New Report: Oil and Gas Industry Pressures and Intimidates Scientists Critical of Fracking

BUFFALO, NY – A new report from the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), a nonprofit watchdog group, finds that the oil and gas industry has been pressuring and intimidating scientists conducting research critical of fracking. 

The report, titled “Freedom Fracked?”, reviews cases where university researchers have been pressured by  – or even fired from – their institutions due to their criticism, either actual or perceived, of the drilling industry. It is the latest in a series of PAI reports bringing transparency to the industry’s role in shaping academic research on fracking.

The issue has recently made headlines in Oklahoma, where Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, obtained meetings with and apparently sought firings at the Oklahoma Geological Survey as it came closer to acknowledging a link between the disposal of fracking wastewater and the rash of earthquakes that has struck the state in recent years. David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma (which houses the Oklahoma Geological Survey), sits on the board of directors of Hamm’s company.

PAI’s report raises questions about the Energy Information Administration’s decision to make Hamm a keynote speaker, alongside Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, at its energy conference next week.

The report notes that the Oklahoma story, while particularly egregious, is far from the only case in which academic researchers have come under extreme pressure from industry, in some cases losing their jobs as a result.

“This is a clear trend of oil and gas interests exerting their influence to quiet scientists with whom they disagree.” said Kevin Connor, director of the Public Accountability Initiative.

The Oklahoma scandal parallels that of Geoffrey Thyne, a geologist who lost jobs at both the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Wyoming, due to “pushback from alumni and trustees” at the industry-connected schools. As in Oklahoma, Bill Scoggins – the president of the Colorado School of Mines when Thyne was let go – was a paid board member of several oil and gas firms. Scoggins was also a director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association at the time, a lobbying group that Thyne said pressured his bosses into terminating his research.

A third researcher, Dan Volz, resigned from his position at the University of Pittsburgh after the school discouraged him from speaking on public health issues – and after his work came under attack by industry.

“The industry’s efforts to stifle academic criticism of fracking while promoting its own biased research shows that it is more concerned with optics than developing a sound scientific record,” said Connor. “They will resort to smears and attacks if a researcher’s work does not fit their narrative that the science is settled in favor of fracking.”

The issue of industry pressure on scientific research on fracking is timely given the release last week of the Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing operations on drinking water, and reports that the industry had refused to cooperate with the investigation.

PAI is a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog group focused on corporate and government accountability issues. In addition to publishing research on critical public accountability issues, PAI maintains LittleSis.org, an involuntary facebook of powerful people and tool for power research that was used to compile data for the report.

The report is available here: http://public-accountability.org/2015/06/freedom-fracked/ 

Anti-Fracking Law: Public Comments Move Amherst Town Board to Revise

Planning Board to review draft of anti-fracking law

The Town Board during its meeting on Monday directed the Planning Board to review a draft local law that would ban hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” in Amherst.

Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks and release the natural gas inside. People who oppose the practice believe it poses many dangers to the environment and could result in health risks to residents.

During a public comment period, Rita Yelda, a member of the community group Amherst Against Fracking, said the draft, created by the Town Attorney’s Office, lacks strength because it doesn’t cite the proper definitions of hydraulic fracturing.

Several residents following Yelda reiterated the importance of creating strong legislation that bans hydrofracking and its wastes in the Town of Amherst.

Following the comments from the public, Deputy Supervisor Guy Marlette said the reason it was put on the board’s meeting agenda was to allow the Town Board to review it first to vet any issues, such as the ones that were addressed by residents.

Following the Town Attorney’s Office working with the Planning Board to possibly amend the draft, a public hearing will be held to allow further community input on the revised version.

Marlette added that although it has been about 13 months since the Town Board directed the Town Attorney’s Office to draft a law banning fracking in the town, it was not an excessive time period.

“Our intent is to pass a law and have all of the definitions in place for a strong law,” Marlette said.

Read the full report at the Amherst Bee

For earlier reports on the dangers of fracking waste, Click Here.

FRACKING NEWS

Despite Fracking Ban, New Yorkers Saddled with 

Radioactive Fracking Waste

New report lifts the veil on how NYS has enabled Pennsylvania to dump more than 460,000 tons of fracking waste inside our borders.

Albany – A new report from Environmental Advocates of New York sheds light on the practice of potentially radioactive out-of-state fracking waste getting dumped in New York despite Governor Cuomo’s ongoing implementation of a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

“Fracking wastes are notoriously toxic and radioactive,” said Liz Moran, water and natural resources associate, and report author. “Despite knowing the public health concerns, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) enables New York landfills to accept Pennsylvania’s fracking waste with little oversight. If fracking isn’t safe for New Yorkers, then waste from other states’ fracking operations isn’t safe for New Yorkers either.”

Key Concerns

To date, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reports that at least 460,000 tons of solid fracking waste and 23,000 barrels of liquid waste have been dumped in seven New York landfills. Comparatively, the DEC says the state does not accept this type of waste.

Additionally:

• In 2013, radiation detectors in Pennsylvania were triggered more than 1000 times by the same kind of fracking waste accepted by New York, signaling dangerous levels of radiation – while not a single radioactive detector was set off by New York landfills.
• Leachate (toxins from solid waste that leach into collection pools) from landfills ends up in New York’s wastewater treatment plants, none of which are capable of ridding water of radiation or other dangerous chemicals.
• The DEC has failed to implement standardized oversight, regulation or testing, and has fallen far short of the strong public health safeguards that guided the state Department of Health’s fracking review.

Read more at Environmental Advocates of New York

See also an earlier report, Fracking Waste: A Radioactive Legacy for New York? 

New - and Worrisome - Contaminants Emerge from 

Oil and Gas Wells

Researchers find alarming levels of ammonium and iodide in fracking wastewater released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia streams.

Two hazardous chemicals never before known as oil and gas industry pollutants – ammonium and iodide – are being released into Pennsylvania and West Virginia waterways from the booming energy operations of the Marcellus shale, a new study shows.

Treatment plants were never designed to handle these contaminants.

The toxic substances, which can have a devastating impact on fish, ecosystems, and potentially, human health, are extracted from geological formations along with natural gas and oil during both hydraulic fracturing and conventional drilling operations, said Duke University scientists in a study published today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The chemicals then are making their way into streams and rivers, both accidentally and through deliberate release from treatment plants that were never designed to handle these contaminants, the researchers said.

Read more at DailyClimate.org

New Report: Oil and Gas Industry using Flawed Research to Promote Fracking

BUFFALO, NY – The oil and gas industry is using flawed research to give the impression of a scientific consensus that fracking is safe and beneficial, according to a new report released today by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI).

The report, titled “Frackademia in Depth,” assesses over 130 studies that the industry has put forward to help make the scientific case for fracking, analyzing them for the strength of their industry ties and their relative academic quality (whether they were peer-reviewed).

PAI found that only 14% of the studies had been subject to peer review, while nearly 76% had some degree of connection to the oil and gas industry through funders, authors, and issuers.

PAI also found that the list included reports that had been discredited and retracted by the institutions that published them, including a 2012 report from the University of Texas that an independent panel convened by the school decried as “falling short of contemporary standards of scientific work” after PAI revealed undisclosed conflicts of interest and shoddy scholarship.

The extensive list of studies analyzed in the report was originally compiled by Energy in Depth, a nationwide industry outreach effort, and used to convince legislators in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to lease mineral rights under a county park for fracking. The list opens a telling window onto the body of fracking research that the oil and gas industry deems fit for public consumption.

“Though the industry says that the science is settled in favor fracking, their own best evidence does not support that claim,” said Robert Galbraith, a research analyst at PAI and co-author of the report.

Read the report at PublicAccountability.org

ExxonMobil slammed with $2.3 Million Fine for 

Fracking-related Water Pollution

The EPA found a roundabout way of holding natural gas drillers accountable for Clean Water Act violations.

The EPA just hit XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the nation’s largest natural gas company, with a cool $2.3 million fine for Clean Water Act violations related to its fracking activities in West Virginia.

This is big: you rarely hear about frackers being held federally accountable for polluting water supplies, thanks to Bush-era legislation commonly known as the “Halliburton Loophole.” Basically, it ensures that fracking is exempted from the portions of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act that would typically make it accountable to federal oversight; as such, the EPA is mostly prevented from regulating both the process and the chemicals it injects into the ground.

The EPA’s approach is a clever workaround of those restrictions. As CleanTechnica’s Tina Casey explains, the pollution targeted by the EPA wasn’t caused by fracking itself, but instead by other, ordinary violations committed by XTO: the company, it charges, dumped sand, dirt, rocks and other dirty fill materials into streams and wetlands without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In total, the company damaged 5,300 linear feet of streams and 3.38 acres of wetland — making the $2.3 million fine comparatively large, particularly when you consider the extra $3 million it agreed to pay in restoration costs.

This isn’t the first time the EPA has pursued this roundabout policy of holding frackers accountable. Last year, it nailed fracking giant Chesapeake Energy for the same violation, resulting in a record $6.5 million settlement.

Read more at BuffaloNews.com

Local Groups to Protest Anti-Environmental Keynote Speaker outside Gas Lobby Meeting

Protest: No More Fracking Lies! 

Wednesday, Nov. 12th at 4 p.m. 

Hyatt Regency, 2 Fountain Plaza, Buffalo

To view updates and join the Event on Facebook, click here.

The Independent Oil & Gas Association of NY (IOGA-NY) is the chief oil and gas lobbying organization in New York, spending millions backing fracking and natural gas development in the state and opposing environmental safeguards. 

IOGA-NY will hold their 2014 Annual Meeting in Buffalo on November 11th and 12th. This year a keynote speaker is Jack Hubbard who will present a talk titled "Big Green Radicals: Winning Public Opinion, Undermining the Activist's Credibility and Changing the Debate." 

Hubbard works for a Washington D.C.-based consulting firm, Berman & Co., which specializes in undermining the work of environmentalists on behalf of the natural gas industry. 

The New York Times published a secretly recorded a speech given by Hubbard's colleague, Richard Berman, in which he solicited up to $3 million from oil and gas industry executives to finance the "Big Green Radicals" PR campaign. He promised the industry executives “total anonymity.”

Berman said in his speech, that industry executives must be willing to exploit emotions like fear, greed and anger and turn them against the environmental groups.  “You can either win ugly or lose pretty,” he said.

To view the New York Times article, click here. For a transcript of the speech by Berman, which also includes one by Jack Hubbard, click here.

The oil and gas industry doesn't have science behind them so companies resort to lies and innuendo invented by high-priced PR firms. Berman and Co. seems to be a leader in this effort -- getting millions of $$ from industry executives to smear environmental groups, and hiding the industry's role in funding his campaigns.

Jack Hubbard, the keynote speaker of the upcoming IOGA-NY Annual Meeting in Buffalo, spoke at a previous meeting about the national "Big Green Radicals" campaign. He announced that “the initial targets of that campaign were the Sierra Club, NRDC, and Food & Water Watch.” 

Targeting these groups for being opposed to fracking is a big mistake on Hubbard's part. These groups are united in that they all remain unconvinced of the industry-touted safety of shale gas drilling and fracking in the face of industry-caused well water damage, air pollution, toxic and radioactive wastewater, and earthquakes.

Jack Hubbard also mentioned digging-up “criminal records” that activists have. He said “We’re really making this personal. We’re trying to make it so that they don’t have any credibility with the public, with the media, or with legislators.”

Criminal records? Well, that's just ridiculous! Another thing the three environmental groups have in common is that they're law-abiding people. Most all are volunteers, giving their time to protect the quality of our water, air, land and health. 

Many people in the Buffalo area are members of the targeted groups that Hubbard attempts to discredit. Organizers hope that people will be moved to attend the protest on Nov. 12 or take action by exposing the despicable tactics of these gas industry-funded attack dogs to the public and media.

Protesters outside of the IOGA-NY Annual Meeting will demand that our legislators not listen to gas industry lies! 

Berman said "You can either win ugly or lose pretty."

Let's Win Pretty!  Click here to Join the Event on Facebook!

Cosponsors: Renewable Energy Task Force of WNY Peace Center, Sierra Club Niagara Group, Western NY Drilling Defense, Food & Water Watch, PAUSE, and the New Yorkers Against Fracking coalition.

~  ~  ~

See also:  

"Meet Dr. Evil" is the title of a CBS 60 Minutes interview of Berman, which can be viewed here. 

"Frack Attack Likely at Talk" by Brian Nearing at Times Union.
  

Air Pollution Risks Near Fracking Sites - New Study and Report

Fracking is Fine (Just Hold Your Breath)

By Charles Margulis
Center for Environmental Health (CEH)

You may have been shocked by this recent headline: “Dead babies near oil drilling sites raise questions for researchers.” But if you have been following the national debate about fracking, you are likely to be all too familiar with the concerns that community members have about pollution from this new drilling technology.

In fact, the CEH report on health risks to women and children living near fracking operations found serious reasons for concern. Chemicals used in fracking and/or created by fracking operations have been linked to low birth weight, birth defects, respiratory problems, infertility, and cancer, among other serious problems.

Now there’s a new fracking problem.

There has been much attention to water pollution risks from fracking, but there has been less research into air quality around fracking sites.  A new study, co-authored by CEH’s Research Director Caroline Cox and published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health, shines light on fracking air pollution risks. 

Along with the study, a report, Warning Signs: Toxic Air Pollution Identified at Oil and Gas Development Sites details the results from the sampling.

The results from the air testing were not reassuring. One sample had air pollution levels that could pose an immediate danger to life or health, according to Centers for Disease Control guidelines. Benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer, was detected at sample locations in Pennsylvania and Wyoming, in levels exceeding health-based standards by several orders of magnitude. Another carcinogen, formaldehyde, was detected in locations in three states at levels exceeding the health-based standards of the U.S. EPA.

We can rein in the fracking industry

The oil and gas industry intends to spread fracking across the country, regardless of the health, climate, or safety concerns. What’s worse, fracking is exempt from most federal environmental rules, so states often have no way to adopt protective regulations.

We need government action to rein in the fracking industry. Regulators should require more comprehensive air monitoring and pollution prevention standards. Communities should have the right to know about all chemicals used in fracking. Residents of affected communities should be directly involved in decision making before fracking can go forward.

The EPA can take stronger steps to protect Americans from fracking health risks. 

Take Action: Urge EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to protect our health and the environment from fracking risks!

~  ~  ~ 

ConcernedHealthNY.org Compendium

Senator says Fracking "inherently dangerous" - Calls for Ban

The evidence is in, so ban fracking  .
It's proven a nightmare to Pennsylvanians .

By Liz Krueger .
Krueger is a state senator representing Manhattan’s east side and parts of Midtown.

If anyone in New York was still buying the utopian vision being sold by the oil and gas industry regarding fracking — free energy! new jobs! no risk! — a flood of recent news should end the delusion once and for all.

Consider fresh reports about the experience of Finleyville, Pa., where residents were promised easy money with no headaches back in 2008.

But once the trucks and heavy machinery came in and the fracking began, everything changed. Families found their homes unlivable. Houses vibrated and were filled with continuous noise. Air quality warnings and gas odors forced some to flee.

In one especially disturbing case, a pregnant woman was advised by her doctor to relocate to an area further away from a drilling site.

Given the gas industry’s track record, what came next in Finleyville shouldn’t be a shock — but, in its utter shamelessness, it was pretty rare, even for them.

In 2013, homeowners were offered $50,000 to sign away their rights to hold the drilling corporation, EQT, legally responsible for its negative consequences, and those of any future operations.

These agreements covered health problems, property damage, and other negative effects including noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot, air pollution or vibrations.

And the liability releases wouldn’t just exempt the drillers from damages related to drilling, but from its construction of pipelines, power lines, roads, tanks, ponds, pits, compressor stations, houses and buildings as well.

It’s telling that these very same companies that seek legal cover from damage claims consistently insist in public that fracking is safe and has no damaging effects on the environment, health or quality of life.

Despite industry claims that fracking has been a rousing success, people across Pennsylvania are suffering from its effects.

The state’s former health commissioner recently confirmed that state government was derelict in considering the public health impact of the drilling process. Its health department discouraged its employees from addressing public complaints about health issues believed to be related to fracking.

And Pennsylvania’s experience is no anomaly.

In January of this year, the Associated Press published findings from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and West Virginia demonstrating connections between fracking activities and water contamination. Contaminants include methane, arsenic and various hormone-disrupting substances.

Even the gas industry’s claims about fracking’s economic benefits have been debunked. An independent report by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative disproved industry assertions that every gas well created 31 jobs, finding instead that it was only four.

For the past few years, the oil and gas industry has tried to lure New Yorkers with false promises.

But New Yorkers are smarter than that. The grassroots opposition to fracking in our state grows stronger by the day, with an accompanying abundance of science to substantiate our cogent opposition. A new Qunnipiac poll puts opposition statewide at a record high of 48%, compared to 43% support.

New York finds itself at a crossroads. We know that, with the technology and engineering methods currently in use, fracking is inherently dangerous and would result in irreversible harm to New Yorkers; health, our natural resources and our billion-dollar agricultural industry.

Yet the Cuomo administration is still officially reviewing how fracking impacts people’s health.

The state’s highest court recently upheld the rights of cities and towns to ban fracking within their borders. This is a step in the right direction, but pollutants caused by fracking will not conform to municipal boundaries.

As elected officials, it is our job to weigh the facts and science, and then act to protect New Yorkers. It is time for both houses of the state Legislature to pass a bill banning fracking — and for Gov. Cuomo to sign it.

Published on September 1, 2014 in the New York Daily News

Wake-up Call on Fracking by Attorney who Won Bans

Wake-up Call on Fracking

By Helen Slottje, Esq. - Recipient of The Goldman Environmental Prize for her legal work on behalf of New York communities enacting local fracking bans

Officials must wake up from the oil & gas industry-induced trance  and provide true leadership
In an age when the voices and concerns of average Americans often go unheard in our political system, two small towns in upstate New York recently won an underdog victory against the oil and gas industry that should serve as a wake-up call to government officials across the nation.

Those two towns – Dryden and Middlefield – passed municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, despite threats of lawsuits from the oil and gas industry. Industry made good on those threats, but lost in two trial courts, and on appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals. The state’s highest court held that municipalities have the right to use their long-standing zoning laws to ban oil and gas operations, including fracking.

My husband David and I developed much of the legal framework for towns to enact such local bans and moratoria – and about 180 similar measures that have passed in towns across New York State [see Map]. Now states across the nation are rightfully pursuing similar measures.

[Click image to enlarge]

We first learned about fracking at a local community meeting where photographic and personal accounts of the devastation wrought by fracking in Pennsylvania spurred concerned residents into action. We got involved because we wanted to protect our community and help our neighbors, and also because we don’t like bullies – especially like the oil and gas industry.

Unfortunately, fracking has spread throughout much of the nation with little if any honest consideration of the consequences. From the White House to Congress to most state governments, the oil and gas industry has successfully lobbied public officials to cave to their demands and have hired the same public relations consultants as the tobacco industry did to mire the facts about the harms of this violent drilling process.

This most egregiously dates back to the Bush-Cheney administration in 2005 when Dick Cheney met with big oil and gas to write our energy policy and delivered federal exemptions from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, on top of the existing exemptions from the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Superfund law. These exemptions let industry proceed with practically no oversight and without having to disclose the secret mix of hundreds of chemicals used in the fracking process.

As the oil and gas industry is quick to point out, President Obama and his administration officials have followed in the Bush-Cheney administration’s footsteps by championing fracking. They tout it as an alternative to coal and have long minimized the impacts and threats of water contamination, air pollution, health effects and social impacts.

Now independent science is beginning to catch up to this new practice and it’s all bad news. A rapidly expanding body of hundreds of recent scientific and medical studies shows that the impacts of fracking are significant, and with millions of Americans living within a mile of fracking sites, the potential exposure is alarming.

For example, based on three years of monitoring, a Colorado School of Public Health study found air pollutants near fracking sites at levels sufficient to raise risks of cancer, neurological deficits and respiratory problems. Among the chemicals was the carcinogen benzene, which separate air monitoring has found at dangerous levels at fracking sites in states including Colorado, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas and West Virginia.

Many studies have linked drilling and fracking activities with water contamination. When you consider the hundreds of chemicals used in fracking operations, as well as naturally occurring radioactive materials and heavy metal in the shale, that’s disturbing. It’s even worse in light of recent research indicating that rates of cement failures in well casings – the only barrier between groundwater and disastrous contamination – are actually getting worse, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a Cornell University research team. Researchers analyzed more than 75,000 official state of Pennsylvania inspections of more than 41,000 oil and gas wells drilled since 2000 and determined that over 40 percent of shale fracking wells drilled after 2009 would leak into the groundwater or atmosphere, higher rates than for older, conventional wells.

As science has begun to catch up, air pollution and water contamination are just two of many harms from fracking. Others include earthquakes, high levels of radiation, noise and light pollution, significant contributions to climate change, threats to agriculture, increased crime rates and a range of health impacts.

In spite of all this, the oil and gas industry’s influence is so politically significant that Obama, Congress and most state governments remain undaunted in supporting fracking. This undue influence is not new. FDR complained about it in the 1940’s: “The trouble with this country is that you can’t win an election without the oil bloc, and you can’t govern with it.”

That makes the recent New York win in a classic David versus Goliath matchup against oil and gas interests all the more important. Not only is it a great victory for local municipal rights, it’s a tremendous victory for tens of thousands of New Yorkers who have poured their hearts and souls into protecting their communities.

But perhaps most importantly, it should serve as a wake-up call to state and federal officials across the nation that continuing to ignore community impacts from fracking is not a viable strategy.

What’s next for New York? A statewide ban that can help lead our country in the right direction - away from fracking – because air pollution, water contamination, and the health and other problems caused by fracking do not conform to municipal boundaries.

In New York, it’s heartening that most elected officials have not abandoned science and caution by yielding to the oil and gas industry’s propaganda and political influence. Governor Andrew Cuomo has kept our state’s moratorium in place and has firmly and rightly said he wants to let the science decide. Recently, the New York State Assembly overwhelmingly passed a three-year moratorium based on the call from hundreds of health professionals and medical organizations given emerging trends in the data showing harm and the need for more study.

Now it’s imperative that officials in Washington, D.C. and in other states– including Congress and  Obama – wake up from the oil and gas industry-induced trance and provide true leadership on this issue. That means following the science, not the money. The health of communities across the nation and future generations is at stake. And that’s something worth fighting for.

Slottje, Esq. is the 2014 North America recipient of The Goldman Environmental Prize for her legal work on behalf of New York communities enacting local fracking bans. She lives in Ithaca, N.Y. with her husband David.

The article was originally published here.

FRACKING NEWS

Families sick from fracking exposure turn to concerned scientists | The Inquirer

Like people in other regions transformed by the shale energy boom, residents of Washington County, Pennsylvania have complained of headaches, nosebleeds and skin rashes. But because there are no comprehensive studies about the health impacts of natural gas drilling, it's hard to determine if their problems are linked to the gas wells and other production facilities that have sprung up around them.

A group of scientists from Pennsylvania and neighboring states have stepped in to fill this gap by forming a nonprofit—apparently the first of its kind in the United States—that provides free health consultations to local families near drilling sites. Instead of waiting years or even decades for long-term studies to emerge, the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP) is using the best available science to help people deal with their ailments.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection—which oversees the oil and gas industry—has no ongoing or planned health studies, though it is researching air and water quality at certain sites. None of the hundreds of millions of dollars in impact fees the state has collected from the industry since 2011 has gone to state or local health departments.

A governor-appointed commission recommended in 2011 that a health registry be created to track Pennsylvanians living near drilling sites. But no registry has been established. In June, the news organization StateImpact Pennsylvania reported that two former employees of the health department were told to avoid talking about Marcellus shale activity, and to stop returning phone calls from people concerned about drilling impacts.

Read the full report here.

Major Scientific Document Shows Why New York Fracking Moratorium Is Imperative | EcoWatch

Many New Yorkers continue to rally and push for a statewide fracking moratorium. In this vein, Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) released a major resource to the public, including public officials, researchers and journalists—the Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.

“This compilation of findings brings together data from many fields of study and reveals the diversity of the problems with fracking—from increased flood risks to increased crime risks, from earthquakes to methane leaks,” said Sandra Steingraber, PhD. “What this multitude of threats all has in common is the ability to harm public health. That’s our message to Governor Cuomo and Acting Health Commissioner Zucker.”

As mounting evidence continues to find more costs than benefits to fracking, the compendium explains the motivation for compiling and making public the scientific, medical and media findings:
Despite this emerging body of knowledge, industry secrecy and government inaction continue to thwart scientific inquiry, leaving many potential problems—especially cumulative, long-term risks—unidentified, unmonitored and largely unexplored.

This problem is compounded by non-disclosure agreements, sealed court records and legal settlements that prevent families (and their doctors) from discussing injuries. As a result, no comprehensive inventory of human hazards yet exists.

The compendium covers in detail 15 dangers, risks and associated trends created by the fracking process.

In light of these findings, referenced with more than 300 citations, and remaining fundamental data gaps, CHPNY considers a fracking moratorium “the only appropriate and ethical course of action while scientific and medical knowledge on the impacts of fracking continues to emerge.”

The full report is here.

The compendium of dangers is current through June 30, 2014  and is available to download here.

EPA Draft Fracking Wastewater Guidance Suggests Closer Scrutiny for Treatment Plants | DeSmog

One of the most intractable problems related to fracking is that each well drilled creates millions of gallons of radioactive and toxic wastewater.

For the past several years, the Environmental Protection Agency has faced enormous public pressure to ensure this dangerous waste stops ending up dumped in rivers or causing contamination in other ways.

But the drilling boom has proceeded at such an accelerated pace in the United States that regulators have struggled to keep up, to control or even track where the oil and gas industry is disposing of this radioactive waste. As a consequence, hundreds of millions of gallons of partially treated waste have ended up in the rivers from which millions of Americans get their drinking water.

An internal draft EPA document leaked to DeSmog gives a small window into how, after a full decade since the start of the drilling boom, the agency is responding.

The document, dated March 7, 2014, is titled “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting and Pretreatment for Shale Gas Extraction Wastewaters: Frequently Asked Questions.”
It's revealing for what it shows about how EPA staff are taking the hazards of fracking wastewater more seriously — and also how little things have changed.

The document, intended as a guide for local regulators on how the Clean Water Act should be interpreted and applied, is impressive in many ways.

The EPA's new draft document now lists almost two dozen individual substances — like benzene, radium, and arsenic — that it says have been found at high enough levels in shale wastewater to cause concern. By contrast, the 2011 version focused mostly on the high levels of salts found in the waste.

The new document also explains that the substances it lists are not the only potential pollutants that must be removed before water can be considered fully treated and ready to enter rivers and streams. It explains that each treatment plant can only take wastewater once regulators are satisfied that they know what is actually in it.

Read the full report here.

Download the draft EPA document here.

GAO Report: Drinking Water at Risk from Underground Fracking Waste Injection | EcoWatch 

According to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), this study was conducted because:

Every day in the U.S. at least 2 billion gallons of fluids are injected into more than 172,000 wells to enhance oil and gas production, or to dispose of fluids brought to the surface during the extraction of oil and gas resources. These wells are subject to regulation to protect drinking water sources under EPA’s UIC class II program and approved state class II programs. Because much of the population relies on underground sources for drinking water, these wells have raised concerns about the safety of the nation’s drinking water.

“The federal government’s watchdog (GAO) is saying what communities across the country have known for years: fracking is putting Americans at risk,” said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. ”From drinking water contamination to man-made earthquakes, the reckless way oil and gas companies deal with their waste is a big problem. Outdated rules and insufficient enforcement are largely to blame. EPA needs to rein in this industry run amok.”

Read the full report here.

Fracking’s methane problem: Study finds new, unconventional wells leak more than old ones | Salon

Controversial new research identifies defects in Pennsylvania's gas wells

Fracking in Pennsylvania’s natural gas-rich Marcellus shale has a major methane problem, a new study finds. Analyzing the data from more than 75,000 state inspections going back to 2000, a team of four researchers concluded that gas wells are leaking the chemical, a potent greenhouse gas with a long-term effect on global warming greater even than CO2′s, at an alarming rate.

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Cornell University’s Anthony Ingraffea, a vocal opponent of fracking. The leaks, according to the study, might be due to problems in the wells’ cement casings. Basically, explained Ingraffea, “Something is coming out of it that shouldn’t, in a place that it shouldn’t.”

The crux of his findings, via the Associated Press:

• Overall, older wells — those drilled before 2009 — had a leak rate of about 1 percent. Most were traditional wells, drilling straight down. Unconventional wells — those drilled horizontally and commonly referred to as fracking — didn’t come on the scene until 2006 and quickly took over.

• Newer traditional wells drilled after 2009 had a leak rate of about 2 percent; the rate for unconventional wells was about 6 percent, the study found.

• The leak rate reached as high as nearly 10 percent horizontally drilled wells for before and after 2009 in the northeastern part of the state, where drilling is hot and heavy.

The full report is here.

The significance, abstract and link to the paper by Ingraffea et al. published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is here.

FRACKING NEWS

REPORT - Disclosing the Facts: Transparency and Risk in Hydraulic Fracturing Operations
Companies across the board are failing to report reductions of their impacts on communities and the environment from hydraulic fracturing.

The oil & gas production industry is consistently failing to report measurable reductions of its impacts on communities and the environment from hydraulic fracturing operations, according to a scorecard report released by As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management, Green Century Capital Management, and the Investor Environmental Health Network.

The report, Disclosing the Facts: Transparency and Risk in Hydraulic Fracturing Operations, benchmarks 24 companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing against investor needs for disclosure of operational impacts and mitigation efforts.

While scores varied, no firm succeeded in disclosing information on even half of the selected 32 indicators related to management of toxic chemicals, water and waste, air emissions, community impacts, and governance. Even the highest scoring company, Encana Corporation (ECA) provided sufficient disclosure on just 14 of the 32 indicators. The lowest scoring companies were: BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) (2 of out 32 indicators); BP plc (BP) (2 out of 32 indicators); Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) (2 out of 32 indicators); Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) (2 out of 32 indicators); Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) (2 out of 32 indicators); and, in last place, QEP Resources, Inc. (QEP) (1 out of 32 indicators).

The report notes that measurement and disclosure of best management practices and impacts is the primary means by which investors can assess how companies are managing the impacts of their hydraulic fracturing operations on communities and the environment.

Institutional investors have been pressing oil and gas companies since 2009 for greater disclosure of their risk management practices. Investors have engaged over two dozen companies, filing nearly 40 shareholder proposals on these issues to date. The shareholder proposals have led to improved disclosures at many of the companies, but the scorecard report notes that much of this disclosure is narrative and qualitative in form, while quantifiable data are lacking. 

Read the full report here.


In Fracking Fight, a Worry About How Best to Measure Health Threats
In Pennsylvania, opponents of gas drilling say regulators are slow and unprepared in responding to air quality complaints.

There are more than 6,000 active gas wells in Pennsylvania. And every week, those drilling sites generate scores of complaints from the state’s residents, including many about terrible odors and contaminated water.

How the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection handles those complaints has worsened the already raw and angry divide between fearful residents and the state regulators charged with overseeing the burgeoning gas drilling industry.

 For instance, the agency’s own manual for dealing with complaints is explicit about what to do if someone reports concerns about a noxious odor, but is not at that very moment experiencing the smell: “DO NOT REGISTER THE COMPLAINT.”

When a resident does report a real-time alarm about the air quality in or around their home, the agency typically has two weeks to conduct an investigation. If no odor is detected when investigators arrive on the scene, the case is closed.

Read the full report here.

Finger Lakes Winemakers to Cuomo: Ban Fracking in New York
The dangers of fracking are becoming increasingly well-known as study after study shows how it contaminates water -- a critical resource for our industries.

Fracking would jeopardize the safety of the water we rely on for producing our wine -- the same water relied upon by the beer industry and other farm-based beverage industries.

States have confirmed water contamination resulting from fracking, and recent scientific studies by three major American universities -- from three different states that permit fracking -- substantiate those dangers to water supplies.

That simply doesn't mix with brewing beer, producing wine or other beverages.

Read the full article here.


Fracking Exports Will Leave U.S. Communities in the Dark

Last month, thirty Senate Democrats -- members of the "climate caucus" -- stayed Up All Night on the Senate floor to speak out about climate change. This was an important moment to highlight the most critical environmental issue of our time.

What was not mentioned however, was the massive threat to our planet posed by exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) extracted through the increasingly controversial process known as "fracking." Yet legislation authored by one of their own -- Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) and a House bill by Congressman Cory Gardner (R-CO), would tear down barriers to the export of LNG, potentially spurring a massive increase in fracking, exacerbating the problems the senators spoke out against.

Read more here.


Toward a better understanding and quantification of methane emissions from shale gas development

Significance: We identified a significant regional flux of methane over a large area of shale gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania in the Marcellus formation and further identified several pads with high methane emissions. These shale gas pads were identified as in the drilling process, a preproduction stage not previously associated with high methane emissions. This work emphasizes the need for top-down identification and component level and event driven measurements of methane leaks to properly inventory the combined methane emissions of natural gas extraction and combustion to better define the impacts of our nation’s increasing reliance on natural gas to meet our energy needs.

Read the publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Public Meeting: Amherst Town Board Proposes Fracking Ban

WHEN: Monday, April 28, 2014 at 7:00 pm
WHERE: Town of Amherst Municipal Bldg., 5583 Main St., Williamsville
MAP: Click Here

The Town Board of Amherst will propose a resolution that could lead to a local ban on fracking, disposal of fracking waste, and road spreading of brine in the town at their next meeting. We need you there to make sure that it passes! 

Amherst and area residents are encouraged to attend to show your support for an Amherst-wide ban on dangerous fracking and the toxic waste it creates. We need to PACK THE ROOM because your presence encourages the board to vote the right way on the resolution.

You may also prepare 3-minutes of testimony to read in favor of a ban on fracking/fracking waste in Amherst. Be sure to emphasize how these things could impact Amherst residents. Non-Amherst residents are also allowed to testify. Speaking is optional and those wishing to speak should arrive 15 minutes early to sign up.

The town board of Amherst, NY must pass a local ban to safeguard our natural resources and health from the contamination that fracking brings to communities. A ban on fracking & fracking waste disposal (including road spreading) in Amherst would protect residents from exposure to harmful chemicals, airborne carcinogens, and contaminated water. 

For more information or to get involved, contact Rita at ryelda@fwwatch.org
Join the Facebook event & invite friends: http://bit.ly/amherst01

Amherst Fracking Ban Coordinating Meeting

WHEN: March 25, 2014 at 6:00 PM

WHERE: Williamsville Public Library, 5571 Main St. Williamsville

The town board of Amherst, NY must pass a local ban to safeguard our natural resources and health from the contamination that fracking brings to communities. A ban on fracking & fracking waste disposal (including road spreading) in Amherst would protect residents from exposure to harmful chemicals, airborne carcinogens, and contaminated water.

But the only way to get the town board to pass a local ban is by making it happen ourselves -- which is possible and is something that over 150 municipalities across NY have done!

All Amherst and Amherst-area residents are encouraged to join this coordinating meeting so we can map out the campaign and brainstorm next steps.

For more information contact Rita at ryelda@fwwatch.org.
Join the Facebook event & invite friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/640467722685100/

VIDEO: Public Hearing on the NY State Draft Energy Plan

A NYSERDA public hearing on the NY State Draft Energy Plan was held at the University of Buffalo, Center for Tomorrow, on February 25, 2014. 

Below is a video SAMPLER of the proceedings (11 min.) from Martin Gugino: 

To view the Full Length videos of the opening remarks as well as a set of 5-minute public testimonies about the Draft Energy Plan recorded by Martin Gugino, Click Here.

Read a downloadable copy of the draft NYS Energy Plan here: 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan Release [PDF]

Submit Public Comments Online: Click Here

NY State Energy Plan: Public Hearing in Buffalo and Extended Comment Period

2014 Draft State Energy Plan Hearings 
Six public hearings will be held across New York State to receive public comment on 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan.

Each participant from the public will be given five minutes to address the New York State Energy Planning Board.  No formal presentations will be allowed, but participants may leave written supporting documents. There is also no formal Question-and-Answer format although Board Members may ask informal questions based on the provided testimony.  The hearings will be professionally recorded and transcribed, and the proceedings will be incorporated in the official record of the Plan and posted on the State Energy Plan website.

Public hearings are scheduled in Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Manhattan, Long Island and Syracuse as listed here.

Public Hearing in Buffalo

A public hearing will be held on February 25, 2014 at 10:00 am at SUNY Buffalo Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus, Flint & Service Center Roads, Buffalo, NY   [MAP]

Advocates want more hearings, longer comment period on NY energy plan

By Jon Campbell • February 14, 2014 • 12:51 pm

A collection of environmental, anti-fracking and good-government groups are asking the state’s energy research authority for more time to respond to the state’s draft energy plan.

In January, the New York State Energy Research Development Authority released a draft of its 2014 energy plan, which calls for a boost in natural gas consumption and renewable energy, but noticeably skipped any mention of hydraulic fracturing.

NYSERDA is accepting public comments on the plan through March 31, and has six public hearings on the plan scheduled across the state. But in a letter sent Thursday to the head of the authority, the advocacy groups are looking for a number of changes — including a lengthier comment session and the scheduling of hearings in the evening, not just during the daytime.

“A process that facilitates public understanding of the draft plan and provides the public meaningful influence over the final plan is paramount to achieving climate, efficiency and renewable energy goals,” the groups wrote.

 The full letter is posted here.

The original article is posted here.

Comment period on NY energy plan extended to April 30

By Jon Campbell • February 14, 2014 • 4:38 pm

A comment period on the state’s draft energy plan has been extended by a month after a series of advocates raised concerns Friday.

The New York Energy Research Development Authority updated its website Friday [see below] after the letter was made public, revealing the deadline for submitting comments has been pushed back to April 30.

The comment period had been set to close March 31.

In a letter to NYSERDA’s president and CEO earlier Friday, a coalition of environmental, anti-fracking and good-government groups called on the authority to extend the deadline. The letter also called for number of other changes to the public response period, including the scheduling of hearings in the evening. (The six scheduled public hearings are all planned for the daytime hours.)

“A process that facilitates public understanding of the draft plan and provides the public meaningful influence over the final plan is paramount to achieving climate, efficiency and renewable energy goals,” the groups wrote earlier Friday.

 The original article is posted here.

Updates at the NYSERDA website (Friday, February 14, 2014):

• 2014-02-14: Comment period extended through April 30, 2014

•  2014-01-07: 2014 Draft New York State Energy Plan Release [PDF]

Link to the NYSERDA website

Submit Public Comments Online: Click Here

Ban Fracking and Its Toxic Waste in Amherst

AMHERST FRACKING BAN COORDINATING MEETING
Tuesday, February 18, at 7:00pm
Spot Coffee, 5330 Main St., Williamsville [Map] 

We plan to urge the town board of Amherst, NY to pass a local fracking ban to safeguard our natural resources and health from the contamination that fracking brings to communities. A ban on fracking as well as on fracking waste disposal and road spreading would protect Amherst residents from exposure to harmful chemicals, airborne carcinogens, and contaminated water.

But the only way to get the town board to pass a local ban is by making it happen ourselves -- which is possible and is something that over 150 municipalities across NY have done! All Amherst and Amherst-area residents are encouraged to join this coordinating meeting so we can map out the campaign and brainstorm next steps. 

For more information contact Rita at ryelda@fwwatch.org.

Invite friends on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/564065520356825

Poloncarz Approves Fracking Ban in Erie County

The law bans fracking on all land owned by Erie County

Report from WGRZ.com 

BUFFALO, N.Y.- Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz approved legislation Friday to ban hydraulic fracturing on all lands owned by Erie County. 

"Protecting our land and water resources is important to preserving our heritage," said Poloncarz in a statement on his decision to approve the local law. 

The Erie County Legislature passed the fracking ban in December by a 9-2 vote. The ban also received overwhelming support in public hearings leading up to the vote. 

A moratorium on fracking has been in effect throughout New York State since 2008 but Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet announced if he will ban the practice altogether. 

If Cuomo decides to lift the moratorium, fracking would only be allowed on all privately owned land and non-county owned sewage treatment facilities in Erie County.

Poloncarz approves fracking ban on county-owned land

Report from WBFO:

One local anti-fracking group says it is pleased with the county executive's approval.

“We’re relieved that County Executive Poloncarz paid attention to the thousands of Erie County residents who spoke up in favor of a ban and the bipartisan group of Erie County legislators who voted in favor of it. The evidence is clear – fracking and its waste brings unacceptable risks of water contamination and health impacts. Erie County and the other counties statewide that have voted for a ban are sending a clear message to Governor Cuomo – that all parts of New York want him to ban fracking," said Rita Yelda of Food & Water Watch and Western NY Drilling Defense.


See also: Poloncarz Approves Fracking Law

Poloncarz stated “I am approving Local Law Intro. No. 4-2013 based on the demonstrated support of the public, as well as the support shown by a majority of Erie County legislators who expressed their concern about hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and disposal of fracking waste in Erie County. 

He added that the law "bans it on County-owned lands such as Parks, in addition to prohibiting the acceptance of fracking waste at Erie County-owned sewage treatment facilities."

He concluded that "...the overwhelming and vocal public support for such a ban cannot be ignored."

Link to the full statement at the Erie County website.

Fracking Waste: Dangerous Spills and Road Spreading

Exxon to Face Criminal Charges for 50,000+ Gallon Fracking Wastewater Spill

Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy will have to face criminal charges for allegedly dumping tens of thousands of gallons of fracking waste at a Marcellus Shale drilling site in 2010, according to a Pennsylvania judge’s ruling on Thursday.

Following a preliminary hearing, Magisterial District Judge James G. Carn decided that all eight charges against Exxon — including violations of both the state Clean Streams Law and the Solid Waste Management Act — will be “held for court,” meaning there is enough evidence to take the fossil fuel giant to trial over felony offenses.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General filed criminal charges back in September, claiming Exxon had removed a plug from a wastewater tank, leading to 57,000 gallons of contaminated water spilling into the soil. 

Thanks to laws pushed by corporate front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), sponsored by ExxonMobil, states have allowed minimum disclosure of the chemicals used in the fluid. Though Pennsylvania does now require disclosure to regulators, it has a “gag rule” banning doctors from talking about the health risks.

The most recent study of health risks related to fracking was released in mid-December by the journal Endocrinology, which found the presence of hormone-disrupting chemicals in surface water and groundwater samples in Garfield County, Colorado — one county at the center of the U.S. fracking boom. The chemicals have been linked to infertility, birth defects, and cancer.
Read more at ThinkProgress.

New York’s Fracking Waste Problem | UPDATE

Even though the de facto moratorium on high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New York State continues, the disposal of waste from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations is occurring in New York now and deserves our attention. The extraction of natural gas using fracking produces large amounts of liquid and solid waste that can contain a number of harmful pollutants, including salts (sometimes expressed as total dissolved solids or TDS); chemical additives, which may include ethylene glycol, naphthalene, and sulfuric acid; metals; organic compounds; and other contaminants. Fracking waste from extraction activities in the Marcellus Shale can also contain naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) such as radium-226 and radium-228.

In July 2013, [Hudson] Riverkeeper wrote to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and requested information about one method of handling fracking waste that New York is currently allowing: the use of production brine from conventional, low-volume fracking on New York roads for de-icing, dust control, and road stabilization. Specifically, we asked the agency to provide information regarding its approvals – known as Beneficial Use Determinations or BUDs – of the use of natural gas production brine for road spreading from June 2011 to July 2013.

UPDATE: Further review shows that road spreading of natural gas production brine has been approved for use in portions of at least 23 municipalities in 7 western New York counties: Wyoming, Erie, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genessee, Niagara, and Seneca. Road spreading of natural gas brine from natural gas storage has been approved in at least 10 municipalities in 2 western New York Counties: Allegany and Steuben. In addition, the New York State Department of Transportation Region 6 received approval to spread what appears to be brine from natural gas storage on state roads in portions of Steuben, Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, and Yates Counties.

Read more at Hudson Riverkeeper.

For additional details, see The Facts about New York and Fracking Waste at Hudson Riverkeeper.

Public Statement on Fracking Waste -- By Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper

High standards of excellence are needed to protect Buffalo Niagara's local waterways. Careful consideration must be employed in how we use and apply various chemicals in our community.

In January 2012, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper prepared a 9 page technical document regarding High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF), which concluded that "HVHF activities cannot be conducted in a manner that is protective of both human health and the environment until issues related to water quality and water quantity impacts are resolved."

In response to our recent technical review of the Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) by NYSDEC, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper supports a ban on the road application of shallow well or storage brine as a de-icing agent.  (The permit does not allow application in wet weather, or when rain is imminent, or within 50 feet of any stream, creek, lake or other body of water. The BUD permit as written does not allow use of "flow back" brine, nor the use of byproduct from Marcellus Shale HVHF.)

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper has additional concern about lack of control and monitoring associated with current use of shallow-well brine for road application as dust suppression. The testing conducted to submit a BUD application is a snapshot in time that does not adequately monitor the inherent fluctuation of levels of chemical constituents that vary over the production life of each well or brine source.  More robust testing, monitoring and regulation is needed.

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper supports a ban on any WNY wastewater facility to accept HVHF wastewater.  Riverkeeper's technical comments in 2012 stated, "In New York State, there are no municipal or industrial wastewater facilities in existence that currently have the ability to accept, adequately process or treat high volume hydrofracking wastewater."

To view Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's technical documents regarding high volume hydrofracking, Click Here.

~ Fracking Wastewater Pit ~

Erie County Bans Fracking and Its Waste

The Buffalo News - 12.14.2013 -

We did it! After a year of tireless organizing, we've passed a fracking ban on Erie County-owned lands — and we've banned toxic fracking wastewater from entering our county.  

This was a landslide victory, with 9 out of the 11 legislators voting in support of the ban.

Without all of your hard work, this never could have happened. Here's what you and other Erie County residents have done in the past year to protect your water:

• Collected 3,845 petition signatures
• Spoke at a County Energy & Environment Committee meeting
• Visited with several of our elected officials
• Educated your friends and neighbors about fracking
• Flooded the legislature with phone calls for an entire week this summer
• Testified for a ban on fracking at last week's public hearing
• Packed the room with anti-fracking signs at Thursday's vote

I'd also like to thank our bill sponsor, County Legislature Chair Betty Jean Grant, who stood on the side of the people and protected our air, land and water by introducing this bill. Will you join us in sending a thank you card to Legislator Grant and the other eight legislators who voted to pass this historic bill?


Our fight to protect New Yorkers from fracking is not yet over, but our victory in Erie County moves us one step closer.

Thank you for making this happen!   


Rita Yelda
Western NY Organizer,
Food & Water Watch,
ryelda(at)fwwatch(dot)org

Hydrofracking News Briefs

Rejected drilling waste taken to Idaho

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed that containers holding radioactive drill cuttings that were rejected in April by the Max Environmental Technologies disposal site in South Huntingdon Township have been transported to Idaho for disposal.

“Rice Energy has informed us that they have removed the roll-off boxes containing the TENORM material,” said John Poister, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “They have provided us documentation that the material was sent to a U.S. Ecology site in Idaho for proper disposal.” TENORM is an acronym for technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material. It occurs when the levels of radioactivity that are present naturally are increased by human activities.

The Rice Energy truck carrying the drill cuttings from a Center Township well site set off the radiation warning system on April 19 while entering Max Environmental. The truck was immediately quarantined and tested to determine what type of radiation it contained, according to Poister. It was determined that the drill cuttings contained Radium 226 at a level of 96 microrem (mrem). Microrem is the measure of the biological effect of absorbed radiation.

Read more at SW Pennsylvania Observer-Reporter

 
Environmental group warns of fracking waste on NY roads

ALBANY—Despite a moratorium on fracking in New York State, more than a dozen municipalities have received state approval to spread a fracking byproduct on their roads.

The fluid, called production brine, can now be spread on roads in Wyoming, Erie, Cattaraugus, and Seneca counties, according to state documents obtained by Riverkeeper, a group that advocates for cleanup of the Hudson River.

An additional ten municipalities in Allegany and Steuben counties have received state permission to spread waste brine from natural gas storage.

Nine counties have banned the use of fracking brine on their roads because it contains pollutants, according to Riverkeeper scientist Bill Wegner. They include five along the Hudson River in the last year: Albany, Orange, Putnam, Westchester and Rockland.

Article and photo from Capital NY.

 
Texas drinking water makes pipes and plumbing radioactive

HOUSTON—Radiation has contaminated the underground pipes, water tanks, and plumbing that provide drinking water for much of Central Texas and the famed Texas Hill Country, according to concerned city officials in the region who have tested the pipes with Geiger counters. 

According to local officials, the contamination comes from years of exposure to drinking water that already tests over federal legal limits for radioactive radium. Of even more concern, they say, is that any water quality testing is done before the water runs through the contaminated pipes that could be adding even more radiation.

“It’s a serious concern,” City of Brady Manager James Minor said. “These pipes have so much radioactivity in them, metal recycling places refer to them as they’re ‘hot.’”

Read more at  KHOU TV