Adverse Fracking Impacts, and Blaming the Environmentalists?

Commentary by S. Tom Bond:
"Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV”

Why "Environmentalists" are blamed for fracking complaints and Extent of surface damage by shale drilling

Establishment” articles do not do justice to the nature and extent of local complaints at the point of extraction of shale gas and oil.  Although they range from property devaluation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to health complaints by thousands, they are usually lumped together as complaints coming from “environmental activists.”  The typical well drilling platform takes up to five acres perhaps covered with 18 inches of crushed stone and requires access road(s) adequate for heavy trucks to pass, rocked for passage in all weather. Noise, dust, odors and light at night can be expected to continue for years, since it is the practice to drill one well and partially exhaust it before going on to the next of six or eight.

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.

The Most Wonderful Gift is an Environment Worthy of our Lives

Article by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

The title of one subsection of a communication from the German speaking part of Europe recently received was “Das schönste Geschenk ist eine lebenswerte Umwelt!” which translates into the title of this short piece. What a great thought for our time! It is so hard for many people to understand, but we are on the verge of a new way of thinking, much like the transition that took place when people began to understand the earth was a ball, not flat, the intuitive way of thinking since people began to think of what lay beyond the next hill.

Marcellus on the farm

Article by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

What Dr. Howell bargained for
looked like this.

It’s no secret that I don’t want Marcellus development on my farm.  Here is why:

In 1962, four of us, my sister, her husband,  my wife and I, bought an old farm in a remote place about 3 miles from Jane Lew.  For over 50 years, all my spare time, and every cent we made from the farm went back into improvements.  Today, my wife and I own it.  It is fenced with modern high-tensile fence, there are cattle guards in critical places where roads and fences intersect, and it is very clean.  We have the essential equipment and quality livestock,  and space for 55 to 60 head of brood cows.  After 50 years of planning and scrimping and work on our part, we hope to pass this land along to a new generation.

I have developed methods suitable to medium size hilly farms which I discuss at this website and have written a book about my life farming and changes in the community which appears here.   And I did these things while teaching Chemistry and helping raise four children.

The oil and gas was “severed” from the surface in 1934, 80 years ago, by the second predecessor-in-title, Dr. Howell. He was a physician in Buckhannon and his heirs live in Colorado.  I called three decades ago, and the granddaughter who spoke for the heirs couldn't even distinguish which of her grandfather’s farms I was talking about.  So much for any responsibility to the community.

More on the new Parkersburg West Virginia Cracker Plant

Article by S. Tom Bond
Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Sabic  is a Saudi Arabian company that specializes in high quality plastics. It has been faced with financial difficulty and is expected to transfer its  business  to Illinois and Mississippi.  It had previously announced plans to close in 2015.    While the salaries were good, the work conditions were sub-par.  Plans are that the “cracker’ plant will replace its current plant seven miles from downtown Parkersburg in what is called Washington Bottom.

A horrible decision against Jessica Ernst, Landowner, Rosebud, Alberta, Canada

Article by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Canadian Courts Dismiss Protection for Owners of Polluted Lands & Waters

Alberta, Canada, is a province lying in and east of the Rocky Mountains, north of Montana and up to the 60th parallel. In it lie Edmonton and Calgary, large cities, so that only 19% of the 3.6 million total population live in  rural areas.  It is the home of the fabulously beautiful location, sometimes called Superman Country, where part of the movie Superman was filmed.  It is also the home of vast deposits of hydrocarbons: coal, gas and the famous Athabasca Tar Sands.  Alberta is the largest producer of crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas and gas products in Canada. Alberta is the world’s second largest exporter of natural gas and the fourth largest producer.

That is the background of our story (and incidentally sheds some light on the Keystone XL pipeline).  The hydrocarbon industry in Alberta is a political power that makes Texas look downright democratic.

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.

WVU Professor Addresses 625 Foot Set-Back Rule for Marcellus Wells

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

Usually when you write about a meeting, the procedure is to focus on what was said.  In this case the emphasis must be on interpretation of what was said, because the background formed what was said, not the research.

The meeting was titled “Monitoring of Marcellus Drilling Operations.”  The speaker was Dr. MIchael McCawley of the WVU Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Scienc. These lectures were held at Philip Barbour High School auditorium, Philippi, WV on October 15 and again the 16th at Erickson Alumni Center at WVU.

The Nature and Extent of Global Warming, Affecting Our Entire Planet

Global Warming is Affecting Our Entire Planet

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

Most are aware that global warming has not increased as fast recently as it did a few years ago. Global warming deniers made sure of that, while frequently saying global warming has slowed down, implying the heating process had decreased. Not so! The energy is being held in, prevented from escaping from the earth, the same as before, and as the relentless increase in carbon dioxide continues, somewhat more every single day.

The heat retained is going to warm other things than the air. For the transfer of heat from one object to another, the first object (the air which has been heated by infrared radiation) has to be warmer. The greater the difference, the faster the heat transfer. The air is not warming as fast, because it is now transferring much of the heat energy to other bodies that must be warmed simultaneously (because there is no insulation between them).

Chief among the places the retained heat goes is the ocean. As one goes down in the ocean the water becomes colder, because cold water is more dense. Water cooled at the poles sinks under the rest of the ocean, and the coldest water is near the bottom all over the world. The data in the World Ocean Database includes nine million temperature profiles.

The proportions of where the heat goes is shown here.

 (J is for joules, which is a measure of heat energy.) Only 2% of the heat is stored in the atmosphere by raising its temperature, the rest goes to the other sources shown.

Potentially Dangerous Site in a Floodplain - The Latest Doddridge County Claim to Fame

FrackTracker and WV Host Farms Confer in WV Gas Fields

Article by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County

FrackTracker sent a small group to meet with West Virginia Host Farms the 26th of September. Most people who study fracking know about FrackTracker through it’s maps which show newly permitted wells and know about Host Farms from it’s program which allows scientists and other visitors to have access to points of interest through landowners and providing meals and lodging for them.



The groups met in West Union for lunch and then toured a well site, a pipeline laying location, and a large and growing compressor station. Extensive discussion of “after-the-fact” permits and “negotiated settlements” of fines for infractions of law and regulations occupied a large part of the lunch period. There is a great contrast between the way corporations and individuals are treated.

Earth Sciences - What We Are Learning From Shale Drilling

Analysis by S. Tom Bond
Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Geologists and petroleum engineers are learning that the earth is really much more complicated than the simple conceptual diagrams that are in their textbooks and that they put out to the companies that want to drill.  Those diagrams are a bit like a layer cake.  They appear to have uniform thickness and consist of uniform, homogeneous, single component layers. 

However, buried landscapes, compression and extension, lateral thrusts, percolating waters of various compositions, often highly corrosive or oxidizing, radioactivity, an immense amount of detail which changes unpredictably in a few yards vertically or a few tens of yards horizontally are left out.

Some People Won’t Touch Fracking Problems With a Ten Foot Pole!

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

September 8th, 2013

When I was a kid in these West Virginia hills, there was a common saying, “I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.” I suppose it originally meant some physical thing, but in my time it meant the speaker wouldn't broach some topic because of the controversy involved, some theological, political, or other issue.

Now some people wouldn't touch the problems of fracking with a ten-foot pole. (We use “fracking” here for the whole process of drilling shale for horizontal access and the use of high volume, slick-water hydraulic fracturing.) Many avoiders are holders of political office, some are academics who don’t want to be outside the main stream, others are just plain blunderers, unwilling to find out the truth.

Climate Change Impacts on Global Food Security

Review by S. Tom Bond, Ph.D., Retired Chemistry Professor & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

FrackCheckWV has referred its readers to the recent issue of Science which has over 50 pages of articles on the changes in natural systems in changing climates.  Being both a farmer and someone who enjoys a good meal encourages me to think about what future possibilities would be.  Food security, the ability of individuals to secure enough of the right kinds of food to sustain them, is also a very important political consideration.  This article is a condensation of “Climate Change Impacts on Global Food Security, appearing on page 508 of the August 2, 2013 issue of Science.

Food security has four factors.  The first is production of sufficient quantities of the right kinds of food.  Each human needs not only energy, but protein and other nutrients.  The second is access.  There must be transportation and distribution to reach the individual, and in some cases this does not exist.  In urban settings it has to be paid for, so the individual must have sufficient  steady income. Third, there must be adequate utilization – facilities to prepare the food, including cooking and clean water for sanitation that are needed so physiological needs can be met.  The fourth is stability of supply, so that an individual can have adequate food at all times. 

Production, access, facilities to prepare and year-round supply.  All are needed by every individual if they are to survive.

Worldwide Anti-Fracking Movement Establishing a Recognizable Presence

by S. Tom Bond, Ph.D. Retired Chemistry Professor and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

To the casual United States reader of newspapers and captives of the TV news, any complaints about shale drilling may appear local and peculiar.  Anyone who digs deeper realizes this is not the case.  It is a worldwide phenomenon, present anywhere shale drilling takes place.  New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, the Karoo desert in South Africa  (a most unlikely place for an industry that takes so much water), Romania,  Poland, and others. Each reaction, and there is always a reaction to what happens, has a separate story.  Each uses different methods, to protest the same, identical complaints, but there are two constants: non-violence and largely unpaid workers in the anti-fracking response.

Unfortunately, Climate Change Denial Continues

Commentary by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemist & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

In spite of near universal agreement among climate scientists that the earth is warming and the cause is human activity climate warming denial is strong among those influenced by the energy business.

Interestingly, forced winds of change are blowing through Reuters’ environmental coverage. One of its three regional environment correspondents “is no longer with the company” and the other two have been ordered to switch focus, people inside the agency say.

THE JOKER – Permafrost - Permafrost Releases Methane

 By. S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

There are two phenomena in the Arctic, that bode evil for the future: loss of arctic sea ice and melting permafrost. I’ve read a lot, and it seems no one has a quantitative idea about what will happen when the arctic sea ice cover melts. The absence of ice will let sunlight penetrate the surface and warm the water, rather than being reflected back into space. With ice 80% of the energy is reflected back into space, 20% is absorbed, going into warming the ice and the air above it. With open sea, 80% of the energy is absorbed.

“Energy Overdevelopment”

By S. Tom Bond
Retired Chemist and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

At the recent Water and Wellness Conference at Buckhannon this author received a copy of the large format book “Energy – Overdevelopment and the delusion of endless growth.” Put out by the Post Carbon Institute, it examines in detail the folly of modern energy production. It has wonderful, large pictures from all over the world and articles by many experts in energy and environment.

Public Meeting about Marcellus leasing activity held at Normantown, Gilmer County, WV

 “What is the Scale of the Marcellus Shale ‘Play’?”

Update Report by S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemist and Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

On Thursday the 1st of August an informational meeting organized by residents of Gilmer County was held at Normantown, in Gilmer County. Gilmer County has been the target of a lot of Marcellus leasing activity in the recent months. Although Gilmer has been the location of much of the older type of oil and gas extraction, shale drilling with horizontal wells, slick-water fracking, and endless traffic is new to the area.

The introduction was made by Julie Archer of the Surface Owners Rights Organization, which has several members in the area. She explained the meeting was to help people know what is coming and to anticipate it. Knowing the law, monitoring the industrial activity, and staying in contact with the various state agencies is the way to protect the community. Citizens must be the eyes and ears of the agencies, because they are undermanned. Contamination, accidents, safety hazards on the road, environmental hazards, are all known to citizens almost as soon as or sooner, in some cases, than those who cause them. Citizens act as “sensors” for the agencies.

The Cost That Cannot Raise Its Head (Part 1)

Shale Drilling Commentary by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

There are many arguments for and against shale drilling. It produces a lot of cheap natural gas and oil right now, it helps industries that need cheap energy and feed stocks, it requires lots of inputs (especially steel and diesel for running all those engines) and it provides jobs, but not so many or so well paid as coal.

Due to United States economic policy for the last few decades, there is a lot of capital piled up looking for some place to go. Particularly in foreign tax havens, since tax avoidance is a national preoccupation in the U. S. which is only exceeded by Italy and few other nations. Everybody is looking for a sure thing, quick. If you read the investment newsletters, shale drilling looks like IT.

So shale drilling has garnered some lovely advantages for itself, some by being part of the petroleum industry and fossil fuel business, and some unique to shale drilling itself.

But the accounting used to evaluate the industry can see only in one direction. This is because energy supports our much loved but wasteful relationship with personal transportation, much of it in oversize vehicles, and with our much loved but scandalous desire to dominate the rest of the world with our war machines. It is needed for industries such as steel, glass, concrete, and for our development of huge over-centralized supply networks for almost all goods, requiring huge amounts of long distance transportation, rather then local supply networks. We need too much heating energy because we build without proper insulation and do not utilize the waste heat from electrical generation and a host of other industrial processes.

The Importance of Getting Control of Energy Supplies

By S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

In the long history of civilization, some written records go back ten thousand years or so. For most people it has been almost pure calamity. A few people living isolated lives in the forest had to deal with wild animals, but people living in developed areas had to deal with human predators: both bandits and the rapacious armies traveling through; taxes to support luxury-loving aristocrats; marginal food production and failed crops. And a host of other evils most people today don’t even think about.