Fracking - long term devastation for short term gain

by Monica Beck

Hopefully, this face will not reflect our own in years to come, if we can open our minds, educate ourselves, and not be manipulated by desire for an unending supply of cheap gas.  The natural gas companies would like you to believe that they can produce copious amounts of natural gas safely, while creating jobs and helping our communities.  However, when you look at their record in places such as Pennsylvania, you see a different story.  In fact they are raping our lands for their profit at our expense in the long run. 

The photo at the top of the page is from a popular 1971 public service announcement featuring a Native American with tears streaming down his face.  My memory was sparked by an event held last Sunday at Brockport Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship (BUUF).  Frack Free Genesee, a grassroots organization of farmers and concerned citizens from Livingston County, brought their cause— their fight— to ban the expansion of Hydrofracking in New York State.  They gave a great presentation with reams of data supporting the environmental risks including both the long and short-term, negative effects of high-volume hydraulic fracturing on communities. 

            For those who are unfamiliar, hydrofracking is a method of horizontal drilling to extract natural gas from the copious shale deposits buried beneath the surface of the land.  It requires millions of gallons of pressurized water laden with chemicals, which are injected into the shale, and then explosives are used to release the gas deposits.  After the natural gas is secured, the waste water which has lead, many other carcinogenic compounds such as benzene, and 2-Butoxyethanol, and radioactive substances as well is removed and has to be disposed of somewhere.  These chemicals are released and or injected into the ground where they can pollute aquifers and in some cases they are “processed in [public] wastewater plants”.  Unfortunately for us— the people— the natural gas companies who use fracking have been granted loopholes and exemptions protecting their industry from regulation by environmental laws including the Clean Water Act of 1971.  The person responsible for gaining these exemptions was none other than former Halliburton executive Dick Cheney, see www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fracking. 

 If they get the 77,000 pads (openings in the lands surface that lead to wells) in our state, eventually, our drinking water can and will be affected, like the people of Pennsylvania who are already feeling the pinch of environmental degradation.  If you look you can find lots of examples of individuals who are suffering from the fall-out already.  These are the losers, the big winners are the natural gas companies who take the gas, leave the waste, damaged infrastructure such as roads, and then run.

 In addition, on a purely local note, people of Albion ( SPOC or Stop Polluting Orleans) are fighting to keep the Albion landfill from re-opening/expanding where it’s possible some of the fracking waste may be dumped, threatening us in Brockport and surrounding towns—up close and personal.  For more information you can consult www.americansagainsthydrofracking.orgor www.Frackfreegenesee.com, if you won’t do your own research, you may be the one crying in the end.
Editor's note: Frack Free Genesee made an excellent presentation at the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship last Sunday, 01/13/13. Unitarian Universalists covenant to affirm and promote seven principles the last of which is respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Protecting the earth and our environment is more important than corporate and individual profit. Unitarian Universalists draw their affirmation and promotion of these principles from six sources one of which is earth centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live with the rhythms of nature. You can learn more about the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship by going to www.brockportuu.org.