NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS FRACKING IS AFFECTING MORE THAN THE WATER SUPPLY

NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS FRACKING IS AFFECTING MORE THAN THE WATER SUPPLY

There are a lot of articles devoted to the perils of 'fracking'.  A powerful documentary has already hit the television screens, and a new movie has just been released for the silver screen.

Although images of people being able to light their faucet water on fire has captured the attention of most people, what seems to have been lost is the overall picture and with it the prospect of long term damage to the environment and now, to the animals that live within it.

News are now surfacing that shale extraction of natural gas, commonly known as 'fracking', is wreaking havoc on farming populations in an area of upstate New York where farms and wineries often combine restaurant activity with production.  The area sits on what is known as the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that stretches from West Virginia to the upper reaches of New York State.  The natural gas, much sought after in the current policy of replacing fossil fuels as principal sources of energy, is trapped in the shale deposits and must be obtained by breaking apart the shale and then forcing extraction chemicals in the fractures to force the gas free from its stone trap.  

However the highly disruptive and some say poisonous extraction is now in a direct line of conflict with such highly specialized forms of farming in the state, which tout their products as being not only superior but organic and local.  

News of injury from fracking has been slow in coming, and news outlets seem loath to bring the problem to the fore.  People in New York state had heard about the human toll in those states that are now subject to massive fracking: horrible rashes, nosebleeds and respiratory trauma have been reported, and they all sympathized, nodding their head in empathy without a thought towards their own peril.

However, in one of the fracked regions of New York state, one of the farmers has reported that her cows, which are all grass fed, are now collapsing and dying without apparent cause.   Fracking has begun in earnest about three miles from her farm.  Indeed the shadows of the tall fracking towers loom in the distance of the once idyllic farm.  Five cows died in a short period of time.  Even more ominous, the 53 year old  farmer herself is now in poor health, and the symptoms of lightheadedness that plague her seem to occur when she steps outside.  She also has rashes and lung problems that have started almost a year ago.  She is also starting to urinate blood some mornings. 

Examinations of the areas around her farm have detected high levels of benzene, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and xylene.  All these chemicals are among the ones employed in extraction, and they are all teratogenic.  Her well also tested for the chemicals....and for a whole lot more.  Even heavy metals have been found in the water.

Earlier this year, an Ithaca vet, M. Baumberger, and a professor of molecular biology at Cornell, R. Oswald have published the first report so far of its kind on the effects of contamination from fracking on farm animals.  Although the numbers of death of livestock reported is a fraction of total population, the findings are ominous.  In addition, the livestock that dies from exposure is used for the creation of feed, meaning that the contaminants do not leave the food chain.  

Indeed the research has established the direct link between livestock deaths in some cases and poisoning from fracking contaminants.  Fracking seems to be contaminating not just the water supply, but also the air and now the livestock.

The great need to replace fossil fuels has created a bonanza for the fracking industry.  However, the long term effects are unknown, and from what is already known the toll could be great.  More problematic is the fact that such need has allowed these companies to operate without scrutiny and even media outlets seem to shy away from discussing the problem. Indeed farmers or property owners who seek answers to their questions are often stonewalled, with both authorities and companies operating in the area refusing to give any data. 

Even more ominously it seems that truck drivers are increasingly using natural sites to illegally dump the waste material, although waste collection sites have no protocol for the disposal, so that in the end they are still dumped into the environment instead of being sequestered. 

Many of the loopholes that allow fracking companies to operate without regard to the safety of the population were crafted under the Cheney administration.   These federal loopholes have in fact exempted the companies from compliance of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Act, and others.  Without compliace, the chemical employed by the fracking industry remain a mystery.  Without identification of these chemicals, there is no way of weeding out the interaction between these chemicals and other compounds already in the environment, and more importantly what effect it has in humans.

In effect this practice of stonewalling is so pervasive that a couple of years ago a judge had to force a fracking company to reveal the chemical composition after a hospital went into emergency when a nurse feel deathly ill while treating a person who had been contaminated by the fracking chemicals.

The Obama administration is now trying to remedy this problem and the companies are now being forced in some states to disclose these chemicals on their web site.  Still, the quantities and concentrations are not being revealed, and the disclosure is not even mandatory until the job is complete, which does nothing for those people and livestock affected during operations.

Interestingly enough a first line of attack to these energy operations might be coming from companies that insure farming enterprises.  Radobank, the largest farm insurer, no longer insure farms with gas leases. 

Source: The Nation 11/2012

Shale map; courtesy Geomore.com