When an oil/gas company wants to drill, of course!
Look at what Rathlin Energy are planning to do near the Giant’s Causeway:
- Construct a drilling pad
- Drill down 2,700 metres – drilling day and night for up to 90 days
- “Stimulate” the well using hydraulic fracturing. This could go on for 12 weeks, 12 hours per day and probably overnight as well.
- Collect flowback
- Flare off emitted gas for up to 14 days.
What is this if not fracking?
Yet Rathlin Energy persist in their claim that “fracking will not be used during drilling of this well”.
Who are they trying to fool? The public of course! And that includes you, me and everyone else.
Two statements from the EIS that must be queried
The results of the modelling exercise shows that the operation of the flares will not breach the relevant limits for the protection of human health or vegetation at the nearest sensitive receptors. (p16, EIS Non-technical Summary).
Yet, by their own admission, flare emissions can contain CO2, Carbon Monoxide (toxic), Nitogen oxides (some toxic), Sulphur Dioxide (toxic), particulates and, most worryingly of all “unburned hydrocarbons”. The latter possibly include some real “baddies” – Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX). So toxic, there are NO safe levels of exposure! When nobody knows whether gas will be produced at all, not to mind its constituency, how can anyone say that public health is not at risk? One only has to refer to relevant peer-reviewed reports from the US to know that flares definitely constitute a public health risk.
Now let’s look at how Rathlin Energy intends to get rid of flowback waste from the well:
The paragraph starts off, “Waste will be segregated and controlled.” (p20) Then it describes what it does with flowback: ” Cuttings skips are provided for water based cuttings. They are removed by a licensed contractor for treatment,recycling or disposal as applicable”.
In other words, liquid wastes will not be controlled (by Rathlin Energy anyway). Water-based “cuttings” from hydraulic fracturing contain heavy metals, radioactive elements, brine and fracking chemicals. What treatment is available in Northern Ireland? NONE. Neither are there licenced contractors in Northern Ireland who could take on the task of recycling fracking waste. Which leaves “disposal”. When no adequate method is stated for safe disposal and with Northern Ireland’s record for waste disposal, could anyone have confidence that such waste could be disposed of safely? We don’t think so!
This EIS raises many questions that need answering.
It is madness to go ahead with a project that includes such uncertainties and risks to human health.