MT Board of Oil & Gas Votes to Conceal Fracking Fluids

Siding with industry, Montana’s Board of Oil & Gas unanimously approved rules which permit industry to keep secret fluids used in fracking wells.

Montana’s Board of Oil & Gas has regulatory and rule-making oversight. By law, 50% of its 6 members are from the oil & gas industry, two must be property owners “not actively associated with the oil & gas industry” yet one of those property owners must own both surface and mineral ownership (no self-serving interest there). One member must be a lawyer.

MTBOG had a full docket for today and tomorrow, but cleared things up right away regarding the oil & gas industry’s need to disclose the chemicals they are injecting into the ground – into the water tables of surface property owners who own the water rights.

“Keep ‘em secret!” said the board.

this is a complete sham. with fracking stopped in Arkansas and knowledge about the dangers to drinking water that fracking poses, now the big business is back to their manipulation of Gov. to cover their tracks.

Benzene causes cancer. That is a fact. Benzene is widely known to be used in fracking. That is a fact. Benzene has shown up in water wells near fracking wells across the nations.

Undoubtedly you have all seen video of the water from faucets and water bottles that catch on fire merely when a flame is put to it. THAT is what fracking is capable of doing. With water.
With water that is actually a property right owned. Yet oil & gas industry can come in to get their minerals and destroy your water. Destroy.

video on what fracking involves

Wyoming First in Nation to Require Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used in Gas, Oil Drilling

our dependance on big business has to stop we as a people have only the illusion of safety and freedom, Our drinking water and clean environment is something we take pride in here in MT and this story just disgusts me.
Fracking and environmental destruction has been going far to long making the 5% richer and the rest of us 95% are left with the bill not only in debt and cleanup but in our health and our children's health.


Big business is NOT planning on stopping anytime soon we as a people need to take control, First thing we need to stop trusting a board of representatives who only represent their interest and the interest of big business.

Our government is comprised of fools. Please write Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and tell her to delay approval of these rules until such time that they meet Montana’s constitutional guarantees for the public to open public disclosure. Until such time that the rules make a reasonable attempt to meet constitutional guarantees for Montana citizens to a clean and healthful environment.

The Northern Plains Resource Council’s press release is below the fold.

Board keeps fracking chemicals secret; landowners concerned

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation (BOGC) voted today [Wednesday, August 10, 2011] to finalize its rules on hydraulic fracturing disclosure. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process where chemicals, water, and sand are injected into deep oil and gas wells in Montana to release the gas, which is pumped to the surface.

The seven members of the Board were unanimous in their decision Wednesday to keep the content of fracking chemicals from complete public disclosure.

Landowners in Sweet Grass County who are facing gas development and have mineral rights leased beneath or near their land are concerned about the rules that will go into effect August 26, if approved by the Secretary of State.

Cottonwood Resource Council Chair Cindy Webber attended the meeting where the rules were finalized.

“The draft rules that the Board may approve today set an important precedent in the way our state deals with oil and gas development,” she said in written testimony before the vote. “Unless the Board has substantially revised the rules, we believe they fall short of protecting water quality, public health, and landowner rights.

“Public disclosure should not be a controversial issue. Of the approximately 212 comments received during the public comment period, 192 are in favor of stronger rules that protect the public and our water supplies.”

Webber lives south of Big Timber on the Boulder River where mineral rights underneath the river have been leased.

In neighboring Wyoming, where similar disclosure rules were enacted in 2010, water contamination cases are being investigated in the towns of Pavillion and Clark. The EPA has found chemicals used in fracking in Pavillion water wells. Also, in Clark, natural gas and trace amounts of benzene, another fracking chemical, have been found in water wells.

Sally Owen-Still, a Sweet Grass County resident and Cottonwood Resource Council member, was disappointed in the decision by the Board.

“It seems sensible and logical if we’re concerned with the public health of our citizens that we know what is in the fracking chemicals and we are given notice so we can test our water. We are told by the oil and gas companies that this fracking process is safe. If this is indeed the case, why would they resist full public disclosure?”

Cottonwood Resource Council is the Sweet Grass County affiliate of Northern Plains Resource Council, a conservation and family agriculture group that works to protected Montana’s water, family farms and ranches, and unique quality of life.

That's fracking crazy! Why the frack would they do that?

So way we all...

Yea, it's all fracking bs!!!

They're looking to do that (fracking) in upper St. NY.

If you don't know, NYC has some of the best city water in the country. That might not be saying much! But, still, if you'd like to see how it can affect the environment, search on Youtube for "Gasland".

Freking (not fracking), crazy!

We are actively fighting the frakkin they want to do in my province, New Brunswick, Canada. They've already started exploratory drilling in places.

We've got to stand up and stop this before they destroy the earth under our very feet

reply to post by ctdannyd


Gasland is an excellent watch, I have to admit to that...depressing but interesting. Since you are in NY here is a website for you. Im sure that there are other grass root efforts in other states as well but this is one I monitor closely.

frackaction.org

Fracking is just a disgusting practice..... and it needs to stop.

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn


Actually I'm in CT, but still thanks for the link/response!