Earlier this summer Freddy Fredrickson and I
traveled through Pennsylvania. We drove through Tioga County (where there are currently 1,076 fracked gas wells), through Bradford County (1,749 wells) to Susquehanna County (592 wells). Outside of Mansfield, Pa we stopped and took a
look at our first fracking site. It looked like many of the photos I had seen,
drilling rigs, tanker trucks, condensate tanks, all on a large leveled area
where there once was a rolling meadow, directly across a small road from an
occupied farmhouse. Across the valley from this installation was a long
mountainous ridge and spanning the horizon were at least 30 windmills. This
poignant image of fracking in the foreground and windmills in the background
seemed to encapsulate our choices in the 21st century – but that is
for another column. We proceeded east along Rt. 6, experiencing even on a
weekend, a large volume of truck traffic that made for slow going. Additionally
traffic was often at a standstill because practically every bridge we came to
was under repair. Many license plates were from Texas, Alaska, Oklahoma, Louisiana,
Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
We arrived in the Montrose area of Susquehanna
County and met our host Vera Scroggins who gave us a tour of the area’s
fracking sites, and compressor stations, and introduced us to families who have
had their water poisoned by nearby fracking operations. We saw the ubiquitous “water
buffalos”; these are large plastic tanks stationed outside affected houses.
They hold the water that is delivered regularly, and the large chimney like
extensions on water wells are there to siphon off methane so it doesn’t
accumulate and explode. We met the Manning family, a young couple with small
children, who had saved to buy their first home and 15 months after moving into
it, had their water turn grey and their well cap start hissing. Testing
revealed high concentrations of methane as well as Barium, Iron, and Strontium.
There are fracking sites nearby the Manning home, both cited for defective well
casings. The Mannings don’t drink the water from the water buffalos and there
is a constant stream of bottled water deliveries to their front porch, dropped
off by friends and neighbors and visitors like ourselves. People with “water
buffalos” have the added monthly expense of $150 in the winter to prevent the
tanks from freezing.
We then traveled to Dimock, Pa and saw a fracking
site that has been plugged and abandoned. The well casings had failed and
polluted wells in homes downhill from the site. We drove through a community
downhill from the closed well where there was water buffalo after water buffalo
after water buffalo – about 30 to my count. The people we spoke with were
traumatized, worried, angry and frustrated. Many are involved in ongoing
lawsuits and seem lost in a legal maze of denied responsibility and official abbreviations….
DEP, EPA, PEMA. One tragic aspect evident were the tensions between people
harmed by fracking and people benefitting financially from it. Vera described
it as “ a civil war between the pros and cons” and added dryly, “ It hasn’t enhanced
community relations”. When people heard we were from New York State they gave
us the same advice over and over, “ don’t let them over the border, you have no
idea what you are in for.”
Recently, as reported by the Associated Press,
National Casualty Company, part of the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company,
said it wouldn’t cover damage related to hydraulic fracturing — or fracking —
for natural gas and oil.
Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said that
the company’s personal and commercial insurance policies “were not designed to
cover any kind of fracking risk.”
Columbus,
Ohio-based Nationwide says risks involved in fracking operations “are too great
to ignore” and apply to policies of commercial contractors and landowners who lease
property to gas companies, General Liability, Commercial Auto, Motor Truck
Cargo, Auto Physical Damage and Public Auto (insurance) coverage. The company
said any policies currently written with the exposure would be
non-renewed
(following state requirements).
Among the prohibited risks involved in fracking
operations listed by the company are contractors involved in fracking
operations, landowners whose land has been leased to lessees with fracking
operations, frack sand and frack liquid haulers and site prep (dump trucks,
bulldozers) or leasing of tanks.
Nationwide issued the following statement “Gas and oil
drilling has been going on in this country for many years in the west and
southwest. Fracking is another variation of the gas and oil business.
Fracking-related losses have never been a covered loss
under personal or commercial lines policies. Nationwide's personal and
commercial lines insurance policies were not designed to provide coverage for
any fracking-related risks.
From an underwriting standpoint, we do not have a
comfort level with the unique risks associated with the fracking process to
provide coverage at a reasonable price.
We encourage consumers to be knowledgeable about any
risks to their property and assets. For advice, seek the help of financial and
legal specialists who can discuss the unique nature of the risks associated with
oil and gas exploration. We also advise consumers to talk to their insurance
agent to understand what coverage is provided in their personal or commercial
lines policies.”
What struck me when reading the statements about
Nationwide’s policy was the abstract and couched language, the calculations of
risk versus profitability that an insurance underwriter makes. I thought of
what we saw in Pennsylvania. The people we met there were the real faces of risk, caught in the gap between theory and practice, between propaganda and
marketing and the daily effects on their families and property values. It is
clear to me, and apparently also to Nationwide, that high volume, slickwater,
horizontal hydrofracking will always demand a sacrifice. That sacrifice might
be the loss of someone’s water well, or liberty through compulsory integration,
or peace of mind as the countryside is transformed into an industrial zone, or
perhaps it will be an entire town’s aquifer system.
