Don’t Frack With New York!

New York has some of the best drinking water in the world. New York has some of the most beautiful beaches and swimable water in the world. “Let’s not frack it up!” Our country is in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom, a process called hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Fracking is a dangerous energy strategy for getting oil and gas. Fracking, that is, drilling to access deep shale formations, requires millions of gallons of fresh water, acres of land per well pad, and the use of undisclosed toxic chemicals. Fracking is poisoning our air and water and its jeopardizing the health of millions of Americans. We can find a better way – one that protects our health and gives us clean, safe energy sources that never run out. We are being lied to just like we were lied to with regards to the development of the nuclear industry. The scientific facts have shown that just like the nuclear industry, this new technology isn’t safe; isn’t regulated properly; isn’t protecting people; isn’t cheap; and isn’t handling the waste properly. The technology of fracking is being forced upon the people of America as the new technology that will answer all our energy needs. What they aren’t telling us, however, is that this new industry is denying problems, just like the nuclear industry. Fracking and its impact on public health, in particular, our children’s health, is a serious issue that calls for swift action – action that the gas industry has repeatedly tried to block. As I write this, in the State of New York, the industry is fighting against a legislative proposal for a public health impact assessment which hundreds of medical professions have joined community activists and environmentalists in supporting. The frackers can spin the issue all they want, but the public isn’t buying it.  Fracking has been associated with many health issues. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas, the latest estimates of air emissions tell us that oil and gas operation emit more smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than all cars, trucks, buses, and other mobile sources in the area combined. Ozone, a corrosive gas that can exacerbate asthma and other respiratory diseases, is created when VOCs like petroleum hydrocarbons mix with heat and sunlight. In Texas, it has been found that “children in the Barnett Shale region ages 6-9 are three times more likely to have asthma that the average for that age group in the entire State of Texas.” The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) found many gas fields with extremely high levels of benzene. According to a 2012 study done by the Colorado School of Public Health, cancer risks were 66% higher for residents living less than half a mile from oil and gas wells than for those living farther away, with benzene being the major contributor to the increased risk. This same study reminds us that chronic exposure to ozone, prevalent at gas production sites, can lead to asthma and pulmonary diseases, particularly in children and the aged. In 2011, a Duke University study proved that drinking water wells near fracking sites had 17 times more methane than wells not located near fracking. Fracking operations have generated billions of gallons of radiation-laced toxic wastewater that we can’t manage properly and have forced families to abandon their homes because of dangerous levels of arsenic, benzene, and toluene in their blood. The State of Vermont has taken a stand to become the first state to ban fracking. Former Governor Paterson put a temporary ban on the process, but once again the industry has reared its head and is being considered for use in various parts of the State of New York. We all need to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo and our elected officials to take advantage of the opportunity to slow down this process and pass  legislation that will protect New Yorker’s health, safety, and environment. Last year, my husband and I visited various places along the coast of California. We took long walks on several of its beaches. There were times that the air smelled so badly, that we had to go inside. What was the smell? Oil. As we sat on the beach, we stared out at the oil rigs. When we got back to our hotel room, our sneakers were covered in tar and oil. The top layer of the ocean had an oil slick on it. Surfers came out of the water with tar all over their wetsuits. I don’t think we want that in New York. It’s bad enough that private industry and the government have already ruined many beautiful places in our country. Let’s not let it happen here. New Yorkers don’t want fracking here!