EPA's Fracking Rules Are Limited And Delayed, Critics Charge

The Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever national air pollution regulations for fracking on Wednesday. First proposed in July 2011, the final ruleshave been welcomed by environmental groups as a much-needed initial move in reducing pollution and protecting public health from the toxic chemicals involved in the oil and natural gas drilling process. But many cautioned it was just a first step.

"It sets a floor for what the industry needs to do," said attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center. "The reality is we can do far better."

Over the past few years, more information has come out about fracking's potential harms to the environment and human health, particularly relating to the risk ofgroundwater contamination. In addition to the many potentially toxic components of the highly pressurized fluid injected into the ground during the natural gas drilling process, fracking can also release cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and greenhouse gases like methane into the air. The federal government has made moves to tighten regulations, and we've chronicled the history of those regulations.

The EPA's new rules don't cover most of those issues. Instead, they address a single problem with natural gas: air pollution.

"These rules do not resolve chronic water, public health and other problems associated with fracking and natural gas," Schlenker-Goodrich said.

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Waterless Fracking Method Could Sidestep NY Gas Drilling Ban

A plan to extract shale gas and oil from 135,000 acres in Tioga County, N.Y., could break through the state's hydraulic fracturing moratorium, because the wells would be fracked not with water but with liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, a mixture of mostly propane.

A relatively new technology, LPG fracking doesn't fall under New York's current hydraulic fracturing moratorium. Instead it could be permitted under the New York Department of Environmental Conservation's 1992 Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, according to Emily DeSantis, the DEC's director of public information.

DeSantis said LPG fracking would also require an additional assessment under the state'sEnvironmental Quality Review Act, or even a separate environmental impact statement "if the proposed activity may result in significant adverse environmental impacts not previously or adequately addressed."

New York placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in 2010, after environmentalists and some residents began worrying that hydraulic fracturing might contaminate the watershed that supplies water to New York City and other parts of the East Coast.

The moratorium won't be lifted until a new Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement is complete. The DEC expects to finish the work on that document by the end of the year.

The Tioga County Landowners Association announced in March that the 2,000 families it represents will lease 135,000 acres to Houston-based eCorp International. The fracking will be done by Calgary-based GasFrac Energy Services, which pioneered the LPG process.

InsideClimate News and the Albany Times Union reported in November that while LPG fracking still faces skepticism and comes with its own risks, it has several environmental benefits. By forgoing the use of water, it eliminates an entire waste stream—the toxic "flowback" water. GasFrac also claims that LPG requires 75 percent fewer truck trips and a smaller well-pad than hydraulic fracturing.

Details of the Tioga County contract are still being worked out, but under the tentative plan the landowners will form a Limited Liability Company and will essentially be given stock in the venture, in addition to royalty payments of 12.5 percent of the value of the oil or gas that is retrieved. eCorp will provide financing and GasFrac will frack the wells, which could extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and also oil from the less-explored Utica Shale. eCorp estimates that each well will be about three to five acres large and will drill under roughly 3,200 acres of surrounding land.

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Grisanti proposes fracking safeguards

State Sen. Mark J. Grisanti on Friday announced legislation that would prohibit treatment of water from hydraulic fracturing at public facilities statewide, create a tracking program for the waste and enact other environmental safeguards.

But Grisanti, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environmental Conservation, said he would not support or oppose the controversial gas drilling process until the state completes its final environmental impact study.

“It’s preliminary,” he said. “It’s too early to tell.”

As Grisanti was confronted by environmental activists demanding a complete ban on fracking, his chief political opponent called for more education on the issue before any action is taken.

“We need to see the full scope of their final draft of regulations before we rush to start the drilling,” former Erie County Legislature Chairman Charles M. Swanick said as he urged consideration of alternative energy methods.

While four environmental groups lauded Grisanti for the environmental safeguards, a vocal cohort of anti-fracking activists and Occupy Buffalo protesters gathered Friday in the Mahoney State Office Building to pepper him with questions about the effects of fracking.

“I have encountered no single is-

sue as critical, controversial and important as high-volume hydraulic fracturing,” Grisanti said. “Should the DEC ultimately decide to allow for [fracking], I strongly believe environmental safeguards are needed.”

Green groups Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Earthworks, Environmental Advocates of New York and Natural Resources Defense Council applauded Grisanti for “recognizing the lack of oversight and real dangers associated with fracking wastes.”

But organizers from Food&Water Watch, who held large anti-fracking signs during Grisanti’s news conference, said it didn’t go far enough.

“There is more to fracking than the waste it creates, and these bills do not take that into consideration,” said Rita Yelda, the group’s organizer. “The legislation introduced by Senator Grisanti is full of loopholes and would fail to protect Western New Yorkers from fracking’s threats to our health, economy and environment.”

Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families party, said the bills “pave the way” for statewide fracking to begin.

If passed, the legislation would appear to put an end to efforts to treat the fracking fluid at wastewater treatment plants in Niagara Falls or North Tonawanda, which officials have said are capable of treating such water.

“In my opinion, they don’t have the capacity,” Grisanti said. “They can pretreat it, but you don’t want the end result to be dumped in the Niagara Gorge.”

He said a private treatment plant is being built in Pennsylvania to treat the fracking water from Pennsylvania, Ohio and other places where the Marcellus Shale makes gas drilling especially lucrative.

Grisanti’s legislation also aims to prohibit the use of wastewater for road-and land-spreading; create an oil and gas waste tracking program stronger than one proposed under the draft environmental impact statement; strengthen notification requirements for wastewater spills and create a geographic information system for the public on gas and oil production.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is expected to finalize its environmental impact statement and could make a decision on fracking as early as July.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article799997.ece

Fracking Companies Make Top Bids For Water Alongside Colorado Farmers

While there has always been competition for water in Colorado, today's contenders no longer just include farmers, but the oil and gas industry too.

The Denver Post reports that an auction hosted by the Northern Water Conservancy District for unallocated water diverted from the Colorado River Basin saw top bids from hydraulic fracturing companies.

Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" is a process of extracting gas from the earth's shale rock layers using first vertical and then horizontal drilling methods, so that the pipe makes a deep "L" shape underground. Through that pipe, a mixture of water, sand and chemicals (also known as fracking fluid) is pumped down into the shale to break up the rock and extract natural gas.

A concern raised by Gary Wockner, director of the Save the Poudre Coalition, is that water first used for agriculture can stay in the hydrological cycle longer, but water contaminated by fracking is generally removed completely.

"Any transfer of water from rivers and farms to drilling and fracking will negatively impact Colorado's environment and wildlife," Wockner said.

Last month Congresswoman Diana DeGette and Congressman Jared Polis asked President Obama to support stronger environmental and public health standards.

DeGette stated in a press release:

In Colorado, our public lands are central to our recreation economy, and I couldn’t be more supportive of President Obama and Secretary Salazar’s move to require drilling chemical disclosure on public lands. However, with drilling in Colorado increasingly happening next to suburban homes and schools, it’s essential to disclose fracking chemicals anywhere they’re used in order to protect the public’s health in populated areas where those chemicals are most likely to affect our air, water and health.

In 2010, Wyoming became the first state to require that energy companies disclose chemicals injected into the ground, though not chemicals identified as trade secret.Environmental groups are currently seeking to force a more full requirement of disclosure in state court.

(A website in support of the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC) features an interactive walk-through of the dangers and controversy surrounding fracking. The bill was introduced to Congress in 2009 but did not pass.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/fracking-bidders_n_1398786.html

To Protect Americans' Health, Oppose Expanded Fracking Until Stronger Safeguards Are in Place

The Department of the Interior issued more than 2,000 violations to oil and gas companies drilling on public lands between 1998 and 2011 -- some for extremely dangerous actions like failing to install blowout preventers or building unsafe wells. And yet only 6 percent of violators had to pay a fine, and all together, those fines totaled just $273,875.

NRDC opposes expanded fracking until more effective safeguards are put in place.

The American people want stronger protections. A recent survey conducted by a Bloomberg News National Poll found that 65 percent of people said we need more regulations for fracking, while only 18 percent said there should be less regulation.

The support cuts across region and political affiliation. Kelly Gant, a mother from Bartonville, Texas, put it this way: "I'm not an activist, an alarmist, a Democrat, environmentalist or anything like that. I'm just a person who isn't able to manage the health of my family because of all this drilling."

Families like Kelly Gant's shouldn't have to suffer because energy companies have not been held accountable. While no energy development can be completely safe, drilling and fracking can be made safer than current operations. But this is only possible if the state and federal governments adopt and enforce much stronger laws and standards.

NRDC supports establishing a fully effective system of safeguards for hydraulic fracturing to protect our health and environment and is committed to working with the federal government, states, communities and industry to put these safeguards into place right away.

These safeguards include:

1. Putting the most sensitive lands, including critical watersheds, completely off limits to fracking;

2. Not allowing leaky systems by setting clean air standards that ensure methane leaks are well under one percent of production to reduce global warming pollution, and requiring green completions and other techniques to reduce air pollution;

3. Mandating sound well drilling and construction standards by requiring the strongest well siting, casing and cementing and other drilling best practices;

4. Protecting the landscape, air, and water from pollution by closing Clean Air, Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water loopholes, reducing toxic waste, and holding toxic oil and gas waste to the same standards as other types of hazardous waste, funding robust inspection and enforcement programs, and disclosing fully all chemicals;

5. Using gas to replace dirtier fossil fuels like coal by prioritizing renewables and efficiency, implementing recently established mercury, sulfur and other clean air standards, and setting strong power plant carbon pollution standards; and

6. Allowing communities to protect themselves and their future by restricting fracking through comprehensive zoning and planning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/to-protect-americans-heal_b_1397555.html?ref=green

Fracking opponents push for protection

Auburn residents Linda Zmek and Traci Fee said it's time to institute protective measures against gas- and oil-well drilling in the township.

They said they are particularly concerned with drilling into deep shale deposits, where hydraulic fracturing, with water under pressure, is used to create fractures in the rock to release oil and gas deposits.

More companies are drilling down and then horizontally to reach shale deposits, they said, and there are concerns that ground water will be contaminated in the process.

Mrs. Zmek and Ms. Fee are members of the Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection.

Last week, they asked Auburn Trustees to consider a resolution not to allow hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in Auburn.

Mrs. Zmek said they hope Auburn will write a resolution opposing fracturing in drilling. "It would be on our books," she said.

Burton Village has written a moratorium on fracking, she said.

"When you inject in the ground, it has to come up," Mrs. Zmek said.

"The gas and oil companies are not keeping the gas locally," she added. They are shipping it overseas. So why should we allow it?

"Foreign-owned companies are taking our minerals and leaving the earth barren in Ohio with ugly wells, with the good possibility of destroying our aquifer," she said.

Livestock in the West has been damaged, and water coming from taps has caught fire, Mrs. Zmek said. "It's not something we're making up or over-reacting to."

Drillers are pumping millions of gallons of water and chemicals into the ground which is deadly to everyone's health, Mrs. Zmek said. "The water has to come up somewhere, and when it does, it runs into the streams and lakes and water reservoirs like La Due. And it goes into Lake Erie, which is a source of water for Cleveland," she said.

"They go through deep Marcellus and Utica shale and bore horizontally," Ms. Zmek said. "They could end up two miles away under someone else's property, and million of gallons of water are injected with chemicals. It's a danger to do that. It's not safe. I don't care what they say. They are endangering all of us by even wanting to drill."

The drilling companies force people into agreeing to mandatory pooling, when property owners join to provide the required acreage for a well, Mrs. Zmek said. "They promise you are going to get rich." Then they take whatever gas they can once the lease is signed, she said.

"What would it hurt to place a moratorium on drilling by the township?" Mrs. Zmek said. "If residents know of the pros and cons, no prudent person would want this. I want water to be drinkable for my great-grandchildren," she said.

"We're all doing this on our own money. We don't have money, but the oil and gas companies do," she said.

Mrs. Fee said, "This is horizontal, large-scale drilling, which is new to us. It's the large-scale fracking that we're concerned with. It's a mix of water and chemicals. There's a lot of concern for the air, water and property values."

Protective measures are needed, she said. "We're willing to work with Township Trustees to do something that protects our properties. We're offering to help on this," she said.

"Fracking is a threat to the water aquifer. We're on well water, and, if our water is affected, our homes are worthless," Ms. Fee said.

She also noted that property owners who sign leases for drilling could be in violation of their mortgage agreements.

The bigger concerns involve health, water, air and property values, Ms. Fee said.

"It is a complex issue," she said. "We want to continue to bring awareness to people," Ms. Fee said. "People should understand the magnitude of the risk. People really have to ask questions about the kind of wells being put in."

http://www.chagrinvalleytimes.com/NC/0/4099.html

Fracking Controversy Hits Medina County Homes

GRANGER TWP., Ohio — Mark Mangan held a metering device near his backyard well and listened to an alarm go off.

It registered one hundred percent “LEL,” or lower explosive level.

“That means, if we light a match right now,” Mangan said, “it’ll go boom.”

Mark and his wife, Sandy, have no idea how big or small such a possible explosion may be.

But they blame the drilling of two nearby oil and gas wells a few years ago.

“It’s a beautiful spot,” Mark said of his rural home, “but now, I just want to get the hell out of there.”

The two wells in question have since been “fracked” – that is, highly-pressurized chemicals have been injected into the ground to help with the recovery process.

But the Mangans blame the initial drilling for their problems, and say they quickly contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) about the issue.

“We thought they were going to be an advocate for the people,” Sandy Mangan said.

ODNR declined to do an on-camera interview, but said in a statement that it had conducted “extensive testing” and has “conclusively determined” that the Mangans’ water problems are “not related to those (oil and gas) wells.”

Sources tell the Fox 8 I-Team that the Ohio Inspector General is looking into the issue.

Officially, Deputy Inspector General Carl Enslen said the office will neither confirm nor deny the existence of any inquiry.

In a report, ODNR indicated that a “drought” may have been a factor.

But a Cleveland State University expert, Dr. Philip DeGroot, said a drought would not cause the sudden drop in water pressure that the Mangans reported that they experienced.

Dr. DeGroot, who was hired by the Mangans and one other family to do a preliminary analysis, said such a drop is normally caused by a more traumatic event such as an earthquake.

“You could cause fracturing where fractures didn’t exist, so something like (an earthquake), something that would be a high-pressure underground activity.”

The Mangans said it wasn’t an earthquake, but oil drilling that caused the problem.

But, in a report, ODNR said it found no evidence of the chemicals used in oil drilling in the drinking well at the Mangans’ home.

And the operator of the oil and gas wells said the Mangans were having water issues before the drilling began.

The Mangans vehemently deny that, and say they don’t know what the future holds.

“We have no idea what we’ve been exposed to,” Mark said.

And they have no idea how much danger may be still lurking in their well.

http://fox8.com/2012/03/26/i-team-fracking-controversy-hits-medina-county-homes/