Report: Volume of water used for fracking in Colorado could serve 79,000 households a year

New study on oil and gas industry released by Boulder's Western Resource Advocates

By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:   06/20/2012 11:56:54 AM MDT

Updated:   06/20/2012 06:33:12 PM MDT

The volume of water required annually to develop new oil and gas wells in the state could supply up to 79,000 Colorado households for a year based on average residential use, according to a report issued Wednesday by Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates.

The report goes on to say that when re-use of water is factored in at the residential level, the amount of water used by the oil and gas industry could actually serve up to 118,400 homes in Colorado.

"Governments -- local, state and national -- really need to take a look at this and plan out drilling and make sure they do it right," said Jason Bane, spokesman for Western Resource Advocates. "We don't want to look around 10 years from now and say we shouldn't have used so much water."

But Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry's water use is miniscule compared to all water consumption in the state.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association estimates the industry will use 6.5 trillion gallons this year -- just over one-tenth of a percent of total water use in the state.

"I'm not sure it's helpful to single out our industry when there are so many users," Schuller said. "We're still just in the noise of Colorado's water use."

Continue reading...

Do you believe 'fracking' pollutes well water? [ONE DAY LEFT TO VOTE] CUT THE BS

By You Decide
April 11, 2012
FoxNews.com

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing - a process known simply as "fracking" that uses pressurized water and chemicals to extract natural gas from the ground – say it risks polluting well water, though others note there have been no known cases of well water contamination to be traced to fracking.

Fox News would like to know your opinion. Results of this unscientific, online survey will be included in a Fox News Channel report on Wednesday.

Share your thoughts. Answer our question, and then leave a comment.

Do you believe 'fracking' pollutes well water?

YesNoNot sureOther (leave a comment)

CLICK HERE TO OFFICIALLY VOTE

----------------------------

Of course this is FOXNEWS ( 'joke central', for spewing BS propaganda across the globe catering to those who cannot think for themselves)

Might we remind you that in Colorado alone statistics show that 43% of oil and gas development and operation spills that use hydraulic fracturing cause ground water contamination.

Below are previous reports that we published some time ago indicating the # of groundwater contamination from O&G that uses fracking.

---------------------------------

Feb 27th, 2012

Hello Media,

Please be advised that 2 northern Colorado conservation groups have sent the attached letter to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association requesting that this radio ad be removed from the airwaves because it contains information that is not correct. We offer an analysis of Weld County Spill/Release Reports to support our request.

Here's the radio ad: http://www.coga.org/audio/Gov_Hickenlooper_HF_Rule_30sec.mp3

(The letter is also posted here: http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-2-27-2012.pdf)

In addition, Clean Water Action signed on to the letter to Governor Hickenlooper and the press release attached.

Thank you,

Gary Wockner, Clean Water Action
Shane Davis, Sierra Club

pdf of data
http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-2-27-2012.pdf

----------------------------------

--------------------------------------

For Immediate Release
February 29, 2012
Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action
Contacts: Shane Davis, 509-570-4422; Gary Wockner, 970-218-8310

Colorado Oil and Gas Association Statement Not Correct, Again
Contamination of Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer and Residential Water Well Occurred in 2009

Fort Collins, CO -- In the February 28, 2012 online version of the Denver Post, the President of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association is quoted as making this statement:

Colorado's rules include provisions addressing "cementing and casing of wells," Schuller said. And since 2009 "there has not been a drilling or hydraulic-fracturing incident that has affected groundwater, and there have been no incidents which have affected a family's or community's drinking water," she said. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20058409

This statement is not correct.

One such "incident" occurred on August 11, 2009 in which toulene and dissolved methane were found in a residential water well in Weld County that included contamination of the Fox-Hills Aquifer. The homeowner filed a complaint ("gas bubbles were present in his water"). The COGCC tested the water and found the contaminants. The COGCC required a nearby gas well to be tested and concluded there was a hole in the casing. The gas well was then shut down. The operator (Eddy Oil) was fined $46,200 and required to remediate the property owner's impacts. The extent of the contamination to the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer is unclear at this time as is any effort to decontaminate the aquifer.

Here is the "NOAV" Report for the incident: http://cogcc.state.co.us/cogis/NOAVReport.asp?doc_num=200222149
Here is the Spill/Release Report ("Form 19, 6/99"): http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Form-19-Final-at-02-19-10-EDDY-OIL-CO.pdf
Here is the "Administrative Order By Consent 1V-349" in which it states (http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Administrative-Order-By-Consent-1V-349.doc):

16. Based on the above facts, COGCC Staff contend that a hole in the production casing in the Well resulted in a significant waste of oil and gas resources and a significant adverse impact on public health, safety or welfare or the environment as it pertains to Rule 324A.a. COGCC Staff further contend that Eddy Oil’s failure to maintain a casing program to prevent the migration of produced gas from Codell Formation in the Well to the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer resulted in the degradation and contamination of ground water. (page 3)

"COGA's statement in the Denver Post is not correct," said Shane Davis of the Sierra Club, Poudre Canyon Group. "Groundwater and aquifer contamination have occurred in a residential water well since 2009."

Further, the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action point out that "since 2009," Spill/Release Reports sent to the COGCC by drilling operators in Weld County show that 46.3% of the 452 spills/releases contaminated groundwater and 2.2% of 452 spills/releases contaminated surface water. (Table here: http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-Since-2009-2-29-2012.pdf)

"Groundwater and surface water are being contaminated by oil and gas production activities," said Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action.

The Sierra Club, Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action continue to analyze the data from Weld County, Colorado.

--end--

--------------------

Environmentalists blast Colorado’s new drilling task force as Trojan horse

Colorado Independent
3/1/2012
By Troy Hooper

See it as attempt to thin popular drive to win greater local authority over oil and gas activity


Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s intervention in the debate over whether the state or local jurisdictions should regulate oil and gas drilling is rankling environmentalists who, two days earlier, called him out for making misleading statements on groundwater contamination.

The governor signed an executive order Wednesday to create an 11-member task force “to help clarify and better coordinate” the regulatory jurisdiction between the state and local governments over oil and gas operations. He asked the task force to report its recommendations and findings to him, the speaker of the state House and president of the state Senate by April 18.

The move follows heated debate at the capitol, where a Republican senator proposed empowering the state with sole regulatory authority over drilling. The proposal, HB 12-088, died in the Democrat-controlled Senate. A competing bill, introduced by a Democrat, would have assigned oil and gas regulatory power to local governments. It was killed in the GOP-controlled House.

“County land use regulations, ordinances and charter amendments empowered by the Colorado Constitution and upheld by the courts here and in New York, are the only means left for people to protect their communities from the excesses of an abusively powerful industry,” said Ceal Smith of the newly launched Coalition for a Clean Colorado.

“Two weeks ago, thousands of citizens spoke firmly against HB 12-088 and in favor of local regulatory authority over oil and gas activities. The governor’s executive order on fracking is a blatant attempt to circumvent the will of the people,” Smith said. “The communities most impacted have no voice or representation whatsoever on the governor’s hand-picked task force. We are frankly shocked by this autocratic assault on our democracy and community rights.”

Continue reading...

SIGN PETITION HERE

Hickenlooper forms task force to address drilling regulations

DenverPost.com
2/29/2012
Mark Jaffe

Facing a rash of local initiatives to control oil and gas drilling, Gov. John Hickenlooper Monday created a task force to "clarify" the roles of state an local governments in regulating drilling.

"This is an important step to better define state and local jurisdiction regulatory structures as Colorado's oil and gas industry continues to grow," Hickenlooper said.

Spurred by the discovery of oil in the Niobrara formation, which stretches from El Paso County to the Wyoming border, companies have been buying up mineral leases and ramping up drilling.

In 2011, Weld County had the most drilling activity in the West, according to a study by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based natural resource consultant.

That lead 10 Front Range municipalities and counties to develop drilling rules, raising concerns among drillers that projects could be stalled.

"This is makes attracting investment a real challenge," said Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, which will have a spot on the task force.

The task force also will include a representative the Colorado Petroleum Association, two members of the state oil and gas conservation commission and one environmental group representative.

"The composition of the task force seems weighted in favor of industry," Kate Zimmerman, the National Wildlife Federation's senior policy adviser, said in a statement.

Continue reading...  Who's on the task force?

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

Who the hell got to select the task force members? This is botched from the start. Apologetic,special interest, backdoor soothsayers,with hands in your cookie jar.

 Let the people vote.

Colorado Oil and Gas Association Statement Not Correct, Again [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

For Immediate Release
February 29, 2012
Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action
Contacts: Shane Davis, 509-570-4422; Gary Wockner, 970-218-8310


Colorado Oil and Gas Association Statement Not Correct, Again

Contamination of Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer and Residential Water Well Occurred in 2009
Fort Collins, CO -- In the February 28, 2012 online version of the Denver Post, the President of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association is quoted as making this statement:

Colorado's rules include provisions addressing "cementing and casing of wells," Schuller said. And since 2009 "there has not been a drilling or hydraulic-fracturing incident that has affected groundwater, and there have been no incidents which have affected a family's or community's drinking water," she said. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20058409

This statement is not correct.

One such "incident" occurred on August 11, 2009 in which toulene and dissolved methane were found in a residential water well in Weld County that included contamination of the Fox-Hills Aquifer. The homeowner filed a complaint ("gas bubbles were present in his water"). The COGCC tested the water and found the contaminants. The COGCC required a nearby gas well to be tested and concluded there was a hole in the casing. The gas well was then shut down. The operator (Eddy Oil) was fined $46,200 and required to remediate the property owner's impacts. The extent of the contamination to the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer is unclear at this time as is any effort to decontaminate the aquifer.

Here is the "NOAV" Report for the incident: http://cogcc.state.co.us/cogis/NOAVReport.asp?doc_num=200222149

Here is the Spill/Release Report ("Form 19, 6/99"): http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Form-19-Final-at-02-19-10-EDDY-OIL-CO.pdf

Here is the "Administrative Order By Consent 1V-349" in which it states (http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Administrative-Order-By-Consent-1V-349.doc):

16. Based on the above facts, COGCC Staff contend that a hole in the production casing in the Well resulted in a significant waste of oil and gas resources and a significant adverse impact on public health, safety or welfare or the environment as it pertains to Rule 324A.a. COGCC Staff further contend that Eddy Oil’s failure to maintain a casing program to prevent the migration of produced gas from Codell Formation in the Well to the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer resulted in the degradation and contamination of ground water. (page 3)

"COGA's statement in the Denver Post is not correct," said Shane Davis of the Sierra Club. "Groundwater and aquifer contamination have occurred in a residential water well since 2009."

Further, the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action point out that "since 2009," Spill/Release Reports sent to the COGCC by drilling operators in Weld County show that 46.3% of the 452 spills/releases contaminated groundwater and 2.2% of 452 spills/releases contaminated surface water. (Table here: http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-Since-2009-2-29-2012.pdf)


"Groundwater and surface water are being contaminated by oil and gas production activities," said Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action.

The Sierra Club, Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action continue to analyze the data from Weld County, Colorado.

--end--

FRACTURED FUTURE - Does the natural gas industry need a new messenger?

CBC News

Posted: Nov 29, 2011

A series of special op-eds about the shale gas industry

Anthony Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum

Professor of Engineering and Faculty

Fellow at the David R. Atkinson Center

for a Sustainable Future (ACSF) at

Cornell University.Ingraffea is also the

president of Physicians, Scientists and

Engineers for Healthy Energy.

The university professor is visiting

New Brunswick in November and

December to discuss hydro-fracking.

The event is being hosted by the

Conservation Council of New

Brunswick

To hear the natural gas industry tell it, the only problem with natural gas is bad public relations.

“The public is skeptical of anything we say,” says Tisha Conoly-Schuller, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association.

Her advice is for industry to get “other messengers to carry positive messages about oil and gas to a skeptical public,” and she touts university professors as the ideal: they “polled highest and are well-positioned in that regard.”

I am a university professor, but I’m certain Conoly-Schuller and her colleagues decidedly won’t like my simple message for them: “Tell the whole truth.”

And I’m only one of hundreds of critics delivering that message. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a self-confessed “early optimist on natural gas,” laments, “The industry's worst actors have successfully battled reasonable regulation [and] stifled public disclosure while bending compliant government regulators to engineer exceptions to existing environmental rules.”

In his New York Times commentary The Fracking Industry’s War On The New York Times – And The Truth, he goes on to note that, “Captive agencies and political leaders have obligingly reduced already meager enforcement resources and helped propagate the industry's deceptive economic projections. As a result, public skepticism toward the industry and its government regulators is at a record high.”

Continue reading...  Myths and reality, Other myths


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

Tisha Conoly-Schuller, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association(COGA)

While Some Are Upset, Fracking Only Likely To Continue In Colorado

CBSDENVER
November 25, 2011

DENVER (CBS4) – As more and more energy companies begin to drill along the Front Range, communities in close proximity are taking notice and — in some cases — are extremely upset.

There has been a strong, public outcry recently from at least two suburban neighborhoods that are butted up against the cusp of the Eastern Plains. They have strong concerns about hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” which involves freeing oil from rock far below the surface.

It’s either happening or on the agenda for multiple energy companies.

While Colorado is no stranger to drilling, interest has spiked in untapped portions of massive oil reserves that lie far below the surface of the Front Range.









Continue reading...



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

Tisha makes us puke!  It's all about money, money, money for the State of Colorado.  Just look at her grin and get big eyes as if she was receiving it herself!  SICK!  What about the environmental hazards?  Why is the the State of Colorado approving the use of trillions of gallons of fresh, potable water to extinction in a dry state?  It is clearly sad that we are mining for something much less valuable than water.






please vote on poll below

As energy drilling moves into backyards, Colorado Front Range counties ponder regulations

One evening in January, El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen met with about 16 people in a constituent's living room to talk about the wave of oil and gas leasing that was sweeping the area.

"It was a new issue," Lathen said. "I explained the county didn't have any regulations on oil and gas drilling."

In August, Lathen was part of a town-hall meeting on oil and gas leasing, and this time nearly 400 people packed a meeting room.

The arc between those two meetings in El Paso County — which is now drafting oil and gas regulations — reflects what is happening up and down the Front Range.

County meetings and town halls have drawn hundreds of residents, citizen groups have formed, and Elbert, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, like El Paso, are preparing to adopt oil and gas development rules.

WTFrack.org

"We are fast-tracking rules," said Arapahoe County Commissioner Fred Weddig. "We felt like we are playing catch-up."

The trend, however, has provoked concern from state regulators and the industry.

"Colorado already has the most comprehensive rules in the nation," said Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group. "County rules could completely stifle the industry."

David Neslin, director of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said, "We believe oil and gas development is most effectively and efficiently regulated at the state level."

The wave of oil and gas leasing was sparked by the discovery of oil in the Niobrara formation, which stretches from southern Colorado into Wyoming.

To get at the oil requires the use of cutting-edge drilling techniques and hydrofracturing, or fracking, in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the well under pressure.

Focus on homeowners

The activity in the counties is being driven by the feeling that they are ill-prepared to cope with a drilling boom and that the state regulations don't address some residents' worries.

"We are trying to regulate an industrial activity in what is basically a residential area," said Joe'l Lambe, a Douglas County homeowner.

Lambe helped found Landowners Alliance for NE Douglas County, or LAND, to deal with oil and gas leasing issues.

Neslin said state rules enable it to put additional conditions on permits in more developed areas — and counties can participate as a "local designee" in the permitting process.

Some homeowners and local officials say that isn't enough.

"There are questions of quality of life," said Jill Duvall, a homeowner who organized the Elbert County Oil and Gas Interest Group, or ECOGIG. "There are questions about protecting property values. The state rules focus on drilling a well."

Continue reading...

Fracking up nationwide as Colorado officials eye new disclosure rule by year’s end

By David O. Williams | 09.21.11
Washington Independent

Whether it’s called hydraulic fracturing, hydro-fracking or just plain fracking, the controversial but common natural gas drilling process remains the focus of intense public scrutiny and public awareness events from Colorado to New York, including a couple of unique fracking functions set for this weekend.

In Fort Collins on Saturday, Save the Poudre and the local chapter of the Sierra Club will host former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whistleblower Wes Wilson at the Fort Collins Brewery. Wilson pointed out the deficiencies in what many critics claim was a rushed and inadequate study of fracking prior to a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption for the process that was granted in the 2005 Energy Policy Act during the Bush administration.

“Millions of gallons of fracking fluids are left underground,” said Save the Poudre’s Gary Wockner, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan. “There’s a long-term question about whether those will ever impact drinking water supplies or impact public health.”

Also on Saturday, according to the Ithaca Journal, activists in upstate New York will hold a bike rally called the “Tour de Frac” to check out areas in the Finger Lakes region that will be impacted by fracking, which involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and often undisclosed chemicals deep into gas wells to crack open rock formations and free up more gas.

COGA president and CEO Tisha Schuller reportedly said in a recent speech. “I hate to credit the movie Gasland, but it’s really changed the conversation.”

Continue reading...