Daily Camera
OPINION: LETTERS TO THE
EDITOR
01/28/2017
In defense of civil disobedience in Lafayette and
North Dakota, it is important to look at the facts about fracking.
Fracking does not exist to reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. It exists to make maximum amount of profits for oil and gas
companies. Economists and geologists agree that any petroleum that companies
get from here on will require drilling wells deeper and fracking. More than 50
percent of fracking wells leak, including those that have been abandoned.
Abandoned wells are no good for making money; however, they are still under
pressure and often leak into the aquifer.
When fracking wells run dry or shut down, they have to
be plugged in order to keep them from contaminating fresh-water aquifers.
Because many fracking companies go bankrupt, the cost of cleanup falls to the
states. Cleanup costs include: repair of roads due to wear and tear of 400
trucks hauling water and heavy equipment for each well; air, water and soil
contamination; species extinction; ozone depletion; climate change; medical
treatment for skyrocketing cases of asthma, cancer, immune system diseases,
cognitive deficiencies, miscarriages and birth defects. Wyoming spent $11
million between 1997 and 2014 to plug abandoned wells.
In 2014, California ordered the emergency shut-down of
fracking wells stating that fracking "poses danger to life, health,
property and natural resources" because oil and gas companies had been
pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking-water aquifers.
So, while the profits from fracking go to the oil and
drilling companies, the costs of cleanup, adverse environmental and health
consequences will be borne by the taxpayers of Boulder County. Considering the
earthquakes, the mess, the poisoned air and water and sick people, fracking is
just not worth it.
Andrew J. O'Connor
Lafayette
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