We Asked For Water, They Gave Us Gasoline, Situation All Fracked Up by Robert Hunziker, Weekend Edition January 6-8, 2012, Counter Punch
According to worldwide energy industry participants, all of the low hanging fruit is gone. Finding new energy sources will henceforth be difficult and expensive… and very dangerous to your health. … According to Texas Governor Rick Perry, when confronted on the campaign trail about fracking problems: “We have been using hydraulic fracturing in my home state for years and this is a fear tactic that the left is using and the environmental community is using that absolutely, excuse the pun, does not hold water.” Governor Perry’s bias and ill-founded statement is herein refuted by 12 personal testimonials in Texas included in the appendix to this article. Further, it is well understood by professionals who seriously follow the trails and tribulations of fracking that almost all cases where fracking has poisoned ground water are quickly settled, payoffs to the victims, by energy lawyers who arrange for the legal documents to be sealed. The implication herein is we do not know the whole story by a long shot, but knowing the whole story may be the only way to survive as a species. … Fracking poisons ground water (see testimonials in appendix), and because fracking is the fastest growth segment of the energy industry, it will be too late once its deadly effects are well understood by the public at large.
How do we reverse poisoned aquifers?
1) December 8th, 2011-Environmental Protection Agency says Gas-Fracking Chemicals Detected in Wyoming Aquifer, (a drinking-water aquifer in west-central Wyoming; residents of Pavilion, Wyoming warned to use ventilation when showering in order to air out potentially dangerous chemicals, and to drink and cook from bottled water.
2) April 27th, 2011- Jessica Ernst, an Alberta, Canada resident who is an oil patch consultant, sued Encana, Alberta Environment and Water, and the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board for $33M over allegations that Encana’s fracking/drilling caused water contamination, i.e., her faucets began to whistle, the toilet fizzed, black particles clogged her water filters, and she broke out in rashes.
3) December 23rd, 2011- US Dept. of Energy issues a request for proposals, offering $35 million, of projects that will address environmental impacts of… including contamination of drinking water with fracking chemicals….”
4) According to WaterDefense.org, “Across the country, state regulators have documented over 1,000 incidents of groundwater contamination related to fracking. In many cases, water is so polluted with gas that people can literally light their water on fire, right out of the tap!”
5) A New York Times article, d/d August 3, 2011, “A Tainted Water Well, and Concern There May be More,” by Ian Urbina, states: “The report concluded that hydraulic fracturing fluids or gel used by the Kaiser Exploration and Mining Company contaminated a well roughly 600 feet away on the property of James Parsons in Jackson County, W.Va., referring to it as “Mr. Parson’s water well… This fracture fluid, along with natural gas was present in Mr. Parson’s water, rendering it unusable.” The article goes on to conclude: “…E.P.A. report, said that she and her colleagues had found “dozens” of cases that she said appeared to specifically involve drinking water contamination related to fracking. But they were unable to investigate those cases further and get access to more documents because of legal settlements.”