In Pennsylvania, the closer you live to a well used to hydraulically fracture underground shale for natural gas, the more likely it is that your drinking water is contaminated with methane. This conclusion, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA in July, is a first step in determining whether fracking in the Marcellus Shale underlying much of Pennsylvania is responsible for tainted drinking water in that region.
Robert Jackson, a chemical engineer at Duke University, found methane in 115 of 141 shallow, residential drinking-water wells. The methane concentration in homes less than one mile from a fracking well was six times higher than the concentration in homes farther away. Isotopes and traces of ethane in the methane indicated that the gas was not created by microorganisms living in groundwater but by heat and pressure thousands of feet down in the Marcellus Shale, which is where companies fracture rock to release gas that rises up a well shaft.
Most groundwater supplies are only a few hundred feet deep, but if the protective metal casing and concrete around a fracking well are leaky, methane can escape into them. The study does not prove that fracking has contaminated specific drinking-water wells, however. “I have no agenda to stop fracking,” Jackson says. He notes that drilling companies often construct wells properly. But by denying even the possibility that some wells may leak, the drilling companies have undermined their own credibility.
Samples have been taken for further testing, according to the report. Read more, click here.
Sisters of Loretto in Kentucky say no to surveys for a land-based gas pipeline through their property. Climate Desk journalist interviews the Sisters in video above.
Two Roman Catholic communities, which collectively own more than 3,000 acres in Central Kentucky, are refusing to permit access to their historic properties for a proposed underground pipeline that would transport flammable, pressurized natural-gas liquids across the state.
The Sisters of Loretto in Marion County and the Abbey of Gethsemani in Nelson County have denied representatives of the pipeline developers permission to survey their property and said they won’t consent to participating in the project.
The pipeline companies, Williams Co. out of Tulsa and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners assert that they can use eminent domain to seize right of way. According to the article:
The partnership hasn’t determined the final route yet, but it maintains it has the right to obtain easements on properties through eminent domain under Kentucky law, even if the owners don’t want to participate.
Nuns in the Loretto community fear for the health of wildlife, land, water and air quality, should the pressurized gas pipeline be placed in Central Kentucky’s porous limestone bedrock.
“Motherhouse community members Pauline Albin SL and JoAnn Gates CoL joined the gathering to deliver a petition to Governor Beshear’s office on August 7.” Source: Loretto Community dot org
The grassroots efforts in Kentucky to stop the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline are growing exponentially. Landowners and concerned citizens have challenged the quiet campaign by the Williams Co to survey property across Kentucky to build a natural gas liquids (NGLs) pipeline without really telling anyone what this proposed pipeline would carry. The word has spread that this is NOT a natural gas pipeline and it is not like other pipelines that exist in the state. This is something new – the toxic byproducts of natural gas fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in Pennsylvania.
More and more people in the counties where the pipeline might be located are educating themselves about natural gas liquids. Educational community gatherings, door to door campaigns and local media articles are all part of the efforts to get the word out. For many people and local governments the risks and dangers of a pipeline far outweigh the proposed compensation for the required easements the companies need to build this pipeline. Pipelines carrying toxic liquids like benzene and butane in a highly pressurized and volatile state create serious threats to entire communities, the land and the water supply.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An undercover video that showed California cows struggling to stand as they were prodded to slaughter by forklifts led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. In Vermont, a video of veal calves skinned alive and tossed like sacks of potatoes ended with the plant’s closure and criminal convictions.
Now in a pushback led by the meat and poultry industries, state legislators across the country are introducing laws making it harder for animal welfare advocates to investigate cruelty and food safety cases.
Some bills make it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation. Others make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant.
Bills pending in California, Nebraska and Tennessee require that anyone collecting evidence of abuse turn it over to law enforcement within 24 to 48 hours — which advocates say does not allow enough time to document illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws.
“We believe that folks in the agriculture community and folks from some of the humane organizations share the same concerns about animal cruelty,” said Mike Zimmerman, chief of staff for Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, whose bill was unveiled this week. “If there’s abuse taking place, there is no sense in letting it continue so you can make a video.”
Patterson’s bill, sponsored by the California Cattlemen’s Association, would make failing to turn over video of abuse to law enforcement within 48 hours an infraction punishable by a fine.
Critics say the bills are an effort to deny consumers the ability to know how their food is produced.
“The meat industry’s mantra is always that these are isolated cases, but the purpose of these bills is to prevent any pattern of abuse from being documented,” said Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States, which conducted the California and Vermont investigations.
In Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania it would be a crime to make videos at agricultural operations.
Paul Shapiro addresses the Ag-gag bills in this video[Warning: disturbing images of factory farm abuses included]:
On Jan. 3, EcoWatch TV with Stefanie Spear featured the new fracking documentary Triple Divide and interviewed filmmakers Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman. Triple Divide is about the truth behind oil and gas development in shale plays across Pennsylvania and is scheduled for release the end of January.
Watch the inaugural EcoWatch TV interview and hear firsthand the account of these two extraordinary filmmakers as they unfold the truth about fracking’s undeniable impacts on local communities and our most valuable natural resources.
Through personal stories, experts and public documents, Triple Divide tells a cautionary tale about the consequences of fracking, including contamination of water, air and land; intimidation and harassment of citizens; loss of property, investments and standard of living; weak and under enforced state regulations; decay of public trust; illness; fragmentation of Pennsylvania’s last stands of core forest; and lack of protection over basic human rights.
The film begins at one of only four triple continental divides on the North American continent in Potter County, Pennsylvania, where everything is downstream. From this peak, rain is sent to three sides of the continent—the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, Chesapeake Bay on the eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. This vast water basin is drained by three major rivers—the Allegheny, Genesee and Susquehanna. These waterways rank among the most coveted trout streams in the U.S., helping to create a regenerative tourism economy upon which locals have depended for generations. At this “watershed moment” in Pennsylvania’s history, which way will the future flow?
“..Fracking wastewater has revealed one of its secrets: It can be highly radioactive. And yet no agency really regulates its handling, transport or disposal. First of a four-part series on radiation in fracking wastewater.”
Morgan introduces the reader to Randy Moyer, who worked hauling wastewater to and from drilling sites. She reports that he’s not been able to work in 14 months and has been to over 40 doctors, with stacks of unpaid bills but no diagnoses. She writes:
“Moyer said he began transporting brine, the wastewater from gas wells that have been hydraulically fractured, for a small hauling company in August 2011. He trucked brine from wells to treatment plants and back to wells, and sometimes cleaned out the storage tanks used to hold wastewater on drilling sites. By November 2011, the 49-year-old trucker was too ill to work. He suffered from dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, difficulty breathing, swollen lips and appendages, and a fiery red rash that covered about 50 percent of his body.”
The Times staff writer sites the USGS and Penn State University studies that confirm that fracking wastewater is radioactive, “And in some cases, highly radioactive.”
She summarizes a report co-authored by Mark Engle, USGS research geologist:
“A geological survey report found that millions of barrels of wastewater from unconventional wells in Pennsylvania and conventional wells in New York were 3,609 times more radioactive than the federal limit for drinking water and 300 times more radioactive than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for nuclear plant discharges.”
Here’s the results of the Penn State study, according to Morgan:
“The study, written by Penn State alum Lara Haluszczak, professor emeritus Arthur Rose, and professor and head of the Department of Geosciences Lee Kump, describes the radium and barium found in fracking flowback as originating from ancient brines instead of the fracking fluid used by the industry to frack wells. The report, which focused on flowback within 90 days of fracking in primarily Pennsylvania wells, has been approved for publication in the International Association of Geochemistry’s journal Applied Geochemistry.”
The EPA has announced plans to look into radioactive wastewater and publish results in 2014. The article continues:
“The EPA says it plans to sample ground and surface water for radium-226, radium-229 and gross alpha and beta radiation, as well as other substances. It also says that hydraulic fracturing can increase the mobility of naturally occurring radioactive material within the Marcellus.”
Morgan says that the New York-based Grassroots Environmental Education report found the same radioactivity present in 11 vertical wells that had been tested This report was authored by Ivan White, “A career scientist for the National Council on Radiation Protection.” She writes:
“Levels of radium in those wells averaged at 8,433 picocuries per liter. The EPA’s limit for drinking water is 5 pCi/L for both radium-226 and radium-228 combined.”
Horizontal drilling is even worse for radioactive contamination, authors of two of the fracking wastewater studies conclude:
“Both White and Engle say that horizontal wells have a higher chance of producing radioactive waste than their vertical counterparts, because horizontal wells’ exposure to the Marcellus is much greater, due to the mile-long horizontal bores coursing straight through the radioactive shale.”
So, what happens with all of the wastewater? Fracking companies say that it is being recycled and reused for other wells. They admit that some may end up in the water supply. Morgan quotes attorney Adam Kron:
“As fracking has rapidly expanded, we’re seeing much more of this radioactive waste, which is a problem, since traditional landfills and wastewater treatment plants aren’t accustomed to handling it,” said Adam Kron, attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project. “In fact, wastewater treatment plants aren’t able to remove radioactivity, and we’re starting to hear accounts of landfills receiving — and sometimes turning away — radioactive cuttings and sand from across state lines.”
The author concludes with this:
“Next up: Who’s in charge of regulating this stuff, anyway?”
News and Views 