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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsParts of this country are being made uninhabitable by Fracking, and it's getting worse
Worst threat to our environments by far.
Fracking Boom Leaves Texans Under a Toxic Cloud
This story was produced by InsideClimate News in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel.
<snip>
Today, however, the ranch-style house she shares with her 66-year-old husband, Shelby, is at the epicenter of one of the nation's biggest and least-publicized oil and gas booms. With more than 50 wells drilled within 2.5 miles of their home, the days when the Buehrings could sit on the deck that Shelby built and lull away an afternoon are long gone. The fumes won't let them
Known as the Eagle Ford Shale play, this 400-mile-long, 50-mile-wide bacchanal of oil and gas extraction stretches from Leon County, Texas, in the northeast to the Mexico border in the southwest.
Since 2008, more than 7,000 oil and gas wells have been sunk into the brittle, sedimentary rock. Another 5,500 have been approved by state regulators, making the Eagle Ford one of the most active drilling sites in America.
<snip>
In addition to the wells near their home, there are at least nine oil and gas production facilities. Little is known about six of the facilities, because they don't have to file their emissions data with the state. Air permits for the remaining three sites show they house 25 compressor engines, 10 heater treaters, 6 flares, 4 glycol dehydrators and 65 storage tanks for oil, wastewater and condensate. Combined, those sites have the state's permission to release 189 tons of volatile organic compounds, a class of toxic chemicals that includes benzene and formaldehyde, into the air each year. That's about 12 percent more than Valero's Houston Oil Refinery disgorged in 2012.
<snip>
The regulation of oil and gas extraction falls primarily to the states, whose rules vary dramatically. States are also responsible for enforcing the federal Clean Air Act, an arrangement that is problematic in Texas, which has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 18 times in the last decade.
<snip>
For the past eight months, the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and The Weather Channel have examined what Texas, the nation's biggest oil producer, has done to protect people in the Eagle Ford from the industry's pollutants. What's happening in the Eagle Ford is important not only for Texas, but also for Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Dakota and other states where horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have made it profitable to extract oil and gas from deeply buried shale.
<snip>
Texas' air monitoring system is so flawed that the state knows almost nothing about the extent of the pollution in the Eagle Ford. Only five permanent air monitors are installed in the 20,000-square-mile region, and all are at the fringes of the shale play, far from the heavy drilling areas where emissions are highest.
<snip>
More horrifying facts at link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/fracking-boom-leaves-texans-under-a-toxic-cloud.
President Obama strongly supports fracking and expanding fracking- including on public lands.
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Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Meth labs should be legal too. Both could blow up and cause damage, but only the meth head would go to jail.
cali
(114,904 posts)On April 10, 2012, a family in Atascosa County reported an odor "so bad that their lungs feel as if they will burst."
"Help us residents of South Texas before we all die," a Gonzales County resident pleaded the same day. The complaint alleged that an operator had dug a hole in the ground and buried "oily drilling waste…sometimes with diesel fuel, chemicals and oil floating on it."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/fracking-boom-leaves-texans-under-a-toxic-cloud.html
questionseverything
(9,654 posts)every1 is downstream from somebody
besides the terror of having deadly chemicals injected in the groundwater I have seen devastating pics of northern Wisconsin (where they are stripping the land to mine the sand used in fracking)
Texas’ toxic air: Major investigation reveals how unregulated pollution from fracking is making people sick
<snip>
A damning investigation released Tuesday by the Weather Channel, the Center for Public Integrity and InsideClimate News describes an oil-happy culture where those against drilling are seen as being against Texas itself, and where those seeing the devastating health effects of pollution are left to their own devices as politicians rush to defend the industry. In case you just want to know how outraged you should be, the team was kind enough to summarize their major findings
Texas’ air monitoring system is so flawed that the state knows almost nothing about the extent of the pollution in the Eagle Ford. Only five permanent air monitors are installed in the 20,000-square-mile region, and all are at the fringes of the shale play, far from the heavy drilling areas where emissions are highest.
Thousands of oil and gas facilities, including six of the nine production sites near the Buehrings’ house, are allowed to self-audit their emissions without reporting them to the state. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates most air emissions, doesn’t even know some of these facilities exist. An internal agency document acknowledges that the rule allowing this practice “[c]annot be proven to be protective.”
Companies that break the law are rarely fined. Of the 284 oil and gas industry-related complaints filed with the TCEQ by Eagle Ford residents between Jan. 1, 2010, and Nov. 19, 2013, only two resulted in fines despite 164 documented violations. The largest was just $14,250. (Pending enforcement actions could lead to six more fines.)
<snip>
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/18/texas_toxic_air_major_investigation_reveals_how_unregulated_pollution_from_fracking_is_making_people_sick/
cali
(114,904 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)And you are so correct, nobody cares until an untold number of us die from fracking exposure...meh, probably that won't even get any media attention. This is Texas and we love us some oil! 
cali
(114,904 posts)is so fucked up. Sorry, but I'm just shocked by this shit.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Care. The plight of small towns in Texas has been turning my stomach into an acid waste heap for some time now.
And the fracking monsters are about to descend on Californians, this summer.
Since the on going drought is going to decimate small farmers, they will be more open to accepting good hard cash offers from Big Energy, that will enable them to keep their farms going.
The fact that five or ten years from now, their farms will become a toxic nightmare once fracking is unleashed, that won't be as important as staving off foreclosure that is more immediate.
cali
(114,904 posts)I'm sorry that GD has become so much more of gossip/shock of the day forum than a forum where difficult, complex issues are discussed.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Giving away their children's future for an easy buck. 
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)it is highly unlikely they will be able to set up in California even if the small farmers want to cut a deal with the Frackers.
cali
(114,904 posts)Leaders in Los Angeles seem to have been paying attention to Hollywood. A little more than a year after the release of Promised Land, a movie about the dangers of fracking starring Matt Damon, members of L.A. City Council are trying to ban hydraulic fracturing.
“Fracking and other unconventional drilling is happening here in Los Angeles, and without the oversight and review to keep our neighborhoods safe,” Councilman Mike Bonin said during a committee hearing on Tuesday. Here’s more from the L.A. Times:
The council is slated to vote Friday to draft new rules that would prohibit hydraulic fracturing and other forms of “well stimulation” in Los Angeles until the council is sure they are safe. …
Several Angelenos complained [during Tuesday's committee hearing] about vibrations and other problems that they blamed on oil extraction activities at nearby wells.
“Our walls are crumbling,” said Llewyn Fowlkes, part of the Harbor Gateway North Neighborhood Council, which backs a ban. “Our sidewalks are pulling apart and cracking.”
The move coincides with a renewed effort by California lawmakers to impose a moratorium on fracking across the state. A recently introduced bill, SB 1132, would expand the scope of a multi-agency review of the economic, environmental, and public health impacts of fracking — and bar the practice until the study is complete. Some state lawmakers tried to push a fracking moratorium last year, but all they managed to get was weak regulation of the fracking industry.
<snip>
http://grist.org/news/l-a-and-california-lawmakers-move-to-impose-fracking-moratoriums/
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)To be re-elected, and as Big Energy has the Big Bucks to see to it that their people get in, the battle against fracking is a battle that will be waged again and again and again.
Plus if one community doesn't allow it, the equipment exists to "slant it in" from another county!
Then even if LA is successful in keeping out fracking interests, another community can allow for it, and people in LA will be out the money an d revenue that might be theirs, will still having all the problems.
Preventing fracking needs to occur on at least a state if not a Federal level.
But since 85% of all elected officials are bought and paid for, and the other 15% are simply trying not to be smeared by their local mafiosa of a city council member, or trying to avoid being affected by some time of investigation (Look at how John Conyers' wife got investigated, when Conyers didn't make the Powers that Be happy, and then the same thing happened to Maxine Waters,) I have no idea what the solution will be.
cali
(114,904 posts)but frankly, we part company when it comes to Conyer's wife. The evidence against her was overwhelming. She was guilty.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)Fracking isn't so simple when the geomorphology varies so much like it does in California compared to Texas. And California also doesn't have good water sources so fracking has yet to take off in the farm fertile regions in CA. The attempt will be tried but the water resources by the summer will not be there.
BronxBoy
(2,286 posts)
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"President Obama strongly supports fracking and expanding fracking- including on public lands. "
From the article:
The TCEQ is led by three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who favors dismantling the EPA and voices doubt about climate change. TCEQ officials often go on to jobs as lobbyists for the energy industry they once regulated.
The Texas Railroad Commission, which issues drilling permits and regulates all other aspects of oil and gas production, is controlled by three elected commissioners who accepted more than $2 million in campaign contributions from the industry during the 2012 election cycle, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
State legislators who enact the laws that regulate the industry are often tied to it. Nearly one in four state legislators, or his or her spouse, has a financial interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of personal financial disclosure forms shows.
"I believe if you're anti-oil and gas, you're anti-Texas," state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, a Republican from Central Texas, said during a media panel discussion in September.
<...>
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/fracking-boom-leaves-texans-under-a-toxic-cloud.html
Obama isn't even mentioned in the article.
cali
(114,904 posts)extant and it's getting worse with dizzying rapidity.
President Obama has ACTIVELY promoted fracking and is doing so in the present.
The EPA under President Obama has delayed and buried fracking studies.
He has promoted more fracking on public lands.
As the person in this country with the biggest megaphone and with power to regulate
And don't forget, President Obama voted FOR the Energy legislation with the Halliburton loophole which exempted big gas and oil from having to comply with many EPA regulations.
So yeah, he's part of the overall story on the fracking boom.
extant and it's getting worse with dizzying rapidity.
President Obama has ACTIVELY promoted fracking and is doing so in the present.
The EPA under President Obama has delayed and buried fracking studies.
He has promoted more fracking on public lands.
As the person in this country with the biggest megaphone and with power to regulate
And don't forget, President Obama voted FOR the Energy legislation with the Halliburton loophole which exempted big gas and oil from having to comply with many EPA regulations.
So yeah, he's part of the overall story on the fracking boom.
...you didn't post the article to condemn what these people in Texas are doing, but to call attention to Obama?
The "EPA under President Obama" is trying to get a handle on a process controlled by states.
EPA Releases Final Guidance for Fracking with Diesel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024484308
cali
(114,904 posts)and most environmental orgs consider it cosmetic and pretty inconsequential
most of my op is not about President Obama, but his involvement in promoting fracking to the degree that he's doing, is a piece of the overall fracking picture- and not a small piece.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/16/2471231/administration-expand-fracking-public-lands/#
what is your solution to the information cited here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024569123#post11
"most of my op is not about President Obama, but his involvement in promoting fracking to the degree that he's doing, is a piece of the overall fracking picture- and not a small piece. "
The OP article has absolutely nothing to do with Obama, but it appears that your only goal in posting it is to call out Obama.
cali
(114,904 posts)<snip>
The agency’s action, however, will have very little overall effect on fracking, since only about 2% of oil and gas operations in the country use diesel. The new measure also leaves many forms of diesel unregulated.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-administration-diesel-fracking-20140211,0,4568510.story#ixzz2uT6EPU6G
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)motive of the OP.
Do you have an opinion about fracking?
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Yes, because the poster hasn't once addressed the situation in the article.
"Apparently you are not here to discuss fracking. Just here to make insinuations about the motive of the OP."
What are you here to discuss? I mean, where is your comment on the what Texas is doing?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)be proven safe. Now your turn.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"I want the President to issue an executive order to halt all fracking until it can be proven safe. Now your turn. "
...to ban all fracking...tomorrow.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)spare me the links to the petty-assed actions the EPA are doing.
"The EPA is recommending that the regulators tell the frackers to be careful."
ProSense
(116,464 posts)WTF?
cali
(114,904 posts)for you the earth revolves around President Obama.
I've been clear about why I included him in the OP: You can't really discuss the current status of fracking in this country without including him. He's the one leading the charge.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"for you the earth revolves around President Obama. "
...coming from some who posted an article about Texas' fracking situation to call out Obama...an article that has nothing to do with Obama.
cali
(114,904 posts)in the country and as he is directly involved in the push for more fracking, including fracking on public land, its absurd not to mention that in the context of problems caused by it. It's his energy policy that pushes it.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)The Texas Railroad Commission, which issues drilling permits and regulates all other aspects of oil and gas production, is controlled by three elected commissioners who accepted more than $2 million in campaign contributions from the industry during the 2012 election cycle, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Thanks, Obama!
cali
(114,904 posts)I do appreciate your kicking this thread though. I love seeing it get so much attention.
thanks pro, old gal.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)PO's been in office now for 5 years.
Does this mean you support environmentally dangerous gas fracking and tar sands pipelines?
Why isn't PO against this? Why isn't he out there in Texas standing in the middle of it vowing to shut it all down?
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Why isn't PO against this? Why isn't he out there in Texas standing in the middle of it vowing to shut it all down? "
...you have it. Obama should march into Texas and take over the state.
The TCEQ is led by three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican who favors dismantling the EPA and voices doubt about climate change. TCEQ officials often go on to jobs as lobbyists for the energy industry they once regulated.
The Texas Railroad Commission, which issues drilling permits and regulates all other aspects of oil and gas production, is controlled by three elected commissioners who accepted more than $2 million in campaign contributions from the industry during the 2012 election cycle, according to data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
State legislators who enact the laws that regulate the industry are often tied to it. Nearly one in four state legislators, or his or her spouse, has a financial interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of personal financial disclosure forms shows.
"I believe if you're anti-oil and gas, you're anti-Texas," state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, a Republican from Central Texas, said during a media panel discussion in September.
<...>
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/fracking-boom-leaves-texans-under-a-toxic-cloud.html
Response to ProSense (Reply #26)
rhett o rick This message was self-deleted by its author.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)PO can go anywhere he damn well pleases.
And you know what I think of all that big talk from the oil barons you drag up? 
It's an excuse to not do what needs to be done. It has to stop somewhere. We just can't keep kicking the can down the road.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)know about the dangers with fracking operations. Most are blissfully unaware of the dire consequences before it is too late. That is why fracking operations are working at a dizzying pace to get in, and get out before the local community they pillaged realizes what has happened.
Basically modern day robber barons.
the judge said, is "a natural resource that's given by God to allow us to function … I don't think there’s anything wrong with that."
-the stupid, it burns
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)
jeff47
(26,549 posts)
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Silly Vermonter.
cali
(114,904 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Makes me glad I live in a state with so few natural resources to be exploited"
Here:
The business of a natural gas pipeline in Vermont
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20130908/NEWS01/309080017/Rutland-or-bust
Vermont pipeline expansion reignites fracking debate
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/the-stream/the-stream-officialblog/2013/10/4/vermont-pipelineexpansionreignitesfrackingdebate.html
cali
(114,904 posts)to exploit?
I didn't say there weren't environmental problems to face- though there are reasons why Vermont is the greenest state in the country.
You really love to demonstrate your, uh, shallow knowledge of my state, its reps and its politics in general.
go for it, propro,
ProSense
(116,464 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)But this winter's weird weather, and a bumper crop of Midwestern corn that required four times more propane for drying, has triggered an unprecedented domestic shortage of the fuel, a byproduct of natural gas production and crude oil refining.
<...>
Elected officials in propane-dependent states are demanding relief. On Feb. 14, the congressional delegation from Vermont, where 15 percent of households heat with propane, called on the U.S. Commerce Department to impose a temporary export ban.
"The problem is that almost all new propane production over the past three years has been exported to more lucrative overseas markets instead of being used to meet consumer demand right here in the United States," said the letter from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch.
- more -
http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-24/business/47607065_1_much-propane-national-propane-gas-association-marcellus-shale
Emergency Proposal on Propane Prices
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/emergency-proposal-on-propane-prices
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)All Your Syrup Belong To Us!
File not found.
Agony
(2,605 posts)
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)here, in Colorado, it is a gushing rush to frack. Our Senator (D) is all in favor for it unfortunately. It is a question between the disaster of the land and jobs. Homo sapiens is like every other creature reactive not proactive. And still I will have to vote for Udall.
SIGH!
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)I wrote about a year or two ago, that I felt like the 1% are dividing the world up into sacrifice zones.
Fracking areas are one type of sacrifice zone.
toby jo
(1,269 posts)The gas is better than the coal used almost everywhere, especially here in the east. But they need to slow down, quit racing each other to next quarter's profit statements.
The pres could get involved in a real way: establish an oversight panel to keep carbon-based fuels in the picture long enough to get us totally off of them. Then keep them around in a small trickle, as a back-up and for future situations that may arise. If the expansion were federally mandated, it would go a long way towards ending the toxic free-for-all we're seeing.
Our environmental health is a collective issue. Profits are not. Overrule Cheney and his ilk.
From the corporation's perspective, I get it. It's a 'we drill now or he will' mentality. And there is ALOT of money at stake. Somebody just needs to stand up and be the adult in the room.
cali
(114,904 posts)The President has promoted fracking at every turn and done little to increase regulation- there is virtually no regulation now.
"The President has promoted fracking at every turn and done little to increase regulation- there is virtually no regulation now."
LOL: "for you the earth revolves around President Obama. "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024569123#post43
cali
(114,904 posts)Probably. You have a way of outdoing yourself.
linking to the op?
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)Not that we should keep on using it, but I heard recently that the methane released by fracking makes the air even more poisonous than oil. I could be wrong about that though.
cali
(114,904 posts)indicate that the advantages of fracking over coal are not as pronounced as has been claimed.
And when you think about the amount of fracking and the exponential growth of it, that makes some sense.
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)which makes it worse. I heard on the Thom H. show, that the ice in the poles contains huge amount of methane and of the fear of the melting and release is real. It seems we are on the way to self extinction.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)In other words, methane is a better insulator than CO2.
bkanderson76
(266 posts)this 20,000 square mile facility are showing minimal emissions....well within all Texas standards.
Texas standards
Texas standards
Texas standards
Texas standards
Need Anyone Say More?
Rex
(65,616 posts)
historylovr
(1,557 posts)
doc03
(35,332 posts)with horizontal drilling used in fracking? One well serves 1 square mile or 640 acres, the things must be stacked on top of each other.
I have seen very little ill effects around here from fracking. It has given us a badly needed economic boost since we lost several thousand
manufacturing jobs.
cali
(114,904 posts)the mounting scientific evidence that it is bad for the environment; air, water and earth.
do a little research.
doc03
(35,332 posts)laws. We can't use fracking, we can't use a pipeline to transport our oil and we can't use rail either now. We can't build nuclear plants
they aren't safe. We can't put a hydro plant on the river it will cause environmental damage of some kind. We can't build wind turbines
they kill birds. We could go to horses but they expel gas when they fart.
pscot
(21,024 posts)We're headed for a 4 degree centigrade rise in global temperatures.
doc03
(35,332 posts)
Champion Jack
(5,378 posts)I could see how they could cram five pads into a 2 1/2 mile area.
My friend has 32 wells on the hill behind her house and they are going to add 12 more in the next few months . The noise is loud and 24/7 , the trucks run all day and night. When they flare the wells the sky is lit up for miles , the fumes are overwhelming and it sounds like a jet engine.
By the way, they don't always have to have 640 acres for a play the minimum around here is 350 acres.
If you don't believe that there is no negative impact from Fracking come down here to West Virginia I'll introduce you to people who have had their water wells ruined by arsenic and benzine from Fracking. Try selling your property when all of a sudden you're surrounded by this horrible mess.
doc03
(35,332 posts)in ten directions. That would be just 5 wells not 50 separate wells. I live just a few miles from WV and haven't heard of no such thing. The fracking fluid is being
injected a mile or more under the ground how does get into a water well?
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)The fracking fluid is being
injected a mile or more under the ground how does get into a water well?
Basic hydrology is how.
A mile is just over 5,000 feet. It's not uncommon for domestic water sources to be located nearly 1,000 feet down. While the intervening 4,000 feet may sound like a lot, it is only an impermeable barrier in textbook-ideal-theoretical-land, not in real earth. In real ground, soils and rock layers are often heterogeneous, ground shifts due to weather, seismic activity, the high pressure of the fracking itself, etc., and the fracking chemicals themselves are powerful solvents. These chemicals will move. Also, the fracking and injection wells and casings themselves are subject to failure. When (not if, but when) they fail, the well itself becomes a superhighway for groundwater pollution.
-app
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)-----
Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)I smell grounds for impeachment.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)
frwrfpos
(517 posts)Fracking is very dangerous to us all.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Or is it doomed forever?
daleanime
(17,796 posts)
aquart
(69,014 posts)Idiot on Twitter yesterday so ignorant he still thinks Keystone will bring jobs.