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Fracking Industry Drills Through Bedrock Of Integrity

by Tomas DiFiore
Californians will likely need to use the precautionary principal to protect Public waterways – lakes, rivers, streams, springs – from access or use by the 'fracking' industry. Other States are creating such legislation as part of a precautionary strategy. Our State Parks, National Parks, and Recreation Areas, and watercourses are natural treasures, and are held in the Public Trust.
If you wish to comment to DOGGR on California's “draft discussion, visit their website:
http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dog/Pages/Index.aspx
fracking_industry_drills_through_bedrock_of_integrity.pdf_600_.jpg
The Department of Conservation/Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources on December 18, 2012 released a “discussion draft” of regulations for the oil and natural gas production technique known as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). What does “discussion draft” mean? It means that this version does not kick off the formal rulemaking process.

Instead, it is a starting point for discussion by key stakeholders – industry, the environmental community, and other regulators, as well as interested members of the public – in preparation for the more formal process, which probably will begin in early 2013.

On October 18th, 2012 a quiet but informative video was released by Fairewinds Energy Education, Arnie and Maggie Gundersen.

How Citizen Scientists Can Sample Radiation Video - 14m 41s
http://www.fairewinds.com/content/how-citizen-scientists-can-sample-radiation

“Marco Kaltofen, (Wooster Polytechnic Research Engineer) explains how citizens scientists can properly, collect, document, package and ship radiation samples. In this video, he also demonstrates how he analyzes radioactive samples in his lab.”

“What exactly happens to a radiological sample when it's received in the Laboratory?”

At 4 minutes into the video, per the chain of custody and data collection methods previously explained, Mark measures background radiation and then measures a sample from Chernobyl (the cpu controller). Mark then briefly explains why a bedrock core sample from a 'fracking' drill tests very highly radioactive (compared to the sample from Chernobyl), and also tests a sample of the dust contents of an ordinary home vacuum bag.

“So here I have a little bit of scale. If you've heard about 'Fracking' and taking oil and petroleum fluids out of the ground by opening up underground reservoirs – when you do fracking and you pull up all this groundwater, some of the things you pull up are the naturally occurring radioactive materials, the Uranium, Thorium, Radium, things that are buried in the bedrock, and you bring them to the surface”.

“Like the pipes in our homes, the pipes used in 'fracking' will get some scale. Let's take a look at the scale we have from 'fracking' a gas well. We'll put it on the geiger counter and compare it to the sample from Chernobyl”. The geiger counter rings with hardly a pause between counts.

“Well this isn't really a video about 'fracking' but you get the idea”.

Export profits drive the gas rush. While unknown quantities of water are poisoned and made non-returnable, the Southwest endures a drought period. What's California's water worth?

At this time, both New York and California are moving along the timeline of formulating regulations to allow 'fracking'. New Yorkers have set up a website to facilitate Public comments!
30 days of fracking regs dot com
http://www.30daysoffrackingregs.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/30-Days-of-Fracking-Regs/570728062944063
30 Days of Fracking Regs is an effort by many to assist biologist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber in educating New Yorkers about the proposed regulations for fracking in New York, and how they can respond effectively. comments to the NY DEC are due by January 11, 2012.

The Department of Environmental Conservation issued proposed regulations for 'fracking' in New York. The state has not yet finished its analysis of the health and environmental impacts of 'fracking'. Hence, these draft regulations, in addition to being hastily drawn with glaring mistakes and oversights, are also entirely uninformed by science.

It is believe that these regulations are fatally flawed and should not be accepted before a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment has been completed. Therefore (we) are asking you to include the following disclaimer at the top of all of your comments:
"Submitted Under Protest: Regulations Cannot Precede a Comprehensive Health Impact Assessment"

A really really good show, New York style:
http://archive.wbai.org/
Eco-Logic Show Tuesday January 1 2013
FRACKING, HEALTH, POLITICS, ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT, REAL AMERICAN HEROES
8:00pm Public Public Affairs 1 hour
Listen or download 13MB Mp3

Where's that bedrock of integrity?
September 6, 2012 From The Columbus Dispatch
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has paid a $1,000 settlement and nearly $8,000 in attorney fees and court costs to end a public records lawsuit.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/science-environment/2012/09/dnr-settles.html

Documents and emails showed, among other things, that officials had considered keeping drilling rigs farther away from campgrounds and other attractions than a proposed 300 feet, that teams of agency officials were sent from their regular jobs to scour property records for state-owned mineral rights, and that officials had discussed whether they should sell water from state park lakes and streams for 'fracking'.

In July 2012, a Democratic lawmaker pushed the wrong button, and voted to override the state's ban on hydraulic fracturing.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/03/3357704/state-senate-overrides-gov-perdues.html

The GOP-led Legislature in North Carolina voted to lift that state's ban on hydraulic fracturing.

Republicans achieved the narrow victory after a Democratic lawmaker pushed the wrong button and voted to override the veto. Republicans successfully overrode Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a 'fracking' bill during a dramatic vote taken just after 11 p.m. Monday.

But like the legislation itself, the vote to override was controversial. Rep. Becky Carney, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County who opposes fracking, pushed the wrong button and accidentally voted with Republicans to override the veto. A Republican maneuver prevented her from changing her vote, giving the GOP a historic one-vote margin of victory.

Why is Radiation on the rise to groundwater aquifers? Who you going to believe?
Notice of Violation from California Department of Public Health

Shaw Environmental, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources' lead private contractor for the Bayou Corne "sinkhole" collapsing salt dome disaster, has received a Notice of Violation from California Department of Public Health
DECEMBER 26, 2012
http://www.examiner.com/article/dnr-shaw-group-notice-of-violation-for-alarming-radiation-data-failures

Shaw Environmental, the Navy's lead private contractor in California, has received a Notice of Violation from the state's Department of Public Health for failure to properly collect and record radiation data on Treasure Island. The East Bay Express obtained the radiation data from a public records request.

And Louisiana state officials are investigating how Texas Brine Co. LLC, an oil and gas service company with an allegedly failed storage cavern in the salt dome, managed naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) there and whether it illegally disposed of the "non-dangerous" material in the 1990s under Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities.

NORM is a common petrochemical industrial complex waste problem potentially negatively impacting the human right to health. It creates wastes that industry has often dumped improperly - in water, on land, by burning and in "accidents" - to avoid storing it illegally.

And published on Dec 30, 2012
“Welcome to the gasfields of PA. Silica sand is used as a proppent in the hydraulic fracturing process. The Wyalusing Silica Sand Transfer Station is located within a mile of 3 public schools and right next to a large daycare center. Silica dust caused silicosis, which is a fatal disease.
Environmental scientist Dr. Yuri Gorby and retired UAW Health and Safety Officer Joe Shervinski are featured in the video.” 4 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-iTCRJ6I_zM

Back in March 2012, Governor Brown said "I'll be on top of it."
“While California has yet to draw up any rules on the extraction method, Brown said oil companies have an incentive to be good environmental stewards... "because we have trial lawyers in California and a very vigorous tort system. So I think there’s a certain self-discipline that they can operate with the management of fracking issues."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/03/gov-jerry-brown-says-hes-studying-fracking-in-california.html

“Under the proposed rules, companies would have to disclose chemicals 60 days after completing fracking.” LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/18/local/la-me-fracking-20121219

If you wish to comment to DOGGR on California's “draft discussion, visit their website:
http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dog/Pages/Index.aspx

Download the 11 page PDF - Fracking Industry Drills Through Bedrock Of Integrity
Please educate yourself and make comments!
Tomas DiFiore
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