The following is official video from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It reveals fugitive emissions from several Barnett Shale gas well sites.
Fugitive emissions occur at every stage of the natural gas production process.
Production Fugitive Emissions
Well Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing, and Completions
Natural Gas Processing
Natural Gas Transmission Fugitives
Cost effective remedies are available to prevent fugitive emissions but Big Gas will not willingly use these remedies. Instead, they hide their dirty secret while peddling natural gas as a "bridge fuel" that is "clean-burning. "
Hexavalent Chromium contamination is spreading in the groundwater used by some Midland, Texas residents and environmental investigators say the mounting evidence points to the oil and gas industry. Affected residents say they have proof that hydraulic fracture giant Schlumberger is responsible.
Imagine waking up one morning and having no safe water at all. In a recent radio program about Peak Water, Maude Barlow said: The day will come--mark my words--when every single thing we do will be measured against what it does to water. For people in Midland, Texas, that day is here.
Ninety-two percent of the 278 known chemicals used to produce natural gas have adverse health effects including endocrine disruption, neurological disorders and cancer. Chemical information is limited because the industry claims formulas are trade secrets. If, like most Americans, you believe your water, air and soil are protected from these chemicals by federal environmental statutes, you are dead wrong. Loopholes in our federal environmental laws allow the oil and gas industry to endanger public health and safety and risk vital natural resources.
Fueled by technological advances, a frenzied expansion in natural gas drilling has exploded into 34 American states. Once the burden of rural areas, it now encroaches into heavily populated cities turning neighborhoods into industrial zones.
They're calling natural gas a bridge fuel, an alternative fuel, the "clean" energy. Enough PR money burnishes a dirty fossil fuel into an environmentally friendly magic bridge to lead us far from our energy crisis. In truth, the production process that endangers public health and safety, depletes scarce water supplies, and generates colossal amounts of toxic waste cancels out the slightly cleaner burn.
It's a heavy toll to cross this bridge. The question becomes: who pays?
The following video contains a few of the 360 pictures taken on a short flight over small portions of Tarrant, Wise and Denton Counties. These pictures depict the destruction caused by natural gas production.
What is the fuss about drilling a Barnett Shale well? A Barnett well site with a drilling rig operating for three months has the same impact as a city of 4,000 people,- Water use, solid waste generation, air emissions and traffic. The O&G industry has been slow to realize this-that it has too big an impact on the environment. However, if we can reduce our environmental 'footprint,' we can realize better returns on our investments and cause less fuss in the community. That is a win-win for everyone.
~David Burnett, Director, Global Petroleum Research Institute
Hydraulic fracturing should be regulated under the
Safe Drinking Water Act
Only one industry in the U. S. can legally inject known toxins directly into sources of drinking water without federal regulation, but as early as this week, legislation may be introduced in Congress to overturn the exemption granted to Big Oil by the 2005 Congress at the urging of Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO
Hydraulic fracturing (FRACKing) is a technique that was developed by Halliburton. Millions of gallons of fresh water, mixed with sand, and often containing a witch's brew of cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are injected under high pressure miles down the drilling hole to fracture the underground formation and release the oil and gas trapped within. Ninety percent of all U.S. oil and gas wells undergo hydraulic fracturing to stimulate the production of oil and gas.
These chemicals can be lethal! Last month 16 cattle died a gruesome death when a spill of hydraulic fracturing fluid landed in their pasture.
The following key points from the fact sheet prove there is no legitimate reason to keep this exemption:
1. Closing the Halliburton Loophole would not shut down drilling or mandate a burdensome new permit process.
2. Closing the Halliburton Loophole would not require disclosure of proprietary trade secrets or confidential business information.
3. Closing the Halliburton Loophole would provide a minimum federal standard to prohibit drinking water contamination and shine a light on hydraulic fracturing.
Protect Texans from a future of dangerous pipelines!
Taking control away from citizens and handing it to an agency with a poor track record is a bad idea.
H.B. 4441 would give exclusive authority over pipelines and above ground appurtenant facilities to the Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) and give them authority to overpower zoning, as well as have major input in future economic development.
Control over placement of potentially dangerous pipelines, noisy compressor stations and other above ground appurtenant facilities that conflict with quality of life and safety of citizens should not be given to a state agency plagued with conflict of interest issues and charges of negligence. A Star-Telegram analysis from 2008, revealed that 30% of gas wells in Fort Worth had not been inspected in 5 years! TRC negligence has cost Texan's lives and was even highlighted on a Bill Moyers' Journal special, "Fatal Flaws: Beneath the North Texas Dirt."
I know you love Texas. And we are writing today because the oil & gas industry is "Messing with Texas" and we need your support to reform oil and gas practices in the Lone Star State, before it is too late.
A destructive new drilling boom threatens communities
In Fort Worth, amid the lush prairie hills and the Trinity River corridor, more than 1,100 oil and gas wells have been drilled within the city limits! 100 new wells are being permitted every month. Some experts predict as many as 7,000 wells could be drilled within city limits. And more than 9,000 wells have been drilled in surrounding counties -- with 5,000 more already approved.
This drilling boom is due to the discovery of the Barnett Shale formation, a prolific source of natural gas, roughly 8,000 feet below the surface. The pace of drilling to date has outstripped the ability of landowners and local governments to address the environmental and public health impacts that haunt other oil and gas producing regions like Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
H.R. 7231 to Close the Hydraulic Fracturing Loophole That Is Fracing Up America's Water.
Hydraulic fracturing (fracing) is a drilling technique that was developed by Halliburton. Millions of gallons of fresh water, along with sand, and cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are injected under high pressure miles down the drilling hole to fracture the limestone shale and release the oil and gas trapped within.
In 2005, at the urging of Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, Congress exempt fracing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In 2001, Cheney's energy task force report "touted" benefits and ignored consequences. His office was "involved in discussions about how fracturing should be portrayed in the [EPA] report."Halliburton earns about $1.5 BILLION annually from hydraulic fracturing. (Ibid)
The oil and gas industry is the only industry in America that is allowed by EPA to inject KNOWN hazardous material-unchecked-directly into or adjacent to underground drinking water supplies.
H.R. 7231 will reinstate basic federal standards for hydraulic fracturing under the SDWA and enable the EPA to protect our drinking water from oil and gas pollution.
ALEX, Okla. (AP) - A natural gas pipeline exploded early Friday in Grady County, injuring two people, destroying three homes and forcing the closure of a highway.
A 20-inch round line exploded less than 50 yards north of State Highway 19, two miles east of Alex. The highway between Alex and Bradley could be closed until noon, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman said.
Right now, a private oil and gas company has the same powers as a public utility. They can use eminent domain to take your land and run a high pressure pipeline with highly explosive wet gas through your front yard.
The explosion in Grady County, one of many recent pipeline explosions, was heard from a couple of miles away. Imagine if that happened in your neighborhood.
Calvin Tilman, Mayor, DISH, Texas has written a resolution urging greater local control over pipelines.
