More grassroots organizations are forming in Michigan and joining the fight against fracking.

The October 24th protest in Lansing at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources auction of state-owned mineral rights brought more needed attention to the plight of our state and how it’s being sold off to the oil and gas industry for hydraulic fracturing and a fossil-fuel based future.

Organized by a group called Citizens Against Drilling on Public Lands, the October protest brought out individuals and groups from all over the state, including a Barry County-based group, Michigan Land Air Water Defense, which filed a lawsuit against the Michigan DNR that day to protect state game and recreation areas in Barry and Allegan Counties. Protesters made a stand both inside and outside the auction. Seven people were arrested and jailed. We applaud both actions and the courageous people who took a stand against the selling of our state, and to the new group Michigan Land Air Water Defense for their important lawsuit against the DNR. Ban Michigan Fracking was there as were petition circulators for the Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan.

Coverage of the event is here:

Lansing City Pulse: “Frack This”

GRIID: “DNR land auction met with resistance in Lansing”

Lansing State Journal: “7 arrested while protesting fracking at Lansing Center”

Earth First News: “5 Charged with Felonies in Michigan Fracking Protest”

In These Times: “Michiganders fight fracking on state land”

Michigan Radio: “Worried about fracking, citizens group sues the DNR”
Michigan Land Air Water Defense

Video of the protest

This was not the first time the State auctioned off mineral rights to the oil and gas companies. Since the advent of the new horizontal hydraulic fracturing technique, similar auctions in 2010, 2011 and in May 2012 netted the state millions of dollars in royalties and many thousands of acres were auctioned. (See DNR’s Oi & Gas Lease Auction website and the DNR Mineral Lease Information Maps for each county. Much of the recently-auctioned land is destined for deep horizontal hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Public Land, Private Land

While the focus of the protest was on the selling of state-owned lands, mineral rights under private land was also auctioned off by the DNR that day. An Ogemaw County resident, who owns an 80-acre farm, but not the mineral rights below the surface, asked the DNR if he could buy his mineral rights. He was told no because they were being auctioned off, nor could he attend the auction and buy them. They were sold out from under him for $10/acre. The fate of his 80-acre farm is now in the hands of the oil and gas industry.

To understand more of the full picture of just how much of Michigan is going to be fracked, one has to realize that  public land (state parks, state forests, other publicly-owned lands such as county and township parks) and privately-owned land whereby the landowners do not own their mineral rights, have been auctioned off by the State for drilling.

Many landowners do not realize that the “rights” to what’s below the surface of their property, may not belong to them. Before the movie Gasland appeared, the documentary Split Estate portrayed this phenomenon and how families in the West are devastated by oil and gas drilling, while the gas and oil industry ravages their land, water and air.

See the Split Estate trailer

How much land is there in Michigan?

According to the MSU Planning and Zoning Center, there are 37 million acres of land in Michigan. Fifty-four percent of that is forested, 30% is agricultural and 6% is urbanized. 7.5 million acres, or about 20% is comprised of state and federal forests. The DNR is responsible for 4.3 million acres of state land. Another 24.5 million acres are owned by thousands of private landowners, who may or may not own the rights to the minerals below the surface. The Michigan House of Representatives issued a bi-partisan report in March 2012, Natural Gas Subcommittee Report on Energy and Job Creation, which reveals the State of Michigan controls 6 million acres of mineral rights. The House Subcommittee urges the State to “lease or lose” them. Doing the math, it seems that 1.7 million acres of private land–like the 80-acre farm in Ogemaw County–are in control of the State. But that’s not all.

Compulsory (Forced) Pooling

Even if you are one of the landowners of Michigan’s privately-owned 24.5 million acres of land, if you held out and did not sell off your mineral rights, in Michigan you can get fracked under your land anyway by being compulsorily forced into a “pool” by the DEQ. Investigative reporters at ProPublica did a state-by-state comparison of all the states’ forced pooling laws.  Michigan’s compulsory pooling law (MCL 324.304) allows the State to force landowners who refuse to sign leases with the gas and oil companies into drilling units against their will. When landowners take it to court to prevent the forced pool, DEQ Assistant Supervisor of Wells, Hal Fitch, is the Lone Decider. Here’s one example of a case in Kearney Township in Antrim County.

Regretting your decision to lease?

And then there are the people who have already sold off their mineral rights to the frackers, and may regret their decision. We urge landowners who are now thinking twice to contact us about starting a group like Fleased (www.fleased.org), landowners in New York state who now are fighting the gas industry to get out of their leases.

Don’t own your mineral rights?

You may be able to buy back your mineral rights from the State, but as the DNR website states, there are no guarantees it can or will.

Earlier auctions in Michigan

Earlier this year, Reuters reported on how energy giants Chesapeake Energy and Encana colluded to keep auction prices low (Encana tipped off Chesapeake to land plans in Michigan, July 11, 2012). Encana is currently fracking Michigan, while landowners who signed up with Chesapeake have sued that company for reneging on leases. (See: Northern Express, Natural Gas Blues: lawsuits abound a year after the boom went bust, August 19, 2011; Forbes,  Chesapeake bid-rigging scandal could be the final blow for McClendon and Rolling Stone, The big fracking bubble: the scam behind Aubrey McClendon’s gas boom, March 1, 2012). By September, Encana did an internal investigation and declared itself innocent (See: Shaleshock Media: Encana: the hens are safe). There is an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and the Michigan attorney general. (Note: Attorney general Bill Schuette received over $59,000 in campaign donations from the frack industry according to Michigan Common Cause).

The fracking of our public forests, parks and state land

Already the State of Michigan is conducting fracking operations in our state forests. New York’s forests were defended against fracking in a lawsuit brought against the state of New York by some residents and a watershed group in Croton Watershed v NYDEC

. In their suit, they declared “that industrializing State Forests with the newly proposed natural gas extraction process known as High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHHF) is contrary to the enabling legislation authorizing the purchase of lands for State Forests and is inconsistent with the responsible stewardship of State Forests, sustainability and policies of New York State as set forth in the State Constitution, Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), and Common Law Public Trust Doctrine.” The Croton Watershed group obtained a court ruling that the case is a constitutional issue, and so far, New York has prohibited any drilling.

Michigan Land Air Water Defense‘s lawsuit against the state is very exciting, and many Michigan voters will be following it closely.

Yes, that’s right

. It costs these multi-national gas/frack companies just $300 to apply for a frack well permit. But when Ban Michigan Fracking asked the Michigan DEQ for copies of documents so that the public can find out what happened in the 40,068-gallon frack fluid disaster spread out on roadways, in a Freedom of Information Act request, DEQ asked us to cough up $476.

Would you like to know what happened to all that frack waste?

We would and we’d like to provide the documents to the public. Please help us by donating to Ban Michigan Fracking today and help us uncover some of the facts.

Last week, Ban Michigan Fracking reported the 40,000+ gallon frack fluid disaster to the National Response Center operated by the US Coast Guard, and also to the Environmental Protection Agency.

See our Report to EPA and our incident report to the National Response Center.

What We Requested of the DEQ

September 13, 2012

FOIA Request

To: The DEQ and DNR

From: LuAnne Kozma, Ban Michigan Fracking, 9330 Boyne City Road, Charlevoix, MI 49720

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I request the following information regarding the well called State Excelsior 1-25 HD1, permit 60389:

All correspondence and reports, field notes, photographs, site evaluations and other materials including emails and phone notes between, to or from members of either department and all other parties including but not limited to: corporations, persons, governmental entities or departments, road commissions, the EPA, other Michigan state employees or elected officials, first responder units and public health authorities regarding the frack fluids at the Excelsior 1-25 HD1 well during the period commencing with the approval of the well’s permit to today’s date, September 13, 2012.

Records regarding the quantity of frack fluids removed from the well between May 14 and June 13, 2012.

Records showing the quantities of brine/flowback and locations in the state in which this brine/flowback was stored, received, and used (ie, flowback materials) for application on roads,  approval of which was granted by DEQ and then revoked.

All records and correspondence regarding cleanup activities DEQ has done to remediate areas that received the flowback from Excelsior 1-25 HD1.

All MSDW [sic] sheets regarding this well.

Please inform me of any and all costs of this FOIA request prior to making electronic copies.

I request that charges be waived because our organization is acting in the public interest.

Sincerely,

LuAnne Kozma

9330 Boyne City Road

Charlevoix, MI 49720

The DEQ’s charges for the FOIA?

9 hours of professional staff time @ $25.80 per hour = $232.20

5 hours of clerical staff time @ $20.40 per hour = $102.00

373 copies @ $.38 per page = $141.74

Grand Total : $476.00

Plaintiffs in the case against the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality over treating frack wells as injection wells continued the lawsuit by appealing the case to the Michigan Court of Appeals. (Download the Leave to Appeal.)

Attorney Ellis Boal filed the appeal on behalf of plaintiffs Deanna Hughes and Heather Schiele, residents who were threatened by a Devon Energy well in Gladwin County, and Ban Michigan Fracking on October 16, 2012.

See an earlier post about the lawsuit here.

Judge William E. Collette of Ingham County Circuit Court rejected plaintiffs’ claims on September 25. (Collette Decision)

The case began in April when plaintiffs filed an administrative petition to the DEQ asking for a declaration that every frack well, whether vertical or horizontal, is an “injection well,” as that term is defined and as frack wells are defined by the DEQ itself

.

One would think so, since a frack operator injects huge amounts of water and chemicals into each well, and a significant part of it remains disposed in the frack well.

The legal definition of “injection well” includes “a well used to inject water, gas, air, brine, or other fluids for the purpose of increasing the ultimate recovery of hydrocarbons from a reservoir…. ”  It also includes disposal wells.

All facts in the case are uncontested.

Before filing, plaintiffs went to several industry experts, including one who is the American Petroleum Institute’s top expert, with the DEQ present.  Without hesitation the experts confirmed that a frack well fits the DEQ wording of an injection well.

One result of a DEQ declaration would be that certain of the chemicals injected would have to be disclosed before drilling starts, which would make baseline water testing by nearby landowners easier and cheaper.  Another would be restrictions on the fracking process itself, including a limit on the pressure.

The industry was invited to participate in the case.  It declined, preferring to let the DEQ carry the ball.

The DEQ sat on the petition beyond the rules’ 60-day time limit, after which DEQ director Dan Wyant wrote, rejecting plaintiffs’ position.  Plaintiffs sued.  The judge deferred to Wyant’s ruling.

The appeal to the court of appeals raises two basic issues:

1.  Whether a court should discard the deference it traditionally accords to an agency’s interpretation of its rules, when the agency refused to abide by its own time limit.

2.  Whether under the facts above the court declare that a frack well is an injection well.

Part of the suit was to rescind DEQ frack permits issued since April when the petition was first filed.  Specifically the suit tried to stop two of Encana’s giant wells on Sunset Trail in Kalkaska County in the Mackinaw State Forest, one of which recently set a state record for depth.  The case of the Sunset Trail wells will be moot by whenever the court of appeals rules.  But if it rules favorably, any frack permits pending at the time will be automatically in violation.

Michigan does not have a Halliburton loophole in its rules.  But the DEQ has fashioned one anyway, which it is not allowed to do.  Ban Michigan Fracking is for a fracking ban, not simply better regulations.  But the suit puts the agency on the run by exposing how it has bent over backward to protect the industry, which won’t protect itself, instead of the public. Frack wells are indeed injection wells, injecting millions of gallons of fluids and for permanent disposal for some of that frack waste.

We see the problem of fracking and the tremendous amounts of frack wastes it produces clearly, particularly in the ongoing episode of the 954 barrels  (that’s 40,000+ gallons, or nearly two tanker cars!) of frack flowback wastes recently spewed onto Michigan roads as permitted by the DEQ this past May and June. That frack flowback waste came from two Encana horizontal frack wells in the Mackinaw State Forest. 

And how do people living near frack wells stand a chance against an agency like the DEQ?

We need to BAN FRACKING and expose this entire fascade of “regulations” that “protect” us.

[caption id="attachment_1204" align="alignleft" width="4320" caption="A deep horizontal frack well in a backyard in Ogemaw County. Photo by LuAnne Kozma. Copyright 2012 by Ban Michigan Fracking."][/caption]

BREAKING NEWS (September 18, 2012, 12 midnight)

News that over 40,000 gallons of dangerous, toxic frack fluids from a northern Michigan horizontal frack well in Kalkaska County,  (Excelsior 1-25 HD1), were approved by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in May for use on Michigan roads as “brine” is slowly leaking to Ban Michigan Fracking and other activists through a series of emails and phone calls.

Two letters by DEQ senior geologist Ray Vugrinovich, provided to Ban Michigan Fracking last week, addressed to a company called Team Services LLC indicate that he evaluated the test results of a sample of what he calls “brine” from the Excelsior 1-25 HD 1 well and approved it for dust and ice control on Michigan roads on May 14, 2012.

A month later on June 13, 2012, the DEQ realized its error and revoked its permission, stating:

“Since that time it has come to my attention the well is still producing so-called flowback water from hydraulic fracturing. Because of the unknown composition of the flow back water, the uncertainty regarding impacts to soil, groundwater and surface water, of the compounds used during hydraulic fracturing, use of brine [sic] from the State Excelsior 1-25 HD-1 must be discontinued immediately. Brine from the well that has been moved to a central holding site prior to use must be disposed of by injection into a disposal well.”  — Ray Vugrinovich, DEQ Senior Geologist, revoking permission he gave Team Services LLC a month prior, allowing massive use of flowback wastes on Michigan surface roads and landscapes

In an email,(1)  DEQ’s Rick Henderson admitted that 954 bbls of frack fluids from two Excelsior wells were taken from the frack well during a two-week period and used on roads:

“Yes. Between 5/30/12 and 6/13/12 954 bbls of flow back water & brine from the Excelsior 1-25HD1 and the Excelsior 1-13HD1 were applied to roads.” — Rick Henderson, DEQ

How much is 954 bbls (barrels) of frack fluid??

1 bbl is 1 barrel or 42 gallons

954 bbls x 42 gallons = 40,068 GALLONS 

Picture this, as we did, of railroad tanker cars hauling water from NY to PA to frack in PA: One tanker car holds about 24,000 gallons of water.

Consider the magnitude of this spill:

NEARLY TWO TANKER CARS OF FRACK FLUIDS WERE DUMPED ON MICHIGAN’S LANDSCAPE and DEQ is to blame.

Where’d it all go? We demand to know! Here’s a list of approved “brines” from oil and gas wells, obtained through the DEQ:

BrineListApproved2012

Ban Michigan Fracking sent a request to the DEQ, through the Freedom of Information Act, demanding more information about this disastrous, permitted dumping of toxic frack fluids, including records of any clean up the DEQ has done, and where all the 40,000+ gallons of toxic frack fluids has been strewn.

In her remarks to the Natural Resources Commission on September 13, LuAnne Kozma reported on BMF’s FOIA request and demanded an investigation of the incident.

Environmental Impact ALERT–Water Supplies and Human Health Threatened

Ban Michigan Fracking urges all residents, commercial property owners, farmers and others concerned about the damage of the 40,000-gallons of frack fluids to human health and the environment to document the damage and test your water supplies, streams, lakes, soil, crops and animals. Test your families. Report illnesses to your doctors. (See House Bill 5565 on the impending threat to gag medical personnel prohibiting them from revealing frack chemicals, even to patients).

Dr. Ron Bishop, of NY state, a chemist who has written extensively about the dangers of frack fluid, states: “Some chemicals in ubiquitous use for shale gas exploration and production, or consistently present in flowback fluids, constitute human health and environmental hazards when present in extremely low concentrations.” (Risk Assessment of Natural Gas Extraction, p.2) Bishop’s list of chemicals are a good guide for testing

. Go to an independent lab, not one associated with state government.

1. On September 17, 2012 DEQ operations chief Rick Henderson wrote to JoAnne Beemon of Don’t Frack Michigan in answer to her question:

“Was any of the brine from Excelsior 1-25 HD-1 applied to the road?”

“Yes. Between 5/30/12 and 6/13/12 954 bbls of flow back water & brine from the Excelsior 1-25HD1 and the Excelsior 1-13HD1 were applied to roads.”

Many people are surprised, horrified and then outraged when they learn that Michigan, in the heart of the Great Lakes, is being fracked by horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

Forty deep frack well applications have been permitted so far* representing 36 different wells. How many hundreds and thousands are to come?

*As of 8/27/2012. See the DEQ’s list of High Volume Hydraulically Fractured Well Completion Active Permits and Applications

Michigan is in the “exploratory” stage now, but all indicators–from rampant leasing of mineral rights to the widening of roads and seismic testing, forested lands being clearcut prior to any frack applications, and the establishment of “man camps”–point to a plan for an ever-increasing network of deep horizontal frack wells to come throughout the Lower Peninsula.

To BAN and prohibit this new kind of horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the state, members of BMF started a ballot question committee, “Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan” to amend the state constitution. Go to the committee’s website at:www.LetsBanFracking.org to find how you can get involved in this effort before the November election.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality repeats the industry claim that fracking has been going on “for decades” to reassure us that nothing is amiss. However, the new High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing, (HVHHF) or unconventional horizontal drilling for “natural” gas, now called simply fracking, that has been devastating the nation and places throughout the world, is new and is currently threatening all of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. To understand the industry’s and government regulators’ PR spin, see the documentary “Unearthed: The Fracking Facade” here:

http://youtu.be/IPIEzSwPwT0

The frackers are drilling in the Utica and Collingwood shale and the A-1 Carbonate layer in Michigan. The frack wells are located in Antrim, Cheboygan, Crawford, Gladwin, Hillsdale, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Montmorency, Osceola, Ogemaw, and Roscommon Counties in the Lower Peninsula.

THOUSANDS more to come

Midland Daily News reported on September 13 that Encana alone has identified 1,700 deep frack well sites in Michigan in the Utica Collingwood shale on the 430,000 acres they have leased for fracking.

Eighteen applications for new well permits the DEQ has in hand are also from Ionia and Crawford Counties in addition to the counties listed above.

Leases for state-owned mineral rights have been auctioned off in many more counties including Barry, Oakland and Washtenaw Counties.

Despite hype from the industry and compliant, business-oriented media that the gas industry has slackened or slowed or “drooped” or “fizzled” (those are all the headlines), the DEQ is on a steady march to approve frack well after frack well.

Where are Michigan’s Horizontal Frack Wells?

Antrim County

Antrim County’s State Mancelona 1-28 HD1 and 1-31 HD1 are just two of the frack wells here. Another State Mancelona application is pending.

Cheboygan County

This is the site of one of the first Collingwood-Utical shale wells, Kendall 1-27 HD1. “Man camps” are planned for Cheboygan and Kalkaska Counties to bring in fracking crews presumably from out of state.

Gladwin County

In the middle of the state the frack industry is going after a layer called the A-1 Carbonate. The wells in Gladwin, Ogemaw, and Roscommon, Ionia Counties are the locations of the A-1 carbonate frack wells. The danger of H2S, deadly hydrogen sulfide gas leaks plague people in Gladwin County and other areas.

Kalkaska County

In Kalkaska County it’s our state forests that are being used for the fracking industry’s Michigan experiment. The city of Kalkaska is the home of the Roughnecks ice hockey team and a Halliburton outpost. The State Excelsior wells in the Mackinaw State Forest now have a huge drilling rig (see photo above), a frack well flowline, and processing station. Didn’t you think our state forests were supposed to be for forestry, watershed management, wildlife, fisheries, and recreation?

See this video taken in September 2012 of our once beautiful state forest land.
Footage of State Excelsior frack wells & drill rig

Hillsdale, Jackson and Lenawee Counties (The Irish Hills area)

The vacation land known as the “Irish Hills” is known for its many lakes and rolling landscape. In less than two years, the area became the home of 42 conventional wells for oil and gas. Forty more wells are planned. Some of the wells go under the local lakes

. Huge metal silos dot the landscape with gigantic flares burning off the methane that the companies, which are after the oil, feel free to burn off into the atmosphere, where residents and animals are breathing its toxic fumes, and heating up the planet. With the Collingwood-Utica shale layer being directly below these soon-to-be 82 wells, deep horizontal frack wells are just a matter of time. Dr. Chris Grobbel presented a program to the community warning them of this danger. (See Resources menu for Grobbel’s presentation)

Four horizontal frack wells have been permitted in Hillsdale County. We are still acquiring information about these wells. Please contact us if you can share photos or information.

Three new Class II injection wells are also planned for this area. The DEQ already approved these permits and the EPA recently held a hearing, and are expected to rubber stamp the approval of these permits soon.

The Detroit Free Press did an article about the area earlier this year:

Oil boom fears flow in pristine Irish Hills | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Missaukee County

The well that started the land rush for mineral rights in Michigan is the State Pioneer 1-3 HD1 well, located in a state forest, drilled by EnCana.

Photo by LuAnne Kozma. Copyright by Ban Michigan Fracking.

Ogemaw County

Devon Energy has drilled and fracked this deep frack well called David’s Acres on Henderson Lake Road. It is also in the A-1 Carbonate layer.

Roscommon County

Roscommon has one frack well permitted, State Richfield 1-34 HD1, and another, State Roscommon 1-8 HD1, applied for, both by Devon Energy. The State Richfield site, along Campground Road in the state forest, had been totally cleared of trees, and the county road commission approved the widening of the road, paid for by Devon Energy, before an application was filed with the DEQ. And this with a state with “great” regulations.

You can see how regulations are not the answer to this problem.
They ARE the problem.

MORE TO COME SOON IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES:

Oakland County

Barry County

Kent County

Yours?

Please contact us at info@banmichiganfracking dot org to tell us about possible fracking, leasing, injection wells, or other concerns.

Update 9/19/2012: Oral argument was had before Judge William Collette in Ingham County Circuit Court today. A decision is expected soon.

DEQ’s response brief

Plaintiffs’ reply brief

Ban Michigan Fracking together with individual plaintiffs Deanna Hughes and Heather Schiele, who live nearby a horizontal frack well in Gladwin County, sued the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) this week in Ingham County Circuit Court to force the DEQ to treat all frack wells as injection wells, to revoke the permits issued to Encana for the frack wells called Excelsior 2-25 HD1 and 3-25 HD1 and any other permits issued to Devon or any other company since the petition was filed, and suspend the granting of any new permits until the judge’s ruling.

VIDEO: Footage of State Excelsior frack wells & drill rig

First the plaintiffs had filed an administrative request in April for a declaratory ruling to the DEQ  asking the agency to treat frack wells statewide as injection wells, and to suspend issuing all Michigan frack permits while it decides the petition

.

In response to the administrative request, on June 28 DEQ head Dan Wyant untimely rejected the petition.

The plaintiffs moved this week for summary disposition. The judge will hear the case on the merits on September 19, 2012 in the Ingham County court in Mason, Michigan.

See: Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Disposition.

The suit offers factual evidence that the gas industry agrees a frack well is an injection well, so the DEQ should too.

A favorable ruling would mean applicants for frack wells would have to provide data, among other things, about the chemical analysis of the types of fluids to be injected.  The data would have to be provided at the time of the application. While that data would provide nearby landowners some information so that they can do  baseline water testing, the DEQ rules, as this lawsuit proves, are so weak and don’t even compare to the industry’s own recommendations to test for the carcinogenic compounds such as BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene), Dielsel Range Organics (DRO), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and Dissolved Methane, among other compounds.

Hughes and Schiele live in Sherman Township, Gladwin County, where Devon Energy is beginning horizontal fracking in the A-1 Carbonate layer, a bit shallower than Utica-Collingwood.

Documents:

Request for Declaratory Ruling

Affidavit by Ellis Boal

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4

Exhibit 5

Exhibit 6

Exhibit 7

Exhibit 8

Exhibit 9

Exhibit 10

Exhibit 11

Affidavit by Guy Bradmon

Letter of DEQ chief Dan Wyant

Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Disposition

Ban Michigan Fracking’s aim is to ban fracking statewide. When we realized that the entire Lower Peninsula of Michigan is now targeted to be fracked, members of Ban Michigan Fracking and others formed a Ballot Question Committee, a political entity whose sole purpose is to collect signatures and put a ballot question on the November ballot: A proposed amendment to the state constitution to ban fracking.

The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan launched its campaign this week! (See CBFM press release 5.14.2012, below). The Committee needs to collect 322,609 valid signatures by July 9.

See: www.LetsBanFracking.org to find a coordinator or event near you, to sign a petition or circulate petitions.

The petition, which received approval from the Michigan Board of State Canvassers in April, can ONLY be signed in person, on hard copies provided by the Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan. There are no downloadable copies, or xeroxes. Michigan registered voters only.

Please note that Ban Michigan Fracking’s online petition to oppose the frack reform bills is a completely different petition.
* * * * * * * * * * * *

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan

May 14, 2012

Michigan House Bill 5565 (Physicians gag-order bill) http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(v5fzuf2quwfkkeb0ik05v145))/mileg.aspx?page=BillStatus&objectname=2012-HB-5565

Michigan Board of State Canvassers draft minutes to April 26, 2012 meeting

http://www.mi.gov/documents/sos/4-26-12_DRAFT_Minutes_383873_7.pdf

Michigan House of Representatives Natural Gas Subcommittee Report, April 2012

http://gophouse.com/publications/80/NaturalGasReport.pdf

It has become clear in the last few weeks that Michigan’s entire Lower Peninsula is targeted for fracking with horizontal hydraulic fracturing. This Tuesday, May 8, the State of Michigan is auctioning off more mineral rights across the state in 23 counties for fracking.

Members of Ban Michigan Fracking created Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, a ballot question committee, to collect signatures on petitions to put a ban on fracking on the ballot in the November election.

WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK

May 7-8: Three Great Ways to Protest the May 8 Auction of State Lands for Oil & Gas Leasing
On May 8 the MI DNR will auction mineral rights for oil & gas leasing to 109,000 acres of state (public) land – including nearly all of the Yankee Springs Recreation Area (23,400 acres in Barry County) and portions of the Lake Orion Recreation Area in Oakland County. Land in 23 Counties is being offered.

May 7: Occupy the MI DNR Call-In Day – May 7 through May 8
Event Link:http://www.facebook.com/events/389401541103922/

May 7: Kalamazoo – Mineral Rights Protest March – 4:00pm
Event Link:http://www.facebook.com/events/362272633820503/

May 8: Lansing – Auction Protest & Rally for “Let’s Ban Fracking” MI Ballot Initiative
Event Link:http://www.facebook.com/events/118451664957895/?context=create

Location: Constitution Hall, 525 West Allegan, Lansing, MI
Time: Gather at 7:30am or after – Bring Ban Fracking / Save Public Land signs
Auction: Bidders Register at 8:00 am / Auction Begins at 9:00am
Parking: Garages at the building (Allegan and Pine) & Allegan and Capitol.

“Let’s Ban Fracking” Petitions for a Ballot Initiative to Ban Fracking in Michigan will be on site May 8.
Make sure you sign the just-launched petition

.

MI DNR Bid Documents – Map and Parking Directions in this PDF:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/Catalog_381830_7.pdf

MI DNR Auction Page – Check out the County Maps of Land Being Auctioned:
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10368_11800-169044–,00.html

Update 9/10/12:

On June 28 DEQ head Dan Wyant untimely rejected the petition.  The plaintiffs filed suit with Judge William Collette in Ingham County Circuit Court.  They have moved for summary disposition, the hearing for which is now set for October 3.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 April 29, 2012

Ban Michigan Fracking asks Michigan DEQ to treat frack wells as injection wells

For more information, contact:

Ellis Boal 231-547-2626

ellisboal@voyager.net

Charlevoix–On April 27, 2012, Ban Michigan Fracking, together with Deanna Hughes and Heather Schiele, filed a request for a declaratory ruling with Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) director Dan Wyant, asking the agency to treat frack wells statewide as injection wells, and to suspend issuing frack permits while it decides the petition.

The petition notes the gas industry agrees a frack well is an injection well, so the DEQ should too.

A ruling would mean applicants for frack wells would have to provide data, among other things, about the chemical analysis of the types of fluids to be injected.  The data would have to be provided at the time of the application so nearby landowners can do efficient baseline water testing before drilling commences.

Hughes and Schiele live in Sherman Township, Gladwin County, where Devon Energy is about to start horizontal fracking in the A-1 Carbonate layer, a bit shallower than Utica-Collingwood.

Landowners and residents nearby to other frack wells are welcome to join the request.

Documents:

Request for Declaratory Ruling

Affidavit by Ellis Boal

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4

Exhibit 5

Exhibit 6

Exhibit 7

Exhibit 8

Exhibit 9

Exhibit 10

Exhibit 11

Affidavit by Guy Bradmon

Stipulated Order

Letter of DEQ chief Dan Wyant

Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Disposition

. Photo by LuAnne Kozma.”]

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The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced on April 8 that EnCana and Gas USA (a Canadian company) had applied for six new wells on state-owned forest land in Kalkaska and Cheboygan Counties.
 A seventh well was applied for a week later. All seven target the Utica-Collingwood shale formations, though they are described as oil wells not gas wells. Two in Kalkaska County — on the line between Oliver and Excelsior Townships — are over three miles deep, and separated on the surface by 50 feet. Devon, another major energy company, filed applications for permits to drill in the Utica-Collingwood shale in Richfield Township in Roscommon County on state land

.

Application number/well name for Encana’s new applications:

A120041    State Excelsior 2-25 HD-1

A120042    State Oliver 1-10

A120043    State Mentor 1-17

A120044    State Excelsior 3-25 HD-1

A120045    State Garfield 1-26

A120046    State Wilmont 1-6

A120047    State Garfield 1-17

Application number/well name for Devon’s new applications:

A120051    State Richfield 1-27-P

A120052    State Richfield 1-24-HD

Click here for a map

A note on the announcement indicates the two deep ones would be the second and third wells in a DEQ-granted 1280-acre spacing exemption.
 DEQ application forms do not require that oil-gas applicants disclose whether they intend to frack.

As part of the completion process, frack well operators in Michigan typically inject 5 million gallons of water, chemicals, and sand down the hole.
  However the DEQ does not consider frack wells as “injection wells.”  It grants permits to frackers without requiring them to follow injection well rules — such as disclosure of the maximum rate, specific gravity, and pressures of the injection, chemical analysis of the injectate, and information showing the job will not initiate fractures through overlying strata.  It has granted permits where proposed wells failed Michigan’s water withdrawal assessment tool even though waivers given after DNR site visits specify no facts or reasoning.

Fracking Michigan’s State Forests

Horizontal fracking in Michigan’s pristine state forests is bad news.  Even on private land, the industry-funded DEQ cannot be trusted to assure the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens. We need to stop the Encana and Devon wells right now — not merely postpone them in a moratorium.

Why We Need to Ban Fracking

See why Ban Michigan Fracking is opposed to the “frack reform” legislation that would rely on a moratorium tied to a DEQ-run frack panel and a gas industry-funded frack study.

The Truth and Consequences of Fracking
Encana’s contamination of Alberta, Canada and fracking’s devastating effects on forest are the topics of Ban Michigan Fracking’s forums on May 18 in Traverse City and May 19 in Gaylord.

Come hear experts Jessica Ernst and Kevin Heatley speak of their efforts battling Encana in Alberta, and dealing with forest fragmentation and ruination in Pennsylvania.

The events are co-sponsored by Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (www.caccmi.org).