Terry Greenwood- Living on the Shale (PA)

Published on Feb 21, 2015

This video was produced at our event Living on the Shale" on May 17th, 2014 by CECA, (Coshocton Environmental and Community Awareness Inc.). It featured citizens from around the nation who are at the forefront in the fight to protect our communities from the extreme environmental impacts of slickwater horizontal hydrofracking . The event was entitled "Living on the Shale" and was held in Coshocton, Ohio. Visit our website at www.Cecaware.org.

Music     "Elegy" by Lisa Gerrard (Google Play • AmazonMP3 • iTunes)

 

RIP Terry Greenwood:  October 26, 1947- June 8, 2014

High Volume Horizontal Hydrofracking: New York State Says No!

For a good read, check out this response from Chip Northrup:

http://www.nofrackingway.us/2014/12/20/what-the-frack-happens-now-in-new-york/

What's going to happen next in New York State?  Chip Northrup says, "Nothing!"  We will not have horizontal gas drilling in New York.  Game over for the frackers.  The sad part is that the drillers will just take their marbles and go somewhere else to destroy the landscape and put human beings and other living things in harm's way.  So we must all get busy and ban fracking wherever we live.  Many communities in NY have done this, and it has made it very difficult for frackers to operate. Click here to see an excellent map showing the actions against drilling in New York communities.

Compendium of Health Risks (drilling and fracking): Hot off the press!

A new report is out from Concerned Health Professionals of New York (December 2014)

Compendium of Scientific, Medical, Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (unconventional gas and oil extraction)

Executive Summary
Evidence of risks, harms, and associated trends demonstrated by this Compendium:
 Air pollution – Studies increasingly show that air pollution associated with drilling and fracking operations is a grave concern with a range of impacts. Researchers have documented dozens of air pollutants from drilling and fracking operations that pose serious health hazards. Areas with substantial drilling and fracking build-out show high levels of ozone, striking declines in air quality, and, in several cases, increased rates of health problems with known links to air pollution. Air sampling surveys find exceedingly high concentrations of volatile organic compounds, especially carcinogenic benzene and formaldehyde, both at the wellhead and at distances that exceed legal setback distances from wellhead to residence. In some cases, concentrations exceeded federal safety standards by several orders of magnitude.

 Water contamination – Emerging science confirms that drilling and fracking inherently threaten groundwater. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 240 private drinking water wells have been contaminated or have dried up as the result of drilling and fracking operations over a seven-year period. A range of studies from across the United States presents strong evidence that groundwater contamination occurs and is more likely to occur close to drilling sites. The nation’s 172,000 injection wells for disposal of fracking waste also pose demonstrable threats to the drinking water aquifers. Disposal of fracking waste in sewage treatment plants can encourage the formation of carcinogenic byproducts during chlorination. Overall, the number of well blowouts, spills and cases of surface water contamination has steadily grown. Meanwhile, the gas industry’s use of "gag orders," non-disclosure agreements and settlements impede scientific study and stifle public awareness of the extent of these problems.

 Inherent engineering problems that worsen with time – Studies and emerging data consistently show that oil and gas wells routinely leak, allowing for the migration of natural gas and potentially other substances into groundwater and the atmosphere. Recent research suggests that the act of fracking itself may induce pathways for leaks. Leakage from faulty wells is an issue that the industry has identified and for which it has no solution. For instance, Schlumberger, one of the world’s largest companies specializing
in fracking, published an article in its magazine in 2003 showing that about five percent of wells leak immediately, 50 percent leak after 15 years and 60 percent leak after 30 years. Data from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for 2000-2012 show over nine percent of shale gas wells drilled in the state’s northeastern counties leaking within the first five years. Leaks pose serious risks including potential loss of life or property from explosions and the migration of gas or other chemicals into drinking water supplies. Leaks also allow methane to escape into the atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas. There is no evidence to suggest that the problem of cement and well casing impairment is abating. Indeed, a 2014 analysis of more than 75,000 compliance reports for more than 41,000 wells in Pennsylvania found that newer wells have higher leakage rates and that unconventional shale gas wells leak more than conventional wells drilled within the same time period. Industry has no solution for rectifying the chronic problem of well casing/cement leakage.

 Radioactive releases – High levels of radiation documented in fracking wastewater from shale raise special concerns in terms of impacts to groundwater and surface water. Studies have indicated that the Marcellus Shale is more radioactive than other shale formations. Measurements of radium in fracking wastewater in New York and Pennsylvania have been as high as 3,600 times the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) limit for drinking water. One recent study found toxic levels of radiation in a Pennsylvania waterway even after fracking wastewater was disposed of through an industrial wastewater treatment plant. In addition, the disposal of radioactive drill cuttings is a concern. Unsafe levels of radon and its decay products in natural gas produced from the Marcellus Shale, known to have particularly high radon content, may also contaminate pipelines and compressor stations, as well as pose risks to end-users when allowed to travel into homes.

 Occupational health and safety hazards – Fracking jobs are dangerous jobs. Occupational hazards include head injuries, traffic accidents, blunt trauma, burns, toxic chemical exposures, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and sleep deprivation. As a group, oil and gas industry workers have an on-the-job fatality rate that is 2.5 times higher than the construction industry and seven times that of general industry. A new investigation of occupational exposures found high levels of benzene in the urine of workers on the wellpad, especially those in close proximity to flowback fluid. Exposure to silica dust, which is definitively linked to silicosis and lung cancer, was singled out by National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health as a particular threat to workers in fracking operations where silica sand is used. At the same time, research shows that many gas field workers, despite these serious occupational hazards, are uninsured or underinsured and lack access to basic medical care.

 Public health effects, measured directly – In Pennsylvania, as the number of gas wells increases in a community so to do rates of hospitalization. Drilling and fracking operations are correlated with elevated motor vehicle fatalities (Texas), self-reported skin and respiratory problems (southwestern Pennsylvania), ambulance runs and emergency room visits (North Dakota), infant deaths (Utah), birth defects (Colorado), and low birthweight (multiple states). Benzene levels in ambient air surrounding drilling and  fracking operations are sufficient to elevate risks for future cancers in both workers and nearby residents, according to new studies.

Noise pollution, light pollution and stress – Drilling and fracking operations and ancillary infrastructure expose workers and nearby residents to continuous noise and light pollution that is sustained for periods lasting many months. Chronic exposure to light at night is linked to adverse health effects, including breast cancer. Sources of fracking-related noise pollution include blasting, drilling, flaring, generators, compressor stations and truck traffic. Exposure to environmental noise pollution is linked to cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and sleep disturbance. Workers and residents whose homes, schools and workplaces are in close proximity to well sites are at risk from these exposures as well as from related stressors. A UK Health Impact Assessment identified stress and anxiety resulting from drilling-related noise—as well as from a sense of uncertainty about the future and eroded public trust—as key public health risks related to fracking operations.

 Earthquake and seismic activity – A growing body of evidence, from Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, links fracking wastewater injection (disposal) wells to earthquakes of magnitudes as high as 5.7, in addition to "swarms" of minor earthquakes and fault slipping. Many recent studies focus on the mechanical ability of pressurized fluids to trigger seismic activity. In some cases, the fracking process itself has been linked to earthquakes and seismic activity, including instances in which gas corporations have acknowledged the connection. In New York, this issue is of particular concern to New York City’s aqueduct-dependent drinking water supply and watershed infrastructure, as the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) has warned repeatedly, but similar concerns apply to all drinking water resources. The question of what to do with wastewater remains a problem with no viable, safe solution.

 Abandoned and active oil and natural gas wells (as pathways for gas and fluid migration) – Millions of abandoned and undocumented oil and gas wells exist across the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. All serve as potential pathways for pollution, heightening the risks of groundwater contamination and other problems when horizontal drilling and fracking operations intersect with pre-existing vertical channels leading through drinking water aquifers and to the atmosphere. New research from Pennsylvania shows that, cumulatively, abandoned wells are a significant source of methane into the atmosphere and may exceed cumulative total leakage from oil and gas wells currently in production. No state or federal agency routinely monitors methane leakage from orphaned and abandoned wells. Industry experts, consultants and government agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office), Texas Department of Agriculture, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission have all warned about problems with abandoned wells due to the potential for pressurized fluids and gases to
migrate through inactive and in some cases, active wells.

 Flood risks – Massive land clearing and forest fragmentation that necessarily accompany well site preparation increase erosion and risks for catastrophic flooding, as do access roads, pipeline easements and other related infrastructure. In addition, in some cases, operators choose to site well pads on flood-prone areas in order to have easy access to water for fracking, to abide by setback requirements intended to keep well pads away from inhabited buildings, or to avoid productive agricultural areas. In turn, flooding increases the dangers of unconventional gas extraction, resulting in the contamination of soils and water supplies, the overflow or breaching of containment ponds, and the escape of chemicals and hazardous materials. In at least six of the past ten years, New York State has experienced serious flooding in parts of the state targeted for drilling and fracking. Some of these areas have been hit with "100-year floods" in five or more of the past ten years. Gas companies acknowledge threats posed by flooding, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has recommended drilling be prohibited from 100-year flood areas; however, accelerating rates of extreme weather events make existing flood maps obsolete, making this approach insufficiently protective.

 Threats to agriculture and soil quality – Drilling and fracking pose risks to the agricultural industry. In California, fracking wastewater illegally dumped into aquifers has threatened crucial irrigation supplies to farmers in a time of severe drought. Studies and case reports from across the country have highlighted instances of deaths, neurological disorders, aborted pregnancies, and stillbirths in cattle and goats associated with livestock coming into contact with wastewater. Potential water and air contamination puts soil quality as well as livestock health at risk. Additionally, farmers have expressed concern that nearby fracking operations can hurt the perception of agricultural quality and nullify value-added organic certification.

 Threats to the climate system – A range of studies has shown high levels of methane leaks from gas drilling and fracking operations, undermining the notion that natural gas is a climate solution or a transition fuel. Major studies have concluded that early work by the EPA greatly underestimated the impacts of methane and natural gas drilling on the climate. Drilling, fracking and expanded use of natural gas threaten not only to exacerbate climate change but also to stifle investments in, and expansion of, renewable energy.

 Inaccurate jobs claims, increased crime rates, threats to property value and mortgages and local government burden – Experiences in various states and accompanying studies have shown that the oil and gas industry’s promises for job creation from drilling for natural gas have been greatly exaggerated and that many of the jobs are short-lived and/or have gone to out-of-area workers. With the arrival of drilling and fracking operations, communities have experienced steep increases in rates of crime – including sex trafficking, sexual assault, drunk driving, drug abuse, and violent victimization, all of which carry public health consequences, especially for women. Social costs include strain on law enforcement, municipal services and road damage. Economic analyses have found that drilling and fracking operations threaten property values and can diminish tax revenues for local governments. Additionally, gas drilling and fracking pose an inherent conflict with mortgages and property insurance due to the hazardous materials used and the associated risks.

Inflated estimates of oil and gas reserves and profitability – Industry estimates of oil and gas reserves and profitability of drilling have proven unreliable, casting serious doubts on the bright economic prospects the industry has painted for the public, media and investors. Increasingly, well production has been short-lived, which has led companies drilling shale to reduce the value of their assets by billions of dollars, creating shortfalls that are largely filled through asset sales and increasing debt load, according to a recent analysis by the US Energy Information Administration.

 Disclosure of serious risks to investors – Oil and gas companies are required to disclose risks to their investors in an annual Form 10-K. Those disclosures acknowledge the inherent dangers posed by gas drilling and fracking operations, including leaks, spills, explosions, blowouts, environmental damage, property damage, injury and death. Adequate protections have not kept pace with these documented dangers and inherent risks.

 Medical and scientific calls for more study and more transparency – With increasing urgency, groups of medical professionals and scientists are issuing calls for comprehensive, long-term study of the full range of the potential health and ecosystem effects of drilling and fracking. These appeals underscore the accumulating evidence of harm, point to the major knowledge gaps that remain, and denounce the atmosphere of secrecy and intimidation that continues to impede the progress of scientific inquiry. Health professionals and scientists in the United States and around the world have urged tighter regulation of and in some cases, suspension of unconventional gas and oil extraction activities in order to limit, mitigate or eliminate its serious, adverse public health hazards.


Go to this website to read the entire document.

Natural Gas Drilling Is Harmful To Our Health: Gov. Cuomo, Are You Listening?

"New Yorkers should not be placed in the crosshairs of these public health threats. We need to prioritize the health of all of our residents. It's inexcusable to consider a pilot project that brings fracking into any part of our state, putting some of our residents immediately in harm's way and releasing contaminants that do not stop at municipal boundaries drawn on a map."

— Dr. Bart Schoenfeld, cardiologist and member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Hudson-Mohawk Chapter.

"The gas industry has been secretive with information – limiting disclosure and keeping crucial data out of researchers' hands. As a result, the pace of scientific research has been impeded. Yet, results of a number of important studies tracking short- and long-term health effects of fracking are due to come out in the next few years.

That is why my colleagues and I think a three- to five-year moratorium – at minimum – is prudent.
Clean water, clean air and a safe home and community are not privileges; they are rights. It's up to Gov. Cuomo to ensure the health of all New Yorkers and enact a statewide moratorium on fracking."

Read more here.

Natural Gas Drilling: Bradford County, PA

Published on Jan 13, 2013 FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Accountant and Business Consultant.

Dave's home has been occupied by the gas industry known as "hydrofracking". Living in Wyalusing PA, in the heart of fracking in Bradford County, the water wells on his wife's 7th generation family farm were contaminated after the Slick Water Hydraulic Fracturing began.

How Gas Wells Leak: Power Point By Chip Northrup

Golden Age of Flammability: Colbert Speaks Out

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Smokey the Bear on Fracking

Earth Day 2013: A Letter From Jail

Happy Earth Day!

 

Sandra Steingraber, biologist, ecologist, writer, cancer survivor, mother, and poet, is sitting in the Chemung County Jail today, Earth Day 2013.  Read her letter from jail here.  It starts like this:

This morning – I have no idea what time this morning, as there are no clocks in jail, and the florescent lights are on all night long – I heard the familiar chirping of English sparrows and the liquid notes of a cardinal. And there seemed to be another bird too – one who sang a burbling tune. Not a robin–wren? The buzzing, banging, clanking of jail and the growled announcements of guards on their two-way radios – which also go on all night – drowned it out. But the world, I knew, was out there somewhere.

 

Sandra Steingraber

 





CALL GOVERNOR CUOMO TODAY
ON EARTH DAY. TELL HIM TO PROTECT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF NEW YORK CITIZENS.  BAN FRACKING IN NEW YORK STATE.

1-866-584-6799

Videos from PSE Healthy Energy

Here are some terrific videos compiled by PSEHealthEnergy concerning many aspects of the negative impacts of gas drilling.

About PSEHealthyEnergy

Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy is dedicated to supplying vetted resources and solid scientific information on issues surrounding unconventional oil and gas production, other novel forms of energy production, and the transition to renewable energy portfolios.

 

PSE Web site

 

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In memory of Karen Korell

This was her mantra.

Dr. Sandra Steingraber: Albany News Conference on Fracking New York

Dr. Sandra Steingraber speaks at a news conference in Albany, New York, on January 11, 2013. She describes the process by which NY residents responded in writing to the impending possibility that Governor Cuomo will allow permitting of gas wells in New York State. The governor's decision may come as soon as February- just a few weeks away.

Cancer Survivor Addresses Health Effects of Fracking

From The Ithaca Times  Aneta Glover   December 5, 2012

Dr. Steingraber said at an Ovid meeting:

"I am a cancer survivor myself. I was diagnosed at the age of 20 because someone put dry cleaning fluid out back of a machine shop 80 years before and contaminated my town's drinking water. I have been in and out of the hospital for 33 years. I have an exam scheduled for two weeks from now because of an abnormality they saw last time. You don't know how high my medical bills are. But, if you want to talk about costs, not just about kids having to drink contaminated water, kids with cancer at a young age - if you just want to do an analysis … every person with cancer costs tens of thousands of dollars, every child with asthma, every pre-term birth, heart attack, stroke, etc., we have never done those costs to price these out. Right now we don't know the numbers, so we couldn't possibly know what all the costs to fracking would be.”


Read the article here.

Note:  Ovid^® is a global information solutions provider that helps researchers, librarians, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals find important medical information so that they can make critical decisions to improve patient care, enhance ongoing research, and fuel new discoveries.

Dr. Sandra Steingraber's Testimony At Public Hearing on Fracking In New York State

Written Testimony for the Public Hearing on DEC’s High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Regulations

by Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber on Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 6:42pm ·

New York State Assembly
January 10, 2013

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Distinguished Scholar in Residence
Department of Environmental Studies
Ithaca College
Ithaca, New York 14850

My name is Sandra Steingraber. I am Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the Department of Environmental Studies at Ithaca College. My Ph.D. is in biology, and I have spent the last twenty years researching and writing in the field of environmental health. I have served as a science advisor at both the state and national level, working with the state of California on its research program to investigate the causes of breast cancer and with both the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer under the Clinton Administration and President’s Cancer Panel under George W. Bush.

I’m here to speak today as a founding member of Concerned Health Professionals of New York. This is a group of scientists, physicians, and nurses that came together last fall, in a spirit of shared alarm, when we learned that the DEC’s study of the health effects of fracking—which we had long asked for—was not going to be conducted using any normative protocols nor in an open manner, which is also normative for public health inquiries.

A normative protocol for a health study that attempts to forecast the public health risks of a polluting activity that has not yet been approved is called a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment. It was designed by our nation’s Centers for Disease Control and is endorsed by the World Health Organization. An HIA has, as one of its fundamental elements, democracy. It is scoped and carried out in a transparent manner and with the participation of the public at every stage. This participation takes the form of public hearings and periods of public commentary. It does so out of the recognition that when the public is being asked to endure possible risks to its health from a polluting industry, the public has the right to witness and participate in the study that will help determine the decision-making as to whether to permit or prohibit this industry.

In addition, when the lay public contributes its own local and historical knowledge to an environmental health study, the study design is better for it. Public participation makes for better science.

What is going on right now with the so-called health study underway at DEC and DOH is the very opposite of that public spiritedness. The DEC has, under the cover of secrecy, scoped and carried out a health review of some kind that no member of New York’s scientific community has seen. This review is itself being reviewed by DOH chief, Dr. Shah, and a team of three distinguished public health experts from out of state. We do not know what this team has been asked to review, but we do know that two of the three of them have signed contracts with non-disclosure agreements.

And we do know, from the introduction to the newly released regulations for hydraulic fracturing released by the DEC on November 29, that the decision whether or not to frack New York hangs on the results of these outside reviewers.

Thus does the health of 19.5 million New Yorkers depend on the results of a secret review of a secret review.

And thus, Concerned Health Professionals of New York came together. Not knowing what data the reviewers have been asked to comment on, we hastily created a website on which we uploaded all of the important reports and peer-review studies that we know of—from investigations of well casing failures to radioactivity in production brine (which is to be spread on our roadways). We also uploaded our many unanswered letters to DEC Commissioner Martens, DOC Commissioner Shah, and Governor Cuomo.

And I’d like to add here as an aside: My 11-year-old son receives answers to his letters to the Governor. I never have. We share the same mailing address.

Concerned Health Professionals of New York also took the unusual step of creating an eight-minute video message to the three outside panelists in which we—doctors, nurses, and scientists—describe our long-standing, unaddressed concerns about fracking in New York State. We uploaded this as an embedded video. And then we emailed each of the reviewers to let them know that we had created this website repository of data for them, out of our concern that the document that they are reviewing—whatever it is—does not address itself to all the animating issues.

Can I just say how crazy this feels to us? These three outside experts are our colleagues. Two of the three are personal friends of mine. We have spoken together on panels and at conferences. They share data with me. I cite their research in my writings. And now a gag order prevents them from speaking to me about data that I as a New York scientist am not allowed to see.

The leak last week to the press of what looks to be an old draft of this health review turns our alarm into full-blown cynicism. This eight-page document contains no data. It is a series of assertions that seems to say that the health effects of fracking are unknown and unknowable by any future research. Therefore, regulations can mitigate them. Therefore, fracking is safe.

This is not sound scientific reasoning. The premises on which its logic rests cannot be evaluated because there are no citations or footnotes or references. Emerging evidence in the scientific literature flies in the face of its conclusions.

The DEC and DOH needs to be asked, “What is this document? Who wrote it? For what purpose? What are your sources?”

I’m aware that this Assembly has invited the DEC Commissioner to his hearing to explain himself—an invitation that he refused. To justify the no-show, DEC spokesperson Emily DeSantis issued a statement pointing to the previous hearings attended by Commissioner Martens.

Concerned Health Professionals of New York condemns this statement. The refusal of the DEC to appear at this hearing and answer questions about the health review has not only broken Governor Cuomo’s promise of transparency, it has broken public trust itself.

Although New York citizens have been entirely cut out of the decision-making process on fracking, the public continues to have profound interest in participating in the inquiry and the decision-making process of fracking.

I know this because I designed a website to help people create comments on the revised draft regulations over the holidays. It’s called Thirty Days of Fracking Regs, and it takes an Advent calendar approach to public commentary. Each day, for the last 30 days, I have posted on this website one regulation, which I then translate into plainspoken English. I then provide some science relevant to that regulation. Because there is no final SGEIS to serve as the scientific basis for the regs, I did that research myself. I then invited the public to create a handcrafted comment about that regulation.

Tomorrow, I will be hand delivering all the comments that my readers and I created together. There are more than 20,000 of them. All are original and unique. As a metric of public commitment and concern, I would like to point out that 500 of them were written on Christmas Day. On New Year’s Day, more than 1000 comments came in. In addition, college students home on break devoted their free time to crafting comments as part of a group project called Homework Against Fracking.

These and other initiatives that have guided citizens through the comment-writing process means that we will hand-deliver to the DEC more than 200,000 comments tomorrow, January 11, which is the final day of comment delivery. We require a U-Haul to do so. And I understand that such a truck has already been rented.

I am asking you now to help ensure that each one of these comments is logged by the DEC, read, and considered.

Finally: outside of Governor Cuomo’s State of the State address yesterday, more than 1,500 people protested against fracking. That event included a recitation of the Pledge to Resist Fracking in New York. The Pledge is a solemn commitment to engage in actions of non-violent protest and demonstration up to and including civil disobedience should the Governor greenlight fracking for New York under the undemocratic, fatally flawed decision-making process now underway. Prior to yesterday, more than 6,000 people had already signed this solemn pledge. I am one of them.

I dearly hope that we do not have to activate this pledge, that the signatures of thousands of New York citizens alone will have the power to move the Governor to the exit door. But the very existence of the Pledge to Resist Fracking in New York is clear sign not only of loss of faith in the DEC but of loss of faith in government itself.

Natural Gas: Your Daughter's Health or $13,000?

Carol French, dairy farmer from Bradford County, and her husband signed a gas lease in 2006. They had no idea what was to happen to their family, their property, their water, their health, and their business. We must ask ourselves, when confronted with "pro-gassers" and their haughty, greedy ideas, is it really worth giving up your way of life- your home, your health, your means of income, your water and clean air, your child's well-being, just about everything that makes life worth living- for a few thousand dollars? As Carol French says, this doesn't become real until it happens to you.  It doesn't happen to every single family, but who would take a chance? 

I just saw Dickens' "Christmas Carol."  Jacob Marley came back from the dead to try to warn his business partner Ebenezer Scrooge of the error of his greedy, selfish ways.  Do we need to be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future once again to have the fear of God put back in us?  What is it going to take?  What is it that some people are not getting?  "Christmas Carol" is just a story, but it is based on Dickens' concern for people who lived in his time and were suffering.  It is as timely today as it was when he wrote it.

New York Times Publishes Photos of Fracking

October 11th the New York Times published this photo essay of scenes of hydrofracking and other related operations such as flaring and pipelines. There are also photos of people who have been severely impacted by the natural gas industry: the collateral damage, the ones who have no say, the ones who don't matter to the Big Gas people. These photos are beautifully done, very professional, breathtaking if it weren't for the destruction they show. Aerial photos are so revealing! Wide shots give us all a glimpse of the devastation we can't always see otherwise.

Bradford County (PA) Farmers Tell Their Tragic Story: The Sacrifice

Published on Aug 25, 2012 by veraduerga

Two women dairy farmers from Bradford County, Pa., tell their stories about life with gas drilling and fracking and all the problems they have encountered the past four years. Sponsored by Sharon Springs Against Fracking, with Bob Nied introducing them.

The Sky Is Pink: Josh Fox's New Movie For NY

Dear Friends,

I know I don’t have to tell any of you what a vulnerable moment this is for New York and all New Yorkers. The New York Times has reported that Governor Andrew Cuomo will soon announce that drilling will be permitted in parts of the following five New York Counties: Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga in the Southern Tier. The Governor’s office has made no official announcement as yet, but all indications suggest that the counties listed above will be the first to be sacrificed and that drilling may be permitted as early as this summer. We’ve made a new short film, The Sky is Pink, which has just been released at Rolling Stone Magazine online. The Sky Is Pink details the shocking campaign of misinformation perpetuated by the gas industry, their flagrant disregard for the health and safety of the communities they ravage, and the historic decision that Governor Cuomo is about to make. We’re telling Governor Cuomo that there are no expendable counties or communities in New York State and that we are not willing to allow the gas industry to exploit or endanger any of our fellow citizens. Governor Cuomo and his administration must be held to their promise to make decisions on behalf of New Yorkers based on sound science and they must provide the people of New York with a full Health Impact Assessment. We demand that no weak compromises or deals are cut that send New York down the slippery slope toward a full-scale assault by the gas industry. I’m asking you to help us make sure this film reaches far and wide. Clearly the 60,000 comments received by New York’s Department of Environmental Protection have been ignored. Clearly, we’re going to need to be even louder this time if we are going to be heard. We need to tell Governor that hydraulic fracturing is not safe, not now, not ever and not in New York State.

Read Jeff Goodell's article at Rolling Stone Magazine here: You`can also watch the full film here:
 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/new-anti-fracking-film-by-gaslands-josh-fox-targets-cuomo-governor-what-color-will-the-sky-be-over-new-york-20120620

 Please, send it to everyone you know. Post it everywhere you can.

Love, Josh

Shale Country Kindness: Life In the Gas Patch

When an invasive, greedy, and oblivious-to-human-pain industry rides roughshod over people everywhere,  friends and neighbors from near and far get together to help.  That is what is happening in Butler County, PA.  We generally assume that life in America includes such things as getting a drink of water from the kitchen faucet, taking a shower at home, and not having to buy clean water to drink and cook with.  But not everyone enjoys those things anymore.  Iris Bloom's article gives us a glimpse of what is going on in a place called The Woodlands, Connoquenessing Township, in Butler County, PA:

Read more here...

This is what happened to the McIntyre family.

Marcellus Outreach Butler  An organization seeking to help people in Butler County whose health and safety is affected by slick water, high-volume hydrofracking.

Butler County featured in the news today in the Kuwait Times!  The whole world is watching!

Dependence On Foreign Food?

Carolyn Knapp and Carol French, who spoke at OU’s Morton Hall (Oneonta University), both signed leases with energy companies to have their land in Bradford County, Pa., drilled for gas using the horizontal hydraulic fracturing method to extract the resource from underground shale beds. Both suggested that signing was a bad decision for them, and warned locals of things they need to think about before leasing. French said she has gotten out of her lease; Knapp has not. The women are co-founders of the Pennsylvania Landowner Group for Awareness and Solutions in Bradford County.

Knapp said that when she signed a lease in 2006, she bought into the claims that drilling would create an economic boom and foster U.S. energy independence. “I really believed that was going to be good for the country,” she recalled. Since then, however, Knapp said, she’s experienced multiple negative impacts, including water contamination and damage to her herd of dairy cattle. After the drilling started, she alleged, in March 2011 her tap water turned ivory-white and “jello-like.” Her adult daughter who had been drinking the water in the home, she said, ended up in the hospital with conditions including an enlarged spleen and liver, which she believes were caused by chemicals contaminating the water. The women also recounted “traffic, traffic, and more traffic” stemming from oil-and-gas operations in their area, which they said has badly hurt some local small businesses; huge decreases in property values; and a plethora of billboards, advertising everything from lawyers to drill bits to leasing offers. “It’s like, ‘Got milk?’” she joked. “Got land?” As a farmer, Knapp warned farmers in the audience that they should be very concerned about potential impacts to their crops and animals. Knapp noted that one of the touted benefits of fracking is that it will eliminate America’s dependence on imported oil. But, she asked – earning the  biggest applause of the afternoon – “Are you willing to be dependent on foreign food? Think about it.”

Are you willing to be dependent on foreign oil food? Think about it.

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Bradford County Man Dies After Fracking Operations Started Nearby

Here is the story of Carl Stiles who died this week from illness very likely caused by gas drilling contamination.
http://www.gasdrillingtechnotes.org/uploads/7/5/7/4/7574658/nys_assembly_003_judy_stiles.pdf

Judy and Carl Stiles lived in the Sugar Run Area of Bradford County.  Carl's death came very swiftly. He and Judy moved to the area in November of 2010.  In January of 2011 Chesapeake Energy knocked on their door and offered a lease and promised that they would not have a well, but would make a lot of money from a pipeline.  They signed.  Now Judy is very sick and Carl is dead from cancer.

Rest in Peace, Carl

by Dory Hippauf on Friday, January 27, 2012 at 3:50pm

Fracktivist Carl Stiles, of Bradford County, PA, died last night, after living with illnesses caused by shale gas drilling. Mr. Stiles was forced to move away from his Bradford County home as an environmental refugee.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFbIOgfAddo&feature=youtu.be

Carl Stiles had intestinal cancer which he blamed on Chesapeake’s gas drilling. He and his wife abandoned their home last November at the urging of a toxicologist who found barium, arsenic, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in Carl’s blood. Strontium, uranium and radium were found in their water. They’ve been told to expect to get leukemia within two years.

http://waterandmoreblog.com/2011/06/21/gas-drilling-disrupts-lives-endangers-health-in-bradford-county-pa/

 

Call the White House NOWask Obama how many more have to die before the corporate greed is satisfied

Call Obama at 1-888-925-7006.

 

When you dial 888-925-7006, you'll hear a message and then be connected to the White House Comment Line. Simply tell the volunteer on the line that President Obama must protect his constituents and walk away from fracking for shale gas.

The White House Comment Line is open Monday - Friday from 9am to 5pm EST

 

If you did get through on the phone - WRITE A LETTER TOO

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

REST IN PEACE, CARL STILES