Ban fracking for sake of humanity by Barbara Hughes, Las Vegas Sun, July 26, 2021
Fracking must be stopped. It poisons our drinking water and pollutes our air.
More fracking means more deadly climate change. Health hazards cannot be prevented. When fracking emits methane (which is toxic and explosive), it can build up in the air and cause sickness and suffocation.
Big corporations think about profits instead of human welfare. Laws do not protect people. No regulations protect people. The process is not safe. Fracking must be banned.
Refer also to:
While our synergizing, oil patch controlled/financed, money-grubbing NGOs were proclaiming frac’d natural gas to be a wonderful clean safe “bridge fuel” and worked to undermine me trying to warn people about frac’ing’s endless harms (NGO staff get paid, I do not):
2005: Jessica Ernst Speaking Events
2006: Jessica Ernst at Granum, Alberta
Some of the impacts and unresolved concerns to date (and many many more since):
Consultation
– Entirely lacking, improving to inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information;
– Repeat broken promises and lack of follow through
Wastes
– human waste – signs of human defecation on leases, private driveways, etc;
– Drilling mud, some of it toxic
– Saline and fresh water from producing wells.
Shallow Fracturing with potentially toxic chemicals in the additives:
– Secret recipes used, no information on possible health hazards provided;
– Vertical coal cleats may fracture open resulting in vertical gas migration;
– Gas may migrate up energy wells into aquifers.
Noise – notably compressors, also rigs, traffic, flaring
Sound is something you can control, i.e. you can turn it on or off. Noise is something you can not control – you can not turn it off – not even at 4 in the morning when you are trying to sleep.
– 24/7;
– noise levels exponentially increase as CBM is developed;
– In 2004, EnCana falsified two out of two noise studies in response to my noise complaint, the regulator enabled this.
– there is little escape.
Personality change:
– Increased stress, irritability, anger, lack of sleep, loss of legal right to quiet enjoyment of property
Cumulative effects – living in an industrial invasion with:
– Feelings of loss of control as infrastructure and leases expand;
– Diminished personal rights on surface lands and in homes;
– Government and regulators ineffective at upholding regulations or protecting citizen rights;
– Company “good neighbour” policies sound good but I have not yet seen them happen.
Multitude of unconventional wells requires “flea bitten dog drilling” [referred to by industry as “Carpet Bombing”]
Example of 15 sections around my home:
Section #Wells in that Section
1-27-22-W4M = 12
2-27-22-W4M = 20
3-27-22-W4M = 6
9-27-22-W4M = 12
10-27-22-W4M = 12
11-27-22-W4M = 11
12-27-22-W4M = 13
13-27-22-W4M = 8 – this is where I live
14-27-22-W4M = 11
15-27-22-W4M = 10
23-27-22-W4M = 13
24-27-22-W4M = 9
6-27-21-W4M = 6
7-27-21-W4M = 10
18-27-21-W4M = 10
Total = 170 wells in 15 sections
Average = 11 per section [as per January 2006 (many more wells since)]
The 2006 Alberta Unconventional Gas Tour
Source of clippings: What Lies Beneath Herald Report
During the tour, the ERCB (now AER) was overheard telling the press that the regulator paid for, organized and put on the tour, which is untrue, the citizenry did.
2006 12 31:
2007: Jessica Ernst speaking events
2011: Ernst presentation at the UN: Is hydraulic fracturing safe and sustainable?
2013: Brief review of threats to Canada’s groundwater from the oil and gas industry’s methane migration and hydraulic fracturing by Ernst Environmental Services
2013: Alberta scientist Jessica Ernst warns Newfoundland of fracking risk with first-hand experience
2014: Fracking is dangerous, harms health, contaminates groundwater and it can and has been proven
2014: There are proven cases of frac’ing contamination
Slide above by Alberta Health
2019: Living in the middle of a gas field in Canada
