I was talking with a friend of mine about fracking and water
issues and he put it just right, “You know there are many alternative forms of
energy, but no alternative forms of water.” I thought that certainly puts
things in perspective – how in this beautiful geography, where water is so
abundant, it can easily become something we take for granted. But, once it is
threatened, scarce, or unusable, we realize what an important substance it is.
In my column last week I summarized the findings of the
United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce which
revealed the many known and possible carcinogens that are mixed with water and
injected under great pressure to fracture deep deposits of shale to release
trapped gas. This week I want to discuss what this practice has meant for a
town in Wyoming, and what it could mean for us locally.
The town of Pavillion is an area that hasbeen extensively
fracked. For years, many residents have complained that their water had turned
black and smelled like gasoline. Last year, the EPA warned residents not to
drink or cook with their water, to ventilate their homes when they showered,
and to avoid ignition sources in closed rooms where water is running. The EPA
drilled monitoring wells to get a more precise picture of the contamination and
eventually collected samples from 41 locations and had the samples analyzed by
four different laboratories. The EPA’s analysis indicated high levels of
petroleum compounds such as benzene, xylene, methylcyclo-hexane, naphthalene,
and phenol.As reported in Scientific American, what EPA also found was, “a
solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol, widely used in the process of hydraulic
fracturing. The agency said it had not found contaminants such as nitrates and
fertilizers that would have signaled that agricultural activities were to
blame…. The wells also contained benzene at 50 times the level that is considered
safe for people, as well as phenols- another dangerous carcinogen – acetone,
toluene, naphthalene, and traces of diesel fuel….The EPA said the water samples
were saturated with methane gas that matched the deep layers of natural gas
being drilled for energy. The gas did not match the shallower methane that the
gas industry says is naturally occurring in water, a signal that the
contamination was related to drilling and was less likely to have come from
drilling waste spilled above ground.Gas production is the only industrial
activity in Pavillion A community based health survey found that,Since the
development of the oil and gas resources in the area, Pavillion residents have
reported contamination and health impacts that they suspect are coming from Encana's
Pavillion/Muddy Ridge gas-field….residents' symptoms have ranged from rashes
and headaches to neurological disorders and cancers. The survey found 94% of
participants reported health impacts that are known effects of chemicals
identified last year [the EPA study] in drinking water wells. The residents of
Pavillion received water from eight groundwater wells until fracking started.
Now many residents drink bottled water
supplied to them by Encana.
The Village of Alfred, Alfred University, Alfred State College, Tinkertown, parts of the Town of Alfred along Rte. 244, the Alfred-Almond Central School and the Village of Almond all get their water from two wells on Shaw Road that draw from one unfiltered aquifer. In the Alfred area, during the school calendar it is estimated that on any given weekday between 8-9,000 people depend on the water this aquifer provides. When the colleges are in session 650,000 gallons are pumped per day and when the students are gone about 250,000 gallons. This aquifer is fed by the nearby Kanakadea Creek and other underground sources, leaving it vulnerable to spills, leaks and other unanticipated effects of the fracturing process both below ground and on the surface. Because fracking extends thousands of feet horizontally underground, activities that are only visible far from the actual wells on Shaw Road have the potential to pollute them. This would be an unprecedented calamity for our community and certainly for the enrollment of the Colleges. I recently reread the comprehensive plan for the Town and Village from 2004 and found the section on water quality planning and management fascinating. This was a study prepared in 1993 by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board. The document was created well before hydrofracking was a potential threat, but the issues it articulates makes this study even more relevant today. Here are some fragments from that report…
“A high-quality, plentiful water supply is an economic advantage in the recruitment of industry, business and residents.”
“We urge local officials to look at long-term environmental and groundwater protection, and not just short-term economic gain.”
“Use an aquifer-wide groundwater protection approach”
“Improperly closed, abandoned gas and oil wells are known to be common in Allegany Co. and pose threats to groundwater."
"Groundwater protection efforts are most effective when done on a more regional level as aquifers and their recharge areas do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries.”
“A quick survey of remediation costs for contaminated groundwater supplies will show that prevention is well worth the effort. Corrective measures can rapidly escalate into the millions of dollars, not to mention yielding substantial inconveniences to those dependent on the contaminated water supply. There is really no such thing as being overly protective when it comes to groundwater protection, especially when it is a community’s only source of drinking water. While many of the suggestions… may seem politically unpopular in the short-term, having contaminated groundwater would be even more unpopular. It is far easier to address threats and prevent contamination than to deal with the costs and other problems associated with crisis type situations.”
The Village of Alfred, Alfred University, Alfred State College, Tinkertown, parts of the Town of Alfred along Rte. 244, the Alfred-Almond Central School and the Village of Almond all get their water from two wells on Shaw Road that draw from one unfiltered aquifer. In the Alfred area, during the school calendar it is estimated that on any given weekday between 8-9,000 people depend on the water this aquifer provides. When the colleges are in session 650,000 gallons are pumped per day and when the students are gone about 250,000 gallons. This aquifer is fed by the nearby Kanakadea Creek and other underground sources, leaving it vulnerable to spills, leaks and other unanticipated effects of the fracturing process both below ground and on the surface. Because fracking extends thousands of feet horizontally underground, activities that are only visible far from the actual wells on Shaw Road have the potential to pollute them. This would be an unprecedented calamity for our community and certainly for the enrollment of the Colleges. I recently reread the comprehensive plan for the Town and Village from 2004 and found the section on water quality planning and management fascinating. This was a study prepared in 1993 by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board. The document was created well before hydrofracking was a potential threat, but the issues it articulates makes this study even more relevant today. Here are some fragments from that report…
“A high-quality, plentiful water supply is an economic advantage in the recruitment of industry, business and residents.”
“We urge local officials to look at long-term environmental and groundwater protection, and not just short-term economic gain.”
“Use an aquifer-wide groundwater protection approach”
“Improperly closed, abandoned gas and oil wells are known to be common in Allegany Co. and pose threats to groundwater."
"Groundwater protection efforts are most effective when done on a more regional level as aquifers and their recharge areas do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries.”
“A quick survey of remediation costs for contaminated groundwater supplies will show that prevention is well worth the effort. Corrective measures can rapidly escalate into the millions of dollars, not to mention yielding substantial inconveniences to those dependent on the contaminated water supply. There is really no such thing as being overly protective when it comes to groundwater protection, especially when it is a community’s only source of drinking water. While many of the suggestions… may seem politically unpopular in the short-term, having contaminated groundwater would be even more unpopular. It is far easier to address threats and prevent contamination than to deal with the costs and other problems associated with crisis type situations.”
The water report clarified for me just how delicate the
water system is and how on this level, the town and village are intimately
connected.
Certain phrases in the water report stayed with me, “There
is still much that is not known [my emphasis] about the recharge areas of the
aquifer beneath the Town and Village of Alfred. Despite a lack of definitive
knowledge [my emphasis] about recharge areas…” I think what these phrases imply
is significant, that there are processes at work, that are larger than us, that
we don’t fully understand, and can’t be controlled, and because of that, need
to be respected. These phrases from the water report reminded me of one of my
favorite authors, the farmer/writer Wendell Berry. In an essay entitled, Letter
to Wes Jackson, Berry discusses unseen patterns in agriculture – but one could
read his comments also in relationship to fracking and water supplies and how
we just do not know everything.
“To call the unknown by it’s right name, “mystery,” is to
suggest that we had better respect the possibility of a larger, unseen pattern
that can be damaged or destroyed and, with it, the smaller patterns…” This was,
“understood as evil or hubris. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews told us to watch
out for humans who assume that they make all the patterns.”
Last week, at the end of a walk through the woods, my wife
and I were coming back through the fields near our house on our usual path. We
came upon something that amazed us; a bubbling spring had spontaneously
sprouted out of the earth where we had never seen one before. A six-inch high
vertical column of crystal clear water was being pushing up from the depths,
pulsing continuously into the air. What we saw was only the visible portion of
a much larger system at work. I came back into the house and poured myself a glass
of water from our spring and thought that the tragedy of hydrofracking is how
something as wonderfully simple as a clear glass of water has been transformed
in many communities into something full of anxiety, fear, and anger.
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