The excavator begins to remove the frac pit liner.

Despite the careful work of the heavy equipment operator, hydraulic fracturing waste begins to overtop pit liner.

A close up of west-end sludge.

A close-up of the east-end sludge.

The dozer begins to build a dirt berm to fill in the pit.

The excavator holds the liner out of sludge as the dozer builds a bigger dirt berm.

The dozer begins to push dirt into the pit.

A pumper truck backs in to pump out some sludge. Overall, two other 170+ barrel trucks will help in the effort. All three trucks make around seven dumps total before the remaining sludge is covered up.

The backhoe comes around the south-east side of pit to remove the liner, ripping it in the process. Later, the liner will be removed and heaped onto the pit road to the right.

Despite the awful nature of this situation, the meticulous work conducted by the dozer and excavator operators was something to see. I once knew an operator who competed in heavy equipment rodeos, and watching him excavate was amazing.

All the folks on this site seemed capable, and I doubt that any of them gave a second thought to burying this pit. Field workers have told me this is common practice. They probably had no idea it was right over an aquifer and never considered the effects on a stream or private water well. They work around this stuff all the time, and many come to consider it routine, even unknowingly putting their own health at risk. But, EnCana leadership is well aware, and that is where accountability must begin.

As with most of these situations, it is the underlying structure of inappropriate federal exemptions, weak state rules and poor but accepted practices that lead to making this the terrible situation it is.

Video

Watch the video of the pit cover up on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZijSwabuc4

Watch April 22, 2009 beginning frac operations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRvrT5KCzPM

Lab Results
[this info added June 21, 2010]

It took us 6 months of constantly checking in to finally find lab results of this event online, then we discovered the  COGCC had asked EnCana to conduct the sampling. Making matters worse, when we asked the COGCC what sampling protocol was followed, they not only did not know, there was no way to verify any protocol used. EnCana notes in its report to the COGCC that the closest surface water was 1/4 mile away when, actually, an irrigation ditch full of water was running feet from the pit. If this was reported in "error" - what else was?

See the results for yourself by going to the COGCC website and clicking through as noted below:

http://cogcc.state.co.us/
From left-hand menu bar, click on "Database"
Click on "Inspection / Incident"
Check the "Remediation" box up top and further down  find "Remediation" and "Remediation Project".
      Enter the remediation project number: 4523 and click "Submit"
Click the linked "Document #" (this is where EnCana reports surface water 1/4 mile away)
In the report area, look up to the upper right and you should see little links in blue. Click the "Doc" one
     (here is where you'll find the lab report).
Click "Lab Report" (it's a PDF file)

If one of those trucks had overturned on the county road, spilling this stuff into the environment, a hazardous materials unit would have responded, sequestered the area, potentially evacuated citizens and employed measures to safeguard first responders, citizens and the environment. But because this is a hydraulic fracturing waste pit, out of sight of the public and on private land (owned, coincidently, by EnCana) it is simply covered up.

This same site - if it were at a gas station or a paper mill or a chemical manufacturing plant - would likely be a violation and require extensive clean-up and proper disposal at a licensed facility... as it should. But, again, here, in rural Garfield County, it is simply buried.

Industry would like us to believe that frac fluids are merely salt water, a little thickener, and food additives. But we know frac mixtures contain all kinds of harmful substances, like biocides, benzene, hydrocarbons, solvents, descalers, surfactants, enzymes, acids, and patented synthetic chemicals. We also know the health effects of some of these agents.

We know a nurse in Durango, CO nearly died of catastrophic organ failure after unprotected exposure to fracturing chemicals (we don't know what happened to the field worker she cared for). We also know the company responsible refused to disclose their chemical concoction to save her life. And we know that industry lawyers blocked her testimony at a rules reform hearing where citizens and advocacy groups were lobbying for chemical disclosure. We also know that the oil and gas industry has totally refuted her claims in literature distributed to lawmakers in Washington, DC intended to influence legislators against voting to repeal hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Industry would like us to believe that the agents that make up fracturing fluids are perfectly safe. But then, then why did industry lobby so hard to secure exemptions from the Safe Drinking Water Act? As you can see in the above photos, the waste from this fracturing operation is not harmless looking - it is coal black, thick and appears oily. But maybe it is only strong coffee and food coloring. There is no telling what is in that sludge, and the oil and gas industry has made sure it will be kept secret. So not only can't  we know what it is, but it is destined for our drinking water, and EnCana is protected from liability once we drink it. 

Does this seem right to you? It certainly doesn't seem right to us.

Watching a bull dozer blade this toxic brew beneath twenty feet of uncontained soil is horrifying.

Knowing that this industry is allowed to poison the land, the water and the people is even worse.
 

Resources
 

Theo's spreadsheet on Frac Chemicals Used in : Colorado, Wyoming,  New Mexico, Washington Montana
http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.spreadsheets.php

Frac chemical spreadsheet from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/FractListing.pdf

Day 316

...and a Terminally Defunct COGCC Continues to
 Obstruct its Own Investigation....

and persists with EnCana's geologic over-pressurization "program" without any attendant environmental monitoring

Since Week 69 we now know that drilling activities initiated after the lifting of the moratorium have adversely impacted West Divide Creek and allowed produced formation gas to mix with the shallow ground water -- again.

We also know that our area drinking water aquifer experienced a total bacteria kill after EnCana intercepted it during drilling. 

...and yet the COGCC still refuses to sample the ground water in the area of the 2008 seep site - all this despite a large area of vegetation die-off (suggestive of methane seep) and persistent iron-reducing bacteria near the beaver house (also where the paralyzed frog was found). The COGCC still refuses to conduct simple soil/gas analysis - despite a new and vast area of grass die-off emanating from the Schwartz pad reported 12-12-08. The COGCC also refuses to sample the flammable gas accumulating in the creek bed (also where the frog was found).

Further, the COGCC is allowing EnCana to allow pressure to build within bradenheads in order to try and detect if failures in casing may be occurring - while this may seem like a good idea, it is not. Experimenting with a fragile geology in such a manner particularly without benefit of correlative environmental monitoring in known areas of adverse impact is irresponsible and aggravates an already perilous environmental and health situation.

Probable Reason:  The COGCC doesn't want to know what's really occurring in this geology with the kinds of drilling procedures they are allowing without adequate oversight.

Whatever the reason...

Long reigns the mantle of carefully structured and preserved ignorance (and the policies and politicians that benefit those that further it).

I wonder if this is an effort to volatilize the benzene and lower the concentration prior to the groundwater sampling which occurred the next day.  [05-13-09]

Waste truck spraying contents of truck onto access road [05-14-09]

Same truck after emptying contents, picks up frac pit sludge [ 05-14-09]

Produced Water

The COGCC allows companies to dispose of produced water waste by spraying it on access roads, with landowner permission. EnCana did not have our permission to spray this waste, and there is, of course, a reason for that.

Produced water contains high chlorides and hydrocarbons so pure that it is skimmed from holding tanks and sold commercially. Three industry workers have told me that it it is so potent and pure it practically needs no refinement and could almost be used directly as jet fuel.

The USGS has found produced water to be of serious concern to watersheds. The following is from a report "Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale" http://geology.com/usgs/marcellus-shale/.  Produced water here is similar. Information from the report follows:

"For gas to flow out of the shale, nearly all of the water injected into the well during the hydrofrac treatment must be recovered and disposed of. In addition to the problem of dealing with large bulk volumes of liquid waste, contaminants in the water may complicate wastewater treatment. Whereas the percentage of chemical additives in a typical hydrofrac fluid is commonly less than 0.5 percent by volume, the quantity of fluid used in these hydrofracs is so large that the additives in a three million gallon hydrofrac job, for example, would result in about 15,000 gallons of chemicals in the waste.

Hydrofrac fluids are often treated with proprietary chemicals to increase the viscosity to a gel-like consistency that enables the transport of a proppant, usually sand, into the fracture to keep it open after the pressure is released (fig. 6). The viscosity of these fluids then breaks down quickly after completion of the hydrofrac, so they can be easily removed from the ground. The chemical formulations required to achieve this are highly researched and closely guarded, and finding out exactly what is in these fluids may present a challenge. The data publicly available on Marcellus Shale hydrofrac treatments indicate that a slickwater frac works best on this formation (Harper, 2008). These types of hydrofracs employ linear gels and friction reducers in the water, and utilize only small amounts of proppant, relying instead on fracture surface roughness to hold it open (Rushing and Sullivan, 2007). The potential problems for local wastewater treatment facilities caused by proprietary chemical additives in hydrofrac fluid are unclear.

Along with the introduced chemicals, hydrofrac water is in close contact with the rock during the course of the stimulation treatment, and when recovered may contain a variety of formation materials, including brines, heavy metals, radionuclides, and organics that can make wastewater treatment difficult and expensive. The formation brines often contain relatively high concentrations of sodium, chloride, bromide, and other inorganic constituents, such as arsenic, barium, other heavy metals, and radionuclides that significantly exceed drinking water standards (Harper, 2008)."
 

Reported but unresolved

When I saw the pumper truck - typically used to haul condensate and produced water, spraying fluid on our road, then backing up and pumping frac sludge out of the frac pit, I made an educated guess that whatever was sprayed on our road was reasonably suspected of being some kind of drilling waste.

We have no choice but to drive over this portion of the road to access our home, which spreads waste even further, potentially into our home.

I called the following morning to make a report to the fire department.

There was some confusion over our address and the department said that finding us by well pad location wouldn't work, so I offered to meet the responders at the county road and lead them to the area in question.

A deputy called to assure me that what I saw was more than likely only MagChloride. However, I've seen that stuff applied, and this appeared nothing like that.

I waited for the fire department to arrive, but they didn't show. A call to the station revealed that they had been out to inspect the area and had determined the fluid was, as they suspected, MagChloride.

Since no one had passed me onto the one-way road, I asked for the department to contact me with a report.

I was subsequently admonished by the fire chief for making a "malicious" report and was told that over 50 people from HazMat were mobilized because of my call, for which he would be passing on a bill. He said the substance was the authorized application of chemicals - MagChloride, specifically.

Of course, I hadn't seen anyone respond to my call let alone a bunch of HazMat folks, so I asked the chief to detail where he had responded to. He said Jenkins Cutoff. This particular road is about a half mile from where I was going to meet the responders. I suggested there had been some confusion. But the chief insisted it had been my call at 9:00 AM that everyone had responded to.

He said he would come out but it had better be some bad ----. The whole conversation degraded from there with me finally insisting that he not respond further given that I could not make any kind of certain nor qualified determination as to the potential hazard of the fluid and could not afford a HazMat bill if it turned out not to be hazardous.

After I asked for a report again and was told there would not be one because the department didn't respond, the same deputy from before came out to look at the fluid.

When the deputy told me he used to work for the oil and gas industry and was sure it was MagChloride, my stomach sank.  He sniffed the sample I'd taken from the road - that I thought smelled like hydrocarbons - and said he only smelled mud. Then he said he'd go up on the pad and ask the workers directly what they had been spraying on the road. Of course at this point I unexpectedly broke down into tears and about threw up, but then got it together before the deputy came back.

He said that the truck I identified in the photos above (red cab - round tubular belly) had only been hauling river water. But another smaller truck had been hauling produced water. As we stood talking, the smaller truck (white truck above) pulled up to us spraying fluid on the road. The deputy stopped the truck and cupped some of the fluid in his hand. He then sniffed and tasted it, feeling reasonably sure it was river water. He let me sniff also, and I only detected a light and fleeting scent of hydrocarbon and mostly an organic water odor, as if it had once perhaps hauled something besides river water, but now hauled only the water, so I concurred that it was likely river water in that truck.

But that left me wondering about produced water from the long tubular waste-hauling truck. The deputy said that he wasn't really qualified to make a certain determination, but offered that if I was really concerned I could let the EPA know and have it tested possibly at my own expense.

I suspected that produced water was dumped on the road at least once, and I've asked EnCana to refrain from disposing of it on the roadway.

It was a miserable experience with both the fire chief and the deputy. Which just sucks, because I come from a family of first responders, and I deeply respect and appreciate these folks. My dad was a deputy with thirty years in law enforcement, my uncle a retired fire chief. I don't know what happened with the fire chief, but I felt blamed and at risk for reporting what I felt reasonably sure could have been hazardous fluids on our access road. In the end, the deputy was professional and helpful and brought the context of his former profession to the situation. But, through it all, there was a lot of unnecessary chaos, nothing was resolved and now there is some question as to the policy of reporting hazardous waste and who is responsible for the cost of response.

You know, people can get mad at me, and they can direct their hostility at me and they can accuse me of not getting enough attention - as the environmental staff of the COGCC did, and they can and will believe what they want; but, the truth is that living with this industry has caused us extraordinary sacrifice, fear and frustration. We have hydrocarbons in our drinking water, dead but still untested wildlife, we breath benzene, EnCana sprays unidentified fluids on our roads and routinely spills hazardous fluids. Now they're dozing in frac waste over a shallow aquifer. Until those same folks walk a mile in our shoes, it would be helpful simply to be taken at face value. We didn't ask to live in an industrial waste land. It was brought to us. I'm not B.S.ing anyone, and I'm not out for attention. I just want to be left alone, enjoy the same human rights granted to others and survive this living hell.

In The News.... 

Note: I always try to provide links where I can, but it doesn't always work out. If you submit a story, please try to include the link so folks can easily check it out.

Comment: In this article immediately below, industry asserts the safety of hydraulic fracturing; but, consider this.... In 2004, the COGCC found EnCana responsible for blowing out the Schwartz well and releasing natural gas into West Divide Creek and the surrounding environment. EnCana argued that improper cementing was to blame. So they re-cemented. While a majority of obvious symptoms cleared up within a few months afterward, there is at least one area that persists - blowing benzene at similarly high concentrations five years later.

How is it that cementing failed to correct that problem? It is interesting that the well was also hydraulically fractured.

Here is something else as interesting.... seven weeks ago or so the natural gas industry was making the rounds on Capital Hill, passing around literature that refuted a number of cases associated with they hydraulic fracturing controversy: the Amos well; the nurse from Durango, the McMillan Well; the Bainbridge Incident; Sublette County's contamination.  The West Divide Creek situation - one of the most infamous cases ever documented was left conspicuously out.

Could this be considered "admission by omission"?

Here is something else to think about... industry is whining that protecting the public from drinking poison could cut into their profit margin. In the deep south, slavery made cotton-picking a darned competitive practice compared with wage-paying northerners. Slavery made the south rich by comparison. It wasn't right, but it sure made a lot of folks a pile of money. Eventually, morality brought us into balance with our better selves. Why has it taken us so long to do the same thing with  dangerous and unpredictable drilling practices - not just hydraulic fracturing?

The natural gas and broader energy industry has an opportunity to mature their technologies and align them with common human values of life and liberty, but they choose to bully and curtail and derail. It is so tiring and frustrating. I want the energy industry to succeed for cripes sakes. I want them to get it together and do things right. We all need energy. But energy is not only perpetually available, it is available in infinite forms.  Forms that are researchable, sustainable, and profitable. A melting ice cube releases energy that can be captured and sold.

There is an achievable balance where profit can remain healthy - but so can kids and streams.

Full accountability is where we must begin. Only then can we develop workable and mutually beneficial solutions. Which are more than possible - they are at the leading edge of demand and on the precipice of necessity.

Ultimately, industry must come out of the dark ages and embrace a more honest and cooperative manner of conducting their operations. Part of that involves repealing exemptions that allow and encourage them to operate like a lawless regime.

http://www.realvail.com/RealNews/687/DeGette-targets-controversial-form-of-natural-gas-drilling.html

DeGette targets controversial form of natural-gas drilling

By David O. Williams

Excerpts from the article follow:

May 15, 2009 — U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is leading the charge to increase federal oversight of the nation’s natural gas industry, reintroducing a bill that specifically targets a process called hydraulic fracturing.

“Fracking,” as it’s known in industry circles, pumps a mixture of water and sand into a well using extremely high pressure in order to force gas to the surface. Some environmental groups say the process can lead to groundwater contamination.

DeGette, a Denver Democrat who unsuccessfully championed the cause on Capitol Hill last year, is poised to reintroduce legislation that would remove an exemption for hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act that was granted in the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

....

“Right now it’s a technology that has allowed us to increase natural gas supplies in the country to an incredible extent, and it’s a technology that’s been in use over 60 years with no documented cases of groundwater contamination from fracking,” said Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Denver-based Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States.

Sgamma says all the fluids used in fracking, which are 99.5 percent water and sand but include small percentages of chlorine, food additives and thickeners, are regulated by state and federal agencies and contained in steel and concrete casing.

....

DeGette’s latest efforts to regulate the industry at the federal level have triggered a massive lobbying effort designed to raise the alarm about the potential for lost tax revenues and jobs.

According to a recent New York Times article, the industry campaign is predicting DeGette’s bill could shut down a third of the nation’s gas wells and half the oil wells, costing state treasuries $785 million. Environmentalists called such predications baseless scare tactics.

At home in Colorado, economic fallout was the same tactic the industry took in trying to stall or derail hard-fought and more environmentally stringent oil and gas drilling regulation recently implemented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Some opponents of those regulations are still blaming them for a downturn in natural gas drilling on the Western Slope — ignoring the larger effects of the global economic crisis that caused oil and gas commodity prices to drop substantially.

....

Not in our watershed: NYC community boards pass resolutions to protect drinking water

By Sandy Long

http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/09-05-14/news-nyh20.html

Excerpts from the article follow:

NEW YORK CITY, NY — New York City residents enjoy some of the finest water in the country, drawn from the Catskill and Delaware watersheds, which supply nine million city residents with 90 percent of their unfiltered drinking water.

The non-profit group, NYH2O, has begun fighting to maintain that purity against the possible impacts of natural gas extraction, one New York City community board at a time. With 59 boards, the task is daunting, but early responses have been encouraging to the group, which has already influenced eight boards to pass resolutions calling for a ban on drilling within the city’s watershed.

The effort is spearheaded by NYH2O, which formed several months ago in response to the rush to develop the Marcellus Shale, which underlies parts of Sullivan County and surrounding areas.

The special type of drilling required, known as hydraulic fracturing, calls for between three to five million gallons of water laced with 250 chemicals of varying toxicity to “frack” a single well. The water is injected deep under the earth and only partially recovered. Other potential sources of contamination include leakage from uncovered wastewater storage pits or tanks.

“We began to understand that drilling within the watershed is ultimately a public health issue, and we started taking that message out. It’s catching on like wildfire,” said Mav Moorhead, who co-chairs NYH2O’s Community Board Committee along with Ann Arlen. “Once people become aware of the possible impacts to the health of so many people and the economic implications, it really gets their attention.”

....

“It’s been an intense amount of work,” said Moorhead. “But it’s definitely worth it. We won’t stop until it’s stopped.”

NYH2O is also partnering with other groups across the country in working to repeal the federal exemptions granted to the oil and gas industry from the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Visit www.NYH2O.org for more information.

Oil industry eager to take case to public: Call goes out to defend energy producers amid policy changes

By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6415779.html

May 9, 2009, 3:53PM

An excerpt form the article follows:

Facing unwelcome changes to U.S. energy policy, some oil and gas industry leaders are calling for stepped-up efforts to defend the business publicly and dispel what they view as myths about the potential of renewables to meet the nation’s energy needs.

“In my 30 years in the industry, I don’t think there has been a greater call for engagement,” said Gary Luquette, president of Chevron Corp.’s North American exploration and production business. At last week’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, he stressed the need for greater communication on energy issues with the American public and even with industry critics.

“There’s no reason for us to be fighting off our back foot,” he said.

The call to action comes as the Obama administration is formulating plans that support greater investment in alternatives, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, repeal of certain tax benefits and other initiatives that could have a major effect on the industry.

Some in the industry argue that the plans are unrealistic and would be a step backward in efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, since they would burden the industry with additional costs and hinder investment in developing new resources.

They say there is more urgency now than ever to educate Americans on what industry leaders view as a hard reality: that fossil fuels will provide most of the world’s energy in coming decades even as alternatives gain ground.

“I’m convinced that American people are smart and pragmatic, and if they hear the whole story about oil and gas, coal, nuclear, which is our base line energy, and not the myths, then they will be far more supportive of what the nation needs in the future,” said John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Co. and now head of the non-profit Citizens for Affordable Energy.

....

The following article, too brief and comprehensive to excerpt, discusses health effects such as  memory problems and muscle disorders reported by residents concerned about groundwater where ten years ago an experimental sludge-spreading operation took place. The sludge was spread without a liner onto a sand and gravel aquifer. The EPA will look for heavy metals, but doubts anything has infiltrated the aquifer.

Health complaints trigger groundwater test
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090513-NEWS-90513027ng

May 13, 2009 3:03 PM - SANGERVILLE, Maine (AP)

United States Geologic Survey report:

"Water Resources and Natural Gas Production from the Marcellus Shale"

http://geology.com/usgs/marcellus-shale/. 

Texas earthquakes increase with gas drilling and cause concern for folks of the Barnett Shale

TXSHARON BlogSpot

http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2009/05/barnett-shale-earthquakes.html
 

This is part of the classic EnCana dichotomy - they do this great thing for a great person just trying to stay employed under very challenging circumstances, then they turn their back on the places they develop and destroy, effectively positioning us as undesirable disruptors of an otherwise utopian society.

Where EnCana could expand opportunities for balance, they encourage extremes.

It's just like when they gave a ton of money to the Texas DOW to fund a school environmental education program, but do things that cause seeps and destroy wildlife where I live.

They lay off workers in Garfield County and continue building the 1.5 billion dollar, 58-story Bow Tower - the largest and most prominent skyscraper and corporate headquarters in Calgary - or West of Toronto for that matter.

It is so weird that EnCana calls our home their "Field of Dreams", while leaving us with a toxic legacy and displaced kinship with those in our community who once considered us as friends.

So much goes unseen, unfelt. It is just one more human value lost.

EnCana Grant allows Silt man to retain his city job

http://www.postindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090503/
VALLEYNEWS/905029978/1001/FRONTPAGE&template=printart

By Heidi Rice
Rifle Correspondent
Post Independent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado,

Glenwood Post Independent

Excerpts from the article follow:

Sunday, May 3, 2009SILT, Colorado — For two years, Jesse Montover of Silt has worked as a part-time employee for the town of Silt and thanks to EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., he will be able to retain his job.

EnCana recently presented a grant to the town that will allow Montover, a developmentally disabled man, to continue to be a paid employee of the town.

....

EnCana has funded the position since 2007, helping Montover gain not only valuable skills, but also by giving him a steady income.

“We are proud to provide Jesse with the opportunity to work for the town of Silt,” said Sher Long of EnCana. “He is an important member to their team and provides vital services to the local community. We are always eager to support the communities where we operate and where our employees live and work.”

"You may never know what results come of your action,
but if you do nothing there will be no result."

- Mahatma Gandhi
 

....with a great nod of appreciation to Texas Sharon and all the good folks of the NADR...

Our experience is not isolated. Click below to view a photo essay of more atrocities committed by this renegade industry against the land and people of Wise County, Texas.

http://txsharon.blogspot.com/  

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