Nobody will believe that ExxonMobil‘s fracking project in Lünne is off the table and with it Threat to drinking water funding in Bramsche-Munderum. In the neighboring community of Lünne, as is well known, the energy company wants to use the controversial fracking method to extract gas reserves with the help of the environmentally hostile but business-friendly German mining law, in which, among other things, chemicals are pressed into gas-bearing rock layers. The “Schönes Lünne” initiative defends itself against the associated risks (photo left, Contact) and refers to negative experiences elsewhere. I read this press release from the regional campaign “gegen-Gasbohren.de”. Scientists sent by ExxonMobil to the world of fracking find the effects of fracking in Pennsylvania, USA, “horrifying”:
“A year ago, ExxonMobil spent a million euros to have a group of scientists determine how fracking could be done safely. Led by Professor Dr. Dietrich Borchardt from the Helmholtz Institute discovered the group during a visit to the USA:
“After visiting fracking projects in the USA, the group of scientists funded by ExxonMobil is shocked.”
What seemed to come as a surprise to the scientists actually came as no surprise to anyone else. The devastating consequences of the development of unconventional gas reserves in Pennsylvania are being reported worldwide. The Oscar nominee Documentary “Gasland” by Josh Fox even starts in Pennsylvania. Dr. Manfred Scholle – former managing director of Gelsenwasser AG – reported on the frightening images just a few months ago. Also NRW State parliament member Wibke Brems.
A look into the Pennsylvania state database of environmental violations in gas drillingmight have spared the scientists the horror. The ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO can be found there with numerous violations every year. Among other things, methane leaks along the supposedly dense cementation. ExxonMobil and Prof. Borchardt still interpret methane in groundwater as the sole sign of near-surface methane, which is certainly not wrong, but also does not refute the fact that there is ample evidence of thermogenic methane from gas production.
The group of experts carelessly endangers its credibility with the statement:
“But the situation in Pennsylvania is not comparable to Germany. The German legal system offers good conditions for consistently avoiding risks to groundwater and drinking water or due to accidents on the drilling site.”
The German legal system also has no protection against them Benzene contamination in Söhlingen, Hengstlage and Völkersen offered. “Good conditions” alone are not enough. The full extent of the contamination is not even known yet. It took 4 years from the first noticeable damage to the shutdown of the network.
The following graphic shows how close the gas wells are already in the Rotenburg area. Be there conventional Gas reserves mined. Unconventional Gas deposits require many times more drilling. Even if up to 8 can now come from just one drilling site, entire areas still have to be broken up and flushed with fracking fluid. Estimates of the number of wells in the USA, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Poland are freely available. They number in the hundreds per year. Tens of thousands are planned for the next decades. Nobody has yet been able to explain why things should be different in Germany.
But Prof. Borchardt’s team is supposed to prove the safety of fracking and not the risks of unconventional gas production. The fact that incomprehensible claims are made before the end of the “study” does not bode well for the peer review.”
Sources: The West, Gegen-Gasbohren.de, Photo: (c) IG Schönes Lünne)
