Search
-
Recent Posts
- Albany Common Council Reintroduces Fracking Ban Bill with Veto-Proof Majority
- Couple denied mortgage because of gas drilling
- Newman Ferrara LLP Investigates Chesapeake Energy Corp. for Possible Breaches of Fiduciary Duty
- Chesapeake gas well failure prompts evacuation near Douglas
- State laws allow drilling even where owners object
- Resident-Funded Testing Confirms ‘Worst Fears’ for Fracking and Flowback Emissions
- Activists Stand in Solidarity with Families Facing Eviction by “Arrogant Aqua”
- Quebec Installs Outright Moratorium On Hydraulic Fracturing
- National organization of farmers and local farming communities act against hydrofracking, citing risk to food and agriculture.
- USGS: Recent Earthquakes “Almost Certainly Manmade”, Report Implicates Oil and Natural Gas Drilling
Upcoming Events
Video
Neighborhood Gas Well Drilling- Couple Says BEWARE
Oil or Gas Well Problem?
Call your local fire department AND contact the ODNR! For contact information click here.
Neogap Yard Signs!
YARD SIGNS
18” x 24” available. Donation $7
Large mini-billboards 3’ x 5’ available. Donation $40.
Click here to contact usNeogap Billboards!
Help us get the word out to people throughout your community, by contributing to a billboard. Please contact us!
Proud EcoWatch Collaborator
Read the latest grassroots environmental news from EcoWatch
EcoWatch – Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement!
Members Login
UK Fracking Firm Admits They Are Causing Earthquakes
November 7th, 2011 – Following seismic tremors in North-West England this Spring, the firm exploring for natural shale gas in the region has admitted that the disturbances were caused by the controversial exploration process of fracking. Fracking involves cracking or fracturing rock, containing trapped shale gas, by using pressurized liquid. Shale gas is an increasingly important energy resource though there have been claims that it is worse for the environment than coal, largely due to the fracking process. A press release from Cuadrilla Resources, who was responsible for exploration in the region, reported that: “The hydraulic fracturing of Cuadrilla’s Preese Hall-1 well did trigger a number of minor seismic events.“ “The seismic events were due to an unusual combination of geology at the well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations.” The company did add that the chances of such an occurrence happening again would be slim. It predicted that … Continue reading
Bulgaria: Chevron Fracking Not Permitted
January 17th, 2012, SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bowing to public pressure, Bulgaria’s government says U.S. oil company Chevron cannot explore for shale gas in the country using the extraction technique known as “fracking.” Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said that under Tuesday’s decision “Chevron can still have the right to test for oil and gas, but without using the controversial technology of hydraulic fracturing.” He says San Ramon, California-based Chevron had not yet been notified of the decision and negotiations on the contract are pending. Over the last weeks, thousands of people gathered at protest rallies across Bulgaria to protest against shale gas extraction and the use of fracking, fearing it could have a hazardous impact on the environment and people’s health. Last June, Bulgaria granted U.S. oil company Chevron a permit to explore for shale gas in the northeastern part of the country. The potential reserves of shale gas in this … Continue reading
A review of violations at Ohio’s fracking wastewater injection wells
January 18th, 2012 – Last week we published a list of Ohio’s Class II wastewater injection wells. These wells are used to dispose of brine and other potentially toxic fluids associated with oil and gas production, over half of which comes from out-of-state fracking wells. Today we’re discussing the violations these wells have received since 2000. Of the 9,568 inspections performed on Ohio’s approximately 190 disposal wells, there were 867 failed inspections. Some of these failures were new violations, and some were failures on follow up inspections. We’ve compiled the complete list of violations in this excel document [FAILED_SWD_INSPECTIONS.XLS] for anyone who wishes to do their own analysis. Looking at the violations by type, 355 violations were related to contamination or pollution and 143 were related to pressure, including operating above or below pressure or failing to monitor the pressure at the well. Other violations included a failure to properly identify wells … Continue reading
In a federal court settlement, BLM agrees to do more air quality studies on Colorado Front Range gas drilling
Federal agency will do full emissions inventory, evaluate ozone impacts in permitting process January 19th, 2012 – SUMMIT COUNTY — Front Range residents will get better information about air quality impacts from gas drilling, as the Bureau of Land Management has agreed to do more studies before permitting additional energy development. The studies will include a full inventory of emissions anticipated during the next 20 years. The agreement came as part of a court-ordered settlement of a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians. “This is a great news for clean air along the Front Range and beyond, which is increasingly at risk because of ramped up drilling and fracking,” said WildEarth Guardians climate and energy program director Jeremy Nichols. “The BLM has basically agreed to look before it leaps, which is a common sense approach to keeping people in Colorado safe from air pollution.” WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s 2009 … Continue reading
Driller fined $565,000 for three releases to Northern Tier waterways
February 10th, 2012 – State environmental regulators have fined Chesapeake Appalachia $565,000 for three incidents at Northern Tier natural gas well sites, including an April 2011 wellhead failure in Bradford County that released thousands of gallons of wastewater into a nearby stream. The company paid $190,000 for the failure during hydraulic fracturing of the Atgas well in Leroy Twp. as part of an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday. The April incident took six days to fully control and caused the company to suspend its Pennsylvania fracking operations for three weeks, regulators said. It drew national attention and raised concerns about the safety of the gas extraction process. Read related documents here: Consent Assessment of Civil Penalty for Beech Flats Pad, West Branch Township, Potter County (PDF) Consent Order and Agreement for Atgas 2H Pad, Leroy Township, Bradford County (PDF) Consent Order and Agreement for Elevation 1H-6H … Continue reading
Study Focuses on Marcellus Shale Environmental Violations
February 9th, 2012 – A report by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center shows that, over the past four years, gas operators accumulated 3,355 violations of environmental laws. [PDF] The study was compiled using information from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Erika Staaf, clean water advocate with PennEnvironment, claims more than 70 percent of the violations were possibly a direct threat to the environment. “Over the last four years, Marcellus Shale gas drillers have demonstrated a track record of pollution that has contaminated our water. It has destroyed public lands. It’s threatened public health,” said Staaf. “And absent of strong state safeguards for air, water, and land, this pattern of pollution is set to continue.” Staaf said the top five companies for total violations were Cabot Oil and Gas Corp with 412, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (393), Chief Oil and Gas, LLC (313), Talisman Energy USA, Inc. (303) and East Resources, Inc. (170) The DEP fined Chesapeake Energy $565,000 … Continue reading
Air sampling reveals high emissions from gas field
February 7th, 2012 – Methane leaks during production may offset climate benefits of natural gas. When US government scientists began sampling the air from a tower north of Denver, Colorado, they expected urban smog — but not strong whiffs of what looked like natural gas. They eventually linked the mysterious pollution to a nearby natural-gas field, and their investigation has now produced the first hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change. Led by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado, Boulder, the study estimates that natural-gas producers in an area known as the Denver-Julesburg Basin are losing about 4% of their gas to the atmosphere — not including additional losses in the pipeline and distribution system. This is more than double the official inventory, but roughly in line with estimates … Continue reading
Gas patch scientists explain how hydraulic fracturing can permanently contaminate public water supplies
May 6th, 2011 – Accounts from two experts show there are plenty of opportunities for toxic chemicals to enter drinking water supplies As gas industry leaders prepare to discuss hydraulic fracturing at a congressional field meeting in California and at a Representatives’ briefing in DC, it will be interesting to hear what is said about the possibility of water contamination from hydraulic fracturing. As recently as a week ago one contamination expert went on the record explaining exactly how the hydraulic fracturing process could contaminate water supplies. The expert is Dr. Conrad ‘Dan’ Volz, former director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, who has testified on hydraulic fracturing before Congress and appeared as an expert as part of water contamination investigations on ABC news. Volz spoke with Checks and Balances Project director Andrew Schenkel last week at a public hearing on fracking in Pennsylvania. “[Wells] are going to leak … Continue reading
Animal and Human Health Impacts from Gas Drilling: Peer-reviewed Study
January 23rd, 2012 – Sudden death and other health impacts Documentation of cases in six states strongly implicates exposure to gas drilling operations in serious health effects on humans, companion animals, livestock, horses, and wildlife. Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald’s peer-reviewed paper, “Impacts of Gas Drilling on Animal and Human Health,” was just published this month in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy. It’s written in science-speak, such that that “strongly implicates” really means “we are quite sure,” as Susan Phillips asserts in her summary of the study on NPR’s blog, StateImpact: “Even without detailed information on the toxins resulting from gas drilling, the authors of the study say they have no doubt natural gas drilling operations killed or injured the animals they reference.” So far, the study hasn’t received nearly the amount of attention it logically should, as the first peer-reviewed study examining sudden death and other health impacts caused … Continue reading
Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid
February 1st, 2012 – The millions of gallons of chemical- laced wastewater that fracking produces must flow somewhere, and Ohio (STOOH1) is trying not to be that place. The oil and natural-gas drilling boom spurred more permits for disposal wells there during the past two years than during the previous decade combined. The volume injected into them was on a near-record pace last year, according to the Department of Natural Resources, and more than half was from out of state. That included 92.6 percent of the water sent to a Youngstown well closed last year after 11 nearby earthquakes. “We have become in Ohio the dumping ground for contaminated brine,” state Representative Armond Budish, the House Democratic leader, said at a Jan. 26 forum in Columbus. “We didn’t prepare adequately for the potential for earthquakes and other environmental problems.” Now, Ohio is considering tightening regulations governing wells in response to the temblors and seeking … Continue reading
Ohio’s attorney general seeks tougher drilling laws
February 8th, 2012 - COLUMBUS: Ohio’s top law enforcer says tougher environmental sanctions on polluters in the oil and gas industry and required disclosure of the chemicals used in the drilling technique called fracking are needed to protect residents as shale exploration burgeons in the state. In an interview Wednesday with the Associated Press, Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine called for hiking civil penalties to $10,000 a day from the current maximum of $20,000 per incident. That would bring Ohio’s fines in line with such states as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas. Requiring up-front information from drillers about the contents of any fluids blasted into the earth during fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, also is in line with such states as Colorado and Michigan, according to a review by DeWine’s office. He said he would like to see disclosure both of the chemicals used and the concentrations, not only out of … Continue reading
Black Gold for the GOP
Trevor Rees-Jones made his name as a Dallas fracking pioneer. So what’s he doing bankrolling political attack ads halfway across the country? January/February 2012 – ONE EVENING THIS PAST OCTOBER, I went prospecting for natural-gas man Trevor Rees-Jones at the posh Hilton Anatole in Dallas. He was there to receive the Robert S. Folsom Leadership Award, a philanthropic prize that in recent years has gone to the likes of Laura Bush and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. Unlike these prominent Texans, Rees-Jones is not widely known outside his hometown. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he shares it with the British bodyguard who survived Princess Diana’s fatal car crash. The Trevor Rees-Jones that I came to see is the billionaire founder of Dallas-based Chief Oil & Gas and perhaps the fastest-rising star in Republican big-money circles. The dinner’s PR people had promised me tickets, then changed their minds and, with apologies, yanked them. So … Continue reading
