Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fracking

Learned about this while I was in NYC:

Hydraulic Fracturing or "Hydrofracking" is a toxic and hazardous process of natural gas extraction.

Large areas of land in upstate New York, including those areas in and near the New York City watershed, have been leased by the gas companies who are ready to drill. Their plans is to inject billions and billions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals at extremely high pressure into hundreds of thousands of gas wells in the region to create miniature underground explosions – fracturing rocks and consequently releasing gas. Radioactive and other carcinogenic, highly toxic substances (frack fluid) will also be release, contaminating aquifers and water supplies throughout the region. Moreover, gas production causes air pollution and ozone exceeding a 200 mile radius. The chemicals used in fracking are not known to biodegrade. There is no known technology able to treat and filter the frack fluid waste.

Join United for Action and take a stand! If we cannot defend our own drinking water, what can we protect?

Max and I signed letters while we were in NYC. If you would like to do this too, the website is www.unitedforaction.org.

1 comment:

rbh said...

The Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania will be fracked also. The locals are all agog at the new jobs that will be created. They aren't worried about the water or the environment because coal mining has already ruined both.