The Untold Story about the Health Impacts of Fracking

The health impacts of fracking get a lot of attention but, unfortunately, most of it consists of anecdotes and speculation. There is, nevertheless, plenty of evidence regarding the health impacts of fracking – it’s an untold story.

Everyone knows shale gas causes pollution right? That’s what the big debate is all about and the biggest questions revolve about the truly emotive topics of water, children and health. If we are to have a fact based debate, a logical place to concentrate on is Pennsylvania, an area of the US that, like Europe today, was completely unfamiliar with natural gas production until recently. It is also one which went from producing 1 BCM in 2008 to over 150BCM in only six years. Just for perspective; 150 BCM is more than the entire annual use of the UK. And Germany. Combined.

We’re also told how we can’t have any fracking near water supplies, or in national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty. Which, as far as I’m concerned sounds reasonable in most cases.

 

The Health Impacts of Fracking – Impacts on Water Supplies

Yet, the results of a multi- year study in Westmoreland County Pennsylvania tell something else again:

Three years of testing at the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County’s Beaver Run Reservoir has found drinking water untainted by Marcellus shale gas wells, drilled just yards from the water supply.

This is especially relevant to the UK as few people understand that US water issues have always been around personal water wells, rarely seen, where less than 1% of families use them.

Beaver Run Reservoir is fairly unique as they have been drilling since 2008 and also appear to be the only drinking water reservoir in Pennsylvania where fracking took place. Just as in Europe, there are plenty of alternate well locations and there isn’t any need to ask for trouble by doing so. This is a good time to remember that shale drilling is widespread in state forests in Pennsylvania with the following non-catastrophic, and under-reported results:

Initial water monitoring results “have not identified any significant impacts due to shale-gas development. This is based on one round of field chemistry sampling throughout the shale-gas region and over a year of operation for 10 continuous monitoring devices in key watersheds. At this early stage, the data collected are primarily for establishing baseline conditions.”

Short-term air sampling at several locations around the state “has detected natural gas constituents and associated compounds in the vicinity of shale-gas operations. These compounds were not detected at concentrations that would likely cause health-related impacts, although some were detected at levels which would produce an odor.”

Beaver Run is no Lake Geneva, but it’s not the village pond either:

Beaver Run Reservoir provides water to more than half of the authority’s customers — more than 120,000 homes and businesses in five counties.

IUP, through its Energy Sustainability Initiative, has tested the reservoir since 2011 and posted its findings on a public website.

The authority has leased property to Consol Energy on the 1,300-acre reservoir site in Salem, Bell and Washington townships.

So far, 37 deep gas wells have been drilled, with several located just a stone’s throw from the water supply.

Jack Ashton, assistant manager for the municipal authority, said IUP’s testing shows that the gas wells have not endangered the water supply.

Initially, the tests focused on streams and tributaries to the reservoir. This year they have expanded to water and air quality at the drilling sites

Scientists love data, and if they don’t find some, they go out and get some more, thus the extension from streams, to the reservoir itself and now air quality.This map shows the actual areal extent and how close the wells are:

This is one owner and has been drilled since 2008. Full disclosure, by my standards, means mentioning there was an actual accident at the site. But as usual, the damage was minimal:

The state Department of Environmental Protection cited Consol Energy’s CNX Gas after a spill of fracturing fluid at Kuhn 3D pad in Bell Township on June 1, 2013. It was contained to soil, which was excavated, the company said.

According to a statement on the authority website, CNX was fracturing a well when a leak occurred at a plumbing union. While workers were repairing the leak, at least 100 gallons of processed fracking water flowed into the soil.

Yet, even then, nothing appeared to happen that provides any proof of unavoidable water poisoning.

The question remains that if shale drilling “a stone’s throw away” from a public water supply is safe, how could drilling several miles away be dangerous?  As usual, this science based report will get ignored by antis, NGO’s and the press who find this kind of story boring but are happy to report people shouting the exact opposite.

The Health Impacts of Fracking on Children

Put together children and water, and antis start getting really emotional. When I was in Susquehanna County two years ago I visited the two shale wells behind Elk Lake Elementary School. The only apparent impact on water was that the school earned so much from the gas royalties that they can afford an indoor, (and I assume), unpolluted swimming pool. By the way can anyone can tell me of a single state primary school in the UK with its own swimming pool? Do these kids look damaged from fracking?:

Ironic, given how many poor kids are dragged along to anti-fracking rallies. Elk Lake looks much more fun than these scared kids dragged along by the grandparents:

If we can prove no damage to water or children, antis can always talk health. A favourite statistic is that 126 Pennsylvania doctors reported symptoms of damages.

One question all 126 physicians did answer was about their preparedness to provide information to patients about the potential health effects of shale gas development. The majority reported they “did not feel at all prepared.”

But the devil is in the details, or in this case of antis not mentioning several  inconvenient ones:

In July 2012, the Pennsylvania Medical Society emailed a survey to about 8,500 physicians across the commonwealth. A spokesman said the survey was developed by the state Department of Health and included 14 questions about the doctors’ interactions with patients who reported “adverse health effects from deep-well gas drilling.”

Of the 8,500 who received the survey, only 126 doctors responded.

Telling your Facebook friends that 98.56% of Pennsylvania doctors couldn’t be bothered to respond doesn’t sound exciting and certainly is no headline even for Channel 4 or Business Green. But it gets worse:

The results also show that more than 100 of them did not answer most of the 14 questions in the survey.

Single Survey Syndrome is bad enough but the results of this single survey are even less underwhelming:

So 80% of the scary sounding 126 actually found NO damage. Even more bizarre for any data twisters, the largest number (3 out of 23) of physicians who had seen alleged cases of harm were in Chester County.  Yet…

Chester and Montgomery counties may not have drilling for natural gas occurring in their confines, but both counties are profiting from the practice.

Act 13 of 2012 authorizes the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to collect a drilling impact fee from wells being drilled for the production of natural gas in the state. Some of the fees collected are put toward funding recreation and conservation projects throughout the state.

Montgomery County has received $774,000 from the Marcellus Shale Legacy Fund/Greenways and Chester County will receive $485,000, according to a press release from state Rep. Warren Kampf, who represents parts of both counties.

Even stranger is that there were zero responses from both Susquehanna and neighbouring Bradford Counties, the two at the sweet spot and heart of the Marcellus Shale.

No water pollution and healthy and happy kids is no story at all, which is how it not only should be, but actually is proven by scientific fact. Not that most people would ever point this out.

natural gas now