What the Frack?

TC3 hosted a forum on hydrofracturing last night. I'm still synthesizing the information. The good news: it's not fracking itself that will cause problems. Or, at least, the experts think not. The bad news: pretty much everything else about the process has severe repercussions.

I exited the lecture feeling as though I am the most naive person in the world. Simultaneously, I felt incredibly smart.

RE: Naïvety – Why can’t we work together for the good of our species? More crucial: why can't we work together for the good of *other* species and the earth itself? We've only got one home, and we're ruining it. Our greed and myopic vision of the future are dumbfounding.

RE: Intelligence – "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results."

Based on this definition, we're all certifiable loonies. Pollute the earth, destroy lands & lives, worship the great god of greenbacks, and screw everything (and everyone) else. We've not twigged on to the fact that we only have one home, and we're ruining it.

My strongest reaction to the forum is this: I am dumbfounded.
I am dumbfounded that the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Superfund Act (among others put in place to protect the environment (read: our home)) were, in
essence, dismantled by the Bush regime.

The 2005 energy bill, pushed through Congress by Dick Cheney (evil bastard that he is), exempted the oil and natural gas industries from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

I am dumbfounded that we're so greedy that we don't understand that we'll use approximately the same amount of BTU's extracting natural gas that we'll actually GET from the Marcellus Shale. Zero-sum game. Zero-sum gain.

I am dumbfounded that those who run local municipalities and counties which are pushing like mad for development don't consider these facts:

*In the first 5 years, 80-90% of the jobs that open in association with natural gas development will go to transplants. After that, most of the wells won't be viable. But, what the heck! 50% of the few jobs that still exist go to townies.

*A study done on 300 counties which have engaged in development indicate these counties do, indeed, have a boom period. What follows a boom? You got it! A Big Fat Bust. Turns out that counties that *don't* engage in hydrofracking improve overall, and end up with higher socio-economic rankings than counties that don't.

*It's not the fracking that matters. (However, we do live in a minimally seismic area, but no one knows what the effect of earthquakes plus fracking will cause)

What matters is the almost impossible to control backwash of water out of the wells. This water is contaminated. The polluted water is not classified as 'toxic waste' (though it is incredibly toxic). Thanks to legislation, it's classified as 'industrial waste.'

Something must be done with that contaminated water. What?

**50% or so can be 'recycled' or 'reprocessed.' What happens to the remainder?

**It's stored in pits or in tanks. Pits leak, or overflow (we get rain & snow here in the Finger Lakes).

**It's transported. Spills occur. Accidents with the trucks that transport this polluted material occur. (A tanker truck in PA split in half in one (of many) accidents. The resulting spill of hydrocholoric acid closed a 4 lane highway for 6 hours, as HAZMAT crews attempted to contain & clean the spill.

***To transport, we'll have thousands of truck hours on our roads and in our communities. Think: more traffic. More congestion. More accidents. Damage to our roads. Oh, right, special roads will have to be built to the wells! More taxes to pay for them, as well as repairs to existing roads.

**And what about the Fatigue Factor? And the 'I don't give a rats ass about what's happening in this area as long as I get my money' factor? I can pretty much guarantee that both of those factors will mean that something will be overlooked or ignored, and some of that incredibly polluted, toxic water will simply be dumped.

*How much water are we discussing? 3 to 5 MILLION gallons are required to develop each -- yes EACH -- well. Oh, by the way, what's the water supply? Hmmmm, we've got these incredibly clean lakes right here.....

As one of my students said: describe the situation to any first grader in simple terms. That child would immediately say hydrofracturing is BAD. Kind of scary, isn't it, when a 6 or 7 year old understands how profound an impact fracking has, but the 'adults' who are in charge exonerate and justify pushing forth?

I haven't tackled the health issues. There are too many potential problems for me to wrap my head around. Sadly, unless you're in this area, you could care less about what's happening here. People in the city of my birth should be screaming bloody murder. Because that's what we're doing to our earth and our crucial water supply.

I was disheartened to hear from his own lips that a man who was once an important part of the TC3 administration had sold his mineral rights. I respected this man immensely until I heard what he'd done. "They won't drill on my property." But he'll get the pittance that the oil company will pay for whatever they may extract from his land as someone else's property is ruined, and the entire community pays.

This push to develop natural gas belies the fact that we'll end up with environmental damage (and in some cases devastation) which will last for decades, all for a 10 year supply of natural gas. I cannot understand why the time, energy and funds involved aren't channeled to develop sustainable energy sources.

The most telling information came at the very end of the event. There was a question and answer period for the three presenters. The last question was 'how can we stop this?' All of the presenters snorted with laughter. We can't.

In short, when it comes to hydrofracking,
We
Are
(so)
Hosed.