New Gas Drilling Ordinance Finalized
From the City of Fort Worth’s web site:
Fort Worth City Council finalized a new gas drilling ordinance at its Dec. 16 meeting, including rules that increase the minimum setback for wells near protected uses, public buildings and places of assembly to 300 feet from 200 feet. Although this is the minimum, residences, schools, churches, hospitals and parks will still have to have waivers from property owners or the City Council for drilling between 300 and 600 feet away.
Council also broadened the definition of a “residence” to include hotels, motels, and jails.
Other amendments to the previous ordinance – overhauled in 2006 – include creation of residential setbacks from compressor stations and stricter noise requirements. Pipeline regulations, permitting process for fracture ponds, salt water piping regulations and increased environmental regulations are also improvements. A Gas Drilling Review Committee has been established to hear from citizens regarding certain high-impact wells, pipelines in residential areas and use of non-commercial truck routes.
Council’s decision follows recommendations made by the Gas Drilling Task Force. The 18-member task force, comprised of community members, business leaders and industry representatives, met more than 20 times and conducted two joint workshops with the City Council and three public hearings to arrive at the recommendations. Here’s an unofficial copy of the new ordinance, which includes all approved revisions. If the link doesnt work see: http://www.fortworthgov.org/uploadedFiles/Gas_Wells/Gasdrillingord120908_121608final.pdf
Council sets another workshop to discuss Gas Ordinance
Last night, City Council was still unable to come to full agreement on some of the new restrictions for natural gas drilling. Council members approved most of a new ordinance on drilling, along with resolutions encouraging the state to fund an environmental impact study and spend more money on pipeline and well inspections. They were, however, unable to agree on what setbacks to enforce on sites with multiple wells. Therefore, another workshop will be held next week to discuss this issue; a final vote will follow. Both are scheduled for December 16. For more information, please read, “Fort Worth council OKs most of new gas-drilling ordinance” in today’s FWST. A link to the article is posted on the right side of this page.
OMB Watch – Gas Drilling Threatens Public with Undisclosed Chemicals
Published on 12/02/2008
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4418/1/{category_id}
Gas Drilling Threatens Public with Undisclosed Chemicals
The natural gas drilling industry refuses to disclose what potentially harmful chemicals are used in thousands of hydraulic fracturing gas wells across the country, despite evidence that the chemicals are poisoning drinking water supplies. As concerns mount, several states are considering action to curb use of the process despite the federal government’s efforts to encourage it with large subsidies and environmental exemptions.
During hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” large amounts of sand and water are pumped at high pressure into a well. This causes small cracks and fissures to open deep in the layers of rock, releasing previously trapped molecules of natural gas. The mixture pumped deep into the ground usually contains a small proportion of chemicals included to reduce friction, prevent clogging of the fractures, and to prevent corrosion of machinery. These chemicals may end up in underground drinking water supplies, be spilled into surface waters, or evaporate as air pollution.
A recent investigation of hydraulic fracturing by ProPublica revealed documented cases of water contamination and other hazardous events resulting from the drilling process in several states. Drilling companies have consistently maintained that the procedure is safe, referring to a 2004 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study that found no risks to drinking water. However, ProPublica discovered several problems with EPA’s conclusions, including statements within the report that fluids migrated unpredictably and to greater distances than previously thought, which were left out of the conclusions. Additionally, ProPublica noted that agency documents appear to indicate that EPA negotiated directly with the gas industry before finalizing its report conclusions.
Among the reports of damage to environmental and public health resulting from hydraulic fracturing are more than 1,000 cases of documented water contamination in Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In addition to contamination from the below-ground drilling, leaks and spills from trucks and waste pits are also causing problems. Tracking the contamination is especially difficult because drillers refuse to disclose the chemicals being used. Despite the secrecy, some information on the chemical mixture has been pieced together. Among the identified chemicals are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene.
According to a chemical analysis by the Environmental Working Group and The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), a Colorado research organization, of the more than 300 suspected hydraulic fracturing chemicals used in Colorado, at least 65 are federally listed hazardous substances, and little is known about the rest. Despite the risks associated with the 65 hazardous chemicals, the drilling operations are exempt from environmental reporting requirements and use of the chemicals is not controlled. The drilling industries are exempt from numerous environmental regulations — and the accompanying reporting requirements and public scrutiny — authorized by such laws as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund), and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO), John Salazar (D-CO), and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) introduced legislation, H.R. 7231, on Sept. 29 to remove the SDWA exemption originally created by the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The legislation is expected to be reintroduced in 2009.
The health risks from fracking chemicals was made clear in the summer of 2008 when a Colorado nurse almost died from exposure while treating a gas field worker whose clothing had been doused with the chemicals. Despite the nurse suffering from heart, lung, and liver failure, plus kidney damage and blurred vision, the drilling company refused to reveal to her doctors the “proprietary” chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. While the nurse eventually recovered, she was never told to what she had been exposed.
For Colorado health officials, the chemical exemptions, regulatory loopholes, and missing data are a cause for concern. “We are just working in the dark,” says Dr. Martha Rudolph, director of environmental programs for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in a report for Newsweek. “We don’t know the impact on the potential health on humans might be. We need to.”
Claiming that the specific chemicals used in the drilling process are confidential business information and that disclosure would threaten their “competitive advantage” over competing firms, drilling companies have managed to operate wells nationwide without revealing what chemicals they are using. Halliburton, the oil and gas services firm and a pioneer of hydraulic fracturing, has threatened to pull its affected operations out of Colorado if it is forced by the state to disclose the chemicals it is using.
A major expansion of natural gas drilling is being planned for upstate New York within the region supplying New York City’s water. However, New York City and state officials have asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to ban all gas drilling in the city’s watershed, which overlaps the Marcellus Shale, a geologic region of high natural gas potential underneath New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, until further studies on its impact can be done. The Marcellus Shale is estimated to contain enough natural gas to fuel the country’s gas needs for fourteen years.
There has been a dramatic expansion of gas and oil drilling across the United States during the last eight years. The Bush administration has allowed more oil and gas drilling on western public lands than any administration in at least 25 years, and fracking is used in nine out of ten of these natural gas wells. Not only has the government allowed fracking to occur with lax oversight and regulatory exemptions, the government has also actively encouraged oil and gas companies with significant federal subsidies for exploration and drilling, including fracking. An analysis by Friends of the Earth released in July found that oil and gas companies would receive more than $32.9 billion in different subsidies over the next five years, including seven new provisions that were included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (PL 109-58). A report released by Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) on Nov. 14 details those seven new provisions, calculating they will cost taxpayers $2.3 billion through 2015.
