Fracking for Marcellus Shale gas: Opportunity or oppression?

[maryf]

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20101203/VIEWPOINTS02/12030307/1120/Marcellus-Shale-gas--Opportunity-or-oppression


America has a huge and growing appetite for energy. However, sustainable free-market solutions for meeting our energy needs are in their infancy and need constant encouragement by government (corporate welfare). Drilling for natural gas from Marcellus Shale appears to be a solution to some of the short-term problems associated with meeting these energy needs. Closer inspection of this scheme exposes the chimera that it really is.

The method used to liberate the trapped gas is not risk-free and may result in the poisoning of huge underground water supplies used by both rural and urban communities. Reports of this occurring are coming from Susquehanna County, Pa. For the city dweller, there is no upside windfall like there is for rural owners of large parcels of land. However, there are significant downside risks to everyone. This comes into focus most clearly when we consider our collective plight after our water supply has become poisoned by fracking fluids.

It must be remembered that nature has a terrific way of producing pure, clean water and most residents of our area use wells for their water supply. If these become contaminated, both rural and urban dwellers will suffer. Contamination of these wells will require costly treatment processes to bring toxin levels within "acceptable" limits. These limits are usually not zero, but set at a point in which in an "acceptably low" number of people will become ill and die. Neither you nor I will be consulted as to what an "acceptably low" number should be, but it won't be zero and it will be too late to do anything about it once our water has been poisoned.

If history can be relied upon to illuminate this scheme, it becomes clear that the profits will be pocketed by the gas corporations and the cleanup costs will be paid for by the taxpayers, ensuring that the wealthy become even wealthier at the expense of the lower classes.

a little more at link above...

[lonestarnot]

1. Bastards!

[maryf]

2. That's being nice!

thanks.

[maryf]

3. more (especially for New Yorkers):

the final paragraph: We the people must not be hoodwinked into believing that fracking will solve any problems; in fact, it may create much bigger problems in the very near future. Now is the time for all citizens concerned about their health and their children's future to take action by joining New York Residents against Drilling (nyrad.org) and fighting to keep our air and water clean.

[appleannie1]

4. Our water was not poisoned but the iron content went sky high.

All my sinks, toilets, washing machine, dishes, clothes and dishwasher are now rust colored and we have to buy bottled water to drink and cook with. The gas well people put in a softener which does not remove the iron but we now have soft red water.

[livetohike]

5. If you have an attorney you know, construct a letter

with your list of damages and demands and send it to the company who holds the well. If you don't have an "Ironmaster" for your water treatment, then demand the best one on the market.

Not sure where you live, but we are facing some environmental hell up here in NW Pennsylvania. Our well is currently good, but it would only take the property owner next door to give up the land to Marcellus shell drilling for things to go badly with us.

In PA, you can contact the Penn State Extension Offices and they will advise you on water treatment needs for free.

[maryf]

14. Good luck and thanks for the post

Hope we can get this process stopped totally! Hope you are sharing info with your neighbor...how much does all this cost?? Capitalists and their greed are destroying life left and right...

[maryf]

6. Have you had your water tested for all chemicals??

toluene, benzene, dioxins, I'm concerned.

[Starry Messenger]

8. omg.

That's appalling.

[bobbolink]

7. Corporations rule.

Literally.

:pals:

[maryf]

11. Thanks

and I guess they are the only "people" that count :sarcasm:
:hug:

[Earth_First]

9. Not In My Backyard!

Fortunately NYS had the sense enough to pass a moratorium on hydrofracking this week.

You'll find myself chained to the gate before this goes down in our backyards...

[Agony]

10. governor hasn't signed it yet and even if he does

the moratorium is only until may 2011, yep, six months. The real battle in NYS is to get the DEC to withdraw the lousy SGEIS that they came up with before anybody was paying attention. (Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement) The moratorium likely will just give politicians who voted for it the cover to say that they DID something next time they are up. The moratorium isn't NOTHING but close to it.

home rule and serious regulation and the rollback of the Halliburton loophole are a line in the sand,

Cheers,
Agony

[maryf]

13. Amen, we need to keep these people's feet to the fire

even if it comes from a faucet!

[maryf]

15. PS:

with the cuts in the NY DEC not sure how anything is going to be accomplished. And the moratorium is just a tiny bit of breathing room, a little time to huddle and come up with a game plan...

[maryf]

12. Call the governor here, ask, no tell, him to sign:

unless it's happened really recently...call him!

David A. Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

518-474-8390

[rug]

16. Pennsylvania has some of the best drinking water in the country, for the moment.

[maryf]

17. Hope you can keep it

longer than a moment... this has to be stopped...