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Jacki Schilke
This cow on Jacki Schilke's ranch in northeast North Dakota lost most of its tail, one of many ailments that afflicted her cattle after hydrofracturing, or fracking, began in the nearby Bakken Shale.
In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil- and gas-drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking (or “fracking”) operations are poisoning animals through the air, water or soil.
Earlier this year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca, N.Y., veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first and only peer-reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals.
The authors compiled 24 case studies of farmers in six shale-gas states whose livestock experienced neurological, reproductive and acute gastrointestinal problems after being exposed — either accidentally or incidentally — to fracking chemicals in the water or air. The article, published in “New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health,” describes how scores of animals died over the course of several years. Fracking industry proponents challenged the study, since the authors neither identified the farmers nor ran controlled experiments to determine how specific fracking compounds might affect livestock.
The death toll is insignificant when measured against the nation’s livestock population (some 97 million beef cattle go to market each year), but environmental advocates believe these animals constitute an early warning.
Exposed livestock “are making their way into the food system, and it’s very worrisome to us,” Bamberger said. “They live in areas that have tested positive for air, water and soil contamination. Some of these chemicals could appear in milk and meat products made from these animals.”
In Louisiana, 17 cows died after an hour’s exposure to spilled fracking fluid, which is injected miles underground to crack open and release pockets of natural gas. The most likely cause of death: respiratory failure.
In New Mexico, hair testing of sick cattle that grazed near well pads found petroleum residues in 54 of 56 animals.
In northern central Pennsylvania, 140 cattle were exposed to fracking wastewater when an impoundment was breached. Approximately 70 cows died, and the remainder produced only 11 calves, of which three survived.
In western Pennsylvania, an overflowing wastewater pit sent fracking chemicals into a pond and a pasture where pregnant cows grazed: Half their calves were born dead. Dairy operators in shale-gas areas of Colorado, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Texas have also reported the death of goats exposed to fracking chemicals.
Drilling and fracking a single well requires up to 7 million gallons of water, plus an additional 400,000 gallons of additives, including lubricants, biocides, scale- and rust-inhibitors, solvents, foaming and defoaming agents, emulsifiers and de-emulsifiers, stabilizers and breakers. At almost every stage of developing and operating an oil or gas well, chemicals and compounds can be introduced into the environment.
Cows lose weight, die
After drilling began just over the property line of Jacki Schilke’s ranch in the northwestern corner of North Dakota in 2009, in the heart of the state’s booming Bakken Shale, cattle began limping, with swollen legs and infections. Cows quit producing milk for their calves, they lost from 60 to 80 pounds in a week and their tails mysteriously dropped off. Eventually, five animals died, according to Schilke.
Ambient air testing by a certified environmental consultant detected elevated levels of benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and xylene -- and well testing revealed high levels of sulfates, chromium, chloride and strontium. Schilke says she moved her herd upwind and upstream from the nearest drill pad.
Although her steers currently look healthy, she said, “I won’t sell them because I don’t know if they’re OK.”
Nor does anyone else. Energy companies are exempt from key provisions of environmental laws, which makes it difficult for scientists and citizens to learn precisely what is in drilling and fracking fluids or airborne emissions. And without information on the interactions between these chemicals and pre-existing environmental chemicals, veterinarians can’t hope to pinpoint an animal’s cause of death.
The risks to food safety may be even more difficult to parse, since different plants and animals take up different chemicals through different pathways.
“There are a variety of organic compounds, metals and radioactive material (released in the fracking process) that are of human health concern when livestock meat or milk is ingested,” said Motoko Mukai, a veterinary toxicologist at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine. These “compounds accumulate in the fat and are excreted into milk. Some compounds are persistent and do not get metabolized easily.”
Jacki Schilke
An oil-drilling rig is visible from Jacki Schilke's ranch in North Dakota.
Veterinarians don’t know how long chemicals may remain in animals, farmers aren’t required to prove their livestock are free of contamination before middlemen purchase them and the Food Safety Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture isn’t looking for these compounds in carcasses at slaughterhouses.
Documenting the scope of the problem is difficult: Scientists lack funding to study the matter, and rural vets remain silent for fear of retaliation. Farmers who receive royalty checks from energy companies are reluctant to complain, and those who have settled with gas companies following a spill or other accident are forbidden to disclose information to investigators. Some food producers would rather not know what’s going on, say ranchers and veterinarians.
“It takes a long time to build up a herd’s reputation,” said rancher Dennis Bauste of Trenton Lake, N.D. “I’m gonna sell my calves and I don’t want them to be labeled as tainted. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to test for. Until there’s a big wipeout, a major problem, we’re not gonna hear much about this.”
Fracking proponents criticize Bamberger and Oswald’s paper as a political, not a scientific, document. “They used anonymous sources, so no one can verify what they said,” said Steve Everley, of the industry lobby group Energy In Depth. The authors didn’t provide a scientific assessment of impacts -- testing what specific chemicals might do to cows that ingest them, for example -- so treating their findings as scientific, he continues, “is laughable at best, and dangerous for public debate at worst.” Bamberger and Oswald acknowledge this lack of scientific assessment and blame it on the dearth of funding for fracking research and on the industry’s use of nondisclosure agreements.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the main lobbying group for ranchers, takes no position on fracking, but some ranchers are beginning to speak out. “These are industry-supporting conservatives, not radicals,” said Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the environmental group, Natural Resources Defense Council. “They are the experts in their animals’ health, and they are very concerned.”
Last March, Christopher Portier, director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called for studies of oil and gas production’s impact on food plants and animals. None is currently planned by the federal government.
As local food booms, consumers wary
But consumers intensely interested in where and how their food is grown aren’t waiting for hard data to tell them their meat or milk is safe. For them, the perception of pollution is just as bad as the real thing.
“My beef sells itself. My farm is pristine. But a restaurant doesn’t want to visit and see a drill pad on the horizon,” said Ken Jaffe, who raises grass-fed cattle in upstate New York.
Only recently has the local foods movement, in regions across the country, reached a critical mass. But the movement’s lofty ideals could turn out to be, in shale gas areas, a double-edged sword.
Should the moratorium on hydrofracking in New York State be lifted, the 16,200-member Park Slope Food Co-op, in Brooklyn, will no longer buy food from farms anywhere near drilling operations -- a $4 million loss for upstate producers. The livelihood of organic goat farmer Steven Cleghorn, who’s surrounded by active wells in Pennsylvania, is already in jeopardy.
“People at the farmers market are starting to ask exactly where this food comes from,” he said.
This report was produced by the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent investigative journalism non-profit focusing on food, agriculture, and environmental health. A longer version of this story appears on TheNation.com.
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The lure of big bucks for poor rural areas is not easy for them to pass up. But it is a bargain with the devil. I am surprised that some of these drillers are not already sick, but that kind of info would be hushed up. I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Lotta good posts here! Please share this information with others around you! WE MUST RISE UP AND TAKE BACK OUR PLANET FROM THESE MONSTERS OF PROFIT!
This is crazy, it is the responsibility of the facking industry to determine how specific fracking compounds might affect livestock BEFORE they expose people and livestock to those compounds.
i live south of Williston ND, not only is fracking killing our land from below, we are being attacked from above. Oil companies have bought up nursing homes and apartment buildings, then raise the rent form 500 a month to 2k. forcing people to leave and move in with family. Crime rate has gone up 1000%, the once nice town of williston as become a trashed and unsafe place to live. A town made for 12,000 has grown to 50k. it is one big truck stop, hundred's of trucks, many leaking salt water, oil, chemicals etc. Western ND has been destroyed and it is sad. many friends have moved. I might do the same
Having driven in the oil field, I take exception to those lies.
Oil companies are very strict. A driver losing ANYTHING will be fired on the spot. A truck losing ANYTHING would be shut down by the law, and a HUGE fine would ensue.
yeah sure Arizona, everyone knows how perfect things work in real life. The real lies you don't take exception to are those buried mistakes that your ilk would never own up to.
This is an EXTREMELY loose association and a really poor article!!! If you know anything rudimentary about fracking, it is commonly a pressurized water injection technique called horizontal slickwater fracking. They don't use Irradiated water, so why would the Cows be dying from nuclear contamination? This is an obvious attempt to demonize the practice. Note that the article calls out "many suspect chemicals" but does not conclude what those chemical agents might be. A clear attempt by the media to lead you down the garden path of MSNBC hype. Please write a story AFTER you get the facts. Your creative journalists need to take up painting or fiction writing. Please bring us more news and less colorful stories to demonize big oil...
The truth about how water is used to frack.
Most of the fracking jobs I was on took 8 to 10 tanks of water. Some took as much as 20 tanks.
A tank holds 400 bls. Each bl is 42 gals. 400 times 42 is 16,800. 20 tanks times 16,800 is 336,800 gals. Not the millions as stated in the article.
"Livestock falling ill in fracking regions"
shocking huh?
Spend as much money as you must to prove this, and there has to be little doubt for sure why, and then sue these companies out of business in America!
How much damage will the world allow before it is collectively enlightened that our ceaseless use of fossil fuels is destroying our only home I wonder.
Humans have proven they are capable of great things. I don't believe for a second that we can't move out of the oil age if we choose to do so.
....of course, on the flip side, history has shown us to be capable of very bad things as well so....50/50 shot at this I suppose.
Since fracking is done 8000 feet down in the ground, don't allow your cattle to go down there.
Oh, hell: Maybe that's how they lost their tails. You've been lowering them by their tails so they can get a drink, and you can sue someone.
lol...too funny AT.
I agree to disagree with ya but you have to admit that nothing good at all can ever come out of pumping extremely hazardess chemicals into the earth. You have to know that dispite what any of these oil idiots say, those chemicals will most certainly make their way to the surface, into drinking water supplies, etc. History has shown that these big biz companies will do and say anything for the almighty dollar and do not care in the slightest about the effect that their practices are having on life. They are indeed the sole reason we have organizations such as the EPA....their existence is a reaction to the nasty things these people have done in the past...and even the EPA is not enough....but I'm sure you can keep the wool over your eyes until it is your livestock, your kids, your garden...the rest of us eat this stuff and we would really like to have a carrot without a dose of chemicals in it.
Please read #115. While nothing is fool proof, all is being done to make fracking safe.
AT,
I somewhat understand what fracking procedures are. I also trust your take on things. It sounds like you've been in the biz a bit.
I think what I am trying to say is that we can do our best to protect the environment and still be missing some natural phenomenon that is working in conjunction with the chemicals we are pumping into the ground and in some indirect manner, affecting the environment negatively. History has shown us over and over again that that is the case with so many things we have done as a species.
Clearly a link has been identified between fracking and bad effects on agriculture. I have little doubt that future studies will zero in on the procedure as being entirely bad for the environment...also, somehow, I can't imagine that pumping all of these hazardous chemicals into the ground can be anything but bad for the planet.
I do wonder why this would surprise anyone. Notice that some of the chemical listed are Aromatics which are key to producing PAH’s in Urban Areas as well. The dirty little secret here is that the likely chemical causing these issue in livestock can be 10 to 20 percent of the content you put in your vehicles gas tank every time you pull up to the service station.
A recent survey shows that on average for the state of Texas, emissions from gasoline vehicles ore 2 to 3 times higher than what EPA would tell you since EPA never use consumer gasoline to test emissions. On average, over 5 percent of gasoline is more like kerosene yet you don’t want this stuff in kerosene either.
Steve Vander Griend
From the article: "Fracking proponents criticize Bamberger and Oswald’s paper as a political, not a scientific, document."
Just like those unscientific, political global warming studies and that silly round Earth theory. We are raping our planet...
If the frackers won't tell us what's in the chemicals then we need to collect the material covertly and analyze it.
All criminals say that they are innocent
And tree huggers lie to get donations.
It already has affected or children, elderly and healthy adults. No one cares for anything but the money. At this rate our water and food will be poisoned and there will be no one left to worry about it. Top ten places to live are over by Switzerland and Sweden, time to move if you want food and earth that won't sicken and kill you.
Fracking water comes back up with the gas/oil. It is separated at the well site and hauled away by trucks. It's then pumped at least 8000 feet down into dry wells. It fills the holes created by the gas removal. Very strict EPA records are kept. Oil companies are required to pump down an amount of water determined by the amount of gas they are producing.
the real catastrophe and sad facts are, we will continue to allow energy companies to rape and destroy what was once safe land to live on in hopes we can have continued "cheap" oil, coal and gas; however, the finite supplies will ultimately run out leaving only ruined habitat for any animal or human life. All the while, we could have spent our money wisely and forced energy companies to do the same... in the pursuit of green energies, assuring a healthy planet for many generations to come. Instead we will ultimately do the same thing whenever we are FORCED to do so and the only difference will be millions of sick and dying people... perhaps starving from too little agricultural resources available...will be the result from our generation's "quick fixes" and greed. What a fine legacy to leave future generations. Today's sleazy greed driven corporations and politicians will be historically responsible for sealing the future of tomorrow's civilizations.
I know you're unhappy with what has happened to your town. When the drilling is done they will go away. Your town will return to normal. It will be a little richer than before, but won't be hectic as it is now.
I know we as humans want, what we want, RIGHT NOW, but we know that's not going to happen. Just have a little patience.
"Your town will return to normal."
Yeah, if by normal you mean elevated cancer rates, birth defects and flammable water!
God will destroy those who destroy the earth.
well you better put a call in for Him to get busy destroying because there are those who have been frackin' up Mother Earth now for a good long while Juan
Nay thats not how that reads...We kill the Earth..then after...the BIG WAR...God...Rules for a 1000 years then after a second confrontation with ...Satan.. Then we get a new heaven and new Earth....without people who just want to destroy it for there own pockets
We are not destroying the earth. The earth has seen much, much worse then we could even hope to match. We are destroying ourselves. We could light off every nuclear bomb on the planet and the earth would shrug it off and go on it's merry way and in a geological blink off an eye it would be like we never existed. The earth doesn't need our protection. WE DO!
Is any of this a surprise...Oil and gas Co's dont care...The Governement dont care..Local communities dont care ..Because everyone is being greased along the way by these TOXIC COMPANIES...They getting fat with CASH and we the Public and the planet is getting shafted......About average ..America..Land of the Free and our GOD IS THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR...oh yea we are a christian nation alright...cant you tell....IN GOD WE TRUST...as we kill everything around us.....
Longmont CO just banned fracking so some local communities do care.
I'm all for safe drilling. However, Ian't say anything about North Dakota but wellsl have been tested in the Fort Worth Barnett Shale which are in the middle of neighborhoods and the air quality has met all EPA standards. Most importantly, would we have not seen illness to those closest to the fracking process, the well workers? Yet, we have not heard of any disease from this population. Think about it...
We need to stop all of the fracking! There were not enough studies done in order to determine if this was safe in the first place, not to mention the earthquakes it is causing. Oh, but it doesn't cause those either, and it doesn't kill the cattle. Let's just move all of the oil people, congress and the president of the US and all of their kids into one of these areas. Let them drink the water, eat only those cattle/vegetables, and live in houses built in those area's and see how well they survive. Let's see how their children react to all these chemicals and then tell us this is all OK!! What is good for the goose is good for the gander! They are fracking with mother nature and we are not going to like the outcome of all of this. This may be the 12/21/12 that the Mayan's, Hopi's and other Indian cultures were telling us to avoid ~ or our world will change and not for the better, and we will end up killing ourselves right into extinction.
Fracking occurs far below the water table, hundreds or thousands of feet underground. Are these subterranean cows that live in caverns or something? Are these Tremors Cows? should we get Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross involved?
Did you even bother to read the article or are you just looking for a stupid laugh?
This better produce some really, really cheap energy because we are going to need it when they contaminate the Ogallala aquifer and half the country has no clean water and everything has to be extensively filtered and a bottle of water cost $10. We will need LOTS of cheap energy to fix that FUC up!
Haven't seen any mention of the adverse effects on wildlife as yet. If it's killing cows and goats, it's sure as hell killing off deer, pronghorn, etc. and whatever else is found in the area.
As for human impact, does Love Canal ring a bell with ANYONE?
Love canal? Of course not. We only remember as far back as the last fill up and what it cost. We are too stupid to survive as a species. Even animals are smart enough not to piss on what they are about to eat!
I'm afraid you're right. Personally, I don't care much about the human race surviving in the long run. It's a pity we have to ruin the planet for everything else that lives here though.
You can lament the animals that currently exist on the planet but remember that over 99% of everything that has ever lived on the planet no longer exist. These particular species just happen to have the bad luck of evolving along side of man. I'm sure some will survive us.
bakkenwatch.org
Whats the big deal? The farmers are being well compensated by the gas they can just sell whats left of the cattle and live off of the gas checks
Fracking will eventually ruin our water, and water is primary for life. If you believe those soothing commercials about how natural gas is being safely brought to the surface, then I have a nice bridge over the Hudson to sell you.
Unfortunately nothing will be done until you start to see "scores" of people getting ill or sick or dying. People have to die first before you see any action taken. Example being, putting up a traffic light at an intersection. There will be a cost of obtaining these finite resources out of the earth.