PLEASE WRITE THE TIMES-PICAYUNE! Recently, the Times-Picayune published a report by Robert Rhoden that compared our response to fracking in St. Tammany with that of Tangipahoa, whose citizens welcomed the oil and gas companies onto their lands. The article paints us as uneducated, emotional, and fearful while these other citizens and the Tangipahoa parish government are thoughtful and educated. You can read the article here (nola/politics/index.ssf/2014/07/fracking_embraced_not_vilified.html) At the end of this post you will find a sample letter to send to Managing Editor Angel Thompson as well as contact information - both snail and electronic mail. We are sending this to the petition list, so many of you may see this in your inbox as well. *** Angel Thompson Community News Manager for New Orleans, St. Bernard, and the River Parishes 365 Canal Place, Suite 3100 New Orleans, LA 70130 athompson@nola Ms. Thompson: Recently, you published a piece by Robert Rhoden, “While St. Tammany Fracking Battle Rages, the Practice is Embraced in Neighboring Tangipahoa Parish,” that purported to contrast the responses of two groups of citizens to the presence and potential presence of hydraulic fracturing. Interestingly enough, what emerges from reading the piece is not a report on difference but a subtle critique of any whose actions are oppositional to the process. Consider the following statements made by Rhoden: “The uproar in St. Tammany over drilling has been the subject of periodic discussion - and derision - among some of the regulars at The Café in Kentwood, owner William Parson said,” “He and others reason that the opposition stems from a lack of understanding about oil drilling,” and Most of the people that get upset about it are not knowledgeable about it. Its just the scare. What could happen. Additionally, the piece quotes residents who find the oil and gas industry to be “a gift” and “a godsend” to them. The piece clearly seeks to portray the citizens of St. Tammany Parish as uneducated and uninformed, responding out of fear to an allegedly imagined threat. And while we are genuinely happy that there have been no breakdowns in the process beyond a broken culvert that we know of to this point, we in St. Tammany Parish have asked ourselves the question of are the risks worth the reward. St. Tammany is a more affluent parish than northern Tangipahoa, Rhoden admits that several times. If that is the primary difference, then the focus of the article should have been on economic need and not on subtle accusations that the citizens of St. Tammany were irrationally fearful due to a lack of education on the process. For example, Shonkoff, Hays, and Finkel (published in Environmental Health Perspectives) reviewed all scientific studies to date regarding shale gas drilling and air pollution and concluded that the majority of studies suggest that shale gas drilling contributes to levels of ambient air concentrations of chemicals associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. In a piece published in Reviews of Environmental Health, Brown, Weinberger, Lewish, and Bonaparte found that current methods of analyzing emissions data do not accurately assess health risks. Rawlins, a researcher at the University of Texas, found “potentially false assurances” being made regarding community health concerns in shale gas drilling areas due to shortcomings in air pollution monitoring. Additional research from UT found that current monitoring methods do not account for toxic emissions or children’s exposures to chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Lockwood, whose findings are published in Chemical Engineering News, found that shale gas drilling in Utah exposed workers to thirty-nine days of ozone pollutants that exceeded the EPA’s eight-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standards, putting them at risk for respiratory distress and possible death. The research of Helmig and colleagues published in Environmental Science & Technologyrevealed a “strong causal link between oil and gas emissions, accumulation of air toxics, and significant production of ozone in the atmospheric surface layer.” The opponents of fracking in St. Tammany have educated themselves on the dangers, have disseminated the work of these and other scholars, and have sought the presence of experts such as Wilma Subra to help further educate the citizens so that the people could make an informed choice on whether the presence of this dangerous industry is both needed and wanted in our parish. And while we rejoice that no dramatic leaks have polluted the air and water in Tangipahoa that we know of to this point, the lack of immediate contamination does not demonstrate that the technology and process are inherently safe nor that the environment is safe from contamination routine to the everyday production. If the current technology is safe, then one would ask why the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources voices concern about the increasing number of fracking well blowouts that result in both spills and public safety threats. One would also ask about the water and air contamination that the US. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agencies have found resulting from fracking leaks and spills in Acorn Fork in Kentucky, in the Barnett Shale region of Texas, in Wyoming, and in Pennsylvania. If the technology and the process are so inherently safe, an educated citizen would question why oil and gas companies such as Noble Gas inform the general public of how safe the process of fracking is while their SEC filings for potential investors cite numerous risks and dangers. If the process were so inherently safe, it would seem to an educated person that there would be only one story to be told, would it not? Again, that the citizens of Tangipahoa have had no issues is wonderful news, but the data available at present suggests that their results are atypical and from which no generalization about the safety of fracking can be determined. Additionally, Rhoden quotes numerous Tangiapohoans who claim that the fracking company there, Goodrich Oil & Gas, has been good to them and has caused no problems. And we certainly hope that is true; however, the same cannot be said of Helis Oil & Gas. The refusal of Helis to address the concerns of the citizens in open town hall forums and what appears to be a series of secret meetings between a select few parish officials with Helis have caused concern that the drilling operations will benefit only a select few in the parish. Additionally, Helis has been cited by the EPA for gross negligence in planning countermeasures to prevent and curtain any spills should any arise(cite?). Again, we all hope that spills and leaks do not occur, but the history of the industry suggests that they are inevitable. So then, we ask ourselves why we would want a company that does not satisfy federal regulations for adequate and appropriate planning should something occur. Is this not the mark of a citizenry who have educated themselves? cite lack of state oversight Add info from Maurice here about volume of non-recyclable wastewater and radioactivity. The differences between the responses of our two parishes to fracking is not about education vs. emotion or fact vs. fear. The differences are about choice. We, the undersigned, in St. Tammany Parish have chosen to not accept the risks of hydraulic fracturing. We have chosen to put the short and long-term health and safety of ourselves, of our children, and of our environment above immediate financial gain – financial gain for a select few. We have chosen that this dangerous and controversial method of oil and gas extraction is something that we neither need nor want near our schools and our homes. The risks outweigh the rewards. We have educated ourselves beyond our own experiences and the information provided by the oil and gas industry itself. An educated person questions whether industry-supplied facts are unbiased. And we have done that. We ask not that you silence the citizens of Tangipahoa, but we do ask that you report the news accurately in a manner that does not betray a not so subtle sympathy for the oil and gas industry. Helis has announced the beginning of its public relations campaign. We ask that you not be a part of such an undertaking in any way, shape or form. Please do not use your power and influence to promote further environmental risk and contamination in our state. Remember the Horizon. Remember Katrina. You may find the sources referenced in this letter as well as others in the following links, should you seek the same education that we have obtained on this issue. nytimes/interactive/us/natural-gas-drilling-down-documents-4.html nationofchange.org/epa-failing-stop-methane-leaks-pipelines-inspector-general-says-1406469739 yosemite.epa.gov/OA/RHC/EPAAdmin.nsf/Filings/1F2518C745AC347385257BAD001BCADC/$File/helis.pdf concernedhealthny.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CHPNY-Fracking-Compendium.pdf
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 18:59:56 +0000
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