Toxic Gaslands: Horizontal Gas Fracture Extraction is Destroying Pennsylvania Farmlands for Generations to Come (Sep. 28, 2010)

Toxic Gaslands: Horizontal Gas Fracture Extraction is Destroying Pennsylvania Farmlands for Generations to Come (Sep. 28, 2010)



Horizontal Gas Fracture Extraction is Destroying Pennsylvania Farmlands for Generations to Come




From Ken Adachi, Editor
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/gasfracturepoisoning28sep10.shtml
September 28, 2010


Toxic Gaslands: Horizontal Gas Fracture Extraction is Destroying Pennsylvania Farmlands for Generations to Come (Sep. 28, 2010)


There is an unprecedented poisoning of American farmland underway in Pennsylvania and 33 other states in America where underground horizontal gas fracture extraction (called hydraulic fracturing) is taking place. The technique is graphically illustrated in this short trailer for a recent film by Josh Fox called Gasland which reveals in a series of interviews and vignettes, the rude awakening in store for trusting farmers and rural land owners who had accepted the assurance of smooth talking company representatives from energy giants like Dick Cheney's Haliburton that leasing their land for its mineral rights would cause no disturbance to the beauty and serenity of their farming habitat, yet bring in a lucrative monthly royalty check or windfall up-front leasing pay-out. For low and moderate income rural land owners, the money seemed like a dream come true.


For many, however, the dream turned into a nightmare when they began to notice things after drilling contractors moved in. Inexplicably, some of their farm animals would die and they had no idea why. Fish ponds were turning to an unnatural rusty color and the fish would die. Their kids were getting headaches and had odd symptoms of numbness or dizziness at home, yet they would feel OK at school; only to get a headache again once when they got back home.


They were suffering symptoms of neuro-toxic poisoning, but no one from the oil companies had warned them of that possibility and the company rep would adamantly deny that the underground drilling and gas fracturing played a role in any of it. The drilling technology and extraction technology were "completely safe" they were repeatedly assured.


Tell that to Ron Gulla who has a 140 acre farm in Hickory, Pennsylvania. I found some of his interviews on YouTube posted by an activist group called damascuscitizens.org and talked to him on the phone today for a couple of hours. He leased his property in 2005 to an energy company and thought they were going to vertically drill for "dry" methane gas pockets. They didn't tell him about the horizontal gas fracture drilling process until after the lease was signed and then it was too late. "They just took over" he said. It didn't matter what Ron told them or what he complained about: The company contractors who drove up from Texas or Oklahoma "just did whatever they wanted to do. They have no respect for the land and no respect for the land owners" he lamented. The company set up four well platforms on his land and extracted gas from 2005 to 2007. His frustration with the indifference shown by drilling companies is characteristic of local reaction to the enormous environmental damage that is being inflicted on the entire farming ecosystem. His resentment is evident in this short video when he tells the interviewer that "The land is raped. The land will never be the same.

That's the bottom line".


ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47RBexAsyE





Ron says that Democratic Governor Ed Rendell and even gubernatorial candidates from other parties are totally in bed with the oil interests and are doing nothing to help land owners resist the coercion and intimidation foisted upon them by powerful energy interests who don't want to take "no" for an answer. He says the DEP (Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection) is a joke. It behaves more like a PR firm for Big OIl and stonewalls environmental activists, while paying hollow lip service to land owner complaints. He claims the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), who suppose to oversee the drilling industry, is even worse. "They act more like oil company stockholders, rather than regulators" he fumes


If the oil companies can't get farmers to sign a lease willingly, they use their bought & paid-for government stooges to invoke the law of "eminent domain" and force a sale whether the land owner likes it or not. This recently happened in Bedford county, Pennsylvania; where the abuse of eminent domain by government officials (who are clearly in bed with the oil industry) has risen to a new plateau of naked skullduggery:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1mAMn6zsto&feature=related

The hydraulic fracturing process involves the high pressure injection of millions of gallons of water mixed with a toxic witches' brew of undisclosed chemicals and sand to accommodate the fracturing and release of gas from the shale beds. That precious water is taken from rivers, lakes, and water resources intended for public benefit, and not to enrich the coffers of international energy companies who are engaging in a frenzied feast to plunder America's mineral resources, in much the same way they have plundered the mineral resources of indigenous people in South America, Central America, and Africa. The story is always the same. They rape, they plunder, and then leave their mess behind them for the locals to deal with.


Contamination & Dumping


Ron Gulla told me that only 30 % of the fracturing fluid is recovered and supposedly processed, while 70 % REMAINS in the ground. The recovered fluid is supposed to be hauled off to processing centers, but locals have repeatedly caught company truckers DUMPING the recovered fracturing fluid on local roads, in forested areas, and even dumping it down abandoned mine shafts. To deceive the public, some trucks have "Clean Water" printed on the side.


Naturally, petroleum gases released by fracturing, liquids and the fracturing fluid itself is mixing with ground water and even percolating up through fissures into the surface environment. Initially, energy company representatives had told land owners that they were only adding three benign chemicals and sand to the fracturing fluid, but environmental activists soon discovered that there could be as many as 584 different chemicals used in the fracturing fluid mix. The energy companies involved in the gas fracturing steadfastly refuse to divulge to anybody the chemical makeup of the fracturing fluid and government regulators simply won't intervene on the public's behalf and force disclosure.


The Energy Policy Act of 2005 rammed through congress by the Bush/Cheney team exempts gas fracturing energy companies from any liability for environmental damage or injury that may result from the use of fracturing fluids. Therefore, the hard-fought federal legislation designed to protect the public interest and health, such as the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987 are now null and void, and meaningless when it when it comes to gas fracture extraction. Here's a quote from Wikipedia's description of the 2005 Energy Policy Act:

"This bill exempted fluids used in the natural gas extraction process of Hydraulic fracturing from protections under the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and CERCLA. The proposed Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would repeal these exemptions."

Ron Gulla tells the story as well as anyone in the following four video clips that are now posted to YouTube. They were part of a video documentary made a couple of years ago by damacuscitizens.org to try to bring to greater public awareness the horrendous destruction of farmland that has been ripping through vast regions of Pennsylvania like a rampaging bull. This madness must stop. New York recently passed a one year moratorium to halt all drilling activity until environmental impact studies can be made and reassess the wisdom of continuing this insane juggernaut.


Pennsylvania state Senator Jim Ferlo has sponsored Pennsylvania Senate bill 1447 which calls for a moratorium on all natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposit, which runs through most of Pennsylvania. Currently, the greatest destruction in the Northeast is taking place in Pennsylvania, but Ohio is being prepared for the slaughter.

Hopefully, enough activists in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia will rally enough local support among farm land owners and state residents alike, to prevent even more rural owners from buying into the same deception and lies that already befell Pennsylvania farmers .


Ron Gulla, Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vqi0_p1APM&feature=related





Ron Gulla, Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mwYZRojQCs&feature=related



Ron Gulla, Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TrJKVNxNPM&NR=1



Ron Gulla, Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmodxopmx_M&feature=related



There is much more to this story than the brief outline presented here. I plan to add additional interviews and articles to this page and perhaps extend it out to two or three parts. In the meantime, Ron Gulla suggested seeing Gasland * which has been available on HBO and can now be seen in movie theaters across the country as of Sep. 15, 2010, according to film maker Josh Fox. I'm hoping Josh will make it available as a DVD purchase sooner, rather than later. Another DVD that Ron recommended seeing is Split Estate, produced by Debra Anderson (who just won an Emmy in New York) and narrated by actress Ali McGraw.

Bob Donnan also has a good web site that covers the assault on the Marcellus Shale very well (http://marcellus-shale.us/)

There are still farms in Pennsylvania, such as the bucolic and peaceful little town (318 people) of Le Raysville in Bradford county where locals are being readied for the slaughter and are being schmoozed with the same money bait and safety promises that had already sucked in so many trusting souls. I hope someone can get to them in time and turn them around before they make the same dreadful mistake that Ron Gula and others came to bitterly regret. (If anyone reading this essay lives in that area or any parts of Pennsylvania who can help or wants to help, please call me or write )

Ken Adachi


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*(Gasland won a special jury award at the Sundance Film Festival this year and was characterized by Robert Koehler of Variety as “one of the most effective and expressive environmental films of recent years… "Gasland" may become to the dangers of natural gas drilling what "Silent Spring" was to DDT.”)

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/gasfracturepoisoning28sep10.shtml