I have spent a year collecting newspaper and Internet articles about fracking and its negative consequences. I made sure that the articles reported legitimate studies (not funded by the oil and gas industry) or statements from recognized experts on fracking, health, and environmental protection. All that I report is referenced. Here are the results.
Fracking reduces real estate values; causes earthquakes; damages roads through heavy trucks/equipment traffic; contributes to over half of ground level ozone recorded locally; pollutes water through casings that break; contaminates water in floods; poisons soil through pipe and tank leaks; increases climate change through release of methane; causes fatal explosions; raises crime rates; causes house rental rates to rise; uses enormous amounts of water — half of which cannot be recovered — hurts Colorado’s economy through loss of tourism; causes environmental disasters with taxpayers paying the costs; economically hurts our growing organic farm industry; increases upper respiratory illness, asthma, and neurological disorders; destroys animal and plant environments endangering life of large mammals; reduces Colorado’s quality of life (changes a natural Colorado to an industrial mess); costs jobs in the sustainable, renewable energy industry which produces three times as many jobs as oil and gas does; brings radioactive water to the surface; delays research and development of alternative energy while increasing our dependence on fossil fuels; takes away our constitutional right to local self government; can’t be regulated due to the lack of state inspectors (21 for 52,000 wells); creates a boom/bust economy of transient jobs that does not lower unemployment (see Bureau of Labor Statistics noting Weld County’s 5.5 percent unemployment rate which is the same as all of Colorado despite Weld County’s 20,000 wells); causes irreparable damage to our environment; is exempt from federal water and air regulations; puts chemicals in the ground names of which the oil and gas industry will not tell us; causes unnecessary lawsuits which taxpayers pay for and corporations deduct from their taxes; creates tremendous disturbances to our peace through bright (24/7) lights and noise; pollutes water and soil as 1 in 6 injection wells leak or fail; impedes our development in becoming independent of fossil fuels and the Middle East; uses cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and trihalomethane; has produced over 1,000 spills in Colorado since 2012 contaminating ground water (1.5 spills/day); dumps sludge-like drill cuttings in waste pits on agricultural fields; is “regulated” by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) which has as its charge to promote and protect oil and gas extraction; creates clean ups that take years to finish (Parachute Creek, 2013, still not completed); crushes subsurface ecosystems vital to farming; contributes to global warming through producing volatile organic compounds and ground level ozone (causing droughts and forest fires); creates Houston-level smog in ground-level ozone; dumps propane and ethane from storage tanks creating ozone pollution; causes real estate tax revenue to drop and consequently reduces public services; does not lower our gas bill (I checked my gas bill from 2000 and compared it to my 2013 bill– the price per unit of gas used has risen); and dramatically increases truck traffic making biking, running, and walking more dangerous.
It is difficult for a person to keep all these above-mentioned facts in their mind at the same time. For this reason, I took the time to list them in one article. The case against fracking, when considered from a comprehensive viewpoint is clear. It is bad on many levels. The negative reasons are documented, scientifically backed, and factual.
So the question is: Are we going to continue to let the oil and gas corporations buy the right to violate our health, safety, welfare, and community rights? We have just one world to leave to our children.
Sign the petition to get the change of Boulder County to Home Rule on the ballot now so we can write a charter that bans fracking in Boulder County.
John C. Lamb lives in Lafayette.
