Video Fracking

Fracking
Gulf oil spill adds new wrinkle to fracking debate
Published: Wednesday, July 21, 2010

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By The Associated Press

SO VAST is the wealth of natural gas locked into dense rock deep beneath New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio that some geologists estimate it’s enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years.

But freeing it requires a powerful drilling process called hydraulic fracturing ,or “fracking,” using millions of gallons of water brewed with toxic chemicals, that some fear could pollute water above and below ground and deplete aquifers.

SPP of North America
EXCERPT:
We're featuring new information on the dangers of drilling for methane gas (commercially labeled "natural" gas) in New York and other states. Visit our Water Portal for more on the toxic chemicals in "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) and the threat massive new drilling poses to clean drinking water. Please support SourceWatch.

Portal Water (Watch the video) Fracking New York
EXCERPT:
New Video on Fracking
SourceWatch is highlighting a new video about the process pioneered by Halliburton to fracture rocks to access methane gas poses grave threats to human health and safety. The process, called "fracking" uses a cocktail of toxic chemicals and thousands of gallons of drinking water to open fractures in Marcellus Shale deposits to release methane, leaving behind thousands of gallons of spoiled water as well as documented contamination of aquifers. Especially as some companies attempt to use the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster to press for expanded drilling on land, we need Americans to learn more about the deep concerns about the proposed methane drilling from the St. Lawrence Seaway to coastal carolina.
Heads up on public meeting with the EPA about fracking--August 12

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had planned to hold its last public hearing on the impact of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," on drinking water Aug. 12 at Binghamton University. Instead, the hearing was first moved to Syracuse (announced Aug 9th), then postponed until further notice. It is expected that the rescheduled hearing will be held in Syracuse sometime in September. The EPA's hydraulic fracturing page can be seen here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydrofrac.html. You can learn more about the public hearing here: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/uic/wells_hydroout.html#meetings.

How Jim Gennaro councilman geologist questioned fracking to death
EXCERPT:

James Gennaro. William Alatriste, via New York City Council flickr
By Katharine Jose

9:43 pm Aug. 19, 2010 | Tweet this article
Two Augusts ago, City Councilman Jim Gennaro held a press conference outside his office in Queens and called for a yearlong moratorium on a natural gas drilling technique—formally called hydraulic fracturing—in the New York City watershed. Four members of the press attended, and it "barely moved the needle on the summer news meter."

He kept talking about it, though. For some time, almost no one was listening.

As speculation about possible drilling sites upstate gained momentum, and the drilling process—also called hydrofracking or fracking—looked like it might really happen, more and more elected officials in Albany and New York City got involved. Finally, this month, the New York State Senate approved a moratorium on the process until the State Department of Environmental Protection has more time to study what effect it would have on the New York City watershed. This is on top of the two-year study on the environmental impact of hydrofracking begun by federal Environmental Protection Agency this spring.


Documents reveal shadow government
EXCERPT:
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER

Documents reveal 'shadow government'
Freedom of Information request
puts 1,000 new pages online

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 24, 2006
1:00 am Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily.com

About 1,000 documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America show the White House is engaging in collaborative relations with Mexico and Canada outside the U.S. Constitution, says WND columnist and author Jerome Corsi.
"The documents give clear evidence that the Bush administration has created a 'shadow government,'" Corsi said.

The documents can be viewed here, on a special website set up by the Minuteman Project.

Bureaucrats from agencies throughout the Bush administration are meeting regularly with their counterpart bureaucrats in the Canadian and Mexican governments to engage in a broad rewriting of U.S. administrative law and regulations into a new trilateral North American configuration, Corsi contends.

Delaware River in jeopardy

Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines
Apr 22, 2010 Anya Tikka


Delaware River at the proposed power line crossing - Anya TikkaDelaware River area is bracing against environmental destruction. It's fate rests on fracking and new power lines with the Delaware River Basin Commission.

The pristine Delaware River area is being assaulted from many sides as of April 2010. Metropolitan New Jersey demands increased capacity power lines and vies together with natural gas companies to buy land along the river corridor that in many cases goes across national forests, parks, and rivers.

The new, giant transmission towers have been blamed for increased cancer rates in areas where they already exist, and they destroy landscape and wildlife. Fracking in its present form has been linked to diseases caused by exposure to the chemicals used in the fluids which have contaminated wells and drinking water. There are also reports of airborne pollution harmful to humans.

Delaware River Basin Commission is Considering Facts about New Power Lines
Delaware River area is no stranger to battles over its water and environment. In 1960’s, Tock's Island dam project threatened to harness the mid-river for power and to flood a huge area of what is now national park land. The project was defeated by the Delaware River Basin Commission, and the Delaware National Recreation Area was formed, but not without major displacement of people and fierce opposition by local population and environmentalists.

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The Center for LNG Learn how liquefied natural gas is helping meet our energy needs. www.lngfacts.orgProduced Water Recycling Advanced mobile process to recycle frac flowback and produced waters www.EcosphereTech.comOnce again, the fate of the river seems to rest in the hands of the Delaware River Basin Commission. The proposed new Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to Roseland, New Jersey 500 kW Electric Transmission Line would cross the river at the scenic Matamoras, PA, near a camping ground and several national parks. It then would go on to New Jersey, where it would straddle the Highlands Conservation Area. PPL Electric Utilities Corporation and PSE&G Power Company says demand will outgrow supply leading to outages and shortages by 2012 unless the new lines are built.

The final decision about the lines will not come before that, said Amanda J. Stein, biologist and project manager of the proposed power line project at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, although the agency is anticipating another public scoping meeting late summer or early fall 2010. The Commission is just starting its review process in April 2010.

Fracking Permits Also Decided by the DRBC
DRBC is also at the driver’s seat concerning the effects of gas fracking on the river, as the deciding body over the water resources of the river. Stone Energy’s proposed permit to draw water from the Upper Delaware River tributary, Lackawaxen, as well as to dispose of the waste water produced by the drilling is meeting with widespread opposition from locals, environmentalists, and New York City residents whose drinking water supply is threatened. If permits are granted, it will serve as a precedent for other gas companies to flood the area. Their website says the Stone Energy dockets will NOT be considered on May 5, 2010 meeting.

Delaware River Basin Commission was Created to Oversee the River
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) was established in 1961. According to its web site, “The members of this regional body include the four basin state governors (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), and a representative of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who serves as the federal representative. The five members appoint alternate commissioners.”

Read on
Gas Drilling Under Fire from NYCDEP and EPA
Gas Drilling in New York State - Boon or Threat?
Fracking Fluids Under Scientific Investigation
Their mission according to the same web site is to: Provide comprehensive watershed management, act as stewards of the Basin's water resources, and to seek increased public involvement.

The Delaware River Area is Famed for its Environmental Beauty, and Watershed Purity
The Upper Delaware Valley has been called the Eastern Seaboard capital of the bald eagles, many of which winter in the area, and other rare wildlife, and the middle of the river is already protected State Forest. If the fracking companies are allowed to draw and dispose of waste water from and around the Delaware River tributary Lackawaxen River, they run the risk of both depleting the water, and of irreversibly contaminating it. The area is host to the annual shad fishing and other outdoor sports where the famous Western writer Zane Grey had his house, and found inspiration for his novels.

The power lines will alter the protected New Jersey Highlands area as well as the scenic river at Matamoras and Milford, Pennsylvania area, and other Pennsylvania National Parks.

DRBC is in the review process for both these proposed projects. The public has a say via written comments to the Commissioners, and the record shows public resistance has significantly influenced their decisions in the past.

Source:

Delaware River Basin Commission. State.nj.us, viewed on Apr 20, 2010

Read more at Suite101: Natural Scenic Delaware River Threatened by Fracking, Power Lines http://environmental-activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/natural#ixzz0y1TsFc3U