Why Fallsburg Should Ban FRACKING...Uhhhh....No Insurance!

The Price Anderson Act makes it impossible for any American homeowner to get insurance to cover losses from a nuclear accident at places like Entergy's trouble plagued Indian Point nuclear reactors that sit atop an earthquake fault.  Well, seems that the insurance industry is not going to wait for Congress (as in do nothing but squabble) to pass similar legislation denying property/home owners from getting insurance for harm done from the process of Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing.  Nationwide out of Ohio has announced that they WILL NOT COVER DAMAGES caused by this dangerous extraction method:

The Columbus, Ohio-based company's personal and commercial policies "were not designed to cover" risk from the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said Thursday. 

The process injects chemically treated water into wells to fracture shale thousands of feet underground and release trapped gas or oil. There are rich shale deposits in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere. 

Health and environmental groups claim fracking can contaminate drinking water. The gas industry says it's safe if done properly. Nationwide said 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.

Do we the citizens want to believe an industry KNOWN TO LIE when they say it is doubtful they will be drilling in our community (at least right away), and do we really want a drilling/mining process allowed in our community when we CANNOT GET INSURANCE to cover damages...like the natural gas accident that blew a house off of its foundation earlier this week?

Contact your elected officials in Fallsburg supporting a ban on Hydraulic Fracturing withing the geographical footprint of Fallsburg.

Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey McClendon Modern Day Whimpy

There are a lot of terms one could use to describe Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy...flamboyant, egotistical, eccentric, brash, self-absorbed, shyster depending on your opinion of him, and the company he co-founded...but perhaps the simplest and most appropriate description of the man is to state he is the modern day Whimpy of Popeye fame, telling his investor's and those he seems to make deals with, "I'll gladly deliver you Natural Gas next Tuesday for a few billion today."

From Wiki

Hamburgers are Wimpy's all-time favorite dish, and he is usually seen carrying or eating one or more at a time – e.g. in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor he is seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time – however, he is usually too cheap to pay for them himself. A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con other patrons of the diner into buying his meal for him. His best-known catchphrase started in 1931 as "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Thursday." In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate fiscal irresponsibility and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show and The Office

In Aubrey McClendon's quest to corner the (un)Natural Gas shale plays, to push himself upward into a higher ranking of his billionaire status, he has basically conned investors, the general public and America.  Chesapeake for far too long now has been selling Whimpy's promise, telling investors "We'll gladly sell you a share of this play or that play, will gladly promise you a percentage of the whole when at some future date when it is drilled, if you give us X Billions of dollars today."  McClendon's plan it seems....double down, sell off promises (IE...the company wants to raise $2 Billion by selling a percentage of advanced sales of output in Texas and Oklahoma) of future deliverable s, or better yet, run out the company's cash reserves, deliberate push it into bankruptcy and come out the other end whole while all those who invested in the company take a blood bath.

Sadly, Aubrey McClendon seems to be the poster child for the (un)Natural Gas industry, the whole bloody lot of them prepared to say anything that gets them what they want...the right to FRACK at all costs anywhere and everywhere that shale can be found.  They have bought off politicians, spied (illegally) on those who oppose them, and spent tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on a propaganda campaign worthy of comparisons to Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich.  How many of us have seen the commercial where Eric Oswald of Exxon tells us, "...we recognize the challenges, and how important it is to do this right".  Exxon and Chesapeake are the two biggest players in the (un)Natural Gas speculation game, the two biggest hucksters trying to sell America and the world on Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing...can they, and the information they have provided to those who are supposed to be regulating them be trusted?

Chesapeake Energy's financial woes and questionable business practices should lead everyone to one logical conclusion...no, the industry cannot be trusted, and they will NOT GET IT RIGHT.  States like Maryland, Ohio and New York should simply pass a BAN  ALL HYDRAULIC FRACTURING FOR (un)NATURAL GAS...BAN FRACKING.  Problem is, we all know most politicians in positions of authority are as inherently dishonest as the Aubrey McClendon's of the world, each doing their own version of Whimpy as they tell campaign donors, "I will gladly pass laws that favor you when elected if you open up your wallets today." 

 Take our own governor here in New York...he's already bought into the Natural Gas scam, has already decided that extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale is far more important than the health of New York's citizens, far more important than our fresh water supplies, far more important than preserving our state parks and natural resources.

Wake up citizens...Whimpy was a CON MAN, and pretty much everyone involved in the (un)Natural Gas industry is no different than this hamburger guzzling character of Popeye fame.

PS...in breaking news of the too little too late variety....Aubrey McClendon is partially being pushed out at Chesapeake, being stripped of his role as Chairman.

New York DEP...Fracking Waste is NOT Medical Waste

The Medical Waste tracking Act of 1988 defines medical waste as "any solid waste that is generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals." This definition includes, but is not limited to:

• blood-soaked bandages
• culture dishes and other glassware
• discarded surgical gloves
• discarded surgical instruments
• discarded needles used to give shots or draw blood (e.g., medical sharps)
• cultures, stocks, swabs used to inoculate cultures
• removed body organs (e.g., tonsils, appendices, limbs)
• discarded lancets

So, one might ask, "What does Medical Wastes have to do with Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing, and the diabolical industrial practice nicknamed Fracking?"  As unbelievable as it may seem, the New York DEC plans to treat the waste water streams from fracking along the same lines as Medical Wastes are treated, rather than classifying them for what they are, "Lethal Hazardous Wastes"!  Now to understand how ridiculous it for the NY DEC to wrongfully classify and treat Fracking waste along the same lines as Medical Waste, we should look at some of the requirements the US EPA has when a waste is classified as being hazardous...keep in mind, the waste does not have to meet ALL THESE CRITERIA, but instead only has to meet ANY OF THE CRITERIA.  Any, as in ONE!

Lets start with Benzene shall we?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified Benzene as a Class A carcinogenic. Benzene exposure can result in the development of leukemia. Variations of leukemia have been linked to Benzene exposure, including:

• Acute myelogenous leukemia
• Acute lymphocytic leukemia
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia

Symptoms of Benzene Exposure

People that are exposed to Benzene in high levels or for long periods of time might experience the following symptoms:

• Drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Irregular heartbeats
• Loss of consciousness

Benzene exposure to the eyes and skin can cause tissue injury and irritation. Drinking water containing high levels of Benzene can cause:

• Stomach irritation
• Vomiting
• Convulsions
• Rapid heartbeats
• Death

Guess what folks...benzene is injected underground in hydraulic fracturing, and the extraction process also causes naturally occurring deposits of benzene to surface (Hess 1998, EPA Final 2004 4-11).  OK, lets try to understand this...Benzene is by US EPA classifications a hazardous waste.  The (un)Natural Gas industry injects Benzene into the ground to FRACK A WELL, and when the well has been fracked, even more Benzene is released.  Said Benzene gets into the environment (air, water, ground), thus opening up exposure pathways that will see humans exposed to a chemical that is a know cancer causing agent, a chemical that can cause us to lose consciousness, a chemical that CAN CAUSE DEATH...those are some serious medical concerns that all New Yorkers should be concerned with...

Light bulb moment!

So that is why the NY DEC wants to classify and treat fracking wastes as Medical Wastes...said wastes are going to cause us folks serious health issues! ...so that's the thinking?  Let's not put all the blame on the NY DEC...the US EPA seems to have blood on its own hands when it comes to being p front and honest when it comes to chemicals in fracking fluids, and the health risks they WILL PRESENT TO US HUMANS.

In a draft 2002 report, EPA reported that at the point of injection, nine hydraulic fracturing chemicals violated water quality standards (EPA Fracturing Draft 2002). This assertion was edited out before the final report was published. The published report did note that fracturing fluids are likely to remain underground and are “likely to be transported by groundwater supplies” (EPA Fracturing Final 2004).

So, the (un)Natural Gas industry does not like US EPA findings...no problem, they just get those results edited out, and that changes everything...right? As the Church Lady would say, "Isn't that SPECIAL"?  Not to be out done, wanting to get in on all the killing of human beings, Dick Cheney and our United States government jumped into the fray in 2005 solving the issue once and for all by granting the (un)Natural Gas industry an exemption from the Clean Drinking Water Act...much like the NRC does with regulations when the nuclear industry cannot meet standards, GRANT AN EXEMPTION!

In 2005, Congress exempted most hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act but said the act would apply to fracturing with diesel fuel (SDWA Exemption 2005).

Meanwhile, here in our little community we are waiting for Steve Vegliante and the Fallsburg Town Board to let us know when the promised Public Informational Meeting on FRACKING is going to be held as said board considers a proposed ban on fracking for our community...with this kind of information out in the public domain, one has to wonder why the delay...PASS THE BAN!  Seriously...can we really trust the DEC to do the right thing, or is our community better off passing a ban on fracking while we still can?

Some other reasons to JUST SAY NO to FRACKING:

• Thousands of post-1980 wells are exempt from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that holds most industries accountable for cleaning up hazardous waste.
• Thousands of post-1980 wells were exempted from the Clean Air Act, which limits emissions of nearly 190 toxic air pollutants, including many emitted by oil and gas companies (Mall et al. 2007, Clean Air Act 2008).
• Thousands of the nearly 270,000 wells drilled in the West since 1980 are exempt from the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986. 
• The nearly 270,000 oil and natural gas wells drilled in the West since 1980 have enjoyed an exemption from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), passed in 1976 to establish a cradle-to-grave hazardous waste management program (RCRA History). 

Are you starting to see a TREND HERE?  The (un)Natural Gas industry has been exempted from almost every rule meant to protect human health and the environment, has been exempted from almost every law that could and should hold them legally liable when they screw it all up, which they certainly will do.  Give Steve Vegliante a call, tell him the time for Fallsburg to pass a fracking ban IS NOW.