LOOK! You do not want to know this! But, you need to know it and so does everyone else!
EDIT: This diary is about necessary regulation for the sake of human health and safety. So, if you make a comment implying that I'm against drilling you reveal that you didn't bother to read. Thank you for reading.
We are on a course for certain disaster if we don't slow down and make sure our "bridge fuel" is built with solid federal regulations!
A recent study of Barnett Shale ambient air was evaluated by Wilma Subra, MacArthur (Genius) Award winning chemist. The study found amazing and very high levels of toxic chemicals including known and suspected human carcinogens and neurotoxins.
Acute impacts to health will occur with these concentrations of chemicals in the air. The cancer and neurotoxins will also have an impact over the long term.
Another study, released today, had similar findings.
A report by Al Armendariz, Ph.D., Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Southern Methodist University for the Environmental Defense Fund found that HALF of all the smog in the D/FW area comes from natural gas drilling activities and prevention is easy and affordable.
Much of this is from fugitive emissions that are invisible to the human eye but revealed with a infra-red video camera:
It can also be prevented with green completions instead of venting and flaring the unwanted methane and associated toxins into the air:
Flaring and venting release a host of pollutants. Flaring has caused acid rain in Nigeria.
Hydraulic fracturing also releases toxins into the air:
The water used to develop natural gas is not sustainable and it's causing a water bankruptcy from which there is no bailout!
The unregulated fracking and associated spills pollutes surface and groundwater with deadly chemicals.
Never before have such immense volumes of fluid been injected into such a small concentrated area. The drilling induced earthquakes continue.
It seems the Natural Gas is a Clean Energy meme has been firmly implanted into the collective American brain which is extremely bad for those of us in the 34 states where natural gas drilling development wrecking havoc with our vital natural resources and quality of life. Natural gas is touted as our bridge fuel and with the incentives and lack of regulation in the Kerry-Boxer climate bill we can only expect things to get much worse as they convert our vehicles and power plants to natural gas.
Almost without exception, state regulators are so enmeshed with industry that they serve as paid protectors. Folks, this can't be a step in the right direction without some serious updating to regulations and federal oversight!
UPDATE: Every time I post a fracking dairy some fracking geologists tells me how safe fracking is despite all the evidence to the contrary. Please see the Manual for Independent Operators used by Halliburton and other industry frackers. Read chapter 5 because it's filled with nuggets like this:
"An improperly designed or poorly performed stimulation treatment can allow a hydraulic fracture to enter a water zone."
Also see: Hydraulic Fracture: Precise or Imprecise?