Just Say No to “Unconventional Oil”: Stop Fracking Colorado!

[chatnoir]

http://occupydenver.org/just-say-no-to-unconventional-oil-stop-fracking-colorado/

Just Say No to “Unconventional Oil”: Stop Fracking Colorado!

Members of local environmentalist groups will team up with Occupy
Denver to rally and protest an upcoming “unconventional” oil and gas
convention at the Colorado Convention Center, where former U.S.
Senator Rick Santorum will be present as a speaker promoting the
interests of the ideologically counter-progressive 1%.

When: Tuesday, May 15th from 11:00am to 2:00pm
Where: By the “blue bear” on 14th and Stout, 700 14th Street.


The purpose of this rally is to let the corporate execs and engineers
who pack this convention know that turning Colorado into a dead zone
for hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and oil shale development is
decidedly NOT OK with us; also to raise concern among the general
public about the dangers of unconventional methods of oil development.
We will rally outside the Colorado Convention Center before and during
Rick Santorum’s keynote speech (which begins at noon) to let people
know what’s going on inside, and what this means for the future of our
state—unless we put an end to it. An open mic forum will be held to
address issues crucial to the physical health of our people as well as
the environmental/ ecological health of our state.

Be sure to make a visible sign so that you can send your message to
all inside, and to the general public outside. (Possible sign-making
ideas: “Colorado Not For Sale”; “There Be Frackers In Here”; “No
Country For Old White Frackers,” etc.) We also encourage anyone to
bring theatrical ideas to dramatize this event (haz-mat suits, EPA
inspector costumes, gas masks, “fracking fluid,” etc. would be quite
appropriate here).


Photo by William Avery Hudson
A few additional details about this convention may help to explain why
we are protesting it. For one thing, the name of it is significant:
“Developing Unconventional Oil: North America’s Bountiful
Resource.” (“Bountiful” is obviously code for “plenty,” as in “ripe
for profit,” etc.) For another thing, the cost to get in this
conference/ exhibition is $995 per person, guaranteeing that no
representative of the soiled masses shall enter. (In all fairness, it
should be noted that the cost is generously reduced to $885 per person
if you’re with a group of four or more. So how can you call that
‘elitist’?) Oh, and leading sponsors for the convention include
Haliburton among others. Really, need we say more?

For a more in-depth account of what this is all about, here is a brief
description taken straight from the website’s welcome page: “In 2011
alone, 67% of DUO’s audience was corporate and engineering management
along with research and development. Operating and financial companies
accounted for over 55% of conference delegates.” So this is kinda like
a country club gathering for oil tycoons. Full details about the
conference are available at http://www.hartduo.com/. The “conference
agenda” is well worth a look. If you’re interested in finding links to
articles with titles like “Why BP May Be The Ultimate ‘Bounce-Back’
Stock,” the website may be worth browsing at some length. And finally,
should you have any questions about the event (like, “Why does it cost
so much?”), there are plenty of folks on staff to answer them via
email.

In case anyone should like to make a more permanent presence at this
event—or rather, outside of it—it should be noted that the convention
actually begins on Monday, May 14th at 1:00 PM and ends at noon on
Wednesday, May 16th. So, if you have spare time, feel free to greet
these people as they come in, or bid them farewell as they leave,
letting them know exactly what you think about their intentions to
‘develop’ “unconventional oil” in Colorado. They might tell you that
it’s in the best interest of Coloradans, that it’s good for the
economy, that it creates jobs, and so on.

What would you like to tell them?

[~SQL~]

On 5/13/2012 5:59 AM, chatnoir wrote:
> So, if you have spare time, feel free to greet
> these people as they come in, or bid them farewell as they leave,
> letting them know exactly what you think about their intentions to
> ‘develop’ “unconventional oil” in Colorado. They might tell you that
> it’s in the best interest of Coloradans, that it’s good for the
> economy, that it creates jobs, and so on.
>
> What would you like to tell them?
>

Thank you very much for helping our economy to get better and creating
new jobs and lease income in Colorado.

We really are glad you're here!

[chatnoir]

https://www.propublica.org/article/whiff-of-phenol-spells-trouble

headline:

Whiff of Phenol Spells Trouble
by Abrahm Lustgarten
The stench of phenol was overpowering, wafting from mud taken from a
layer of rock thousands of feet beneath southern Ohio.

It was 1989 and workers for the Aristech Chemical Corp. had begun
drilling a disposal well for dangerous, chemical-laden waste from the
company's acetone manufacturing plant in Haverhill.


The well site was next to two older Aristech disposal wells, in a
spot where federal and state regulators believed hazardous materials
would remain safely tucked away forever almost 6,000 feet under the
earth’s surface.

But the phenol – a deadly chemical used in Aristech’s processes that
is known to cause internal burns, muscle spasms and organ failure –
indicated that something might have gone wrong.

Environmental regulators suspected that the chemical had somehow
drifted upward from the first two wells, travelling as much as 1,400
feet through the very rock expected to contain it.

If confirmed, their suspicions had broader implications: The type of
disposal wells Aristech was using were among the most stringently
regulated and monitored in the country.

To get permission for the new well — the first of its kind drilled
after new national environmental rules went into effect — Aristech
needed to prove to the Environmental Protection Agency that its waste
would remain trapped for at least 10,000 years. The company had made
that case for the two existing wells, using some of the most advanced
computer modeling and the best geological science available at the
time.

A leak would mean that even injection wells subject to the strictest
regulations might not be as safe as scientists thought.

At first, Aristech’s managers denied that any leak had occurred. In
letters written to Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency, they said
the pollution – still 4,000 feet below ground – could have been caused
by other injection wells in the area, or by spills on the surface.
They accused the state EPA of botching its investigation. The company
even appealed to the agency’s director to intercede, without success.

“Your close personal attention to this proceeding has become
essential,” Paul Kaplow, Aristech’s environment and safety manager,
wrote to Ohio’s chief environmental official, Richard Shank, in July
1989. Kaplow said that Ohio’s “lower-level” environmental regulators
were acting in a way that was “wholly inappropriate.”

Federal and state investigators turned the half-drilled well into a
monitoring station to collect underground data, and took samples of
rock from nearby to examine it for fractures that could have allowed
waste to leak.

By the mid-1990s, investigators confirmed that waste had indeed
migrated upwards from Aristech’s older wells, probably through a
network of small fractures in the rock. Scientists thought the
pressure used to force waste deep into the wells had helped crack the
rock and push the contaminants back up.

Their inquiry turned to the future: It had taken 23 years for the
waste – leaking at a rate of 2.5 gallons a minute -- to move 1,400
feet. Would the chemicals travel thousands of feet further and wind up
in drinking water supplies? How long would that take? More than 1.4
billion gallons of chemicals were dissipating beneath the site.

For another decade, the EPA and the state of Ohio studied the site for
signs that the waste was still on the move. During that time, the
concentration of the contaminants increased in the deep monitoring
well, according to Ohio records obtained by ProPublica. Pressure
readings taken in that well continued to increase, another sign that
the force of injection could still be pushing the waste upward, even
after injections into the two original wells ceased in 1996.

Contaminants also began to appear in a shallow drinking water
monitoring well drilled to 80 feet below the surface: chloride,
barium, iron. Ohio officials wondered whether these compounds, which
occur naturally but far beneath the surface, also resulted from the
changes deep underground. ... (cont)

[fortunate kitty]

chatnoir wrote:
> Contaminants also began to appear in a shallow drinking water

http://gasinvestingnews.com/4853-waterless-natural-gas-fracking-method-unveiled-gasfrac-energy-new-york.html

Propane replaces water and chemicals

According to an industry report, the project is focused on using a
technology that pumps a thick gel made from propane into the ground as
opposed to using traditional methods of hydraulic fracking that make use
of a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to extract natural gas
reserves from deep shale formations. Unlike traditional technologies,
the gel from the new liquefied propane gas (LPG) fracking method reverts
to vapor while still underground, and as a result returns to the surface
in a recoverable form.

According to its developer, Calgary-based GASFRAC Energy Services
(TSX:GFS), the gel also holds advantages over water-based methods in
that it does not carry the chemicals used during the drilling process
back to the surface.