Fracking Info

Fracking Information, re  Liquid Natural Gas and Crude Oil 

Baseline Testing
If your area is about to be fracked, this is a very helpful page by SAFE (Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment).  Baseline Testing

Victims
Many thanks to the hard work of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air for their extensive list of victims of fracking.  (updated as of June 7 2014)

--A List of the Harmed -- Over 6 thousand victims of fracking
--Scott Ely, ex gas well worker, & his family Gas Company Whistle-Blower Details Spills, Errors  The Times-Tribune Nov 20 2011

Follow the Money
--Members of Congress bankrolled by the Fracking Industry  quote:  "Nearly 80 percent of fracking industry contributions to congressional candidates went to Republicans," the report notes.  This doesn't let Democrats off the hook at all, though. Our Democratic President and VP are proponents of this practice, and although they both have pushed for action against Climate Change, supporting the extraction of fossil fuels from the Earth with it's concomitant ecosystem damage and the risk to human health defies logic because although the LNG might burn cleaner than coal, the extraction process is just as devastating to the environment and to humans, albeit in different ways.  Contact our President and your representatives to let them know that you want a ban on fracking.  Fracking wastewater can and often does leak and affects waterways.  Fracking affects underground water.

Important Information
--Pro Publica list of states Forced Pooling laws in the USA as of 2011 (you can be forced against your will to accept mining even if you don't want it)
--Interactive Map of Existing Wells in the USA, state by state (not including wells in the process of being permitted)  Fractracker Map
--USGS Groundwater Basics

--maps  South East Coast Shale Basin Map showing Counties


In the News
--Time.com fracking (article search)
--(Pa) Times-Tribune gas drilling page Fracking articles
--U.S. Energy Information Administration, EIA
What is shale gas and why is it important?
quote:  "The fracturing of wells requires large amounts of water. In some areas of the country, significant use of water for shale gas production may affect the availability of water for other uses and can affect aquatic habitats.

Second, if mismanaged, hydraulic fracturing fluid — which may contain potentially hazardous chemicals — can be released by spills, leaks, faulty well construction, or other exposure pathways. Any such releases can contaminate surrounding areas.

Third, fracturing also produces large amounts of wastewater, which may contain dissolved chemicals and other contaminants that could require treatment before disposal or reuse. Because of the quantities of water used and the complexities inherent in treating some of the wastewater components, treatment and disposal is an important and challenging issue.

Finally, according to the United States Geological Survey, hydraulic fracturing "causes small earthquakes, but they are almost always too small to be a safety concern. In addition to natural gas, fracking fluids and formation waters are returned to the surface. These wastewaters are frequently disposed of by injection into deep wells. The injection of wastewater into the subsurface can cause earthquakes that are large enough to be felt and may cause damage." The injection wells typically discharge the wastewater into non-potable salt-water aquifers.

Shale Gas

--Hydraulic Fracturing, Wikipedia article (a good starting point to understand what fracking is)   Hydraulic_fracturing

Specific Risks of Fracking
Earthquakes
--(USGS gov site) Man-Made Earthquakes Update "USGS scientists have found that at some locations the increase in seismicity coincides with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells." (discusses deep injection wells)
--Oklahoma Looks For Answers On Earthquakes
--Fighting Fracking: Where Moral Outrage Fails, Earthquakes Prevail

Rail Transport
--North Dakota Oil-By-Rail Routes Published For First Time
--(see entries under Virginia for Lynchburg "bomb train" crude oil accident)

Groundwater Contamination
--(TX) June 5 2014 WFAA ABC  Scientists:  Tests prove fracking to blame for flaming Parker County Wells  Tests Prove Fracking Spoiled Water
--Groundwater Contamination May End The Gas Fracking Boom -- Scientific American
--Natural Gas Found in Drinking Water Near Fracked Wells
--Ely Family has not had potable water since 2008 Indiegogo Project for Dimock Pa Family whose groundwater was contaminated
--(Canada) Mining.com Fracking Activities Pollluted Alberta's Groundwater

Food Supply and Farmland Depletion
--(news article) June 26 2014 Fox News.com (describes how farm land is disappearing and farmers selling out to sand companies) Sand Rush In Midwest  (note:  this will change the way America eats, because food will increasingly be produced by conglomerates as small and mid-size non-commodity farms are eliminated).

States
Virginia
--Virginia Dept of Mines, Minerals & Energy
--map of Virginia for sale from DMME for $12.50 DMME geologic map of Virginia 
--Compulsory Pooling Law Code of Virginia 45.1-361.21 Pooling of Interests in Drilling Units
--Fractracker map of Virginia
--(DeSmogBlog re Lynchburg) CSX Railroad Bomb Train Explodes
--(Greenpeace blog re Lynchburg) Oil "Bomb Train"  "quote: "the oil train was ... headed to Plains All American’s huge holding facility in Yorktown, Virginia."

New York
--(news article) New York Times June 30 2014 New York Towns Can Prohibit Fracking, State's Top Court Rules
--(news article) Bloomberg.com June 30 2014 Anti-Fracking Win in NY Court May Deal Blow to Industry 
--New York State DEQ fracking page


North Dakota
--(blog) desmogblog.com June 27 2014 North Dakota Oil-By-Rail Routes Published
(re fracked Bakken shale oil)

Ohio
--Fractracker page for Ohio
--(news article June 27 14) State Opposes Effort To Reopen Injection Well Case
--(citizens group.  informative site) Athens County Fracking Action Network (landowners page)

Pennsylvania
--(news article)(re Wyoming Co PA, CitizensVoice.com) Driller Fined Nearly $200 K
"State environmental regulators fined a natural gas well operator $192,044 for two spills in Wyoming County more than a year ago."  company involved -- Carrizo

West Virginia
--(news article, Feb 17 2015, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Power Source energy news) Oil tankers in West Virginia Crash newer models with safety features 

Other Countries
Canada
--Cost of Fracking is too High for B.C.'s First Nations
Germany
-German Beermakers May Be Winning Their Battle To Stop Fracking