This picture was taken from Harris Parkway last night. The roar of the flare was quite loud. The closest houses were those on Lomo Alto Dr. The pad is quite large and appears to have at least one other completed well.
I gave a talk to the citizens of this area early this year or late last year. The PR dude from Chesapeake, Kevin Strawser, and his entourage were there. He was asked if he wanted to comment or present anything after I finished. He got up in his slick suit and said, Gosh, he hadn’t been prepared for this! But he just didn’t think things were as bad as I had said. And that was it.
Now this is what they’re getting.
~Jerry Lobdill
Retired Chemist
Flaring releases dangerous chemicals into the air. Flaring has caused serious health problems and acid rain in Nigeria.
From OGAP
Flaring
Flaring is the practice of burning gas that is deemed uneconomical to collect and sell. Flaring is also used to burn gases that would otherwise present a safety problem. It is common to flare natural gas that contains hydrogen sulfide (i.e., sour gas), in order to convert the highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas into less toxic compounds.Flares emit a host of air pollutants, depending on the chemical composition of the gas being burned and the efficiency and temperature of the flare. Flaring results in hydrogen sulfide emissions if hydrogen sulfide is present in large enough amounts in the natural gas. There may also be additional by-products formed if some of the chemicals used during the drilling or hydraulic fracturing process are converted to a gaseous form and are burned along with the natural gas.
The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, in California has estimated that the following air pollutants may be released from natural gas flares: benzene, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, including naphthalene), acetaldehyde, acrolein, propylene, toluene, xylenes, ethyl benzene and hexane. Researchers in Canada have measured more than 60 air pollutants downwind of natural gas flares.[1]
It’s also very loud. This video is from another Chesapeake well.
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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I live in West Texas and a while back the holistic doctor my mother now seeks treatment from, had the soil tested in Odessa. He'd been trying to grow a vegetable garden with no luck. The soil sample came back…toxic. I'm not sure with what chemicals, and of course I'm getting this second hand, but I've experienced similar problems where I live in Wink. I no longer plant veggies into the ground, but use above the ground containers and now I have beautiful produce, when before…small, stunted, plants died… There's a lot of burn off going on where I live
Good stuff. I've got you bookmarked and will keep watching. Thanks.
pj
re: Cheap Tricks…
sigh. here's a whole other way gas drilling can stimulate the economy:
in the potential market for potting soil!
(though i wonder how long that soil remains fertile under a polluted sky.)
i was reading about the expanding market for sand for fracking… oh! look at all these ways we can just rip up the earth and 're-move' it!