Stop Fracking!!!

Did you know oil and gas companies are allowed to inject huge quantities of secret, toxic fluids, directly into our drinking water - and that the EPA is currently powerless to do anything about it?

High Pressure Hydraulic Fracturing (or fracking) is a method of drilling for natural gas by pumping a mixture of water and toxic, cancer-causing chemicals deep underground, and it's already responsible for poisoning the groundwater in states across the country.

An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK'sEcologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

Do we really need natural gas more than we need clean drinking water? Or uncontaminated food?

What Bottled Water Companies Aren't Telling You

Today we learn from a new report from Environmental Working Group (EWG) "Bottled water companies try hard to hide information you might find troubling," says Jane Houlihan, senior vice president of research for the Washington D.C.-based research and advocacy group.

EWG analyzed the labels of 173 unique bottled water products and company websites to determine if companies disclose information on where water comes from, how or if their water is treated, and whether the results of purity testing are revealed. The nonprofit also looked at how effective (and advanced) any water treatment methods are. Researchers followed up by calling dozens of bottled water companies to find out which ones willingly tell consumers what's in their bottles.

Despite consumer laws designed to protect us by governing the manufacture and processing of everything we eat or drink, these companies take short cuts, put a favorable spin on unfavorable truths and outright cover up whatever they consider harmful to their sales. It is easy to see where their main interest lies.

Our tap water is stringently tested and the results can be found online. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for bottled water, which is not required to disclose that information to consumers. Why this is the case remains to be unanswered.

More than half of the bottled water products surveyed failed EWG's transparency test --18% didn't say where their water comes from, and another 32% did not disclose any information on treatment or purity of water. These results are dismal at best. For a company to sell a product, that we ingest, without disclosing the ingredients and its sources is unconscionable. Further, to be allowed to do so is nothing short of criminal negligence.

This situation continues because we consumers continue to purchase products of this nature. We need to all, each and every one of us, stop putting so much faith in the products we buy. The battle against unscrupulous manufacturers is tough enough, but when the very people we are fighting for show manufacturers they will purchase whatever is put in front of them, it becomes even more of an uphill battle.

Only three brands earned the highest possible marks for disclosing information and using the most advanced treatment methods available –

• Gerber Pure Purified Water,
• Nestle Pure Life Purified Water,
• Penta Ultra-Purified Water.

These six brands got the worst marks in EWG's report because they don't provide consumers with the three basic facts about water on product labels or their company website –

• Whole Foods Italian Still Mineral Water,
• Vintage Natural Spring Water,
• Sahara Premium Drinking Water,
• O Water Sport Electrolyte Enhanced Purified Drinking Water,
• Market Basket Natural Spring Water,
• Cumby's Spring Water.

We have to ask ourselves, if these companies won’t disclose where their water comes from, how or if it is treated, or whether the results of purity testing are revealed, then we need to err on the side of caution and assume it is nothing more than tap water. And if it is tap water, why are you paying for it?

Related facts:

Bottled water can cost up to 1,900 times more than what flows from your tap

Drinking tap water also takes less of a toll on the planet

The most advanced treatment technologies are reverse osmosis and micro-filtration

 

Tags: drinking water

Fracking for resources

The procedure used to extract natural gas out of shale rock deep within the ground is called hydrolic fracturing (fracking).

Several states around the country are using this controversial process even while the EPA is conducting studies to determine if this process is harmful to the environment.

So here we have the EPA doing studies to see if this procedure is too damaging to our environment to use, while companies are currently using the procedure and damaging the environment. Anyone else see any problem with this picture?

The EPA will undoubtedly wait until gas companies have extracted all they can out of the ground before ruling that this procedure is too damaging to the environment to continue. The gas companies will put up a token show of protest knowing they have already gotten what they want out of it, and then will go along with the ruling to show what good stewards of the land they are. Quite the cozy little arrangement.

Let’s examine how harmful this fracking is:

Fracking pumps millions of gallons of fluid into the ground. This fluid is composed of water, sand and toxic chemicals to help the sand in the fluid travel farther into the formation. More chemicals break down the mixture so it flows back easily, and biocides keep fungi and bacteria from growing in the passageways so they don’t block the gas.

A high percentage of the fluid that goes down into the well comes back up in the form of wastewater. This wastewater not only contains the toxic chemicals that are pumped down such as friction reducers, foaming agents, biocides, surfactants and scale inhibitors but also brings up Normally Occurring Radioactive material (NORMS), metals such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and copper, hydrocarbons and organic compounds like methanol, chlorinated phenols, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene and acrylamide.

The wastewater is pumped into impoundments, or holding ponds, at the well site and then must be trucked across our roads and through our communities to get to one of only two treatment facilities in Auburn and Watertown that are treating it and releasing into nearby rivers.

At every step of the process there are multiple opportunities for contamination to our water supply, our air and our land through leaks, failures and the inevitable mechanical and human error. There is no way to expect that you can introduce this toxic cocktail into the environment and not have severe consequences.

Must we continue this charade of protecting the environment while corporations and the EPA continue their cozy profitable arrangement? They aren’t fooling any of us. But as usual those in power hold all the cards in preventing us from stopping them.

While gas drilling using fracking is currently threatening ecologically important areas such as the Catskills and the Upper Delaware, the practice is about to affect a huge swath from there west through the vineyards and farms of the Finger Lakes on down through Allegheny State Park and beyond the borders to West Virginia all while the EPA drags its feet convinced its working for the American people.

Related Stories:

Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to sump pollution into drinking water supplies

Listen to the Children

Too often we adults shun advice from children as too naïve and not worth our time to listen to.

Here is a twelve-year-old who has something meaningful and worthwhile to say and actually says it better than most adults. She addressed the United Nations meeting in Brazil with an elegance and style far beyond her years.

Please, take the time to listen, it is only a five minute segment of her speech but in that short time she paints reality far more succinctly than any adult I know ever has.

From her we have so much to learn and just maybe we can learn to share what we have with those who have nothing.

Drowning in Crap

Sorry, but after all of the progress we have made toward cleaning up our environment, see Main Stream Media and the Real Story, learning that human error and our aging infrastructure is responsible for millions of gallons of raw sewage being dumped into our healing waterways almost every day just makes me disappointed. These systems have deteriorated because maintenance has put off due to lack of funds or simple low priority. Well guess what, repairing these systems is going to cost even more now.

Here are some of the worst examples:

January 2008, about 20 million gallons of sewage flowed into Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River after a 42-inch pipe ruptured near Reading, Pa.

January 2008, heavy rain, combined with deteriorating pipes, overwhelmed a Marin County, Calif., wastewater treatment plant in January, spilling 2.45 million gallons of sewage into Richardson Bay, which connects to San Francisco Bay. Days later, an additional 2.7 million gallons of sewage spilled into the same bay when operators failed to engage all of the treatment plant's pumps.

February 2008, A mechanical failure at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission's Piscataway Wastewater Treatment Plant in Maryland sent millions of gallons of raw sewage into nearby Piscataway Creek in February.

In March 2008, between 700,000 and 1.3 million gallons of human feces and other waste spilled from a damaged pipe into Grand Lagoon at Panama City Beach, Fla.

August 2007, a ruptured sewer pipe spilled millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River just north of New York City.

June 2006, Improper excavation near Cary, N.C., ruptured a pipe and spilled approximately 8 million gallons of raw sewage into Swift Creek, Lake Wheeler and Lake Benson.

March 2006, a pressurized sewer pipe in Honolulu burst, spilling 48 million gallons of sewage into Ala Wai canal, which runs into the Pacific Ocean. High levels of bacteria detected in coastal waters closed Waikiki beaches for a week.

Between 2004 and 2006, about 14 million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into San Diego Bay due to improper construction of a Navy barracks high-rise.

August 2007, about 7.8 million gallons of raw sewage poured into White Clay Creek in Wilmington, Del., for 13 hours after a pump station switch and an alarm failed.

According to EPA data, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for spills since 2003. And dozens of local governments have agreed to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems over the next 10 to 20 years. Many of those projects will be financed by rate increases.

At least one-third of the nation's large, publicly owned sewage treatment systems have been penalized by the EPA or state regulators for sewage spills or other violations. The penalties included fines as well as orders to fix problems or expand treatment capacity.

Total fines amounted to $35 million. The fines were assessed against 494 of the nation's 4,200 municipal facilities that treat at least 1 million gallons of sewage daily. In addition, some states have levied penalties that aren't included in the data.

Cities with the largest fines included San Diego ($6.2 million), New York City ($3 million), Los Angeles ($1.6 million), and Pittsburgh ($1.2 million).

A database of sewer facility treatment plant reports by state and county has been set up by Gannet News Service.

Many sewer systems are over 100 years old. And they need some immediate attention. When the volume of rainfall becomes too much for these old pipes to handle, the water and sewage mixture bypasses the treatment plant and flows directly into local waters. This is unacceptable.

Sewer systems overflow about 23,000 to 75,000 times per year, releasing an estimated 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of untreated waste into local waters, according to the EPA. These overflows are unlawful.

EPA officials say water quality has gotten better in many communities that have improved their sewer systems.

The nation's public wastewater treatment plants and sewage collection systems need about $350 billion to $500 billion over the next 20 years for repairs and expansion, according to estimates from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. The trade group based the estimates on figures from the EPA and other federal agencies.

Ratepayers certainly will be asked to help foot much of the bill. In Louisville, residential sewer rates jumped 30% last year to help finance an $800 million sewer renovation program that won't be completed until 2024. "We don't have any recourse," Louisville resident Roseanne Southard said as officials prepared to approve the increase. "These agencies all want more money, and I'm not making any more."

It’s a shame to see so much good work be wiped out due to lack of maintenance and shoddy infrastructure design. Once again we have fallen victim to this errant line of thinking where minor problems can be put off until they become major problems with major repair costs usually leaving someone else to pay for it.

This year, the federal government has budgeted $687 million for wastewater improvement, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

Here are some strategies that communities across the country are adopting, often at considerable expense, to protect rivers, streams and other bodies of water from sewage overflows.

• Relocate sewer lines away from environmentally sensitive areas.

• Repair damaged sewer lines, manhole covers and pump stations.

• Survey the entire sewer system to improve operations and maintenance.

• Educate homeowners and restaurateurs about how to avoid clogging sewer lines with fats, oil and grease.

• Eliminate sewer outlets that discharge combined raw sewage and storm water directly into local rivers and lakes.

• Eliminate leaking septic systems by connecting homes to sanitary sewer systems.

• Install meters and other technologies to identify and track sewage overflows.

I want to acknowledge Robert Benincasa, Gannet News Service, and Dan Klepal, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal for providing most of the facts in this article.