New York City's Mayor Bloomberg and his administration are calling the risks of drilling for natural gas in the city's watershed "unacceptable."
New York City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has found that drilling for natural gas in the city's watershed could leak toxic chemicals into the watershed. They found that the health risks these chemicals would have on New York City's eight million residents is unknown.
The Mayor's administration is unwilling to take the toxic risks associated with natural gas production.
The DEP found that the price of cleaning out these chemicals from the municipal water supply is costly, creating a 30% hike in the price of drinking water for residents.
"As staggering as that amount of money is, it's not just about the money," said Acting DEP Commissioner Steven Lawitts in an article written by the NY Daily News. "The risks are simply not worth it."
The economic and political impacts of poisoning the globe's economic capital is a risk that can have lethal consequences for the health of the American Empire.
Since 9/11, Homeland Security has been monitoring municipal water supplies to ensure that terrorists do not poison American populations; municipal water supplies are considered "critical infrastructure." In the case of many US residents whose drinking water supplies have been contaminated with hazardous toxins, the local terrorists are oil and gas production companies such as Spectra Energy, Cabot Oil and Gas, Range Resources, and Encana. These new terrorist camps are based in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alberta, Canada; not Afghanistan.
Chemicals associated with natural gas production include: Ethylene Glycol, chronic exposure can result in kidney failure and brain injury; Glycol Ether, chronic exposure can result in blood disorders; and Propylene Glycol, chronic exposure can result in seizures. Known carcinogens associated with gas production chemicals and byproducts are numerous, including benzene, biocides, radioactive uranium, lead, mercury, and radium.
Multinational corporation executives would be wise to prohibit their oil and gas industry cronies from poisoning the nation which gives them armies to maintain and create colonies and free trade agreements such as NAFTA's Chapter 11 which can overturn local policies that impede corporate trade profits.
New York City's government and citizens are doing their best to protect themselves from being poisoned, as are representatives and activists in the 37 states around the nation that are battling toxic oil and gas operations in their neighborhoods. The cha-ching of "boom and bust" fossil fuel extraction economy is a mighty opponent in these times of economic recession and "get rich quick" american dreams.
The Oil and Gs industry is exempt from critical portions of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and federal requirements which prohibit hazardous waste from being buried in people's backyards. The EPA considers the oil and gas industry's hazardous waste to be "special."
The fall of the Roman Empire is speculated by some scientists to have been facilitated by lead poisoning. Perhaps the fall of the American Empire will be due to the combination of various toxins emitted by the oil and gas industry.
Comments
Natassja,
I would do some more homework before calling the domestic energy industry terrorists - you only show your abject ignorance otherwise. There is virtually no chance that fluids used in hydraulic fracturing will migrate to fresh water-bearing strata for several reasons:
1) gas wells have at least two strings of steel casing cemented in the hole to isolate the producing strata from fresh water-bearing strata
2) the shale being fractured is several thousand feet deeper than the fresh water-bearing strata, and there are numerous intervals of rock that the fractures cannot physically penetrate which are called barriers
3) the fracturing fluids are often pumped through a third string of pipe with a device on the end called a packer, which together serve as a third means of isolating the shale being hydraulically fractured from the fresh water-bearing strata
There are many more facts that you clearly do not know and/or understand. Please, study before writing.
Aaron -
New York City Department of Environmental Protection stated in a news release www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/09-15pr.shtml
"Drilling in the watershed requires invasive industrialization and creates a substantial risk of chemical contamination, and infrastructure damage..."
"Chemical Contamination: The chemicals used as part of the process are injected into subsurface rock formations and can travel along underground fissures to ground water and ultimately streams that feed reservoirs; extensive subsurface fracture systems and known “brittle” geological structures exist that commonly extend over a mile in length, and as far as seven miles in the vicinity of NYC infrastructure..."
Despite the heavy use of concrete and other protective measures, two examples of underground contamination plumes created by hydrofracking exist in Susquehanna Co, PA and Sublette Co, WY.
Clean water is a free renewable resource until it is contaminated. The press must be critical.
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