NATURAL GAS EXXPOSED

Source: WaterDefense.org

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Mark Ruffalo gets all green on Colbert Nation - hydrofracking

Wednesday March 28, 2012
Mark Ruffalo
Source: Colbert Nation
Stephen doesn't want to make Mark Ruffalo too angry, because he plays The Incredible Hulk.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Support SB 107 - Vote Yes on the Fracking Safety Act [ONLINE VOTE]

By Senator Morgan Carroll (Contact)

To be delivered to: The Colorado State House, The Colorado State Senate, and Governor John Hickenlooper

Colorado is experiencing an unprecedented boom in oil and gas drilling. 

It is critical that any fracking activity be done in a responsible manner that avoids harm to property values, protects Colorado's water supply, and protects the public health and environment. 

Drilling activity near radioactive materials, Superfund sites, explosives, endangered habitat, or in residential areas poses serious risks if not handled properly. 

In the interest of our people, land and water, I am asking that you please vote "yes" on SB 107, the Fracking Safety Act.

TO SIGN - CLICK HERE

Scrambling to stop the offshore gas leak from exploding

Source : MSNBC 

CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO

Alec Baldwin to host What the Frack? event, movie screening at Syracuse Landmark Theatre

Syracuse.com
March 29, 2012, 12:42 PM
By Geoff Herbert

The Associated Press

Alec Baldwin accepts the award for outstanding performance

 by a male actor in a comedy series for "30 Rock" at the 

18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday Jan. 29,

 2012 in Los Angeles.

Controversial actor Alec Baldwin is returning to Central New York to host a special movie screening in late spring.

The "30 Rock" star will host a What the Frack? event at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse on Saturday, June 2 at 6 p.m. The 2010 anti-fracking documentary "Gasland" will be shown on the big screen at the downtown venue.

Tickets are on sale now throug hTicketmaster or the Landmark Theatre box office at $22 for general admission or $12 with student ID.

Baldwin, whose mother Carol M. Baldwin still lives in CNY, returns to the area often. The two-time Emmy award winner visited her booth at last year's New York State Fair to support her breast cancer research fund and, while in town, donated $25,000 to the West Genessee School district to help save its modified sports teams.

Continue reading...

Senate Republicans take aim at Obama gas ‘fracking’ regulations

TheHill.com
By Ben Geman
 03/29/12 09:36 AM ET

Senior Senate Republicans are floating legislation that would slam the brakes on Obama administration efforts to expand regulation of the controversial oil-and-gas drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing” on federal lands.

Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, is the lead sponsor, and the seven other backers include Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), the top GOP member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The bill is unlikely to advance but will provide Republicans another rallying point for allegations that President Obama’s Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency have an overzealous agenda that will stymie development.

The bill introduced Wednesday requires that only states may regulate hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” —– on federal lands within their borders.

“States better understand their unique geologies and interests,” Inhofe said when introducing the measure.

Fracking involves high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand into rock formations to open up seams that enable trapped gas to flow.

The bill arrives ahead of a planned Interior Department proposal that would require disclosure of chemical ingredients used in fracking on public lands, and also create new requirements regarding well integrity and wastewater management.

Continue reading...

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

To think that each state can 'regulate' its own rules that are supposed to prevent adverse impacts from the fracking industry is ludacris! What's to regulate when they are Federally exempt? To remove local governance from cities and counties only creates a fascist, iron-fist for the oil and gas Governors to continue to play  'back-door Romeo' with the industry. If America is an immoral environment, it is because the government has no regulations that mitigate special interest and kick-backs to politicians from the Oligarchy. Get it yet?

What stinks? Bizarre trash collects near oil patch [urine bottles litter the sides of the road]

Bismarck Tribune

March 26, 2012

James MacPHERSON

Associated Press - A discarded bottle filled with urine 

lays on the side of Highway 85 near Williston, N.D.,

 on March 23. Litter has become an escalating problem

 as the rush to tap vast caches of crude escalates in 

North Dakota. As the number of trucks coming to the 

oil mecca increases, so does the trash

TIOGA, N.D. — Along the wide-open expanses and rolling prairie of western North Dakota surrounding the state’s booming oil patch, all sorts of bizarre litter can be found clogging the once picturesque roadside: Derelict hardhats, single boots, buckets, pallets, pieces of machinery, shredded semi tires, oily clothing, cigarette butts.

The worst? Plastic jugs of urine pitched out windows as scores of truckers pass through oil country.

Litter has become an escalating problem as the rush to tap vast caches of crude escalates in North Dakota. As the number of trucks coming to the oil mecca increases, so does the trash. Some of the industrial rubbish blows in from unsecured truckloads, but for many, the most frustrating trash is the gallons of discarded urine.

The problem has local leaders and rural residents scratching their heads. There’s no money to build new rest stops, and once-eager community volunteers are less willing to pick up junk now because they don’t want to handle human waste. So little has been done to address the problem, save for upgrading mowing tractors with cabs to protect operators from getting sprayed with urine when the jugs are hit by a wheel or blade.

“I don’t know if it can be solved other than by people having some respect, because right now the countryside is being taken for granted,” 

said Tioga Mayor Nathan Germundson. 

“It’s a growing problem and it’s sad.”

The jugs are known around these parts as “trucker bombs,” and they freckle the countryside. They show up in a variety of containers: antifreeze jugs, beverage bottles or milk cartons, and are usually hurled by drivers too hurried or weak-bladdered to stop and relieve themselves politely.

Of course, there’s a reason they’re thrown in the first place. There are only three rest stops along the hundreds of miles of highway in western North Dakota, and all are well outside the busiest areas of the state’s oil patch. Until there are more truck stops or rest areas on the much-traveled route, the jugs will probably still be tossed by truckers, said Tom Balzer, executive vice president of the North Dakota Motor Carriers Association.

“It is a huge issue, but one of the biggest problems is there isn’t lot of places for these guys stop to properly dispose of the receptacles,” Balzer said. “I don’t know that it’s a case of being disrespectful but of the unbelievable growth out there.”

Continue reading...

Notice of Neighborhood Meeting - Windsor Colorado [Fracking]

3/26/2012
Windsor Colorado

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pivotal scientific paper on effects of low dose exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals

TDEX.org
March 12,2012


DOWNLOAD PAPER HERE

.

Citizens for a Healthy Community will host a 1/2-day forum on the threats of oil and gas development and fracking

Citizens for a Healthy Community will host a 1/2-day forum on the threats of oil and gas development and fracking. Attend the event to hear from a panel of scientific, legal, industry and economic experts, as well as residents who live in areas that have extensive oil and gas development and fracking. Speakers will present information, as well as their own accounts from experience working and living with oil and gas development. Attend to learn about the risks to air, water, health and our community from oil and gas drilling, fracking and long-term development.

Saturday, March 31st, 2012
Hotchkiss High School Commons Area
12:30-5:00 p.m.

Presenters Include:

• John Fenton – Farmer and rancher near Pavillion, Wyo.,  an area that has been heavily drilled and fracked, and where the EPA suspects drilling and fracking chemicals have contaminated groundwater; Vice-chair Powder River Basin Resource Council.
• Calvin Tillman - Former mayor of DISH, Texas, a small community that was transformed into an industrial zone by natural gas development.
• James Northrup - Former planning manager at the Atlantic Richfield Corporation and investor in the acquisition and sale of offshore oil rigs and oil and gas projects for more than 30 years. Co-owned Northrup Energy, which was sold to ARCO Solar and became BP Solar, the largest solar energy company in the world.
• Dr. Theo Colborn – Founder/President of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange and expert on health and environmental effects of chemicals used in fracking and released during drilling and oil and gas development.
• Deborah Rogers – Farm owner and artisan cheese producer.  Financial analyst and authority on theeconomics of unconventional shale gas drilling.  Former advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
• Kyle Tisdel – Staff Attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center and legal counsel for CHC.
• Duke Cox – Former President of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance and longtime activist.

Invite your neighbors and friends

EPA WATER TEST RESULTS PROVE FRACKING CONTAMINATION IN DIMOCK

March 20, 2012 | by Zack Malitz
In Press, Water For Dimock

Contact:

Josh Fox, Gasland (Sommer Hixson): 646.259.4138

Ana Tinsly, Water Defense: 646.331.4767

EPA Water Test Results Prove Fracking Contamination in Dimock

Gasland Director, Water Defense call results “a vindication” of residents’ complaints, Call on EPA to Compel PA to Action and Provide Replacement Water

Gasland Director Josh Fox and Water Defense today said that the Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary water test results for Dimock, PA vindicated long-standing allegations from residents that their water was contaminated from nearby gas drilling. Despite initial pronouncements from EPA Region 3 that the water poses no immediate health threat, the test results reveal the water is anything but safe, with explosive levels of methane, heavy metals, and hazardous chemicals associated with gas drilling. Gasland and Water Defense commended the EPA for undertaking the tests, and called on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to compel the state of Pennsylvania to provide long-term water relief for the affected residents.

“The science in this case triumphs over the spin. After a media rollercoaster ride the EPA test show conclusively that Dimock families’ water wells are contaminated with high and explosive levels of methane. The families are vindicated and their calls for a permanent water line should be heeded by US EPA,” said Josh Fox, Director of Gasland. “I’ve been working with these families for three years now. Their resilience is remarkable and I am still moved and impressed by their endurance and dignity.”

"The building that houses my water well has a built in bomb shelter," said resident Sheila Ely, commenting on the explosive levels of methane in her well water that could blow up her house if her water well was reconnected.

“For three years, the families of Carter Road have had to endure not only dangerous, explosive conditions, but slander and attacks from a powerful industry dedicated to silencing its critics and concealing the truth about its practices,” Claire Sandberg, Executive Director of Water Defense. “Administrator Jackson affirmed her commitment to protecting public health when she announced the EPA would undertake this water testing. Now that the facts are in, it is incumbent on her to take action and compel the state of Pennsylvania to provide long-term replacement water for the affected families.”

OG Task Force: Don't frack the people of Colorado! [Please sign petition]

Why This Is Important?

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

PETITION LINK BACKUP

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has failed miserably to enforce its own rules and to prevent adverse environmental and human health impacts.  Therefore, we call on the Task Force to engage the People of Colorado in a fair and Democratic exploration of oil and gas regulation to ensure transparency, objective findings and effective solutions.

The health, welfare, safety and environment of millions of Coloradans' are impacted by the oil and gas industry through the air we breathe, water we drink and a myriad of other ways. 

Our homes, schools, public places and watersheds are being encroached upon by the rush to develop new oil and gas resources using hydraulic fracturing technologies that have poorly understood but, potentially life-threatening impacts.

Yet the People of Colorado have no representation on the Task Force, or any meaningful way for our concerns to be heard and responsibly addressed.  

The grassroots Coalition for a Clean Colorado (c3) is calling on the Task Force, the Governor and our legislative leaders to adopt a meaningful public process, convene public hearings in all Colorado counties impacted by oil and gas development and to expand its mission to include monitoring, designation of no drill zones, Community Impact Assessments and other substantive issues identified through the public process.

Tell the Task Force why preserving and strengthening local powers to regulate oil and gas is important and why you signed this petition below.

Together WE WILL make a difference - thanks for signing!

Face-off over fracking

MARKET WATCH
March 22, 2012, 1:44 PM
Russ Britt

Natural gas may be plentiful, cheap and inviting at the moment. But the fracking process to get it still fans the flames of environmental policy clashes.

At the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference outside Santa Barbara, Calif., drillers and environmentalists debated over whether fracking posed a danger to the communities they serve. Drillers said that the amount of natural gas available –4,000 trillion cubic feet — can’t be ignored.

“There is so much there, which is shown by what prices are,” said Edward Cohen, chief executive of Atlas Energy ATLS -0.19% .

But Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group Riverkeeper, challenged Cohen and Aubrey McClendon, chairman of Chesapeake Energy CHK -3.61%. Gallay says countless environmental hazards are  involved. He said there were high amounts of benzine in the air around the Fort Worth, Texas, area, where fracking has been taking place. There also have been problems in the air in parts of Colorado, where there are five times the number of pollutants compared with the national average.

“This is snake oil. This is not natural gas, folks,” Gallay said. He added once demand rises for natural gas, prices won’t be so cheap.

McClendon, however, said natural gas needs to rise by 800% in order to equal the cost of oil. And it’s needed in order to wean the U.S. off oil from the Middle East.

Continue reading...

Boulder County Colorado Fracking Complaints

Boulder Colorado Fracking Complaints
source: COGCC
March 22 2012

Search Results - 15 record(s) returned.
Incident Date	Document #	Complainant	Facility Type	Facility ID/API	Company Name	Operator #
5/9/2011	200309779	Theresa Lindgrens	WELL	05-013-06638	ENCANA OIL & GAS (USA) INC	100185
7/27/2010	200277565	Boulder County Parks and Open Space	WELL	05-013-06503	ENCANA OIL & GAS (USA) INC	100185
6/25/2010	200257667	Norm Steiner	WELL	05-013-06611	ENCANA OIL & GAS (USA) INC	100185
9/17/2009	200218385	Karen Gunther	WELL	05-013-06560	NOBLE ENERGY INC	100322
2/7/2008	200126195	Anita Schanamen	WELL	05-013-06539	ENCANA OIL & GAS (USA) INC	100185
1/29/2007	200106843	ERIK HARTRONFT	WELL	05-013-06541	ENCANA OIL & GAS (USA) INC	100185
7/17/2006	1433445	ENGLE HOMES COLORADO	WELL	05-013-06096	TOP OPERATING COMPANY	39560
11/1/2005	1448162	HUI-YU HUANG	WELL	05-013-06513	UNITED STATES EXPLORATION INC	91755
6/10/2003	200056082	CHUCK WANEKA	WELL	05-013-06291	PATINA OIL & GAS CORPORATION	67305
7/21/1994	882821	MARY ABRAHMS	WELL	05-013-06456	HS RESOURCES INC	41385
7/21/1994	882822	CHRIS DUNGRY	WELL	05-013-06465	HS RESOURCES INC	41385
N/A	845888	Gary Bennett		206710	RICHARDSON OPERATING COMPANY	60523
N/A	786097	Richard Bower	Well	05-013-06096	TOP OPERATING COMPANY	39560
N/A	845600	Glen Carriere		206584	CENTENNIAL PETROLEUM INC	14851
N/A	845319	Bonnie & Jim Smith	Well	05-013-06185	MEYER OIL COMPANY	57000

Mineral Rights in Eminent Domain Cases

Biersdorf & Associates
Wednesday, May 4th, 201


Mineral Rights in Eminent Domain Cases

CU Denver study links fracking to higher concentration of air pollutants

The Denver Post
Mark Jaffe
3/20/2012

People living within a half-mile of oil- and gas-well fracking operations were exposed to air pollutants five times above a federal hazard standard, according to a new Colorado study.

The University of Colorado Denver School of Public Health analysis is one of a string of studies in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado that highlight the air-quality impacts of drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

"Our data show that it is important to include air pollution in the national dialogue on natural-gas development that has focused largely on water," said Lisa McKenzie, the study's lead author.

The analysis found volatile organic chemicals at five times the level below which the emissions are considered unlikely to cause health problems, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Hazard Index.

The chemicals can have neurological or respiratory effects that include eye irritation, headaches, sore throat and difficulty breathing, the study said.

"We are seeing indications that oil and gas operations can release chemicals that can be harmful to residents," 

McKenzie said.

The study used three years of data around Battlement Mesacollected by Garfield County.

The findings add fuel to the debate in Colorado over how far wells must be set back from residential areas — an issue being reviewed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The state requires a 150-foot setback in rural areas and 350 feet in developed areas.

"This study raises questions about those setback standards," said Frank Smith, director of organizing for the nonprofit Western Colorado Congress.

A bill in the state legislature that would have raised setbacks to 1,000 feet died in committee in February.

There are about 47,000 active wells in Colorado. Drilling began on nearly 3,000 more last year, most of them in Weld and Garfield counties, according to the oil and gas commission. In a study of nearly 5,000 well sites from 2009 to 2012, the commission found that 74 percent were at least 1,000 feet from any buildings. But 8 percent were within 500 feet of structures, some of which were residences.

Among the chemicals detected at elevated concentrations in the new study were trimethylbenzenes, aliphatic hydrocarbons and xylenes.

"The greatest health impact corresponds to the relatively short-term, but high emission, well completion period," the study said.

Continue reading...

So, is Dimock’s Water Really Safe to Drink?

by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, March 20, 2012

Ray Kemble delivers fresh water to a home that had their water
contaminated due to hydraulic fracturing on Jan. 18, 2012
in Dimock, Pa. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images. 

When the Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that tests showed the water is safe to drink in Dimock, Penn., a national hot spot for concerns about fracking, it seemed to vindicate the energy industry’s insistence that drilling had not caused pollution in the area.

But what the agency didn’t say – at least, not publicly – is that the water samples contained dangerous quantities of methane gas, a finding that confirmed some of the agency’s initial concerns and the complaints raised by Dimock residents since 2009.

The test results also showed the group of wells contained dozens of other contaminants, including low levels of chemicals known to cause cancer and heavy metals that exceed the agency’s “trigger level” and could lead to illness if consumed over an extended period of time. The EPA’s assurances suggest that the substances detected do not violate specific drinking water standards, but no such standards exist for some of the contaminants and some experts said the agency should have acknowledged that they were detected at all.

“Any suggestion that water from these wells is safe for domestic use would be preliminary or inappropriate,” said Ron Bishop, a chemist at the State University of New York’s College at Oneonta, who has spoken out about environmental concerns from drilling.

Dimock residents are struggling to reconcile the EPA’s public account with the results they have been given in private.

“I’m sitting here looking at the values I have on my sheet – I’m over the thresholds – and yet they are telling me my water is drinkable,” 

said Scott Ely, a Dimock resident whose water contains methane at three times the state limit, as well as lithium, a substance that can cause kidney and thyroid disorders. “I’m confused about the whole thing… I’m flabbergasted.”