From: The EcoReport
By Roy L Hales
Unconconventional drilling creates a huge
amount of waste, some of which is being sprayed onto farmer’s
fields. A 2005 report from New Zealand stated cows grazing on “dump
farms” have elevated levels of hydrocarbons. “Cows are allowed to
graze on land with high levels of hydrocarbons without any punishment
and their food products are allowed to go to market without
government testing,” a Green
Party MP said last year. It is happening in Canada too. The field
above is northwest of Calgary. Former energy consultant Jessica Ernst
said, “We are eating drilling, and fracking, waste.”
“When they are drilling deep horizontal wells, they go a great
distance and this produces a lot of drilling waste. It is toxic.
There are a lot of naturally occurring toxics that are brought up. It
is often radioactive. I have documentation that the formations they
want to frack are radioactive. This comes up with metals and BTEX
(Benzene, Tolulene, Ethylbenzyne, Xylenes) carcinogens plus the
mystery additives which companies refuse to disclose,” said Ernst.
“About 1.2 barrels of solid waste
are created with each foot drilled, according to the American
Petroleum Institute. Simply to reach the approximate 8,000-foot depth
of a Barnett Shale gas well, drilling creates more than 9,600
barrels, or 403,200 gallons, of solid waste. That does not take into
account any horizontal drilling performed after reaching that depth.
For the 14,000 Barnett Shale wells drilled so far, the waste would
cover the entire city of Fort Worth in more than an inch of drill
cuttings, slurry, heavy metals and other toxic compounds.” –
Denton
Record-Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment