Flowback

Flowback is the wastewater produced by each and every fracking well all over the US (and other countries as well).  Fracking for natural gas is popping up all over the country, but the Marcellus shale drilling is of a particular concern for me because it's nearby, affects my drinking water, structural safety of my home and surrounding infrastructure, and what I've read about the most. 

These frack well sites can use an estimated 2-9 million gallons of fluid (mostly water) per well head is needed for one horizontal drill and 10-20 wellheads are found on each, taking about 5 acres of land per drill pad.  Frack fluid is injected into a well and roughly 1/2 of the flowback returns to the surface with the extracted natural gas/oil. 

The Marcellus Shale is known to contain natural gas and oil, but also "toxic metals, salts, and radionuclides" (Kargbo, Wilhelm, & Campbell, 2010) which are remnants from the Devonian age trapped in this geological formation.  Kargbo, Wilhelm, & Campbell (2010) go on to say that "...Devonian-age shales contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), such as uranium (U)and thorium (Th) and their daughter products, 226Ra and 228Ra". 

In the Marcellus Shale area, there are not many injection wells available to dispose of the frack fluid (because of sub-surface instability from what, I'm not sure but can assume it has something to do with intensive natural gas/oil/coal extraction), so we rely heavily on wastewater treatment facilities which poses a bigger challenge to this area on how to keep these hazardous materials out of drinking water.  Needless to say, the industry is racing head-long into the unknown--aka ignoring and/or investing in sound science and research to prevent long-term pollution and expensive clean-up/remediation costs of fresh water drinking sources (costs which will be placed squarely on the shoulders of the tax payers through future Superfund sites requiring clean-up). 

Since there is no way with modern technology to bring only the natural gas/oil to the surface, the NORM, toxic metals and salts are brought to the surface in the flowback, too, along with the industry's secret cancer-causing additives to make the natural gas/oil flow out of the shale easier.  The flowback is transported to wastewater treatment facilities then expelled into surface streams, rivers, and watersheds where toxins can migrate into wells and aquifers.  This introduces technologically enhanced NORM (TENORM) into the surface environment.  In other words, the industry is taking NORM and other harmful stuff that was sequestered underground (several hundred million years ago) during/after the Devonian age and bringing it back to the surface environment to contaminate fresh water systems that the general population and wildlife need to survive. 

By the EPAs own admission, "many [wastewater treatment facilities] are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater", but the EPA plans to have a "proposed rule" in place by 2014 to ensure drinking water safety.  The EPA is also "evaluating industrial practices" of the design, operation, maintenance, and closure of holding pits and ponds that hold the flowback before it is transported to a wastewater facility and/or reused for fracking. 

Until I researched flowback, I wasn't aware that any company reused frack fluid although reuse is dependant on "levels of pollutants" and the proximity to a well that could reuse this fluid.  I would hope the industry would consider to use it on the other 9 to 19 wellheads on the same 5-acre pad as many times as they can so we can save a little water for minor uses like drinking and/or bathing :)   

The Green Dragon

Today is the Chinese New Year, so in my unusual way I'd like to celebrate with a post to raise awareness about the terrifying Environmental Movement that is taking the world by storm.  It is called the "Green Dragon" and is a danger to the world!  Take heed of my words!  Green dragons are the bane of human existence who spread death and destruction across the globe in their quest of all that is green.  They plunder the poor in their march towards clean air, fresh water, and their pursuit towards equitable and fair lives for all people of the Earth.  Beware!  The information shared is not for the faint of heart who fear all things green--much like Cloe my kitty--see Ms. Kitty catches a bird!!!:)

Resisting the Green Dragon is a 12-disc DVD collection for the low price of $49.99 designed to educate me about the Environmental Movement.  I'm told the Environmental Movement is "[w]ithout a doubt one of the greatest threats to society and the church today".  Whoa!  I'm confused I thought it was President Obama and the Democrats--thank goodness they offer a 12 minute preview that explains this new threat.  Just enter your password RESIST to view it here.  The preview was enough to scare the you-know-what out of me (could it be Satan?).  This short video explains that the Environmental Movement, headed by their god the Green Dragon, has become a "new religion" with its "twisted view" of nature that places--God forbid--humans on equal ground with nature.  The Green Dragon suggests that in order to have healthy people nature must be healthy, too.  Where will the madness end?  Our faith tells us we have a God-given right to dominate the earth and burn fossil fuels!  We should continue spending $600 billion a year buying overseas oil and leave our country in the hands of Big Oil in order to celebrate the glory of God.  It's His plan for us, don't you see?  We don't need CO2 levels below 350 ppm--after all 10% of what we exhale is CO2 and the trees need it!  How dare they tell us that breathing kills nature.  What nonsense.  We don't need those pesky mountain tops blocking our view of the ocean and land.  We should have an uncluttered view of God's plan for us--level those mountains, take the coal and build a sterile parking lot at the flattened top of those mountains as a monument of our superiority and dominance over nature.  We need a clear and unadulterated view of our deep sea drilling platforms and fracking wells that we have erected to show Him our awe and respect for all that He has provided.  We don't need clean air, oceans, or anything green because the earth is not fragile but a globe full of goodies just waiting for us to exploit, plunder, and pollute.  Best of all it will bounce back and continue to provide us with more!  It was created for us to care for in anyway we see fit.  We must resist logic, facts and reality in order to conform to the teachings of the Holy Trinity:  King Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas.  God is not nature and we should not entertain thoughts of religious communion with it for any reason. We must remain separate from this world and not allow any thoughts about how our dominance has destroyed nature or its natural balance.  This sort of critical thinking leads to our rights being taken away by the guv-ment, economic destruction, and forces us think about starving children in "third world" countries.  Worse of all, if we listen to the Green Dragon we'll come together as one to protect our biosphere and work together to solve the biggest crisis that we face today.  God wouldn't want any of us to worry about these minuscule problems, but about how we can plod through life with our blinders on ignoring the world and people around us. 

Now, let us pray and bow our heads to thank Big Oil, the Almighty Dollar, and the Prince of Wars for Oil for He shall provide us with all our needs. 

Amen.    

New Year

I'm on the verge of a new year and still not motivated to anything....especially blog.

What Is Christmas?

This Sojourner's blog puts Christmas and the state of the world into perspective.  I've posted most of the article, but the whole article can be read here.  It's titled The Real War on Christmas...By FOX News, posted 12/15/2011 by Jim Wallis.

What is Christmas? It is the celebration of the Incarnation, God’s becoming flesh — human — and entering into history in the form of a vulnerable baby born to a poor, teenage mother in a dirty animal stall. Simply amazing. That Mary was homeless at the time,a member of a people oppressed by the imperial power of an occupied country whose local political leader, Herod, was so threatened by the baby’s birth that he killed countless children in a vain attempt to destroy the Christ child, all adds compelling historical and political context to the Advent season.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season.
In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as “bringing good news to the poor,” and finally tells us that how we treat “the least of these” is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

The other explicit message of the Incarnation is that Jesus the Christ’s arrival will mean “peace on earth, good will toward men.” He is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.” Jesus later calls on his disciples to turn the other cheek, practice humility, walk the extra mile, put away their swords, love their neighbors — and even their enemies — and says that in his kingdom, it is the peacemakers who will be called the children of God. Christ will end our warring ways, bringing reconciliation to God and to one another.

None of that has anything to do with the Fox News Christmas. In fact, quite the opposite.

Making sure that shopping malls and stores greet their customers with “Merry Christmas” is entirely irrelevant to the meaning of the Incarnation. In reality it is the consumer frenzy of Christmas shopping that is the real affront and threat to the season.

Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season.

Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?

While we’re at it, here’s another point of clarification: The arrival of the Christ child has nothing to do with trees or what we call them.

Evergreens and wreaths, holly and ivy, and even mistletoe turn out to be customs borrowed from ancient Roman and Germanic winter solstice celebrations, assimilated and co-opted by the church after Constantine made peace between his empire and the Christians.

I have no problem with the public viewing of symbols from all of the world’s religions at appropriate times in their religious calendars (which can actually be educational for all of our children) and believe that doing so is consistent with our democratic and cultural pluralism.

But I don’t believe that respectfully and publicly honoring those many religious symbols has changed many lives, for better or for worse. Much more important than symbols and symbolism is how we live the faith that we espouse. And here is where Fox News’s war on Christmas is most patently unjust.

The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.

The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.

The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.

The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.

The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary’s song of praise for her baby boy: “He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”

The Fox News Christmas would label Mary’s Magnificat as “class warfare.”

So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.
Jim Wallis~12/15/2011

Fracking

In 2008 a small town in WY requested that the EPA investigate "water quality concerns in private drinking water wells" that are associated with hydraulic fracturing. The EPA found "synthetic chemicals, like glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels. There is a preliminary report on the EPA website of their findings" The article can be found here: . There is a preliminary report on the EPA website here (this is 15mb pdf download): http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/EPA_ReportOnPavillion_Dec-8-2011.pdf EPA also has the site description here: http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/index.html and a news release here: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/ef35bd26a80d6ce3852579600065c94e?OpenDocument They are very careful to say that production conditions are different in this town than in other parts of the country. Also, that the chemicals are "generally" below established health and safety standards. EPA has begun a national study on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. I wonder what their conclusion will be? Opinions?

English Paper

For those of you who don't fear the Turnitin Police, here's a 100% paper. 

I'm a strong believer in The Commons:  My work is here for you to benefit from and build on.

Edie’s Journey

“How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro, is a short story about a young girl named Edie who works for the Peebles.  The theme of her narrative is the coming of age of Edie, the protagonist in this story.  Munro develops Edie’s character as she passes from innocent naiveté into adulthood.  Munro uses various symbols that guide and shape Edie’s perspective through an ironic twist of events involving a letter that never arrives.  Her believable story is told through first person point of view as an adult looking back on her life.  Edie’s antagonist is not a person, but rather her own inner struggle as she strives to reach adulthood.  During her struggle from a naïve teen into adulthood, she observes and interacts with other characters in the story.  Even though there is not a major human antagonist in this story, several people influence Edie and her struggle to discover herself.  These people do not aid her in conventional methods like advice, but by their actions, conduct, and Munro’s use of symbolism with each. 

The first person Munro introduces to the reader that aids Edie in her journey is Mrs. Peebles.  She is a kind employer, but feels as if she is “tied down” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 24) with her country life and two children.  Edie and her family find this amusing (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) since Mrs. Peebles has many modern conveniences that they do not own including running water, an automatic washer and dryer, a double sink, and a modern bathroom.  Edie describes the irony of Mrs. Peebles’ feelings compared to her mother’s workload.  She points out the difference between washing clothes at home where it is a “struggle with the wringer and hang up and haul down” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) and concludes it is difficult to remember now that she has these modern conveniences (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 25) in her adult life.  In this way, she excuses Mrs. Peebles’ perspective by comparing it to the way she lives now.   

Mrs. Peebles has many nice things that Edie may want when she finds her husband; however, the one item Munro uses to symbolize Edie’s inner struggle towards adulthood is Mrs. Peebles’ dress.  Edie discovers dresses in Mrs. Peebles closet that are pushed to the back.  She expresses her disappointment that there is no wedding dress (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 30), but tries on a beautiful satin dress.  Mrs. Peebles dress represents two things.  First, it shows Edie’s innocence and her desire to play dress-up.  The second thing it symbolizes is her desire to try on Mrs. Peebles’ life to see if it suits her.  After she puts on the dress, “one thing led to another” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 31) and she loses herself in the moment.  She is trying on the image of a well-off lady, but finds herself in an embarrassing situation with Chris Watters—something a lady of a higher social class may not find herself entangled in.  This experience also leads her to conclude that she has crossed an unspoken line when she states that employers “...like to think you aren’t curious” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 51) about anything but their wants.  She enjoys trying on the dress, but also regrets that someone else found out her secret.    

Loretta Bird, another character Munro introduces, is a woman that Edie does not want to become.  She is nosy, judgmental, and at times rude.  When she is alone with Edie she comments about Mrs. Peebles’ naps and how “[s]he wouldn’t find time to lay down in the middle of the day, if she had seven kids like I got” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 22).  This statement is both ironic and judgmental at the same time.  She judges Mrs. Peebles by claiming she (Mrs. Bird) does not have time to take a nap.  This is also ironic because Mrs. Bird has plenty of time to sit and gossip with Edie.  She is also too curious about the Peebles’ personal life when she asks whether the Peebles fight or use birth control (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 23).  She asserts that using birth control is a “sin” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 23) passing another judgment on Mrs. Peebles. 

There are ways Munro depicts Mrs. Bird’s rudeness, but the lawn chair represents how she insults Edie personally.  When Edie returns from the kitchen with ice tea, she finds Mrs. Bird “had settled in [her] lawn chair” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 101).  Alice Kelling was invited to sit and wait with the family (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 96), not Mrs. Bird.  Bird takes it upon herself to sit in Edie’s empty chair leaving her on the steps (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 101) separate from the other adults.  As Edie observes Mrs. Bird’s behavior, she sees someone she does not want to become.

With Chris Watters, Munro uses visual symbols as well as personal interaction to nudge Edie into adulthood.  When Watters first appears in Edie’s life, he is flying a flashy red and silver plane (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 1) to the abandoned fairgrounds across the street from the Peebles.  According to Clugston (2010), the color red symbolizes passion and danger (sec. 7.2, table 7.1) the two things Edie encounters when she meets him in person.  The danger she experiences is when Watters catches her playing dress-up in Mrs. Peebles’ clothes.  Edie fears he will tell her secret and her job will be in jeopardy.  She also experiences passion when Watters compliments her beauty and kisses her.  During their first two encounters, she is unable to respond to his compliments with anything other than embarrassment (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 45) and nervousness showing her inexperience with men.  Edie wants to gain experience by kissing him, but she is still too naïve to understand where the kissing might lead.  Watters, on the other hand, realizes what could happen and takes the initiative to stop them from going further.

Watters’ plane also symbolizes the how easy it is for him to enter and leave Edie’s life, something she realizes later.  The plane suggests that he has flown into Edie’s life to bring some excitement, but it also represents his inability to settle down.  In fact, Watters admits this while talking to Mrs. Peebles.  He tells her “he couldn’t settle down to an ordinary life, [and] this is what he liked” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 86).  Edie is too naïve at this point in the story to realize Watters is only making promises he will never keep including the letter he will never send.

Later in the story, Edie sits by the mailbox every day as summer winds down waiting for the promised letter from Watters.  Munro uses the imagery of goldenrod and children returning to school (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 199) to show the physical changes in the seasons from summer to fall.  As the Earth changes, so does Edie’s hopes of receiving a letter from Watters, and in fact thinks, “No letter was ever going to come.”  (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 199) one day when the letter failed to arrive.  She realizes “there were women all through life waiting, and women busy and not waiting” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 200) and “knew which one [she] had to be” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 200).  It is in this moment that Edie takes a leap towards a mature adult and meets her husband.

As the reader finds out at the end of this story, Edie ironically meets her future husband, the mailman, while waiting for a letter from Watters.  Munro suggests through this part of the narrative that the mailman is far more dependable than Watters will ever be.  Edie claims the “mail came every day except Sunday, between one-thirty and two” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 198) showing how dependable he is.  He also enjoys seeing her and tells her “You’ve got the smile I’ve been waiting for all day!”  (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 198) showing his obvious interest in her.  Although Edie does not realize until he calls and asks her out that he is interested in her, she ends up marrying him.  She also lets him tell the story of how she chased him because “it makes [him] happy” (Clugston, 2010, ¶ 202).  This final line shows how Edie grew from a naïve young girl into a mature and caring woman by letting her husband think she was waiting for him—not a letter from another man.

Alice Munro shares a story of how Edie, a young hired girl, finds a husband.  In her journey from child to adult, several people help her along the way.  Some of these people she tries to emulate like Mrs. Peebles when she tries on the satin gown.  Others, like Mrs. Bird, are not the type of person wants to be.  One man, Chris Watters, helps Edie gain experience with situations that are more intimate.  His empty promise to send her a letter keeps her waiting by the mailbox for many weeks.  After weeks of waiting for a letter, Edie has a sudden moment of self-awareness.  This is the moment she decides what type of woman she wants to be, but she also opens herself to another possibility—finding her future husband.

Reference

Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint                       Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books

Lunch With Idiots

My story begins last week when the fridge at work went kaput in the public kitchenette.  The boss decided to replace that one with the working fridge in the staff room.  OK, not a problem...until....
One very nice lady was put in charge of cleaning out the staff fridge to make room for our shiny new one.  My lunch (with my name on it) almost ended up in the trash, but was saved by my super.  However, my cheese chunk wasn't saved.  Now I have pita crackers, but no cheese.  This was easily remedied by a trip to the store to replace the tossed cheese chunk with fresh.  Today I decided to have some fresh fruit, pita crackers, and cheese for lunch.  I set my spot at the table nicely with crackers, cheese, sliced fruit, water, and my book.  I got up to place my knife in the dishwasher, turned around, and saw a staff member eating my pita crackers!  Hello, didn't you notice ALL of my stuff sitting there?  Then she started to complain about "how salty" the crackers were, said "I don't eat salt, so that's what it tastes like", and "where did these come from?"  I sat down in my chair and picked up a piece of fruit FROM THE SAME PLATE and picked up my book.  I told her I had bought those to go with my cheese and fruit.  They were called "pita chips with sea salt".  She then picked up another one made a face, ate it and complained some more.  Whoa...didn't I just say I bought those to go with my cheese????  I'm sitting here with my lunch and you're eating it!  She didn't even notice I had sat down in that spot WITH THE PLATE IN FRONT OF ME everything nicely sliced and arranged for me to enjoy.  She walked over to the "communal counter" where everyone leaves snacks to share, grabs a handful of Doritos eats one and says "that's better" and walks out of the break room.  What the HELL....