Fracking and You: water safety, earthquakes and what you can do about it

How does fracking lead to earthquakes and contaminate water supply? What can you do about it?

The following interview with Adam Scow of Food and Water Watch and Lori Grace of Sunrise Center by Hannah Doress of Earth Day Marin, follows up on their main stage interview at the Earth Day Marin Festival & Climate Change Solutions Day of Action by KWMR Host Peter Asmus. The follow up interview below (scroll down) focuses on risk to our water supply, the science of fracking and earthquake risk, chemicals used in fracking, the impact of fracking on climate change, and what you can do. The video covers the impact on California’s water supply, the downsides of natural gas, national policy, other states with moratoriums and bans on fracking, how fracking is exempt from clean water legislation and the damage resulting, and potential tsunami risk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSl0eFy2xf0.

Make a difference - get involved: Attend "Don't Frack My Mother" at Sunrise Center in Corte Madera (Marin County): Monday June 24, 2013 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM PDT

"Don't Frack My Mother", featuring Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon is the latest salvo in the form of a music video in Hollywood’'s fight against hydraulic fracturing, the oil and natural gas production technique often called fracking. Come learn about this environmentally hazardous practice in the oil industry and what it means for our water supply and earthquake risk. Adam Scow of Food and Water Watch and Lori Grace of Sunrise Center will present information and be available for questions. Register now and make a difference: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7cx1t4g7f0a8b32. 

Take action now with Food and Water Watch

Take action with Mainstreet Moms or Bust

For continuing updates on fracking and other environmental issues please friend EarthDay Marin or fan Earth Day Marin on Facebook or follow on twitter. Watch Earth Day Marin 2012 and 2013 speakers & performers on the Earth Day Marin Video channel on YouTube and visit the Earth Day Marin Action Page.

Many communities across California are concerned about and active on fracking. visit the Food and Water Watch Mapping the Movement site which shows national activity including legislative proposals in Sacramento,  Mar Vista, Carson and Berkeley. There is also a robust debate happening in Aromas, near Watsonville in North Monterey County. According to KPCC Southern California Public Radio, "One of the largest (organizations working on fracking issues), MoveOn.org, plans to deliver petitions to a dozen assembly members asking for limits on the oil extraction method. The group is also organizing protests in Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, San Ramon, and Los Altos, among other places." 

There is much more happening in communities around the world - please post details from your community in the comments.

Hannah: What’s the situation with fracking in the Bay Area?

Adam: Fracking in California threatens the health of San Francisco Bay, our food supply, and could cause more earthquakes resulting in property damage and worse. The Monterey Shale lies directly over the San Andreas fault, putting the entire Bay Area at greater risk of earthquakes. Fracking north of the SF Bay Delta also threatens the water quality of our fragile bay. 

Our water resources are vital to growing food in the Central Valley, Delta, and Sacramento valley, which provide Marin with many of the grains, fruits, dairy, and vegetables consumed. 

The situation with fracking is national, statewide and local. Fracking is a process to extract oil or gas by injecting a combination of water, chemicals and sand at very high pressure underground into shale or rock formation, to frack the rock and allow for the extraction of oil or gas. Most fracking in California is for oil.

Lori: But there is a lot of area that is set out for gas extraction in California as well.

Adam: One company, Venoco, has already fracked over a dozen wells in the Sacramento valley -- and 80% of the fresh water flow into the SF Bay Delta comes from the Sacramento River. The Sacramento Valley has one of the biggest aquifers in the state and is threatened by fracking. Much of our groundwater is polluted in California, so protecting the groundwater north of Sacramento is very important. Fracking can pollute in numerous ways – both ground water and through polluting the river. Also there have been many accidents, which are the norm not the exception. On top of water pollution fracking causes air pollution, explosions, earthquakes and related health problems, food supply contamination, and impacts on biodiversity. 

Lori: The impact on biodiversity means losing lots of creatures, wildlife death, birds, frogs, deer farm animals.

Adam: Yes, everything is connected by water and air. 

Lori: I’ve been reading about it, and when a company fracks, in Pennsylvania everything is in a flat layer but in California with earthquakes, our layers can be out of sync, and one of the major risks with fracking is that the water that is injected can escape out of another area.

Adam: Fracking is designed to create explosions. Earthquakes can occur and gas can leak. Most famously in Dimock, Pennsylvania and in certain towns in Colorado people can light their water on fire.  Fracking requires a range of half a million to four million gallons of fresh water per job. In California it’s estimated there are 15 billion barrels of oil in the Monterey Shale – which is between 1-5 and 101 from the Bay area to LA. The shale has been difficult to extract so far, much of the easily accessible oil has already been extracted. Tight Oil or Tight gas as they call it will need to be fracked and other destructive technique will be used to get the oil. To extract that much oil would be tens of thousands of frack jobs with all that clean water wasted. 

Lori: It’s a really big problem because California is so short on water.

Hannah: What do you think is the mentality behind this type of destructive energy production? 

Lori: I think there is a lack of education and the Republicans have been promoting it as energy independence, “let’s get out of the Middle East and spending so much money on wars over there”. I think the promise of jobs is one of the appeals.

Adam: These are talking points from the oil and gas companies, and the President and many leading politicians are buying the fairy tale that this would promote energy independence. The country consumes so much oil, you can frack throughout this state and country and you are not going to get off of foreign oil. Further undermining what they are saying is that this gas and oil they frack is going to be sold on the international markets where they can get the highest price. There is currently a glut of gas on the market and it is obvious that if they continue to frack, it will be for export. The US is poised to become a net exporter of energy largely because of fracking for gas and oil. 

The question as I see it is whether we Californians and Americans are going to allow our water air food supply and public health to be harmed -- so a handful of oil executives can get rich off of this.

Lori: They don’t have to pay for the clean up costs, they don’t even have to be transparent about the chemicals they are putting in our water. 

Adam: The chemicals are really nasty, Benzene is one of the worst…

Lori: Benzene is very carcinogenic. 

Adam: Because of trade secrets laws they don’t have to tell us what they are using…

Lori: There is land available for fracking gas right next to the Sacramento River. The Hayward fault is the one that is potentially most destructive, with high population, Livermore Labs, Chevron and more.  I was just reading, should a fracking stimulated earthquake happen, there is a major risk of liquefaction, which means that the land becomes liquid or close to liquid which could cause the toppling of many buildings, freeway structures and earthquake-related explosions and fires. 

Adam: Much of the fracking on the Monterey shale is right on the San Andreas fault. It’s already a threat because they have already begun fracking.

Hannah: What’s the science around fracking and earthquakes? 

Adam: Fracking itself is known to create vibrations, but it’s the injection of the water that scientists think destabilizes the land. The waste water produced is also contaminated and made more toxic with radioactive material and arsenic. Often the wastewater is dumped into another well underground. You can produce waste water related earthquakes from just drilling for oil – there’s history of this happening in Kern County. Fracking requires more water than drilling so there will be even more risk for earthquakes.

There has been a tripling of earthquakes in the Midwest. The recent 5.7 earthquake in Oklahoma shows us that this can cause big earthquakes as well. 

Lori: You may remember that we had substantial drought in the last year in the Sacramento and Central Valleys and many almond tree farmers could not water their trees. Farmers were paid not to produce because of lack of water. If we damage our water supply further – it can put our farmers and farm workers at risk for cancer -- and also the trees, wildlife, crops and farms will be impacted. We’re looking at an overall ecological disaster. There is no expense account to clean any messes that is offered by these companies and our state is in a fiscal crisis – with layoffs, furloughs, and reductions in vital services. There isn’t the money for the clean up and health care for the families who will get cancer. The situation is more serious here than in Pennsylvania, which is bad enough.

Hannah: How can people help stop fracking locally? 

Adam: People should watch our onstage interview at Earth Day Marin by Peter Asmus of KWMR’s Eyes Wide Open on Youtube to learn more and get involved. People also need to talk to their elected officials [Assemblymember Marc Levine’s comments on his legislation to regulate fracking, legislation on plastic bags and legislation supporting preference for environmentally responsible companies in state contracts at Earth Day Marin are also available on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgiTTtvP4fs.]

Lori: People can join us at Sunrise Center on Monday, June 24th for a screening of “Don’t Frack My Mother” and to get more involved.

Adam: we need to build a mass movement against fracking to turn around Jerry Brown’s position.

Lori: Obama’s Administration was saying they could find a clean way of fracking and some environmental groups talk about regulated fracking. Unfortunately, when we look at the history of energy companies we don’t see them being responsible about the people, places and animals that are damaged. When we talk regulation, which companies can we really trust? That’s why I support the Food and Water Watch proposal to ban fracking. There is legislation in California, AB 1301 introduced by Assemblymember Richard Bloom of Santa Monica (D), to put an indefinite moratorium on fracking in CA, which would allow the legislature to decide whether to ban it. 

Adam: Our position is there is no safe way to frack, so we should ban it. A moratorium is the first step. We have a ban fracking petition online at Food and Water Watch. We have 100,000 signatures and we want 200,000 - please go to http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/California and sign today.

The fracking process is also dirty because there’s lots of methane released which is a very potent greenhouse gas, contributing to climate change. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane on climate change is 20 times greater than C02, in a hundred year period.

Some industries have touted the benefits of natural gas because natural gas burns cleaner than coal but if you look at the lifecycle emissions for natural gas, it is just as dirty, as a recent study from Cornell shows. In California, there’s a huge chance of contaminating our water, significant potential for accidents with the many diesel truck trips that would have to happen, and the 15 billion barrels of oil that could be fracked. This all would have a terrible impact on our State.  

Lori: Part of what we need to do is educate people. The Sierra Club has taken it up on a certain level.  I am concerned that some environmental organizations like Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Working Group, and National Resources Defense Council are supporting regulation and are not supporting the moratorium. These are organizations that do good work and I think it would be more effective for them to support the moratorium legislation as opposed to the regulation legislation.  I look at the behavior of corporations in our century and how self-serving they’ve been – Chevron, Exxon, Peabody Coal - they break laws and pay the fines and call that the cost of doing business, I’ve seen that many times so I don’t think we can rely on regulation of fracking to protect us.  

I’m very pleased of all the groups we are working with including Environment California, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Lori: I would really like to live a long time, I don’t want to get poisoned by my water. Also I’m a farmer and have an organic farm and eco-resort in Hawaii and I want to keep that pristine too. I like to see vibrant nature around me, a bay full of healthy water and animals. I want a life with healthy children and grandchildren with a clean environment and with clean air. I would like to see us doing everything we can to avert climate disaster, I would like to see corporations held up to ethical standards and I hope for an engaged public that is willing to take a stand.

To take a stand on fracking in our area please join Sunrise Center, Food and Water Watch and Mainstreet Moms. More than 100 people took action on fracking at Earth Day Marin – join them by taking action today. To take action visit: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/California

To take additional climate change related actions visit Earth Day Marin's action page.

Adam Scow is the California Campaigns Director at Food & Water Watch where he is responsible for developing strategy for local, state, and national campaigns. Adam has guided several successful campaigns across California to protect water as a public resource and prevent privatization of local water supply. He has served on the planning committee for the annual California Water Policy Conference sponsored by Public Officials for Water and Environment Reform. Previously, Adam researched California irrigation subsidies and water transfers in Washington D.C. 

Lori Grace has been an active environmentalist for most of her life. She trained with Al Gore as a Climate Project presenter and was the first citizen supporter to come forward with a significant loan to Marin Clean Energy that helped put MCE on the Map. She worked with Food and Water Watch in the past to educate the public about desalination and problems with farming in the US.  She is an owner of Hale Akua Garden Farm, an eco-retreat and certified organic farm in Maui, Hawaii, where she first learned about the dangers of genetically modified foods. She was also very active in the LabelGMO campaign and remains committed to seeing it eventually be passed as a law even though it did not pass in California. She worked with David McGuire of Sea Stewards to help pass successfully last year the bill to outlaw shark fin soup in California restaurants. She is also heading up an effort to create the first protected marine area in the San Francisco Bay through Save Our Bay, Save Our Ocean, a division of Sunrise Center.

Hannah Doress is director of Earth Day Marin and a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program and principal of Hannah Doress Events. She is well known for her work as Events Programmer at San Geronimo Valley Community Center and for her promotional efforts for the Dipsea Hike for Zero Breast Cancer. She lives in Fairfax with her wife, Soprano Emily Bender and their son, chicken farmer Abraham Bender-Doress.

More about Earth Day Marin:

Earth Day Marin 2013 was a day of action on climate change solutions. Visit http://www.EarthDayMarin.org for more information. Earth Day Marin believes that to effectively address climate change we must all join expert groups that can help us be effective advocates and take effective and measurable actions that will reverse the direction of climate change.

Actions you can take include writing letters about fracking, choosing 100% renewable energy with Marin Clean Energy, joining Resilient Neighborhoods and following the recommendations in the book titled The Low Carbon Diet, Lose 5,000 lbs of C02 in 6 weeks, joining Families for Clean Air to advocate for reductions in black carbon and signing up with Spare the Air for alerts,  advocating for bicycle paths with Marin County Bicycle Coalition and biking rather than driving whenever possible, bookmarking the real time Marin Transit website (or programming the real time number on your phone), you an also write letters to decision makers, volunteer, make donations, and act in many, many more ways to make a difference. But the most important thing you can do is to join in with the groups that are doing the research, strategy and advocacy as well as those that know how to help you reduce your footprint so your efforts are effective.

Earth Day Marin is a nonprofit free annual event produced by Hannah Doress Events, and is a fiscal project of MarinLink.

For ongoing updates and links to important actions:

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Earth Day Marin is supported by individual donors, sponsors and in-kind partners including MCE, Marin Transit, Sunrise Center, Citizen’s Climate Lobby, Good Green Moving, LilyPad SGS – Small Green Spaces, Resilient Neighborhoods, Marin Sanitary Service, Conservation Corps North Bay, Zero Waste Marin, Bay Area Air Quality District/Spare the Air, The Pacific Sun, Marin County Bicycle Coalition, United Parcel Service, Central Marin Sanitation Agency, Las Gallinas Valley Sanitation District, Novato Sanitation District, Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin, Sausalito-Marin City Sanitation District, Sanitary District No. 5 – Tiburon and Belvedere, Marin Independent Journal, Transportation Authority of Marin, Bradley Real Estate, Marin Municipal Water District, ALLY Electric and Solar, In Defense of Animals,Viviendo Verde Ya, Families for Clean Air, Stagehand Systems, GREENUP LEARNING, Gathering Thyme, Living Tree Community Foods, Curious Jane Camp, A1 Sun Inc., Mary’s Organic Chicken, The Bicycle Works, Mayacamas Mountain Spring Water, Local Music Vibe, Advanced Home Energy, WACCOBB.net, Rich Frye Photography, Mill Valley Services, Urban Bird Design, On the One Merch, Isbridge.com, iGreen Woman Magazine, KWMR and MyWebPresenceNow.com. Good Earth Natural Foods is the 2013 T-shirt Sponsor.

If you feel mobilizing Marin residents to take positive action on climate change solutions is important, please make a donation. Volunteers who give 3 hours or more and donors who give $35 may request a free t-shirt while supplies last.

Earth Day Marin is a Zero Waste event thanks to the major sponsorship of Marin Sanitary Service,Conservation Corps North Bay and Zero Waste Marin. Funding to support this effort also comes from CalRecycle and the County of Marin JPA Zero Waste Grant.

Earth Day Marin’s 2013 host committee included Haideh Sobhi, Holly and Larry Bragman, Peter Joseph, Rachel Ginis, Susan Goldsborough, members of Citizen’s Climate Lobby, E. Ilana Trumble, Lac, Jonathan Cook, Susan Arati, Rich Frye, Alia Stenback, Barbara Monty, Marnie Glickman, David Curtis and Stacie Saraswati, Wayne and Kathleen Stranton, Amber Merino, Fiona Gillan, Belynda Webb Marks, Erin Duggan, Monica Bonny, Jen Jones and Meegan lee Ochs among others.

Earth Day Marin 2013 leadership included:

Director: Hannah Doress

Production Planner: Meredith Law

Sponsorship Director: Nina Carlin

Marketing Manager: Alejandro Morales

Volunteer Manager: Taylor Watts

Do the Math Coordinator: Nancy Bell

Earth Day Marin Advisors:

·       Steve Bajor (Pacific Expositions)

·       Rachel Ginis (Lilypad SGS – Small Green Spaces

·       Susan Goldsborough (Families for Clean Air)

·       Sandra Hanns (One World, One Voice; iGreenTV )

·       Shawn Marshall (LEAN Energy U.S., Mill Valley City Council)

·       David Martin (INDX Strategies)

·       Kim Noble (Noble Builders)

·       Mary Olsen (Point Reyes Farmers Market)

·       Richard Pedemonte (Pedemonte & Co. Event Concessions)

·       Dede Piankova (American Community Team Sports)

·       Sandy Wallenstein (GreenUp Learning)

·       Taylor Watts (Fund Development Consultant)

·       Nancy Boyce (MarinLink)