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Page added on December 11, 2012
Top 3 Catastrophes Linked to Natural Gas Fracking
Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, often referred to as fracking, there’s a ton of natural gas available on the market right now. Those in the industry hail the practice as a blessing, allowing gas companies to access deposits locked in previously impenetrable rock. Although many have trumpeted the resulting decline in gas prices as proof that fracking needs to continue, they’ve kept details of its undesirable consequences closer to the chest.
It doesn’t take years of scientific studies to get an idea of what fracking can and is doing to the environment. Slowly but surely, the effects of fracking and fracking wastewater storage have emerged from those in communities closest to the drilling operations. These men, women and children are living with the risks of fracking every day. It’s their homes and businesses, their health and wellness that’s being affected.
Still skeptical? All right then. Read on for legitimate scientific studies that have linked natural gas fracking to three horrible catastrophes over the last few years.
1. Flammable Drinking Water
If you’ve seen the movie Gasland, you already know that one of the first and most obvious ways to tell if your community has been poisoned by fracking is to turn on the faucet. In scores of towns all over America, residents have noted that what should be clean drinking water is actually a flammable cocktail of untold toxicity.
In May 2011, the first scientific study linking natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The peer-reviewed research found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. They also found that the gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting, strongly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.
The EPA, which insists that fracking is completely harmless, seems to be at odds with its own research that found two Pennsylvania water wells to be contaminated by natural gas with a chemical fingerprint from the heavily-fracked Marcellus Shale.
2. Poisoned Food Supply
The Nation recently published an article about Jacki Schilke, a cattle rancher in the Bakken shale area of North Dakota. There are 32 oil and gas wells within three miles of her ranch. In the summer of 2010, there was a problem at one of the wells. Soon Schilke observed cattle limping with swollen legs and infections. Slowly, the cows stopped producing milk, some of the animals lost from 60 to 80 pounds in a week and their tails fell off.
Air testing on the Schilke ranch found benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and xylene — toxic substances that can cause serious illnesses, including cancer. Water testing found sulfates, chromium, chloride strontium and selenium.
Earlier this year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first (and, so far, only) peer-reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals. The study chronicled the experiences of 24 farmers in in six shale-gas states whose livestock experienced neurological, reproductive and acute gastrointestinal problems.
3. Manmade Earthquakes
Creating tiny fractures through which toxic chemicals and fracking wastewater can reach public drinking water supplies isn’t the only think that happens when natural gas companies drill a new well. At this week’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, attendees will be treated to not one but two new studies linking a recent increase in significant earthquakes to the reinjection of wastewater fluids from unconventional oil and gas drilling.
The first study notes “significant earthquakes are increasingly occurring within the United States midcontinent” and concludes that a recent 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma was “likely triggered by fluid injection.” The second study, focusing on the Raton Basin of Southern Colorado/Northern New Mexico, was conducted by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team.
The study concludes “the majority, if not all of the earthquakes since August 2001 have been triggered by the deep injection of wastewater related to the production of natural gas from the coal-bed methane field here.” In April and May, two small earthquakes near Blackpool, in England also contributed to suspicions of a link between earthquakes and fracking. Surprisingly, the company responsible, Cuadrilla Resources, admitted that its shale fracking operations were indeed responsible.
16 Comments on "Top 3 Catastrophes Linked to Natural Gas Fracking"
econ101 on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 3:14 am
Gasland? LOL
If there are isolated problems, and I believe Jacki Schilke is a person with a claim, the situation should be dealt with. Its not a reason to shut down an industry but certainly a valid claim can be made in the order of the Schilke claim et al.
#3 is hyperbolae. These tiny fractures cant reach public drinking water. Its an absurd and outrageous claim.
GregT on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 6:03 am
Econ101,
Time to step up to Econ 201, 301, 401 and beyond.
Maybe someone should make a list of the top 3 catastrophes associated with conventional oil.
BillT on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 6:32 am
Hi SOS…I mean…econ101.
Sure! It’s safe to drink flammable water! Just don’t smoke near it, or give it to your kids or use it to fill you aquarium full of expensive tropical fish. Or water your garden or…
You can always buy some purified bottled water from your local gas station for only $20 per gallon.
sunweb on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 3:16 pm
For those who support fracking, oil sands and the northern pipeline or for those who encourage investing in fracking, oil sands or the northern pipeline, I have this suggestion. Move your home next to a fracking well and put down your water well along side. Or better yet move your children there or better yet move your grandchildren there.
Walk the walk.
BillT on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 3:28 pm
sunweb, you have the right idea. I mentioned previously that all investors in nuclear energy should get a spent fuel rod to keep in their basement. And the CEO should get one for each of his swimming pools and family members also. I bet that they would be closed down tomorrow…lol
TyDyedInTampa on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 3:44 pm
Well……Selenium IS necessary for a healthy prostate. So, there’s that…….
econ101 on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 6:08 pm
Gasland has been debunked and discredited. It misrepresented facts and has been exposed as blatant propaganda.
Being located near an oil production facility is not going to enhance land values. it may enhance your value in ways not related to residential use however and you can cash out and find your nice country place again couldnt you?
Walking the walk? Everybody that owns property has to put up with what is called external obsolesence. For example: Your nice little residential lane becomes a booming through street. The highway needs your south forty. There are now houses all around your former country home. Your farm is in an oil field. They develop the mall in the field behind you now have traffic everywhere. They put in a high line. So things change? Your stance ignores the natural process of change.
econ101 on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 6:16 pm
As far as this article goes catastrophea 1 & 3 are outright misrepresentations of fact and/or fabricated alarmist speculation. The ligit “catastrophe” above is a tort claim. It is an unfortunate and unforseen outcome. If proven to be the fault of the producers there is a remedy. The world is not ending.
Rick on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 7:20 pm
econ101 is a troll.
Rick on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 7:21 pm
Note: Fracking is a direct result of Peak Oil. Fracking should be banned, NOW!
Bor on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 9:30 pm
Making oil out of kerogen, Fracking, Oil Sand, Hydrogen cars, Cars running on oil from french fries production, ethanol and so on… It is all are signs of desperation. Desperation can lead to stupid behavior. And stupidity can only be cured by lobotomy.
Bor on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 9:40 pm
Rick, you are right. PO deniers do not realize that we are at PO already. We, in the USA, already use alternative massively. It is Canadian tar sands. We are sooooo desperate already. Now we are fracking. We are ready to ignore environmental problems in order to get our oil fix. People like econ101 are dangerous people. They like drug pushers.
Bor on Tue, 11th Dec 2012 9:47 pm
I have had a dream in which a high number of SUVs are used as sheds. I’m old but still hope that this dream will be a reality soon.
GregT on Wed, 12th Dec 2012 12:55 am
Econ,
I would not consider what we are doing to this planet as a “natural process of change”. I would consider it an Anthropogenic process of change. A man made change that has no consideration for not only nature, but for the future survival of our very own offspring.
econ101 on Wed, 12th Dec 2012 8:31 pm
Peak oil is a fabrication used to garner political power. It has a vast consituency from far left econuts to concerned and empathetic religious leaders to power hungry politicians. It is not a real phenomena rising from actual physical shortages.
It is the politics of shortage however that has caused the human race unimaginable suffering. The peak oil politics started in the 1970s, that curtailed oil development, led to downard oil production in the USA and forced us to buy oil overseas. We bought a lot of oil from the mideast and for a while that worked well. But the situation has changed and it is what we see today. The situation in the middle east is an unintended consequence of peak oil politics.
The high cost of gas, heating oil and the impacts of high oil prices on the consumer chain cause hunger, suffering and disease. This is also an unintended consequence of peak oil politics.
None of that change coming from peak oil politics was welcome and it was all caused by human interference. The implementation of peak oil politics has “no consideration for not only nature, but for the future survival of our very own offspring.” It has helped neither our environment or the well being of our offspring.
econ101 on Wed, 12th Dec 2012 8:35 pm
To somehow hold out that humans are not natural and part of the natural order of change, as has been suggested, is simply irrational.