I can’t wait for all the hoocoodanodes and “no one could have predicteds” that are going to come out in the next 30 years when we finally face up to the fact that our Galtian overlords and their handmaidens in the government and media are lying to us:
“There have been over a million wells hydraulically fractured in the history of the industry, and there is not one, not one, reported case of a freshwater aquifer having ever been contaminated from hydraulic fracturing. Not one,” Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, said last year at a Congressional hearing on drilling.
It is a refrain that not only drilling proponents, but also state and federal lawmakers, even past and present Environmental Protection Agency directors, have repeated often.
But there is in fact a documented case, and the E.P.A. report that discussed it suggests there may be more. Researchers, however, were unable to investigate many suspected cases because their details were sealed from the public when energy companies settled lawsuits with landowners.
Current and former E.P.A. officials say this practice continues to prevent them from fully assessing the risks of certain types of gas drilling.
“I still don’t understand why industry should be allowed to hide problems when public safety is at stake,” said Carla Greathouse, the author of the E.P.A. report that documents a case of drinking water contamination from fracking. “If it’s so safe, let the public review all the cases.”
Why, that’s a really good point, Carla. Would you like a tumor or a birth defect with your iced tea?
Scott
I hate to offer up such a cheesy movie cliche — but why not ask the Exxon execs to drink a nice tall glass of fracked water?
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
And remember this is the EPA that they content is simply crushing, CRUSHING, and destroying companies with their draconian regulation and intrusive investigations. The one they say needs to be abolished to save industries.
So….yeah, 30 years, we’re probably not even going to get the hoocoodanodes. We’re simply gonna be told by the companies that a little gas and chemical nonsense in your water is really good for you, and their scientists agree. And no one will say anything else, because ‘it’s good business’ and that’s all that matters.
Oh, and green fascism. You don’t want to be a green fascist, right? I mean, thank god our brilliant public has rejected those dangerous hippies outright.
Violet
Look at the energy companies cowering in fear of having the details of the lawsuits made public. Why is that, energy companies? Why so scared?
MikeJ
All of the media coverage I’ve seen on fracking is reporters watching in awe as people ignite water streaming from the tap.
I don’t deny that some of the coverage might have been pro industry, but I haven’t seen it.
Maude
ExxonMobile is trying get into the gas bidness through fracking in a big way. Of course it’s safe, they said so.
Never mind the damage it does to the ground itself.
Lying scags.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Everybody’s favorite screwball comedy Meet the Frackers is coming to a
theaterwatershed or aquifer near you! The reviews are steller:I give it two thumbs up! Exxon/Mobil
A laugh-a-minute. One for the whole family. American Petroleum Institute
The best entertainment of the year. AEI
Who cares? Real Americans drink bottled water anyway. Larry the Cable Guy
wrb
See, this is just the sort of depressing intrusion that we’ll suffer no more once President Perry Bachman shutters the EPA, the USGS, NOAA, the NIH and the rest of the government gloom merchants.
patrick II
Evidently this doesn’t count.
trollhattan
The closer you look at this practice and the many walls behind which the industry hides, the uglier it appears.
I love that fracking fluid ingredients are hidden behind “proprietary” barriers. I love that flaming tapwater is always the result of “naturally occurring” methane. I love the shabby wastewater disposal practices, the thousands of miles of new roads and tens of thousand new drilling pads.
It costs orders of magnitude more to clean contaminated groundwater than it does to prevent contamination to begin with. And guess who’ll eventually be stuck with the cleanup costs? (hint: it won’t be the polluters.)
A friend is going after the timber industry in Oregon, who practice aerial herbicide spraying in populated areas. The residents test positive for herbicides in their systems, both before and following spraying (at much higher concentrations). But the industry says “not us” and Oregon regulators are so in bed with them (local control!) it will take the feds to crack this open.
Under President Pawlenty, I’d not expect EPA to get much involved. Same goes with regulation of fracking.
MarkJ
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I was laughing so hard, I burst into flames!
Poopyman
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Thirty years? Have you not seen the BP commercials over the past year?
Cancer, deformed babies, early death; industry will be/already is in full denial mode, will move into delaying tactics, and maybe, just maybe, be forced to change their process after a series of long and expensive legal challenges.
Same as it ever was.
Loneoak
Is it possible that a civil legal settlement can keep information from regulators or law enforcement? That can’t be right. If ‘researchers’ can’t get the info, just have the EPA hire the researchers next time.
scav
People actually complaining about an entirely new and free source of heating brought to their very own homes and coming out of their handy and personal faucets? ! What will they come up to whine about next?
Maude
@scav:
WIN
Roger Moore
Of course there are very few proven cases of contamination. Nobody is allowed to know what’s in fracking liquid, so it’s very hard to prove that it’s caused any contamination. People who are blindfolded very rarely see anything.
bemused
In NE Minnesota, environmentalists have been keeping a close eye on the proposed Polymet copper, nickel mine and potential sulfide pollution. One of the biggest commodity traders in the world, Glencore, has almost 20% of Polymet shares and could take up to a quarter of stake in the company.
If you have been wondering what good old former BP CEO Tony Hayward is doing these days, he is now serving as a Senior Independent Director and a member of the environmental health and safety committee for Glencore.
This should turn out well.
scav
Oh, and there’s the nice mental connect-the-dots leap to the Murdoch/NI fracas where people also did the equivalent of talking in front of committees about there being no known cases of X, primarily because they’d pushed all known cases of X they could get their hands on behind a legal wall of non-disclosure and magic invisibility. Reality only exists if the lawyers allow it to, apparently.
artem1s
Here in Ohio the issues with unlimited natural gas and oil drilling is coming home to roost in nice little toney bedroom communities in the outlying suburbs.
pretty much anyone can get a permit to drill on their land; screw the neighbors. Permits are issued by ODNR who receive a significant portion of their operating budget from (wait for it)fees from drilling permits!
A recent Ohio bill allows ODNR permits to trump all local zoning ordinances! So we’ve got some pretty upscale homes out east of Cleveland that are not only underwater but cursed with tainted groundwater and a lovely drilling rig on the property next door!
Can’t wait for King John and his pals to start fracking! This is going to be sooooo good for attracting new businesses to the Buckeye state!
nastybrutishntall
Colorado – This seems like it could help, but only if it actually does what Hickenlooper says it will do. But Hickenlooper is either delusional or deeply in Oil’s pocket if he thinks the problem is the All-Powerful Liberal Media’s Scare Tactics. Those poor gas companies! Just trying to make that dolla out there on the streets! Why people hatin?
JWL
Cole: This is a tailor made populist issue (as in “popular”), where a powerful politician– say a president– has nothing to lose with voters by publicly throwing down.
Why do you think, then, that the “Man Who Must Never Be Criticized” has yet to do just that?
And do you expect he ever will?
trollhattan
A question for anybody who knows how this all works:
If I was a property owner on the Marcellus Formation and turned down the driller’s offer to lease my property, what’s to stop them from laterally drilling under my property anyway from an adjacent plot, and how would I know (short of suddenly exploding tapwater)?
It’s not as though I’d trust them to follow any pesky rules.
kdaug
Raises hand: “I do not believe that smoking causes cancer.”
burnspbesq
@Loneoak:
“Is it possible that a civil legal settlement can keep information from regulators or law enforcement?”
Let’s find out. EPA, serve some subpoenas.
The Moar You Know
Bottled water is very profitable.
In India, Coca-Cola and Nestle are simply going around and buying all the local wells, capping them, and then selling the water to the villagers at a 600% markup.
Here we’ve got lots of water, and the ability to easily drill wells. So the means to the same end is to simply poison all the water.
Enjoy your peonage.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: Not a goddamn thing, because in most locales, you don’t own the mineral rights to whatever delicious goodies are under your home.
no video at work
Better still the companies will not be able to pay for the clean up & it will be left to the government.
HOOCOODANOED??
balconesfault
@trollhattan: what’s to stop them from laterally drilling under my property anyway from an adjacent plot, and how would I know (short of suddenly exploding tapwater)?
Legally, you’d be able to sue the crap out of them … which is generally deterrent enough for them to not do so.
Although probably the largest deterrent, given the way the market works these days, is that drillers will always keep very detailed logs of their wells, and any company doing due diligence in some future acquisition process would demand to review those wells, and might find this out, killing their market value.
Dennis SGMM
Turn those frowns upside down people! Once large numbers of Americans start being born with tentacles we’ll be able to outwork those heathen Chinese.
Seriously, that this is proliferating under a Democratic administration is appalling. It’s also appalling that despite the gazillion gallons of this stuff being used no one has managed to steal, divert, or simply buy some and have it analyzed. Of course that last would be an unseemly act by some DFH treehugger and we can’t have that.
balconesfault
@The Moar You Know: Not a goddamn thing, because in most locales, you don’t own the mineral rights to whatever delicious goodies are under your home.
In most locales? Depends on what kind of previous O&G or minings activity took place in your area, and thus how likely it is that someone went around buying up subsurface rights long ago.
You should know if you checked your deed when you purchased your property. Whoever actually owned the subsurface rights will want to have made sure you didn’t start drilling and extracting his oil/gas/platinum/etc.
no video at work
@The Moar You Know:
Better still, in some states the law allows horizontal drilling so who ever sells first could easily shut out the neighbors if they are close enough. Stampede the sellers, it helps the bottom line!
scav
@kdaug: Well, who here has seen a chimney with cancer, huh? Benzene good! Fluoride bad! Benzene good! Fluoride bad!
(GSD what that tea must taste like . . . )
Seitz
Lesson: Lying to Congress is absolutely fine if you’re not a famous baseball player.
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s snark, and that you are not actually suggesting the existence of a conspiracy between gas drilling companies and bottled water suppliers.
balconesfault
A fundamental problem here is that while EPA has broad authority to regulate surface waters (“Waters of the US”), their ability to regulate subsurface water quality is very strictly circumscribed by RCRA. Much of the subsurface regulatory programs are delegated to the states, because groundwater does not as readily flow from state to state the way surface waters do.
In other words – don’t blame EPA on this one. Under Obama they’re doing what they can where they can to keep up with industry (see last weeks Office of Air rulemaking on fugitive emissions from wells, pipelines, and vessels involved in oil and gas production), but they don’t have as broad a jurisdiction as some assume.
Jennifer
Well, gee, Rex, since you don’t have to tell anyone what you’re pumping into the ground, it would be kinda hard to prove that the stuff showing up in drinking water is the same compounds you pumped into the ground. Since we don’t know what they are and stuff, and since Dick Cheney made it so you don’t have to tell us.
Nice little racket you have going there.
kdaug
@scav: Good point. And who has seen a person burn down from creosote buildup?
KG
@trollhattan: in theory, your property rights extend from the depths of hell to the heavens above. when it comes to mineral rights, they shouldn’t be able to engage in lateral drilling. Unfortunately, with natural gas/oil/water, it’s tougher to prove because it’s fluid. If you have suspicions, I would say hire some surveyors to check on what the neighbors are doing. And there is probably a public interest law group in your area that would be willing to take the case (possibly even pro bono) if you need to litigate.
@burnspbesq: generally speaking, settlement agreements aren’t filed with the courts, so they aren’t part of the public record. They are usually contracts between the parties and include a non-disclosure agreement. Of course, non-disclosure usually means “plaintiff can’t go brag about the terms of the settlement”; but good lawyers always include language to keep it confidential, short of a subpoena.
fasteddie9318
So, basically, shorter Rex Tillerson: There’s never been a reported case of this thing that we pay Washington to avoid finding. NOT A SINGLE ONE!
burnspbesq
@balconesfault:
Could EPA have ordered a moratorium on the issuance of new drilling permits? What we’re seeing here, unfortunately, is equivalent to an entire herd of horses getting out while the farmer carefully researches the costs and benefits of a large number of alternative barn doors.
The Moar You Know
@balconesfault: I own two pieces of property in California. As far as I can tell, the subsurface rights belong to the state – there are no owners listed on either deed that I have. Through quite a bit of California, this isn’t a big deal, but if you’re unfortunate enough to live in one of our oil producing regions, and there are MANY (what, you didn’t know that California’s the nation’s 3rd largest producer of oil?) then you have to deal with some oil company drilling under your home, and the company and the state splitting the profits.
You get to keep the dead lawn and cancer-riddled kids as a souvenir.
James E. Powell
I can’t wait for all the hoocoodanodes and “no one could have predicteds” that are going to come out in the next 30 years when we finally face up to the fact that our Galtian overlords and their handmaidens in the government and media are lying to us
That’s nothing. Wait until we get the special legislation that shields these ‘job creators’ from any liability along with a Big Government program to clean it up.
Oh yeah, Democrats will be blamed.
balconesfault
@burnspbesq:
Nope. State regulated activity.
trollhattan
So, this stuff all sounds okay in my drinking water.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/new_forms/marcellus/Reports/Frac%20list%206-30-2010.pdf
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/FractListing.pdf
Also, too, Pennsylvania uses honey badger lawyers for regulating leases because honey badger just don’t care.
A final insult from Pennsylvania, they link to a 1998 federal publication, “Environmental Benefits Benefits of Advanced Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Technology” presumably to let everybody know everything’s A-OK with the industry. Because nothing bad has happened since 1998.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/new_forms/marcellus/marcellus.htm
scav
@kdaug: Well, not in a long long time for the creosote buildup although Euell Gibbons might have running a risk for a bit.
burnspbesq
@KG:
I know that. I’ve drafted my share of NDAs. That’s why I suggested subpoenas. I love it when a US District Judge issues an order to show cause re contempt that effectively says “bring the documents, or bring your toothbrush.”
JGabriel
@Seitz:
B-b-but, we must make sure baseball players tell the truth, because children look up to them!
No one looks up to frackers.
.
burnspbesq
@balconesfault:
Preemption?
The Moar You Know
@burnspbesq: I’m not, actually. But it sure is nice when one business creates a lethal problem, gets blanket legal protection for their activities, and then another business can come in and make a huge profit from mitigating the harm done by the first business.
Win/win, as they say.
Dennis SGMM
@The Moar You Know:
Unfortunately, stupidity and greed are so pervasive that no conspiracy is needed.
balconesfault
@burnspbesq: I’m not sure what preemption means, in a way that wouldn’t be subject to being overturned under the Administrative Procedures Act.
And as for mineral rights conveyance in California – I am sure (there’s some pretty good case law on it – see Blue v McKay) that California doesn’t own all the subsurface rights in the state. Those under your property might be depenedent on the title history of your property. But again, such stipulation should be recorded in your deed.
The Moar You Know
Here’s a small example of what California allows to be injected into wells (complete list at link below):
Oil, Gas and Geothermal Injection Wells
I’ll bet it tastes like an oil change.
trollhattan
re. The lateral drilling question, thanks for the many responses. It seems as though there’s a crazy quilt of state-specific laws WRT when one does and does not own mineral rights along with their property. The division might even start with whether a state uses English or Spanish land law (California has the latter, which is why we have deeds of trust and not mortgages).
Also, too, I’m guessing states and perhaps even counties vary in whether drillers have to submit their logs into the public record. That would be the only way to ascertain whether somebody’s drinking my milkshake.
burnspbesq
@balconesfault:
I know a little more admin law than the average tax lawyer because i find it interesting, and it seems to me that If the NPRM states that the authority for promulgating the regulations is a statute that either expressly or by implication has pre-emptive effect, then the regs have pre-emptive effect. I don’t recall any successful challenges to DOL or IRS regulations issued under Titles I or IV of ERISA on the ground that the subject matter of the regulation was left to the states, although that might not be the best example.
balconesfault
@The Moar You Know: FWIW, Class II wells in California are almost exclusively used for injection into petroleum fields in order to increase production.
This can be a safe practice. It can be an unsafe practice. The difference needs to be determined by a geologist evaluating hydrological connections between the formations containing the oil and the formations containing drinking water.
balconesfault
@burnspbesq: I don’t think it is … because in all cases I believe that there’s overarching statute which can be upheld based on interstate commerce.
There isn’t the overarching statutory law that allows EPA to intervene anywhere they believe that harm may be done to groundwater. They have a lot of ability to step in where federal funding or authorization for a project is required (through NEPA), and they have some special authorization to protect a few designated “Sole Source Aquifers”, but for the most part they can’t just step in.
nancydarling
@James E. Powell: They already tried that in Arkansas James. The bill was tabled for “further study” but it would have protected the frackers from any liability after 10 years. Their trucks are tearing up the roads at a repair cost greater than the state is receiving from severance taxes.
I am in a “slough of despond”. Went to my Dem women’s meeting last night and had to face up to the fact that there is not a nickels worth of difference between most dems in Arkansas and the repubs.
Between the heat and drought, the meeting last night, and this fracking article, I am almost ready to surrender. The oligarchs have won.
Dennis SGMM
@nancydarling:
It isn’t just Arkansas Dems, it’s all of them. Now that they’ve ceded economic policy to the Republicans the only reason to vote Democratic is a concern for social issues. And that’s only because they haven’t been given the opportunity to cave on them yet.
les
Somebody needs to send EPA a copy of Gaslands. You can’t be really depressed ’til you watch it.
catclub
re: Moar’s comment about expensive bottled water versus water utilities. I noticed all the ads for water purification systems on this page.
It really is an insidious trend: imply that only bottled water is safe, then starve out the water utility or buy them up, then only sell bottled (tap) water at huge profits.
Elie
All of the distraction at the national level on the economy and politics is allowing some real shit to start bubbling from underground. We are battling a coal terminal right along our pristine deep water marine reserve here in WA. There are all sorts of issues including the pollution of the aquifer….
We had better watch the oil and other extractive industries right now. They are moving aggressively while no one is looking.
burnspbesq
@balconesfault:
I don’t like that answer, but it makes sense.
TK-421
I hesitate to volunteer this info, but…I’ve personally worked with a leading frac pumping company. I consulted on some internal operational issues.
And it’s worse than people think. The insular attitude expressed by pretty much every single oil & gas company is astounding. It hurts their business to be so close-minded, and at least in the case of fracking, it’s effing dangerous.
This is a business that is making tons of money, but is acknowledged by executives to be extremely dangerous and risky. I.e., this is a business that can afford and desperately needs strict regulation. But no, that would mean submitting to government review, and our Galtian superheroes can’t have that, can they?
It is really sad and awkward for me to watch people I know put my fellow Americans’ water supplies at risk just because of ego and a few extra dollars.
khead
You forgot university shills. Meet L. Zane Shuck, WVU. He wrote an op-ed piece that was published in the Charleston papers a few weeks back to explain the benefits of fracking to protesters that are too stupid to understand:
Mr. Shuck also explained the benefits of fracking to a reporter from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. According to Mr. Shuck, it’s not just the folks at Exxon Mobil that say there’s no proven well contaminations, even the EPA’s Lisa Jackson says that “there is no record in all of history where hydrofracture drilling has ruined a person’s water well”.
I feel better already.
Interrobang
It is really sad and awkward for me to watch people I know put my fellow Americans’ water supplies at risk just because of ego and a few extra dollars.
Um, it’s not just your fellow Americans. The Marcellus Shale is perilously close to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed, so if you start polluting the groundwater around there in a big way, you’re effectively poisoning a water system that spans three countries (US, Canada, and France per St. Pierre et Miquelon), and provides drinking water to millions of Canadians as well as millions of Americans.
I can tell you why the Canadian government isn’t tapping you folks politely on the shoulder and demanding its jurisdictional rights regarding Americans dumping toxic waste into our collective fresh water supply, and that’s because Stephen Harper and his Harrisites are fascists of the first order, which means that anything that makes corporations money (especially if it destroys the environment permanently — Tar Sands and Manitoba irrigation canals FTW!) is A-OK with them. But in a sane world, the Canadian government would be tapping the American government on the shoulder regarding fracking and saying, “Ahem-hem. Not so fast, here…”
Fracking is a much bigger issue than anyone here (myopic to international issues as usual, you guys; I expect better from you!) gives it credit for being.
Petorado
One of the firewalls the drillers hiding behind is that without baseline water quality data, it’s hard for a property owner to prove damage to water quality. Second, it’s difficult to test for contaminants if you don’t know to test for, hence the importance of disclosure rules. But another crafty tactic in the industry claim that fracking doesn’t contaminate water is that improper well completions (lining, casing and cementing of the vertical well shaft) have been proven to be the vector for contaminating groundwater and well water.
Anyone curious about drilling near their area should go to the Baker Hughes website and their interactive tool, or download their free app, to get data about the well that will open doors for more information.