LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Fracking more like doom than boom

2/9/2014

Important facts were missing from your Jan. 26 article “Fracking credited for lower bills; Without drilling boom, gas would cost up to 129% more.”

With the glut of natural gas and “wet gases” — ethane, butane, propane — that are produced in Ohio at the expense of clean air and water, representatives of Columbia Gas of Ohio and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association state that hydraulic fracturing is reducing heating costs. Even though prices of natural gas and propane are increasing and sometimes propane is hard to get, your article makes it look as if fracking is cost-beneficial.

Most of the oil and gas industry’s costs are passed on to Ohioans, because the industry gets cheap water and waste disposal and other perks. Besides the billions of gallons of freshwater already destroyed by fracking spills in Ohio, disposal and dumping are polluting our remaining water.

Ohio is fast becoming a dump for fracking’s huge amount of waste. Tons of radioactive drilling mud and millions of gallons of highly toxic and radioactive fracking fluid are disposed of in basically unregulated dumps and injection wells.

Fracking waste is shipped here from other states because of Ohio’s cheap disposal. Fracking puts hazardous chemicals into our air and generates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The cost to consumers will increase as this unregulated industry rapidly builds pipelines and infrastructure to ship gas overseas.

Despite fracking, we have energy shortages and price increases. After the fracking boom, the temporary jobs willl disappear and the economic boost will be bust.

Already, our water is destroyed, property values have decreased, and people are sick. Fracking will cost Ohioans dearly in the future.

LEATRA HARPER

Co-Founder FreshWater Accountability Project Ohio Grand Rapids, Ohio