Fracking Report Heightens Call for Government Action
Friday, September 7, 2012 @ 5:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The BC Oil and Gas Commission’s report on earthquakes in the Horn River Basin area north of Fort Nelson, has confirmed what critics have been saying all along, that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) triggers seismic events, especially if the activity is taking place near known faults.
The report examined more than 3 dozen seismic events that occurred between April of 2009 and the end of 2011. The report classes the activity as “low level” seismic events, ranging from 2.2 and 3.8 in magnitude. Only one of the quakes (May 19th, 2011 which had a magnitude of 3.8) was felt on the surface by “some workers in the bush”. None of the events resulted in any injury or property damage.
The report makes seven recommendations which include better monitoring , and a notification plan but the recommendations aren’t enough says Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson.
(at right, map showing areas of earthquakes – courtesy BC Oil and Gas Commission)
He has been calling for regulations and legislation on the practice of hydraulic fracturing for some time “What is troubling is a lack of government response to it (the report) . What we have is an industry response, and the industry is promising it will establish guidelines to make sure their companies take this into consideration when they do fracking. That’s simply not good enough. What we need are legislation and regulation that will make sure that the public is protected. We’re lucky this time that this increase in seismic activity has happened in remote areas but that doesn’t mean that is always going to be the case.”
Simpson points to the community of Farmington, near Dawson Creek, “That area leading up through Site C (proposed hydro electric dam project) also has vulnerability to seismic activity which potentially could impact Site C, but when you’re in a community like Farmington where you have well pads being put in everywhere, you have fracking operations occurring everywhere, it’s little comfort that where the bulk of activity has been occurring to date has been remote, its now occurring in your back yard and we now have conclusive evidence that it (fracking) does increase seismic activity. We don’t need voluntary guidelines from industry as a response, what we need is a government to protect the public interest by regulation and legislation to make sure that the public interest is protected.”
Simpson says the fact industry is willing to establish guidelines “is an admission that something more stringent needs to happen.” He is calling on both the Liberals and the NDP to step up and deliver strict regulations to better protect public safety, public health and the environment when it comes to developing the oil and gas industry in the Peace Region. “This report is further confirmation that the protection needs to happen fast and it needs to happen through government regulation and legislation.”
Comments
any studies on fracing in Alberta? They have 50 years of data to look at.
“Only one of the quakes (May 19th, 2011 which had a magnitude of 3.8) was felt on the surface by âsome workers in the bushâ.
A non-story designed to stir up the chicken littles. Surface blasting (like in rock quarries) also causes localized shaking. Move along, nothing to see here.
JohnnyBelt, what is your background that qualifies you to make the above comment? Are you a seismologist (sp?)? Geologist?
No worries, the world is coming to an end on Dec 21st anyway.
It will be one great big earthquake. California will be ripped apart, Vancouver will disappear into the ocean, all the earth filled dams with in a 1000 miles of the ring of fire will washout. We will be all bending over and kissing our butts good bye,
Have a great day.
“JohnnyBelt, what is your background that qualifies you to make the above comment?”
He has learned how to get onto the internet. ;-)
BTW, I understand that horizontal slickwater fracking, that made the extraction of shale gas economical was first used in 1998 in Texas.
So, not sure how Alberta has 50 years of experience in the type of fracking which is causing concerns these days.
Chit … I really do not know anything about this, but at least I know enough about it to see through the BS and then learn to see if it is what I think it is.
So, nice try dow7500, but no cigar.
Fracking is supposed to fracture only the natural gas bearing layer of rock. If the solid layers above the freshly fractured layer cracks due to an earthquake the natural gas may bubble up to the surface and contaminate ground water!
Then, you can set your kitchen faucet on fire, as seen on the news! (Don’t smoke while sitting on the loo, though)!
A huge problem, of course. To JB it would only be a very minor annoyance, I assume from his usual who-cares comments. If the water is spoiled – let them eat cake!
PG, if you knew anything about fracking, you would know that it takes place 1000’s of feet below water tables. Don’t tell me you’ve watched ‘Gasland’ or some other mockumentary to make up your mind.
Like dow said, fracking is hardly a new technology.
Gus, I stated that fracing has been around for decades. Why not use that data as well. Not “trying” for anything. Fracing is the latest eco-nazi cause. Anybody that has watched “Gasland” is now a born-again fracing hater who has zero knowledge of the process.
Sorry but I have to correct you dow7500. Your first post says “they have 50 years of data to look at.” Technically that is decades but still you did say “50 years.”
That’s the great thing about typed statements; there’s no refuting what was said.
sorry bb, i meant 5 decades.
JB:”Don’t tell me you’ve watched ‘Gasland’ or some other mockumentary to make up your mind.”
When gas shows up in people’s well water (which was alright BEFORE fracking!) it isn’t as totally harmless as you are pretending it to be.
I suppose as long as it isn’t YOUR well everything is fine.
BTW, do you have an explanation WHY it poisons some people’s drinking water? You know everything (and better than anybody) so post it here!
I heard of a frac gone bad in Pensylvania. Shell did a frac and they missed the fact there was an existing oil well in the area an the frac came up it and fouled the groundwater.
Certain areas have had to flare their water taps due to gases in their area since their wells were drilled. Nothing to do with fracing. I’m not saying it couldn’t or hasen’t, but “gasland” sure exploits it.
Beyond the burning tap water controversy, let’s have a conversation about water consumption. Investigation, conversation, and debate are preferable to saying “frac it, it’s all good”.
“Gus, I stated that fracing has been around for decades.”
Five to be exact. That is five-zero as in fifty or 50.
Luckily you we do not have to rely on your or anyone else’s memory on what you stated. It is right there in the first post.
What is it in your head that you deny writing what is there for all to see? Are you high on something?
PG show us the website that there was no gas issues before fracking.
Fracking will negate any peak oil and gas issues for a few hundred years at present usage. Might as well get used to the idea.
So if we should use 50 years of history of fracking, the early years of which really is not the same as fracking in the last 10 to 15 years, should we not be more aware of what today’s fracking is doing from worldwide experience.
from less than a year ago: “It is “highly probable” that shale gas test drilling triggered earth tremors in Lancashire, a study has found.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-england-lancashire-15550458
Just so I know how to pronounce this latest addition to the Queen’s English.
Is it fracing – pronounced like in facing, or is it fracking – pronounced like in cracking?
Seamutt, it was in the news! People were interviewed who suddenly had gas coming out of their kitchen faucets after the surrounding farmland was fracked! They lit a match and the faucet spouted a flame!
And it wasn’t April First Day!
Of course, with the world population being 7 billion and still growing I agree with you that we will have to get used to a lot of things in the future, things that were basically unthinkable until now!
That includes things which we know aren’t worth taking a risk with.
PG I hope you take the news with a grain of salt.. That area always had issues with gas in the water but main stream media being what it is, hype is the word.
so an uninhabited muskeg wasteland with bad water and a long history of small tremors MIGHT get worse water and man-made tremors? Who gives a hang? I’ll take the hot showers any day. This is what happens when the Protest Generation retires – millions of cranky old buzzards complaining about everything.
“This is what happens when the Protest Generation retires – millions of cranky old buzzards complaining about everything.”
There may be some truth to that.
You see, most of the Protest Generation actually did not protest. It worked the same then as it does now. It takes very few to catch the interest of the media. The rest were more interested in working to support a family.
Now, in their retirement, they have noticed they missed something. Not only that, but many of them find themselves physically and mentally able to do more than sit in front of a TV watching a cooking show or following the Alaska State Police on patrol. So they volunteer and those who are able to, speak their minds based not on theory, such as the younger generation, but with experience as elders in a traditional society do.
…and the problem with that is these “elders” are now sitting on a nest-egg they earned while wholesale raping the land so they don’t care if they run their children into the poor-house. Moreover, they think its a favour to their children to try to shove the world into a reckless, uncontrolled experiment in “living off the land” despite the complete failure all previous Back-to-the-Land movements.
But its easy to gamble a future that you will not see or live through. Elders are supposed to know the world includes more than just themselves and their own selfish interests.
seamutt:”PG I hope you take the news with a grain of salt.. That area always had issues with gas in the water but main stream media being what it is, hype is the word.”
When everybody is lying all the time and everywhere the truth is hard tyo find. Visual evidence (a picture is worth a thousand words) is often irrefutable and even truthful.
Some of the retired elders who worked at the Cassiar asbestos mine (it closed a couple of decades ago) are now coming down with asbestos caused uncurable lung cancer.
At one time asbestos (like chemical fluoride in tap water) used to be thought of as totally safe and harmless. The damage done to our bodies via unclean air, doctored water and food often takes decades to accumulate and then become an issue.
We don’t speak up, we don’t listen, we ridicule those who do!
Enjoy the sunshine!
So, gamblor .. am I detecting some sort of elder abuse there?
Can’t say anything smart, so you ssay something abusive and bully your way through.
I know just as I did no protest, I also did not rape the land. In fact, far from it.
I consider myself to be the average of my generation.
So where did you miss the opportunity to enjoy life a little bit more fully and not feel disadvantaged to the extent that yo have gotten so bitter?
its not abuse, just callin a spade a spade. Not my fault you can’t hack it when your comments get held up to a little scrutiny.
You’re so blind! You have the gall to type away on a computer and claim in plain type you haven’t actively participated in environmental destruction. At least I have the brains to know and admit my modern lifestyle is not without its negative impacts on the earth. What I dont do is look down my nose at the hard-working people and companies that bring us all the things we have come to love and depend on – THAT is true ignorance my friend. Its ironic that big companies and urban living have made people so comfortable and detached from our roots as mere animals that some of us (usually pensioned urban dwellers) think we could suddenly do without modern conveniences and the companies that bring them. You burned your gas, you bought your plastic goods, you ate your TV dinners – now its time for the rest of us to enjoy the same privileges you did.
disadvantaged? hardly. We live in a golden age and I’m lovin’ it. But I hate having to constantly justify my lifestyle when my car, appliances and furnace are 10x more efficient than any my “elders” used. If you and your buddies want to go live in a yurt, go fill your boots. But don’t say peep when the working class paying all the taxes for you wants some gas or needs to export some oil to keep the mortgage paid and the kids’ lunch boxes full. Get a world-view. You, gus, represent everything that is wrong with Canada today.
“its not abuse, just callin a spade a spade. Not my fault you can’t hack it when your comments get held up to a little scrutiny.”
You know squat about me, so do not say you are hilding me up to scrutiny.
If you wish, we could compare my lifestyle to yours and to the average, whatever that might mean.
I was born in an urban agglomertion of over 10 million. I evetnually ended up in Toronto with over 5 million. I decided to move from there to here because I believed that living in a smaller community was better for me, my family, and for the earth. Yes, the earth came last.
I never had more than a 5 minute commute to work and 5 minutes back since leaving Toronto. I had a 60+ minute total commute when I left there.
I have never owned a truck or SUV or a vehicle with more than 4 cylinders in my life. I have never had a trailer, a motor home, an ATV, a snowmobile or any other motorized toy.
I think it is fair to say that I have lived and do live by expending less than the average amount of fossil fuel.
My electric bills are $60 in the summer and $80 in the winter PER TWO MONTHS.
……. your last diatribe is sure telling …. yoiu are justifying raping this earth by pretending that your predecessors did so. How stupid can a person get????
“I hate having to constantly justify my lifestyle when my car, appliances and furnace are 10x more efficient than any my “elders” used”
What you are forgetting is that there are more of you than there were of your elders and that in 1960, let us say, there were half as many living in this country than now. On top of that, the equipment might be more efficient, but there is more of it per family. The fridge is larger, the freezers are more, there are more TVs per family, more computers, more electric gadgets …… the cars are larger, etc. etc.
Besides, electricity is renewable in BC, so it just takes more hydro projects to increase the access. Therefore the 10x factor is misplaced. There is no 10x factor when it comes to fossil fuel and the heating of homes, driving to work, driving to go shopping, etc.
So, I am sorry to burst your bubble thinking that only you can hold someone up to scrutiny. You ought to know by now I can do the same quite easily since your stuff comes from wishful thinking and misapplied information to make it look good.
Have to agree with you, Gus! Science makes energy saving discoveries and advances all the time. A modern three cylinder internal combustion engine (1L displacement) makes more horsepower than a 1920s straight eight with a 6L displacement and it uses only 20% of the fuel. And it produces 95% less pollution.
If fracking is causing detrimental side effects scientists may develop another less damaging way to get the gas out.
Some of the bitumen in Alberta is now being processed in situ.
Every citizen with a conscience ought to keep informed about what kind of contribution she/he can make to achieve healthier living – meaning cleaner air, cleaner soil and cleaner water.
If we slam and blame each other instead of becoming part of the solution healthcare costs will overwhelm the ability of governments to pay for it and maintain other important services, like education at the same time.
Today there are indeed choices are available.
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