Fracking health and safety impacts in Pennsylvania and Texas-SHALE GAS BULLETIN

Issue No. 27 - March 1, 2014   Shale Gas Bulletin Ireland A twice-monthly email bulletin on shale gas issues for Irish decision-makers, journalists, and the general public   1. Fracking health and safety impacts in Pennsylvania and Texas The Chevron Guarantee: Our well won't explode... or your pizza is free! A natural gas well exploded in Dunkard, Pennsylvania on February 11, 2014. According to media reports (see Reuters, triblive, and WTAE), the fire burned for four days, and human remains, presumed to be those of a missing contractor, have been found at the site. Chevron, the operator of the wells, provided residents of the surrounding area in Greene County with free pizza. As this EcoWatch article points out, this incident raises the issue of how close to homes and schools natural gas installations should be allowed to be constructed. In this case, the well pad was in a remote area, with the nearest home a half mile from the site. For more on how unconventional gas extraction has affected small Pennsylvania communities, see this article from the UK's Daily Mail, which highlights the work of The Marcellus Shale Documentary, a photographic documentary that began in 2011 to create "a visual document of the environmental, social and economic impact of drilling". The health impacts of the air pollution caused by oil and gas drilling in South Texas, are documented in a new report and short film, Big Oil, Bad Air -- Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas (15 min.), produced jointly by the Center for Public Integrity, InsideClimate News and The Weather Channel, who spent eight months examining the regulation of oil and gas extraction in the Eagle Ford Shale. They found that for an area twice the size of the state of Massachusetts, containing more than 7,000 oil and gas wells, there are five air quality monitoring stations. The nearest station to the center of the most intensive drilling activity is 20 miles away. The state regulators and the industry insist that the data (collected by these stations) does not indicate any health risk, but residents of this region report worsening symptoms such as breathing difficulties and migraines. The film clearly shows wells at distances of several hundred feet from homes. It highlights the particular danger posed by hydrogen sulfide, which exists naturally in the Eagle Ford Shale and is released by shale gas/oil extraction. Highly toxic, hydrogen sulfide causes symptoms such as nausea and headaches at concentrations of even a few parts per million (ppm). At 1,000 ppm, it kills within minutes. Noting that benzene, another component of the air emissions, is known to cause leukemia, which can develop even decades after exposure, the film concludes with these words: "What's going on in the Eagle Ford Shale is more subtle than a refinery explosion or an oil spill. A toxic soup of chemicals is being released into the air, day in and day out. We won't know the effects of these emissions for a very long time." On February 20, 2014, Environment America delivered a letter to President Obama from over 1,000 health professionals calling for a halt to fracking on health grounds. 2. Hydraulic fracturing and water stress Hydraulic Fracturing & Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers is a new report by Ceres, a non-profit organization advocating sustainability leadership. The study (complete with interactive maps) provides the first data of its kind on water sourcing risks in eight regions of intense shale gas/oil development in the USA. It details the volumes of water used by particular companies and provides recommendations for "how oil and gas companies and their service providers can minimize their water demands and reduce their impacts on communities and the environment." As this article by ecologist Dr. David Suzuki points out: "The report notes that close to half of the oil and gas wells recently fracked in the U.S. 'are in regions with high or extremely high water stress' and more than 55 percent are in areas experiencing drought." Dr. Suzuki notes that while the study includes recommendations for reducing the quantities of fresh water used by hydraulic fracturing, "the drilling method comes with other environmental problems, from groundwater contamination to massive ecosystem and habitat disruption". He concludes: "It’s important to heed the conclusions and recommendations of this study and others, but given the problems with fracking, and other forms of extraction, we must find ways to control our insatiable fossil fuel demand." One of the areas shown by the Ceres report to be under high or extremely high water stress is California. In the state, which is currently experiencing a severe drought, lawmakers have initiated a bill that would halt hydraulic fracturing operations in the state until a comprehensive review of their economic, environmental and public health impacts is completed. 3. Alternative energy strategies published for all 50 US states The Solutions Project, lead by Dr. Mark Jacobson of Stanford University (see SGBI No. 20), has published plans detailing how each of the 50 US states can meet 100 percent of its energy needs (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) from wind, water, and solar (WWS) energy by 2050. The study is presented in the form of an interactive map. The plan for California, for example, envisages an energy mix in 2050 that includes residential and commercial rooftop solar panels (25%), solar plants (15%), onshore and offshore wind farms (25% and 10%), as well as wave devices, geothermal energy, and tidal turbines. The plan estimates the number of 40-year jobs created under this plan at 544,300 construction jobs and 204,800 operation jobs. It also estimates the savings to be made from "avoided health costs" to be $144.7 bn, the number of air pollution deaths avoided each year to be 15,900, and asserts that the plan would pay for itself "in as little as 6 years from air pollution and climate cost savings alone." Energy costs for the decade 2020-2030 are estimated to be $0.063 per kWh under the WWS plan, compared to a US average of $0.14 assuming "business as usual" (to which an additional $0.056 would be added as "health and climate externality costs of fossil fuels". Annual energy savings per person in 2050 are estimated to be $2,800. Louisiana is a coastal state with a population of 4.63 million, comparable to Ireland's 4.589 million. The Solutions Project plan for Louisiana envisages offshore wind generation as supplying 60% of the state's energy needs in 2050. Hawaii, where electricity costs are three times higher than the US national average, at $0.34 /kWh, is already beginning to make the transition to renewable energy, as this article relates. Revisions to energy legislation made in 2009 require electrical power companies to obtain 70% of their energy from clean energy by 2030, with 40% from renewable energy and 30% from energy efficiency.. This legislation, combined with tax incentives and a reduction in the cost of solar panels, has led to a boom in renewable energy installations -- solar accounts for 26% of all construction activity in the state. More: In the Irish Press In the International Press Press Releases Fracking Free websites Subscribe Contact Thank you for taking the time to read this bulletin. If you would like to receive the Shale Gas Bulletin Ireland twice a month, subscribe here. If you have received the bulletin and would prefer not to, unsubscribe here. Shale Gas Bulletin Ireland is issued by Keep Ireland Fracking Free, a network of people who feel that Ireland's current Guaranteed Fracking Free status is something to be celebrated and protected. http://tinyurl.com/shalegasbulletin