Early Tuesday morning I headed down to Austin. Tuesday afternoon I gave a presentation to a bunch of geologists and industry folks at the Shale-Gas Development and Water Issues conference. There were some interesting and tense moments. I might write more about that later.
Wednesday I testified at the public hearing for HB 448 by Dawnna Dukes which would require 30 days advance notice by mail of fracking and the anticipated (which means their best guess) chemicals used to all landowners within 500 feet.
This is a simple, reasonable bill that has to do with the right to know and the right to protect your property. This way people can get baseline testing. Industry showed up with some of the silliest objections you can imagine. Here’s my favorite:
They can’t give prior notice because they don’t know what chemicals they might use. The chemicals can change at the very last minute.
Baloney, someone has to order the stuff and get it to the frack job in time to frack.
Baseline testing is fracking’s kryptonite.
The bill will probably be amended to require 30 days advance notice that fracking will happen and chemicals will be used (but not list specific chemicals).
We need to push to get this bill passed. As I pointed out in my testimony, baseline testing is the only way landowners can protect their property and they have the right to know.
Here’s my testimony:
Sharon Wilson testimony in support of HB 448 on behalf of Earthworks
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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Five hundred feet is incredibly short. If down wind it is trivial.
A “best practice” would be for TX to maintain an email notification option that would notify anyone who signs on.
There are many potentially interested parties: people further away, banks, insurance companies, municipalities, and so on.
With contemporary Information Technology doing this would be trivial.
Stan Scobie, Senior Fellow, PSE Healthy Energy, Binghamton, NY, US.
Well sure. But this is Texas.
When a Koch pipeline went into my area, a shiny Koch advertisement came in the mail advertising how great they are (and what to do if you happen to smell or see something spewing out of the ground).
With all the money these people are making, a notice in the mail giving advance warning would not be a financial burden. And it’s the least they can do. The notice could have a phone number to call or a website address where you can look up what chemicals they are going to use so you can do a baseline test for them.
But what are the odds of getting through the “trade secret” barrier? They are never going to publicize what chemicals they are using without being forced to.
I agree, 500ft is not much. Seems like everyone within a mile or 3 has the RIGHT to know what is about to happen involving their aquifer (and the air they breathe, for that matter).
But this is Texas.
Why do property owners need to know what chemicals will be used to get a baseline test? Presumably if the test their current levels they will know what is in the ground/water and the concentrations. If something shows up afterwards or the concentrations change to toxic levels they would be able to compare, correct?
Are landowners supposed to test for every chemical that has ever been used in fracking? Even if we knew every chemical, such a test would be prohibitively expensive and completely unrealistic.
Baseline testing is expensive. If you do get a baseline, and some weird chemical shows up in the follow up testing that was not tested for in your baseline, guess what industry says… That is historic contamination and we didn’t do it.
Here is some information on baseline testing http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18503846/Ground%20Water%20Baseline%20Testing%201-23-12.pdf