Dry As a Friacking Bone

Trey Smith

Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.

"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'dear God help us. That was the first thought that came to mind."

Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.

Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.

In Texas alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart's case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for shale gas fracking.
~ from A Texan Tragedy: Ample Oil, No Water by Suzanne Goldenberg ~

Gee, as if there aren't enough reasons already to oppose fracking!!!

Politics Trumps Science Again

Trey Smith

The Associated Press has a breaking investigative story out today revealing that the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) censored a smoking gun scientific report in March 2012 that it had contracted out to a scientist who conducted field data on 32 water samples in Weatherford, TX.

That report, according to the AP, would have explicitly linked methane migration to hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Weatherford, a city with 25,000+ citizens located in the heart of the Barnett Shale geologic formation 30 minutes from Dallas.

It was authored by Geoffrey Thyne, a geologist formerly on the faculty of the Colorado School of Mines and University of Wyoming before departing from the latter for a job in the private sector working for Interralogic Inc. in Ft Collins, CO.

This isn’t the first time Thyne’s scientific research has been shoved aside, either. Thyne wrote two landmark studies on groundwater contamination in Garfield County, CO, the first showing that it existed, the second confirming that the contamination was directly linked to fracking in the area.

It’s the second study that got him in trouble.

~ from Obama’s EPA Shuts Down Damning Fracking Study by Steve Horn ~

Remember how liberals were all up in arms when it was learned that the Bush administration was doctoring scientific reports to better serve conservative political interests? On the campaign trail in 2008, candidate Barack Obama stated that his administration would NEVER do such a dastardly thing. Science should not be melded to fit anyone's political agenda.

I guess we simply can chalk up this report to yet another failed Obama promise! No real news there, but what I am interested in is what will liberals say. Will they be as up in arms as before...or will they flip-flop because it is THEIR man who is quashing science for political gain? Which do you think?!

You Don't Say!

Trey Smith

A recent University of Texas study, which claims to prove that the natural gas extraction process known as fracking does not cause environmental damage or water contamination, was led by a gas industry insider who currently holds up to $1.6 million in stock at a large fracking company. The information was revealed in a new exposé released by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI).

The 400-page pro-fracking review in question was led by author Charles Groat of the University of Texas. Neither Groat nor the University openly reported that Groat himself is on the board of a fracking company, Plains Exploration and Production Company.

As a board member, Groat receives 10,000 shares of restricted stock a year. His holdings as of July 19th were worth $1.6 million. He also receives an annual fee, which was $58,500 in 2011, according to filings.

Groat did not reveal his position with the company when the report was released and told reporters that the university had turned down all industry funds for the study.
~ from Contaminated Inquiry: Prof with Money Ties to Industry Led Fracking Study via Common Dreams ~

This offers yet another example of WHY it is important to do one's due diligence in ascertaining who is offering information. Too often, particularly of "news" in the public space, people just assume that the "expert" is offering an objective opinion. People don't seem to realize that every person has a perspective and biases. Knowing these (as well as who might be funding the "opinion") helps us to size up the information presented.

One of the first things I try to do when reading an opinion from someone I am unfamiliar with is to try to determine exactly who they are, what they do and if their "objective opinion" involves any degree of self-interest. Of course, discerning this information often is not easy as many people try to hide it...for reasons that become quite obvious when (or if) the info is uncovered.

Once I have uncovered as much of this info as possible, it affords me more tools by which to decide if I might agree or disagree with their conclusions.

Thar She Blows!

Trey Smith

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

There are growing signs they were mistaken.
~ from Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us by Abrahm Lustgarten ~

As an unabashed environmentalist, it might seem strange that I haven't written much on fracking. It's not that fracking doesn't worry me -- it does -- it's more that I simply can't believe that there would be ANY rationale to think this was a good idea!

Throughout the past 100 years or so, every time we arrogant humans think we've found a magnificent way to sweep poisons and toxins under the proverbial rug, they always pop back up in the same place or somewhere else. Wherever we put them, they don't stay there! They leach and seep out. They migrate somewhere else. They get spewed into the air or spilled into waterways.

So, why oh why do we think that pumping pollutants deep underground could possibly be safe? It is pure madness (with a lot of greed) to think such a thing!

Afternoon Matinee: Fracking Plan for America

Afternoon Matinee: The Sky Is Pink