[ExI] Hydraulic Fracturing

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 03:07:28PM -0500, Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> Barbara Lamar commented to me:
>
> FWIW, ever since they fracked the well next to our land [an hour or so  
> from Austin, TX], there have been small black particles in the well  

Apropos Texas: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7587055.html#ixzz1Nxf9dZT0

> water. These particles were never there before. Also, the water smells  
> foul, not like simple H2S but something else, almost like a dead animal.  
> I wouldn't even think of drinking it. I hesitate even to use it for  
> irrigation. Also, contrary to what Rafal said, they often frack the  
> wells more than once. I know this from personal observation on my own  
> land and from working with clients in the oil business, not from  
> something I've read.
>
> Oh, and although they were supposed to dispose of the portion of  
> fracking fluid that came back up, and they did end up trucking some of  
> it away (to contaminate other land somewhere else, no doubt), they  
> stored much of it in open pits. The soil is sandy, so most of the fluid  
> would have percolated down into the water table. Yeah, yeah, Rafal would  
> say to sue them. What good is that when the courts are bound to consider  
> the public good of having cheap oil, rather than individual rights of  
> landowners?

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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