EPA Declares Dimock PA Water SAFE to Drink...NOT SO FAST

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.

Fracking Foes Yesterday Marched In Albany

Average Law Abiding Citizens Seek Ban on Fracking

The fracking war continues as well funded Industry Lobbyist try buying off government officials at every level of our government, from the local politician to the halls of Congress in Washington, DC.  Meanwhile, average every day citizens are continuing the good fight, trying to save our water, our health, and our pristine environment here in New York state, many of those average citizens taking yesterday off from work to get in buses to head to Albany to march down the halls of our Legislative Building seeking articulate, intelligent elected officials who willing to listen to their call for an "Out Right Ban" on hydraulic fracturing here in New York state, and there are ever mounting numbers of reason to pass a bill that would create such a ban.

The old adage says, "where there is smoke there is fire" and with each passing day, week, there is mounting evidence that "Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing" causes lots of problems, and does contaminate both our water, and our environment, that there is FIRE that the industry is trying to sweep under the carpet.  

There is also ever mounting proof that the Natural Gas industry is playing a con game on both America, and the world in the name of PROFITS and shale gas drilling.  No better example of this can be found than the industry's claim that Hydraulic Fracturing has been done safely now for 60 years...NOT EXACTLY.  They are comparing apples to oranges.  Vertical Horizontal fracking has been used for 60 years, and on average uses maybe 60,000 gallons of water to frack a well, and is done at much shallower depths.  

Horizontal Fracking in many cases drills down into Mother Earth over a mile deep, then horizontally drills just as far sideways...so, a mile deep, and a mile in any direction is much different than singular bore hole vertical fracking.  No greater example of the difference can be found in these two diametrically opposing techniques than looking at the huge amount of water needed to frack just one Horizontal well....these horizontal wells use on average more than 2.5 MILLION GALLONS of our precious water supplies.  Do the math folks....60,000 gallons verse 2.5 million gallons per well...and don't forget the CANCER CAUSING CHEMICALS mixed in with that 2.5 million gallons of water.

Want another con...Cabot was excused from delivering water to the citizens of Dimock Pennsylvania even though they CONTAMINATED THE WATER SUPPLIES, and now in Dimock and other communities where fracking is taking place, the US EPA is delivering citizens drinkable water AT THE TAXPAYER's EXPENSE!  That's right...the (un)Natural Gas industry comes in, drills for gas, contaminates wells and underground water aquifers, then leaves out of town leaving the burden and expenses of repairing the damage they did on WE THE PEOPLE.

Norma Fiorentino’s drink­ing water well was a time bomb. For weeks, work­ers in her small north­east­ern Penn­syl­va­nia town had been plumb­ing nat­ural gas deposits from a drilling rig a few hun­dred yards away. They cracked the earth and pumped in flu­ids to force the gas out. Some­how, stray gas worked into tiny crevasses in the rock, leak­ing upward into the aquifer and slip­ping qui­etly into Fiorentino’s well. Then, accord­ing to the state’s work­ing the­ory, a motor­ized pump turned on in her well house, flicked a spark and caused a New Year’s morn­ing blast that tossed aside a con­crete slab weigh­ing sev­eral thou­sand pounds.

Fiorentino wasn’t home at the time, so it’s dif­fi­cult to know exactly what hap­pened. But after­ward, state offi­cials found methane, the largest com­po­nent of nat­ural gas, in her drink­ing water. If the fumes that built up in her well house had col­lected in her base­ment, the explo­sion could have killed her.

As yourselves Sullivan County residents..."can our rural community afford the costs that come with Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing?"  All those heavy trucks will take a heavy toll on our rural roads, but the Natural Gas industry is not going to pick up the tab to repair them.  Some of us, perhaps a large number of us will see our fresh water supplies negatively impacted, perhaps even forever RUINED, but the (un)Natural Gas industry has already shown their true colors, will not be there picking up the tab when we have no choice but to BUY WATER to drink, cook, and clean with.  Some of us will suffer very serious, even deadly negative health impacts...the (un)Natural Gas industry is not going to be there to pay our medical bills, is not going to give us a pay check when we are too sick to work.

The time has come for every small hamlet, village, town and city in our county to demand local legislation BANNING FRACKING.  It is time for our state officials in Albany to do the right thing and pass a law that BANS FRACKING, and it is time for Governor Cuomo to SIGN THAT BILL INTO LAW.