Contact NPR to tell them what you think of their recent natural gas drilling coverage. Here’s a response from a Shaleshock member:

Like many in my Upstate New York community, I am incredibly disappointed with your one-sided coverage of horizontal natural gas drilling. Horizontal fracturing of shale deposits requires millions of gallons of water over the 30-year life of each well, there could be thousands of wells in each county, and this water will deplete and then pollute local water supplies. When the water is pumped into the ground to break apart and release the gas from the shale, the water includes dozens of harmful chemicals, the exact composition of which the natural gas industry claims it does not have to make available to the public. When the chemically-laden fracking fluid is pumped back up to the surface, it is stored in lined pools or trucked to treatment facilities. If you had checked with landowners in other states like Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania, you would have learned that leaks and spills occur frequently and with little oversight or penalties from over-stretched state EPA officials. Horizontal natural gas wells are poisoning homeowners’ drinking water wells and land. Hydro-fracturing enjoys exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Right-to-Know Act. This is unacceptable.

Martha Stettinius
Ithaca