Landmark fracking study finds no water pollution

[louis-t]

Source: Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The final report from a landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, found no evidence that chemicals or brine water from the gas drilling process moved upward to contaminate drinking water at a site in western Pennsylvania.

Scientists used tracer fluids, seismic monitoring, and other tests to look for problems, and created the most detailed public report to date about how fracking affects adjacent rock structures.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/landmark-fracking-study-finds-no-160237470.html

---

Tell that to the people that can light their tap water on fire.

[Tikki]

1. Yeah, yeah...we get that little snippet from the nuclear industry all the time...

...industrial leakage causes no contamination or health issues....but it does.

Industry lies...it's what they do.


Tikki

[arikara]

2. Sure, and they can clean up shores and rivers

of dilbit and oil.

Right.

Who paid for that study?

[MrNJ]

3. The summary tallks about fluids and chemicals, not natural gas.

Anything that can cut down on energy imports is "lesser evil" in my book.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Faucet on fire in film Gasland-- Kind of a hoax. Google it.

Which is not to suggest it can't happen as a result of hydraulic fracturing, but that hasn't been proven AFAIK.

Water Flammable Before Fracking

In Gasland’s most poignant scene, a man in is filmed lighting his tap water on fire. The movie asserts that hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) has made this possible by contaminating nearby water sources. McAleer, however, discovered and proved residents in the man’s neighborhood have been able to light their water on fire since at least the 1930s, long before people began producing natural gas in the area. The gas mixing with groundwater appears to be a natural phenomenon.

McAleer was in Chicago when he decided to see a local showing of Gasland. After viewing the movie, his journalistic instincts took over and he started asking questions about what he had seen in the movie. McAleer came across a 1976 study by the Colorado Division of Water that had interesting implications.

“I checked online, and very quickly I came across what seemed to be pretty good, detailed research that showed people were able to burn their tap water years before fracking ever started,” McAleer says.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2011/08/01/gasland-producer-misled-viewers-lighted-tap-water

Similar articles:

http://rt.com/usa/flammable-water-dakota-fracking-023/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/03/07/dont-be-swayed-by-faucets-on-fire-and-other-anti-fracking-propaganda/
http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/08/gasland-part-ii-director-uses-hoax-as-evidence-against-fracking/

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Consider the source . . .

Please click here.

[freshwest]

23. On the Home Page: ‘Most Transparent Ever?’ Behold the FCC’s Secret, Crony Socialist Meetings

http://news.heartland.org/editorial/2014/09/16/most-transparent-ever-behold-fccs-secret-crony-socialist-meetings

By this Libertarian twit:



Seton Motley is the president of Less Government, a DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault.

Motley is editor in chief of StopNetRegulation.org, a Center for Individual Freedom publication.

One of America's leading authorities on technology and telecom policy, Motley is a writer, television and radio commentator, political and policy strategist, lecturer, debater, and activist.

http://heartland.org/seton-motley

Yeah, he's all that and a box of Kochocolates.

Naturally, he leaves out the corporate angle and blames it all on the socialist government.

Note his organization:

Take Action to Stop Net Regulation

Right now, President Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), bowing to the demands of liberal special interests, is actually considering a scheme to regulate the Internet like a public utility. And if they get their way, this egregious government overreach into the broadband economy will almost certainly kill job creation, harm consumers and bring investment and innovation to a screeching halt. Simply put, the federal government micromanaging the Internet is a dangerous scheme, one that Congress must halt and the FCC must abandon.

Use the form below to contact your Members of Congress and the FCC. Tell them to stop this attempted takeover of the Internet!

Sounds very familiar, doesn't it? Those Koch dollars at work. And it works so well that it has ensnared people here. Or has it? That is a two-process question, that will never get past filters clouded with ODS.

[antigone382]

14. In all seriousness, none of those sources with the variable exception of Forbes are worth salt.

The Heartland Institute in particular is the number one purveyor of pseudoscientific climate denialism and is one of the most insidious hives of intellectual and ethical bankruptcy to be found on the Internet.

Next comes Russia Times, not exactly a hallmark of agenda-free journalism.

Forbes has some respectable, quality reporting, but it definitely leans to the right, and has a history of pushing some anti-scientific positions on climate change and other environmental issues.

Last is the Daily Caller, a conservative blog founded by our dear friend Tucker Carlson.

This does not eliminate the possibility that Gasland's representation of flammable tapwater resulting from fracking is inaccurate. However, without having googled it myself yet, it does not reflect well on that possibility that none of the sources you posted can be considered credible when it comes to environmental science. It would seem that at least one reputable source would make the case that the movie's portrayal of fracking-related flammable water was false or inaccurate.

Now, none of that invalidates the study in the OP. I have not read the report myself, and it is quite possible in my mind that this research was carried out by honest scientists who were adequately funded and supported to carry out rigorous work. It is also possible that the study can be legitimately criticized and improved upon, given this administration's touting of hydraulic fracking as a tool for energy independence, the deplorable state of research funding, and the fact that in some cases federal researchers are using methods that are more tried and true, but less sensitive and cutting edge than what is being used by many universities and non-government research labs. More than likely the reality falls somewhere between these two potential scenarios. Without a detailed understanding of the report, it is impossible to say either way.

[Ash_F]

18. And Phelim McAleer is kind of a joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_McElhinney_and_Phelim_McAleer

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. DOE & Avner Vengosh, Liar Liar Tap's On Fire!

[adieu]

6. Erin Brockovich...

Calling Erin Brockovich. Clean-up on aisle 4.

[Sunlei]

8. so the deep injection doesn't leak up wards. (yet)

A.what about injection that isn't properly done, (not deep enough, the cap fails, the injection pipe breaks/leaks)?

B.what about the 'compressed' shale left behind after it's fracked? will rain never soak in down to the water table again? Increased flooding/mudslides/water table and wells run dry?

C.what about surface spills/accidents with those chemicals? what are the chemicals?

D.what about the fracking process where gas is pushed into the wells and water table & then some people have flammable water?

E. what about earthquakes?

I don't trust these industries, they have a history of hiding the dangers.

[snooper2]

9. LOL, you took the first and third paragraph and left out the second

interesting


The Department of Energy report, released Monday, was the first time an energy company allowed independent monitoring of a drilling site during the fracking process and for 18 months afterward. After those months of monitoring, researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas stayed about 5,000 feet below drinking water supplies.

[valerief]

10. And 8 out of 9 doctors smoke Camel. nt

[santamargarita]

11. Yeah and George Bush never stole an election!

[LynneSin]

12. Didn't the people from PPG tell the locals at Hinkley, CA their drinking water was safe?

Hell that one turned into an Oscar winning movie.

[RoccoR5955]

13. Read a little further...

...But the DOE report is far from the last word on the subject. The Energy Department monitored six wells at one site, but oil or gas drilling at other locations around the nation could show different results because of variations in geology or drilling practices. Environmentalists and regulators have also documented numerous cases where surface spills of chemicals or wastewater damaged drinking water supplies.

[Aerows]

15. I conducted a study and found

no pollution, poverty and depravity in my vicinity. Of course, I'm in my car going 75 mph so it's tough to pen down where the study started.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. Fracking = Poison

[Kelvin Mace]

17. "The Department of Energy report..."

Call me when the EPA issues a report.

[tjl148]

19. EPA vs DOE

Why would an EPA report be any more truthful then the DOE report?

[ZombieHorde]

20. Hmmm...

I'm skeptical of this study. If fracking isn't causing the contamination, then what is?

[Javaman]

21. only 6 wells monitored.

who picked the wells?

and it states in the article that this not the final word on the subject because it didn't take in differing geological conditions around the nation.

in other words: the study is worthless.

but you can bet your ass the oil and gas industry will champion it as the next best thing since sliced bread.

[lexington filly]

22. Study says it's the well cement casing at fault

Sounds like same explanation as from the the Gulf of Mex BP oil well mega disaster. First cousin to the "guns don't kill you--people do" ridiculousness. This time they're saying it isn't the fracking process itself, it's the well process and I say the terrible result is the same regardless of where in the process we become poisoned.

http://www.alternet.org/fracking/drinking-water-contaminated-shale-gas-boom-texas-and-pennslyvania