ProPublica Photographer: I Was Followed by BP Security and Then Detained by Police

Welcome to the corporate land of the free...

by Lance Rosenfield, Special to ProPublica Today, 10:37 a.m.

Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was working on assignment for ProPublica in Texas City, Texas, last week, when a BP security guard began following him. Rosenfield was later detained by police after taking photos for two ProPublica stories. One revealed that BP’s Texas City refinery had illegally emitted 538,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in April and May. The other reported that the Texas City refinery continues to have serious safety violations five years after an explosion at the plant killed 15 workers.

What follows is Rosenfield’s account of what happened on Friday night after the police, accompanied by the BP security guard, stopped him at a local gas station.

I parked my car on the shoulder of Hwy. 197 near the Texas City sign that is in the pictures, on the south side of town and the refinery. I walked onto the median where the sign is and took the pictures. I walked back to my car and drove a couple of miles to a gas station that is on the way to my hotel. I noticed that what looked like a security truck, which had a light on the top, was following me, although he continued on when I pulled into the Valero gas station. I got out of my car to fill the tank and moments later two Texas City police cars pulled in next to my car, essentially blocking me in, although I wasn't trying to go anywhere, I was trying to get gas.

The first police officer asked me what I was doing and said he had gotten a report that I was taking pictures near the refinery. I told him I am a photojournalist and had only taken some pictures of a Texas City sign. He asked to see the pictures and I told him I didn't think I had to show them, legally. Another police officer walked up and again asked to see the pictures. I told him the same thing, but assured him that they were just pictures of the city sign, taken while I was in the public right of way.

He said I could show him the pictures or he could handle this another way, including calling Homeland Security and taking me in. I agreed to show him the pictures on the back of my camera, while he took my driver's license. Meanwhile, the truck that had been following me showed up, driven by a security guard with a BP patch on his uniform. The first police officer seemed to fade back during all this, but remained present in the background. I asked the second police officer-- Officer T. Krietemeyer--for his card, which he gave me.

Officer Krietemeyer took my name, driver's license, the car license number, my D.O.B., Social Security Number and phone number.

The BP security guard asked for my personal information and I declined because he is a corporate security guard and I had already given it to the police. Then the BP security guard asked Officer Krietemeyer for my information, which he gave him.

I protested and asked on what legal grounds could the police officer share my information with BP? I was never on BP property. They told me it was standard procedure and I told them I didn't agree with it and didn't understand what legal authority they had to share that information.

They said that when there is a Homeland Security threat, then BP files a report. I said I wasn't a Homeland Security threat, that Officer Krietemeyer had already determined that the pictures posed no threat. Also, I was not under arrest, so why was BP getting my information? I asked the BP guard for his information, which he gave me: Gary Stief, BP Security.

They both told me they would call Homeland Security/FBI agent Tom Robison to come down and explain it, as if that were a threat to me. I said I didn't think that was necessary but Officer Krietemeyer called Mr. Robison anyway and handed me the phone, which I didn't ask for, but my natural reaction was to take the phone. They had already spoken to Mr. Robison when they arrived; when he got on the phone he asked what my problem is. I told him I didn't understand why BP was getting my information, but he had it anyway and we were starting to wrap up here. He said, "Oh no you're not, you're staying right there until I get there." This was obviously a scare tactic.

Mr. Robison arrived several minutes later and asked what my problem was. His demeanor was aggressive and antagonistic. I repeated myself, in a respectful manner. He aggressively explained that a refinery like this is a terrorist target and any time people take pictures of it, they have to investigate.

He asked who I was working for. I said I'm a freelance photojournalist working on assignment for ProPublica. He asked for verification of that so I showed him the letter from (ProPublica senior editor) Susan White. Officer Krietemeyer took down the information. Mr. Robison tried to dig at what the article was about, and I stayed mostly vague because I'm not the writer and I didn't see the significance anyway. Eventually he asked if it's about BP and I said yes, which seemed to make him angrier.

I then felt like Mr. Robison and Mr. Stief, the BP guard, started harassing me, primarily by keeping me there and talking to me in an aggressive and antagonistic manner, and relating what I had done to terrorist activity, ignoring what had actually happened. This went on for some time. I stayed calm and polite and on point.

Mr. Robison twice asked Officer Krietemeyer if had he reviewed the pictures carefully and concluded there was no threat, to which Officer Krietemeyer said yes. Mr. Robison seemed to be shaky with adrenaline; he was clearly worked up.

Stief said he was ready to go so the group broke up quickly.
I shook all three men's hands.
I'm guessing the whole thing lasted 20 to 30 minutes.
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WFFA--Flower Mound parents worried about gas drilling near schools

I think most of us tend to assume that there are some places drilling just wouldn't ever occur. But the more I learn, the more aware I become that nothing is sacred any more. From war veteran graveyards surrounded by waste pits, to gas wells next to your kids elementary school, the oil and gas industry will set up shop anywhere that offers a profit.


Flower Mound parents worried about gas drilling near schools
by STEVE STOLER
WFAA
Posted on June 14, 2010 at 11:23 PM

FLOWER MOUND — Some Denton County parents say any natural gas drilling near their kids' schools is too close.

A Fort Worth-based company wants to drill two dozen wells in Flower Mound near Bluebonnet Elementary and Shadow Ridge Middle schools, which are in the Lewisville ISD. Titan Operating officials say none of the wells would be within 1,000 feet of the schools.

Parents who spoke with News 8 say that makes no difference to them.

Melinda Krupa has two children. One attends Bluebonnet; the other goes to Shadow Ridge.

"Who would want their children to be out on the playground or out on the ball field and be inhaling these fumes from the gas wells?" she asked.

The application for a drilling permit was filed last November, before town leaders issued a moratorium on new permits. Titan wants to build up to 24 wells in the next two to five years.

Krupa says the risk is too high to gamble on the health and safety of children.

"It just doesn't make sense to bring the drilling anywhere close to the schools," she said.

Steve Schmidt came to Monday's school board meeting to voice his concerns. He still has many unanswered questions about gas drilling.

His four-year-old daughter has leukemia and his second-grader attends Bluebonnet.

"The right direction is the safe direction," Schmidt told the school board. "Safety first and foremost."

Flower Mound parents are also concerned about land owned by the school district across from the proposed drilling site. They fear property values could plummet when drilling begins.

Flower Mound's oil and gas board is expected to discuss Titan's application at its next meeting.

E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com

Visit WFFA website>>>

Our "good neighbors"

While polished executives are getting cozy with your county commission, their companies are practicing a different kind of business.

What the ****?

Industry representatives will say anything to landowners. I do mean Anything. And if you think your health department, public officials, and regulating bodies are any better, you may want to think again.
A Colorado resident was told something that would be completely laughable if the situation wasn't so serious. She was complaining about emmissions "you know, VOC's and stuff" and the county health guy told her, well you know, pine trees give of VOC's too. What the?? But wait, it keeps getting better. Here is a few things industry representatives have said to a Texas resident:
Oxygen turns water red.
Methane seeps from the ground all the time, you just never noticed it before.
Igniting bubbles in your backyard is normal, you just never tried it before now.
Thermal incinerators give off rainbow fairy dust (or at least give off no more emissions than your husband's truck).
What odor?
Its just a little benzene.
It's just sand.
It's just mud.
Nothing to see here.

Wow. Those are some really good neighbors huh.

Good neighbors abound

Well, I found a couple of article worthy of mention today. The first concerns Royal Dutch Shell, a company that has expressed interest in drilling for natural gas here in Mora County. Now, they have this "good neighbor" program that I hear a lot about. It sounds really great until you realize that your neighbor will be a gas well, not the executive telling you about their "good neighbor" program. And then you read articles like this...Personally, if my neighbor sues me to get their way, I will not feel like they are a good neighbor!

Court clears Shell for Sweden gas drilling
Published: 19 Apr 10 14:17 CET

UK-Dutch energy firm Royal Dutch Shell has received the retroactive backing of an environmental court over its test drilling for natural gas in Skåne in southern Sweden.

The court in Växjö has ruled in favour of the energy giant against 15 neighbours of the site in the small community of Ry near Lövestad.

The neighbours had appealed a Skåne county administrative board decision in November, which cleared the way for Shell to prospect for natural gas that it claims could supply Sweden's needs for a decade.

Shell confirmed in a February newsletter that it had completed its test drilling of the site having reached a depth of 950 metres.

"All work in Ry was completed in the beginning of February," the firm confirmed in the statement.

Shell's planned drilling in Skåne, which currently extends to two further sites in Tomelilla and Hörby, has met with opposition from environmental activists concerned over the impact that large scale exploitation could entail.

The Hörby site was sabotaged last Thursday night with damage to fences, electrical cables and tools reported, according to the Sydsvenskan daily. While the police have gathered some clues at the site they have not been able to identify any suspected saboteurs.

A network calling itself Heaven or sHell is among the groups organizing opposition to Shell's plans. The group has the backing of major landowner Carl Piper and was recently awarded the Guldklövern prize by the Centre Party for its work in generating debate over the issue.

The group is lobbying for changes to Swedish minerals legislation that they hope will prevent the continued test drilling. They also complain that the drilling has continued despite a series of appeals.

Shell has been given permission to search for gas in two areas which cover a total of 20 percent of Skåne's surface area over a period of three years.

The Local has made several attempts to contact Shell Sweden on Monday.


This is obviously a world-wide issue. We tend to pay most attention to what is happening in our own backyards, but natural gas production is a process that is impacting vast amounts of the world's population. So on to our next story of the day...

Published in The Green Muze

Ugly Reality of Fracking
Monday, 19 April 2010 Joyce Nelson/Watershed Sentinel

In a telephone interview, Jessica Ernst says she’s “still getting used to” being compared to Erin Brockovich (the environmental activist made famous by Julia Robert’s film portrayal ten years ago). The comparison comes easy because the outspoken Ernst, a landowner in the town of Rosebud, Alberta, is one of the few Albertans who have publicly criticized hydraulic fracturing (called “fracking,” in the trade).

Fracking is a technology used by the oil and gas industry to access “unconventional” natural gas deposits trapped in shale, coalbed, and tight-sand formations – potentially at the expense of underground water supplies.

After her well water was contaminated by nearby fracking in 2006, Ernst decided to go public, showing visiting reporters how she could light her tap water on fire, and speaking out about Alberta land owners’ problems with the industry, especially Calgary-based EnCana. EnCana is Canada’s second biggest energy company (after Suncor) and is now also a major player in British Columbia, with hundreds of natural-gas wells in the province.

Ernst, a biologist and environmental consultant to the oil and gas industry, says EnCana “told us ‘we would never fracture near your water.’ But the company fracked into our aquifer in that same year [2004].” By 2005, she says, “My water began dramatically changing, going bad. I was getting horrible burns and rashes from taking a shower, and then my dogs refused to drink the water. That’s when I began to pay attention.” More than fifteen water-wells had gone bad in the little community.

Tests revealed high levels of ethane, methane, and benzene in Ernst’s water. “EnCana told us they use the same gelled [fracking] fluids as in the States.” Fracking has become a huge controversy in the US, with pending legislation that would impact its regulation.

Ernst says she heard from “at least fifty other landowners the first year” she went public, and she continues to get calls. Groundwater contamination from fracking “is pretty widespread” in Alberta, “but they’re trying to keep it hidden.” Canada has no national water standards and conducts little information gathering about groundwater.

Chromium-6 In The WaterBeing an activist on behalf of her community is not the only connection Ernst has with Brockovich. Through expensive Freedom of Information requests, Ernst obtained post-fracking water well monitoring data that showed the Alberta Environment people had found hexavalent chromium in Rosebud’s well water. “The government hasn’t told this to people” in the hamlet, says Ernst.

Hexavalent chromium, otherwise known as chromium-6, is the extremely toxic substance Brockovich found in the drinking water in Hinkley, California, which led to a major class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, which finally paid the plaintiffs more than $200 million (€146M) in 2006.

Ernst, who knows the industry well, says chromium-6 “is used in fracking and drilling.” In an odd coincidence, Erin Brockovich herself is currently involved in investigating a mile-long plume of chromium-6 contamination of drinking water – apparently caused by fracking and drilling – in Midland, Texas. In July 2009, Brockovich investigators told the press they have evidence that hydraulic fracturing specialist Schlumberger is to blame. In the continuing case, Brockovich is representing 40 householders whose water has been contaminated. More>>>

Drawn into focus

Part two of the Denton-Record Chronicle series about the Ruggerio family in Wise County Texas. It is worth reading Aruba Petroleum's written response. I doubt the representative interviewed has to live with the immediate consequences of the way Aruba Petroleum appears to be conducting business in people's backyards.


Drawn into focus

Risks of gas drilling prompt investigation, vigilance as man stands up for family

10:04 AM CDT on Monday, March 29, 2010
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series examining the effects of oil and natural gas drilling in eastern Wise and western Denton counties.

By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer

WISE COUNTY — Tim Ruggiero had a lot of time to think, sitting in the secretary’s office as his father met privately with the grade school principal.

He remembers shaking as he sat in that chair 30 years ago, afraid after seeing how unhappy his father was and unsure of the punishment that would come.

The tension between Ruggiero and another boy — the school bully — had been growing for some time. That day, the bully had confronted him in the hallway, saying they had to meet after school. Scared, Ruggiero shoved the boy and challenged him to meet right then. The boy was taken aback, saying it couldn’t happen with all the teachers around. Ruggiero punched the boy, giving him a black eye.

“I thought for sure there was going to be hell to pay from Dad,” Ruggiero said.

On the way home, though, Ruggiero’s father told him that the boy had been causing problems for other children and for a long time. He said he was proud that his son did his best in standing up to the bully.

Ruggiero, 45, is a father now. He and his wife, Christine Ruggiero, moved to the northeastern part of Wise County in 1994, buying 10 acres near CR2514 on Star Shell Road for their home and horses.

In September 2009, Aruba Petroleum claimed about four acres of their land to drill a new gas well as part of the lease known geographically as Wright 7H and 8H. The company surprised the couple one September morning, taking down their horse fence and bulldozing their pasture after the family left for work and school.

Company officials said in answers to written questions that they notified the Ruggieros two weeks earlier that work was about to start.

Only peripherally aware of problems in the Barnett Shale, Tim Ruggiero realized he had a lot to learn about the natural gas industry, because it had set up shop in his backyard.

His concern increased the following month, when he learned that health problems had come to the fore in Dish. Ruggiero traveled more than 30 miles to attend a Dish town hall meeting and learn more about the risks of living close to natural gas facilities. He had planned on only listening, but when he saw the faces of Dish residents trying to get information out of state regulators, he decided to speak out.

“For the last 20 years, my job has been talking to people who’ve done things that they should not have done,” said Ruggiero, an investigator for a large retailer. “I’ve learned how to read people and when they are being honest. All I saw in the room that night were victims, legitimate victims. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know the half of it. I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s what we have to look forward to.’”

Since then, investigators from both the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have been out to the Wright lease and the site next to the Ruggieros’ home many times.

On Oct. 29, 2009, Christine Ruggiero reported a massive spill to the Railroad Commission after she watched drilling mud shooting across the waste pit and onto a neighboring pasture for much of the afternoon.

* On Nov. 4, a diesel cloud covered the neighborhood and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found elevated levels of ozone-forming pollutants.

* On Nov. 30, TCEQ investigators returned to investigate odors associated with fracking operations.

* On Jan. 17, Feb. 3 and Feb. 20, TCEQ investigators returned to investigate odors associated with condensate production.

* On Feb. 8 and Feb. 27, TCEQ investigators also investigated odors associated with venting from the frack tanks.

* On March 16, the couple filmed and reported a condensate tank both venting and overflowing onto their property.

On March 5, state inspectors submitted the Wright 7H and 8H wells for enforcement, making the site the first Barnett Shale well head to receive a notice of violation since the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ended its “Find and Fix” initiative, according to agency spokesman Terry Clawson. Read full story>>>

Landowner's Fears Surface

This is part one in a two-part series about the Ruggiero family and their ordeal with Aruba Petroleum in Wise County Texas.

Gas drilling abruptly upends family’s lives

09:22 AM CDT on Sunday, March 28, 2010
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series examining the effects of oil and natural gas drilling in eastern Wise and western Denton counties.

WISE COUNTY — A bit of yellow tape dangled from a short wooden stake in front of Christine Ruggiero’s house on Star Shell Road that September morning, less than a year ago.

The subtle signal meant something to someone.

On her 20-minute drive to work, Ruggiero hoped that what she saw wouldn’t become what she feared.

DRC/David Minton
Christine and Tim Ruggiero, shown on their property in Wise County in February, were surprised when an Aruba Petroleum crew came onto their land in September, taking down their horse fence and bulldozing their pasture.
View larger More photos Photo store Aruba Petroleum had already dug up several acres of land on the neighboring 38-acre homestead, drilling a new gas well on Pat and Jim Headen’s front lawn.

Angry and upset, her husband, Tim Ruggiero, had painted two protest signs and hung them by the road. A few days later, someone made an addition to one of the signs. Between a crude depiction of male and female genitalia, the vandal scrawled “you’re next.”

Christine Ruggiero, 43, dropped off her 9-year-old daughter at school in Denton and, after arriving at the employee benefits consulting group where she works in Highland Village, she took a minute to call up the permits section of the Texas Railroad Commission Web site.

Ruggiero called her husband.

Sept. 16: Still no permit, she told him.

Then her phone rang. Her neighbor, Pat Headen, had just returned home for lunch and seen pieces of the Ruggieros’ horse fence in a pile. Near a crew and a bulldozer, she saw one of Ruggiero’s horses.

“Christine, did you know they’ve got a bulldozer out there?” Headen said.

“No,” Ruggiero said. “I’ll be right home.”

She returned to find several acres of their 10-acre parcel stripped bare. At the center of the chaos sat a white pickup, Ruggiero recalls. In her sweater, high heels and dress pants, she worked her way to the foreman’s truck. He would only roll down his window at first.

“You’re trespassing,” she told him. “You don’t have a permit.”

“I don’t need a permit,” he told her. “I have the lease.”

Aruba officials said they told the Ruggiero family on Sept. 2 that they would be drilling on their property.

Ruggiero realized the horses — Nina, a Palomino paint; Sweetheart, a thoroughbred; and little Willow, a mini she’d given to her daughter — were staring at her. She began to cry.

She was gathering the horses to move them when her husband arrived about 10 minutes later. Read full story>>>

The human impacts of oil and gas development in Northern New Mexico

I recently attended a meeting in Mora with two guest speakers from San Juan County. The sadness and sense of loss experienced by these ranchers is incredibly saddening.
San Juan County was once primarily agricultural and farm oriented. Over time however, development by the oil and gas industry has changed it from a green and abundant county to a devastated landscape of gas wells and frac pits. While regulations governing the oil and gas industry are minimal at best, the ones that do exist tend not to be enforced. Well, they are enforced when it comes to protecting the interests of industry, but landowners and ranchers complaints and issues are often ignored. Industry's big sell to counties they wish to drill in is the monetary gain. According to one of the ranchers that spoke during the meeting I attended, San Juan County has an unemployment rate of 30%-40%. Land use is now mostly limited to oil and gas development so the county is almost completely dependent on the oil and gas industry. You cannot farm or ranch safely or lucratively when your cattle can drink from open frac pits and your water supply and quality has been adversely impacted by the process and byproducts of drilling.
San Juan County has 40,000 natural gas wells. As one rancher told me, there is no hope for San Juan, the devastation is irreparable and they will do the same thing here [Mora and San Miguel Counties] if we let them.
So, from first-hand accounts of oil and gas development, some of the things we know are:
Existing regulations lack proper enforcement.
Drilling adversely affects economic security and diversity.
Improperly regulated drilling is incompatible with farming and agricultural land uses.
Industry is NOT a good neighbor.
Industry can stay as long as they want, and do whatever they want.
Oil and gas development does not bring jobs to a county's citizens; they often import their own labor force.
With an imported labor force comes a rise in crime rates.
Lives and previous sustaining ways of living can be destroyed by oil and gas development.
A pipeline carrying highly pressurized and explosive natural gas can be buried on your property as little as four inches deep.
If a landowner accidentally punctures or damages a pipeline, they are liable for all costs incurred by the incident.

These facts are applicable to residents of New Mexico. And I have little doubt that many of them apply to counties across the country as well.
Can you say, regulations and enforcement are necessary now?!

Environmental Concerns Rise in Northeastern Pennsylvania as Natural Gas Drilling Spreads

Despite assurances from the oil and gas industry, residents of Dimock Pennsylvania have experienced some awful things from natural gas drilling in their area. If you can set your tap water on fire there is something drastically wrong!

Carolyn Weaver | New York 02 January 2010

Victoria Switzer and her husband, Jim, are building what they hoped would be their retirement home in the rural hamlet of Dimock, Pennsylvania, in the eastern U.S. When Cabot Oil & Gas offered a lease for the natural gas under their land a few years ago, saying that it might drill a single horizontal well nearby, they weren't worried.

Switzer says they were told the drilling was an environmentally safe, low-impact process that would also help reduce U.S. dependence on imported fossil fuels. She and her husband didn't know much about the new natural gas boom that was just then arriving in northeastern Pennsylvania, seeking to tap gas in the Marcellus Shale rock formation roughly two kilometers underground.

Victoria Switzer says she and her husband may have to abandon the home they have built in Dimock
"In a short time, we realized that we were going to have 27 wells within a short walk from the house," Switzer said in an interview. "And as of today, we have 63, with indications that will double in the next two years." She said that the industrial nature of gas drilling, with heavy truck traffic and noise, and occasional wastewater and chemical spills, has transformed their peaceful country life. And now, she says, they are afraid to drink their water – or to let children and animals play in the creek.

The Switzers are among a group of 15 families around Carter Road in Dimock who sued Cabot in November. They allege that the company's drilling polluted their water with chemicals, metals and methane, the main constituent of natural gas, causing explosions as well as gastrointestinal and neurological illness.

"The smell and rotten taste, you couldn't take a shower in it because the smell stayed on your skin, you couldn't wash clothes in it," said Ron Carter, who lives with his wife, Jean, about 150 meters from a drilling operation.

Patricia Farnelli said her five children were sick for months, until the family stopped using tap water for drinking or cooking "They're fine all day at school, they come home, they get a drink of water, and that's when they got sick. They would have very, very severe stomach cramps, and double over, and throw up or have diarrhea."

Monica Marta worried about her water when a relative showed her that her tap water could be ignited. "The flame from the jug of water was this high," she said, indicating about half a meter, "and that's what my kids and our family have been drinking."

Several said they first realized something was seriously wrong when Norma Fiorentino's water well blew up on New Year's Day 2009, throwing cement slabs into the air. State investigators found Cabot's drilling had caused gas to migrate into her well. Fiorentino, a widow in her 60s, began buying water or getting it at a natural spring 10 kilometers away.

Several other families had similar scares. Sheila Ely was in her bathroom getting ready for church one morning last year. "The pipes started rattling, and it sounded like they were going to come through the wall," she said. She called emergency numbers at the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection. "DEP told us to get out of the house immediately. They said the house could explode." More>>>

Industry Works Through The Holidays

Well, it's another busy holiday season out there. Aruba Petroleum is doing more than venting methane into people's yards, Royal dutch Shell is facing a dilemma of which corrupt government to support this week, three special permits to drill in the Rio Chama Watershed go before the Rio Arriba County Commission today. And on the home front we continue to prepare for the San Miguel County Commission meeting and public hearing regarding a proposed moratorium on oil and gas development in the county. Silly me, I took Christmas off.

Aruba Petroleum

Interesting post onBlue Daze Drilling Reform For Texas
Somehow I doubt this family feels like Aruba Petroleum is a "good neighbor." I may not much like my neighbor, but I do like the fact that I have the right to keep him off my property. Unfortunately for the Wise County family in this story, they do not have the same option when it comes to Aruba Petroleum moving into their backyard. See the news clip>>>