Dear Editor,
The Tioga County Legislature’s 8-11 unanimous resolution to endorse fracking with propane is politically disingenuous because it is based on at least two false claims. One that the Legislature has a vital interest in protecting the community’s health and welfare, and second that fracking with propane is “proven safe and reliable.”
Fracturing shale rock with propane poses the same threats to human health and the environment as fracking with water laced with chemicals. When shale rock formations deep underground are fractured, chemicals with sand are used to keep the fractures open releasing natural gas molecules trapped in the rock. But, the drillers have no control over where those chemicals move underground, so the process is dangerously unreliable.
The threat comes when free moving fracking chemicals rise through the earth and combine with heavy metals. As early as 2012, the PA DEP documented household wells and drinking water contaminated with cobalt, titanium, aluminum, lithium and other heavy metals toxic to human health.
The Tioga County Legislators cannot control where propane laced drilling fluids will migrate or into whose drinking water they will surface, so they cannot claim that fracking with propane is safe.
Likewise, if the legislators truly had a vital interest in protecting the safety of the families in the county, they all would have voted no!
Sincerely,
Rick Rogers
Spencer, N.Y.
