Biblio

2010
WATER | Clean Water | TakePart Social Action Network: Important Issues, Activism, Environmental, Human Rights, Political News, TakePart Social Action Network , TakePart Social Action Network, (2010)

GOOD: Drinking Water

"TakePart.com is an independent online community that connects its members directly to the issues that inspire them to engage, contribute and take action. Our team of editors, writers, and researchers curate and deliver actions in context with in-depth primers to the social, environmental, political and cultural issues of our day.

Our growing global community includes citizens, activists, and large and small non-profits. We invite local and community groups to interact, explore issues, share resources, develop campaigns and use our platform to promote the causes they care most about."

WATER | Clean Water Action, Clean Water Action , Clean Water Action, (2010)

/frack_files/cleanwateraction.jpgEnvironmental activist website. "For 36 years Clean Water Action has succeeded in winning some of the nation's most important environmental protections through grassroots organizing, expert policy research and political advocacy focused on holding elected officials accountable to the public."

WATER | Clean Water Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia , Wikipedia, (2010)

/frack_files/greatseal.jpg The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases to water of high amounts of toxic substances, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by 1983.

The principal body of law currently in effect is based on the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, which significantly expanded and strengthened earlier legislation. Major amendments were enacted in the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.

Please note that information taken from Wikipedia should be verified using other, more reliable sources. It is a good place to start research, but because anyone can edit Wikipedia, we do not recommend using it in research papers or to obtain highly reliable information.
WATER | Aurora Lights. Public Health & Coal Slurry - Water Quality ::: Journey Up Coal River, Aurora Lights , Aurora Lights, (2010)

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"The West Virginia coalfields contain some of the highest quality water in the world. Aquifers in the coalfields often sit directly below seams of coal. When the coal seam is undisturbed, it acts as a giant carbon filter, leaving excellent water quality that West Virginians across the state rely on for drinking water.

When coal seams are disrupted, however, water quality quickly declines. The accounts of impaired water quality in the coalfields are abundant. As mining continues and practices such as slurry injections and impoundment sites become more prevalent, communities are seeing a decline in their water quality.

One woman from Hopkins Fork had her water tested when she moved into her home in 2002 and was told it was of spring water quality, as good as any you could buy. Today, she does not even use the water to brush her teeth...

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...In total, several hundred million gallons of coal slurry were injected underground within 3 miles of the nearest well user. Some residents suspect that the heavy blasting at the Black Castle Surface mine cracked the geologic layers allowing the coal slurry to enter the water table.

Environmental Engineer Dr. Scott Simonton agrees this is a plausible scenario. Despite repeated requests by residents and citizens groups, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection still refuses to study the water in Prenter to determine the source of the contamination."

Aurora Lights supports locally-based projects that strengthen the connections within and between human communities and their natural environment by promoting environmental and social action. See also: Aurora Lights Home.

See video: Changing a Water Filter in Prenter Hollow, WV.

Water All Around … Or is There? | Activist's Corner, Piette, Betsey , Workers World, (2010)

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Much of the focus on the rapid expansion of natural gas extraction through hydrofracturing, or “fracking,” has centered on methane leaks and chemical contamination of residential water wells. In Dimock, Pa., more than 15 residents sued Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., charging permanent damage to their wells.

However, another concern is the impact of fracking on renewable sources of fresh water. Some fear that this drilling process may be draining valuable and irreplaceable water resources.

See: Do the natural gas industry’s surface water withdrawals pose a health risk?

Walter Hang's Letter to DEC Commissioner Grannis Regarding Additional Natural Gas Hazards | Toxics Targeting, Hang, Walter , Toxics Targeting, (2010)

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Walter Hang's letter to NYS DEC Commissioner Grannis regarding 270 pollution releases. For a critique (12/18/2009) of Mr. Hang's claims, see the Oil and Gas Industry-funded Energy In Depth website's article. See also the Sourcewatch web page critiquing Energy in Depth.

"...I write today because I do not believe your response refutes the fact that the 270 uncontrolled pollution releases document serious regulatory shortcomings. I also will dispute your belief that gas and oil problems are “promptly and effectively addressed."

All of the 270 oil and gas releases I identified in November were documented in DEC’s hazardous materials spills database.

I subsequently learned the spills database does not include natural gas problems reported to health authorities in the three counties with the highest number of oil and gas wells in New York State. I also learned DEC’s Division of Mineral Resources does not report all oil and gas releases to the Division of Spills.

I write today to document dozens of additional natural gas concerns that have neither been fully investigated nor remediated. These incidents reinforce grave concerns about the adequacy of DEC’s gas drilling regulations and provide further documentation that the draft SGEIS is inadequate and must be withdrawn."...

Very truly yours,

Walter Hang
215 North Cayuga Street
Ithaca, NY 14850

Cc: Honorable Judith Enck, US EPA Region 2 Administrator
Honorable Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York
Honorable Barbara Lifton, Representative, 125th Assembly District
Honorable William Parment, Representative, 150th Assembly District
Honorable James Gennaro, City Council Member, District 24

Vincent Alabama Confidential, Shelby, Max , Vincent Alabama Confidential, (2010)

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Alabama based blog, Vincent Alabama Confidential, by Max Shelby. Updated frequently featuring news and opinions on the relationship between the environment and political corruption.

Corruption, Politics, Big Business and the "New Mules" Still Kickin' the Environment

"At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." --George Orwell

In the state of Alabama things are very, very wrong. Not only does our environment suffer constantly, but environmental racism/injustice seems to be rampant; if you're poor, minority or non-white you are forced to live with egregious corporate offenders on an every day basis.

What is most troubling is the state and legislature have turned a blind eye to their citizens and the environment. My story is their story and the attempt to affect change. The words of Robert Bullard: "No other community, rich or poor, urban or suburban, black, brown, red, white, or yellow should be allowed to become an environmental "sacrifice zone." I could not agree more. MAX

See: History of Litigation Concerning Hydraulic Fracturing to Produce Coalbed Methane. LEAF (Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation) and The Hydraulic Fracturing Decisions.

See: Sourcewatch article - Environmental justice

See: BARDs "Big Mule" Drummond Coal Sued--Part II

See: Don Siegelman wrongful prosecution and vindication. 

Karl Rove connection

Allegations that Siegelman was prosecuted at the insistence of Bush-appointed officials at the Justice Department, as well as the insistence of Leura Canary, a U.S. Attorney in Montgomery whose husband was Alabama's top Republican operative and who had for years worked closely with Karl Rove, led federal courts to release the accused on bail.

"More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case," Adam Zagorin, Time, Nov. 14, 2008

See: The Effect of the United States Supreme Court's Eleventh Amendment Jurisprudence on Clean Water Act Citizen Suits: Muddied Waters

See: Lenape Resources, Inc.

Use of potentially harmful chemicals kept secret under law - washingtonpost.com, Layton, Lyndsey , Washington Post, Washington, D.C., (2010)

washingtonpost.com

"Of the 84,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States -- from flame retardants in furniture to household cleaners -- nearly 20 percent are secret, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, their names and physical properties guarded from consumers and virtually all public officials under a little-known federal provision."

US natural gas drilling boom linked to pollution and social strife, Wickens, Jim , The Ecologist, (2010)

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The gas stored in the Marcellus Shale formation is the subject of desperate drilling to secure US domestic energy supplies. But the process involved - hydraulic fracturing - is the focus of a bitter dispute over environmental damage and community rights.

It is a timeless patchwork of small dairy farms and endless hills, emblazoned with the blood-red tints of an autumnal Pennsylvania forest. Set against this sleepy backdrop, however, the constant convoys of water trucks rumbling along the deserted country roads suggest something profound is taking place. This is fracking country, the latest frontier in America’s desperate search for fossil fuels.

Pioneered by companies such as Halliburton, high-volume horizontal slickwater fracturing otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing, or simply fracking involves the drilling of horizontal wells that are then injected with large volumes of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to open up rock fractures and help propel rock-trapped gas back to the surface.

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Professor Anthony Ingrafea, one of the world's leading experts on fracture mechanics, based at Cornell University, told the Ecologist:

...there is an overriding urgency to slow down the fracking rush. 'I'm not anti-oil and gas. What I'm against is an industry that is so out of control in using a new technology that does not have proper regulation, and enforcement of regulation, that they're riding roughshod over a large segment of the population.'

Universal Well Services, Inc., Universal Well Services , Universal Well Services, (2010)

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Universal Well Services is one of the large companies being investigated by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to see if the gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a hazard to groundwater drinking supplies.

According to its website, Universal is a premier source for hydraulic fracturing, cementing, nitrogen and acidizing services in the Appalachian Basin.

With its corporate headquarters in Meadville, Pa, Universal Well Services, Inc has grown from 200 employees in 2002, to over 800 employees at the end of 2007. Universal Well Services is a division of Patterson-UTI, and the parent company of Eastern Reservoir Services.

Universal’s services in the Appalachian Basin include hydraulic fracturing, as well as acidizing, cementing and nitrogen services. Specialty services include engineering, chemical cleaning, jetting and high pressure pumping.

Underground Injection of Gas Industry Brine Taking Off - State Journal - STATEJOURNAL.com, Kasey, Pam , The State Journal, Charleston, West Virginia, (2010)

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Several million gallons of "frack" fluid for each well return to the surface as a heavy brine, far saltier than seawater. Disposal of these new volumes of brine is a challenge.

So far, well operators or their agents have been hauling most of the frack flowback to Ohio for underground injection, according to Peterson, because salt removal is expensive and only two Class II, or brine disposal, wells were permitted by West Virginia's Underground Injection Control program.

Now, though, nine commercial brine disposal injection wells are permitted, and seven are operating. Several more are in the permitting pipeline.

The DEP has not in the past required well operators to report their water management in detail.

See: Desalination of Oil Field Brine

See: Gas wells' leftovers may wash into Ohio | Columbus Dispatch Politics

See: Gas Drillers Plead Guilty to Felony Dumping Violations

un-naturalgas.org, un-naturalgas.org , un-naturalgas.org, (2010)

un-naturalgas.org

because there is nothing natural about what the natural gas extraction process invented by Halliburton does to water, air, & living things

Includes extensive background information and petition.

See article on Eminent Domain.

See: Is Your Unleased Property Facing Compulsory Integration?

Site contains link to Dr. Ronald E. Bishop, Sustainable Otsego. "Beyond MSDS: A Review of Hazardous Materials Used by New York’s Natural Gas Industry." Cooperstown, NY. September 18, 2009.

"The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in response to a Freedom of Information Law request from the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, sent material safety data sheets (MSDS’s) for 48 products permitted for use in the drilling and development of natural gas wells in New York. These are posted online by the Finger Lakes chapter of the Sierra Club.

From these and many other documents, Steve Coffman of the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, developed a wonderful article: "The Safety of Fracturing Fluids – A Quantitative Assessment".

U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi | Current Legislation, Pelosi, Nancy , Speaker Nancy Pelosi | Current Legislation, (2010)

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) Newsroom Web Page. Includes links to Energy & Commerce Commitee website. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (2009).

For the other side of the Energy debate, see John Boehner's Blog.

U.S. Shale Gas, StanfordUniversity , YouTube, (2010)

Question and Answer period starts at 52:00. See: Potential Gas Committee reports unprecedented increase in magnitude of U.S. natural gas resource base.

(January 20, 2010) John Curtis, Professor of Geochemistry and Director of the Potential Gas Agency at the Colorado School of Mines, discusses a broad range of perspectives on the state of U.S. shale gas reserves and resources along with the industries and technologies that are involved in extracting and bringing these energy resources to market.

Stanford University

Potential Gas Agency

Stanford Energy Seminar

Stanford University Channel on YouTube
 

U.S. Senator Boxer to Hold Press Conference on Murkowski Proposal to Overturn EPA Global Warming Endangerment Finding, U.S. Senate , U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, (2010)

Hearings - HearingPRESS CONFERENCE: Senator Boxer to Hold Press Conference on Murkowski Proposal to Overturn EPA Global Warming Endangerment Finding.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will be joined by other Members of the EPW Committee and public health and environmental leaders to discuss Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) proposal which would strip the authority under the Clean Air Act to protect children and families from carbon pollution.