OU must protect its most valuable resources from fracking effects

By Professor Jim Montgomery

I am a faculty member in the College of Health Sciences and Professions at Ohio University. I am compelled to write to remind the leadership of OU, including the Board of Trustees, of one of the primary missions of the university as it prepares its response to the state regarding fracking on lands owned by the university.

OU, along with the College of Health Sciences and Professions (CHSP) and the Heritage College of Medicine (HCOM), have the express obligation to serve the underrepresented and underserved not just in Athens County but all of southeast Ohio. While Athens County has the highest poverty rate in the state (32.8 percent) much of southeast Ohio is impoverished. And with poverty comes many problems, among them poor health and lack of access and opportunity to resources necessary to develop and sustain healthy living.

Long-term exposure to fracking pollutants has the potential of worsening these individuals’ health problems. Others are also very susceptible to environmental toxins, regardless of poverty status – pregnant women, young children and adolescents.

Ohio University has the responsibility to do all it can to protect the most vulnerable among us. First, to the extent possible, the university must oppose fracking until tighter federal regulations are put in place. To do so would be consistent with the university’s commitment to serve all southeast Ohioans. Second, it must demand that the oil industry implement all of the precautions recommended in the Resolution on Hydraulic Fracturing at Ohio University developed by the Environmental Studies Advisory Board and passed by the Faculty Senate (March 12, 2012). These recommendations would require the industry to implement various measures to minimize the negative effects of fracking on the environment and human health within the university community.

The overwhelming majority of the local opposition to fracking has centered on its potential ill effects on the environment (i.e. contamination of water, air, soil) and local economy. This is for good reason. The emerging science and experiences of numerous communities around the country attest to these negative effects.

By contrast, little has been detailed about the risks to human health. There is good reason for this, too. Few studies have been conducted on the short- and long-term effects of fracking on human health. Big oil has taken full advantage of this circumstance when they claim there are no established links between fracking and human health problems. However, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. There are emerging data showing that fracking is indeed associated with numerous human health problems, including dermatological, endocrine, respiratory, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal, vascular, and neurological (Bamberger & Oswald, 2012; Colburn et al., 2011).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will publish findings later this year and in 2014 detailing both the health and environmental effects of fracking.

Meantime, the epidemiological literature (i.e. the study of disease patterns and the conditions that give rise to disease) provides us ample evidence of the sorts of long-term ill effects on human health we might expect from fracking, especially in children and adolescents who are particularly susceptible to environmental toxins. The science is clear. Well-established links exist between low-level but chronic exposure to environmental toxins and a wide range of childhood physical, neurological, cognitive and behavioral problems.

The National Academy of Sciences (2002) estimated that one in every 200 children suffers from physical, neurological, developmental, learning and/or behavioral disorders caused by exposure to known environmental toxins. A recent study (Trasande & Liu, 2011) reported that environmental childhood diseases cost $76.6 billion or 3.5 percent of U.S. health-care costs in 2008. The authors stated that “the environment has become a major part of childhood disease.”

The developing science focusing on the effects of fracking on human health and the epidemiological literature must not be ignored by OU and the Board of Trustees as they prepare their position statement on fracking. These literatures tell us what to expect in the wake of chronic exposure to toxins from an unregulated hydraulic fracturing technology: an increase in childhood physical, neurological, developmental, learning and/or behavioral disorders.

Also expect staggering financial stress on the health care, social service and educational systems across southeast Ohio as more families seek resources and support systems that already are in short supply. OU, the CHSP and HCOM have an institutional and social responsibility to protect the health of southeast Ohioans, particularly the most vulnerable: those living in poverty, pregnant women, young children and adolescents.

Jim Montgomery is a professor in the College of Health Sciences and Professions at Ohio University

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-36470-ou-must-protect-its-most-valuable-resources-from-fracking-effects.html

From fracking-heavy region, women bring warnings

On Saturday, two dairy farmers from Pennsylvania shared some real-life horror stories from their experience with natural gas “fracking,” during a presentation in Athens.

Some of the roughly 50 people who came to hear Carol French and Carolyn Knapp, however, said they’re hopeful that a recent state geologist’s report, indicating that Athens County may lie outside the part of the Utica shale that’s expected to most oil and gas development, means this county won’t have to undergo a lot of fracking.

“It’s a tremendous relief; I think it’s a reprieve,” said Nancy Pierce of Guysville.

Natalie Kruse, an Ohio University environmental studies professor, said she was not surprised by the report’s findings.

“It’s nothing new,” Kruse suggested. “We’ve always known that we were less mature.” (The “maturity” of organic carbon intermixed with shale – basically its age, organic composition and how much pressure it’s undergone – largely determines its prospective value.)

Travis Milliken of Athens said he was “pleased” to read about the report, and added that he’s been leery from the beginning about the glowing claims of what a “fracking” boom will do for Athens County and the United States.

“I think this quest for ‘energy independence’ is driven by a lust for money, at the expense of many, many things,” he said. “

Knapp and French, who spoke at OU’s Morton Hall, both signed leases with energy companies to have their land in Bradford County, Pa., drilled for gas using the horizontal hydraulic fracturing method to extract the resource from underground shale beds. Both suggested that signing was a bad decision for them, and warned locals of things they need to think about before leasing.

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Fracking Wells’ Air Emissions Pose Health Risks, Study Finds

Chemicals released into the air when natural gas is produced by hydraulic fracturing may pose a health risk to those living nearby, the Colorado School of Public Health said.

Researchers found potentially toxic airborne chemicals near wells in Garfield County, Colorado, during three years of monitoring, the school said today in a statement. Drilling has expanded in the county, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Denver.

Emissions from the wells include methane and volatile organic compounds that react with heat and sunlight to form ozone, according to Elena Craft, a health scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund who is studying air quality near gas wells in Texas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules that would reduce oil and gas well emissions.

“If you’re leaking natural gas, then you’re leaking a number of pollutants including methane and volatile organic chemicals,” Craft said in an interview. “Health implications? That’s the million dollar question.”

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Shale gas lawyers in big demand in Ohio

Firms that already had oil and gas practices are now expanding them. Industry veterans from Texas and Oklahoma are partnering with Ohio lawyers to grab business. Small firms and solo practitioners like Piergallini are representing landowners, while big firms are courting the gas companies. And in Cleveland, law schools are scheduling courses that deal with shale exploration.

Leasing and title quandaries are just the opening volley in what will be years of legal work -- and probably thousands of lawsuits -- tied to exploration, drilling, production and pipeline construction.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't tens of thousands of disputes already," said Roger Proper Jr. at Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston in Wooster, adding that many may not have reached the courtroom.

For Piergallini, shale work now consumes 100 percent of his law practice in Tiltonsville, a short drive south of Steubenville along the Ohio River.

In two 12-hour shifts last August, Piergallini, 56, helped 550 families in Harrison and Jefferson counties execute leases with oil and gas companies covering 32,000 acres.

"My practice was real estate and probate, and coal was a big part of that," said the grandson of Italian immigrants who moved to southeast Ohio in the 1920s to work in bituminous coal mining. "It only made sense that it would transition into oil and gas."

The rush by energy companies to get at eastern Ohio's resources has Lee Plakas working long weeks, too.

The managing partner of Tzangas, Plakas, Mannos & Raies in Canton helps property owners form associations that combine their land into bigger chunks that are more attractive to developers.

"In numbers there is strength, and because of the dramatically different technology of the horizontal drilling, all of the procedures and customs have been thrown out the window," Plakas said.

Harvesting oil and gas from shale uses techniques for drilling horizontal wells and then fracturing, or "fracking," the rock. Wells go down about 8,000 feet before they branch into horizontal sections that can extend a mile or more from the vertical shaft. A mixture of water, sand and chemicals is pumped under pressure into the horizontal borings.

Plakas said it's a world different from the time when farmers would lease land for $10 or $15 an acre, with operators setting up see-saw natural gas "grasshoppers" that almost blended into the landscape like rusty farm equipment. Today's horizontal drilling rigs tower up to 90 feet, surrounded by rock and gravel well pads stretching 5 to 15 acres.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/shale_play_lawyers_in_big_dema.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/

Pittsburgh-Area Site Is Chosen for Major Refinery

Dan Carlson, Shell's General Manager of New Business Development, said Thursday that the company signed a land option agreement with Horsehead Corp. to evaluate a site near Monaca, about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The so-called ethane cracking, or cracker, plant would convert ethane from bountiful Marcellus Shale natural gas liquids into more profitable chemicals such as ethylene, which are then used to produce everything from plastics to tires to antifreeze.

The plants are called crackers because they use heat and other processes to break the ethane molecules into smaller chemical components. A cracker plant looks very similar to a gasoline refinery, with miles of pipes and large storage tanks. The final complex could cover several hundred acres.

Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania had all sought the plant and offered Shell major tax incentives. Monaca is about 15 miles from both the Ohio and West Virginia borders, so workers in all three states are likely to benefit.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-pa-site-chosen-major-refinery-15927939#.T2JYFxE7WAg

Ohio couples say fracking has polluted their water

Two Medina County couples say Landmark 4 LLC's drilling operation contaminated their private water wells, their houses and land with hazardous gases, chemicals and industrial wastes. The couples want the federal court to require periodic testing for them.

 The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:

The Mangans and Boggses said Landmark didn't have sufficient cement casing on its wells and was negligent in training staff. In separate lawsuits filed against the company this week, the couples said their homes have lost value, they "live in constant fear of future physical illness," and they pay for water samples and water from outside sources.

"These acts and omissions allowed Defendant (Landmark) to save millions of dollars in costs they should have expended to properly contain and control the substances emanating from their facility," the lawsuits said. Neither couple would comment for this story.

http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/news/archives/24386-ohio-couples-say-fracking-has-polluted-their-water