Experts
U.S. Senate. Committee on Environment and Public Works. Health Risks to Children and Communities From Recent EPA Proposals and Decisions on Air and Water Quality.
Submitted in Writing to Hearings before the Committee on Environment and Public Works,on February 6, 2007. Statement of Gina M. Solomon, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Scientist Natural Resources Defense Council, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine University of California, San Francisco. 19 pages.
"Unfortunately, EPA is taking several major steps to eliminate information and decrease health protection from environmental hazards. Six recent draft or final EPA rules will each significantly limit critical information available to scientists, health care providers, communities, and ironically to EPA itself. As a result, children and communities will be left less protected and less able to protect themselves."
Walter Hang's letter to NYS DEC Commissioner Grannis regarding 270 pollution releases. For a critique (12/18/2009) of Mr. Hang's claims, see the Oil and Gas Industry-funded Energy In Depth website's article. See also the Sourcewatch web page critiquing Energy in Depth.
"...I write today because I do not believe your response refutes the fact that the 270 uncontrolled pollution releases document serious regulatory shortcomings. I also will dispute your belief that gas and oil problems are “promptly and effectively addressed."
All of the 270 oil and gas releases I identified in November were documented in DEC’s hazardous materials spills database.
I subsequently learned the spills database does not include natural gas problems reported to health authorities in the three counties with the highest number of oil and gas wells in New York State. I also learned DEC’s Division of Mineral Resources does not report all oil and gas releases to the Division of Spills.
I write today to document dozens of additional natural gas concerns that have neither been fully investigated nor remediated. These incidents reinforce grave concerns about the adequacy of DEC’s gas drilling regulations and provide further documentation that the draft SGEIS is inadequate and must be withdrawn."...
Very truly yours,
Walter Hang
215 North Cayuga Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Cc: Honorable Judith Enck, US EPA Region 2 Administrator
Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York
Honorable Barbara Lifton, Representative, 125th Assembly District
Honorable William Parment, Representative, 150th Assembly District
Honorable James Gennaro, City Council Member, District 24
The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years.
They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling.
Derrick Ek. "Gas drilling concerns aired at DEC hearing," Nov 19, 2009. Corning Leader.
Ithaca environmental activist Walter Hang details a history of problems caused by the oil and gas industry in New York State.
Pedro Ramirez, Jr. "Wildlife Mortality Risk in Oil Field Waste Pits." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Environmental Contaminants Specialist.
The risk that oil pits pose to wildlife has been documented by several studies. Hydrofracking involves the storage of "frack water" in open pits.
See: TxSharon (2009). Video. "Cattle Drink Drilling Waste."
See: Robert Myers (2010). Environmental Dangers of Hydro-Fracturing.
See: Laura Legere (2010). Hazards posed by natural gas drilling are not limited to below ground.
See: Pit Pollution.
See: Powder River Basin Resource Council
See: Rancho Los Malulos | A satirical view from the McGill Brothers Lease
See: Ecological integrity of streams related to human cancer mortality rates
Democracy Now Video. Interview with Dr. Theo Colborn. April 14, 2010.
"The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a review of how the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can affect drinking water quality.
We speak to Dr. Theo Colborn, the president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange and one of the foremost experts on the health and environmental effects of the toxic chemicals used in fracking." [includes rush transcript]
