Terry Greenwood: We Won't Forget You

Last month, Terry Greenwood, a Pennsylvania farmer whose water had been contaminated by fracking waste, died of cancer. He was 66 and the cause of death was a rare form of brain cancer.
His death drew attention from around the globe in part because Mr. Greenwood was among the first farmers from his state to speak out against the gas industry during the early years of the state's shale gas rush.

Read more here.

Many thanks to Josh Fox for all he has done to get the truth out about the harmful effects of natural gas drilling, and for this memorial video to honor the life of Terry Greenwood.

Terry Greenwood  1948-2014

Rest In Peace

Hats Off To Denton, Texas! Citizens Against Fracking

Fracking ban will be voted on by the citizens of Denton, TX, in November 2014.

Vera Scroggins: Grandmother Against Fracking

Vera's Update On Her Pending Court Date:

This is her update:

"My next court date is a trial date for a civil trial on Oct. 29th at 9 am. at the Montrose Courthouse, Montrose, Pa. 18801. My three lawyers, one from ACLU in Pa., one from Public Citizen in Washington, DC. and a private Pa. attorney, will be defending me and working to lessen my restrictions or remove them and show the Judge that I am not a danger to Cabot or their workers .   This is a civil trial with no jury; it will be public and public is encouraged to attend; come and witness and bring signs for display outside of the court room.  And we can meet afterward for lunch across the road from Courthouse at Mazar's Restaurant.  Cabot lawyers charged that I am a danger to Cabot , their workers, myself and those I bring on my Citizen Gas Tours; I've been doing this for five years and no one has been hurt, except the image of Cabot. Cabot is the Danger with 566 DEP Violations for 427 Active Wells in our county so far....and counting....

I am under the second, temporary Injunction, which prohibits me from going within 100' of any Cabot Gas Development Sites and any Cabot access road to their sites.  I have been under an Injunction with Cabot since Oct. 22, 2013.

Even though, I've been touring gas sites in the county peacefully for five years, and now , Cabot claims dangers and files a lawsuit without ever sending me any notices or requests to cease and desist .  Cabot had no signs at the entrances stating : "no trespassing"  Now they do after the Injunction and plastered "no trespassing" signs on all their sites."

 Vera's civil trial date: October 29, 2014

Montrose County Courthouse

Montrose, PA

The public is encouraged to attend.

House Explosion in Orwell, Ohio, Thought To Be Caused By a Natural Gas Leak

Orwell, Ohio: One woman is dead, and her boyfriend is in critical condition after their house exploded July 16th.  A gas well is on the property, and natural gas (methane) would sometimes migrate into the water system.  The explosion occurred when the man lit a cigarette.

Read more here. Video included.

More Concern Over a Marked Rise in Earthquakes In Oklahoma

"Squinting into a laptop perched on the back of his pickup, Austin Holland searches for a signal from a coffee-can-sized sensor buried under the grassy prairie.

Holland, Oklahoma’s seismology chief, is determined to find the cause of an unprecedented earthquake epidemic in the state. And he suspects pumping wastewater from oil and gas drilling back into the Earth has a lot to do with it.

“If my research takes me to the point where we determine the safest thing to do is to shut down injection -- and consequently production -- in large portions of the state, then that’s what we have to do,” Holland said. “That’s for the politicians and the regulators to work out.” "


Read the Bloomberg article here.

California Halts Injection of Fracking Waste, Warning it May Be Contaminating Aquifers

"California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state's drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.

The state's Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal "poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources." The orders were first reported by the Bakersfield Californian, and the state has confirmed with ProPublica that its investigation is expanding to look at additional wells."


Read the article by Abrahm Lustgarten (ProPublica) here.

My comment (Peacegirl):  First gas wells were being drilled (still are), and we didn't know for sure what harm would done to humans, animals, soil, air, and water (still don't know everything).  Next there were the pipelines and compressor stations, and we didn't know (still don't) what the negative effects would be on our daily lives.  Now we have earthquakes and injection wells, and we really have absolutely no clue about what is (or can) really happen as a result of these practices.  But we have all this frack waste.  We have to put it somewhere.  So I think we are really in a terrible bind.  One thing leads to another, and now we are in over our brilliant little heads.  Some people are getting filthy rich, and the rest of us are wondering what kind of world we will leave to our children and grandchildren, if indeed there will be a liveable planet for them.

Truck Carrying Frack Water Loses Brakes: It Could Have Been Worse

LENOX TOWNSHIP — A water truck driver walked away from a crash with another tanker on Route 407 in Lenox Township on Thursday.
That crash in Susquehanna County might have saved both driver’s lives.
“I told her to hit me. I thought I could get her stopped, well. That didn’t work,” said Joe Delancy.
Delancy and a female driver were each carrying water from a gas site in their trucks.
State police said the brakes in the truck the woman was driving stopped working.
That’s when Delancy drove in front of her and let her hit him, so she could slow down.
“She kept picking up speed and she hooked me right here and over we went,” said Delancy.


Find out more about this accident here. Watch video.

My thoughts (Peacegirl):  In a rural area such as Lenox Township (PA) or Asylum Township (PA) where my family has its summer camp, trucks were not uncommon in days gone by. But now, with the virtual occupation of these areas by gas drilling companies,  trucks are seen all over the place every day, driving on little, narrow country roads that were not built for these heavy trucks in terrain that many drivers are not familiar with.  The roads are windy and treacherous in the best of circumstances.  In this accident, the brakes gave out.  People live on these roads often very close to the road.  There are children riding bikes.  The gas industry has brought a nightmare to these communities.  What a miracle that no one was badly hurt or killed in this accident yesterday (7/17/14). 

In addition, these water trucks are not always carrying just plain water.  The water may be laced with chemicals.  The water is going to be used for another frack job.  Where did it come from?  What is in this water?  Was there a spill in this case?  All good questions IMO.

Seismic Study To Be Done In Oklahoma: 4500 Disposal Wells and Earthquakes Linked

An E&E Publishing Service

EARTHQUAKES: Okla. agency gets $1.8M to study seismic links to drilling (Wednesday, July 16, 2014)

Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter

Earthquake researchers in Oklahoma have received nearly $2 million from the federal government to study connections between the state's surge in quakes and oil and gas drilling activities.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey will use the money to buy new equipment and hire researchers to analyze piles of research about the drilling wastewater injected into the state's 4,500 disposal wells, said Director G. Randy Keller.

The two-year, $1.8 million grant is from the Department of Energy's Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA). The state, the University of Oklahoma, and the oil and gas industry provided a 20 percent match.

"The whole scheme of things is to produce a really detailed 3-D model of the earth down 10 miles or more," Keller said.

Oklahoma has become the most seismically active state in the lower 48 in the last few months, and many have pointed the blame at disposal wells used to inject wastewater from oil and gas drilling.

The state has had more earthquakes magnitude 3 or higher than California in the last nine months (EnergyWire, May 7). There's been a fortyfold increase during the period of 2008 to 2013 compared with 1976 to 2007.

In 2014, Oklahoma has had twice as many quakes as California, though it's only half the size.

There also have been earthquakes linked to injection in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Ohio and Texas.

The U.S. Geological Survey and academic researchers have linked much of the increase in Oklahoma to deep injection of waste fluid from oil and gas production in the drilling-heavy state.

OGS has been the voice of skepticism in the seismology community on links between drilling activities and earthquakes. The agency has said it is premature to link the earthquakes to wastewater disposal and rebutted the findings of other researchers.

In anticipation of a March 2013 study finding that the state's largest earthquake was induced by disposal, OGS released its own conclusions that it was the result of natural causes (EnergyWire, March 27, 2013).

When areas north of Oklahoma City were rattled by a swarm of smaller earthquakes in November, OGS posted a report pointing away from oil and gas activities and toward changing water levels in nearby Arcadia Lake. Other researchers have linked the swarm to oil production in the area that produces huge volumes of water.

But OGS seismologist Austin Holland has linked very small earthquakes and the hydraulic fracturing of an oil well. And his research contributed to state officials' decision last year to sharply restrict injection at a well site near Marietta, Okla., after a nearby earthquake.

OGS applied for the grant in December and got official word that it had been approved for the grant last month.

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Earthquakes in Oklahoma Tied To Fracking and Injection Wells

Protecting Our Waters Blog has posted this compelling article about 2500 earthquakes in Oklahoma.  Are we pouring poison into the Earth without appreciating the dire consequences?

Read the article here.

We must use our brains a lot more than we are doing now.  Mother Earth will have the last word.  She will.  How much more destruction do we think she can endure?

The FERC Rubber Stamp Song

Published on Jul 6, 2014

We all know FERC's a Rubber Stamp Machine!
(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
Recorded the 1 May 2014 (day of Minisink trial at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals).

LYRICS by Dave Publow:

We're here at FERC to have our say
So listen closely, don't walk away
This is your country It's yours to save
You're letting fossil fuels dig our grave

Across the land from sea to sea
The gas-men drill the earth so carelessly
They poison water, they cut down trees
To put in pipelines that we don't need

And we all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
it's not for you and me, it's paid by permit fees
We all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
It won't protect you, it won't protect me

You guys at FERC, so you say
Will regulate the pipes, and keep us safe
Tell me then how industry
Puts dangerous pipelines in NYC

Our upstate friends are feeling down
The Constitution Pipeline, will wreck their towns
With leaky pipes and clear cut trees
Fracked wells and poisoned springs

We all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
a rubber stamp machine, a rubber stamp machine
We all know your hearings are a total joke,
FERC is just a fraud, it's all a bunch of smoke

Voices:
Full speed ahead, Mr. FERC Inspector! Full speed ahead!
Full speed it is Mr. Gasman!
Cut the trees down! Carve up the landscape!
Spread that toxic waste on the roads!
Aye aye, Sir! Aye aye!


And we fight cause we believe
No one should be forced to ever breathe
Skies of ozone (Skies of ozone) and benzene (and toluene)
In our ferky (our ferky jerky) democracy (bureaucracy, ha-ha!)

We all know that gas is anything but green
It poisons all our wells, or blows to smithereens
And we all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
It won't protect you, it won't protect me

We all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
a rubber stamp machine, a rubber stamp machine
We all know that FERC's a rubber stamp machine,
It won't protect you, it won't protect me.

FERC

Minisink Matters

Minisink, NY:  Our Story

Minisink Compressor Station Vented July 7, 2014
 

Oklahoma Earthquakes Likely Caused By Injection Wells

"Wastewater injections from oil and gas operations likely have led to the recent sharp increase in earthquakes across central Oklahoma, according to researchers, including two from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The study, which appears in the journal Science, used hydrogeological models to gauge how pressure from wastewater injected into underground rock seeped into faults where seismic activity occurred."


Read the article here.

"Out of sight, out of mind" does not apply to fracking waste injected into the ground.  As the saying goes, it will come back to bite us.