Photo: Camions-citerne pompent de l'eau (qui servira au fracking) de la Casselman River et brisent la descente de bateauxLa ville de Clearville, en Pennsylvanie est dans une région rurale, paisible et semble avoir plus de vaches que d'humains. Tout semble figé dans le passé jusqu'à ce que les puits de forage apparaissent à l'horizon. Et jusqu'à ce que les citoyens commencent à raconter leurs mauvaises expériences avec le forage du gaz naturel sous leurs pieds. La petite ville n'a pas organisé un poste de coordination bénévole d'urgence à cause des menaces de terroristes, mais à cause des problèmes avec les foreurs de gaz naturel.
Une mère déplore que son fils a perdu plusieurs chèvres et quelques veaux. La ferme sent les oeufs pourris. Les foreurs ont frappé la veine de leur source, ce qui leur donne plus d'eau, mais elle n'est plus bonne: elle contient de l'arsenic mais on les rassure qu'elle est sans danger.
Dans une réunion d'un samedi soir, une cinquantaine de personnes ont rempli une salle pour partager leurs inquiétudes vis-à-vis la pollution de l'eau et de l'air causée par l'exploitation du gaz naturel dans leur région. Une femme décrit la substance jaunâtre qui a tout recouvert ce qu'elle possédait après un "blowoff". Une sirène a crié pendant une vingtaine de minutes, mais le lendemain, le département de protection environnemental n'était pas au courant de l'incident. Depuis ce blowoff, il y a eu 23 fermetures d'urgence ou de soufflage. Les tests pour son eau ont détecté du toluene, ainsi que l'eau de ses voisins.
Selon Wikipedia, un blowout est une perte de contrôle de pression des systèmes automatiques d'un puits quand le gas prend de l'expansion soudainement: l'accident endommage souvent l'équipement, peut blesser les employés et contaminer l'environnement si des hydrocarbures sont déversés.
Le Maire de la municipalité de Dish, au Texas est venu parler au groupe: il explique que le problème avec les compresseurs est la qualité de l'air. Chaque compresseur a un permis pour échapper une certaine quantité de composés chimiques volatils comme le benzène, le toluene, mais si on considère l'ensemble des installations, les émissions totales dépassent les limites annuelles qui sont considérées comme acceptables. Les citoyens se sont plaints de meaux de tête, des yeux irrités et d'autres problèmes de santé. La ville a engagé un labo certifié, le Wolf Eagle Environmental, la seule qu'il a trouvé qui ne travaillait pas pour l'industrie gazière. Les prélèvements d'air analysés par eux ont détectés plusieurs cancérigènes reconnus et soupçonnés de causer des cancers chez l'humain, et cela à l'intérieur d'un périmètre de 500 pieds des résidences. Quelques toxines dépassaient les standards d'exposition à court et à long terme.
Le même Maire s'inquiète aussi pour la qualité de l'eau potable. Il a fait analysé son eau de robinet: on y a détecté des traces d'éthylbenzène, de styrene, d'o-xylene et du m/p-xylene dans son eau. L'année précédente, il avait pris soin de faire analyser son eau pour pouvoir constater que tous ces contaminants n'étaient pas là il y a un an. Une scientifique qui fait du travail environnemental en Louisiane a écrit une enquête de santé publique de Dish et conclue que 61% des problèmes de santé des citoyens de Dish concordent avec les symptômes des gens exposés aux chimiques détectés dans la ville.
Une résidente d'une ville avoisinante a pris un vidéo d'employés qui déversent une substance mousseuse directement sur le sol. Elle a pu voir cette substance prendre le chemin de cours d'eau avoisinants. Elle a su plus tard que cette broue d'un pied de haut dans les cours d'eau contenait du 2-butoxyethanol.
Dans une ville du Wyoming, l'EPA a confirmé la présence du 2-butoxyethanol dans un puits d'eau potable d'une résidente qui souffre d'un cancer très rare associé au 2-BE. La compagnie de forage insiste pour dire que le 2BE est là naturellement, bien que ce produit est l'un des produits chimiques ajoutés dans le fluide de forage pour faire du fracking. C'est la famille qui doit faire la preuve que c'est la compagnie de forage qui a causé la présence du produit chimique dans leur puits: ce sera difficile puisqu'ils n'ont pas pris soin de faire analyser leur eau pour ce chimique avant le début du forage.
Visitez le site des citoyens de la municipalité de Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu qui s'opposent au forage au gaz naturel dans leur ville: http://mobilisationgazdeschiste.blogspot.com/
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"SHALE SHAME: Clearville, PA
Clearville, Pennsylvania appears to have more bovine than human residents. The area looks peaceful, rural, and downright untouched by time—until the drilling pads come into view, until residents start describing their experiences, until the new "Emergency Management Coordinator" for the tiny town begins to speak of her concerns about her children’s exposure to unknown substances. This little town didn’t create a volunteer emergency management position due to worries about terrorists’ actions, but because of their accumulating negative experiences with natural gas drillers. Under the surface of Clearville lie many acres of underground storage areas for natural gas, and natural gas processing facilities dot the surface.
"My son’s farm lost some goats and some calves; my son is disgusted. It ruined the farm; it smells like rotten eggs. Drillers hit the vein of the spring, so after they started drilling we got more water but it wasn’t good water, it was rotten," Betty Clark explained in a private interview. "It has arsenic in it, but they told us it’s safe."
As she spoke, on Saturday evening, April 17th, other families from the Clearville area, between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, slowly filled a meeting room. About 57 people gathered to share concerns about water and air pollution from natural gas storage, drilling, and processing in their region. Julie Kuhne, the town’s new Emergency Management coordinator, spoke first, describing the oily yellow substance which covered her children’s toys, the hammock, ground, house siding, cars, grape arbor, pond, and vegetable garden of her home after a blowout. "The siren sounded for 20 to 30 minutes after the blowoff, but the next day the DEP didn’t know anything about it. I was terrified," Julie commented.
Residents say the company, Specter Energy, working in the area, has had emergency shutdowns or blowouts 23 more times since the incident described by Kuhne, and counting. "The company came after a few days and compensated us for our vegetables, replaced the trampoline, and washed the house, but I’m concerned about air quality and water contamination. I’m trying to get DEP to do a post-test. No one [at DEP] could tell me who is regulating the air, and my water test came back contaminated with toluene. So did my neighbors," Kuhne concluded. "A blowout is caused when a combination of well-control systems fail… a gas can rapidly expand as it flows up the wellbore… [it may] accelerate to near the speed of sound. … Blowouts can cause significant damage to drilling rigs, injuries or fatalities to rig personnel, and significant damage to the environment if hydrocarbons are spilled," according to Wikipedia.
Tillman (Mayor Calvin Tillman, of DISH, Texas) explained that the problem with compressors is air quality: "Each compressor is permitted individually, but collectively, the VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) they emit into the air, especially benzene and toluene, exceed annual safety limits." After DISH residents complained of headaches, irritated eyes, and other issues, Tillman commissioned a study performed by a certified, nationally recognized lab, Wolf Eagle Environmental, "the only firm we found that didn’t work for the industry," Tillman explained. Wolf Eagle lab reports from air samples found "multiple recognized and suspected human carcinogens" exceeding the ESL, or Effect Screening Level, within 500 feet of homes. Several toxins exceeded both short and long-term ESL standards.
Both air and water are worries in DISH. Recently Tillman received results from having his own water tested. "Now there are trace levels of ethylbenzene, styrene, o-xylene, and m/p-xylene in my water. When I had my water tested a year earlier, all those contaminants were at zero," Tillman commented. Wilma Subra, winner of a MacArthur Genius Award for her environmental work in Louisiana, wrote a Health Assessment Survey for the citizens of DISH. The survey found that 61% of the health effects experienced by citizens were consistent with exposure to the chemicals detected in the DISH air study.
Tillman expressed concern that ESL safety standards were set for a healthy 35-year-old male exposed in work settings, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. "But what about babies, children, and pregnant women, being exposed 24 hours a day?" asked Tillman.
Mayor Tillman had also toured Dimock, PA in March and personally written a letter to PA DEP secretary John Hanger insisting that safe drinking water must be provided to the affected families there. Tillman said he is paying all his travel expenses out of pocket, motivated to get the word out about air quality problems. "I’m concerned for the health of my children, and these children here are just as precious as my children."
Tim Ruggiero, of nearby Decatur, Texas, spoke next. He summed up his experience with drilling and natural gas processing operations in the Barnett Shale as a warning to Pennsylvanians, "it could happen to you, and it will, unless you fight it." Ruggiero described himself as "shell-shocked" by the behavior of Aruba drilling on his and his neighbors’ property. "My elderly neighbors are raising three grandchildren who swim in the pond on their property. Drillers used water for drilling, then put it back in that pond, saying it was clean water. The two boys swam in that pond and had to be rushed to the emergency room with respiratory distress and a rash from their necks to their feet. The only reason the rash didn’t get onto their heads is they swam with their heads out of that water."
Tim Ruggiero’s story is partially told at www.txsharon.blogspot.com and the DISH experience is detailed at www.townofdish.com. Mayor Tillman recommended to townspeople that they use the Oil and Gas Accountability Project www.ogap.org and Dr. Theo Colburn’s research at The Endocrine Disruptor Exchange www.EndocrineDisruption.org to find out more.
"When this first started happening, we don’t have many computers out here, we didn’t know what was going on," Clearville resident Hazel Mallow told this reporter after the meeting closed. "Now we are paying attention."
Sandra McDaniel, also of Clearville, privately shared a video she took of a company releasing a foamy substance directly on the ground. Suds have been seen in several local waterways, she said, "up to a foot high, then they dissipate." McDaniel added, "I learned from Theo Colburn that those suds contain 2-butoxyethanol." Asked about help from regulators, McDaniel said, "The EPA came out and said they’d be back in a couple weeks. But that couple weeks came and went months ago."
In Pavilion Wyoming, the EPA confirmed the presence of 2-butoxyethanol, a fracking fluid constituent, in well water of Laura Amos, who is now ill with a rare form of adrenal cancer associated with 2-BE. The drilling company claimed the 2-BE was "naturally occurring," and put the burden of proof on the family, which had not tested their private well water for the presence of 2-butoxyethanol prior to drilling.
Sandy McDaniel said when she saw suds in her pond, where suds had never been seen before, followed by algae growing when algae has never grown before, she became concerned and called the DEP. "The DEP said everything is naturally occurring," she reported."
Excerpts of article written by Iris Marie Bloom published in Weekly Press here: http://www.weeklypress.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=1896&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2392&hn=weeklypress&he=.com
A lot of boat ramps in the Saint-Lawrence valley are either privately owned, semi-private or municipal property. In all cases, if tanker trucks fill up with water for hydro-fracturing purposes start using Quebec boat launches, it has to be made clear in advance who will pay for the damages. Some citizens of Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu have understood this; visit their blog here: http://mobilisationgazdeschiste.blogspot.com/
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