Tag Archives: wastewater

SWTO SuperPost 05.04.2012

Ladies and gents, sorry for our absence.  There is renewed interest in spending time maintaining this site, as we have primarily been relying on our Facebook page to deliver headlines, but we will begin to again post periodic items here as well.  Facebook is certainly the place for up to the minute news, we urge you to check out our group and request to join.  The communities and activists that are now binding together in an effort to protect our limited water supply is mind-bending!  It was just two years ago most were saying “what’s fracking?”  Look how far we have come, folks,

Please dig deep and continue your efforts!  You are our only hope.  Thanks for all that you do.

The masses now know that fracking is a high-risk operation, that regulations are too lax, that inspectors are barely existent, and that the worse case scenario, meaning a water supply being contaminated – yes, that can happen.  That has happened.  That happens.

Still unclear on that?  Goto google.com and enter “water contamination fracking” and have fun.  You will read some arguments that fracking is not the problem.  Keep reading.  It doesn’t take long to get the idea.

And here’s a few random related headlines to get you going:

SCIENCE: Peer-Reviewed Study: Fracking Fluids May Migrate to Aquifers, Researcher Says – http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-03/fracking-fluids-may-migrate-to-aquifers-researcher-says

ACTION: Help the Delaware Riverkeeper protect the Delaware from Gas Drilling – http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/act-now/urgent-details.aspx?Id=109

SCIENCE: Scientists predict groundwater contamination in as little as 10 years, they’re talking about the wastewater seeping up through the limestone from 7000 feet down.  So much for that wastewater staying put.  What goes down must come up.  http://www.marcellusprotest.org/myers_17Apr2012

ACTION: Get the Facts on Fracking Wastewater webinarhttp://eany.convio.net/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100221&autologin=true&AddInterest=1081

ACTION: “Stop the Frack Attack” Call to Action – http://www.stopthefrackattack.org/call-to-action/

NEWS: Dirty dealings of the industry: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/us-chesapeake-mcclendon-hedge-idUSBRE8410GG20120502

NEWS: Dory Hippauf, an absolute champion of the cause, offers: Connecting the Dots: The Marcellus Natural Gas Play Players – http://commonsense2.com/2011/12/naturalgasdrilling/connecting-the-dots-the-marcellus-natural-gas-play-players-part-1/

VIDEO: One woman’s mystery medical saga, hear her speak – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hB33D105ak&feature=share

NEWS: Residents Fed Up with Bad Water Flee Shale Drilling Areas – http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/04/30/residents-fed-up-with-bad-water-flee-shale-drilling-areas/

ACTION: Support New Yorkers against Fracking – http://www.nyagainstfracking.org/#.T5rgv4vOKmk.facebook

LETTERS: Letter to the Editor – Marcellus Issues – So Sure of Permitting they Don’t Bother Following Construction Dates  – http://doddridgenews.com/letter-to-the-editor-marcellus-issues/

SCIENCE: Updated Cornell Study Shows Fracking Causes More Global Warming Than Coal – http://inhabitat.com/updated-cornell-study-shows-fracking-causes-more-global-warming-than-coal/

BLOGS: Frack Waste Causing Fish Cancer? – http://keeptapwatersafe.org/2012/04/17/frack-waste-causing-fish-cancer/

VIDEO: The untested science of fracking, 16-minute video, worth a look – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEHz8SSfFJs

SCIENCE: The Fracking Frenzy’s Impact on Women – http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/04-3

VIDEO: Couldn’t help it, children talking about fracking – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIFP0bk_AaY

SCIENCE: Confirmed, Fracking Tied to Unusual Rise in Earthquakes in U.S. – http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-12/earthquake-outbreak-in-central-u-dot-s-dot-tied-to-drilling-wastewater

SCIENCE: Another one for good measure, study conducted by the USGS – http://www.frackcheckwv.net/2012/04/10/deep-well-injections-cause-increased-earthquake-activity/

VIDEO: Ignitable Drinking Water in Candor, NY, Above Marcellus Shale – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEtgvwllNpg

NEWS: Doctors Forbidden From Sharing Info With Fracking Victims (seriously?) – http://greenglobaltravel.com/2012/03/27/eco-news-doctors-forbidden-from-sharing-info-with-patients-exposed-to-effects-of-fracking/

ACTION: Donate to SavetheWaterTable.org today to help us continue the fight to protect our water!  Many thanks!

And to all, keep up the good fight.

Waste Wells to Be Closed in Arkansas

Source : New York Times

Two oil and gas companies agreed to temporarily shut down wastewater disposal wells in Arkansas that some experts believe are connected to a recent swarm of earthquakes.

The State Oil and Gas Commission was scheduled to request the shutdowns at an emergency session on Friday morning, six days after Arkansas experienced its largest earthquake in 35 years.

Read more >>

…Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

A thorough article from the NY Times on contaminated water (from drilling) in public water sources.
Quoting from the article:

“…Dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.”

“With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.”

“The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle”

“…Radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways.”

“Drillers trucked at least half of this waste to public sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania in 2008 and 2009, according to state officials. Some of it has been sent to other states, including New York and West Virginia.”

“Gas has seeped into underground drinking-water supplies in at least five states, including Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, and residents blamed natural-gas drilling.

Air pollution caused by natural-gas drilling is a growing threat, too. Wyoming, for example, failed in 2009 to meet federal standards for air quality for the first time in its history partly because of the fumes containing benzene and toluene from roughly 27,000 wells, the vast majority drilled in the past five years.”

“In Texas, which now has about 93,000 natural-gas wells, up from around 58,000 a dozen years ago, a hospital system in six counties with some of the heaviest drilling said in 2010 that it found a 25 percent asthma rate for young children, more than three times the state rate of about 7 percent.”

“Smelling like raw sewage mixed with gasoline, drilling-waste pits, some as large as a football field, sit close to homes.”

“More than 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater was produced by Pennsylvania wells over the past three years, far more than has been previously disclosed. Most of this water — enough to cover Manhattan in three inches — was sent to treatment plants not equipped to remove many of the toxic materials in drilling waste.”

“Of more than 179 wells producing wastewater with high levels of radiation, at least 116 reported levels of radium or other radioactive materials 100 times as high as the levels set by federal drinking-water standards. At least 15 wells produced wastewater carrying more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable.”

“A confidential industry study from 1990, conducted for the American Petroleum Institute, concluded that “using conservative assumptions,” radium in drilling wastewater dumped off the Louisiana coast posed “potentially significant risks” of cancer for people who eat fish from those waters regularly.”

Earthquakes ocurring on the site of fracking byproduct injection wells

Excerpt:
A geohazards supervisor with the Arkansas State Geological Survey, Scott Ausbrooks, told the Associated Press that this Arkansas earthquake swarm could be related to natural gas exploration in the area. The area where the earthquakes have been occurring is part of the Fayetteville Shale–an area of rich organic rock in north-central Arkansas. The Fayetteville Shale area has more than 400 completed gas wells.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110218/tr_ac/7883826_arkansas_earthquake_swarm_could_be_related_to_natural_gas_injection_wells

Buffalo Bans Fracking

Source : www.frackaction.com

BUFFALO BANS FRACKING IN GROUNDBREAKING VOTE
FIRST BAN ON FRACKING IN NEW YORK; LEGISLATION ALSO TARGETS WASTEWATER

(BUFFALO, NY)—Citizens and clean water advocates heralded the Buffalo Common Council’s move to become the first city in New York State—and the second major city nationwide—to ban hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. The Common Council passed “Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance” today by a 9-0 vote, following months of citizen lobbying by Frack Action Buffalo, a local grassroots group.

At a a press conference following the vote, victims of fracking in New York joined Buffalo Common Coucilmembers and former New York State Senator Antoine Thompson in praising the ban. Thompson was the sponsor of the statewide moratorium on fracking passed in August.

Buffalo, which sits atop areas of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations, follows in the footsteps of Pittsburgh, PA, which passed a similar ban in November 2010. The Buffalo law prohibits drillers from fracking for gas in Buffalo, and bars the disposal of drilling wastewater or other production wastes within city limits.

Continue reading

W.Va. Studying Link Between Earthquakes and Wells

Source : Charleston Daily Mail

FRAMETOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Eight small earthquakes in central West Virginia since April have Chesapeake Energy and the state Department of Environmental Protection discussing the possibility of seismic monitoring near a disposal well for gas-drilling fluids.

Oklahoma-based Chesapeake has injected more than 10.6 million gallons of brine and hydraulic fracturing fluid into the well since March 2009. The underground injection site in the Frametown area has been a permitted disposal well since 2008.

Some geologists suspect high pressure and wastewater have lubricated old fault lines, allowing them to slip and trigger small earthquakes. Chesapeake isn’t so sure, but it has agreed to reduce the volume of fluid it’s injecting.

Gene Smith, compliance manager for the DEP, said no link has been proven, and no seismic events have been reported at 70 similar disposal wells around West Virginia. Still, he said, the state will investigate.

“We’re looking at the mechanics of the well, the geology of the area and the events that have been happening in the area, to see, from a scientific level, if what’s taking place could cause earthquakes,” Smith said.

Since April 4, Braxton County has been shaken by eight small earthquakes registering between 2.2 and 3.4 on the Richter scale. No major damage was reported.

Drilling companies are producing wastewater as they rush to tap the Marcellus shale field, a rich natural gas reserve that underlies Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. The gas is locked in tightly compacted rock a mile underground, and freeing it requires unconventional horizontal drilling technologies and vast amounts of water.

The DEP says many companies are recycling much of their water, but some is also pumped back into storage wells.

Read more >>

From the Gasland Site : Hydraulic Fracturing FAQs

This is a very informative page from Gasland’s site.

At the top, you will find a creative and interactive Flash presentation that adds some visual clarity to the situation.

What's Fracking?

Gasland : Hydraulic Fracturing FAQs

Below, you will find simple, straightforward answers to the following questions:

  • How does hydraulic fracturing work?
  • What is horizontal hydraulic fracturing?
  • What is the Halliburton Loophole?
  • What is the Safe Drinking Water Act?
  • What is the FRAC Act?
  • How deep do natural gas wells go?
  • How much water is used during the fracking process?
  • What fluids are used in the fracking process?
  • In what form does the natural gas come out of the well?
  • What is done with the wastewater?
  • What is a well’s potential to cause air pollution?

Read the answers >>

Hydraulic Fracturing – How’d it Work Out at Other Sites in Our Region

Excerpts:

Documented Problems in WV & PA:
Chemicals coming out with wastewater from wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia were found to include 4-nitroquinoline N-oxide, used to induce tumors in laboratory animals, and benzene, a known carcinogen.

Targeting poor communities

Much of this area is in the impoverished northern Appalachia region, dotted by isolated small towns and farms that are no longer productive, and are communities with high rates of unemployment. The poverty and relative isolation of the region have made residents prime targets of corporate salespeople, who have pushed them into leasing land for oil wells.

Problems stemming from fracking are surfacing in communities throughout the Marcellus Shale region. In Dimrock, considered “ground zero” for drilling, several drinking-water wells have exploded.

In Dimock, Pa., one out of seven residents was out of work and people were facing foreclosure of their homes. When Cabot offered $25 an acre for the right to drill for five years, plus royalties when gas started flowing, it sounded like a good deal to people who owned vacant fields but little else.

In September, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials charged Cabot with five violations after nearly 8,000 gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluids spilled in two separate incidents near Dimock. It took a third spill for Cabot to voluntarily halt the fracking. According to Halliburton the substance spilled was a lubricating gel that poses “a substantial threat to human health” and was a “potential carcinogen” that has caused skin cancer in animals.

Workers at U.S. Steel and Allegheny Energy near McKeesport found that water used to power their plant contained so much salty sediment it was corroding their machinery. An estimated 10,000 fish died on a 33-mile stretch of Dunkard Creek in this area.

International Disaster:
Dec. 3 marked the 25th anniversary of the widespread and continued contamination resulting from the Union Carbide chemical leak in Bhopal, India, that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Without any serious regulation of hydraulic fracturing practices, is the U.S. facing a disaster of that magnitude?

SOURCE: http://www.workers.org/2009/us/fracking_1217/

Cattle Quarantined After Run-in with Fracking Fluid

Source : NewsInferno

Some Pennsylvania cows have had to be quarantined after coming into contact with toxic wastewater from a hydraulic fracturing operation. The incident is just the latest to raise concerns about the safety of hydraulic gas drilling in the state.

According to Reuters, the 28 cows, which were quarantined May 1, had access to a pool of toxic water for at least three days. The pool formed as a result of a leak in a wastewater holding pond on a farm in Tioga County. Eastern Resources Inc. was drilling for natural gas on the property.

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