Frackquake lawsuits and other fracking news roundup.

I’m too busy for my blog so this is a fracking news round up of recent fracking news.

Coming soon: Face-off between fracking and insurance companies

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that homeowners can sue industry for frackquake damage.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that homeowners who have sustained injuries or property damage from rampant earthquakes they say are caused by oil and gas operations can sue for damages in state trial courts, rejecting efforts by the industry to block such lawsuits from being decided by juries and judges.  NY Times

I’ve mentioned before that insurance companies and mortgage companies may become our new allies against fracking.

Public health and fracking.

The PA health Department is not following up on fracking health complaints partially because health workers are too intimidated by industry. StateImpact

Another study showing that fracking hurts babies and other people. This one from Pennsylvania.

A new study has linked fracking to a higher incidence in infant mortality, perinatal mortality, low-weight births, premature births and cancer in infants and children.

Funded by the Pittsburgh Foundation and written by Joe Mangano, co-founder and president of the Radiation and Public Health Project, a nonprofit educational and scientific organization that studies the relationship between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health, the study used data from state agencies to examine eight heavily fracked counties in Pennsylvania — four in the northeast and four in the southwest region of the state, counties that account for the majority of the state’s natural gas drill wells and gas production. In all categories but child cancer, increases were greater in the northeast counties than they were in the four southwest counties.

The nose knows: “Anytime you can smell it, you are in a regime that is very polluted,” he says. “In many ways your nose is a better mass spectrometer than any device on the market.” MotherJones

 Water

A USGS study says fracking is using more water.

Oil and natural gas fracking, on average, uses more than 28 times the water it did 15 years ago, gulping up to 9.6 million gallons of water per well and putting farming and drinking sources at risk in arid states, especially during drought.  Scientific American

Eagle Ford Shale wells use the most water–“between 3.9 million and 5.1 million gallons of water for oil and gas wells, respectively.” (Includes a cool map showing water usage nationally.)  San Antonio Express Remember these are voluntarily supplied numbers.

The bad news is a study has identified “15 fracking contaminants based on their toxicity, mobility, persistence and frequency of use.”

Using a fast groundwater transport scenario, the team predicted that 41 of the 659 organic compounds screened would have 10 percent or more of their initial concentrations remaining at a transport distance of roughly 300 feet. That is the average state “setback” distance in the United States between a fracking well and a drinking water well, said CU-Boulder Professor Joseph Ryan, the principal investigator on the study. From University of Colorado

But the good news is there is a list of popular Eagle Ford Shale bars where you can drink alcohol instead of water. San Antonio Business Journal

The additional bad news is Shiner Bock has been fracked.

And the really bad news is that Texas is suing the EPA over federal water law because Texans love polluted water.

Joined by Louisiana and Mississippi, Texas is challenging the “Waters of the U.S.” rule, which the EPA finalized Monday. That rule is aimed at better defining the scope of bodies of water protected under the Clean Water Act. Members of the farm lobby and Republican leaders say the rule will lead to more regulation and a takeover of private property. Texas Tribune

Scary realities of what to do with drilling waste water. In an effort to stop frackquakes, we may end up drinking it. EPA has left it up to states to decide about discharging drilling waste into water. Much more in this Energywire article.

According to information self-reported by industry, there are hundreds of chemicals that can be present in wastewater. But EPA has drinking water standards for only 94 chemicals and standard test methods for only a few dozen more. For many of the chemicals that industry lists on its FracFocus database, there are no scientifically agreed-upon toxicity limits or even methods for testing.

 HB40

This article gets it right about HB40, many articles have missed the mark. KERA

HB40 Oklahoma style. StateImpact.  Listen to:  McAlester Mayor Steve Harrison’s sarcastic “Requiem for an Ordinance”

Climate Change

Prince Charles wants to avert climate catastrophe by making “profound changes” to the economic system.

The heir to the throne – often criticised for his meddling in political affairs – argued that ending the taxpayer subsidies enjoyed by coal, oil and gas companies could reduce the carbon emissions driving climate change by an estimated 13%. The Guardian

Naomi Klein’s monumental speech at People and Planet First starts at 39:25.