B-CAUSE (Bucks Concerned About Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction)

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  • Radium from Marcellus Shale

    Studies of mussels downstream of a fracking water treatment facility found them to have radium which was likely from the produced water of fracked wells. “[The researcher explained] that other types of wastewater generally do not contain many radioactive particles, but oil and gas wastewaters found deep in the earth and brought out by fracking often contain specific unique element ratios—a kind of signature that can be traced. The unique ratios of radioactive elements allowed the team to identify that the source of the contaminants is likely the treated Marcellus Shale wastewater.”

    Mussels downstream of wastewater treatment plant contain radium, study reports
    Burrowed into streambeds and rarely moving for their decades-long lifespans, freshwater mussels are biomonitors, meaning they indicate how clean their environment is, according to Penn State researchers. As the bivalves feed on organic matter and filter the water around them, their inner tissues and hard shells begin to reflect whatever is in their environment—including radioactive particles.

    The evidence keeps piling up. The harmful effects and risks of fracking are serious, and the benefits to society are next to nil. We know we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, but the energy industry seeks to obscure and marginalize the risks. Moreover, it has a poor record of doing the right thing to mitigate the damage it causes.

  • Lithium Not a Justification

    Buried in the body of one of the Lithium stories are these cautionary words:

    Even if the process of extracting lithium proved to be cost-effective, Quigley said, it should not be used as a justification to keep drilling, though it was “inevitable” that the industry would try to use the finding that way. “It’s still not a reason to continue to drill, because it’s a waste product from fossil fuel extraction,” he said. “The economy has to be carbon free by 2050.” 

    Extracting lithium doesn’t solve the ongoing problem of what to do with the highly toxic wastewater produced by fracking, which contains salts, metals and radioactive elements. “There’s no way to clean this stuff up,” Quigley said. “You might be able to get something beneficial out of it. But you still have really nasty wastewater that you’ve got to get rid of.”

    Quigley was reminded of previous claims made about the economic usefulness of the oil and gas industry’s wastewater in Pennsylvania. Spreading wastewater from conventional drilling on roadways to suppress dust was once considered “a beneficial reuse,” but now faces scrutiny for the risks it poses to the environment and human health, including water contamination and harm to aquatic wildlife. “That has proven to be a sham,” Quigley said. “Some beneficial reuses turned out not to be so beneficial.”

    “You might be able to get something beneficial out of it. But you still have really nasty wastewater that you’ve got to get rid of.”

    — John Quigley, a fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and a former secretary of the Pennsylvania DEP and the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as quoted in the article below.
    Fracking wastewater has “shocking” amount of clean-energy mineral lithium
    40% of US need for lithium could be covered by Pennsylvania’s fracking byproduct.

  • Expect a Lithium Rush

    There is the smell of fresh greenwash in the air. It is highly unlikely that the prospect of Lithium as a byproduct will justify taking more natural gas out of the ground. Let us not forget that it’s a fossil fuel that has long been too abundant and cheap to produce. Producers don’t plan to meet domestic demand with it, they will liquify it and ship it elsewhere to make plastic and burn. When you net out all the negatives, producing gas and recovering Lithium will make the climate and environment worse.

    We don’t see any of the producers volunteering to pick up the tab for remediating the past environmental problems like their leaky abandoned wells or to compensate for the damage done to people and nature. Here are some recent breathless articles.

    Pennsylvania could become huge player in lithium mining
    HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvania could become a massive contributor to the United States’ quest for lithium after scientists discovered a large reservoir of the chemical element in fracking wastewater outside
    Giant, multi-billion-dollar source of lithium found under Pennsylvania
    Over 1,200 tons of lithium could be recovered per year from Pennsylvania’s natural gas ‘fracking’ wastewater alone, according to US National Energy Technology Lab

    Fracking does nothing to improve the environment. It hurts the locals and spews polluted water and lots of nasty toxic stuff.

  • Lithium from Produced Water

    The water produced by fracking operations contains a lot of nasty stuff. However, commercially interesting amounts of lithium might be recoverable. The article below doesn’t deal with the question of what we do with all other rest of the nasty stuff. It says, “And once the lithium is extracted, there is still the issue of disposal of the remaining wastewater that could still contain toxic substances, whether it gets used to frack another well or if it gets shipped off to a deep injection well for disposal.”

    Could Pennsylvania’s fracking wastewater hold the key to the country’s energy transition?
    The U.S. will need a lot more lithium to make the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables. Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale has a ton of it.

  • Banning of CO2 Fracking

    No, it’s not a clean way to frack. Fracking, but whatever it means, does nothing to improve the environment. New York should ban it.

    Dr. Sandra Steingraber urges Hochul to sign carbon dioxide fracking ban
    The practice uses CO2 instead of water to extract shale gas.

  • Families Dislocated

    I’ve observed that fracking does nothing good for the locals. Here another story that gives a face to the research statistics.

    3 West Virginia families say they abandoned their homes after experiencing medical issues from fracking contamination
    Three families say they had to choose between their homes and their health because fracking operations that moved into their area tainted the air and water.

  • Fracking and Premature Births

    Canadian researchers may have found link between fracking and premature births
    According to a new study from the University of Calgary, there could be a link between oil and gas operations and health risks for pregnant women and their babies in those areas. “There is very little research about fracking as it relates to the health of pregnant people and children living near these sites,” Amy Metcalfe, a co-principal investigator and associate professor in obstetrics and…

  • Radioactive?

    Justin Nobel asserts that radiation levels at some oil and gas facilities within small American towns are higher than those at the exclusion zone around the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

    How Fracking Is Making Some U.S. Communities More Radioactive Than Chernobyl
    A Q&A with DeSmog reporter Justin Nobel about his revelatory new book, Petroleum-238, that takes on the fracking industry for exposing workers to radioactive contamination.

  • CO2 Fracking?

    It would seem an obviously bad idea to use a greenhouse gas for fracking, wouldn’t it?

  • Evidence of Harm

    It’s not news to us, but the evidence continues to build that nothing good comes of allowing fracking. Here’s a report from our Bucks County Courier Times, that adds to the irrefutable evidence.

    Study shows links between Pa. fracking, health of kids
    More asthma, cancer cases found near plantsMarc LevyASSOCIATED PRESS H

    The industry continues to assert that fracking can be done safely. Still, the evidence shows that profit-driven businesses are not up to the task and often lobby to prevent authorities from holding them accountable. I should not need to remind readers that taxpayers are paying to close hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells. If fracking can be done safely, then every case of leaks, venting, water degradation, and well abandonment is a case of negligence–is it not? I don’t see the industry stepping up to take responsibility for the damage it has done through past negligence. Nor are they lobbying for rigorous enforcement to keep marginal operators in line and to fund the mitigation of damage done.