica

On a summer evening in June 2005, Susan Wallace-Babb went out into a neighbor’s field near her ranch in Western Colorado to close an irrigation ditch. She parked down the rutted double-track, stepped out of her truck into the low-slung sun, took a deep breath and collapsed, unconscious.

A natural gas well and a pair of fuel storage tanks sat less than a half-mile away. Later, after Wallace-Babb came to and sought answers, a sheriff’s deputy told her that a tank full of gas condensate—liquid hydrocarbons gathered from the production process—had overflowed into another tank. The fumes must have drifted toward the field where she was working, he suggested.The next morning Wallace-Babb was so sick she could barely move. She vomited uncontrollably and suffered explosive diarrhea. A searing pain shot up her thigh. Within days she developed burning rashes that covered her exposed skin, then lesions. As weeks passed, anytime she went outdoors, her symptoms worsened. Wallace-Babb’s doctor began to suspect she had been poisoned.

“I took to wearing a respirator and swim goggles outside to tend to my animals,” Wallace-Babb said. “I closed up my house and got an air conditioner that would just recycle the air and not let any fresh air in.”

Wallace-Babb’s symptoms mirror those reported by a handful of others living near her ranch in Parachute, Colo., and by dozens of residents of communities across the country that have seen the most extensive natural gas drilling. Hydraulic fracturing, along with other processes used to drill wells, generates emissions and millions of gallons of hazardous waste that are dumped into open-air pits. The pits have been shown to leak into groundwater and also give off chemical emissions as the fluids evaporate. Residents’ most common complaints are respiratory infections, headaches, neurological impairment, nausea and skin rashes. More rarely, they have reported more serious effects, from miscarriages and tumors to benzene poisoning and cancer.

ProPublica examined government environmental reports and private lawsuits and interviewed scores of residents, physicians and toxicologists in four states—Colorado, Texas, Wyoming and Pennsylvania—that are drilling hot spots. Our review showed that cases like Wallace-Babb’s go back a decade in parts of Colorado and Wyoming, where drilling has taken place for years. They are just beginning to emerge in Pennsylvania, where the Marcellus Shale drilling boom began in earnest in 2008.

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