You've Got to Be Fracking Kidding Me!

By Joe Emmons, Texas Program Organizer Texas is the birthplace of Hydraulic Fracturing, or “Fracking” as it is more commonly known.  Fracking mixes water, (secret) chemicals and sand.  Frackers then pump the mixture into the earth at very high pressures to fracture the shale  below the surface to release the natural gas and oil trapped within the rock.  It’s just one more industrial practice that ensures Texas will continue to lead states in releasing toxic emissions into our air and water. Fracking, in Texas, creates an unbelievable 1.2 barrels of waste for every foot drilled. This waste is all too often used as “fertilizer” on “land farms”.  Yes, that is exactly how it sounds.  Instead of safely disposing of the waste, Industry calls it fertilizer and spreads the toxic by-product of their drilling  across our open spaces. As if that’s not bad enough, the fracking fluids that are come back up with the gas and oil (about a third of the up to 13 million gallons of water used by each well) contain both naturally and non naturally occurring heavy metals and known carcinogens such as the BTEX chemicals (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene).  Whatever fluid isn’t left in the wells is stored in open, unlined pits near the wells, known as “evap pits”.  They don’t even attempt to hide their intentions.  These big polluters want to allow this waste water to be evaporated so they don’t have to dispose of it.  I really thought we had moved past that whole acid rain thing of the 80’s. To recap, beyond the damage to our water table from the drilling process and the 1 in 7 cement shell casing failures, (well, those are the casing failures that were documented), we are spreading toxic solids on our soil, allowing toxic liquids to seep into our soil and aquifers from these unlined pits, (Other states such as Colorado require that these pits are lined, at least), while also allowing these chemicals to be evaporated into our atmosphere to then rain down on the people in surrounding areas.  Nothing to worry about, right? But, we’re not done. We can’t forget about the freight trucks necessary to bring all of these supplies and water and sand to the sites, the annual equivalent of 3.5 million car trips on Texas roads. That means $40 million in tax payer dollars to repair, outside of the $247 million in taxpayer money used to cap and fill in abandoned wells (thanks for cleaning up after yourselves guys).  This practice has the ability to poison our air, water and land, from above and below, all while costing Texas residents hundreds of millions of dollars to repair the infrastructure damages. And then there is the economic costs of the damages to our environment. The misuse of private land is yet another problem associated with Fracking.  This is primarily because of two laws; the first is Rule 37 which, in a cleverly worded turn of phrase, says that exceptions can be made to minimum safe distance requirements when drilling near homes or property lines, allowing them to drill directly on your property line, in order to prevent “confiscation of property”.  Instead of maintaining a 1200 foot distance from your property, they can drill on the border of your property in order to not confiscate your land…  Does that make sense to anyone out there?   The second is called MIPA, The Mineral Interest Pooling Act.  This act states if there is a subterranean pool of oil or gas that crosses property lines and you are have permission to drill on one of those properties, you can capture the entire pool, regardless of how much of the pool is actually on the land you are allowed to drill on.  Daniel Day Lewis said it best; they will use a long straw to drink your milkshake right up, and there is little to nothing most land owners in Texas can do to stop it, since when you buy land in Texas, you do not own the mineral rights below your property. If it sounds like I’m angry, that would be because I am.  I will not allow for well funded corporate polluters to maximize their profit margins on the backs of the people of Texas, and you shouldn’t either.  Write your politicians, give them some numbers to look over, help us increase the pressure from the public with the Sunset review of the Railroad Commission coming up and the Legislature coming into session in January.  With your help, and your voice, we will protect the water and wide open spaces of our beautiful state. Thank you.