NY Senate Tosses Environmental Bills Under the Frack Truck

 

Three months ago, on March 6, the New York State Assembly voted 103 to 40 to extend the moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing until May 2015. A week later, Senator Tony Avella  introduced a companion bill (S4236) into the NY Senate. It was referred to the Senate’s twelve-member Environmental Conservation Committee, where it’s languished ever since. And it’s not the only bill stalled in committee; there are at least five other drilling-related bills that have not been allowed to the floor for discussion and a vote:

Senator David Carlucci  introduced Senate bill 4046 that would prevent the commissioner of Environmental conservation from finalizing and publishing the revised Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) for at least 2 years - and requires completion of the EPA fracking study and health studies. 

Avella introduced Senate bill 673 which would amend the environmental conservation law by prohibiting hydraulic fracturing altogether and outlaw disposal and/or processing of any drilling fluids or drill cuttings in New York. That includes: drilling mud; chemical additives and frack fluid; flow back fluids returning to the surface after the hydraulic fracturing process; and any other residual liquids involved in drilling.

There are at least three bills that deal specifically with drilling wastes. Senate bill 674 would require hazardous wastes produced from oil and gas activities to be treated the same as hazardous wastes produced by other industries. Currently, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations exempt “drilling fluids, produced waters, and other wastes associated with the exploration, development or production of crude oil, natural gas or geothermal energy” from being regulated as hazardous waste. 

Senator Martin Dilan's bill (S 408) would prohibit radioactive or hazardous waste disposal or transfer stations from being sited within 1500 feet of school property. 

And just a month ago Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk introduced Senate bill 5123 that would prohibit the transportation of any waste product or byproduct from fracking operations.  

With less than two weeks left in the session it’s unlikely that any of these bills will be brought to a vote. Neither Avella nor Tom O’Mara, both of whom sit on the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, responded to repeated requests for comments on why they’re keeping environmental legislation from reaching the floor. But Xavier San Miguel, director of communications for Avella, chalks it up to a pro-fracking Republican conference. 

“Dean Skelos and Jeff Kline control what comes to the floor for a vote, and they don’t seem inclined to promote these bills,”  San Miguel said. And that seems odd, seeing how Kline is cosponsoring two of the bills.

With 30 Republicans and 33 Democrats, one might think the Democrats could generate enough support to push these bills through. But back in December 2012, five Democrats formed an Independent Democratic conference and defected to join the Republicans, forming a coalition. They struck a deal allowing two leaders: Republican Dean Skelos and Democrat Jeff Klein. This move denied the traditional Democratic conference from taking majority control, and gives Skelos and Klein great power over which bills get a vote – and which bills get tossed under the frack truck.

Assumption Parish Sinkhole Eats Levee for Lunch

Assumption Parish Sinkhole as of June 4, 2013

The sinkhole in Assumption Parish, LA has grown to a bit more than 15 acres now, and continues to cause trouble. Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday, the sinkhole swallowed a 400-500 foot section of the emergency containment levee put in place by the Texas Brine Co. This follows a week of tremors. According to news reports, the levee is still intact - it's just under four feet of water.

This is the second time in nearly a month that subsidence has resulted in the containment levee being breached. The levee was designed to have a 20-year lifespan, but as residents pointed out to local reporters, so far it's lasted a few weeks at tops.

Meanwhile, residents affected by the ever-growing sinkhole are still waiting for buy-outs from Texas Brine.

You can watch a video taken during a state police flyover on June 4 here.

Colorado Doctor Uses Biomonitoring to Show Drilling Impacts

Can blood tests show the impacts of gas and oil drilling? That’s a question one Colorado doctor hopes to answer. Dr. John Hughes, of Aspen Integrative Medicine recently tested the blood of several Carbondale residents, according to a recent article in the Aspen Daily News. He tested ten people for a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene – compounds found in air samples in many drilling areas. His preliminary results found low levels of xylene but, as reporter Nelson Harvey puts it, “no VOC concentrations above federal health thresholds”.

Hughes is looking at this as a baseline, as two gas companies intend to develop 18 gas leases in the area. He’s trying to generate some health data prior to drilling.

Hughes compared the Carbondale samples with blood samples from ten residents in Erie, where close to 17,000 gas wells have already been drilled. He found high levels of ethylbenzene – around 118 parts per billion (ppb) – in the blood of nine Erie test subjects. All of those residents  lived between 300 and 1,800 feet from gas wells, and the highest levels ethylbenzene that Hughes detected was found in people living closest to wells.

By contrast, none of the samples from Carbondale residents showed high levels of ethylbenzene.

The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for ethylbenzene notes that the chemical; “may cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects … (and) may cause cancer…” That data is based on animal testing.

According to the Centers for Disease Control &Prevention (CDC) National Biomonitoring Program, the median ethylbenzene level in adult’s blood was 0.060 ppb, although residents in high density urban areas may have ethylbenzene levels twice that high. “Workers in the petroleum industry and those with solvent exposure can have blood ethylbenzene levels that are several hundred times higher than those in the general population,” notes the report.

At this time, finding “measurable” levels of ethylbenzene in the blood doesn’t automatically mean the chemical is causing adverse health effects. That data hasn’t been gathered yet. But  biomonitoring studies are important, as they can  provide health officials with reference values when determining whether people have been exposed to higher levels of ethylbenzene than are found in the general population.

And that is exactly what Hughes is doing: using biomonitoring to establish a baseline for Carbondale residents and, if he can continue, study the environmental exposures associated with drilling.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsors

It is Sunday - a day traditionally reserved for sprawling across the living room floor and reading the Sunday Comics and the Opinion Section. Remember those days - when a weekend wasn't complete without ink on your fingers or your silly putty?

In that spirit I bring you a word from our sponsors - without whom I would have little to write about.






and from my favorite cartoonist

Cartoon used by permission of Mark Wilson of EmpireWire.com

Gas Workers Make Themselves Butt of Jokes

These guys are busy building the Williams Compressor Station on Mt. Valley Road in Liberty township, Susquehanna County, PA. At least that's what they're supposed to do... and what they get paid big bucks to do.

So when a citizen reporter stopped by the other day to take a few pics of the construction - we learn what those gas field workers really do. Which raises many questions.... like the quality of work that goes into those compressor stations, and the quality of workers that man the stations.

You see, in the past 14 months four separate Williams Compressor stations have gone "boom":

March 29, 2012 - Lathrop Compressor in Springville, Susquehanna County, PA
July 23, 2012 - Windsor Compressor Station, Broome County, NY
May 15, 2013 - Williams Central Station, Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, PA
and most recently, May 30, 2013 in Branchburg, Somerset County NJ

Admittedly, lightening strikes are accidental, but the explosion at the Lathrop Compressor was found to be caused by human error. Given the display of professionalism by the gas field boys the other day, is it any wonder that Williams is having problems with their stations?

Meanwhile, the photo of the cheeky guy on the job has gone viral, making him - and gas field workers everywhere - the butt of jokes.  Will he still be on the job come Monday morning? Grab your camera and see for yourself - the work site is only a 10-minute drive from Hallstead.