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Anyone who has lived in this area since the 1970s remembers what happened at the Retsof Salt Mine. The plan seeking approval then was to use the empty salt rooms to dispose of fly ash from Buffalo. The industry gave assurances of safety and promises that no environmental damage would occur. Thank goodness that the plan was delayed long enough to not have that poison in the ground when the natural disaster of flooding in the mines occurred. It would be impossible to assess the environmental damage to the watersheds of our area had fly ash been in the mine rooms when the flooding occurred.
Our recent past is riddled with examples of industry assurances followed by disasters. No amount of regulation can guarantee their absence, whether natural or manmade. Remember Love Canal, the BP oil spill, the Exxon Valdez, the acid rain that killed our Adirondacks lakes,the levees in New Orleans? All of them were environmental disasters that have yet to be completely resolved. All followed industry assurances about their safety and all were followed by industry denials of culpability. Years of litigation followed each of these disasters before any industry restitution or clean up was effected. Individuals who experienced health problems following these disasters faced the same stonewalling on the part of industry before any portion of their associated health care expenses were paid and many died waiting for their claims to be addressed let alone paid.
In our immediate area, besides the Retsof Mine fiasco, we have also faced the results of an earthquake that caused extensive damage in the “safe” underground storage of natural gas in two-mile-deep disposal wells in the town of Avoca. On Jan. 22, 2001, a magnitude 2.4 quake occurred, its epicenter just south of the village of Cohocton. Over the next 12 days there were a few more quakes nearby, with the last one registering 3.2, centered just a mile north of these wells. Geologists agree injection wells can cause small to moderate earthquakes. Now there is growing evidence that small earthquakes can be caused by hydrofracking. Can regulation predict or control what kind of disaster an earthquake could do to underground areas already weakened by hydrofracking?
I would challenge the folks who support hydrofracking to name one place on earth where fossil fuels have been mined or extracted without contaminating the environment. In Wyoming, hydrofracking has resulted in a main aquifer being turned into a pipeline of carcinogens like benzene, toluene and arsenic. It has made thousands of water wells (some hundreds of miles from the extraction sites) undrinkable — a hazardous waste pipeline that has ruined hundreds of lives.
Anyone who has lived in this area since the 1970s remembers what happened at the Retsof Salt Mine. The plan seeking approval then was to use the empty salt rooms to dispose of fly ash from Buffalo. The industry gave assurances of safety and promises that no environmental damage would occur. Thank goodness that the plan was delayed long enough to not have that poison in the ground when the natural disaster of flooding in the mines occurred. It would be impossible to assess the environmental damage to the watersheds of our area had fly ash been in the mine rooms when the flooding occurred.
Our recent past is riddled with examples of industry assurances followed by disasters. No amount of regulation can guarantee their absence, whether natural or manmade. Remember Love Canal, the BP oil spill, the Exxon Valdez, the acid rain that killed our Adirondacks lakes,the levees in New Orleans? All of them were environmental disasters that have yet to be completely resolved. All followed industry assurances about their safety and all were followed by industry denials of culpability. Years of litigation followed each of these disasters before any industry restitution or clean up was effected. Individuals who experienced health problems following these disasters faced the same stonewalling on the part of industry before any portion of their associated health care expenses were paid and many died waiting for their claims to be addressed let alone paid.
In our immediate area, besides the Retsof Mine fiasco, we have also faced the results of an earthquake that caused extensive damage in the “safe” underground storage of natural gas in two-mile-deep disposal wells in the town of Avoca. On Jan. 22, 2001, a magnitude 2.4 quake occurred, its epicenter just south of the village of Cohocton. Over the next 12 days there were a few more quakes nearby, with the last one registering 3.2, centered just a mile north of these wells. Geologists agree injection wells can cause small to moderate earthquakes. Now there is growing evidence that small earthquakes can be caused by hydrofracking. Can regulation predict or control what kind of disaster an earthquake could do to underground areas already weakened by hydrofracking?
I would challenge the folks who support hydrofracking to name one place on earth where fossil fuels have been mined or extracted without contaminating the environment. In Wyoming, hydrofracking has resulted in a main aquifer being turned into a pipeline of carcinogens like benzene, toluene and arsenic. It has made thousands of water wells (some hundreds of miles from the extraction sites) undrinkable — a hazardous waste pipeline that has ruined hundreds of lives.
In addition, there is currently no way to clean the fracking water — 300,000 gallons of water per well. Where does this water come from? Leach fluid storage ponds have leaked in every state where they have been used as the method of containing this carcinogenic water. Do you really think that there are enough storage tanks to set parked somewhere full of wastewater? And, isn’t the proposed parking area simply mother disaster waiting to happen? Of course, there is another alternative that has been happening for years — the illegal dumping of this waste water into the streams and rivers by some drillers, especially in Pennsylvania.
As if all of this isn’t enough, there is nothing in any of the contracts that guarantees that the gas extracted will be used in New York or even in the United States. It can be sold anywhere in the world — no regulation there. And, the fact of the matter is that regulation is meaningless without enforcement. We have already seen how enforcement of safety regulations are pursued or not pursued at the whim of party politics. At a time when we hear loud cries to get rid of all government regulation of industry and cries to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, what confidence can we possibly have that an industry that is already not subject to any environmental regulation, will submit to regulations or that those regulations would be enforced should the anti-regulators be in charge. Enforcement costs money and already we’re hearing that the government should spend less, not more, on regulating polluters so that assurance rings hollow already.
The Finger Lakes region is known for its wineries, orchards, farms and tourism. It’s one of the richest areas in the world for fresh water. The water recreation industry brings thousands of tourists to our backyards every year. These precious lakes need protection. They need to be cared for, not put at risk for damage that will be eternal on behalf of an industry that will do its damage and then walk away. Only Skaneateles Lake has received protection and I can’t understand why that watershed area was protected while the others are not. All of the lakes are connected and fouling any of the lakes may foul them all. The Finger Lakes Winery Association predicts fracking will destroy the entire region’s wine industry in less than 10 years. Imagine what it will do to our orchards, farms and tourism, not to mention plunging values of property. Just as puzzling, without clear explanations, the Syracuse and New York City watersheds have been exempted from hyrdrofracking.
We should learn from the past. We need to go slow on hydrofracking in New York State.
Gayle Stout
Dansville
