This time and this place calls upon us to summon our courage and strength and gather as residents for what is right. A drilling company is positioning itself to bore and fracture a new well at the headwaters of Four Mile Creek. This is a water shed that supplies families, ranches and business with drinking and irrigation water. It feeds directly into the Colorado River. This is our water shed and the time to decide how this will play out for us is now. We have written letters. We have stood with signs. We have hoped for every legal intervention. Now the right for an energy company to steal a profit from a place that provides livelihood to the people who live here is bearing down on our community.
This company has poisoned other water systems in our county, sued our community members, our ranchers and schools, and has knowingly, continuously leaked poison into our environment.
The industry pollutants evaporating slowly from ponds, or holding tanks or speeding down our county roads in unmarked trucks include neurotoxins, carcinogens, and endocrine disruptors. An extensive list can be found at http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used. The health problems associated with the chemicals used and dispersed throughout the hydraulic fracturing process range from skin rashes and irritation, to asthma, to death. Associated health problems are described thoroughly at http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/home.php .
We are being bathed in this haze, our lungs, our skin, our eyes exposed. There is no public health registry, those who get sick from this poison carry the burden of proof, though the companies themselves know the effects of the toxins they use. There is no precautionary principal at work. There is a full scale effort to domesticate our energy source, using hydraulic fracturing methods that are extreme, dangerous, and short sighted. The human health effects, and the environmental cost will be tallied later. Now the feverish pursuit of a non-renewable transitional power source threatens a resource more immediate and vital than natural gas. Our water.
The process of hydraulic fracturing involves boring a well through the bedrock, and passing pipe and concrete casing through the water table. "Fracking" fluid is then injected into the well causing fractures in the bedrock and releasing usable fossil fuels. Natural gas is the material sought in the Thompson Divide drilling proposals. This process routinely leaks contaminants into the underground aquifers, but these bodies of water are not considered surface water and so they are not protected under the Clean Water Act. Though these bodies of water are not considered to be connected to surface water, there have been many instances of surface water becoming inadvertently and severely contaminated through common hydraulic fracturing methods.
Incidental or collateral damages to people and or property can be reported to and found at http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/
In addition to our water being under threat an even more present danger is the exposure to air born particulate that can damage delicate lung tissue, especially in children.
We should be deeply concerned about our air, which is already registering elevated levels of dangerous pollutants as a result of hydraulic fracturing. A complete emissions study conducted by CSU can be found at http://www.garfield-county.com/air-quality/air-emissions-study.aspx.
Companies like the one preparing to drill through our watershed have found little resistance in their path. Their right to pursue profit is lawfully protected above our rights to live safely without danger of environmental poisoning. They are exempt from the clean water, clean drinking water and clean air acts designed to protect us. We are empowered to protect this place from the devastation of their business practices because we live here. We claim this air, this water, this land, and our own health. We are drawing a line in the sand, not as a challenge but as a clear and immutable statement that they will go no further. This time and this place calls upon us to galvanize as a people willing to stand for what is right not only for ourselves but for generations to come.
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