Texas Drillers Lead the Nation in Pumping Benzene into Earth, Which Is Not Good

By Amy Silverstein Thu., Oct. 23 2014 at 9:24 AM

Slip through the right series of loopholes and it can be perfectly legal to inject benzene into oil wells. Naturally, drillers in Texas figured this out thousands of gallons of benzene ago.

Using data disclosed by the oil industry, a new report calculates all the benzene that is legally going into wells across the country. There's a lot, it turns out, and it's mostly in Texas.

The winner of the benzene race is San Antonio-based BlackBrush O&G, which injected a fluid containing as much as 48,000 gallons of benzene into a well in Dimmit County. In second place is Discovery Operating Services, a company that pumped 1,000 gallons of benzene into 11 wells across Midland and Upton counties.

The report is authored by Eric Schaeffer, who served as director of the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement division before resigning in protest in 2002 and forming the Environmental Integrity Project activism group.

Benzene is a likely carcinogen, so while accidents can and do happen anywhere, the stakes are higher when there's a cancer-causer involved. As the Environmental Integrity Project report argues, "even a small leak into a drinking water aquifer nearer the surface can be catastrophic."

We already knew that Texas leads the nation in illegally injecting diesel fluid into fracking wells. Diesel-based fracking fluid is illegal without a permit because it's supposedly more toxic.

But it turns out that some of the legal, non-diesel fluids on the market are far worse. Using companies' material safety data sheets, the Environmental Integrity Project found that there are 21 non-diesel fluids on the market than contain "much higher concentrations" of benzene, as well as xylene and toluene, which are also bad for you.

The companies that supply the fracking fluid are, in theory, the ones that should know about the high benzene content. The Environmental Integrity Project identified Texas Midstream Transport and Halliburton as two major suppliers.

Of course, further regulation would kill jobs, every industry ever has argued. A counter-argument for that is the recent peer-reviewed study described by the Centers for Disease Control that says that fracking workers charged with gauging tanks face "an occupational exposure risk during certain flowback work" due to benzene.

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WCGasette

We hear that one gas operator prays a lot for the liquid butane frac.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

"Benzene is a likely carcinogen, so while accidents can and do happen anywhere, the stakes are higher when there's a cancer-causer involved." Benzene is dangerous, trying to make it seem more so by linking it to cancer is futile.

Most common cancer: Skin cancer Cause: The sun. (try regulating that one)

From http://www.wikicancer.org/page/The+list+of+carcinogens

Dove Beauty Bar: It's 99% water, but watch out for that other 1%. It includes quaternium 15 and formaldehyde, known carcinogens, as well as irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.
Johnson's Baby Shampoo: Contains carcinogens quaterium 15, FD&C RED 40, which can cause dermatitis.
Crest Tarter Control Toothpaste: This best selling toothpaste contains saccharin and phenol fluoride.
Talcum powder: Talc, the main ingredient, is a carcinogen that increases the risk of ovarian cancer. Use corn starch instead.
Tide & Cheer Laundry Detergent: Our favorite detergent contains trisodium nitrilotriacetate, a carcinogen.
Lysol Disinfectant: While it makes the air sweet smelling, it contains the dioxin.
From other lists on the web: Oscar Meyer hotdogs not only contain a slew of carcinogens, but contain two forms of benzene. Whole milk has been found to contain DDT and hexachlorobenzene among other carcinogens. Wood dust and almost all types of structural and dimensional lumber, along with most carpets, contain carcinogens.
What is the take-away? Life causes cancer. We need to ban life on Earth (this will also help to postpone the global warming ice age we are on the verge of). Enter the Matrix. AI is king.

bmarvel topcommenter

Hey, Pak152. Waitin' to hear from you.

Kerry_Okie

My brother lived on the same piece of property in Denton County for over 30 years. About four years ago, they started fracking wells all around him - the closest one was about 50 yards from his house. He developed MDS and died about a year ago.

What causes MDS, you ask? Two known causes: 1) residual toxicity from previous cancer treatments (see Robin Roberts) 2) exposure to high levels of benzene.

everlastingphelps topcommenter

Benzene ain't nuttin to fuck wit. It's the main thing making gasoline dangerous.

If we are pumping it into disposal wells that are far, far below the aquifer, that's one thing. Pumping it in and out as part of the fracking seems, well, less than wise. It's dangerous stuff, and I'm all for putting it a few miles below the surface -- but that well jacket better damned well be perfect.

Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

How has it come to be that Texas has the number one economy in the U.S., but ranks 41 in quality of life, and 36 in the overall health of its citizens? This a disturbing imbalance.

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

You might find the following link useful in understanding how wastes are regulated in oil and gas activities.

http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/media/7221/am-ch_3.pdf

RTGolden1 topcommenter

For those of you having a hard time keeping up. Benzene is bad. Linking it to cancer doesn't make it worse, it dilutes the impact. Everything causes cancer, even things that are 'good' for or to us.

If I knew nothing of benzene, and someone came up and told me benzene is bad because it causes cancer, I'd shrug and walk away. If that same person came up to the same me and ran down a list of the specific horrors benzene is capable of visiting on humanity, I'd probably pay attention, take notes, try to mitigate its impact on me and mine.

Get it? Probably not.

TXsharon

@RTGolden1 I have chosen to not use any of those products you listed. When they pump benzene right through the aquifers, we don't get a choice.

itchyjack

@RTGolden1 When you're ready - I'll pay for the study of the results you enjoy subsequent to a month of bathing with benzene, brushing your teeth with benzene, washing your clothes with benzene, and cleaning your home with benzene.

Let me know Jack.

DonkeyHotay topcommenter

@bmarvel ... he's busy planning for the 5¢ plastic bag fee apocalypse.

amy.silverstein

@Kerry_Okie Can you say what city and neighborhood his property was located in?

everlastingphelps topcommenter

@Kerry_Okie Blaming fracking is magical thinking. I'm sorry your brother died, but if it had a cause other than genetics, then that cause was decades old, not years.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

@Kerry_Okie Sorry for your loss. I'm not about to try and diagnose the cause of his MDS, since.... "Despite more than a decade of dedicated effort from epidemiologists, clinicians and scientists, the cause of MDS remains largely unknown. It is inevitable that the different subtypes of MDS will have different causes. - http://www.mds-and-you.info/for-patients/first-questions/mds-what-causes-it.

Everything I've ever read or heard about MDS lists long-term exposure to 'benzene or other industrial chemicals' as a risk factor, not a cause. In addition, 3-years from exposure to death seems quite rapid for a disease that can take up to 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years to develop. Again, not trying to diagnose or refute your comment, I'm certainly no doctor. It just seemed a little odd.

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@everlastingphelps

'Perfect' is a nice concept.

ozonelarryb

Very typical of extraction based economies. Screw the residents, kill a few workers. But the regulators got taken care of.

itchyjack

@RTGolden1 But you did not do either. Rather, you chose curtain number three - create a list of 'false equivalence'.

Kerry_Okie

@amy.silverstein @Kerry_Okie Yes - Dish, TX. It was featured in the documentary Gasland II.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

@ozonelarryb TX hardly has an extraction economy, with 84% of non-farm jobs being in the service, hospitality or professional sectors, we don't really qualify as what Fischer, Clark, Fourestie would consider extraction-based.

We could be heading backwards, economically, moving from a developed to a developing economy, as mining/logging is the fastest growing sector, percentage-wise.