Dear Editor,
The Candor Town Board is poised to vote on a resolution supporting “gas fracking” a well in the town of Barton. Within the resolution is language stating that LPG / gas fracking is “proven, safe, and reliable”, and that this technology is “green” and “more environmentally friendly” than hydrofracking.
But here’s the thing. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) decision to ban high volume horizontal hydrofracking was based on more than water use.
DEC’s decision was based on evidence that drilling activities affect health, including low birth weights, premature births, and increased hospitalizations of people living near drilling sites. Gas-fracking won’t eliminate that.
DEC’s decision was based on evidence that drilling activities polluted air, even hundreds of miles away from the well pad. Gas-fracking won’t eliminate that; compressors and methane leaks will continue to adversely affect the air.
DEC’s decision was based on evidence that drilling activities contaminated drinking water and decreased quality of surface water. Gas-fracking won’t solve that. Fracking crews will still need to add foaming agents, and even more corrosion inhibitors than they did for hydrofracking. Once downhole, pressurized propane can migrate back to the surface and into groundwater via faults and abandoned wells – as can any chemicals, and methane released from the shale.
Gas-fracking does nothing to solve the toxicity of deep brines that flow out of the gas well bores – the brines that, in Marcellus shale, bring up radioactive elements in addition to salts. So there’s still the issue of waste disposal, and there’s a growing body of evidence indicating that disposal wells are causing earthquakes.
DEC based their decision on evidence from hundreds of studies conducted by independent researchers. The only information about the gas-fracking process comes from the company that developed the process.
Candor already has a pro-gas drilling resolution (2012). We don’t need another. We don’t need a resolution supporting an industrial practice that is shrouded in secrecy. And we certainly don’t need to be told by our town supervisor that “everyone” in Candor pro-fracking.
If you do not want to see our town pass a resolution based on incomplete science, please tell your town board “no”. Let your voice be heard; show up at the Nov. 10 town board meeting.
Sincerely,
Sue Heavenrich
Candor, N.Y.
