©AP Photo/Bob Moen
DCL
With exemptions from the most fundamental environmental protections including the Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water Acts, the oil and gas industry has been able to get away with polluting land, air, and public drinking water supplies — and with getting people sick every step of the way. The industry, which relies on a method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to access most of the gas reserves underground, is not required to disclose the types or amounts of chemicals used while drilling, which makes it hard even for chemical scientists to study their impact on the environment and on human health, because they literally do not know what they are looking for. As a result, people living near drilling sites have been suffering—some with rare but extremely serious conditions, the most well-known case probably being that of Laura Amos, who was diagnosed with an adrenal tumor—with insufficient medical attention or knowledge, and no evidence to prove fracking as the cause. And absolutely no recourse, because technically, the companies are not (usually) doing anything illegal.
Fracking chemicals: the body doesn't want them
Symptoms of health problems caused by exposure to fracking chemicals show up very similar to allergy symptoms at first, making them difficult to diagnose. Even more difficult is establishing a causal link with the chemicals, which has allowed oil and gas companies to deny any responsibility for ill health effects, despite epidemiological studies showing clear hot spots of endocrine disorders in regions where fracking occurs.
Theo Colborn is the foremost scientist looking at the effects of these chemicals on the human body, and what she's been finding is pretty scary. Colborn, who has testified before Congress on oil and gas drilling and is featured in Split Estate, has focused on one chemical in particular: 2-BE, a colorless, odorless liquid that can actually dissolve red blood cells. It starts by dissolving the fat in the cell membrane, causing the membrane to break down, and eventually—"you get sort of bloody eyes, bloody noses, and also blood in the urine," said Colborn in an interview for Split Estate. 2-BE has been found to cause retinal detachment in mice and other eye damage and also harms the liver, spleen, bones in the spinal column, bone marrow, and can cause kidney failure. Long-term exposure can lead to anemia and in laboratory animals has caused insufficient blood supply and tail necrosis, meaning an animal's tail actually just rots away.
And that's just one chemical: there are hundreds of others—including arsenic, hydrogen sulfide, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and a category of toxins known as volatile organic compounds, which include benzene and 2-BE—released, unregulated, by fracking. The combined, interactive effects on the body are perhaps the most alarming.
Also, according to Colborn, because 2-BE is widely used as an emulsifying agent and as a solvent for mineral oils, it is particularly effective at releasing the coal-tar hydrocarbons contained in coal that have long been recognized as carcinogens. Anyone living in or near areas with fracking wells is affected: 2-BE can enter the home through a water well, which means it will be in the water used for drinking, bathing, showering, and doing laundry and dishes.
Meanwhile, the EPA recommends that 2-BE be classified as a mild eye irritant.
More regulation needed
Not only is the industry allowed unregulated use of these chemicals, but there are no standards for disposal, either. Which means companies have been allowed to dump chemicals straight into waterways, or on land.
The Rocky Mountain region for years has been the heartland for oil and gas drilling, but the industry is expanding now in over 30 states, and unless existing laws are changed, people's health, drinking water, and clean air around the country will be threatened—as well as property rights, which might not extend as deeply as you might think, and a gas well could literally end up in your backyard.
Solutions already exist
It's not like Theo Colborn's recommendations are all that complicated: study the hydrology in regions where fracking occurs, including pathways of potable water; release the names of chemicals and concentrations used during extraction; monitor the surface below the well during the period of its operation; collect and contain the chemicals used during fracking; obtain community approval of disposal methods; and be transparent with the community about any changes to any part of that process.
NRDC offers broader recommendations that would reduce the environmental problems caused by fracking: close legal loopholes, such as repealing the oil and gas exemptions from the Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water Acts; include toxic wastes in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; remove the word "navigable" from the Clean Water Act (which would protect waterways from other hazards as well, not just oil and gas drilling chemicals)—and, of course, to conduct (and modify practices in accordance with the results of) more extensive health and environmental assessments.
What is needed is, simply, action on all of these points. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that better practices do exist for fracking—there are less toxic chemicals can be used, and companies can practice air emission controls. But without federal regulation, it seems, they are adopted only haphazardly, despite that they often do not cost more. Hoping companies will change on their own has not gotten anyone very far, especially people falling sick because of these toxic chemicals. It's time for the federal government to act.
Speak up
The FRAC Act is the most important currently pending legislation on this issue. Find out where your representatives stand, and make sure they know their constituency wants them to safeguard communities from the hazards of fracking. Safe drinking water shouldn't be something we have to fight oil companies, let alone Washington, for.
Watch Split Estate to learn more, and stay tuned to Planet Green for more actions you can take to stop the toxic takeover of our land and water, and to encourage safeguards to ensure that drilling for energy companies (and our own energy use) does not continue to compromise public health.
