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Posts tagged fracking
EPA Decides Not to Regulate Fracking Wastewater
Apr 29th
EPA Decides Not to Regulate Fracking Wastewater as Pennsylvania Study Reveals Recent Spike
By Sharon Kelly Thursday, April 25, 2019
Is there any doubt just who is running the country?
“On April 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told two environmental groups that it had decided it was “not necessary” to update the federal standards handling toxic waste from oil and gas wells, including the waste produced by fracking.
State regulators have repeatedly proved unable to prevent the industry’s toxic waste from entering America’s drinking water supplies, including both private wells and the rivers from which public drinking water supplies are drawn, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded in a 2017 national study.
The corrosive salt-laden wastewater from fracked wells has been spread on roads as a de-icer. It’s been sprayed into the air in the hopes of evaporating the water — a practice that spreads its blend of volatile chemicals into the air instead. Oil industry wastewater has even been used to irrigate crops — in California, where state regulators haven’t set rules to keep dangerous chemicals like the carcinogen benzene out of irrigation water.
If equally contaminated waste came from other industries, it would usually be designated hazardous waste and subject to strict tracking and disposal rules designed to keep the public safe from industrial pollution. But in July 1988, after burying clear warnings from its own scientists about the hazards of oilfield waste, the EPA offered the oil and gas industry a broad exemption from hazardous waste handling laws.
The EPA’s decision this week echoes that.”
Fracking in the US
Aug 23rd
Fracking in the US
Daily Kos Staff
Friday August 17, 2018 · 9:23 AM PDT
A new study out of Duke University shows that fracking operations in the United States have boomed in their use of water over the past five years. The researchers found that between 2011 and 2016, the amount of water being used, per well, increased 770 percent. On top of that—during the same time—the amount of “brine-laden” wastewater generated by those wells increased 1,440 percent.
What the Frack?
Aug 15th
What the Frack?
What Cows Can Tell Us About The Dangers Of Fracking
BY ANDREW BREINER POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
“Evidence on the way fracking affects the health of humans is scarce, in large part because drilling companies go to great lengths to keep that information hidden. That’s why two Cornell University researchers turned to cows to find out just how toxic fracking pollution is. The results were alarming, if not exactly surprising.
Since drilling companies refuse to reveal the exact chemicals in fracking solutions, and typically settle and impose nondisclosure agreements on any individuals harmed by the practice, there is nearly no record of how it impacts people’s health to live near a drilling operation. Doctors in Pennsylvania are even barred from revealing to their patients what chemicals they may be poisoned by.
Although property owners often file suit claiming symptoms like breathing problems and burning eyes and skin, they are typically forced to drop those claims before the driller will agree to settle. That way, there’s never confirmation that fracking harms people’s health. This study constitutes an important step towards that confirmation.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/09/19/2652731/cows-fracking-safety/
Frack off
Aug 14th
Oil companies fracking into drinking water sources, new research shows
“Companies say that fracking has never contaminated drinking water. The EPA launched three investigations over the last six years into possible drinking water contamination by oil and gas activity in Dimock, Pa.; Parker County, Texas; and Pavillion, Wyo. After initially finding evidence of contamination at the three sites, the EPA shelved the investigations amid allegations by environmentalists and local residents that the regulator succumbed to political pressure.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-fracking-groundwater-pavillion-20140811-story.html#page=1
Fracking Companies Fight Texas Families’ Air Pollution Suits, Fearing Precedent
“Two major oil companies have asked a Texas judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit that could draw new attention to the toxic air emissions from oil and gas production.”
Energy at what price?
Jul 28th
BBC News 28 July, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28513036
“He (Business and Energy Minister Matthew Hancock) added that shale gas was a ‘key part’ of the government’s plans to tackle climate change and ‘bridge to a much greener future’”.
Such rhetoric and “greenwash” is sickening to read. This destructive “tackling” is not an answer to mitigating the harmful effects of CO2 and other poisonous emissions that are the results of inexorable industrial growth.
“About half the UK is open for licensing, including parts of National Parks.”
Does wrecking National Parks sound green? These parks are our precious heritage and are not at the disposal of the current political whims.
Ethanol industry is back in the black
Feb 16th
Ethanol industry is back in the black after some rough years. Boom times are back in the ethanol business. Major producers of the corn-based fuel are reporting record returns for the fourth quarter thanks to dramatically lower corn prices, increasing demand for motor fuel and strong ethanol exports. Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota
I’ve suspected this all along. Fracking, polluting precious ground water and ethanol production, feeding vehicles instead of people, is not about lower prices for the consumer and a better life for US citizens. No, it is about exports and one of the factors in the 1% which is now .8% and rising.
Why should a corn farmer be concerned about nutrition and soil conservation with poisons readily available and corn prices high enough to afford them, when the crop will be used to feed cars? Wrecking the soil, which is an asset of the people, is ecocide and an insult to our grandchildren.