Fracking creates risk for water supplies

Fracking creates risk for water supplies

Katie Brown, an employed advocate for the fossil fuel industry, says fracking will pose no risk to our national forest. She is right that a direct causal link between the millions of gallons of toxic water injected into the earth and the damage caused to nearby household wells is not always definitive. The underground movement of fluids can be hard to predict, especially over time.

But fracking operates with a pass from the pollution regulations in the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. The Colorado School of Public Health found that air pollution from wellheads killed nearby sheep, that workers splashed with the undisclosed toxic injection fluids had to be admitted to the hospital, and a nurse who treated them rushed to the ER with organ damage the next day.

Fracking’s water requirements also create risk. Each fracked well requires 2 million to 10 million gallons of clean water. After several years of fracking operations, a town in Texas was left with no household well water.

Everything we do has risks. The risks of fracking include hastening the effects of climate change. Do these risks outweigh the benefit of having a little more natural gas?

JANE TWITMYER
VIENNA

Rescued by a random act of gallantry

Driving back to Salem last week from Christiansburg, where I see patients on Wednesdays, I ran out of gas in terrible traffic on U.S. 460. I pulled off the road, put on my emergency flashers and waited for help.

Many, many people drove by, but finally two wonderful gentlemen from the Roanoke Valley stopped to see what was wrong. They drove farther north and bought gas (and a gas can) and came back to put it in my car.

There truly are Virginia cavaliers, and they do not all go to UVa.

Thank you very, very much.

DR. MAYDA NEL STRONG
SALEM

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