Gary Jacobucci, Wells P&Z
Opinion:
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Fracked in Elko County
The open communications forum on fracking hosted by the Bureau of Land Management at the Red Lion March 14th proved to be a love fest between the BLM and Nobel Energy.
Gary Johnson, the BLM Deputy State Director for Minerals, was there to tell us how much money had been
brought in from fracking operations nationwide and to assure us that the BLM was going to monitor surface disturbances. Jeff Schwarz was there from Nobel Gas was there to tell us that we didn’t need to be concerned about the contamination of our ground water and could go back to sleep.
Schwarz presented a list of chemicals they were going to be using in their hydraulic fracturing operations along with a listing of how these chemicals were already used in other household products; implying that because they are already in use, that putting them into our drinking water was OK. Schwarz made reference to the FracFocus website, saying that there was transparency in what chemicals they were going to be using.
But when asked if he could assure Elko County that BTEX compounds, and known carcinogens, like known carcinogens were not going to be use in the drilling process, Schwatz hesitantly responded yes, but quickly added that there are proprietary chemicals that will be used. Proprietary, meaning secret.
This lack of disclosure of what chemicals are actually going to be injected underground is known as the Halliburton loophole and makes the listing of chemicals on the FracFocus website both deceptive and meaningless. The Halliburton loophole refers to the Halliburton legal team finding a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act that exempts fracking operations from having to disclose what chemicals they are injecting underground. More
