Q & A

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram asks a great question. A comment left provides the answer. Even sums it up in one word.  Good work, people....

I have seen many commercials from energy companies promoting the Barnett Shale region and saying how they are protecting the water tables.

How many millions of gallons of water does it take to fracture said shale at each well, and how are they protecting the water table where they are pumping the polluted water back into the ground?

-- Charlie Barnes, Arlington 

There is nothing good that can come from pumping millions upon millions of gallons of chemicals into the ground under our feet. Nothing.

-- Nell Stebbins

Bazinga

WHAT happens when reporters start asking questions? 

Read it in the Rolling Stone.  Fracker Aubrey McClendon Booted From Chesapeake Board

The facts of the loan itself were bad enough, but the way the Chesapeake’s PR dweebs handled it – at first they said the board was "fully aware" of the loan and approved it, then the next day reversed themselves – just made the whole deal more rancid. Chesapeake is a publicly-held company, with a market cap of about $12 billion.
 
The company’s stock tanked by 10 percent or so, vaporizing more than a billion dollars of shareholder value. The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the loan, as is the Security and Exchange Commission. No less than three shareholders filed lawsuits. You just know Chesapeake’s lawyers are going to be dealing with fallout from this for years. And who knows what other sweet nuggets of impropriety investigators might unearth along the way?

As I learned a few months ago while reporting for Rolling Stone, the Chesapeake is really a land-acquisition company disguised as a natural gas producer, and one that is leveraged up the wazoo.

If I were a Chesapeake shareholder, I’d have lots of questions – like, if the company is playing games with financial disclosure, what kind of foolery are they up to with disclosure about, say, the chemicals they are pumping underground during fracking operations, or what they are doing with the hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic flowback water they dispose of every year?

Enron with drilling rigs.

Let the shakedown begin.

Taking bets on if the USGS stands up for itself.  Hopefully they stand their ground, for YOU.

Read about it on Yahoo.

According to the Associated Press, a study from the U.S. Geological Survey has found a link between oil and natural gas production and a recent spike in small earthquakes in the country. The study looked at an increase in tectonic activity in the U.S. just west of Ohio and east of Utah. It found that starting in 2001 between the state lines of Colorado and New Mexico, an increase that occurred as methane production in the area occurred. Earthquake frequency spiked again since 2009, which was around the same time and in the same area as natural gas production increased.

Do no harm

Isn't that the oath doctor's take?

Seems the industry does not share the sentiment. 

What if something was making your child sick and your doctor was forbidden to tell you about it?  WHAT would you do?

Truth-out has a three part gas drilling series YOU must see.  YOUR life may depend on it.

Fracking: Pennsylvania gags Physicians

Fluids used in fracking include those that are “potentially hazardous,” including volatile organic compounds, according to Christopher Portier, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, a part of the federal Centers for Disease Control. In an email to the Associated Press in January 2012, Portier noted that waste water, in addition to bring up several elements, may be radioactive. Fracking is also believed to have been the cause of hundreds of small earthquakes in Ohio and other states.

The law, an amendment to Title 52 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, requires that companies provide to a state-maintained registry the names of chemicals and gases used in fracking. Physicians and others who work with citizen health issues may request specific information, but the company doesn’t have to provide that information if it claims it is a trade secret or proprietary information, nor does it have to reveal how the chemicals and gases used in fracking interact with natural compounds. If a company does release information about what is used, health care professionals are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that not only forbids them from warning the community of water and air pollution that may be caused by fracking, but which also forbids them from telling their own patients what the physician believes may have led to their health problems. A strict interpretation of the law would also forbid general practitioners and family practice physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreement and learn the contents of the “trade secrets” from notifying a specialist about the chemicals or compounds, thus delaying medical treatment.

The clauses are buried on pages 98 and 99 of the 174-page bill, which was initiated and passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law in February by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

“I have never seen anything like this in my 37 years of practice,” says Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician from Coraopolis, Pa.

WHO'd have thought...

It's brilliant, really.  A music magazine doing news.  A real article on fracking.  The Rolling Stone doesn't need campaign donations and gas drillers wouldn't be their typical advertisers.  We'll be buying a subscription.  Rock on. 

If you read nothing else today, read this article.  YOU can't afford not to.

According to Arthur Berman, a respected energy consultant in Texas who has spent years studying the industry, Chesapeake and its lesser competitors resemble a Ponzi scheme, overhyping the promise of shale gas in an effort to recoup their huge investments in leases and drilling. When the wells don't pay off, the firms wind up scrambling to mask their financial troubles with convoluted off-book accounting methods. "This is an industry that is caught in the grip of magical thinking," Berman says. "In fact, when you look at the level of debt some of these companies are carrying, and the questionable value of their gas reserves, there is a lot in common with the subprime mortgage market just before it melted down." Like generations of energy kingpins before him, it would seem, McClendon's primary goal is not to solve America's energy problems, but to build a pipeline directly from your wallet into his.

"...the shale-gas boom could turn out to be an economic and environmental disaster."

"Our approach is to go in early, quietly and big," says Henry Hood, who directs Chesapeake's land purchases. "We like to get our deals signed before anybody knows what we're up to and tries to run up prices."

New laws in Pennsylvania now prohibit companies from discharging flowback into rivers and streams. Instead, operators like Chesapeake either "recycle" their water by running it through a filtration system, or haul it off to Ohio and inject it underground – a process which, some seismologists now suspect, is the reason Ohio was hit by an uncharacteristically large number of earthquakes last year.

I ask her how she feels about the promise of fracking now. "I think the industry is destroying our water resource to extract a gas resource," she says. "And in the long run, I don't think that's a very smart trade."

Disposal Wells Needed

That's what the note from the Fort Worth Planning Department says.  Due to truck traffic.  What about all that truck traffic to frack a well?  Or do they only damage the roads when they are leaving?

One of THE PEOPLE wrote a letter to the Mayor and Council, any takers betting on an actual response?

Fort Worth City Council and Mayor & others

I have been sent a copy of a flyer being put out by the the City of Fort Worth that I object it's use. 

I strongly object to the City sending out flyers endorsing any increased gas drilling related activities.  This is especially true when the flyer is endorsed showing biased intentions.  In this case, "Gas drilling has increased the need for saltwater disposal wells."  The truth is, there needs to be more recycling, and not more injection wells.  By recycling, I mean reusing the water that is now being wasted, like when using injection wells.  This does not include the evaporation of the toxic waste water into the air that some companies try to pass off as recycling.

At a time when there is no doubt injection wells have caused or contributed to increased earthquakes near injection wells, why would City leaders even consider putting the citizens at risk?.  The DFW international airport allowed an injection well on the airport property several years ago, using this same logic the City is using now.  Shortly after it went into operation, there was an earthquake at DFW International that most experts agree was caused by that injection well.  Even the owner of that injection well ceased operation because they knew what caused the earthquake.  Even though many earthquakes are classified as small, they still cause damage such as bricks walls falling, cracked patios, damaged streets and overpasses, if it was your house, you would not consider it small.  Major damage is only reported as such when there are buildings literally destroyed.  Why would the City consider bringing them into a populated area like Fort Worth?  You have to wonder?

The industry told us many times there is no danger from injection wells, now they only say they are regulated.  Unfortunately, they are regulated by those who have heavy ties to the industry.

"Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."   How stupid have we become?

Someplace along the way it appears Fort Worth has lost sight of what happens to the people.

Come on In

How many times do we have to tell you?  This is Texas.  YOU always shut the gate.

Apparently, these boys don't get it.

Since they didn't, Durango takes us on a tour.

Welcome to Frackville

This time we're not talking about Cowtown. 

Frackville is just a hop, skip and a jump from another town in PA, which has been taken by eminent domain (yes, the whole town) because the under world is on fire, literally. 

Check it out on Durango.

Road closed

Why?

Durango knows.  YOU should too.

WHO controls YOUR water?

It's a tricky question.  For a reason.  There are many water districts in Texas.  Nine times out of ten, they are above the law, as in they don't have to follow any.

There's been a lot of talk about the Tarrant Regional Water District lately, but it hasn't been due to water.  It's all been about the J.D. Granger and Tim Love Woodshed restaurant sweetheart deal on the Trinity River. A million dollar (give or take a few, again, it's just YOUR money) deal.  Don't you wish YOU could go into business for with no start up cost and if it bombs, you lose nothing?  YOU bet you do, cause you've already lost another million.  And counting.  It's a small price to pay for the billion dollar boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision. 

The TRWD and the Trinity River Vision Authority, under the leadership of JD Granger, Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, heavily promoted Tubing on Trinity or Rocking on the River this summer to the citizens and taxpayers of Tarrant County.  WHY didn't they test the water?  WHY did the citizens have to pay to have it tested?

The project was touted as flood control, so it would receive federal money.  YOU hear that rest of the country?  YOU'RE paying for this too, so there.  We have to ask again, what does a BBQ shack on the river, a wakeboard park and bridges over dry land do for flood control?  YOU should ask.  After all YOU paid for it.

The TRWD should be reaching out to real water planners of the world and getting their act together before Fort Worth runs out of water.  Instead their reaching out and suing our neighbor, Oklahoma for their water.  The same state those gas drillers using all our water hail from. The same fellas that made our water district rich. Hey, here's a thought, why don't you make them bring their own water and take their waste back with them?  Ever wondered why many drill sites are close to the river and the tributaries? Remember, it flows both ways. Water, too.

If all that weren't enough, then there's fracing.  Even if you don't believe it could ever possibly happen, let's just say, what IF just ONE time it does? Remember the coast? What IF the Trinity aquifer is contaminated?  How do YOU fix it?  What happens then?  WHO is responsible?

If all that isn't enough, we came across the article below.  Which brings us back to the original question, WHO controls YOUR water?

I am in Parker County at a hearing where Range Resources has filed a plea to jurisdiction in the water contamination case where EPA had to step in. If the judge grants this motion, it means the Texas Railroad Commission is the final authority in fracking water contamination cases. It means you can’t sue for damages if the Big Gas Mafia fracks up your water. It would be a disaster for all Texas water drinkers. 

Read the rest here. 

WTH?

The gas drilling industry swears fracking and drilling doesn't cause earthquakes.

Seismic definition:

pertaining to, of the nature of, or caused by an earthquake or vibration of the earth, whether due to natural or artificial causes.

If the "artificial causes" such as gas drilling doesn't cause earthquakes, WHY is the city of North Richland Hills covered in seismic detecting equipment by the gas drilling industry?  

WHO's responsible if your home is damaged by it?

Ask Fort Worth.  

WHO's talking - Part 2

Josh Fox that's WHO.

Read about the EPA and fracking on the Guardian.

The EPA's findings about fracking's contamination of ground water have sent a shockwave through a gas industry in denial

Having investigated fracking myself for three years, I have heard the same story hundreds of times, from residents in gas-drilling areas from Wyoming to Arkansas, from Pennsylvania to Texas. It goes like this: the frackers move in - and all of a sudden your water turns color, or can be lit on fire, or smells like turpentine or leaves burn marks on you after you take a shower. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots.

What's the world coming to?

The top words of 2011:

1. Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’.
2. Deficit – Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world.
3. Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Too bad they are buying your 5th graders too.  Read the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Fracking mistrust

Really? We're supposed to believe U.S. Rep. Joe Barton when he says gas drilling isn't dangerous after he's taken more than $500,000 from the gas and oil lobby? (See: "Fracking lobby donations detailed," Friday)

We're to believe the "experts" who say fracking wasn't responsible for recent earthquakes in Oklahoma even though the number and their intensity have increased dramatically?

We're to believe Fort Worth City Council members when they say current gas drilling regulations are adequate while rejecting their own air quality study's recommendations?

Most fifth-graders would be smart enough to see the correlation between fracking and the increase in earthquakes, gas leaks, noise pollution, dirty air, contaminated water, sickened people or dead wildlife.

Why not our elected officials?

Sadly, it appears that the money has rendered them all deaf, dumb and blind.

-- Sharon Austry, Fort Worth

Night & Day

Difference between two opinion articles about fracking and natural gas drilling, published on the same day in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Can you tell who is pro-drilling and who wants to protect our water?