Assessing the shale gas study

Jim Emberger  ::  Telegraph Journal  ::  14 May 2014

The Council of Canadian Academies report on shale gas has recently reignited the debate in New Brunswick, with all sides spinning the commentary about the report. However, much of the body of research in the report is beyond spin, and just means what is says.

   • The modern shale gas industry, including the type of hydro-fracturing it employs,is a recent development,about which there is little research on potentially serious,long-lasting effects on public health and the environment.

   • The existing research raises many red flags,from contamination of groundwater,to the nearly total absence of knowledge about the health and environmental effects of fracking chemicals,to the amount of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Little has been done to address those concerns or systematically monitor them.

   • As a consequence,the regulations designed to control the industry have little basis in science.The report states, “The Canadian regulatory framework governing shale gas development is evolving and remains untested.The research needed to provide the framework for improved science-based decisions concerning cumulative environmental impacts has barely begun”

Given those facts, most people using common sense would decide to halt the development of the industry until research can be conducted,realistic risk assessments made,and mitigation processes perfected.

However, the Alward government is instead taking the position that the report recommends ‘going-slow’, meaning business as usual, just slower. It has also reached the incomprehensible conclusion that the report urges us to develop this dangerous industry here in New Brunswick so we can then study it,rather than study it where it already exists.

In fact, the report makes no recommendations, and says so up front. The phrase ‘go-slow’ is mentioned only twice in the nearly 300 page document, and only in the context of acknowledging the common sense advice that caution is recommended if proceeding into an area of great and dangerous unknowns.

‘Going slow’ is not defined or suggested as a plan of action. The sentence following ‘go slow’ acknowledges that “there may also be some negative impacts of development that cannot be eliminated, and the scientific basis for identifying areas that are particularly vulnerable has not been established” Not exactly an endorsement for pushing ahead, regardless of speed.

But what might ‘go slow’ mean in the context of the report itself? The report states that, “Some of the possible environmental and health effects of shale gas development may take decades to become apparent.” It adds, “Most research projects conducted in Canada are planned for the relatively short term — five to ten years or less. To address some of the most important questions about shale gas, longer-term research will be needed.” The report even notes that some problems associated with the industry may be unsolvable.

It is unlikely that Mr. Leonard views 10 years as short-term, or can conceive of research timeframes in decades. Yet, to simply test the health and environmental effects of 650 plus fracking chemicals will take many, many years.

While Mr.Leonard is at the Legislature saying we are going slowly, the newspapers report the Alward government is on the road promoting plans to export gas to Asia and Europe, develop gas-based manufacturing in New Brunswick sell gas to the Irvings for a tarsands refinery, and run our electrical grid on gas, all while supplying cheap gas to New Brunswick citizens. His administration has apparently figured out the miracle of the loaves and fishes, as Mr. Leonard says it will do all of this while going slowly and drilling only 50 wells a year.

The report from the Academies is pretty clear, do the science first! It recounts examples of previous resource development tragedies, where problems were unnoticed until too late, or even worse, were known, but were ignored by governments swooning over imagined economic benefits. Sound familiar?

JIM EMBERGER is the spokesman for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance. 

LEADING THE ANTI-SHALE RALLYING CRY 

Protest Alliance of 22 community groups working to stop drilling

Telegraph Journal  ::  Adam Huras Legislative Bureau  ::  19 April 2014 

TAYMOUTH • New Brunswick’s pristine beauty drew him to the province – and has now led him into a fight to protect it.  Jim Emberger is the lead voice of the recently formed New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance representing 22 community groups across the province opposing shale gas development and hydraulic fracturing.

He’s also a non-native New Brunswick-er – just recently becoming a Canadian citizen – who moved with his wife to the province for its untouched and forested landscape with plans of a quiet retirement.

Instead, Emberger’s environmental background and a history as an activist have pushed him into leading one side of a polarized and provincial debate.

“One of the reasons I’m in it and stay so passionate about it is that I’ve always had trouble with bullies,”Emberger said.  “I really feel this is a case of bullying. ... The public is not being asked, they have been told, ‘This is the way it’s going, accept it.’”

He added: “The public interest is not being served, people don’t even know enough to have an opinion. ... Well, we have to combat that.”

Emberger soon heads back out onto the road with the anti-shale gas campaign called,the Voice of the People tour, with information events scheduled almost every night next week – the church basements and public libraries of Riverview, Dieppe, Miramichi, Sackville and Moncton serving as the group’s next targets.

Emberger, 65, is from Baltimore, Md.  He moved with his wife Marcella – an adjunct professor at the University of New Brunswick – eight years ago to Tay-mouth, a short drive north of Fredericton, seeking a spot away from city lights near a rural community.  “We were in the city our whole adult lives, but we love the outdoors,” Emberger said.  “We would always vacation in the country somewhere, and we always said that when we get to the point where we don’t have to be tied down to the city anymore, we’re going to move to the country.”

But their favourite getaways in the United States weren’t there anymore.

“From Massachusetts to Florida it’s like one big suburb now,” Emberger said.“There are places in West Virginia that use to be rural country and are developed now.”

The couple also frequently vacationed in Canada, including New Brunswick.

With grown children on the eastern seaboard, the Maritime province provided the perfect fit of rural charm and proximity to family south of the border.  “It was the kind of place we were looking for,” he said. “Lots of untarnished land”

Emberger has since sought citizenship, officially becoming a Canadian just two months ago.  He has a history of immersing himself in energy and environmental causes.

In the 1970s, Emberger was a regulatory officer for the Federal Energy Administration, a government organization created to address the 1973 oil crisis when eastern oil producers proclaimed an oil embargo that caused prices to skyrocket in the United States.  The energy administration later merged with the new United States Department of Energy.  “I have a familiarity with the oil and gas industry,”Emberger said.  “I’ve investigated them, I’ve been in courts, I’ve written subpoenas, I’ve fined them, I’m familiar with that adversarial relationship.”

More recently,newspaper articles from the Baltimore Chronicle detail Emberger’s struggle as a board member of the Woodberry Land Trust, a land conservation organization protecting a 100-acre forest – one of the last large, undeveloped stretches of public land in Baltimore – from development.  An article from 2003 describes a well-organized group of residents and environmentalists up against Baltimore City Council, opposing the purchase of 71 acres of the Woodberry forest and a landfill area for a new college stadium.  “It was a multi-year fight to save a big chunk of urban forest,”Emberger said.

A retired computer software developer by trade, Emberger had also returned to school in the United States to receive a certificate in environmental studies from Johns Hopkins University.  Later, he joined with several professors from that school, including its dean, to form BioTrek Naturalists Inc. – a unique environmental non-profit that provided adult classes in courses such as wetlands management and ecology.  Emberger was the executive director of BioTrek for five years, which has closed down since his departure to north of the border.

He had no plans of championing any environmental cause in Canada,describing the Woodberry forest battled as both a draining and heartbreaking fight with government.  “When we moved up here it was actually very relaxing,”he said.  “Well, for the first three or four years, it was.”

Emberger got involved with the local Taymouth community centre to aid in sustainability projects, such as a community greenhouse and small scale alternative energy projects.

“And then shale gas hit. ... We had to put our resources into this fight,”Emberger said.

“I didn’t seek out any kind of a leadership role,but you find out in any of these organizations that while a lot of people are passionate and dedicated, a lot of people are uncomfortable with speaking in front of people or don’t feel qualified because they are not scientists or engineers to speak out.”

Emberger’s career experience, his environmentalism and history as an activist saw others push him to first lead Tay-mouth Environmental Action and then the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance.  He said that separately, the small community and environmental groups were “like herding cats” when attempting to push forward a strong and united message. Together, streamlined meetings have led to widely broadcast positions.

The new coalition that includes the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance, the Council of Canadians,Unifor and the Fredericton District Labour Council has led to a province-wide campaign to provide “public education about shale gas, clean jobs, and clean energy.”  The coalition is also supported in the initiative by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, the National Farmers Union, provincial Green Party Leader David Coon and the province’s conservation council.

Emberger said the crowds to date on the provincial tour are made of those “already in the choir” of the anti-shale gas movement, but also a large portion of New Brunswickers that simply just doesn’t know enough about the industry.

The public stops highlight studies that raise concerns about water quality and environmental sustainability, but also speak to a lack of scientific knowledge on the long-term impacts of shale gas development, Emberger said.  The tour also warns of a “boomtown effect,”through which a rapid change in population, industrialization and economic prosperity could lead to social ills that impact community health, such as increased rates of crime, drug and alcohol abuse, an increased cost of living and further strain on health-care services.

“Every study I use in this,the oldest one is likely a year old,most of them are from the last four or five months,”he said.“It’s the latest science. “To have others say, ‘It’s all passion, those people watch Gas-land and that’s all they do,’it’s frustrating....We are educating the public,while government simply hasn’t.”

Don't miss the upcoming Voice of the People events scheduled in Kent County:

May 6 -  Bouctouche  (French)

École Clément-Cormier   37 Richard Avenue

May 14 - Rexton   (English)
Bonar Law School   197 Main Street

Anti-shale gas group (NBASGA) calls for 10-year moratorium

Binding legislation needed, campaign promises not enough, spokesperson says

CBC News  ::  Mar 06, 2014

The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance says 10 years is the minimum time necessary to do the required long-term scientific studies on all the aspects of shale gas.

A group opposed to shale gas development and production in the province is calling on political parties to stand behind a legislated 10-year moratorium.

The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance says 10 years is the minimum time required for the provincial government to review the industry and the impacts on health and the environment.

Meanwhile, it wants all existing leases cancelled and no new leases granted.

"A 10-year moratorium, rather than a ban, recognizes that there may still be New Brunswickers have doubts about shale gas, but who are not yet convinced that an absolute ban is warranted," the group said in a statement issued on Thursday.

"NBASGA  is confident that after 10 years, shale gas will be permanently banned as a result of what is learned during the moratorium," said spokesperson Jim Emberger.

But the moratorium must be enacted by binding legislation, he said. "Campaign promises, executive actions and vague intentions are not good enough."

The group has timed its announcement to line up with this year's provincial election, said Emberger. He believes the shale gas debate could weigh heavily on how New Brunswickers choose to vote on Sept. 22.

"We want [the political parties] to all take it into consideration when they draw up the party platform because certainly, you know, we'll be reporting back to the public as much as we can about what each candidate thinks about this. And so it gives them a standard," he said.

Leaders are speaking up

Letter-to-the-Editor  ::  Telegraph Journal  ::  21 February 2014

Premier Alward recently implored leaders to speak up about shale gas. Here are some who already have. Seventy-seven francophone and anglophone municipalities have spoken up by calling for a halt to shale gas. They join 30 community groups from across the province, and four First Nation governing bodies. Many unions, including CUPE and Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, have spoken up, as have farmers’ unions and rural associations.

Our medical associations, unions and hospital staffs were among the first to call for a moratorium, and have been joined by the voices of several religious organizations, such as the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada.

These New Brunswick voices echo those of our neighbours in Quebec, PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New York and Vermont who all have instituted a moratorium of one kind or another. It is only the Al-ward government and a few corporate interests who are pushing shale gas in this part of the world!

The global community, the people of Canada, and citizens of New Brunswick want an energy strategy for the transition from fossil fuels to a sustainable clean energy economy. Research shows that the economic and job creation benefits of clean energy far exceed those of the oil and gas industry. We can reduce the impact of global warming and offer a brighter future for our children and grandchildren.

Many leaders are speaking out. The Premier just isn’t listening.

Roy Ries 

Jim Emberger

NEW BRUNSWICK ANTI-SHALE GAS ALLIANCE (NBASGA)

A Citizen's Guide to Unconventional Shale Gas

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You!

Over the past three years, the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Alliance (NBASGA) has examined peer-reviewed science, reliable independent research and anecdotal evidence on the effects of the development of the unconventional shale oil and gas industry. We’ve provided summaries of our conclusions below. www.KentSouthNSG.blogspot.ca contains links to more detailed examinations on each topic.

Public Health studies document serious health threats to populations in development areas – particularly pregnant women, children and seniors. The explosion in this unconventional method of shale gas extraction is relatively new and the effects are still emerging.  Existing development areas have reported similar health findings, lending additional support to the studies. This issue alone is reason enough to call for a moratorium.

Jobs in the shale industry will not solve our employment problem. The gas industry provides fewer jobs than any other energy-related industry. Studies from places where the industry has existed for years calculate only 2 to 4 jobs per well, making little difference to the overall economies. On the other hand, investments in clean energy industries have created many varied and permanent jobs across all economic sectors and geographical areas.

Water Contamination can occur as a result of drilling, well failures, storage facility leaks, pipeline breaks, well-pad and truck accidents, natural catastrophes and illegal dumping.  Exposure to methane, fracking fluid chemicals, natural toxins and radiation causes obvious health problems and impacts on drinking water supplies. It also harms agricultural lands, animals and the environment. Incidents of contamination occur everywhere extraction takes place and have been well-documented by regulatory agencies, as well as the scientific community, and reported in multiple media sources.  

Air Pollution has been measured hundreds of miles from its source, so people living outside development areas can still be affected. As one researcher [name?] noted, “Water contamination is a possibility, air contamination is a certainty.” Rural areas with no industry other than gas and oil have reported some of the highest pollution levels in North America. The Lung Society blames millions of dollars in health costs on the ground-level ozone smog that accompanies this industry. Residents living near existing oil and gas fields in southern NB have already reported problems with air quality, long before full-scale development has even begun.

Wastewater and Solid Waste Disposal is a problem for which New Brunswick and the industry currently have no safe solutions. The fracking process creates millions of litres of wastewater containing chemicals, naturally occurring toxic materials, and often radioactivity.  The nearest treatment facility in Debert, NS can no longer accept fracking wastewater due to public outcry. Trucking this vast amount of waste to faraway places increases the chance of spills, is expensive and so encourages illegal dumping.  Treatment plants and processes have been found to be inadequate to deal with many of the substances and radioactivity in this waste.

Water Usage  The fresh water required for fracking is enormous – roughly 4 million litres per frack. About 20% of that water comes back to the surface and it is too contaminated to be reused for human purposes. This and the 80% remaining in the ground are permanently lost from the water cycle. The extraction of large volumes of fresh water creates problems in dry areas during droughts or low flow times, and creates competition with farming and drinking water needs. The government of BC is being sued for allowing overuse of the province’s water.

Roads and Bridges Infrastructure will suffer severe damage from heavy truck traffic necessary to support the shale gas industry which is intensely destructive.  The cost of repair is often greater than the royalties the government receives from the industry.  Shattered roads and traffic congestion also impact emergency services, school buses and daily commutes, and lead to increases in motor vehicle accidents. The costs of infrastructure repair will be borne by all New Brunswick taxpayers.

Tourism naturally suffers from presence of industrial activity in tourist areas, degraded road conditions and traffic congestion, and environmental degradation. This, in turn, impacts local businesses.  The Bay of Fundy, Kouchibouguac National Park and other of the province’s premier tourist attractions border oil and gas lease areas. The infrastructure required and the continuous road repair will fragment landscapes, cause silting in fishing streams, and decrease hunting and snowmobiling areas. Year after year, tourism is one of the largest contributors of taxes and jobs to New Brunswick’s economy and shale gas could permanently damage it.

Hospitals and Healthcare Systems become burdened and stressed with an influx of out of province workers who do not pay local income taxes. This industry is extremely dangerous, with a fatality rate seven times greater than the average of all industries. Elsewhere emergency room visits have increased by as much as 400%. The increased costs to the healthcare system will be borne by all New Brunswick taxpayers.

Boom and Bust Economies are the norm. An initial boom provides a spurt of economic activity, followed by an inevitable crash as the resource runs out.  With shale oil and gas development, the boom period is short-lived. Wells deplete quickly, so that most are uneconomical after only 5 years.  Communities are left worse off economically than they were before the boom.

Social Ills accompany boom-bust industries. Drunk driving and assault crimes generally skyrocket along with prostitution and drug use.  The cost of living increases as workers arrive and compete for housing, food and other necessities. This directly affects fixed income seniors, low wage earning residents. Homelessness and poverty increase as the gap widens between those with higher paying jobs and those without.

NB Rules and Regulations will not protect or compensate for damages to health or property. They cannot protect against human error or change the laws of physics or geology. Many rules have conditions and loopholes, are incomplete, do not reflect the latest science, and do more to protect the industry than the citizenry.  No rules have been adequate anywhere.

Climate Change is the most critical problem facing the world. Scientists say we must leave 2/3 of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground to avert catastrophe. The methane emissions from extraction processes, as well as the energy produced will quicken climate change. New Brunswick has already experienced severe weather events and rising sea levels.

If you have questions or wish to receive information updates, please email us at noshalegascocagne@gmail.com or call us at 506-743-6582.

New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance wants 'unanswered questions' looked at surrounding incident on Oct. 17 that led to 40 arrests

COLE HOBSON

TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance is asking the provincial government for an independent, public inquiry into events surrounding the Oct. 17 clash between shale gas protesters and the RCMP that led to an eruption of violence and 40 arrests along Route 134 near Rexton.

The group believes the people of New Brunswick have a right to know the reasons behind the escalation in the use of force used by RCMP, with the group saying there are 'many unanswered questions' about what transpired along the highway that day.

Jim Emberger, a spokesman for New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance, said the discussion in the past couple of months has been about the demonstration and protests, but they want to return the dialogue to the pertinent information and scientific studies surrounding shale gas itself.

Yesterday was International Human Rights Day and the group used the opportunity to echo the concerns expressed in an Amnesty International letter to Premier David Alward and his cabinet dated on Nov. 1.

That letter stated that unless steps are taken to rebuild the relationship with Indigenous Peoples with respect to resource development, further incidents could occur.

Amnesty International said in the letter that this incident 'could have been avoided had the province acted in a manner consistent with its obligations to respect the human rights of Indigenous peoples under Canadian and international law.' The Alliance believes that if Amnesty International is raising concern about human rights issues in New Brunswick, citizens should be concerned as well.