But on Monday when hundreds of people from all parts of the Mid-Atlantic region converged on Trenton, N.J. for a rally to protect the Delaware River from fracking, McClendon’s “well-funded” opponents traveled by bus, carrying their signs and their bag lunches with them. And yet in a time of economic crisis, this dedicated citizenry is making itself heard over the better funded corporate P.R. and advertising campaigns.

With a surprise setback to fracking occurring late last week, the rally on the steps of the War Memorial, and the walk to the State legislature was one part cautious victory celebration, one part rededication rally.

“You won this round. You brought us back from the brink of total devastation. But there’s still more work to do,” Josh Fox, director of the Oscar-nominated film, Gasland, told the gathering, which was originally scheduled for attendance at a meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC.) Slated to ratify fracking regulations agreed to in private sessions, the five person commission representing four states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) and the President (represented by the Army Corps of Engineers) had issued guidelines to permit fracking in the Delaware River Basin, which supplies water to millions of people. The DRBC public meeting was to have formally ratified those guidelines, launching the fracking of the Delaware. But the session was cancelled at the last minute.

According to Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network that lead the coalition of grass roots groups organizing the event, the DRBC decision-making process “offered no real opportunity for public feedback. The decisions were all made behind closed doors,” despite the pro-forma vote at public sessions.

But the public had its say nevertheless. Through over twenty-thousand phone calls to the President and the four governors, “well-informed, well-educated, well-versed citizens voiced their concerns and educated their elected officials,” says van Rossum. On Thursday night, moved by the public outcry, Delaware’s Governor Markell announced his decision to vote no, joining New York’s Governor Cuomo. With PA Governor Corbett and Governor Christie likely to approve, if the vote came down to a Democrat vs. Republican standoff, the President’s representative would have been in position to cast the deciding vote. “They wanted more of a consensus,” the Delaware Riverkeeper said.

With the cancellation, there’s no outright ban, but fracking in the Delaware is now stalled for an indeterminate amount of time. “As more about this practice comes to light, what politicians had treated as a political issue now becomes better recognized as a public health threat, making them more reluctant to allow fracking’s risks,” van Rossum predicts.

At the rally podium, Fox placed a call to PA Governor Corbett. The phone rang and rang, without any answer. “No one’s home in the Governor’s mansion,” Fox quipped, a reference to Pennsylvania’s lack of taxation or oversight of fracking, with little recourse for citizens who claim harm.

Actor Mark Ruffalo told the crowd that the political temptation to trade life basics, like water, air, land, and food for energy amounts to a “spiritual crisis” for the U.S. He characterized Dimock, PA, as the “Ground Zero” for fracking devastation.

The water supply of Dimock (located in the Northeastern portion of the state) was visibly contaminated after fracking, and has been without water for three years. Craig Sauter of Dimock told the rally that in their drilling leases, residents were guaranteed restoration of water in the event of contamination. But the PA State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) failed to follow through on an agreement to compel Cabot Energy to build a water pipeline to the town. Instead, Cabot has trucked water buffaloes to Dimock residents but recently announced that they’ll stop in a few weeks. Last week, a capitol district policewoman phoned Sautner to say that if he persists in calling the governor and the DEP, he will be arrested for harassment.

“We’ll call for you, we’ll call for you!” chanted the rally participants, echoing the “human mike” used in OccupyWallStreet.

A pair of teachers leading a group of New Jersey school children on a tour of the State Capitol passed the fractivists on their walk to the legislature. The teachers asked what was going on. As I told them that people had gathered to protect the Delaware River, (and why) I noticed the still, intent faces of the ten year olds. They had pressed forward and were taking in every word. I felt a pang of sadness that children had to feel concern for the safety of their world.

But as the crowd surged along on the walk, they began the OWS chant, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Oh well, I thought, they came for a civics lesson, and they got one.

For health + environmental coverage, radio and activism, sign up in the box for for my ezine atwww.healthjournalistblog.comhttp://www.healthjournalistblog.com Coming up on Connect the Dots radio, an interview with Sandra Steingrabber, author of Raising Elijah.

With his wife, Holly, Richard Giles typifies this new breed. He owns and runs Lucky Dog Farms, (in Hamden, New York). Sited near the West Branch of the Delaware River, the region of one of New York City’s two watersheds, the farm supplies Swiss chard, kale, and other greens to downstate farmer’s markets, restaurants, wholesalers, and the Park Slope Food Coop. As Irene approached, Giles and his farm staff were up before sunrise harvesting all they could. As the storm hit, they worked in fields in standing water up to their ankles, within two hours, the water had risen to their knees, and a half hour later they had to evacuate waters six feet high, that had yet to fully subside when I spoke with Giles ten days later. Lucky Dog lost nearly the entire Fall crop.

“When Irene happened, most of the group of farmers in our area were saying, “We just have to suck it up,” Martin Stosiek
rt of Markristo Farms in Hillside, New York explained. “Then when Hurricane Lee happened, it was even worse.” Some lost crops but with a whole lot of hard work will survive the coming winter. Some may not. Stosiekrt who sells organic greens to restaurants, farmer’s markets, and wholesalers downstate, detailed his losses: cabbage unsaleable, green beans sitting in a swamp of water, un-harvestable, leafy greens, diseased due to the damp.

But will such losses register with the farmer’s customers, New Yorkers, the poster children for the busiest people on earth? Although NYC has a strong dining out tradition, for everyday meals, NY-ers are famed for eating on the run. No one has the time to look beyond the local farmer’s market to the plight of the farmers who grow New York’s food. While the rains may have passed from the headlines, their impact on area farmers is long-term.

“We can’t plant cover crops (like rye) in flooded fields, which we usually do to protect the soil over the winter months,” says Stosiek
rt. With weeds going to seed just now, com Spring, this unprotected soil will yield a weed, rather than a vegetable harvest. “An organic farm can’t use pesticides for weed management,” Stosiekrt says.

A few winters back, I attended a special dinner at Park Slope’s Applewood Restaurant, which featured the produce grown at Lucky Dog. After a wonderful dinner, that blend of organic sustainable and New York connoisseurship that makes for a delicious meal, the chef told us diners that, “You can vote with your pocketbook to support organic and sustainable farms in our region by going to the farmer’s market and eating at restaurants that use regionally grown food.”

Back then that suggestion still made good sense.

Flash forward two years: In Lucky Dog’s region, entire towns (like Fleischmann’s and Prattsville) were leveled by rains andwinds. “This is the worst flood in everyone’s living memory,” Giles told me. “We didn’t lose our house and the kids are okay. But the fields were flooded. We lost all our crops — lettuce, cabbages, and greens. We’re losing the root vegetables, like potatoes, and onions, which are sitting in water and deteriorating underground.”

Unfortunately, “The crop we lost is the crop we use to pay large bills,” Giles told me. “Like the farm loans, financed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA).”

Farmers don’t fall under FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Administration), but are administered by the FSA. Obviously, a renegotiation of loans will be needed. But will it be forthcoming in the current political climate? And who will notice when these crucial matters of public policy, impacting New York’s foods, are determined?

“People don’t expect a product like cars to just appear. There are industries and infrastructures that make that happen,” Giles says. “Because we farmers love farming, we put forth that effort. But it shouldn’t be our sole responsibility to supply New York’s food in the absence of policies that sustain that.”

“I choose to farm here and it’s really good soil, and it’s my choice and with these weather changes, it’s becoming a poorer and poorer choice,” Giles ruminates. “But if we admit it, we all know we have contributed to changing weather and flood patterns. We stand by and allow the gas drilling upstate to proceed. We leave it to farmers to go through whatever hardships to get the food to us. We cross our fingers and hope it will be okay.”

“Is this really what food’s worth?” he asks.<strong>So my question to you is this, do <em>you</em> still believe that acting as a consumer and showing up to buy sustainable and healthy food is all you need to do to help farmers make that food available? If so, why? If not, why not?</strong>

To support Lucky Dog Farms and other upstate sustainable farms harmed by the flood, please contact them.

To get the coverage of health, environment, food, public policy, and activism I’ve supplied on Huffington since 2007, please sign up for me free ezine at http://www.healthjournalistblog.com

Come hear me present at Green Festival L.A. http://www.greenfestivals.org/la/social-media-hub I’ll be speaking at #greenfestival about how to promote environmental health activism via social media. @AlisonRoseLevy  or Join me on Facebook at Connecting the Dots for Health

There is no pill you can swallow, food you can buy, nor gizmo that confers complete protection from pervasive toxicity, skewed societal consensus or invisible radiation. There’s no place you can go, nowhere you can hide and no authority — scientific, medical or spiritual — who can help you to escape what we’ve all created (or allowed to happen) here on planet Earth. Whether you are rich, poor, young, old, sick, healthy, right or left, no health manna, rural organic garden, island dwelling, nor spiritual belief can give you, me or us an out if we keep on screwing up.

Unless we turn around and heal the disconnect that allows us to misguidedly pursue personal goals, without sufficient care for the health of our society and the earth, than it’s likely our health problems will go from bad to worse.

Unless we turn around and heal the disconnect that allows us to misguidedly pursue personal goals, without sufficient care for the health of our society and the earth, than it’s likely our health problems will go from bad to worse.

If facing this sad reality seems disheartening, don’t worry — a lot of us are in the same boat. It’s called planet Earth. We’re worried about it, and we can use your help. Health-conscious people need to do more than take potassium iodide; we need to take action.

However, if this truth is too uncomfortable, or violates your subscription to the All Good News, All the Time network, then retreat to whatever offers you temporary relief. We’ll still be right here when you get back.

Lots of people send me their suggestions and questions, not to mention their latest e-books and requests to blog on The Huffington Post. In the current crisis, they either want, or give, answers: Isn’t it over yet? Are we sure? Take this — no, take that. Don’t take anything. We’ll tell you what to take, and when.

One email boosts a superfood, another social activism, while a third person despairs that industries disseminating toxins or radiation don’t seem to care about the gradual, ongoing, cumulative pollution of our bodies, our waterways and our world by their stuff.

People tell me they feel helpless, believing that they’ve no more influence than a mosquito buzzing round an impervious colossus.

I agree that it’s scary to go from the supposed certainty of taking a pill (or an attitude adjustment) to the uncertainty of stepping up to social activism. Unlike other corners of our market-driven society, restoring skewed societal priorities comes with no guarantees.

Instead, some soul-searching is required. Can we live with ourselves if we don’t come together and make a solid, determined, all-out effort to protect the health of our children, the wildlife and the earth?

Who will call government and industry to task, if not you, me and millions more like us? If more and more people do that, it gets easier. And if we don’t, what is the alternative? Give up on planet Earth, and leave a poisoned mess to our children?

The President’s Cancer Panel told us that the total cumulative effects of toxins are major contributors to rising cancer rates, spectrum disorders in children and increased illness in children at younger and younger ages.

I won’t go through the litany here, but you can go to my website for blog posts on that. These toxins travel the world and add up, accumulating in air, water, food, earth and us. They combine with radiation. While today West Coast radiation levels from the Japanese nuclear calamity seem okay, it’s not possible to make absolute statements about tomorrow, next month or next year. Not to mention the radiation we generate right here in the U.S. How much capacity does the earth have to absorb them? How much do we have? Does asking questions about that mean you’re “hysterical,” or a concerned citizen?

From years of looking into (and trying) many kinds of health treatments, I can tell you that if we allow toxic exposures to progress from not-so-good, to bad, to worse, at a certain point, individual health solutions won’t be enough to protect anyone, unless you are counting on mutating into a hardier species, like the cockroach.

Does that mean we should just live on French fries and pizza, and forget about healthy food, lifestyle, purchasing and energy use choices as individuals? Of course not. Those choices will remain vitally important, but they were not designed to target societal choices, and they haven’t.

Up until now, many have hoped that one day our incremental choices would add up to to a society that reflects and serves our values.

Has that happened?

Just look around. What feedback are we getting from nature and the world? What do we see happening in our society and political life? How well are our kids doing? Is it getting better? Worse? Do we need a scientific study to answer that question?

Speaking for myself, I see ecological shifts accelerating, and colliding with unsafe business practices to produce a series of calamities, each one worse than its predecessor. In just the last year, this has happened more than once, and we could go back further and retrace the gradual buildup to this moment. But for right now, let’s not.

Instead, what can we do? Here are some choices I’ve heard:

• Build your immune system
• Stock up on superfoods
• Watch the calendar and wait for a magical date when everyone else suddenly wakes up to the results of our collective choices
• Search for a remote, rural enclave to wait it out with your organic coconut and other goodies
• Expect divinity to descend in helicopters and bail us out
• Hope to ascend beyond the earthly cares of this troubled planet.
• Wait for the next crisis that will wake up all those other people.

Confession: Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find it all that spiritual to leave behind the mess our society has created. That’s like a person who leaves a pile of dishes in the kitchen sink for months on end, and then hopes to sell the house to get rid of them.

In the current critical moment, the Japanese calamity has shown all the world the harsh downside risks of just a few of the societal compromises we’ve made. In response to this wake-up call, a shift could happen, but there’s no guarantee that it will. Unless we step up.

If we all roll up our sleeves and commit ourselves to social activism that addresses our problems at the individual, community and societal levels, things can change. Each of us must play a part. Unless you are raising small children, or are seriously ill, or tending to the seriously ill, then I invite you all to find concrete ways to contribute via social activism. Going to the farmer’s market and buying an organic mesclun mix is not enough. And if you don’t have any good ideas about where you are needed, then by all means, do ask me.

Do you have suggestions about where people can pitch in to help bring about societal changes? Please share them here! For more information, visit www.HealthJournalistBlog.com.

Send a message to President Obama demanding a safe and sensible approach to fracking.

Read the entire letter to President Obama from Catskill Citizens and Catskill Mountainkeeper.

Although the ten million residents of New York City and Philadelphia rely on the Delaware Basin for their drinking water, no public hearings will be spent in either of those cities, as the Delaware River Basin Commission prepares to green light drilling of test wells in river areas that could effect the drinking water of 15 million people. What are they drinking?

By taking action here, you can demand an extended comment period and additional public hearings before the DRBC greenlights fracking in the Delaware Basin.

If you want to receive regular action alerts, and blogs about health concerns like these, please sign up in the box to your right. Also don’t forget to pass this along to your friends. Thank you for being a Health Activist!

The two citizens, the actor Mark Ruffalo, nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Kids Are All Right, and the documentary film-maker, Josh Fox, nominated for an Oscar for his film, Gasland, are holding a press conference, meeting with Congressional representatives, and screening the film, in an effort to safeguard the people’s right to the life essential, safe drinking water. As detailed in Gasland, hundreds of news stories, state and federal government reports, and expert scientific analysis, this right can no longer be taken for granted, thanks to widespread water contamination by hundreds of proprietary chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, (or fracking), a novel form of an old gas drilling practice. Fox and Ruffalo are calling for an immediate federal moratorium on drilling, permitting, and fracking until appropriate safety measures are in place.

Fox points out that, “Fracking has never been proven to be safe. Thousands of contamination cases, and testimonials across the country, point to a massive failure to protect water, air and human health.”

In an open letter to Congress and the president, Fox alerts these leaders to

“the numerous dangers, hazards and injustices created by hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and urge(s) them to take immediate action to address” the “severe environmental, public health, and human and civil rights abuses that the deregulated Natural Gas Industry has wrought on the citizens of the United States as a result of the massive gas drilling campaign that has been ravaging the country over the past decade.”

It all began with the Halliburton Loophole, inserted into the 2005 Energy bill by former vice-president Dick Cheney. That exempted the novel practice of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, which first introduced the use of over five hundred proprietary toxic chemicals from compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Superfund Act.

Fox calls for an immediate end to these exemptions.

Five years ago, no one could have foreseen that the Gas Rush, with its ever-growing track record of hazards, spills, leaks, explosions, water and air contamination, and health dangers, would have strained the monitoring capacities of state governments, and over-ridden the rights of ordinary citizens to the extent now seen.

Calling for bi-partisan support, Fox calls for an end to federal subsidies, reporting that “fossil fuel industries receive three times the level of federal subsidies as compared to renewable energy sources,” creating an “unfair advantage in the marketplace for fossil fuel drilling technologies,” like fracking.

Based on the “dire crisis occurring across America,” Fox recommends:

1. Expanding the planned EPA study to extend beyond 2011, to address issues of hazardous and cumulative emissions from gas drilling, and to be conducted by scientists without conflict of interest.

2. Conducting a five-year parallel health impact assessment in all of the most areas by an independent third party working alongside the EPA, either from an unbiased charitable foundation or an esteemed University.

3. Requiring EPA, and state and local departments of environmental protection/planning to oversee and issue permits for fracking

4. Managing immediate health and ecological crises in drilling areas to include:

• The use of vapor recovery units to control emissions at existing well-sites, separators, refineries, compressor stations and condensate tanks
• The provision of replacement water via municipal pipelines in areas where aquifers have been contaminated
• The restoration of areas that have been industrialized with compressor stations, refineries and other gas drilling and refining machinery to a state appropriate for residential use.
• The compensation for loss of property and physical injury to communities experiencing irreparable damage.

Fox further asks that the burden of proof for safety be shifted to the gas companies, requiring them and their associated industries to:

• Publicly disclose chemical ingredients in all products used to drill and frack on well-by-well basis.
• Tag each chemical product with a non-radioactive isotope to help track its possible migration into drinking water supplies.
• Cover costs for independent baseline water testing for all chemicals used in drilling, prior to drilling.

Fox asserts that

“if a chemical listed by the product manufacturers is found in a citizens private well or in a municipal water source, and is not found to be naturally occurring in the geology before drilling, both the product manufacturer and the drilling and extraction companies should have the burden to prove that contamination was not caused by the drilling company.”

In addition, due to widespread reports of “illegal dumping and improper disposal/treatment” of vast amounts of toxic drilling waste, generated by fracking, Fox recommends that “Every drop of drilling waste, drilling fluids, produced water or drill cuttings should be identified by its contents, tracked and reported in trucks that carry hazardous waste placards and must have a detailed and outlined waste management program for disposal and/or treatment.” To read the complete letter with all of Fox’s recommendations, please go here.

Fox hopes that on their visit to Washington, they will persuade the President and legislators to “swiftly act in the public’s interest to address this crisis.”

To comment on this blog on the Huffington Post, go here.

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Dear Members of Congress, President Obama, Members of the Press, and Citizens of the United States,

In writing this statement, I wish to address the severe Environmental, Public Health and Human and Civil Rights abuses that the deregulated Natural Gas Industry has wrought on the citizens of the United States as a result of the massive gas drilling campaign that has been ravaging the country over the past decade. As documented in the film GASLAND, in hundreds of news stories, personal accounts, independent and State and Federal Government reports, I have seen a dire crisis taking shape across America as a result of gas drilling. I hope that legislation introduced in Congress this year will address these issues, and we hope for a bi-partisan acknowledgement of the dangers of Fracking similar to the Moratorium recently placed in New York State.

I am calling on President Obama to acknowledge the numerous dangers, hazards and injustices created by Hydraulic Fracturing for natural gas and urge him to take immediate action to address the problem. I am distressed that the President included natural gas in his list of “clean energy” sources during his recent State of the Union Address and I urge him not include fracked gas in that category. I have great hopes that President Obama will act in the public’s interest, take heed of these recommendations and act swiftly to address this crisis. We hope that President Obama can be a friend to our cause and work with the organizations and members of Congress assembled here today with haste and diligence.

I have compiled a list of recommendations from my travels and work across the country with leaders and affected communities on the issue, and I submit a partial list of strong recommendations here. I feel compelled to say that these recommendations are representative of the concerns of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people across the country.

Sincerely,
Josh Fox
Director, GASLAND
And the GASLAND Team

WE CALL UPON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR AN IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM ON DRILLING, PERMITTING AND FRACKING UNTIL THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET:

1. END THE FEDERAL EXEMPTIONS
We demand that the Natural Gas Industry’s exemptions to the following laws be ended immediately:

Safe Drinking Water Act
Clean Water Act
Clean Air Act
Superfund Act

Natural Gas drilling should be subject to the same laws as every other Industrial, Private or Commercial sector.

2. END TO FEDERAL SUBSIDIES FOR FRACKING.
Fossil Fuel Industries receive three times the level of Federal Subsidies as compared to Renewable Energy Sources. This creates an unfair advantage in the marketplace for fossil fuel drilling technologies such as Hydraulic Fracturing, which undercut truly green forms of energy.

3. EXPANSION OF EPA STUDY AND CREATION OF INDEPENDENT HEALTH STUDY and EPA PERMITTING.

Fracking has never been proven to be safe. Thousands of contamination cases, and testimonials across the country, point to a massive failure to protect water, air and human health. Each of these cases must be investigated and damage must be assessed.

We appreciate that the EPA has just begun a study of Hydraulic Fracturing but it is under-funded and incomplete.

a) EPA must broaden the scope of its current ecological study. The current EPA Study is only funded through the end of this year and does not adequately address issues of hazardous emissions and overall emissions from gas drilling.

b) EPA Ecological study must be conducted by scientists without conflict of interest.

c) A five-year parallel health impact assessment should be conducted in all of the most areas by an independent third party working alongside the EPA, either from an unbiased charitable foundation or an esteemed University.

d) Fracking should require permitting from EPA as well as state and local departments of environmental protection/planning.

4. IMMEDIATE HEALTH/ECOLOGICAL CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN DRILLING AREAS

We call upon the Federal Government to immediately address concerns of citizens in areas that have been drilled and are experiencing negative ecological and health effects. Recommendations include but are not limited to: 1) Vapor recovery units to control emissions at existing well-sites, separators, refineries, compressor stations and condensate tanks, 2) Replacement water via municipal pipelines in areas where aquifers have been contaminated and, 3) Restoration of areas that have been industrialized with compressor stations, refineries and other gas drilling and refining machinery to a state appropriate for residential use. Communities experiencing irreparable damage should be compensated appropriately for loss of property and physical injury.

5. BURDEN OF PROOF-
THE GAS COMPANIES AND FRACKING PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS-

Product manufacturers must be required to disclose chemical ingredients in the products used to drill and Frack to the general public, landowners and surrounding communities in accordance with the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Chemicals should be listed and made publicly available online on well-by-well basis. If a chemical listed by the product manufacturers is found in a citizens private well or in a municipal water source, and is not found to be naturally occurring in the geology before drilling, both the product manufacturer and the drilling and extraction companies shall have the burden of proving that contamination was not caused by the drilling company.

Independent Baseline Water Testing should be mandated for all chemicals used in drilling and paid for by companies wishing to drill in any area where people are dependent upon groundwater.

6. CHEMICAL PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION- BENIGN ISOTOPE ID’s AFFIXED TO FRACKING CHEMICALS

Each chemical product used in Fracking for underground injection, should be tagged with a non-radioactive isotope so that it is easily identifiable if these compounds should migrate into drinking water supplies. Each Fracking product will be required to have its own non-radioactive isotope so that there is no doubt as to the migration of such chemicals into underground water supplies.

7. TRACKING AND REPORTING OF WASTE
Currently there is a huge problem with illegal dumping and improper disposal/treatment of drilling waste. Every drop of drilling waste, drilling fluids, produced water or drill cuttings should be identified by its contents, tracked and reported in trucks that carry hazardous waste placards and must have a detailed and outlined waste management program for disposal and/or treatment. Contents of hazardous waste should be posted online in an easily accessible manner with waste routes and disposal sites clearly outlined. Any truck deviating from the designated waste route should be immediately suspended and all work on the site from which waste emanated should be immediately halted.

I have the health and safety of the thousands of concerned citizens that I have met during my past three years of investigation in mind in submitting these initial recommendations to the Press and to the Government of the United States of America. I urge you to please act with diligence and honesty in your appraisals and not to turn a blind eye to the massive movement across the US that is outraged at the gas drilling industry and the damage that it has caused.

To learn more about the reality of fracking, read this excellent article.

To read the New York Times article on the industry offense, go here.

To get a copy of Gasland and read a point by point rebuttal of gas industry, PR spin, go here.

 You can vote for Gasland here.

And don’t miss this amazing music video about the threats posed by the Gas Man.

If you want to receive regular action alerts, and blogs about health concerns like these, please sign up in the box to your right. Also don’t forget to pass this along to your friends. Thank you for being a Health Activist!

“Climate is gone!” Olbermann reported that Karl Rove exulted at a Gas Drillers meeting in Pittsburgh earlier this week.

Josh Fox, director of the film, Gasland, ,which covers fracking, called Rove’s remarks “A Freudian slip.” What Rove meant to say is that the newly elected Republican-dominated Congress plans to attack climate science and strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority.

What Rove actually said is that if the Republican agenda is enacted, the climate itself will “be gone.”

With its destruction of water aquifers, rivers, streams, and wells nationwide, the unregulated boom in fracking, a form of gas drilling, is covered in Fox’s award-winning film, Gasland, which recently won the Yoko Ono Peace prize. Now in thirty-four states and coming to New York and the northeast, fracking, which uses Halliburton produced cement casings, was deregulated by Dick Cheney, in the Halliburton Loophole. In addition to water, it pollutes the air as well as using agricultural land formerly used for food production.

For fast and easy action alerts for environment, health, food, and regulation of toxic chemicals, sign up for me action alert ezine.

Admittedly, none of the valuable suggestions that Professor Ingraffea, (who is the Dwight Baum, Professor of Engineering at Cornell), offers in this letter are routine gas company practices. They fully resist such measures. Still, citizens of states where fracking is pending or present, would be well-advised to read Ingraffea’s letter to learn what they are in for, should fracking proceed:

Dear Citizens:

We are writing to ask your permission to develop shale gas in your states using high-volume, slickwater, hydraulic fracturing from long horizontal well legs (HVSHF).

Although you have allowed us to produce oil and gas for many years, we recognize that we are now asking you to allow us to do much more intense development than ever before, using a technology never before used in your area. We acknowledge our development plan for your states might eventually involve over 400,000 wells alone, with thousands more in other shales, and be valued in the trillions of dollars, over decades to come.

We have seen how such intense development with this technology has caused problems where we are using it already in gas shales. We have listened closely to your concerns about these problems, and others on the horizon, so we are writing you now to make a compact with you. We understand that you are granting us a privilege, that, collectively, all of you have to give us the right to develop your gas, because, quite honestly, our plans will significantly affect all of you, not just landowners with whom we might have a business relationship.

Therefore, if you give us the permission we seek, here are our promises to you:

1. Since we will not be developing in your area for another 2-3 years, we have time to help you prepare for our arrival:

* We will immediately fund appropriate training programs in your community colleges to produce homegrown workers for our industry. We will subsidize tuition for the students who commit to work in our industry. Those workers will get right-of-first-refusal on our job openings.

* We will immediately fund appropriate training programs for your emergency response teams–fire, police, medical, and spill hazards--and we will equip them at our expense.

* We recognize that our heavy equipment will damage many of your roads and bridges. We will start now to pay to upgrade these so that they all remain usable not just by our equipment, but by you, too, throughout the development process. This will be a “stimulus” to help your unemployment situation now. When development is complete in an area, we will pay for final repairs necessary to leave all impacted roads and bridges in state-of-the-art condition. This will be a legacy gift to you from our industry.

* We will fund the construction or upgrading of regional industrial waste treatment and disposal facilities with adequate capacity to process safely all of the solid and liquid wastes we produce. We will not truck our wastes to other states.

2. We will be transparent about our entire plan for development:

* We will tell you as soon as practicable, but no later than 1 year before start of activity, where and when we will drill, and what pipelines and compressor stations will be needed where and by when.

* We will publish gas and waste production figures from every well, accurately, and on-time.

* We will tell you where your gas is going to market, and not sell your gas to foreign markets.

* We will disclose, completely, all chemicals and other substances we use.

3. We will accept, without debate, all new regulations that might be proposed by your regulatory agencies: your existing regulations are inadequate to cover the new technologies and cumulative impact of HVSHF. We will offer your agencies suggestions for continuous evolution of the regulations as a result of lessons we are learning.

4. With respect to your natural environment legacy:

* For every tree we uproot, we will plant at least 1 replacement. We will reforest all access roads as quickly as we can, and minimize the width of all forest cuts.

* We will pay a fair price for the water we extract from your lakes and rivers, which will average several million gallons per gas well.
* Whatever we break, despoil, or pollute, we will repair, replace, or remediate, at our expense.

5. We will safely dispose of all liquid and solid wastes from our development:

* We will never store any flowback fluids or produced water in
open pits. All such fluids will be recycled to the highest extent
possible by existing technologies, regardless of increase in
cost to us.

* All liquid and solid wastes remaining from recycling will be
treated at the above-mentioned industrial waste treatment plants.

* We will provide radiation monitoring equipment on every well
pad: any materials, including drill cuttings, leaving a well pad
that trigger an alarm will be sent to a licensed radioactive waste
disposal facility.

6. We will not cause an increase in the tax levy on your citizens.

* We will agree to a substantial increase in permit fees to reflect
the expected 4-fold increase in person-time we expect you to
spend on review of permits for HVSHF.

* We will agree to a state severance tax, the level of which will
be floating, according to an accurate accounting of all costs
to the state and municipalities.

7. We will practice what we preach about clean fuels and emissions:

* Every truck, every generator, every pump, every compressor
will run on natural gas–no diesel, no gasoline engines.

* We will not allow uncaptured gaseous emissions from any
of our processes: no evaporation from open pits, no pressure
releases from compressor stations or condensate tanks.

8. We will be sensitive to noise and light pollution, even if a community
does not have zoning restrictions in place to regulate such:

* All of our pads and compressor stations will have
sound/light suppression measures in place before startup.

* Site drill pads, compressor stations, and pipelines in
collaboration with the community.

9. We will not unduly stress any of your communities:

* We will never experiment with drilling many wells in a small
area over a brief period of time.

* We will abide by all area and time restrictions on permitting.

* We will never contest loss of water use by any citizen. If a
well is lost, we will replace it with whatever type of supply is
requested by its owner at our expense.

* We will never require a citizen harmed by our development to
promise silence in return for remediation.

Finally, and humbly, we note that even our best plans and efforts will come up short, sometime, someplace, somehow. Therefore, in addition to all the contributions noted above, we also pledge to establish an escrow account which will receive 1% of the value of all gas produced from shale gas wells using HVSHF each year. This account will be administered by an independent 3rd party, advised by an independent panel you select, and will be used as an emergency fund to compensate those financially or physically harmed by our development in your state.

Yours truly,
The Gas Industry

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Gosh, that’s a pretty thorough letter. Too bad they’ve never written one like it. But what if they did? How should citizens respond? Would fracking be safe enough to consider if we all woke up one day, and (surprise) all of these measures were guaranteed to be implemented?

Well, Professor Ingraffea has a draft response. Here it is:

Dear Gas Industry

We have observed, calculated, thought, done the science, and we have concluded that
even “doing it right” is wrong.

No thanks.

The Citizens who live over the Marcellus Shale

As election day approaches, do you know where your elected officials or candidates for public office stand on gas drilling in your state?

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