The Real Cost of Fracking by Michelle Bamberger & Robert Oswald

Author:Michelle Bamberger & Robert Oswald [Bamberger, Michelle & Oswald, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nature, Environmental Conservation & Protection, Medical, Toxicology, Political Science, Public Policy, Environmental Policy
ISBN: 9780807084946
Google: iErVAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00IBYYVT8
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2014-08-04T23:00:00+00:00

The response from FARAD was simple: “We do not answer ‘general questions.’ ” The agency referred me to a state veterinarian working in conjunction with a state diagnostic laboratory, or someone at a veterinary school. After several additional emails, I heard from one of FARAD’s codirectors, who advised on quarantine guidelines. He was lamenting his inability to answer my questions due to a lack of federal funding, specifically that related to chemical contamination.

I first spoke with Mary in January 2011, when the Jameson herd was eight months into the quarantine. Mary mentioned that due to the quarantine, she and Charlie would be forced to keep the bull calves for two years and that the bulls were hard to handle even with a cattle chute. Mary estimated that they had lost more than $10,000 but were not pursuing a lawsuit as they hoped they would make this money back in royalty payments once the wells were actively producing. Nevertheless, six head had gone to slaughter—as either adults after six months’ quarantine or yearlings after eight months’ quarantine. The cows that did not become pregnant were sent to auction. Only one cow of these had anything wrong with it—a cancer in the eye. Mary was concerned about this cow, so she specifically asked that the carcass be checked at the slaughterhouse to see if the cancer spread (it had not). Afraid that no one would purchase her cows because everyone knew what had happened on their farm, Mary wasn’t looking forward to the auction. Despite her fears, the cattle were purchased and sent on to slaughter, and she was happy with what she was paid for each carcass.

Was the wastewater impoundment still on the Jamesons’ property? Soon after the quarantine was instituted, the drillers removed the impoundment and now store wastewater in very large trailer trucks on Mary and Charlie’s property and at another site where a wastewater impoundment leaked.

Exposure of wildlife, especially deer, to wastewater seemed to bother Mary much more than her cows being exposed and going on to slaughter. Deer were always on the well pad, especially when the impoundment was there, and it was impossible to keep them off. In a later interview, Mary mentioned two men who regularly hunted on their farmland and continued to do so after the Jamesons’ well was drilled and hydraulically fractured. The men shot a small and a large deer and became ill with vomiting and diarrhea after cooking the meat for themselves, and later for friends—where everyone became severely ill. They also noted that their cats and dogs wouldn’t touch the meat, cooked or raw.

Mary had ten packages of the meat in her freezer, including the liver from one of the deer, and was hoping that I could have it tested. She had tried to have it tested but was told that legally she couldn’t test the meat because it belonged to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and the commission couldn’t test the meat because there was no chain of custody, that is, no written documentation of the source of the meat.

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