Friday, May 20, 2011
Environment Fracking fluid found in Clinton water supply
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, May 20, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Bombshell from KTHV if you care about the environment:
Roger Rorie, the mayor of Clinton says chemicals used in the fracking process to find natural gas have been discovered in the city water supply and an effort is underway to recover what apparently are barrels of chemicals dumped in a creek that provides city water. The EPA has been removing barrels since Thursday.
Calling Sen. Jason Rapert and the legislature's Shale Lobby. Needed quickly: An explanation of how this must be some mistake. Gas exploration is ALWAYS safe, clean and a boon to all of Arkansas. Our regulation is comprehensive and effective in every way. Somebody is again trying to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
UPDATE: More from KUAR. The Department of Environmental Quality is already making excuses. Maybe these barrels got washed into the creek by flooding. OK, maybe so. But does anybody in the industry keep track and DO anything when barrels of chemicals get washed away? And if floods washed away barrels, anybody have any idea about the waste pits scattered around Arkansas? Still unknown what, exactly, was in the barrels. Fox 16 says some are labeled "drilling fluid." Some were sealed, some were not. The state says city water will be tested as will the contents of the barrels, but nothing is yet known. No one has reported the loss of any barrels by flooding. ADEQ is taking the event "very seriously," the spokeswoman said.
In a related item, a Memphis law firm has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Arkansas families whose water has been contaminated by gas drilling. You can read the complaint here. Fox 16 also ran a story on the suit.
Speaking of...
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Monday night line
May 21, 2012The week has begun. Closing out: * REOCCUPY LITTLE ROCK: Former state Rep. Robert Johnston, more civicly engaged each passing year, proposes to begin an every-Thursday demonstration at the former Occupy Little Rock campsite at 4th and Ferry. /more/
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Group finds shortcomings in fracking study
March 9, 2012Thanks to a tip from Sen. Jason Rapert, I got an early jump on the independent review by Stronger Inc. of gas exploration regulation in Arkansas in the age of fracking. /more/
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A review of fracking oversight — improvements needed
March 8, 2012Thanks to Sen. Jason Rapert for a report I hadn't seen before — the independent review by Stronger Inc. of Arkansas's oversight of exploration for gas in the state by hydraulic fracturing. /more/
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Comments (49)
Showing 1-49 of 49
Since companies have the power and determination to keep the names of fracking chemicals from us/our government... how does the good mayor or all of these reporters know it's fracking chemicals in the water? If they do know... what specifically are the chemicals in the water?
And thanks Gov. Beebe... thanks a lot. We need more insiders appointed to "regulatory" positions.
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dislike
"un-fracking-believable This article???? NO the cost of energy due to liberal policies of no use of fossill fuels for anything!!!!
Coal is used to provide the electricity to run your vibrators to self flagellate your bloated egos.
Drill Baby Drill
Maybe we should call the " AR dept of health" and tell them we heard the frackers use melatonin in their chem cocktails.
Quick, someone leak that the chemicals in the water supply are Viagra. That should get all the limp-noodled Republicans out of Little Rock for a while.
Fracking fluid in the water supply, wouldn't that promote tooth decay? If it destroys teeth like it destroys shale rock, the City of Clinton will soon be full of toothless hillbillies. They'd better add tons of flouride to the water.
Let's see, Eureka, now that you've discovered the wonderful World of the Internets and are online yourself, let me introduce you to Wikipedia!
Here, for instance, is their one-click answer to your query. And so easy to find, now that you know how!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fra…
Duh. These counties chose gas drilling over clean water a long time ago. Now they reap what they sow.
The socialistic EPA should leave them to the consequences of their own decisions so they can take personal accountability, and they should not get $1.00 of state money for their cleanup.
@ Empire of Dirt- You should have your land taken from you under threat of State and Industry thugs. You should have your land and water poisoned, your property values demolished your animals killed and your children riddled with disease while you fight a faceless corporation with 50 tons of lawyers. Then you should sit and mope to yourself about personal responsibility while you drink non EPA-tested poison water in your house full of non-regulated lead paint.
It sounds like a big deal. So my question is what is the chemical and just how toxic is it to get a govt. agency out there that fast?
We didn't choose this.
It was forced upon us by short sighted money grubbing politicians and 24hr a day PR machines for T Boob and the industry.
It sounds like a great opportunity for a private sector solution: Fracking insurance.
It would work EXACTLY like health insurance.
For a mere 30% of your premium in overhead and senior manager salaries, a company will insure you against loss of clean water.
Of course, part of that 30% goes to pay claim administrators who are evaluated based on how many claims they deny.
And if you sue the company for denying your water claim, they'll prolong the case so that you die of thirst before they have to pay.
We should not rest until our water supply system is as world-class as our health care system. Only when we pay more for less water than any other developed country will we be truly free.
If you don't like polluted water, don't criticize me. Elect someone who gives a damn about YOUR rights, rather than voting for the f***ing Tea Party which is owned and operated by corporations and populated by incompetent candidates.
Maybe you aren't in that category, but I've had it with rural Arkansans who scream and scream and scream about getting government of the backs of business -- until they face the consequences of a morality that says profit is the ultimate measure of goodness.
Anyway, explain to me why one penny of my tax dollars should go to clean up that spill. Explain to me why I should be responsible. I'm not getting rich off a well on my property. No lobbyist is taking me to dinner. Clinton has benefited from those gas wells and now Clinton needs to step up and pay the piper.
Uh, Satori23, Empire is being facetious and is more or less on your side. If you had been on this blog long, you would know that.
He's more likely your ally, not your enemy.
Are investigators looking into the possibility that this was an act of domestic terrorism? Deliberately dumping barrels of poison into the water supply of a whole town should be considered exactly that. The Arkansas State Police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security should be on the scene investigating this right now. Then send Seal Team 6 after the perpetrator.
I'm telling ya and I'm telling ya...someday 50 years from now when the population of America is about 3 million because the rest have died in earthquakes....someone will announced the reason for all the 21st century earthquakes was the effects of removing oil & gas from the earth every moment since 1859. The resulting voids triggered thousands of earthquakes that nearly ended life on the planet earth.
They don't tell us because it would wreck our oil based world economy.
Channel 4 is reporting that the barrels may have been sitting in a field that flooded and the barrels floated away into the creek. They also report that the labels and lot numbers are still attached to the barrels, so the responsible party can be tracked down.
Let me backtrack a moment to Eureka, having chided him for failing to Wiki fracking chemicals.
Eureka consistently, and accurately, blogs about the sameness of America's two parties and the near-futility of making fine distinctions between them.
While agreeing in principle, I still measure some differences between them, especially in relation to their stances on social issues.
What I DO have a problem with is Eureka's seeming to wrap himself in some cocoon of iconoclasm and isolated certainty, without links to the outside sources from which he doubtless shapes his opinions and conclusions. (See his questioning about fracking chemicals, which information is readily found.)
Of LARGER importance to America and the world, however, are Eureka's well-justified assaults on the false debate that the Democrats and Republicans represent some Light / Dark, Good / Evil, Black / White choice.
They don't, and Eureka is correct.
Here, for instance, is an article from today's Salon, by the always impressive Glenn Greenwald, about the always-expanding bipartisan Surveillance State. In its scope, it is far more important than same-sex equality, fracking, women's right to self-determination, freedom from religious fascism . . . though it is indeed tied to all those and more.
Yet in light of the bigger picture of what is going on, those become mere distractions and sideshows -- as Eureka obsessively and rightly insists on this blog.
Says Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin: "We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_gr…
With more links to his sources, perhaps, Eureka's posts would carry the weight they truly deserve.
As I said before...ask Rep Webb and the public policy council how concerned your state legislative body is about this problem when we just try to introduce legislation to implement best practices policy.
NO GO, according to these knowledgeable legislators and yahoos in the room because it will put the industry out of business....YEA RIGHT!!!!
On a smaller scale, when it comes to LR city hall salaries, I seem to have found one that makes them look good...
Life guards that make 200K!!!!
see link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Lifeguards-h…
@ Empire- Apolly-loggies. Sometimes sarcasm reads like authentic Tea Party rhetoric.
Are you kidding? Empire's as far right as they come!!! I even saw him trying to squeeze oil out of a baby seal! And he prayed while doing it!
Norma on the rare occasion i fail to provide a link that suits your high standards, i will happily do so upon request. As for the fracking chemical remark.. i was thinking of numerous stories.. no single link.. about companies refusing to disclose what chemicals they use, often upon/in defiance of direct fed/state/local government requests. Old AR blog links are among the most difficult to find, but i do believe Max has reported AR frackers unwillingness to disclose for "proprietary reasons". At the time the argument seemed to work.... meaning i don't recall gov't forcing the issue beyond that point.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari…
So unless Norma is suggesting the good mayor of Clinton and or our State folks read wiki for comprehensive lists of fracking chemicals... i still wonder how they know what ALL is in fracking chemicals... do they have a list of the chemicals, for each proprietary blend? Do they believe with great certainty that their list is complete? May we see the lists they (gov) have now?
If the guys who left the barrels on the slope leading to the creek were named Mohammed, they would be headed to Gitmo and a firing squad. Don't cut Chesapeake any slack on this. Arkansas is letting itself be poisoned.
MSDS sheet are required on every site for everything from drilling mud to 409 cleaner.
Sanford, I am wondering why the drilling company left them 'laying around' like that. What's to stop some kid (or adult for that matter) from taking shots at them with a rifle. It happened a few years back with the Alaska pipeline when some shooter shut the line down briefly by shooting holes in it. This stuff should be under lock and key and not be available to anyone passing by.
Maybe the barrels are an omen for tomorrow's Rapture. Barrels could save your life in the event of a giant flood when you're Left Behind.
I love Proprietary Interests. Trade Secrets. It's what protects the untold and totally secretive fragrance industries from revealing the chemical cocktails Americans bathe themselves in daily then splash on more after bathing while wearing clothes soaked in fragrance chemical cocktails of unknown, and unknowable, origins and description.
Carbon-based life forms. This too shall pass.
No, eLwood. There will always be cockroaches, chiggers, ticks, and Mexican fan palms. I think I will mosey over to Lancaster's column on the end of the world and add fracking to the list of things to be omitted in the do-over.
"But does anybody in the industry keep track and DO anything when barrels of chemicals get washed away?"
I imagine its much like when anything is lost, stolen, falls off of the truck or otherwise mysteriously disappears in a large organization. No one notices until someone starts looking for them. Since taking inventory doesn't make money, I doubt anyone does it very often.
I take it all back. I see ES returns to shrill hair-splitting form, thus restoring predictable irrelevancy. My bad.
We can never know, until somebody somewhere publishes the official long form list of chemicals specific to fracking in Clinton and ONLY in Clinton.
THEN we can know what chemicals are used in fracking in Clinton and only in Clinton.
Got it.
get real, you are full of bull feces. MSDS sheets are not required for 409 cleaner on drilling rigs. Roughnecks don't need no stinking 409.
Having worked in this business in other states and checked a few drilling jobs in lower Arkansas, you don't normally store barrels of drilling fluid out in a field or any other liquid generated from drilling operations.
Considering that they are using a diesel/water emulsion as the basis of the drilling "mud," chances are the barrels contain fluid additives for the mud system.
Would think that the ADEQ, not having the expertise to monitor these operation, could at least find a "cooperative" industry rep to examine the goods and give them an idea of what they are dealing with.
Sounds like dumping of unwanted liquids. Stupid people.
Also, wannabee, fracking was specifically exempted from the Clean Water Act in the 2005 energy bill at the urging of VP Darth Cheney. I believe that material data safety sheets are an OSHA regulation.
What if they were just empty barrels? Due to recent flooding had been washed away from somewhere. Not making excuses, but I work in the environmental field and see alot of empty 55-gallon drums (plastic and metal).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_safe…
“In the U.S., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires that MSDS be available to employees for potentially harmful substances handled in the workplace under the Hazard Communication regulation. The MSDS is also required to be made available to local fire departments and local and state emergency planning officials under Section 311 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.”
“Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.”
Henrik Tikkanen
(Note: Please disregard if there are no future generations e.g. Zombie Apocalypse.)
I watched the news account of this at 5:00 and my gut tells me the drums didn't sprout legs and walk to the creek or were washed there by a flood.
And APF, those drumns were not all empty. Apparently some were full or sealed and others were leaking. Someone ought to go to jail on this one. There are ways to dispose of hazardous material containers. This is someone taking the cheaper way out and they deserve to pay the price. They may not be held on the disposal issue due to Darth Vader writing it into the energy bill, but they have contaiminated a city's water supply and that should open them up to civil action (start with tarring and feathering using the solution to hold the feathers on).
Mr. Brantley, local law enforcement advised me this evening that a landowner called and advised them that he in fact owned the blue barrels that were recovered in the creek. I was advised that he advised the authorities that he bought the barrels around 3 years ago and that the recent heavy rains washed the barrels off of his property into the creek. I was also informed that the barrels were thought to have contained a detergent used in the cleaning of truck tankers - and they were empty. I am happy that it appears this was not a more serious event and perhaps those responsible for creating this story will come forward and formally give an account of the information to bring full transparency to the event. I am certain that all of the state agencies that were called in to handle this matter will make a full report soon.
I hope this is helpful to you as you continue to monitor this developing story and strive to report the facts.
You might also be interested to know that the AOGC is working on a noise reduction rule based upon the legislation I introduced during the session which was supported by many who wanted to see the rights of homeowners and property owners protected. I hope that Arkansas will have a stronger noise reduction rule in place before Summer is over. I have been urging quick action by the AOGC so that we can strengthen the protections that should be afforded homeowners in our state that live in areas where natural gas compressors are utilized.
Respectfully,
Sen. Jason Rapert
Upon hearing of this I immediately remembered the heartfelt plea made by Senator Jason Rapert on front steps of our state capitol. He asked that if anyone had proof of any harm done by the gas industry he would go to the mat and fight for us. It wasn't easy, but I was finally able to have a discussion with him on this matter on the Jason Rapert for Arkansas Senate Facebook Fan Page. You must "like" the page to have access to the exchange. Yes I know, it pained me as well. His statement on the origins of the barrels seems to be information that ADEQ, the Mayor of Clinton, the citiens of Clinton and the news media have not been made privy to. If what he says is true, then I am confused as to why he would not call a press conference or just release an official statement to calm the public panic. People are scared and he is holding information that could put them at ease. In the exchange he asked me to share the information. After much research, I was not been able to find anything to substantiate his claims and didn't feel I should spread information of which I had no proof or at least two sources. I explained to him that I thought this was a statement best left to the media, state agencies or himself.
Contact The office of Sheriff Scott Bradley as I told you last night Ms. Palmer. Sheriff Bradley has firsthand information and that is also known by the officials directly investigating. When asked to help, I called on the person I was told could give me the most accurate and current information. I depend upon on local authorities and state agencies to do their job and provide accurate information. I have no reason to doubt the information that was provided to me late yesterday after more information had been gathered. If I am given better information I will gladly advise anyone that asks.
Respectfully,
Sen. Jason Rapert
"and they were empty. "
If the barrels were empty then what chemicals are interfering with the efficiency of Clinton's water treatment plant? Do we now need to look for a leaking frac site on Choctaw Creek?
Gotcha journalism at its finest. Rush to conclusion before the facts are in. Who cares if the conclusion is wrong. Ratings and advertising sales drive content these days, not the facts of a story.
"If the barrels were empty then what chemicals are interfering with the efficiency of Clinton's water treatment plant?"
A combination of dirt and fertilizer is always a safe bet.
“Gotcha journalism at its finest.”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotcha_journa…
Gotcha journalism is a term used to describe methods of interviewing which are designed to entrap the interviewee into making statements which are damaging or discreditable to their cause, character, integrity, or reputation. The aim is to make film or sound recordings of the interview which can be selectively edited, compiled, and broadcast or published to show the subject in an unfavourable light.
Don’t confuse the desirable lie with the undesirable truth.
“I just hope the lamestream media won't twist my words by repeatin' em verbatim”
Tina Fey's Sarah Palin
"Gotcha journalism" for reporting that clearly labeled barrels from a drilling company were found floating in a water supply serving nearly 100,000 people?
I guess people can ignore a lot of things when their paycheck depends on ignoring them.
If anyone involved in this industry so much as farts near my water supply I want it in the news.
Their total nonchalance and disregard for public safety clearly warrants it.
I’m a recent graduate of Hendrix College who lives in Central Arkansas and spends a great deal of time in Clinton itself. I have a problem with people constantly spreading their opinion across the net without doing any real research first to see if their claims hold merit. Please look further into what you are writing about before posting.
First off, images of the barrels and their labels are available on the internet, should you have chosen to look for them. They show the chemical inside is WT-22, which is NOT a frac-ing chemical. They transport frac-ing chemicals in trucks, it would not be practical to move them in barrels like these.
Furthermore, the barrels being in the creek HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY DRILLING COMPANY, NOR DID THEY HAVE ANY CHEMICALS IN THEM. Testing has proved it. I will repeat again for anyone who has issues understanding, the chemicals in the creek water DID NOT COME FROM THE BARRELS FOUND.
The barrels were sold to a local man to use for training his horses in BARREL RACING. He bought the barrels from the drilling company and they were empty when they came into his possession. The barrels ended up in the creek by being carried with the floodwaters during the storms which recently overtook and damaged many of the cities in our state – causing most to be called disaster areas.
Read the REAL updates on this story here:
http://arkansasnews.com/2011/05/23/lawyer-…
I understand where you are coming from, OP, but spreading misinformation just because a news station post it without doing some of your own research first is doing a disservice to anyone looking for the truth.
And also see http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/11/us_re…, concerning fracking and earthquakes.
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