Why We Oppose Fracking In The Mahoning Valley

[irishbobcat]

Why We Oppose Fracking In The Mahoning Valley

The Mahoning Valley Green Party of Ohio support a permanent ban on hydrofracking for a variety of reasons (threats to the public health, water quality, and environment, while investing in another fossil fuel rather than clean renewable energy) and urged Governor Kasich to support that position now that he has taken office.

The type of drilling used on the Marcellus Shale formation involves fracking: pumping a mixture of sand, water, and chemical additives under high pressure into the shale to fracture or break up the shale so as to release a greater flow of natural gas.

Fracking even a single natural gas well consumes millions of gallons of water, which can be a significant burden on local water tables.

As things currently stand, frackers are exempted from having to comply with the Clean Water Act. This means they can legally poison the water. By hiding behind a claim the chemicals are proprietary knowledge they are not even required to inform the public of the chemicals that they are pumping into the ground, which can include methanol, diesel, anhydrous ammonia, ethylene glycol, toluene, xylene, various other complex hydrocarbons, some of which are proven carcinogens, hydrogen sulfide (aka hydrosulfuric acid), other industrial acids, arsenic, and possibly even radioactive barium!

Each well produces millions of gallons of industrial wastewater that require cleaning.

While the drilling is occurring, each well typically stores their fracking water in a pit near the drilling pad. If these pits overflow or leak they contaminate local water supplies and cause environmental damage.

Worse yet, each well typically leaves 20-25% of the toxic fracking water (i.e. over a million gallons per well) in the ground. That in-ground pollution has the potential to poison aquifers that provide local drinking water. Residents of Ridgway, PA, found their spring water supply poisoned by local drillers. The water was unfit even to shower in, as it burned and interfered with breathing.