Thyroid cancer, fracking and nuclear power

By Rady Ananda
An Activist Post Special Report

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the U.S., while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising.

New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

That’s up from 16,000 thyroid cancer cases in 1997 – a whopping 253% increase in fifteen years, while the US population went up only 18%.

Again, hundreds of Beebe birds die despite fireworks ban

 

 

UPDATES below.

By Rady Ananda

Another New Years Eve, another mass bird kill. On December 31, 2011, Beebe police chief Wayne Ballew initiated an emergency ban on fireworks around 7:15 pm after receiving reports of dead birds.

Little Rock television station KATV showed a radar image of a large mass over the Arkansas town and said that hundreds of birds had died, reports the Associated Press. Other news reports indicate only “dozens” were found.

Ironic News: Natural Gas Company Propaganda is BULLSHIT

By IronicNewsReport

The fossil fuel industry has left out a few details in their informational video about the process of drilling for natural gas.

170 million barrels of PA frack waste injected in Ohio lands

(Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal)

By Bob Downing
Akron Beacon Journal

Over the last four years, enough yellow-brown, salty liquid has been injected thousands of feet under Portage County to fill railroad tank cars stretching for 63 miles. Injecting that waste underground made Portage County No. 2 in Ohio.

From 2007 through 2010, Portage injection wells handled nearly 4 million 42-gallon barrels of waste, according to records from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Mineral Resources Management.

That’s nearly 168 million gallons, or enough to fill enough rail tank cars to stretch from Akron to Mansfield.

Down the Drain Goes Public’s Right to Know about Fracking

BC gov’t ignores own pledge to consult citizens, grants Talisman’s request for big water use

By Ben Parfitt
The Tyee

Williston Reservoir in northeast B.C. is the province’s biggest body of fresh water. Photo: BC Hydro.

What landed in the Tyee’s inbox was entirely in keeping with the government’s handling of a contentious proposal by a natural gas company to divert large quantities of water out of Williston Reservoir. When word leaked that the government had approved the diversion scheme, a rather strange statement was issued that began by noting that the provincial Cabinet minister in charge was unavailable.

The statement was not a formal news release. Nor was it posted on any government website. Rather, it was emailed without advance notice to a few select media — The Tyee and CBC Radio’s Prince George station included.

France Becomes First Nation to Ban Fracking

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By Gina-Marie Cheeseman
Care2.com

France became the first nation to ban the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking in drilling for natural gas and oil on June 30 when French senators voted to ban the practice. Oil and gas companies operating in France with fracking permits will have them revoked according to the legislation passed by a 176 to 151 vote. The bill passed the National Assembly on June 21.

Ohio House passes bill to open parks to fracking: Stop it in the Senate

By Alex Beauchamp
Food & Water Watch

Last week the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, in our state parks. This risky drilling process will turn our pristine state parks into industrial parks, but we’ve got a chance to stop it in the state Senate. Can you contact your state senator today?

What will drilling in state parks mean for you? It could be devastating for Ohio’s drinking water.

Methane Levels 17 Times Higher in Water Wells Near Hydrofracking Sites, Study Finds

By ScienceDaily

A study by Duke University researchers has found high levels of leaked methane in well water collected near shale-gas drilling and hydrofracking sites. The scientists collected and analyzed water samples from 68 private groundwater wells across five counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and New York.

“At least some of the homeowners who claim that their wells were contaminated by shale-gas extraction appear to be right,” says Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change and director of Duke’s Center on Global Change.

EPA hides knowledge of radioactive waste in city water from fracking

(December 10, 2010 report by a local TV news station in Texas)
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The New York Times reveals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has known since at least 2009 that hydrofracking (to increase oil and gas extraction) is contaminating US waters with radioactive waste. Josh Fox’s film “Gasland” didn’t win the Oscar for Best Documentary, despite that most Americans know all about “Inside Job” and the criminal banksters and their government protectors, but few know about the dangers of fracking and how regulators protect driller profits over human and environmental health.

In this first in a series, the NYTimes fails to mention Arkansas, the meteoric rise in earthquakes associated with fracking, and the livestock and mass wildlife deaths.  Maybe it’ll get to the rest of this fracking mess.  As is, tho, it’s still worth the read. ~ Ed.

Fracking the life out of Arkansas and beyond

By Rady Ananda

(Updated below.) The last four months of 2010, nearly 500 earthquakes rattled Guy, Arkansas. [1] The entire state experienced 38 quakes in 2009. [2] The spike in quake frequency precedes and coincides with the 100,000 dead fish on a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River that included Roseville Township on December 30. The next night, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings dropped dead out of the sky in Beebe. [3] Hydraulic fracturing is the most likely culprit for all three events, as it causes earthquakes with a resultant release of toxins into the environment. [4]

Big Energy wins big in NY: Fracking ban vetoed. Thanks, David!

Profits vs. People

By Wenonah Hauter
Food & Water Watch

This weekend, despite the wishes of the New York State Legislature, New York Governor David Paterson vetoed legislation that would have put a moratorium on vertical and horizontal hydraulic drilling, a controversial practice known as fracking. Bowing to industry interests, the governor instead issued an executive order placing a weaker moratorium on horizontal fracking alone.

Pennsylvania Township Declares Freedom from Fracking

By Mari Margil and Ben Price
Yes! Magazine

Drafted with the help of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the “Licking Township Community Water Rights and Self-Government Ordinance” is the first of its kind in the nation.

In Pennsylvania—a central target for natural gas drilling and the controversial drilling practice known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”—local communities don’t have the legal authority to keep unwanted drilling from happening.

PA faces $4 billion dollar deficit; refuses to tax gas frackers

This is part 2 of TRNN’s coverage of the corporate takeover of Pennsylvania’s natural gas reserves. Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Governor-elect Tom Corbett: “Coming into the job in January, the Republican prosecutor-turned-governor will immediately have to tackle an estimated $4 billion deficit. And because he made a no-tax pledge during his campaign, he will have to do so primarily by slashing spending.”

Free Gas in Pennsylvania?

By Jesse Freeston and Malak Behrouznami
The Real News Network

Fracking PA for Halliburton: Exempt from Clean Water Act

By Jesse Freeston and Malak Behrouznami
The Real News Network (15 min. video)

On the day after the midterm elections, when Republican Tom Corbett won the governorship, the outline of Pennsylvania’s next battleground was clearly drawn. Pittsburgh hosted the largest conference of companies interested in the massive Marcellus Shale gas deposit, thought to hold enough gas to power the entire US for anywhere from two to 30 years. Drilling communities around the country report serious environmental and public health concerns. Pittsburgh itself already has gas development surrounding it, and hundreds marched to the conference to show their objection.

A Colossal Fracking Mess

By Christopher Bateman
(Photographs by Jacques del Conte)
Vanity Fair

A shale-gas drilling and fracking site in Dimock, Pennsylvania.

Early on a spring morning in the town of Damascus, in northeastern Pennsylvania, the fog on the Delaware River rises to form a mist that hangs above the tree-covered hills on either side. A buzzard swoops in from the northern hills to join a flock ensconced in an evergreen on the river’s southern bank.

Stretching some 400 miles, the Delaware is one of the cleanest free-flowing rivers in the United States, home to some of the best fly-fishing in the country. More than 15 million people, including residents of New York City and Philadelphia, get their water from its pristine watershed. To regard its unspoiled beauty on a spring morning, you might be led to believe that the river is safely off limits from the destructive effects of industrialization. Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken. The Delaware is now the most endangered river in the country, according to the conservation group American Rivers.