FRACKING, THE FOSSIL FUEL FRENZY OF THE 21st CENTURY

Year in Review April 23, 2014

THE FOSSIL FUEL FRENZY OF THE 21st CENTURY

                                FRACKING,*   PART 

"Fracking" and  "fracker" are terms that you probably will not find in a dictionary. Fracking is short for Hydraulic Fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is sometimes defined as the fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid. 

Natural gas may be the cleanest of the fossil fuels to burn, but extracting it, storing the unusable chemically laced by-product, and transporting the gas is causing its own environmental nightmare. Neither the industry nor the government is talking about the environmental and human disaster that results from the enormous amount of water and of toxic chemicals necessary to extract the gas from the shale rock. Nor is there a discussion about the release of deadly gases, like methane,  long captured the earth’s surface during the fracking process. These gases threaten the local and atmospheric environment. Nowhere else does deregulation and the power of the energy corporations better illustrate what is wrong with how far astray our governmental policy is than in the recent history of the ‘fracking frenzy’.

 By the middle of the Bush presidency energy producers recognized that fracking for natural gas was on the verge of eclipsing oil potential and would become center stage as America’s fossil fuel poster child. Dick Cheney made sure to protect the rapidly expanding number of fracking producers by masterminding the elimination of most Federal regulatory requirements.

Cheney, a former Halliburton CEO, conveniently engineered legislative exemptions for the frackers.  Frackers are exempt from the provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act due to legislation known as the ‘Halliburton Loophole’. Frackers are also exempt from The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, making it unnecessary for frackers to comply with hazardous waste disposal regulations; the Superfund Law, making it unnecessary for frackers to remediate carcinogens; The Comprehensive Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; The National Environmental Policy Act; and The Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. The big energy companies went quickly to work in their unregulated world.

At the State level the legislative picture is not much different. The American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC), a high powered business group, drafted model legislation on behalf of the energy industry. ALEC provides the draft legislation to friendly legislators in states across the country. Often these bills, like other ALEC legislation, are introduced by the elected state official as if it were drafted by legislative staff.

The ALEC bills purport to require disclosure. But, as the legislation proposed in Florida and Texas illustrates, these ExxonMobile backed bills exempt disclosure of ‘trade secrets’ and only require the industry to maintain a list of chemicals that are used. These lists are created and owned by the industry, making the information largely unavailable to the public. Several states require that chemicals, other than the claimed ‘trade secrets’, be provided to the state regulatory agency. Often states rely on industry ‘self monitoring’ and ‘self reporting’ of  the toxic chemicals and the releases and spills. No matter what type of disclosure exists, public access to the information still may be problematic.  Pennsylvania doctors supposedly have access to the non trade secret chemical list used in the fracking process, but the doctors are prohibited from expressing their concerns about the potential dangers to a patient. These gag laws are becoming a normative practice when industries wish to silence detractors or keep the public in the dark.

As of today, only a few of the more than 31 states where fracking activity takes place have significant drilling regulations. Most of the states permit almost unfettered drilling rights, often denying local communities an opportunity to decide whether they even wish fracking in their communities.

 The lack of a legal and regulatory framework makes no sense given the potential for significant harm to the health of persons working for frackers or living near drilling sites. Equally significant is the potential harm to the environment and water resources that are affected and placed at risk by the fracking process.

Today’s fracking process is not a benign adventure. The wells go deeper into the earth than ever before and at points go laterally through shale rock where some of the last hydrocarbons are thought to exist. The well drilling process can require the pumping of upwards of 5 million gallons of pressurized water per well. The water is mixed with tons of silica sand (much of it mined in Wisconsin with its own environmental consequences) and several hundred thousand gallons of water laced with toxic chemicals to facilitate the extraction process. The pressurized water, silica sand, and chemical mix shatter the shale rock, thereby releasing fossil fuels and other gases found deep in the earth. About 70% of what is pumped into the well is retrieved during the fossil fuel extraction process. The water that is extracted now includes the additional toxic chemicals that were present in the deep earth. This liquid, often described as a salty, chemical brine is stored for reuse and containment. Seepage into the water table and onto properties that surround the wells is a normal occurrence. Water that is not retrieved remains in the earth and will poison both water aquifers and the soil.

Only the industry knows exactly what chemicals are added to the pressurized water because the regulations do not require disclosure of “trade secrets’. But we do know that many of the chemicals are dangerous to human health and to the environment. A partial list of the chemicals is: benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene, xylene compounds. The extracted ‘water’ contains additional chemicals that are present in the deep earth. A partial list of these additional chemicals is: chloride, bromide, barium, radon, arsenic, uranium, radium, and sodium.

Ambient air that has been tested around well sites has revealed elevated levels of these chemicals and other toxic gases. In Pennsylvania and other states, animals exposed to short periods of these fracking fluids have died or gotten seriously ill, including experiencing abnormal amounts of birth defects. People exposed to the polluted air or using water wells near fracking sites have become ill with an assortment of illnesses.

The Fracking frenzy is rapidly spreading throughout the United States. The number of states with fracking activity is growing beyond the 31 states where there already is significant fracking activity. Some states, notably places like Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, and the Dakotas provide frightening sketches of the industry’s spread and impact. An environmental and human nightmare is unfolding before our eyes.

The Marcellus water shed is the major source of water for New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Marcellus is also a major shale formation. Between 2009 and 2010 more than 5000 fracking wells were drilled. The pace has hardly slacked since then. These states, with industry friendly regulations, turn a blind eye to elevated ambient air testing at fracking sites that reveal elevated levels of benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene, and xylene-all of which are compounds used in the fracking process. These chemicals are known to cause cancers, birth defects, and organ damage. In Pennsylvania neighbors of fracking sites have reported that their water well tests indicated elevated levels of numerous chemicals like sulfates, chromium, chloride, and strontium, all of which are associated with fracking. Blood tests of neighbors living near fracking sites have tested positive for a variety of chemical and heavy metals that are likewise associated with fracking.

Since most states have lax regulations and minimal zoning restrictions, fracking sites pop up next to residential communities, country homes, farms, and rural properties that were once pristine home sites. Some landowners profit from allowing drilling sites on their property while others find their land values diminished, their livelihoods threatened, and their health at risk. The industry sells the benefits of fracking as a boon to unemployment. No matter that these turn out to be short terms jobs, and very dangerous ones at that. Workers would benefit more if the federal and state governments promoted sustainable energy development.

The Pennsylvania story is being repeated in states across the US. Texas, not surprisingly, is another good example. One area of Texas, known as the Eagle Ford Shale, runs 400 miles long and 50 miles wide, from the northeast corner of Texas to the Mexican border in the southeast part of the State. Since 2008, over 7000 oil and gas wells have been sunk into the brittle shale. Another 5,500 well sites have been approved by the Texas regulators.

People live side by side with these drilling sites. One family living in Karnes County, Texas had built their retirement home in a quiet and relatively pristine area. Today, there are 50 wells within 2.5 miles of their home. No longer is there calm. The air is a toxic mix of gaseous fumes, the amount of which is not measured nor studied by the industry friendly regulators. Residential property values are considerably diminished. The families living near the drilling sites find their once normal lives shattered.

The energy companies are ecstatic. Friendly government policy makers and regulators, people like Dick Chaney and other former employers in the energy industry, are encouraging more drilling and thousands of more well sites are envisioned. Equally pleasing to the frackers in Texas is that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality does not even know that some of the well sites exist and typically rely on self monitoring by the industry.

The Texas State officials have no apparent interest in overseeing the industry. The Railroad Commission oversees the permitting. The members of this 3 person body accepted $2 million dollars in campaign contributions from the energy industry. The State legislators likewise receive generous donations, and it is reported that at least 25% of these Texas elected officials have spouses with financial interests in at least one energy company. The State has cut the enforcement and air monitoring budget since 2008. Between 2010 and 2013, 284 complaints were filed. Out of the 164 documented violations found among the 284 complaints, two fines were levied. The largest was $14,250.00. This record is a bitter joke on those who are impacted.

The biggest brouhaha in Texas, in an ironic twist, was caused by Rex Tillerson, the $40 million dollar a year CEO of ExxonMobile.  He has sued the fracker that developed a well site near Mr. Tillerson’s $5 million, 83 acre week end retreat horse ranch. Mr. Tillerson is offended because he can see a 160 foot water tower from his property, traffic is interfering with the quiet enjoyment of his property, and his property’s value is diminished. He must know about these impacts as well as the many negative health and environmental impacts because ExxonMobile is the largest fracker in the US. 

The fracking frenzy is reminiscent of the California Gold rush in the mid 19th Century, only far more destructive. Like the miners rushing to find their pot of gold and ticket to riches, while leaving behind a toxic mess for the taxpayer to clean up, the energy industry is tripping all over itself to exploit every potential drilling site in every state, while also leaving behind a toxic nightmare for others to deal with. The rush to drill the next well and sell natural gas is going full tilt because public officials in Washington and in every state capital are being bribed with campaign contributions and other monetary enticements to turn their backs on the American people.

The production and use of natural gas, like that of coal, tar sands crude, and deep well exploration for oil, do not represent an acceptable solution to satisfy the world’s energy needs. Quite to the contrary, these fossil fuels are causing an environmental calamity that threatens the very existence of life on our planet. America can do better. America must do better. We have allowed the energy industry to put its thirst for profits ahead of the welfare of our citizens and our country. Our energy policy must change, and change now.