ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Alberta resident Jessica Ernst is warning Newfoundland about the risks of hydraulic fracturing, saying she blames the contentious fracking process for making her well water flammable.

“It does ignite like a blow torch,” she said from her rural home near Rosebud, Alta.

[quote]It’s too dangerous to even use to flush toilets. One spark could cause the gas to ignite and cause a serious explosion.[/quote]

Ernst visited Stephenville, N.L., on Sunday to convey what she says is a cautionary tale about an oil and gas extraction method that industry proponents defend as safe. Debate about fracking is escalating on Newfoundland’s scenic west coast where there are plans to drill exploration wells near Gros Morne National Park pending government approvals.

Newfoundland on the edge of fracking

Ernst was invited by a concerned citizens group to speak to local residents.

“For areas that do not have fracking yet, once you let it in, you’ll never get it out,” she said.

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping water, nitrogen, sand and chemical additives at high pressure to fracture shale rock formations and allow gas or oil to flow through well bores to the surface. It’s increasingly used across Canada and the U.S. as energy demands grow while conventional sources wane.

Ernst, a 56-year-old environmental consultant with a Master of Science degree and 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, is hardly a lone voice raising alarms. The award-winning documentary Gasland tracks complaints of water contamination in rural areas across the U.S. where gas wells were fracked.

Industry’s claims of no water contamination challenged

Emma Lui, national water campaigner for the citizens’ interest group Council of Canadians, said a lack of independent research before and after fracking means safety assurances ring hollow.

[quote]It’s common for industry and some governments to say there are no known cases of water contamination, but that’s because they don’t have that baseline information. They don’t actually have the adequate research to back those claims up.[/quote]

Tom Marshall, Newfoundland and Labrador’s natural resources minister, said he has heard those concerns and is gathering input across Canada to ensure provincial regulations reflect best practices.

Newfoundland grants exploration licences, consulting with geologists

The province has not yet received formal applications to frack wells in western Newfoundland although exploration licences have been granted in what’s known as the Green Point shale, he said in an interview.

The Progressive Conservative government will consult geologists and geophysicists now studying Newfoundland’s west coast where, unlike Alberta’s more shallow coalbed gas deposits, it’s believed deep shale formations hold oil, he added.

Any drilling proposal would get full environmental scrutiny, Marshall said.

[quote]Our government has always been one that supports economic development. But only within a framework that ensures protection of the environment and protection of public health and safety.[/quote]

Ernst said Newfoundlanders should be wary.

“We got the same promises here.”

Ernst’s $33 million fracking lawsuit

She has filed a $33-million lawsuit with the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta against North American energy producer Encana, the provincial energy regulator and the provincial government. Her unproven statement of claim alleges gas wells fracked around her property between 2001 and 2006 unleashed hazardous amounts of methane and ethane gas and other chemicals into her private water well.

Ernst claims that Encana fracked “without taking necessary precautions to protect in-use aquifers or water wells” from such contamination. She also claims that regulators at the Energy Resources Conservation Board, now the Alberta Energy Regulator, failed to reasonably act on her reports of contamination or her concerns that Encana breached laws and regulations meant to protect water supplies.

Finally, Ernst claims the Alberta government failed to reasonably protect her well water, investigate contamination or correct reported damage.

Bob Curran, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator, declined in an email to comment on the lawsuit as it’s before the courts.

Alberta defends fracking safety

Bart Johnson, a spokesman for the Alberta government, also declined to comment on the case but said fracking has been done safely for decades.

“In regard to hydraulic fracturing generally, the technology has been used safely in Alberta for over 60 years and its use is tightly regulated and monitored by the Alberta Energy Regulator,” he said in an email. “Approximately 174,000 wells have been fractured in the province since the technology was introduced in the 1950s.”

The province and energy regulator have not filed statements of defence.

Encana blames Ernst

In its statement of defence, Encana denies all of Ernst’s allegations and blames her for any pollution.

It says Encana complied with or exceeded all laws and regulations “in respect of its coal bed methane exploration, drilling, stimulation and production operations” and took all necessary precautions to safeguard the Ernst water well.

“To the extent that natural gas or related substances have been detected on the Ernst property or in the Ernst well, which is denied, such substances occurred naturally or by other causes.”

Encana suggests Ernst failed to maintain her water well and is at fault for any contamination. It also says two gas wells at the heart of her allegations were not fracked but “stimulated” — a process that pumps inert nitrogen gas at high pressure into coal seams to release natural gas.

Skin burns

Ernst says in a rebuttal filed in court that she sought professional advice to look after her well since she bought the 20-hectare property in 1998. She first noticed problems eight years ago when she developed strange burns on her skin and her two dogs recoiled from a fresh bowl of water, she said.

She now trucks fresh water in from another community.

“If they can frack all around Gros Morne, they’ll be able to frack all of Newfoundland,” Ernst said. “They did that here.”

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Earlier this week, The Common Sense Canadian brought you the underreported story of flood damage to oil and gas infrastructure in Colorado – featuring photos taken by a local group concerned about toxic chemicals and hydrocarbons leaking into rivers and farmland, in the wake of the state’s catastrophic storm.

Today, we bring you new aerial photos of the wreckage, taken Tuesday over hard-hit Weld County by Colorado conservation photography group EcoFlight.

Colorado is one of a dozen or more states that have been part of the controversial “fracking” boom across the United States and around the world. The state’s recent flooding raises the question: should fracking operations be located in a floodplain – especially one with a history of major floods?

Moreover, what oil and gas-related environmental and health impacts are really occurring as a result of this disaster?

Despite the lack of mainstream media coverage of the issue, we do know from the Denver Post of one confirmed pipeline rupture and at least 5,250 gallons of crude oil spilled into the South Platte River from two tank batteries ripped open by the flood.

According to The Post:

[quote]The flood that began late last week toppled dozens of oil and gas storage tanks and swamped other production facilities at sites in the flood plain. Earlier this week, oil drums, some empty, some full, could be seen floating in the river as far east as Kersey.[/quote]

Representatives for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association said Tuesday that nearly 1,900 oil and gas wells in the affected areas have been shut, with industry personnel inspecting and repairing sites.

That does little to reassure Cliff Willmeng of the local anti-fracking group East Boulder County United, who noted earlier this week, “Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and known disruptors of the human endocrine system. As of today there is no testing taking place, industrial, independent or otherwise to determine the extent of the contamination, nor any talk of it.”

In a follow-up conversation today, Willmeng indicated industry and government authorities have done nothing to allay his concerns:

[quote]What’s perfectly clear here is that the industry is going to act on this disaster in terms of damage control. They’re not prepared to respond to this – they don’t have the labour power, the technical resources or the motivation. This needs to go to higher authorities – the oil and gas industry can’t be the authority on the environmental assessment and remediation of Weld County.[/quote]

A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Todd Hartman, downplayed the risks of contamination from open storage pits for toxic frack fluids, noting there are relatively few of these pits in the region of the flood. “We are assessing the impact to open pits, including building a count of how many pits may have been affected,” said Hartman.

Pennsylvania State University petroleum engineering professor Robert Watson also tried to calm the fears of people like Willmeng, telling The Globe and Mail, “The amount of wastewater is so small compared to the amount of water passing through there, and compared to the chemicals used in farming.”

To Willmeng:

[quote]These statements are highly speculative…State authorities don’t even know the scale of the damage yet – nor do they have the people required to properly investigate the situation. What we’re seeing here is a classic game of passing the buck, downplaying the actual damage in an attempt to allay the fears of the public.[/quote]

His organization and others are calling for an immediate statewide moratorium on oil and as activity. In addition, “we’re calling for the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission to end its litigation and harassment of communities protecting themselves by denying oil and gas activity.” The groups have created a petition to this effect.

There are currently five communities in Colorado voting on ballot initiatives to create moratoriums or outright bans of oil and gas activities.

All photos below courtesy of EcoFlight. See more aerial images on their website here.

A Colorado citizens’ group is raising alarm bells about the possible release of toxic chemicals into local rivers from flood-stricken fracking operations. At least one broken pipeline has been confirmed by local authorities.

The group, East Boulder County United – which aims to keep the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing out of its communities – has been posting photos of natural gas infrastructure and chemical storage tanks inundated by recent floods to its facebook page. See this staggering collection of photos here, continued at bottom of story.

The group began sharing these images in an effort to wake the public and media up to this untold chapter of Colorado’s widely-covered flood story. Says East Boulder County United spokesperson Cliff Willmeng:

[quote]Our concern is that all of these sites contain various amounts of hazardous industrial wastes that are now capable of spilling into the waterways and onto the agricultural land. Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and known disruptors of the human endocrine system. As of today there is no testing taking place, industrial, independent or otherwise to determine the extent of the contamination, nor any talk of it. And one can guarantee that this week the COGCC will be issuing more drilling permits even as the hydrocarbons flow into the rivers. [/quote]

According to one of the few local media stories to report on the oil and gas dimension of the flood, from The Denver Post yesterday, at least

one pipeline leak has been confirmed by Weld County Emergency Manager Roy Rudisill. “Other industry pipelines are sagging as saturated sediment erodes around the expanding river,” the Post reports.

Industry crews “are shutting in the lines, shutting in the wells,” Rudisill told the paper.

The photos were taken on Friday and Saturday afternoon throughout several northern Colorado farming communities at the centre of the state’s “500 year flood” – in neighbouring Boulder and Weld counties.

According to The Denver Post:

[quote]Oil drums, tanks and other industrial debris mixed into the swollen river flowing northeast. County officials did not give locations of where the pipeline broke and where other pipelines were compromised. [/quote]

Willmeng partly blames a lack of regulatory oversight for the situation he and his fellow landowners find themselves in. “There are over 20,000 oil and gas wells in Weld County alone,” Willmeng told The Common Sense Canadian via email. “By comparison there are only 17 inspectors for the entire state of Colorado.

“Prior to the floods we knew that the oil and gas industry was left to police itself. Now the rivers, agricultural zones and residences get to bear that decision.”

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Colorado has been one of a number of states hit by the recent boom in fracking operations – including Pennsylvania, New York State, Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota and Louisiana.

Willmeng’s group is also concerned the oil and gas companies whose operations are flooded will downplay the risk of contamination:

[quote]The industry is going to claim that it remotely shut in all of the relevant wells. Unfortunately not all the hydrocarbons are protected within the well bore. There are exposed pipes, VOC burners and infrastructure related to the storage of oil, gas and

toxic industrial waste that all sit above the ground. The flood waters have hit all of these structures where they sit. [/quote]

The Common Sense Canadian has covered the issue of water contamination from fracking for some time. Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.

All Photos courtesy of East Boulder County United