Comment

Comment by daniel cohen on March 12, 2010 at 2:42pm

Dear John,
You share valuable information. There are polluting practices that endanger us all. Becoming aware of them, and trying to do what we can to regulate/clean up/eliminate them would enrich us all. How do you see the big picture situation from the point of view of trying to improve it?
Dan

Comment by John Reed on March 12, 2010 at 12:26pm

Marie, I could go on and on and on.... All day and all night. Please tell me your horror story in detail. Maybe I missed the specifics. If I did please educate me on exactly what you are going through as a result of natural gas wells in your area.

Comment by John Reed on March 12, 2010 at 12:19pm

Some more fish to fry below !!! On a much larger scale than Hydro fracking chemicals !! Shall we prioritize our health concerns now ?

Comment by John Reed on March 12, 2010 at 12:16pm

WATER Chelsea Green Publishing / By Will Allen COMMENTS: 31 Agriculture Is One of the Most Polluting and Dangerous Industries
Industrial ag supplies most of our food, yet its lack of regulation may be more of a threat than Wall Street's.
May 11, 2009 | LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?
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Advertisement The following is by Will Allen, author of The War on Bugs.

Taxpayers are demanding that government enforce existing regulations and create more stringent rules to limit the excess and greed in banking, insurance, housing, and on Wall Street. But, in the rush to regulate, we can't forget to oversee industrial agriculture. It is one of our most polluting and dangerous industries. Like the financial sectors, its practices have not been well regulated for the last thirty years. Let me run down a few of the major problems that have developed because of our poorly regulated U.S. agriculture.

Carbon Foot Print: The U.S. EPA estimated in 2007 that agriculture in the U.S. was responsible for about 18% of our carbon footprint, which is huge because the U.S. is the largest polluter in the world. This should include (but doesn't) the manufacture and use of pesticides and fertilizers, fuel and oil for tractors, equipment, trucking and shipping, electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating, and emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other green house gases. Unfortunately, the EPA estimate of 18% still doesn't include a large portion of the fuel, the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, some of the nitrous oxide, all of the CFCs and bromines, and most of the transport emissions. When they are counted, agriculture's share of the U.S. carbon footprint will be at least 25 to 30%.

Oftentimes we see all greenhouse gasses as being equivalent to carbon dioxide (CO2). But, methane emissions are 21 times and nitrous oxides 310 times more damaging as greenhouse gasses than CO2. Since agriculture is one of the largest producers of methane and nitrous oxide, the extent of the agricultural impact is staggering. Unless we change our bad habits of food production and long distance delivery, we will not be able to deal with climate change.

Fertilizer Pollution/Dead Zones: Factory farming is polluting the ground, river, and ocean water with high amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous, and other fertilizers. High levels of nitrates and nitrites were found in twenty-five thousand community wells that provided drinking water to two thirds of the nation's population. More than fifteen million people in two hundred eighty communities are drinking water with phosphorous or phosphates which mostly come from industrial farming operations.

Nitrate and phosphorous fertilizer runoff flow into the rivers and ultimately end up in the ocean. The river water rides up over the heavier salt water when it reaches the ocean and algae blooms develop on the fertilizer rich water. When the algae die, the bacteria use up all of the oxygen in decomposing them. This creates an oxygen dead (or hypoxic) zone. In 1995, scientists identified 60 dead zones around the world.

Recent results published in 2008 identified 405 oceanic dead zones. The prime cause for dead zones is the use of highly soluble synthetic fertilizers, which are overused to obtain maximum yields. The government regulations on the total maximum daily load (tmdl) of synthetic nitrogen, or phosphorous fertilizer coming off of farms were established under the Clean Water Act. But those statutes are routinely not enforced. There are exceptions, but in general the regulators have been in a thirty-year coma.

Pesticides in Water: In addition to fertilizer pollution of our food and water, high amounts of pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones are also in the food, soil, water, and air. More than twelve thousand wells that provide water to 100 million people have arsenic or lead concentrations above the health based limits established by the U.S.EPA. Arsenic has been used on crops in the U.S. since 1867 and lead-arsenic since 1890. Arsenic is still widely used today on turf crops, corn, soy, and cotton as an herbicide or defoliant. The EPA, FDA, USDA and almost all state agencies, however, do not even keep good track of arsenic use. It is hard to regulate when you don't know how much is being used.

While we don't know how much was used, we do know that nearly 30 million people in the U.S. are drinking water contaminated with Atrazine, Simazine, Telone II, 2,4-D, or 2,4,5-T. All of these chemicals are related to DDT and were first sold in the 1940s, after they were developed in World War II. Simazine and 2,4,5-T had their EPA registrations cancelled more than twenty years ago because they were so deadly; yet millions of people in the U.S. still drink water contaminated with these two terrible war toys. All these DDT relatives caused cancer and multiple birth defects in tests on laboratory animals. They continue today to greatly damage bird populations in farm country.

Comment by John Reed on March 12, 2010 at 11:56am

E Coli Contaminated Well Water; Alden, NY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all you people wanting to buy a home in the NY countryside, read below. The Dairy factory farms are killing all the wells in NY and now HOG factory farms are marching north! Enjoy


The Buffalo News: Eastern Suburbs: E. coli found in water from wells in Alden (broken link)

E. coli bacteria has been found in water that comes from wells in the
Town of Alden, a discovery that is concerning town and Erie County
officials.
According to correspondence from the county Health Department that was
read during Monday’s Town Board meeting, a “substantial increase in
positive E. coli samples in the existing private water supply” was
found after water quality was tested.
The letter categorized the discovery as a “real public health
concern.”
Councilman Bill Weber said the discovery was made after the town urged
residents of proposed Water District No. 5 to have their water quality
tested because the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the town could
potentially receive greater funding for the proposed water district if
there was documentation of a water quality issue.
“There is a very serious need for improved water supply,“ the
letter reads. “This is a health factor-based need.”
“This is for people in the southern part of the Alden area who are on
private wells,“ County Public Health Engineer Tom Casey said. “Not
for people who use Erie County water.”
While Casey did say the county found an increase in the amount of E.
coli in residents’ well systems, he was not overly concerned about the
health risk to Alden residents.
“If you ingest [the water] without preparing it, like boiling it, it
is a potential problem,” Casey said. “This can create a problem,
but it’s not that serious unless you come in direct contact with it.”

Bathing with the contaminated water or using it to wash dishes in sudsy
water should not cause a health concern, according to Casey.
Residents of Water District No. 5 who chose to have their water tested
by the county were informed of the test results. However, Weber said
other residents have not had their water tested.
“They are flirting with disaster,” he said. “They can have their
water tested by the county at a reasonable rate. I think it is around
$15.”
Currently, Metzger believes, at least 20 percent of the town’s
population is without usable water. In addition, Metzger said the northeast
end of Marilla, which abuts the southeast portion of Alden, is also in
desperate need of usable water.
Funding for the proposed water district will not only come from grants
and federal assistance, but also from town taxes, said Metzger and
Weber.


Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/buffalo-area/177454-e-coli-contamina...

Comment by Christine McLaughlin on March 12, 2010 at 11:26am

I thought this website is supposed to be informational about leasing and drilling activities.All it seems to be is a debate forum.

Comment by daniel cohen on March 12, 2010 at 11:12am

Dear Marie,
Thanks for that excellent reference-I wish the news were better-but we have to play the cards we're dealt, and sadly that means that we all have to watch our backs when dealing with economic interests that answer to the bottom line of profit.
Dan

Comment by daniel cohen on March 11, 2010 at 3:12am

Dear Carolyn,
Great effort has been put into dulling the impact of what you and your neighbors are going through. Much has been written playing down your plight. Your story needs to be told, needs to be accepted for what is and what happened, and only you and your neighbors can do that. Please feel free to visit Aquifer Contamination Part 1 to post anything that you'd care to say. In Part 2 we are focusing on what needs to be done to protect others from what happened to you guys. The precautions all require that the individual landowner take responsibility for his and his neighbors interests. Sadly, the good neighbor policy of looking out for each other, and taking someone at his word is not an acceptable corporate model. Given the rules of the game, our voices need to be raised to cut through the massed hype of the business interests and to do legally what used to be done as a matter of course as a good neighbor. So be it- if we need to protect ourselves then let's do it with dignity, care and with the greatest good in mind. Tell your story my friend, loudly, often,and in as many places as possible.
Stay strong.
Dan

Comment by daniel cohen on March 10, 2010 at 5:06pm

Dear Shalers,
Your explorations on this site mirror the ones we've been having on Aquifer Contamination Parts 1 & 2 under Shale Forum Blogs. This is my first time here, but I feel compelled to share some thoughts.

The comments by John Reed are on target and rather wise I think. He writes:
"The company in my area is doing pre drilling water testing for every household with a well within a one square mile radius. post drilling water tests will then be the norm. Not 100% sure of the timetable. If I am fortunate enough to be placed in a drilling unit I will also have an independent water testing company test prior to and after any drilling activity. This will give me a baseline. "

His caution is well taken-we need to be own own monitors and to hold the drilling companies responsible for what they do and don't do.

Carolyn appears to mean well when she says " I've seen Chesapeake's triple casings in person. There's simply no way anything is going to squeak through those puppies" but her conclusions are not matched by the facts as I understand them from the blogs on aquifer contamination.

Her statement "Maybe Cabot was sloppy in Dimock. Maybe they weren't" is at odds with the multi-million dollar lawsuit currently going forward against Cabot, and the 6 figure fine imposed on Cabot by the DEP or EPA( I forget which)

There are the same disconnects with the facts and her statements about the fracing process. Again, rather fully explored in the aquifer contamination blog.

Carolyn states"Those companies that are sloppy for quick bucks will not last, nor will their damage." If only that were true. Halliburton, the outfit hired by Cabot to do the drilling, has been around a long time, continues to be around, and their damage doesn't fade away with time. I personally know of Texas multi-millionairs who can't drink water from their own property. They have it trucked and piped and bottled in. And their land has been permanently impaired. And I weep at the insult to mother earth.

There are truths out here, but many vested interested prevent the clarity to see them. All this was explored at some length in aquifer contamination Part 1 and need not be revisited here, other than to say that the conclusions drawn there are at odds with the conclusions drawn here.

Oil companies are not necessarily bad, and those Shalers sharing their insights are not trying to mislead or are bad folks- but we as landowners need to take the lead in protecting our land, our own and our neighbors water supply and all that dwells upon the land. Noone else will do that for us.

Dan

Comment by Carolyn Erman on March 10, 2010 at 4:43am

Dear Marie, I've been following all this conflab for several days. My heart goes out to you because you are so passionate, and safety is your paramount concern. That is totally commendable. Maybe someone has already written something to this effect, so forgive me if I'm repeating something. The ground water table is mere hundreds of feet below the surface. Picture getting in your car and driving more than a mile. Now picture doing it straight down. 6000 plus feet, through layers of rock, is a long way. I've seen Chesapeake's triple casings in person. There's simply no way anything is going to squeak through those puppies. Maybe Cabot was sloppy in Dimock. Maybe they weren't. But PA isn't a sloppy state where controls are concerned. They are over-controlling in most cases. It's like all those "contradictions" in the Bible. If there really were any, it would have been world-wide inescapable headline news, since so many are desperate to refute the Bible and avoid conscience calling to honor a Maker. Same with actual problems from the fracing. It's been being done for years. If it were causing unsolvable problems, it would be major headline news, because so many powers-that-be are opposed to natural gas use, for greed and other reasons. The President's push is for nuclear, which probably stands to wreak much more environmental and heath havoc than fracing. Pollution of water is unquestionably a huge factor, probably the biggest, to consider. Virtually every thinking person realizes that, including the gas companies. Those companies that are sloppy for quick bucks will not last, nor will their damage. But isn't air even more important than water? We can't buy bottled air. The environment, particularly the air, can be made very significantly cleaner in the near future ONLY by major conversion to natural gas, both to generate electricity and to power big vehicles, which can't be moved by current hybrid technology. We all should get on T. Boone Picken's bandwagon, big time. People hate to listen to the rich and smart. Not very wise to shun their advice. My annual income is under $30K by the way. People love to punish the rich by taxes. Ridiculously counter-productive to motivating people to get smart and get rich. By the way, money isn't the root of all evil. The LOVE of money is. Those farmers didn't go looking for this money, it came to them, and many of them are terrified by it. And while we're on Bible stuff, debate is either good or bad, depending on its spirit. Where strife is, the wise person simply withdraws. I hope we can all try to avoid a spirit of strife.

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