Side-by-side sampling reveals that the Texas Department of Environmental Quality air monitor in Dish, Texas is under-recording toxic VOC levels in the air.
Now why d’ya suppose it’d do that?
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We usually leave events to the events calendar. The announcement below is worth an exception because of its particular combination of pic and text: The industry and its lobbyists have been working the halls of state capitols and wining & dining local officials for a long time. The citizens were the last to know.
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Tags: lobbying
What happened to conservative values? It has been very disappointing to see our conservative values continue to dwindle under the pressure from large corporations. In Texas our politicians talk conservative values right up to the point where they fail to follow them. Two foundation pieces of conservatism, are property rights and the free market system. In Texas, our “conservative” politicians have taken away both from the average Texan. You are allowed to enjoy your property, as long a corporation or someone with more money doesn’t want it. This used to be a state where you could move out in the rural areas, buy a piece of land, and live in peace. Now if you move to the country to have some property, you are an immediate target for a corporation to take your land, or make it unlivable.
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The prime example of this is the oil and gas industry. The State of Texas has taken away most of the rights that pertain to land ownership from the citizens and given it to these large corporations. One glaring example is the natural gas pipeline midstream companies, which have been given the tremendous power of eminent domain. These are private, for profit companies that have been awarded all the power of government to condemn property. This not only takes away property rights, but it destroys the free market system that allows for a property owner to negotiate in good faith for the use of their property. Instead the private property owners are immediately subjected to threats and intimidations. Due to these companies being for profit, it is in their best interest to obtain the easement and install the pipeline as cheap as possible, and they use whatever tactic necessary to achieve this. Therefore, private property owners are paid a fraction of the value of the land and not compensated for associated property damage. This is not limited to the active drilling areas, due to pipelines being installed all over the state.
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Another example is what is known as forced pooling. It has many names and variations, but again it is another method to transfer private property rights to large corporations. This again takes away the requirement to negotiate in good faith from the private property owner for their mineral properties. In Texas the minerals are the dominant property right, so the surface owners have little input on what happens to their property. However, under forced pooling, the energy companies can even take your minerals without your consent. This again takes away private property rights and undermines the free market system. The private property owner also has no protection if something goes wrong in the process. Therefore, these corporations can take your property without your consent, destroy it, and the only recourse is a lawsuit that may cost the private property owner tens of thousands of dollars.
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I have seen other “conservative” states like Pennsylvania following the Texas policy of destroying private property rights, and not allowing private citizens to enjoy their property investments. I would urge the other states to not do it the “Texas Way”. In Texas it is only worth owning property, if you are willing to concede that you have no right to enjoy that property. So you must ask yourself if that is what you want for the citizens of your state. Private property rights and free market system are the values that are important to the “Average Joe” trying to live the American Dream; let’s not continue to destroy this.
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Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640“Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it”
Tags: compulsory integration, easement, eminent domain, forced pooling, pipelines
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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/1/2010CONTACT:Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture717-787-5085Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling WastewaterHARRISBURG — The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.
“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” said Redding. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”
Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.
The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.
Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.
The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.
Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.
Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal’s system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.
The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:
• Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
• Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
• Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.
_________________End of press release___________________
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See also http://un-naturalgas.org/weblog/?s=farming which contains:
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? in which photos document tumors and ulcers on animals living near gas operations
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? Part 2 in which details about the photos are provided
Is hydrofracture compatible with farming? Part 3 Video, in which Tweeti Blancett explains how gas operations have made her ranching operation nearly impossible
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Tags: cattle, DEP, PA, water contamination
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The lies, the cost-cutting, the diversionary tactics are all standard operating procedure for the natural gas industry and its regulatory agency pals
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Tags: BP
Thanks to Friends of the Upper Delaware
Tags: Dunkard Creek
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From Clearville Times, who blogs at http://clearville.wordpress.com/
Clearville, PA like DISH, Texas: “pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which from the gas storage owner’s point of view, made it the perfect place”
Clearville had five production wells drilled by PGE gas drilling company, which produced about two years in the Oriskany formation. Wells suddenly stopped production on the same day and were sold to a gas storage company from somewhere in Texas, known as Spectra Energy or maybe known as a “Spin off of Duke Energy?” from a gas storage operator’s point of view, Clearville, PA made it the perfect place” known as the ” Steckman Ridge Gas Storage Project.”
In Pennsylvania, gas is stored in the Oriskany formation, the source rock for the Oriskany is the Marcellus Shale.
In the middle of nowhere, there seems to be a trend for gas storage fields in the Oriskany formation located near the Marcellus Shale. There is a gas storage field located a few miles down the road from the Steckman Ridge’s underground gas storage field known as the Columbia Gas Storage field, in Artemas, PA. Columbia gas storage field is also located in the middle of nowhere but has been the perfect place since the early 1940′s . Columbia gas has been storing gas in the Oriskany formation where the Marcellus Shale is the source rock.
There is a big difference, between then and now’s, when it comes to gas storage project acquisitions, at least up until 2005. Columbia Gas Storage got off to an easier start in the 1940′s. At that period in time, most all gas production leases gave away gas storage rights in gas production leases.
Landowners over the years with the advent of the internet, became more savvy and placed no gas storage clauses in their gas production leases. Soon these gas leases became known as obstacles in the market place which needed a removal tool. Someone, somewhere, came up with the perfect legal tool to remove these obstacles in the market place for gas storage projects.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney used legal legislative laws as the best use obstacle removal tool in EPACT of 2005. At that time, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney likely knew a little about the gas market, heard about obstacles in the market place, and knew a solution was needed for the problem. Minds of genius noted for acquisitions developed and signed a law which classified depleted gas wells which can be taken legally for underground gas storage projects because they are now considered public utilities. This law is broad and can take land which has no gas leases. This law will take any land and give it to a private company for profit once they eye your land as the perfect place for a federally backed underground gas storage field.
Clearville, PA was eyed as the perfect place. Landowners watched Halliburton and Schlumberger legally use exempted fracking chemicals from the SDWA. They watched as horizontal gas storage wells were drilled into the Oriskany sandstone formation. This was a federally backed gas storage project with all the amenities.
Remember: “There is no way to save your land from the laws of a federally backed gas storage project. If someone, somewhere, spots your land as the perfect place, you can kiss it goodbye.”
Clearville, PA; the Oriskany formation; the Marcellus Shale is the Oriskany source rock; in the middle of nowhere; all goes somewhere; from a gas storage operator’s point of view; Clearville was another perfect place.
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Tags: clearville, DEP, eminent domain, Marcellus, natural gas, PA, Steckman Ridge compressor station
Editor,
A May 13 article reporting on a ‘press conference’ that said $11.5 million generated last year from natural gas production in the Town of Smyrna will be handed over to officials presented misleading and factually incorrect information.
Gas production may have generated $11.5 million, but that is revenue for Norse Energy, not Chenango County, the Town of Smyrna, or Sherburne-Earlville [School District]. No amount of money was “handed over” to anyone during the orchestrated gas drilling promotional presentation, nor will any money be turned over to any of the noted entities (Town of Smyrna, Chenango County, or the Sherburne-Earlville School District) at any time in the future.
While Norse Energy will pay roughly the amounts stated in taxes(Smyrna, $83,312; Chenango County, $151,019; and Sherburne-Earlville School District, $264,569) the implication, and likely the perception of many of your readers, is that the Town, County, and School District will receive an unexpected windfall. These entities (school, town, county) annually develop a budget and determine the tax levy based on their budget. Only the amount of the levy will be collected from taxpayers, no more, no less. Based on the stated $11.5 million revenue this year for Norse Energy, they will pay only about 4 percent of that in local taxes. While this is a benefit to other local taxpayers, it does not increase revenues for the district, the town, or the county.
The expansion in gas drilling, particularly the hydro-fracturing technique proposed for extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation (which is really what that show was all about), is not without controversy. The financial benefits of drilling versus the cost in the environment will be the subject of debate for some time to come. The handing out of over-sized fake checks may be good theater, but participating in the show implies endorsement of drilling and contributes to the false perception of windfall revenue for schools, towns and counties. Our Board of Education has made no such endorsement, and I’m sure the issue will be extensively debated in that forum before consensus is reached.
Tom Strain
Assistant Superintendent
Sherburne-Earlville Central Schools
First read the Texas Observer article linked in the 5/29 post just below.
Then watch this WFAA report.
An excerpt from the transcript:
Last January, John Sadlier, deputy director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, appeared before the Fort Worth City Council with what sounded like good news: Eight air samples analyzed in Fort Worth found no traces of benzene, the toxin that — over time — can lead to leukemia.
“Benzene is non-detect on all the slides,” Sadlier said during the January presentation.
But what he didn’t tell Council members was that the analysis equipment that TCEQ used in the field wasn’t sensitive enough to detect lower levels of benzene — the levels that TCEQ’s own scientists say can lead to cancer if sustained over a period of years.
Full story at http://www.wfaa.com
Forrest Wilder reporting in Texas Observer, May 26, 2010:
Agency Of Destruction
Texas’ environmental commission serves its customers well.
Too bad they’re not the public.When Texas citizens meet their environmental agency, they’re often disappointed. The stories of environmental battles—told in these pages countless times—frequently follow a similar plot.
First, citizens band together to beat back (fill in the blank: a coal plant, industrial feedlot, uranium mine, or something else of your choosing). New to activism, they educate themselves on the rules, laws and politics. At some point, they probably contact an overwhelmed organization such as Public Citizen or the Sierra Club for help. They form a group with a snappy acronym, print literature, create a website, hold meetings and write their Congress member. After a time, they realize that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is holding the cards. A permit must be stopped or penalties assessed to deter misbehavior. Surely the commission, an impartial arbiter, will weigh the facts and side with the people.
More times than not, a bitter reality sets in: The TCEQ is not the people’s friend, but another obstacle. There’s a “well-founded perception that [the public] can’t get in the process or, even if they get in, it’s just a token effort, and it won’t make any difference,” Soward says.
In TCEQ’s internal lingo, “customers” are the companies the agency regulates. In serving its “customers,” TCEQ has allowed itself to be overrun by powerful interests, shown disregard for both science and the law, and cast aside public opinion.
For complete expose’, please visit:
www.texasobserver.org
This, of course, is a familiar story. In New York, we know it well from first-hand, long-term experience with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
…subtitled,
How to ignore data and come to the predetermined conclusion the real bosses order:When I first decided that we needed to have some biological testing accomplished here in DISH, TX, I was cautioned against getting our state health department involved. Most figured that they would run up here and began covering the back side of the oil and gas industry like they have done so many times before. However, I also have some very smart and nationally recognized people who help me in these decisions and we decided that if they would take our input on the testing, we might be OK. So we asked the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to test the air and a tentatively identified compound test in conjunction with the tests they were running. But they ignored the request from a nationally recognized scientist, who has more scientific recognition in her little toe, than anyone who works for the DSHS will ever have. Therefore, their report subsequently has turned out more political than scientific.
.As one well known citizen who lives in the Barnett Shale has stated, “Everything you hear from the natural gas industry is either a lie, or half truth”. Here in DISH, we are used to the paid liars from this industry coming in and feeding us the normal lines like “what good neighbors they want to be.” However, when you get this from your state agencies that are sworn to protect you, it does not set as well. Many people believe everything these people say, and they are never held accountable when they are wrong…or deceitful. The DSHS showed up just like many of the other paid liars, thinking that they would blow smoke up the rear ends of a bunch of country bumpkins that didn’t know any better, and just like the other paid liars, they left with their tails between their legs. Country bumpkins typically recognize the smell of BS pretty quickly..After thinking about this, and doing some research into the matter, it was clear that no matter what was detected, the DSHS would have found a way to say there is nothing wrong. They have a history of doing just that; please see the following link, where they failed to protect the public interest in Texas once again..In this ”investigation” the community was worried about water run-off from a former refinery (hmm, same industry), and subsequent surface water contamination. However, the same characters who came to DISH decided the surface water didn’t need testing. The soil and sediment were tested and both exceeded the Health Based Assessment Comparison for aluminum, arsenic, BaP TEQ (benzene derivative), and vanadium. Conclusion – “no apparent public health hazard”. In my line of business we call people like this “hacks”..In our case, they were looking hard for criticisms from us before the meeting, so that they could prepare to answer them. I made some comment to the media about the number of folks who had toluene and xylene in their systems, and oddly enough they came up with statistics that show we are actually lower than the rest of the United States; this was not in the report, just the presentation. At this point I started getting that familiar smell that we have grown accustomed to here in DISH… and not the natural gas smell. I then asked for the source of the statistics they used to determine this and they sent me to NHANES, said “Just Google it”. Maybe that was their joke, because I and others searched for hours with no success finding this data. I did find a statement that said VOCs are present in most everyone at some level, but it would not be in detectable levels in everyone, so that may have been one of those “half truths.”.During my several hours of research, I did find that the 95th percentile used in the DISH study appears to be a number hand-picked by the “hacks” and likely hand-picked for a purpose. Apparently, you do not need a percentile reference number, but when one is used the 90th percentile seems to be the number used by real scientists. If 50% of the households in DISH were above the 95th percentile for chemical exposure, I wonder how many are over the 90th percentile. However, if they would have figured that, it is likely that they would have that trend they were looking for, and we damn sure wouldn’t want that, now would we? I think similar lying with statistics was accomplished in Flower Mound as well. If they start finding problems, the boys and girls in Austin would not get those critical campaign contributions they have grown accustom to. In my business we look for trends, and I am starting to see a trend with these “hacks.”.If the above blatant failures were not enough to show what a joke this was, you must hear the rest of the story. Dr. Bradford admitted when questioned that the study was not a scientific study. However, they came to a very solid conclusion, with this non-scientific study. The conclusion goes something like…we see exposure but have no idea where the exposure is coming from, but it damn sure ain’t coming from that compressor station that we smelled those horrible odors from..They then admitted that they did not know how close any of the citizens lived to the compressor sites, nor did they know the number of males vs females that were tested, and did not even know the age range of those who were tested. You would think they would have known the answers to the easy stuff if they wanted to appear believable. The data that they used for comparison in DISH was seven years old. Outdated data is something they also used in Flower Mound to help them reach their objective. I guess they figured they had this one in the bag like all the others before; too bad the country bumpkin’s weren’t buying..Children were not tested as part of this “investigation.” There apparently was no data to compare the results; however, in my wild goose chase that Dr. Bradford sent me on, I found several studies that referenced children. The one mentioned above showed how these chemicals affect children differently than adults…and yeah, it is much worse. She avoided the question during the meeting when asked about how children are affected differently than adults. Frankly, I believe that they were sent here to not find anything and they would likely find exposure in our children. If they find toluene and xylene in kids they would not be able to blame it on smoking. Even us country bumpkins don’t let our five year olds smoke. They would not have been able to give us the “half truths” that they did, and people don’t play when it come to their kids. If us nice country folk knew our kids have BTEX chemical exposure, we may not be so nice any more. I am hopeful that the light will shine on some of the roaches who are responsible for these illusions, and I think there is another facility I would rather see them at, and it is located in Huntsville, Texas..The house of cards they built came down very quickly. I am extremely disappointed that these folks did not take their oaths seriously, and are allowing the public to continue being put at risk. I had originally felt sorry for those who were likely on the puppets for the higher-ups, but it is all too apparent that this is not their first deception, so they should have moved on to something else if they weren’t committed to covering things like this up. They have actually offered to come back for another round of testing. I think I would rather see if the Chesapeake or Devon environmental department is available; they are much better liars..In closing I would like to say that this “investigation” brings more questions than answers, and it is time for us to demand a stop to the social injustices that these state agencies are allowed to impose. Many people have no other options than to take their word for it, and no recourse when they are wrong. We apparently have not only been sacrificed for the good of the shale by these companies, but also the State of Texas. It is time for us to hold these paid liars accountable for their actions. Please let me know if you have any skills to help me investigate similar injustices.
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Fortunately, the last state agency that left the DISH town hall with their tails between their legs was shamed into installing a permanent air monitor. Frankly, I am delightfully surprised by the improvements in our air quality over the last month. I am certainly not calling all clear, but it may be that we don’t even need more testing, but I know that another community will face the same situation if there is not something done. If this industry would just do it right, we would not have many of these problems. The Gulf would not be becoming the dead sea and our children would not be exposed to cancer causing toxins. Please post on your blogs and websites..See report here:.Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX“Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it”
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Cartoon courtesy of MARQUIL at EmpireWire.com
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Cartoon courtesy of MARQUIL at EmpireWire.com
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Q1. If a tanker-load of chemicals is spilled in the forest, and no officially accredited observers are there to document it, did the spill ever occur?
A1. Not if it happened on a gas well pad!
Q2. If a lateral crack forms in the side of an underground aquifer while a gas well is being drilled a mile away, did the drilling activity cause the ruin of that aquifer?
A2. No; the pathway will never be proven because no one has both the resources and the desire to carry out that kind of investigation.
Q3. If the carcinogen 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4-NQO) suddenly turns up in a river near the discharge pipe of a municipal waste treatment plant which accepts gas well flowback fluids, did the carcinogen come from those flowback fluids?
A3. No. Energy companies don’t use 4-NQO as an additive, and they’ve never studied how it is formed underground from the chemicals they do use. And they won’t disclose what those chemicals are.
Q4. When people living downwind of a “holding pond” develop nosebleeds, rashes, labored breathing, nausea, unexplained weight loss and mental confusion, could their symptoms be due to the volatile organic compounds wafting from the pond’s surface?
A4. No. There’s nothing in those ponds but “water, cuttings, sand, soap and canola oil”.
Each of these four questions represents a group of real-life incidents, and they point to extreme avoidance of full-body contact with the truth by energy companies and the regulators who coddle them.
I and scientists like me are trying to strip away the fog, but we should all recognize that the fog is still there. I have yet to witness full disclosure — or anything even close — of chemicals used, incidents which should have been reported, or accurate handling of the statistics regarding those that were reported.
Until some of this clears up, no scientist, no matter how diligent, can claim to have “the objective science”. My $0.02 worth…
Ron Bishop
Tags: science
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