Few people know fracking better than Paul Hetzler. He’s an environmental engineering technician who for years worked for New York’s Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC). Mr. Hetzler managed dozens of groundwater remediation projects in the 1990s. He’s pored over “thousands of lab results from contaminated wells,” and he’s intimately familiar with the...
Time Magazine got it right when it outed hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the biggest environmental concern our nation is facing as we head into the new year. Why fracking? The world’s largest weekly news magazine, boasting a global circulation of 25 million, points to “the threats that shale gas drilling could pose to water supplies” and the fact that “natural gas...
More evidence rumbled in over the holiday weekend tying fracking operations to earthquakes. The most recent and largest tremor – in a “suspicious” string of 11 – to hit the Youngstown area since last March measured 4.0 on the Richter scale. The epicenter, according to a Jan. 1 New York Times report, is “a well that has been used for the disposal of millions of gallons of brine...
There’s something very wrong with the water in Pavillion, Wyoming. It reeks of chemicals. Local health officials warned residents not to drink it after the EPA found pollution in their wells. Some residents have reported health problems – shortness of breath, nausea, itchy skin and rashes, headaches and dizziness – consistent with chemical poisoning. So what’s causing all the trouble...
As fracking operations are exploding across the country, so is the promise of big money – in royalties and bonuses – for property owners who allow gas companies to drill on their land. Think (in concept only) “Beverly Hillbillies,” the 1960s TV sitcom featuring a backwoods family that moves to a lavish Beverly Hills mansion after striking oil in their backyard. It all worked out...
A federal committee has formalized in a highly critical report what many of us have been shouting about for years: Fracking will cause “excessive” damage to the environment if steps aren’t immediately taken to minimize its impacts. A little late to the party, but we appreciate the first truly candid federal assessment of a natural gas extraction process known to contaminate...
Fracking represents the most urgent environmental threat the United States has faced in 30 years. It’s a threat that demands our attention and a robust national debate. An informed public is imperative as we – as a nation – grasp to strike a balance between our thirst for energy resources and the need to protect the environment and ensure public health and safety. To that end, we are...
Julius Caesar is rolling over in his grave. Some 2,000 years ago, the Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing compound around Great Britain’s only hot spring. To this day, the complex in the ancient city of Bath flows with natural, steamy waters known around the world for their health benefits and powerful healing qualities. During the heady days of the Roman Empire, it was said...
In a brazen pro-industry legal maneuver, the U.S. government has obtained permission from a federal judge to move to dismiss a lawsuit in New York that represents the last line of defense in protecting the drinking water of 15 million Americans. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against federal regulators on May 31 seeking a thorough examination of the negative impacts...
As if radioactive wastewater, exploding wells and flammable tap water weren’t bad enough, fracking has now been tied to another environmental threat – earthquakes, thousands of them. Geologists have tied fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas to an outbreak of more than 1,200 so-called “minor earthquakes” (an oxymoron if ever there was one). At least one startled...
