The Real Cost of Fracking (30 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank our editors, Alexis Rizzuto and Will Myers, and the staff of Beacon for helping to make this book a reality.

We would also like to thank James Muldoon, Kendra Smith, and David and Helen Slottje for advice on legal matters, Russell Galen for advice on literary contracts, Lou Allstadt for advice on the technical aspects of unconventional gas extraction, and Dr. Amy Seidl for advice on editors and agents. While exploring the subject of this book, we have met and come to know many wonderful people who have become our friends. Many of these people live in New York and Pennsylvania, but because unconventional fossil fuel extraction knows no bounds, we have also befriended people in California, Colorado, North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ohio. Although it would be impossible to list all of the people who have given us advice and helped over the last few years, we will mention a few: Dr. Jessica Ernst, Dr. Jan Zeserson, Dr. Hugh MacMillan, Dr. Leslie Walleigh, Dr. Larysa Dyrszka, Dr. Jannette Barth, Dr. Yuri Gorbi, Dr. John Stolz, Dr. Bryce Payne, Dr. Alisa Rich, Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Dr. Robert Howarth, Dr. Motoko Mukai, Dr. Linda Nicholson, Dr. Gregory Weiland, Dr. Ron Bishop, Dr. Craig Slatin, Dr. William Podulka, Dr. Adam Law, Dr. Madelon Finkel, Dr. Julie Huntsman, Dr. Irene Weiser, Ron Gulla, Robert Donnan, Sandy Podulka, Sharon Wilson, William DuBose, Tara Meixsell, Lisa Bracken, Rick Roles, Jake Hays, Hillary Acton, Elaine Hill, Nadia Steinzor, Krys Cail, Carol French, Claude Arnold, Carolyn Knapp, the UGDAB8 (Jane Penrose, Ann Furman, Ken Zeserson, Judy Abrams, Michael Dineen, and Jan Quarles), and our sons, Ben and Aaron Oswald.

We are most grateful to the families that participated in our research. They opened up their hearts and homes to us by agreeing to many hours of initial interviews and even more hours of visits and follow-up telephone calls and questions. Many of these people continue to give us updates, allowing us to glimpse what the long-term health impacts of living in the midst of unconventional fossil fuel operations looks like. Without these families and their animals, this book would not have been possible. Because this book does not include stories from all of the families we interviewed, and because each family’s story could be a book in its own right, we hope that these families, and especially the children, will write their own stories, not only for themselves but also for future generations that may be faced with living in an industrial zone.

This book would not have been possible without the support, advice, and encouragement of Dr. Sandra Steingraber. Sandra is a constant source of inspiration who selflessly offered her time and insights from the beginning of this project all the way through to the end. We are most fortunate to have her as a neighbor, a colleague, and a friend.

1
. L. Legere, “Sunday Times Review of DEP Drilling Records Reveals Water Damage, Murky Testing Methods,”
Scranton (PA) Times-Tribune
, May 13, 2013,
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/sunday-times-review-of-dep-drilling-records-reveals-water-damage-murky-testing-methods-1.1491547
.

2
. A. Ingraffea,
Fluid Migration Mechanisms Due to Faulty Well Design and/or Construction: An Overview and Recent Experiences in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Play
(Ithaca, NY: Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy, 2013),
http://www.psehealthyenergy.org/data/PSE_Cement_Failure_Causes_and_Rate_Analysis_Jan_2013_Ingraffea1.pdf
.

3
. Associated Press, “EPA Halted ‘Fracking’ Case After Gas Company Protested,” January 16, 2013,
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/16/epa-gas-company-protested/1839857/
; A. Rascoe, “EPA Ends Probe of Wyoming Water Pollution Linked to Fracking,” Reuters, June 20, 2013,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-usa-epa-fracking-idUSBRE95J1AN20130620
.

4
. J. Efstathiou Jr. and M. Drajem, “Drillers Silence Fracking Claims With Sealed Settlements,”
Bloomberg News
, June 6, 2013,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-06/drillers-silence-fracking-claims-with-sealed-settlements.html
.

5
. “Judge Defeats Challenge to ‘Medical Gag Order’ on Health Risks from Fracking,”
RT
, October 31, 2013,
http://rt.com/usa/medical-gag-rule-risks-fracking-053/
.

1
. MAP-Tompkins, “The Marcellus Accountability Project for Tompkins County,” 2010,
www.tcgasmap.org/
.

2
. New York State, Environmental Conservation Law, “Environmental Conservation,” section 23-0901, “Compulsory Integration and Unitization in Oil and Natural Gas Pools and Fields,” accessed December 15, 2013,
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/
.

3
. Centers for Disease Control, “Epidemiologic Aspects of the Current Outbreak of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections,”
New England Journal of Medicine
306 (1982): 248–52.

4
. M. Bamberger and R.E. Oswald, “Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health,”
New Solutions
22 (2012): 51–77.

5
. J.S. Campbell, “Flexible Driving Shaft,” 1891,
www.google.com/patents/US459152
.

6
. D.W. Lique, C.H. Cranston, and D.F. Morehouse, “Drilling Sideways: A Review of Horizontal Well Technology and Its Domestic Application,” Energy Information Administration, Office of Oil and Gas, US Department of Energy, April 1993,
www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/drilling_sideways_well_technology/pdf/tr0565.pdf
.

7
. T.L. Watson, “Granites of the Southeastern Atlantic States,” US Geological Survey, bulletin 426 (1910),
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0426/report.pdf
.

8
. Halliburton, “Hydraulic Fracturing 101,” 2013,
www.halliburton.com//files/05/83/16/f058316/public/projects/pubsdata/hydraulic_fracturing/fracturing_101.html
.

9
. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, “Natural Gas Development Activities and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing,” revised draft, Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, 2011,
www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/rdsgeisch50911.pdf
.

10
.
Wikipedia
, s.v. “hydraulic fracturing,” last modified December 19, 2013,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
; Halliburton, “A Case Study: Sleeping Giant: The Story Behind the First Economically Successfuly Shale Play,” 2012,
www.halliburton.com//files/05/83/16/f058316/public/common/Case_Histories/H08944.pdf
.

11
. A. Messer, “Unconventional Natural Gas Reservoir Could Boost U.S. Supply,”
Penn State News
, January 17, 2008,
http://news.psu.edu/story/191364/2008/01/17/unconventional-natural-gas-reservoir-could-boost-us-supply
.

12
. US Geological Survey, “USGS Releases New Assessment of Gas Resources in the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin,” August 23, 2011,
www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2893
.

13
. The estimate of six months is very crude and cannot be made with a great deal of confidence. This number was generated by using the percentage of gas extractable from counties in New York State, estimated by T. Engelder, “Marcellus,” August 2009,
www3.geosc.psu.edu/~jte2/references/link155.pdf
, and multiplying it by the total amount of gas estimated to be extractable from the Marcellus by US Geological Survey, “USGS Releases New Assessment.”

14
. L.W. Allstadt (former executive vice president of Mobil Oil Corporation responsible for exploration and production in the United States), personal communication, 2013.

15
. A.E. Berman and L.F. Pittinger, “U.S. Shale Gas: Less Abundance, Higher Cost,”
The Oil Drum
, August 5, 2011,
www.theoildrum.com/node/8212
.

16
. A. Nikiforuk,
Saboteurs
(Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2011).

17
. J. Gordon, “Canada Fracking Protests Turn Violent; 40 Arrested After Police Cars Set on Fire,”
Huffington Post
, October 17, 2013,
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/canada-fracking-protests_n_4118301.html
.

18
. C.L. Waldner, C.S. Ribble, E.D. Janzen, and J.R. Campbell, “Associations Between Oil- and Gas-Well Sites, Processing Facilities, Flaring, and Beef Cattle Reproduction and Calf Mortality in Western Canada,”
Preventive Veterinary Medicine
50 (July 19, 2001): 1–17; C. L. Waldner, “The Association Between Exposure to the Oil and Gas Industry and Beef Calf Mortality in Western Canada,”
Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
63 (2008): 220–40; C. L. Waldner and E. G. Clark, “Association Between Exposure to Emissions From the Oil and Gas Industry and Pathology of the Immune, Nervous, and Respiratory Systems, and Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle in Beef Calves,”
Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
64 (2009): 6–26; D. G. Bechtel, C. L. Waldner, and M. Wicktrom, “Associations Between In Utero Exposure to Airborne Emissions from Oil and Gas Production and Processing Facilities and Immune System Outcomes in Neonatal Beef Calves,”
Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
64 (2009): 59–71; D. G. Bechtel, C. L. Waldner, and M. Wicktrom, “Associations Between Immune Function in Yearling Beef Cattle and Airborne Emissions of Sulfur Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, and VOCs from Oil and Natural Gas Facilities,”
Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
64 (2009): 73–86.

19
. Ohio Oil and Gas Association, “Hydraulic Fracturing,” accessed December 15, 2013,
http://ooga.org/our-industry/hydraulic-fracturing/
.

20
. Associated Press, “Report: Drilling Damage in 161 Pa. Water Supplies,”
Reporter News
, May 19, 2013,
http://www.thereporteronline.com/article/RO/20130519/NEWS03/130519477
.

21
. “Fracking Experts Debate Economic, Environmental Impact,”
Dundee (NY) Observer-Review
, 2013,
www.observer-review.com/fracking-experts-debate-economic-environmental-impact-cms-3589
.

22
. C. Brufatto et al., “From Mud to Cement: Building Gas Wells,”
Oilfield Review
(Schlumberger) (Autumn 2003): 62–76.

23
. A.R. Ingraffea, “Fluid Migration Mechanisms Due to Faulty Well Design and/or Construction: An Overview and Recent Experiences in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Play,” Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy, January 2013,
www.psehealthyenergy.org/data/PSE__Cement_Failure_Causes_and_Rate_Analysis_Jan_2013_Ingraffea1.pdf
.

24
. S.G. Osborn, A. Vengosh, N.R. Warner, and R.B. Jackson, “Methane Contamination of Drinking Water Accompanying Gas-Well Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
108 (2011): 8172–76.

25
. US Environmental Protection Agency (hereafter EPA), “Hydraulic Fracturing Background Information,” last updated May 9, 2012,
http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/wells_hydrowhat.cfm
.

26
. EPA, “Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste,” 40 CFR §261.4(b)(5) (2002).

27
. EPA, “Draft Plan to Study the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources,” February 7, 2011,
www2.epa.gov/hfstudy/draft-plan-study-potential-impacts-hydraulic-fracturing-drinking-water-resources-february-7
.

28
. R. Beusse et al., “EPA Needs to Improve Air Emissions Data from the Oil and Natural Gas Production Sector,” EPA, February 20, 2013,
www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2013/20130220-13-P-0161.pdf
.

29
. This quote by Lisa Jackson was transcribed from the film
Gasland Part 2
, by Josh Fox (HBO, 2013).

30
. C.R. Sunstein,
Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

31
. P.M. Rabinowitz, M.L. Scotch, and L.A. Conti, “Animals as Sentinels: Using Comparative Medicine to Move Beyond the Laboratory,”
Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources Journal
51, no. 3 (2010): 262–67.

32
. Bamberger and Oswald, “Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health.”

33
. National Research Council, Commission on Life Sciences, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Committee on Animals as Monitors of Environmental Health Hazards,
Animals as Sentinels of Environmental Health Hazards
(Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1991).

34
. E. Hill, “Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Infant Health: Evidence from Pennsylvania,” working paper 2012-12, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, July 2012,
http://dyson.cornell.edu/research/researchpdf/wp/2012/Cornell-Dyson-wp1212.pdf
. See also L. M. McKenzie et al., “Birth Outcomes and Maternal Residential Proximity to Natural Gas Development in Rural Colorado,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
(2014)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306722
.

35
. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH Program Portfolio, “Oil and Gas Extraction, Inputs: Occupational Safety and Health Risks,” last updated December 13, 2012,
www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/oilgas/risks.html
.

1
. Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units, PEHSU (2011), “PEHSU Information on Natural Gas Extraction and Hydraulic Fracturing for Health Professionals,” August 2011,
http://abcalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/hydraulic_fracturing_and_children_2011_health_prof.pdf
.

2
. Stephanie Hallowich and Chris Hallowich, H/W v. Range Resources Corporation et al., Court of Common Pleas, Washington County, PA, Civil Division, Opinion and Order, March 20, 2013, available at
http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/Hallowich-Opinion-Order.pdf
.