Anti-fracking policy round-up

The anti-fracking movement has swayed some governments, outside of Canada.  These headlines and articles from 2012 show some of this movement headway — in terms of actual policy changes, and other official support -

May 8th
German government rejects fracking, saying they are “very skeptical” about the technology – Der Spiegel

May 4th
Vermont Legislature passes prohibition on “fracking” – Press release

May 4th
Romania gov’t promises moratorium on shale gas exploitation … – Associated Press

February 21st
New York judge upholds fracking ban in towns – Dan Wiessner, Reuters

January 17th
Bulgaria bans Chevron from using ‘fracking’ – Associated Press

France banned fracking in the summer of 2011. Temporary moratoriums also were put in place in Québec and New Jersey.  There also have been many local victories, in cities and towns. The above web links are about bigger-scale successes in 2012.

In the meantime, environmental programs and policies are being gutted in Canada.  (Air pollution monitoring cutbacks are among such changes.)  Federal officials also are painting some environmental organizations as criminals or terrorists — as these organizations are accused of money laundering, for example.  And arrangements are underway to export Canadian gas to Japan. These exports are more likely given that the Pacific Trails gas pipeline through B.C. has received official approval.

In other words: we have a lot of movement-building to do here in Canada.

Don’t frack Chatham-Kent!

Image: marcellusprotest.org

Joanne Lefebvre in CKReview

Can we say “shale fracking” Chatham-Kent? I guarantee it will be on all our lips in the next few years.

In March 2010, the Toronto Star said Ontario was laying the groundwork to allow oil and gas companies out of Calgary to lease private land in our area to explore deep shale fracking. Chatham-Kent would be a test spot for Ontario. My first thought was “this is not the same shale fracking that they’ve done in the United States”. The environmental disaster this method leaves behind has been all over their news. From the contaminated water, wells, soil, and air to the hundreds of cancer causing chemicals they use in this process. People are unable to drink the water, bathe or use it to clean with. The odor, gas and toxins are so bad that people light their water on fire. Families are getting sick living in an unhealthy environment and they have nowhere else to go. Would you like to buy that property? How would you like to sell it?

I googled shale fracking and found out it has already started. The environmental damage from shale fracking in Canada on our east and west coast is already being talked about. Quebec is the only province that seems to want to protect residents from being fracked. They have politicians that put a ban on this industry because of the environmental issues and the loose regulations that govern it. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia  are in the fight of their life to try to stop them from any more fracking. Residents have enjoyed the luxury of having safe tap water all of their lives. They don’t appreciate that their water wells are ruined. The soil is contaminated. The wildlife and the animals are disappearing.  The novelty of lighting your tap on fire has worn off and the cold realization is setting in that this is changing their way of life as they know it. They are fighting to stop this senseless pollution of our earth, done only so oil and gas companies can get rich, and politicians can get re-elected .

‎”Distribution of black shale with shale gas potential in Ontario”

That map is from the 2010-2011 annual report of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario – http://www.ecoissues.ca/index.php/Shale_Gas_and_Hydraulic_Fracking#The_Ontario_Government_and_Shale_Gas

The full report is posted here – http://www.eco.on.ca/index.php/en_US/pubs/annual-reports-and-supplements/2010-11-annual-report—engaging-solutions

This map from the report indicates that fracking may occur in many locations which aren’t yet highlighted in the maps on this page of the “Stop Fracking Ontario” web site – http://stopfrackingontario.wordpress.com/fracking/in-ontario

Note: the Environmental Commissioner’s report does not acknowledge many of the problems and threats that come with fracking.  Yet, the statements from the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources in an appendix are even less critical toward the prospects of fracking in Ontario; those two Ministries mainly suggest that if there is fracking, it should be fine.

NOW Magazine coverage

In an article about threats to the Ontario environment, Enzo Di Matteo has mentioned these points about shale gas -

What the fracking?

Shale gas exploration, which involves the extraction of natural gas from rock using water, sand and chemicals in a method called hydraulic fracking, or hydrofracking, is in its infancy in Ontario.

But a three-year study by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines uncovered areas of potential development in almost all of southwestern Ontario west of London and a section of southeastern Ontario. One exploratory well has been drilled in Chatham.

While its full potential has yet to be determined, natural gas currently accounts for about 30 per cent of Ontario’s energy.

The harmful effects of fracking on the environment, however, are well known from experience in the U.S. These include huge stresses on water supply (approximately 11 million litres of water are required for each drilling site) as well as water contamination and chemical exposure

Those points are part of an annual report from the Environmental Commissioner.

ACTION ALERT: Tell the Niagara Falls Water Board not to frack with our water!

Emma Lui of the Council of Canadians

There is a new threat coming to our Great Lakes, North America’s most precious water source: toxic wastewater from fracking. The Niagara Falls (NY) Water Board (NFWB) is working on a feasibility study to treat this waste. They want to experiment with the safety of the water in the Great Lakes! Will you stand with us and tell the Niagara Falls Water Board to not accept fracking waste?

The Niagara Falls Water Board will hold their next monthly public meeting on Wednesday November 23, 2011 promptly at 5pm. We need to show a consistent turn out at these meetings to speak out against this experiment with our water. Please consider preparing a five minute or shorter speech to read to the board.Council of Canadians Regional Organizer, Mark Calzavara, will be traveling to Niagara Falls, New York to attend the meeting next Wednesday. Please join him and tell the board not to frack with our water!

If you can’t make it to the meeting, please send written comments to the NFWB.

Speak Out For Our Great Lakes Waters!

Doug Draper for Niagara At Large

Late this October a lone town councillor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario named Jamie King tabled a resolution that should be heeded by everyone whose health and welfare depend on the quality of water we draw from our Great Lakes for drinking and other purposes.

It was a resolution that called on r government leaders on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border – municipal, provincial, state and federal – to investigate a plan to take the chemically contaminated waters from hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) operations in the northeastern United States and discharge it to the Niagara River near the world-renown Horseshoe and American Falls through a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Niagara Falls, New York.

The effluent that would be flushed to the Niagara River and Lake Ontario originates from a practice petrochemical corporations are now employing to extract natural gas from layers of rock below the earth’s surface. The process involves mixing water with a cocktail of chemicals these corporations, thanks to the former Bush administration, are exempt from disclosing the identity of, even to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators like the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Town says no to ‘fracking’

Sara Ferguson in the Niagara Advance

Council unanimously pass resolution calling for a province and nation-wide moratorium on hydraulic fracturing

‘Fracking’ isn’t a word found in the dictionary, but it is something Councillor Jamie King thinks Niagara-on-the-Lake residents should understand and be concerned about.

Hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — involves “literally millions of gallons” of water, King told councillors at Monday’s meeting, containing sand and chemicals pumped underground to break apart shale rock at high pressure to create wells that release natural gas, King told councillors.

The natural gas floats to the surface after the wells are created.

“These well sites are not a concern. Our concern is the treating of the fracking waste water which will be brought from Pennsylvania to a water treatment facility in Niagara Falls, NY.”