Drilling Mud Used to Grow Crops!

“It’s really clay that is very rich in nutrients,” Korby Bracken (director of health, safety and environment for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Denver) said. “And it’s very beneficial for farming.”

Anadarko makes some of that drilling mud available to farmers, but the company also has its own fields where the drilling mud is used to enrich the soil. Alfalfa or wheat is planted and grown. See: Energy Pipeline: Oil, gas industry rife with innovation

But, is it really beneficial, or safe? 

That argument reminds me of the aluminum industry getting rid of fluoride (a chemical on the Right To Know Hazardous Substance list) by selling it to municipalities to add it to the drinking water. Now, a Harvard study has found that fluoride does negatively affect intelligence in children.

The idea to dump mud laced with various chemicals and heavy metals on farmland to grow crops is preposterous to begin with, especially without proper oversight. Landowners are therefore advised, 

"to develop a formal contractual agreement with the company or individual responsible for disposal of the drilling fluid... 

The agreement should stipulate testing requirements for drilling fluids and native soils.. 

The costs of sample collections, analyses, soil amendments..can be included in the contractual agreement as the responsibility of the company or individual responsible for the disposal of the drilling fluids".

  
Landfarming or land application is a process whereby drilling fluids are spread on the land surface...it is often preferred to reduce costs of disposal. It may include petroleum hydrocarbons, salts and/or heavy metals.

• Petroleum hydrocarbons including oil and grease can be toxic to plants in modest concentrations either due to direct contact or through adverse effects on soil properties. 

• Salts in drilling fluids can affect both plants and the soil. Salts in drilling fluids can affect both plants and the soil. Another element, boron, can be toxic to some plants even at relatively low concentrations. 

• Heavy metals are elements that may or may not be plant nutrients, but can be harmful to plant and/ or animal health in low to high concentrations depending on the element. Some heavy metals will cause plant death at high concentrations. Others can accumulate in plant tissue (without harm to the plant) to levels which are harmful or toxic to animals and/or humans. 

The heavy metals most commonly found in drilling fluids include arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc. The amounts present will depend on the formulation of the drilling fluid and the geologic formations encountered during the drilling process.

Anadarko Donation for Weld Less Than Half a Penny of Profits

Featured prominently in a piece by Cliff Willmeng on EcoWatch this morning: 

"Anadarko, a multinational petroleum corporation with annual revenue of more than $14 billion and the owner of some of the first major official spills into the South Platte River, volunteered $300,000 toward flood relief efforts." 

Their donation, very likely in part meant to help assuage their guilt in the spill, made me think of the following press release by the United-Way of Weld, Greeley chapter which proudly proclaimed:

ANADARKO PETROLEUM LEADS THE WAY IN LONG TERM RECOVERY FUND FOR FLOOD VICTIMS 

Anadarko Headquarters, Texas

Greeley, CO – Anadarko Petroleum Corporation made a commitment to the communities of Weld County by contributing $300,000 to the Weld County Flood Relief Fund...With this contribution, the fund has grown to more than $450,000 in less than one week since inception. 

Donations are coming in from all across the country, with nearly two hundred individuals, in addition to a few considerate companies who have local ties. In addition to Anadarko, a few companies have stepped up to create corporate match programs as incentive for employees to donate to either the Community Foundation or United Way of Weld County. 

 The Greeley Tribune printed the release almost verbatim. Find the full version here. But, what I immediately wondered, was why the other company donors were not mentioned by name? Why should Anadarko be so prominently featured? 

I asked that question: 

 Dear Mr. Tucker,  

It offends me to read the following in your press release. 

 In addition to Anadarko, a few companies have stepped up to create corporate match programs as incentive for employees to donate to either the Community Foundation or United Way of Weld County. 

Why not also give proper credit to those other companies, by naming them? 

 His reply came back just 13 minutes later:

I'm sorry you're offended. We felt it was appropriate to focus on Anadarko because of the significance of the contribution. JBS and Bank of Choice have also committed to help through matching, but they have both been mentioned on separate releases.
Thank you for your concern and please let me know if you have any questions. 

Mark Tucker, Director, Marketing & Community Development, United Way of Weld County 970.304.6176 | mark@unitedway-weld.org 

So it is the significance of the contribution that matters! Certainly it is a nice gesture that provides the community with much needed aid, but when seen as a percentage of their yearly profits; 100 million dollars last year, their donation is only 0.3 of one percent of that. 

Put differently, that is like having $3.00 and donating just one penny! Compare that to a hundred dollar donation from a resident who only has $1200 in 'profit' or savings to freely spend in a year. His or her donation is 8%, or 8 cents of one dollar. 
If we really want to compare it to Anadarko's gift we need to put it in the right perspective of  the three dollar example. That would show the contrast of a whopping  24 cents compared with their measly penny! 

But, it turns out that Anadarko and the United-Way have been connected for many years, so perhaps that's the reason that they get so much praise for their donation. Last year Anadarko donated 2 million dollars to the United Way, but half of that came from its employees; the company matched their donation dollar for dollar.

EcoWatch: Colorado Flooding Triggers More Oil and Gas Spills

Confirmed 5,250 Gallon Oil Spill in South Platte River

A Greeley member of Weld Air and Water was asked by the EPA District 6 Response Team to send photos of toppled tanks along with photos of  their corresponding well placards for identification purposes. He shares,

"I've been doing my best. Today an operator from Wise Interventions Services [an oil field services provider] yelled at me to get off of private property. I told him he may own mineral rights but the surface rights are owned by the farmer across the way. After that, four guys along with him blocked the placard. I asked, "If there is nothing wrong, why can't I photograph the placard?" They all started yelling, and approaching me. I thought it was time to leave as I was alone in a farm field and didn't want to be tilled under."

This spill can pollute up to 5,250,000 gallons of water, but......

Governor Hickenlooper said late Thursday there is a lot of water to dilute pollutants, including oil, in the South Platte.

 "When you look at the amount of water flowing through that river, it will process these pollutants very, very rapidly," 

Source: Colorado Flooding Triggers Oil Spills, Shutdowns 

MILLIKEN — Industry crews have placed absorbent booms in the South Platte River south of Milliken where at least 5,250 gallons of crude oil has spilled from two tank batteries into the flood-swollen river. The spill from a damaged tank was reported to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources Wednesday afternoon by Anadarko Petroleum, as is required by state law.

Too late for floating booms; most oil went downstream!

State officials have responded to the spill site, which is south of Milliken near where the St. Vrain River flows into the South Platte. The flood that began late last week toppled dozens of oil and gas storage tanks and swamped other production facilities at sites in the flood plain. Earlier this week, oil drums, some empty, some full, could be seen floating in the river as far east as Kersey.

"This is the first specific incident where we have a clear indication of the problem," state natural resources spokesman Todd Hartman said. State authorities don't know when this spill happened, Hartman said. Weld County authorities on Saturday said at least one oil and gas industry pipeline had broken and was leaking into the South Platte. County officials did not provide a precise location for the broken pipeline. They said at least two other pipelines were compromised as they sagged in flood-saturated soils. Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action said in a statement Wednesday night that the spill "exemplifies the danger" of drilling and fracking in floodplains." ~ Denver Post: 5,250 gallons of oil spills into South Platte River

Watch a segment about the Colorado flood, and the oil spill on the Rachel Maddow show.

See photos of the spill by EcoFlight  

Driving Out of Greeley is Depressing!!!

Leaving Greeley from any road these days is depressing! No matter if you go north, south, east, or west you see gas wells with tanks, separators, and flares that visually pollute the farm fields. Today my son took me via a scenic road south to Denver to visit the zoo with his son, my 2-1/2 year-old grandson. The country side south of 49th street was lush, and green with acres of corn stalks. Simply beautiful, as long as you tell yourself to ignore all the gas wells and tanks, left and right....and that is hard to do.

Once we were headed south on U.S. 85 we saw many more oil condensate tanks, but also new sites in the making, with drill rigs, and others where fracking operations are in full swing; you can tell when you see a field full of semi truck sized compressors that are needed to pressurize the water as it gets pumped into the well.

Clearly not a pretty sight, but appalling and stressful, really! I thought visiting the zoo with my grandson would give me a reprieve from the concerns of fracking, and it did once we got there. But oblivion was not to last very long as I noticed with dismay that some exhibits are named after corporate sponsors!  There's the Toyota Elephant Passage, the Gates Wildlife Conservation Education Center, the Janus Gateway center, the Conoco Zoo Gardens., and ....shocker of them all?

On the Denver Zoo website it says that

"Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has supported Denver Zoo through Do At The Zoo and Brew At The Zoo sponsorships since 2008. Beginning in 2013, Anadarko greatly expanded their involvement by presenting Denver Zoo's 2013 Do At The Zoo event in addition to providing educational, live animal community outreach programming in Weld County."

They also state:

"A special thank you to these Corporations [Encana is one of them too!] for their significant contributions...Corporate sponsor dollars are critical to Denver Zoo. These dollars are used to assist in the direct care and support of Denver Zoo’s animals and allows Denver Zoo to further its mission. Through these sponsorships, Denver Zoo continues to thrive and to carry out wildlife conservation and education for our community [while on the outside petroleum corporations like Anadarko and Encana are destroying our countryside and poisoning the air we breathe]"

Thankfully Greeley is getting more and more negative press. Perhaps because of that there's a glimmer of hope, as,

"The Colorado Oil and Gas Commission said neighbors’ concerns are one reason it hasn’t approved the wells yet."

See the CBS 4 News report with video interview with Sara Barwinski in which they say, "The city of Greeley is widely known as an oil and gas town." 

Who's Doing the Lying about Fracking?

Excerpts from an article in the Coloradoan, with my comments in orange

LOVELAND — "..Fracking detractors are trying to “scare the crap out of everybody with the wrong facts and making things up,” said Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer, who was moderating the discussion between COGCC Director Matt Lepore and Anadarko regulatory affairs manager Brad Miller.

 “The problem we have, we have a group of folks on the other side who don’t care about the truth,” she said. “They’re out there saying all sorts of things about how it’s contaminating the groundwater, and, you know, that’s not true,” Kirkmeyer said.

Is she lying or merely ignorant of the real facts posted in a series of PowerPoint slides on the website of the the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission she's trying to defend? These numbers from 2012 do show there's been groundwater contamination.

What was spilled?

What was done about them?

And what to make of Matt Lepore's statement? 


"..residents “storm city hall and demand you protect their health, safety and welfare armed with misinformation,” [he]said Tuesday, speaking at the Northern Colorado Energy Summit."

As the director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission he surely has seen, and also approved these slides! Here is one from another presentation, probably put up after Governor Hickenlooper took a sip of Frac Fluid!

He also said the following.

If you look at the demographics of anti-fracking activists, he said, they are generally affluent enough not to be concerned with the cost of home heating and cooling, he said.

Clearly, those who struggle to make a living are so bogged down in simply trying to survive that they have no time to get informed of anything of importance, including how gas and oil production may endanger their and their children's health.

 “A ban on fracking is really a ban on drilling,” he said. “A ban on fracking means an increase in coal use to generate electricity. It means an increase in local costs of electricity.”

Have you seen a decrease in your energy bills? I haven't! Besides, how can opponents be blamed for driving up the prices, since drilling is still in full swing almost everywhere in the country?

When asked by a member of the audience whether the oil and gas industry should work with local school districts to educate kids about the value of oil and gas as a way to boost industry public relations, both Miller and Kirkmeyer said such plans are already underway. “We have to educate the youth and start there, and we also have to educate the general public as well,” Miller said. “Both of those programs need to start now. The industry is starting that.” Kirkmeyer said Weld County is working with at least one school district in the county to teach kids about the importance of industry.

If there is any hope for a future for today's children and their kids at all, it does not lie in fossil fuels, but in renewable energy and sustainable livelihoods. That is what schools should focus on. It is bad enough gas wells are sprouting up close to people's homes, and that 67 wells are planned within a quarter of a mile of Frontier Academy along 29th street. Read: Where Do The Children Play

 In an earlier speech, Mercator Energy President and Western Energy Alliance board member John Harpole said fracking is good for poor people because the more fracking done in the U.S, the more natural gas will be available to drive down consumers’ cost for heating.

Fracking is actually bad, especially for poor people who may feel forced to work in the oil and gas fields to make a living, and will compromise their health in doing so. Furthermore, people in poor neighborhoods do not have the opportunity to protest a proposed well site nearby.
So far, protests have indeed come from those residents who are more affluent, but they are fully supported in their plight by people from all over Greeley, who not only want to help them but anyone anywhere who will be affected by the intrusion of noise, hazards and polluted air. With hundreds of wells already producing within city limits, we all are breathing VOCs and ozone molecules.