Fracking Earthquakes and Industry's Deadbeat Dad Problem

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Saturday December 28, 2013 · 11:10 AM PST

2013/12/28 · 11:10

The U.S. has seen a precipitous increase in shale oil and gas extraction over the past decade that would be impossible without the coupling of two old technologies, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing aka fracking. The courting and subsequent marriage of these two technologies took place in my Wise County Texas backyard.

Areas in the middle of America--Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia--that have been usually earthquake free have seen a significant increase in earthquakes during the past decade, which relates to the increase in fracking and injection of massive amounts of flowback and produced water.

A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this regionâ (Ellsworth et al, 2012).Â Link

A new study refers to the shale oil and gas boom as "fracking industrialization." I like that term. I used information from the study Fracking Industrialization and Induced Earthquakes: The Mechanisms that Connect the Disposal of Fracking Wastewater into Deep-Injection Wells to a Significant Increase in Midcontinent Seismic Activity for part of this blog post.

Updated with link to full study.

TXsharon

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Tuesday December 24, 2013 · 11:58 AM PST

2013/12/24 · 11:58

Hoping no one would notice, Obama picked noon on Christmas Eve to release the Inspector General (IG) report that justified the EPA's Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order in the Range Resources' Parker County water contamination case.

The IG's in-depth investigation findings:

EPA was right to issue the order.
Withdrawal reasons are unclear and questionable.
Recommends monitoring of Range Resources' testing because the quality is questionable.

I just want to gloat for a moment and say: I told you so!

TXsharon

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Sunday December 01, 2013 · 8:33 AM PST

2013/12/01 · 08:33

Last year I blogged about a new study: the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that exposure to “air pollutants–in some cases for a single day–increases the chance” of heart attack. From that study I learned that the heart is the most vulnerable organ to air pollution.

A newly released study focused on industrial pollutants found that congenital heart defects are strongly associated with mixtures of toxic air pollutants. The list of toxins are the same toxins people are being exposed to in shale oil and gas areas.

Environmental toxins linked to heart defects
DALLAS, Nov. 17, 2013 — Children’s congenital heart defects may be associated with their mothers’ exposure to specific mixtures of environmental toxins during pregnancy, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013.

TXsharon

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Friday November 15, 2013 · 9:22 AM PST

2013/11/15 · 09:22

According to comments made by Mark Grawe, Chief Operating Officer at EagleRidge Energy (EagleRidge), Denton, Texas residents who object to his company's reckless operations way too close to their homes, schools and parks are terrorists worthy of inclusion on the Department of Homeland Security's watch list.

UPDATE: Audio now available.

Wednesday night Grawe attended a Home Owners Association meeting in Mansfield where EagleRidge has drilled and fracked several wells very close to a neighborhood, schools and playgrounds.

TXsharon

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Sunday September 15, 2013 · 9:19 AM PDT

2013/09/15 · 09:19

Oil and gas wells drilled in a flood plain are under water and leaking in Weld County Colorado. There is at least one pipeline that broke as the dirt supporting it was washed away. Hydrocarbons and no telling what else are leaking into the flood waters yet the media is silent.

I posted this on my blog but it needs wider coverage.

TXsharon

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Saturday April 28, 2012 · 5:08 PM PDT

2012/04/28 · 17:08

The Big Oil & Gas Mafia and the GOP spin machine are on a witch hunt and they are after Obama and the EPA (and me too). Their first target is Dr. Al Armendariz, EPA Region 6 Administrator because he had the audacity to step in to protect public safety and demand accountability. Their whole campaign focuses on a comment made by Armendariz at a community meeting in Dish, Texas where state testing showed high levels of drilling chemicals in residents' blood and urine and where the community was suffering horribly with no result from Rick Perry appointed state regulators.

I was there in Dish, Texas that night.

TXsharon

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Thursday February 09, 2012 · 4:41 PM PST

2012/02/09 · 16:41

I used to blog about fracking here all the time way back before blogging about fracking was cool. I never told you this, but I have a new job now as organizer working for Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project. I love what I do and I'm much happier than I was when I wrote Look at the face of the working poor. But I'm not here to talk about me.

I want you to read about a fracking hero and a friend of mine, Judy Jordan and how the Big Gas Mafia got her fired so they could squelch science.

TXsharon

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Tuesday July 12, 2011 · 9:59 AM PDT

2011/07/12 · 09:59

When I was sixteen, I announced my intention to buy a new VW Beetle for a monthly payment of only $125. That’s when I first learned about associated costs. It was several years before I could finally afford a new, red, VW Beetle and all the associated costs.

Did you think that industry was telling you the whole story about the amount of water they use to hydraulically fracture a natural gas well?

TXsharon

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Wednesday June 22, 2011 · 4:41 PM PDT

2011/06/22 · 16:41

When they say fracking goes miles deep and miles wide, they aren’t kidding. Where do you think the fracking sand comes from?

Recently I learned that EOG, aka Enron Oil and Gas, is planning to start a frack sand mining and processing plant in Cooke County near the beautiful Saint Jo. The planned 1,400-acre facility will handle all stages of production and transportation. Although EOG has only applied for and has not yet been granted the permit by TCEQ, they have already done a lot of construction and water well drilling at the proposed site. You can see aerial photographs acquired through the efforts of local citizens at the Save The Trinity Aquifer blog spot.

TXsharon

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Thursday January 06, 2011 · 12:08 PM PST

2011/01/06 · 12:08

Workers who cleaned up the BP spill are showing up with illnesses and with toxic chemicals in their blood and it all looks eerily familiar.

Illnesses linked to BP oil disaster
Doctor attributes widespread sickness to toxic chemicals from the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related chemicals in their blood stream. These are commonly referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). Anthropogenic VOC's from BP's oil disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

Dr. Soto is finding from five to seven VOCs in patients' blood. Some of the chemicals found in blood samples are the same chemicals found in Barnett Shale residents' blood. He believes the pathways of exposure are "air, skin and seafood."

TXsharon

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Sunday September 26, 2010 · 8:39 AM PDT

2010/09/26 · 08:39

Bob and Lisa were told by their doctor to move out of their home withing 48 hours because it was too dangerous for them to stay after they were diagnosed with drilling chemicals in their blood and organs.

Flight for survival
Toxic emissions force family to leave home
By Brandon Evans

Lisa was treated by eight different doctors over the course of a year. A source of the sickness was never determined. In June 2009, after exhausting everything he knew medically, her internal specialist suggested that something in the environment might be causing her various ailments.

In early fall 2009, she visited an environmental doctor who confirmed the presence of neurotoxins in her blood that matched chemicals used in natural gas production.

pdf copy with photos

See below for a list of the chemicals found in Lisa's blood and in her lungs:

TXsharon

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Sunday September 19, 2010 · 11:01 AM PDT

2010/09/19 · 11:01

Natural gas drilling causes 75% property value loss

Drilling can dig into land value
Saturday, September 18, 2010, By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe

One year to the day after a company set up its drilling rigs on their land in eastern Wise County, Tim and Christine Ruggiero confirmed the depth of their loss.

Originally on the 2010 tax rolls for $257,330, their home and 10-acre horse property are now worth $75,240.

Is this the American Dream gone wrong, or what? I thought the Republican Party was all about personal property rights? Which will it be: Property Rights or Drill, Baby, drill? Because you can't have both with a Split Estate.

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Fracking Earthquakes and Industry's Deadbeat Dad Problem

Breaking! Inspector General report justifies EPA in Parker County fracking intervention.

Bad news for pregnant women near fracking. Study shows toxins linked to heart defects.

Update: Fracking executive confirms: Homeland Security thinks fracktivists are terrorists

Update: Is there a media blackout on the fracking flood disaster in Colorado?

Who really gets crucified in shale oil & gas fracking?

A case study in how industry influence squelches the science of gas drilling impacts

Water: Fracking sucks more than you think!

Frack sand mining doesn't just suck, it blows

BP spill workers, Barnett Shale residents same chemicals in blood

Fracked: Barnett Shale drilling chemicals found in blood and organs

Property devalued 75%! Where's your "Drill, Baby, drill" now?