Panelists: Local action needed to rein in fracking

An attorney from an Ohio environmental group and a community activist from Athens County gave a tutorial Tuesday to a Licking County audience on how to gain control of fracking when it arrives.

Nathan Johnson, a lawyer for the Buckeye Forest Council, talked about Ohio laws affecting oil and gas drilling. Al Blazevicius spoke about his efforts to enact regulations on fracking in Athens County, where a good deal of land has been leased for drilling.

There are significant deposits of oil and gas in deep-lying shale in eastern Ohio. The minerals are extracted by forcing a large volume of water, sand and chemicals into cracks in the shale.

Licking County has deposits of oil in the shale layer, said Gary Sitler, a local driller and Granville resident. Industry experts said the area is on the verge of an oil and gas boom and many local property owners have signed leases agreeing to testing and/or drilling on their property.

Tuesday's forum, the second in a series of three sponsored by the Denison University's Office of Sustainabilty, focused on the effect of fracking on the community. About 75 people attended.

Before the panelists spoke, two video clips were shown documenting pollution from shale fracking in Pennsylvania. In one instance, a water well was contaminated; in the other, a pond was polluted by runoff from the pad of a drilling site.

Blazevicius said after persistent efforts, he and other residents were able to convince the Athens County commissioners to work with them to develop stronger state and local regulations on fracking.

Click to read more ...

Patriot slams limits in new EPA permit

The new permit signed by OEPA Director Scott Nally takes effect April 1 and will halt Warren’s ability to accept treated fracking wastewater from Patriot or any other entity.

Patriot can still accept fracking wastewater from Utica and Marcellus shale exploration but has to find a different method of disposal or reuse, such as recycling or injection-well disposal, said Mike Settles, OEPA spokesman.

Separately, OEPA granted Patriot a permit to accept and treat new wastewater sources from other industries, but Blocksom considered it “a smokescreen” because 98 percent of Patriot’s business is treating fracking wastewater.

Patriot can treat up to 100,000 gallons of fluid per day.

Warren’s new permit, which will replace one that expired at the end of January, comes in the middle of a legal battle involving OEPA, Patriot, Warren and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The state has said it unlawfully issued permits regarding Patriot’s operations, but the Environmental Review Appeals Commission recently confirmed the legality of the permits.

Legal proceedings, including a hearing in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, scheduled for Wednesday, are still pending.

But Settles said the entity felt it was time to issue a new permit.

“The appeals of [Patriot’s] original permit are still pending,” he told The Vindicator on Monday. “That could take some time

http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/mar/20/patriot-slams-limits-in-new-epa-permit/

Navarre officials say no to 'fracking' in village

For Village Council, the best course of action involves taking no action at all.

Monday, council agreed to take no action regarding permission to allow hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” within village limits.

A few months ago, council was approached by companies seeking permission to drill in the village. Since that time, Mayor Bob Benson said he continues to receive phone calls from companies seeking permission to drill. During a regular meeting Monday, he confirmed that council wanted to stick with its original plan.

“We did not want to take action, because we had some concerns,” Benson said after the meeting. “We felt it was safer to stay out of it all together.”

Benson said that the village has been assured the process is environmentally safe, but many concerns involve what could happen down the road.

“What about 50 years from now?” Benson said. “What if something breaks down the line and it messes up our aquifers?”

Click to read more ...

South Africa debates whether to allow fracking

South Africa's Karoo region is a pristine wilderness of red hills and wildflowers. It is beautiful, desperately poor and is now the new frontline in the global battle over a hugely controversial drilling practice called "fracking".

The semi-desert area of about 400,000 sq km in the west of the country is home to what could be one of the largest deposits of shale gas in the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) - possibly enough to supply the country with gas for the next 400 years.

But the country is not sure whether to allow the gas to be extracted by fracking.

Fracking supporters say it is the future of energy; detractors that it is an environmental disaster - and the resource-rich country does not have laws in place to properly regulate what is literally an "earth-shattering" type of exploration, which can pollute water sources.

Both sides are furiously lobbying the government - and two major reports have just been published to back up their arguments.

Click to read more ...

Oil, gas taxes vary widely by state

As the debate unfolds, both sides will use examples from other states. Researchers warn that there are big challenges to comparing the vastly different approaches, and many reasons to proceed with caution in deciding how to structure a tax.

“It’s a bag of snakes more than a can of worms,” said David Passmore, director of the Institute for Research in Training & Development at Penn State University.

Most of the debate is about “severance” taxes, a tax on natural resources that are being “severed” from the earth. Nearly all the money collected comes from oil and natural-gas production.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/03/19/oil-gas-taxes-vary-widely-by-state.html

Fracking debate gets federal attention in Erie

ERIE, Colo. — The controversial natural gas drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing in Colorado is getting some attention at the federal level.

Congressman Jared Polis visited with some Erie residents about their concerns over the safety of fracking.

Last week, Erie enacted an immediate six-month moratorium on new gas drill permits.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study said the propane levels in the air in Erie are worse than in Los Angeles and Houston.

It’s the air and a host of other issues that brought out Congressman Jared Polis to talk to residents.

“This oil and gas has been under the ground for millions of years. They need to take a time out and show me scientific proof this is safe,” says Boulder County resident Rod Brueske.

He and his family moved to the country from Denver a year ago, for the fresh air, a slower pace and better quality of life for his kids.

It’s bad. You breathe like fumes and stuff,” says his 5-year-old son.

But Brueske fears fracking will ruin all of it.

Fracking pumps water and chemicals underground at high pressure to crack rock and release oil and natural gas.

“It’s a threat to my family’s dream. Ooh,” he says as he staves off tears. “It’s a threat to our health and safety. And you can’t put a price on somebody’s dream. You can’t put a price tag on health,” he says.

It’s those fracking fears bringing Polis to visit Brueske and others whose homes are about 100 feet from a completed mining site.

Thick, blackish smoke poured out of it last summer.

It’s clearer now. But some say it is still potentially dangerous.

“Those hydrocarbon vapors are poisonous fumes, that as you can tell, the wind is blowing toward us and blowing toward homes only 100 feet away,” says Shane Davis of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club.

Mothers are worried.

“So they breathe this here at home. Then they go to school. There’s no escape for these kids; there’s no escape,” says April Beach, a mother of three boys. She says one of them developed asthma after the well was finished.

Polis is sympathetic to families who say they didn’t move here for city-like problems.

“You shouldn’t have to have fracking in your backyard. Colorado is wide open. The country is wide open. There are huge tracks of land where it’s not 300 feet from a daycare center or backyard,” says Polis.

The Democratic Congressman from Boulder has introduced two fracking bills–both would require oil and gas companies to abide by the federal Clean Air and Safe Water Act.

And he’s still drafting another requiring fracking be a certain distance from daycares and schools.

The oil and gas industry insists fracking is safe. It claims it follows numerous state and federal regulations.

http://kdvr.com/2012/03/14/fracking-debate-gets-federal-attention-in-erie/

Gov. Hickenlooper's Fracking Ads For Colorado Oil And Gas Industry Draw Heat From Environmentalists

At first blush a fairly innocuous ad: everyone involved gets a pat on the back, especially the fiercely opposed conservation and gas industries.

But environmentalists have been quick to call shenanigans. Thirteen advocacy groups have sincesent Hickenlooper a letter highlighting the danger "accidental spills, corroded tanks and pipelines, and leaking containment pits" pose to Colorado's groundwater in addition to the dangers of fracking itself. Indeed, the Denver Post reports that since 2000 there have been more than 3,900 such spills.

An Executive Order signed in the midst of this has done little to quell the controversy. The order creates a commission to clarify the power local governments have in regulating oil and gas operations. "Once one county wants their own regulations, every county's going to want their own regulations, and that's going to force the oil and gas industry out of Colorado," Hickenlooper explained to Fox31.

Click to read more ...