Physicians for Social Responsibility just released their updated compendium of studies that link fracking to health problems.

http://twitter.com/frackfree_eu/status/654351416933416960/photo/1

It’s been well established that more science will not cause those who choose to deny climate change to rethink their beliefs. Such change requires peer pressure – the sense that one’s belief or opinion is out-of-step with reality as reflected by the opinions of people he or she knows and respects.  So don’t be bashful about making your concern about the safety and desirability of shale gas extraction known. Contact your elected officials often.

With each passing day more evidence gets published exposing the terrible risk and cost of shale gas extraction and its negative impacts to people and communities.  This post considers the claimed benefits and pairs them with the downside risks and costs.

Energy Independence

The US has been overly dependent on the big Middle Eastern oil producers. The price and availability of fossil fuels has a direct effect on every aspect of our consumer economy, and impacts the lifestyles of all but the very rich. The development of shale gas and oil worldwide was a game changer. The US is now an energy exporter and the price of fossil energy has dropped dramatically.

It sounds like a big win, but it’s not.  Global climate change effects are already disrupting economies world wide and threaten to obliterate island nations. Our grandchildren will live in a radically altered ecosystem as formerly verdant areas become deserts, and as snow packs vanish as a source of fresh water. These are only two of the vast changes that are happening and will get worse due to our continuing use of fossil fuels.

True energy independence requires a shift to non-carbon renewable energy sources. Though fossil fuels will remain a part of the mix, they must be restricted to levels that keep atmospheric carbon below 350 ppm. (Its over 400 now.)  Low cost fossil fuels compete with renewable energy in the market place, slowing development and adoption at a time when all credible experts agree that we need emergency measures to suppress carbon emissions.

At best the energy independence benefit is a short-term benefit. But I see it as analogous to a drunk having one more for the road.

Jobs

Shale gas development brings jobs to communities where the drilling takes place. The scale of modern drilling operations is huge.  Hydraulic fracturing adds a vast support network of trucking for water (4 million gallons per well), chemicals, sand, and equipment.  In addition to the drill crews there is an army of support workers employed to supply them. The collection and processing of the products adds a network of pipelines and compressor stations and jobs for the crews that build and operate it. These jobs pay well for the level of education required to do them.

But are they “good” jobs? At best, they are temporary and most workers migrate to follow the work as new development starts in fresh locations.  The work proceeds 24/7 and involves long hours of hard physical work in a hazardous environment. Workers enjoy few benefits and minimal protections because the drilling industry has carved out exceptions in Federal and state laws that protect other workers. Life-changing injuries are common, and the fatality rate is seven times the average. Exposure to dust, chemicals, and toxic gasses can precipitate long term health issues.

The work is boom or bust. During boom periods, the influx of drilling workers drives up local housing costs and also other basic costs as the local market adjusts to scarcity and the influx of people with money to spend. During bust cycles, unemployment and under employment set in as the jobs that supported the boom dry up. Convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, bars, local retail must all cut back.

A new documentary titled Gas Work – The Fight for CJ’s Law dramatically illustrates the family impacts of shale gas work with interviews and scenes of industrial accident sites. Employers create an atmosphere of fear telling workers who object to conditions that they are “a dime a dozen” and that they must accept the risks, keep quiet about spills and other violations, and generally do as they are told or get fired. Coworkers shun those who challenge unsafe conditions. (See the film on the big screen and join the discussion afterwords at the 350.org event on November 13th 2015, Newtown Friends Meeting, 7PM.)

Yes, shale gas development creates jobs, but not so many; and fewer yet are truly good jobs that last, the ones that enhance the general quality of life in a community.

It’s Addiction

Cheap fossil energy is like tobacco and alcohol. In moderation, use is relatively harmless and feels good. But the convenience and abundance is seductive and it becomes hard to abstain. Over time we become dependent and the use is destructive to some but not necessarily all who indulge. Dependence distorts judgment and encourages denial of the reality of the addictions destructive impacts. In any present moment, we have the illusion that our addictions are only “guilty pleasures” – something we should quit, but just not today.   We justify them as needs.

Since about 2007 the world has had practical and feasible technology to make non-fossil energy sufficient for its economic needs. We have known about the peril of permanent climate change for nearly a century. But our addiction to cheap energy is hard, very hard indeed, to shake. None are so blind as they who will not see.

In July Governor Wolfe and shale gas industry leaders formed a task force to plan a massive pipeline build-out to expedite the flow of gas to markets. The federal government has lifted its ban on oil and gas exports. Last month the energy industry announced that Philadelphia will be “energy central.” One of the featured speakers, Robert Bryce fueled the collective denial with an optomistic talk entitled Innovation, Shale, and the Second American Century. Brice authored a book entitled, How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong.”  Clearly there’s cache and cash in telling folks what they want to hear.

We are witnessing a colossal train wreck in the making presided over by people who are enjoying too much wealth and power to see it coming.

On Wednesday night (9/9/15) the Supervisors of Newtown Township took the lead in passing a resolution supporting a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware Basin.  That’s big, even thought it doesn’t of itself prevent drilling and fracking.  Because Pennsylvania is a Commonwealth, the state legislature is in charge of granting permission for shale gas extraction and individual municipalities can only choose where withing their borders to allow it.

Other townships are expected to follow Newtown in enacting similar resolutions.  Although the Supervisors can’t ban fracking, their resolution gives gravitas to public sentiment against fracking and the environmental and health impacts it causes.  State legislators recognize that the same voters who elect municipal politicians also elect them. It will be hard for them to yield to pressure from the shale gas lobby knowing that their constituents do not support fracking.

Those of us who are working on this issue know that passage of this resolution is only an early milestone in each town’s effort to gird itself against exploitation. The effort to preserve its water, air, and environment will take many forms. Later this month the Delaware Riverkeeper Network will release a guidebook for municipalities that contains language for crafting strategic zoning. We agree that it’s prudent to have proper zoning enacted in the event that the moratoriums are ultimately lifted.  Though we hope they will never be necessary, we recognize that it takes time to craft enforceable regulations. To that end the guidebook will help local solicitors who may be unfamiliar with the nuances and hazards of shale gas exploration.

To protect water and air, it is necessary to establish baselines for existing levels of methane and other pollutants. A favorite dodge of drillers who create leaky wells is to say, “That methane was present before we drilled.” Fortunately there are effective means to collect baseline data before a well is begun. The knowledge that baseline data exisits may, of itself, deter drilling. Drillers play the odds, and they know that one or two out of every twenty wells leaks in the first five years. When baselines exist enforcement action is likely to be costly.

Towns can also zone pipelines.  Since dedicated pipelines are needed to get the “wet” gas to processing facilities, and from there to market, it’s just as important to zone and regulate them as it is to plan for wells.

It is regrettable that locals can’t depend on the state or federal regulators for protection. Only outright bans like those enacted in New York State and Maryland seem to keep the menace at bay.  So, while we work to create the political will to ban fracking at the state level, we also seek to get resolutions and zoning ordinances that show unity of purpose and establish formidable accountability standards at the municipal level.

———————

If you have questions or comments on the issue please use the contact form to submit them, or register on this site so that you can comment publicly.

In a perfect world all the stakeholders would want accurate information about the health effects of shale gas extraction. But alas industry and politicians avoid inconvenient facts and have even defunded efforts to collect the data.  Nonetheless there was a log kept and some 85 official reports were recorded. Here’s what the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported when those were made public:

“The records, which span four years and partial terms of two governors between March 2011 and April 2015, don’t prove a connection between drilling activities and illness, but they reflect the range of complaints reported by citizens, physicians, workers and health agencies.

Environmental and public health experts said the log alone is insufficient to evaluate potential health impacts from shale development.

Trevor Penning, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology, said, “The question is whether or not there is a relationship between the exposures that they think they have and the symptoms that they are reporting. That is the crux of it, and that is difficult to nail down based on what you’re seeing here.”

In one case, a mother reported that a third of her 13-year-old daughter’s hair had fallen out, and she suspected a gas well near her water well was to blame.

A doctor said his patient suffered chronic hearing damage after a helicopter servicing the gas industry hovered low over her home.

A truck driver said fluid at a well pad “ate through his work boots and caused long-lasting rashes and welts on his feet and legs.”

Common complaints include breathing trouble, chest tightness, nose bleeds, skin irritation, abdominal issues and noise.”

Now there is a epidemiological study that documents alarming health statistics linked to fracking. Here is what was found when the health of infants and young children in heavily fracked counties was compared to the rest of the state:

“In one of the first studies of its kind, Joseph J. Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project found disturbing links between hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and health effects in children younger than five years old.

In the report “Health Hazards to Fetuses, Infants, and Young Children in Heavily-fracked Areas of Pennsylvania,” funded by the Pittsburg Foundation, Mangano explains that as a relatively new technology in the landscape of natural gas extraction, fracking hasn’t been extensively studied with regards to health impacts on nearby residents. His study compares morbidity and mortality rates for several age groups living in eight heavily-fracked counties in the state with the same data in the rest of Pennsylvania. Heavily-fracked counties included in the study were Bradford, Washington, Tioga, Susquehanna, Lycoming, Greene, Westmoreland, and Fayette.

Mangano found that heavily-fracked counties have 13.9% greater infant mortality, 23.6% greater perinatal mortality, 3.4% more low-weight births, 12.4% more premature births, and 35.1% more cancer in children ages zero to four.

According to Mangano, “[This] information is only a start in refining the discussion about fracking’s impact on humans. Other studies must be conducted, on this and other geographic areas, disease categories, and age groups. As these develop, it is crucial that information such as this is disseminated to citizens and public leaders, leading to more informed discussion that will make future public policies that best protect the public’s health.”

[Joseph Mangano MPH MBA is an epidemiologist, and Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project research group. He is author/co-author of 34 medical journal articles and 3 books.]

Mangano’s study is just one item in the growing body of medical evidence that fracking is responsible for serious health problems. In April a team of scientists in Southwestern PA released a white paper titled, The Case for an Unconventional Natural Gas Development Health Registry. It documents the toxic emissions present around fracking sites, the health hazards they present, and it calls for specific reporting and record keeping.

It would seem like an obvious and prudent step, a no-brainer, to safeguard the health of our families by ensuring that our health officials can track and respond to health impacts.  Doctors should know the possible effects and be alerted to report them. But as someone famously observed it’s hard to make a person see what his/her paycheck depends on NOT seeing.

Are the economic benefits of fracking worth the human cost? Not if it’s your kid who suffers.

We know we should be conserving our resources. We know we should be shifting to renewable energy. We know shale gas extraction devastates the environment and does irreparable harm to water and land. We know it wrecks the roads. Now we also know it hurts our children. And we are told there is glut of gas that’s driving prices down. We’ve got so much natural gas we plan to export more than half of what we produce.  Yet the pressure continues to develop more wells no mater what injustices the process imposes on ordinary people.  Are we mad?

Who’s gonna stand up and save the Earth?

Hilary Lewis has used a FLIR Gasfinder camera to actually photograph the releases of toxic VOCs at oil and gas drilling sites around the US.  She and her colleagues have amassed some 150 videos and produced a short film to document the pollution of our air.  Most of this nasty stuff is not visible to the naked eye, but with the special camera Hilary uses, one can see it clearly.  Her film shows how it’s done, and also presents interviews with people who have suffered the ill effects. I recommend that you view it to put a face on the statistics and data that prove fracking can’t be done safely.

You can visit the website and browse through as much of the raw footage as you like. It’s not pretty, but better we know what fracking brings than wait and see.

Let’s stop this “give-away” to the Mining and Fracking Industries.
Call or write your State Representative.

SB-875 Amended 7.22.15 has been amended and has progressed 50% thru the PA Legislative process (it has already passed the State Senate). It is now in the House Appropriations Committee. Most likely our elected representatives will try and get the bill approved when the budget is considered in late August. Please send an e-mail to your State Representative (using your own words). If possible, add a sentence or two about being a constituent, and then ask for a “NO VOTE” on SB-875. Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties may be especially pivotal.

Additional talking points that you can add re: Treated Mine Water Bill SB #875 (i.e., “treated mine water” means using acid coal mine drainage water for oil and gas drilling)

• Exempting acid mine drainage water from the Solid Waste Management Act removes safeguards to PA’s drinking water
• Exempting anyone from liability when using, transporting or storing what is now considered a “hazardous substance” could lead to reduced caution and therefore harm to people, animals, crops and/or bodies of water. Unborn and small children, the sick and frail elderly people are most vulnerable to toxins in air and water.
• There is no evidence that treated mine drainage water can be made safe for oil and gas extraction purposes.
• Mine owners are exploiting a loophole that allows fracking operations to be exempt from the federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

To find your State Representative, click here or go to League of Women Voters
Please send your email no later than Wed., August 19.
The State Representatives re-convene Aug. 25.