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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0421.118 2012-2014 COUNTY CLERK Dear County Council; 2013 OCT 16 PM 3: 28 My name is Judith Mura, and I am in support of Bill 129 - to ban fracking from Hawaii, on October 16, 2013 • I wish to comment on this most delicate subject; the effects that fracking has had in other countries, such as Switzerland, and the State of Arkansas and their ban on fracking due to the earthquakes created by it. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has banned fracking disposal wells for unconventional gas drilling wastes due to earthquakes. The Commission voted unanimously to ban them, and the decision requires the immediate closure of one disposal well and prohibits the construction of new wells within a 1,150 square mile radius. Arkansas residents insisted that there was a correlation between the increase in earthquake activity in the state and wastewater disposal wells. Imagine being on your way out one afternoon, opening your garage door, and experiencing an earthquake that you knew was being caused by gas drills. After monitoring hundreds of earthquakes, investigators have begun to confirm the connection between unconventional gas-related drilling and the quakes. The Oil and Gas Commission discovered that four disposal wells were located on a fault line responsible for dozens of earthquakes. As reported by the Associated Press, "after two of the four [disposal wells] stopped operating in March, there was a sharp decline in the number of earthquakes. In the 18 days before the shutdown, there were 85 quakes with a magnitude 2.5 or greater, but there were only 20 in the 18 days following the shutdown, according to the state Geological Survey." The local press had reported "a shocking surge" in quake activity prior to the wells being shut down. The number of earthquakes recorded in Arkansas for 2010 — more than 600 — nearly equals all of Arkansas' quakes for the past 100 years. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has not banned unconventional gas drilling in the area, only the use of disposal wells. As natural gas supply in traditional locations dwindles, the industry is searching and drilling for unconventional sources. Earthquakes pose an enormous threat to the integrity of unconventional gas and disposal wells, potentially damaging cement casings, the sole barrier protecting underground aquifers from contamination. Jack Century of J.R. Century Petroleum Consultants Ltd; said "When we start perturbing the system by changing fluid pressure, we have the potential for activating faults." And "once local seismicity starts, it can't be turned off." Changing fluid pressure uses huge amounts of water mixed with sand and dozens of toxic chemicals, all of which is injected under extreme pressure to shatter the underground rock reservoir and release gas. Freshwater contamination and damage to aquifers are major concerns, and now communities must worry that this practice can trigger earthquakes. Not only does the practice utilize millions of gallons of freshwater taken from lakes, rivers, or municipal water supplies, the toxic chemicals mixed in endanger groundwater aquifers and threaten to Comm. No. 4/2/. /l8 Ref. To: Ref. Date.00T 16 2013 pollute nearby water-wells. The toxic flow back of wastewater from fracking (as much as 3 million gallons per well) is usually re-injected into deep disposal wells. While much of the concern about this type of drilling is due to its impact on water supplies, other impacts include air pollution, wastewater disposal, industrialization of farm land, increased carbon dioxide emissions, and destruction of wildlife habitat from multi-pad drilling sites. Earthquakes are just the latest side effect that has been added to this long list of issues with the practice. Read more at http://planetsave.com/2011/09/16/fracking-disposal-wells-linked-to- earthquakes-banned-in-arkansas/#iHXyV7umRKMLLKRt.99 We live on an active volcano and based on our geological structure, The Big Island of Hawaii is like a big Swiss Cheese, our homes are built above thousands of lava tubs and if we allow fracking to take place in our Island, we can be certain that the experiences which others have suffered through will become our own, but worse yet since the Federal or County Government has no evacuation plans for a disaster such as this. Do we want fracking knowing that we will naturally increase the potential of activating our riff zones and fault lines as well as endless earthquakes Island-wide? To make sure that my life's investment was safe, I called my HIPA Insurance Agent, who's name I was asked not to disclose, to see if my home owners insurance plan covered loss or damage by earthquake and she told me that my Insurance did not, and added; the unfortunate truth is that more than 85% of insured homes here on the Big Island are not covered for earthquake damage. She added that in the State of Hawaii, most people who own their own homes (no Banks involved) carried no Home Owners Insurance of any kind. Banks/Lenders don't require their borrowers to carry earth movement Insurance and some elect not, due to the exceedingly high cost. I spoke to her about my concern over the up and coming devastating impact, which our State Government is seriously considering to impose on our Island residents if we, the people of Hawaii, allow fracking, which will surely be followed by earthquakes from fracking which others have already suffered through take it's tool on our Island. I told her about a conversation I had with my cousin who lives in Switzerland and who was unfortunately a victim of one of many earthquakes that hit 'the entire' Country from only one fracking well. I was informed that "-A $60 million dollar project to extract renewable energy from the hot bedrock beneath Basel, Switzerland, was shut down permanently - after a government study according to The New York Times Article on December 11, 2009, pageAl4, determined that earthquakes generated by the project were likely to do millions of dollars in " damage each year". The project, led by Markus O. Haring, a former oilman, was suspended in late 2006 after it generated earthquakes that did no bodily harm but caused about $9 million in mostly minor damage to homes and other structures. Mr. Haring is to go to trial next week on criminal charges stemming from the project. I also told her about the State of Arkansas, as it relates to our own State, save the difference being that Arkansas had earthquakes in numbers less than 600 in the last 100 years, yet increased to over 600 after their fracking venture. In The Big Island, we have our many experiences with earthquakes. Last week alone, we experienced four of them in one week in lower Puna, and they are not fun. To have more or stronger earthquakes Island-Wide, so that it affects our best industry, being tourism. Additionally, it could very well negatively influence: attracting and creating new jobs. This is a travesty with no evacuation plan from our Federal, State or Local Government, and can be avoided, unless we don't care about the terrible side-affect brought on our doorsteps by fracking weather you are insured or not. And the threat is not just in Lower Puna as my insurance agent and many others assume, because her comment to me was, and I am paraphrasing a bit, "-did you not know before you bought your property that your area is targeted for fracking?" What we have to understand is that the result of fracking will have an Island wide affect. The affects are increasingly more frequent and possibly more powerful earthquakes all so that large and reckless corporations can increasingly become wealthier, at the expense of our safety and loss of property. My Insurance Agent said that in the event of an Island wide property destruction, due to stronger earthquakes were to occur in response to fracking, a Class Action Suit would have to be set in motion against these negligent Corporations. My response to her was "-that would only be too late for all of us because we would have no homes to return to, while we painstakingly wait for support or some settlement from a money-hungry Government that sold us out to powerful and greedy corporations." And this we have seen repeated in history time and time again. We need to pay attention to real factual experiences and pay notice to the knowledge of others who have had real experiences with earthquakes that were brought on by fracking. Think about our beloved Island and not the empty words of liars who look only after their wealth interests. And let's pay attention to what happened to the whole State of Arkansas, with only 4 fracking wells. We should learn from the rest of our other mainland states who have had firsthand experiences on this subject and are fighting to put an end to the destruction of property that occurs as a result of fracking. Greedy corporations are not entitled to do as they please with our property, only we, the people are borne with rights and personal privileges. Because we are powerful together it is our duty to ourselves, to stop their make-believe attitude that is based on promises and not on reality. On June 12th, 2009, the Wall Street Journal, quoted "-Earthquakes are the big fracking problem." Another point that I wanted to bring up in the meeting, was some information I picked up while viewing a PBS television program. The topic they addressed was farming, as well as food production in Hawaii. On the show, half a dozen farmers from different Islands discussed the fact that, 95% of the produce we consume every year on the Islands, are imported from mainland USA, to subsidize our local farmers because; and I quote them- "We, on the Islands of Hawaii, don't have enough underwater supply or rainfall for farmers to grow all of our own food on the large enough scale for the Island's needs." I was honestly shocked, 95% seems like such an unbelievably high number, till I really paid attention to the spelves at the grocery store. Wow, for the first time in my life, I felt like a dependent big baby being bottle-fed by the mainland. Hawaii, and not enough water was hard to compute, yet the heart of the matter is that the Department of water supply cannot produce enough water to give tap water to every home in Hawaii. Imagine now; fracking practices utilizes millions of gallons of fresh water taken from aquifers and municipal water supplies, but we don't have enough water to grow our own food and create a solid yet sustainable industry through farming in our Islands, for ourselves to keep our grocery store's shelves filled with locally grown food as well as our money in our Island home. What kind of sense does this make to you; we don't have millions of gallons of water to grow even 30% of the food we need at any given day, especially when it is hot and it does not rain. But we have water to spill by the millions of gallons on fracking? And not to mention the millions of gallons of precious water mixed with toxic chemicals that are poured back on the Aina and threaten to pollute our nearby ocean waters and fish life already hanging on a string. Either; we unanimously reject fracking or we as a community become participants in the destruction of property and life in our beloved Island by allowing this form of alternative eco-destructive energy source to set foot in our Big Island. Sincerely, Judith Mura Mahalo •