Transcript Alma Hasse - Protect Gem County

Here’s what you should know about me:
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Veteran - US Army
Farm owner
Business owner
2007 Max Dalton award
winner
• Ex. Dir. of ICARE and CoFounder of IRAGE
• Payette County resident
• Concerned Wife, Mother
and Grandmother
Oil and gas development in Idaho
• Loss of prime farm ground to industrialized uses: It’s not
only the wells, but the entire process:
– Gas/Oil wells
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Injection wells
Wastewater structures
Tank farms
Pipelines/Gathering/Lateral lines
Dehydration/Compression stations
Liquefied Natural Gas facilities
Oil and gas development in Idaho
• What are some of the issues associated with oil and gas
extraction and processing?
• Potentially negative impacts to human health, domestic
pets, livestock and wildlife
• Impacts to both surface and ground (drinking) water
• Precious drinking/irrigation water used for drilling and
fracking (water that will never be reusable)
• Spills of hazardous drilling muds, produced and flowback
waters
• Intentional dumping of wastewater (possibly radioactive)
• Loss of farm ground, infertile or unproductive farmland
19 head of cattle dead from chemical exposure
in field next to Chesapeake / Schlumberger
Oil and gas development in Idaho
• What are some of the issues associated with oil and gas
production and processing? (con’t)
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Increased crime, drug/alcohol abuse, truck traffic and accidents
Damage to infrastructure (roads and bridges)
Financial burdens passed to county/state taxpayers
Degradation of your rural quality of life
Hazardous/polluted air
Earthquakes
Loss of recreational areas from development
Loss of property values
Ruggiero’s view from the kitchen window
of their former home (Texas)
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Lowered property values:
• In Pavilion, Wyo., where the EPA has linked groundwater
contamination with fracking, Louis Meeks saw the value of his
40-acre alfalfa farm all but disappear completely. In 2006, his
land and home were appraised at $239,000. Two years later, as
ProPublica reported, “a local realtor sent Meeks a letter
saying his place was essentially worthless and she could not
list his property. ‘Since the problem was well documented …
and since no generally-accepted reason for the blowout has
been agreed upon,’ she wrote, ‘buyers may feel reluctant to
purchase a property with this stigma.”
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Lowered property values: (con’t)
• A study conducted by researchers at Duke University found
that the risks and potential liabilities of drilling outweigh
economic benefits like lease payments and potential
economic development in Washington County, PA. Even
though lease payments can add overall value to homes with
wells drilled on them, the possibility of contaminated water
decreases property value by an average of 24 percent. The
boost that comes from signing a lease offsets the increases,
leaving a net decrease in value of 13 percent. But keep in
mind that the lease payments assume that the estate is
unified — something much more common in the East than
in Idaho.
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Lowered property values: (con’t)
• In North Texas, the Wise County Central Appraisal District
Appraisal Review Board knocked down the appraised value of
one family’s home and 10-acre ranchette from $257,000 to
$75,000—a decrease of more than 70 percent. The board
agreed to the extraordinary reduction as a result of numerous
environmental problems related to fracking—just one year
after the first drilling rig went up on the property.
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• This facility processes
natural gas from Exxon’s
XTO gas wells in the
Argyle/Bartonville area. The
home in the photo above
was devalued after this
facility went in from
$361,000 on the 2009 tax
rolls to $95,000 on the 2010
tax rolls.
Would you buy these properties?
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Negative impacts affecting quality of life:
• Formerly quiet rural areas become 24/7 industrialized zones:
• “Now comes the second phase. The dreadful noise generated by a
nearby large compressor station. Noise that was so loud that our dog
was too frightened to go outside to do his business without a lot of
coaxing. Noise that sounds like a jet plane circling over your house
for 24 hours a day. Noise that is constant. Noise that drives people to
the breaking point. My neighbor called the sheriff, state officials
and even the governor and was told nothing could be done about
the noise. Like I said, the noise drives people to the breaking
point, and my neighbor fired 17 rifle shots toward the station.”
Excerpted from CBM Destroys Retirement Dream
Compressor station fire in Ft. Lupton, CO
Let’s talk about
compressor stations – Tina Fisher
• I’ve been a resident of Idaho for 21 years
• I am a business owner and homeowner
• Before I became educated on the impacts of O&G
development I leased my mineral rights
• I am the Co-Founder of IRAGE
• In 2010, Bridge Resources filed an application with Payette
County to put a Dehydration/Compression station 20’ from my
home.
• This led me to contact Charles Morgan, P.E. (retired-- USAF
Major) in Freestone County, Texas.
Per Charles Morgan
• In an email dated 09/10/2011, Charles stated, “You are
correct in having concerns about the natural gas
compressor stations”. He went on to tell me, “After 15
years of raising cattle here, this is the first bull to be
sterile.” This prized bull was raised on the same side of the
property as the compressor station (which was 9/10 of a
mile away). Bulls raised on the other side of the hill (away
from the compressor station) did not become sterile…
Compressor station
Air quality/public health impacts
• Fracking-related air pollutants include carcinogenic silica dust
(Moore, Zielinska, Pétron, & Jackson, 2014), carcinogenic
benzene (McKenzie, Witter, Newman, & Adgate, 2012), and
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that create ozone
(Gilman, Lerner, Kuster, & de Gouw, 2013). Exposure to
ozone—smog—contributes to costly, disabling health
problems, including premature death, asthma, stroke,
heart attack, and low birth weight (Jerrett et al., 2009).
• Unplanned toxic air releases from fracking sites in Texas
increased by 100 percent since 2009, according to an
extensive investigation by the Center for Public Integrity,
InsideClimate News and the Weather Channel (Morris, Song,
& Hasemyer, 2014).
Air quality/public health impacts
• The Wasatch Front and Cache County in Utah (Unita Basin)
are known to have some of the worst short-term fine
particulate matter pollution in the country.
• Poor air quality may also affect the state’s highly-valued
economic development and tourism. These concerns led to a
flurry of pollution-related legislation that was proposed during
Utah’s 2013 General Session, and even more is proposed for
2014.
• For a very good overview of the potential public health
impacts, visit http://concernedhealthny.org/letters-togovernor-cuomo/ and view the letters signed by hundreds
of public health professionals in New York State
Impacts to surface water
• Illegal water withdrawal (from irrgation canals, streams, rivers)
• Illegal dumping of toxin-laden wastewater (possibly radioactive)
• Fish kills
• From the AP (03/13/2011): The state attorney general's office filed
98 criminal counts against Robert Allan Shipman and 77 counts
against his company, Allan's Waste Water Service Inc.
• Prosecutors said Holbrook told his drivers to open valves at
natural gas drilling wells, often at night or during rainstorms, so
the wastewater would run into nearby waterways. He also is
accused of telling drivers to dump the contents of their trucks
into a floor drain that led directly to a nearby stream.
Impacts to ground (drinking) water
• From researchers at Cornell: About 40 percent of the oil
and gas wells in parts of the Marcellus shale region will
probably be leaking methane into the groundwater or into
the atmosphere…. This study shows up to a 2.7-fold higher
risk for unconventional wells — relative to conventional
wells — drilled since 2009.
• Other industry documents show that well failure is a
widespread problem around the world, that abandoned wells
are a major migration pathway to aquifers, and that there are
multiple scenarios by which gas and other contaminants can
escape a well to contaminate water supplies.
Impacts to ground (drinking) water
• AP article: Four states confirm water pollution from
drilling (01/05/14):
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• West Virginia
• Not mentioned in the AP article; Pavillion, WY
Want a clearer picture of what happens when drilling comes to
a community? The List of the Harmed is a good place to start:
http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com
/the-list/
From the List of the Harmed
• Pam Judy and family
Location: Carmichaels, PA
Gas Facility: Compressor station 780 feet away
Exposure: Air
Symptoms: Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, nosebleeds, blood
test show exposure to benzene and other chemicals
• Darrell Smitsky
Location: Hickory, PA
Gas Facility: Range Resources Well, less than 1,000 ft
Exposure: Water – toluene, acrylonitrile, strontium, barium,
manganese
Symptoms: Rashes on legs from showering.
Symptoms (animal): Five healthy goats dead; fish in pond showing
abnormal scales; another neighbor comments anonymously
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These are No. 1 and No. 2 on the LOTH, there are currently 6,085 names/families on this list
Earthquakes?!
• FACT: Oil and gas production/disposal activities cause/induce
earthquakes
• Did you know Idaho is the fifth most seismically active state in the
country?
• Richard Grimm, a 75-year-old farmer from Mahoning County, Ohio,
says he reluctantly agreed to lease his land to an energy company for
fracking. Now, he's feeling the quakes. "A little bit of trembling in the
house, pictures shaking in the house," he described to CBS News. He
said he would gladly give back the money he received, "in a
heartbeat... It's not worth it, it's absolutely not worth it.“ Excepted
from a CBS News article (5/14/14)
• Fracking responsible for 22,900 percent increase in Oklahoma
earthquakes since 2008 (including a 5.7 magnitude earthquake in
Prague, OK on Nov. 6, 2011)
Earthquakes?!
• JUST IN TODAY:
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060002402
• The quakes in the Jones swarm (OK) have been persistent
but small. They've rarely gotten as strong as magnitude 4.
But the study warns that the longer the smaller quakes
keep spreading, the greater the likelihood that they could
rupture a fault capable of a magnitude-6 or -7 quake,
which would cause serious damage and possibly casualties.
Degradation of rural areas
Damages to infrastructure
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Increased truck traffic
• West Virginia was unprepared for the scale of drilling- truck
damage, according to John Gruzinskas, sheriff of Marshall County,
north of Wetzel County. Drivers hired by drilling companies were
“disrespectful” of local residents, Gruzinskas, said at the April 11
hearing. His office lacks the authority or manpower to police the
industry, “Our roads are destroyed from these overloaded
vehicles, and our state is a willing participant in this
destruction,” Gruzinskas said in remarks prepared for the hearing.
“The drivers are not familiar with our winding narrow roads. Many
of our residents are run off the road by the large trucks.”
Excerpted from Bloomberg article: Taxpayers pay as fracking
trucks overwhelms rural cow paths.
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• Added burden to local taxpayers to pay for impacts on
rural roads
• While New York state has yet to allow fracking for gas, it is
weighing the potential impacts on roads. A draft study last year
from the state’s Department of Transportation found that
“hundreds of miles of roads and scores of bridges” would
need to be reconstructed to handle gas industry trucks at a
cost of $211 million to $378 million.
• “The potential transportation impacts are ominous,” the
study found.
Hidden costs associated with O&G
production activities
• From the Texas County Progress online site Sept. 26, 2012:
• Last year DeWitt County adopted the highest tax rate it could set without
triggering a rollback election and devoted the additional revenue to road
and bridge funds. This added some $524,000 to the county’s road repair
funds.
• DeWitt County’s effective tax rate has fallen from .65192 to .32617 in just
two years, Fowler reported, and the rollback rate will only yield a $572,308
tax levy increase. “Therefore, we are contemplating a bold move to hold
our maintenance and operating tax rate at this year’s level (.44919/100) and
risk a rollback election, so that we can raise an additional $4.5 million for
our road and bridge needs,” he continued. “The newspaper headlines and
the notices required by Truth-In-Taxation will be awful: ‘County
Proposes 62 Percent Tax Increase.’
Negative impacts from drilling:
Firsthand accounts from Idaho
• CPC Minerals well in Wayan, ID (Caribou County)
• Started drilling in 2007
• Multiple problems, including a “crooked” hole and drill
rig equipment failure (per Pittman memo dated
10/10/07)
• Promises from CPC to make sure site was cleaned
up (Phillip M. Clegg letter dated 11/18/08 to IDL)
• As of 4/12/12 the site was still not cleaned up, and was
discharging contaminated water via Clark’s Creek into
Gray’s Lake (Billman memo dated 4/12/12)
Negative impacts from drilling
Firsthand accounts from Idaho
Is Idaho going to be fracked? Yes!