I took my petitions to the Music on the Muskegon program on Oct. 3 and was surprised to find that very few Ferris State students even knew what fracking is. Since fracking is in a very real sense a threat to our planet, I want to urge Ferris students to learn about it and hopefully, help ban it.
Fracking, or “high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing” is an amazing technological process where oil and gas can be released from deep shale and other rock formations, by the injection of huge amounts of chemical laden water and brought to the surface to be sold to the highest bidder.
As wonderful as that sounds, there is a big downside and it is that fracking may cause massive water pollution. In the first place, frack wells can use from 20 to 35 million gallons of our pristine water. Sand and up to 175,000 gallons of toxic, cancer- and birth-defect causing chemicals are added to it. This mixture is forced into the ground where it breaks up oil/gas bearing rock and releases them.
The problem, of course, is that most of the millions of gallons of poisonous water from each well is left in the Earth. The gas/oil companies and even Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) want us to believe that the water is deep enough that it cannot cause any harm. The DEQ even allows other states to dispose of their fracking waste water in Michigan’s injection wells!
If you believe the gas/oil companies and the politicians, then do nothing. But if you believe that there is no way that the deadly water is going to just sit there and not eventually follow a crack or a fissure or fault line or be forced by internal pressures toward our wells, lakes and streams, then please join us in the battle to ban fracking. Please look for a petition to sign or better yet, sign up as a volunteer to help.
Get informed. Once that toxic water is in the ground, the only way out is through your faucet. Check out our web site [http://www.letsbanfracking.org].