It all came out last night. Chemicals will be used, just not in the actual fracturing.
Most of us think of “fracking” as the entire gas extraction project however the guys in the industry use the word to only describe the process of actually fracturing the shale rock so when they say they will not use chemicals to frack – they mean literally to fracture the rock. That leaves them clear to use chemicals in any and all other parts of the process.
The drilling process will use chemicals. Tamboran have not said what chemicals, however when questioned some time ago in The Journal.ie Richard Moorman said they would only use biodegradable chemicals. That doesn’t mean they will be harmless chemicals and we still need to know what they intend to use.
When I did only a little bit of research on drilling mud this is what i found - Drilling muds, which are multifunctional including acting as lubricants for the drill bit in the initial drilling process contain hazardous chemicals. They are injected directly into the aquifers as this initial drilling is into the raw earth before the well is cased.
Indicators and substances related to the initial drilling and the drilling muds such as arsenic, barium, and strontium have been found in our subjects’ water tests just after drilling.
Last night, at the information meeting in Carrick on Shannon it was clear that chemicals will be used for drilling. Quote from last nights meeting by Richard Moorman “We will not use chemicals for Hydraulic Fracturing, but we will be using chemicals in the drilling process”.
So, what else have they changed their minds about? Well, on Weds night (Sept 6th) in Enniskillen, Tamboran’s expert geologist, Tony Bazley said that there was no granite in Leitrim therefore there was no radon. Last night he had to admit radon was also present in other rocks, not just granite. How strange that a geologist would be so confused! Especially one who was a past director of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, GSNI.
According to Mr Bazley the second time he was questioned on this issue, radon is present in small amounts in the sandstone so small amounts of radon will be present in the area to be fracked. Now I have no idea what Mr Bazley’s notion of a small amount is but then we have seen how confused he can be about some, none etc.
Some very good points were made from the floor on job creation at last night’s meeting (Sept 7th) and breaking down the promise of “up to 700 or more local jobs for 30 to 50 year” between counties, years etc… it came to 2 jobs a year. This is not very impressive when you consider who many jobs will be lost to tourism, angling and agriculture across the entire region if the project goes ahead.
As most of you know there will be a lot of sand used in the fracking process and I have to admit that I had not given very much thought as to where that sand might come from. I guess that I assumed that the sand would come from sand quarries, ground up from local sandstone. That is not the case at all as I found out thanks to a poster on the Facebook page Protect Our Environment – No Fracking Here, thanks Tony!
The sand to be used is quite specific and here’s a datasheet for Silica Sand (Tamboran will use finer 100 mesh). This stuff is carcinogenic and causes scarring of the lungs if not properly handled. The sand can cause silicosis, many families in this area are already too familiar with miners lung.
This sand is extremely fine and it can easily travel long distances on a light breeze, the fine dust will be very difficult to contain even when the sand itself is well contained. It will need to trucked into the area as there are no sources nearby.
We do know that there will be a lot of it – 2500 tons of sand / frack x 10 fracks x 8 wells = 200,000 tons of the stuff = 10,000 lorry loads per pad.
Tamboran seemed fairly confident that the first few sites to be used if this process does get the go ahead will be Coillte lands. I guess that most of us have long suspected this and it does mean all the more effort needs to be put into banning the project North and South of the border as we, the public, do not control coilte lands and cannot “lock the gates”, at least not by the method of refusing to lease the land.
Lots of good points were made about regulations or the lack of it. It is not news to us in Ireland that environmental (or financial) regulation is lacking and it is a serious issue. However, as far it goes for fracking, it’s not regulation that we need but a complete ban on the entire process of onshore natural gas extraction.
They have stated that “Priority will be given to hiring local people and using local goods and services” It is illegal under EU regs to employ local people over any other applicants and the goods and services will all go out to tender.
What else have Tamboran stated or promised which will not be upheld? Do you trust them?
So, as most of the lands intended to be used are in Coilte hands, is there anything we can do about this? to influence Coilte? Even get a statement from them on the issue? I agree, an outright ban is what we’re going for, but covering all bases means we will have a more resilient campaign….?
I have Just e-mailed them and the Forestry Service in the North. It looks like we will have to do a serious name and shame here once we get some facts on this one.
I live in the US and have heard the negative stories about this now for years. I was stunned that it was coming to Ireland. The people and land here have been detroyed by this process on a huge scale. We don’t have that sort of scale in Ireland. I have heard nothing good about the process unless it has come from someone who works in the industry. WAKE UP now start to sign the petitions, write the letters. Our politians who let this mess get started only seem to see money and it will them and thier friends who get it, while the rest of us have our beautiful land spoilt and our health potentially affected.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gopetition.com%2Fpetitions%2Fnorthern-ireland-no-fracking-required-here.html&h=LAQAelvFH
On wednesday night (6th) in Enniskillen Richard Moorman stated early on into his rambling presentation that tamboran only use their own contractor to protect against sabotage, so how are they going to create any jobs, & where the fe.k are our politicians..? Do they live in a world where poisoning the country’s lakes, Rivers, eco-systems, wildlife, & what seems last of all to matter PEOPLE (as in HUMANS & they’re fellow citizens) means fe.k all. How dare they tell people that we have to re-educate the work force for new types of employment, it is our politicians that need re-educating, maybe Libyan, or Egyptian style is the way our political mis-Representative’s might understand best, because their in-action is going to be the cause of a lot of DEATH & SICKNESS & why should a majority suffer for the wealth of a few. Name & Shame….. keep up the great work. Mise le meas
Do write to them all,
its pretty easy to e-mail them and pester power only works if we actually pester.
We definitely need to pursue the politicians it is not Tamboran or any other fracking company who we need to bring to task. Yes they appear to be lying about many of their commitments to the Irish people but if we get rid of Tamboran another company will arise to take its place , what we need is a united voice that can address the government and most of the population who appear unaware of this impending threat.
Yep agree with what you’re saying, my main worry is that this is something which will affect the whole country. Whilst I am working away with many others to try to stop any fracking happening and I live right away from the proposed drilling areas, my fear is that if the whole country does not wake up, we will all be faced with drinking polluted water and breathing even more polluted air. However my efforts to talk to people locally are not getting anywhere, even friends think they will not be affected, they don’t want to listen to what I am going on about. There needs to be more publicity about this, make people all over the country realise that everyone will be affected.
I was looking through the web page, you seem very angry about the whole issue of fracking. I want to just say rest assured Ireland will never turn into the US, the EU laws regards safety and environmental impact mean this will never happen, if you researched this correctly you would realize this. I want to ask this question. Where will we get our gas? Why should we pay an extortion to import it, supporting jobs in other countries, when we can get it here?? Its akin to the french coming over here to buy wine..why would they when they have good stuff in their own gardens.
I also do not like the negative light you shine on geologists. Its not very professional to demean a group of people just because of what one did or said.
Hi Aoife, thanks for taking the time to comment, yes, you are quite right, we are very upset at the notion of fracking happening in Ireland. I do not at all feel assured that the EU can protect our watertables, our small scale agriculture, our tourism industry including the new green tourism happening in Leitrim and the rest of the Green Box if fracking goes ahead. I would rather we take the protectionist attitude of Bulgaria and France and ban fracking. There may well be a method of gas extraction in the future which does not have the same risks attached.
We have done a lot or research and if you had researched this correctly you would realise that the real dangers lie in what comes out of the ground – not using chemicals to frack will still leave a cocktail of toxic and radioactive chemicals coming up with the return water.
You appear to be under the illusion that any gas recovered will be ours? How did you come to that conclusion? Do you not realise that any gas recovered will be owned by large corporations, not Ireland. We will still pay the same extortionate amount to buy the gas, if indeed we can buy it. We will not have first dibs on the gas, we will have to negotiate same as everyone else.
It’s a shame that the professorial body of geologists do not speak up for the environment, it’s sad to see a geologist sell out the environment for bucks.