Residents Offered $50,000 to Release Company of Liability

From Aggressive Tactic on the Fracking Front

It didn't take long for the residents of Finleyville who lived near the fracking operations to complain – about the noise and air quality, and what they regarded as threats to their health and quality of life. Initially, EQT, one of the largest producers of natural gas in Pennsylvania, tried to allay concerns with promises of noise studies and offers of vouchers so residents could stay in hotels to avoid the noise and fumes.

But then, in what experts say was a rare tactic, the company got more aggressive: it offered all of the households along Cardox Road $50,000 in cash if they would agree to release the company from any legal liability, for current operations as well as those to be carried out in the future. It covered potential health problems and property damage, and gave the company blanket protection from any kind of claim over noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot, air pollution or vibrations.

...it is unlikely that companies will start handing out such agreements en masse, [as]..doing so could decrease landowners' confidence about the safety of the company's operations and their personal health. "People are going to say the gas companies must be concerned about air pollution because they're offering these easements," said Clark. "Everybody's going to get suspicious."

Earlier this year, a couple in Texas was awarded $3 million in a lawsuit against a gas drilling company. The couple alleged that the company's operations had affected their health, decreased their property value and forced them to move away. The case was one of the first successful lawsuits alleging that air pollution from gas drilling activity caused health issues.

..some of the residents have refused to negotiate with the company. "I was insulted," said Gary Baumgardner, who was approached by EQT with the offer in January. "We're being pushed out of our home and they want to insult us with this offer." Baumgardner says his house is like an amphitheater, constantly vibrating from the drilling. At times the noise gets up to 75 decibels, equivalent to a running vacuum cleaner, he said.

Earlier this year, EQT Corp. put up a sound barrier to limit the noise, but Baumgardner says it has made little difference to his quality of life. "We took the pictures down in the bedroom because they still vibrate at night," he said. Baumgardner says he has had to leave his house at least three times so far because the gas fumes from the well site were too much to bear. A local health group has installed air quality monitors in his home and several of his neighbors.

Last year when the one of the monitors began flashing red, his daughter, pregnant at the time, fled the house. She has since moved away after her doctor advised her not to live close to a drilling site. "Our house is most often not livable," said Baumgardner. EQT's response to his complaints, he said, has been "constant dismissals, excuses, delays and broken promises."

Fracking Chemicals Disrupt Hormones

June 23, 2014  :"We don't know what the adverse health consequences might be in humans and animals exposed to these chemicals," Kassotis said, "but infants and children would be most vulnerable because they are smaller, and infants lack the ability to break down these chemicals." 

Many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body's reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds.

... "Among the chemicals that the fracking industry has reported using most often, all 24 that we have tested block the activity of one or more important hormone receptors," said the study's presenting author, Christopher Kassotis, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Columbia. "The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects."

The results were presented Monday at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago.

 Source: Hormone-disrupting activity of fracking chemicals worse than initially found

See some of the chemicals used on the Haliburton site: Colorado: What's In The Fluids?

Note that each fracturing job uses several million gallons of water! So, that 'measly' 0.5% of actual frack fluid additives still contains thousands of gallons of chemicals!

Oil and Gas: Effects on Children's Health

Are you still unclear about the fracking process, and the health risks it poses to people, but especially to babies and young children, who live in close proximity to wells? 

The yellow link below leads to an informative 40 minute presentation by Jerome Paulson, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine. It is provided by the Center for Environmental Health. The program starts about five minutes in so as to skip the introduction. Photo courtesy of Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont. 

 "Unconventional Natural Gas Extraction and Special Vulnerabilities for Children"


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Also see "Drilling vs. the American Dream: Fracking impacts on property rights and home values"


"Realtors in Colorado are taking note as clients become increasingly hesitant about buying homes near drilling sites, with fewer and fewer bids rolling in. “Some don’t want to even look at anything remotely close to any existing or proposed well sites,” Boulder County real estate agent Nanner Fisher told the Colorado Independent. She also told Boulder iJournal that “if there is a well that’s visible when you show a property, [the prospective buyer] will ask to look for something else. A lot of it is the visual effect of the well site,” she said. “And, they think if you can see it, it’s gotta be close enough that it’s not healthy.”

Largest well site in Greeley city limits gets approval

There's no doubt in my mind that the planning commission approved the site for the 57 wells, because almost half of that number is already in operation, near the intersection of U.S. 34 with U.S. 85. What the members must have forgotten to consider is that this site will now emit an even higher concentration of VOC's so the area will be much more hazardous to the health of many people, and especially young children, living nearby!

Plus, there is Union Colony elementary school within one mile of it! Those parents now should be as outraged as the ones of Frontier are, and show up in droves at the City Council meeting to share their outrage before the council, as they have always done so far, will unanimously give the expansion its seal of approval!

Take a look here to view the site (A) in relation to the school (B): http://goo.gl/maps/RZN7O

These storage tanks are already in place, as are 28 separators representing the same number of well heads.

Here's the Greeley Tribune article: Largest well site in Greeley city limits gets approval from Planning Commission

Chance to Speak out Against Drill Site Near Frontier!

Mineral Resources, Inc. wants to place a large oil and gas drilling operation just 478 feet away from the Frontier playground, but the explosion near Lucerne proves that oil and gas wells near homes and schools are a recipe for disaster! Even if there is no calamity, there are still fumes emitted from the tanks and separators that are harmful to all in close proximity, especially young children!


In April, the Greeley Planning Commission will very likely grant the permit that will impact you and your children’s health and safety, unless parents and residents show their outrage, and show up in large numbers to speak out against it!

April 22 at 1:15 p.m.
Council Chambers of the Lincoln Park Annex building,
919 7th St.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission already gave their approval to place up to 67 wells with 32 oil tanks, and 30 separators on the site! Click here. Make sure Greeley does not lend theirs!

Learn why you should be concerned about Oil & Gas drilling in your neighborhood, or by your children’s school, and speak out against drilling at the upcoming public hearing!

The proposed South Greeley Directional Project at 27th Ave. & 30th St. next to Frontier Academy and Walmart. Marker A is the location of the well bore.

19 wells
24 oil storage tanks (red dots)
19 separators (yellow stripes)

This photo left shows only 8 oil storage tanks. The pad near Frontier will have three times as many!

 

There will be 19 separators, about the same number as can be seen on the photo right. They all emit harmful VOCs that anyone in such close proximity will inhale.




Also see: Where Do the Children Play
               67 Gas Wells Planned Near Frontier School and Walmart

Last but not least, a recent health study shows:

"an association between density and proximity of natural gas wells within a 10-mile radius of maternal residence and prevalence of Congenital Heart Defects and possibly Neural Tube Defects. [Most children with neural tube defects die or experience serious disability.] Access the report here.

Notice on the photo below that even the kids at Brentwood Middle School are still only half a mile away from the toxic emissions!

Health Hazards of living near Oil and Gas Wells

How often have you heard people who work for Oil & Gas companies say, 

"We are the most regulated industry in the United States"

I would like to know what they base that statement on. Dr. Wilma Subra in her presentation Human Health; Exposure from the Development of Shale Gas, notes that,

"Wastes generated by the exploration of crude oil and natural gas are 'exempt' by Federal law from being regulated as hazardous waste" 

Watch her full presentation here

And then there's the issue of well water contamination by oil and gas drilling activities in Pavillion, Wyoming. The industry is not regulated when it comes to the protection of drinking water supplies either. Says Dan Rather in the second segment of his report:

"Even though the agency is mandated by the Safe Drinking Water Act to monitor the quality of the drinking water across the United States, the EPA has been restricted from testing water near oil and gas fracking sites. That's because the oil and gas industry had some help from Congress in the Bush administration. In the summer of 2005 Congress passes, and president Bush signed the Energy Policy Act. In that bill was a provision that excludes Oil and Gas Companies from the drinking water regulation. It is the only industry to have such an exclusion"

Watch: Dan Rather Reports, "Fracking Gas"

In the report, rancher John Fenton says:

"You don't know how precious water is until you have to start buying it...It's either this or drink water with an unknown toxic chemical in it."

He hauls it in gallon jugs from the town, forty miles away. Because of their tainted well water they can no longer grow a garden, and when they launder or shower there needs to be ventilation because of the methane content in the water. In this different clip he says,

"We've done our own sort of health assessment with the help of a woman named Dr. Wilma Subra....She compiled the information for us. And there are some real common problems between the people who have health symptoms: nose bleeds, lack of smell and taste, headaches, dizziness, neuropathy. You know, no matter where you go, people living in close proximity to this, have the same problems..It affects all humans the same no matter where you are from."

Last but not least, a recent health study shows:

"an association between density and proximity of natural gas wells within a 10-mile radius of maternal residence and prevalence of Congenital Heart Defects and possibly Neural Tube Defects. [Most children with neural tube defects die or experience serious disability.]

Access the report here.