House Explodes in Quitman Arkansas. Natural Gas In Water Well Nearby!

We last posted an article about a water well on Locust Street in Quitman which has natural gas spewing out of it.  Since that time, some residents in that neighborhood have complained of headaches and feeling sick all the time. A few residents have filmed the water well bubbling and spewing gas out of the abandoned water well.  Residents in the Locust Street neighborhood have been voicing their fears of gas migration in the area.  One woman actually passed out in her own home and has constant headaches.  Fox says the gas well is scheduled to be capped off tomorrow.  This neighbor is very frightened that the gas well being capped off will cause more gas to migrate into their home.  The family of the house that exploded escaped harm, but the house was charred to its bare frame.   Fox 16 reports. 

Migration....and I'm not talkin' about birds.

Southwestern Energy in Canada is doing exploration as part of this process they do a surface assessment.   It's really simply:

This low-impact process includes three basic steps.


First, a field technician uses a hand tool to make a small, shallow hole in the ground. The hole measures from 1-2 cm in diameter and is 50-100 cm deep. The coordinates are recorded using GPS hand units.


Second, a flexible tube is placed into the hole. This tube captures the hydrocarbon gases that naturally seep to the surface.

Finally, the entire tube is retrieved three weeks later and the hole is filled.

This puzzles me. How do those hydrocarbons travel all the way up to the surface if there are thousands of feet of impervious rock and NO VERTICAL FRACTURES? Why is it they say toxic water can't travel back to the surface?   Some believe they know there ARE vertical fractures that reach to the surface.  Shell Oil also admits this in it's article Sniffing for Gas. Another article I found was from the Colorado School of the Mines.    In this article, the author talks about hydrocarbons making it to the surface vertically. All viable methods of surface geochemistry depend on mechanisms of loss from the reservoir and vertical migration, without frequent lateral offset or dispersion.


  If this migration is occuring, how can they say water contamination from hydraulic fracturing chemicals is impossible?  FRACKING CAUSES FURTHER ROCK FRACTURES, and the toxic chemicals are meant to prop open the rock.

  Surely you can't have it both ways.

So this is what it's like to get sold out...by Greers Ferry Lake Natural Gas Watch

By Greers Ferry Lake Natural Gas Watch (like them on facebook)


The other day our elected officials stood on the steps of our state capitol and spoke out in the interest of these corporations and demanded that we "show them documents" to prove our state is negatively impacted by shale gas development. We've shown them videos of burning faucets in our state, we've shown them FLIR GasFind IR videos of pollutants being dumped in our air, we've shown them water test reports with diesel fuel and other toxins listed and we've shown and told them personal stories about people being bullied and told that these corporations were coming onto their land whether they liked it or not.

Whether people have "documents" or not they still have a right to be heard by their elected officials and those elected officials have an obligation to investigate each and every complaint.

My guess is that our documents didn't have pictures of dead presidents on them like Cheasapeake's (CHK) and Southwestern's (SWN) documents did...

I really like the author of this letter in the Sun Times.
She speaks the truth.

Heber Springs, Ar.
Remind politicians who they represent

Dear Editor:

Our legislative representatives, Josh Johnston and Jason Rapert, are members of the “shale caucus”. This group opposes all legislative proposals that will increase any oversight or place any restrictions on the gas industry. They oppose bills to establish a gas-well inspection program, bills to protect our roads, air and water (ground water, lakes and streams), and a bill to increase bonding to protect Arkansans from holding the toxic bag if companies go bankrupt or fail to meet their clean-up responsibilities. Our quorum court just passed a resolution (drawn up by the industry and distributed to all Chambers of Commerce and Quorum Courts in the Fayetteville Shale play), concluding with the following statement: “Now, therefore, the Cleburne County Quorum Court does hereby resolve to oppose any and all of the current severance tax increases on natural gas. We also oppose all of the currently filed regulatory measures on gas gathering operation in the Fayetteville Shale.” This was approved, despite the fact that they admittedly did not know the specifics of any of the pending bills. The industry argues that if Arkansas enacts restrictions or oversight, they will take their business elsewhere, a scenario that is unlikely to happen, considering the amount of investment they have already made here. Even if they do leave, the gas will still be here, and the demand for that gas will increase in the future. It would behoove us to remind our elected representatives that while Chesapeake, XTO and other developers may be their benefactors, they are not their constituents.

Carol Balderree

Heber Springs

http://www.thesuntimes.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x713429908/Letters-to-the-Editor

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Former Gubernatorial Candidate roughed up by police during Capitol Rally!

Rod Bryan, who is a well known former gubernatorial candidate, was roughed up by the police Wednesday during a rally about natural gas.  He is known to oppose highly controversial hydraulic fracturing and is for protecting our water resources. This abuse of this fine citizen is an outrage!  Meanwhile, our Senator Jason Rapert said he wants to know of any cases that the gas industry "intentionally" poisoned our water.  Huh?  Since when is the burden of proof intentional harm? He is the senator who organized this caucus to protect the gas industry.  What about the people?  Since when are multinational companies "folks?"  What about the real "folks?. Mr. Rapert is quoted in the Sun Times saying we should "always be willing to listen to opposing views before making judgments.”  Yet I have contacted Mr. Rapert before his election and requested a meeting to talk about all citizens, including Conservative Christians like himself,  up in Van Buren County who have had water problems.  He said he would if he got in to office.  After he was settled in, several citizens including myself contacted him to meet with him.  He shunned us.  He dodged meeting with any of us.  I noticed the many tweets between him, the gas companies and lobbyists and David Meeks about the legislation.  It really must be nice to have that kind of access.  He said "outsiders" are causing trouble.   But aren't these multi-national companies outsiders?  They slander anyone who stands up to them.  Anyone who reports their water problems or calls them out they label trouble-makers, just-in-it for the money makers, loud mouths, outsiders etc.  The slander occurs in back door rooms with government officials hanging with the old boy network. What about having a sit-down with REAL Arkansans.  We just wanted to give them a tour and talk...aren't we "folks" too.  As a fellow Christian, I would like to sit down with Senator Rapert and Representative Meeks  and ask them to have a deep, long drink of our affected water.  I'd like them to sit in our homes when a gas well is vented right near our children and take a deep long breath of air.   I would like to know if Mr. Rapert and Mr. Meeks would like to front the bill to test our water for all the chemicals that COULD be in our water?  What about the trade secret chemicals like POLYMERS which cause great damage to human health in even minute amounts. What about people who lost their water completely?  What about men of God who have lost their water...what about pastors who have been ill-treated as the gas companies have built monster compressor stations just hundreds of feet from their homes?  What about pastors who live behind fracking companies that spilled toxic waste on a daily basis.  LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE FIRST and then take your position. WALK A MONTH IN OUR SHOES.   Jesus said if you "give a cup of water in my name, so you are giving it unto me."

Scientist Wilma Subra Wins Human Rights Award!

Wilma Subra

Chemist Wilma Subra was awarded the Human Rights Award by Global Exchange for her tireless work exposing the health risks of the Gulf oil spill disaster.  Read more here.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette publishes this letter to the editor.

Great letter to the editor!  Well said:

LITTLE ROCK — Shale caucus unimpressive

Sixteen of our elected legislators have formed a caucus to protect the Fayetteville Shale play. They want to protect the economic impact of the affected counties. Really? What about protecting the citizens who elected them?

Yes, there are economic benefits, but what about the destructive impact on some citizens’ lives? Maybe they don’t care about folks who can no longer drink their well water or those who no longer have any water because of gas well activity near their homes. Not everyone can afford to tie into city water and there are some who are literally catching rain water to bathe in.

Maybe they don’t care about the toxic emissions from gas wells and injection wells that have sickened some, causing nosebleeds, headaches and rashes. They obviously don’t care enough to appropriate more money so the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality can hire more inspectors to investigate citizen complaints.

They say that the Fayetteville Shale is an economic engine that we must protect. That’s nice. There’s nothing in their prepared statement about protecting the environment or everyday citizens who live in the gas fields. Of course, we don’t have the deep pocketbooks the gas companies do.

Thanks for nothing, all 16 of you. We know your names and we will do all we can to see that you are not reelected.

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Josh Fox visits the Earthquake zone in Guy, Arkansas! GASLAND showing 6:30 at Guy HS followed by Q&A

Academy Award Nominee Josh Fox will be present at a GASLAND showing at the GUY HS Auditorium in Guy, Arkansas on Saturday March 26, 2011 at 6:30PM.  Josh will be conducting a question and answer following the showing and is especially interested in speaking with anyone with earthquake experiences.  We expect many in the media to join us that evening.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=162463390476215

The Living Billboard to bring awareness of Shale Gas Abuses
April 1, 2011 from 4-6 PM across the street from Hendrix College on Harkrider Rd, Conway, Arkansas
Bring a poster with a clever sign with themes like Fracking hurts water, Save Greers Ferry Lake, Save Brewer Lake,  Stop injecting, Stop the earthquakes. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=141580745909844


GASLAND showing April 2, 2011 at 2PM at the Heber Springs Community Center, Heber Springs Arkansas 
Several people who appeared in the Arkansas footage of GASLAND will be available for question and answer afterward.  The focus will be on saving Greers Ferry Lake.  We will be creating a facebook event page shortly.