Current science reveals the truth about fracking

Current science reveals the truth about fracking by Allen Schwartz, August 12, 2012
Science, it turns out is catching up to the industry’s hype, stripping the royal illusions one by one. First, the industry claimed that “frackwater,” a combination of tons of carcinogenic chemicals and millions of gallons of water, was drinkable. When the public saw through that, the industry changed its story. Then the industry claimed that a solid layer of rock thousands of feet down would protect our drinking water from frackwater, as well as dangerous naturally occurring elements below the surface. Now a new study by Duke University shows that chemicals and gases, natural and man made, can migrate to the surface and our drinking water. … In July, Scientific American magazine reviewed the history of injection wells, where we “hide” the carcinogenic waste materials of the fracking process. They concluded that injection wells represent a significant and unmonitored health hazard to the American people, subject to the same “migration” of fluids and gases. We have two of these in Licking County. Many, more are planned statewide.  The industry has long claimed that this is a “clean” technology, but a recent study by the Colorado School of Public Health shows that fracking sites consistently spew dangerous air pollution at significant distances from their wells. This week, the Columbus Dispatch slavishly trumpeted the establishment of a new website by the industry’s mouthpiece, Energy In Depth, predicting 200,000 fracking jobs for Ohio. However, our Ohio State University shows that the number is closer to 20,000 over several years, and this does not account for tourism jobs lost due to the industrialization of our countryside. Meanwhile, Germany, a developed industrial nation second to none, has banned fracking and nuclear energy…. The emperor is indeed naked. Now, it is up to us citizens to be brave and look squarely at the reality of fracking, restrain our energy corporations and compel our government to act in the public interest, not the corporate interest.

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