Lawsuits, payouts fuel Arkansas’ fracking debate

Residents divided by desire for jobs and investment versus environmental concerns

By Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

There seems to be no end in sight to the debate over fracking in Arkansas.

On the one hand, environmental activists and ordinary citizens worry about the long-term geological effects of the process, which forces water and sand at extremely high pressure into layers of rock below the earth as a means to release trapped natural gas.

Opponents say everything from the materials used (chemicals are added to the water-sand mixture prior to being injected underground) to the weakening of the substrata are cause for concern. Tests done on groundwater sites in other states have revealed methane contamination. Last year, Greenbrier, Ark., not normally known as a hotbed of seismic activity, experienced about 1,000 earthquakes, the most violent reaching 4.7 on the Richter scale

“The first thing I thought when I heard about the earthquakes is, ‘It’s fracking,’” said Father Neil Pezzulo, GHM, first vice president of Glenmary Home Missioners in Cincinatti, an outspoken critic of the process. “Greenbrier is ground zero. Even Gov. Mike Beebe, who isn’t an anti-business guy by any means, came out and said he couldn’t imagine that it wasn’t due to fracking.”

Father Pezzulo’s gut reaction was soon backed up by the University of Memphis and Arkansas Geological Survey investigations and their resultant conclusion that the quakes were likely touched off by fracking in the area. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission quickly shut down several wells and affected residents filed five federal lawsuits against three energy companies, the first to attempt to link energy exploration with earthquakes.

That the five plaintiffs ultimately settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in August — thereby avoiding a negative judgment that would have opened the litigious floodgates  nationwide — doesn’t surprise Father Pezzulo, who formerly served in Crossett and Waldron until his transfer to Ohio in 2011. He said the industry has continued to thrive because of its deep-pocketed ability to lure in vulnerable people.

“When I first heard about fracking I was at home watching the local news,” he said. “The way they talked about it, you would have thought Jesus Christ himself had come up with it. It was going to solve our energy dependence, and it was going to pay people all of this money to drill on their land.”

At the time, Father Pezzulo was serving small mission parishes in Arkansas, some of which were in or very near to the areas where energy companies wanted to drill. Some of his very parishioners in Scott County and Logan County would describe the treasure right under their feet and the checks they were receiving from the energy companies. Many others lined up around the block to get in on the new gold rush. Still, he was unmoved.

“It sounded too good to be true and being a native New Yorker and therefore with a cynical streak, I figured it was,” he said. “Something was wrong, something didn’t make sense.”

The more he looked into it the more he was convinced that the public wasn’t getting the full story on the process. He discovered some 700 chemicals are used in the brine being pumped into the earth, chemicals the energy companies had to list as present, but under a little-known legal loophole, didn’t have to disclose in what concentration. This lack of transparency provides a number of potential hazards.

“First of all, you’re pouring millions of gallons into what is porous rock anyway, I don’t see how it doesn’t reach the water supply,” he said. “The industry shows studies that have been done that said there’s no substantial increase in toxins, but they don’t provide a baseline to compare to.”

What’s worse, he said, without knowing what the chemical mix is, it becomes extremely difficult to determine effects of long-term exposure or to treat someone involved in an accident.

Not surprisingly, the industry and its pro-business proponents are equally strident in favor of the process. They just as vehemently dismiss environmentalists’ claims as alarmist. On the front lines, the rhetoric gets slightly less refined.

“I’ve been called a communitst, a socialist, anti-job; I’ve been told to basically sit down and shut my mouth,” Father Pezzulo said. “I’ve been called everything but a child of God.”

Sister Rosalie Ruesewald, OSB, chairman of the social concerns committee at St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, said the issue has headlined the committee’s agenda in recent years. The order has hosted speakers and showings of an anti-fracking documentary “Gasland” in several communities and the order is looking to fire another salvo in the future with showings of “Gasland II.”

“People are horrified, they wonder why more people don’t know about this,” she said. “Well, there are probably a lot of people who don’t want to know about it. They already have so many things, they don’t want something else to worry about.”

Asked why she or any other Catholic should care as a matter of social justice, her quiet tone turns resolute.

“Creation is a gift and we are here to take care of it,” she said. “There is an interconnectedness of all things on this earth, not just of human beings, but all living things. What hurts one hurts us all.”

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