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By Simmons Buntin, January 17, 2012 3:22 pm

A Pavilion resident shows water contaminated by fracking.

Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens (PACC) today denounced attacks from the oil and gas industry and the state of Wyoming in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency regarding its investigation of contaminated drinking water wells in Pavillion, Wyoming. EPA test results show that hazardous chemicals, commonly used in oil and gas development, contaminated the wells.

Powder River Basin Resource Council and Earthworks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project applauded PACC for its letter and today launched a national sign on letter campaign urging the EPA to continue with its rigorous investigation and to identify the cause of the contamination.

In December 2011 the EPA released the draft report of its scientific investigation into the connection between oil and gas development and contamination of drinking water wells. After initial testing in August 2010, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) urged residents not to drink their water or use it for cooking. If EPA’s draft is finalized with its current conclusions, it will definitively refute the oil and gas industry’s claim that hydraulic fracturing has never contaminated drinking water wells.

“Pavillion residents made continual requests for help from the state of Wyoming and industry before seeking assistance from EPA to address the contamination issues. For over ten years the state refused to help us. That’s when we went to the EPA. Now it appears the state is joining the industry in fighting this study tooth and nail,” said John Fenton, Powder River Basin Resource Council Board Member and Chair of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens.

EnCana Oil & Gas USA, which owns and operates over 200 gas wells in the Pavillion area, denies that drilling is to blame for the contamination, stating that many of the toxins “occur naturally.” On January 6, 2012, EnCana sent a letter demanding that the EPA suspend the public comment period on the report claiming that the agency didn’t give the company copies of all the data it used to compile the report. Also last week, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming and Wyoming Water Development Commission accused the EPA of not following its own water-testing protocols by holding several water well samples two days too long before conducting tests.

Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens, Powder River Basin Resource Council, and Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project have long fought to require the regulation of fracking and full and public disclosure of the chemicals used in drilling operations.

“These accusations are a political ploy to cover up the results and bring a halt to the study,” said Gwen Lachelt, director of Earthworks’ OGAP. “We’ve seen this time and again with industry shirking responsibility and the government turning its back on the people who bear the impact of energy development in our country,” Lachelt stated.

“The EPA is conducting a scientifically sound investigation of the contamination in the Pavillion area,” said Wilma Subra, chemist, president of Subra Company, and board member of the State Review of Oil & Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER). “Holding the samples for a longer time did not compromise the results. If anything, longer hold times make the results less likely to indicate contamination,” Subra stated.

“The American public needs to see this for what it is: a planned assault to undermine the Pavillion study and smear the EPA.” said Deb Thomas with Powder River Basin Resource Council, “EnCana did get one thing right.  The state of Wyoming should hold their own testing events to the same standards they’re demanding from EPA.  The state’s test results should publicly release all critical information, including all the Report-related raw data. That would allow all parties and citizens to understand what regulated and non-regulated chemicals are being found in our drinking water and aquifers.  ”

The area under investigation just east of Pavillion is home to about 160 residents in the middle of the Wind River Indian Reservation, 150 miles east of Grand Teton National Park. Residents share their farming operations with over 200 oil and gas wells that surround their homes. Toxic chemicals were found in nearly nine out of every ten wells sampled. In monitor wells drilled by EPA, benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, was found at 50 times the limit safe for human health along with numerous other toxic chemicals including 2-BE, a chemical used in fracking operations. Through the years contamination has been suspected, EnCana supplied and halted drinking water service to residents. In 2011 EnCana tried to sell its entire Pavillion/Muddy Ridge gas field to Legacy Oil & Gas out of Midland, Texas. Legacy backed out of the sale in late November.

For more information:

• PACC letter to the EPA
• EPA announcement of Pavillion draft results
• EPA Pavillion study page:
• PRBRC website
• PACC website
• Earthworks: Community Survey Reveals Health Impacts in Pavillion, WY Gas-field

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By Andrew Gottlieb, May 7, 2011 2:16 pm

What’s Gotten into Us?: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World

by McKay Jenkins
Random House, 2011
Reviewed by Andrew C. Gottlieb

McKay Jenkins new book is the Fast Food Nation of the toxic chemical world, and he’s written an eye-opening, scary, and potentially impactful text. He’s broken the book into chapters with titles including The Body, The Home, The Tap, The Lawn, and The Big Box Store, and this is a clue to the content: Jenkins is educating readers about chemical dangers lurking in the most common of places: your basement, your kitchen, your water, your green lawn, your favorite mall.

Importantly, Jenkins reveals that the chemicals corporations have been developing and selling in past decades—polyvinyl chloride (PVC), petrochemicals (think: thousands of consumer products like plastics, cosmetics, food storage containers) flame retardents, pesticides and herbicides (think: 2,4-D or 2,4-dicholorphenoxyacetic acid)—hundreds of which are unregulated and commonly in use today,  have the ability to migrate into our bodies, accumulating in potentially disruptive, carcinogenic, and/or lethal amounts.

Jenkins worries not about the single exposure to a chemical but a lifetime’s accumulation, and his research points out potential links to increases in cancer, autism and other diseases. As Jenkins indicates in his prologue: “most of the tens of thousands of chemicals used commercially have been around…far too short a time for researchers to figure out…what impact they might have on our health.”

Jenkins’s own health scare prompted this book. Doctors cut a benign tumor out of his hip. Prior to surgery, he was asked all kinds of questions about his prior chemical exposure, making him realize that we have only a vague understanding of the links between most toxic chemicals and the health consequences.

The political ramifications are that change only occurs at the corporate level when populations of people get scared about what’s in their or their children’s bodies. Thyroid & hormone disruption, autism, cancer: a sixty year old may shrug, but when a mid-thirties new mother finds out that her breast milk may contain flame retardants, lead, phthalates, or other toxic chemicals, all of which may have the potential to disrupt a child’s hormonal, reproductive or other bodily system, she listens. And can adjust spending habits, spending money on organic or other products free from toxic chemicals. As Jenkins points out, corporations worry less about federal regulations: for many chemicals, regulation is nonexistant, and lobbyists in Washington can deter most changes. But losing consumers and revenue is a different story.

This is a scary book, but not without optimism and suggestions for change. After Sweden prohibited PBDE’s (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or flame retardant compounds) in late 1999, levels in Swedish breast milk dropped 30 percent in immediate years following. The book’s appendix is a solid resource of ideas, how-tos, and names or URLs to companies selling healthy non-toxic products. Change is possible, Jenkins tells us.

Jenkins’s research is impressive: the notes alone for the book are a healthy 50+ pages. My only quibble is the text could use an indicator to tell the reader when to refer to a reference in the notes section. None exist in this edition.

It’s a small quibble. If you have any interest in your body, your house, your physical enviroment, and the potential for toxic chemicals moving between the two, get a copy of this book now.

~~~

Andrew C. Gottlieb is the Reviews Editor for Terrain.org. His work can be found online, in many print journals, and in his poetry chapbook Halflives (New Michigan Press.)

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By Simmons Buntin, August 17, 2010 4:54 pm

Recently, artist Nicole Antebi sent us a little information about a new media/book website:

Water, CA: Creative Visualizations for a New Millennium
www.watercalifornia.org

Water, CA is a series of 22 contemporary projects engaging the history, mystery, and challenge of California’s water. Presented by Antebi and artist Enid Baxter Blader, Water, CA is a multimedia experiment in geography that incorporates mythological and playful understandings of complex histories. The enticingly interactive website features essays, painting, photography, video animations, and a California water timeline.

And I think we may just be looking at the future of creative, place-based multimedia. It is accessible, informative, artistic, and — once you’re familiar with the format — easy to move through. I admit it took me a while to figure out how to get into the individual projects (hover over the location of your choice then click the artist’s name). Ideally there should be a connect between the list of water projects in the blue box and the website visitor’s ability to then get into the projects — but they only indicate where in the state those projects are located. Just remember where they’re at, hover your pointer over that location, and you can dive in, so to speak.

That aside, we at Terrain.org think this is a pretty fantastic collaborative effort, and encourage you to check it out, pronto.

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By Simmons Buntin, May 21, 2010 2:47 pm

Corporations and foundations create campaign that will fund environmental nonprofits to protect the Colorado River

Fort Collins, CO – A coalition of seven sustainably driven corporations and foundations has united to raise funding and awareness for the environmentally threatened Colorado River. The campaign, initiated by New Belgium Brewing and the Clean Water Fund, will donate money to environmental nonprofits in the Colorado River basin working to promote water conservation and protect the river.

“We are proud to bring this dedicated group of environmental philanthropists together,” said Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium Brewing. “The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the American Southwest, and it is the lifeblood of the people and the companies that thrive here.  Although the threats to this river are enormous, we want to step forward and begin the necessary work to help keep it alive.”

The philanthropic campaign includes partners from the beginning of the Colorado River basin all the way to the end:

• New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado
• Patagonia, Ventura, California
• Aspen Snowmass Environment Foundation, Aspen, Colorado
• Kenney Brothers Foundation, Denver, Colorado
• National Geographic Maps, Evergreen, Colorado
• Environment Now, Santa Monica, California
• OARS, Angels Camp, California

In an average year, the Colorado River flows with approximately 5 trillion gallons of water. Over the last decade, dams, diversions, and a population of 30 million users have completely drained the Colorado so that it no longer reaches the Gulf of California but ends in an ecologically degraded mud flat.

Climate change, population growth, and drought threaten to deplete the river even further. Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proclaimed that within 2 years the water level in Lake Mead could drop so low that serious water and electric shortages will occur in Las Vegas. The river also contains four endangered species of fish that are clinging to life amidst the dammed and depleted flows.

The “Save the Colorado” campaign will donate funding through a granting cycle twice a year for three years – 2010, 2011, and 2012.  Granting will total nearly $500,000 and will focus on three programmatic areas:

1. Efforts that raise public awareness about the threats to the Colorado River and its water supplies.
2. Efforts that promote water conservation, or change public policy about water conservation, in cities that receive Colorado River water including the Denver/Front Range of Colorado, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.
3. Efforts that protect and enhance the ecological health and biodiversity of the Colorado River and its tributaries, including addressing the threats of new diversions and dams, mitigating past degradation and securing “instream flows.”

“The beauty and scale of the Colorado River are inspiring to all of us in the West,” said Hans Cole, Environmental Grants Manager for Patagonia.  “But, the river also provides a dramatic example of how fragile such a powerful force of nature can be when faced with the combined threats of overconsumption, drought and climate change.  The River and the natural communities that rely on it need our help.  We are honored to join this campaign.”

Visit http://SaveTheColorado.org to learn more about how businesses, environmental non-profits and individuals can get involved. The first granting cycle accepts applications from June 1 – June 30, 2010.