APNewsBreak: Ohio AG seeks tougher drilling laws

By JULIE CARR SMYTH 
Associated Press

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's top law enforcer is seeking tougher environmental sanctions on polluters in the oil and gas industry and full disclosure of the chemicals used in the drilling technique called fracking.

In an Associated Press interview Wednesday, Attorney General Mike DeWine further called for his office or another state agency to be empowered to help landowners with complaints about lease agreements for drilling.

He said a recent legal review by his staff revealed "Ohio's laws simply are not adequate" in the three areas.

DeWine said civil penalties in the state should be raised from a maximum of $20,000 for the duration of a violation to $10,000 a day. That would bring fines in line with states such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas.

He says other states also require chemicals be disclosed.

FRACKING, FAIRNESS AND THE FUTURE

Excerpts:

"In New York, a memo from the New York Department of Transportation revealed that “Pavement structural damage done by the passage of a single large truck is equivalent to that done by about 9,000 automobiles.”xi Areas with heavy drilling are expecting 1.5 million heavy truck trips annually and could see an increase in peak hour trips by 36,000 trips per hour. A similar impact can be expected in Ohio. This type of traffic—on rural roads that aren’t designed for such loads— will quickly result in expensive maintenance costs In New York, a memo from the New York Department of Transportation revealed that “Pavement structural damage done by the passage of a single large truck is equivalent to that done by about 9,000 automobiles.”xi Areas with heavy drilling are expecting 1.5 million heavy truck trips annually and could see an increase in peak hour trips by 36,000 trips per hour. A similar impact can be expected in Ohio. This type of traffic—on rural roads that aren’tdesigned for such loads— will quickly result in expensive maintenance costs."

"The increased demand for housing has driven up rent in rural areas, which, in turn, has displaced many long-time residents. Areas that saw few homeless people have experienced a sudden increase in family homelessness and in families doubling or tripling up in their living quartersThe increased demand for housing has driven up rent in rural areas, which, in turn, has displaced many long-time residents. Areas that saw few homeless people have experienced a sudden increase in family homelessness and in families doubling or tripling up in their living quarters."

"In addition to being associated with possible health consequences, hydraulic fracturing is connected to multiple environmental concerns, such as increased air pollution and a probable contamination of local water supplies."

Read more at: http://innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fracking-Fairness-and-the-Future-Full-Report.pdf

How Shale Fracking May Hurt Your Investment

Quick Look: Companies like Continental Resources and Chesapeake Energy are two oil companies largely engaged in shale fracking, with Chesapeake forecasting more than 50% of its revenues coming from shale. Integrated oil companies that aren't completely dependent on shale will be a safer bet for investors.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/26/investopedia70484.DTL

Fracking Experiences from “Victory Field”, Wetzel County, WV

On Jan. 9, 2012, a group of Athens residents travelled to Wetzel County, WV to have an eyewitness view of hydraulic fracturing sites run by Chesapeake Energy, a company planning extensive fracking in our county.  We were hosted by the Wetzel County Action Group.  Northern Wetzel County is home to 33 Marcellus Shale gas wells and 3 compressor stations installed by Chesapeake in a 6 square mile area of the county since 2007.  Chesapeake has a total of 140 wells permitted in Wetzel, and many additional wells and permits exist with other companies. What was once miles of bucolic forested and agricultural West Virginia countryside is now a rural industrial petrochemical complex.  We saw numerous ridgetop drill pads and compressor stations, and spoke to several farmers who experienced significant impacts on their water, air, land, livelihoods, property values, personal health and quality of life.

From a sheep farmer’s hilltop, we saw 6 well pads and a compressor station in the surrounding viewscape.  Numerous ridgetops had been cut down, leveled, and populated with drilling equipment and interconnecting pipelines.  We were told that most of the well pads in the county were situated on leveled ridgetops.  All of these facilities seemed surprisingly close to one another, unlike what we expected from horizontal drilling.  We estimated a distance of only 2000 feet between two of the drill pads.  From another landowner’s hilltop, the elevation had been reduced by 18 feet, and a 5 acre drill pad was placed 200 feet from his home, filled with storage tanks containing toxic frack water and volatile condensate, well heads, and various processing equipment.  That was his living environment, with views of more drill pads on the surrounding hillsides.   As we drove around the county, it was common to see ridgetops that had been lopped off by 18-55 feet that were now covered with gas wells, storage tanks, compressor stations, and huge storage ponds (many with slipping dams).  While Wetzel County is higher in elevation, the general topography seemed very similar to the rolling hills of Athens County.  It was disturbingly easy to imagine our area transformed in the same way.

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Fracking Companies Tap Military Psy Ops and Counterinsurgency Handbook to Make You Like Them

During a forum called “Designing a Media Relations Strategy To Overcome Concerns Surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing,” the communications director with Texas-based Range Resources, Matt Pitzarella, told the crowd his company had hired former military psy ops officers to further their cause in Pennsylvania, where the company has focused most of its fracking attention on the Marcellus shale deposits curving through the state's mid-section.

We have several former psy ops folks that work for us at Range because they’re very comfortable in dealing with localized issues and local governments. Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances and things like that. But very much having that understanding of psy ops in the Army and in the Middle East has applied very helpfully here for us in Pennsylvania.

If all Range is paying former psy ops folks for is working on local ordinances, they're not getting the right bang for their buck. Psy ops — shorthand for psychological operations — is a select section of the military specializing in mind games; one U.S. Army officer who led a team defined the practice toRolling Stone's Michael Hastings in a February 2011 article as follows: "My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave.”

Hastings' article goes on to state that it's actually illegal for active military personnel to practice the tactics on American citizens.

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Pennsylvania DEP fines Talisman for gas well-control incident

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined Talisman Energy USA Inc. $51,478 for a January 2011 gas well-control incident during hydraulic fracturing in Ward Township, Tioga County.

“Equipment failure during fracing on Jan. 17 caused about 21,000 gal of hydraulic fracturing fluid and sand to be released for about 3 hr,” DEP North-central Regional Director Nels Taber said.

Fluid discharged from the wellhead under high pressure. Vacuum trucks recovered the fluid on the well pad. No streams, wetlands, or private drinking water wells were touched by the spill.

Regulators said the incident was caused by a needle valve that had failed and could not be shut off. To regain control of the well, the hydraulic valve above the master valve was remotely closed. Fluid was allowed to flow back through the production test separator. A new pipe connector called a hammer union was also installed and closed.

New Study: Severe Health Impact of Fracking

By Bernhard Debatin

A new study on the Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health (*)shows that fracking fluids, methane gas exposure, and other gas-drilling related contamination can have a serious impact on the health of both humans and animals. The study, conducted by private practice veterinarian Michelle Bamberger and Robert E. Oswald of the Department of Molecular Medicine at Cornell University, investigated 24 different sites with gas wells, 18 of which were horizontal hydro-fractured wells. The researchers observed and documented severe changes in health of both humans and animals living close to these sites. The majority of the observed animals were cows; other animals included horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, and koi.

Bamberger and Oswald interviewed animal owners affected by gas drilling in six different states (Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas). In addition, they obtained lab test results and data from drilling companies and state regulatory agencies. The most striking finding of the study is the death of over 100 cows, caused by their exposure to fracking fluids or drinking of fracking wastewater that was dumped or leaked into freshwater sources. The researchers also frequently found reproductive problems, particularly lack of breeding and stillborn animals, often with congenital deformations. Other health effects on both animals and humans encompassed a wide range of symptoms, such as upper respiratory symptoms and burning of the eyes,  vomiting and diarrhea, rashes, nosebleeds, headaches, and neurological problems.

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