RIVER ON FIRE! Gas Explodes In River Near Fracking Site

AUSSIE SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE

Fracking in Australia leaves its freaking mark on nature. From the video author:

I was shocked by force of the explosion when I tested whether gas boiling through the Condamine River was flammable. So much gas is seeping into the river that it held a huge flame.

Comments

[john]

Anywhere near water you have methane build up. See these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0hczFNDZI

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/07/24/built-up-gas-likely-caused-mysterious-r-i-beach-explosion/

[DailyBail]

But you can't normally light a river on fire. There is a substantial gas leak into that river coming from somewhere.

[john]

It's most likely natural.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/24/river-on-fire-in-greens-mps-video-is-natural-not-fracking-says-csiro

The flaming faucet video from a fee years ago also was from natural causes.

[DailyBail]

However, Buckingham said the flame on the Condamine river has previously winked out quickly but this time remained alight for more than an hour.

He said farmers in the region had only reported seeing bubbles in the river since 2012, which did not fit with the explanation of a naturally occurring methane seep.

“The CSIRO might not have the causation yet but it is a remarkable correlation that within 12 months that the marked expansion of that gas field [in 2011] the river closest to that gas field starts bubbling,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/24/river-on-fire-in-greens-mps-video-is-natural-not-fracking-says-csiro

“That particular arm of the CSIRO is funded by the industry and I believe that they are making excuses for the industry that they have let off the leash.”

[DailyBail]

Along the same lines, we have all the earthquakes in Oklahoma and Texas that are being caused by fracking, but for 5 years officials denied the link.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/09/us/texas-earthquakes-fracking-studies/index.html

[DailyBail]

New Research Links Scores of Earthquakes to Fracking Wells Near a Fault in Ohio -- New York Times

EXCERPT

Not long after two mild earthquakes jolted the normally steady terrain outside Youngstown, Ohio, last March, geologists quickly decided that hydraulic fracturing operations at new oil-and-gas wells in the area had set off the tremors.

Now a detailed study has concluded that the earthquakes were not isolated events, but merely the largest of scores of quakes that rattled the area around the wells for more than a week.

The study, published this week in The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, indicates that hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, built up subterranean pressures that repeatedly caused slippage in an existing fault as close as a half-mile beneath the wells.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/us/new-research-links-scores-of-earthquakes-to-fracking-wells-near-a-fault-in-ohio.html?_r=0

[DailyBail]

Despite the enormous increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma that started at the same time as heavy fracking began there—with the number of earthquakes over 3.0 magnitude skyrocketing from an average of less than two a year to 585 last year—the state has been in official denial about the cause.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/23/oklahoma-earthquakes-caused-by-fracking/

Earthquakes went from 2 per year to 585 per year.

Yet still the industry denied it.

[DailyBail]

So now, bringing this back to the river in Australia. Fracking causes slippage in the fault lines and suddenly a small normal methane leak becomes MUCH larger. In the article, locals said the river was never like this before fracking began nearby.

Just to be clear, I am not saying we should ban fracking. But we need some common-sense regulations that would govern the toxic sludge of chemicals that are being injected deep, deep underground at extremely high pressures.

I was an energy analyst for a large investment bank for several years. I have spoken to several CEOs about the issue, and they will admit privately that damage is being done, that earthquakes are happening, that fault lines are shifting, and that water tables are being corrupted.

But publicly, they will admit nothing as they fight fracking regulation with every fiber of their being.

[Sagebrush]

When I was a living in Denver during the 60's we started having lots of small earthquakes. The government finally figured out they were being caused by a 12000 foot well at Rocky Mountain arsenal that they were pressure injecting with contaminated waste water.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/pdf/Healy-et-al-1968-Science-(New-York-NY).pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_Arsenal

http://scits.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/evans_0.pdf

[john]

I am aware that tracking does cause earthquakes. Have served as a fire chief I see the video has a couple of issues that were alarming. The idiot who went right up to the bubbling area and lit it on fire at least got his arms and eyebrows singed. Lucky he didn't get 3rd degree burns or worse. Since this is fall in AU the vegetation is dry. He could have started a serious forest fire as well had the gas been close to shore.

The bubbles reminded me of a scuba diver under water. The exhaled breaths will bubble intermittently whereas the bubbles in video were fairly constant showed consistent positive pressure from below the surface and burned for an hour.

Sounds plausible to me but from a skeptical standpoint, this could have done with a small 10lb submerged propane cylinder or a cylinder on shore with a line running under water.

http://www.bubenskis.com/images/DSCN9599.JPG

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Anyway certain tracking practices should be banned IMHO keeping in mind that tracking is also used to produce fresh drinking water and used different techniques. All out bans would be counter productive and should differentiate between the two.

[DailyBail]

I wasn't directing the links at you john,. The discussion just got me started on a train of thought and so I followed it to the end. And my point about the mini-earthquakes was simply that methane fissures like the one in the Aussie river can be altered/opened/increased by these quakes, and that is likely what happened here. And I base that on testimony mentioned in the article from local farmers.

[john]

I was having a little fun! No sweat as always!

[john]

More Burning Water Fracking Hype: Aussie CSIRO says Methane Emissions are “Natural”.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/04/26/more-burning-water-fracking-hype-aussie-csiro-says-methane-emissions-are-natural/

An Aussie Green politician has attracted publicity, by “setting fire” to water in an Australian river, as part of a propaganda attack against local gas fracking operations. But CSIRO scientist Damian Barrett has been quick to dismiss the scare, stating that methane seeps are well known in the area, and that the methane in the video is likely from natural sources.

When even the über green Guardian dismisses an environmental scare story, that story is busted.

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Mystery remains over why Condamine River is bubbling

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mystery-remains-over-why-condamine-river-is-bubbling/story-fnihsrf2-1226880353660



The bubbling occurs along a 5km stretch of the river, near Chinchilla, where coal seam gas is plentiful, but the source has always been a mystery and an issue of local debate ranging from rotting vegetation to CSG fraccing.

Local folklore tells of at least one of the seeps that may have been occurring for decades while others were spotted by farmers soon after heavy flooding subsided in February 2012.

“It’s complex geology and gas has been naturally occurring in the shallow strata for some time,’’ Mr Evans said.

“The important thing is to put the monitoring in place.’’

The report from environmental consultants Norwest found that a combination of mechanisms and pathways may play a role in the generation, migration and discharge of gas to the surface at the seep sites.