Short-Lived Greenhouse Gases and Global Climate Change

“What is the Role for Short-Lived Climate Pollution in Mitigation Policy”

By S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

There was another significant article about global warming published in the December 13 Science, journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  It concerns the effects of the several short-lived pollutants which have significant influence on the progress of global warming.

Taylor County Residents Suffering from Admittedly Inadequate Shale Dryer Facility

These are pictures of Triana Energy's poorly maintained, woefully inadequate dryer facility. It is approximately 700 feet from the home of Denise Binion. It is leaking noxious wet gas and whatever else has been forced out of the Marcellus shale going into this pipeline. It has been leaking this stench for over a month this time. Fortunately the deafening noise that usually accompanies such incidents is not occurring at this time.

It is located on the Morgan farm on Smith Road, Taylor Co. WV, just southeast of Corbin Branch Road, heading toward Middleville Road. The fumes carry right up the valley into our backyard, about 700 or so feet away.

Marcellus Moment ..... #1 in a series

A new feature of Doddridge News and Fracking West Virginia. Bringing you a steady dose of useful info about shale gas drilling & fracking concerns. Courtesy of www.wvhostfarms.org

Did you know that the oil and gas industry is exempt from SEVEN key pieces of federal environmental laws? It’s true. In order for the industry to be able to do what they do (shale gas fracking) they have to have certain exemptions from federal EPA legislation. Many of the exemptions gained by the O&G Industry were result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, while other exemptions go back earlier than that. These exemptions allow the oil and gas industry to engage in practices that would otherwise be illegal...and ARE illegal for any other industry.

Cancer Causing Benzene is in the air near Marcellus Shale fracking sites

By CASEY JUNKINS The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

A substance believed to cause cancer in those exposed to it over an extended period of time is in the air near Marcellus Shale fracking sites, according to Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble.

"The levels of benzene really pop out. The amounts they were seeing were at levels of concern," said Gamble in describing the results of testing his department recently performed at well sites throughout Ohio County.

"The concerns of the public are validated," he added.

>>> Full Story <<<

Is it worth risking your health for cheaper energy?

5 Ways Fracking Can Make You Sick

How Fracking is Making You Sick

To reasonable people it makes a whole lot of sense that the act of pumping tons of unidentified chemicals, water, and sand into the Earth’s surface and then exploding them will result in catastrophes for both land and man.

Yet the energy and natural gas industry question that outcome, insisting that the long and short-term impacts of hydraulic-fracturing on human health demand “more study.”

While evidence of pollution mounts in heavily fracked regions across the country—with ground and surface water contaminated, livestock dead from drinking from it, and strange cancers and respiratory illnesses on the rise—the natural gas industry continues to accept no role, or certainly blame, insisting only that it will involve long scientific studies (which will take years to complete and cost millions of dollars) to sufficiently prove a link.

Check out our list of five ways fracking could be making you sick.

The science of shale gas: The latest evidence on leaky wells by Dr. Ingraffea

The science of shale gas: The latest evidence on leaky wells, methane emissions, and implications for policy. Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy, Inc. Butler Community College, Butler Pa, November 21, 2013. 

Tell The U.S. Coast Guard to KEEP FRACKING WASTE OFF OUR RIVER BARGES

This Friday, when we're all tired of turkey, the comment period closes on another turkey:

PLEASE COMMENT BEFORE NOV. 29TH

Action
Notice of availability and request for comments.
Summary
The Coast Guard announces the availability of a proposed policy letter concerning the carriage of shale gas extraction waste water in bulk via barge, and invites public comment. The policy letter specifies the conditions under which a barge owner may request and be granted a Certificate of Inspection endorsement or letter allowing the barge to transport shale gas extraction waste water in bulk. The policy letter also defines the information the Coast Guard may require the barge owner to provide and specifies the additional requirements the Coast Guard is considering imposing on such barges. Upon reviewing comments received on this proposed policy letter, Coast Guard will issue the final policy letter and specify its effective date.

Cumulative air pollution, building up from the multiple gas well pads in the area, could have long-term health complications.

Mobley Gas Plant in Wetzel County

Drilling for natural gas has created an economic boon in some parts of the state, but what kind of health impact is it having on residents of the Mountain state? The Barr family moved to Mobley, West Virginia in 1970, and they have lived their ever since. But they would have never guessed three years ago they’d wind up with a natural gas rig that does 24-hour drilling so close to the property that you can hear and smell everything that happens.

New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years

From an ProPublica article by Abrahm Lustgarten

A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted.

More than 5,000 wells were drilled in the Marcellus between mid-2009 and mid-2010, according to the study, which was published in the journal Ground Water two weeks ago. Operators inject up to 4 million gallons of fluid, under more than 10,000 pounds of pressure, to drill and frack each well.

Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies. This view of the earth's underground geology is a cornerstone of the industry's argument that fracking poses minimal threats to the environment.

Cracker Plant in your future ? - Here's a preview of what to expect

Could Houston show the way for Shell’s proposed Beaver County plant?

From a four part series by The Allegheny Front

HOUSTON ­­-- The largest chemical hub in the Americas courses through this city in a seemingly unending line of plants that produce about a quarter of the country’s petrochemicals.

These plants have helped fuel the city’s economic rise. But they also have added to its poor air quality, with emissions that have been linked to asthma, cancer, and heart attacks.

In recent years, Houston has found ways to reduce air pollution, in part by zeroing in on chemical plant emissions. Experts say Houston’s experience may show others how to keep chemical emissions down, even as the industry expands along the Gulf Coast, and possibly into Pennsylvania.

Judge defeats challenge to ‘medical gag order’ on health risks from fracking

Sure seems an absurdity and what appears to be a serious lack of logic and common sense coming from the bench. Telling doctors they don't have a right to challenge the existing "gag" orders placed upon them that prevent them from telling a patient what's poisoning them and/or the risk of exposure to certain things that are unhealthy for you.  Better to protect the frackers than for a doctor to be able to warn a patient about the risk of fracking chemical exposures! 

So the doctors in PA that are under a "gag" order (which is keeping them from telling a patient what's poisoning them in the industry's frack fluid) won't be allowed the right to challenge those   "gag" orders in court. 

From the article below: "... “medical gag rule” forbids doctors like Rodriguez from going into depth about the health problems that chemicals from fracking can cause."    ......  Well then....maybe the judge (in order to be consistent in his thought processes) ought to also deny doctors the right to discuss with patients that smoking causes cancer so he can protect the tobacco industry as well. Or how about denying the doctors the right to discuss with patients that too much soda pop causes cavities, obesity, and/or diabetes.... then he can protect the soft drink industry also. Get the point? 

This is absurd that a medical doctor cannot discuss the risks of exposures to toxins with his patient.

Wetzel County Receiving an Excess of Radioactive Drill Cuttings

From the Article by Lauren Matthews, Wetzel Chronicle

Bill Hughes, Mark Cochran, and Terri Tyler of Wetzel County’s Solid Waste Authority approached Wetzel County Commissioners on September 24^th  regarding the amount of Marcellus drill waste that is being allowed at the Wetzel County Landfill. Furthermore, Hughes and Cochran expressed concerns over the quality of the waste, being that it might have high levels of radioactive materials.

The Wetzel County Landfill is classified as a “Class B” landfill. Hughes stated that for over 20 years the total amount of waste that the landfill could accept for disposal was legally limited to 9,999 tons per month.

An Assortment of Fracking Videos recomended by S. Tom Bond

Fracking videos (1) October 22, 2013

selected by S. Thomas Bond

Name, time in minutes, brief description, internet address

You will notice other good videos on the side when visiting these sites.

Fracking and Drilling in and near a Flood Zone Increases the Possibility of Disaster

The combination of flooding and fracking horrors happening right now in Colorado could just as well be here in West Virginia considering the flood plain vs drilling mess we are nurturing here now. Especially in Doddridge County where it's sometimes hard to get the potentially affected local landowners to object to the injustice or speak up when the local " Floodplain Coordinator" makes an obvious mis-call, save for a few dedicated individuals.

We have yet to see a full scale disaster due to improper or lack of floodplain planning in West Virginia but be assured some time in the future a 50 or 100 year flood is going show us all just where the lack of experience, insight and good judgement could claim property and lives.

The major pollution potentials when oil and gas fields become flooded are not only with the drilling rigs and storage tanks themselves. If they are shut down in time the damage can be minimized. It's the open pits that contain the flow back containing carcinogenics, salts and metals that are quickly and easily compromised in a flood by mixing with the flood waters. These open pits in Colorado that have the most potential for harm, likewise in West Virginia with our many known Floodplains. In a major flood, Doddridge county could become a swimming pool of cancer causing chemicals.

(Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

Fracking Emissions Contain Carcinogens According To Study

They contain hydrocarbons including benzene

The Colorado School of Public Health recently published an interesting study entitled "Human Health Risk Assessment of Air Emissions from Development of Unconventional Natural Gas Resources." The gist of the three-year sudy is that pollution from the hydraulic fracking process may cause health problems for people living close to natural gas drilling sites.  


The study claims that potentially toxic emmissioms near fracking sites include benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene. Benzene has been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a known carcinogen.
Residents living near hydraulic fracking sites are at the highest risk for respitatory problems during the high emmission well completion period. While short term, this period is when exposure to trimethylbenzenes, aliaphatic hydrocarbons, and xylenes are high. The substances have been linked to neurological as well as respiratory effects.

MarkWest Cites ‘Erosion And Run-Off’ in Fish Kill

By CASEY JUNKINS - Staff Writer , The Intelligencer

A "major landslide" caused a MarkWest Energy pipeline in Wetzel County to leak, the company said Wednesday. The leak spilled natural gas liquids into Rocky Run, leading to a fish kill.

MarkWest Energy officials said in a statement they are repairing the 10-inch, 27-mile pipeline that connects natural gas processing facilities in Marshall and Wetzel counties. "Initial indications are that the landslide originated from significant erosion and run-off from recent heavy rainfall and impacted the right-of-way," said MarkWest spokesman Robert McHale, regarding the rupture of the line that connects the company's Mobley and Majorsville sites. "No one was injured." The leak occurred last week.

Fracking Industry Loopholes are $$$ Unnecessary $$$

Fracking is now responsible for 90 percent of domestic oil and gas production, with thousands of wells popping up across the nation. The number of wells is expected to skyrocket during the next two decades.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 requires the safe disposal of solid waste and hazardous materials. In 1980, RCRA was amended to exempt waste from the production and development of oil and natural gas (“exploration & production” waste), and so these fracking wastes are not considered hazardous as a result.

Energy Industry Accused of Suppressing Fracking Dangers

by Jared Metzker

Advertising and lobbying are deployed by the energy companies to confuse the public, and meanwhile anyone who has suffered from their practices gets a muzzle.

New signs have emerged in recent days which indicate that extreme measures are being taken in order to suppress evidence of the pernicious effects of the energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”.

At the beginning of this month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette revealed that, in 2011, a Pennsylvania family reached an unprecedented settlement with an energy company fracking near their property. It included gag orders on the family’s two children, ages seven and 10 at the time of the settlement, which prohibit them from, at any point in their lives, discussing their experiences living near a fracking site.

According PA DEP’s own documents there have been at least 161 cases of groundwater contamination caused by oil and gas development between 2008 and the fall of 2012.

1. 

   
   

   This information became public through a Right-to-know Request filed by the Scranton Sunday Times. Why was this information withheld from the public and why did the DEP fight the request in court?

   
   

   http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/sunday-times-review-of-dep-drilling-records-reveals-water-damage-murky-testing-methods-1.1491547
   
   
   

   Clearly, public agencies are hiding the dangers from the people of PA. The DEP has publicly denied any cases of groundwater contamination caused by oil and gas drilling in PA. Former secretary, Michael Krancer told the Federal Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment “the myth that terrible chemicals are getting into the groundwater is completely myth. It is bogus.” 

   
   

   http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2011/11/17/krancer-idea-fracking-polluting-groundwater-is-bogus/
   
   

Frack Water Pollutes the Big Sandy River at our border neighbor to the south west - Kentucky

Polluting the Big Sandy

Article by Kristin Kennedy, 

LAWRENCE COUNTY, KY  - He came to WKYT to apologize for what he did. A man working for a natural gas company in Eastern Kentucky claims he dumped countless numbers of harmful pollutants into the Big Sandy River. He says his bosses told him to, so he told the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Big Sandy snakes through eastern Kentucky, acting as the natural divide between our state and West Virginia. You can call it scenic, serene, and now, polluted.