To the Editor:
(New Hartford, NY – Aug. 2014) Shale gas extraction is the only industry that toxifies trillions of gallons of water with benzene, toluene, glutaraldahyde and other secret chemicals andthen uses “disposal wells” to inject their industrial waste underground in an attempt to remove contaminated water from the hydrologic cycle.
New York state already has such high levels of industrial contamination that the department of health advises that infants, children under the age of 15 and women under age 50 should not eat any fish from many (94 percent of water bodies listed) of New York’s water bodies. See health.ny.gov/publications/2800.pdf.
And if shale gas extraction is safe why does the industry have exemptions from the following protective acts?
* Safe Drinking Water Act
* Clean Water Act
* Clean Air Act
* National Environmental Policy Act
* Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
* Resource Conservation & Recovery Act
* Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
We cannot trust the politicians in Albany to protect us; we must rely on our local laws. The state Supreme Court has upheld towns’ rights to use their local zoning laws to prohibit this extreme industry.
Ask your town board for a ban on shale gas extraction, it is not too late.
Pete Bianco, New Hartford