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Stop shale oil trains along Feather River watershedLake Oroville provides water for 25,000,000 people and 750,000 acres of farmland in California.When a railroad tank car laden with toxic Bakken shale crude oil derails, ending up in the Feather River, all of the water in Lake Oroville will be poisoned.Bakken fracking oil is contaminated with hundreds of highly carcinogenic, toxic and poisonous chemicals that would instantly mix with the water in Lake Oroville, rendering all of the Lake Oroville water unfit for consumption by people or irrigating crops. The longer this contaminated water is in Lake Oroville the more of it will seep into and destroy our groundwater. If contaminated water in Lake Oroville reaches the Thermalito Afterbay it would seep into the shallow aquifer west of the afterbay. The afterbay actually leaks big time underground into the farmland west of the afterbay.

The oil industry will not allow this highly explosive Bakken oil in their pipelines because it would blow up their pipelines. That is why Bakken oil is being shipped by train. Also, the new reinforced Bakken oil railcars have already been involved in oil spills. The liability from this catastrophic event would bankrupt Union Pacific and force its operation into government receivership. There are alternatives to energy. There are no alternatives for water.Demand that toxic Bakken shale oil trains are not allowed along the Feather River watershed, because your economic future is actually over with the first Bakken shale oil spill into the Lake Oroville watershed.— John Scott, Butte Valley

The Butte Environmental Council has submitted comments on the California Department of Conservation’s proposed regulations for statewide hydraulic fracturing. BEC’s letter cites 10 points of concern with the presented regulations.More commonly referred to as “fracking,” hydraulic fracturing is an oil recovery process in which large amounts of water treated with chemicals are blasted deep into the ground, shattering shale rock and releasing oil and gas trapped underneath.

Fracking, used for decades around the country, has come under scrutiny from numerous environmental groups, including BEC, concerned with water supply and contamination.

BEC Executive Director Robyn DiFalco urges the public to get informed about fracking.“Many people don’t realize that fracking is taking place across California and even as close to home as the Sutter Buttes and Glenn County,” she said. “Those fracking wells are tapping oil below the Tuscan Aquifer, which could contaminate our primary source of drinking water.” 

CHICO — Music and nationally known speakers will kick off a west coast tour of California Community Rising Against Fracking during a free event Sunday at Arc Pavilion, 2040 Park Ave. Put on by Chico Community Rising Against Fracking and Butte Environmental Council, the event 2-6 p.m., is the start of a state tour that will end up in San Diego on Earth Day, according to Dave Garcia, a member of BEC. Tour locations are communities that are near the largest shale oil regions in the state, including San Francisco, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, he said.

Speakers will include: Doug Shields, former member of Pittsburgh, Penn., city council, featured in the film, "The Sky is Pink"; Shannon Biggs, director of Community Rights with Global Exchange, who will talk about community rights initiatives; Andrew Grinberg, Oil and Gas Program Coordinator of Clean Water Action, who will talk about water issues and new proposed state fracking regulations; Speakers from Chico Community Rising Against Fracking and BEC, on concerns of what local fracking for oil operations may cause to the surrounding agricultural economy. Also, there will be a showing of "The Sky is Pink," a film by Josh Fox as a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated "Gasland," about misinformation from the hydralic fracking industry.

Music by local band, Los Cabillitos de la Cancion, will start at 5 p.m. Robyn DiFalco, BEC's executive director, said the

Regulate plastic bags As a student and Butte Environmental Council intern interested in a sustainable future, I am submitting this letter in support of the Chico City Council’s voting to restrict plastic-bag use. California uses an estimated 400 plastic bags per second, requiring an estimated 12 million barrels of oil annually. Only 3 percent of plastic bags are recycled, and the thermosetting process used to mold plastic bags is irreversible, creating a product that is not biodegradable. These bags end up in the streams, creeks, rivers and eventually the ocean. On the bags’ journey to the sea, the plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, absorbing toxic chemicals along the way. These contaminated bits of plastic contribute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas. At least 267 marine species have been documented to be adversely affected by plastic debris. California spends $25 million annually to manage plastic-bag pollution and $303 million in litter reduction. If consumers were to utilize reusable bags instead, we could reduce waste and water pollution and contribute to the local economy by allowing wonderful companies such as ChicoBag to further their commitment to consumer safety. Lindsay McDonnell Chico

CHICO — The next round of the Code Blue water series, hosted by the Butte Environmental Council, begins tonight with a one-hour "action" meeting about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The Code Blue series kicked off in February, and six events remain after its summer break. Several additional events are planned through November, including a rain barrel workshop and delta tour.

Better alternatives exist, DiFalco said, than the concept to use tunnels to transfer water from the Sacramento River to the Southern Central Valley. "Let's not let Gov. Brown's tunnels be the only things being considered," she said.

The Oct. 17 discussion will feature fracking, which is fracturing of rock to extract gas and oil. "We are gathering details about fracking in Butte County, and citizens are getting ready for a (statewide ballot provision) for 2014," DiFalco said. Sutter and Glenn counties have the largest amount of fracking activity in the area, primarily natural gas, she said.

On a recent summer morning, Dave Garcia, the political chair of the Sierra Club’s Northern California Yahi chapter, occasionally interrupted a tour of gas wells in the Sutter Buttes to point out signs of wildlife: a scampering cottontail rabbit, a vigilant red-tailed hawk or whizzing western kingbirds. Garcia had brought a pair of journalists here to witness fracking in the Northern Sacramento Valley, something that most Northern Californians probably have no idea is underway in this area. The well sites appear almost deserted—there are no gas flares, no trucks moving huge tanks of water, no towering pump jacks. In fact, rarely were people even seen at these electronically monitored stations.

Property owners who lease land don’t always fare well with the oil giants, either. A Glenn County landowner contacted the Butte Environmental Council (BEC) earlier this year after an exchange with a company that drills for gas on her property. She was worried about fracking and had become reluctant to sign over mineral rights. The company told her it wasn’t fracking, but if she didn’t renew the contract, it could access gas on her land from a neighboring parcel, according to BEC.

Though FracFocus doesn’t show fracked wells in Butte County, Garcia says he’s identified 10 active gas wells in the county. Once natural-gas prices start climbing back up, the wells could be subject to fracking, he said. “These companies are going to be going to the old gas wells they have in Butte County and reworking them,” Garcia said. “That’s why it’s critical to get a moratorium.” California’s fracking story has really just begun.

OROVILLE >> No new oil or gas wells have been drilled in Butte County in more than two decades, and nobody has ever sought permission to conduct a "fracking" operation, but if anybody ever does ask it looks like the answer will be "no." Tuesday the Board of Supervisors voted to have county staff prepare an ordinance that bans fracking.

Documents prepared by county staff for Tuesday's meeting described fracking as "a common term for hydraulic fracturing that is a technique of well stimulation used to increase petroleum production,"

At request from the county's Water Commission, the supervisors were asked to adopt and ordinance that would require a conditional use permit before a fracking operation could take place within county jurisdiction. In introducing the proposal, Paul Gosselin, director of the county Department of Water and Resource Conservation, said the procedure "has raised controversy and concern about environmental impacts, water, and seismic activity."

County supervisors move to ban controversial gas extraction method

This article was published on 04.10.14.

She said many of the 200 inactive wells have the potential to be stimulated for production via fracking. When the supervisors took up the discussion, Lambert mentioned the environmental disaster that had taken place in the tiny Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, which led to a total of $628 million in settlements from Pacific Gas & Electric and the basis of the movie Erin Brockovich.

The northern Sacramento Valley faces a serious threat. Gov. Jerry Brown continues to push his twin tunnels project, under the guise of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The plan proposes a pair of massive tunnels with design capacity sufficient to drain the Sacramento River in a dry year.

As Butte Environmental Council’s (BEC) water policy analyst representing North State communities, I reviewed and analyzed more than 40,000 pages of the plan’s description and environmental review documents. An increased, uncompromised water supply for south of Delta interests is the desire. Big Ag and Big Oil will get more water, you get the bill.

Proponents failed to disclose the true source of water (the Sacramento Valley), but water transfers are written all over this plan. In fact, 34 separate documents reference water transfers. Proponents failed to acknowledge the potential for environmental and social impacts to the areas of origin, but removing up to 1 million acre-feet of water surely would have significant impacts. And, proponents failed to disclose the amount of groundwater that will increase water flow through the tunnels.

Oroville >> After a relatively brief public hearing Tuesday, the Butte County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance that would ban the storage or disposal of fracking waste within the county.The vote regarding the waste generated by injecting fluids into the ground to stimulate oil and natural gas production was 4-1.

The ordinance defines key fracking terms, creates a land-use category about storing or disposing fracking waste or byproduct and then bans such storage and disposal within the county.

Six of the seven members of the public that commented on the proposal openly supported the ordinance. Members of the Butte Environmental Council and Frack-Free Butte County spoke.

County should act where state fails on frackingPlease know that DOGGR is not doggedly watching over your safety.DOGGR stands for the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources — part of California’s Conservation Department.

It is a shame that last week’s letter to the editor — about SB 4 assuring the safety of fracking — is incorrect. Instead, analysis of Senate Bill 4, Well Stimulation Treatment Regulations, shows that even the most recent revisions (in October) are inadequate.

The newer SB4 has weaker reporting requirements regarding earthquake activity tested in the vicinity of fracking. DOGGR now states that earthquakes measuring less than 2.7 are irrelevant. Yet available research shows otherwise.Although the Butte County Planning Commission did not have specific recommendations regarding a ban at its Dec. 11 meeting, we are hopeful that the Board of Supervisors will soon ban fracking. Such an ounce of prevention can prevent a mountain of problems affecting our farming, our health, and the quantity and quality of our ground and surface waters — so vital to Butte County’s economic and people’s well-being. — Grace M. Marvin, Chico