And then there are the pictures you don't want to take...

I live in the Fayetteville Shale Play Formation and there's a lot of fracking going on.  If you aren't familiar with fracking and why it's bad, this video should bring you up to speed. Even if you think you know what it is, go ahead and watch the video.  It will really help you "get" today's blog entry..

So, you remember that letter the guy in the video got from the gas drilling company?  The one that inspired him to go take an educational "fracking roadtrip"?  Well, my Aunt Mary, who has moved to Galveston to be close to her daughters,  got one a few months back.  It was from Chesapeake Energy and they wanted to lease the mineral rights to her property in Arkansas. 

This is Aunt Mary's property.  It certainly doesn't appear to be a likely drilling spot.

MAYBE there's enough land in the backyard, but doubtful.

Not that it mattered.  As soon as my Cousin educated her on fracking, she said no to Chesapeake.  After that, I didn't give it much thought until I saw a comment on the Arkansans for Drilling Accountability site http://www.a4gda.blogspot.com/ .  According to the post,  this was what they were after. 

The rumor on the street was that Chesapeake Energy was no longer satisfied with drilling around the lake.  Now they wanted to drill under it.  Take a good look at that picture.  Back when my Grandparents owned the place next door to my Aunt, I used to spend every summer looking at that view.  There are pictures of me in that lake when I was less than a year old.  I learned to swim in that spot beyond the rocks.  My cousins and myself jumped and dove off those rocks more times than can be counted.  The thought of them drilling under it made me sick.  I immediately alerted my cousin to what I had heard and told her I was going to Higden to have a look around.  I kept thinking it had to be a rumor run amok.  This was Greers Ferry Lake we were talking about.  The source of water for over 65,000 people in Central Arkansas.  As I headed down Highway 92 towards Higden, I began to see just how much the drilling activity had escalated since my last trip to the lakehouse.  Savannah was with me for that trip and remarked how pretty it was and that we should consider retiring there.  FYI, she was including herself as part of that "we".  The girl has no plans to ever leave home. However,  I don't think she would want to retire there now.  Yes, there was still mile after mile of pastures dotted with huge old oak trees, big wooden barns, ponds, cows and horses.

But there was also a lot of this...

 And quite a few of these "ponds".  Although, you wouldn't want your cattle drinking out of them...

And an endless stream of these...

As you can see from the above picture, not only had the scenery changed but the pace of life had sped up. A constant stream of gas industry water tankers sped up and down the highway.  Some delivered fresh water to fill the endless lines of blue holding tanks.  Others hauled toxic waste water away to what I could only hope was a safe place.  I wondered how many times a day the drivers drove the same route. They turned off the highway down gravel roads that disappeared behind hills and groves of trees leaving long clouds of dust. I could only imagine the dust they produced in the summer.

  However, there was an occasional slow down...

Driving down that highway gave me the same feeling I get when driving through bumper to bumper city traffic.  As I tried to take in this new industrialized rural setting, I realized that even if the drilling wasn't pumping toxic chemicals into the ground, air and water, I would still hate it because it was just so....well... ugly.  I suddenly found myself recalling the words of the cheerleader of natural gas, Mr. T. Boone Pickens. 

 "Natural gas is not a permanent or complete solution to imported oil.  It is a bridge fuel to slash our oil dependence while buying us time to develop new technologies that will ultimately replace fossil transportation fuels"

As I thought about those words I wished he was sitting next to me so that he could see that it sure was taking a lot of foreign oil to build that temporary bridge to independence from foreign oil. And ultimately, the Natural State will pay for the construction of a bridge that seems to be burning faster than we can build it. As I got closer to the lake I was disheartened to see that the drilling presence had infiltrated the lake communities as well. I wondered what I would find at Aunt Mary's.  I dreaded the possibility of equipment lining the quiet street and the noise of machinery ripping the earth apart.  As I turned down the street I was relieved and thankful to see that the neighborhood was still untouched by Chesapeake Energy workers.

 It was like an oasis of calm in a desert full of chaos and ugliness.

Maybe it had just been a rumor, after all.  Maybe I had overreacted and made a knee jerk call to arms.  I walked down to lake's edge, sat down on the big rock and just let the peace surround me.  I was the only person around.  The only creatures I had to share the lake with were a couple of dogs intent on showing me their dead squirrel and a solitary Bald Eagle who was soaring in lazy circles above my head.  As I sat, my mind went back to the times I spent here with my Papaw whittling and listening to the Whippoorwills on the island across the lake.  Even though I miss him more than anything, I decided I was glad he wasn't around to see what was closing in on his beloved lake.  I wandered aimlessly around taking pictures, some of which I posted above.  Finally, I  took a picture of the lake with my phone and sent it to my cousin so that she could see all was well.  As I pulled out of the drive, I decided I was definitely taking a different route home.  But first, I wanted to drive on into the town of Greers Ferry to have a look around.  As I crossed the dam I found myself at the end of this very slow moving parade.

Tell me this doesn't make you curious.  It sure brought out my inner Erin Brokovich.  Luckily, there were no cars behind me so I was able to stop, grab my camera and get some shots.  You can't see it in the picture, but there was a sheriff's car leading this parade of peculiar vehicles, too.  All were in full flashing light mode.   When we got to the other side of the dam,  the parade turned down a side road and parked.  And I did what Erin would do. I turned around, pulled into a driveway and started snapping pictures paparazzi style.  I zoomed in on the door so that I could get a look at who the trucks belonged to and saw they were from Dawson Geophysical from Midland Texas.  A quick Google search revealed that they were from a company out of Texas and Oklahoma.  Don't you just love that Arkansas is selflessly helping other states to recover economically? The search also revealed that this was a dynamite crew. Which was exactly what the lady's comment had said was going on in preparation to drill under the lake.  They were going to use dynamite all around the lake to see if it was seismically favorable for drilling.  Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like a colossal fracking mess?

I have to say the following shot made me really angry.  Yes, I know the officer was just doing his job.  But I felt like I was witnessing him telling the thief where to find all the really valuable stuff to steal.

I decided I had seen all I needed or wanted to see.  It was time to head home.  But first, I wanted to go to Quitman.  I wanted to see first hand what this article was talking about.

So I entered Locust street into my iPhone map and went in search of the leaky well.  I do so love this  technology that has the ability to correct my directional deficiency.  The article didn't give a street number but it did mention the area was cordoned off.  That should make it easy to find.  I was picturing something with warning signs and environmental agencies on site with fancy monitoring machines. This is what I found.

It was the only place on Locust street with yellow restricted area tape surrounding it so it had to be the right place.  According to AOGC Director Lawrence Bengal,  the nearest neighbor was a good distance away and the nearest operating well was a quarter mile away. I didn't have that article with me at the time or I would have taken pictures to prove him wrong. The truth is there is a neighboring house just to the left of the fence you see in the picture.  There were toys in the yard and someone was obviously living there.  As far as the nearest gas well being a quarter mile away, I can't be sure with my distance/directional defficiency syndrome.  But here is a picture of the the entrance to a gas well about 50 yards down the road from the leaky water well site. 

And here is a Southwest Energy truck entering the drilling site.  Obviously, there is an active well close by.

These inaccurate statements weren't made by a gas company representative.  They were made by the Director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commision.  This is the agency that is responsible for regulation and oversight of the drilling activity in our state.  It is supposed to be there to protect us.  Instead, he was obviously trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation and draw responsibility  away from the drillers in the area.  If the only danger with the well was if someone were to come by and light it, wouldn't it make sense to have some type of signage stating there was flammable gas in the area?  But no, that might draw too much negative attention to gas drilling.  Can't be too careful now that everyone has seen Gasland and is watching a bit closer than before.  No, it's best to just wrap this yellow tape around the place and leave quietly.  Nothing to see here folks.  Move along.   Oh, and try not to breathe too deeply.

And that, my friends, is why I don't believe them when they say the chemicals in the fracking fluid are safe. I don't believe them when they say none of them enter the water table.  I don't believe them when they try to shift the blame of contaminated water wells to everything under the sun other than the fracking they are doing in the next pasture.  I don't believe them when they promise no waste water will be dumped in creeks. And  I sure as Hell don't believe them when they say it's safe to drill underneath Greers Ferry Lake.

I don't claim to have all the solutions to the energy quandary we are in. But I do know that we are risking a lot to try to solve it. All I know is that  I hope this bridge we are building leads to a world powered by sustainable and renewable energy.  I hope my grandchildren never know what it's like to go to war for oil.  I hope that their cars are fueled by something that has no real impact on their wallets or the environment and affords them the freedom to travel the earth.  But mostly, I hope we leave them an earth worth seeing.