Published on Frday, September 26, 2014 by Common Dreams

Evidence Mounts of Hidden Fracking Hazards

"We need strong state action to protect the public health from yet another troubling side effect of the unprecedented wave of shale gas development," environmentalist warns
byDeirdre Fulton, staff writer

A web of roads, pipelines, and fracking wells. (Photo: Simon Fraser University/flickr/cc)

A major report released Thursday exposes a hidden hazard of fracking: the mining of the special sand—known as 'frac sand,' for short—that is essential to the practice.
Frac sand mining uses significant volumes of groundwater, contributes to air pollution, and has negative socio-economic impacts, according to "Communities At Risk: Frac Sand Mining in the Upper Midwest" (pdf), produced by the the Civil Society Institute's Boston Action Research project in cooperation with Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA).

Analysts estimate that fracking operations will use 95 billion pounds of sand this year, up 30 percent from last year and 50 percent higher than initial forecasts. The sand, which must be uniform in shape and the grains able to withstand enormous pressures at great depth underground, is currently mined most heavily in Wisconsin and Minnesota, though the report identifies sand deposits in 12 others states (including New York, North Carolina, Maine, and Virginia) that could be affected as fracking demand grows. Wisconsin alone is on track to extract 50 million tons of frac sand a year—the equivalent of 9,000 semi-truck loads a day.

"Citizens living near frac sand mining in Wisconsin are witnessing a massive destruction of their rural landscape."
—Kimberlee Wright, Midwest Environmental Advocates

The mining process, which involves blasting off the soil, rock, and vegetation above a sand deposit, then washing, drying, and storing the excavated sand, uses between 420 thousand and 2 million gallons of water per day, according to the report, potentially drawing down groundwater supplies. In addition, the use of added chemicals when processing the sand could lead to contaminated run-off in nearby streams and wetlands.

Even more troubling is the release of fine particulate matter, such as silica dust, at mining sites and in the surrounding areas. Frac sand mining produces "very small and very dangerous dust particles," the report reads, which have been linked to respiratory infections, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease. While air samples have shown particle pollution around mining sites exceeds safe levels, there is little regulation of these emissions. "[M]onitoring of this rapidly expanding industry has been outpaced by the rate of development," the authors note.

"None of the states at the center of the current frac sand mining boom have adopted air quality standards for silica that will adequately protect the tens of thousands of people living or working near the scores of recently opened or proposed mining sites," said EWG's executive director Heather White. "EWG's mapping research found frac sand sites in close proximity to schools, hospitals and clinics, where children and patients may be exposed to airborne silica. Chronic exposure can lead to emphysema and lung disease. We need strong state action to protect the public health from yet another troubling side effect of the unprecedented wave of shale gas development."

Other economic impacts are harder to measure but no less important to consider. The report raises questions about how frac sand mining operations affect property values, infrastructure costs, and demands on health care providers, cautioning towns and local communities to "exercise precaution" when evaluating potential sites in their region.

"Citizens living near frac sand mining in Wisconsin are witnessing a massive destruction of their rural landscape," said MEA executive director Kimberlee Wright. "Elected officials and our states' natural resources protection agency have largely dismissed local citizens' concerns about their health, the health of their environment and their quality of life. Without a clearer view of the big picture of frac sand mining's impact, laws that protect our communities' air and water aren't being developed or enforced."

The other end of the shale gas extraction cycle is no less toxic. A separate peer-reviewed study, published earlier this week in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology, suggests fracking wastewater can endanger drinking water even after it has passed through treatment plants and been diluted.
According to UPI:

Most fracking operations store their wastewater in holding ponds. Eventually, that water is filtered through municipal or commercial treatment plants and emptied into rivers, lakes and ponds.
But new research suggests that wastewater contaminants, when subjected to traditional treatment methods like chlorination or ozonation, encourage toxic byproducts.
Researchers with the American Chemical Society found that even extremely diluted wastewater can still produce these byproducts during the treatment process. Scientists say their findings suggest regulators and energy officials should be more careful about which surface waters treated wastewater is emptied into.

The scientists and engineers from Duke and Stanford Universities used water samples from Pennsylvania and Arkansas frack sites.

“The drinking water facilities should be aware of this,” said Bill Mitch, a lead author on the study and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. “You need a lot of dilution to make these discharges no longer matter.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

NATIONAL report - very important that this information be distributed to all governmental officials, and to all citizens across the nation.

The thorough NATIONAL report produced as a joint effort by Civil Society Institute, Midwest Environmental Advocates, and Environmental Working Group was released today at noon. It is very important that this information be distributed to all governmental officials, all newspaper and news media personnel, and to all citizens across the nation.  I was unable to send out the news release from Boston because of a computer problem, but all references can be found at this site.

http://www.americancleanenergyagenda.org/new-frac-sand-mining-report-details-health-environmental-and-economic-harms/

Links to all the resources can be found at this site including the map based links from EWG and references at MEA.  Please take a look at these well documented resources. Look for the address for a buffering replay of the press conference held at noon on Sept. 25. It is noted on the above link.

Report coauthor Grant Smith, senior energy policy adviser, Civil Society Institute, said:  “The rapid expansion in the United States of oil and shale gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing, has a hidden side filled with problems: the mining of the special sand that is essential to fracking a drilled well.  As this report makes clear, it is essential that local and state governments assess and take action based on the impacts of the full cycle of shale oil and gas drilling, including frac sand mining.  Health, water, and other economic concerns should be addressed comprehensively, rather than being ignored or dismissed. Protecting public health and safety is the first responsibility of government.” 

 

EWG Executive Director Heather White said:  “None of the states at the center of the current frac sand mining boom have adopted air quality standards for silica that will adequately protect the tens of thousands of people living or working near the scores of recently opened or proposed mining sites. EWG’s mapping research found frac sand sites in close proximity to schools, hospitals and clinics, where children and patients may be exposed to airborne silica. Chronic exposure can lead to emphysema and lung disease. We need strong state action to protect the public health from yet another troubling side effect of the unprecedented wave of shale gas development.”

 

MEA Executive Director Kimberlee Wright said: “Citizens living near frac sand mining in Wisconsin are witnessing a massive destruction of their rural landscape. Elected officials and our states' natural resources protection agency have largely dismissed local citizens' concerns about their health, the health of their environment and their quality of life. Without a clearer view of the big picture of frac sand mining's impact, laws that protect our communities' air and water aren't being developed or enforced.”

 

Key concerns about frac sand mining outlined in the report include the following:

 

·              Water issues. Individual mining operations withdraw between 420 thousand and 2 million gallons per day.  The volume of water used is significant, and added chemicals to process the sand compound water related problems with sand mining.  Polyacrylamide, a flocculent, that encourages clumping of particles to remove impurities from the sand is used at mining and processing operations.  It contains traces of acrylamide and can break down into acrylamide, a neurotoxin and known carcinogen, and can enter groundwater or surface water from wastewater ponds at mining operations or from piles of processed sand ready to be transported. There is also increasing concern with acid mine runoff from operating and reclaimed frac sand mines. 

 

·              Health issues.  Silica dust is of great concern to people living near frac sand operations.  The smallest particles of dust (2.5 microns, a fraction of the width of a human hair) cause the greatest damage to the lungs.  This is due to the fact that smaller particles can evade the body’s natural defense mechanisms and penetrate deeper into the lungs, and even into the bloodstream.  Crystalline silica dust, generally around 4 microns in diameter or less, is also especially harmful.  Prolonged exposure to frac sand can lead to silicosis of the lungs and is thought to be a lung carcinogen. This is particularly troubling for people living in proximity to multiple frac sand mines as well as elderly people or families with young children as these populations may be more susceptible to disease.  Additionally, people with silicosis are at high risk for developing tuberculosis. Crystalline silica exposure has been linked with other lung ailments as well, including emphysema and bronchitis. It has also been linked with a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as scleroderma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, chronic thyroiditis, hyperthyroidism, and to kidney-related diseases, such as chronic renal disease, and those with high exposure are more likely to die from renal disease.

 

·              Financial issues.  Economic harms are seen as a result of frac sand mining including potential loss of nearby real estate values of up to 25 percent and decreased lifespan for roads and other infrastructure, which carry a substantial replacement cost.   Even though Minnesota state law allows counties to levy a 15-cent per ton aggregate extraction tax to help offset the costs of road repair, many counties choose not to.  Additionally, the Minnesota Local Research Board found that 22 cents per ton-mile would be a more accurate amount to cover the costs.

 

Commenting on the health aspects of the report, Crispin Pierce, PhD, associate professor and program director, Environmental Public Health Program, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, said:  “Our research group has tested the air around frac sand plants over the last five years and found elevated levels of fine airborne particulates including silica in neighboring communities. We are concerned about potential increases in cardiovascular disease, premature death, and lung cancer. Our state regulator, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, is requiring less than 10 percent of the 140 frac sand operations in the state to monitor their emissions, and even then not requiring monitoring of the particulates of most concern, including silica.”

 

Silica, or silicon dioxide, is a chemical compound that is most commonly found in nature as quartz.  Crystalline silica is an ultrafine particle that occurs when silica is crushed, exploded, drilled or chipped, as occurs during silica mining.  Crystalline silica can be ingested through breathing, allowing the particles to become lodged in the lungs. In addition to the danger posed to miners and pad workers, frac sand also carries a potential risk to residents near mining sites, along transport routes, and for the transport crews who move the cargo. Intense exposure to crystalline silica can cause silicosis within a year, but it usually takes at least 10-15 years of exposure before symptoms occur. 

 

Among those concerned about the health impacts are Victoria Trinko, a family farmer from Bloomer, Wisconsin in Chippewa County less than a mile from a frac sand mining operation, said:  “I am a retired speech clinician raising beef cattle on the farm my father bought in 1936.  I am also the clerk of the Town of Cooks Valley.  I have lived on the family farm most of my life. The third sand company in the Town of Cooks Valley began construction and operation in the spring of 2011 and is located within one half mile northwest of my farm … In April of 2012 within 9 months of the construction of this silica sand mine, I developed an intermittent sore throat and raspy voice.  In September of 2012, I visited my doctor who referred me to a pulmonary specialist. In October 2012, I was diagnosed with asthma due to my environment and use an inhalant and nasal spray twice a day to alleviate my breathing symptoms.”

 

In outlining a wide variety of possible industry, state and local responses to the impacts of frac sand mining, the report notes:  “Perhaps the best response to the rapid expansion of shale gas extraction is to take a step back and view the entire shale gas fuel cycle more holistically.  The questions, if properly posed, can assist us in defining the issues, challenges, and consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle.  They will also help answer whether or not the shale gas revolution is of benefit to all of us or just some of us, and determine the long-term viability of the shale-gas economy.  In pursuing this exercise, the scope of questions should not remain at some national or geopolitical strategic level.” 

 

The report continues:  “Rather, they should also address the consequences of the shale gas fuel cycle for people at the local level including the consequences for their property, their businesses, their cultural values and way of life, their health, their access to adequate supplies of clean water, the impact on local infrastructure, as well as the sustainability of their community’s economy in the near- and long-term.  Of course, such questions should have been posed long ago.  Powerful economic forces are churning ahead without pause or consideration of the implications of shale gas extraction for our country and our citizens.” 

Wall Street Journal article: "Demand for Sand Takes Off Thanks to Fracking--Companies Race to Build New Mines as Prices Rise"

"Demand for Sand Takes Off Thanks to Fracking--Companies Race to Build New Mines as Prices Rise"

Frackers are expected to use nearly 95 billion pounds of sand this year. A sand mine in Garnavillo, Iowa. Stephen Mally for The Wall Street Journal

Sand prices are rising and companies are racing to build new mines in South Dakota and other locations as demand intensifies for the silica crystals that energy companies use to frack oil and gas wells.

Sand is a key ingredient in items from solar panels to smartphones, but in recent years billions of pounds of it have been poured down wells to help coax more fuel out of the ground. In hydraulic fracturing, sand is mixed in a slurry of water and chemicals, then pumped down a hole to crack open dense rocks so oil and gas can escape to the surface.

Frackers are expected to use nearly 95 billion pounds of sand this year, up nearly 30% from 2013 and up 50% from forecasts made by energy-consulting firm PacWest Consulting Partners a year ago.

It can take four million pounds of sand to frack a single well, but several companies are experimenting with using more. Companies like Pioneer Natural Resources Inc., PXD -5.32% which recently received a ruling from the U.S. Commerce Department allowing it to export unrefined ultralight oil produced from shale formations, are finding that the output of wells is up to 30% higher when they're blasted with more sand. About a fifth of onshore wells are now being fracked with extra sand, but the technique could expand to 80% of all shale wells, according to energy analysts at RBC Capital Markets.



That's great news for sand miners, but it's heating up competition between energy buyers and other big industrial users.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc., SLCA -1.17% one of the largest industrial-sand companies, has already raised prices for some frack sand, and it said recently that it would also start charging 10% to 20% more for the finer grades of sand typically used to make glass and various industrial products as it diverts some of this supply to oil producers. The best sand is dubbed Northern White because the round crystal, which can withstand serious heat and pressure underground, is found in states like Wisconsin and Minnesota. The company expects demand for sand will be at least 25% higher than supply for the rest of this year.

"Northern White is in short supply, so people are using basically whatever they can get their hands on to complete their wells," said Michael Lawson, a spokesman for U.S. Silica.

Oil companies' insatiable appetite has even generated renewed interest in second-tier deposits of lower-quality brown sand in places like Texas and Arkansas.

Preferred Sands, which announced last month it has received backing from private-equity firm KKR KKR -0.81% & Co., plans to increase sand production by next summer with new and expanded mines in places like Wisconsin and Minnesota, said Chief Executive Michael O'Neill, though he added that it's becoming tough to find available railcars to move the sand from mines to oil fields.

Jamie Weinstein, co-head of KKR's special solutions team, said the trend toward using more sand per well will mean sand producers will keep growing. The firm is extending $680 million in debt and equity to Preferred Sands to restructure the company's balance sheet.

"We believe the incremental demand for sand over time is only going to increase," Mr. Weinstein said.

Frack-sand producers are hot stocks. Emerge Energy Services EMES +0.48% LP was last year's most successful public offering, according to Dealogic, with a share price that has shot up 558% since its debut. Investors want more. They may get it from private-equity-backed Fairmount Minerals, a major U.S. sand miner, which has enlisted bankers to explore an IPO, according to people familiar with the matter.

Laura Fulton, chief financial officer of Hi-Crush Partners L.P., is predicting another 5%-to-10% increase in sand prices before year's end. Hi-Crush recently signed seven new long-term contracts at higher prices—and for greater volumes—with oil-field service firms including Halliburton Co. HAL -3.22% , which help exploration outfits pump more oil and gas.

"There's really no limit on the demand side," she said.

But there are growing restraints on sand supplies. By the end of this year, new and expanded mines capable of producing 10 million pounds of sand annually will be up and running, but future projects could face delays, Cowen & Co. analyst Marc Bianchi said.

Dozens of new sand-mine permits were issued over the last three to four years in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, triggering a massive public backlash about the truck traffic, dust and breathing problems these operations can create. Now many state and county-level health officials are trying to slow the sector's expansion.

A few companies are skirting those efforts by teaming up with towns hungry for jobs and tax dollars, as well as more regulatory control. In Wisconsin, the cities of Independence and White Hall last year annexed land in Trempealeau County so that Hi-Crush could move ahead with its new mine. Those cities' zoning rules governing sand operations supersede the county's regulations, including its temporary ban on permits, so Hi- Crush's site can go into service later this year. Local officials in Minnesota and Illinois are taking similar steps.

As the good sand becomes increasingly difficult to find, one company is turning next door to South Dakota. Pat Galvin is chief executive of South Dakota Proppants LLC, which aims to resurrect a 1950s-era mine on federal lands about 40 miles from Mount Rushmore. Located in the Black Hills National Forest, the abandoned mine is filled with the same type of high-quality sand frackers have come to count on, and it could generate up to one million tons annually, he said.

The company is getting ready to pull together an environmental-impact statement to present to the federal government, which controls the site. But oil companies are already asking about supply contracts, Mr. Galvin said. The proximity to fracking operations in North Dakota's Bakken formation and Colorado's Niobrara Shale could trim delivery costs by as much as $50 a ton, he said.

The South Dakota site has another key advantage: no neighbors. And shipments can be routed to avoid tourists bustling around Mount Rushmore.

"We're in the middle of nowhere compared to Wisconsin, where you've got farming and everything else going on," Mr. Galvin said.

—Ryan Dezember contributed to this article.

Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com

New York Fracking Opponents call for a moratorium of 3-5 years!

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New York Fracking Opponents call for a moratorium of 3-5 years!

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20140529/ny-fracking-opponents-call-for-moratorium-of-3-to-5-years#disqus_thread

Have your property values decreased? See the attached for assistance in working through assessment values with local/county/state officials!

Total SA suspends $11B Joslyn oil sands mine in Alberta, lays off up to 150 staff

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Good news concerning the Joslyn Mine in Alberta, Canada…

“Joslyn is facing the same challenge that most of the industry worldwide is in the sense that the costs are continuing to inflate when the oil price and specifically the netbacks from the oil sands are remaining stable at best,” he said. That is squeezing margins and “cannot be sustainable in the long-term.”

Total SA suspends $11B Joslyn oil sands mine in Alberta, lays off up to 150 staff                     http://www.windsorstar.com/business/fp/Total+suspends+Joslyn+sands+mine+Alberta+lays+staff/9889319/story.html

WORKER DEATHS

On Workers Memorial Day, a new post on The Pump Handle about the second worker fatality of 2014 for Canada's oil sands company, Suncor:
http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2014/04/28/second-2014-worker-fatality-at-suncor-alberta-oil-sands-facility-highlights-alarming-industry-death-rate/

The industry, according to records available through Alberta Occupational Health and Safety, suggest the provinces oil and gas extraction industry – which Alberta's energy agency says provides 1 in 16 of the province's jobs – has an alarmingly high rate of occupational fatalities -- on average over the past five years, about a third of those incidents on record with Alberta OHS.  Alberta is where most of Canada's oil reserves are located and where oil sands extraction was pioneered.
Please feel free to share and repost, and thanks as always for reading ~  Lizzie

Elizabeth Grossman

office & cell: 503-704-5637

lizziegrossman@mac.com

Twitter: lizzieg1

skype: lizzie.grossman

http://www.elizabethgrossman.com/Elizabeth_Grossman/Home.html

We don’t always hear about worker deaths; and certainly we have no way of knowing of citizen health issues of those living and working around mines, processing plants, and trans-load facilities, but it is atrocious to know that particulates are frequently being reported by citizens at their residences both in the City and the rural areas at distances from the facilities. We ask for transparency in reporting all deaths related to the mining industry!

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OIL TRAINS AFFECTING MANY STATES

OIL TRAINS AFFECTING MANY STATES

THE ARTICLES BELOW PROVIDE IMPORTANT INFORMATION

You will find the information below pretty shocking. It shows the linkages between the tar sands, Bakken Crude Oil, and oil from the East to West Coast via rails, terminals, etc.   It is not complete but we have discovered more terminals along the way for both CP and BNSF.   Many of you are connected to hydraulic fracturing, frac sand mining, processing facilities, terminals, rails etc. Overlay this activity with the pipeline activity and you will realize there would be few people not impacted by the dirty oil industry in some way.  (Guy Wolf)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

28 May 2014

Contact:

Lorne Stockman, lorne@priceofoil.org, 540-679-1097

David Turnbull, david@priceofoil.org, 202-316-3499

New Report Outlines the Rise of Crude-by-Rail in North America

First Major Analysis of Booming Bomb Train Industry

Today Oil Change International released the first major exposé of the burgeoning crude-by-rail industry in North America, detailing where crude trains are being loaded and unloaded, how many oil trains are crossing the North American continent, and what companies are involved.

Runaway Train: The Reckless Expansion of Crude By Rail in North America is the first in a series, exposing North America’s booming crude-by-rail industry. It is published in conjunction with the launch of a unique interactive online map of crude-by-rail terminals and potential routes in North America. 

The report and map can be found at www.priceofoil.org/rail

“This analysis shows just how out of control the oil industry is in North America today. Regulators are unable to keep up with the industry’s expansion-at-any-cost mentality, and public safety is playing second fiddle to industry profits,” said Lorne Stockman, Research Director of Oil Change International and author of the report.

“This is what the All of the Above Energy Strategy looks like – a runaway train headed straight for North American communities,” Stockman said.

The report shows that there are currently over 230 crude-by-rail terminals in Canada and the United States either in operation, expanding, under construction or planned.

Today, one million barrels of crude oil per day is loaded and unloaded on the North American rail network, meaning roughly 135 trains of 100 cars each are moving dangerous crude oil each day through the continent. But if used at full capacity, existing loading and unloading terminals could handle 3.5 times more crude-by-rail traffic and by 2016 that capacity could grow to over 5 times current levels.

“Communities are already waking up to the dangers of oil trains barreling through their backyards, with spills, explosions and derailments happening all too often. This report and online tool will help provide the critical information that’s been sorely missing in order to shine a light on what’s really going on, and to help stop the runaway train of crude-by-rail in its tracks before more damage is done,” Stockman said.

The  oil industry is simultaneously pushing both new pipelines and increased crude-by-rail on the North American public and recent pipeline spills and train accidents show that the neither is safe. Spills from both transport methods are on the rise.

This report comes ahead of a nation-wide week of action planned for July 6 – 13 in opposition to oil by rail organized by Oil Change International, ForestEthics, 350.org, the Sierra Club, residents of Lac-Mégantic, and a number of other organizations. See more at www.stopoiltrains.org

Future reports in this series by Oil Change International will look at the economics of crude-by-rail, safety, and climate change issues. Please see www.priceofoil.org/rail for the map and links to reports and data.

###

Lorne Stockman
Research Director
Oil Change International
714 G Street SE, Suite 202
Washington, DC 20003P: 1 540 679 1097
W: priceofoil.org -- refineryreport.org/
FB: /priceofoil
T: @priceofoil -- @LorneStockman