First, the Dallas Morning News inappropriately titled their article, “In midst of gas boom, anti-drilling movement gains ground.” (The article is behind a gate so you will need to buy a paper to read it.) Most of the people I talk with are not actually “anti-drilling.” They are anti unregulated drilling which is what we currently have in Texas.
Second, they got this completely wrong:
Indeed, no fracking fluids have ever been detected in aquifers and wells…
False!
- Many chemicals included in fracking fluids have been detected in aquifers and wells. Benzene and toluene, for example, do not occur naturally in water yet they have suddenly turned up in well water, along with other toxic chemicals, shortly after fracking.
- Since industry gets to keep their fracking fluid chemicals secret, how the hell can the DMN determine they have never been detected? No one can accurately make that claim.
- Drilling mud has been found in private water wells shortly after fracking. Wonder how it got there.
I suspect that statement came straight from industry without any investigation by the reporters.
Regarding the Parker County water contamination: why did the reporters choose to quote Ed Ireland extensively without bothering to include any information from the EPA?
Aw well, it’s a start.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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I'm anti-drilling because it's all a free-for-all with few, if any regulations and also because I've seen how corrupt this industry is…with lying to people to get them to sign leases. Anytime anyone waves the American flag while holding out a pen and a clipboard and says "all your neighbors have already signed, you wouldn't want to miss out"…Can we say SCAM Alert?? That means they've got something or a LOT to hide.
Yeah, I think that all falls under the unregulated part. They should be required to fully disclose everything including all the infrastructure and the secret clauses in leases.
Piss poor article that took three pages to say nothing. This is why journalism is dead! I'm sorry but you don't cite two different academic studies on air pollution (Al Armendariz' SMU study, and a Cornell study) just to discard them both with the usual industry refutes these claims nonsense and a lousy TCEQ report on a whopping 93 wells. It also says something when the only quotes in the article ,besides two sentences from Gas Patch victims, come from Ed Ireland.
And every article ends with the same nonsense about the science and proof being so elusive. Where was the congressional report on the precise number of gallons of various toxics being injected into the ground? Nowhere to be found because if they had included any of it, the data would conclusively show that Texas and therefore North Texas is being turned into a toxic dumping ground. Where was the EPA report on Diesel fuel being illegally used in Texas more than anywhere else? It vanished I guess.
The part I relished in the most involved the Parker County contamination case. Of course I knew they would report that the TRC absolved itself of all wrong doing. And of course I also knew that the recent news of a federal judge backing the EPAs actions would be left out of the article. And hey, if you're gonna mention Al Armendariz why don't you quote him on how the Trinity River Aquifer is probably already contaminated?
These articles also never seem to report on the Mafioso behavior of this industry and its use of Rule 37 and imminent domain.
Oh no I suspect another of my long winded rants has been marked as Spam or rejected for its length without my knowledge.
Blogger is having lots of issues right now. The comments just showed up a few minutes ago.
Soon, I will have a new blog so hang in there.
3.Drilling mud has been found in private water wells shortly after fracking. Wonder how it got there.
Water wells are drilled with the same drilling mud as oil/gas wells. You will be able to find traces of drilling mud in all water wells. The exception would be those wells drilled with a spudder, or the percussion method of drilling.