New Study Finds Overwhelming Evidence of Harms From Fracking

[redqueen]

By Nick Cunningham
on Nov 10, 2023

(Snip)

“The second edition of the compendium had 150 studies and then it went to 400 studies for the third edition in 2014,” Steingraber said. “2014 was a year of just so many publications that I could hardly keep track anymore.”

The latest version, the 9th edition, released in October, has nearly 2,500 studies showing evidence of harm from fracking. In the past decade, the science has been used by researchers, scientists and activists from all over the world. Steingraber has been in touch and worked with people in Ireland, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and Scotland, among other places.

Taken together, the report finds that the health, environmental, and climate impacts of fracking are so profound, that there is “no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health directly or without imperiling climate stability upon which human health depends.”

At a press conference on November 8, discussing the findings, Steingraber said that the problems with fracking are “intractable and are not fixable through any regulatory framework.”

“Fracking resembles lead paint or indoor smoking — no rules or regulations can make these practices safe.”

(Much more at link)

https://www.desmog.com/2023/11/10/steingraber-study-overwhelming-harms-fracking/

Very depressing read. We need to ban fracking ASAP, but no one in the govt seems to be listening.

[GreenWave]

1. TPTB are killing us and their supporters are enjoying their deaths.

Such is the height of insanity here in the USA.

[Attilatheblond]

2. No surprise! There are likely reasons that Oil Company execs & BIG investors do not put up with fracking near their home

This is gonna be a big fight between people harmed by fracking and the big drillers who obviously withheld information on damage done for years/decades.

I know in the Bakken oil field rush, land owners, mostly food producers, had no rights to prevent the damages done to their topsoil when the fucking fracking fluid was pumped out of drill sites and poured over the soil. Old homes along roads to fracking sites were often damaged due to heavy vehicles/heavy traffic literally shaking the ground to the point of damaging structures. No legal recourse for home owners!

Along with poisoning the land, and shaking homes apart, the big oil boom caused real social/cultural damage to the small rural communities. Rents went so high locals could not afford homes. People were renting the space UNDER mobile homes for $400 a month! This is dirt crawl space, not insulated, no plumbing, in North Dakota and Montana, IN WINTER! Prices at local stores went up to the point that locals could not afford to shop. Example, a bottle of 32 regular Aspirin suddenly cost $16.00! Food costs rose at nearly the same rate. Local schools had to suddenly deal with increased class sizes and those districts did not have the property tax bases to fund expansions even if they could build additional classrooms and hire teachers fast enough. In other words, the fracking boom caused serious and varied problems for rural populations while Dick Cheney's Halliburton and other fracking related corporation raked in billions.

The problems then did not get enough press. The majority of the nation did not know anything about the damage being done. Now, FINALLY, we are being treated to information that the whole process is not healthy? Wow, media has really failed the US people yet again, decades after damage was done.

[Bayard]

3. Who knew?

Its never sounded like a healthy proposition, for people or the planet.

[Think. Again.]

4. K&R

[Evolve Dammit]

5. Friends in PA signed over their land and in contract language of never to use water for drinking again.

I don't have the exact language but that was clearly understood by sellers. This is what makes the whole "industry" so short-sighted and destructive.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Penn State offered guidance on this in 2010

Penn State: Water Facts #28
Gas Well Drilling and Your Private Water Supply

…

8) Include Water Resource Protection in Your Lease Many of the aforementioned ideas for protecting a water supply can be stipulated in a gas leasing agreement (if a lease is offered by the gas company). The lease agreement provides an opportunity for the homeowner to set rules for the gas company to follow in order to access private property. Some items to consider for the lease agreement include:

• Setback distances—don’t allow gas well drilling or seismic testing within 200 feet of any water resources (wells, springs, ponds, streams, etc.).
• Water testing—request pre- and post-drilling testing of all drinking water supplies. Stipulate a complete list of test parameters (i.e. all three tiers of tests on the previous page). If you are concerned about other sources of water on your property (springs, streams, ponds, etc.) request that these water sources also be tested.
• Water flow—request measurement of water flow from wells and springs prior to gas well drilling by a water well contractor certified by the National Ground Water Association.
• Water sources—stipulate which sources of water on your property can and cannot be used during the drilling and hydrofracturing processes.
• Waste handling—stipulate proper off-site disposal of all drilling waste materials.

…

(Of course) too many Pennsylvanians, blinded by the promise of “striking it rich” just signed the forms where they were told to.

Republicans in New York are still pushing to allow fracking in New York, all in the name of “affordable energy…”

Spectrum News: Zeldin seeks reversal of New York's ban on natural gas drilling

BY NICK REISMAN ALBANY
PUBLISHED 3:32 PM ET AUG. 17, 2022

Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin is pressing for a reversal of New York's ban on a controversial natural gas extraction process, one that supporters have argued would bring much-needed jobs and people to parts of upstate, but critics have decried for environmental degradation.

Ending a ban on hydrofracking — put in place administratively in 2014 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and in law by the Democratic-controlled Legislature last year — would also be a heavy lift and conflict with a separate law requiring the state to transition to more renewable forms of energy in order to combat climate change.

But the proposal is among a handful of Zeldin's stated economic goals if elected governor this November.

"Jobs can be created, we can generate revenue, we can drive down taxes," Zeldin told reporters in July during a virtual news conference. "There's a huge benefit for the state to reverse that safe extraction of natural gas ban that we have.”

…

(Follow the link to watch a pasty-faced jerk who came too close to becoming governor.)

[Evolve Dammit]

8. Thanks. I am not sure what info they had at the time.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. I remember seeing wells being "flared" over the border (i.e. from miles away)

It looked like the fires of Mordor. You just couldn’t see that sight and not know it was evil.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. Rachel Maddow wrote a great book on the oil and gas industry entitled "Blowout."

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Ah ha! The study was done by the "Concerned Health Professionals of New York"

https://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/
https://concernedhealthny.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CHPNY-Fracking-Science-Compendium-9.pdf

Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) is an initiative by health professionals, scientists, and medical organizations for raising science-based concerns about the impacts of fracking on public health and safety. CHPNY provides educational resources and works to ensure that careful consideration of science and health impacts are at the forefront of the fracking debate. In June 2021, the Ceres Trust granted funding for CHPNY to become a program of the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN). Since 1998, SEHN has been the leading proponent in the United States of the Precautionary Principle as a basis for environmental and public health policy. In service to communities and future generations, the Science and Environmental Health Network is a research institution that forges law, ethics, and science into tools for action.