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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.

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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.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, exists in great quantities as methane hydrate trapped as slush in the permafrost both on land and under the Arctic sea. For at least 20 years climate scientists have known that global warming could accelerate the thawing of the permafrost, amplifying and accelerating the warming trend caused by humans and natural events.

Methane instability is almost universally recognized as an important risk factor to life as we know it on earth. Some scientists estimate Arctic releases will add about 34% to the methane humans cause to be released this century. But recently there has been disturbing evidence suggesting that the models are underestimating the rate of release of Arctic methane as global warming happens. In 2011 two Russian scientists observed huge plumes of methane bubbles erupting from the Arctic sea.  Subsequent investigation points to shifts in warmer ocean currents thawing and releasing ancient stores of methane hydrate.

The word “instability” refers to the prospect of starting a warming chain reaction where the thawing of methane hydrate alone is sufficient to sustain global warming without human input. That’s the methane precipice – irreversable thawing of frozen methane. Some refer to this as a feedback loop – the more methane, the faster the thaw, which in turn releases more methane, which in turn …  We’ve built a house of cards and we are racing to quantify just how far we can push warming before it tips and methane instability brings us crashing down.

The on-the-surface observations are corroborated by NASA satellite technology that maps methane release, and also by aircraft air sampling that detects higher than normal local concentrations of methane in the air.  None of this converging evidence is encouraging, and much of the research has only been published in the last couple of years. It’s my personal take that models as recent as 2007 are underestimating the thaw. When the newest information is processed we’ll know better, but will we act?

At the same time, it’s becoming clear that we have been underestimating the amount of methane that the gas and oil industry leaks into the air. As I write this, aircraft monitoring projects are scanning Pennsylvania. Similar projects have already documented that releases in Texas are 50% higher than previously believed. In the fog of our collective ignorance and denial, we are running full speed toward the methane precipice, heedless of the danger.

Sea rise that inundates coastal areas all over the globe is one of several long range consequences. Me – I’m 75 and I’ll be long dead before it happens. But my grandchildren will experience the effects, and their kids will be living in a very different world where the shape of the continents has changed and inland weather is markedly different.  Many creatures will not adapt. It’s not a happy trend to contemplate unless we get smarter very fast.

Market forces have combined with political opportunism to bury good sense. We subsidize fossil fuels to a greater degree than we do sustainable energy, tilting the playing field in the wrong direction. Unbridled development of shale gas and oil is creating oversupply and driving down prices. Consequently sustainable non-carbon energy is the high priced alternative … in the short term.

Given the consequences of using it, fossil energy is far too cheap for our own good.  A gradual increase in fossil fuel cost would shift the market to support and foster better renewable, non polluting, safe energy.  The needed renewable technology has been feasible since 2007 and its cost has been steadily dropping.  These days renewable energy is the noble thing to do, but taking the long view, it is also the frugal thing to do. The price we pay at the pump does not include the costs of climate change. We are wantonly squandering the heritage of future generations while dancing on the edge of an abyss. There is no “free ride.”

A few far-sighted leaders are embracing the need to make adjustments.  These would take the form of correcting the artificially low price of non-renewable energy. The strategy is actually rather simple: end subsidies and assess fees for the environmental costs that don’t presently get priced in to what we pay for fossil energy. One such strategy is CCL’s Carbon Fee and Dividend – legislation that would add an annual escalating fee to fossil fuels and return the money to families. It’s not unlike the petroleum fees Alaska distributes to state residents.  The eventual negative effects on the fossil fuel sector would be more than offset by the positive stimulus of the dividends paid. Economic modeling shows middle and low income families coming out money ahead and a net growth in jobs.

Such re-balancing of the energy playing field harnesses market forces to make innovation and investment in clean energy increasingly attractive, driving down the cost of renewable sources relative to fossil fuels. The point here is to recognize that there are practical strategies available that we should be doing now.  Concern about the methane precipice should motivate us even if high-minded environmental stewardship doesn’t.

Sources:

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2014/08/horrific-methane-eruptions-in-east-siberian-sea.html

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2014/08/01/vast-methane-plumes-escaping-seafloor-arctic-ocean/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24639-arctic-storms-speed-up-release-of-methane-plumes/

Ignoring the Arctic Methane Monster: Royal Society Goes Dark on Arctic Observational Science

http://www.su.se/english/research/leading-research-areas/science/swerus-c3-first-observations-of-methane-release-from-arctic-ocean-hydrates-1.198540

Concern Over Catastrophic Methane Release — Overburden, Plumes, Eruptions, and Large Ocean Craters

Methane Emissions in Texas Fracking Region 50% Higher Than EPA Estimates

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/10/3678948/ice-sheets-could-add-20-feet-to-sea-level-with-currensust-temperature-increase/http://www.edf.org/climate/methane