Jul 28
2011


From a follow-up interview conducted by e-mail and used with permission:

Hi David,

Thanks for coming up to Ithaca on Friday.

On a separate note, would you mind if I share your experience with fracking with people in Ithaca?  If it’s okay with you for me to do so, I’d also like to confirm what you told me:

1.       Pollution of your well (two wells?). How did this show up?

Bohlander:  We have two wells on the farm (190 acres).  We had a detailed baseline water testing done on both before any of the gas activity happened in our area.  We subsequently have had another 6 or so tests done on these wells.  It is crucial to have certified baseline testing done prior to any activity by gas companies or they will claim there is no proof they are the cause and argue it was a pre-existing condition.  We also retained a very competent hydrologist (who has the gas company clients) who was the plaintiffs hydrologist in the Dimock, PA contamination (highlighted in the movie Gasland).  The well for the barn/and original farmhouse was so contaminated with methane they thought it would explode so the well pump was disconnected for six months and water was trucked in by the gas companies for the animals, and spring water for the humans!

2.       The operations end up being more extensive than anticipated.  The “pads” are large, and end up being used for other operations.

Bohlander:  Gas companies are major deceivers.  They do this many ways. One is using land agents that are not their employees so that they can claim “we never said that ..they did”

Most all the neighbors were told that the gas wells would be drilled, it would take 3 months or so, and then land would be restored to earlier state. In reality this is what happens. They excavate a pad obliterating the natural terrain, hauling in 100’s of trucks of stone, gravel, etc.  Once the pad is completed, they only drill 2-4 actual gas wells of what ultimately are likely going to be 12 or so on that pad.  They may not frack the drilled wells immediately, but wait sometimes a year.  The intention is to refrack over and over the same drilled wells.  They are now claiming there is 60 years of gas here.  Simultaneously, although not on all pads, they use the pads for other things such as equipment storage, frack water storage, and the worst:  frack water recycling which we have three in our neighborhood and 2 are 10 year permits (one is in the review process, 9 days to go).  These are REGIONAL frack water recycling operations bringing in dirty radioactive brine from 15 miles away or more, operating 24/7 with extensive noise, lights and traffic.  DEP is way behind on enforcement.  The neighbors are the enforcers, but it is David vs. Goliath (the gas companies).  After four years now, I have not seen one well pad restored back to the original state.  The stated plan by the gas companies is that there will be one well pad every 50 acres.  If the well pad is 10 acres, 20% of our surface land area will be a perpetual well pad.

3.       Extensive light pollution due to 24/7 operation.

Bohlander:  Re frack water recycling:  They power huge lights that light of the pads for the whole night.  They don’t use street electric but generators which contribute to the noise.  The trucks have large pumps that due to the volume of 5200 gallons per truck are large motors,  the trucks endlessly are using their backup safety beepers, horns for instructions to the ground crew, etc.  The three sites in our neighborhood will generate 800 trucks a day, 1600 with return trip passes.

The gas drilling when it goes on makes it almost impossible to sleep.  24/7, 7 days a week.

4.       Extensive trucking.

Bohlander: The gas companies make new roads over smaller older roads to accommodate their extensive traffic.  The state allows them to exceed the weight limit of the road by paying some fee or posting a bond.  The small country road in front of our farm is now elevated 3 feet in the air from normal ground level.  Certain roads are used as main arterial roads after they have been rebuilt –this happened to ours.  The trucks are hauling huge amounts of gravel, fill, fresh water for fracking and the dirty brine water out, as well as all the equipment for the drilling process.  Each well on the pad uses 5 million gallons of water.  60% flows back and is recycled, but removed from the site.  Our road was destroyed initially and impassible.  The gas companies then closed 10 mile stretches of the road for months at a time as they began rebuilding it.  One landowner could only get to and from his property with a four wheeler.

5.       Feel free to add any other relevant details.

Bohlander:  The gas companies have a very systematic playbook from the years of operating and polluting Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, etc.  They have two sides:  a friendly neighborly “give $35K to the fire company” and then a ruthless no-holds-barred side.   Three times they threatened that in 24 hours they were going to stop trucking in water for the cows in our barn unless we agreed to things.  These things include non-disclosure agreements, consent not to sue, etc.  Read the book Collateral Damage.  A lot of good environmental activist groups with websites and a lot of info.  Many have been to our house.  We were one of the first contaminated sites in this region from the drilling.

The public does not have any idea how bad the permanent environmental contamination is going to be.  There has been major barium and radiation poisoning with some already.  One not far from us is a 13-year- old girl with barium poisoning.  One of our immediate neighbors’ daughters is having clumps of hair fall out and his dog got sick and parakeet died from drinking his well water.  He abuts one of the frack water recycling sites.

Air pollution is the sleeping giant.   Each well pad on an ongoing basis emits things into the air (like toluene) as the gas goes through a preliminary filtering process at the well pad.  The absolutely worst are the gas compression stations for both noise and air pollution.

As you may know, the gas drilling is exempt from the Clean Water Act  — we actually are more apt to be fined if manure is spread on the road, than these major infractions the gas company are doing.  The environmental enforcement agencies only slap their wrists with fines.  Cost of doing business to gas companies –easier to just pay the fine.

.

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Jul 24
2009

We don’t have to wonder how New York State could be affected by HD/HVHF (horizontal drilling / high-volume hydraulic fracturing.  All we have to do is look at what’s happened – and happening – in other states.    Here’s a voice from the Barnett Shale in Texas:

“We have learned that the industry we are dealing with is a mafia within itself, a criminal industry that has the backing of government at all levels. All of the communication the public receives from this mafia-esque industry comes through “public relations” people–that is to say, paid professional liars.

“Our advice to you is don’t ever believe a word they say about important issues. Don’t ever enter into negotiations with them. Any time you are forced to deal with them, be advised that nothing they refuse to put into a contract is an enforceable commitment.

“Once you have signed a mineral lease and the driller has spudded in a bit, you have become a junior co- owner of your property with no power over what is done on the surface or below.”

- Jerry Lobdill, http://www.fwcando.org/, http://fw-credo.com/

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Apr 10
2009

Thanks to http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2009/04/barnett-shale-industries-dish-it-out-to.html for this story:

From Calvin Tillman, Mayor of DISH, Texas
I continue to bring up the negative illustrations of the impact the numerous pipelines, compressors and metering stations which have forced themselves upon our small community. In fighting the last four years, it has been a hope of mine that at some point the assault on our rights would stop. However, it is becoming more and more apparent that the blows from this industry will continue. Many of you have seen the massive compressors, metering stations and pipelines that we have here. If you could have seen this area five years ago, the footprint was very small. Unfortunately, this sight grows more and more every day. Atmos Energy decided to put their facility here, and unfortunately for us, if you want to sell natural gas to Atmos, you are going to bring it here. Atmos really started this mess, as some describe, they were the camel’s nose in the tent, and from there it exploded and has destroyed the better part of 70 acres of good land. However, it appears as though it is only the beginning, as there is more on the way.

When one of these companies come sniffing around, they too just stick their nose in the tent, and send their paid liars to tell you that a small facility is all it is going to be…and then you hear the rest of the story much later. They tell you that there will be a facility that you will hardly even notice such as Crosstex energy told us a year and a half ago. They tell us that there will only be a small building, that houses a small compressor, and if that was the end, it wouldn’t have been bad. However, now they want to put in some other gas processing equipment that has a couple of tanks that are forty feet high…yes forty feet! So once again the Town of DISH, gets kicked, and they won’t even let us get up. Once they get through with their continued assault, there will be one of the other companies coming to share the bad news of their expansion. It seems as though there is little we can do to stop constant violation of our civil rights. How is it that a for profit company, can decide that we here in DISH are the ones whose property becomes worthless? How is it that our peace and quiet here in DISH is destroyed, for the greater good? How is is that we have to deal with natural gas releases in the middle of the night during a lightning storm (which sound like a jet engine at full throttle)? I foolishly thought that we had protections from these assaults, left to us by the founding fathers of this great nation. I don’t recall the story in the history books that told of the for profit company, who could destroy your way of life, you property rights, and quite possible your health, as many of you know better than me. I was not a great student, but I did manage to stay awake in history, how could I have missed this?

It has now become clear that “enough is enough”, is not a theory these companies believe in. They somehow have been given the power to violate the common people’s rights, and have taken it so far as to believe that they are justified in doing so. I wonder from time to time how they sleep at night? What do they tell there families when they go home at night? Do they tell them that they swindled someone out of there land? How bout the person that lost there retirement which they invested in the property that they threatened into signing over to them? Do they tell their families those stories? More likely, they tell them what good neighbors their prospective companies are, or better yet they tell the story of the great product, and how nice it feels on a cold morning, when that clean natural gas fires up. . Clean natural gas? Come look at the by-products of that clean natural gas here in DISH and judge for yourself. As always, I will do everything I can do, to soften the blow for the citizens here, but it will not be enough. It won’t be long before every camel has their entire body in the tent at our expense. As always, please share this with whoever might be interested.
..
Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640

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