Facts on Fracking

The simple facts on fracking were best stated by Elizabeth Royte’s article “Fracking the Food Supply” that appeared in The Nation on December 17, 2012, in which she stated:

“Fracking a single well requires up to 7 million gallons of water, plus an additional 400,000 gallons of additives, including lubricants, biocides, scale and rust inhibitors, solvents, foaming and defoaming agents, emulsifiers and de-emulsifiers, stabilizers and breakers. About 70% of the liquid that goes down a borehole eventually comes up — now further tainted with such deep-earth compounds as sodium, chloride, bromide, arsenic, barium, uranium, radium and radon. (These substances occur naturally, but many of them can cause illness if ingested or inhaled over time). This super-salty “produced” water, or brine, can be stored on-site for reuse. Depending on state regulations, it can also be held in plastic-lined pits until it evaporates, is injected back into the earth, or gets hauled to municipal wastewater treatment plants, which aren’t designed to neutralize or sequester fracking chemicals (in other words, they’re discharged with effluent into nearby streams.”

Please consider these facts as you prepare to cast your ballot on November 4 on the Proposition P, the Ban Fracking initiative.