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April is shaping up to be a busy month for people paying attention to the fracking controversy. On Friday April 1, 2011, over a hundred people in Conway gathered to make demands upon Southwestern Energy. They requested the company respect property rights, disclose all chemicals being used, follow the Clean Air Act, and stop injection wells. On Saturday an even larger crowd came together here in Heber Springs to watch Gasland, a documentary film that focuses on communities in the United States impacted by natural gas drilling and, specifically, the method known as hydraulic fracturing. On Monday, a home in Quitman located near a gas well exploded, and on Wednesday night another 3.6 earthquake close to Greenbrier rattled the area. All of that happened in just the first six days of the month. On April 26, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission will revisit the moratorium on two injection wells in Faulkner County imposed to allow geologists to evaluate what, if any, relationship the wells may have with the swarm of earthquakes in the area.
At the heart of the fracking controversy is the technique and chemicals used in the production of the natural gas found in the ground beneath us. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water, sand, and a mixture of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. One cause of concern is the lack of identification of the chemicals that form the fracking fluid used to extract the gas. In 2005, Congress exempted fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, so that drillers don’t have to disclose what is contained in their fracking fluids. The fluid is suspected to contain, among other things, barium, strontium, benzene, glycol-ethers, toluene, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethanol, and nonylphenols. Each of these has been linked to health disorders in people exposed to high concentrations. In addition to the potential contamination of ground water, another primary concern is the potential effect that the waste fluids have on seismic activity when it is re-injected back into the ground for storage.
Our Oil and Gas Commission’s concern regarding the injection wells is not novel to Arkansas. In 2009, researchers from SMU and UT-Austin conducted a study of seismic activity near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The study concluded that the operation of a saltwater injection disposal well in the area was a “plausible cause” for the series of small earthquakes that occurred in the area between October 30, 2008, and May 16, 2009. The re-injection of waste fluids into a disposal well began in September 2008, seven weeks before the first DFW earthquakes occurred. While none were recorded in the area after the injection well stopped operating in August 2009, we do have the Greenbrier 3.6 temblor Wednesday night.
The apprehension over the composition of the fluid is also not an isolated concern. Recent lawsuits in Pennsylvania claim that the chemicals contained in the fracking fluids contaminated water sources leading to the dramatic catching of water on fire as it pours out of household faucets and health concerns for the residents. Since 2008, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 3,800 Marcellus shale well permits. In the same time period, drillers were cited for over 1,400 violations. Of those, 952 were identified as having or likely to have an impact on the environment. Those included 100 violations of the state Clean Stream Law, 268 for improper construction of waste water impoundments; 277 for poor erosion and sedimentation plans during well pad, road and piping construction; 16 for improper blowout prevention; and 154 for discharging industrial waste, including drilling waste water containing toxic chemicals, onto the ground or into streams.
Our community may be more sensitive than some to the effect that contamination can have on our environment and our economy that relies heavily on the recreational bodies of water here. Competing economic interests may have a stronger appeal during these difficult economic times than purely environmental interests. However, we may have a higher calling when it comes to balancing our responsibilities. A few years ago, The Green Bible was introduced where references to the earth are highlighted in green. The green ink makes it easier to see the more than a thousand references to the earth, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love. The Christian Bible carries a powerful message about caring for nature, animals, and one another. The effect of not caring is stated succinctly in Jeremiah 12:11 where the land suffers desolation from the hard heartedness of mankind, “It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.” I ask you to never let the statement that “no one cares” apply to us. As we find our way through these challenges, may each of us care for nature, the animals, and one another with the gracious spirit and awareness that I see in you.
(Kim Kelley is an attorney in Heber Springs with a practice emphasis on consumer law and governmental abuses. She is also an educator and facilitates a group at St. Peter’s in Conway that focuses on the symbolism of biblical events and application to current affairs.)
April is shaping up to be a busy month for people paying attention to the fracking controversy. On Friday April 1, 2011, over a hundred people in Conway gathered to make demands upon Southwestern Energy. They requested the company respect property rights, disclose all chemicals being used, follow the Clean Air Act, and stop injection wells. On Saturday an even larger crowd came together here in Heber Springs to watch Gasland, a documentary film that focuses on communities in the United States impacted by natural gas drilling and, specifically, the method known as hydraulic fracturing. On Monday, a home in Quitman located near a gas well exploded, and on Wednesday night another 3.6 earthquake close to Greenbrier rattled the area. All of that happened in just the first six days of the month. On April 26, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission will revisit the moratorium on two injection wells in Faulkner County imposed to allow geologists to evaluate what, if any, relationship the wells may have with the swarm of earthquakes in the area.
At the heart of the fracking controversy is the technique and chemicals used in the production of the natural gas found in the ground beneath us. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water, sand, and a mixture of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. One cause of concern is the lack of identification of the chemicals that form the fracking fluid used to extract the gas. In 2005, Congress exempted fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, so that drillers don’t have to disclose what is contained in their fracking fluids. The fluid is suspected to contain, among other things, barium, strontium, benzene, glycol-ethers, toluene, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethanol, and nonylphenols. Each of these has been linked to health disorders in people exposed to high concentrations. In addition to the potential contamination of ground water, another primary concern is the potential effect that the waste fluids have on seismic activity when it is re-injected back into the ground for storage.
Our Oil and Gas Commission’s concern regarding the injection wells is not novel to Arkansas. In 2009, researchers from SMU and UT-Austin conducted a study of seismic activity near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The study concluded that the operation of a saltwater injection disposal well in the area was a “plausible cause” for the series of small earthquakes that occurred in the area between October 30, 2008, and May 16, 2009. The re-injection of waste fluids into a disposal well began in September 2008, seven weeks before the first DFW earthquakes occurred. While none were recorded in the area after the injection well stopped operating in August 2009, we do have the Greenbrier 3.6 temblor Wednesday night.
The apprehension over the composition of the fluid is also not an isolated concern. Recent lawsuits in Pennsylvania claim that the chemicals contained in the fracking fluids contaminated water sources leading to the dramatic catching of water on fire as it pours out of household faucets and health concerns for the residents. Since 2008, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued 3,800 Marcellus shale well permits. In the same time period, drillers were cited for over 1,400 violations. Of those, 952 were identified as having or likely to have an impact on the environment. Those included 100 violations of the state Clean Stream Law, 268 for improper construction of waste water impoundments; 277 for poor erosion and sedimentation plans during well pad, road and piping construction; 16 for improper blowout prevention; and 154 for discharging industrial waste, including drilling waste water containing toxic chemicals, onto the ground or into streams.
Our community may be more sensitive than some to the effect that contamination can have on our environment and our economy that relies heavily on the recreational bodies of water here. Competing economic interests may have a stronger appeal during these difficult economic times than purely environmental interests. However, we may have a higher calling when it comes to balancing our responsibilities. A few years ago, The Green Bible was introduced where references to the earth are highlighted in green. The green ink makes it easier to see the more than a thousand references to the earth, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love. The Christian Bible carries a powerful message about caring for nature, animals, and one another. The effect of not caring is stated succinctly in Jeremiah 12:11 where the land suffers desolation from the hard heartedness of mankind, “It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.” I ask you to never let the statement that “no one cares” apply to us. As we find our way through these challenges, may each of us care for nature, the animals, and one another with the gracious spirit and awareness that I see in you.
(Kim Kelley is an attorney in Heber Springs with a practice emphasis on consumer law and governmental abuses. She is also an educator and facilitates a group at St. Peter’s in Conway that focuses on the symbolism of biblical events and application to current affairs.)
