It's not often that I will hijack my own blog to write about something that's not technology related but, every now and again, I read about something that really questions the sanity of humanity and makes you wonder, with growing certainty, of corruption amongst government officials and people in positions of trust empowered with the welfare of their own citizens.
Today I learned about a process familiar to mining companies. Hydraulic fracturing; the practice of extracting natural gas from Shale's (US Shale's: Marcellus, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Bakken and Barnett) by injecting a pressurized mix of water and hazardous chemicals (that would be more at home on the Environmental Protection Agencies "most wanted" board) to extract natural gas from deposits deep in the earth's crust. A process first commercially used in the late forties and refined over the course of this last half-century.
"Fracking", as it's also known, has risen rapidly to growing controversy, health and environmental concerns as well as a personal amazement at how quickly those concerns have been swept aside for the sake of profit, a 21st century Gold Rush. I can't help but question: "how many other people don't know about this?" It just seems so appalling, so apathetic that in our quest to be more resource sufficient, to wean ourselves from foreign oil dependency, that companies are eager to exploit a process before any real safety assessments have been made.
One company, whose namesake defines the legislative loophole it helped create, the Halliburton Loophole, has ridden the height of this controversy. During the early millennium the "Safe Drinking Water Act" was amended to exempt hydraulic fracturing from EPA guidelines, setting a precedent for companies to begin injecting a hazardous concoction of chemicals underground, potentially irreversibly damaging drinking water reservoirs all without the oversight of federal regulation. Coincidentally (or not) Vice President Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton when the Act was amended, one of 16 companies to benefit significantly from the exemption of "clean water laws" and just one company of many who spent over $70 million lobbying congress on the issue.
In an economy of hardship, farmers are quick to sell their land to companies engaged in the pursuit of natural gas extraction. Their royalty payments offering savior to many dealing with financial misfortune, but do those people really stop to question the morality of hydraulic fracturing? One person did. Josh Fox who was so appalled at what he discovered that he made a documentary film; "Gasland".
Despite concerned evidence from leading experts, hydraulic fracturing is being rushed passed governing bodies and through state legislation before any real damage is noticed. Just five days ago New York, one of the few states to impose a ban until safety assessments could be made, just opened up it's hearings on the matter.
The thing I find most astounding is the molotov cocktail of chemicals. Known carcinogens, chemicals that have been linked to reproductive issues, that can cause internal organ complications, are all being injected, possibly irreversibly, into the ground and are just now being linked to water contamination's across Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Ohio. Populations that are confused by unexplained medical symptoms. Populations whose water supplies are polluted with Methane, water they can literally set alight. It get's worse. Waste water from the process is now thought to contain excessive amounts of Radium, a radioactive by-product. In February this year the New York Times exposed leaked reports about Radium pollution in an interactive map ranging from Pittsburgh to Pennsylvania and into the lower regions of New York state.
I think anyone with a sense of morality, of curiosity, should lend support to further research. To understand and question the decisions of people we entrust our welfare to.
