Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
The tragic catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the oil spilling from the Deepwater Horizon rig sounds more and more like the results of a perfect storm of poor drilling practices. We've read about potential contributors being the cementing...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
I have blogged in the past about insufficient state oil and gas regulations, inspection, and enforcement across the country, from California to Texas to Pennsylvania. A new article in the Colorado Independent reports that state regulators in Colorado have yet to resolve...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is the "authoritative resource on safe water." It is the largest and oldest association of water professionals in the world. It has more than 60,000 members--including more than 4,600 water supply utilities, water treatment plant operators and managers,...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
The Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, Jerry Patterson, oversees more than 20 million acres of state lands and mineral-right properties in Texas. According to a new Bloomberg/Business Week article, he supports stronger protections from the environmental harm caused by oil and gas...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
I've written in the past of the environmental assault on Dimock, Pennsylvania, from natural gas drilling, including drinking water contamation and chemical leaks and spills. My colleague Kate Sinding recently visited Dimock. You can see her photos and read the powerful...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
The Dallas Morning News recently reviewed hundreds of pages of documents regarding air emissions from natural gas production facilities in the Barnett Shale area of Texas. The paper reports that these documents "reveal a pattern of emissions of toxic compounds, often including cancer-causing benzene,...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
I am keeping a running list of incidents where hydraulic fracturing is a suspected cause of endangering drinking water. I will be updating the list as I learn of new incidents. Today I am updating the list with three new reports from...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
NRDC supports federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act. We believe this is a sensible approach that would ensure a minimum federal floor of drinking water protection in the more than 30 states where oil and gas...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
A new investigation by the New York firm Toxics Targeting has found dozens of natural gas concerns that were never fully investigated nor remediated, including water contamination linked to hydraulic fracturing. The investigation found 39 incidents of drinking water complaints, including drinking water...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
My last four blog posts have been about Pennsylvania. I am not picking on this state. It's just that a lot of news is being generated there. Yesterday in western Pennsylvania a waste pit caught on fire. There are frightening...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
Last week I posted that Wyoming is working on new rules "to insure the protection" of drinking water. Last month I noted that Pennsylvania was working on new rules that Governor Rendell called "critical." Today I read in an article that the...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
Last August I thanked the U.S. EPA for responding to community concerns about contaminated drinking water in Pavillion, Wyoming. You may remember the photo of the contamination in someone's water filter: Now I want to thank EPA again,...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
I can't really add anything to the tragic words in today's Altoona Mirror. The Smith family in Clearville, Pennsylvania has lost cows, a horse and a dog that exhibited unexplainable neurological symptoms before they died. The Smiths suffer from dental problems...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment
Last week I wrote about dumping of suspected used fracturing fluid in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Bee Branch, Arkansas. Company employees stated the substance in the tanker was "tree sap." Here is a video of it: natural gas...
Posted by Amy Mall in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Last month I noted that Pennsylvania had acknowledged its need for better groundwater protections and was proposing new rules to strengthen its standards for gas well construction. This month, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has proposed new rules for hydraulic fracturing "to...
