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

Fracking Democracy: Why Pennsylvania's Act 13 May Be the Nation's Worst Corporate Giveaway

Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed and where the U.S. coal, oil and nuclear industries began, has adopted what may be the most anti-democratic, anti-environmental law in the country, giving gas companies the right to drill anywhere, overturn local zoning laws, seize private property and muzzle physicians from disclosing specific health impacts from drilling fluids on patients. 

The draconian new law, known as Act 13, revises the state’s oil and gas statutes, to allow oil companies to drill for natural gas using the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, where large volumes of water and toxic chemicals are pumped into vertical wells with lateral bores to shatter the rock and release the hydrocarbons. The law strips rights from communities and individuals while imposing new statewide drilling rules.

 

“It’s absolutely crushing of local self-government,” said Ben Price, project director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped a handful of local communities—including the city of Pittsburgh—adopt community rights ordinances that elevate the rights of nature and people to block the drilling. “The state has surrendered over 2,000 municipalities to the industry. It’s a complete capitulation of the rights of the people and their right to self-government. They are handing it over to the industry to let them govern us. It is the corporate state. That is how we look at it.”

 

“Now I know what it feels like to live in Nigeria,” said recently retired Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields. “You’re basically a resource colony for multi-national corporations to take your natural resources, take them back to wherever they are at, add value to them, and then sell them back to you.”

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Faulty Wells, Not Fracking, Blamed for Water Pollution

Some energy companies, state regulators, academics and environmentalists are reaching consensus that natural-gas drilling has led to several incidents of water pollution—but not because of fracking.

The energy officials and some environmentalists agree that poorly built wells are to blame for some cases of water contamination. In those cases, they say, wells weren't properly sealed with subterranean cement, which allowed contaminants to travel up the well bore from deep underground into shallow aquifers that provide drinking water.

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Appalachia banks on natural gas, chemical plants

The mining and manufacturing industries have a checkered environmental record in the Appalachians, with watershed contamination, chemical spills and river dumping.

Rivers and forests have been degraded by mountaintop removal mining in which the tops of mountains are shaved off to get to the coal below, sending debris into to the valley.

"Don't get me wrong, I want jobs, but I don't want an environmental wasteland when the chemical plants leave," said Steve Terry, a laborer in Moundsville, West Virginia. "I want this area to prosper, not go to hell."

Despite the plans, some are not convinced ground will be broken for the Shell chemical plant, citing decades of broken economic promises to Appalachia by politicians and corporations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/12/us-appalachia-chemicalplant-idUSBRE82B06820120312

Colo. cities profit by selling water for fracking

FORT COLLINS | Some northern Colorado cities are earning thousands of dollars selling municipal water for use in hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported Sunday (http://noconow.co/yTJ5VR ) that the town of Windsor sold more than 8.4 million gallons to the oil and gas industry for nearly $17,000 between Nov. 1 and March 1.

The town sold no water to energy companies the previous two years. The volume has grown so quickly that town officials haven't had time to consider the implications.

"It's really kind of is a phenomenon." Town Manager Kelly Arnold said. "There's been no policy discussion on this. I would define it as an emerging issue."

In 2011, Greeley sold more than 491 million gallons, mostly to the oil and gas industry, for $1.6 million.

Fort Lupton sold about 154 million gallons of municipal water to the oil and gas industry in 2011 for more than $677,000. The city is using the money to pay down its $20 million debt on a water treatment plant.

"It's been a benefit to us, a great benefit," said City Administrator Claud Hanes.

Fracking uses pressurized water, sand and chemicals to crack open fissures within wells and improve the flow of oil and gas.

Colorado regulators project that about 5.2 billion gallons of water will be used this year for fracking statewide, compared with 4.5 trillion gallons used by agriculture each year.

Some conservationists argue increasing use of fracking could consume more water than the state can spare, especially if elected officials and the energy industry's calculations are wrong.

"They don't understand what the cumulative impact is going to be if we put in another 100,000 wells," said Phillip Doe of Littleton, a former environmental compliance officer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

If all the wells that exist today were fracked multiple times, "it's not hard to come up with calculations that come up with Denver's annual water use," he said. "This stuff goes underground and never comes back."

Thom Kerr, acting director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said much of the water does come back over time.

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/email_push/news/article_c3ab1158-6c41-11e1-b4a2-0019bb2963f4.html

Cleveland Law Firm Provides Expert Legal Help with Fracking Problems and Opportunities

Several significant environmental concerns surround the fracking process. These include the potential contamination of water tables, improper disposal of waste water, and earthquakes such as the one that recently took place in Youngstown, Ohio. Property owners with water or land contaminated by a fracking well should consult Lowe Eklund Wakefield & Mulvihill Co., LPA who will carefully review the situation and offer advice on available litigation options.

In addition to the potential environmental problems, fracking is an occupation that may be very dangerous, resulting in significant injury or even death. Individuals who have been injured by any aspect of the fracking process should contact the firm for expert legal help. Lowe Eklund Wakefield & Mulvihill Co., LPA is highly experienced in assisting personal injury victims with any legal situation, including potential workers' compensation claims and injury lawsuits.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cleveland-law-firm-provides-expert-legal-help-with-fracking-problems-and-opportunities-2012-03-12

Fracking concerns lead to more water tests in Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- The state of Wyoming, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and two American Indian tribes announced Thursday they have agreed to additional testing of groundwater that the federal agency says may have become contaminated by gas development that includes hydraulic fracturing.

They also agreed to postpone a scientific peer review of a draft EPA report on the contamination in the Pavillion area in central Wyoming until after the additional sampling and analysis. The peer review had been scheduled to begin within the next several weeks and now won't get under way this fall, according to the EPA.Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses pressurized water, sand and chemicals to crack open fissures within wells and improve the flow of oil and gas. A report released in December was the first time the EPA said fracking may have polluted groundwater in a specific case.

EPA officials have maintained that the report doesn't carry implications for the pollution risk of fracking in other geologic formations or fracking generally.

Gov. Matt Mead said Thursday that the U.S. Geological Survey will conduct two more rounds of testing before July. The first round of new testing could occur within the next month.

http://www.timescall.com/news/nationworldnews/ci_20136013/wyoming-water-tests-fracking-concern-pavillion