This is an award winning documentary by independent film maker Josh Fox. It recounts the desperation of many landowners around the nation after the fracking process devastated their families' health and property despite the glowing sales pitch presented by gas industry spokesmen and the reassurance of state and local regulators. Stuck on land that cannot be resold or provide clean water to their homes or livestock and with medical bills mounting from the constant exposure to toxins landowners are forced to fight expensive protracted court battles with a powerful industry. They are finding themselves alone in the fight with little or no help from government agencies that see themselves as facilitators for gas and oil producers or politicians whose campaign coffers have been stuffed by lobbyists. The film demonstrates how an inadequately regulated and largely unaccountable industry does not hesitate to flex its legal, financial, and political muscle to force favorable court settlements and pursue profit with little thought to the communities, the families, and the resources they are exploiting.
This video is available through the Coshocton Public Library and the Muskingum County Library System.
CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD. Click screen below to watch trailer.
NOW Interviews Josh Fox NOW talks with filmmaker Josh Fox about "Gasland",
his Sundance award-winning documentary on the surprising consequences
of natural gas drilling. Fox's film—inspired when the gas company came
to his hometown—reports on chronic illness, animal-killing toxic waste,
disastrous explosions, and regulatory missteps. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
Josh Fox Arrested at Congressional Hearing
Feb. 1, 2012
WASHINGTON — The director of a U.S. documentary that portrays shale gas production as dangerous was arrested and escorted out of a Republican-dominated Congressional hearing on Wednesday, touching off a dispute over public access to the event.
Police handcuffed Josh Fox, director of the Oscar-nominated Gasland, and led him out of a House science committee room after he refused to stop filming.
Republicans in charge of the committee said Fox lacked credentials to tape the hearing, which was being broadcast live on the Internet.
The hearing focused on an Environmental Protection Agency draft report that found an aquifer in Wyoming was likely polluted by fluids from hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique scrutinized in Fox's controversial documentary.
U.S. Representative Brad Miller, the top Democrat on a science subcommittee, objected to the decision to eject Fox. He said Republicans had also blocked an ABC News crew from filming the hearing because they had not requested to film in advance.
"All those rules are to control access," said Miller, who made a motion that "all God's children" be allowed to film the hearing.
Miller's move delayed the hearing for nearly 50 minutes until the required number of lawmakers were present to vote on the motion.
The documentary has garnered particular attention for a scene featuring flaming tapwater. Shale gas supporters have said the film is filled with inaccuracies and distorts the safety record of U.S. shale gas production.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat who has been pushing for more oversight of shale gas production, called Fox's arrest "beyond unacceptable".
"This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress," Hinchey said in a statement.
Shale gas output has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to advances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. While innovations have sharply boosted production of U.S. natural gas, critics say the rapidly expanding development threatens drinking water and public health.
Since the release of Gasland, Fox has become a high-profile opponent of fracking, joining efforts to prevent drilling in the Delaware River Basin and working to get water to families in Dimock, Pennsylvania, who say their water has been tainted by drilling.
When the House hearing resumed, Republicans, who strongly support the natural gas drilling, accused the EPA of basing its findings in Wyoming on politics and not science.
"In its single-minded pursuit of the hydraulic fracturing smoking gun, EPA appears to have lost focus on identifying the real causes and real solutions to drinking water quality problems in Pavillion, Wyoming," said Andy Harris, the top Republican on the subcommittee.
The EPA defended its work in Pavillion. EPA region 8 administrator Jim Martin stressed that its study was conducted under rigorous standards and the findings were limited to the unique geology in Pavillion and not meant to be applied to other places where drilling is occurring.
"EPA has acted carefully, thoughtfully, deliberately, and transparently in our ground water investigation and in sharing the data and findings contained in our draft report," Martin said.
Obama’s Support for Natural Gas Drilling "A Painful Moment" for Communities Exposed to Fracking
An interview with Josh Fox and John Fenton, a farmer from Pavillion, Wyoming. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
FACTS ON FRACKING Prof. Anthony Ingraffea
Anthony Ingraffea, Ph.D, P.E. is
the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering and a Weiss Presidential
Teaching Fellow at Cornell University where he has taught for 34 years.
He did R&D for the oil and gas industry for 25 years, specializing
in hydraulic fracture simulation and pipeline safety, and twice won the
National Research Council/U.S. National Committee for Rock Mechanics
Award for Research in Rock Mechanics. He became a Fellow of the American
Society of Civil Engineers in 1991, became Co-Editor-in-Chief of
Engineering Fracture Mechanics in 2005, won ASTM’s George Irwin Award
for outstanding research in fracture mechanics in 2006, and in 2009 was
named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture. Recently, he
has been engaged nationwide in educational fracking presentations.
Watch this video lecture by Dr. Ingraffea. He will tell you exactly what fracking is and what it is not.
CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
Fracking in Coshocton
Report on Quinnipac PollA new poll of Ohioans shows that more than 7 in 10 want the
controversial practice of hydro-fracking stopped until the issue is
studied further.
Coshocton Citizens for Truth About Fracking member Tim Kettler on NBC Columbus station WCMH, 1-20-2012CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
Two Texas landowners talk about
Ohio's future with the gas industry
Texans
were among the first to see their land engaged in shale development.
Full scale operations are now underway across the state. A pair of Lone
Star citizens, Tim Ruggiero and Calvin Tillman, are telling their story
and pointing out what the future holds for those of us in the East
where shale development is just beginning
The Paper Tiger By Calvin Tillman Tothose of you who
have children, you have no doubt seen the movie,
The Jungle Book. In this movie the villain is
played by the dreaded tiger Shere Khan. Shere Khan
was feared by all in the land except for the young
child Mogli, who exposed Shere Khan's weakness,
which was fire. Shere Khan was of course what we
call a paper tiger, which appears to be powerful,
but is actually powerless and ineffective.
When I started dealing
with the natural gas industry, I was initially
intimidated by the size and wealth of the industry.
I soon learned that negotiating with them in this
frame of mind, I would come up short. The industry
is poised to prey on those who are intimidated by
them, and I had began to hear a number of horror
stories regarding the industry and how they would
threaten and intimidate those who would dare to
question them.
CLICK HERE for full story and video
Leaving Gasland
By Tim Ruggiero January
4, 2012 - Our ordeal living in Gasland has ended. All I can say about
it, and all I care to say about it, is that “The matter has been
resolved”. Read into that how you will, I'll say no more about it.
As
my family and our animals begin our new life in Pilot Point, TX, where
the air is clean, and the water supply free of drilling chemicals, I
have been fielding a number of calls and emails about our new life. "So,
you're moving?"..yes. "You sell your house?"...yes. "Who did you sell
your house to?..*.the matter has been resolved.* "Oh". Someone asked if I
felt we had ‘won or lost’, obviously looking for details. That got me
to thinking.
Regardless
of where one lives in Gasland, whether it is the urban setting or
rural, I'm hard pressed to say that there is no such thing as 'winning,'
only degrees of losing. CLICK HERE for full story and video
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FRACKING HELL:
THE UNTOLD STORY
A concise original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film
Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus
Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate
dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can
contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New
York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains? With a
gas production boom underway in the Marcellus Shale and plans for some
400,000 wells in the coming decades, the cumulative impact of dumping
potential lethal waste without adequate oversight is a catastrophe
waiting to happen. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
MARCELLUS SHALE REALITY TOUR
Legislators Tour Fracking Area
Videos by Scott Cannon http://gdacoalition.org
On July 31st, 2011, a group of Democrat and Republican community
leaders boarded a bus to travel an hour north to see, hear, and feel the
negative effects of gas drilling. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
Dimock Day Trip I drove to Dimock Pennsylvania to find out what's going on with the DEP
and the EPA's investigation on the water well contamination alleged by
Cabot Oil & Gas
The EPA Comes to Dimock U.S. EPA Says New Data Motivated More Testing of Dimock Wells
The
U.S. was "compelled to intervene" and test water in Dimock,
Pennsylvania, after data from Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. showed hazardous
substances in drinking-water sources, the Environmental Protection
Administration said.
Gas Well Flaring Julie Sautner takes us to see a gas well flaring and talks about their
current situation with water deliveries from the EPA. Gas Drilling
Awareness Coalition. Some YouTube clips used by permission from
YouTubers veraduerga and hammerfly. Recorded on February 17, 2012
Erupting Water Well State regulators are investigating the cause of high methane levels in three Susquehanna County water wells after residents reported gray or black sludgy water, and one home's well began to erupt water through its cap.
PROF. ROBERT HOWARTH
A Brief Interview
CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
Shale gas may be dirtier than coal PROF. ROBERT HOWARTH At the EPIC No-Frack Event at Ithaca College on 6/25/2011, Cornell
professor Robert Howarth presents details of his study, which showed
that natural gas from hydraulically-fractured shale deposits has as much
or more global warming potential than coal.
Professor Howarth explains how his study differs from M.I.T.'s and the
D.O.E.'s, including a comparison of the factors used to arrive at the
numbers in each of the studies. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
RICK ROLES - FARMER
Rick talks about how gas drilling near his Colorado farm has impacted his health, his animals, and his farmland. He has dozens of wells near him, along withcompressor stations. He talked to a
group in Vestal, NY on 6-22-11. His interview is followed by a presentation by Jeff and Jodi Andrysick of
NY who produced a documentary called, "All Fracked Up" about the dangers
of gas drilling and fracking and who sponsored this event. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
It's Happening Here.....
Ohioans are starting to speak out against fracking as wells are polluted in northern counties.
CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
Farm Forum on Hydrofracking Hydrofracking & Agriculture: the Promise and the Reality: A Farm Forum
CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
International news report -
Earthquakes discussed at Youngstown City Council Meeting A town in the US state of Ohio, far from any seismic activity, has experienced a string of earthquakes. Al Jazeera reports. CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
How shale gas companies bilk land owners, share holders, politicians and residents and get away with it James Northrup
June 29, 2011
CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
Report: Natural Gas Insiders Question Feasibility, Profitability of Industry CLICK SCREEN BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO
Report: Natural Gas Insiders Question Feasibility, Profitability of IndustryAmy Goodman
Democracy Now
June 27, 2011Newly disclosed figures and internal documents are raising fresh doubts about natural gas drilling in the United States. According to the New York Times, well-placed financial analysts and experts have circulated warnings about the feasibility and profitability of drilling in shale gas wells across the nation. An August 2009 memo from the firm IHS Drilling Data says, "The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work." Earlier this year, an analyst at PNC Wealth Management compared natural gas projects to the dot-com boom, saying, "money is pouring in" even though drilling is "inherently unprofitable." In another memo, a retired geologist for a major oil giant writes, "These corporate giants are having an Enron moment... They want to bend light to hide the truth." A review of more than 9,000 wells shows many wells are failing to meet industry projections, with just 10 percent recouping their estimated costs after seven years. Just 20 percent of wells in three highly regarded shale formations in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are believed to actually be profitable. The previously undisclosed data could raise questions about whether companies are illegally inflating claims about the size and productivity of their wells. A former Enron executive who went on to work for an energy company compared the behavior of shale gas firms to his former employer, writing, "I wonder when they will start telling people these wells are just not what they thought they were going to be?"
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It's happening here in Ohio.
The first horizontal well was drilled in Monroe County in the Marcellus Shale in 2008. As of February, 2012 there are just 37 horizontal shale gas wells operating in Ohio with tens of thousands of wells projected to be drilled in the coming years of the gas boom.
Already we are seeing the first water wells polluted. Toxic, severely degraded living conditions are arising in the homes of Ohio families who have been the victims of fracking gone wrong. As in Dimock PA, Ft. Lupton CO, Dish TX, Pavillion WY, and numerous communities across the nation the Gas Industry is taking no responsibility for the lives and property it is destroying while the state regulatory agencies, in our case the ODNR, are failing to hold them to account.
Welcome to Gasland.....
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When Your Home Becomes a Bomb - Feds say 2 State Road homes in Medina County, Ohio are health hazards from methane gas
Filed by Jennifer Pignolet January 18th, 2012
The Medina County Gazette GRANGER TWP. — In 2001, Mark and Sandy Mangan built their dream home on State Road.
More
than 10 years later, that dream home is now a potentially explosive
nightmare, and Mark Mangan said he believes hydraulic oil and gas
drilling in the area is to blame. 
Granger
Township residents Mark Mangan, left, and Bill Boggs show the
contamination in their well water they said was caused by hydraulic
drilling in the area. Explosive levels of natural gas have been measured
at wellheads behind their State Road homes.
(Gazette photo by Jennifer Pignolet)
CLICK HERE for the full story and an audio recording
Three years after drilling, feds say natural gas in Medina County well water is potentially explosive
Story by Bob Downy, Akron Beacon Journal Posted by admin on January 20, 2012
GRANGER
TWP.: A federal health agency says potentially explosive levels of
natural gas at two houses in eastern Medina County are a public health
threat.
The
problems in the two drinking water wells appear linked to the nearby
drilling of two natural gas wells in 2008, says the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
That
news contradicts repeated statements from the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources on the connection between the drilling and problems at
the two houses at State and Remsen roads.
CLICK HERE for full story
Jaime Frederick speaks at Ohio StateHouse Rally
Jan. 10, 2012 - My
name is Jaime Frederick and I’m from Coitsville, Ohio. Shortly after
moving into my home in Coitsville outside of Youngstown, Ohio, 3 years
ago, I began to get seriously ill. I started vomiting on a regular basis
and had intense abdominal pains everyday. After numerous trips to six
different doctors, and several emergency room visits, test revealed that
my gall bladder had completely failed. No gallstones, it had just
stopped working, and no one could tell me why. I had my gall bladder
taken out but continue to have what seems to be a never ending
intestinal flu. It became so bad, that I soon developed an infection in
my intestine, as large as a grapefruit, that ate through to the outside
of my skin.
When I was finally admitted to the hospital, doctors said
that I would have been dead in a few days if I had not come in when I
did. They were baffled, and could only tell me this should not be
happening to a healthy 30-year-old woman, and that this condition is
typically only found in third world countries.
CLICK HERE for full story and video
Couple denied mortgage because of gas drilling
Brian Smith lives near Marcellus Shale well in Daisytown, PA
WTAE TV - Pittsburg
Updated 6:49 PM EDT May 8, 2012
Washington County, Pa. -
Brian and Amy Smith seem to be the first example in western Pennsylvania of a homeowner being denied a mortgage because of gas drilling on a next-door neighbor's property.
The drilling goes on day and night at a new Marcellus Shale well in Daisytown, Washington County, and Brian Smith told Channel 4 Action News investigator Jim Parsons that he has no complaints -- except one.
"As far as drilling and the noise and the lights in the window? No," he said. "But when it affected the value of my home? Absolutely."
CLICK HERE for full story
Crowd overflows at Portage meeting to discuss natural gas drilling
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published: January 26, 2012 - 12:00 AM | Updated: January 26, 2012 - 08:39 AM
RANDOLPH TWP.: One Portage County resident told an overflow crowd meeting at the Randolph Community Center on Wednesday night about drinking water problems with his well.
Steve Kitchen told an audience of more than 150 that his problems began in September at a time when the Chesapeake Energy Corp. was drilling a natural gas well in neighboring Suffield Township. CLICK HERE for full story
12th Earthquake in Youngstown
By Bob Downing, Ohio.com
Youngstown recorded its 12th earthquake since last March last weekend.
The quake on Jan. 13 was a 2.1-magnitude.
The
quakes have been centered at a now-closed injection well for drilling
wastes west of downtown Youngstown in Youngstown Township.
The
Ohio Department of Natural Resources continues to investigate the links
between the quakes and the injection well operated by the D&L
Energy Group.
The biggest quake, a 4.0, rattled Northeast Ohio on Dec. 31.
According
to the Youngstown Vindicator, Ohio is looking at a ban on injection
wells deeper than 8,000 feet, but such a rule has not yet been
finalized.
Such a ban might produce fewer quakes if the injection wells were shallower, officials said.
More on quakes -
Ohio and fracking: Big money and big risks
By Joseph On January 2, 2012
Plunderbund
The Youngstown area experienced an earthquake on New Year’s Eve. It was
the 11th earthquake of 2011 in the area, which is really quite
surprising since there were no earthquakes here in 2010, or 2009, or any
year ever that anyone can remember. According to Bloomberg no
earthquakes had been recorded near Youngstown “until D&L Energy Inc.
began injecting wastewater from drilling into a 9,300-foot disposal
well in December 2010.”
CLICK HERE for full story
Ohio quakes raise fracking questions
By Kristen Saloomey
Al Jazeera
Tue, 2012-01-17 03:52.
One
doesn’t usually expect a crowd when the Youngstown, Ohio City Council
holds a subcommittee meeting. But then Youngstown doesn’t usually have
earthquakes. In fact, prior to 2010 you could go back more than 100
years and not find record of a single one.
In
2011, however, this city of just under 70,000 experienced 11
earthquakes. The most recent and most serious was a 4.0 that struck on
the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. So when the Chair of the Utilities
Subcommittee called a public hearing on the earthquakes - and the
possibility that they were linked to the controversial gas drilling
process known as fracking - the crowd was so large they had to hold the
meeting in the local convention center.
CLICK HERE for full story
Youngstown earthquakes raise issues on oilfield wastes from shale exploration Updated: Monday, January 16, 2012, 6:43 AM
By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS,
Ohio -- A New Year's Eve earthquake that shook homes in Youngstown has
set off political tremors across Ohio as officials scramble to reassure
the public that an expected flurry of drilling in the state won't
jeopardize their safety.
Columbia
University seismic experts have said the injection of hundreds of
thousands of barrels of oilfield waste fluids into a fault line probably
caused the quake, one of a series of tremors that have rocked the
Mahoning Valley.
That
finding has cracked open a wider debate that goes beyond the
controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to its
aftermath: the millions of barrels of waste fluids that are disposed of
in wells thousands of feet below the ground. Last year, deep injection
wells stored 11 million barrels of the fluids in Ohio.
CLICK HERE for the full story.
State links quakes to work on wells
By Joe Vardon
The Columbus Dispatch Sunday January 1, 2012 6:08 AM The
Kasich administration has put a temporary stop to the disposal of waste
from oil and natural-gas drilling in wells within a 5-mile radius of a
particular Youngstown well — a well believed to be the cause of 11
earthquakes since March, including a 4.0 quake that struck around 3 p.m.
yesterday.
Officials
from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources think that waste pumped
into the Youngstown-area well, referred to as Northstar No. 1, has been
seeping into a previously unknown fault line in eastern Ohio, causing
the seismic activity. The moratorium, issued yesterday by Jim Zehringer,
the Natural Resources Department’s director, affects four other
injection wells.
CLICK HERE for the full story
BULLETIN!State halts injection
well permitsThe Youngstown Vindicator
Vindy.com
Published: Wed, January 18, 2012 @ 4:52 p.m.
COLUMBUS
— The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday it will not
approve any additional brine-injection well permits until it completes
an injection well report. The report, which will include new depth regulations, is expected to be released in early February. “Common
sense dictates you should not approve applications when you have new
standards on deck,” said Carlo Loparo, ODNR spokesman. There are nine pending applications in the pipeline, Loparo said. Though
the injection well report is not yet complete, this is the fourth new
regulation or restriction made by ODNR or Gov. John Kasich’s office in a
week. ODNR last week expanded its ban on brine-injection wells to
within a seven-mile radius of a West Side well, near the epicenter of
11 earthquakes in 10 months. On Monday, Kasich’s office confirmed
injection wells, which accept brine, a salty, chemical byproduct of
natural gas and oil fracking, will not be allowed to exceed 8,000 feet
in depth. On Tuesday, ODNR said injection wells can no longer be
drilled into the Precambrian, or bedrock, formation, where injection
wells could trigger seismic activity.
UPDATE -
INJECTION WELL MORATORIUM ABOUT TO BE LIFTED CLICK HERE FOR REPORT
Oil, gas lease filing more than quadruples in 2011
Chesapeake plans 12,000 wells for Ohio
CantonRep.com staff report
Posted Jan 09, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
CANTON —
Companies
seeking the potential of the Utica shale drilled only one well in Stark
County during 2011, but they lined up thousands of acres for future
development.
Employees
of Stark County Recorder Rick Campbell filed 4,563 oil and gas leases
during 2011, more than four times the number processed during 2010.
“We’ve never been this busy before,” Campbell said of the leases filed last year.
CLICK HERE for full story
Harrison Co. court rules against Chesapeake based on lease language
by Kristy Foster
Farm and Dairy
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
CADIZ, Ohio — A 1959 lease is at the root of a lawsuit in Harrison County against Chesapeake Exploration.
A decision was handed down Jan. 17 between The Jewett Sportsmen and Farmers Club Inc. versus Chesapeake Exploration, LLC.
The ground was originally leased by the North American Coal Company in 1959. Chesapeake acquired the lease from them.
Chesapeake has already poured two drilling pads and planned to drill up to eight wellbores from each drill pad. Jewett Sportsmen and Farmers Club Inc. was asking the court to stop Chesapeake from drilling.
Harrison County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael K. Nunner ruled the lease from 1959 was still in effect but that Chesapeake could only drill down and that horizontal drilling was not covered in the original lease. He said drilling horizontally on the property for the purpose of extracting gas was not covered.
He said the language used in the original lease did not allow for the property to be used to access gas, oil and other minerals on neighboring properties. It only allowed for the land to be used to get the minerals from that property.
The judge said, in the decision, that Chesapeake could not use the surface and drill horizontally to neighboring properties based on the lease. He said permission was needed from the sportsmen club in order to drill horizontally.
Atty. Gregory D. Brunton, of Columbus, represented the Jewett Sportsmen and Farmers Club in the court case. He said the group had expressed an interest in negotiating the matter before it went to court but efforts failed.
Chesapeake Exploration did not have any comment on the decision.
The case is expected to continue in the court system either through appeals or through mediation.
New MarkWest Deal to Develop Infrastructure in OH Utica Shale BusinessWire March 06, 2012 04:14 PM Eastern Time
A joint venture between MarkWest Energy and The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), called MarkWest Utica EMG, has just signed a deal with Gulfport Energy to build new gathering pipelines for Utica wells in Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties (Ohio). The deal also includes MarkWest Utica processing the gas produced by Gulfport, including natural gas liquids, at its Harrison County processing complex.
MarkWest Utica EMG, L.L.C., a joint venture between MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. and The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG) focused on the development of significant natural gas gathering, transportation, and processing and natural gas liquid (NGL) transportation, fractionation, and marketing infrastructure in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio, today announced the execution of a letter of intent with Gulfport Energy Corporation to provide gathering, processing, fractionation, and marketing services in the liquids-rich corridor of the Utica.
Under the terms of the LOI, which requires the execution of definitive agreements, MarkWest Utica will develop extensive natural gas gathering infrastructure with Gulfport and other producers primarily in Harrison, Guernsey, and Belmont counties that is expected to come online beginning in 2012. MarkWest Utica will process the gas at its Harrison County processing complex, and will provide NGL fractionation and marketing services at the Harrison County fractionator, where NGL purity products will be marketed by truck, rail, and pipeline.
"We are very excited to announce the development of midstream infrastructure with Gulfport and other producers to fully develop the rich-gas acreage in the southern Utica shale," said Frank Semple, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MarkWest. “The full spectrum of natural gas midstream services, particularly the fractionation and marketing of NGLs at a world-scale fractionation complex, is essential to the success of Utica producers, and we are excited to work closely with our producer customers to develop this prolific shale play.”*
*MarkWest Utica EMG (Mar 6, 2012) – MarkWest Utica Announces Letter of Intent to Develop Significant Midstream Infrastructure in the Utica Shale
Despite regulations gas wells leak Submitted to The Coshocton Tribune, 2-20-12 Published 4-1-12
The
Tribune recently published an article entitled, “Anadarko discusses
Utica Shale oil and gas expectations “. Statements in the article that
tend to dismiss the impact of hydraulic fracturing on water quality
need to be examined. A spokesman from the OSU Monroe County Extension
said, “So far, there has not been an instance in which a drill site that
doesn't have a leaky casing impacts water quality.” He then goes on to
reference how wells are constructed, tested, and inspected leaving the
impression that all these safeguards are adequate and that leaking wells
are a rare occurrence. Here are the facts.
One
in twenty wells will leak immediately, and the numbers rise
dramatically as wells age, (source: Cornell University Professor Dr.
Anthony Ingraffea lecturing at Moncton, New Brunswick citing industry
data from Schlumberger Ltd. and a paper by Watson and Bachu, SPE
106817, published 2009. A video of Dr. Ingraffea’s lecture can be seen
at http://www.napalmcreek.com/how-safe-is-fracking.php
) That is a 5% failure rate which doesn’t sound too bad until you look
at the numbers. Chesapeake Energy alone is projecting that it will
drill 12,000 wells across Ohio. That translates into 600 leaking wells
from just one operator. That number will increase dramatically as the
wells grow older.
According
to an article entitled, “Shale Gas- A business plan very much in the
red”, by Professor Marc Durand, a geologist at the University of Quebec,
all the hundreds of thousands of wells drilled in the North American
Shale will deteriorate. They are lying in brine 70 times saltier than
seawater that has been laced with a host of chemicals. Thousands of
miles of horizontally drilled well casings and the surrounding cement
are compromised by having been shot through with holes from the
perforating gun used in the fracking process. Steel corrodes, cement
shrinks and cracks: nothing lasts forever. The wells are designed for a
working life of 3 - 5 years, the time it takes to harvest the gas while
it flows at a fast enough rate to be profitable. Twenty to fifty years
after they cease production many of the wells will have eroded enough to
provide a highway between the shale layer and the surface.
Here’s
the kicker, fracking only gets the 20% of the gas that has seeped into
the spaces that naturally occur in the shale. The remaining 80% is
within the rock itself and it will continue to slowly leach out into a
shale formation that has been opened by fracking fluid. What will be
the effect of hundreds of thousands of deteriorating wells trickling
methane and toxins into our air, land, and water for thousands of
years? The gas industry doesn’t ask this question because once it has
the gas it pumps some cement down the hole and it falls to the taxpayers
to find the long-term answer. Professor Durant makes the point that
the costs to a community of dealing with methane migration over time
will far exceed the income generated during the brief boom.
Nick Teti
Coshocton Citizens for Truth About Fracking
Fracking: More information needed before we make choices.
Submitted to The Coshocton Tribune 2-19-20
Hydraulic
fracturing, an increasingly common aspect of the oil and gas production
process, is not subject to the same standards as other industries when
it comes to protecting underground sources of drinking water.
Hydraulic fracturing involves the injection of fluids and chemicals into oil or gas wells at high pressure.
Other forms of underground injection are regulated to protect drinking
water, but in 2005 Congress created exemptions for hydraulic fracturing
to benefit Halliburton and other oil and gas companies.
Here are some facts:
Ohio law is clear on the practice of mandatory pooling, although the
Ohio Department of Natural Resources is not. Mandatory pooling is a
provision contained in the Ohio Revised Code by which a group of land
owners may force an adjoining landowner, known as a non-participating
landowner, to be included in their drilling pool in order to gain the
required minimum amount of joined acreage. A 65 percent majority (ORC
1509.28) of those landowners may force a ruling by the chief of the
division to form the plot, even against the wishes of a property owner.
ORC 1509.27 also allows for this non-participating owner to pay a
proportionate share of the drilling costs, "applicant shall be entitled
to the share of production from the drilling unit accruing to the
interest of that nonparticipating owner ... until there has been
received the share of costs charged to that nonparticipating owner plus
such additional percentage of the share of costs as the chief shall
determine." The applicant is the designated owner of the well. As far as
liability goes, only a non-participating landowner is specifically
exempted.
That's the law folks, and I presume the rule of law will prevail.
As for the environmental effect fracking might cause, we soon will find
out. Fracking has been used for a number of years, but it is a distant
cousin to what is coming. Wells were drilled vertically, mostly
contained beneath the drill pad and used about 100,000 gallons of water
with proportionate amounts of chemicals. Today's method drills down up
to two miles and then horizontally up to two miles, uses up to 5 million
gallons of water per frack with tens of thousands of pounds of
chemicals, and each well may be fracked up to 18 times. Compound that
with multiple wells at a single drilling pad, in British Columbia there
are pads with more than 50 wells. We aren't talking about the good old
days any more; this is heavy industry in our rural neighborhoods.
The underlying point of my concern is the great lack of information we
have to work with in making personal choices about fracking. We are in
need of well-thought-out decisions and prudent use of our natural
resources and environment.
After all, the gas isn't going anywhere, and it only gets more valuable every day.
Tim Kettler
Warsaw
Fracking threatens environment, property rights
Submitted to The Coshocton Tribune, 1-20-12
The privately owned, for-profit group organizing landowners in
Coshocton County to conduct directional drilling for Utica shale gas
have presented much information covering the supposed benefits of
hydraulic fracturing. Unfortunately there has been little other
information about the documented potential for environmental disaster
and the assault on county landowners’ property rights if they choose not
to participate in their neighbors' drilling projects.
Ohio’s oil and gas law specifies minimum acreage requirements and
contains a provision called “mandatory pooling”. It allows groups of
landowners with adjoining plots comprising a 65% majority to force
non-participating landowners into their land pool to attain the minimum
requirement. The pool may then drill and take the shale gas located
under a non-participating property and force them to pay a share of the
drilling costs out of any initial money that might be generated.
True, a royalty may be paid to landowners forced into their pool
although the percentage and actual amount is merely speculation. The oil
and gas law does protect the nonparticipating landowner from liability
for “actions or conditions associated with the drilling or operation of
the well.” This statement seems to imply that a participating owner
could be held liable in the future should the lease fail to protect
them; a disaster reaches insurance limits, bankruptcy of a driller or
some unforeseen circumstance. The bottom line in this land grab is it
can be done against a landowner's will and the drilling pool, perhaps
his “friends and neighbors”, can require him to pay a share of the costs
for a project he had no interest in or even is outright opposed to. The
allowable amount can be up to twice the actual charges leaving a non
participating landowner paying profit to the drilling pool and
environmentally and economically penalized for simply declining to enter
into their agreement.
The country needs energy conservation, not more greenhouse gas
and environmental degradation. The county needs sustainable, secure
employment to rebuild our communities, not here-today-gone tomorrow jobs
that disappear when the gas is gone, leaving nothing but ghost towns
like the economically depressed areas left behind by former coal mining
operations.
Figures as high as $5000 per acre for signing bonuses are being
dangled in front of landowners, waving promises of wealth and prosperity
for a get-rich quick scheme sure to divide neighbors and our
communities for mere greed and misplaced priorities.
Public meetings are being held to inform county residents of all the
issues surrounding hydraulic fracking with the next being scheduled for
January 19th at 6pm in the Frontier Power meeting room, 770 S. 7th.
St., Coshocton.
Tim Kettler
29674 Twp. Rd. 30
Warsaw, Ohio 43844
740-824-3828
The
gas industry is bringing ex-military mercenaries into our communities
whose mission is to identify anyone who expresses concerns about shale
gas development and treat them as "insurgents." That's
right, the same people who were trained to spread false information and propaganda among our foreign enemies are now being hired to set their sights on American
civilians who don't agree with the corporate business plan being forced on them. Listen to their own words caught on tape and then ask yourself, "Why should I trust anything that the industry tells me at this point?"
Oil Executive: Military-Style 'Psy Ops' Experience Applied
Published: Tuesday, 8 Nov 2011
By: Eamon Javers
CNBC Washington, DC Correspondent
Last
week’s oil industry conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston
was supposed to be an industry confab just like any other — a series of
panel discussions, light refreshments and an exchange of ideas.
It
was a gathering of professionals to discuss “media and stakeholder
relations” in the hydraulic fracturing industry — companies using the
often-controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as
“fracking.”
But things took an unexpected twist.
CNBC
has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be
heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and
Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. That’s because, he said, the
opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.” [ Listen to audio files below]
Psy Ops mercenaries bully
Whistleblower
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Texas Sharon Needs Help Against Range Resources (RRC)
Sharon Wilson, better know as "Texas Sharon", has been given a subpoena for deposition by Range Resources (RRC) because she has been writing about them on her popular blog, www.texassharon.com. This is nothing more than an attempt to silence Sharon and make sure that she does not saying anything negative about Range Resources (RRC) again. If you remember, Sharon was the person who attended the Natural Gas Industry Public Relations Conference and found that Range Resources (RRC), was implementing military style psychological operations in communities where they were facing resistance, and therefore Range Resources (RRC) is attempting to shut her up for that.
These intimidation tactics are nothing new, Range Resources (RRC) has tried to do the same kind of thing with me, but I manage to avoid a deposition. We need to make a stand against this clear attempt at intimidation, and help her avoid a deposition, which will amount to nothing more than a witch hunt. We need to make it clear that these sort of tactics are not going to shut us up. If we let them get away with this, we might as well give up the fight now, and forgo our 1st Amendment rights. If we allow this industry to turn loose a roomful of high paid attorneys on everyone who exposes them for what they are, do we really want freedom? Sharon has helped support many people around the United States, and provided them with the tools to defend themselves, it is time for us to be there for her.
David Poole, is a Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Range Resources (RRC), and is no doubt the person behind these unethical, immoral, intimidation tactics. David Poole can be reached at 817.870.2601. I would ask that you call him, and simple tell him to "Leave Texas Sharon alone". You can do this anonymously, without giving him your name or any other information. If you would like to send him an email, he can be reached at dpoole@rangeresources.com.
The outside law firm that Range Resources (RRC) is using is Harris, Finley and Bogle and the primary attorney for this case is Andrew Sims. The number at this law firm is 817.870.8700. You should also call them and tell them to "Leave Texas Sharon alone".You can also contact them through their website at: http://hfblaw.com/index.php/contact/.
Together we bargain, divided we beg. None of us can match these companies financially; therefore, we must decide if we will stand together when one of us are in need. Making these two quick calls will only take a moment, and will do a tremendous amount to help Sharon. Please pass on this information to as many people as possible, and let's be there for Sharon as she has been for so many of us, and help expose this paper tiger.
Calvin Tillman
Former Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640 |
Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
By Ian Urbina
The New York Times 2-6-12
The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.
CLICK HERE for the full story
Feds step in -
EPA to deliver water in Dimock, PA
January 19, 2012 By Andrew Maykuth
The Philidelphia Inquirer
Federal regulators said Thursday they will deliver drinking water to four households near natural gas wells in the embattled town of Dimock, casting doubt on Pennsylvania's decision to allow a Marcellus Shale operator to halt deliveries in December.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also said it will conduct its own water sampling at 61 homes in the rural Susquehanna County township "to further assess whether any residents are being exposed to hazardous substances that cause health concerns."
CLICK HERE for full story
EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked
to Water Contamination
The finding is likely to shape how the U.S. regulates and develops natural gas resources across the Eastern Appalachians
By Abrahm Lustgarten , Nicholas Kusnetz and ProPublica Friday, December 9, 2011
In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process.
The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to water resources.
In the 121-page draft report released today, EPA officials said that the contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyo., had most likely seeped up from gas wells and contained at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids.
CLICK HERE for full story and the EPA Report
|
Report on Duke University study:
Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking
by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, May 9, 2011, 2 p.m.
For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
The peer-reviewed study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks. CLICK HERE for full story and link to Duke University Study
CLICK HERE for original article and related links at ProPublica
Ohio Senate OK's fracking in state parks By Jim Siegel
The Columbus Dispatch
Friday June 17, 2011 5:32 AM
The Ohio Senate tackled a pair of controversial measures yesterday, one allowing oil and gas drilling in state parks and the other permitting Ohioans to opt out of a new federal requirement that they purchase health insurance.
CLICK HERE for the full story.
US Forest Service halts sale of drilling rights in Ohio's national forest.
Doug Whiteman
Associated Press
Published: November 18, 2011
COLUMBUS (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has dropped plans to auction natural gas and oil drilling rights next month on thousands of acres in Ohio's only national forest because administrators there want to study the possible impacts from the gas extraction method known as fracking, officials said Tuesday.
CLICK HERE for the full story
NYT reveals Secret Documents
A Tainted Water Well,
and Concern There May Be More
The New York Times
August 3, 2011
For decades, oil and gas industry executives as well as regulators have maintained that a drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that is used for most natural gas wells has never contaminated underground drinking water.
CLICK HERE for the full story.
America’s Fracking Concerns
The Checks and Balances Project
January 10, 2011
Studies across the nation reveal legitimate worries exist across party lines
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” as it is more commonly known, is a growing concern in the minds of many Americans according to a recent national survey. Fracking is the practice of sticking toxic chemicals into the ground to get to natural gas. And as the practice increases so too have worries surrounding water contamination.
CLICK HERE for full story
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WCMH, Channel 4, from Columbus interviewed a Napalm Creek contributor and member of 