Secret Chemicals & Predicting Wildfires

This is the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams in for Lester Graham.

There’s a federal law that protects drinking water. That law allows companies that are drilling for natural gas to inject chemicals into the ground. The exemption for gas drilling operations also allows the companies to keep the chemicals they use a secret. Conrad Wilson has been digging into this. So what’s going on here?

CW:

For decades drilling for natural gas includes pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into the ground to force out pockets of gas.

Environmental groups believe the chemicals are contaminating wells and aquifers here in the western U.S. And they want the exemption removed. Now gas drilling is moving east to places closer to cities such as Philadelphia and New York.

Several Democratic Members of Congress have introduced legislation to repeal the exemption in the Safe Drinking Water Act.

I spoke with Randy Udall - he’s a co-founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA, an environmental group. He says as more gas is found, people in the East can expect more drilling.

(UDALL 9 SECONDS) For better or worse, whether you like it or not, as time goes on, were going to be drilling in places where people are living.


So what does the oil and gas industry say about this?

They say the chemicals they force into the ground are “trade secrets.” They say the process is safe.

But without disclosure there’s no way of knowing....

Exactly and that’s what the legislation is trying to repeal.

Ok thanks Conrad.

Thank you Rebecca.

STING

This is the Environment Report.

Researchers believe global warming will cause major shifts in wildfire patterns around the world. As Sadie Babits reports, scientists have discovered where future wildfires could light up and that could help communities plan for them:



Katherine Hayhoe is a climate scientist at Texas Tech University. She’s part of a group of scientists that has for the first time, tried to project where fire hotspots will crop up around the world.

KATHERINE1: (“6:31: The impacts of climate change on wildfires are expected to be widespread around the world.”) 7 sec

Hotter temperatures and rain and snow coming at different times in the year or perhaps not at all, will mean forests and grasslands will dry out – becoming tinder boxes for fire. In the next thirty years scientists believe that the Western U.S. will continue to see catastrophic fires. In the next sixty years, they predict wildfires will increase the Corn Belt and spread into the East Coast. Researchers say having an idea of how wildfire patterns will shift will help communities better prepare.

Some communities are already doing that. The city of Bend, Oregon was one of the first in the country to launch a public education campaign to get homeowners to fire proof their homes.

GARY2: (t58: 1:55: We have this history of people wanting to live outside the urban area and live out in rural areas, where they can see the deer and be out in the trees and live that lifestyle that most, most Americans who move out to the West want to be a part of that.”)17 sec

Bend lies in what’s known as wildfire alley. Flames are fed by dried out grasses and forests so dense that you can’t see through them. Add homes to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. But Marshal says for the most part their fire prevention program is working. Homeowners are voluntarily clearing out brush and trees away from their homes.

AMBY1: Truck sound driving on a dirt road. Use as a sound pop and then duck below and hold through scene.


But there’s a still some work to be done out here in this suburb of Bend.

Sadie1: T91: 0:54: Sadie: You can’t see through the trees it’s so dense: Joe: You can’t walk through. {note: may try and cut out} Gary: And a firefighter won’t go in there. You’d write that off. So if you don’t take care of it, the fire will.” 10 sec

That’s something that climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe hopes to avoid.
She says having a long-term view of where wildfires might pop up could help communities to start now and follow Bend’s lead.




Sadie has covered a lot of wildfires out West. You can see some of her photos on our website – environment report dot org.

I’m Rebecca Williams.