INTRODUCTION: Natural gas is being touted as the clean energy alternative to oil. As oil field returns diminish, there is extraordinary opportunity to exploit natural gas in the development of a primary fuel industry, a secondary infrastructure industry, a tertiary public water treatment / distribution industry and a fourth industry of dependent automobiles, manufacturing and heating. But before we create a massive fossil-fuel industry based on what amounts to invisible oil, we must consider the true costs of its development. Natural gas can only be profitably extracted utilizing the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing - a brilliant but unpredictable technology. Other risk factors inherent to Earth forces of geology, biology and chemistry make this industry as socially, economically and ecologically devastating as it is promising in its potential for profit. In charting a course for America’s energy independence, let us then consider the “energy equation” as a whole, accurately considering natural gas as a presumably viable factor.

LOSS OF SUSTAINABLE LAND AND BIODIVERSITY

Beneficial Impacts - Zero.

Adverse Impacts - Road and pad development consume hundreds of acres of otherwise productive surface land which can take over 50 years to reclaim and restore if reclaimed at all. In brittle landscapes common to the western US, recovery may take hundreds of years. This poor land management practice together with heavy industrial truck traffic and toxic spills leads to contamination migration as well as drought and dust bowl conditions - a greater risk, as desertification spreads and water resources become increasingly scarce. Desertification has increased 50% in the last decade and appears to be accelerating. Methane seeps from hydraulic fracturing, improper completions, overpressurized gas kicks as well as leaks from aging pipelines decimate vast areas of forbs, shrubs and trees through root dehydration and asphyxiation. These same activities further contaminate both surface and ground water sources. Water extraction de-waters gas streams but depletes surface and ground water. Occasionally, entire aquifers are drained. In the course of developing a single typical unconventional well, 1-3 million gallons of water are extracted. In coal bed methane development, as much as a 40% reduction in stream flow can result, affecting aquifer recharge which can take 200 years to recover.  Toxic coagulants are used to in-fill waste pits which can overflow or leach into groundwater. Toxic air emissions from natural gas, condensate and diesel engines form smog and ozone, contributing to acid rain/snow, greenhouse gases and accelerating warming before species can adapt to induced climate change. Methane is estimated to be 21 time more destructive than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. These activities act in concert to compromise farm land, pasture land and wildlife habitat while distressing, displacing and/or destroying wildlife.

Possible Solutions - Consolidation of roads and pads. Encourage less density and allow development only in areas specifically designated and industrially zoned. Encourage phased development, allowing developed areas to recover and regain forage value before subjecting other areas to development. Institute better and unified federal regulatory oversight of pipeline management and maintenance. Improve predictive and applicable technologies used to drill, fracture and produce. Prevent exploration within ten miles of water sheds. Charge for water extraction; prevent over-extraction; require status quo treatment and re-injection into same strata basin. Ban use of toxic chemicals in natural gas development and encourage recirculated pit waste through containment systems disposed of at licensed facilities.

PUBLIC ENDANGERMENT AND HEALTH RISK

Beneficial Impacts - Zero.

Adverse Impacts - Public endangerment associated with natural gas drilling activities includes frequent exposure to hazardous chemicals like cancer-causing benzene as well as ethylbenzene, xylene, toluene, naphthalene, arsenics, alkanes, pentanes, cyclopentane, n-hexane, ethane, propanes and other harmful compounds like radon - a radioactive substance through drilling fluids, frac fluids and produced water wastes as well as produced, leaking and/or flaring natural gas streams. Exposure occurs through pathways of inhalation, ingestion and surface contact with skin and other membranes. These environmental contaminants are prolific in air, soils and water where natural gas activities occur and can accumulate in flora and fauna as well as domestic livestock and human beings. The trucking of condensate and frac fluids poses additional risks, as does the incorporation of hazardous drilling waste into native soils as a convenient means of disposal. Drilling near residential areas compounds the risk of explosion and burns from thousands of gallons of stored combustible fuels (condensate) above ground on pad sites. Emissions from stored fuels, fracing operations, diesel engines on rigs and frac trucks, and flaring/venting activities contribute to VOC (volatile organic compounds) and smog which contributes to asthma, emphysema and other respiratory disorders. Soil particulates circulating in air sheds from road and pad construction compound this problem. Treatments of rural roads with mag/chloride pose greater cancer risk to humans and wildlife and act to disperse this harmful treatment throughout rural areas and watersheds. Rural road destruction and intense industrial truck traffic increase dangers.

Possible Solutions - Transportation of condensate off site via pipeline; improved industrial-grade rural roadways; double/triple-walled trucking of hazardous fuels, fluids and contaminated water during restricted, publicized travel times. Implementation of mobile water treatment facilities; mandating planned, phased and comprehensive development together with imposed impact fees at a pace and at a rate which allows local governments time to evolve services and resources in tandem with industrial development. Zero emissions using available technology, which includes combustion. Less reliance on cap-and-trade / sequestration systems instead, incentivize discovery of methods to convert CO2 (carbon dioxide) and methane into inert gases. Electric engines help reduce emissions. Better engineering and prediction tools are necessary to prevent groundwater contamination, as filtration overwhelms municipal treatment facilities.

Licensed disposal storage facilities could also be helpful in containing and treating drilling wastes. Full disclosure of chemicals used throughout the drilling and production process, together with their fates, should be filed with all emergency agencies and immediately provided to the public upon request. Consolidation of roads and pads. Encourage less dense development and allow development only in areas specifically designated and industrially zoned. Institute better and unified federal regulatory oversight of pipeline management and maintenance. Improve predictive and applicable technologies used to drill, fracture and produce. Prevent exploration within ten miles of water sheds.

The American dream.... forever shattered.
A family home overlooks a fuming sea of frac tanks stored permanently below
[Western Garfield County - March, 2009]

LOSS OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES AND AGGREGATE SOCIAL CORROSION

Beneficial Impacts - Increased revenue into local communities and state governments.

Adverse Impacts - The cycle of boom and bust economic development, encouraged by investment speculation and incentivized federal policy act to destabilize the economic diversity of small communities otherwise self-sustaining through farming, ranching, construction, tourism or other industries. The sudden influx of mineral wealth is seen as a boon to local communities, but in fact the initial phase creates a hardship for the mineral extraction industry who must import trained workers. These groups tend to be low-skilled, high-paid and transient in nature, commonly possessing criminal records. They introduce crime, drugs and gang activity where their dollars flow freely into entertainment and other vice-oriented venues. They quickly overwhelm rental markets while failing to contribute through property tax to the social and physical infrastructure which they greatly impact. For a while there is a housing crises together with a swell in population and greater pressure on social services unable to meet demand.
 

Meanwhile, industry softens its impact with strategic and ethically questionable financial investments in select local enterprises which offer the highest potential for reinforcing a durable positive public image or securing and improperly monopolizing critical resources, such as local laboratory testing facilities or regional environmental assessment firms or agencies. As part of this strategic social investment strategy, industry may - as in the case of Garfield County - contribute directly to local law enforcement agencies potentially undermining public safety, introducing grave conflicts of interest and jeopardizing public perception of fair and equitable treatment under the law.

As communities begin to reap financial reward and investors flock to the new market represented by increasing population, construction projects such as housing and infrastructure improvements begin to skyrocket.

Meanwhile, industry is making the most of the labor shortage by integrating local residents into the industrial work force. This produces a labor drain and reduces services available to local residents, as qualified citizens who otherwise serve as plumbers, electricians, veterinarians, concrete workers, etc. employ themselves within industry as newly trained crewmen or as contract workers in their field of expertise.

In order to satisfy the increasing need for housing - the prices of which become artificially inflated - local governments are want to seize private property rights in the way of man camps in order to cheaply and conveniently accommodate as many as a dozen industrial workers on private land - for which there is often no compensation and the act of which threatens public welfare in both security of persons and possessions. Other price manipulations become common as the price of groceries, gas and child care become increasingly unattainable by anyone employed outside of the oil and gas industry.

As this dynamic tightens under enormous and increasing pressure brought about by a transient industry able to out-compete other local employers, landowners find themselves implicated in a social fabric increasing fragile and unable to withstand open debate or dissenting opinion within public forums and local media.

Citizens opposed to unfair industrial or trade practices are often unwilling to voice their opinion or organize in opposition because often their economic security or family loyalty is tied intimately to compliance, so neighbors and friends become increasingly isolated from one another in a community once defined by its shared values of common decency and concern. Often, and over time, only those benefiting from and therefore in robust favor of industry's over-leveraged influence are looked upon favorably within their local community.

Local regulators view themselves as revenue generators for their local governments, so become prone - whether consciously or otherwise - to representing industry's interests over those of constituents. This behavior wins increasing favor with industry, further enforcing labor-based unity and compounding degradation of the democratic process through the infiltration of campaign activities and engagement in direct campaign funding by shadowy outside PAC interests.
 

CONCLUSION:

Natural gas development poses numerous risks and some benefit to society both as a limited-supply commodity sold to broad American and world-wide markets and in the form of short-term economic enhancement within the small communities where development typically occurs. Economic enhancement, however, is closely tied with financial management and in the case of Parachute Colorado, even with six years of ‘boom’, the city experienced a capital shortfall in 2008.

Clearly, given the current political, regulatory and corporate-practice reality within which this resource is developed, the many and dangerous risks clearly out-number and outweigh the few purely economic benefits. Even with best practices and ideal regulatory management and oversight, there are inherent technical challenges - primarily through the use of unconventional development and hydraulic fracturing that remain unmet, but which also makes natural gas extraction highly profitable and therefore an attractive investment for industry.

In examining risks, certain solutions repeat themselves, enhancing the feasibility of reforming the industry. However, an entrenched culture of aggressive development coupled with a tradition of both social and environmental disregard together with the nature of energy speculation and cyclical, exploited policy - even under best reform ideals - make natural gas extraction among the least desirable forms of energy to carry America into the next century, particularly as it is currently developed.

Our American heritage and potential is too great to sacrifice our national trust to poorly conceived and continued reliance on fossil fuels. Whereas, a stringent reworking of industrial practices may make conventional extraction of natural gas a viable transitional fuel option, the risks of imperiled water, air, wildlife, land, personal safety and community vitality remain enormous and too valuable to disregard in favor of broad natural gas development which, under liberal assessments, may only supply our country for 100 years.

dead infant rabbit recovered near 2008 methane seep

Partially paralyzed frog recovered at 2008 methane seep -
successfully rehabilitated

While America’s security is intimately tied to our ability to produce domestic sources of energy, the notion that large scale production of natural gas will provide either security or economic wealth is a myth.

Security is connected to sustainability and reliability. Natural gas is neither. Therefore, it is neither viable nor desirable as a long or even mid-range solution.

While it burns cleaner, it’s extraction imperils every other living thing on the planet as well as our strongest and most defining American values of family, community and self-determined destiny.

America is at a crossroads of opportunity.

We can either turn down the road of continued dependence upon fossil fuels and perpetuate every associated harm, or we can diversify our resources, moderate our consumption, lead the world in the export of our technologies and preserve the best of our national and natural heritage for future generations.

Whatever we decide, we owe it to our children and their children to understand the true cost of our decision.

 

FURTHER READING

Project Forsaken
http://journeyoftheforsaken.com/citizensresourceguide.htm
http://journeyoftheforsaken.com/fracpage.htm
http://journeyoftheforsaken.com/consortiumofthefraced.htm
http://journeyoftheforsaken.com/perils_of_fracing.htm

Earthworks
http://www.earthworksaction.org/FracingDetails.cfm

Buried Secrets: Is Natural Gas Drilling Endangering U.S. Water Supplies?
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - November 13, 2008
http://www.propublica.org

How the West’s Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinking Water for 1 in 12 Americans
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica and David Hasemyer, The San Diego Union-Tribune - - December 21, 2008
http://www.propublica.org

GASLAND
(HBO premiere on June 21st, 2010)
www.gaslandthemovie.com
Winner of the 2010 Special Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, in this film - and in his up-front gritty fashion - Josh Fox tours the West gathering landowner perspectives relative to the gas drilling boom sweeping the nation and increasingly encroaching on his home region of the Northeastern U.S. This explosive expose' reveals the horrific environmental and health impacts poorly reported but often associated with the astonishingly under-regulated natural gas industry.

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