Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Looking for Answers: Hydraulic Fracturing
I am an Athens County, Ohio resident and my home is on an environmentally pristine rural farm nestled in the Appalachian foothills. During the past year, I have watched our community become increasingly united in concern for the pending changes coming to our area, regarding the hydraulic fracturing boom that rapidly approaches the land surrounding our homes and our way of life. In order to better understand what may be coming our way, I began researching the method of hydraulic fracturing, the results of the process, and the accounts of the people who are involved. Ohio is sinking in an 8 billion dollar deficit, the economy is in dire need of a boost, people are in desperate need of work, and like the rest of the nation, our dependency on foreign oil is bringing us further and further away from where we need to be. In the quest for alternative energies, we must always coincide with only that which is renewable and sustainable for our environment, and its clear that change toward this path is essential for survival. Could this process of tapping into one of our great resources of natural gas be the solution to all this?
Hydraulic fracturing, referred to as “fracking”, is a method of releasing natural gas from underground shale by deep drilling with a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals. In the 1940’s the Halliburton Corporation led the way in this method of extracting gas and oil from the vertical drilling of wells by causing the rock to shatter from the fluid injection mix and catching the released natural gas upon pumping out the injection fluid (Bank 64). In the 1990’s this original method was improved by creating a drill that would turn 90 degrees to bore in a horizontal direction for up to two miles. Today, from one drilling pad, companies are able to drill multiple wells in all directions, making miles of underground paths across hundreds of acres to collect gas (Bank 65). Forty acres are needed for modern drilling platforms, and drilling goes down as far as 8,000 feet underground.
At this early stage of my research, I have to stop right here. Chemicals? In 2011, according to House Energy and Commerce Committee, SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY CHEMICALS are used in the fracking injection fluid, some being extremely hazardous to human health, such as benzene, lead, and diesel fuel. However, as I recognize the need for big change toward our betterment, I realize that perhaps big action as such might need to happen. So with an open mind, I continue.
As we all know the gas and oil industry is massively growing from fracking, thousands of jobs are predicted to be created in the near future. Our nation is rich with shale that contains natural gas, and now we have the means to extract it, which of course will bring in a huge revenue. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department is in charge of mineral rights for 700 million U.S. acres, says that hydraulic fracturing “can be done in a safe way, in an environmentally responsible way, and in a way that doesn’t create all of the concerns that it is creating across the country right now”(Cook 1).
So there is concern across the country, and is Mr. Salazar saying that while fracking could be safe and responsible, the country’s concern is because this is not currently the situation? Lets look more closely at the current situation. The chemical fracking solution is injected. For the drilling of one well, four million gallons of this chemical solution is needed. And of course, what goes in will inevitably come out, and this is what is called wastewater. In 2011, the New York Times released an investigative report of the severity of environmental risks, one being “the radioactivity in drilling wastewater that is sometimes hundreds to thousands of times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standard". As geochemist Tracy Banks explains it, along with natural gas, this chemical injection also releases radioactive compounds such as uranium flowing along with the toxic chemical fluid. She states, “the current methods for cleaning wastewater generated by fracking are woefully inadequate….this water needs to be treated like industrial waste” (Bank 63). So where is this industrial waste going, and how is it making its way to drinking water? A review from the Associated Press in January 2011 exposed that “Pennsylvania’s fracking water treatment revealed the state could not account for the disposal method of 1.28 million barrels of wastewater (one-fifth of the annual total) due to faulty reporting. Some drinking water utilities downstream from fracking wastewater facilities have struggled to sufficiently treat or remove trihalomethanes, which can cause cancer with chronic exposure. A lack of adequate oversight has allowed wastewater from fracking to contaminate the Delaware River Basin, which supplies drinking water for 15 million people in four states”. How can this be allowed to continue? A ProPublica 2011 report states “An ongoing investigation into fracking since 2008 found court and government documentation of more than 1,000 cases of water contamination in Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Reporters have unearthed gas and oil company campaign donations to members of Congress opposed to fracking disclosure requirements and catalogued individual and community case studies on the dangers of fracking, including environmental violations and contamination”. And so the Haliburton Loophole was created by the federal government as a way for fracking fluids to be legally exempted from the Clean Water Act. Otherwise the entire chemical composition of the fluids would have to be revealed. Remember Haliburton? That’s the big gas company who continues to pioneer the road for fracking methods, including necessary loopholes. As far as contaminated drinking water due to fracking, there are many, many examples from which to chose where the tap water is actually flammable due to so much methane mixed with the water. Here is one example:
This seems scary, right? Try watching video after video of footage from homes across the United States, all near monstrous drilling sites, all the residents explaining that before the drilling company came in, their water was fine. Now it smells bad, its often murky brown, and IT LIGHTS ON FIRE.
Another issue to be noted regarding hydraulic fracturing are the earthquakes resulting from the extreme pressure of the injection of fracking fluid. Even Texas, never before experiencing seismic activity, is now reporting earthquakes near some injection sites for the fracking waste. “Last fall a swarm of about 500 mini-quakes rocked central Arkansas near the Fayetteville Shale, and A 4.7-magnitude earthquake in February prompted the Arkansas oil and Gas Commission to order two drilling companies to temporarily suspend operations”(Bank 66). Do we really need a more clear sign of environmental disruption taking place?
Aside from flammable tap water and earthquakes, are the people nearby the drilling and the residents whose land is being leased to the drilling companies reporting of the profit and benefits of their experience? Ms. Banks, author of “Fracking Nation” visit’s the area where gas drilling first started happening on a big scale, the Barnett Shale of Fort Worth, Texas. Now with about 14,000 gas wells in this region, “residents have complained for years of contaminated water, poor air quality, and unexplained health problems such as headaches, dizziness, blackouts, and muscle contractions” (Bank 65). In some towns drilling is set up within one mile of schools where children are suffering with chronic nosebleeds, dizziness, and nausea (Bank 65). The PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center reports that in Pennsylvania more than 3,000 gas fracking wells were within two miles of 320 day care centers, 67 schools, and nine hospitals.
It begins to feel all too close to home when I look more closely at Ohio’s involvement with fracking. Our fair state sits atop the massive Marcellus Shale, which also underlies parts of West Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania. This 95,000 square mile slab could supply the entire nation’s natural gas need for two years (Bank 63). What a treasure! And so the profit for Ohio begins like this- As Pennsylvania has been heavily drilling their portion of the Marcellus Shale, the Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection agency stopped allowing the previous means of disposing of the fracking wastewater in the rivers. Then, the wastewater was sent to treatment plants, but eventually the agency found even this to be an ineffective means of disposal. So what is there to do with all this chemical waste? Send it to Ohio! In the last six months of 2010 there were 14.8 million gallons of highly concentrated fracking injection fluid sent to the state of Ohio, who has banked almost 1 million dollars in hazardous fluid dumping fees this past year alone. Also, since the state of New York has no facilities to treat the millions of gallons of wastewater that their wells generate, the oil companies have stated that their plan is to haul all the wastewater to Ohio just like Pennsylvania. As far as the drilling taking place in Ohio, we could look at an example of one of many disgruntled residents, Harry Boyd, landowner in Monroe County, who by his own admission is no “green tree hugger”. In an interview by Amy Mall, Natural Resources Defense Council staff, Mr.Boyd explains that he leased his mineral rights to an oil company and the fracking began in 2007. Mr.Boyd stated that he happened on the company “blowing all of the used fracturing fluid…out into the air and the woods on his land”. State inspectors visited the site and told the company to stop, but they continued disposing of the fluid in the same way. Boyd states that the fluid then flowed out to three streams which lead to the Ohio River, and he estimates that up to 500,000 gallons of fluid waste were ejected out over his land. Harry Boyd has given up all his plans of using his land for farming or anything else. Ohio has just passed Bill 133 that legalizes drilling on all state land, even including state parks. Local Athens County environmental attorney and activist, Don Wirtshafter reports, “On September 6, the Forest Service and Federal Bureau of Land Management put up for bid the right to drill 3000 acres of the Wayne (National Forest), most of this directly upstream of the Athens drinking water intake”.
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| Fracking Site in Carroll County, Ohio |
At this early stage of my research, I have to stop right here. Chemicals? In 2011, according to House Energy and Commerce Committee, SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY CHEMICALS are used in the fracking injection fluid, some being extremely hazardous to human health, such as benzene, lead, and diesel fuel. However, as I recognize the need for big change toward our betterment, I realize that perhaps big action as such might need to happen. So with an open mind, I continue.
As we all know the gas and oil industry is massively growing from fracking, thousands of jobs are predicted to be created in the near future. Our nation is rich with shale that contains natural gas, and now we have the means to extract it, which of course will bring in a huge revenue. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department is in charge of mineral rights for 700 million U.S. acres, says that hydraulic fracturing “can be done in a safe way, in an environmentally responsible way, and in a way that doesn’t create all of the concerns that it is creating across the country right now”(Cook 1).
 |
| Marcellus Shale Wastewater Sludge Ponds in New York |
This seems scary, right? Try watching video after video of footage from homes across the United States, all near monstrous drilling sites, all the residents explaining that before the drilling company came in, their water was fine. Now it smells bad, its often murky brown, and IT LIGHTS ON FIRE.
 |
| Arkansas Shale Gas Production Related Earthquake 2011 |
Aside from flammable tap water and earthquakes, are the people nearby the drilling and the residents whose land is being leased to the drilling companies reporting of the profit and benefits of their experience? Ms. Banks, author of “Fracking Nation” visit’s the area where gas drilling first started happening on a big scale, the Barnett Shale of Fort Worth, Texas. Now with about 14,000 gas wells in this region, “residents have complained for years of contaminated water, poor air quality, and unexplained health problems such as headaches, dizziness, blackouts, and muscle contractions” (Bank 65). In some towns drilling is set up within one mile of schools where children are suffering with chronic nosebleeds, dizziness, and nausea (Bank 65). The PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center reports that in Pennsylvania more than 3,000 gas fracking wells were within two miles of 320 day care centers, 67 schools, and nine hospitals.
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| The Marcellus Shale |
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| Sign a petition to keep Wayne National Forest safe from fracking. |
AJ Gilpin Rough Draft
AJ Gilpin
Bryan Lutz
English 151
October 23, 2011
Lockout or Payout?
Lockouts seem to be a large portion of recent news, whether it is the NFL, NBA or NHL. The 2004-2005 NHL season was completely cancelled due to a lockout. The NFL had a lockout for the 2012 season but the owners and players resolved the issue and are having a successful season. This does not seem to be the case for the Nation Basketball Association though. They are currently in a lockout that has already cancelled the first two weeks of this season. So what is a “lockout” exactly? It is basically a dispute between owners and players over aspects of the NBA. One of the main focuses of their disputes is money. The NBA is currently fighting over money. The already extremely rich NBA owners are attempting to take even more money from the players. As it looks the lockout will continue till the players are willing to give up more money to the owners. While more and more of the season gets cancelled both the players and the owners will continually lose money. The players gain no money at all while the lockout continues. The owners who are still being greedy and asking for more money are still getting paid from television providers like TBS, Fox and TNT. I find it strange that while the owners are asking for more money they are still receiving hefty paychecks. This NBA lockout is a standoff between millionaires and billionaires.
With the possibility of the entire season being cancelled many NBA stars are doing other jobs or playing overseas just to earn a paycheck. “Nets All-Star Deron Williams has a deal with Turkish club Besiktas - which is also courting Kobe Bryant - and most top players said they would consider playing overseas,”
Many star players a being forced to play overseas so that they can make a paycheck. With no end in sight more and more players will be playing overseas or getting regular jobs like us to stay afloat. The lockout is hardest on rookie players that just got drafted. They have no received a paycheck yet so there is no nest egg in which they can live off of during the lockout. Many rookie players like Kyrie Irving have decided to go back to college. Irving will be a sophomore at Duke and will still be able to increase his skills while playing in the NCAA. Like I said before the lockout is just billionaires versus millionaires. At the end of the day the owners are going to get want they want because they have more power. They have more money and can risk losing an entire season because they are still making money off of television contracts. The players that cannot play overseas will soon fold into the owners. The owners will get what they want and will soon be even richer while the players’ salaries are harshly cut. The owners are trying to make a 50-50 split in the money going to players and owners. There are 30 teams so about 30 owners and around 450 players. It is outrageous that the owners are asking for a split of the money when there are 15 times the number of players than there are owners. The owners are going to continue to do a standoff and not agree to a deal until it is exactly what they want. The players will slowly begin to break down and offer more and more money to the owners until they agree. Hopefully this point happens before the entire season is cancelled. A cancellation is a huge threat this year and hopefully they will reach an agreement before that has to happen.
Tyler Fred blog 16
My partner Michaela understood the basic idea behind my report concerning senate bill 5 and its negative outcomes for the public. I probably do need to address and change some of the pictures and videos in my article to make more persuasive and relevant to the argument I am trying to make. I just found pictures that looked like they may describe what I was talking about but they weren’t directly related or discussed. I probably need to discuss what is happening in the photos to make more of a connection. The feedback definitely was helpful. I never would have thought about the pictures if it wasn’t for Michaela’s input. After reading Michaela’s I wanted to revise my last paragraph and add a way to combat senate bill 5 because I left that out. I also wanted to include more information about my video and pictures. My argument as I would describe is that senate bill 5 is meant to bring down the debt of Ohio but the negatives that come along with it for the public don’t at this point in time outweigh the reduced weight.
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