Tanker Truck Rolls, Spills Substance Similar To Fracking Fluid

CBSDENVER
January 31, 2012

An image from the rollover (credit: CBS)

COLLBRAN, Colo. (CBS4) – Investigators are checking for environmental impacts after a tanker truck rolled in Mesa County.

Several gallons of a substance similar to fracking fluid spilled out. It happened Monday afternoon near the town of Collbran on Buzzard Creek Road near Kimble Creek Road.




Fire crews say the truck was carrying 110 barrels of “production water,” which is very similar to fracking fluid.

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Why did Cheney make gas drilling exempt from the Clean Air and Water Acts. This is why! (VIDEO)

Source: unknown

To White House January 28, 2012

Why did Cheney make gas drilling exempt from the Clean Air and Water Acts. This is why!

Carl Stiles of Bradford County, PA passed away yesterday. He had been fighting health issues ever since finding high levels of barium and arsenic in their well water, and fought hard and suffered much in the last 2 years, has lost the fight tonight. Stiles had intestinal cancer which he blames on Chesapeake’s gas drilling. He and his wife abandoned their home last November at the urging of a toxicologist who found barium, arsenic, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in Carl’s blood. Strontium, uranium and radium were found in their water. They were told to expect to get leukemia within two years. Carl did not have that long.

Your inclusion of shale gas as a panacea for all our woes in the State of the Union speech was reckless and ignorant. You will cause the death of thousands soon and millions down the road if you do not immediately stop this insane process.

There is no reason for it except greed. With a bit of patience, common sense and true concern for the well being of our people, we can follow Germany's example and get off poisonous fuels- nuclear and fossil fossil - forever.

.....................

Some call it murder - What do you think?

.....................

Dear All,

Carl Stiles, who stayed with his fiance, Jude, at my house last year
after his home was contaminated, passed away yesterday. He had been
fighting health issues ever since finding high levels of barium and
arsenic in their well water, and fought hard and suffered much in the
last 2 years, has lost the fight tonight.

His widow, Jude, asked that memorial donations be made to GDAC.
I thought you would be touched.

- paula

Carl Stiles had intestinal cancer which he blames on Chesapeake's gas drilling. He and his wife abandoned their home last November at the urging of a toxicologist who found barium, arsenic, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in Carl's blood. Strontium, uranium and radium were found in their water. They've been told to expect to get leukemia within two years."
http://waterandmoreblog.com/2011/06/21/gas-drilling-disrupts-lives-endangers-...
.......................................................

How many innocent people have to suffer for the greed of the industry? How many people's families have to be completely destroyed before anyone truly does anything about this 'horror' and 'catastrophe' called hydraulic fracturing?

We say BAN IT NOW!

Fracking Quakes Shake the Shale Gas Industry

Published by MIT
Friday, January 20, 2012
By Peter Fairley

Well shutdowns prompted by fracking-induced seismicity may inspire technology tweaks.

Geophysicists are increasingly certain that expanding production of shale gas is responsible for a spate of minor earthquakes that have upset some communities and prompted authorities in Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and the U.K. to shut down some natural-gas operations. The question now, say the experts, is whether the underground operations causing the trouble should be scaled back or more closely monitored to minimize future quakes—and whether the relatively small quakes may yet have the potential to trigger truly destructive ones.

At least one shale gas producer is already talking change: U.K.-based Cuadrilla Resources, whose first project set off quakes near Blackpool last year.

Shale gas operations generate microseismicity in two ways. One is through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the underground blasts of water, sand, and chemicals used to release the natural gas trapped within shale deposits. Fracking is how Cuadrilla caused a quake that measured 2.3 on the Richter scale last April, according to an analysis by the firm's geophysical consultants.

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Isn't it about time the industry pulls its ugly head out of the hole in the ground and admit that 'unconventional methods' are not sound science?  It's perfectly clear to us that you cannot control nature, thus you cannot control the outcome(s) from unconventional methods.

unconventional methods = unconventional outcomes

Say NO to Shale Gas Meeting (VIDEO)

2 of 2 VIDEOS






SAY NO TO SHALE GAS, video clips about hydro-fracking, taken at a public meeting held June 30, 2011, at Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada, Part 1
BAN FRACKING NB - join the group!!
The website addy is http://www.banfrackingnb.ca and the Facebook link is http://www.facebook.com/BanFrackingNB

Ex-oil worker blasts shale gas industry / Ex-oil worker's concerns

Source: TheRGDN on Dec 12, 2011

Maxime Daigle worked in the oil industry for seven years but is now protesting against further development of the shale gas sector

See also "Say No to Shale Gas June 30, 2011, Rexton, New Brunswick, Part 2"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRYHCYS18tQ#t=1m44s

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/12/01/nb-daigle-shale-...

Boulder County is about to get fracked

Food And Water Watch

There are proposals to frack on dozens of sites throughout Boulder County, including on seven open space areas. Fracking won't preserve these open spaces; it is an industrial process that can contaminate water, cause earthquakes and result in significant noise and air pollution—all on land paid for with your tax dollars.

Tell the Boulder County Commissioners to ban fracking now! HERE

Moms Stand Up to Fracking

Source: HealthyChild.org/blogspot.com

Expert Opinion

Written by Angie Nordstrum, with an introduction by Robyn O'Brien of Allergy Kids

We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) the movie “Erin Brockovich” in which a bold and fiercely determined mom takes on a chemical company for exposing a small town and the families and children that live there to toxic chemicals that have been linked to cancer. It’s Academy Award winning material.

And it’s happening again.

In a small town in Colorado, 600 yards from three elementary schools and a childcare center, the natural gas industry is about to drill wells and expose hundreds of school children to chemicals that have never been proven safe, for which there is no accountability when it comes to their safe disposal and for which there is no clarity on who would assume liability (and future medical bills) for the health of these children should they become ill.

It’s an unprecedented situation, because in the haste to drill, no regulations and no long-term human health studies have been conducted to assess the impact that these processes and the chemicals used in them might have on the health of children.

According to the Denver Post, “the American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and thousands of drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush for natural gas.

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Like Fracking? You'll Love 'Super Fracking'

Businessweek
By David Wethe
January 19, 2012


Oil service companies roll out new technologies to break up more earth more cheaply

Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Few energy industry practices have sparked more controversy than hydraulic fracking. First, wells are drilled horizontally below the surface, allowing a single bore or pathway to reach vertical pockets of oil and natural gas trapped between formations of shale and other rock. Then high-pressure jets of water, sand, and chemicals are pumped into the ground to create fissures through the rock so oil can seep out and be retrieved. Regulators, environmentalists, and academics are studying whether the practice can damage the environment.

Undeterred, oil services companies including Baker Hughes and Schlumberger are continuing their quest to devise ways to create longer, deeper cracks in the earth to release more oil and gas. These companies are no longer content to frack—they want to super frack.

High crude prices and newly accessible oil and gas embedded in shale rock in North America are driving the wave of innovation. The more thoroughly that petroleum-saturated rock is cracked, the more oil and gas is freed to flow from each well, raising the efficiency—and profit—of the expensive process. For example, the growing use of movable sleeves, a tubelike device with holes that fits inside a well bore, lets drillers target multiple spots to dislodge entrapped oil. This technique can reduce the $2.5 million startup cost of a fracking well near the Canadian border by up to two-thirds, according to a recent analysis by JPMorgan Chase.

Multiply such savings by hundreds of wells added in that area each year, and you start to understand why the industry is so eager to hone the process. “I want to crack the rock across as much of the reservoir as I can,” says David A. Pursell, a former fracking engineer who’s now an analyst at Tudor Pickering Holt in Houston. “That’s the Holy Grail.”


CLICK TO ENLARGE

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Commerce City officials hear comment on fracking ban

By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post

COMMERCE CITY — Council members this evening debated the merits of a six-month moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the city, which drew sharp comments from some who are afraid oil and gas drilling in the community will lead to environmental disaster.

"I think we need a time out and this community needs to band together and lead the way on this," said resident Kristi Douglas, a critic of the process also known as fracking. "A lot of people are going to be wondering where Commerce City stands on this."

Others, however, said fracking hasn't shown to be quite the danger as some portray it . "There is so much misinformation out there," said councilman Jim Bensen, who held a public forum earlier this month that included several experts on the issue. "I don't think this is the emergency that some people think it is."

By late evening, the City Council went into executive session to talk about the legal implications of a six-month moratorium on fracking

Commerce City — among other cities along the Front Range — has been wrestling with the issue of hydraulic fracturing over the past several months.

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Environmental groups rally for NY ‘fracking’ bills

CBSNEWS.COM
January 23, 2012 4:50 PM

(AP) ALBANY, N.Y. — Health and environmental groups rallied at New York State's Capitol on Monday to call for a legislative ban on hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, saying no amount of regulation can adequately safeguard water supplies from contamination.

"Fracking is the most important environmental issue this state has faced in the past 100 years," Sen. Tony Avella, sponsor of a bill to ban hydraulic fracturing, said at the rally in the Legislative Office Building next to the Capitol.

"There is no possible regulation or series of regulations that can stop the one incident that pollutes our water supply for 1,000 years."

Organizers said about 600 people from around the state traveled to Albany and registered to lobby state lawmakers for various bills related to the practice known as fracking, which stimulates gas production by injecting wells with millions of gallons of chemically treated water to fracture shale.

Noting that some mainstream environmental groups have been pushing for strict regulation of fracking rather than a ban, Avella said, "Shame on you! There can be no compromise on this issue."

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So you want to move to boom town? Think about this first

Source: unknown

A meeting was held of the ND Sheriff’s & Deputies Association in Bismarck, as part of this meeting we had an opportunity to sit down with Law Enforcement from western ND to discuss what they are going through with oil impact. Here is a summary of points made:

1. Currently there are a total of 84 companies involved in the oil industry in western ND.

2. It takes between 2000 and 2200 semi loads of water per well. Currently there are 258 wells in progress with so many scheduled it is hard to determine the exact amount.

3. Traffic accidents, especially fatal traffic accidents are of very high concern. At one location on Highway 85 south of Williston, a traffic count was conducted in October of 2011. In one 24 hour period of time there where 29,000 vehicle through the intersection looked at with 60% of the traffic being semi’s.

4. Traffic is typically backed up for ½ to ¾ of a mile. One of the guys stated that one day last week he sat at an intersection on Highway 85 for about 30 minutes to get a big enough opening to cross over.

5. They have closed the weigh scale house because it was causing such a traffic jamb that it was closing the roadway.

6. Rent in Williston currently is: $ 2000 for a one bedroom to $ 3400 for a three bedroom.

7. They have no more hook ups for campers any where in the area.

8. Williams County allows three campers per farmstead, the farmers almost all have three campers on their property and are charging $ 800 per camper per month for rent.

9. Wal Mart in Williston no longer stocks shelves, they bring out pallets of merchandise at night, and set it in the isles, people then take off the pallets what they want.

10. On 1-1-12, the Williston Wal Mart had 148 campers overnight in their parking lot.

11. Williams County wrecked a pickup and ended up bringing it to Bismarck for repairs because there no available body shops to do the work. Williams County has purchased a trailer and has started to bring vehicles to the Bismarck area for repairs. Williams County took a pickup in for ball joints and front brakes, the shop charged them $ 2800 for the repairs.

12. Williston and Williams County now produces more taxable sales than any other area in ND.

13. The Williams County jail has increased booking by 150%. With a 100% increase in inmate population. Bonds of $ 5k to $ 10 K are typically paid with cash out of pocket. The Williams County Sheriff stated that a couple of week ago he received a $ 63,000 bond in cash carried into the jail in a plastic Wal Mart bag.

14. Williams County Sheriff’s Department has more than doubled in staff over the last two years, they are now buying trailer houses that come up for sale to rent to newly hired deputies.

15. Williams County new starting salary with the academy is $ 46,000 plus 100% of all benefits paid.

16. They are in a continuous hiring cycle, they have no set budget at this time, the Sheriff has been told to manage his office to the best of his abilities and keep the Commission updated, but do not worry about the budget.

17. The Williston McDonalds just announced that they will pay $ 15 an hour, a $ 500 immediate sign on bonus and a single medical plan paid for.

18. The restaurants are full and with limited staff to work in them they usually just have the drive through open. The restaurants that have inside seating are now an hour wait at all times.

19. Law Enforcement in the Williams County area cannot provide training to staff due to time constraints and no location to hold training.

20. The local Motel 6 in Williston now rents rooms fro $ 129.95 per night.

21. Law Enforcement no longer does any proactive work (school programs, community services, house checks) they do very little traffic related issues as well, they just to from call to call. Bars fights are one of the biggest issues.

22. Other law enforcement issues include the strip clubs. The local clubs have now started what is called “babe buses”. These buses go out to areas and pick up people and bus them back and forth to the strip clubs, the buses have poles on them as well as live entertainment.

23. Drug problems are immense, and they are seeing narcotics that they have never seen in the area before, like black tar heroin.

24. The civil process section of the Sheriff’s Department use to average 1800 paper a year, they are now doing 4500 processes a year.

25. Law Enforcement said that they make as many Driving under the influence arrest at 10 Am as they do at midnight.

26. Illegal aliens have become a huge problem, especially getting the proper authorities do remove them from the Country.

27. The current thought from the oil companies is that the area will continue to grow as it has over the past two years for the next five years and stay for ten years. At the end of the ten years they feel the communities will drop in population somewhat.

28. The current thought is that the oil companies will be drilling wells on every 1280 acres of leased land, this way they have tied up the land and do not have to release the property.

29. The Williston General Motors dealership has now become the number 1 seller of Corvettes in the upper Midwest.

 

31. They said they do not know anybody anymore. The Sheriff of Williams County he use to be able to go to Wal Mart and not be walk very far without knowing somebody, now he does not know any of the people in there.

32. Many of the local citizens are taking retirement and moving out of the area.

33. They have an extreme amount of alcohol abuse going on. They have more calls than ever of drunk people trying to get into houses, to find out they are at the wrong place.

34. Minot population has grown by a projected 9000 people since the completion of the census. Minot is expecting to reach a population of 75,000 in the next five years.

Trinity Hospital in Minot has just hired 115 nurses from the Philippians to work at the hospital, as they cannot get enough local nurses to apply.

Gotta Love it!

Finding answers for Pavillion residents - EPA responds to media scrutiny

JIM MARTIN
Trib.com
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Jim Martin of Denver is the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator

Several recent news and opinion pieces in this newspaper have mischaracterized the Environmental Protection Agency’s work in Pavillion. I’d like to take this opportunity to clarify some key facts about our science.

First, the editorial page of this paper wrote that EPA has “poisoned the public debate by releasing its report” and a recent opinion piece claimed that the report release was “rushed.” These assertions do a disservice to the rigorous scientific process EPA conducted and the vital interest in informing the public and scientific community of the results of EPA’s work.

Our investigation of drinking water safety in Pavillion has been under way for three years. We have conducted four rounds of sampling. After the sampling phase, our career scientists conducted a meticulous evaluation of the data. Their conclusions were thoroughly reviewed by EPA career managers and subjected to an initial peer review by independent experts. The draft report exhaustively describes the evidence supporting EPA’s conclusions and how that evidence was evaluated.

Importantly, we have been clear that the report is a draft, that we expect and want public feedback, and that we are asking independent experts to publicly peer review our work, which is the accepted method of resolving questions about scientific validity.

We could not conduct an open peer review, with full participation by the public, if our draft report could not see the light of day. Nor would burying the report be fair to the citizens of Wyoming , who deserve to know what EPA has concluded about the safety of their drinking water.

We likewise reject the assertion that we have ignored questions about the study raised by the state of Wyoming . In fact, we fully shared our study protocols with the state before beginning each phase of work. Then, we took the unusual step of delaying the release of the draft report by a month to allow a full technical review by the state and other parties. We held two full-day meetings with the state’s experts to answer... Continue reading...

"Fracking industry requests and welcomes more oversight and regulations in Longmont." (Internal email)

City of Longmont, (Boulder County) CO
Internal email
Jan 23 2012
Source

........................

May we remind you of a few important elements that your 'keen' eye has overlooked.


Total number of oil and gas spills and notices of alleged violations (per county) filed with the State of Colorado


Compilation of Actual Fracking Complaints - Dear County Commissioners


Hydrogen sulfide high at 53 wells, Noble says


Boulder County, CO Landowner Complaint - Health Concerns from Emissions and Surface Agreement Second Thoughts


COGCC requests emergency funding for explosive levels of methane seeping into occupied residential homes from abandoned oil and gas wells


Groundwater Investigation - Pavillion Wyoming

Dear Mr. Terry Gulliver,

Care for a bite of apple? We assure you, it's safe...

Email Terry your thoughts, we did.
TGulliver@norwestcorp.com
NORWEST CORP
Denver, ColoradoTel: 303 782 0164
Email: denver@norwestcorp.com




We agree, the industry does need more oversight and regulations. The COGCC has failed miserably to prevent adverse environmental and human health impacts in regards to mining that uses the processes, 'hydraulic fracturing.'.

Halliburton to build $20 million terminal in Windsor to support hydraulic fracturing activity (IMAGE)

Denver Post

Mark Jaffe

Houston-based Halliburton will build a $20 million sand terminal in Windsor to support its hydraulic fracturing activity in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, the company said.

Halliburton will use 54 acres in the Great Western Industrial Park, which is being developed by the Denver-based Broe Group.

Sand is a key component in fracking fluid, which is pumped into wells under pressure to fracture rock and release more oil and gas. The sand props open the tiny fissures.

There has been an increase in hydrofracturing the in the basin as companies search the Niobrara formation, which is more than 6,000 feet below the surface, for oil deposits using horizontally drilled wells.

"With the increasing interest in horizontal well development in the DJ Basin, we have seen an increase in exploration and production by some of our key customers,"

Halliburton senior region vice president Rick Grisinger said in a statement.

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Colorado parks commission OK's plan to drill at state park

Denver Business Journal
Date: Friday, January 13, 2012



Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to give the go-ahead to limited oil and gas drilling inside St. Vrain State Park, near Longmont.

KUNC reports that the 14-member panel OK'd a staff recommendation to allow Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to drill in the park starting in 2013.

The vote allows agency director Rick Cables to negotiate a lease with Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, one of three oil companies that have expressed an interest in the mineral rights under the park.

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CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

.

Stop this an absolute tragedy! Why in the hell would anyone that works to protect our natural areas vote to allow fracking in a designated State Park? It is a collision with their mission to ensure sustainable, viable, ecosystems for flora and fauna inhabitants and for the people to enjoy and connect with. 

One would want to better understand why these daft voters still retain a position to protect our environment.  We say: 'Fire all of them!" And do it now.


Send these, so-called 'protectors of the lands' a tweet or email, and let them know just how you feel they are handling YOUR State Parks. Is your park next?



@costateparks
cpwcommission@state.co.us  (email State Parks)

Bulgaria bans shale gas drilling with 'fracking' method

BBC
19 January 2012



Bulgaria has become the second European country after France to ban exploratory drilling for shale gas using the extraction method called "fracking".

Bread loaves symbolised nature at an anti-fracking

rally in the Bulgarian capital Sofia

Bulgarian MPs voted overwhelmingly for a ban on Wednesday, following big street protests by environmentalists.

Bulgaria has revoked a shale gas permit granted to US energy giant Chevron.

Critics say shale gas drilling can poison underground water and even cause earth tremors. Industry experts say correct drilling is safe.

Hydraulic fracking involves releasing gas trapped in rocks by pumping in water mixed with sand and chemicals at high pressure. The technique is used widely in Canada and the US.

The Bulgarian drilling ban stipulates a fine of 100m levs (£43m; $66m) for any infringements.

Last Saturday protesters rallied in several Bulgarian cities urging the government to halt drilling for shale gas.

Currently Bulgaria and many of its former communist neighbours rely heavily on imported Russian gas.

Chevron had been given a permit to prospect for shale gas in northeastern Bulgaria.

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DO NOT CENSOR OUR WEB! STOP #SOPA STOP #PIPA

Source: Wikipedia

The Wikipedia community has blacked out the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours on January 18th to raise awareness about legislation being proposed by the U.S. Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate -- and to encourage readers to speak out against it. This legislation, if passed, will harm the free and open Internet. If you are in the United States, let your congressional representative know what you think of the proposed legislation by clicking here.

• The blackout will last 24 hours -- from midnight to midnight EST (05:00 UTC Wed to 05:00 UTC Thu).

• This decision was made by Wikipedia’s global community of editors -- the people who built Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, also opposes SOPA and PIPA, and supports the editors' blackout.

• SOPA and PIPA are real threats to the free and open Internet. Although recent media reports have suggested that the bills are losing support, they are not dead. On January 17th, SOPA's sponsor said the bill will be discussed and pushed forward in early February. PIPA could be debated in the U.S. Senate as soon as next week. There is a need to send a strong message that bills like SOPA and PIPA must not move forward: they will cause too much damage.

• Although the bills have been amended since their introduction, they are still deeply problematic. Among other serious problems in the current draft of the bills, the requirement exists for US-based sites to actively police links to purported infringing sites. These kinds of self-policing activities are non-sustainable for large, global sites - including ones like Wikipedia. The legislative language is ambiguous and overly broad, even though it touches on protected speech. Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease.

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Hydraulic fracturing fingered in oil well blowout

By Dina O'Meara,
Calgary Herald
Edmonton Journal
January 16, 2012 8:06 PM

Oil sprayed on farmer’s land near Innisfail

CALGARY — Hydraulic fracturing of an oil well in southern Alberta could have caused an oil well blowout a kilometre away, according to provincial regulators.

Friday afternoon, a landowner in the Garrington area west of Innisfail spotted a pumpjack spewing what appeared to be oil and chemicals onto his neighbour’s field.

Black fluid from the well sprayed 15 metres in the air until the man was able to alert a hydraulic fracturing crew working on a nearby well for Midway Energy. They halted operations at the site then shut down the Wild Stream Exploration pumpjack.

The Energy Resource Conservation Board was alerted around 5:30 p.m. Friday by the Alberta Surface Rights Group on the behest of the landowner.

“We don’t know the details yet ... but my understanding is that it appears the fracturing process affected the other well,” said board spokeswoman Cara Tobin, Monday.

The incident could have repercussions around North America as the industry grapples with rising public discontent over rapidly increasing use of the technology to unlock shale gas and oil reserves.
Fluids blasted deep into the earth under high pressure appear to have intersected underground with the second well, forcing oil up through the well bore at explosive rates.

“We’re still not quite sure what happened,” said Scott Ratushny, Midway Energy chief executive. “We’re still investigating it, but something allowed the frack to carry into the same zone, 130 to 140 metres away (underground),”
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Drilling out a plan: Oil boom on the horizon worries many

Coloradoan.com
Dec 17 2011

A corral gate frames a windmill at Soapstone Natural

Area in July 2009. / V. Richard Haro/ Coloradoan library

The specter of oil rigs drilling on the windswept plains of Soapstone Prairie Natural Area haunts Fort Collins officials.

It's a possibility as the push for energy development moves west from Weld County toward the 22,000-acre city-owned conservation area, which sits south of the Colorado/ Wyoming border.

Also at risk for future drilling are Red Mountain Open Space to the west, a nearly 15,000-acre property owned and managed by Larimer County, and the city-owned Meadow Springs Ranch to the east. The ranch covers 26,500 acres.

"My worst nightmare is we would have a wellhead on every 35 acres,"

said John Stokes, director of the Fort Collins Natural Resources Department. "That would be a complete and total disaster, from my perspective. We definitely don't want that."

If drilling for oil comes to the area, city and county officials say they want to be prepared for it with a plan for where it may and may not occur.

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Here's a draft of our law to criminalize hydrofracking: New York Public Law #1

Source
FrackBustersNY.org

DRAFT — AUGUST 2011 — DRAFT
This bill was conceived and drafted by SPAN (Sovereign People’s Action Network of Ulster and Greene Counties) — Mark DeNat, Mary Finneran, Richard Grossman, Linda Leeds, Mary MacArthur, Joan Walker-Wasylyk, Jay Wenk with Carl Arnold, Kate Bartholomew, Gusti Bogok, Suzannah Glidden, Jack Ossont and Maura Stephens, representing themselves and several groups from around New York State









SUMMARY: Amends the penal code to criminalize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and related activity, and to subject all persons, corporations and government entities that engage in fracking and related activity to criminal penalties.

Sponsors:

_____________________________________________________________________

BILL TEXT:
STATE OF NEW YORK
2011–2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY/SENATE
September __, 2011
________________

Multi-Sponsored by:
Introduced by:
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. The People of the State of New York declare that use of fracking technology for the purpose of extracting “natural” gas, oil or water, or for any other purpose is destructive to public health; is destructive to the environment, community, economic stability and jobs; is destructive to representative government; and is destructive to the fundamental integrity of the body politic.

Section 2. Definitions

§2a. The term “hydraulic fracturing,” or “fracking,” means all the processes involved in mapping, exploring, developing, drilling, extracting, disposing, processing, storing and distributing fossil fuels via hydraulic-fracture drilling. Fracking shall also include any water extraction used for these processes, and all shipping or disposing of solid or fluid wastes or residues from these processes.

§2b. The term “corporation” means a legal fiction, an artificial entity created under the laws of New York State or another state of the United States, or under the laws of another nation, that is operating in New York State. This term includes any limited partnership, limited liability partnership, business trust or limited liability company organized under the laws of this State or any state of the United States or under the laws of any other nation, and any other business entity that possesses New York State-conferred limited liability attributes for its shareholders.

“Corporation” also applies to any business entity in which one or more owners or partners is a corporation or other artificial entity in law that limits shareholder liability for corporate debt, harm and culpability.

“Corporation” also applies to all categories of nonprofit, not-for-profit and municipal corporations as well as all authorities and commissions.

Section 3. Declaration. The people of New York State, to protect the health, safety and welfare of all species, including humans, along with the lands, waters, communities and economies of New York; to protect existing industry, businesses and jobs; and to ensure the viability of industry, businesses and jobs in the future, declare fracking, and all activities that enable or are related to fracking, to be criminal offenses.

Section 4. Statement of Law. A human person, a legal-fiction corporation or other entity is guilty of the crime of fracking if he, she or it

§4a. spends money or arrays technical equipment to locate, study or extract oil, gas or water through fracking from anywhere in New York State.

§4b. imports fracking-related materials, including fracking wastes, into the State.

§4c. withdraws water from New York State surface water or groundwater for use with fracking in New York State, or for use with fracking in any other state, territory or country.

§4d. owns, possesses or transports fracking paraphernalia anywhere in New York State.

§4e. advertises, markets or disseminates fracking-related information to the public or to public officials by print, electronic or oral means, or pays others to do so.

Section 5. Application of law to entities other than human persons and legal-fiction corporations. This law also applies to any New York State or local government entity, agency, instrumentality or official (elected or appointed), including members of the State judiciary.

Section 6. Penalties

§6a. It shall be a Class C felony for any person, corporation or syndicate, State entity or State employee (elected or appointed) to engage in fracking. Any person found guilty of fracking shall be sentenced to imprisonment and made to pay a monetary fine. The prison term shall be fixed by the court and shall not be less than five years or greater than twenty years. The minimum period must be fixed by the court and specified in the sentence. Any corporation found guilty of fracking shall be subject to penalty as described in Section 7. In no instance shall the monetary fine be less than one million US dollars per violation of this law.

§6b. Article 80 of the penal code (“Fines”), Section 80.00 “Fine for felony,” shall be added to as follows:

“1.c.(v) for Class C felony convictions of ‘Fracking’ and ‘Fracking-related activity,’ the minimum fine for individuals is one million dollars for each offense.” Section 80.10 “Fines for corporations” shall be added to as follows: “4. Corporate officers and board members convicted of felony ‘Fracking’ and ‘Fracking-related activity’ shall be fined a minimum of one million dollars each for each offense.”

§6c. A separate offense shall arise for each day or portion thereof in which any violation of this law occurs, and for each section of this law that is found to be violated.

Section 7. Culpability of corporate officers and directors

§7a. If a corporation of any classification is found guilty of fracking and/or related activity, a court shall assume that all members of the corporation’s board of directors (or otherwise-labeled governing board) and the CEO, CFO, president and all vice presidents possessed full knowledge of the crime and are guilty of willful intent. Therefore all members of the board of directors and the abovementioned officers must be found guilty of complicity and of criminal negligence, sentenced to imprisonment and fined at least the minimum amount of one million US dollars each for each offense as specified in this law.

§7b. New York State corporations. If any corporation of any description that has been chartered in New York State is found guilty of fracking or any fracking-related activity, the New York State Attorney General shall immediately begin proceedings to revoke that corporation’s charter.

§7c. Corporations chartered outside New York State. If any corporation of any description that has been chartered in another state or nation is found guilty of fracking or fracking-related activity in New York State, the New York State Attorney General shall immediately begin proceedings to revoke said corporation’s authority to do business within New York State and to seize all assets this corporation may have within New York State, which will be sold at auction, with proceeds going to the New York State treasury.

§7d. Government employees, agents or representatives. Any employee, agent or representative of any State entity, agency or instrumentality, or any municipality, town, city, or county entity, agency, instrumentality, authority or commission, or official (elected or appointed) that is found guilty of enabling, assisting or encouraging fracking or related activity anywhere within the State of New York shall be liable to the party or parties injured and shall be responsible for paying compensatory and punitive damages, and all costs of litigation.

Section 8. Severability

The provisions of this law are severable. If any section, sentence, part or provision shall be held illegal, invalid or unconstitutional, such a holding shall not affect, impair or invalidate other sections, clauses, sentences, parts or provisions of this law.

Section 9. Charge to New York State officials

Should this law be challenged in New York State or United States courts, New York State elected and appointed officials shall defend this law with diligence, vigor, persistence and determination on behalf of the people of New York State. In such defense, they shall draw upon New York State’s financial resources and reserves, and upon the people of New York State’s deep human expertise in law, history, jurisprudence and trial defense. The State shall appeal all trial losses to the next highest court, and persist in appeals up to the highest court in the land. The Attorney General of New York State shall consult with grassroots fracking-opposition groups on strategy, tactics and crucial decisions in execution of the defense of this law.

Cornell Study Links Fracking Wastewater with Mortality in Farm Animals

By Lockerz

EcoWatch.org
01-16-2012
John Messeder

It has been a rough week for the shale industry. Earthquakes have been tied to a deep wastewater injection well and resulted in, among other things, demonstrations on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse. And residents in rural central New York are organizing door-to-door petition drives to halt hydraulic fracturing —if not in their state, at least in Madison and Oneida Counties.


A recently completed study by two Cornell University researchers indicates the process of hydraulic fracturing deep shale to release natural gas may be linked to shortened lifespan and reduced or mutated reproduction in cattle—and maybe humans.

Fracking (the colloquial name for hydraulic fracturing), involves drilling a well about 8,000 feet down, and then up to about 13,000 feet horizontally. Three to five million gallons of fresh water, specially formulated sand and up to 250,000 gallons of chemicals, some of them highly toxic, are poured into the well at great pressure, breaking the deep shale and releasing the coveted gas.

Without knowing exactly what chemicals are being used, and in what quantities, it is difficult to perform laboratory-style experiments on, say lab rats. But farm animals are captive, surrounded by electric and barbed wire fences.

And when fracking wastewater is spilled across their pasture and into their drinking water, and they start dying and birthing dead calves, one can become suspicious that there is a connection.
Which is what the Cornell researchers found during a year-long study of farm animals, based primarily on interviews with animal owners and veterinarians in six states: Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“Animals can nevertheless serve as sentinels for human health impacts,” the report, titled Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health, notes. “Animals, particularly livestock, remain in a confined area and, in some cases, are continually exposed to an environmental threat.”

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At this time, we'd like to reassert our position and call the industry a bunch of liers.  We already knew and reported this. We asked questions to the industry to be told that everything is safe, the industry doesn't dump toxic produced water on the ground, animals don't have access to it, blah, blah, blah, et cetera, et cetera.