The (un)Natural Gas industry must be plugging holes with lots of dollars at the EPA...the big news that had the FRACKING industry cheering was that the contaminated water in Dimock, Pennsylvania was safe to drink, and that much hullabaloo had been made of nothing...industry insiders were quick to deliver their public "We told you so's" and that was the end of it right? First, lets be clear...what the EPA said was:
"The Environmental Protection Agency said it did not find significant contamination in well water serving 11 Pennsylvania families who feared that natural gas drilling had polluted their well."
PAY ATTENTION FOLKS...did not find SIGNIFICANT CONTAMINATION....hmmmm...does this mean they FOUND CONTAMINATION, and if so how much and of what kind? More importantly, did what they find present any short or long term health risks to people now being told to DRINK IT DAILY? Read on.
NOT SO FAST...seems that the EPA's public assurances don't quiet jive with the water test results being given to the homeowners faced with ruined water supplies...in fact, if anything the PRIVATE RESULTS given to the property owners seem to validate every claim they have made about contaminated drinking water wells. Lets address some of the citizens worries compared to EPA's FALSE PUBLIC CLAIMS.
1. Elevated levels of Methane...IE, think Gasland and flaming facets.The EPA has publicly stated that the water in Dimock wells is safe...by what standards. The tests results given to well owners privately show levels over THREE TIMES HIGHER than allowable levels...from report:"...water samples contained dangerous quantities of methane gas"
This finding by the EPA actually confirmed some of the agency's initial concerns as well as verifies the
complaints raised by Dimock resident, so one has to ask the question, who is being PAID OFF AT THE EPA, and why are these citizens with poisoned explosive water wells being abandoned, thrown to the wolves...lets keep in mind that one woman's drinking water exploded as a result of CABOT's negligent drilling practices...I know, Cabot is going to say PROVE IT. Of course, they were quick to MUTATE the EPA claims to their benefit with this EMAIL quote sent to the news media:
"Pleased the drinking water meets all regulatory standards."
Giving Cabot Oil the ceremonial one fingered salute before continuing on.
Consider this from ECO Watch:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 3 office issued a press release on March 15 implying that Dimock, Pa.’s water has been given a clean bill of health. In the same statement to the press, EPA admitted that several families still have arsenic and methane in their water, but the news headlines are already proclaiming that the water in Dimock is safe.Independent testing has found that 11 Dimock families’ water is contaminated with explosive levels of methane, as well as heavy metals, radioactive material and fracking chemicals like ethylene glycol—commonly known as antifreeze.
The private results given to home
owners does get worse...seems that EPA's public assurances of Dimock
water being safe to drink run contrary to the actual test results
provided to homeowners that show:
"wells contained dozens of other contaminants, including low levels of chemicals known to cause cancer and heavy metals that exceed the agency's "trigger level" and could lead to illness if consumed over an extended period of time."
Can the EPA explain this to those opposed to FRACKING? For just how long a period of time can these citizens drink this water before becoming ill? A week, a month, a year? If drinking, cooking and bathing in this water over an extended period of time of say weeks and months is going to make the people SICK, is the water actually SAFE? Again, can the EPA please explain this to us uninformed simple folk in the audience?
To my own elected officials here in Sullivan County New York, to my elected officials in Fallsburg...with these kinds of findings by the Federal Government that obviously cannot be trusted, with an industry that continues to stack lie after lie on top of propaganda and falsehood, why are you NOT PASSING ANTI FRACKING ZONING ORDINANCES? We here in Sullivan County to not want to find our communities being another Dimock Pa. and you have the ability to stop it from happening.
