New Quebec government bans fracking, Sept. 20, 2012

Global events Sat., Sept. 22 and some coverage and photos

Press release from Food and Water Watch re Global Frackdown 

Check it out. Hope to update more soon!

Fracking Infrastructure Protestors Have Their Day in Court

Three Finger Lakes (NY) residents, who were arrested while protesting Inergy’s fracking infrastructure build out (Seneca Lake Compressor Station and LPG facility), appeared in court Sept. 19 in the town of Reading, NY.

One of the arrestees, Reverend Gary Judson, a 72-year-old retired Methodist minister, was fined $275, which was quickly paid by the public at large in the room. Jeremy Alderson of Hector, 63, was advised by the judge to consult with a lawyer, and his arraignment was moved to Oct. 17. Susan Walker, age 53 from Dundee, refused in protest to pay a fine of $275 and was sentenced to the maximum 15 days in jail.

The three citizens had been arrested and charged with trespassing Sept. 6 while blocking an entrance to the Seneca Lake Compressor Station, which is part of Inergy’s reckless and dangerous expansion of frackinginfrastructure that is intended to become a gas storage and transportation hub for the Northeast. Their direct action protest was part of a larger rally aimed at protesting and raising awareness about Inergy’s dangerous plans… more at Ecowatch here

Athens Messenger, Sept. 19, 2012, by STEVE ROBB Messenger staff journalist:

Because NY will not deal with its own fracking waste, the waste will be shipped to Ohio where there are plenty of  wells–i.e., holes in the ground, due to lax regulation (no testing of injectate, no water monitoring; use of Class II Injection Wells not built for hazardous waste; frequent conversion of old wells not subject to new rules; no evaluation of aquifer or other geological considerations).  Injection wells have a history of failure and contamination. Tell Governor Cuomo (who is planning a 2016 presidential run): There is no safe fracking, and we in Ohio are not your toilet. Say no to fracking in NY!

Also see Sandra Steingraber and Mark Ruffalo telling Gov. Cuomo: Ban fracking now!

Teresa Mills, Fracking Coordinator for Buckeye Forest Council, spoke after the status hearing for Madeline ffitch in Athens on Friday, Sept. 7. She revealed the sordid history of the Ginsburg well, including complete lack of inspections for ten years, orders to plug the well that were never carried out, and repeated well integrity failure.

Visit AppalachiaResist.wordpress.com and acfan.org injection well page for more. UPDATE: Madeline announces plea bargain, Oct. 3, 2012.

Athens Messenger(9-8-12) describes the event:

…ffitch, of Millfield, is charged with inducing panic on June 26 when she blocked the entrance to an injection well on Ladd Ridge Road by locking herself into barrels filled with concrete. Ffitch claims the well, which is used to dispose of waste from oil and gas wells, is unsafe and that the state is not doing enough to regulate injection wells. The charge she faces in Athens County Common Pleas Court is a felony. …

…After Friday’s court session, Ffitch gathered with supporters and news reporters to talk about her concern regarding injection wells — a meeting that Fitrakis pointed out was a news conference, not a protest.

Pipeline to be built by Enbridge, whose MI pipeline caused massive tar sands spill

Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 6, 2012 — “The 250-mile Nexus Gas Transmission pipeline that Canada-based Enbridge has proposed to build in northern Ohio would put natural gas extracted from Ohio on a fast track for export to Canada, while Ohioans would be left to pay the environmental and public health costs of drilling and fracking in their communities. The path of the pipeline would cut a wide swath through northern Ohio, likely leading to property rights disputes if Enbridge makes claims of “eminent domain” to force property owners to accept the pipeline on their property. And Enbridge’s safety and maintenance practices do not bode well for these unlucky property owners. In its investigation of a massive tar sands oil spill that contaminated miles of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, the National Transportation Safety Board cited Enbridge for ‘pervasive organizational failures.’ This pipeline symbolizes industry’s intent to drill and frack every square mile of Ohio until the oil and gas is gone, and then the industry will be gone and Ohioans will be left to pay the price.”  — Alison Auciello, Food and Water Watch Ohio organizer

The Kalamazoo spill released over 843,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. According to the NTSB, the company ignored warning signs for 17 hours. The cost of the spill is at $800 million and mounting. “The NTSB said Enbridge had noticed cracks as early as 2005 but had failed to repair them,” according to a Washington Post report, which also reported that the NTSB blamed “weak federal regulations” by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for the incident.

Columbus Dispatch: Fracking waste highly radioactive:

by Spencer Hunt, 9-3-12:

Millions of barrels of wastewater trucked into Ohio from shale-gas wells in Pennsylvania might be highly radioactive, according to a government study.

Radium in one sample of Marcellus shale wastewater, also called brine, that Pennsylvania officials collected in 2009 was 3,609 times more radioactive than a federal safety limit for drinking water. It was 300 times higher than a Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit for industrial discharges to water.

The December 2011 study, compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey, also found that the median levels of radium in brine from Marcellus shale wells was more than three times higher than brine collected from conventional oil and gas wells.

“These are very, very high concentrations of radium compared to other oil and gas brines,” said Mark Engle, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist and co-author of the report…. READ MORE at Dispatch 9-3-12.

Also see newly published portrait of fracking and its victims in Arkansas: Fracking Investigation: The bloody battlefields of Arkansas 8-27-12

We are greatly disappointed by Anne Carey’s decision, announced Monday, Aug. 27, that there is no need for Plan revision or an Environmental Impact Statement before the Wayne National Forest moves forward with authorizing fracking on our public forest lands. Ms. Carey’s decision ignores the overwhelming evidence painstakingly provided to her by the community over the past eleven months of the highly significant impacts of fracking when compared to impacts from vertical wells.  Her decision shows total disregard not only for science and fact but also for the community’s knowledge, concerns, and needs as expressed by dozens of official bodies and thousands of area residents, including the university’s president, mayors, health professionals, farmers, clergy, judges, educators, scholars, parents, business owners, and tourism officials. Thousands of people have signed petitions, hundreds have attended rallies, and dozens have had meetings with Ms. Carey to share their knowledge and concern. These concerns must be addressed by Ms.Carey before authorizing a decision that will have significant impacts on our community. The facts as well as our community’s wide consensus indicate the highly significant impacts of fracking. To deny this is to deny reality as well as Ms. Carey’s legal responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal law.

Fracking involves pressures of tens of thousands of pounds per square inch, chemical use of millions of pounds per well, water consumption of up to 10 million gallons per well totally lost to the hydrologic cycle, and waste production of millions of pounds of radioactive chemically laden water and solids per well. Pipeline construction, truck traffic, likelihood of serious chemical contamination from spills, and methane and CO2 emissions from production and transport are at magnitudes greater than from vertical wells.

The Wayne 2004 socioeconomic assessment for its 2006 Plan did not evaluate public health, recreation, local food, or other socioeconomic COSTS of past or future mining, drilling or industrialization of the Forest. There is no mention of acid mine drainage’s corrosion threats to drinking water by fracking, since fracking is not evaluated. Hocking Valley Scenic Railway and Hockhocking Adena Bikeway (Athens County’s #1 and 2 tourist attractions), which both traverse the Wayne, are not mentioned. Nor are adjacent Nelsonville Public Square or Robbins Crossing. All are economically vulnerable to the high levels of air and water pollution, noise and truck traffic from fracking on the Wayne. The 2004 assessment states, “Stakeholders overwhelmingly see recreation as having a major role in supporting tourism development. Most stakeholders indicated that recreation was very important to the area…” Water contamination, air pollution, truck traffic, pressure on rental housing prices, decreased land values, and reputation of our colleges and local organic food system are severe threats to our economy from fracking, as they are not from vertical well drilling.  In a region long impacted by extractive industries, these new threats to our burgeoning local economy must be seriously evaluated, according to federal law.  They are highly significant.

Ms. Carey’s press release states that the report (currently not available online as her press release claims it is) addresses “surface impacts.” This ignores the Forest Service’s responsibility to protect community drinking water supplies.  The public drinking water supplies of 70,000 people are at risk in Athens and Morgan Counties alone. This does not even address private water supplies and community systems in Washington County.  Casings are inadequate to protect drinking water and inevitably leak, especially under the extremely high pressures used in horizontal fracturing. Acid mine water will make that happen sooner than later.  Underground contamination has been known to move as much as 4000 feet. These significant impacts cannot adequately be addressed in the permitting process, as Ms. Carey apparently states they will be. NEPA also requires that such significant impacts be addressed prior to a significant commitment of resources, i.e., leasing. The Wayne has also stated that it will not allow injection wells, which only means its radioactive, highly toxic waste will be dumped elsewhere in our community.

The press release states that fracking will “improve air quality,” which is about as Orwellian and absurd as one can get: Ohio law permits direct air emissions of 23 tons per well (according to USEPA) of volatile organic compounds (200x that of vertical wells), including known human carcinogens benzene and toluene. The Wayne report states that there could be thirteen well pads on the Wayne, each potentially containing 10 wells (meaning 130 wells) in the next three years. Fracking wells are known to leak methane (70-100x more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 at the 20-year time frame, clearly the period critical to civilization’s survival) and produce CO2 emissions from trucks and production that make fracking worse for climate than coal.

Our farmers and small business owners have repeatedly shared with Ms. Carey their concerns about the certain impacts that fracking the Wayne will have on their ability to sell organic locally grown food and attract tourists and recreational users to their businesses. The science on greenhouse gas impacts of methane leakage and life-cycle C02 emissions from fracking is frightening. Anne Carey’s actions will encourage destruction not only of our community but of climate stability as well. Vast predicted export of liquefied “natural” gas contradicts Ms. Carey’s assertion that her actions will promote energy security.

Our community will not be silenced by the Wayne’s irresponsible and illegal action.

update: See Athens Messenger coverage of Wayne decision and ACFAN response 8-27-12 .