Biblio
Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a leading independent North American natural gas producer. The company’s reserves are focused in both conventional and unconventional basins in Appalachia, the Rocky Mountains, the Mid-Continent and the Gulf Coast.
See: Cabot Oil & Gas’s Marcellus Drilling to Slow After PA Environment Officials Order Wells Closed. Lustgarten, Abrahm. ProPublica. (2010).
See: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania DEP takes aggressive enforcement action against Cabot Oil
See: Associated Press. December 16, 2010. The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. "Gas driller to pay $4.1 million in settlement."
HARRISBURG — The state Department of Environmental Protection has abandoned its plan to force a Houston-based drilling company to pay nearly $12 million to extend a public water line to residents whose wells have been contaminated with methane gas, citing a lack of political support.
Environmental regulators say Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. instead will pay residents of Dimock a total of $4.1 million under a settlement with the company announced late Wednesday. Cabot also has agreed to pay to install whole-house gas mitigation systems in each of the 19 affected homes.
The settlement infuriated residents, who say the DEP caved to political pressure.
See also:
- Legere. Hazards posed by natural gas drilling are not limited to below ground
- Legere. Cabot and DEP clash over Dimock water contamination
- Lippert. Shale Gas Costing 2/3 Less Than OPEC Oil Incites Water Concern
- Lustgarten. Frack Fluid Spill in Dimock Contaminates Stream, Killing Fish.
- Lustgarten. Pennsylvania Orders Cabot Oil and Gas to Stop Fracturing in Troubled County
- McFerrin. Fight Over Gas Wells in Chief Logan Heads to Supreme Court
- Noell. Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Communities in Northeastern United States
- Piette. Water All Around … Or is There?
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - April 16, 2010.
More than 15 months after natural gas drilling contaminated drinking water in Dimock, Pa., state officials are ordering the company responsible -- Houston-based Cabot Oil and Gas -- to permanently shut down some of its wells, pay nearly a quarter million dollars in fines, and permanently provide drinking water to 14 affected families.
The order is among the most punitive in Pennsylvania's history and reflects officials' frustrations over a string of drilling-related accidents. The record of spills, leaks and water contamination in Pennsylvania -- several of which are tied to Cabot -- has spotlighted the environmental risks of drilling for natural gas across the country, jeopardized development of the massive Marcellus Shale resource deposit, and contributed significantly to actions by both Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to bolster federal oversight of drilling.
"The events at Dimock have been the black eye for the industry and have also been a black eye for Pennsylvania," the state's chief environment official, John Hanger, told ProPublica. "It's been an enormous headache. If Cabot doesn't get this message, the company has got an amazing hearing problem."
CalFrac is one of the companies the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce is investigating on the potential environmental impacts from hydraulic fracturing.
"Hydraulic fracturing operations are constantly improving through advances in technology, which are intended to translate into cost savings and enhanced production for Calfrac’s customers."
"We need to develop a system to minimize the disposal costs for gas producers and make water safe for all users," said Gregory, who is responsible for the development of a new remediation technology based on electrochemical cells."
In the 1970s, Congress passed a host of environmental laws that sought to adopt a preventive approach to reducing disease and protecting health and environment. Since then, average body burdens of some persistent toxic materials such as lead and cadmium have fallen, but those of other newer materials, like persistent flame retardants, have risen.
The major obstacle to a protective chemicals management system remains the culture of trade secrecy that allows firms to withhold information about potential health and safety dangers of their products. In my book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, and in recent testimony to the President’s Cancer Panel on cancer prevention, I have advanced the concept of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Toxic Hazards.
The current regulatory system has failed to protect workers, their families and communities. Under the present adversarial system, companies can legally withhold information on the dangers of workplace hazards under the rubric of trade secrets, and they can also legally conceal information on health hazards as part of sealed settlement agreements...
Author's note: This essay is in response to: What is the key obstacle to implementing an effective, health-protective, chemicals management system?
See: Sandra Steingraber. Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment
See: Marcellus-Shale.us. "Our Look at the The Halliburton Loophole":
This exemption (from the Clean Water Act - authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005) allows non-disclosure of the toxic ingredients used near wells and aquifiers in drilling and waste injection. The rush to exploit the Marcellus Shale (referred to by BP's Tony Heyward as a "game-changer") allows gas drillers to legally keep secret the contents of the fracturing fluids used in fracking. Endocrinologist Dr. Adam Law of Ithaca, New York recently testified at the EPA Hearings in Binghamton that doctors cannot treat patients for exposure to chemicals if they don't know what they were exposed to. TEDX, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, directed by Dr. Theo Colborn in Colorado continues to investigate the relationship between health and environmental distress.
See: Poisoned profits : the toxic assault on our children
See: Tox Town
See: The National Children's Study (2010)
The National Children’s Study will examine the effects of the environment, as broadly defined to include factors such as air, water, diet, sound, family dynamics, community and cultural influences, and genetics on the growth, development, and health of children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21 years. The goal of the Study is to improve the health and well-being of children and contribute to understanding the role various factors have on health and disease. Findings from the Study will be made available as the research progresses, making potential benefits known to the public as soon as possible.
See:Fracking: Implications for Human and Environmental Health
According to the EPA's National Emission Inventory, Chevron was responsible for 4,030,422.95 pounds of green house gas emission pollution in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana in 2002.
Chevron was the first international oil company to operate in Nigeria and has, for almost 40 years of operations there, practiced the wasteful process of burning off of gas associated with oil drilling.
This gas flaring has resulted in the flaring of billions of cubic feet of natural gas. These flares have and are wrecking havoc on the air and water quality in the Niger Delta. Communities living near the flares are suffering from a myriad of health issues and are more likely to get cancer and suffer from asthma as a result of breathing flare smoke. Many flares have been burning for over 20 years and in locations only a few hundred yards from the center of the nearest village.
According to the Canadian Public Health Association, gas flares contain as many as 250 toxins and their smoke emits particulate matter---including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxides and carcinogenic substances as well as unburned fuel components, including benzene, toluene, xylene, and hydrogen sulfide. Exposure to benzene and its metabolites causes acute nonlymphocytic leukemia and a variety of other blood-related disorders in humans.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency Flare smoke can cause aggravated asthma, increases in respiratory symptoms like coughing and difficult or painful breathing, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function, and premature death.
Gas Flaring also causes acid rain, corroding roofs, acidifying lakes and streams and damaging vegetation. This acid rain, combined with frequent oil spills--totaling more than 10 Exxon Valdez spills--and dumping of toxic drilling waters into rivers has severely depleted fish stocks, which the people of the Delta rely on.
See: Chevron Human Energy Stories | Addressing Climate Change
See: Poison Fire
See: Rancho Los Malulos | A satirical view from the McGill Brothers Lease
See: Natural gas: the commodity world’s ugly duckling
See: Controversial gas 'fracking' extraction headed to Europe
See: As You Sow - Corporate Accountability, Shareholder Action, and ToxicsReduction
Excerpt of e-mail from Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy:
Anyone not living under a rock must be aware of the mountain of bad news that's recently come to light about fracking.
The New York Times recently ran an extensive three part series that detailed many of the dangers associated with fracking as well as the industry pressure that has forced state and federal agencies to turn a blind eye to practices known to put the public at risk.
Among the findings: Pennsylvania water treatment plants have been accepting radioactive drilling wastewater that is 2,000 times more polluted than permitted by federal drinking water standards. That means that one million gallons of wastewater would need to be diluted with 2 billion gallons of fresh water in order to meet minimal standards for human consumption.
Also last week: Arkansas ordered a temporary moratorium on new injection wells, which are suspected of causing 700 small earthquakes in the last six months alone.
Because about four million gallons of fracking fluid remains underground in each Marcellus well, every Marcellus well is an injection well. Even a single small earthquake could spell big trouble if it opens up fault lines and permits toxic fracking fluid to migrate into drinking water.
The EPA recently determined that methane leaks from natural gas operations are 9,000 times higher than previously suspected. Methane is a greenhouse gas twenty to thirty times more destructive than carbon dioxide.
See: ECONOMIC BENEFIT? REALLY?
As the horrific truth about the dangers of fracking continue to come to light, economist (and Catskill Citizens member!) Jannette Barth, Ph.D., continues to deconstruct the myth that drilling will be a boon to local communities and the state. Her latest report points out distortions and misstatements in the industry- funded studies that tout the economic benefits of fracking.
See: Janette Barth: Unanswered Questions About The Economic Impact of Gas Drilling In the Marcellus Shale: Don’t Jump to Conclusions.
See: Christopherson to study economic impact of gas drilling in Marcellus Shale.
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy is a volunteer grassroots organization intended to give residents a voice in the emerging energy decisions in the Catskills.
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy News Page.
See: Steve Coffman. (2009). The Safety of Fracturing Fluids – A Quantitative Assessment
Catskill Mountainkeeper is a member based advocacy organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the long term health of the six counties of the Catskill Region. Up to date news about gas drilling, boating, bears, stories, and more.
See: People's Stories
This video shows Texas Black Angus cattle drinking from drilling sludge pits at two different drilling sites in Denton County. I have witnessed cattle drinking from sludge pits regularly over the past few years.
Unlike most other states, Texas law does not require that sludge pits be lined or fenced, but it does require the pits be "cleaned up" within 120 days after completion of the well.
There are many sludge pits in Texas that never get cleaned up. These are a threat to wildlife, livestock, soil and our drinking water.
See Bluedaze by Sharon Wilson (TXSharon)
Our mission is to explore life beneath the seafloor and make transformative discoveries that advance science, benefit society, and inspire people of all ages and origins.
In a provocative 1992 essay, Thomas Gold postulated the existence of a "deep, hot biosphere", supported by geological energy sources. The potential for the oceanic deep biosphere to influence global biogeochemical processes scales with the size of the subseafloor as a habitat.
See: Probe Earth's Interior with Advanced Radiation Sources
The ramifications of a massive buried biosphere of "intraterrestrial microbes" are significant, leading to paradigm shifts in our thinking in the biosciences and geosciences.
"Despite an intense focus on discovering abiotic hydrocarbon sources in natural settings, only a handful of sites convincingly suggest that abiotic organic synthesis occurs within the geosphere...
...The crux of this topic is that currently there is no foolproof approach to distinguishing abiotic versus biotic organic synthesis. Thus, it is especially important to be cognizant of the possibilities and limitations of abiotic hydrocarbon production when considering a deep subsurface biosphere where the organic matter may be synthesized by both abiotic and biotic processes." (Proskurowski, 2010)
See: Life in the Oceans | The Why Files.
See: The Sloan - Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO)
The Deep Carbon Observatory is a program of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The Sloan - DCO mission includes the fostering of international cooperation in addressing global-scale questions, including the nature and extent of deep microbial life, the fluxes of carbon dioxide from the world's volcanoes, and the distribution and characteristics of deep hydrocarbon reservoirs.
The DCO is currently composed of four science directorates: Deep Life; Reservoirs and Fluxes; Energy, Environment, and Climate; and Physics and Chemistry of Carbon.
Gold, Thomas. The Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels. New York: Springer | Copernicus, 1998.
Goncharov, Alexander. “Unanswered Questions in Deep Carbon Research” presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting keynote | Sloan Deep Carbon Cycle Workshop, Carnegie Institution, Geophysical Laboratory | Washington, D.C., May 15, 2008. (PDF 4.4 MB)
Proskurowski, G. “Abiogenic Hydrocarbon Production at the Geosphere-Biosphere Interface via Serpentinization Reactions” in Timmis, Kenneth N., ed. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2010.
The Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) exists to help individuals & communities identify the most important environmental problems facing them - empowering & energizing them with tools to prioritize & develop their own action plans towards more sustainable solutions for a healthy environment. Read more»
Check out FracTracker.org! The blog part provides a forum to discuss the impacts you have seen or felt regarding natural gas drilling in this region, as well as share data through the site's online data tool.
The data tool is an online information commons where you can access & upload all sorts of geographically-linked data. We will be hosting regional training sessions this summer on how to use FracTracker. Contact us with questions or to find out when & where the trainings will occur.
According to a review by Josh Kusnetz of ProPublica, FracTracker "allows people to search by topic or select a specific area on a map. It also shows who uploaded the specific data set and whether other people have downloaded it or found it helpful.
Since anyone can upload a data set, this transparency is critical to determining whether the information is reliable. CHEC will remove irrelevant data, but it doesn’t vet everything for accuracy. CHEC is counting on users to police the data themselves and to distinguish the good from the bad."
According their website, Ceres (pronounced “series”) is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change.
Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of 90 investors with collective assets totaling about $10 trillion.
See: Ceres. August 5, 2010. "Investors Managing $2.5 Trillion Press Energy Companies to Better Disclose Spill Prevention and Response Plans for Deepwater Wells Worldwide".
"It is important for all companies involved in subsea deepwater drilling to be open and transparent with investors and stakeholders at this crucial historic moment," wrote the investors.
A report published on 3BL Media, Dec. 14, 2010, stated that the request was made in a letter last week from the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of 98 investors with collective assets totaling over $9 trillion. It was sent to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, whose final report and recommendations are expected in January. It was signed by Mindy S. Lubber President, Ceres Director, Investor Network on Climate Risk.
See: The Investor Environmental Health Network. 2010. Overview: Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas Development.
See: Before the Big Spill | Mixplex
See: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling | Mixplex
See: Sharlene Leurig, Water Asset Management, Ceres Report. October 2010. "The Ripple Effect: Water Risk in the Municipal Bond Market". Investor Network on Climate Risk. (PDF Download 6.6MB).
This report shows that few participants in the bond market—including investors, bond rating agencies and the utilities themselves—are accounting for growing water scarcity, legal conflicts and other threats in their analyses.
See: Futurism Now
See: H2Oil: An Explanation of the Tar Sands in Alberta
See: Keystone XL Pipeline - Issues
See: As You Sow - Corporate Accountability, Shareholder Action, and ToxicsReduction
This video shows a Grandfather changing the water filter on his well water in Prenter, WV. Coal Waste has been injected into abandoned underground mines near his house. See sludgesafety.org for more info on coal slurry.
Hydrofracking involves storing gas underground and disposing of fracking sludge in abandoned mines, both a potential threat to groundwater.
See Aurora Lights article on Coal Mining's effect on clean water in West Virginia.
Home page of "one of the largest producers of natural gas in the nation and the most active driller of new wells in the U.S."
Follow links on lower right side to See: Dave Spigelmeyer, Vice-President Government Relations, Chesapeake Energy.
"Open Letter to the State of New York", (February 18, 2010) advertisement publshed in Elmira Star-Gazette.
Read between the lines at The Fighting 29th, a New York State blog, home to former Congressman Eric Massa who resigned in March 2010.
See also: Chesapeake Energy: Fact Sheets On Horizontal Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Usage. Chesapeake Energy's Media Resources Page includes: Chesapeake (Chesapeake). 2009a. Hydraulic Fracturing Fact Sheet, May 2009. Submitted to U.S. House of Representative Committee on Natural Resources.
Chesapeake Energy breaks another promise. In meetings with Fort Worth, Texas residents, Chesapeake promised Fort they wouldn't flare the Barnett Shale gas wells in the Trinity Trees area.
See: Bluedaze by Sharon Wilson (TXSharon). December 6, 2010. "Chesapeake Energy uses fear to divide communities and pit neighbor against neighbor".
See: Poison Fire.
