Interested in learning more? NEOGAP and OAPE (Ohioans for People and the Enviroment) have created a video that is an overview of the fracking problem and the democracy solution. View it at http://vimeo.com/27156186. To find out what our congregations specifically are doing around fracking, please visit the congregational events page.
Anti-Fracking Alert
by Ron Prosek
As you may know from the UU WORLD, Tim De Christopher, a member of First UU Church of Salt Lake City was charged with a federal crime for peacefully, and non-violently blocking an auction of some federal land to be sold for oil and gas drilling in December 2008. Last week, Tim was sentenced to two years in prison, even thought the auction that he disrupted was later found to have been illegal in the first place. Upon sentencing, Tim asked not for mercy but for commitment--commitment to the cause of preventing the hydrocarbon industry from destroying our planet. Here in Ohio, the hydrocarbon industry's most recent threat has taken the form of the fracking of deep shale. This is a risky and intensive extractive process that threatens Ohio's sources of drinking water, and our air and soil as well.
Ron Prosek is the Vice-President of NEOGAP (Network for Oil & Gas Accountability and Protection). He is also an active member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirtland, Ohio.
Since 2008, NEOGAP has been working to make the drilling of conventional oil and gas wells safer in Ohio. Recently, however, a new type of drilling has begun—the drilling into deep shales. This is far riskier to health and safety than conventional drilling. Recently our organization joined with 30 other environmental groups in signing a letter to Governor Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly to enact a moratorium on "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled deep shales).
Fracking fluids injected under high pressure into these deep wells pose many threats to the environment including water pollution, air pollution, and soil contamination. Much of the fluid flows back out of the wells bringing to the surface not only the toxic fracking fluids but also extremely salty brine water (four times saltier than sea water) and radioactive materials. Of course, with any oil or gas well, there are always the dangers of a well blowout or a fire.
In spite of the industry's claim that fracking is safe, there have been many accidents, including all of those mentioned above. There have been many documented cases of water wells going dry or being polluted and rendered unusable due to nearby oil and gas drilling operations. Farm animals have been sickened and died and a number of people have been made ill. In 2009, a well worker died from out-gassing of hydrogen sulfide from a well in Guernsey County.
The drilling of deep shales has already been underway in New York State, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The process is now coming to Ohio. Seventy-two permits have already been issued for deep shale wells in Ohio, and two wells have already been drilled. Large energy companies like Chesapeake have been flooding Ohio with landmen who are securing leases all over the state, especially in the eastern half.
Unitarian Universalists and all faith communities should be concerned about this. Recently many of our congregations observed Earth Day with a focus on water. Our concern about water, among other concerns, should move us to act to stop fracking until it is made far safer than it is now. A number of UUs in New York and Pennsylvania have been active on this issue, including Rev. Nate Walker in Pennsylvania and Rev. Dick Gilbert in upstate New York.
Ted Voneida of the Kent, Ohio U.U. Church (and of the Kent Environmental Council) is working with us on our state-wide anti-fracking campaign. Ted and I have decided to work together to alert our congregations in the Ohio Meadville District about this threat. The three states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are among the prime targets for lease signers right now. This is precisely OMD territory.
Church properties (of all denominations) are among the most heavily targeted lands for leasing by energy companies because they often have large acreage that makes assembling a drilling unit easier. We need to: (1) make sure that congregations do NOT sign any leases on their parish property for oil and gas drilling and (2) make sure that individual members of our congregations are fully aware of the dangers to their own land should they sign such a lease. Please visit our website for more detailed information on fracking: http://www.neogap.org
Finally, I ask congregants and ministers in our Ohio Meadville District to take an active role on this issue in your church and in your community. Help spread the word. You can begin by becoming informed yourself by visiting our website. Then talk to folks, and warn them not to be taken in by landmen who often use unscrupulous methods to sign leases. Also, please bear in mind that no matter how well you think you may have negotiated a lease, in the end, a lease is just a piece of paper. In many instances, drillers have ignored provisions in leases and have challenged landowners to undertake prohibitively expensive litigation. Also, if something goes wrong with a well on your land, a lease won't protect your health or safety or the health and safety of your neighbors.
5/11
