Lunch & Learn with Justin Nobel 1:09:57 Min (includes q & a). March 26, 2024, Protect PT
Join us for a exclusive discussion on Justin Nobel’s new book: Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It.
This groundbreaking new book will discuss an acclaimed science journalist’s extraordinary seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis.
A few of Justin’s slides:
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1904 Research paper by U of Toronto student, E. F. Burton: A Radioactive gas from crude petroleum. This gas turned out to be radon!
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Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It by Justin Nobel, Available for Pre-Order. This item will be available on April 24, 2024
Refer also to:
2024: “Nobody really knows what you’re supposed to do”: Leaking, exploding abandoned wells wreak havoc in West Texas, The Texas Railroad Commission is tasked with plugging wells. But the state regulators say their scope is limited So why then are state “regulators” allowing this dangerous toxic practice?
This is what injected oil field waste into leaking oilfield wells eventually does:
“From a well-control perspective, once the ground is fractured to the surface, and the flow is outside of the well bore, you cannot fix it.”
Why is this not front page news across frac’d provinces of Canada?
Oil companies sued over man’s death allegedly tied to radioactive materials in drilling pipes
2023 (see also 2014): Dual Trucking, suspected radioactive Bakken frac waste dumper, does the hanky panky; Montana court sides with Admiral Insurance
2021: New York Senate Passes Hoylman Bill to Ban the Use of Fracking Byproducts as Highway De-Icing Agents
2021: Presentation by Justin Nobel on frac waste and its “terrifying levels of radioactivity”
2018: Industry has numerous waste treatment facilities in Canada. I’ve driven by some (usually horrific mess), and stopped to “sniff” the polluted air (vile stench at all sites I’ve stopped by).
Didsbury’s proud pile of the oil and gas industry’s toxic, likely radioactive waste, aka “soil.” What are you and your loved ones breathing when the wind blows?
2016: Meet Alberta’s Radioactive Frac’d Ranchers: Nielle and Howard Hawkwood. Timing is everything
Howard Hawkwood with one of his dead cows on his ranch NW of Calgary. What are Calgarians breathing when the wind blows?
Howard Hawkwood and Jessica Ernst at Hawkwoods ranch NW of Calgary
The map below shows where the radioactive material is (was? did it burn up?) stored. How many other radioactive waste storage sites in Canada have burned up in wildfires? What are you and your kids breathing?
Below map by oscaalberta.ca of Fort McMurray Wildfires as of May 5, 2016 (fires spread significantly thereafter):
Why is the radioactive waste storage site not included on oscaalberta’s map? Don’t officials want Albertans to know what toxic air we breath?
2015: Illegal Dumping of Fracking Wastewater May Be Linked to Radioactivity in PA Creek, Experts Say
2014 (see also 2023): Dual Trucking suspected of dumping radioactive Bakken frac waste in Montana ordered to stop, but doesn’t, says waste will go to Canada
2014: Frack Waste Being Dumped Into Ocean Off California’s Coast
2013: BP, Chevron Accused Of Illegally Dumping Toxic Radioactive Drilling Waste Into Louisiana Water
2013: Pennsylvania regulator allows radioactive, toxic drilling waste dumped as fill in city
2013: Questions linger after Encana spreads toxic chemicals on northern Michigan roads
2013: Rural N.Y. Communities Use Fracking Waste to De-Ice Roads; Saying AquaSalina deicer “is” frac water instead of “contains” frac water leads to Duck Creek’s court win against Ohio women Just another frac’d fossil fool judge?
2013: Radon gas leaks in coalbed methane fields in Australia spark call for probe
2012: Triangle Petroleum fracking radioactive waste water cleanup target missed in Nova Scotia
2012: How Encana/Ovintiv gets rid of its waste at Rosebud, by dumping it on cropland:
What are you eating with your cereal and toast?
Industry’s dumped waste inevitably ends up in ground and surface water. What are you and your kids drinking?
And in unlined waste pits on prime agricultural lands near Rosebud which Encana/Ovintiv covered-up when full:
2012: Toxic Wastewater Dumped in Streets and Rivers at Night: Gas Profiteers Getting Away With Shocking Environmental Crimes, Allan Shipman was found guilty of illegally dumping millions of gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater. But he’s part of a much bigger problem In Canada, regulators don’t bother looking at industry’s radioactive and toxic waste dumping, while politicians coddle and diddle with the law violators.
2012: State wants jail sentence for Shipman’s illegal wastewater dumping
2011: Encana/Ovintiv spreading its waste on the same field as in 2012, photo above:
2011: Radon threats are grounds for precaution
2009: Canada’s National Energy Board: A Primer for Understanding Canadian Shale Gas – Energy Briefing Note
… Frac water often contains chemical additives to help carry the proppant and may become enriched in salts after being injected into shale formations. Therefore, frac water that is recovered during natural gas production must be either treated or disposed of in a safe manner. … Flow-back water is infrequently reused in other fracs because of the potential for corrosion or scaling, where the dissolved salts may precipitate out of the water and clog parts of the well or the formation. …
Image by Barb Ryan of Fox Creek Alberta
2007: Over time, all oil and gas wells leak, more so when frac’d and refrac’d. Waste injection wells can be end of life oil and gas wells. How anti-life is that?
2006: New Brunswick: BJ Services radioactive frac blowout document (no longer available online, and I had not saved copies in time)
2006: Davidson, SK: The frac industry lied to farmers to get them to accept toxic waste spread on their fields by telling them it was free free fertilizer; companies did/do this in BC, AB and MB too, and likely elsewhere. Not one oil and gas company CEO has been charged or fined or tossed in prison. Only the harmed poisoned by frac’ers are punished in Canada, never those breaking the law and doing the poisoning.
2003: “Landspraying” – A lovely way to say cover Alberta, NEBC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in radioactive frac waste. Alberta Landspraying While Drilling (LWD) Review Much of these infractions were caused by … you guessed it … Encana.
… The review of LWD file paper trail and of field inspection reports from the Medicine Hat office highlighted a number of major issues including LWD projects being applied outside of the approved area, no final field report, field plans of poor quality, heavy loading rates of LWD materials and siting problems.
The survey of LWD sites within CFB Suffield highlighted concerns with the poor distribution of LWD residual solids; associated smothering impacts to grassland vegetation where there were skins and mudpacks of LWD materials; mechanical impacts like rutting; and siting problems such as application on sand dunes, watercourses, wetlands and steep slopes. …
This is having a negative impact on native range. …
Visible impacts to vegetation were correlated with areas where spread materials persisted…and were observed on 71% of sites. …
Mudpacks from poorly conducted land spray operations kill native prairie and take years to ameliorate. Problem land sprays have been left with inadequate clean up. How the hell does one clean this up?
Mapping has been non-existent or completely inaccurate with examples of company maps with incorrect GPS coordinates and sites that have received double spray applications over the same land base. …
Water resources are increasingly scarce in southern Alberta and the energy sector is under growing scutiny to conserve water at all phases of production. …
We cannot ignore that one of the integrated uses on Public Land is food production. …
Direct and indirect effects of spraying on wildlife and wildlife habitat. For example, spraying on native prairie can affect the nests, dens and burrows of several species including burrowing owls, long-billed curlew, marbled godwit, numerous species of passerines, waterfowl, and small mammals. There may be implications under the Wildlife Act as the house, nest of den of endangered species (e.g., burrowing owl) are protected throughout Alberta and throughout the year (“shall not willfully molest, disturb or destroy”). …
The AEUB [now AER] had conducted drilling waste audits on 51 LWD sites throughout the Province. The information (paper) audit consisted of a review of information supplied from companies on disposals conducted between 2001 and 2003. Of the 51 audits, eight passed….
Discussion and Summary
… The most common problem was that of LWD projects being applied outside of the approved area. … Finally, siting problems were common to both review components with LWD materials being applied through watercourses, on high wildlife habitat like sagebrush cover and on fragile sand dune sites. … The file review and field observations revealed that on a high percentage of sites, LWD is not being conducted according to the guidelines and is having a negative impact on native range.