BBB Responds Same Way as FDEP, Not in their Purview
Recently, the DEP said that taking care of the environment was not in their “purview.” Right after this occurred, we found out that informing the public that they had already been fracked and might be drinking toxic water was also not in their purview.
Well, this made me desperate. What does one do when the agency that is supposed to be protecting the environment actually covers the tracks of the Big Oil company that is destroying it?
Well, I decided I had to try something new. Think outside the box. Zig when they thought I would zag.
So, I wrote a complaint about Dan A. Hughes to the Better Business Bureau.
Unfortunately, they wrote me write back. And, guess what they said? It was not in their “purview.”
Lee Cnty Republicans Vice Chair Hates Rick Scott
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. OMG, there’s Waldo…and, what!, wait! It’s CHUCK QUACKENBUSH!
OK, well, I’m surprised. This guy has been all over the place. Funny he’d show up hovering over Waldo.
Are you saying to yourself: “UM, Nightly Citizen, who the hell is Chuck Quackenbush?”
Well, then you are not among my biggest fans, or a political junkie. Chuck Quackenbush already got written up at least twice.
Read up. This guy is something else. He is no political hack, but has been up and down and over and out all over the country and all up and down the chain of command.
And he is manly. With vast quantities of unbound testosterone floating freely throughout his circulatory system.
However, I was surprised, after all the amusement I’ve experienced in researching Chuck Quackenbush, that I agree with him on a few things. Namely, we both take issue with Governor Rick Scott (like everyone in the country, I think).
And, wow!, Quackenbush is pro-labor. Go Chuck. I will march with you when you go on strike against the Wicked Mike Scott!
Odd thing for a Vice Chair of the Lee County Republican Executive Committee to state about their guy, but these are weird times.
He did loyally support Trey Radel–
Of course, that was before the cocaine scandal. And now, Quackenbush supports Clawson, who has won the Republican primary.
Quackenbush donated directly to his campaign, as did his wife, Chris. And it should be interesting to watch how it goes.’
Anyway, I dug into Quackenbush’s Facebook past. Here was an interesting post.
Yeah, Chuck, I was there and know what happened. You guys descended like Nazi locusts and terrified a bunch of unarmed civilians. Then, you arrested a girl who wasn’t even part of it, who happened to be nearby.
She weighed about 95 pounds.
Wow. You guys are tough. Did it take all 50 of you to drag her into jail and then take pictures repeatedly until you got one that made her look nuts?
Oh, and, wow, talk about the pot calling the kettle black–
And Chuck, I don’t know what you’re into, but those are both dudes.
But I forgot–you’re only a man if you kill for your corporation–I mean, country.
(The Nightly Citizen would like to apologize for not making fun of Chuck Quackenbush some more. Vote Republican, yous dumb fucks. Money is way more important than you are.)
Fracking Previews from Texas
Taking a look at Texas, you can see how thick and syrupy the psyops is. The stories change constantly, enough to keep the public so confused about where the threat is that they just have to move to die so that fracking can proceed.
EPA says in Texas that flaming water is no threat.
EPA listens to the gas companies.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/epa-changed-course-after-oil-company-protested
Methane found in Texas frack areas.
http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/newstoppers/x1767993119/New-tests-find-more-methane-in-area-water
EPA Watching Covering Up Agency’s Missteps
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/194314-epas-watchdog-covered-up-the-agencys-missteps
BARNETT SHALE: Landowners’ rep says inspectors ignoring
dangerous methane readings
Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter
Published: Monday, November 4, 2013
Texas oil and gas inspectors ignored and failed to report dangerous levels of methane at contaminated
water wells in August, said a consultant working for homeowners in the area.
Bryce Payne, a Pennsylvania soil scientist, wrote a letter of complaint to the Texas Railroad
Commission (RRC) in September stating that inspectors hadn’t responded after seeing instruments
register potentially explosive levels of methane in the air around the well of a Parker County, Texas,
woman named Shelly Perdue.
“The apparently sustained presence of explosive levels of gas in her holding tank was imminently
dangerous. I had anticipated a number of parties, including the RRC, would respond to that dangerous
situation,” Payne wrote in the letter, obtained by EnergyWire. But none did, Payne said.
Payne also criticized the inspectors for not including the results of air testing in their report and
downplaying what they did report.
Despite its name, the Railroad Commission regulates oil and gas in Texas.
Railroad Commission spokeswoman Gaye McElwain said the agency hasn’t responded to Payne. But
she said agency inspectors have tested the water at the homes outside Fort Worth since they first
visited in August, though they haven’t tested the air around the wells or in the homes.
“This testing is focused on confirming the source of the natural gas, which was previously determined
to be from the Strawn formation, a shallow natural-gas-producing formation below the aquifer,”
McElwain said. “Results of this testing are expected to be received in November.”
Latest chapter
The well is related to a long-running and politically charged drilling dispute.
The landowner who hired Payne, Steve Lipsky, touched off the furor in 2010 when he complained to
the Railroad Commission and U.S. EPA that methane from nearby gas wells had contaminated his
drinking water well. Deeming the state’s response too slow, EPA stepped in and slapped Range
Resources Corp., which drilled the wells, with an enforcement order blaming the company for the
contamination.
Range, which no longer owns the wells, vehemently disputed the findings. The company maintains that
the methane in the water in the area is naturally occurring and that Barnett Shale gas drilling had
nothing to do with it.
Incensed by EPA’s intervention, the Railroad Commission quickly scheduled a 2011 hearing that
exonerated Range.
EPA dropped the case in March 2012, saying it wanted to move away from litigation toward a “joint
effort” to gather information. EPA also said Range would provide “useful information and access” to
help EPA with its study of hydraulic fracturing.
But Lipsky and his neighbors have been moving to resurrect the case in recent months, saying the
methane contamination in their water and homes has only gotten worse (EnergyWire, Sept. 18). They
also say new testing done by Duke University researchers showed much higher levels of methane than
what Range and the Railroad Commission had found.
Lipsky hired Payne and filed a new complaint with the Texas oil and gas agency last summer. Three of
his neighbors also filed complaints, including Perdue.
In response, Railroad Commission inspectors visited their homes in August and reported what they
saw. That included Lipsky lighting on fire the gas coming out of his water well vent pipe.
But their report didn’t include that just before that, Payne had used a gas meter to show that the
concentration of gas flowing from the vent was 86 to 90 percent.
Two days before that, standing next to Perdue’s well, with the water pump off, Payne said the gas
concentration in the well head vent was higher than 75 percent.
“This is not documented in the complaint report,” he wrote.
Payne said he has stopped working for Lipsky, though he has continued to help Perdue on a pro-bono
basis.
Range and the Railroad Commission have said Perdue’s well was drilled into a gas-bearing formation.
The total depth of her well is 362 feet. Range sealed its wells with concrete to similar depths, 394 and
408 feet.
Range says comments made in a 2010 town hall meeting by the EPA official who brought the charges
about his enforcement strategy show he was simply out to get oil companies. Then-Regional
Administrator Al Armendariz compared his strategy of making an example of polluters to how Roman
soldiers would “crucify” opponents. Those comments, refloated after the case was dismissed, cost
Armendariz his job.
Range officials also say Armendariz tipped off activists and news media before the order came out.
Click here to read EnergyWire’s previous reporting on the Range case.
———————————————————-
From: Fanning, Cynthia
To: Durant, Jennah; Hubbard, Joseph; Mayer, Rebecca
Subject: article: EPA”s watchdog covered up the agency”s missteps
Date: Monday, January 06, 2014 9:25:00 AM
January 03, 2014, 01:00 pm, The Hill
EPA’s watchdog covered up the agency’s missteps
By Steve Everley
In December of 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a rare endangerment order against Range Resources
for allegedly contaminating private water wells. The EPA had sampled groundwater in Parker County, Tex., and claimed
that the gas had a similar composition to what Range was producing in its nearby Barnett Shale wells. A month later, state
regulators held a hearing at which evidence was presented showing that Range’s operations were not responsible, and that
the gas found in the water wells was naturally occurring. EPA, however, refused to relent.
After the order was issued, news came to light that made EPA’s actions even less defensible. The regional administrator in
charge, Al Armendariz, had been communicating with anti-drilling activists in the region in the run-up to the order, even
thanking them for educating him on drilling issues. An EPA scientist had written to his colleagues that the basis for such an
order was “not conclusive evidence,” and that to issue the order the EPA would have to “make assumptions to fill in data
gaps.” Months before issuing the order, in a video not uncovered until 2012, Armendariz told a north Texas crowd that his
method of regulating the industry was similar to how the Romans would “crucify” villagers in towns they had conquered.
Armendariz later resigned to go work for the anti-drilling Sierra Club, and the EPA withdrew the order in the spring of
2012.
Yet on December 24, 2013, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General released a report that concluded the EPA’s actions
“conformed to agency guidelines, regulations and policy.” The IG also said the EPA’s interactions with local activists “were
appropriate” and within the guidelines established by the Safe Drinking Water Act.
How did the IG come to such a conclusion? Simple: by ignoring the evidence that would suggest any wrongdoing on the part
of EPA.
The IG report concluded that the EPA administrator, Al Armendariz, “informed environmental and citizen groups of the
order and the associated press release after the region issued the two documents.” The report continues: “A review of the
evidence showed that this communication occurred after the region issued its press release.”
The only problem is that Armendariz informed those groups before the press release was issued, and even bragged about it.
In an email dated December 7, 2010, Armendariz told anti-fracking groups such as Earthworks and Downwinders at Risk:
“We’re about to make a lot of news.” He added: “There’ll be an official press release in a few minutes,” and that the
recipients should “Tivo channel 8.”
How could EPA’s Inspector General claim that the collusion with activists happened “after the region issued its press
release” when the communication itself proves that the press release had not yet been issued? If the IG’s office overlooked –
or deliberately ignored – the fact that EPA violated its own policies, then what else did the IG miss?
release” when the communication itself proves that the press release had not yet been issued? If the IG’s office overlooked –
or deliberately ignored – the fact that EPA violated its own policies, then what else did the IG miss?
The IG report also defends EPA’s order on the basis that the agency does not even need evidence to shut down oil and gas
development. If that sounds outrageous, it’s because it is. “For the EPA to take and enforce a Section 1431 emergency
order,” the IG concluded, “it needs neither proof that contamination has already occurred nor proof that the recipient of the
order is responsible for the contamination.”
To sum up, the EPA was able to “crucify” an oil and gas operator in Texas without evidence, and the entity whose job is to
keep EPA in check determined the agency did nothing wrong. In order to arrive at that determination, the watchdog not only
had to rewrite history, but also affirmed that the EPA does not need proof to accuse oil and gas operators of wrongdoing.
If the EPA can do all of that without violating any rules or laws, then what exactly can the agency not do?
Everley is team lead for Energy In Depth, a research and education program of the Independent Petroleum Association of
America.
*************************************
Cynthia Fanning
Congressional Liaison
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6
Phone: 214-665-2142
Office: 214-665-2200
*************************************
The Journaliste
You’re a wasted choice,
you’re a hollow voice,
you’re pent up pen pusher
in a pinup cloister
rewarded for warning
the public about the poor
and the sun and the Africanized
bee, democracy is disproved
by a chat on the streets,
yeah, fuck the police,
public service for those
who can afford it
and civic responsibility
to completely avoid it,
there’s one cause I can’t
resist–it’s the way I pay
my way by carving out
beautiful landscapes
over the boo and hiss,
Jupiter’s meal is through
and there’s nothing left of you,
swimming away from the Everglades
reduced to trade secret goo.
Stonecrab Alliance Gets Collier Commissioners Onboard
After being told by John Lundin they were a year late, the Collier County Board of County Commissioners has addressed the criminal fracking at 20-3H Collier-Hogan well.
This occurred at the end of 2013 and the well is located here.
John Lundin came out swinging, as was mentioned in the first paragraph. He was asked to state his address and refused to. He cited a new law that states he is not required to do so, and informed the commissioner he was therefore violating the law. The commissioner relented.
Lundin cited the pollution control issue which makes Collier County liable, so they must investigate water pollution now that there is a potential threat to it, thanks to the criminal behavior of Dan A. Hughes Company.
The commissioners must now test water at the site, and drinking water.
Of further concern is the fact that the Collier County Commissioners were forestalled in their responsibilities by the silence of the DEP about the groundwater poisoning situation despite TWO public hearing since the criminal fracking occurred.
The question arises: is the DEP an accessory after the fact? Who else knew? Who is liable if water has been polluted?
The Collier County Commission also heard from other members of the Stonecrab Alliance, and decided to issue a challenge to the permits.
Karen Dwyer declared victory on Facebook.
A Dan A. Hughes consultant claimed that there was no danger to the public, according to a Fox4 report, and alleged the company disagreed with the “interpretation with the state.”
This disagreement lead to a $25,000 fine and veil of secrecy on the part of the state DEP, which did not inform the public until a few days ago, despite face to face contact with the public twice.
Watch after 03:03:00 (gets interesting)…
Embrace Smiling
You are a roulette chip
ready for the asset double-dip
a money laundering scheme
of the ruling sociopathic clepto-twit
a front for the Wall Street mafia
calling itself a country
we got a back room
for to register a complaint
and find out what’s it all about–
no one gets in, no one gets out
The Ones that Get Away
The corporate scams
the stolen pension plans
the government shadow games
the black helicopter and drone
pyramid scheme frames
are no big deal,
they’re old hat
pasted to a camel back,
it’s the little broken down
petty empty losers what get you
for what they lack,
walking through the eye
of the needle
in the pyramid vein,
pretending to understand
with their lonely confidence
in a lonely mark,
they nod but don’t know
what you’re talking about,
no one get in, no one gets out.
