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If you’re like me, you are getting extremely annoyed by all of the lobbying commercials about “clean coal,” “clean oil and natural gas,” and how technology has made fracking “safe.” I for one am not convinced that there is such a thing as “clean coal” or “safe fracking.”
I have some questions and I hope that you do too. First of all, because the economy is so bad in New York State, how many jobs will this create? The industry estimates between 13,000 and 54,000 jobs. Really? How many New Yorkers do you know that have the special expertise necessary to drill these wells? These workers will most likely be brought in from outside New York, from states like Texas and Oklahoma, where they have the experience and expertise. I am sure that some local workers will be necessary temporarily, but after the wells are drilled, they’re relatively self-sufficient, requiring few local employees to monitor them. So, the jobs case is shaky at best.
What are the consequences? From my research there are numerous harmful environmental and health consequences. Americans living near current fracking sites have reported negative health effects including cancer, nausea, skin rashes, fainting, etc. State and Federal officials along with industry spokespersons often dismiss individual complaints and reiterate that the effects have not been fully studied. Yet curiously, they often award damages for medical costs, purchase costly water filtration systems for landowners and impose a non-disclosure agreement in any settlement, thereby stifling any study of fracking’s ill-effects. And the workers that I mentioned previously are usually wearing respirators or hazmat suits. If fracking is “safe” why would they need to do all that?
Similarly, the environmental consequences are just as horrifying. Google “fracking water fire” and your top result will be a clip from the film “GasLand” where a typical American family, in a typical American home, in a depressed rural community, lights their fracking-fluid-contaminated water on fire. Fracking fluid is a secret proprietary mixture of chemicals, water and sand, the contents of which the industry withheld from a Congressional investigation last year. However, newspaper reports have revealed some of the 85 fracking chemicals listed by the Pennsylvania DEP are xylene, toluene and tetramethylammonium chloride — chemicals that can lead, with prolonged exposure, to liver damage in humans and can even be fatal. Others are known carcinogens. A special-interest exception means that fracking is not subject to the provisions of environmental laws, like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act meant to keep us and our natural resources clean, useable and safe. Do you want these chemicals in your drinking water or in your air? I sure don’t.
If you’re like me, you are getting extremely annoyed by all of the lobbying commercials about “clean coal,” “clean oil and natural gas,” and how technology has made fracking “safe.” I for one am not convinced that there is such a thing as “clean coal” or “safe fracking.”
I have some questions and I hope that you do too. First of all, because the economy is so bad in New York State, how many jobs will this create? The industry estimates between 13,000 and 54,000 jobs. Really? How many New Yorkers do you know that have the special expertise necessary to drill these wells? These workers will most likely be brought in from outside New York, from states like Texas and Oklahoma, where they have the experience and expertise. I am sure that some local workers will be necessary temporarily, but after the wells are drilled, they’re relatively self-sufficient, requiring few local employees to monitor them. So, the jobs case is shaky at best.
What are the consequences? From my research there are numerous harmful environmental and health consequences. Americans living near current fracking sites have reported negative health effects including cancer, nausea, skin rashes, fainting, etc. State and Federal officials along with industry spokespersons often dismiss individual complaints and reiterate that the effects have not been fully studied. Yet curiously, they often award damages for medical costs, purchase costly water filtration systems for landowners and impose a non-disclosure agreement in any settlement, thereby stifling any study of fracking’s ill-effects. And the workers that I mentioned previously are usually wearing respirators or hazmat suits. If fracking is “safe” why would they need to do all that?
Similarly, the environmental consequences are just as horrifying. Google “fracking water fire” and your top result will be a clip from the film “GasLand” where a typical American family, in a typical American home, in a depressed rural community, lights their fracking-fluid-contaminated water on fire. Fracking fluid is a secret proprietary mixture of chemicals, water and sand, the contents of which the industry withheld from a Congressional investigation last year. However, newspaper reports have revealed some of the 85 fracking chemicals listed by the Pennsylvania DEP are xylene, toluene and tetramethylammonium chloride — chemicals that can lead, with prolonged exposure, to liver damage in humans and can even be fatal. Others are known carcinogens. A special-interest exception means that fracking is not subject to the provisions of environmental laws, like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act meant to keep us and our natural resources clean, useable and safe. Do you want these chemicals in your drinking water or in your air? I sure don’t.
So, you or I could be arrested for not reporting a spill at a local gas station, but a huge profit-hungry energy company can come into our community and inject millions of gallons of unknown and unregulated chemicals, water and sand, right beneath our feet. That doesn’t seem to agree with the American values I learned growing up in Dansville. It certainly doesn’t agree with the conservation principles I learned as an Eagle Scout in Troop 73. Does it agree with your values?
New York State has decided not to allow fracking in the New York City or Syracuse watershed. My question: Why is the water that we drink in Dansville any less precious than that of Syracuse or New York City?
If you’d like answers to these questions or if these questions concern you, join me in contacting Governor Cuomo and asking Dansville Mayor Peter Vogt and our Village Board to ban fracking within our jurisdiction.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
NYS Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
518-474-8390
Mayor Peter Vogt
Village of Dansville
14 Clara Barton St.
Dansville, NY 14437
585-335-2330
Everyone in the community will suffer the long-term costs for the greedy, near-sighted choices of a few. Don’t let that happen. Don’t let the next question be, “Why can’t we drink the water in Dansville?” This is our town.
Jamie Huver
Dansville
