February 16, 2013 08:54 AM UTC

"Special Sauce" Spews into Fracking Debate

• 7 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Here is a brief description from an article in the Windsor Beacon about the "flowback incident" in Weld County earlier this week that spewed a toxic mixture of green fracking fluid flowback into our shared environment for roughly a day and a half. 

Fracking involves the injection of millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand into the oil well bore. In this case, Halliburton used 4.09 million gallons of water to frack the Ochsner well.The chemicals used to frack the well included at least 15 solvents and other chemicals, including naphthalene, a possible carcinogen; a toxic chemical commonly known as Tergitol NP-4; and others, according to a list available on FracFocus.

The unfortunate event coincides with a slew of activity and debate around the issue of oil and gas drilling and fracking in Colorado. These include: Colorado’s Governor badly missing the point and talking about drinking a (non-utilized, non-required) PR substance referred to as ‘frack’ fluid.  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management deferring numerous parcels from this week’s oil and gas lease sale, for instance, near Dinosaur National Monument, then in the North Fork, then again near Mesa Verde National Park. 

The Ft. Collins City Council is moving a fracking ban forward to the ballot. Longmont citizens overwhelmingly passed one.  From the Thompson Divide to South Park.  From Erie to Pagossa Springs.  The issues surrounding oil and gas development are often front page in local press around the state; covered increasingly in statewide papers; and even making national news. 

According to the Beacon article, by the environmental reporter from its sister paper, The Coloradoan, Bobby Magill, almost two dozen people—some flown in from Texas—worked to stop the spewing well. 

It took at least 20 people to wrest control of the oil and gas well that spewed a horizontal geyser of green-tinted fracking water for more than 30 hours Monday and Tuesday north of Windsor in unincorporated Weld County.

As has been reported previously, the Petroleum Development Corporation (PDC)—operator of the Windsor well—has been involved in numerous incidents in the state’s oilfields. 

Meanwhile in northeast Ohio, where development in the Utica shale is mostly just starting, the state has already punished one of its scofflaws, and the federal government has also filed charges:

Ben Lupo, the owner of D&L Energy and Hardrock Excavating who admitted to investigators he ordered chemically-laced brine water dumped into a storm sewer that empties into the Mahoning River, has been charged with the state’s first crimes relating to illegal dumping by the shale drilling industry.

Lupo was brought into the U.S. District Court in Youngstown in handcuffs and street clothes for his initial appearance on a single charge of illegal discharge into U.S. waters. He entered no plea at the hearing and waived a preliminary hearing, sending the case to a federal grand jury in Cleveland to review more charges.

The charge carries a penalty of three years in federal prison and a $50,000 per-day fine for each day the violation occurs. Lupo told investigators in his admission that the first brine dump was in September, meaning Lupo could face as much as $1.5 million in fines.

Lupo’s attorney, Joe Gardner, said he expects more charges to be filed after the case is reviewed by the grand jury.

Negligence, should such be the case in this Colorado incident, of course is not quite the same as willful violation (as in Ohio), and the Beacon article notes that a PDC executive has committed to disclosing the exact amount of crap it has released into our world. But even before it discloses what actually happened, how, and to what effect, company officials have already assured us that there is no impact from this.  The company spokesman also wanted to make sure we know that this reflects not a bit on 'fracking.' 

“The failure had nothing to do with the hydraulic fracturing process,” Brockman said, calling the fluid that gushed from the well “flowback water” unrelated to fracking. 

This absurd statement relies on what is likely a purposefully misleading and narrow definition of 'fracking,' the same one that allowed our Governor to do his infamous Colorado Oil and Gas Association advert claiming there has never ever been any 'groundwater' contamination from 'fracking' in Colorado.  Of course his own agency, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has different information available– if one applies a more reasonable definition to 'fracking' as the frack itself and the activities directly related to it, like managing fracking 'flowback' for instance. 

Fracking is an industrial activity that utilizes industrial processes and industrial chemicals.  With massive volumes of substances and immense pressures, when things go wrong they can go very wrong.  We know this.  So when industry spinners or elected and appointed leaders run around telling citizens, or Senators, that it is a safe process where nothing has gone wrong in 60 years, that frack fluid is like a proprietary  'special sauce' in the fast-food business, of which the public need not know about fully (other than it is somehow 'good' ), it doesn't go down well. 

We all use energy and that includes oil and natural gas.  But energy policy cannot be determined by industry alone, nor only by state officials or federal bureaucrats that seem to follow industry talking points.  Local elected bodies and local citizens have a legitimate role and responsibility in shaping how, where, and when this activity occurs. 

This week an oil well spewed into the Colorado debate on fracking.  It makes industry and official spin that much more hard to swallow.