Legal Help for Victims of Hydraulic Fracturing

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Legal Help for Victims of Hydraulic Fracturing
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Water Contamination from Hydraulic Fracturing Lawyers Attorney Lawsuit

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Do you live in an area where gas drilling via hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is going on, such as Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale, or the Barnett shale in Texas? Has your well water become contaminated due to methane gas migration or fracking fluid spills? If so, you are one of the latest victims of this poorly regulated industry.

Colorado, Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Texas are just some of the states were hydraulic fracturing has been linked to contaminated water and illnesses. Our firm is already representing families who have been damaged by fracking.

If you have been victimized by the hydraulic fracturing industry, we can help. (Emphasis Added)

Our hydraulic fracturing lawyers are offering free lawsuit consultations to anyone whose health and property has been damaged by fracking. We urge you to contact us today to protect your legal rights.

What is Hydraulic Fracturing?

Fracking is currently used in 90 percent of the nation’s natural gas and oil wells. The practice makes drilling possible in areas that 10 to 20 years ago would not have been profitable. Fracking involves injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. This opens existing fractures in the rock and allows gas to rise through the wells.

Many of the chemicals used in shale gas drilling, such as benzene, are hazardous. Long-term exposure to such chemicals can have serious health consequences. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they use.

Despite their attempts to keep the make-up of fracking fluids secret, we do know something about what they contain. A recent study conducted by Theo Colburn, PhD, the director of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange in Paonia, Colorado, has so far identified 65 chemicals that are probable components of the injection fluids used by shale gas drillers. These chemicals included benzene, glycol-ethers, toluene, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethanol, and nonylphenols. All of these chemicals have been linked to health disorders when human exposure is too high.

Communities Damaged by Fracking

People living in the vicinity of shale gas drilling have reported foul smells in their tap water. In some instances gas well pipes have broken, resulting in leakage of contaminants into the surrounding ground.

One small town in Pennsylvania called Dimock, for example, has been devastated by fracking. Cabot Oil & Gas drilled dozens of wells in Dimock. Sadly, problems with the cement casing on 20 of those caused contamination of local water wells, driving down property values and causing sickness. In some cases, levels of methane in some Dimock water wells are so high that homeowners are able to set water aflame as it comes out of their taps. In April 2010, state environmental regulators fined Cabot $240,000, and ordered it to permanently shut three wells and install water-treatment systems in 14 homes within 30 days or face a $30,000 a month fine. Cabot's more than two-dozen pending drilling applications were also put on hold.

The violations seen in Dimock are not uncommon in Pennsylvania. A 2010 report issued by the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association found that the state has identified 1,435 violations by 43 Marcellus Shale drilling companies since January 2008. Of those, 952 were identified as having or likely to have an impact on the environment.

Texas’ Barnett shale region is another area where fracking is booming. In August 2010, an air sampling in the Texas town of DISH by Wolf Eagle Environmental “confirmed the presence in high concentrations of carcinogenic and neurotoxin compounds in ambient air near and/or on residential properties.” In June 2010, tests by the Texas Railroad Commission showed arsenic, barium, chromium, lead and selenium in a residential water well in DISH. The tainted water turned up at a home in DISH shortly after a nearby gas well was drilled.

Results of air testing by the commission released the same month detected benzene concentration, 37 parts per billion, at a Devon Energy complex on Jim Baker Road between the towns of Justin and DISH. The highest benzene reading overall, 95 ppb, was detected at a Stallion Oilfield Services commercial disposal well in Parker County. All six facilities that state inspectors revisited are within about 1,000 feet from people’s homes.

Earlier this decade, the Canadian drilling company EnCana began ramping up gas development in the Pavillion/Muddy Ridge field of Wyoming. In the summer of 2010, the majority of Pavillion residents who participated in a health survey reported respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, itchy skin, dizziness and other ailments. According to the Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project, many residents also reported that their well water was tainted by fracking. Various ailments residents reported are associated with contaminants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified in Pavillion well water, Earthworks said.

Such reports don't even begin to tell the whole story of the damage fracking has done to communities and the environment across the country. Our firm is trying to get the word out, and our hydraulic fracturing lawyers are working with our clients to hold drillers and others involved in this industry accountable for the devastation fracking has caused.

Legal Help for Victims of Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing is destroying the environment and threatening the health of thousands of people. If you and your family have become fracking victims, you have valuable legal rights.

Please fill out our online form, or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636) today to schedule a free consultation with one of our hydraulic fracturing lawyers.

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Is Fracking Behind Water Problems at Wyoming's Wind River Indian Reservation?

http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
is-fracking-behind-water-problems-at-wyomings-wind-river-indian-reservation/

Oct 14, 2010 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
People living on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming have been warned not to drink their well water after it was found to be contaminated with benzene and other toxins. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now trying to determine if nearby gas drilling operations that utilize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are to blame. The Wind River Indian Reservation includes the town of Pavillion. As we’ve reported previously, the Canadian drilling company EnCana...

MORE: http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
is-fracking-behind-water-problems-at-wyomings-wind-river-indian-reservation/

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Fracking Study Finds Drilling Operations Could Pollute Pennsylvania Waterways

http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
fracking-study-finds-drilling-operations-could-pollute-pennsylvania-waterways/

Oct 13, 2010 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
Early results from a hydraulic fracturing study indicate that such gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale could pose a pollution threat to the state’s streams and rivers. According to a report from the Associated Press, the pollution problems could occur even when there have been no fracking fluid spills or other accidents. For several years now, gas drillers have been descending upon the Marcellus shale, a gas rich formation that extends through New York,...

MORE: http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
fracking-study-finds-drilling-operations-could-pollute-pennsylvania-waterways/

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Fracking Fluid Treatment Plant Proposal Raises Concerns in Pennsylvania

http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
fracking-fluid-treatment-plant-proposal-raises-concerns-in-pennsylvania/

Oct 12, 2010 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
A proposed hydraulic fracturing water treatment facility is not getting a warm reception in one Northeastern Pennsylvania town. At a meeting before the Wysox Township Zoning Hearing Board last week to discuss the issue, some attendees expressed concerns about the impact the fracking facility would have on the community. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet below the surface. The...

MORE: http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
fracking-fluid-treatment-plant-proposal-raises-concerns-in-pennsylvania/

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Fracking Prompts Air Pollution Worries

http://www.newsinferno.com/fracking/
fracking-prompts-air-pollution-worries/

Oct 8, 2010 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
A West Virginia environmentalist called on regulators to address air quality issues related to the gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Speaking at the West Virginia Water Conference this week, Don Garvin of the West Virginia Environmental Council said trucks and other equipment at drill sites contribute to smog, and should be monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “When you get an array of 50 trucks on a job, from my standpoint,...

MORE: http://www.newsinferno.com/fracking/
fracking-prompts-air-pollution-worries/

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Environmental Group Objects to Fracking Study Panel Nominee

http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
environmental-group-objects-to-fracking-study-panel-nominee/

Oct 6, 2010 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
Fracking opponents aren’t too happy that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has nominated a petroleum engineer to sit on the panel that will review its just-begun study of the health and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing. According to the Environmental Working Group, Michael Economides, a University of Houston petroleum engineering professor, will be biased. The EPA announced the fracking study in March, following an order from the US Congress. The study, which is...

MORE: http://www.newsinferno.com/health-concerns/
environmental-group-objects-to-fracking-study-panel-nominee/

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