Citizens concerned as Governor Hogan pushes to pass fracking in Maryland, and begin fracking in western Maryland within the next yearFood & Water Watch, a nationwide non-profit organization, is looking to enforce a long term moratorium on fracking until more research is conducted on the public health concerns. Food & Water Watch conducted a meeting concerning the need to gain support for this moratorium in order to present evidence to our legislators that the citizens of Maryland do not want fracking.
The coordinator of the Baltimore office, Steph Compton reported that, “science shows that fracking threatens the quality of our air, water, and public health. Hundreds of toxic chemicals are used by the fracking industry including known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors,” she goes on saying, “protect Maryland from fracking by supporting the Protect our Health and Communities Act.”
Fracking is an immensely dangerous form of drilling that is injecting millions of toxic chemicals infused with water and sand into a well at an extremely high pressure rate in order to crack open rocks and release natural gases. Fracking is exempt from all federal laws that protect public safety and protect the environment. Fracking is not held accountable for any of the environmental damage they cause, fracking is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.
A Silver Spring resident, Patricia Wintermyer stated, “fracking has been a nightmare for communities living with water contamination, air pollution, fires and they have even caused earthquakes!” she continued as she signed the petition, “I have property in Pennsylvania that I can no longer go to because my water is contaminated and the amount of contaminated waste is ridiculous.”
Fracking has caused detrimental issues to the environment in the past and in is continuing to do so around the United States in many areas two large states being California and Oklahoma. This harmful way of drilling into the ground in order to get natural gas is causing toxic chemical runoffs and air monitoring systems have even found high levels of known carcinogens such as, formaldehyde and benzene near fracking areas.
Pennsylvania has over two hundred cases of water contamination cause by fracking and drilling alone. The next step is to move forward with this moratorium in order to keep fracking out of the gas basins in Maryland. The five gas basins in Maryland are throughout the state but the Marcellus Shale is in Western Maryland and is looking to be fracked first, and then move on to places such as the Chesapeake Bay, the Patuxent and the Potomac Rivers.
Scott Hempling, a enviornmental lawyer who was interested in joining the cause expressed that he believed fracking was wrong but that we as consumers need to do our part as well we cannot continue to forgot to reduce our consumption levels which add to the need for fracking.
SOURCES:
Steph Compton- 410-394-7650
Scott Hempling- shempling@scotthemplinglaw.com
Patricia Wintermyer- pwinty89@gmail.com
Valerie King 