As a DES Daughter, I am not surprised that various natural gas companies are poisoning people with carcinogenic chemicals -- and that our government isn't stopping this tragedy from happening. From 1938 until 1971, pharmaceutical companies were allowed to sell DES -- a toxic, carcinogenic drug -- to unsuspecting pregnant women. As a result, many DES victims were born with deformed reproductive organs; have an increased incidence of infertility, ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, miscarriage, and preterm labor and delivery; have a lifelong risk for a rare cancer of the vagina or cervix called clear cell adenocarcinoma; and have an increased incidence of autoimmune diseases (such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Graves Disease, among others). It is quite possible that DES affected the immune system as well as other bodily systems, and researchers are studying this question further. Little research has been done on the subject of whether DES affects the children of DES Daughters or Sons, the so-called "third generation.” Frightening to think that this tragedy will be passed on via our DNA.

Do you think that *one* pharmaceutical company has ever apologized for the DES tragedy? No. So don't expect the natural gas companies in the Rockies –or anywhere else – to admit that their poisoning their neighbors.

We should all be outraged by toxic assaults on our bodies and our futures. We must fight back. Write editorials to newspapers and magazines. Call your state reps and senators. Refuse to be ignored. We must shame these companies -- and our government -- into doing the right thing. We can't afford to be silent. Our lives are worth more than a corporate bonus or backroom payoff.

Wow, where do I even begin. Perhaps it is vent against the notion that "professional journalists" can be so easily lead around by the nose (or other body parts) as to make the entire enterprise questionable. Now on to facts...

The author of this piece was clearly ignorant about the basics of the oil industry. (Uh, its called a beat) Fracking is a physical phenomina. A well is drilled into a formation. No, no, make that a heavy steel pipe that cannot come out of the ground has holes (called perforations) at the level of the formation (called layer of rock). A truly monster pump can pressurize the formation, which is already under lots of pressure, ie. it can be miles under ground. With enough pressure the normal pressure can be overcome and the formation will expand (ie the ground you are standing on will go up) and cracks will travel in whatever the direction of least resistance is. Hopefully this is horizontally in the formation of interest and not up to somebody's water well. But no guarantees.

Anyway the point missed is that all it takes to frack is some liquid, anything will do. Remember that liquids are incompressable. Why not chocolate pudding? Probably works great if you are after gas. You could call it mousse. Wouldn't make much of an article in Salon though.

Clearly some sharpers in the oil bidness (as we call it here in TEXAS) have "improved things" some. Lead, benzene? Those are things that are hard to dispose of. Hmmm, and you say these are "propritary" frack fluid mixtures. And you say that the laws are modified to exempt the disclosure of those propritary mixtures. I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED!!!

Uh, look, the oil business is simply the most political business there is. When you put a (relatively) cheap hole in the ground and all it does is pump up money, keeping your winnings politically safe is a top priority.

Why don't you think on this? An oil well is at the low point (geologically) where the oil has collected. Whose oil is it? The owner of the property over it or the owners of the source rock (uphill) that it flowed downhill to? From day one in the oil business a burning question has been to keep attention focused on the downhill owner not everyone else. Since the business is so big and fundimental, there has been enough money available to skew (ok, corrupt) much of political discourse. Hmmmm.

Thanks,

Lark

Oil and Gas Production areas are messy - that is no question, but the "messy part" normally occurs when the well is drilled - or when it is reworked - otherwise is it a pipe sticking out of the ground - that should not be leaking. So - if you want to bitch about the "hazardous chemicals" then pay attention when the initial work is done - and make them clean up the area.

But as in the other letter - the ignorance displayed by the person writing the article is truly sad. You drill a hole in the ground and you put pipe down the hole. When you get to the level of the oil or gas formation - you blow holes through the sides of the pipe to let the natural pressure in the formation push the gas up to the surface. If you have holes in your pipe in other places - you lose pressure and product.

When the "tight" formation noted in the article recloses itself - they fracture - frac the rock by pumping chemicals into the rock to push it apart to let the gas or oil flow again - but that happens at the layer where the oil is - not everywhere along the well. It would have been nice to have had a few facts here too - like if the water was 750 feet deep - how deep was the gas? I am sure it was several thousand - far from the water layer.

Gas and Oil rarely occur near water formations - if they were as close as suggested in this article - then why was the water not already contaminated by the higher pressure hydrocarbons? - remember the benzene natural contamination a few years ago with Perrier water? The only way that you contaminate a formation with chemicals is if the drilling spud cuts through a water layer and you force some of the cutting mud into the rock - but no one loses that much mud when you drill.

I would bet that the most likely situation here is that someone got rid of the drilling mess by pumping it underground in a shallow well - that could contaminate surface water a lot more easily. But that is an enforcement issue - and subject to the laws of the state.

Final thought - Halliburton is one of the main companies in the oil business - they supply a lot of chemicals and crews that do a lot of hard work to supply the oil and gas you use. And they have been doing it for a long time. The cheap shot in this article at them shows the agenda of the author - as cheap as the level of knowledge displayed about the drilling business.