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Page added on October 25, 2014
Fracking in California dirty business
More than 30 percent of Californians living near oil and gas wells reside in areas already heavily polluted, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.
A Wednesday report from the NRDC looked at state records to determine what portion of the state’s population are, or could be, impacted by hydraulic fracturing operations. It found about 14 percent of the state’s population live within a mile of an oil or natural gas well and more than 30 percent of those live near industrial facilities or other environmental dangers.
The advocacy group found that percentage of the population may be at risk should the state’s oil and natural gas sector expand. It said it found a link between hydraulic fracturing operations and respiratory and neurological problems.
“Fracking is moving next door to more and more California homes, schools and neighborhoods,” Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a researcher at NRDC said in a statement. “From Los Angeles to the state’s farms and ranches, this industry must not be allowed to poison our people’s health.”
Environmental advocacy groups have backed ballot initiatives in California that would limit or ban hydraulic fracturing, known also as fracking. Gov. Jerry Brown last year signed legislation regulating the controversial drilling process.
California last year ranked third in the nation in terms of oil production.
16 Comments on "Fracking in California dirty business"
rockman on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 9:35 am
“…this industry must not be allowed to poison our people’s health.” But apparently given the amount of oil and refined products they ship in from elsewhere, such as one of the largest refining states Washington, they don’t care nearly as much about the health of non-Californians. California ranks #2 in the consumption of NG, petroleum and electricity.
I wonder how the folks in CA would feel if Texas banned sending our refinery products and NG to them? After all, if our population has to accept the negatives why should we let others get a pass? Banning any or all hydrocarbon development is the right of the majority of Californians is their right. But how would they feel about other states trying to establish the right to ban such exports to CA?
Given the PO path we’re on that isn’t necessarily a theoretical question. It’s great to be a tree hugger…when you’re satisfying your needs by cutting down someone else’s trees.
shortonoil on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 10:24 am
Of course, they are more likely to die of thirst than oil pollution, but you can’t build a political campaign in California on that!
Plantagenet on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 11:00 am
California students rank at or very near the bottom on math and reading tests when compared to other US states. Only in a state where people are so poorly educated could a political campaign based on a dumb slogan like “fracking = death” be taken seriously.
oilystuff on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 12:07 pm
My conversations with Californians about oil and gas always frustrate me; I have been told on numerous occasions that the Gulf of Mexico is just a big mud hole and offshore drilling there is OK, but not OK off pristine California, as we know, in spite of significant known reserves in the Monterrey, etc.
So California “imports” a great deal of it’s crude oil (I think it is the biggest gasoline user in the US?)from outside sources via shipping. Sea bound shipping of crude oil, as a percentage of total oil spill disasters, represents a far bigger threat to the environment than offshore exploration and development. Before it went aground in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez was outbound for… the Port of Long Beach.
So, I am with you guys; the “not in our backyard you don’t” attitude of California seems a little hypocritical to me.
JuanP on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 12:33 pm
Bad articles today 🙁
surf on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 1:32 pm
26% of California’s population lives in the LA basin. which was at one time a major oil producing region. Add in Orang county and the south San Joaquin valley and you can easily get the 30% figure. This area is full of businesses and manufacturing facilities that contain “environmental dangers”
These oil fields are very old and produce very little oil. All are full of stripper wells. Most if not all of what is being called fracing in California is not really fracking. Most is mostly pumping of material into an old well to unclog it. A process that is less dangerous to the environment. And estimates of the amount of oil in Shale keep dropping.
Show me an article about the vast new oil being produced in California by fracing. All the articles about fracing in California are about the vast potential in the future or the environmental dangers in the future. None are about new shale oil being produced. The fracing industry in California died before it got started.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 2:12 pm
California is in a heap of trouble. But so are we all.
rockman on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 3:14 pm
NR – All you need do is switch your tag from “Northwest” to “Southeast” and move to Texas. Move now and you won’t need a visa once we liberate ourselves from those united states. States that appear to becoming less united as stroll down the PO path. And as was told in another lifetime: Don’t walk down the f*cking path, you idiot! LOL.
rockman on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 3:56 pm
Apparently the folks in NY have the same view as some in CA: frac’ng is a terrible thing to do. Unless, of course, it’s being done in someone else’s back yard and you get the benefits. While NY still bans frac’ng there’s no ban of importing NG from wells frac’d in PA:
The FERC published its final environmental review of the proposed Constitution Pipeline. The FERC action is a key step toward the commission’s decision on the project, which is expected as early as late November.
The Constitution Pipeline is being designed with capacity to deliver enough NG to serve approximately 3 million homes. The pipeline would extend from Pa to N.Y. It will begin construction as early as the first-quarter next year in order to help meet winter 2015-16 heating-season needs in New York.
Northwest Resident on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 6:41 pm
rockman — I gave up my Texas citizenship long ago when I joined the U.S. Navy. That could turn out to be my fatal mistake. And don’t think I haven’t thought about trying to sneak back into Texas through the Northern border to rejoin my former band of rebel brothers and sisters. I still have a lot of relatives on my mom’s side in Texas who don’t think too badly of me, yet. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.
mack on Sat, 25th Oct 2014 9:27 pm
I think the real problem with fracking in California is that the Monterey Shale strata is twisted and convoluted by the collision of the North American plate and the Pacific plate. It’s not not laid out nice and neat like North Dakota. The banning of fracking in California has a lot more to do with politics than with dealing with an actual problem.
coffeeguyzz on Sun, 26th Oct 2014 1:00 pm
Some data points …
Western States Petroleum Association estimated that Cali used over 300 million acre feet of water to frac over 600 wells in – I believe – 2013. Average Cali golf course uses bout 315 million acre feet per year for landscaping. There are over 1,100 golf courses in the state. (Cali’s frac jobs are NOT the high volume jobs used in the shales.)
US Department of Energy report released on September 15, 2014 has been described as the most comprehensive analysis of potential well water contamination emanating from frac’ed wells. Conclusion: NO contamination whatsoever. (Very comical/sad to see so many “studies” coming to wildly different conclusions in this area. So much for political/ideological free ‘science’.
Odd note … all that hoopla surrounding the DOE’s ‘announcements’ several months back regarding the Monterey’s drastically downsized potential? Never. Gave. An. Official. Announcement!!!
Don’t believe me? Don’t blame you. E-mail them yourself – as I did – and see.
coffeeguyzz on Sun, 26th Oct 2014 1:13 pm
Edit above The acre feet are not in millions for the frac’ing and golf course usage Simply 300 acre feet/frac/year and 315 acre feet/golf course.
Got sidetracked converting to acre feet. Actual numbers are frac’ing 164k gallons/well average.
Golf course 300k gallons/day average.
The Monterey will ultimately employ a lot more acidizing than hydrofrac’ing due to geology in any event.
Northwest Resident on Sun, 26th Oct 2014 1:28 pm
coffeeguyzz — Those golf courses are essential to maintaining the illusion of “all is well”. When they start shutting the golf clubs down — those traditional watering holes and gathering places for the upper crust and their legions of wannabes — that’s when Californians will wake up and realize how truly screwed they are.
coffeeguyzz on Sun, 26th Oct 2014 3:32 pm
Now you got me thinkin’, NWR. As per the gopher’s resiliency displayed in “Caddyshack”, mebbe the place to be when the SHTF is in a nearby Cali golf course hunkered down with our new-found furry friends.
rockman on Sun, 26th Oct 2014 4:19 pm
And it just hit me: I don’t recall a report of a single bird death from frac’ng. Other potential problems for sure but not killing our feathered friends. OTOH we know about thousands of bird deaths due to wind turbines and lately the potential to cook birds in flight by planned solar collectors.
And lets not forget the greatest killer of birds: cats. In Los Angeles County alone they estimate a cat population of 1.5-1.8 MILLION cats. That county alone has to count for hundreds of thousand if not millions of bird deaths every year.
I wonder if we could utilize cats somewhere in the frac’ng process. That way we could earn some “bird credits” just like carbon credits. Win-win IMHO.