Sharon Daggat and her husband have a 52 acre farm, 38 acres used as a vineyard, in the Steuben County town of Pulteney. They are concerned about a permit that would allow Chesapeake Energy to store hydrofracking wastewater in an empty natural gas well next to their property. Their property is less than a mile west of Keuka Lake. They fear contamination of their well water and damage to their vineyard.
Sharon Daggat of Pulteney, NY gives testimony.
Video by Stephen D. Cannerelli.
Powder River region of northern Wyoming.
See: SkyTruth: Upper Green River Valley - A View From Above
Every day millions of gallons of clean ground water in the American West are being contaminated, all in the rush to drill for gas.
BILL WEST: It took thousands of years to recharge these aquifers.
They're pumping it out and in maybe ten years it will be gone...
On the day of a large rally outside the Capitol, Senate Democrats introduced the first significant legislation against hydraulic fracturing since the 2010 moratorium imposed by former Gov. David Paterson and the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Sens. Tony Avella, D-Whitestone, Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Joseph Addabbo, D-Queens, introduced a package of bills April 11 that includes three bills for tighter regulations and transparency for oil and gas drilling and a bill by Avella to ban hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, in New York State.
"I don't see it as that great of a request to require these gas companies to inform the public on what chemicals they're blasting into the Earth," said Krueger. "They want us to just fall in line and not ask any questions, to just trust them. Well, we saw what they did with Pennsylvania's trust, and I say no."
She was referring to a lawsuit filed by 31 Pennsylvania residents against the Southwest Energy Co. accusing the company of contaminating their water supplies for drinking, cooking and bathing with hazardous chemicals and pollutants as a result of hydrofracking.
Krueger's bill (S.425) would prohibit the use of fracking fluids "containing chemicals that pose a risk to human health." Also in the package is S.4251-a, a bill sponsored by Addabbo, that would require treatment facilities to test waste from hydraulic fracturing operations for radioactivity. The Assembly bill (A.2922) is sponsored by Robert Sweeney, D-Babylon...
See: New York State Assembly Passes Moratorium on Hydrofracking | Governor Vetoes Bill
Student Disrupts Government Auction of 150,000 Acres Of Wilderness For Oil & Gas Drilling.
Democracy Now reports on student action by Tim DeChristopher.
In a national broadcast exclusive, University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher explains how he bought 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from drilling. The sale had been strongly opposed by many environmental groups. Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said: "This is the fire sale, the Bush administrations last great gift to the oil and gas industry. This is the first 10 minutes of the interview. For the rest go to DemocracyNow!
For full interview click here.
See: Judge says drilling lease lawsuit too late
See: Tim DeChristopher's blog and update on his legal battle.
See: As climate crime continues, who are we sending to jail? Tim DeChristopher?
Superior Well Services is one of the large companies being investigated by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to see if the gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a hazard to groundwater drinking supplies.
After the announcement to take over Superior Well Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWSI) by Nabors Industries Ltd. an investigation on behalf of current investors of Superior Well Services, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:SWSI) over possible shareholder claims based on breach of fiduciary duty by certain members of the Superior Well Services board of directors in connection with their attempt to sell Superior Well Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWSI) was announced.
If you are a current investor in Superior Well Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWSI) shares, who purchased your SWSI stock prior to Monday, August 09, 2010, and/or have information relating to the investigation, you have certain options and you should contact the Shareholders Foundation, Inc by email at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1 (858) 779 - 1554.
Fracturing Systems: Hydraulic fracturing is a process of pumping water, oil, and/or gases with a proppant at sufficient pressure to create a fracture in a chosen formation. The goal is to create and prop open the fracture.
Thousands of the largest water polluters in the United States are outside the Clean Water Acts reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law.
As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising. About 117 million Americans get their drinking water from sources fed by waters that are vulnerable to exclusion from the Clean Water Act.
See: New York Times, February 28, 2010. "Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling E.P.A. | Mixplex
"We are, in essence, shutting down our Clean Water programs in some states. This is a huge step backward. When companies figure out the cops can't operate, they start remembering how much cheaper it is to just dump stuff in a nearby creek."
--Douglas F. Mundrick, EPA Lawyer.
Sustainable Otsego is a loose, minimally structured network of local activists and supporters who seek to promote sustainable practices in the rural Leatherstocking region focused on Cooperstown and Otsego County, New York. Its' listserv provides a forum for the discussion of sustainability issues.
Includes links to expert opinions, products and chemicals fact sheets and current events.
Amy Mall. Switchboard. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Articles tagged hydraulicfracturing posted by Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Boulder, Colorado in "Health and the Environment".
"NRDC’s Land Program is dedicated to protecting our nation’s wildest places and most valuable wildlife habitat from irresponsible industrial development."
See: "Today's reports of spills from natural gas operations", 3/18/2010.
See also: Mall, A., S. Buccino, and J. Nichols. “Drilling down: Protecting western communities from the health and environmental effects of oil and gas production.” National Resources Defense Council. (October 2007). (PDF 48 pages, 13.7 MB.)
Timothy W. Kelsey, Ph.D., State Program Leader, Economic & Community Development, Penn State University
Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling: What Should We Plan For?
Susan Christopherson, Dept. of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
Energy Planning in New York State
John Williams, Director of Energy Analysis, NYSERDA
Albert R. George, Ph.D., Mechanical , Aerospace & Systems Engineering, Cornell University
Natural Gas, Wind and Biofuels
Jeffrey Jacquet, Ph.D. candidate, Dept. of Natural Resources, Cornell University
Supplies of Sustainably Produced Biomass in New York
Timothy A. Volk, Sr. Research Associate, SUNY Environmental School of Forestry
Pennsylvania Energy Impacts Assessment
Nels Johnson, Deputy State Director, The Nature Conservancy, Pennsylvania Chapter
Planning for Energy Transitions
Daniel A. Spitzer, Partner, Hodgson Russ LLP
"Hundreds of people living near a natural-gas drilling site in northwest Louisiana have been forced to evacuate their homes after gas seeped into their drinking water.
Authorities in Caddo Parish evacuated at least 135 homes just south of Shreveport on Monday and Tuesday after a well being drilled nearby began spewing gas into the air and tests showed gas in local drinking water. Those who left can't return until Wednesday at the earliest, authorities said.
"We're erring on the side of safety," said Parish Commissioner Michael Thibodeaux, who represents the evacuated area.
Caddo Parish lies at the heart of the Haynesville Shale, a huge natural-gas field discovered in 2008. The field and others like it in Texas, Pennsylvania and other states have helped drive a boom in U.S. natural-gas production in recent years.
As drilling has spread to new and more heavily populated areas, however, some residents have become increasingly concerned about the possibility of air and water contamination. The industry says its practices are safe and argues that companies have drilled tens of thousands of wells in recent years with only a handful of incidents.
Problems in Caddo Parish began Sunday evening when a well being drilled by Exco Resources Inc., a Dallas-based gas producer, struck a pocket of gas much shallower than the company expected. Workers tried to control the well, but gas escaped into the air. Gas was also found in shallow freshwater aquifer that provides drinking water to many residents. Investigators will seek to confirm any link."
Start with the Introduction to the Feature Articles on NASA's Earth Observatory web site to see how scientists explain rapid climate change. The beauty of Earth's cities at night affirm our need for energy.
Global Warming and rapid climate change? There is room for denial, ask anyone who has been given a terminal AIDS or cancer diagnosis. But we are one big family with too many secrets. The U.S. and other nations cannot continue to exempt the military from environmental standards.
Perhaps our accepted ideas about the origin of oil will change as we discover life at the Earth's core and get more data from new missions beyond the Earth. What if we discover that the extraction methods and new technology that have given us hydraulic fracturing are destined to be obsolete? New research following in the footsteps of Thomas Gold's out-of-the-box thinking may lead us down a very different energy path.
The oceans and atmosphere are partners in creating Earth's climate. There is still much that remains to be discovered about the relationship between the geology underlying the oceans and Earth's climate.
See: Ocean and Climate Change Institute : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
See: Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show
Exon, N. “Scientific drilling beneath the oceans solves earthly problems.” Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs 2, no. 2 (2010): 37. (PDF)
Hayman, N. W, W. Bach, D. Blackman, G. L Christeson, K. Edwards, R. Haymon, B. Ildefonse, M. Schulte, D. Teagle, and S. White. “Future Scientific Drilling of Oceanic Crust.” Eos: Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 91, no. 15 (2010): 133–134.
On Aug. 2, 2010, Pennsylvania officials fined Talisman Energy USA, formerly Fortuna Energy, of Horseheads, N.Y., $15,506 for the November 2009 spill at the Klein gas well in Troy, PA.
DEP Officials say the spill of fluids used in the fracturing process polluted a small waterway.
“DEP’s investigation in late November 2009 determined that Talisman spilled between 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of fracking flowback fluids when a pump failed and sand collected in a valve,” said DEP North-Central Oil and Gas Program Manager Jennifer Means.
The fluids flowed off the well pad and toward a wetland, and a small amount ultimately discharged to an unnamed tributary to Webier Creek, which drains into the upper reaches of the Tioga River, a cold water fishery.
Talisman successfully completed DEP’s Act 2 process for spill cleanup activities.
Talisman Energy USA had 65 violations over the past 2 1/2 years, the fifth highest in the state of Pennsylvania, as reported in a a report released Monday by the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, which identified the Marcellus drillers with the most violations in Pennsylvania from Jan. 1, 2008 to June 25, 2010.
"Since 2002, Fortuna/TEUSA has invested in the Twin Tiers and become New York's most successful natural gas producer. On January 1, 2010 Fortuna Energy became Talisman Energy USA."
Big Oil has some big plans to put America’s clean energy future in jeopardy by expanding the production of tar sands oil – one of the most destructive, dirty, and costly fuels in the world.
In 2008, 1,600 ducks drowned in toxic tailing ponds created to produce dirty tar sands oil.
In July, 2010, 1 million gallons of oil gushed into a Michigan river from a pipeline owned by a tar sands company.
And now, tar sands oil companies want to pump this dangerous and dirty fuel right through America's heartland, putting our public water supplies, crop lands, and wildlife habitats at risk of tar sands oil leaks.
To extract the tar sands, oil companies are digging up pristine forest in Alberta, Canada, which provides habitat for large populations of migratory birds, wolves, grizzly bears, lynx and moose.
Mining and extracting these tar sands destroys enormous swaths of important ecosystems, produces lake-sized reservoirs of toxic waste, releases toxic chemicals into our air when it is refined in the U.S., and emits significantly more global warming pollutants into the atmosphere than fuels made from conventional oil.
TckTckTck is an unprecedented global alliance, 
representing hundreds of millions of people from all walks of life, who are united by a desire to see a strong global deal on climate change. We are made up of leading environment, development, and faith-based NGO's, youth groups, trade unions and individuals, and we are calling for a fair, ambitious and binding climate change agreement.
Chemicals Used in Natural Gas Operations. Includes videos, photos, background information.
"TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc.) is the only organization that focuses primarily on the human health and environmental problems caused by low-dose and/or ambient exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, called endocrine disruptors."
See: Democracy Now! video interview with TEDX founder, Dr. Theo Colburn: The Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking.
