YOU might want to listen.
The WFAA video that TXSharon posted shows some of what is coming from an injection well site to a creek in Johnson County. It ain't pig blood, but it ain't good. And where does this unnamed creek end up? In Joe Pool Lake. A source of drinking water for many Texans.
The FW Weekly tells you about the water battle taking place all over the United States, the battle between THE PEOPLE and the industry. What happens when it's YOUR drinking water supply? WHO will save YOU?
And the Star-Telegram tells you the latest on the Range Resources lawsuit mentioned in the part of the Weekly article below.
Did three "news" sources in Fort Worth all report on water issues? What is the world coming to?
"The gas companies own the Railroad Commission," Lipsky said in reference to Range and other natural gas producers.
Lipsky said of Range, "They own the system ... they know they got away with it (water well contamination) and they're laughing about it. ... God help us all."
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From FWW:
The area was quickly designated an EPA Superfund site, meaning that it has been found to be contaminated with hazardous chemicals and that the EPA will try to determine who is responsible so that they can be legally forced to clean up the mess.
The EPA’s findings, released as a draft last month, clearly lay the blame at the feet of the gas industry and in particular, Encana Corporation, the gas field owner around Pavillion.
The agency found that natural gas and dangerous chemicals were migrating through local aquifers. More importantly the EPA discovered, via its own monitoring wells, that man-made chemicals used exclusively for hydraulic fracturing are showing up in the water.
In other words, these chemicals couldn’t have come from some sort of natural source or even another man-made source, but only from gas drilling. It was the first time that a direct scientific link has been made between gas drilling and groundwater contamination.
Not surprisingly, Encana and the industry are fighting back, arguing that the EPA’s findings are flawed on several grounds. The impact on their industry — and the worldwide natural gas supply situation — could be tremendous, if the EPA’s findings are upheld.
At stake are shale plays all around the country that have not been allowed to proceed until the gas industry proves it can drill without contaminating water supplies. Not to mention the blowback in places like Texas, where landowners across the Barnett Shale and other shale areas could conceivably use the EPA’s findings as a basis for damage suits and actions to prevent or stop drilling activities. The Natural Resources Defense Council has a list of 36 places around the country — including nine in the Barnett Shale — where landowners believe that gas fracking has contaminated their water wells.
One of those problem areas in North Texas, involving three homeowners in Hill County, stopped being a problem after the drillers, Williams Production–Gulf Coast Co., purchased all of the affected property. A second local case, involving possible contamination by Range Resources of water wells in Parker County is an ongoing legal battle.
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