How the West was Fracked: Fracking as a Possibility in California’s Future

2007_01_21_geowalk. Cliffs at Shoreline Park in Santa Barbara. Miocene Monterey shale, about 20 million years old, topped by an icing of pleistocene marine terrace. An unconformity divides them. photo: dsearls

Oil in California is nothing new — it’s the third highest oil-producing state in the U.S. (after Texas and North Dakota, which recently displaced Alaska for the No. 2 spot). The Monterey area has been drilled for years, profitably, though production has been steadily declining since its peak in the mid ’80s. However, as you’ve no doubt read in recent breathless media accounts, drilling technology has advanced. Two techniques have been combined: hydro-fracturing, whereby fluids (a mix of water, sand, and chemicals) are injected into drill holes to break open tight rock formations, allowing liquid fuels to seep out; and horizontal drilling, whereby drills can travel laterally from drill sites, sometimes miles, allowing a single drill site to cover vastly more area. This is the “fracking” you’ve heard so much about. It puts all kinds of previously inaccessible fossil fuels within reach, albeit expensively. (Oil seems stuck near $100 a barrel, though; with prices that high, all kinds of crazy schemes are economic.)

Triple Divide: The Judys

Judy standing with contaminated water drawn from her well. © J.B.Pribanic

A Look at Drill Waste Pits and Groundwater by Melissa Troutman, Laurel Dammann, and Joshua Pribanic “It was 2007, and my water well was fine. I mean, I didn’t have any problem with it. I was cooking, drinking, [...]

A Dairy Farmer Shares Her Story About Fracking: “What Have We Done?”

Carol French stands on her dairy farm in Bradford County, Pa., with heirloom tomatoes harvested from her garden. Once a supporter for fracking with a lease, she turned against it after her neighbors began to experience problems and her water became undrinkable.

In the early spring of 2006, a nice man was in the area, promoting a chance to dream of better times for Bradford County and its farmers. There was promise of jobs for everyone and the farmer would generate money from signing a lease, and if a gas well was drilled on the farmer’s property he would become rich. Two years passed with little activity. By now, the older leases were about to expire, gas companies were beginning to drill, and excitement was in the air. Here, the majority of farmers signed early, receiving $5- $85/per acre. There was this belief that the person with the gas well would become the next “shaleionaires.” We later found out small acre properties started signing leases at $2,500/ per acre. By the spring of 2009, there was uneasiness among some of the farmers who had a gas well drilled on their property. The local newspaper was reporting contamination found in water wells, death occurring on a gas pad and the farmer was facing the fact that he could lose his farm due to a lawsuit based on the gas companies operation. For myself, I was thinking that our lucky neighbor was going to become the next Millionaire, because they had the gas well drilled on them. Soon my mind changed. Those farmers were facing penalties lodged against them, due to their land becoming industrial use instead of agricultural use.

Dear Governor Cuomo: Sincerely, John Medeski

John Medeski. photo: wordloaf

  Sincerely, John By Laurel Dammann, Melissa Troutman, & Joshua Pribanic for Public Herald Listen to Podcast: John Medeski Interview “Artists Against Fracking” Summer 1969, half a million people gathered on a dairy farm in upstate New York [...]

Triple Divide: Fracking Pennsylvania’s Exceptional Value Waters

The Cherry Springs vista [pictured here] forms headwaters for Pennsylvania's largest spread of Exceptional Value streams, the state's highest recognized classification by DEP for healthy ecosystems. These virgin hydrologic landscapes also hold exceptional resources for the Marcellus Shale Play. © J.B.Pribanic

Public Herald will be publishing the script for 10 of the 11 chapters from our first feature length documentary film, Triple Divide. The following is a chapter on natural gas drilling violations in Exceptional Value watersheds where fracking has occurred — [...]

Big American Land Grab: the Consequences of an Oil and Natural Gas Boom

Chesapeake_Billboard

Special Report: The casualties of Chesapeake’s “land grab” across America By Brian Grow, Joshua Schneyer and Anna Driver for Reuters (Reuters) – Ranjana Bhandari and her husband knew the natural gas beneath their ranch-style home in Arlington, Texas, [...]

How Much Money Did U.S. Waste in Iraq Reconstruction?

Marine Corps HMMWVs of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment (1/3), roll through Hadithah, Iraq, during a vehicle patrol. 1st Battalion, 3d Marines is deployed with Regimental Combat Team 2, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq (MNF-W) to develop the Iraqi Security Forces, facilitate the development of official rule of law through democratic government reforms, and continue the development of a market based economy centered on Iraqi Reconstruction. photo: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl Stephen M. Kwietniak (Wikimedia Commons)

U.S. official says government wasted $6-8 billion in Iraq reconstruction The special inspector general for Iraq tallies the loss of U.S. taxpayer funds at more than 11 percent of the billions spent by Zach Toombs for iWatch News [...]

Secret Pipes Illegally Dump Oil-Contaminated Waste Into Ocean

Pipes on an oil tanker. photo: Wikimedia Commons

Illegal ocean dumping persists despite DOJ crackdown by Ronnie Greene for iWatch News When a U.S. Coast Guard inspector boarded the M/T Chem Faros, a 21,145-gross-ton cargo ship that pulled into port in Morehead City, N.C., an oiler with [...]