Fracking Opinion

I'm wondering why I kept this in my draft file and didn't post it in December?  I must have had a brain burp....

A blogger from Texas who is opposed to unsafe hydrofracking, like I am, first posted this article, Hydrofracking Sure to Contaminate Water found here. 

The first commenter below this article points out that a NYCDEC is a "generic position" and claims he "once knew an environmental engineering technician" which apparently makes him an expert on Mr. Hetzler's job (which he equates with "one step above a general laborer...[and]...not qualified" to have an opinion/knowledge about fracking.)  In all fairness, there are probably hundreds of employees with this sort of position, but he fails to mention his educational background or authority to determine Hetzler's expertise in the field. 

When anyone starts with "I once knew a person who did <insert job here>" has a very weak beginning to an argument and I tend to dismiss what they have to say unless there is more to the assertion.  In a previous post, I have included links to the EPA and their preliminary findings about hydrofracking in WY, which I find more reliable than someone who knows someone else who did something....

ARTICLE:

As an environmental engineering technician with NYSDEC Region 5, I managed scores of groundwater remediation projects in the 1990s. I’ve reviewed countless hydrogeologic reports and seen thousands of lab results from contaminated wells. I’m familiar with the fate and transport of contaminants in fractured media, and let me be clear:

Hydraulic fracturing as it’s practiced today will contaminate our aquifers. Not might contaminate our aquifers.

Hydraulic fracturing will contaminate New York’s aquifers. If you were looking for a way to poison the drinking water supply, here in the Northeast you couldn’t find a more chillingly effective and thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic fracturing. My experience investigating and remediating contaminated groundwater taught me some lessons. There’s no such thing as a perfect well seal. Occasionally sooner, often later, well seals can and do fail, period.

No confining layer is completely competent; all geologic strata leak to some extent. The fact that a less-transmissive layer lies between the drill zone and a well does not protect the well from contamination.

A drinking water well is never in “solid” rock. If it were, it would be a dry hole in the ground. As water moves through joints, fissures and bedding planes into a well, so do contaminants. In fractured media such as shale, water follows preferential pathways, moving fast and far, miles per week in some cases.

In the absence of oxygen (such as under the ground), organic compounds break down infinitesimally slowly. Chemicals injected into the aquifer will persist for many lifetimes.

When contamination occurs—and it will occur— we will all pay for it, regardless of where we live. Proving responsibility for groundwater contamination is difficult, costly and time-consuming, and while corporate lawyers drag out proceedings for years, everyone’s taxes will pay for the subsurface investigations, the whole-house filtration systems, the unending lab analyses.

I’d love to see hundreds more jobs created. But not if it means hundreds of thousands using well water will be at a high risk of contamination. Not if it means every New Yorker will be on the hook for the cost for cleanup and for creating alternate water supplies. If your well goes bad, neither you, nor your children, nor their children will ever be able to get safe, clean water back. That’s too high a price.

Drill for gas, absolutely, but develop safe technologies first.

Paul Hetzler
Canton

The Green Dragon

Today is the Chinese New Year, so in my unusual way I'd like to celebrate with a post to raise awareness about the terrifying Environmental Movement that is taking the world by storm.  It is called the "Green Dragon" and is a danger to the world!  Take heed of my words!  Green dragons are the bane of human existence who spread death and destruction across the globe in their quest of all that is green.  They plunder the poor in their march towards clean air, fresh water, and their pursuit towards equitable and fair lives for all people of the Earth.  Beware!  The information shared is not for the faint of heart who fear all things green--much like Cloe my kitty--see Ms. Kitty catches a bird!!!:)

Resisting the Green Dragon is a 12-disc DVD collection for the low price of $49.99 designed to educate me about the Environmental Movement.  I'm told the Environmental Movement is "[w]ithout a doubt one of the greatest threats to society and the church today".  Whoa!  I'm confused I thought it was President Obama and the Democrats--thank goodness they offer a 12 minute preview that explains this new threat.  Just enter your password RESIST to view it here.  The preview was enough to scare the you-know-what out of me (could it be Satan?).  This short video explains that the Environmental Movement, headed by their god the Green Dragon, has become a "new religion" with its "twisted view" of nature that places--God forbid--humans on equal ground with nature.  The Green Dragon suggests that in order to have healthy people nature must be healthy, too.  Where will the madness end?  Our faith tells us we have a God-given right to dominate the earth and burn fossil fuels!  We should continue spending $600 billion a year buying overseas oil and leave our country in the hands of Big Oil in order to celebrate the glory of God.  It's His plan for us, don't you see?  We don't need CO2 levels below 350 ppm--after all 10% of what we exhale is CO2 and the trees need it!  How dare they tell us that breathing kills nature.  What nonsense.  We don't need those pesky mountain tops blocking our view of the ocean and land.  We should have an uncluttered view of God's plan for us--level those mountains, take the coal and build a sterile parking lot at the flattened top of those mountains as a monument of our superiority and dominance over nature.  We need a clear and unadulterated view of our deep sea drilling platforms and fracking wells that we have erected to show Him our awe and respect for all that He has provided.  We don't need clean air, oceans, or anything green because the earth is not fragile but a globe full of goodies just waiting for us to exploit, plunder, and pollute.  Best of all it will bounce back and continue to provide us with more!  It was created for us to care for in anyway we see fit.  We must resist logic, facts and reality in order to conform to the teachings of the Holy Trinity:  King Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas.  God is not nature and we should not entertain thoughts of religious communion with it for any reason. We must remain separate from this world and not allow any thoughts about how our dominance has destroyed nature or its natural balance.  This sort of critical thinking leads to our rights being taken away by the guv-ment, economic destruction, and forces us think about starving children in "third world" countries.  Worse of all, if we listen to the Green Dragon we'll come together as one to protect our biosphere and work together to solve the biggest crisis that we face today.  God wouldn't want any of us to worry about these minuscule problems, but about how we can plod through life with our blinders on ignoring the world and people around us. 

Now, let us pray and bow our heads to thank Big Oil, the Almighty Dollar, and the Prince of Wars for Oil for He shall provide us with all our needs. 

Amen.