This blog was only possible through the work of Lisa Sumi
This week residents in Mansfield, Texas were alarmed by a shower of foam that “shot back up the hole” of the too-close-to-their-homes EagleRidge Energy (EagleRidge) gas well. The foam hung in trees and covered their yards for hours.
EagleRidge said the foam was industrial soap used as a lubricant. Mansfield firefighters tested it and “found nothing toxic.” The residents should request MSDS sheets.
At least they didn’t say it was Dove Soap, as other fracking industry representatives have done.
The foam shower made the nightly news. Also reported by CBS11 was the comment Mark Grawe Chief Operating Officer at EagleRidge made about people in Denton.
Grawe: There are people within Denton that are preaching civil disobedience.
Some of those people are actually on a watch list, not mine.Resident: Whose watch list?
Grawe: Uh…Homeland Security’s.
Here is the audio recording of Grawe’s comments.
This all—even the foam—ties in with the industry’s Psychological Warfare against the American public that I exposed after attending – and partially recording – a fracking industry PR conference in 2011.
At the conference industry PR reps boasted they use ex military personnel to conduct PSYOP operations in neighborhoods, and recommended the use of the US Army/Marine Insurgency Manual against the “insurgents” who are the American public. They also talked about “inoculating” influential members of our society against what they might hear.
And, they talked about “soap” of the kind that just made the news here in Texas.
“Hydraulic fracturing – We talk about surfactants. That’s Dove soap. That’s what a surfactant is. . .So we need to kind of bring what we put in there down to where people can understand.” — Brad Smith, Anadarko Petroleum
Actually, surfactant refers to any compound intended to lower the surface tension between substances. Soap is one type of surfactant that loosens dirt that is attached to skin or other thigns. While Dove (and other personal) soap contains surfactants, the surfactants used to fracture wells typically include chemicals that are not commonly found in facial or body soaps.
According to the oil and gas industry web site FracFocus, oil and gas industry surfactants contain chemicals such as
- 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE),
- isopropanol,
- naphthalene,
- methanol,
- ethanol, and
- lauryl sulfate.
No, surfactants are not the same as Dove soap. 2-BE is found in Windex, and I don’t know anyone who would use Windex to wash themselves. In fact, the Material Safety Data Sheet for Windex expressly cautions users to “Avoid contact with skin, eyes and clothing.”
Not too long ago, parents washed their kids mouths out with soap when they told a lie. I doubt any parent would wash out a child’s mouth with surfactants that contain naphthalene, methanol or 2-BE. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to these chemicals may cause a multitude of health effects such as liver, kidney and brain damages, as well as skin, eye, nose and throat irritation, dizziness, and other problems.
If oil and gas industry representatives had their mouths washed out with naphthalene every time they told a lie, there would be a lot fewer of them around.
