“from Houston Bolin
to TXsharon.blog@gmail.com
date Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:27 PM
subject Contaminating groundwater.
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com
You post about fracking contaminating drinking water all the time, so I’m going to put you to the test and give you a chance to prove me wrong. This is the exact text that I posted on the Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling website. Your email address was posted, so I figured I’d go right to the source. Let’s see what you can do:
This is just another method by which groups such as yours and environmentally-motivated groups are attacking the industry. The environmental groups are attacking because they want to eliminate drilling entirely, and you want to eliminate it around you (although most of the time you come off so abrasively towards the industry that you appear as though you want to eliminate drilling entirely).
When you take the unfounded claims out of it, there is quite a bit of science, engineering, and plain ole common sense that disprove the claims.
First and foremost, fracturing has been done for 50 years, with NO PROOF of groundwater being contaminated by it’s means. Yes, there are ALWAYS reports, but show me one in which it was proven to be caused by hydraulic fracturing.
Secondly, the vast majority of usable groundwater is 1,000 feet deep or shallower. Hydraulic fracturing is taking place in the Barnett Shale at a MINIMUM depth of 6,000 feet. It is probably about 7,500 feet on average. And the Barnett Shale is considered shallow for a shale formation.
You tell me how groundwater that is located 1,000 feet or less from the surface can be contaminated by fluid being pumped to a minimum of 6,000 feet below the surface. This of course assumes a properly cased hole, which is the case in every producing oil and gas well.
You let me know when you figure out how frac fluid is going to travel vertically 5,000 feet at a minimum through formation after formation, reservoir after reservoir, through countless layers of impermeable cap rock. Because it damn sure is not getting through the surface casing designed to protect the water table.
Please, I challenge someone to enlighten me as to how this is possible. Until then, I, along with countless others, will call bull$@%^ to the claim.”
And then (s)he sent me another one: (I don’t think that’s his/her real name.)
“from Houston Bolin
to TXsharon.blog@gmail.com
date Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:33 PM
subject Contaminating groundwater.
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com
hide details 3:33 PM (3 hours ago)
I found this quote on your website, which I presume was written by you:
“You will notice that in all of the above comments and in all the additional comments about me at the links above, no one disputes the information I provide. They can’t dispute the information because it’s rock solid so they slander me instead. Heh. Bring it!”
Well, I’m bringing it. Now tell me how that groundwater is going to be contaminated, and prove to me that these constant “contaminated drinking water attacks” are not just another environmentalist vehicle to destroy the energy industry. Show me some PROOF why don’t you, because to this day (as of ~50 years ago when hydraulic fracturing began) there has been nothing.
Come on, this is what you are good at, using scare tactics and “studies” to back up your articles. This is just one on one, you and me. Give me a good punch to the nose.
Can you?”
Okay, start here–note the part where Halliburton admits fractures can enter water zones–and I’ll be back with more later
Hydraulic Fracture: Precise or Imprecise?
Okay, I’m back but I can’t stay long.
EPA Confirms Drinking Water Contamination By Toxics Used in Fracturing
One of the toxicological myths as written by Dr. Marvin Legator in an essay published in Fruit of the Orchard: Environmental Justice in East Texas states:
MYTH: The absence of data is the same as negative data.
This is one of the most frequently used statements by those who wish to pollute the environment. Equating the absence of studies to characterize the hazard of a chemical to running definitive experiments that indeed show the lack of presence of toxicity for a give agent, is a widely used approach to deliberately mislead victims of chemical injury.
What happens in the frequent cases where the well isn’t properly cased or if there is a blowout:
Drilling Waste Poisons Water, Goats Die, Railroad Commission Yawns
Oh and, boreholes are drilled to touchdown with NO casing and NO protection in place when drilling through the freshwater zones. Oops!
You said:
This of course assumes a properly cased hole, which is the case in every producing oil and gas well.
There are plenty of cases where this is not true. You might want to read this study that includes lots of statements about leaky oil and gas wells.
Please see the links in the left column of my blog under the heading of Hydraulic Fracture. But you should know that there is a quote that goes something like this: A man has a hard time understanding something if is income depends on him not understanding.
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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OMG!!!
Whoever Houston Bolin is is in trouble!
If I were you TXsharon, I wouldn't stoop to a reply.
Bolin needs to do some homework and not just spout industry hype. The PROOF (s)he wants, and the reasons (!)
are mounting almost daily. It's getting harder and harder for the industry to pull the wool over people's eyes with their propaganda.
WTF! You must of hit a nerve. Don't stop!!!! Thanks for sharing your info with all of us so we can pass it on.
Bolin dude just spouting the company line. Much needs to be pointed out–lot of time is needed. But, just for instance in the old days fracking resulted in "horizontal fractures". Today in the deep (unpredictable)shale zone, "vertical fractures" results almost 100% of the time. Fracking pressures usually exposes casing to the highest pressure it have seen up to that time. Then if a flaw exists in the casing, or coupling, then out it goes to the gound at much shallower zones–unlike your "protected deep" zones!! Fracking is causing us trouble and it will continue from these and many other means.
How Halliburton Technology is Wrecking the Rockies
If fracking never pollutes water, why do all the fracking frackers pay off the people who's water gets contaminated?
if it's all that safe then what's the big deal about regulation? why not disclose the recipe?
TX Sharon – Let 'er rip! If we followed Houston Bolin's line of thinking…all pollution on Earth just kinda happened on its own.
Well, of course you won't be able to enlighten a person who is dead set on remaining unenlightened.
But you can give proof, as you have shown. Should they decide to ignore the proof, that's their problem.
One thing that always puzzles me – Why do people accuse people who want to protect something of "wanting to attack" something? What do they think their motive would be? Why would anyone want to destroy an industry? It is a nice bit of McCarthyism (who did more to destroy this nation than anyone who he accused of anything) to call every conservationist and environmentalist a "socialist," or impugn their values.
On the other hand, we know where the motives of the people who blindly defend the not-ready-for-prime-time-scheme of horizontal hydraulic fracking lie – "it's the money, stupid!"
To paraphrase Upton Sinclair:
“It’s amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he is promised a small fortune not to understand it.”
But I understand -It's amazing how much beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets you can buy with your gas-lease bonanza.
I guess they are just projecting when they accuse environmentalists of abrasivness, and then sign off with, "I, along with countless others, will call bull$@%^ to the claim."
Bolin, I charge you to prove with
scientific data,that fracing is
safe. That no water wells,no creeks
streams, rivers,or aquifers, have
been contaminated.May the reflective
mirror of protection protect me,
Txsharon, and all others who have
or may be hurt, by the greed of a few. Mirrors reflect, so back atcha.
since Mr. Bolin has a degree in Marketing and only a mere Land Man Certification — i think i will take his comments with a grain of salt and pitch it over my left shoulder……..what kind of marketing are they teaching over there at the Texas Christian University?
meanwhile, the citizens are spending their own dollars to test their drinking water for pollution.
Is Bolin a Landman? Sounds like it. Reminds me of what I always say to a Landman (male or female) when I meet them–I say are you a lieing Landman or are you one of the regular kind? Ha.
Industry is so fortunate to have defenders at the ready to parrot their "message" of NO PROOF!
It is much more difficult to discern the facts and develop an independent thought apart from propoganda – paid for or otherwise.
No cap rock is impermiable. No casing is failproof.
A suite of hydrocarbons in my drinking water is as real as the flame that leaps from the match when I light the water on fire.
Industry can say NO PROOF! Because, through half-truths, jurisdictional fracturing and political muscle, they have effectively hidden the truth.
Despite this, industry's own greed and aggression has finally begun to reveal the consequences of their horrific practices.
Blindly defending this indefensible reality only makes it harder for industry to stand up to genuine scrutiny.
I urge the writer of this letter to have the courage to investigate the difficult and ugly truth.
I suppose I am confused as well. I have been in the business a long time and I would be absolutely thrilled if I could produce a frac that could reach through more than 400' of any rock. I am not saying any of you are wrong, all I am saying is that if I could frac a formation beyond 400' in either direction, I would be the richest man in America. How then, does frac water travel 4,000' to the water tables? Again, I am not saying any of you are wrong, I am honestly asking for someone to help me understand how this happens. Perhaps one of you is a geologist who can explain this to me. Also, casing is tested way before any frac is initiated. If there is a leak, we would then do a squezze job or junk the well depending on how bad the leak is. But it would be financial suicide to frac a well with a casing leak. If a casing leak develops later, it would happen years later after a frac is completed and all of the frac water is out of the hole. Not arguing, just looking for someone to show me direct evidence that counters what I have just said so I can be enlightened.
Thanks,
Russ
Well, I guess no one could produce evidence. More granola environmentalists blog BS. Haha. Talk all you want, you're not going to stop anyone from drilling a single well. You know why? Because you are all naive as to how this world works. But, if you can stop companies from drilling in the Barnett I would be all for it. We are overdrilling natural gas plays right now. The price is way too low. Barnett wells are only marginally profitable now at $4 gas. The only reason they are still drilling them is because they are an acceptable and predictable rate of return. They are also a tangible investment. The fewer wells they drill in the Barnett, the richer I get. Thanks for not replying and confirming my thoughts- that you granola ass hippies still have zero power because you have zero money behind you. Good luck changing the world one blog and gripe at a time. Take a bath, get a job and wake up. In the meanwhile, I'll keep drilling oil and natural gas wells and contributing to our domestic supply instead of supporting the importing of our fossil fuels from hostile countries. Idiots.
Russ