It is all about the FRACKING stupid. By Geniusofdespair

Yesterday the Florida Department of Protection (better known as the Department of Poisonous) changed the rules to allow HIGHER levels of toxic chemicals in your water. Ick to that. You might ask WHY? WHY? WHY?

Well, I have the answer, they loosened the rules for Fracking chemicals:

Environmentalists say they are suspicious that DEP has increased the levels of benzene, which is found in the wastewater of oil and gas hydraulic fracturing operations, in an effort to pave the way for fracking in Florida.

DEP officials, however, said that the science of benzene has changed in recent years resulting in the higher limits.

Also voting against the proposal was Commissioner Joe Joyce of Gainesville, who represents agricultural interests on the commission. He also raised questions about the unexplained rise in benzene levels and asked Bartlett if there was “any correlation between this rule and benzene and fracking?”

“We don’t see a connection between this rule and fracking,” Bartlett responded. The the audience jeered.

So the other changes were just a cover for the FRACKING CHEMICAL BENZENE. Expect Fracking in our Sunshine State.

Republican State Senator Anitere Flores AGAINST FRACKING IN FLORIDA While Rubio signs Fraking Guru to be his Energy Advisor. By Geniusofdespair

Archive photo

Republican hard liner Anitere Flores seen with her former colleague, in the Republican controlled Florida House of Representatives, Marco Rubio. She is now a State Senator in the Republican controlled State Senate.

I guess because her district will be more to the left, she has toned down her rhetoric on the environment, and has become green-washed. Good if it stops Fracking.

Marco Rubio on Fracking:

And he vowed to reverse Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, to allow the extraction of gas buried deep in the ground near places like Salem.

Taking issue with what he described as a Democratic “fear campaign” against fracking, he said that the hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of natural gas and oil underneath the ground “are doing the people of Ohio no good pent-up in shale rock.”

Don't forget all the Earthquakes fracking is causing Marco. Studies tie 77 Ohio Earthquakes to two fracking wells. And, even worse:

Fracking Pioneer: "The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Devon Energy Corp. has signed on to shape energy policy for Florida Senator Marco Rubio." - Feb. 22, 2016


Anitere Flores against Fracking because:

Sugar Shill is Now a Fracking Shill also Water State of Emergency in St. Lucie not Reported in Miami Herald. By Geniusofdespair

Mr. NICOLAS GUTIÉRREZ (President, National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba): 

"I am the president of the National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba." - December 28, 2006

Nicholas Gutierrez wrote an Op Ed today for the Miami Herald saying there is too much fear of fracking. He said: "Like all industry operations, there is no zero-risk operation to provide our clothing, light, heat, food, vehicles and necessities." Then he warns us: Do we want prices of gas to go up? We had better like fracking or we will pay more at the pump.

Now you have to get it, that this guy was appointed to the South Florida Water Management District Board protecting our drinking water, with his Sugar history (see date of quote above). The biggest polluter of our water supply is Sugar farming and he was on the SFWMD Board:

Former chairman Nicolas Gutierrez, a three-time appointee of Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, left the board in April 2008.  But district visitor logs obtained by Broward Bulldog show that during the next two years Gutierrez returned to district headquarters seven times on behalf of a trio of clients to meet privately with key staff, including the purchasing director.

This toxic SFWMD Board appointment is another reason not to vote for Jeb Bush. What were his qualifications? Water pollution apologist?

Now he wants fracking in the name of economics. Watch who is writing these puff pieces about bad crap. Why the Miami Herald would print this advertisement for the industry as an op ed is beyond me.

While this is the Miami Herald Op Ed there is not a peep in the paper on the water crisis going on in other Florida counties, St. Lucie Declares State of Emergency, their water polluted by the SFWMD, unfit for swimming or much else, they say don't even get it on your skin:

To date, 30 billion gallons of polluted water poured in the S-80 locks in western Stuart from Lake Okeechobee and nearby canals.

Don't see video? Use this link.

St. Lucie County Commissioners unanimously passed the declaration, enacting a State of Emergency declaration now for 2 counties.

Fracking in Florida: What a Lovely Idea by our legislature. By Geniusofdespair

PLEASE READ THIS BLOG AND FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS:

Class 1 Wells - wells used to inject hazardous waste. There are 6 classes of injection wells.

What I can figure out is that in fracking they blast rock underground from above with enormous amounts of chemicals and water under pressure to release the oil/gas in the rock formation. I think that is fracking. Close enough? However, here is the problem.

According to the DEP there are 180 active Class 1 injection wells in Florida for hazardous waste. Those wells put the nasty water below the boulder zone.  So, if we start fucking with the boulder zone, blasting away, won't the wastewater and other crap we inject below it be able to migrate up into our drinking water? Is the boulder zone the bedrock? If not, won't all that pressure activity underground, where the bedrock is, cause fractures above? After all, fracking is causing over 140 earthquakes a year in Oklahoma, a State that only had 1.6 a year before fracking. You can not predict what it will do here with all our injection wells and porous rock.

Now that deep well (deepest in Florida) they are drilling at Virginia Key is starting to make sense. I think  it is purely for fracking research.  Miami Dade Water and Sewer is trying to recover the cost for it from Tallahassee. 

Not a scientist but I would appreciate being enlightened. We know the aquifer groundwater flows like a river (revealed in the now infamous pink water story in Miami New Times - required reading) so a crack in one place will cause havoc everywhere. Won't it? I think that our legislators in Tallahassee are certifiably crazy. One sane Representative, Javier Jose Rodriguez said (page 12 of Miami Herald):

"Passing this bill would effectively lay out a welcome mat for the fracking industry." (HB 191 passed 9-3 in Committee)

All Classes of wells in Florida. See DEP website for a description of them. They want to FRACK here in a place with all these man-made fractures in our surface. Clusterfuck, really.

Also see:
Millions of homes and businesses who are customers of Florida Power & Light will be financing as much as $500 million a year in unregulated natural gas fracking projects conducted by the state’s largest utility, state regulators decided June 18th.



Miami Dade County EVEN did a resolution (Sponsored by Daniella Levine Cava) opposing fracking and voted unanimously against fracking.

Not one but two FRACKING bills are going forward tomorrow in the Florida House. By Geniusofdespair

CS/CS/HB 1205 Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources          
CS/CS/HB 1209 Pub. Rec./High-Pressure Well Stimulation Chemical Disclosure Registry

The full House will consider both Fracking bills on Friday with the aim of rolling them over to a third and final reading early next week.  Keep those calls and emails coming!  Calls are best as they’re harder to delete.  Be friendly and brief, but make it clear you are a Florida voter and you don’t want fracking.  When you call your Representative make sure whoever answers the phone knows you live in their District.  Give them your zip code or a landmark they’ll recognize. Get their name.

These bills delay or prevent disclosure of toxic chemicals until after the damage is done.  DEP and FracFocus are not allowed to tell the public what’s being used if the well operator has claimed the ingredients are “proprietary business information” - trade secrets.
 
If a citizen wants to know what chemicals are being used they have to ask DEP.  Then they have to wait while DEP gives the well owner 30 days to file an action in circuit court seeking an order barring disclosure.  Then they have to wait for the well owner to get a court date, and for any continuances, and for any appeals.  The information cannot be released until the legal process is finished.  This means a family cannot find out what chemicals may threaten them until after the chemicals may already be in their water.  If they’re lucky(?) they’ll find out a long while afterwards.

Local governments are preempted from acting to protect the citizens by regulating fracking in their jurisdictions.

The definition of “high pressure well stimulation” excludes activities like the ones at the Collier-Hogan well in 2013-14.  Any time chemicals are injected into the ground that might get into the water supply people in the community have a right to know what they are.

While the bill contains a study (which is a tacit acknowledgment that the State does not have enough information about fracking) there is no provision for a moratorium on the practice until the study is completed.


You can look up your Representative by entering your address at this link for Florida House or better yet, contact them all.

Fracking Bills in House Committee today … by David Cullen, Sierra Club

FYI- for those of you who are concerned about Fracking in FL, here are 2 bad
bills that you may want to express your opinion about, via telephone or
e-mail. PLEASE DO IT THIS MORNING!

Two House Fracking bills will be heard in the Agriculture and Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Tuesday, March 17 at 12:30. Please call the members
of the committee Monday and urge them to vote NO!

Bills:

HB 1205 - Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources
by Rep. Rodrigues, and

HB 1209 - Public Records/High-pressure Well Stimulation Chemical Disclosure
Registry also by Rep. Rodrigues.

HB 1205 would require a permit and some regulation for “high pressure well stimulation” and HB 1209 would allow the chemicals used in fracking to be hidden behind “trade secrets” provisions. Overall, the bills are very little improved from last year and should not become law.

Regulation and permitting requirements DO NOT:

They're Drillin' and Spillin' in the Gulf. Say NO to Friggin' Fracking in Florida! Guest Blog by Less is MORE

I just read "A Texas Rebel's Fight for Her Land" in September issue of "MORE" magazine...

If you are ever given the opportunity to vote on fracking, vote NO. Chances are you won't have that opportunity. So e-mail, call, and meet with your representatives.

When I heard Rep Ray Rodriguez of Bonita Springs, on WLRN, suggesting legislation "to prepare for fracking in Florida" , I panicked. I had seen  the movie "Gasland", and the trailer for Gasland II. My friends in Colorado have been fighting unsuccessfully to stop it there.

As I researched Fracking, I also learned about Deep Injection Waste Wells, and the damage they've been causing for decades (ANOTHER WELL KEPT SECRET).

A Tropical Audubon screening of the documentary "Vanishing of the Bees" led me to learn about GMOs. That led me to learn about a movement called Flush the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) concerning the abuse of power by trans-national corporations, and their litigation against individuals and sovereign nations. When these corporations are brought to court by an individual or national government, in a country where they have polluted water resources and caused illness, they counter-sue for MILLIONS of DOLLARS to defend their investments, AND future profits!

The more I research the health & environmental impact of Fracking & Deep Injection Waste Wells, the more outraged I am - it has become a consuming, hysterical alarm.
Hard to go about my normal activities when I know this is going on. Geology 101 is all you need to know how INSANE this is.

One disturbing document I found: an EPA report providing that agency's rationale for approving a permit for a Deep Injection Waste Well in Jackson County, Michigan: West Bay Class II Injection Well Response to Comments - US ...Dec 6, 2012 - COMPANY FOR THE WEST BAY #22 WELL IN JACKSON COUNTY, MICHIGAN

I know you will find that these EPA "responses" to public comments/questions are NOT reassuring!

I learned a lot from that one document: final outcome: "EPA has determined that the public comments submitted did not raise significant issues."