Het Brabants Dagblad meldt vandaag: 'Als Brabant Resources in de Boxtelse bodem naar schaliegas op zoek gaat, worden er chemicaliën gebruikt en drinkwater om naar dat gas te boren. Dinsdagavond hadden onder meer D66 en CDA in de Boxtelse gemeenteraad een aantal zeer technische vragen aan wethouder Peter van de Wiel over het boren naar schaliegas.'
In Amerika is het winnen van shale gas door middel van hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') in de buurt van drinkwatervoorraden inmiddels zeer omstreden geworden, met name betreffende de grote voorraden gas bij en onder New York en Pittsburgh. De zorgen over verontreiniging van drinkwater door chemicaliën en zelfs dieselolie - die soms illegaal wordt ingespoten - zijn groot. Zie bijvoorbeeld:
Hydraulic Fracturing – Potential for Contamination of Drinking Water Sources
Door Stephen Yang, State of the Planet, 5 maart 2010
Historical ordinance: Pittsburgh Bans Fracking
Door Mari Margil and Ben Price, YES! Magazine / Altnernet, 16 november 2010
Buried Secrets: Is Natural Gas Drilling Endangering U.S. Water Supplies?
Door Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 13 november 2008
Serie artikelen op Alternet.org over hydraulic fracturing.
Serie artikelen op Climateprogress.org waarin hydraulic fracturing aan de orde komt of wordt genoemd.
Engelstalige en Nederlandstalige wikipedia over boren naar schaliegas.
Nederlandse wiki: Tweede Kamerlid Van Tongeren (GroenLinks) [heeft in 2010] vragen gesteld aan de minister van Economische Zaken over de winning van onconventioneel gas in Nederland. In het antwoord verwijst de minister naar het staatsbedrijf Energie Beheer Nederland dat een 40% belang heeft in de ondernemingen die de boringen uitvoeren. Verder geeft de minister aan dat er voor het 'kraken een heel klein percentage chemicaliën wordt toegevoegd aan het water en zand'. De minister geeft toe dat 'de samenstelling van de chemicaliën is vaak bedrijfsgeheim, omdat deze mede het succes en de effectiviteit van het "kraken" bepaalt. De concurrentie op deze markt is groot. De toezichthouder SodM krijgt wel inzicht in zowel de kwantitatieve als kwalitatieve samenstelling van de chemische additieven die gebruikt worden'.
Ongehoord dat we dus niet eens mogen weten wat voor rotzooi de bedrijven de bodem inspuiten om het gas te winnen![**]
Ik ben benieuwd hoe kritisch de vragen van D66 en CDA waren en of men goed op de hoogte is van de ontwikkelingen in de VS rond de gevaren van deze vorm van gaswinning.
Zie ook:
Ook schaliegas is niet vrij van milieubezwaren
Door Janne Chaudron, Trouw, 6 augustus 2010
Updates vanaf 28 februari 2011:
Steeds meer gemeenten tegen schaliegasboringen
Persbericht Milieudefensie, 21 september 2012
De winning van schaliegas is omstreden omdat de boringen kunnen leiden tot aardbevingen en vervuiling van grond- en drinkwater. De klimaateffecten kunnen nog negatiever uitpakken dan bij kolen. Bovendien is schaliegas een fossiele brandstof, die niet past in de noodzakelijke overstap naar duurzame energie.
Lijst schaliegasvrije gemeenten beleidsinformatie
Overzichtskaart schaliegasvrije gemeenten
Factsheet schaliegas
schaliegasvrij.nl/factsheet-schaliegas
Campagne Global Frackdown
Globalfrackdown.org
The sky is pink
Door Josh Fox (maker van Gasland), 2012
Korte film The sky is pink van Josh Fox - de maker van de schokkende documentaire 'Gasland' - over lekkende, gif verspreidende bronnen bij hydraulisch fractureren van gesteente in de bodem om er aardas uit te persen.
Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us
Door Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 21 juni 2012
"In 10 to 100 years we are going to find out that most of our groundwater is polluted," said Mario Salazar, an engineer who worked for 25 years as a technical expert with the EPA's underground injection program in Washington. "A lot of people are going to get sick, and a lot of people may die."
The Enviro Disaster You Know Nothing About: The Eco-Devastating Quest for "Frac Sand" in Rural America
Door Ellen Cantarow, TomDispatch / Alternet, 20 mei 2012
Midwestern rural communities are being devastated by energy companies searching for a form of sand to use in their destructive fracking operations elsewhere in rural America.
Vermont Will Be First U.S. State to Ban Fracking
Environment News Service / Alternet, 9 mei 2012
The current fracking-enabled natural gas boom across the United States has poisoned drinking water, polluted air and sickened people living near gas wells.
Chemicals From Marcellus Shale Fracking Could Reach Surface In ‘Just A Few Years,’ Study Finds
Door Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 1 mei 1012
Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies [...] But the study, using computer modeling, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface in as little as "just a few years."
Independent Analysis Confirms That Hydraulic Fracturing Caused Drinking Water Contamination In Wyoming
Door Jessica Goad, Public Lands Team / Climate Progress, 1 mei 2012
Gemeenteraad wil van Boxtel schaliegasvrije gemeente maken
ANP/Trouw, 5 maart 2012
Bombshell Study: High Methane Emissions Measured Over Gas Field “May Offset Climate Benefits of Natural Gas”
Door Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 9 februari 2012
How much methane leaks during the entire lifecycle of unconventional gas has emerged as a key question in the fracking debate.
Damning New Letter from NY State Insider: 'Hydraulic Fracturing as It's Practiced Today Will Contaminate Our Aquifers'
DoorKaren MacVeigh, The Guardian, 5 januari 2012
EPA Implicates Fracking in Groundwater Pollution at Wyoming Gas Field
Door Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 8 december 2011
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.
The Food, Water and Health Crisis Surrounding Natural Gas Extraction
Door Amy Goodman en Juan Gonzales, Democracy Now! / Alternet, 28 mei 2011
Biologist Sandra Steingraber talks about the threats that fracking poses to our food, water, jobs, and even our health.
France To Ban Fracking
Door Mamta Badkar, Business Insider, 12 mei 2011
Gasland
VPRO-Tegenlicht over de nadelen van schaliegas (september 2011)
Gasland The Movie
Documentaire en informatieve website gaslandthemovie.com
My Water's On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)
Video door David Holmes, onder auspiciën van ProPublica, gepubliceerd op Climate Progress
Methane on Tap: Study Links Pollution to Gas Drilling
Door Wil Andruschak, National Geographic, 9 mei 2011
Toxins Found In Gas Drilling Fluids
The Wall Street Journal, 18 april 2011
Drilling down on natural gas fracking concerns
Door Tom Kenworthy, Daniel J. Weiss, Lisbeth Kaufman, and Christina C. DiPasquale, Center for American Progress / Climate Progress, 21 maart 2011
The potential and peril of hydraulic fracturing.
'Boren naar Brabants gas levert radioactief afval op'
Tjerk Gualthérie van Weezel, de Volkskrant, 28 februari 2011
[*] Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
Door Ian Urbina, The New York Times, 26 februari 2011
Bespreking op Climate Progress:
NY Times on natural gas fracking: “The dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.”
Door Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 27 februari 2011
American Petroleum Institute apparently fine with dumping cancer-causing radioactive waste off Louisiana coast.
Frack this: More dangers to public health from natural gas hydraulic fracturing emerge
Door Tom Kenworthy, CAP / Climate Progress, 7 maart 2011
In its second story, the Times charges that recycling of the wastewater produced during drilling also entails risks to public health and the environment:
'Some methods can leave behind salts or sludge highly concentrated with radioactive material and other contaminants that can be dangerous to people and aquatic life if they get into waterways. Some well operators are also selling their waste, rather than paying to dispose of it. Because it is so salty, they have found ready buyers in communities that spread it on roads for de-icing in the winter and for dust suppression in the summer. When ice melts or rain falls, the waste can run off roads and end up in the drinking supply.'
'Fracking' Comes to Europe, Sparking Rising Controversy
Door Ben Schiller, Yale Environment 360 / Alternet, 10 maart 2011
As concerns grow in the U.S. about fracking to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this "unconventional" gas.
Vergelijk deze eerdere waarschuwing:
Hydraulic Fracturing Process Dangerous for the Environment
Door Emily Kennedy, Mother Earth News, 1 oktober 2010
(...) Hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydrofracturing or hydrofracking, is a process used to increase the water flow from a bedrock well. This process occurs when the size of the fractures in bedrock is increased so that more water can enter into the well. Some drilling companies argue that hydrofracking costs less than, and is a better alternative to, drilling deeper. However, according to the January 4, 2010 newsletter issue for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice titled “Growing Opposition to High Risk Hydrofracking Technology”; many scientists are opposed to the process because of the high levels of radium it releases into the environment. The newsletter also states that “water brought thousands of feet to the surface from drilling had levels of radioactive radium – 226 as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment.
Disclosure of chemicals in gas fracking advances
Door Tom Kenworthy, Climate Progress, 3 december 2010
(...) this week, three oil and gas industry trade associations – America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the American Exploration & Production Council – announced their support for the establishment of a fracking chemicals registry being developed by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. Though participation in the registry would be voluntary by individual companies, it still represents a meaningful, if incomplete, step. Obviously, the energy industry is beginning to read the writing on the wall as far as public disclosure is concerned.
EPA Wants to Look at Full Lifecycle of Fracking in New Study
Door Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica, 9 februari 2011
The EPA has proposed examining every aspect of hydraulic fracturing, from water withdrawals to waste disposal, according to a draft plan. If the study goes forward as planned, it would be the most comprehensive investigation of whether the drilling technique risks polluting drinking water near oil and gas wells across the nation.
The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas
[De uitkomsten van dit onderzoek staan beschreven in het artikel 'Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers' in The New York Times - zie hierboven!; K]
Zie ook m'n blognotities:
Steeds meer gemeenten tegen schaliegas
Hydraulisch fractureren ('fracking') vergiftigt grond en water
Weer heerlijk staaltje dom denken. Het gaat maar om 'kleine percentages'... Nou en. 1% van ontzettend veel is nog steeds veel. En die troep die ze inspuiten wordt niet na afgebroken, maar komt wel in het grondwater terrecht...
BeantwoordenVerwijderenZo moeilijk is het niet.