Across the nation, communities are
standing up for their rights to pure water, clean air, and a healthy
environment. People are banding together to
champion for:
•
Their right to have safe drinking
water in their homes that is free from contamination.
•
Their right to shower safely in their
homes without risk of explosion from combustible gases in
their water.
•
Their right to enjoy their private property and not have it taken through eminent domain.
•
Their right to experience the beauty of public open spaces safe from pollution and degradation.
•
Their right to fish local creeks and
rivers without fear that the fish have been contaminated by pollution.
One of the biggest challengers to
these rights is the fracked shale gas industry.
Every week, the body of science on
the harms of drilling and fracking grows. There are now more than 580
peer-reviewed articles examining the environmental and human health harms of
shale gas extraction. Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, award-winning and nationally recognized expert on shale gas
extraction, has analyzed these studies and noted that, “94 percent find harmful impacts to human health, 69 percent
find harmful impacts on water quality, and 88 percent find harmful impacts to
air quality.”
One of the newest reports shows what would happen if the moratorium against shale gas
extraction in the Delaware River watershed were lifted and just 4,000 wells
were drilled. CNA Analysis and Solutions, an independent group of scientists
and researchers, determined that if these wells were drilled, there would be a
cascade of negative events that would jeopardize the drinking water, air
quality, forests, and health of Upper Delaware River communities.
Some of the potential impacts of
fracking in the Delaware River watershed include:
•
Increases in dangerous strontium and
barium in the water by up to 500 percent, even if drilling is done in total
compliance with state regulations.
•
Depletion of crucial stream flows of
up to 70 percent in small streams in the Delaware River Basin during times of
low flow, a time when the critters and communities need those waters the most.
•
Increases in land erosion by up to
150 percent during construction with an increase of up to 15 percent during
day-to-day drilling operations.
•
Depletion of underground aquifers,
which feed both our streams and groundwater wells.
•
Increases of 4 to 5.8 billion cubic
feet of methane to the atmosphere each year.
And yet, politicians still defend
fracking, claiming the need for a bridge to get us to clean and renewable
energy technologies. The truth is, we already have that bridge with solar,
wind, geothermal, and other clean energy technologies.
So let’s put our politicians to the
test. Here’s a list of environmental issues and the questions you can use when
speaking with politicians to see where they stand.
1. Health and Safety: Thousands of
individuals have seen their health deteriorate, their drinking water impacted, and/or their safety jeopardized
because of fracking wells and fracked gas infrastructure.
Ask your politicians: What is your position on ensuring that people have a right to
safe drinking water from their household faucets—water free of contamination
and toxins from the shale gas industry?
2. Property Rights: Property owners
are increasingly having their land forcibly taken by eminent domain (or with
the threat of eminent domain as leverage) for construction of pipelines to carry
fracked gas and gas liquids. They suffer property damage, loss of property value, degradation of the land, and living in fear that a pipeline
explosion or accident could cause harm to their families or themselves.
Ask your politicians: Do you oppose the use of eminent domain for fracked gas
pipelines and associated compressors or LNG facilities?
3. Methane Leakage and Climate
Change: A growing number of
studies are finding that the leakage of methane into the
atmosphere is more pervasive and significant than had been believed, that
drilling and fracking are a significant source of methane, and that methane is
86 times more powerful than CO2 over the first 20 years for its
climate-changing impacts.
Ask your politicians: Given this evidence, do you agree that drilling and fracking
for shale threatens the future safety of communities that will be adversely
affected by the floods, drought, and other extreme events associated with
climate change?
4. Trans-Pacific Partnership: There
is strong opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade proposal for
a variety of reasons, one being it will allow companies to secure automatic
approval for the export of fracked gas to foreign countries with free trade
status. Another reason people oppose it is TPP will give corporations the
power to challenge state and federal environmental protection
laws (for example, local, state, or regional bans on fracking) that the
companies claim impede their ability to make profits.
Ask your politicians: Do you support or oppose the TPP?
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