Huge thanks go to Brett Shipp for staying on this story. To recap:
- A chemical plant blew up and I knew right away that fracking was involved.
- Chemical fire spawns fish kill, criminal investigation
- Waxahachie chemical firm cited for environmental violations
- Chemical plant relocation upsetting Ellis County residents
- Ellis County Commissioners catch heat from chemical plant foes
So that was that. A bunch of fish died, people got sick, water was contaminated, the plant wants to locate next to a diary and… life goes on.
Then it started raining.
Now the rain is washing away the containment areas and the chemicals are causing massive foaming in the creeks. Here is Shipp’s story with some great video. But, don’t worry because Jerrell with TCEQ is on the scene and they are monitoring it.
People, people, PEOPLE!!! This is nothing new. We have been trying to tell you about foaming creeks, ditches and well water for years now.
This picture of Denton Creek was taken by Tim Ruggiero in Wise County. People in that area call me sometimes and whisper in the phone that they saw a truck dumping drilling waste in the Denton Creek. The waste haulers like to park on bridges and run their hoses over the side. The people are too afraid to get close enough to take pictures or get license numbers.
Illegal dumping happens all the time. Add to that the spills and the runoff and…
But hey, it’s all okay because our president went to a CNG fueling station yesterday and pronounced natural gas a clean energy. He is the president so he must be right. Right?
I guess I don’t have anything to do today.
Addition: Just out of curiosity, who is downstream? Austin?
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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We need to invite the Prez to the back end of Natural Gas.
I wonder how much of that 150 million in his campaign fund came from the Gas Industry????
Do you want my videos?
Songs included: bubbles, bubbles, everywhere….
Our president is misinformed and casuing ruin to occur to us peasants who live in the Gas Patch. He needs to demonstate his knowledge AFTER they “drill through the west wing” and when a gas treatment plant is placed in the lawn of the white house and when waste is dumped on the grounds and allowed to run off down Pennsylvania avenue! Then he can talk from a position of knowledge and experience about this CLEAN Energy!
Oh, I forgot–put a flare in another quadrangle and a multi-unit compressor station in another quadrangle. Then a lot of pipelines, going here and there to compliment the landscape. And, also a TV aired first visit by the Landman promising the world to the President–clean natural gas will make the money flow and bring jobs to the White House!
When I went to view the story online, there was a “Barnett Progress” commercial before it ran.
That is one reason I have always refused advertising on my website. With the amount of traffic I now have, I could get a substantial check every month but it would be hard to stomach all the industry ads.
If you’re not smart enough to know you can filter the advertising placed on your website, why would anyone believe anything you say?
You really cannot be that dumb, can you? You actually think you don’t have a way to filter out ads that are placed on your website? REALLY??!??
Well, thanks, Chris.
I did not know about filtering advertising on my website because I have never looked into or even considered taking advertising. I do this to give back not to make money. See, some people are altruistic and some are not.
So, your premise is this: because I don’t know about advertising on a website that is a reason to discount anything I have to say about everything? REALLY??!??
Do you apply that same logic in all your endeavors?
“So, your premise is this: because I don’t know about advertising on a website that is a reason to discount anything I have to say about everything? REALLY??!??”
Absolutely. You have had your own website for years. Yet, you write a bunch of nonsense about web advertising which shows that you put NO effort into researching what you wrote about before you wrote it. You’ve displayed an astounding lack of knowledge and an equally astounding lack of effort to acquire it. You’ve shown that you’re perfectly willing to write about something without even doing a simple web search to find out if what you’re writing is true and factual or not.
Why shouldn’t your readers assume that this lack of work ethic and intellectual laziness extends to the REST of your writing as well? It seems obvious to me that this is how you approach EVERYTHING you write, and this is but further confirmation of that fact. You won’t even bother to look up whether web ads can be filtered before you write about it – it would have taken about 2 minutes to find that out. Why would we assume that this is not a strong signal of how you operate in general?
And what is this crap:
“People in that area call me sometimes and whisper in the phone that they saw a truck dumping drilling waste in the Denton Creek. ”
Now you’re posting out-and-out gossip and anonymous rumors on your site? Really? Well that makes the site just garbage, doesn’t it? Why not just trash it up with some porn ads then, Sharon – same kind of ethics, right?
Not having technical knowledge in all aspects of maintaining a web site is forgivable, but name calling and ridicule only puts you in the same class as a heckler from the back of the room. I am sure Sharon, because of her activism, is able to sleep. If you have a conscience, I don’t see how you can. I guess assuming you have a conscience is incorrect; after all you do support an industry that puts profits above peoples health. Whereas Sharon does not!
@Chris – I’m embarrassed for you. A ridiculous display of specious “logic”. Sophisticated web production has nothing to with the integrity and trustworthiness of the content of a site. In fact, the reserve is arguably true. High production values are often good at obscuring missing information, specious arguments, and outright falsehoods.
“you do support an industry that puts profits above peoples health”
This is just an out-and-out lie on your part. That makes you a liar, of course.
I sleep just fine because I am not a liar and I make every effort to speak the truth to the very best of my ability, especially on scientific and technical topics like geology and hydraulic fracturing.
If I went online and made stuff up and told lies about other people, like YOU do, I would definitely have trouble sleeping.
I’m reposting this closer to the original comment:
Actually Chris, all she needed to say is that she doesn’t accept advertising. It’s a common way for people/organizations to demonstrate they aren’t being “bought.” If the best you can do to repudiate her info is to say she must not be reputable because she doesn’t know the ins and outs of web advertising, that’s really really weak.
It’s hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding. Upton Sinclair
Someone who can be bought will never understand someone who can’t.
It’s a common way for people/organizations to demonstrate they aren’t being “bought.”
Arguments, statements, facts, exist on their own merits regardless of who makes them. Whether something said is true or untrue has nothing to do with who said it. To think that advertising changes the veracity of articles on a website is to wholeheartedly embrace a logical fallacy. http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html
“she must not be reputable because she doesn’t know the ins and outs of web advertising”
Not because she didn’t know it. Because she didn’t even bother to look it up before writing and publishing about it. It shows an uncaring attitude as to whether what she writes has value, or is true. It literally takes only a few seconds to find this information. If I was about to write ” I could get a substantial check every month but it would be hard to stomach all the industry ads” the very FIRST thing I would think would be: “wait, I better fact-check this before I post it”
Thinking like this apparently doesn’t cross the mind “Texas Sharon.” I think that’s a real problem and makes me wonder what else she wrote that she didn’t fact-check. And since I’ve seen that most of her articles are extremely weak on facts, logically and consistently I would conclude that most of her stuff is untrustworthy. You certainly don’t have to agree!
Here’s how hard it is to find out whether ” I could get a substantial check every month but it would be hard to stomach all the industry ads” is a valid statement or not:
https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=filtering+ads+on+my+site
She was too lazy to do even that. If you don’t think that’s a problem, then think whatever you like.
“TXsharon January 27, 2012 at 4:30 pm
It’s hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding. Upton Sinclair
Someone who can be bought will never understand someone who can’t.”
Oh, please. Don’t hold yourself up as some paragon of virtue. You’re being paid directly for writing your unresearched, unsubstantiated, illogical drivel:
“In January 2010, I started working for Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project on a very part-time basis. I am likely the only person in Texas who gets paid for helping Texans who are negatively effected by oil and gas development. We hope to make my position full-time soon.”
http://www.texassharon.com/about/
While I get paid nothing for writing the things I write, in fact it’s against my economic self-interest to advocate for natural gas drilling, as I explain here:
“I do NOT own any natural gas interests of any kind. I do NOT have business interests in PA or NY or anywhere else in the Northeast. I do NOT own stock in any corporation at all, period – I prefer to invest in my own businesses. I am NOT in the pay of any kind of natural gas promotion or PR group or organization. I’m basically retired right now, and I receive NO money from any outside sources other than my own businesses. I do NOT benefit in any way from any posts I write here. Period. In fact if it was about greed I would be supporting the anti-fracking side of things, since outlawing gas production would help me financially.”
http://www.cst.net/geoscience/oil-business/130-response-to-accusations-i-am-a-qshillq
So now who can be bought, Sharon? Whose “paycheck depends on her not understanding?”
Why, that would be YOU of course, and not me.
TXsharon January 27, 2012 at 4:30 pm
“It’s hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding. Upton Sinclair
Someone who can be bought will never understand someone who can’t.”
Oh please. You’re no paragon of virtue. You being directly paid to write this poorly researched drivel:
“In January 2010, I started working for Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project on a very part-time basis. I am likely the only person in Texas who gets paid for helping Texans who are negatively effected by oil and gas development. We hope to make my position full-time soon.”
http://www.texassharon.com/about/
While I am not paid anything to write, and in fact, advocating for natural gas drilling is against my financial self interest, as I explain here:
“I do NOT own any natural gas interests of any kind. I do NOT have business interests in PA or NY or anywhere else in the Northeast. I do NOT own stock in any corporation at all, period – I prefer to invest in my own businesses. I am NOT in the pay of any kind of natural gas promotion or PR group or organization. I’m basically retired right now, and I receive NO money from any outside sources other than my own businesses. I do NOT benefit in any way from any posts I write here. Period. In fact if it was about greed I would be supporting the anti-fracking side of things, since outlawing gas production would help me financially.”
http://www.cst.net/geoscience/oil-business/130-response-to-accusations-i-am-a-qshillq
So NOW who can be bought, Sharon? Whose “paycheck depends on her not understanding?”
That would be YOU, of course, and not me!
First you tell me to keep commenting, then you block my IP number from commenting? And.. you actually think that’s going to work?
———————————————-
TXsharon January 27, 2012 at 4:30 pm
“It’s hard to get a man to understand something if his paycheck depends on him not understanding. Upton Sinclair
Someone who can be bought will never understand someone who can’t.”
Oh please. You’re no paragon of virtue. You being directly paid to write this poorly researched drivel:
“In January 2010, I started working for Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project on a very part-time basis. I am likely the only person in Texas who gets paid for helping Texans who are negatively effected by oil and gas development. We hope to make my position full-time soon.”
http://www.texassharon.com/about/
While I am not paid anything to write, and in fact, advocating for natural gas drilling is against my financial self interest, as I explain here:
“I do NOT own any natural gas interests of any kind. I do NOT have business interests in PA or NY or anywhere else in the Northeast. I do NOT own stock in any corporation at all, period – I prefer to invest in my own businesses. I am NOT in the pay of any kind of natural gas promotion or PR group or organization. I’m basically retired right now, and I receive NO money from any outside sources other than my own businesses. I do NOT benefit in any way from any posts I write here. Period. In fact if it was about greed I would be supporting the anti-fracking side of things, since outlawing gas production would help me financially.”
http://www.cst.net/geoscience/oil-business/130-response-to-accusations-i-am-a-qshillq
So NOW who can be bought, Sharon? Whose “paycheck depends on her not understanding?”
That would be YOU, of course, and not me!
Sorry, I replied from my phone and it went downthread. This is my personal blog that I have had for years. My professional blog is EARTHblog. Sorry, I’m such a lazy loser I don’t want to get the link from my phone. I’m sure someone with your prowess can find it though.
Here is the comment that went to the bottom when I was at Which Wich.
TXsharon January 27, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Oh hun, try not to get paranoid. I am sitting in Which Wich having a sandwich with my son. All I have here is my phone so even if I knew how to block your IP A address–I know, I’m a loser for not knowing that too–I couldn’t with just a phone. Then again, maybe I could, how would I know. Point is this is a democratic blog so I don’t need to know how to block comments.
Dear Chris,
You are sounding a bit shrill here.
Let me explain something to you: I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE ADVERTISING ON MY WEBSITE. IN ALL THE YEARS I HAVE HAD THIS WEBSITE HAVE NEVER TAKEN ADVERTISING.
My webmaster, Susan Knoll of Sumi Designs, urged me to take advertising. She said with my volume of traffic, I could “get a substantial check each month.” (substantial is relative.) I explained to her that I did not want to take advertising. You can ask her about it or she may comment on it herself sometime in the next couple of days.
So, I know this is hard for you to grasp, but: I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE ADVERTISING.
Chris Salmon said on his web site (click on his name to see his educational work for O&G):
[…]
This stuff ain’t easy. You can’t go ’round with a video camera and a notebook and ask for people with complaints to talk to you and come out with anything even CLOSE to real. You just can’t.
[…]
Last year some really alert dummies up around Argyle took this video of a FRAC job in progress. It’s just made up. Video cameras and the people using them are just dummies.
http://abcalliance.org/?p=1217
I had to announce Chris’s love letter in another post. http://www.texassharon.com/2012/01/27/love-letter-to-me-shows-fracking-industrys-faulty-logic/
First off, I don’t do educational work for O&G. I’m a geologist. I’ve also worked as an environmental geologist doing water quality work. There is a C.V., on my site if you want to see my background.
Secondly, although I was speaking about something else (one should read the whole article available here: http://www.cst.net/geoscience/oil-business/128-frackers-anti-frackers-and-self-selection-bias-a-note-to-audrey )your video only proves my comment. The video shows nothing, proves nothing, and says nothing. It appears to be just another perfectly safe frac job – a common, everyday occurrence. Folks doing their job, providing the energy this country needs. I don’t even see what point you’re trying to make with it. Then you hang the word “children” on there and put distances to elementary schools? What the heck does that have to do with anything? You’re trying to imply … what exactly?
Do you have any evidence that anyone was harmed by this frac job?
I believe the answer is NO, and so, as I said, you have only proven my point. The nonsense you’ve created with a video camera says nothing real. No evidence is presented. Merely an appeal to emotion without the slightest bit of logical effort to it. Just garbage, similar to what Texas Sharon has filled her site with.
Wow, Chris, I have to hand it to you, I’ve almost never heard all that rhetoric before except every time someone who profits from oil and gas extraction comments here.
So now your premise is this: My lack of research into profiting from advertising on my blog when I do not want to profit from my blog means that I fail to research everything else.
That is truly brilliant. Please, PLEASE keep commenting.
Sharon, ignore Chris, he’s a geologists. That explains it. They not only work for the industry, they dig up rocks. They like to think they ‘know-it-all’ but they are really clueless. How do I know this, I wrote them their little bar code programs on the drill rigs to keep their little fingers from getting cold writing. They dig up dirt, and say, 100 ft, rocky, 200 ft, sandy, etc…etc…etc…they really don’t know what’s down there (that’s why they drill exploratory wells). Their lack of respect for other educated individuals and disciplines is apparent in their tirade of disparaging the truth and blogging because their fat pay checks are in jeopardy. Your original comment of not taking money for advertising had absolutely nothing to do with Chris Salmon’s rant. Chris, you should really take a ‘reading comprehension’ course. After that, take something in stoichiometry, nuclear medicine, and ethics are also lacking in your makeup.
Sharon, keep up the good work. If it weren’t for people like you, these corporate ‘wh0re$’ would be running the nation.
Thank you for the comment.
Chris is fun to mess with. The more you draw him out the bigger fool he makes of himself.
Maybe a bunch of people decided to have laundry day at the same time. 😉
In reality, foaming is a sign of some kind of pollutant in the water.
Dammit Sharon! You should research and know about advertising on your website regardless of what you want because Chris says so. Just like you should research and know about jock itch regardless of whether you have a jock or not.
Is this another full Monte?
Actually Chris, all she needed to say is that she doesn’t accept advertising. It’s a common way for people/organizations to demonstrate they aren’t being “bought.” If the best you can do to repudiate her info is to say she must not be reputable because doesn’t know the ins and outs of web advertising, that’s really really weak.
Dear Ms. Feil,
The TCEQ and EPA are working with Magnablend to insure the site is remediated in a proper fashion. Proper remediation of the site will insure the safety of the environment and the health of those around the site. Magnablend has their contractors out there sampling, under EPA and TCEQ guidance. The EPA On Scene Coordinator (OSC), Nick Brescia, is one of our best and both EPA and TCEQ feel that the matter is being handled appropriately by all parties.
Everett H. Spencer
TX/NM Storm Water Enforcement Team
USEPA Region 6
Dallas, Texas
(214)665-8060
Yeah, I think building a dirt berm to contain deadly chemicals was a stroke of genius.
Oh hun, try not to get paranoid. I am sitting in Which Wich having a sandwich with my son. All I have here is my phone so even if I knew how to block your IP A address–I know, I’m a loser for not knowing that too–I couldn’t with just a phone. Then again, maybe I could, how would I know. Point is this is a democratic blog so I don’t need to know how to block comments.
On your website you talk about how you are in oil and not gas. You also talk about your projects for the oil and gas industry. Clearly, you profit from the industry.
Your logic gets worse with every comment. Now Sharon is lazy because she didn’t look up information about advertising that she did not want.
Please explain to me why she should look up information about advertising when she does not want to take advertising.
Some information about who Chris Salmon is and why he might be so shrill in responding to people who are opposed to having their water and air spoiled by drilling and fracking.
Here is a comment where Chris Salmon admits he has investments in the fossil fuel industry. Chris Salmon should not be called a shill but should be called a liar instead.
__________________________________
Chris Salmon says,
“So can’t you understand why I might find this insulting and offensive? Do you really think it’s only “due to [my] personal investment in the fossil fuel industry?””
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/05/10/fracking-is-good-for-you-trust-me-i-have-a-nice-voice-and-i-could-be-your-neighbor/
____________________________________
Chris Salmon
Geologist at Salmon Oil Company
Studied Geology at University of Houston
Lives in Vail, Colorado
Married
http://www.facebook.com/R.Chris.Salmon
Started work at Salmon Oil Company
January 1993 as a Geologist
Computer mapping and modeling producing reservoirs and subsurface structures, predicting drilling locations; Evaluating Acquisitions, Deals and Prospects; Supervising crews keeping field equipment operable and leases running.
__________________________
He tries to use some careful wording to deny his connections with the oil and gas industry–fossil fuel industry–but he is not good at it.
Chris says:
“I do NOT own any natural gas interests of any kind. I do NOT have business interests in PA or NY or anywhere else in the Northeast.”
Since Chris is in oil not gas, his interests would most likely be in Texas and North Dakota where the shale oil plays are. Some searches reveal that he was recently in Texas and Oklahoma doing some geology work for industry. We must assume that Chris Salmon was paid for that work. The Sinclair quote applies.
“I do NOT own stock in any corporation at all, period – I prefer to invest in my own businesses. I am NOT in the pay of any kind of natural gas promotion or PR group or organization.”
Maybe he owns no stock but he receives a paycheck from industry related work. Also notice how he carefully mentions “natural gas.” I repeat, searches will reveal that Chris Salmon is invested oil not gas. He also narrows down his pay check source to exclude only “PR groups or organizations” and not all the other many areas of oil and gas production.
Well I guess if the president says so it’s true right? Personally I want to know why he said it was clean. Where is the Proof.
The foam is due to natural surfactants from decayed vegetation. Happens about everywhere following a heavy rain after a long period of no rain.
Hi Roy,
So are you suggesting that we blame decayed vegetation for that huge wall of putrid smelling foam in the video rather than the surfactants in the fracking chemicals that ran off into the creek? That doesn’t seem plausible to me.