March 20, 2012 05:54 PM UTC

So You Can "Take a Big Swig," Can You?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Bloomberg reports via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Chemicals released into the air when natural gas is produced by hydraulic fracturing may pose a health risk to those living nearby, the Colorado School of Public Health said.

Researchers found potentially toxic airborne chemicals near wells in Garfield County, Colorado, during three years of monitoring, the school said today in a statement. Drilling has expanded in the county, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) west of Denver…

Wells near Battlement Mesa, where the research was conducted, are tapped by injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals underground. The mixture is withdrawn during the process of completion as wells are readied for production.

“Non-cancer health impacts from air emissions due to natural-gas development is greater for residents living closer to wells,” according to the release. “We also calculated higher cancer risks for residents living nearer to the wells.”

In related news, we just recently saw this follow-up to statements by Gov. John Hickenlooper, discussed with some derision in this space, that one can “eat” the chemical compound used in hydraulic fracturing, and his own experience taking “a swig” of fracking fluid himself–we apologize for not having noted this previously! As the Denver Business Journal’s Cathy Proctor reported not long after our March 5th story to our pleasant surprise:

[Hickenlooper spokesman] Brown said the frack fluid was Halliburton’s “CleanStim” product, which the company’s website says is “a fracture fluid system comprised of materials sourced entirely from the food industry.”

Was “CleanStim” frack fluid the only beverage offered at the meeting? What about water – bottled or tap? Or a local brew?

…What’s the proper method for drinking CleanStim? Straight up? On the rocks? Shaken? Stirred? With a cute little umbrella perched on the edge of the glass?

While it’s fun and all to ponder the details of swigging CleanStim, has it even been used on any Colorado frack jobs? [Pols emphasis] And if so, did it work?

This is what Halliburton had to say:

“As a service provider to the energy industry, Halliburton provides products and services to oil and gas companies (“operators”), while the operators are the entities that own and operate the wells. So for questions regarding what operations those companies have performed or intend to perform on wells in a specific area, your inquiries would be better directed toward the operators.”

We’d especially like to know if they’re using “CleanStim” on Battlement Mesa. Like we said last time, Is Gov. Hickenlooper willing to drive out to a gaspatch drilling site at random and “take a swig” of whatever they’re pumping into the ground? What they’ve been pumping for years?

Tell us again, longsuffering reader: what happens to politicians who make dismissive jokes about something that, as it turns out, is giving voters cancer? Do they stay superstar popular?

Perhaps he won’t be yucking it up much longer, folks.