Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Exploration Is Cool.So, last week I left the house like this: The grand plan was to meet Josh, drive the fat-tire bikes up to the Peak to Peak, ride down on singletrack/dirt roads, then ride the skinny tire bikes back up for the car. You know, a little something-different adventure. We got off to a rocky start, […]
- Sometimes Gadgets MatterIt’s not often that I credit an improvement in my riding to equipment. In fact, I’m willing to bet that a lot of issues with most folks are operator error rather than the need for some expensive toy. But this time, I’ve got a few exceptions. Sunglasses, for me, are a tough purchase. Not only […]
- Exploration Is Cool.
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What the frack? Oil and gas extraction methods in Colorado get scrutinized
The documentary "Split Estate" premieres Saturday on Planet Green.
Concerns about fracking — a method used to extract more oil and gas from wells – are getting more attention in Colorado as more people living near well sites complain of contaminated drinking water.
A former Boulderite and Fairview High grad (now living in New Mexico) has filmed a documentary spotlighting safety concerns about fracking. Debra Anderson’s film, “Split Estate,” premieres at 6 p.m. Saturday during Discovery’s Reel Impact series on Planet Green. It will repeat at 9 p.m. Oct. 22.
“Split Estate” details the oil and gas industry’s controversial method of extracting minerals, called “fracking,” and the adverse health effects many people claim they have suffered because of the drilling method.Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process that includes injecting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals underground in order to release the desired oil or gas. According to the film, fracking was first developed in the 1940s by Haliburton, the energy-services company whose former CEO was Dick Cheney. …
The film includes several interviews with people who have suffered significant health problems after oil and gas companies began drilling on or near their land. The affected families speculate that toxic chemicals used in fracking, or natural gas released during the drilling, leaked into their water supply and led to their illnesses. Oil and gas firms say such assertions are unproven.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com, or learn more about people in Colorado who have been impacted by fracking after the jump.Â
Colorado’s Western slope has been poked full of holes in the last several decades as natural gas drilliing has boomed. The chemicals that many oil and natural gas companies are using for fracking are largely unregulated, partly because the companies have successfully argued that there is no proof of contamination.
In the last couple of years, more and more people have complained of contaminated wells, and it’s becoming more clear that the cracks in the rocks caused by fracking may be connecting oil and gas wells to water wells.
Outfitter Ned Prather, left, with his brother Dick, smells a cup of water from his spring northeast of DeBeque that is contaminated with toxins found in oil and gas production. Denver Post
This week’s Denver Post carried a powerful story about one man’s experience with water gone bad
:
Ned Prather can’t forget that awful drink of water.He was thirsty the afternoon of May 30, 2008, after he and his wife, Dollie, drove up the dusty, steeply kinked road to their cabin an hour northeast of DeBeque. He went to the sink and filled a glass with water.
“I tipped it up just like this and just started guzzling — like an idiot. I didn’t know it was bad until I drank two- thirds of the cup,” said the 61-year-old outfitter as he retraced his actions that day.
His throat burned. His head pounded. His stomach hurt. He felt like he was going to suffocate.
Tests would show the water from a spring he has drank from for decades was heavily contaminated with a carcinogenic and nervous system-damaging chemical stew known as BTEX — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzine and xylene. BTEX and other volatile organic compounds come to the surface in the production water from oil and gas wells.
Prather may be the only victim of oil-and-gas-field contamination to guzzle a glass of toxin-laced water. But last year, there were 206 spills in Colorado connected to or suspected in 48 cases of water contamination. Since 2003, there have been around 300 cases.
Read the full story at DenverPost.com.
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