Hydraulic fracturing suspected in two more cases of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania
Posted June 24, 2010 in Health and the Environment
Earlier today I spoke on the phone to a family in Bradford County, Pennsylvania (not to be confused with Bradford Township). They told me that their water became black after hydraulic fracturing of wells near their home last year, and that their water has flammable methane in it. Their water cleared for a while, but recently turned black again. The gentleman with whom I spoke told me that his parents live down the road and their water has also turned black several times this year. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection took some water samples, but so far nothing has happened to assist this family.
Stories of groundwater contamination linked to hydraulic fracturing continue to come from around the country. It is time for Congress to close the Halliburton Loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act and establish federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing. Citizens of any state where oil or gas drilling occurs deserve to know that their state is meeting minimum federal safety standards.
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Comments
John Barnes — Jun 25 2010 02:31 AM
I've seen and smelled it everywhere around here for the past few years, Farmland soil and water devastation is what it is.
Johanne Dion — Jun 28 2010 09:20 AM
In Quebec, Canada, Molopo, an Australian based company, is waiting for a final OK from the Commission that protects agricultural land (CPTAQ) to go ahead and do exploratory drilling for natural gas in Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, in the Utica shale. Almost everybody in town is against hydraulic fracturing in their vicinity, even more so now that they know that Molopo wants to use city water to do the fracking. The town's infrastructures is barely able to provide reasonable water pressure to its citizens as it is. Source: http://monteregieweb.com/main+fr+01_300+Les_citoyens_devant_la_CPTAQ.html?ArticleID=650003
Another source of worry for us: the Copper Redhorse (an endangered species of fish on the Cosewic list) life cycle is closely tied with a nearby stream, the ruisseau Richer. Source: http://www.covabar.qc.ca/causeries_champlain/causeries2009/Causeries_presentations/Stephane_Lamoureux.pdf
Dirt Farm — Jun 28 2010 02:59 PM
Expect major censorship and oil-friendly black-bag press 'gushers' from high paid opinion-grifters.
More details here:
http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
See "Gasland", and recent article on Huffpo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/who-are-the-spindoctors-b_b_621190.html
Long term studies will show 'fracing' can rupture geologic containment barriers, as deepwater horizon has done, allowing frac-fluids into underground aquifers.
dirt farm — Jun 28 2010 03:01 PM
More details here too:
http://www.fractracker.org/