by Mark Daniels
Protests held today in several states including Arkansas against shale gas fracking. It's a process used to get natural gas out of the shale. In Little Rock a small group at the state capitol gathered to express their outrage over what they say are the negative effects of fracking.
Armed with signs that read "I fought for my country in Vietnam I should not have to fight for clean drink water!" and "clean water is more valuable than gas" Arkansans fed up with a natural gas drilling process known as fracking joined forces on the steps of the State Capitol Wednesday to send a message and raise awareness about hydraulic-fracking.
Donna Adolph, President of Arkansans for Gas Drilling Accountability says, "It's a process of extracting natural gas from shale layers underground with high pressure water, sand, and very toxic chemicals."
A process Adolph, says is posing major health risks.
Adolph says, "All over the world we are having water contamination from this process, air pollution that is unbelievable. The toxins cause cancers, all kinds of neurological diseases and especially in small children."
Andy Cheshier, President of C.A.R.E., Citizens Against Resource Exploitation, says "The chemicals they are using we really don't know what they are because they say they are proprietary. They won't tell us. Thanks to the "Halibut Loophole" they don't have to tell us what these chemicals are. I can tell you they are very dangerous. There are up to 900 of them we know now.
The protestors fear salt water injection wells used to dispose of the water from the fracking process are causing earthquakes.
Adolph says, "These earthquakes can affect the casings that are suppose to protect our water and no one is checking them. "
It's out of their love for the Natural State the protestors say they are speaking out.
Adolph says, "It's just a call for people all over the world to take notice to this problem. This could be a greater natural disaster than the Gulf because it affects all of our water."
The protestors are pushing for the Frack Act to pass on a federal level requiring companies to disclose the chemicals they are using in the fracking process.
Meanwhile, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has proposed a rule that would require companies operating in the state to disclose the chemicals they used after a well is completed. That proposal will voted on at the next Oil and Gas Commission meeting December 7th.
For more information about the damage caused by Gas Drilling, please read Collateral Damage: A Chronicle of Lives devastated by Gas and Oil Development and the Valient Grassroots Fight to Effect Political and Legislative Change ... Gas and Oil Industry in the United States
and watch Gasland
.
For more information about the damage caused by Gas Drilling, please read Collateral Damage: A Chronicle of Lives devastated by Gas and Oil Development and the Valient Grassroots Fight to Effect Political and Legislative Change ... Gas and Oil Industry in the United States
and watch Gasland.Press Release
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:08:40 -0400
Arkansans for Gas Drilling Accountability
&
C.A.R.E
(Citizens Against Resource Exploitation)
Contact: Sharon Golgan
For Immediate Release
501-255-6961
email: sgolgan@cebridge.net
On Wednesday November 3, 2010
2:00PM
THE WORLD PROTEST AGAINST SHALE GAS FRACKING
Arkansas (Little Rock), Texas (Dallas/Ft Worth), Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), New York
Australia, New Zealand
This is the very first World Protest Against Shale Gas Fracking! On Wednesday, November 3, we will come together on the Arkansas State Capitol steps to join our voices with thousands of people across the world as we express our outrage in unison over the negative effects of shale gas fracking. Simultaneously, delegations from seventeen countries will attend the World Shale Gas Conference and Exhibition in Dallas to discuss investment and profit opportunities in shale gas while shale gas operations are making people sick in communities just a few miles away.
Citizens are being devastated by chemicals used in fracking fluids. They have recently been found in people’s blood, and private drinking wells, and people are becoming ill from breathing air contaminated with toxic emissions. Sadly, private land is being seized through abusive eminent domain practices, and dumped on legally and illegally through land applications of toxic produced water, land farms, dumping in our streets and waterways, and injection wells. Additionally, injection wells and fracking may also bear some culpability in the recent onslaught of earthqakes that have been rocking our state on a daily basis, while the regulators do absolutely nothing other than facilitate more drilling and fracking.
Now, because of the "Haliburton Loophole" signed into law by George Bush in 2005, these gas drillers are not obligated to adhere to the Superfund, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. It has been relegated to the state level where the states involved do not have the funds nor the man power to properly oversee such massive production as we are witnessing in Arkansas.
We as citizens want to develop new standards to ensure that Arkansas remains the true Natural State, and that our beautiful rivers, lakes, and streams remain among the most pristine natural water sources in America. We stand at a crossroads with the natural gas industry. We can either continue to be the Natural State or we can go down in history as the state that sold our natural resources and our citizens health down a river of pollution in exchange for a fast buck.
Contacts for the day of event as follows:
Andy Cheshier, President of C.A.R.E.
Donna Adolph, President, Arkansas for Gas Drilling Accountability
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