Why Fracking and Other Disasters Are So Hard to Stop

[ellisonz]

Peter Montague
Historian and journalist
Posted: 1/20/12 05:49 PM ET

A new report offers compelling evidence that fracking for natural gas is killing domestic animals like horses, cattle, goats, sheep. The dead animals provide a strong warning that fracking can harm humans -- something the fracking industry has consistently denied.

"Fracking" is short for "hydraulic fracturing" -- a well-drilling process that pumps water, sand and numerous toxic chemicals a mile or so below ground to release natural gas trapped in rocks. If all goes well, the deep rocks shatter, releasing gas, which is piped directly to the surface where it becomes part of the nation's energy supply or is exported. If all doesn't go so well, some of the fracked gas and toxic chemicals start moving around through cracks and fissures below ground, where they sometimes mix with underground water supplies, perhaps ruining a valuable aquifer forever.

The new report, "Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health," by Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald appeared in New Solutions (Jan. 2012). Bamberger is a practicing veterinarian and Oswald a professor of pharmacology in the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. The two spent a year evaluating all available fracking- related reports on sick or dying animals. Secrecy surrounds the fracking industry, but a few "natural experiments" have provided powerful evidence that fracking can harm animals. On one farm, 60 cows were pastured near a creek where fracking fluids had reportedly been dumped; another 36 cattle were pastured without access to the creek. Of the 60 cows, 21 died and 16 more failed to produce calves the following spring. Among the 36 not exposed, health problems were absent.

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In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress gave fracking a green light by exempting it from the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. At the bidding of the oil and gas industry, Congress basically said, "We want this gas out of the ground by any means necessary." Now, six years later, some 450,000 fracking wells have been drilled in 31 states. Already 30 percent of all U.S. natural gas comes from fracking. The practice started in the west -- Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming. Then it went south -- Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana. Now it's moving east to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. If the fracking industry continues to have its way, tens of thousands more fracking wells will be drilled and billions of gallons of water mixed with industrial poisons will be pumped underground.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-montague/why-fracking-and-other-di_b_1218889.html

[limpyhobbler]

1. good article. a really clear explanation of the problem.

What's going on with this issue is sheer insanity. frustrating

[ellisonz]

2. I think it's approaching the...

..."Call Congress Right Fucking Now" stage. There's no doubt that at the very minimum we are not prepared for this technology.

[jsmirman]

3. It never ever ever stays in the damn "boundaries"

they claim to have in place around whatever the hell they are setting free.

Stuff seeps.

Everyone of these damn environmental abominations should have a mandatory swimming hole right on the "edge" of the implicated property. And when all the CEOs, everybody in upper management, everyone on the Board of Directors is willing to bathe, swim, and gulp water down every day during the extent of their operations, then I'll trust that they've actually properly assessed the environmental risks.

Let's see when they get back to me on that.

Bastards.

[ellisonz]

5. Agreed.

Bastards, the lot of them.

For anyone reading: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Support-H2O-Man-In-His-Fight-Against-Fracking/254892447917217

[Mojorabbit]

4. marking for later nt