As you might have heard, EagleRidge Energy has been running amuck in North Texas lately showering residents with soap and cozying up to the Department of Homeland Security.
This all—even the soap—ties in with the industry’s Psychological Warfare against the American public that I exposed after attending – and recording – a fracking industry PR conference in 2011.
To find out what psyops has to do with soap , click over to EarthBlog.
Update: Thanks to a reader and frequent commenter, Andy, we have more information about surfactants and it’s worse than we thought.
This first paper is an in-depth history of using surfactants for enhanced recovery. Table 1 shows surfactants can contain some serious chemicals including carbon disulphide and waste products from oil, coal, wood products and spent amines.
Insight into the Chemistry of Surfactant-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes
This next paper describes chemicals used as biocides. Industry uses biocides frequently to clear the well of debris caused by bacteria.
This product is a mix of two dithiocarbamate compounds. Nothing else.
Dithiocarbamates require CS2 to make and they are all designed to break down to form CS2 under specific conditions of temp, pressure, and PH.
Slippery and sudsy all on their own. Sure you can call it soap. Why not?
AkzoNobel Tb Aquatreat Biocides-1
It’s irresponsible for people to believe just because the fire department did some testing that the foam was harmless.
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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The nicest thing you can say about an oil company is ——- “They are not nice people”.
Exactly.
Sharon, thank you for all your hard work. You rock. Concerning surfactants used in fracking and drilling fluids, nonylphenol ethoxylates are the most widely used but are often listed as proprietary data. They breakdown to nonylphenol, one of the most potent endocrine disruptors known. However, even though the courts have acknowledged this fact, it is still widely used in industry as there is really no good substitute for many applications, especially under high temperatures and pressures as found in drilling activities.
Its really bad stuff.
From Wiki)
Alkylphenols are subjected to ethoxylation to give alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs), which are widely used as industrial surfactants. They are used in applications as disparate as the processing of wool and metals, as emulsifiers for emulsion polymerization, as laboratory detergents, and as pesticides. APEs are a component of some household detergents outside of Europe. In Europe, due to environmental concerns, they have been replaced by more expensive alcohol ethoxylates
Of course Europe saw the need to discontinue the use but not the U.S.
Thank you for your comment.
So I went and read the Earthworks piece.
Here there is a list of compounds that might be included with the surfactant.
Carbon disulfide or dithiocarbamate salts don’t make this list.
Of course not; you got this list from industry.
They gave you a list that they wanted you to focus on…..
and you focused on it. This is what I have been so concerned about.
It’s a pretty scary list but if you can come up with a better one that includes citations we would be thrilled. It’s really not our fault the industry gets to keep secrets. We don’t like it either.
Thank you, Andy.
Andy makes us smarter.
Sorry to be off-topic here, but wanted to share … another leak:
http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/07/5399740/second-leak-reported-at-east-fort.html
Second leak my a$$.
Thank you Sharon (and Andy) for posting more on the surfactant issue.
In NY, the NYSGEIS, states surfactant used ‘proprietary’. In West Virginia and Ohio, there is a class action lawsuit against DuPont for producing a surfactant called C8 (basically, teflon). It causes liver and kidney cancer to name a couple of it’s hazardous health effects. DuPont has promised to discontinue it’s production by 2015. I would hate to think that they are getting rid of their current supply along with the rush to frack by 2015 by using it for the ‘proprietary’ surfactant?