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April 9, 2011

Forum: Fracking - shake hands with devil

By Ellis Boal ----

There are those who tout the benefits northern Michigan could gain if natural-gas exploration in deep-shale rock meets expectations.

Two deep-shale wells are currently in place. Some two dozen additional permits are either active or under review. More are anticipated.

Modern drilling methods employ hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The bore goes almost 2 miles down and then a mile horizontally. Extremely high pressure is used to inject millions of gallons of water, mixed in a soup with sand and chemicals, into shale rock to fracture it and release the gas.

If the well casing fails, the chemical additives can foul the aquifer.

Part of the soup returns to the surface, sometimes accompanied by indigenous radioactive material. Part remains below, with the water forever lost to the hydrologic cycle.

The identity of the frack chemicals is proprietary and secret, including those that cause cancer. The flowback can be recycled, but recycled fluids become more toxic with each use. Much of the produced gas leaks to the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

The EPA has begun a study of the process. But political pressure from the White House and elsewhere is at work. Environmental concerns important to EPA scientists have been restricted or eliminated from the study.

Michigan regulators say they have no evidence that fracking causes adverse impacts to the environment or public health.

But questioned at a March 9 meeting in Boyne City, Grenetta Thomassey, program director for Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, could think of no fracking operation anywhere in the world being conducted safely and sensitively to the environment.

With good reason:

In two days in early March in Wyoming's Upper Green River Basin, ozone levels rose above the highest levels recorded in the biggest U.S. cities last year. This, even though the gas industry is reducing truck traffic and switching to drilling rigs with pollution control equipment.

Canadian rock mechanic and hydrogeologist Marc Durand says fracking will cause "irreversible harm" lasting thousands of years even after the wells are capped in concrete. Gas will continue to escape, he says, pointing to Quebec's experience with crumbling bridges and overpasses.

In November, 34 water protection groups led by Tip of the Mitt wrote Michigan regulatory officials. They wanted "best management practices" incorporated into fracking regulations.

But that's all they sought. TOTM's Thomassey told Midwest Energy News last month: "The arguments are not there, I think, for a ban or moratorium ..."

The "best practices" say nothing about the lack of well cap integrity denounced by Durand. They say nothing about testing for radioactivity. Wyoming operators use the same "best practices" and foul the air anyway.

With horizontal fracking, there is no such thing as a "best practice." Whatever the practices, regulators just can't manage it.

In January, a new organization started up Don't Frack Michigan. On March 10, we wrote the governor and state officials, calling on them to ban the practice in Michigan.

Visit our website, www.dontfrackmichigan.org, and join the call.

About the author: Ellis Boal is a Charlevoix board member of Don't Frack Michigan.

About the Forum: The Forum is a periodic column of opinion written by Record-Eagle readers in their areas of interest or expertise. Submissions of 500 words or less may be made by emailing letters@record-eagle.com. Please include biographical information and a photo.

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