Arkansas Conservation Alliance Blog

If a picture's worth a thousand words, here's a few million....

"Throwing it in the water is just crazy."

...says  Dr. Conrad Dan Volz, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh about shale drilling chemicals in this article. When will we get a public statement like this from a Health Department official in Arkansas? When will they get around to realizing their role in this issue?  We can tell you now that Arkansas is trailing the pack on reporting health risks from natural gas drilling to citizens.

It seems that the wider the door is opened for the natural gas industry, the more it closes for disclosure on public health issues. The citizens of Arkansas realize that poisoning the water for "jobs" is not a good trade off. An ounce of leadership in public health would go a long way toward preparing us for the mess that is currently being made.

A Mighty Wind

Have you ever heard the term "Awareness is the first step to recovery?" Perhaps the second step is the development of a new philosophy. We don't get the feeling a new philosophy is emerging at Progess Arkansas. Yesterday, this group pointed both barrels at the Joint Congressional Committee on Energy with tons of distressing figures on energy demands for the future.

The Progress Arkansas group mentions "environment" in their mantra but the word was barely a sidebar in yesterday's discussions. The leaders of this group seem to think they will be in the fossil fuel burning game for an eternity- and they might be with legislative support. However, an eternity won't be very long if we keep building the pollution machines that these dinosaurs set forth.

Legislators should not consider any energy plan that does not admit, and then set forth a long-term plan that includes eventual cessation of burning fossil fuels.

Call it the sunlight at the end of the tunnel.

North Dakota Green Lights Farmers to Grow Hemp

The DEA says you can't grow hemp in the United States. The North Dakota Department of Agriculture begs to differ. Arkansas needs to pay close attention to this process and position themselves accordingly. Another great alternative fiber crop is kenaf.

Trees raised specifically for pulp production account for 16 percent of world pulp production, old growth forests account for 9 percent, and second- and third- and more generation forests account for the rest.
More on the history of pulp/paper here.

The Arkansas Traveler 2008

The two most popular versions of “The Arkansas Traveler” song tell two different stories. In the first version, the Arkansan sits under a leaky roof and the traveler inquires why he doesn’t fix it. The Arkansan replies that he can’t fix it in the rain. The traveler then asks why not fix it when it’s not raining? The Arkansan says that his roof doesn’t leak when it’s not raining.

 

In the second version, the Arkie plays the first part of a tune on his fiddle over and over but never makes it to the second part. The traveler asks why he doesn’t play the second part. The Arkie replies that he doesn’t know the second part and asks the traveler to play it himself. The traveler obliges, much to the delight of the Arkie.

 

Imagine the Arkansan’s roof in version one as the Fayetteville Shale. Imagine the rain coming through the cracks as the fracturing fluids that are injected into the ground to crack the shale and release the natural gas. The traveler asks, “Why are you allowing an unknown chemical soup to be shot into the beautiful grounds of Arkansas?”

 

“Haven’t you been watching CNN?” the Arkansan replies.  “The economy is crashing all over the world, but not here. These hills are recession proof.”

 

The traveler scratches his head for a minute then asks, “But what happens when these endocrine disrupting chemicals show up in your groundwater?”  The Arkie replies, “I buy my water at Wal-Mart.”

 

In the second version of the tale, imagine that the Arkansan is Governor Mike Beebe. The traveler is Governor Kathleen Sebelius from Kansas. Governor Beebe is playing a song about how he is powerless against the coal industry. He plays it over and over but can’t seem to make any progress. Governor Sebelius asks, “Why don’t you play the second part?”

 

“Don’t know it,” answers Governor Beebe.

 

It goes like this sings Sebelius, “I vetoed bills authorizing the construction of coal-fired power plants on three separate occasions. We know that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. As an agricultural state, Kansas is particularly vulnerable. Therefore, reducing pollutants benefits our state not only in the short term – but also for generations of Kansans to come."

 

Beebe stares ahead blankly.

 

The End.

Pennsylvania Publishes List of Frac Fluid Chemicals

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection just published this list of chemicals used in the hydro-fracturing process by the natural gas industry. What we still don't know is the ratio of the "really bad stuff" to the "not so bad stuff."  We'll wager that if there weren't too much of the "really bad  stuff" the industry wouldn't be so secretive.

So what next in Arkansas?

LET'S START TESTING THE WATER NOW. Let's institute it in a university.

How do we pay for it? 

Mark Pryor, Blanche Lincoln,and Vic Snyder should go to work for the people NOW to get some big-time funding for water issues into our state (or private) university system. The state legislature needs to get HANDS ON NOW. They had the opportunity to better prepare and now we get the feeling that some are starting to see the light.

Many legislators hear: "future water clean-up problems" and think only about how much it will cost. We ask: "What if Arkansas can make money cleaning up our water and other people's water in the future?" It would be great if the water weren't fouled in the first place, but as a state we can no longer afford to pretend that agriculture and resource extraction have not had a massive toll on our water quantity and quality.

We don't want to hear this "if only we had known" in a couple of years. LET'S GET WITH IT PEOPLE.

I'm Just a Bill, Yes I'm Only a Bill

This bill is a step in the right direction at the federal level regarding recent undoings of environmental law. Arkansas needs a horse in this race at the federal level and at the state level. We jumped into the shale gas game with our boots on and now we need to figure out this mess with equal exuberance.

The recent moratorium on land application of fluids is mere window dressing in the scheme of things. We need to put into place a bill that will provide insurance that is POLITICS PROOF-- which means both sides see that it's a good idea- if that's possible. At the very least we need to know what makes up the content of Frac Fluids. At most, we need to prepare a clean-up infrastructure for what we suspect is in these fluids.