Fracking - A Libertarian's Wet Dream

[maiforpeace]

Fracking’s the new normal

I would like to learn more about it. Discuss the pros and cons.

Has this industry been even been vetted?

Apparently fracking enjoys all federal regulations - every other industry has to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, The Clean Air Act, and the Superfund Act. The fracking industry has been exempted from these acts.

It may be some people's wet dream, but it's also a nightmare for the communities and people who have suffered from the poisonous pollution.

Mark Ruffalo, a celebrity who has taken to a cause. He's the one who got me interested....

Mark Ruffalo on the Fracking Fight

This guy is now the perfect babe - he shared his reasons for taking to political causes (I mean, what would you rather have them do? Be drug addled train wrecks like Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan?

[Azathoth]

Horrible, inefficient cheap and dirty technique. There are some nice backhanders flying round to let them do it.

[Audley Strange]

Mai, check out the documentary "Gasland."

[Warren Dew]

Apparently fracking enjoys all federal regulations - every other industry has to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, The Clean Air Act, and the Superfund Act. The fracking industry has been exempted from these acts.

I don't believe that's correct. If they provide drinking water they have to comply with standards for that; if they emit airborne pollution they have to comply with the clean air act, etc. They haven't gotten any special exemptions.

The real issue is whether fracking actually results in the problems it has been accused of by critics, or whether the known instances of those problems were actually happening anyway and unrelated to fracking, as the industry claims. This is an important issue because in other respects, natural gas is far more friendly to the environment than other sources of energy, like coal.

Unfortunately the issue has been so politicized - for example in your subject line and original post - that it seems impossible to get objective information.

[Tero]

God gave us trees. Burn them. After that, quit making babies. Babies suck up gas and oil. And disposable diapers.

[mistermack]

The evidence that I've seen is that fracking isn't essentially problematic. But like everything else, it has to be done properly. If it's badly done, you can get problems.

And as usual, people jump on bandwagons, instead of looking at the real facts.
I've seen people in the west of Ireland going on about the danger to groundwater, in spite of the fact that their water is all run-off, and the soil sits on solid rock.

I think fracking is going to grow and grow. Why pay a fortune to foreign governments, when we have gas in our back yard?

[macdoc]

A limited amount of agreement.

The gas rush has caused sloppy work the most damaging leaking of the witches brew they use for fracking which is toxic as all hell.

Natural gas itself is much preferable to coal so bring it on in that respect particularly to replace coal plants for electricity but the industry really has to be tightened up.
Riding through Allegheny National forest - the place just reeks in many areas from fracking operations.

Part of the rush is to get ahead of regulations so some operations are plain out criminal in their poor practices.

As to exempt - yeah - it's called the Haliburton clause for Dick Cheney who got it passed.

Fair article here

he rush to drill and frack as many wells as possible has created an unexpected boom in these slow economic times. Drilling permits in the Eagle Ford — a 24-county South Texas shale play — hit 1,010 in 2010, up from 94 permits in 2009 and 26 in 2008 according to state data. In the first four months of 2011 alone, 743 permits have already been issued.

But the lack of adequate regulations and enforcement — at the state and federal level — to monitor this explosion in activity could also lead to one of the greatest environmental and public health challenges of our time.

We don't have to look far to know that after energy and fracking companies set up drill pads and heavy equipment to draw out oil and gas miles below that volatile organic compounds dramatically proliferate in the air, water wells are no longer usable and people get sick as levels of toluene and xylene, and other carcinogenic chemicals are soon found in their bodies. This has been the case for Dish, a small town in the Barnett Shale play near Fort Worth.

A recent peer-reviewed study by Duke University scientists in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale has shown elevated levels of methane gas in groundwater near fracked gas wells.

But what makes this unfolding story more disturbing is the lack of studies to explain the impact of this activity on humans and the environment, and the inability to know what to test for because we don't even know what is being pumped into the ground. And yet the drilling intensifies.

In the 2005 Energy Policy Act, Vice President Dick Cheney drafted a clause that ensured that hydraulic fracking would be exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other major environmental laws.

This "Halliburton loophole" stripped the EPA of any federal oversight of this new oil and gas bonanza, and threw it into the lap of state regulators. But in Texas, the Railroad Commission, which has almost sole jurisdiction over the oil and gas industry, proudly displays on its website an article titled "The current EPA study (on hydraulic fracking) is a $12 million solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist."

Furthermore, much praise was given to the Texas Legislature this session for passing House Bill 3328, which will require companies to list the chemicals and quantities of fluid used in fracking. But the watered down bill will not require them to disclose any chemicals which are considered "trade secret."

This is a huge issue everywhere

This powerful agency allows a company to use as much groundwater as needed to complete a well. In northwest Webb County, that amounts to nearly 7.56 million gallons of water to frack one well.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/fracki ... 37949.html

Decent info here too

http://katiedid101.hubpages.com/hub/Fracking-the-US#

that water is heavily contaminated when it returns to the holding ponds...

Our look at
FRACK PITS AND IMPOUNDMENTS



Marcellus Shale gas wells are very thirsty, requiring an average of 4-million gallons of water to hydro-fracture each well. Water fracturing is preferred to other fracturing methods (nitrogen, propane, carbon dioxide foam, etc) since it can create more pressure to crack the shale, sometimes in the neighborhood of 15,000 pounds per square inch.

THE SHALE PIT LEGACY

"Many of the chemicals found in drilling and evaporation pits are considered hazardous wastes by the Superfund Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Upon closure, every pit has the potential to become a superfund site."
Source: Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations

Once the fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is complete, the brackish flowback liquid that comes back out of the well often amounts to 20% to 40% of the original liquids and frac fluids that were pumped over a mile deep into the shale. The fluids coming back over the first 30 days are called "flowback," and the fluids coming back after that are called "produced water."

good and worrying info here....
http://www.marcellus-shale.us/impoundments.htm

[Warren Dew]

We don't have to look far to know that after energy and fracking companies set up drill pads and heavy equipment to draw out oil and gas miles below that volatile organic compounds dramatically proliferate in the air, water wells are no longer usable and people get sick as levels of toluene and xylene, and other carcinogenic chemicals are soon found in their bodies. This has been the case for Dish, a small town in the Barnett Shale play near Fort Worth.

A recent peer-reviewed study by Duke University scientists in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale has shown elevated levels of methane gas in groundwater near fracked gas wells.

Far from being a balanced article, this is a perfect example of the uninformed speculation that's going about. They make all sorts of unfounded allegations about organic compounds and "carcinogenic chemicals", but the only actual data is about methane, which is just the chemical term for natural gas itself. Where's the scientific evidence for the carcinogens.

[Seth]

The "fracking panic" is just that, a manufactured eco-nut non-event. There is ONE documented case of an improperly-cemented well casing leading to contamination of an underground aquifer by flowback of fracking fluid. Just one. In Wyoming. All the rest of the complaints I'm aware of have been duly investigated by state and federal authorities and it's been concluded that any methane contamination of aquifers is coming from NATURAL sources, and are unrelated to the drilling.

So long as the well casing is properly cemented, the fracking fluid, which is injected thousands or tens of thousands of feet below shallow aquifers, cannot move up on the outside of the casing, and whatever is produced from the well as a part of opening the bore for use is supposed to be disposed of properly.

Gas companies have no interest in contaminating aquifers because they can be held financially liable for doing so, and if it happens, it means that the multi-million dollar hole in the ground they just finished drilling is useless because the casing was improperly cemented and the gas they hope to bring up is now going somewhere else instead. It would be fiscal idiocy not to pay attention to cementing the well properly, and few and far between are the instances of a gas or oil company screwing up the procedure, particularly on surface wells.

The Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf was caused by improper cementing, but that was taking place thousands of feet underwater, and they certainly did not intend it not to work properly, and it's cost them billions to fix the problem.

All the rest is just horseshit concocted by know-nothings who are scrambling for yet another reason to impede domestic oil and gas production.

Yes, fracking fluid is pumped back to the surface into pits, but EPA regulations outlawed the abandonment or backfilling of pits years ago, and now the fluid must be pumped into trucks and taken to a licensed disposal location, and the pits (which are now lined by law) and liners must be cleaned up.

Accidents happen, but drilling companies have to pay for such accidents, so they work very, very hard to avoid them.

[Azathoth]

Even with all the checks in place to prevent contamination it doesn't change the fact that the sheer volume of water needed puts a severe strain on aquifers. Often in areas where the aquifer just can't take it. It is not a good system

[macdoc]

Well if Seth says its horseshit given his track record of assessment then you can be certain the risk is high.

Good summary and of course it's moving so quickly hard to keep up.....

We'll just take a little snippet....

Texas
In December 2010, the EPA determined that natural gas drilling by Range Resources near homes in Parker County, Texas caused or contributed to the contamination of at least two residential drinking water wells with "extremely high levels of methane," as well as benzene. The EPA ordered the company to step in immediately to stop the contamination, provide drinking water to the affected residents, and provide methane gas monitors to the homeowners. EPA also issued an imminent and substantial endangerment order under Section 1431 of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA said it has data showing the presence of natural gas at the two wells, and ordered Range to investigate other nearby properties to determine if their drinking water is at risk.[35]
In a hearing called shortly thereafter, the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling in Texas, exonerated Range. One member of the commission called EPA's action "a frontal assault on domestic natural gas production." EPA pressed ahead in federal court, but before the trial court ruled, an element of the case went to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans.[36]
In March 2012, the EPA withdrew its order requiring Range Resources to provide water for the two North Texas families. The agency joined with Range seeking dismissal of the case in the Court of Appeals, stating that its decision allowed the agency to shift the focus “away from litigation and toward a joint effort on the science and safety of energy extraction.”[37] In a letter sent as part of the dismissal agreement, Range committed to testing 20 wells in Parker County four times in the next year.[38]

West Virginia
Although Wyoming is often reported to be the first case of water pollution linked to fracking documented by the EPA, the Times reported in 2011 that "a 1987 report to Congress by the Environmental Protection Agency that deals with waste from the exploration, development and production of oil, natural gas and geothermal energy ... states that hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, can cause groundwater contamination. It cites as an example a case in which hydraulic fracturing fluids contaminated a water well in West Virginia. The report also describes the difficulties that sealed court settlements created for investigators." The report concluded that hydraulic fracturing fluids or gel used by Kaiser Exploration and Mining Company contaminated a well roughly 600 feet away on the property of James Parsons in Jackson County, West Virginia. The report contradicts prior statements by the oil and gas industry that there had never been a documented case of contamination, helping the industry avoid federal regulations.[39]

Wyoming
Reuters reported that "the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found 14 "contaminants of concern" in 11 private wells in the central Wyoming farming community of Pavillion, an area with about 250 gas wells.[40]
In its 2011 report of the same study, the EPA said it identified numerous fracking chemicals in Pavillion's water: benzene was found at 50 times safe levels, along with other hazardous chemicals, methane, diesel fuel, and heavy metals - in both groundwater and deep wells.[41]

unlike the preachers undocumented shite aka whitewash ......it's easy to see the issue is serious.

I think fracking can and has been done safely.....I suspect right now it's not being done that way in far too many cases leading numerous jurisdictions to outright bans with good justification.

Course the coal lobby gets away with murder as well....nothing new about this bunch of hooligans.

[macdoc]

ven with all the checks in place to prevent contamination it doesn't change the fact that the sheer volume of water needed puts a severe strain on aquifers. Often in areas where the aquifer just can't take it. It is not a good system

Yup -just when aquifers are being already strained by agriculture draw down.

[mistermack]

ven with all the checks in place to prevent contamination it doesn't change the fact that the sheer volume of water needed puts a severe strain on aquifers. Often in areas where the aquifer just can't take it. It is not a good system

Yup -just when aquifers are being already strained by agriculture draw down.

So what's happening to that sheer volume of water? Does it disappear into thin air? Or is it going back into the aquifers? If it's back into the aquifer, I can't see the problem. It gets filtered and is still available downstream.

[Azathoth]

ven with all the checks in place to prevent contamination it doesn't change the fact that the sheer volume of water needed puts a severe strain on aquifers. Often in areas where the aquifer just can't take it. It is not a good system

Yup -just when aquifers are being already strained by agriculture draw down.

So what's happening to that sheer volume of water? Does it disappear into thin air? Or is it going back into the aquifers? If it's back into the aquifer, I can't see the problem. It gets filtered and is still available downstream.

It doesn't get treated onsite. It gets transported and dealt with elsewhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/nyreg ... cking.html

[FBM]

Pish. There is an endless supply of everything. How could we ever use up the universe?