On February 22nd in Knoxville, a coalition of environmental and grassroots justice groups will hold a rally to initiate what they hope will be a larger public discussion of oil and gas well drilling impacts and regulations in Tennessee. They will then offer testimony at a public hearing on proposed changes to oil and gas well regulations by the Tennessee Oil and Gas Board.
Here is the full press release from the groups concerned about gas well drilling and hydrofracturing issues in Tennessee:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2011
Contact:
William Wilson, United Mountain Defense, (865) 978.7582;
Renee Hoyos, TN Clean Water Network (865) 522. 7007 ext. 100
Regional Environmental Organizations Call for Tighter Regulations, More Transparency for Gas Drilling in Tennessee
KNOXVILLE— Several environmental groups have joined together to ask the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) for greater oversight of gas drilling permits and practices. This request is in response to recent knowledge that the Halliburton-developed natural gas drilling technology known as fracking is taking place in Tennessee without any regulations. In fact, industries are not even required to tell TDEC when they frack a well.
“Although our state regulators assure us that fracking, if it is done at all here, is perfectly safe under the proposed regulations, experience in other states has shown that when the natural gas bandwagon gets to Tennessee—and it will—we will need far stronger regulations than what is being offered us,” says Axel Ringe, Vice Conservation Chair of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Tennessee Oil and Gas Board proposed changes to gas drilling regulations. A public hearing is scheduled for February 22 at 6 p.m., at TDEC’s main offices at 3711 Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville.
Representatives of the following environmental organizations plan to be in attendance: Tennessee League of Women Voters, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP), Sierra Club, Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN), United Mountain Defense (UMD), and Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM).
Fracking can use any number of chemicals. Industries are not required to disclose which chemicals they use or how much. One estimate says that more than 80,000 pounds of chemicals are injected into the earth’s crust per well. In states across the nation, fracking has become well known for its disastrous effects upon aquifers and drinking water wells, with many accounts of people being able to light their tap water on fire after a well has been fracked near their home.
“We want to see more regulations on gas drilling methods. Fracking involves the injection of chemicals into the ground, without regulation and without understanding what happens once they’re in the ground,” says William Wilson of UMD.
Another controversial aspect of fracking is its use of water—tens of thousands of gallons to millions, depending on each individual drilling site. Even without the use of chemical additives, pumping such large amounts of water into the ground can bring brine, Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM), and other contaminants to the surface.
“Across the nation, people are being negatively impacted by this practice. Within hours of a fracking event, people’s drinking water wells can no longer be used. Why do we think it will be any different here? This practice needs to be regulated at the state and federal level to protect human health and the environment, ” said Renée Victoria Hoyos, executive director of TCWN, one of the groups calling for strict regulations.
TDEC’s Geological Department reports that there are 15,340 gas and oil wells in the state.
“When many of these wells were drilled, adequate baseline data for air and water around them did not exist,” said Cathie Bird, who chairs the Energy-Ecology-Environmental Justice Committee of SOCM. “When the first inch of dirt is disturbed to drill the well, that’s when the monitoring should start, and it shouldn’t stop. Even wells that have been sealed and abandoned are known to leak. We really don’t have a clue about the short- or long-term impacts of one well, let alone thousands.”
The Chevron Corporation recently acquired 120,000 acres in Tennessee with the stated goal of exploiting the natural gas potential of the Chattanooga and Utica Shale. There are an estimated 500 potential drilling sites within that acreage.
There will be a public demonstration at 4:30 p.m. EST leading up to the public hearing on Tue., Feb. 22, 2011 at 6 p.m.
The coalition encourages those with concerns about Tennessee’s gas drilling regulations to attend this demonstration in order to obtain more information before the hearing begins.
The public is also invited to a public screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland on Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at 800 Luttrell Street.
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