How Fracked is my Valley

"Once there were green fields kissed by the sun,

 Once there were valleys where rivers used to run;"

The paraphrased title of this piece is borrowed from a novel, the verse from a popular song from my era by The Brothers Four but the theme common to both is a nostalgic look back at what once was but can no longer be, a theme I fear could well become the case for the Los Alamos Valley/San Antonio Creek basin area if those who live here do not gain control of its destiny.

But how fracked is  my valley?   

At a recent information-gathering/disseminating meeting held in Los Alamos on July 18 it became evident that my valley and your valley is fracked far more than we knew. And there was nothing to suggest that it won't continue. In a gathering of ranchers and townspeople and county officials and one or two oilmen we learned what legislation is currently in place regarding fracking specifically (almost none), what legislation is being proposed statewide and nationally, and what may or may not be accomplished with it.

But the elephant in the room was illustrated by the evident frustration of ranchers and landowners who represent the first line of direct contact with fracking, and it was a lack of control. It was the inability to stop oil companies from coming onto their land and pumping harmful chemicals deep into it. It was the inability to learn precisely which chemicals are being pumped into the earth and what health risks they might pose. It was the inability to safeguard their own lands from human error during well construction or chemical transporting or polluted water dumping. 

As the oil companies like to point out, fracking is not a new process, used in some cases as long ago as the forties. Modern fracking - utilizing horizontal drilling, placing explosive charges  deep in the earth, and injecting pressurized propant and chemicals to assist flow, is newer, but has been utilized in Marcellus Shale back east for a number of years, and in Europe. Before moving down to the Santa maria River valley and then to Los Alamos, fracking Monterey Shale was begun in Monterey County amid protest. 

The point is, it should not have come as a surprise to us and to county leaders. Safety lies in awareness and autonomous action. To those who expected the oil companies to take a reasonable and empathetic approach to landowners, to involve them in decision making or to voluntarily discuss the chemicals to be used, or to delay exploratory drilling or fracking until essential questions could be answered, the evidence is to the contrary. The website FracFocus.org is a voluntary registry of chemicals used in fracturing procedures by oil companies across the U.S. There are many oil companies registered but Venoco and other players in Santa Barbara County are not.  

We can wait; we can wait to see if Congress will pass a bill to force oil companies to reveal fracking propant ingredients, we can wait to see if local and state legislators will tighten fracking laws, we can wait to see if oversight is truly present, we can wait to see if the oil companies' claims of safe drilling and chemical containment are accurate, we can wait to see if pressured toxins forced deep into the earth will find their way to the surface eventually.

Or we can act now, before our valley is no longer green, before the water in the San Antonio Ground Water Aquifer becomes contaminated, to attempt to ensure that control of the future of this valley is in the hands of those that live here, not those who come to exploit the local resources and then move on. 

The answer lies is in every voice, every telephone call, every question, every meeting attended. Let's begin with the Board of Supervisors meeting on August 2. 

Fracking Follow-up

Two nights ago I was turned away from a meeting in Los Alamos led by a representative of Venoco Inc. who explained to me that the meeting was for Venoco lease contractees, mostly land owners and supervisors, only. Was anything to be disclosed that the public shouldn't know? It seems not. The meeting was later described as an attempt by Venoco representatives to make the case to their lessees that their lands and the ground water beneath them are not endangered by the company's oil and gas extracting methods.
Fracking in the Los Alamos Valley has finally become an open topic of discussion. That's good, because the future of the land and all that resides below it and above it is the business of all of us - and it is everybody's responsibility. As our natural resources dwindle in the face of a burgeoning population of consumers and a changing climate the dispersement and the safeguarding of these resources is important to every single one of us. All residents need to arm ourselves with an understanding of the choices that must be made, the choices will be necessary ultimately to conserve the quality of life and perhaps even life itself.
There will be fewer and fewer easy answers.
For Los Alamos and this valley the resources in question are oil and water. We cannot understand fully the impact of one on the other and the questions surrounding both until we get answers. What is the future plan for each? Will these plans impact one another? What choices will have to be made? What priorities must be set?
It is troubling that the oil companies, in this case Venoco, choose to keep their activities a secret. Until persistent questions were directed to county administrators by our local citizenry resulting in inquiries being made it seemed no one was even aware that hydraulic fracturing was taking place here, this despite a national - nay, international hue and cry on the subject. Nor will oil companies disclose the precise formula they inject deep into the earth. Congress has sat on a bill for several years now that would have forced this disclosure, at the least to local supervisors, thus allowing emergency precautions to be put in place.
The recent meeting held by Venoco to share information with at least part of the public was a positive step, whether or not one agrees with their conclusions. The representative promised a second meeting this month, this time for the general public. Meanwhile the district supervisors have made their presence known and the topic of fracking is to be taken up in the June 7 Board of Supervisors meeting, which is open to the public. Another meeting will be attended by DOGGR, the state body tasked with regulating and supervising oil extracting processes, and is to be held August 4. Both meetings are held in Santa Barbara.
There are several issues to consider: contamination of the water supply from both injected toxics and surface spills, seismic disturbances from concussion and weakening underlying ledge, disposal of recovered toxics, and the huge amounts of water required for fracking and water injection, taken from the aquifer (3% of the amount of water consumed by the town of Los Alamos in a year, per well).
It is disturbing that there is no legislation in Santa Barbara county that requires the oil companies to disclose the methods they will use in their wells. It is distressing that formulas with toxins may be injected deep into the earth. Venoco has assured land owners that the depth of the wells, claimed to be between 8000 and 10000 feet, protect the aquifer and that a casing sheath seals the well from the aquifer where it passes down through it. They may be right but if they are not it will be too late.
To my mind, the philosophy that supports injecting toxic fracking fluids into the earth at great depth is similar to the philosophy supporting dumping unwanted waste into our oceans where we can no longer see it. We are now discovering how that worked out.
Yes, we are a petroleum culture through and through but that shouldn't mean that we can't continue to try to make changes. At what cost freedom from foreign oil? We need oil for our lifestyle. We need water for life.

Related articles

• Blackpool earthquake tremors may have been caused by gas drilling (guardian.co.uk)
• Big Oil Companies Face Growing Concern on Fracking (scientificamerican.com)