Council Votes to Ban Hydraulic Fracturing

By Brian Meyer
February 8, 2011

Buffalo, New York

The Common Council has voted to ban any form of natural gas extraction in Buffalo, including a controversial mining technique known as hydrofracking.

Ban supporters admit this afternoon's unanimous vote is largely symbolic, given the fact that no "fracking" projects have been proposed in Buffalo. But they insist the ban could be a catalyst in spurring similar actions in municipalities in New York, Pennsylvania and other states where gas-rich Marcellus Shale is located.

"We're hoping Southern Tier communities will do the same thing," said North representative Joseph Golombek Jr., the bill's lead sponsor. "This action shows that the lead city in the region is taking a lead role."

No known deposits of Marcellus Shale underlie Buffalo.

Fracking opponents claim the drilling process possesses significant environmental risks, including possible contamination of water tables. The State Legislature last year imposed a temporary ban on fracking through May 15, pending further study.
About 50 fracking opponents held a news conference following the Council vote. They praised lawmakers for making Buffalo for the first city in the state and only the second major city nationwide to impose such a ban. Last fall, Pittsburgh banned fracking.......continued........

Shell Announces 4Q 2010 Net Profit of $5.7 bln. 5 fold Increase on 4Q 2009

 Feb 3rd, 2011 with tags $5.7 bln, 2009, 4Q, 5 fold, Announces, europe, increase, Net, Profit, Shell, The Netherlands.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) posted a near fivefold increase in fourth quarter net profit on Thursday, powered by higher oil prices, and putting more distance between itself and troubled rival BP .

The company said fourth quarter 2010 earnings, on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, were $5.7 billion compared to $1.2 billion a year ago when the company suffered heavy refining losses...continued......

Well Watch website--track natural gas wells around the U.S.

The Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT) in coordination with citizen groups, has developed a website resource for people living with natural gas extraction--drilling, hydraulic fracturing--everything from well location, well site data, tracking development to reports on violations.

Waxman, Markey, and DeGette Investigation Finds Continued Use of Diesel in Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids

Jan 31, 2011

Today Reps. Henry A. Waxman, Edward J. Markey, and Diana DeGette sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson regarding the results of an investigation into the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing fluids.

The congressional investigation finds that oil and gas service companies have injected over 32 million gallons of diesel fuel or hydraulic fracturing fluids containing diesel fuel in wells in 19 states between 2005 and 2009.  In addition, the investigation finds that no oil and gas service companies have sought - and no state and federal regulators have issued - permits for diesel fuel use in hydraulic fracturing, which appears to be a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
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Drilling Industry Says Diesel Use Was Legal--ProPublica

 by Abrahm Lustgarten
 Feb. 2, 2011
 Nicholas Kusnetz contributed to this report.

 After three members of Congress reported this week that drilling companies have been injecting large amounts of diesel fuel underground to hydraulically fracture oil and gas wells, the industry is fighting back -- not by denying the accusation, but by arguing that the EPA never fully regulated the potentially environmentally dangerous practice in the first place.

 According to a letter to the EPA from Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., 14 fracking companies injected more than 32 million gallons of diesel fuel into the ground in 19 states between 2005 and 2009. And they did it without asking for or receiving permission from environmental regulators in those states. Diesel fuel contains benzene, a known carcinogen, which has been detected in water supplies near drilling facilities across the country.

 At first, the lawmakers' findings look like the prelude to a slam-dunk criminal case.

 The 2005 Energy Policy Act states that hydraulic fracturing using diesel is subject to federal regulations that protect drinking water by governing the injection of materials underground. Those injection regulations, contained in the Safe Drinking Water Act, say that companies need a permit before they put anything down a well.

 By the lawmakers' reading of these statutes, the drilling companies broke the law.

 But the energy companies now say there was no law to break....continued.....

Speak Up to Protect Community Rights--Albuquerque Journal

January 16, 2011
By Kathleen Dudley And Theresa Hamrich

Many of us are not accustomed to reading state or local law or involving ourselves in governmental decision-making. Our time is spent working, taking care of our families, our land, ourselves. There is little time left over to read laws that will affect our lives directly, and the lives of the people we love. But today, more than ever, we must take our role as citizens seriously and act to protect our rights so that we do not wake up one day and find that the good water, air and land in Mora County has been "taken" from us due to our ignorance or lack of action.

As New Mexicans, we have rights, but they are weak, like a muscle that has not been exercised. We know from reports across the country that our environment is under siege as a result of corporate development — sewage sludge, landfills, factory farming, natural gas and coal extraction, massive water withdrawals to name but a few.

We only need to look a short distance to the devastation in San Juan County and recall the statements made by ranchers Chris Velasquez and Gilbert Armenta. After 60 years, their local, self-sufficient, land-based economy is but a shadow of its former self due to oil and natural gas extraction. "Wake-up, Mora County, before it is too late" is Armenta's plea to the citizens in Mora County. Velasquez told the people, "Once they start their engines, it is all over.".....continued.....

Mora County group's water study provides first line of defense against 'fracking'--The Santa Fe New Mexican

January 9th 2011
Staci Matlock

A group of residents opposed to drilling for natural gas in Mora County has completed a baseline water quality study of area domestic wells.

The data collected will allow them to track contamination from fluids used in natural gas drilling and production.

Kathleen Dudley, one of the founders of Drilling Mora County, said she thought Mora was the first county to complete baseline well testing. "We now have a defensible set of documents so that, if the industry was ever allowed to drill in the Las Vegas basin in Mora County, they would have to defend against their chemicals showing up in our water, because our water is testing clean from all hydraulic fracturing fluids."

The protocol for establishing baseline water quality in wells is now available from Drilling Mora County to any well owner or community water system in New Mexico.....continued.....

New Nonprofit Offering Help With Tests That May Link Contaminated Water to Hydraulic Fracking

Founders of ShaleTest.Org, personally affected by drilling near their homes, launch nationwide effort to defer costs of expensive water, soil and air tests.

By Shauna Stephenson
1-05-11

A new nonprofit trying to raise awareness about water contamination and its connection to drilling is offering low-income families help with testing their water, soil and air quality .

ShaleTest.Org, based in Texas, recently launched its nationwide effort, emphasizing the importance of testing for the presence of chemicals before and after drilling, or hydraulic fracturing for underground oil and gas reserves, begins.

ShaleTest founders Tim Ruggierro, a property owner in Wise County, Texas, and Calvin Tillman, mayor of Dish, Texas, both have personal experience with development on or near their property. “To me, it’s just not that difficult to connect the dots as to where the problem is,” Ruggierro says. “It’s very convenient for the industry to go around saying there’s not one case of contamination due to hydraulic fracturing because there’s no testing.”....continued.....

Baseline Water Well Testing Completed for Mora County: Las Vegas Basin Property Owners

PRESS RELEASE
12/21/2010

Baseline Water Well Testing Completed for Mora County: Las Vegas Basin Property Owners

• Sampling collected on water wells at "ground zero" in Mora County across the Las Vegas Basin from Watrous, Buena Vista, La Cueva, Rainsville, Ojo Feliz, Ocate to Wagon Mound
• First county in the United States to put into place baseline water well testing on private land before natural gas drilling takes place
• Testing for markers found in hydraulic fracturing fluids
• Methane gas levels sampled
• Testing for radioactive contaminants and known diesel contamination such as have been found at natural gas sites after hydraulic fracturing and well drilling
• Baseline testing shows clean drinking water in Mora County Las Vegas Basin

DATELINE: MORA COUNTY

This past week Drilling Mora County completed a baseline water well sampling and testing protocol on a number of private and community drinking water wells that traverse the Las Vegas Basin area East to West and North to South on land that has either been leased for natural gas drilling or is near leased land.

Through a grant from the McCune Foundation, Drilling Mora County put into place this first-time protocol thanks to the help from many individuals and groups across the Southwest, Northeast and Canada, all of whom have been impacted by federal and state government fiscal hunger fed by an industry whose race to drill the last “great places” in the United States and Canada gains daily momentum.

The protocol follows strict guidelines for collecting and testing water samples that assures accurate results of the landowner’s water quality. The sampling and testing was for known hydraulic fracturing chemicals, including surfactants, methane gas, heavy metals and radioactive substances, to establish their presence or absence in each well. Tracers that are found in industry’s hydraulic fracturing fluids will be evidence of contamination, thanks to the in-depth work of Dr. Theo Colborn, Endocrine Disruption Exchange. (http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.fracturing.php)....continued..........

mas vale prevenir que curar -------- is better to prevent than to cure

BASELINE Drinking Water Well testing for Mora County Las Vegas Basin

Drilling Mora County will begin the process for the baseline water sampling for surface springs, and private and community wells across the Las Vegas Basin in Mora County this December 2010.

A list of chemicals known to be pervasive in hydraulic fracturing fluids will be tested for in a number of wells throughout the mineral-leased land in Mora County.

The Las Vegas Basin lies north of Las Vegas and runs north to Ocate, east to Wagon Mound. Communities in this area in Mora County are Watrous, Buena Vista, Ojo Feliz, Rainsville, Ocate, Wagon Mound. Anyone interested in having your water samples collected and tested, contact Drilling Mora County for details. There will be a limited number of wells paid for in this project, but anyone interested in having their wells tested as well is encouraged to contact DMC to be included in this process.

According to retired EPA environmental engineer, Weston Wilson, Mora County will be the first county to establish a baseline for their water wells where industry is perched, but not yet begun drilling. The protocol is based upon work done by the Roaring Forks Coalition, Dr. Theo Colborn and direction from Weston Wilson.

NEW YORK CITY ACTS TO PROTECT PURE WATER ... AND WATERSHED REGION

"We strongly recommend that the Commission [DRBC] conduct a study of the potential cumulative impacts of gas drilling on water quantity and quality in the Delaware Basin [watershed] before proceeding any further with the Draft Gas Extraction Regulations."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg

On November 17, New York City Mayor Bloomberg sent a letter to the Delaware River Basin Commission's Executive Director, Carol Collier (see website for letter--http://www.damascuscitizens.org/NYC.html)

Department of Environmental Protection Calls for Prohibition on Drilling in the New York City Watershed

December 23 2010

Report finds gas drilling poses unacceptable risks to the unfiltered drinking water supply for nine million New Yorkers

Natural gas drilling and exploration are incompatible with the operation of New York City’s unfiltered water supply system and pose unacceptable risks for more than nine million New Yorkers in the City and State. Drilling in the watershed requires invasive industrialization and creates a substantial risk of chemical contamination, and infrastructure damage, according to the Final Impact Assessment Report prepared for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). After reviewing the report, DEP has called for a prohibition on any drilling in the New York City watershed, located upstate.

“Based on the latest science and available technology, as well as the data and limited analysis presented by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), high-volume hydrofracking and horizontal drilling pose unacceptable threats to the unfiltered fresh water supply of nine million New Yorkers,” said Acting DEP Commissioner Steven W. Lawitts. “New York City has invested $1.5 billion to protect the watershed and prevent degradation of the water supply, and to maintain its Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD). The known and unknown impacts associated with drilling simply cannot be justified.”....continued.......

Pittsburgh Bans Natural Gas Drilling-Adopts first-in-the-nation ordinance –

HUMAN RIGHTS!
16 November 2010
PITTSBURGH: Today, the Pittsburgh City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance banning corporations from conducting natural gas drilling in the city.

The ordinance was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) at the invitation of Councilman Bill Peduto, and was introduced by Councilman Doug Shields.

Pittsburgh’s first-in-the-nation ordinance confronts the threat of Marcellus Shale drilling – an activity permitted by the state which allows corporations to site drilling activities over the wishes of a community.

Energy corporations are setting up shop in communities across Pennsylvania, to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation. The gas extraction technique known as “fracking” has been cited as a threat to surface and groundwater, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, local rivers, and streams. Collateral damage includes lost property value, ingestion of toxins by livestock, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and threatened loss of organic certification for farmers in affected communities.

Councilman Shields stated, “This ordinance recognizes and secures expanded civil rights for the people of Pittsburgh, and it prohibits activities which would violate those rights. It protects the authority of the people of Pittsburgh to pass this ordinance by undoing corporate privileges that place the rights of the people of Pittsburgh at the mercy of gas corporations.”

Shields added, “With this vote we are asserting the right of the city to make critical decisions to protect our health, safety, and welfare. We are not a colony of the state and will not sit quietly by as our city gets drilled. We encourage communities across the region to take this step and join with us to elevate the rights of communities and people over corporations.”

CELDF’s Ben Price, who is engaging with communities across the state seeking to protect themselves from drilling, said, “Communities are coming to recognize that our state laws and government are not in place to protect their interests, but rather the interests of private corporations.”

Price applauded the city for taking a stand on behalf of community rights. “Some will say that the municipality doesn’t have the authority to ban this noxious practice associated with gas drilling. The only way that’s true is if the state has the authority to strip the residents of their rights, and it doesn’t.”

Under the ordinance, corporations that violate the ordinance or that seek to drill in the city will not be afforded “personhood” rights under the U.S. or Pennsylvania Constitution, nor will they be afforded protections under the Commerce Clause or Contracts Clause under the federal or state constitution.

In addition, the ordinance recognizes the legally enforceable Rights of Nature to exist and flourish. Residents of the city shall possess legal standing to enforce those rights on behalf of natural communities and ecosystems.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995 to assert their fundamental rights to democratic local self-governance, and to enact laws which end destructive and rights-denying corporate action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.

HUMAN RIGHTS! Josh Fox Diretor of "GasLand" calls for Civil Disobendience

November 10 2010

Josh Fox called for civil disobedience and then called the governor elect (by cell phone) to announce the crowd's intentions of banning natural gas drilling in Pittsburgh and then Pennsylvania as a whole.

For more on human rights and how to protect your rights, contact Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (www.celdf.org)

Pittsburgh City Council Unanimously Calls for Drilling Ban

HUMAN RIGHTS!
By Bill Vidonic
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
November 10, 2010

Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to legislation that would ban Marcellus shale drilling in the city.

Council voted 8-0 on the measure that Councilman Doug Shields introduced to stop natural -as companies from drilling into the gas-rich shale. Critics say the process used to extract gas from the shale could contaminate water supplies.

Attorneys representing gas companies have said they likely will challenge the ban in court. Shields acknowledged that legal challenges are expected.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency regulate drilling.

Blasting shale rock with toxic fluid can release riches in natural gas, but threatens critical water supplies.

Huge Gas Plant Approved Despite Emissions Spike
It will boost BC's carbon output three per cent, but cap-and-trade can offset, says Premier.

The earth-shattering exploitation of deep deposits of shale rock for natural gas production has broken global records in northeast British Columbia and now threatens critical water supplies across the country, warns a new Munk School of Global Affairs report by award-winning B.C. journalist Ben Parfitt....continued....

NM Drill Down: From A to Z--Santa Fe Reporter

By Laura Paskus
10.06.10

Love it or hate it, the oil and gas industry is as much a part of modern New Mexico as red and green chile. But let’s be honest: Without strict regulation, it also coughs haze into once-blue skies, can contaminate groundwater and private wells, upsets landowners, and poses a threat to public health.

This week, SFR wades through the regulations and names, agencies and scandals, campaign contributions and connections so that you can educate yourself about the industry that brings billions in revenues to the state.

With all that cash, the industry also wields enormous political power. As a result, it continues to thwart progress on everything from federal climate change legislation to the state’s attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, wellheads and pipelines—which, if unchecked, could threaten future generations of New Mex-icans.

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Activists
New Mexico has numerous environmental organizations, but these groups specifically tackle oil and gas issues:
• Drilling Mora County

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