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Here’s what you should know about me:. Veteran - US Army Farm owner Business owner 2007 Max Dalton award winner Ex. Dir. of ICARE and Co-Founder of IRAGE Payette County resident Concerned Wife, Mother and Grandmother. Oil and gas development in Idaho.
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Here’s what you should know about me: • Veteran - US Army • Farm owner • Business owner • 2007 Max Dalton award winner • Ex. Dir. of ICARE and Co-Founder 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 • 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) • 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&Gproduction 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&Gproduction 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 ranchettefrom $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&Gproduction 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.
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
Let’s talk aboutcompressor 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…
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-to-governor-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, WYWant 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 familyLocation: Carmichaels, PAGas Facility: Compressor station 780 feet awayExposure: AirSymptoms: Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, nosebleeds, blood test show exposure to benzene and other chemicals • Darrell SmitskyLocation: Hickory, PAGas Facility: Range Resources Well, less than 1,000 ftExposure: Water – toluene, acrylonitrile, strontium, barium, manganeseSymptoms: Rashes on legs from showering.Symptoms (animal): Five healthy goats dead; fish in pond showing abnormal scales; another neighbor comments anonymously • 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.
Hidden costs associated with O&Gproduction 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&Gproduction 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)
