What is Hydraulic Fracturing?

Hydrofracking is the drilling of oil or natural gas thousands of feet below the earth's crust. An explosion takes place to create cracks in the rock and then water, chemicals, and frac sand are pumped into the well. Frac sand holds open the cracks to let the natural gas out and the rest help to make those cracks larger. The chemicals used have become a primary concern and I will list the effects later. Frac sand has also been a huge issue especially down here in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin where a lot of companies want to take this good quality sand from our area.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/documents/SilicaSandMiningFinal.pdf

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/Mines/documents/SilicaSandMiningFinal.pdf

The EPA has a study to "understand the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources." This includes information such as post-fracturing stage, lifespan of water in hydraulic fracturing, the outcomes of mixing of chemicals, management of flowback as well as the ultimate treatment and disposal of the waste created DRAFT. "They have also set a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) of zero for acrylamides in public drinking water." The following link talks about the process of sand mining as well as the environmental impacts. Silica Sand Mining. Some of these effects include air pollution and harmful impacts to water resources both on the surface and underground as well as indirect and direct contamination.

Most surface water contamination comes from construction runoff from the mine and the removal of nonmetallic material from the stream channel. These and other effects change the habitats for aquatic life and could potentially change the biodiversity in the area by forcing the organisms to move or by killing them off.

Negative impacts on fisheries have not been an issue in the past as fracking is not a new thing, but with the recent increase in mining the number of nonmetallic mines have also increased which could harm the valuable trout fisheries in the area. Wastewater discharges at the mine include pit dewatering and the wash water used for the process are regulated by the Wisconsin DNR.

Hopefully you see that it isn't just the drilling process, but many things are needed for natural gas to be released for energy.

The New York State Assembly has already made a law to consider fracking chemicals as hazardous waste and what their response will be in case it becomes a problem.

There is at least one U.S. law firm that has made a website just for fracking plaintiffs at Fracking Lawsuit News. There is even a movie about the fight against hydraulic fracturing called Gasland done by HBO and the trailer is located HERE.

Why is fracking so dangerous? 

It is unregulated.

In the article entitled "The Fracking Industry Buys Congress" explains why this is still the case. According to Nova Scotia, the fracking process doesn't help create jobs and "Tiny Doses of Gas Drilling Chemicals May Have Big Health Effects". These chemicals and crystalline silica enter our air and water disrupting our endocrine system and can cause health problems such as fetal development, diabetes, and infertility. An Important page to read is Sand Mining Surges in Wisconsin.

Not only does this process use a LOT of water (millions of gallons), but for a 4 million gallon fracturing operation 80-330 TONS of chemicals are also used. The New York State's Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) made a list of chemicals and additives used during hydrofracking. Here are only a few listed.

http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101

According to the EPA, many fracturing fluids are toxic chemicals that are dangerous to both humans and wildlife if exposed and some cause cancer. Human exposure to these chemicals occur by consuming contaminated drinking water, breathing polluted air from flowback wastes stored in tanks or through direct skin contact by workers or spill responders. EARTHWORKS lists the chemicals that have 10 or more health effects and there is concern of radioactive materials in the wastewater from natural gas wells in their website for "Hydraulic Fracturing 101". In New York they are unclear how dangerous the radiation levels need to be in order for people to be exposed to be seriously in danger. Radium causes bone, liver, and breast cancer but no one knows yet how much a person can handle. There was a letter written to DEC warning about the disposal of drilling waste and testing will need to be made as well as considerable monitoring. More on that article at Marcellus Shale.

In Ohio, they have had earthquakes due to natural gas drilling. A drilling animation can be located HERE. Obviously, I'm on the "NO" side of this issue and would like to know your thoughts.

Read More:
Frac Sand Mining Issues: Water Contamination Due to Discharge
http://fracdallas.org/docs/sand2.html
Alternatives to Hydrofracking
http://transloading.org/tag/propane-fracking/
Natural Gas Hydro-Fracking in Shale
http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/hydro-fracking.asp
Frac Sand Mining Issues
http://fracdallas.org/docs/sand.html
What is Hydraulic Fracturing?
http://www.gdacoalition.org/GDAC_FRACK.html

Hazardous Means...

"Waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment" is considered to be hazardous waste.

This can be known if the waste is:

• Ignitable (it can catch fire)
• Corrosive (it can eat through metal)
• Reactive (it can explode)
• Toxic (it is harmful or fatal to living things or rather, contains one or more of 39 carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic compounds at levels exceeding current limits such as pesticides.)

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/toxic-waste-overview/

The EPA has a list of more than 500 toxic wastes and they are categorized into four waste lists. The F-list is all non-specific source wastes and the K-list is source-specific. However both the P-list and the U-list include discarded commercial chemical products.

http://mtlfd.org/emergency-services/haz-mat/

We have chemicals in everything. We have them in our shampoos, cleaners, paint thinner, batteries, bug spray, etc. If we discard them they become hazardous waste. So not only do wastes come as by-products from manufacturing industries, but they area also in our own homes. According to MedlinePlus residents of the United States make up to 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste every year. Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries across the globe and 1,500 new chemicals are invented every year. It is expensive to get rid of them in such a way as to not endanger human life or the environment. Many companies try to avoid having to pay to much and result in throwing it in a land fill or using the cheapest method which can result in a different type of pollution (for example, air pollution from sulfur entering the atmosphere was solved with "scrubbers", but then the solid waste was dumped into the nearby water sources).

Hazardous waste effects on humans and the environment can be immediate or long-term.What are some examples?

http://www.co.grays-harbor.wa.us/info/pub_svcs/recycle/HouseHazCollection.htm

• water-borne disease
• respiratory problems
• E coli
• bacteria
• mercury build up
• cancer
• heart disease 

Sadly, governments don't usually intervene until someone or many become deathly sick or die and it is left to the people to defend themselves, which costs a lot of money and pain. Such as the example shown in the movies "A Civil Action", "Black Diamonds", and "Erin Brockovich".



To help Recycle City businesses make the best environmental decisions, Harlin keeps a list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended ways to prevent pollution from hazardous waste in an interactive website HERE:

• Reduce—Find safer substitutes for hazardous materials, such as using solvents made from naturally acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar instead of hazardous ones.
• Recycle—Clean and reuse materials than contain hazardous ingredients, such as motor oil.
• Treat—Combine hazardous waste with other chemicals that make the hazardous ingredient safer. (Some hazardous waste can be safely destroyed by burning them at very high temperatures.)
• Dispose—Dispose of hazardous waste in approved hazardous waste landfills after treatment. (Liquid hazardous wastes can be combined with other substances, like glass or concrete, to make them solid, so they won't move or leak when buried in a landfill.) 

Test Your Knowledge About Hazardous Waste in Your Home HERE.

Read More:
Health Effects Review
http://www.ijc.org/rel/boards/hptf/pdf/vol3s3e.pdf
Dioxins and Their Effects on Human Health
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/
Health Effects of Hazardous Waste
http://www.ehow.com/list_5978867_health-effects-hazardous-waste.html
Toxic Waste (National Geographic)
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/toxic-waste-overview/

Aesbestos

What is aesbestos?

Well let's take a step back and define what vermiculite is.

According to the EPA, Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral that looks flaky and shiny, similar to the mineral: mica. When heated to a high temperature, flakes of vermiculite expand as much as 8-30 times their original size. This form of the vermiculite is light, fire-resistant, and odorless and can be very fine sized to coarse-sized pieces an inch long.

http://nabnyc.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask-sick-and-mourning-people-of-libby.html

In my Environmental Geoscience class, I learned about an unbelievable story about the how greedy and selfish people can be. In the beautiful state of Montana in a small town called Libby, there was a big boom in the economy as W.R.Grace Co. bought the Zonolite vermiculite mine in 1963. They employed many from the community and the vermiculite mined was used for a variety of products such as insulation. "A mine near Libby, Montana, was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990. There was also a deposit of asbestos at that mine, so the vermiculite from Libby was contaminated with asbestos. Vermiculite from Libby was used in the majority of vermiculite insulation in the U.S. and was often sold under the brand name Zonolite" (from EPA website).

http://mesotheliomadoc.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/tremolite-asbestos/

Because it was used in so many products and came home on the miners' clothing, the whole family was affected. I have cleaned up a few buildings with this type of insulation and not only is it disgusting, but it is dangerous and a face mask does absolutely nothing to keep you from inhaling it. Anyway, this began seriously affecting these people, especially the miners, who were paid well, but were dying off like flies. Then their wives and kids began dying and the community knew something was up. They filed almost 200 civil actions against Grace Co., but of course, the W.R. Grace Co. had known from the very beginning what they were doing and they never told the people or have the heart to stop it according to DemocracyNow! Neither did the government. They were dying from asbestos poisoning and the law was not there for the people, but for those with the bigger pockets. Tremolite is one of the rarest and most toxic forms of asbestos because it has needle-like and sharp fibers that can penetrate the lungs to cause pleura, mesothelioma, or asbestosis, which kills the victim by engulfing the lungs or a heart condition.

This area had to be cleaned up as a Superfund site and the mine was closed in 1990, but federal officials did not begin examining the hazards in Libby until 1999, when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a series of articles first revealed the story. In the first article, journalist Andrew Schneider wrote, quote, "It takes anywhere from ten to forty years from the time a person is exposed to dangerous amounts of asbestos for the diseases to reveal themselves. So in Libby, the killing goes on (New Danger Found)". I think it is awful for people to not be protected by their own local and federal governments. It is a scary thought how the law can be ignored or used wrongly against us and I am in complete disagreement with any situation in which this occurs. In a previous blog Acid Mine Drainage, I mentioned another as horrible event that was harmful to the community, but allowed to happen by the government because of the bigger companies.

Read More:
Petroleum
http://nabnyc.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask-sick-and-mourning-people-of-libby.html
History of Libby, Montana
http://www.libbymt.com/community/history.htm#mining
Libby Vermiculite 
http://www.geo.wvu.edu/~lang/Geol484/Libby%20Vermiculite%20and%20Asbestos.pdf

Mutated Trout Raise New Concerns Near Mine Sites

In a previous blog I had talked about what acid mine drainage is and now I will share some recent news about the effects of AMDs on wildlife.
On February 22nd, the NY Times had an article about Mutated Trout from a nearby mine site. The issue arose from the discovery of a two-headed baby trout in southern Idaho.

 

The J.R. Simplot Company had been in the midst of a few mining operations, one being the Smoky Canyon mine (phosphorus mine), which polluted the surrounding creeks where baby trout were found with two heads or other deformities. The company made a report that went on for many hundreds of pages, stating that the metal byproduct, selenium, would actually be safe to dump into the creeks at higher levels than was currently permitted even though, if you know the chemical selenium, you would know that it is extremely toxic to both fish and birds.
But after the discovery of these deformed fish, scientists and environmentalists brought up the issue again and found that the report made by the company hadn't been complete, rather it had left out important information. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service was asked to go over the company's report and compare with their own research. Of course the company's report was biased and lacked analysis of selenium's impact on any of the many species living in the watersheds. According to this article by Kaufman,

"Selenium is a pollutant at 200 of the 1,294 locations designated by the federal government as toxic Superfund sites."

There has not been any agreement on the specific level of this toxin to be permitted, even though it has been a known problem for many years, but now the EPA is working harder to define some rules for its regulation.
If you remember from a previous post about West Virginia's mountaintop removal (Acid Mine Drainage), you would know there are harmful effects from the blasting, but selenium was also a problem in the area. Iti is a naturally occurring element and is used to anaerobic environments with no oxygen, and if disturbed by blasting, mining, farming, or burning coal, it can be released into the environment. This isn't just bad for your drinking water and stomach, but can cause numbness in extremities of humans. You can imagine that for birds and fish of smaller body proportions, they will be affected much more severely.

Selenium was found in birds and other animals in the Kesterson Reservoir of California.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/01/24/687807/-Cal-Water-Wars-Save-Salmon-End-Ag-Subsidies

Read More:
Dispatches From The Vanishing World
http://blog.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com/?p=2465
Mining and Toxic Metals
http://www.akaction.org/Publications/Mining/Mining_and_Toxic_Metals.pdf
Impact of Acid Mine Drainage
http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780750666336/solutions/amd.pdf%20to%20link%20to%20Gateway%20Literature.pdf
Impacts of Mine Drainage On Aquatic Life
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/districts/cmdp/chap04.html