Saturday, March 12, 2011

Fracking NEWS

Buffalo -- We're #1 in Protecting Drinking Water!
  • Buffalo is the First City in New York to ban the dirty process of shale-gas fracking.
  • Buffalo is the First City in the USA to ban disposal and transportation of fracking wastewater.
Risks of shale-gas drilling by fracking outweigh the benefits
"In the long run, gas companies and a few lucky landowners may be the only ones that benefit from gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Are they worth the risks of potentially severe and, in some cases, irreversible consequences in the form of health, environmental, infrastructure and long-term economic degradation? New York state should consider following Buffalo’s lead." See the full article by Jannette M. Barth, PhD, entitled Hydrofracking Offers Short-term Boom, Long-term Bust.


Buffalo Sewer Authority to polluters: We don't want your fracking wastewater!
Three discharge permits issued to Waste Technology Services, a Lewiston-based company that served as the hauler for U. S. Energy Development Corp. of Getzville were canceled by the Sewer Authority. The general manager of the Authority said that the companies ignored a policy that banned “frack water” and failed to make the disclosure until after the issue sparked controversy. He is not ruling out the possibility of imposing fines. See the
report Sewer Authority affirms ban on ‘frack water’ at BuffaloNews.com.


Gas industry grossly underreports fracking wastewater discharged in rivers -- Go figure!
Pennsylvania allows the gas industry to discharge fraking wastewater into rivers, but it turns out that the amount of the tainted wastewater discharged is far more than the industry reported. This is due in large part to at least one huge error in the data entered into the state’s system for the amount recycled (i.e, not discharged). The 125,000 barrels of wastewater actually recycled was grossly overreported as 5.2 million barrels instead of gallons--42 times higher! Bottom line: the 90% recycling rate stated by the industry ends up being only 38%, meaning that far more fracking wastewater was discharged into rivers than claimed by the industry. See the report Faulty figure on ‘fracking’ recycling linked to National Fuel subsidiary at BuffaloNews.com.

The industry can't get the figures even close to correct on the discharge of fracking waste into rivers that provide drinking water, and we are supposed to believe them when they tell us that fracking is safe?
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See also a recent post, Fracking wastewater is Radioactive and Hazardous, and earlier posts about Fracking.

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