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!

Smelling Fumes Makes Me Fume!

My grandson's back yard, 1/4 mile from a gas well

I was appalled and quite concerned a week ago when I caught whiffs of petroleum on the breeze that came in my son's open windows in south west Greeley. I smelled it too in his back yard when we stood by my grandson's swing set! They live just 1/4 mile away from one of Noble Energy's big well pads that has a gigantic flare stack which burns off the so-called 'sour'gas, a euphemism for the dangerous Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) which can be lethal. It was quite breezy that early evening so it's all the more surprising that the fumes were even noticeable!

• Researchers in Canada have measured more than 60 air pollutants downwind of natural gas flares. (Sources of Oil and Gas Air Pollution)

• "..Many of the substances emitted by flaring, incineration and venting can affect humans, animals, plants and the environment. Effects depend on the magnitude, duration and frequency of exposure, as well as the susceptibility of the individual organism or environment"

•  "..there is no question that high enough concentrations of petroleum-related emissions could affect the respiratory health, vision and skin of humans and animals. Exposure to some VOC and PAH substances increases the likelihood of cancers." ~ Source: Flaring Questions and Answers

The giant flare stack

Whose brilliant idea was it to put picnic tables near the site?

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

It did not just rattle my house, but my nerves too! When my family lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, we experienced a couple of very noticeable earthquakes that originated in California. One was so strong and long that we woke up the kids and told them to get under the dining room table. Even so, that quake was not nearly as shocking as the one I experienced here in Greeley on May 31st; probably because I did not expect it to happen here! 

When my brain accepted the possibility of a quake, and I saw all my neighbors in the street, I remarked for all to hear, "Probably due to all the fracking!" I certainly hope I am wrong, but learning the following, it seems very likely that there is a connection! 

• Did Fracking Fluid Cause Greeley Quake?

•  "..Quake trackers have long noted that injection wells generate temblors. There are more than 150,000 injection wells that hold hundreds of billions of fracking wastewater in the United States. The location of the wells in states like Texas and Oklahoma and Ohio correspond to earthquake activity. The Tribune reported on Sunday that the epicenter of the Greeley quake is located a mile and a half from “two oil and gas wastewater injection wells that have not been inspected by the state since August 2012.” The Tribune reported that the wells are operated by Denver-based High Sierra Water Services." ~ : Greeley quake adds ammunition to Colorado fracking war

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"


.

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.”

Spilling Oil....Again? Of Course!

What happens in the oil field does not always stay in the oil field as the video and photos of this Utah spill near the Green River show. 

• Video report:  Rain drives oil from leak to river.

• Slide show: Images of Ruby Red Blowout

It is easy to see that a blowout of such magnitude will spell disaster at wells close to homes and schools! At Frontier elementary school the plan was, and perhaps still is, to put in 67 wells with 32 oil storage tanks! How will a spill be dealt with if it were to happen there, or elsewhere inside our city? 

It is also easy to imagine that a blowout at one of the wells at Northridge high school poses a serious risk to the Sheep Draw wetland area beside it into which oil and produced water could spill! Not only the Sheep Draw is at risk! So is the Poudre River where many newly placed oil storage tanks have been placed close to the water! Here a recent photo that shows how another well pad near Weld CR 25 is inundated by water from the Poudre River because of the heavy rainfall in recent days.

Utah [and of course Colorado too!] is likely to see more spills as thousands of new oil and gas wells are approved. 

From a press release: "..The Green River spill [in Utah] is the 3rd reported spill to occur in the state within the last 3 months. In addition to the Green River spill, two spills occurred in March in another tributary watershed of the Colorado River, the Little Valley Wash of the Escalante River. Other major Utah spills include two large events on Red Butte Creek, another in Parley’s Creek and another in Willard Bay.

...The State of Utah has seen an explosion in oil and gas development over the last 10 years...The growth shows no sign of abatement as thousands of proposed new wells await approval alongside a cavalcade of tar sands and oil shale projects that threaten Utah’s watersheds and the water supply for millions of western residents.

 Headwater lands like those in Utah, which is precisely where the largest majority of the oil and gas development is occurring, provide the majority of flows for the Colorado River, the main source of water residents in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tucson and Phoenix, among other cities. More oil spills are likely in the future, based on data sources tracking incidents over the last several years.

Oil and Gas Well Drilling: "Very Loud, Very Dirty"

This informative half hour video tour shows the industrial scope of a drilling site. The narrator says "It's very loud, very dirty" and "there are lots of ways to get hurt out here". When he's under the platform to show the Blow Out Preventer, or BOP, he says that's a dangerous place to be. 


 


Under the yellow link below, is a video of the Windsor frack water blowout that happened in February 2013. It spewed for 30 hours before it was finally shut off. The Windsor rig used by PDC Energy is not nearly as solid and professional looking as the one shown in the video tour, and perhaps we should be concerned about that! 

• 80,000 gallons of frack water spilled at oil well east of Fort Collins Full story: http://tinyurl.com/lwepzlv

If we cannot stop wells from being drilled, we should at least expect that it is done with top notch equipment to make it as safe as possible. It's usually the smaller operators like Mineral Resources in Greeley that use small, mobile rigs. 

See this one at Island Grove in the summer of 2013 

What drilling sounds like

This gives a good idea of the constant droning that's heard far away from the Northridge site despite the 'sound wall'. It will continue 24/7 until the drilling is completed. As I shot video and photos, a man in a white truck came to check me out. We had a pleasant, and long conversation. He wanted me to note that no diesel power is used for the drilling.

The sight and sound from the Sheep Draw trail on the other side of the pad. According to Synergy the sound will be worse during the actual fracturing period, slated to begin in July, which will also see heavy truck traffic into and from the site.

A peek around the sound wall