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It’s Fracking Dangerous!

Don\'t worry, they never read to the end of the article

Hydrofracking, or hydraulic fracturing, that is, or so says Ian Urbina of the New York Times as reported by the Denver Post. Look, there’s a picture of it happening in Rifle, Colorado! In our beautiful Rocky Mountains!!

Look! The description even tells us how awful this is!

Rifle has natural-gas wells. Fracking a relatively new drilling method known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing that carries significant environmental risks is performed in Colorado. (Kevin Moloney, The New York Times )


Just look at the list of terrible things they use to do this:

…over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens such as benzene and radioactive elements such as radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.

This is terrible. This atrocity has to be stopped. Did you SEE the picture of our beautiful mountains? The article goes on to tell us much more about how these toxins are finding their way into our drinking water supply via wastewater plants that were not designed to handle it. Dan Quigly the previous secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources tells us,

In shifting away from coal and toward natural gas, we’re trying for cleaner air, but we’re producing massive amounts of toxic wastewater with salts and naturally occurring radioactive materials, and it’s not clear we have a plan for properly handling this waste

This is terrible. This atrocity has to be stopped. Did you SEE the picture of our beautiful mountains? But wait. At the end of the article, they quote Dave Neslin, executive director of the Colorado state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,

In Colorado, the majority of fracking fluids and produced water is recycled and reused.

Oh. They reuse the most of the fluids. But what about what’s left?

No fluids are sent to wastewater treatment plants. For the fluid that is disposed, 60 percent goes into regulated deep waste-injection wells

Oh. You mean it goes back to where it came from.

20 percent evaporates from pits

Oh. You mean that part just evaporates harmlessly.

20 percent is discharged to surface water under permits from the state Water Quality Control Commission.

Oh. The rest is disposed under permit per state guidelines.

But….but…..Did you SEE the picture of our beautiful mountains? THIS MUST BE STOPPED!!!

Night Twister

COMMENTS

  • harpsichord

    blur a bit looking at that beautiful picture, I see 2 missles being launched!

  • conservativemusician

    This is fracking ridiculous. It should be 110%, for crying out loud. :-)

  • Leon H. Wolf

    • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

      The recession will insist upon it.

  • donnybrooke

    We’re helping to remove all that nasty gas and petroleum that may seep into your drinking water or pollute that mountain stream.

    We’re doing it for the children!

  • Raven

    About half the water gets reused, the rest has been going to waste water treatment facilities. With all the risks that trucking such wastes across the state entails.
    http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/20110104_Is__fracking__poisoning_Pa__s_water_supply_.html

    The article makes it out to be worse than it actually is, saying at first that the water is discharged directly into major waterways, but does get it right a couple paragraphs later saying that it goes through waste water treatment facilities first.
    However, those facilities are not designed either for the volume or for the type of contaminants.

    • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

      is that the Denver Post took information about fracking in PA, passed it off as universal, and added a picture of the mountains. Only when you read to the end do you find out that it’s done differently here. The article was sensationalism, and was intended to generate an emotional response.

      In Colorado, there are three things that generate an emotional response. Water, water, and the Rockies (water came in a very close 4th). So all you have to do to get your point across is add a picture of water or mountains and you can get people that don’t read up in arms.

      • Darin_H

        I’d put them above water, water and the mountains….

        • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister
  • Remington_Steele

    They keep me awake and light the way on dark drives west on I70. I’ve seen them doing their dangerous fracking, and I think it’s on par with becker’s recently posted video on dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f79g2cYzflU&feature=player_embedded. I think I’m going to go watch some BSG now. :P

  • http://www.itsaboutliberty.com IronDioPriest

    “…So say we all.”

  • screechingeagle

    It takes secure energy supplies. No way around it. If people are afraid of getting a little Benzene in their water because we need to keep the lamp of liberty lighted, there are plenty of places they can move.