Posts Tagged 'Fracking'

Fracking brings risk of earthquakes

There’s a higher risk of earthquakes when wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing process is injected back into the ground, according to a report by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

But a CNN story says it’s a small risk. Out of about 30,000 disposal wells nationwide, only a handful of noticeable tremors have been reported, with the strongest equivalent to a magnitude-4.8 earthquake, the panel of engineers and scientists concluded.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” ...

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Company sued over toxic chemical emissions

A report in The Daily News out of Galveston, Texas, says that more than 50,000 people have sued BP, claiming they got sick after the company’s Texas City refinery released toxic chemicals into the air.

From April 6 to May 16, 2010, a problem with a compressor at the refinery resulted in more than 500,000 pounds of chemicals being released. Those emissions included benzene, which is known to cause cancer.

A state investigation and subsequent lawsuit found that the company’s decision to ...

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Professor argues for federal oversight of fracking

Michael Krancer, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, argued against federal regulation of natural gas drilling during testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Bloomberg reports.

The “hydraulic fracturing,” or “fracking,” method of natural gas extraction employed in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region has proven controversial. It uses chemically treated water to free gas trapped in underground shale formations.

Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, testified before the ...

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Mysterious skin lesions appear in Pa. Marcellus shale country

A recent National Public Radio report examines the possible link between natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania’s shale country, and skin lesions that people who live in those areas are experiencing.

The report follows plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Amy Pare, who treated a resident in the Washington county village of Rae who suffered boil-like skin lesions, mostly on her hands and face.

Pare said the lesions occurred on several other people in the area. Several pathologists who examined biopsies were able to ...

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