To the editor:
Again, I am writing to give you some facts that either your community leaders have not bothered to research or just plain don't want to tell you. You, as a citizen, have a right to expect your community leaders to examine all aspects of the shale gas recovery process and report them to you. So, I want you to remember the names and faces of those who only tell you the benefits of this gas recovery and never speak of the consequences. Then, when we experience some of these consequences, either with health or ecology issues or both, you will know who to blame. At that point you may be ready to banish them from whatever position they hold or maybe from the community itself.
As I explained previously, I am not against the community growing or prospering. I do think we deserve to know the costs involved. Most of the people of this community have grown up here and remember the comfort of a quaint community. Now you are being asked to give that up for a promise of growth and prosperity with a chance of toxic or seismic consequences. The leaders are taking the industries word for everything and that is dangerous. The TV commercials alone scare me, when they claim that the fracking fluids used in the gas recovery process are the equivalent of toothpaste and laundry detergent. Give us the names of these chemicals and let us decide if we brush our teeth with them.
I won't be able to list all the chemicals that have been discovered to be used in fracking, let alone the 100s that remain a secret because of a loophole created to keep them a secret. A study conducted by private practice veterinarian Michelle Bamberger and Robert E. Oswald of the Department of Molecular Medicine at Cornell University investigated 24 different sites with gas wells, 18 of which were horizontal hydro-fractured wells. The researchers observed and documented severe changes in health of humans and animals living close to these sites. The majority of the observed animals were cows. One heard of cows, 60 head, was exposed to fracking chemicals in their drinking water. Of those, 21 died and 16 did not reproduce. The remaining 36 cows that were not exposed to the chemicals had no changes in health or reproduction. Observed on a different farm, where 140 cows were exposed to fracking chemicals, half died and the surviving cows had high rates of stillborn and deformed calves.
Recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas, according to geological experts. And they expect more earthquakes to come as the industry continues to expand across the eastern United States. Our area sits on a fault line and this represents a real threat to Ohio. I used up my allotted words. There will be more to come in the future. Please do additional research.
Joe Scalise
Steubenville
