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By arimoore, on January 12th, 2010%
What happens when millions of gallons of toxic hydrofracking waste gush back up out of the earth after being injected? Where does it go after sitting around in pits for a while? Let’s look to Pennsylvania to see what’s happening there: Gas wells’ leftovers may wash into Ohio
By arimoore, on September 28th, 2009%
Pennsylvania environment officials have charged Cabot Oil and Gas with five violations after nearly 8,000 gallons of hydraulic fracturing solution spilled [1] from a pipe system in two separate incidents near the town of Dimock last week. The department reported that a third, smaller spill occurred at the site Tuesday morning.
Read the rest here.
By arimoore, on August 26th, 2009%
Gas shale drilling tech under scrutiny (Alaska Dispatch):
According to a long feature in the Ithaca Journal, people are wondering about just what’s in the waste liquid that results from horizontal high-pressure hydro-fracture drilling, and what’s the best way to handle it. As full-scale horizontal development of Marcellus Shale gas kicks in, the quantity of waste fluid will increase because horizontal wells require more of the fluid than vertical wells. The high volume of waste fluid will need to be dealt with. But because the industry is exempt from the federal rules that require full disclosure, no one is really sure about what threat the fluid poses to workers or groundwater. The DEC hasn’t issued any permits yet for full-scale development with horizontal hydro-fracture wells in the Marcellus because it is reviewing environmental impact statements, but it has already allowed the technology to be used in traditional vertical wells there. (Read more)
By arimoore, on August 26th, 2009%
The Big Takeover by Peter Gorman for Fort Worth Weekly:
It’s been a tough spring and summer for the gas drilling industry’s public image.
In Caddo Parish in Louisiana’s northwest corner, 17 head of cattle died in late April after drinking “frac” water that entered their pasture. During the last several months, earthquakes in Johnson County and at D/FW International Airport caused gas companies to shut down injection wells thought to be responsible. And then a couple of week ago, a film showing invisible poisonous hydrocarbons escaping into the air at gas well sites in North Texas appeared on YouTube. Closest to home, 14 new wells are planned for a Fort Worth park within 600 feet of a proposed elementary school and community center. Oh, and a gas industry lobbying group has been given the right to put a class in a Fort Worth public high school, with full control of the curriculum.
“Sounds like the apocalypse when you just rattle them off like that,” said Don Young, founder of Fort Worth CanDo and a consistent voice against urban gas drilling. The seemingly endless horror stories have activists like Young shaking their heads in disbelief. “Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else happens to shock you again,” he said. (Read more)
By arimoore, on August 25th, 2009%
Read Ithaca council raises natural gas-drilling concerns by Krisy Gashler:
Raising concerns about drinking water, roads and safety for emergency responders, Ithaca’s Common Council is getting involved in the discussion about gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
The majority of the city’s watershed for its Six Mile Creek drinking water source is outside the city in the Towns of Ithaca and Caroline. Roughly 38 percent of the total land area in Tompkins County has already been leased for oil and gas drilling, including 12 percent in the Town of Ithaca and 49 percent in Caroline, according to gas lease deed information compiled by the citizen’s action group Shaleshock.
Common Council Planning Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Dotson, I-1st, said city officials have concerns in four major areas: water use and wastewater disposal; impact on roads and infrastructure; safety, especially for firefighters who may have to respond to fires or accidents at drilling sites; and the tax structure for oil and gas revenue.
The planning committee this week discussed strategies they could use to protect the city, including identifying critical natural areas, adopting road preservation laws, and demanding disclosure of all chemicals in hydro-fracturing (fracking) fluid before considering whether to accept it at the wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into Cayuga Lake. (Read more)
By arimoore, on August 12th, 2009%
Read Hours passed before cow deaths reported by Alisa Stingley:
When no state agency would take responsibility for determining the cause of death of the cows, Prator concluded that chemicals in the spill killed the cows.
The regional DEQ office found elevated chlorides, a salt, as well as oil and grease and some organic compounds in soil and water tests. Potassium chloride can be added to the fluids used during stages of the hydraulic fracturing process used to reach natural gas trapped in underground shale.
Continue reading "Hours passed before cow deaths reported"
By arimoore, on August 6th, 2009%
The Safety of Fracturing Fluids – A Quantitative Assessment by Steve Coffman, member of the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes –
August 4, 2009
In response to a FOIL request to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes received a list of 48 toxic substances (as defined by the DEC or EPA) permitted for use in hydraulic fracture drilling of gas wells in the Marcellus Shale formation in Yates, Schuyler, Steuben, Broome and Cortland Counties. The received materials came in the form of documents submitted by the drilling companies themselves: Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and Company Drilling Data Sheets.
Continue reading The Safety of Fracturing Fluids – A Quantitative Assessment
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About Us Shaleshock is an information hub connecting people to regional groups and projects working to stop exploitative drilling in the Marcellus Shale.(more)
2009 Signs of Sustainability
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