The Planet Testifies in Court

RIP Troy Anthony Davis: Abolish the Death Penalty

Troy Davis and his mother

Violence in all its forms must end on this planet.  The legal murder, listed as homicide on the death certificate, of a very possibly innocent man (there is too much doubt about his guilt),  is a macabre,  grisly act carried out, in this case, by the State of Georgia.  The purposeful act of injecting a drug into the arm of a human being in order to stop his heart from beating is something that must be stopped from ever happening again.  Georgia has 104 more people on death row.  How many more Troy Davises will there be?  Killing a man who is in prison and therefore helpless is a barbaric act.

The rape of the Earth by hydrofracking is another violence which pervades our world and must be stopped.  Capital punishment and environmental destruction are related.  Our belief in the sacredness of all life touches both the execution of a human being and the killing of the environment,  human beings, and animals with toxic chemicals.  We are putting toxic fluids into the Earth just as lethal fluids were injected into the arm of Troy Davis on September 21, 2011.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now covered the execution of Troy Davis live, the only media to do so.  Go to www.democracynow.org for more on this tragic killing.

Our hearts go out to the family of Mark MacPhail, the young man who was killed in 1989.  We also pray for the family of Troy Davis who have suffered, too.

I am Troy Davis.

Don't Get Fracked: NRDC Has New Website For Citizens

Click on the map to enlarge

NRDC is very pleased to announce the launch of Don't Get Fracked, a toolkit for citizens around the country looking for sources of information on the permitting and drilling processes, legal rights, environmental information, health resources, local organizations working on these issues, and more.

From the Overview of the toolkit:

Drilling for natural gas is growing across the United States. The use of hydraulic fracturing has opened up gas shale resources in many parts of the country where drilling was not previously occurring. Although drilling can create jobs and income, many fear the effects of drilling on their health, land and quality of life. Current laws need to be changed to catch up with the drilling explosion.

In the meantime, you can act now to protect yourself and your family. These pages provide tools to learn about

• The drilling planned for your community
• The harm drilling can cause
• Steps you can take to limit the dangers to yourself and your family
• Resources in each state in which drilling is or is likely to occur.

Here are the categories in the Toolkit:

• Overview
• Health Effects
• Your Rights
• Environmental Impacts
• Pollution
• Resources by State

This website is worth a look.  Amy Mall of NRDC asks that people send information as well so that everyone can benefit from the experiences of others.

Don't Get Fracked!

Josh Fox Interview About "Gasland" on NOW

Watch this interview!  Josh Fox tells his story about the long journey he made across the country to learn about the real effects of hydrofracking and other related issues surrounding gas drilling. Twenty plus minutes is all it takes.

Watch This Video Filmed In Dimock, PA

The noise is unbelievable.  The roads are caked with mud and potholed.  Trucks everywhere.  Water tanks by the dozens.  All within 300 feet of people's homes.  It's just wrong.
Kudos to Vera Scroggins who took this video!

Waterville, PA, Spill: Airfoam HD Is Dangerous

Airfoam HD is dangerous, contrary to what the PA DEP is claiming in Waterville, PA, after a spill this week. A gas company spokesman called the spill "soap." However, AIRFOAM HD has 2-BE in it. Dr. Theo Colborn of Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc. (TEDX) researched 2-BE and reported the following:

2-BE is a highly soluble, colorless liquid with a very faint, ether-like odor. It has a low volatility, vaporizes slowly when mixed with water and remains well dissolved throughout the water column. It mobilizes in soil and can easily leach into groundwater. It could remain entrapped underground for years.

She noted that it is readily absorbed by the skin and can easily be inhaled as it off-gasses in the home. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Profile lists the following effects of 2-BE:

kidney damage, kidney failure, toxicity to the spleen, the bones in the spinal column and bone marrow, liver cancer, anemia, female fertility reduction, embryo mortality, and the biggie- elevated numbers of combined malignant and non-malignant tumors of the adrenal gland.

A family in Colorado found out the hard way about 2-BE. The mom developed a serious illness- Primary Hyper Aldosteronism, a very rare condition of a tumor on her adrenal gland. Her doctors could not figure out how she could have acquired such a rare disease. You can read her tragic story here.

The PA DEP spokesman, Daniel Spadoni, told Waterville residents this week that AIRFOAM HD is not listed as dangerous. He appears to be wrong. Why does he not know about this dangerous substance? The information is available to the public. Did Mr. Spadoni take a little time to do some research? It's very disturbing that people in authority tell people not to worry about a substance that is known to be very toxic and causes illness.

Nastassja Noell has written an article (11/18/2009) about industrial foam used in natural gas production which was found in Schaeffer Creek in Bedford County, PA. Read about Wayne and Angel Smith of Clearville, PA. Their experience on their farm is heartbreaking.

TELL PUBLIC OFFICIALS TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Democracy Now! Interviews Charles Duhigg of the NYT: Toxic Waters

Watch this interview with New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg about the latest in his investigative series “Toxic Waters,” which examines the worsening pollution in the nation’s water systems. Duhigg appeared last month to discuss how chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years, most without punishment. Since then he has written articles focusing on how coal-fired power plants and large farms are threatening the nation’s drinking water.

Charles Duhigg, Award-winning reporter for the New York Times. He is the author of a new series about the worsening pollution in American waters called “Toxic Waters.”

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Steuben County Compressor Station: Number One Polluter

Compressor Station in Dimock, PA. Photo by Mary Sweeney

The focus has been on well pads, of course, but compressor stations are required, too. What problems will they bring?

Steuben County's (NY) Woodhill compressor station is not only the greatest source of pollutants in the county, it's approximately 3 times greater a polluter than the Corning glass manufacturing plant; and the compressor station also emits nearly 3 times the number of different pollutants than Corning does.

Compressor stations pump gas through a pipeline by compressing the gas at intervals along the system. The engines run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. (For a short description of how compressor stations work, click here. Keep in mind that the information is provided by El Paso Pipeline Group.)

Click here to see the Planet Hazard map, showing the location of the Woodhill compressor station. Note the close proximity to the Pulteney Hill School (a mere .46 miles) and less than five miles from 13 other schools. Can we not at least provide our children with safe, quiet places to go to school?

Read how Lamar County, TX, residents won a lawsuit after an eleven-year court battle with the Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America. Complaint: noise and pollution from a natural gas compressor station near Howland, TX. Award: $1,242,500 in damages. But remember it took eleven years of blood sweat and tears to get there. How many Americans are going to have the wherewithal to do that? William "Bubba" Justiss, who brought the suit, said,

I was tickled to death by the verdict, I never did think it would happen. I didn't think it would ever come to trial. I am glad it did. It might help some other people on down the way.

All the years he was fighting this uphill battle, he said,

I cried every time I got up to speak to people at meetings. I was trying to warn people what will happen when these compression stations are built, the amount of problems residents will have and the devaluation of their property.

Landowners often complain about noise levels associated with natural gas compressors. The noise level varies with the size of the compressor and distance from the compressor; and it changes with shifts in wind direction and intensity. According to the Powder River Basin Resource Council, "Depending on the wind direction, the roar of a field compressor can be heard three to four miles from the site. Near the compressor stations, people need to shout to make themselves heard over the sound of the engines."

One Wyoming landowner has described compressor noise in this way:

"....the dreadful noise generated by a nearby large compressor station. Noise that was so loud that our dog was too frightened to go outside to do his business without a lot of coaxing. Noise that sounds like a jet plane circling over your house for 24 hours a day. Noise that is constant. Noise that drives people to the breaking point. My neighbor called the sheriff, state officials and even the governor and was told nothing could be done about the noise. Like I said, the noise drives people to the breaking point, and my neighbor fired 17 rifle shots toward the station."
(This comment comes from Earthworks: Click here.)

How many thousands of people will be pushed to the breaking point before this is over? Perhaps it will be you or I. This is just one more reason to strengthen our gun laws. Arming everyone could be a very bad thing. Our very lives, our families, our planet are threatened. How much can we take?

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Extra! Extra! Texas Blogger Down!

A Texas woman, Elizabeth Burns, who with her husband owns a 38,000-acre ranch in South Texas and has experienced countless problems with Exxon Mobil because of gas drilling, has been served with a gag order, forbidding her to blog about Exxon Mobil. For the past year or so, Mrs. Burns has been taking pictures and videos, and posting on her blog about the pollution she finds within plain view of her home. She is very diligent and thorough in her reporting. El Paso Corp. just got a totally unconstitutional protective order to interfere with her blogging. According to Mrs. Burns, the gas company claims that what she films on her own property or in plain view of her ranch is a trade secret.

Mrs. Burns is a house wife and she has just one pro bono lawyer, a very excellent one she says! She needs our support. We cannot tolerate our own independent news reporting being silenced! We have the right to tell our stories and document what is happening in our own backyards.

Visit Mrs. Burns' web site. She is a good writer, very entertaining, but fearless in her approach. Her story is truly remarkable! You won't believe what she has found out in her investigations. She's called the Spatula Blogger because she holds a spatula as a microphone when appearing in her videos. You'll enjoy her sense of humor, but most of all, you'll admire her for her sense of justice and her concern for the environment.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
TELL EXXON MOBIL TO FREE MRS. BURNS!

A Dirty Secret Caught On Video: Watch This

Above is official video from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It reveals fugitive emissions from several Barnett Shale gas well sites.

This is what Dr. Theo Colborn wrote in response to this video:

The tanks you see in this picture can be found across the gas fields in the US. They look harmless as you drive by just like the other stationary equipment you see on well pads. Without an infrared camera, as in this case, that picks up the plume of the highly active volatile chemicals escaping from the tanks, no one would suspect that the tanks could possibly pose a public health problem. As natural gas extraction continues to increase, federal, state, and local public health authorities and regulatory agencies are unprepared to deal with the problem.

--
Theo Colborn, PhD
President, TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption Exchange)
PO Box 1407
Paonia, CO 81428
direct:970-527-6548 office:970-527-4082
http://www.endocrinedisruption.org

Don Young of FWCanDO (Fort Worth) wrote:
"The thermal imaging demonstrated in this video is proof that you and your family, your pets and wildlife are breathing this new source of smog - 200 tons per day, on average, in the Metroplex - because an unscrupulous industry exploits a loophole in the federal Clean Air Act."

For more information, click here. Thanks to Texas Sharon for her fine work in the great State of Texas!

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
DEMAND CLEAN AIR TO BREATHE!

Barnett Shale From the Air: Watch and Weep

See the true cost of gas! Natural gas is just another dirty fossil fuel. A [Barnett Shale] drilling rig operating for 3 months has the same impact as a city of 4,000 people—water use, solid waste generation, air emissions and traffic.
[David Burnett, Dir. Global Petroleum Research Institute, a collaborative research organization representing 12 major international oil producing companies]

Thanks to TXsharon and Bluedaze: Drilling Reform for Texas for this video. TXsharon is a tireless advocate for public health and safety and the irreplaceable environment we take for granted on this planet. She does her work as a volunteer inspite of repeated attempts to discredit her, intimidate her, and silence her.

People of the Marcellus Shale, this is what an industrial zone looks like. The rolling hills of Pennsylvania will soon resemble this landscape. Most of us didn't know the landmen were combing the country, getting landowners to sign gas leases. Now it is probably too late to stop it. All we have left is to regulate the industry as much as we can. However, the gas industry is the most unregulated industry in the nation. We are limited to a few things like road use and permits for water use. Don't give any gas company a free ride.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Bulldozer Buries Toxic Sludge in Garfield County, CO

Here is a report from Journey of the Forsaken which describes what happened in this video (May 2009). Thanks to Lisa Bracken for capturing this event and writing about it.

Twenty-three days after EnCana completed hydraulic fracturing operations on the F11E (CO), the liner is removed, some of the sludge is pumped out and the remainder - perhaps 70 barrels or more - is dozed in.

The pad overlies a spring that often surfaces here. It is fed by a shallow groundwater aquifer that supplies water to West Divide Creek and a family's private water well located maybe 200 yards away. An irrigation ditch is located approximately 30 feet from the East end of the pit.

If one of the pumper trucks had overturned on the county road, spilling this stuff into the environment, a hazardous materials unit would have responded, sequestered the area, potentially evacuated citizens and employed measures to safeguard first responders, citizens and the environment. But because this is a hydraulic fracturing waste pit, out of sight of the public and on private land (owned, coincidently, by EnCana) it is simply covered up.

This same site - if it were at a gas station or a paper mill or a chemical manufacturing plant - would likely be a violation and require extensive clean-up and proper disposal at a licensed facility... as it should. But, again, here, in rural Garfield County, it is simply buried.

Industry would like us to believe that frac fluids are merely salt water, a little thickener, and food additives. But we know frac mixtures contain all kinds of hazardous substances, like biocides, benzene, hydrocarbons, solvents, descalers, surfactants, enzymes, acids, and patented synthetic chemicals. We also know the adverse health effects of some of these agents.

We know a nurse in Durango, CO nearly died of catastrophic organ failure after unprotected exposure to fracturing chemicals (we don't know what happened to the field worker she cared for). We know her physician had to guess how to treat her as she lay dying. And we know that industry lawyers blocked her testimony at a rules reform hearing where citizens and advocacy groups were lobbying for chemical disclosure. We also know that the oil and gas industry has totally refuted her claims in literature distributed to lawmakers in Washington, DC intended to influence legislators against voting to repeal hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Watching a bull dozer blade this toxic brew beneath twenty feet of uncontained soil is horrifying. Knowing that this industry is allowed to poison the land, the water and the people is even worse.

Eventually this pit was completely covered.

This site is less than a half mile from my home.... a place in the Rocky Mountains now exploited for its natural gas resource. A place once rich in other resources as well... water - air - land - wildlife - community.

EnCana calls where I live their "Field of Dreams". As they abuse the ecosystem and destroy its fragile sustainability, they reap a finite reward while leaving behind an industrial waste dump.

I apologize for the shaky video and loud background noise. The wind was blowing so hard it was shaking my hand and totally flooded the microphone.

Despite the awful nature of this situation, the meticulous work conducted by the dozer and excavator operators was something to see. I knew an operator who competed in heavy equipment rodeos, and watching him excavate was amazing.

All the folks on this site seemed capable, and I doubt that any of them gave a second thought to burying this pit. Field workers have told me this is common practice. They probably had no idea it was right over an aquifer and never considered the effects on a stream or private water well. They work around this stuff all the time, and many come to consider it routine, even unknowingly putting their own health at risk. But, EnCana leadership is well aware, and that is where accountability must begin.

As with most of these situations, it is the underlying structure of inappropriate federal exemptions, weak state rules and poor but accepted practices that lead to making this the terrible situation it is.

Only with full accountability can we develop workable and mutually beneficial solutions. Which are more than possible - they are at the leading edge of demand and on the precipice of necessity.

Ultimately, the fossil fuel industry must come out of the dark ages and embrace a more honest and cooperative manner of conducting their operations.

Part of that involves repealing exemptions that allow and encourage them to operate like a lawless regime, putting human health and safety as well as the environment at frequent and serious risk.

For over a year, at www.journeyoftheforsaken.com, I've been documenting EnCana's aggressive and irresponsible development of 60 natural gas wells around our home and the infamous area of the 2004 West Divide Creek natural gas blowout.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
Go to http://www.journeyoftheforsaken.com/
for more remarkable stories from Garfield County, CO.
Credit goes to Lisa Bracken who maintains this website.