I am so tired of hearing the claims from the oil and gas industry that fracking has been going on for years and is thus safe.
Hydraulic fracturing of shale with water to remove gas does indeed date back to the 1940s. However, this new type of slick water, horizontal, multi-pad injection fracking used today is no more than 10 or 15 years in age and is largely still experimental.
We are essentially guinea pigs for the industry. Now, we are talking about tens of thousands of horsepower, millions upon millions of gallons of our water, and a cocktail of hundreds of chemicals, some of them undisclosed, being injected repeatedly, day and night, below our water table.
Comparing modern fracking with the type done decades ago is like
comparing Boeing with the Wright brothers.
Then there is the argument that the chemicals they use are no different from the everyday household chemicals we have in our kitchens and bathrooms that can easily be found in deodorant, shampoo, antifreeze, black olives and even laxatives.
Please do not insult our intelligence. We do not use thousands of gallons of deodorant every single day, our radiators cannot hold thousands of gallons of antifreeze, our black olives do not contain thousands of gallons of concentrated hydrochloric acid injected into the jar at breakneck speed, and God forbid we will ever need thousands of gallons of laxatives!
Ohio is putting the cart in front of the horse with this rapid development of fracking, and I fear we may pay greatly for it as our neighbors in Pennsylvania are.