12/29/2023 0 Comments Fracked csiWitness the efforts by oil and gas companies to coerce families with drinking water contaminated by fracking not to talk to the public about their injuries. Gathering basic facts about which communities and which families are being harmed also will be difficult. The fact that Halliburton has been resisting EPA’s requests for basic information on its fracking chemicals should give us a sense for the kind of opposition to reasonable regulation we should expect. But this study will not be completed until 2012, and it is not so clear when or if EPA will follow through with the regulations needed to rein in the worst abuses. We can take some comfort in the fact that EPA is conducting a study of fracking’s impact on air and water quality. Pick it up, it is a must-see if you wondering whether natural gas really represents our clean energy future as some have suggested. Originally shown on HBO, it is now appearing at select theaters around the country and can be purchased as a DVD. The fact that fracking is finally receiving so much scrutiny is due in no small part to filmmaker Josh Fox, whose documentary Gasland blows the whistle on the oil and gas industry’s abuses in his home state of Pennsylvania as well as in Arkansas, Wyoming and beyond. In fact, a newly-released analysis from Cornell professor Robert Howarth suggests that greenhouse gases from fracked natural gas may be worse than coal over a 20-year time horizon because of methane leakage during production and transport. However, no one has proven that natural gas is any better than coal in reducing our vulnerability to global warming. Some have suggested that this development frenzy is a sign of progress, that natural gas in the United States’ shale formations is a treasure trove that must be tapped to help us wean ourselves from dirty coal and save us from global warming. The oil and gas industry is making major investments in these shale rock deposits, while working in the political process to unravel environmental protections, including rules requiring public disclosure of the chemicals used. It is now taking place in 38 states across the country, poisoning drinking water supplies and creating air pollution hazards. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process for extracting natural gas from shale rock formations that uses millions of gallons of fresh water and hundreds of chemicals, some known to be toxic. Baseline concentrations of potential contaminants from shale gas operations are found to be low, suggesting that early community-based monitoring is an effective foundation for assessing later contamination due to fracking.What the frack? Why is fracking suddenly of great interest to the investigative journalists of 60 Minutes and, perhaps more importantly, the fictional crime-fighters on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation? Analytic results for groundwater (with permission) and surface water are made publicly available in an interactive, searchable database. Similar baseline data on regional groundwater comes from CSI's testing of private drinking water wells. To fill this gap, the nonprofit Community Science Institute (CSI) partners with community volunteers who perform regular sampling of more than 50 streams in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions of upstate New York samples are analyzed for parameters associated with HVHHF. Baseline (pre-fracking) data on relevant water quality indicators, needed for meaningful risk assessment, are largely lacking. The risk of contaminating surface and groundwater as a result of shale gas extraction using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has not been assessed using conventional risk assessment methodologies.
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