Tell this woman that fracking is safe.

Chrystal Stroud’s public statement to the Bradford County Commissioners on the morning of Thursday April 28, 2011 appears below:

“.... My Name is Chrystal Stroud. I am a formerly healthy, 29 year old Hairstylist at a downtown Towanda salon, and my husband and I are local business owners with a 4 year old little boy, who were living out “our American Dream” until 3 weeks ago on Monday April 11th, 2011. That is the day we were notified our water well was contaminated with Barium, Chloride, Strontium, Manganese, Lead, Methane, Radiological material, and Radon from the drilling of the natural gas well 1200 feet from our property — the water that we had been drinking, cooking with and showering in.

Prior to that day I, too, believed in the Goose that was going to lay the Golden Egg in Bradford County. I leased my two acres of property for $5,000 to Chesapeake. We used the money to start fixing up our house, adding a pool, and thinking we were increasing our property value. Little did I know we were signing away life as we knew it.

Three weeks prior to April 11th I became ill. My hair started falling out. I was having heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and stomach cramps........... Three days went by and my hands began to tremble and I would lose my balance as I stood from a sitting position. My speech started to become slurred.”..............

......I received the phone call from Benchmark Analytics. They said my well water results were in and they were a major concern. My reply was “ What do you mean? I have been extremely ill for the past 3 weeks and we can’t figure out why” Their reply was “This could be the cause – Barium is known to cause the symptoms you’re experiencing” I then called my doctors office and son’s pediatrician who then ordered blood work, as the Lead and Barium levels in our water was a major concern

...........

When I contacted Chesapeake (who I signed a lease with) and told them my well was contaminated, they sent out a Mr. Rick Hall. He came to my home and sat at the table and looked over my water results. He started by trying to explain away the substances found in my water.

When I asked him to explain the Radiologicals found in my water, ...........he said “Oh the radon (which was 1.2 pCi/L when we purchased the house four years ago, and is now 154.5 pCi/L) ?” I said “No, the Radiologicals, Gross Alpha and Gross Beta.” His reply was “Oh I don’t know anything about them” (which surprised me as Benchmark informed me they were direct contaminates of the natural gas industry).

.........

This water was clear, but yet had so many chemicals in it, it required an emergency phone call from the water testing company. Mr. Rick Hall stated he would need to “Pass the Buck” to Chief (gas company), saying they were the closest well. I had to contact them. I told him they had not fracked the well next to my property and he stated, “It’s a common misconception that fracking is what contaminates well water. It’s the actual drilling process that causes the first phase of water contamination.”

However, before leaving Mr. Hall could not give me a phone number to contact someone from Chief and had no clue even who I would speak with. After 3 days of phone calls to every phone number I found online associated with Chief, I finally spoke to a Mr. Richard Adams who told me “Lo and behold” a Mr. Rick Hall had called him…. Yet, Mr. Hall told me he had no clue who to call with Chief. Since 3 weeks ago when all this transpired, I have still not seen a Chief representative at my home nor have I received a phone call. I have however had people hang up on me and tell me that they would pass on the information, never returning my calls. My well still has not been vented (with Methane levels of 32.4 mg/L) nor have I been offered water or a water buffalo, from either company.

...........

Our Family is collateral damage! We are just 1 of the 33% failure rate of these gas companies. The failure to keep the residents of
Bradford County’s wells contaminate free.

.................

I get that there’s a huge opportunity here for our state and our county… I get that! However, the people need to be the priority. We need to be responded to promptly in case of a contamination, Neighbors need to be notified of nearby well contaminations and their water testing should be the gas companies’ responsibility, not the homeowner. Care needs to be taken that these wells are drilled in the safest way possible, with no regard for the expense on the “poor drilling company.” It doesn’t have to be this way.

.............

I would like to read an excerpt from Article I of the Pennsylvania State Constitution Sec 27:

‘The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s natural resources are the common property of all the people including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.’

In closing. I would now like to ask my state Representative and my County Commissioners: Why have my Constitutional rights been taken from me?”




Read the entire statement at

http://protectingourwaters.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/sta... /

:scared:

:grr:

to protect us citizens. I have sent this to my state rep and senator and asked them what they are doing about things like this. I can't think of what else to do right now.

I left there with Ed Rendell running things. What the hell happened!

I guess that a lot of it came down to the barrels of money shipped into PA for the last election, along with the general attitude of the whole country against the status quo.

But Rendell was not doing a very good job here either. I don't think that I have seen more bizarre ideas come out of Harrisburg than when he was there---well, until now. Rendell was not exactly pure when it came to the drilling industry, so this was already threatening PA before the last election. But it will just get worse and I can do nothing but keep pressure on Harrisburg and get the word out to everyone about what is happening here and all over the country. And hope that someone listens before it is too late. There is already buyers remorse over electing Corbett, but that is too little too late.

It is more important to let the oil companies make money and to hell with the people......

into the toilet before all is said and done. I saw an article yesterday where he has backtracked on the edict that no drilling inspectors could issue violations---all violations had to be approved by DEP bigwigs only. That is not the case now, it is back to the way that it has always been (not ideal, too few inspectors, but not a train wreck anymore).

He is have to backtrack on a lot of what he is spewing now as more and more problems arise that are not addressed. And if there is video of him saying that he doesn't care about the people, I would love to have that in my possession. If it could only be so easy.

This is really terrible. Fracking should be stopped immediately.

before she signed a lease. For $5,000 she has sold herself and her family into hell. And no one cares.

though they had no input into the decision to drill.

First my sympathies for these folk. Wind and solar are our only currently viable sources of alternative energy. I watched Gasland and its horrific what the NG industry is all about! Feel scared for the kids the world over very scared. :yoiks:

into viable alternative energy, we would have them as our major energy sources by now. However, I am not sure I think there are only these two alternative. There is tidal energy where I could see possibilities. And solar has many other options besides the flat panels we see today. But it will take money to expand and refine these sources, and all the money is in the fossil fuels. Damn it.

Time for the the government to come in and shut this shit down.

when left to regulate themselves. One of the fundamental things that our government is there for is to "protect" the citizens.

Wish they would get around to protecting us.

...third party...the problem is kkkons hate regulation.

Maybe, just maybe, it can be done safely. But I am beginning to wonder if there is any way for it to be safe. Theoretically, yep, there should be no problems if it is done properly. In the real world, there are so many problems that can arise, and I am not sure that any of these companies are willing to spend the time and money to do the right thing.

Think of all the ways fracking can cause problems. If the drilling through the aquifer is improperly done, if the casing is not good enough to protect the aquifer when they start to pump the toxic water down into the hole, if there is a blowout that causes this same toxic water to come back out without safeguards. And this is just what will cause water to be polluted. Then there is the air pollution from the hundreds of trucks bringing water in and out of the site as well as the massive generators at the wellhead that are running 24/7 on diesel fuel. Or the venting of the tanks that hold gas or used water with all the chemicals that they release into the atmosphere. And we can't forget the fiery blowouts that can kill workers.

It can be done safely? I am not sure how many regulations would be required to make it safe. What I do know is that there will never be the regulations necessary to make this process "safe".

bankers can be honest but a hell of alot of them are not. The oil and gas industries are shining examples of civic care NOT. I repeat wind & solar are the only 2 currently available alternative energies. :smoke:

Evidence is just coming to light within the past year that fracking has caused earthquakes in Arkansas and Texas. Since the fracking companies have refused to reveal the exact formula of toxic chemicals used in fracking (both the names of each compound and in what combinations/amounts used)it is easy for the frackers to say that health issues were not the result of contaminated water sources or fumes.

I'm sure that the effects of the various combinations of such toxic materials have never been studied on animals, let alone on humans.

And I'm thinking of industries exposing workers to carcinogens like silica or asbestos - taking up to 20 or 25 years to evidence themselves as carcinogens.

The wells themselves can be in remote areas, and problems easily covered up.

Obama's EPA has proclaimed the practise safe, but on what evidence?


http://www.frackaction.com/content/obamas-enthusiasm-ga...
(Headline)
Obama's Enthusiasm for Gas Drilling Raises Eyebrows

Published date:
Thu, 11/04/2010 (All day)
Publication:
The New York Times
By:
MIKE SORAGHAN


Representatives of drilling groups said they had no idea that Obama would make natural gas his lead olive branch to the newly empowered Capitol Hill Republicans. But they were pleased that he did.

Obama's remarks seemed to refer to vast new sources of shale gas in Pennsylvania, Texas and their neighboring states. Improvements in "hydraulic fracturing" technology have allowed production from formations under those states previously thought to be too expensive to exploit (E&ENews PM, Nov. 3).

"We've got, I think, broad agreement that we've got terrific natural gas resources in this country," Obama said when he was pressed for issues on which he could compromise with Republican leaders. "Are we doing everything we can to develop those?"

"The president's remarks yesterday fit perfectly with a State Department that is actively looking to export the shale revolution globally, an Energy Department that views shale as a fuel with enormous potential for our future and an EPA that has consistently stated that the technology needed to produce shale gas is safe," Tucker said.

Big Oil/Gas has got the deepest pocket of all lobbying forces at work in our state capitols and in DC.
Thanks to Citizens United, they can buy whatever regulation or lack thereof they damn well want.

was a joke.
The place was loaded with oil/gas lobbyists, land owners, oil/gas workers.
The cheerleaders were many. Lots of applause for the oil/gas side.
Those of us who were not part of the biz were unprepared and many walked out in disgust.

But now I realize how seriously the drillers are taking this, and how dire the consequences of our inaction will be. We have to speak out. Realize that many of the people who loaded that meeting were getting money from the oil/gas companies in one way or another. They were leasing their land and getting the upfront money for the lease and royalties if wells were producing, or they were lobbyists whose sole purpose in life is to champion the client, or they were employees of the industry whose jobs are directly linked to the continued drilling. Our side has no financial horse in this race. What we need to have instead is passion and knowledge.

When you deal with the devil...

however misguided, that there is some protection against things like this happening. Really, shouldn't we expect more?

I think that the fact that this woman was not what would be considered by the industry to be an environmental wacko, this gives her standing. She WAS in suppport of drilling, she was not a protester, she was not against the drilling companies, she did not think that they were the devil or that our government was the devil. I don't see how the industry can dismiss people like her as easily as they dismiss us who have been opposed to them from day one. She is also more likely to be believed by the other people who support drilling.

Besides, no one, no matter what, should be treated so poorly.

I wonder what her feelings were prior to leasing that land? If she had been paying attention to other areas of the nation experiencing the same problems.

I guess we will never know.

And this is why I say she was not against drilling. First, she signed a lease and that says something about her trust level. But in the full article, she also said that several of her relatives had leases with a smaller company for years with no problem and great response to even the smallest problems or questions that they had. This was her reality. She did have experience with drillers, just not these ones.

I get the feeling that she would have been a supporter of drilling prior to her living hell, but like I said, these people are harder for drillers to dismiss. But I say a born-again anti-driller is a great asset to this side of the discussion.

Cheers! :)

They phone, they come knocking on the front door. I have run every single one of them off. They can buy this place if they want to and if they have enough money, but I'll be god damned if they will take a bit of gas as long as I own it. I've got 62 acres of gas rights, and my home is right in the middle of it.

Too many people see the dollar signs that come with signing a lease and don't realize what else might come with it. Maybe if you get some anti-drilling bumper stickers they will leave you alone. I saw a supposed "sales tips sheet" that a gas man was carrying and dropped in someone's yard with all the talking points and tactics. Very very interesting read. I am sure you could write it by now with 62 acres. Anyways, one of the things that they had in the tips was to look for bumper stickers to indicate how the owner leaned politically.

Last November, for the first time in over 100 years, North Carolina's legislature went to republicans in both houses. Guess who will now win the fight to destroy the ground water in North Carolina? Average citizens do not have the lobbying clout that the gas companies have.

that it is like we go to a nuclear war with a pitchfork. We cannot outspend them. We have to find other ways to defeat them. Public outrage is a powerful tool. It may not work all the time, but it is the best that we have. That along with education.

I was unaware that there was gas in NC too. Have you seen the documentary Gasland? If not, get it, circulate it, get people to question all the things that the gas drillers are telling you. And if the best you can do is hold off the decision to allow fracking until more information is accumulated, that can be considered a victory for now. I will be rooting for you.

:kick: