Remember how miners would take canaries into mines to warn them of dangers from the build up of dangerous gases from coal mines? Well, in the age of hydrofracking we have a new animal warning us of the dangers to human and animal life in those parts of the country where drilling for natural gas and hydrofracking is all occurring. You friendly neighborhood cow.
Oil and gas companies like to say that hydrofracking is safe, and there there is no evidence that injecting chemically laced compounds mixed with water under high pressure to fracture shale formations deep beneath the surface in order to release methane gas has been shown to harm either human or animal life. Well, the truth is they are lying their fat a*** off, as a new study by two scientists from Cornell University, Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswalt, demonstrates. In fact, they found that cows which reside on farms in close proximity to wells, where hydrofracking and other similar drilling processes were employed to extract natural gas, were profoundly and negatively effected by their exposure to the waste water from said wells. From a pdf file of the study's results:
In addition to humans, the animals affected were: cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, and koi. [...]
Because production animals were exposed to the environment for longer periods and in greater numbers than companion animals, and because most of the farms we documented raised beef cattle, cows were represented to a greater extent than other animals. Exposures through well water, ponds, springs, dumping of waste later into creeks, and spills or leakage of wastewater from impoundments were believed by farmers to result in deaths over time periods typically ranging from one to three days, with cows going down and unable to rise despite symptomatic treatment. The most commonly reported symptoms were associated with reproduction. Cattle that have been exposed to wastewater (flowback and/or produced water) or affected well or pond water may have trouble breeding. When bred cows were likewise exposed, farmers reported an increased incidence of stillborn calves with and without congenital abnormalities (cleft palate, white and blue eyes). In each case, farmers reported that in previous years stillborn calves were rare (fewer than one per year). In most cases where diagnostics were pursued, no final diagnosis was made; in other cases, acute liver or kidney failure was most commonly found. Of the seven cattle farms studied in the most detail, 50 percent of the herd, on average, was affected by death and failure of survivors to breed. In one case, exposure to drilling wastewater led to a quarantine of beef cattle and significant uncompensated economic loss to the farmers.
The most dramatic case was the death of 17 cows within one hour from direct
exposure to hydraulic fracturing fluid. The final necropsy report listed the most likely cause of death as respiratory failure with circulatory collapse. The hydraulic fracturing fluid contained, among other toxicants, petroleum hydro-carbons and quaternary ammonium compounds (tetramethylammonium and hexamethylenetetramine). Although petroleum hydrocarbons were reported to be found in the small intestine, lesions in the lung, trachea, liver and kidneys suggested exposure to other toxicants as well, and quaternary ammonium compounds have been described as producing similar lesions [37].
Two cases involving beef cattle farms inadvertently provided control and
experimental groups. In one case, a creek into which wastewater was allegedly
dumped was the source of water for 60 head, with the remaining 36 head in the
herd kept in other pastures without access to the creek. Of the 60 head that
were exposed to the creek water, 21 died and 16 failed to produce calves the
following spring. Of the 36 that were not exposed, no health problems were
observed, and only one cow failed to breed. At another farm, 140 head were
exposed when the liner of a wastewater impoundment was allegedly slit, as
reported by the farmer, and the fluid drained into the pasture and the pond used
as a source of water for the cows. Of those 140 head exposed to the wastewater, approximately 70 died and there was a high incidence of stillborn and stunted calves. The remainder of the herd (60 head) was held in another pasture and did not have access to the wastewater; they showed no health or growth prob -
lems. These cases approach the design of a controlled experiment, and strongly implicate wastewater exposure in the death, failure to breed, and reduced growth rate of cattle.
It seems the humble cow is telling us that hydrofracking is as dangerous to life, all forms of life, including human life, as we have long suspected. Any response from those who support hydrofracking and other drilling techniques that expose people and animals to high levels of toxic chemicals would, of course, be greatly appreciated. Obviously the cows have spoken, and the message they're sending isn't a very pretty one for an industry devoted to extracting fossil fuels from the earth by any means necessary.