What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's wrong with this picture? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But you'll probably never know. Keep reading and you'll find out why.

Last week, Environment Texas, an Austin-based environmental watchdog group, released a report that should help us calibrate our shame here in Texas. Texas led the nation in the number of facilities discharging pollution at levels exceeding federal clean water guidelines.

In 2005, 318 facilities in the state reported 1,340 incidents in which they discharged more pollution than permitted under the federal Clean Water Act. The group also reported that more than 53 percent of Texas' industrial and municipal facilities discharged more pollution in 2005 than permitted under the law.

"With so many facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that more than half of Texas waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing -- but we should be outraged," Environment Texas Citizen Outreach director Brad Hicks said in a statement.

But where is the outrage? Maybe we are just getting what we deserve here in Texas after a decade-plus of delivering this state to anti-regulatory, anti-environment Republicans such as Dubya, Slick Rick Perry and Tom Craddick.

But what does that have to do with that picture? Let's narrow our focus a bit.

Here in Fort Worth, Chesapeake Energy has a permit to put an injection well in East Fort Worth. That's a done deal, but the city of Fort Worth has put a moratorium in place to prevent any other injection wells from going ahead for the time being.

The crux of the issue is a difference of opinion between Chesapeake Energy -- and other gas drillers -- and the city over what exactly is in the fracing waste that injection wells pump into the earth. Drillers contend it is just water and clay, but Brian Boerner, the Director of Enviromental Management for the city of Fort Worth, told a League of Women Voters forum last week that this waste also includes "some chemicals."

What are these chemicals to which Boerner refers? The EPA tells us that many fracturing fluids contain chemicals that can be toxic to humans and wildlife, and chemicals that are known to cause cancer. These include potentially toxic substances such as diesel fuel, which contains benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene and other chemicals; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; methanol; formaldehyde; ethylene glycol; glycol ethers; hydrochloric acid; and sodium hydroxide.

Are those found in the fracing processes used in the Barnett Shale? There's no way to know. As Texas Sharon pointed out last week, fracing records in Texas don't exist. Essentially, the gas drillers are responsible for policing themselves. And Texas isn't that different in this regard from many other states. According to the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, most oil and gas agencies do not require companies to report the volumes or names of chemicals being injected during hydraulic fracturing. For an interesting look at how little disclosure is required, check out another post from Sharon with a copy of a W-14 disclosure form from an injection well in Boyd that failed. The phrase "drilling fluids" is terrifying in its lack of specificity.

What about federal law? In 2005, the oil and gas industry was granted an exemption from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, making oil and gas the only industry allowed to inject toxic fluids directly into good quality groundwater without oversight by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

So, long story short, protections just aren't there, and chemicals may (or may not) be. There's just no way to know because Texans have decided at the ballot box to elect officials who don't value protecting the environment.

So what about that photo? I got that in an e-mail from Don Young at FWCanDo! last week, along with a few more below.

Last Tuesday, Don stumbled on a Chesapeake Energy crew shooting water from pumping equipment into the Trinity River near Riverside Drive off I-30 east of downtown.

The pumping continued for at least 30 minutes. Don spoke to a foreman who said they were just priming their pumps preparing to send water to the nearby well-site. He said it was just plain river water going back in. Nearby was a bucket labeled Bentonite, a clay used in the fracing process.

Don called a city inspector, Tom Edwards, and told him what was happening. Edwards seemed alarmed and said that nothing was supposed to go into the river. The inspector called him later and said he found nothing, and even if he had, it was out of his jurisdiction. The Tarrant Regional Water District controls the river. Don asked if Edwards was going to notify them, but Edwards wouldn't say. "It seems like no one knows anything or wants to take responsibility for the river," Don said. I e-mailed the Water District but I've not heard anything back.

Was there anything untoward going on here? Who knows? Does Chesapeake have a permit to clean their equipment in the Trinity River? Is there anything in that pumping equipment -- like the residue from chemicals used in the fracing process -- that we wouldn't want in the Trinity? We'll never know because the only way to find out is to ask Chesapeake. What do you think they'll say?

So is there anything wrong in these pictures? You can ask the City of Fort Worth, the Texas Railroad Commission, the Tarrant Regional Water District and Chesapeake Energy. You'll get the same answer from them all. Nothing to see here. Except a few photos, a lot of questions and no answers. And in all likelihood, that's all you ever will have.

UPDATE, 10.18.07: Read the TRWD reply.
UPDATE, 10.21.07: More from the TRWD.