Selfinflictedfunk wrote:
franklin wrote:
Selfinflictedfunk wrote:
Gudgeonville wrote:
We are not drinking frac fluid! No frac fluids are getting into the water supply! That is what I am trying to get across in my posts. Missy insists that drilling is going to cause endocrine disruptions, etc! There is no indication or proof that it gets anywhere near your water supply. It's all "what if"! What if all of the gasoline tanks at gas stations all over the state were leaking product into the aquifers! Oh wait, that already happened. That is much more plausible than frac fluids getting into any aquifer.
There have been very few spills or accidents associated with this industry. The one that did get some very diluted frac water in a stream did not even have any effect on the stream. (Chesapeake in the northeast part of the state) The issue in Black Moshannon sprayed some flowback onto the ground and probably killed some grass and trees, but, no long term effect on any body of water or aquifer.
I'm not looking to change the world here, most fears of water contamination are not happening. I can understand bikers disdain for the industry, he just doesn't like heavy industry moving into rural areas and such. Perfectly understandable. But claiming that fracing is killing all known life in PA is ridiculous and a scare tactic being used by antis to stop all drilling in the commonwealth.
If fracking doesn't cause harm then why did the industry get specific exclusion (thanks Dick and Bush) from the Safe Water Drinking Act? Why are they shipping water to peoples homes and installing filtration systems....per court settlements?....that then put a gag order on the home owners so they can never discuss it? Why are towns in my county having problems with their getting their drinking water treated for trihalomethanes, that are being dumped upstream?....this is after being treated, as pcray pointed out, in a treatment plants not able to properly treat it?
http://www.wtae.com/team4/28623580/detail.html
http://www.wtae.com/team4/28827499/detail.html
I don't think THMs are being dumped upstream. I think they are byproducts of the chlorination process used to treat the drinking water. As I understand it THMs can result from both natural or man made substances in the source water.
If you take a gallon of water from any large stream (and many small streams) in the world you will find some amount of a "cancer causing" substance. The question is what is the concentration?
To my knowledge no untreated frack waste water was legally dumped into Pennsylvania streams as an industry practice. It was run through treatment plants which in many cases had poor capability to filter out much of the critical materials. Still it was diluted below acceptable federal and state health levels. As Pcray pointed out there was accumulation of some concentrations slightly above acceptable levels that was monitored in rivers. Those standards are set at orders of magnitude less than what is considered statistically measurable health impact. Even so the state has added additional requirements on disposal in the past few months.
I stated this "this is after being treated, as pcray pointed out, in a treatment plants not able to properly treat it?" So I'm aware of that this is post treatment and the cause of the THMs. This is straight from the article I linked to
"The head of the Beaver Falls water authority declined to talk on camera, but he told Van Osdol their problems were aggravated by the release of gas industry wastewater, also known as frack water, eighteen miles upstream from the treatment plant. He says the authority is changing treatment procedures to address the problem. Earlier this year, the state told the gas industry to stop dumping frack water into rivers."
So, YES, untreated frac water was being dumped in our rivers.
Any insight as to why the gag orders or the exemptions...which was the point of my post.
