Health Professionals Release Compendium of Studies on Risks of Fracking

Here's a great resource for someone who wants a list of health studies related to unconventional drilling. A few days ago the Concerned Health Professionals of NY and the Physicians for Social Responsibility released their third edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction).

 "The Compendium," say the authors, "succinctly summarizes key studies and other findings relevant to the ongoing public debate about unconventional methods of oil and gas extraction." It will be useful for people who want to "grasp the scope of the information about both public health and safety concerns and the economic realities of fracking that frame these concerns." For those who want to delve deeper, there are plenty of references to reviews, studies, and articles. Readers wanting more can dive into this fully searchable citation database of peer-reviewed journal articles pertaining to shale gas and oil extraction housed over at PSE Healthy Energy.

The report highlights health risks ranging from air and water pollution as well as risks associate with a newly emerging problem: leakage of methane and other toxic gases from compressors, pipelines, and other infrastructure.

In a letter to NY governor Andrew Cuomo and NY Dept. of Health commissioner Howard A. Zucker, the authors of the study note that more than 100 new peer-reviewed studies on the impacts of drilling and fracking have been published since New York’s high volume fracking ban was announced in December 2014.

They state that the evidence compiled in their report makes clear that residents of New York (and other places) are at risk from gas infrastructure projects. "As with hydrofracking, the evidence available to date confirms that New York’s DOH and DEC were right to note the potential for harmful air impacts, environmental impacts, and other risks from infrastructure," they write. "Compressor stations and pipelines are both major sources of air pollutants, including benzene and formaldehyde, that create serious health risks for those living nearby while offering little or no offsetting economic benefits."

Compressor stations in particular, are pretty much permanent facilities that pollute the air 24 hours a day with emissions and noise.  The health professionals cite particular concerns over a maintenance procedure known as "blowdown", which can last for hours, releasing plumes of gas into the air. These have been associated with short term effects such as nosebleeds, burning eyes and throat, skin irritation, and headache, and the health professionals are concerned about long-term effects such as asthma, heart disease, neurological effects and cancers.

The authors of the Compendium noted, in their comments to the press, that "the pace at which new studies and information are emerging has rapidly accelerated in the past year and a half: in the first few months of 2014, more studies were published on the health effects of fracking than in 2011 and 2012 combined." More than 80 percent of the available studies on the impacts of shale gas development have been published since January 2013, they say. In 2014, 192 peer-reviewed studies on the impacts of fracking were published, and in the first six months of 2015, another 103 studies appeared. "Given the rapidly expanding body of evidence related to the harms and risks of unconventional oil and gas extraction, we plan to continue revising and updating the Compendium approximately every six months," say the authors, noting that the studies cited in this third edition are current through July 31 of this year.

So, who funds this Compendium project? No one. The group states that the Compendium is written "utilizing the benefit of the experience and expertise of numerous health professionals and scientists who have been involved in this issue for years."

Air Pollution from Fracking Affects areas where there is No Drilling

A new study finds that air pollution from industrialized drilling and hydrofracking can likely travel hundreds of miles, even to states with little or no drilling. The study, published in the June issue of the journal, Atmospheric Environment, shows that emissions associated with hydraulic fracturing and shale gas operations could be polluting air in cities far from the drilling pads.

Scientists from the University of Maryland looked at levels of ethane in the air of Baltimore and Washington DC. They used hourly measurements of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS) in the Baltimore and DC areas. The PAMS don't collect data on methane but they do measure ethane, which can be used as a tracer for fugitive natural gas production emissions. While composition varies from site to site, ethane makes up a significant portion of gas produced from Marcellus shale.

Analyzing data collected between 2010 to 2013, the researchers noticed that "daytime ethane concentrations have increased significantly since 2010, growing from around 7 percent of total measured nonmethane organic carbon to around 15 percent in 2013."

It is important to note that neither Baltimore nor Washington DC have fracking operations in or around their metropolitan areas and, until late last year, the state of Maryland did not allow fracking. So where did this air pollution come from? The trend in increased ethane, say the researchers, appears to be linked with the "rapidly increasing natural gas production in upwind, neighboring states, especially Pennsylvania and West Virginia."

They compared the Baltimore/DC data with a control site outside of Atlanta, GA, a region without new, widespread gas drilling operations. The PAMS site in Georgia did not show the same trend in increased methane as seen in the northeast.

The scientists conclude that the increasing amount of ethane in the air indicates that "a substantial fraction of natural gas is escaping uncombusted" and traveling downwind. As shale gas production expands, this trend will continue in downwind regions, they say, noting a disappointing trend in regional air quality. Also, this observable increase in ethane corresponds to a regional increase in methane - a critical greenhouse gas.

Bad Air, Bad Water, Bad Health

Fracking a well near home in PA

Yesterday NY State Senator David Carlucci told the press that the state senate is considering a delay of fracking until some health studies are complete. He told AP reporter Michael Gormley, "We have to put science first; we have to put the health of New Yorkers first."

Meanwhile:

• NY  Dept. of Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah is still working on the health review that should determine whether the final draft SGEIS (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement) adequately identifies potential public health impacts of fracking;
• Geisinger Health System in PA is studying the impact of Marcellus shale gas mining on health;
• DEP investigators have found two new cases in Dimock, where methane concentrations in private water wells pose an explosion hazard.

But while the NY legislators await results from those studies, there is a wealth of data indicating that gas drilling is not healthy for children and other living things. Especially living things that depend on breathing.

Consider: Pennsylvania recently completed an air pollution study. The overall results weren’t bad. But pollution from shale gas activity has brought pollution to areas that were previously unpolluted.

This reflects what’s been happening in rural areas out west. Vernal, UT saw high levels of ozone and other pollutants resulting from gas drilling. And last July, Sublette County and portions of Lincoln County WY were declared to be in marginal “non-attainment for ozone” under the Clean Air Act. That means they exceeded the federal 8-hour average threshold of 75 parts per billion (ppb), a standard meant to protect human health.

Certainly these impacts aren’t going to hit everyone equally. “Healthy” people in Fort Worth, TX for example may not feel any ill effects, but susceptible populations – children, elderly, people with chronic respiratory and/or cardiac problems – will feel the impacts. And, as has happened in a number of cases, one neighbor’s well may be contaminated while another well escapes harm – at least for a while.

As a wise and compassionate teacher reminded those who were blessed: care for the least of these (who are not so blessed)… for whatever you do for them, you do for me.

Frackin's OK - as long as you don't breathe

fracking near home in Dimock, PA

If you visit Marcellus Drilling

You will find it very thrilling,

Just two things of which you must beware:

Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!

My apologies to  Tom Leher, who scribbled much better lyrics for “Pollution” - but the tune keeps running around in my head. Especially today as the PA Department of Environmental Protection begins reconsidering some air quality exemptions. In response to requests from the Marcellus Shale gas industry, the DEP has proposed re-opening or rescinding three technical guidance documents that limit air pollution.

Go to Bradford County’s gas information page and you’ll see an animated map of natural gas development since 2009. Estimates peg the number of Marcellus wells that will be drilled in PA in the tens of thousands. Each well by itself may not be a major source of air pollution, but combined they can have a significant impact on the air we breathe.

Fracking hear home in Dimock, PA

And that is the problem – that air quality standards don’t take cumulative impacts into account. Not in PA. Not in NY. Heck, here in NY the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) won’t even consider air quality as an issue when developing regs for high-volume horizontal slickwater hydro-fracking.

PA residents need to get their comments in today regarding air quality concerns. Send comments to Virendra Trivedi, Environmental Engineer Manager by email to vtrivedi@state.pa.us

Today, members of the Assembly committees on Environmental Conservation and Health are holding a public hearing to listen to testimony on health concerns regarding fracking. NY residents may submit written comments ASAP by email to Michael Szydlo at: szydlom@assembly.state.ny.us

When we think about fracking problems we think about spills, blowouts, methane migration and chemicals leaching into drinking water. Fracking chemicals pollute the air, too. One of the most widely used chemicals in fracking cocktails is methanol – a hazardous air pollutant and a candidate for regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). It was a component in 342 hydraulic fracturing products listed in the Congressional Committee on Energy and Commerce report released last month. But Methanol wasn’t the only air pollutant - nearly 600 of the 750 products listed in that report contained a total of 24 different hazardous air pollutants, including hydrogen fluoride and lead.

Fracking pollutes the air children breathe (Dimock, PA)

Then there’s fracking sand, tiny grains of sand or ceramic that help “prop” the fractures open so gas can migrate into the wellbore. Unlike regular-sized particulates, frack sand can be very fine – maybe even “ultra-fine”, a designation for particles less than 100 nanometers. These extremely tiny particles escape our respiratory cleaning system- they’re not swept out of the bronchi by cilia or trapped in mucus. Instead, when breathed in, they go into the alveoli (the tiny air sacs at end of bronchioles) and pass directly into the blood stream. Even if the material itself is not toxic, exposure to ultra-fine particles induces respiratory diseases and may exacerbate cardiovascular problems (such as stroke and other inflammatory responses). Over 20,000 deaths each year are linked to air pollution – and many are due to ultra-fine particles that cause stroke and interfere with pacemakers.

Don’t forget air pollution generated by truck traffic, compressor stations, and other equipment that drills wells, processes gas and pressurizes it produces air emissions – primarily nitrous oxides that, when combined with sunshine, produces ozone. They also produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). All of these chemicals impact human health:

• Air pollution is linked to decreased fertility and increased miscarriages
• PAH exposure is linked to slower brain development
• Air pollutants have been linked to premature birth and lower birth weight, which further impact the health of children and increases risk for lung diseases.
• Air pollution in early life is linked to asthma
• Air pollutants cause cancer, killing 10,260 people/ year
• Increased rate of diabetes in areas with high traffic (air pollution)

Does PA have air quality issues caused by gas drilling?

Back in February the mayor from tiny Dish, Texas visited a number of Upstate NY venues to talk about air quality problems associated with gas drilling.  Emissions from the high number of compressors in town have made some people sick.

Now it looks like PA may have a similar problem. This afternoon the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) sent out a notice to the press that the agency is responding to odor complaints in two counties and will be analyzing air quality.

The DEP is gathering samples this week from areas near natural gas operations in Washington and Greene counties. The agency will conduct their study in four phases with each phase lasting one week. They hope to isolate the source of odors that have prompted complaints from residents.

"DEP has received complaints about odors that residents believe are emanating from gas well drilling facilities,” said DEP Southwest Regional Director George Jugovic Jr. Under the Air Pollution Control Act, any entity operating a source of odors may be fined up to $25,000. In the natural gas industry, compressor stations, which are located along natural gas transmission lines and pressurize gas so that it can be piped across great distances, operate under a general permit that limits pollutants by incorporating best available technologies.

During the first phase of the DEP study, their Mobile Analytic Unit will collect and compare air samples from a site in Washington County removed from active drilling as well as active drilling sites in Greene and Washington counties. DEP will also analyze air samples collected over a 24-hour period using 12 canisters, some of which will be placed on the properties of residents who have complained of odors.

Then they will take samples within 3-miles downwind of sites related to gas well drilling in the Marcellus Shale: active drill sites, compressor stations, drip tanks, well heads, gas well flares and wastewater impoundments. They plan to complete sampling by June. 

Samples will be analyzed for volatile organic compounds, ozone, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide. Read more here.

Toxins from Compressor Emissions Show up in Blood Tests

Compressor station on Federal Road in Erin, NY (Chemung County).

 When Calvin Tillman, mayor of Dish, Texas came to visit upstate New York in February, he talked about the air quality issues facing his small town. Dish is in the heart of the Barnett shale and at the crossroads where 11 high pressure natural gas pipelines converge. Five energy companies have installed a dozen compressors and associated gas treatment facilities; there are four gas metering stations in town and 18 gas wells within the corporate limits. Another 50-plus gas wells are located immediately beyond the town’s limits.

The problem, he said, is that toxic emissions from the compressors are causing health problems for residents in town. Finally the Texas State Dept. of Health took heed and, in January, they took blood and urine samples from 28 people in the little town. Today, Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe reports in the Denton-Record Chronicle that the same pollutants found in the air are also found in residents' bodies.

The health department found toluene, butadiene, and N,N-dimethylformamide in the samples. All three compounds are among 187 airborne toxic substances that the Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to monitor, notes Heinkel-Wolfe. According to studies compiled by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, dimethylformamide can cause liver damage, butadiene can cause cancer and toluene can affect the nervous system and the kidneys.

But while everyone has been focusing on the pollutants in the air, they've been overlooking the water contamination. Last August researchers found ethylbenzene and styrene air samples. Now the state health investigators have found both ethylbenzene and styrene in private drinking water wells.

While it's true that upstate NY don't have a 30-acre site with a dozen compressors like Dish has - at least not yet - we do have compressor stations scattered throughout our countryside. Near me, there is a compressor station up on Cooper Hill in Van Etten and another one on Federal Road in Erin (article, post). Both are located in rural areas, surrounded by fields, forest and the occasional house. But, says the Erin code enforcement officer John Mccracken, more will come with development of Marcellus shale. There are about 20 drilling applications for Erin (no permits yet) and Mccracken estimates that Erin might see another five compressor stations.

There's lots of evidence that urban air pollution harms human health. It's been harder for rural people to show that industrial activities harm their health. But now it looks like the evidence is finally showing up. The lesson NY needs to glean: Permits need to take into account the cumulative air quality, not just the individual station. Oh, and along with those noise-baffling walls, require the energy companies to install compressors with up-to-date vapor-capture technologies that result in negligible emissions.

Tillman goes to NY (and PA)

Two weeks ago Calvin Tillman, the mayor of DISH, Texas packed his bags and hopped a flight for the northeast. Why he'd want to spend his mid-winter vacation in frigid upstate NY is a mystery to those of us who leave our skis parked outside the door until April Fool's Day. But the fact is, he wanted to visit and he spent a week traveling through the Southern Tier of NY and the Northern Tier of PA - Marcellus Shale country.

What would make the mayor of a small Texas town spend his vacation – and his own pocket money – to fly all the way to New York to talk gas?

“I’ve seen what has happened in Texas,”  Tillman told the press on Saturday, February 20. “I believe New York has an opportunity to do it a lot better than we have.” 

Tillman's town, DISH, is small - a town of 180 souls scattered across two square miles situated 25 miles directly north of Fort Worth. It's in the heart of the Barnett shale and at the crossroads where 11 high pressure natural gas pipelines converge. Five companies have installed a dozen compressors and associated gas treatment facilities; there are four gas metering stations in town and 18 gas wells within the corporate limits. Another 50-plus gas wells are located immediately beyond the town’s limits.

That part of Texas has been oil and gas country for a long time, Tillman says. In fact, the process of hydraulic fracturing was tested just 15 miles away. Drilling started in the mid 1990s and by 2004 the pipelines were constructed and the compressor stations began moving in.

At first people noticed the noise; the companies constructed those early stations without noise abatement. But as the site continued to grow (it now covers 35 acres) people began to complain about the odor. 

  

Bad air

In Texas, compressor stations are “permitted by rule”, Tillman explained. That means a company simply needs to meet certain air emissions criteria for that particular compressor. There was no way to assess cumulative impacts of multiple gas-powered compressor stations – and the dehydrators and other facilities involved in preparing gas for commercial use.

“Sometimes the odor was overwhelming,” Tillman said. People also reported nausea, headaches, allergies and other symptoms that could be attributed to poor air quality. Tillman complained to state officials and to the companies for over 18 months. Finally, the pipeline companies agreed to do a study. They put a detector in the back of an SUV and drove around town for a couple of hours, Tillman said. Their conclusion: “no natural gas leaks were found that would be detectable to the human nose.”

The town decided to do their own study with an independent lab. Citizens supported the expense - 15 percent of their annual $70,000 budget – to hire Wolf Eagle to conduct the air quality analysis. Last August the lab collected air samples at seven locations in town and analyzed them for a number of volatile organic compounds.

Wolf Eagles results: “the compounds in the air of residential areas indicate quantities in excess of what would normally be anticipated in ambient air in an urban residential or rural residential area.” Of the seven locations samples, all but one contained toxic chemicals that exceeded air quality “Effects Screening Levels”.

The Effects Screening Level (ESL) for a chemical is based on exposure of a 35-year old healthy male to that chemical for 8 hours a day, five days a week. It does not address exposure to pregnant women or children, Tillman said, because pregnant women and children are not supposed to be exposed to those chemicals. “Especially not in their homes 24 hours a day,” he added.

According to the lab study, residents of DISH were being exposed to many times the ESLs for benzene, xylene, naphthalene, carbon disulfide and a number of other toxic chemicals.

The town also conducted a health survey – a 10-page questionnaire that people filled out on a voluntary basis. Thirty-one people responded by listing their health complaints: difficulty in breathing, chronic eye irritation, dizziness, fatigue, frequent nausea, muscle aches, severe headaches, sinus problems, throat irritation, and allergic symptoms.

Asthma is one of the impacts noticed in DISH and other towns in the Barnett Shale. “The asthma rate in DISH is three times the rate for the rest of the state,” Tillman told Broader View Weekly. About 7 percent of children in Texas aged 7 to 9 have asthma. But in DISH and other Barnett Shale towns almost 25 percent of the children that age have asthma, including Tillman’s oldest son.

It has taken dogged determination and money from their pockets, but now DISH has grabbed the attention of state regulators. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services is running tests on the blood and urine of close to 30 residents, and Tillman hopes he’ll get those results next month. The state has also installed some air quality monitoring, and Tillman hopes they will conduct additional air testing.

Green Solutions

If there was one mantra Tillman repeated over the week it was: “slow down; take the time to develop protective regulations.” Aside from the obvious – don’t drill in school yards and next to homes – Tillman listed some things New York State could do to protect health in a drilling region.

Topping his list is “green completions”. One source of emissions is open air pits for brine and fracking fluid. Closed loop systems would eliminate the escape of volatile organic chemicals into the air.

Eliminate flaring and add vapor recovery systems to condensate tanks. Instead of allowing gases to escape through the vent on top, a vapor recovery system puts gas back into the tank.

Some of the most notable contributors to DISH’s bad air are the glycol dehydrators. Dehydrators remove impurities from the gas, and newer “zero-emission” technology completes the process without releasing impurities into the air.

Valves leak as well, Tillman said. He suggested replacing old valves with pneumatic valves. “But these companies won’t make that upfront expenditure unless they’re made to,” Tillman said.