Citizens Sue The Village of Horseheads Over Approval of Schlumberger Project

Citizens of Horseheads, NY have filed suit against the Schlumberger project in thier Township

http://news10now.com/watertown-north-news-1052-content/all_news/southern_tier/488058/community-members-file-legal-action-against-schlumberger-project
The citizen group had voiced their concerns about environmental and health concerns but the village officials ignored it and approved this project anyway.

http://marcelluseffect.blogspot.com/2009/11/citizens-sue-village-over-schlumberger.html
The following paragraphs sounds very familiar. The village officials seem to disregard many articles and incidents about drilling contamination to water, air and soil. They pretty much pushed it through and rushed the decision. Now the residents have filed a suit!

Last winter Schlumberger Technology Corporation plunked down a chunk of change for 88 acres in the Horseheads Industrial Center. It is an area zoned for light industry and manufacturing and contains warehouses and distribution centers. There is also another gas field service industry on the site - a company that provides equipment needed for drilling.

Schlumberger hopes to construct a 400,000 square foot facility to store fracking chemicals and explosives needed for gas field development. And they claim that their facility will bring 300 to 400 jobs to the area.


But residents are concerned that local municipal officials have embraced potential economic gain at the cost of potential environmental contamination. During the public hearings they repeatedly expressed their concern to village board members that it seemed like the project was a “done deal”. They begged the town board to conduct a more complete environmental review.

It seems that some town officials think they can just do whatever they want without listening to the majority of their residents and not have any ramifications. But that is simply not true. It is refreshing to see citizens demand accountability from their town officials. We are hearing about more and more citizen lawsuits. People are saying enough is enough!

Hudson Oaks Water is "Hot"

It seems that Hudson Oaks in Parker County has "hot", as in radioactive, water. As posted here before. The water from the Barnett Shale is toxic, flammable and radioactive
http://stopthedrilling.blogspot.com/2009/11/produced-waste-water-pipelines-and-tank.html

Every day more and more comes out about the dangers of produced water from gas drilling. Yet in Flower Mound, it seems we have some council members who might choose to over look these reports and allow produced toxic waste water to be piped through the town and stored in 14 to 38 (the number seems to be increasing) tank batteries at a waste water collection facility.

As if that isn't bad enough, eminent domain will come into play for these pipelines. The town will not be able to control where these pipelines go. If the gas company that will own this proposed facility chooses, they may take waste water from other gas companies in the town. This will mean more pipelines!!!


Here is a great report on Hudson Oaks water by Brett Shipp with WFAA news 8.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/radioactive-Water-70661997.html
a few paragraphs from the report.


Chruscielski independently monitors water quality data in the Barnett Shale, and she almost missed it.
"From what I have seen -- particularly the alpha particles -- you don't want to ingest those, and they are bone-seeking carcinogens with a 1,600 year half-life that accumulates in the tissue," Chruscielski said. "I am not comfortable with that."


State environmental officials say the uranium is "naturally occurring" in the rock formations below the soil.
Hudson Oaks water quality report
http://www.hudsonoaks.com/files/2008_Water_Quality_Report.pdf
Here is the water violation report
http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/sdw_report_v2.first_table?pws_id=TX1840006&state=TX&source=Purch_surface_water&population=2310&sys_num=0

Wall Street Journal reports on EPA crack down on Texas air quality

Texas has allowed gas and oil to do whatever they want for decades. The industry is currently exempt from the clean air act. The result is the worst air in the nation. EPA is cracking down on the TCEQ. Read few paragraphs from the article in the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125876438576558383.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news

Officials in the big cities complain the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which enforces federal regulations, isn't strict enough. Dallas and Houston have been in violation of federal air-quality standards for years.



Earlier this year, the EPA said it was seeking to invalidate the state's permitting system, contending that it allows companies to skirt federal rules under the Clean Air Act. The agency is expected to announce a decision on certain parts of the program by the end of this month.


"Our system is not broken," said Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas environmental commission. "It's just misunderstood."

Residents Sue Gas Company Over Tainted Wells

A group of residents are suing Cabot Oil & Gas for contaminating their water wells. The wells were so tainted and flammable a well exploded near a home in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/70654822.html

The problem was discovered Jan. 1 when a well exploded at a home near Cabot's operations.

Here is another article about the damage done and the case against Cabot.
http://www.propublica.org/feature/pa-residents-sue-gas-driller-for-contamination-health-concerns-1120

WFAA Report on the TCEQ and Barnett Shale Emissions

Here is the video from the report WFAA did with Dr. Honeycutt from the TCEQ. He is head of the Toxicology Department but at the Fort Worth Barnett Shale Emissions Meeting, he admitted that he knew nothing about the process of fracking. Hopefully he will learn quickly.

In the video, he addresses the high benzene levels found at some gas well sites here in North Texas. Some levels where so high he stated it is like holding a can of gasoline under your nose.

Apparently the TCEQ held a meeting in Austin and invited the top ten gas producers. TCEQ showed them a video of the emissions billowing from the well sites. None denied that there is benzene in the gas drilling air.

TCEQ said that the current permits do not address benzene control and they want to pass several new benzene rules but that could take months or years. The TCEQ is asking the gas companies to clean up their act voluntarily until new regulations can be put in place. Let's pray they actually do because months or years will be too late.

http://www.wfaa.com/video/featured-videos/TCEQ-cracksdown-70599357.html

Report From The Barnett Shale Emissions Meeting In Fort Worth

Sharon Wilson from TXSharon wrote a great summary of the Fort Worth League Of Neighborhoods Barnett Shale Emissions Meeting.

Deborah Rogers, owner of Deborah's Farmstead, was one of the main speakers. She gave a great presentation that included the following information.

The drillers over estimate production by 3 times what can be extracted because the reserve price drives stock prices.

Historical production data - financial data is based on production that is not there or not recoverable.

Recently, Aubrey McClendon said Chesapeake has only drilled 15% of the wells they plan to drill. That means another 60,000 to 70,000 wells will be drilled.

The drilling treadmill - The drillers have to drill more wells to maintain the production levels and they have to drill more to support their debt.

The technology exists to reduce air emissions by 99%

Every $1.00 spent on reducing air emissions gains $9.00 in recovered product.

Dr. Honeycutt from the TCEQ and Dr. David Sterling, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth were on hand to speak as well.

Read the whole story at txsharon. The link is below

http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2009/11/barnett-shale-emissions-meeting-in-fort.html

Test of Produced Water Shows High Sodium

First of all lets get the facts. This test was performed by Williams not by the Town of Flower Mound. In fact, when the water sample was taken, no one from the town was present.

At a Flower Mound Town Council meeting a few weeks ago, when asked if the town could have a sample, the Williams Company said they had already provided one for a test but not to the town. As of today, the town has not received authorization yet to do their own independent test.

"It's a very typical sample of produced water in the Barnett Shale," said Kelly Swan, a spokesman for Williams Production, a Tulsa, Okla.-based drilling company that hired an independent laboratory to conduct the analysis.

Read the whole article below http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-water_19met.ART.Central.Edition1.4bb766b.html

High sodium in water isn't a good thing either. It kills all vegetation in it's path. http://pubsindex.trb.org/view.aspx?id=475914

Produced waste water has been found to be toxic, flammable, and radioactive. http://stopthedrilling.blogspot.com/2009/11/produced-waste-water-pipelines-and-tank.html

Williams is one of the gas companies being looked at for contamination of a man's spring in Colorado. The owner of the property was rushed to the hospital after drinking from his spring. http://coloradoindependent.com/40117/reports-trace-spring-contamination-to-two-western-slope-gas-companies

According to the Post-Independent, Halepaska and Associates issued a report on Sept. 10 that names Williams and OXY as the two companies most likely responsible for the leakage of BTEX, a combination of carcinogenic chemicals found in produced water that returns to the surface after the drilling process

So it seems produced water is toxic, flammable and radioactive everywhere else but Flower Mound.