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Featured Headlines
| Fracking: a story in 5 parts. Part I Fracking Basic |
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| New Mexico is a leading producer of Natural Gas in the Nation. Many people pay mortgages, put their children through school and live a good life from the industry. On the other side new technologies have had disastrous effects in other states in the nation, and people work to ban Fracking in their communities leading to a State Wide Ban as Vermont voted in on May 4th 2012. Several issues surround "Fracking." The large amounts of water that Bravo referred to totals somewhere between 500,000 gallons to 1 million gallons of water for each frack while each well may be fracked up to fifteen times. Some of these estimates differ, one source sites 2-8million gallons of water fracking a site 18 times. Wally Dragmeister from NM Oil and Gas Association cited around 500,000 to 2 million gallons of water for the entire practice. |
| U.S. proposes new rules for fracking on federal lands |
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| The Obama administration unveiled long-awaited rules on Friday to bolster oversight on public lands of oil and natural gas drilling using fracking technology that has ushered in a boom in drilling but also triggered environmental protests. Interior's proposal would update its decades-old fracking regulations with new reporting standards and a requirement that companies get approval before using the drilling technique. The proposal also would require companies to reveal chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing after they complete the process. |
| New U.S. Proposal on Fracking Gives Ground to Industry |
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| The Obama administration on Friday issued a proposed rule governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on public lands that will for the first time require disclosure of the chemicals used in the process. But in a significant concession to the oil industry, companies will have to reveal the composition of fluids only after they have completed drilling, not before -- a sharp change from the government's original proposal, which would have required disclosure of the chemicals 30 days before a well could be started. |
| Obama administration tightens fracking rules |
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| The Obama administration tightened rules on hydraulic fracturing Friday, requiring the disclosure of chemicals used in the process when done on federal and American Indian lands. The new rules will also require additional testing of oil and gas well construction and require the industry to have a management plan for the water used in the process. The move is part of a broader administration effort to increase rules for the controversial practice. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency tightened air pollution requirements for new oil and gas wells. |
| New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years |
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5/1/2012 - propublica.org |
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| A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted. Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies. This view of the earth's underground geology is a cornerstone of the industry's argument that fracking poses minimal threats to the environment. But the study, using computer modeling, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface in as little as "just a few years." |
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Recent News
| Getting more facts on gas drilling will benefit the public |
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5/18/2012 - poconorecord.com |
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| Much is at stake. Many drilling critics weren't satisfied by Pennsylvania's drilling regulations, yet they appear to have reduced violation rates substantially. New York State banned all drilling in 2008; regulators there could look to Pennsylvania for guidance should they consider lifting the ban and allowing drilling to go forward. Meanwhile a health assessment based on information collected by a highly respected medical institution would go a long way toward creating a valuable body of medical data and neutral, authoritative conclusions about whether and how shale drilling affects human health. |
| US gas drillers halt cutbacks as prices rebound |
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| Energy companies increased the number of rigs drilling for natural gas this week for the first time since mid-April, suggesting some producers are betting the month-long recovery in prices is here to stay. The gas-directed rig count rose by two to 600 this week, data from Houston-based oil services firm Baker Hughes showed on Friday. While the increase this week is tiny, it is the first rise since gas futures embarked on a four-week rally that has lifted prices by 43 percent to nearly their highest levels this year. |
| Fracker Range Resouces Sues Over YouTube of Burning Well |
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5/18/2012 - businessweek.com |
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| Steven Lipsky shot video of methane- fueled flames shooting from a hose hooked up to his well in Weatherford, Texas, and sent it to Sharon Wilson, a blogger who posted it on YouTube. And he hired Alisa Rich to test the water in his well and alert the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For gas-driller Range Resources Corp. -- which Lipsky blames for contaminating his water from two wells near his home -- those actions amount to a conspiracy to harm its reputation, and it went to state court seeking $3 million in damages from Lipsky and Rich. |
| Clean Up This Fracking Mess! |
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5/18/2012 - discovery.com |
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| While methane tainted water is a serious problem, the Considine study looked only at contamination events that have already occurred and are accounted for in PA DEP reporting. The study was unable to consider some of the less obvious and more controversial problems some associate with fracking, such as the possible correlation of earthquakes to fracking. In another study, computer simulation suggested the rock beneath Pennsylvania could become more porous after hydraulic fracturing which would allow fluids used in the procedure to contaminate water supplies more rapidly. The potential damage to people's lives, livelihood and homelands is unlikely to stop fracking, if the history of fossil fuel mining and drilling is any indication. From the missing mountains of Appalachia to the oily waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Ecuadorian Amazon and Niger Delta, the lure of profits have frequently trumped human rights. |
| More State Land To Be Leased For Drilling |
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5/17/2012 - stateimpact.npr.org |
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| 3,000 acres of state game land in Bradford County are being leased for natural gas drilling. Environmental advocates have bemoaned drilling in Pennsylvania's state forests, worrying the clearings, well construction and truck traffic will permanently damage the wildlife. But Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser takes a different approach in an interview with the Towanda Daily Review, arguing "well pad and pipeline construction can actually benefit wildlife in the long run" by clearing out space and creating "meadow-like areas." |
| Eureka Resources To Construct Marcellus Shale Wastewater Treatment Facility In Bradford County, Pennsylvania |
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5/17/2012 - marketwatch.com |
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| Eureka Resources, LLC, announced today that it will construct a world-class centralized wastewater treatment facility in Standing Stone Township, Bradford County, Pa., to treat wastewater generated during development of oil and gas wells in the Marcellus and Utica Shale. "Bradford County saw more drilling activity than any other Pennsylvania county last year," said Eureka's Chief Executive Officer Dan Ertel. "This facility will provide gas producers in this area with a treatment option that is closer to home and helps reduce the number of trucks needed for off-site disposal and their associated costs, noise and pollution." The proposed facility will operate 24-hours per day, seven days per week and will employ approximately 16 full-time employees. |
| EPA requests budget increase to research hydraulic fracturing |
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5/17/2012 - power-eng.com |
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| In its budget requests for 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it wants a funding increase to investigate hydraulic fracturing technologies. All together, the EPA has made a budget request of $8.3 billion for fiscal year 2013. About 10 percent of the budget is targeted at science and technology funding. A proposed $14 million will support research in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Energy that will "begin to assess potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on air quality, water quality, and ecosystems," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. |
| Drilling Waste Here ; Some Marcellus Shale Gunk Is Processed In Lancaster, Then Landfilled In Manor |
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5/16/2012 - waste-management-world.com |
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| On May 2, two Lancaster city wastewater officials showed up for a surprise inspection of Armstrong Environmental Services, an East Lampeter Township company that specializes in treating industrial waste. The city had just found out that the company was treating waste from wells that drill for Marcellus Shale natural gas in Susquehanna County. Such waste might contain radioactive rock and soil, brines, constituents of oil and cleaning chemicals that should not be in a sewage-treatment plant. |
| Two workers hurt in Texas fracking tank site blast |
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5/16/2012 - chicagotribune.com |
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| Two workers were hurt in an explosion at a hydraulic fracturing tank site in south Texas early on Wednesday, a sheriff's dispatcher said. A secretary for Vann Energy said the men were cleaning a tank at the maintenance facility that holds hydraulic fracturing or fracking tanks in Nixon, Texas when the blast happened. She declined to identify herself and said no further information, such as what the tanks contained, was available. |
| Some Marcellus Shale drilling waste found in Lancaster County |
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| On May 2, two Lancaster city wastewater officials showed up for a surprise inspection of Armstrong Environmental Services, an East Lampeter Township company that specializes in treating industrial waste. The city had just found out that the company was treating waste from wells that drill for Marcellus Shale natural gas in Susquehanna County. Such waste might contain radioactive rock and soil, brines, constituents of oil and cleaning chemicals that should not be in a sewage-treatment plant. |
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