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Cracking Down on Fracking
Mike Markham of Colorado has an explosive problem: His tap water catches fire. Markham demonstrates this in a new documentary, “Gasland,” which just won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize. Director Josh Fox films Markham as he runs his kitchen faucet, holding a cigarette lighter up to the running water. After a few seconds, a ball of fire erupts out of the sink, almost enveloping Markham’s head.
The source of the flammable water, and the subject of “Gasland,” is the mining process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
Fracking is used to access natural gas and oil reserves buried thousands of feet below the ground. Companies like Halliburton drill down vertically, then send the shaft horizontally, crossing many small, trapped veins of gas and oil. Explosive charges are then set off at various points in the drill shaft, causing what Fox calls “mini-earthquakes.” These fractures spread underground, allowing the gas to flow back into the shaft to be extracted. To force open the fractures, millions of gallons of liquid are forced into the shaft at very high pressure.
The high-pressure liquids are a combination of water, sand and a secret mix of chemicals. Each well requires between 1 million and 7 million gallons of the fluid every time gas is extracted. Drillers do not have to reveal the chemical cocktail, thanks to a slew of exemptions given to the industry, most notably in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which actually granted the fracking industry a specific exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act. California Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has just announced an investigation into the composition of the proprietary chemicals used in fracking. In a Feb. 18 letter, Waxman commented on the Safe Drinking Water Act exemption: “Many dubbed this provision the ‘Halliburton loophole’ because of Halliburton’s ties to then-Vice President Cheney and its role as one of the largest providers of hydraulic fracturing services.” Before he was vice president, Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton.
In an earlier investigation, Waxman learned that Halliburton had violated a 2003 nonbinding agreement with the government in which the company promised not to use diesel fuel in the mix when extracting from certain wells. Halliburton pumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic, diesel-containing liquids into the ground, potentially contaminating drinking water.
According to the Department of Energy, there were more than 418,000 gas wells in the U.S. as of 2006. Since the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to investigate and regulate fracking, the extent of the pollution is unknown. Yet, as Josh Fox traveled the country, becoming increasingly engrossed in the vastness of the domestic drilling industry and the problems it creates, he documented how people living near gas wells are suffering water contamination, air pollution and numerous health problems that crop up after fracking. It’s personal for Fox: He lives in Pennsylvania, on a stream that feeds into the Delaware River, atop the “Marcellus Shale,” a subterranean region from New York to Tennessee with extensive natural gas reserves. Fracking in the Marcellus Shale could potentially contaminate the water supplies of both New York City and Philadelphia. Fox was offered almost $100,000 for the gas rights to his 19 acres, which led him to investigate the industry, and ultimately to produce his award-winning documentary.
There is virtually no federal oversight of fracking, leaving the budget-strapped states to do the job with a patchwork of disparate regulations. They are no match for the major, multinational drilling and energy companies that are exploiting the political goal of “energy independence.” The nonprofit news website ProPublica.org found that, out of 31 states examined, 21 have no regulations specific to hydraulic fracturing, and none requires the companies to report the amount of the toxic fluid remaining underground.
Reports indicate that almost 600 different chemicals are used in fracking, including diesel fuel and the “BTEX” chemicals: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, which include known carcinogens.
Dr. Theo Colborn, zoologist and expert on chemical pollution from fracking, appears in “Gasland,” saying, “Every environmental law we wrote to protect public health is ignored. ... We can’t monitor until we know what they’re using.”
Fox ends “Gasland” with an excerpt of a congressional hearing. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., aggressively question gas industry executives about water contamination. The two have submitted a bill, the proposed FRAC Act, which would remove the “Halliburton loophole,” forcing drillers to reveal the chemical components used in fracking. It’s time to close the door on the Cheney energy policy and take immediate steps to protect clean water.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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53 Comments so far
Show AllAs many of us have predicted for years on this and other sites, Cheney's evil will be with us for a long time.
Cheney's pernicious greed combined with Bush's grotesque incompetence and a buttload of Democratic cowards and republican morons was never going to produce anything good.
q
As far as I know no fracking yet in Kentucky, but as older gas and oil fields dry up, we may see it here, Squeezing the last drop out of the ground now that the peak of production has passed. But Eastern Kentucky especially has toxic spill-off from coal mining that contaminate water supplies.
Fresh water is becoming scarer.
For a while the local water-system utilized water from a local recreational lake filled with the exhausts of motorboats and jet-skis. Now, thankfully, we utilize a still clean stream filtered through a thousand feet of natural sand, and then reverse-osmois for water that has to have stuff added to it as it is too pure to run through pipes without eating them away. But then we are lucky.
Gary
“Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
-- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Canoes and rowboats increase fitness and do not pollute the water. They are also quiet.
Joe
With state budgets in the tank everywhere the pressure for jobs, lower energy costs, etc will be the negative counterweight against controlling this looming disaster. I have seen firsthand along The Continental Divide the fine work of Cheney and Hallibuton. Does Ken Salazar and Obama have the guts to do the right thing? My friends in the environmental movement say, not so much. Another Democratic Adm. another huge disappointment for the progressive community. Our grandchildren will have every right to hate us for poisoning their world.
Every time I see your name, I am reminded that a few years ago, I worked for a small music publishing company here in NYC, and we represented Link Wray's music, including "Rumble," "Jack the Ripper," etc. He was a major influence on ALL rock musicians, including Dylan and John Lennon.
I know this comment is off the subject, but seldom do we have articles on CD regarding music.
About the issue of "Fracking"...
We, here in NY state, are dealing with this issue right now. They want to drill here in the state, and the drilling would/could effect the drinking water of NYC and the surrounding area as well. A serious movement against the drilling has already formed and is growing.
Link Wray was the godfather of all things spun from punk, and modern rockabilly, alt country, etc. His albums from the mid-60's are some of my most cherished possessions. " Rumble" started so much along with " Wipeout " and stuff by Dick Dale on the West Coast. I moved East to West and found the coast here to have very unique and prog spins on the sounds I grew up with. The B side if you will of the 45's.
Link Wray was the godfather of all things spun from punk, and modern rockabilly, alt country, etc. His albums from the mid-60's are some of my most cherished possessions. " Rumble" started so much along with " Wipeout " and stuff by Dick Dale on the West Coast. I moved East to West and found the coast here to have very unique and prog spins on the sounds I grew up with. The B side if you will of the 45's.
this shit is allowed but my family in oregon can't rebuild an existing 40 year old garage because it is within 300' of a small stream.....
first they have to do an environmental impact statement and then have public commenting period of 3 meetings over 6 months....
and the corporations haven't taken over the government?
Your case is very typical.
The state DEP engineers and inspectors know it is futile to go after large corporate violators - armies of lawyers will come knocking, and they may even get a a call from the governor to lay off. So they go with full bureaucratic force on small trivial violations.
Sounds like mtdon is complaining that Oregon isn't more like SW Pennsylvania with all its accompanying pollution and environmental devastation. Oregon has had some strong protections based on its land use planning laws and the urban growth boundaries which have made a lot of developers very unhappy and yes, some family farmers and loggers too, some of whom are in my family.
I've spent time in both areas and although Pittsburgh does have the best sandwich in the world, I'll take Oregon's laws and environment over SW Pennsylvania's any time. At least Oregon still has the tops of its mountains intact, many clear running streams and the land isn't subsiding under the houses due to coal extraction.
The clearcut logging scars all over the Cascades are pretty ugly though...
I was going to comment that a garage next to a stream is a serious potential pollution source anyway. Just a cup of gasoline or oil pollutes a whole lot of water. A typical West Virginia holler often has less than 300 feet width of flat land in its bottom, so it is often unavoidable.
It is important to keep the separation between the laws of different States and the laws of any one State versus Federal laws in mind.
The mis-application of regulations to small farms and individuals is often ridiculous. There needs to be room for a sense of proportion in these requirements. Or else, let the municipality pay for the environmental impact statement. The meetings part is easier. Buy some cookies and invite everyone over.
I think that some of these regulations are designed in a way as to piss people off leading to the discredit of environmental regulation in the public mind. Regulations should be proportional to the size of the danger.
Joe
The Marcellus drilling boom is on here in SW Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Almost every exit on I-79 in Washington and Fayette County has drilling company yards, and every second or third truck in I-79 is hauling drilling equipment or tanker-loads of brine and frack waste. I seriously doubt any of these drillers ever sees a PaDEP inspector.
I worked in oil drilling for a couple years, and the threat pollution of groundwater and surface water is serious. The claims by the oil-patch trash that it is physically impossible for their frack water to enter ground or surface water is a baldfaced lie. Casing cement jobs leak even when one is not deliberately applying a thousand or more PSI pressure at the wellhead.
The pollution threat is excaberated by the longwall mining that is going on. Much of the water pumped from from the mines is or soon will be full of leaked frack water (another hazard for the miners too). Dunkard Creek is already complete dead from drilling brine entering it via a mine. The last two summers, the TDS in the water for a million resdents of Allegheny County has rendered it practically undrinkable. The drillers lie and lie - denyting it is them and blame the mines, but coal mining has been going in Sw PA for 200 years.
My local corrupt to the core congressman Tim Murphy has declared himself "our energy congressman" and will oppose any federal regulation, including disclosure of frack fluid ingredients - poisoning his own so-called constituents for the benefit of his real ones.
Unfortunately, most small landowners in this poor area will get big money from leases and royalties, so they don't care. Meranwhile, the sheeple helped by the local media, sleep.
And the bourgeois liberals here on CD will pass this important story by, while they drink their bottled water from Fiji, and post hundreds of fearful comments every time Harvey Wasserman publishes his wildly inacurate and flat-out wrong, sensationalist commentaries on nuclear power.
Thank you very much for this very important post!
Fracking is not only used in oil/gas extraction. It is also a primary tool used in geothermal projects for energy extraction. Two boreholes are drilled into the hot zone and they are adjacent to each other. The hot rock between the two boreholes is fractured. When cold water is pumped down one borehole, hot water returns via the second borehole.
There are other issues. Fracking in seismically-active zones also allows for stress release. The fluids pumped into the fracture zone effectively lubricate existing fracture lines and if there is any stress accumulation in the area, the lubrication provides a mechanism for localized stress relief. Generally, the earthquakes are small and may not be felt, but a number of wells in California have triggered magnitude 4 events, and have been well publicized.
Clearly there are serious issues with fracking, but a wholesale call of alarm to shut down all operations should first be carefully considered, especially considering it's importance in geothermal energy extraction.
No one is calling to shut down operations, just regulate it better. We need disclouse the proprietary-secret chemicals used and require groundwater monitoring/remediation wells down-gradient from each wellsite - something every gas station with underground tanks must do.
Aditionally, I can think of several cheap engineered measures that could be incorporated into the cemented borehole annulus that could detect and intercept fluid leaks before they enter the groundwater.
The igneous rocks at a geothermal site don't contain the nasty, oily, sometimes radioactive brines that get released from a gas well. Also, the area of the US suitable for geothermal-steam are pretty tiny and unpopulated compared to the area underlain by the Marcellus Shale
pjd412, i love your ongoing posts; but, here i disagree as w/nukes for peace; i agree w/gilscottheron; SHUT IT DOWN! I mostly concern w/international and national, but this very local to me. See Shaleshock.org.
well then. I say shut it down.
I 2nd that. Shut it the frack down!
---
A lot of us rely on their product to keep from freezing in winter. Good for cooking too. We can do without gasoline if they have to, but not natural gas. So "shutting it down" would not sell very well.
Surely secret chemical formulas and diesel have no business being introduced into a watershed that serves tens of millions of people. I would prevent it and shut it down immediately.
If fracking with plain water helps extract geothermal energy, that might be a different story. I never heard of it until today.
Joe
Here is a link to a 'fracking' industry fluff piece that appeared in MIT Technology review:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23694/
The process for extracting shale gas is only alluded to with no real discussion - only benefits - a complete whitewash of negative effects!!!!
"Range and other gas producers rely on drilling techniques that have been used for the past decade in the shale-gas fields of northeast Texas. Inside the trailer that serves as a field office, the complexity of the task is evident. On a wall is a chart mapping the drilling plans. The drill bit will head down more than a thousand meters through various types of sediments. Then, over the course of roughly 275 meters, it will gradually turn 90°, so that when it enters the layer of Marcellus shale at around 2,000 meters, it will be traveling horizontally through the gas-rich rock. Drillers can control the location of the bit to within several centimeters. Staying within a six-meter window, the bit will follow the Marcellus layer for up to 1,600 meters. The horizontal approach is crucial, allowing the well to tap into a large area of the shale layer. Eventually, the several wells at the site will spread out underneath the countryside, draining gas from hundreds of acres of shale.
The trickiest part of the operation comes after the drilling is done and the large rig is removed. A small armada of specialized equipment, including dozens of tanker trucks filled with water, will move in to perform a procedure called hydraulic fracture stimulation, or hydrofracturing, which is designed to get the gas flowing efficiently into the well. Although the Marcellus shale is soaked with gas, the rock holds the hydrocarbon tightly trapped. To allow it to escape, engineers will force millions of gallons of water down the well and into the shale formation at high pressure. If all goes well, the natural gas will rush out of the shale and into the pipe after the water is pumped back out.
That the process works is a tribute to the wonders of geology and the ingenuity of the drilling engineers. Like the black shale on the shores of Lake Erie, the Marcellus shale is riddled with tiny natural fractures created million of years ago as the newly formed hydrocarbon gases expanded. The high-pressure water, which is mixed with fine sand and chemical additives, works to enlarge those cracks. The results: gas-permeable zones of damaged rock a hundred or more meters across, radiating out from the well pipe."
:But I could be wrong !
Universities produce this stuff in return for grant monies. This sort of "scholarship" produces revenue for universities in a country that does not support higher education through public funds. The colleges are forced to raise funds from the "haves", who generally got that way by promoting their own self-interest. University presidents are chosen for their fund-raising ability rather than intellectual acuity or honesty. Questions about the study design and findings are not welcome. That will endanger future grants and knock a person right off the tenure track.
This is to science as Friedman and Summers are to economics, Yoo is to law.
Joe
And we are worried about "coke heads".
The real addiction is for that "fossil fuel".
This could be straight out of "Train Spotting", where the crack head jumps into the toilet to recover the pills he dropped.
He wasn't a crackhead, he was a heroin addict. It wasn't pills, it was a bag of heroin.
The toilet he jumped into was in the world's filthiest bathroom, and the water in the toilet was black.
That has to be the most outrageous, hilarious piece of film ever shot, trumping even Monty Python.
Not that it matters, but it is actually an opium suppository.
We stopped the Fossil Fuel Fool Frackers in my county my getting the councilpersons to pass regulations that billed Frackers for projected increase costs in , roads schools, fire and police.
This poisoning of water dovetails with the commodification of water, sarcity increases value.
Pity the nation that depends on Fossil Fuels or Nukes for energy.
Every day, in every way, I hate Capitalism more and more.
Easy fix. Since a fireball coming out of your sink faucet could easily be classified as an infernal machine, known today as a weapon of mass destruction. Arrest the CEO of the mining company on domestic terrorism charges. Send him to Gitmo and water board him to see what he knows, or maybe just for fun. If it's good for the goose it's good for the gander. I'm thinking that there problem might get fixed right quick.
Fred 1:56 -------- Clever solution, or is it a fiery solution, or watery, or woody, or earthy solution?
Do you remember that in the original Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck used the term 'frack' instead of the english word 'f***'?
How ironic that there is a terrible mining process that the big corporations use with governmental approval that is the same term, and it does the same thing to us.
The Corporate State is fracking us.
What's the problem? Use tap water to fuel your car and then drink bottled water, a win win solution.
As if bottled water is or will remain pure. It's tap water most of the time.
Go to shaleshock.org out of Ithaca, NY, ...a treasure trove of info, and if you dig deep enough on their busy website, you'll be rewarded w/a musically concert so beautiful that it will make you wished that you lived in Ithaca.
maybe we should wait for congress to take a healthy drink and then call for an encore. Ya know like in the ole' days, with lighters, lit. Might help'em "Catch A FIRE!!". LOL
why i think the whole process needs to be outlawed is we do not have enough water to be wasting millions of gallons a day to extract rapidly disappearing drops of oil.
take a look at the grit tv piece up her about water.
Sioux Rose
What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister...
ravaged and plundered and carved her and bit her,
tied her with fences in the side of the dawn,
and dragged her down.
(Jim Morrison--as close as I can remember some of the lyrics from, "When The Music's Over.")
Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.
Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play? - -Cat Stevens
thanks, SR. "the future is uncertain, and the end is always, near" JM and the Doors.
At the rate it's all going, there'll be a crackdown on fracking the very second hell freezes over, credit card interest rates go to zero and we get paid to use credit cards, and Obama gets a 'health care plan' that's not only about health care, but institutes universal health care to the cheers of 45 million Americans.
How about a merger of Halliburton and Monsanto into HelliSatanco, Inc., and with the new Supreme Court ruling handing the government over to the corporations, they can install the CEO dictator of their choice in Washington, and make it illegal to have any opinion that doesn't imply complete obedience to and acceptance of the New Corporate Order and the mass murder of the entire population. That should shut up a few of those nasty little 'liberals' on Common Dreams and elsewhere.
Oh dear, I see from today's excuses for newspapers that the little cockroach Cheney survived a heart attack. Shit. Of course, crucifixion is too good for that terrorist and his boy hooker*, Bush, along with the shitheels that spawned him, but let me just look on the National Geographic Channel and see what the population of hungry lions in Africa's been reduced to.. Those two claim to be 'Christians', don't they? But then the poor lions would need a shitload of Pepto-Bismol, wouldn't they?
*with apologies to cockkroaches and boy hookers
Don't blame us liberals for the evil crap these Cainey Clan neo-cons have created.
The energy cartels can elude control or punishment for these tragic crimes because of their control over congress, which has now been strengthened by the sellout by five Supreme Court Justices; and their hired guns in the media such as Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and other such pundits.
Unless we defang these sources of deception and coercion, our planet will become unsuitable for humans within the lifetimes of our grandchidren.
Well back in the old days humans had to drink beer because we knew our water was impure. There could be an upside to this. :-)
However, I'm sure the fermentation process won't do anything to reduce the effects of the petro and exotic chemicals but we won't care as much.
Roof rainwater collection systems anyone?
Roof rainwater is not a bad idea, but beer is. Unless you drink beer made from non-genetically modified grain (GMO, GM, GME)you risk your health. Gone are the days when the 15th century Dutch drank Heineken's brew that saved them from the black plague. Your choices will soon be between contaminated water or GM beer brewed with contaminated water. But most organic wine is still safe, and so is roof water collected in a cistern. We still have one of those rainwater collectors in the basement from the 19th century. Must add this to my list of sustainability projects.
The ranchers in Wyoming are having terrible problems with this. Now we know why Cheney is always in D.C. "He can't go home again."
People of this country will not get justice and proper government oversight until they all band together and fight the monster that is devouring them.
I think it's funny, if not so disturbing, that Cheney has to stay in the hallowed walls of DC. Them cowboys, when they get mad, would drag him behind a horse from Cheyenne to Denver.
Leave it to Halliburton for F***ing up everything that's good. When are these earth rapists going to be tried, convicted and punished by making them fix their toxic mess.