City Council amendment would ban oil-gas activity in water-protection area

Measure introduced despite state law that reserves oil and gas regulation to the ODNR

By David DeWitt

In an act of defiance of state law for the sake of protecting the city's drinking water, Athens City Council introduced an ordinance Monday night that bans oil and gas drilling within its wellhead protection zone.

The likelihood of companies attempting to bring the controversial horizontal hydraulic fracturing drilling technique to the wellhead protection zone is slim. Nevertheless, Ohio Revised Code relegates all oil and gas drilling and wastewater disposal regulatory authority to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mineral Resources Management.

In introducing revisions to its wellhead protection plan in the form of an ordinance Monday night, City Council chose to include provisions banning fracking in that area anyway.

The ordinance was originally introduced with two provisions banning oil and gas drilling in the protection zone. They were then struck out. During the meeting, Third Ward member Michele Papai moved to once again include that language. It was seconded by Second Ward member Jeff Risner.

The first provision bans "drilling, mining, exploration and extraction operations, including but not limited to, petroleum gas and minerals," while the second bans "the storage and/or disposal of wastewater and other byproducts associated with drilling, mining, exploration and extraction operations."

At-large member Chris Knisely said that she has spoken to several citizens who expressed concerns about adding the provisions back in.

"It's a difficult situation, but I also know that we have a ruling from our law director from the city, who has stated that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has the jurisdiction in this area," she said.

Lang said Monday that local government has no bigger responsibility as far as he concerned than working to do everything in its power to protect the drinking water.

"That said, the position of law director is not a policy-making position; I'm an adviser, and it is you, the members of council, that have the legislative authority vested in you," he said. "It is not the duty of a law director to tell you what you can or can not do. But I do feel it is appropriate to make sure that you are aware of the relevant laws, and I feel I've done everything I can to do that."

He distributed a copy of Ohio Revised Code to council members with the relevant passages highlighted, reading from that the division "has the sole and exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location and spacing of oil and gas production operations in the state."

When questioned about whether the language in the ordinance is "not defensible," Lang said he wouldn't use those words, simply because he'd be obliged to defend the language if push came to shove.

"I will say that I think that certain portions of the wellhead protection ordinance are more problematic, potentially, than others," he said.

Fourth Ward member Christine Fahl expressed concern that if the questionable provisions are put forth, and a court case results, that other aspects of the ordinance will be held under injunction until the court proceedings come to a conclusion, thereby making the wellhead protection area vulnerable during that time.

The city has requested an opinion from the ODNR on whether they would ever approve a drilling request within a municipality's wellhead protection area in the first place, but Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said Monday that the city has not yet heard back from them.

Risner said that he does not see the ODNR taking the city of Athens to court if this ordinance is passed.

"It's more likely if a company came to town and decided, 'I want to put a well here,' and they read the ordinance, then they would take us to court," he said. "The problem I would have is that if I were a company looking to drill a well, I would want to make money. Lawsuits cost money. They take time. Two-year injunctions means for two years I can't do anything. I'm injuncted, too."

He said that it doesn't seem worthwhile for a company to pursue that avenue.

"I think if we put this tool in our toolbox it's just something else that will prevent someone from coming in and (drilling)," he said. "If we don't do it, then there's really nothing."

At-large member Elahu Gosney said that his view is that the state law contradicts the city's responsibility to protect the city's water supply.

"If this is passed, the amendments may be difficult to defend it in court, but it may not," he said. "But that being said, my opinion is that we have to do an all-of-the-above when protecting our water supply."

The motion to re-include the language banning drilling activity passed 5-2 with Fahl and Knisely casting the dissenting votes.

Recent state geology reports suggest that Athens County may not see a big boom in oil and gas drilling.

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2012/04/dont_stifle_ohio_energy_produc.html

Ohio is guinea pig for experiment known as horizontal fracking

I am so tired of hearing the claims from the oil and gas industry that fracking has been going on for years and is thus safe.

Hydraulic fracturing of shale with water to remove gas does indeed date back to the 1940s. However, this new type of slick water, horizontal, multi-pad injection fracking used today is no more than 10 or 15 years in age and is largely still experimental.

We are essentially guinea pigs for the industry. Now, we are talking about tens of thousands of horsepower, millions upon millions of gallons of our water, and a cocktail of hundreds of chemicals, some of them undisclosed, being injected repeatedly, day and night, below our water table.

Comparing modern fracking with the type done decades ago is like
comparing Boeing with the Wright brothers.

Then there is the argument that the chemicals they use are no different from the everyday household chemicals we have in our kitchens and bathrooms that can easily be found in deodorant, shampoo, antifreeze, black olives and even laxatives.

Please do not insult our intelligence. We do not use thousands of gallons of deodorant every single day, our radiators cannot hold thousands of gallons of antifreeze, our black olives do not contain thousands of gallons of concentrated hydrochloric acid injected into the jar at breakneck speed, and God forbid we will ever need thousands of gallons of laxatives!

Ohio is putting the cart in front of the horse with this rapid development of fracking, and I fear we may pay greatly for it as our neighbors in Pennsylvania are.

http://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/letters/x221036587/Ohio-is-guinea-pig-for-experiment-known-as-horizontal-fracking

Fracking Exposed: Shocking New Report Links Drilling With Breast Cancer and Women's Violence

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," has generated widespread media attention this year, but little has been reported on the ways in which fracking may have unique impacts on women. Chemicals used in fracking have been linked to breast cancer and reproductive health problems, and there have been reports of rises in crimes against women in some fracking "boom" towns, which have attracted itinerant workers with few ties to the community.

Toxins in Fracking Linked to Breast Cancer. Not only has the chemical cocktail inserted into the ground been shown to contaminate groundwater and drinking water, but fracking fluid also picks up toxins on its trip down to the bedrock and back up again that had previously been safely locked away underground. Chemicals linked to cancer are present in nearly all of the steps of extraction -- in the fracking fluids, the release of radioactive and other hazardous materials from the shale, and in transportation and drilling-related air pollution and contaminated water disposal.

Some reports indicate that more than 25 percent of the chemicals used in natural gas operations have been linked to cancer or mutations, although companies like Haliburton have lobbied hard to keep the public in the dark about the exact formula of fracking fluids. According to the U.S. Committee on Energy and Commerce, fracking companies used 95 products containing 13 different known and suspected carcinogens between 2005 and 2009 as part of the fracking fluid that is injected in the ground. These include naphthalene, benzene, and acrylamide. Benzene, which the U.S. EPA has classified as a Group A, human carcinogen, is released in the fracking process through air pollution and in the water contaminated by the drilling process. The Institute of Medicine released a report in December 2011 that links breast cancer to exposure to benzene.

Up to 37 percent of chemicals in fracking fluids have been identified as endocrine-disruptors -- chemicals that have potential adverse developmental and reproductive effects. According to the U.S. EPA, exposure to these types of chemicals has also been implicated in breast cancer.

The Marcellus Shale in the northeast part of the United States also naturally contains radioactive materials, including radium, which is largely locked away in the bedrock. The New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) analyzed 13 samples of water, contaminated by the fracking process, as a result of the hydraulic fracturing of the shale during the extraction process. The DEC found that the resulting water contained levels of radium-226, some as high as 267 times the limit for safe discharge into the environment and more than 3000 times the limit safe for people to drink. One gas well can produce over a million gallons of contaminated water. A New York Times expose in 2011, released secret EPA documents that illustrated how this water is sometimes sent to sewage plants that are not designed to process the dangerous chemicals or radiation which in some instances are used in municipal drinking supplies or are released into rivers and streams that supply drinking water.

Emerging data points to a problem requiring more study. In the six counties in Texas which have seen the most concentrated gas drilling, breast cancer rates have risen significantly, while over the same period the rates for this kind of cancer have declined elsewhere in the state. Similarly, in western New York, where traditional gas drilling processes have been used for decades before hydrofracking came along, has been practiced for nearly two centuries, rural counties with historically intensive gas industry activity show consistently higher cancer death rates (PDF) than rural counties without drilling activity. For women, this includes breast, cervix, colon, endocrine glands, larynx, ovary, rectal, uterine, and other cancers.

Toxins linked to Spontaneous Abortion and Birth Defects. Certain compounds, such as toluene, that are released as gas at the wellhead and also found in water contaminated by fracking have the potential to harm to pregnant women or women wishing to become pregnant. According to the U.S. EPA, studies have shown that toluene can cause an assortment ofdevelopmental disorders in children born to pregnant women that have been exposed to toulene. Pregnant women also carry an increase risk of spontaneous abortion from exposure to toluene. Wyoming failed to meet federal standards for air quality due to fumes containing toluene and benzene in 2009.

Sandra Steingraber, an acclaimed ecologist and author of "Raising Elijah" -- a book on how to raise a child in an age of environmental hazards, takes the strong stand that fracking violates a woman's reproductive rights. "If you want to plan a pregnancy and someone else's chemicals sabotage that -- it's a violation of your rights as a woman to have agency over your own reproductive destiny," she said.

Steingraber sees banning fracking as an issue that both the pro-choice and anti-abortion camps can both rally behind. She has been giving talks on why opposition to fracking should be considered a feminist issue. The author won a Heinz award -- which recognizes individuals for their contributions in areas including the environment -- for her work on environmental toxins. She dedicated the $100,000 prize to the fight against fracking.

Crimes Against Women on the Rise in Some Energy Boom Towns. Beyond concerns about cancer and toxins are other societal ills related to fracking that disproportionately impact women. Some areas across the country where fracking has boomed have noted an increase in crime -- including domestic violence and sexual assault. In Dickinson, North Dakota, there has been at least a 300% increase in assault and sex crimes over the past year. The mayor has attributed the increase in crime to the oil and "natural" gas boom in their area.

The Executive Director of the Abuse & Rape Crisis Center in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Amy Miller, confirmed that there has been an increase in unknown assailant rapes since the gas industry moved into the region -- which are much harder to prosecute. Miller also noted that domestic abuse has spiked locally, with the cases primarily from gas industry families. The county has more than 700 wells drilled, with more than 300 of these operational, and another 2,000 drilling permits have been issued.

The Gas Industry's Pink Rig. Even though fracking and drilling are dependent on a potpourri of carcinogenic chemicals, big energy companies don't hesitate to slap on pink paint in PR campaigns championing breast cancer awareness.

In 2009, a natural gas drilling rig in Colorado was painted pink with a percentage of the daily profits from the unit going to the Breast Cancer Foundation. This and other showy gestures by the methane gas industry appear to do little to alleviate concerns about the impact that fracking chemicals and practices may be having on public health and safety.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/6465/fracking-exposed-shocking-new-report-links-drilling-with-breast-cancer-and-women-s-violence

Towns Fight States on Drilling

States hoping to capitalize on their energy booms are running into resistance from local officials who want to be able to police the noise and industrialization that accompany oil-and-gas drilling.

The municipalities are fighting laws that bar them from regulating drilling, enacted by state lawmakers who feared towns would stunt job-creation and a stream of tax revenue.

Getty Images

Cabot Oil & Gas workers develop a fracking site in South Montrose, Pa.

Last Thursday, seven towns collectively sued Pennsylvania in state court to overturn a law passed in February that prevents them from using their zoning authority to regulate oil-and-gas development. The day before, an Ohio state senator introduced legislation to grant local officials more control over where companies can drill.

Also late last week, an energy company and a landowner appealed rulings in New York state courts that towns can use their zoning power to ban gas-drilling, despite a state law that prevents them from regulating the industry. The state has temporarily blocked companies from drilling in the Marcellus Shale while regulators weigh the environmental impact.

The balance between local land-use regulation and energy development has been hard to strike in Pennsylvania, which is carved up into more than 1,000 townships, some of which worry about how drilling would affect traffic, property values and public health.

Click to read more ...

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

Chardon rally protests fracking

Concerned community members gathered in Chardon on Saturday afternoon to protest hydraulic fracturing in Geauga County and Northeast Ohio.

To help raise awareness of the alleged dangers of the practice in hopes of getting legislation passed to ban it, about 50 people marched around Chardon square with signs and chanted slogans like "O-H-I-O, hydro-fracking's got to go."



Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process that sends a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release gas and oil trapped under the earth.

The process has come under criticism, with some saying the methods contaminate an area's water and can even cause earthquakes.

The crowd eventually gathered around the gazebo at the center of the square and heard from various speakers.

Kathy Hanratty with the Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection addressed protecting our natural resources.

"As water is the most precious and threatened resource on Earth, we can't allow a billion-dollar industry to damage our water," Hanratty said.

Hanratty also said the benefits of fracking do not outweigh the costs of damaging the environment.

"Of course we will make some profit in the area, but it is only crumbs compared to what the oil and gas industry will make," she said. "Does this profit, or any profit, really cover the loss of our water? Does this cover the loss of our air?" Continued...

http://news-herald.com/articles/2012/04/01/news/nh5307323.txt