Fracking and natural gas
To the editor:
There is an old saying, “You don’t get something for nothing.” A trucker came into our local grocery store. He made his usual delivery of frozen foods and said hello to the assistant manager. Things were looking up for him, he felt. He entered into conversation with the assistant manager and told her about his home in Pennsylvania and how a gas company sent him a letter informing him that if he agreed to sign their papers, they would put some pipes on his land to look for natural gas. The money was good and the gas company promised it wouldn’t be a bother at all to him…
“Fracking,” is a process by which a gas company will drill pipes into the ground and then pump a toxic and combustible chemical soup into the rock. They then explode the mixture underground with the hope of releasing natural gas.
Seems harmless you might say. After all, it’s happening way underground.
Wrong.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is basically a new way of polluting.
Recently, filmmaker Josh Fox was approached much like our trucker, in the Catskills/Poconos. But he felt something just wasn’t right. The money seemed good, over $100,000 was offered by the gas companies to his family just to put some pipes on their property to look for gas.
Josh set out to interview and talk with others who already signed the paperwork
He discovered that residents in areas who signed with the gas companies were getting sick.
Their animals were losing hair and they could light their well water on fire.
So, Mr. Trucker from Pennsylvania, if you’re out there, I’m hoping you read this in time.
For more information go to:
References-
www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/the-price-of-gas-a-need-to-know-investigation/3170/ industry.bnet.com/energy/10003088/congressional-probe-into-natural-gas-fracking-the-first-step-toward-federal-regulation/ www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/
Sincerely
C.A. Hughes
Cape Coral