Identification of Local Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing: Hydrofracking creates many impacts that are national, state, and local in scale, some of which are the focus of federal or state regulation and some of which are not. State and federal regulation of adverse impacts do not necessarily address local impacts effectively, and many local impacts are beyond the concern of state and federal agencies and the scope of their regulations. The following is a partial list of shared and uniquely local hydrofracking impacts that concern municipal officials and citizens, particularly when they are not addressed by the regulations of higher levels of government.1 Potential Impact Causes Description Sample Communities Expressing Concern ENVIRONMENTAL Adverse effects on locally valuable habitats and species -­‐ Infrastructure → Creates fragmentation and pollution of local habitat from roads, drill pads, transmission pipelines, and other infrastructure, which diminishes ecological viability Creedmoor, NC Bethlehem Township, NJ Franklin Township, NJ Anna, IL Anson County, NC Bridger-­‐Teton, WY -­‐ Transport -­‐ Pollution → Roads and increased industrial activity and traffic contributes to wildlife displacement (Anna, IL) Air pollution, dust, & odor -­‐ Drilling dust -­‐ Gas escape from well -­‐Increased road traffic → Well and storage facilities may leak methane and other toxic fumes that may pollute the local air and/or give it an unpleasant and persistent odor. →Increased tractor trailer traffic creates dust clouds College Park, MD Cross Village Township, MI Raleigh, NC Secaucus, NJ Boulder County, CO Fairfax County, CA Enfield, NY 1 The information in this table was compiled in part from a review of local measures expressing concerns about fracking. Many of the local measures were identified through a list shared by Food & Water Watch. Groundwater pollution -­‐ Accidents -­‐ Spills -­‐ Leaks -­‐ Dumping Surface water pollution -­‐Leaks in storage containers -­‐Spills Water depletion -­‐High levels of freshwater required during the fracking process → Well water contamination may Terre Haute, IN result from leaks in fracking well College Park, MD that travel through water table Detroit, MI Dearborn Heights, MI → Dumping of fracking fluids and Camden County, NC materials off site leach into Creedmoor, NC groundwater Greenville, NC Franklin Township, NJ → On-­‐site storage of flow back Secaucus, NJ may leak and leach into Las Vegas, NM groundwater Enfield, NY Lewisburg, WV → Other associated byproducts of the fracking process, i.e. methane, diesel fuel, may also concentrate at drill site and leach into groundwater. →Backflow from fracking well, once stored, may leak into surrounding water bodies. →Contaminants that reach soil sediments by leaks in storage ponds may migrate to nearby streams, lakes etc. →Greatly increased pumping of local aquifers, or the transportation of waters from distant aquifers to supply the need, may result in significant aquifer depletion. →Alteration of local water cycle may result from the siphoning of surface waters and not returned to the local watershed due to contamination College Park, MD Detroit, MI Dearborn Heights, MI Camden County, NC Creedmoor, NC Franklin Township, NJ Secaucus, NJ Philadelphia, PA College Park, MD City of Carson, CA Town of Fairfax, CA Boulder County, CO Fort Collins, CO Hawai’i County Brunswick, OH Lewisburg, WV →Disrupting the natural or existing seasonal flow and allocation of surface waters by reallocating large amounts of water Wastewater generation -­‐flowback from wells contains high levels of known and →Contaminated waters produced must be safely stored and subsequently treated before being discharged into local water Baltimore, MD College Park, MD Dearborn Heights, MI Camden County, NC unknown contaminants supplies. →Local water treatment facilities are generally unprepared to treat the contaminants that may exist in fracking fluid because they are either undisclosed or unregulated and therefore undetected Raleigh, NC Greenville, NC Franklin Township, NJ →Treatment facilities may lack the facilities or technology to remove the contaminants even if they are known and detectable Impacts from increased sand mining and processing -­‐ Need for proppant Soil erosion and increased -­‐ Development sedimentation -­‐ Infrastructure → The demand for frac sand as a proppant has increased along with rising fracking activity, resulting in huge growth in frac sand mining and processing, originally in Texas and Wisconsin but increasingly in the mid-­‐
western states. This rise in mining and processing has a host of potential local impacts in affected communities, including air and water pollution. Town of Oak Grove, WI Eau Claire County, WI → Disturbances in surface cover caused by construction of infrastructure render soils more susceptible to erosion. Bethlehem Township, NJ Boulder County, CO → Construction of drill pads and pipelines on slopes increases this susceptibility. Increased impervious cover -­‐ Development → Development, including construction of drill pads and roads, often converts vegetated or forested land to impervious cover, increasing stormwater runoff, potential flooding, and erosion and sedimentation Bethlehem Township, NJ Soil compaction -­‐ Equipment and truck transport → Movement of heavy drilling and fracking equipment, as well as truck transportation of fracking fluids and wastewater, compacts soil in the immediate vicinity, which reduces productivity and vegetative cover. Visual blight -­‐ Development -­‐ Operation → Drill pads, fracking operations, and truck transport may be aesthetically unappealing and cause view shed interruption. CO jurisdictions → Night-­‐time lighting from drill pads and flares can be extremely bright, causing night sky pollution in some cases as visible in satellite imagery as large cities (ex. North Dakota). Noise pollution -­‐ Operation → Air compressors, drilling rigs, traffic, and other aspects of fracking operations cause significant noise that may disturb local populations. Raleigh, NC Alteration of Underground Geologic Makeup -­‐Drilling and injection of fluid may impact local underground geology → Drilling and highly pressurized fluid may increase already permeable porous underground geology Hawai’i County SOCIAL & ECONOMIC Adverse effects on local economic development -­‐ Boom-­‐town creation → This impact may lead to chemical infiltration into the shoreline, the ocean, and rivers as well as inducing movement of naturally-­‐occurring volcanic toxins → Fracking may result in boom town creation, with cyclical and non-­‐permanent economic -­‐ Reduced tourism demands. Rapid economic growth may be followed by eventual significant economic decline because production rates drop steeply and other industries such as agriculture have been pushed out. → Fracking activity may alter local economic development Dearborn Heights, MI Creedmoor, NC plans and conditions. → Increased fracking activity may lead to decreased revenue from tourism because of visual blight and environmental degradation. Adverse effects on road conditions -­‐ Truck traffic → Dramatic surge in road traffic because of equipment and truck transport, as well as influx of workers, causes congestion and deterioration of roads, which necessitates costly road repair. College Park, MD City of Carson, CA Boulder County, CO Hawai’i County Enfield, NY Maryland → Increased traffic and truck transport also causes increased dust and particulate contamination on roads. → Increased chance of accidents Erosion of community character and place -­‐ Various → Boom-­‐town creation, including population and economic influx, as well as community disagreement, visual blight, noise pollution, changing real estate market, increased crime and drug use, and other factors may fundamentally alter the character of a town in a short time period. Adverse effects on farming and farmland preservation -­‐ Development → Fragmentation of farmland can result in higher costs for cultivation than for contiguous cropland. -­‐ Pollution -­‐ Contamination -­‐ Water use → Soil contamination and compaction may reduce soil productivity. → Surface water contamination from fluid spills may poison and kill livestock, which are drawn to the saltiness of fracking fluids. → Heavy water use for fracking may deplete local water sources. Dearborn Heights, MI Boulder Count, CO Alto Pass & Anna IL Anson County, NC Adverse effects on property values -­‐ Environmental damage -­‐ Mortgage and insurance restrictions → Environmental damage, including water or soil contamination, can reduce utility and thus value of property. → Difficulty obtaining insurance coverage on properties with fracking activity may decrease property value. → Difficulty obtaining or refinancing a mortgage on property with or near fracking activity may decrease property value. Adverse effects on public facilities and utilities Hawai’i County Albany, NY -­‐increased loads due to more people/more technologies on line with energy, garbage, cable, etc. needs. → Electric transmission lines: placement and replacement Adverse effects on water infrastructure -­‐increased loads of wastewater from flowback (about 70% of water used in fracking comes back up the well). Often treated by the muni WWTP →Wastewater, water infrastructure may need to be upgraded or expanded. Colorado Springs, CO Fort Collins, CO Longmont, CO Hawai’i County Albany, NY Adverse effects on civic discourse -­‐heterogeneous allocation of adverse impacts, and lucrative fracking leases → Fear vs. opportunism among locals Adverse effects on local housing market -­‐rapid and large influx of out-­‐of-­‐
state workers → Impacts on local housing plans and conditions Enfield, NY →Gas mains →Telephone and cable utilities →Storage/transfer/disposal of wastes → Man camps, temporary housing provision →Decreased availability of low-­‐
income housing Loss of recreational space -­‐footprint of → Well sites are located on open multiple well pads areas, often close to residential sizable areas, which could be well-­‐suited to parks or playing fields. Creedmoor, NC Enfield, NY Anson County, NC Forced residential movement -­‐Permanently polluted well water →Residents living near and dependent on water sources contaminated by fracking and without alternative sources may be forced to abandon their homes for health reasons Hawai’i County, HI HEALTH & SAFETY Chemical hazards, human health concerns for workers accidents at the well → Fires, chemical spills, dangerous equipment malfunctions. Lack of disclosure of chemicals poses problems for emergency responders Franklin Township, NJ Emergency Services Stretched Beyond Capacity increase in number of people needing services, increase in activities which could cause emergencies → Fracking is a major Anson County, NC undertaking, with heavy infrastructure, chemicals, and large vehicles, and thus has inherent danger. This implicates local emergency services, which may not be sufficiently staffed for the increased need. SEISMIC Earthquakes/Ground vibration Fluid injections near or on fault-­‐
lines. Some uncertainty around causation. → “swarm” of earthquakes in OK, concerns for future seismic activity with massive, deep fluid injections. Creedmoor, NC Franklin Township, NJ Secaucus, NJ California jurisdictions Boulder County, CO Hawai’i County Anna, Illinois Cincinnati, OH Youngstown, OH Enfield, NY