A year ago my family and I moved across the country to Geauga county, Ohio. We were enthusiastic to exchange an urban existence for a life we imagined would be slower, quieter, cleaner and grounded in basic values of family, community and outdoor work and play. For me the move was a return to settings that shaped my childhood ideas of self and place. I had hoped, and still hope, that my daughters would look back from their adult futures and appreciate formative years spent in the rural Midwest.
These hopes are now shadowed by my fears over the establishment of the first gas well in my county, near Parkman, Ohio, to utilize directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing. Industry and political leaders promise that these wells – and there will be many - will be a boom for land owners and local economies in Ohio. But as in all booms, some things will get busted.
Duke University researcher Stephen Osborn and his colleagues concluded their study of 68 water wells belonging to rural residents in PA and NY this past spring. They found that water from wells located within 1 kilometer of a gas well (of the type described above) contained, on average, 17 times more methane than water from wells located farther from such operations. The levels of methane posed an explosion hazard. In his 2008 study conducted for the gas industry, Geoffrey Thyne found similar results in water wells located in Garfield county, CO. These studies confirm the possibility of what many rural land owners from Colorado to Pennsylvania already knew from experience – that this method of gas extraction ruined their family's ground water supply by its contamination with natural gas. The gas found in these well waters had chemical signatures that indicated it had formed in and migrated from deep geological formation rather than being produced by microorganisms near the surface. Without admitting guilt, the energy companies have provided many of these unfortunate landowners with 1000+ gallon tanks that the company periodically fills with trucked-in city water.
If that is a solution, it seems an unsustainable one to me.
The number of studies investigating the potential fallout from this type of gas extraction are, thus far, few in number and of limited scope. We have allowed the industry to expand without the checks and balances afforded by thorough, independent research. An EPA study of the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells, begun in 2010, is slated for completion next year. For now, the public education going on often comes from the brokers of energy leases and employees of the gas industry itself – people usually from outside the communities from whom they wish to acquire leases; people with the most to gain and the least to lose from gas extraction.
Other concerns have been communicated by numerous rural people across the country. Their reports include streams and ponds bubbling with methane gas, increased noise and traffic, diminished air quality, and health problems ranging from respiratory illnesses to neurological disorders – all following the start of gas extraction in their community. Their stories can be dismissed as anecdotal – and that's just what the gas industry has been doing in their PR campaign. One industry employee I spoke with on the phone told me – in a blanket statement to discredit the reports of many intelligent people - that the problems reported by landowners in a recent documentary about the gas boom had been “debunked”.
To be sure there are a number of unanswered questions. Worse I fear there are a number of questions that northeast Ohio residents might not be asking themselves, their local and state officials or, especially, gas industry employees - questions whose answers will affect the future character of our communities and environments.
Each gas well bore (and there may be several bores for each well platform) requires many hundreds of deliveries from large, diesel-powered trucks. How will our air quality change as a result of this new addition of diesel soot? Diesel soot has been linked to cardiovascular disease and increased incidents of asthma, especially in people living near busy truck routes. Many health organizations also recognize diesel soot as a possible carcinogen.
Much of what these trucks will be carrying is water and sand – two critical ingredients for this type of gas extraction. Where will the many millions of gallons of water and many tons of sand come from? Will local resources be used?
The water pumped into gas wells to fracture the shale contains many chemical additives to facilitate the process. While the list of chemicals is not always released by the industry, some of the known ingredients are known to be toxic to human health. Much of this water comes back out of the well and will be used again. Between uses the water may be stored in open ponds – which can leak or allow volatile chemicals to become airborne. Can we insure that companies will store water safely, preferably in enclosed tanks? Eventually the waste water will be disposed of. In some drill areas, local water treatment plants have been overwhelmed by this water, which then spills out into area rivers and lakes. How can we insure this won't happen here?
Existing leases, such as the one on my property, might dampen the power for local landowners to call the shots in their dealings with gas companies. For those of us who are able to negotiate a new lease, realize that you have more control over how some things – such as water storage – are done, by stipulating it in your lease agreement. But the decision to allow drilling comes with inherent risks. My hope is that a sense of responsibility for our shared environment will sway many of my Geauga county neighbors to reconsider leasing their mineral rights at this time. The hope I have for my family is that a conviction to “love thy neighbor” might include protecting thy neighbor's air and water.
