3
lamazoo acciden relocaed due o local air polluion. Local residens exposed o he spill repored roubling neurological, respiraory and gasroinesinal problems.
21
Meanwhile, Enbridge is proposing massive pipeline expansion projecs hroughou he Grea Lakes region.
22
This includes he expansion o wo pipelines ha run under he Srais o Mackinac, a waerway joining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. These pipelines have no been replaced in six decades, and he company wans o increase he amoun o ar sands oil pumped on a daily basis. Any sor o leakage would spew oxins ino he Grea Lakes.
23
(See Figure 1 below and Table 1 in Appendix.)
Wih shale gas reserves underlying vas pars o he Grea Lakes region — including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Onario and Qebec
24
— here is he poenial or wide-spread shale drilling and racking. Hydraulic racuring, or racking, is a process ha injecs large quaniies o waer, sand and oxic chemicals under high pres-sure o release gas ha is ighly held in rock layers.
25
Frack-ing uses millions o gallons o racking luid or a single well; a blend o waer, sand and chemicals is pumped underground a high pressure o break up rock, allowing gas o low ino he well.
26
Some o he racking luid says underground indei-niely, and he res lows back up ou o he well.
27
The lowback wasewaer conains, in addiion o he original racking luids, poenially exreme levels o harmul con-aminans ha are brough o he surace, which can include arsenic, lead, hexavalen chromium, barium, sronium, benzene, polycyclic aromaic hydrocarbons, oluene, xylene, corrosive sals and naurally occurring radioacive maerial, such as radium-226.
28
The process releases chemicals ha can cause cancer; disrup he endocrine sysem; affec he nervous, immune and cardiovascular sysems; and/or affec sensory organs and he respiraory sysem.
29
A common mehod o disposing o he lowback is hrough underground injecion wells, a pracice ha has grown ram-pan in Ohio and Michigan, urning he wo saes ino dump-ing grounds or racking wase. Injecing oxic lowback ino underground wells can pu aquiers and drinking waer a risk and has been linked o increased earhquake aciviy.
30
The expansion o shale gas developmen could harm he Grea Lakes wih mehane leaks and wasewaer spills. Already, here are 52 acive racking permis in Michigan, wih anoher 5 pending applicaions,
31
and Encana has big plans o drill an ad-diional 500 shale wells using 4 billion gallons o groundwaer.
32
According o a Unied Naions Waer repor: “Scarciy is also a quesion o waer qualiy …. Waer qualiy degradaion can be a major cause o waer scarciy.”
33
Problemaically, a U.S. Geologi-cal Survey publicaion noes ha pollued groundwaer sources can be a source o long-erm surace waer polluion.
34
(thousand barrels a day)
Enbridge Mainline SystemRegional Oil Sands SystemOther
7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4 7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4 7 4 - 4 8 8 4 8 9 - 9 0 2 9 0 3 - 1 , 3 1 6 1 , 3 1 7 - 1 , 7 3 0 1 , 7 3 1 - 2 , 1 4 4
Source: Food & Water Watch analysis of data, see Table 1.