Landmark Fracking Case: Jury Awards $3 Million For Harm To Texas Family

Drink Up America!

We're #1.

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When you present the evidence to six people who know nothing about fracking, they find fracking guilty.

I wrote a diary on Daily Kos when Lisa Parr's doctor found drilling chemicals in her blood and lungs. That was back in 2010 when I still had hope that fracking could be done right. I've learned since then that it can't.

Today, a jury of their peers awarded Bob and Lisa Parr $3 million dollars in their fracking lawsuit against Aruba Petroleum. The Parr's attorneys said this was the first fracking case to ever go to trial. I'm trying to verify that.

Bob and Lisa Parr were neighbors to Tim and Christine Ruggiero in Wise County. I was there, in the Ruggiero kitchen, the day Lisa discovered that her timeline of doctor’s visits matched–exactly–Christine’s timeline of releases from the Aruba gas wells on her property.

Like Tim and Christine, Bob and Lisa shared all their information with me and I developed it into a case study for presentation to the EPA at Research Triangle Park and later to Gina McCarthy before she was EPA Administrator. The situation at the Parr's and Ruggiero's homes was so horrific, I even took Cynthia Giles, top enforcement officer for the EPA to see for herself. The Parr's case study was added to others and published by Earthworks in Flowback: How the Texas Natural Gas Boom Affects Health and Safety.

Later the Parrs were highlighted in Gasland Part 2. Today's decision might take some of the wind out of the fracking windbags who prattle on endlessly about how inaccurate Gasland is.Twelve SIX regular people who knew nothing about fracking were presented with the facts and awarded the victims $3 million dollars. It's going to be hard to spin that.

This is a picture of Bob, Lisa and Emma Parr on their wedding day on the 40 acres where Bob built a beautiful custom home.  

This is a picture of what life became for the Parr's shortly after.

They were surrounded by gas wells.

Lisa’s suffered from
Breathing difficulties
Nausea
Rashes that left her scarred with pock-marks.
She had biopsies of the oozing welts on her scalp and the 4 ping-pong-ball-sized lumps on her neck.
Testing showed drilling chemicals in Lisa’s blood and lungs that match chemicals detected by the state in air testing outside her home.
She had a whole host of other ailments.

Bob and Emma also suffered various health impacts.

Tonight Lisa told me they won't have to end up in the Cycle of Fracking Denial so they can speak openly about what happened to them. She said, "This was never about the money. This was about our land."

I have blogged extensively about the sins of Aruba Petroleum. From my view, they are one of the most irresponsible and reckless companies in a plethora of reckless and irresponsible companies.

Aruba intends to appeal the jury's decision. That means it will go to the Texas courts where judges are soaked in oil and gas money.