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What Degree of Contamination do You Want in Your Drinking Water?

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In an article in today’s Tallahassee Democrat,  Jeff Burlew covers the sad story of the passage of two pro-fracking bills.  The article can be found at this link for the full story, with quotes from OSFR.

Members of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee voted 6-2 along party lines in favor of Senate Bill 1468, which would require the state to adopt rules regulating high-pressure well stimulation, a form of fracking, and Senate Bill 1582, which would create an exemption in public-records laws for chemicals used in fracking. Both bills are sponsored by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, who was out of town at the time of the hearing.

Concerned citizens packed into the hearing room to express concerns that hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, would cause environmental harm to the state’s drinking-water supply by injecting dangerous chemicals into the ground and pose risks to human and animal health.

Jim Tatum, a member of Our Santa Fe River, warned lawmakers that regulations will not stop problems resulting from fracking.

“They will only serve as a guideline to determine how poisoned we want to be,” he said. “We can argue over how contaminated we want our water, and we can sit around in meetings and hearings and negotiate how dead we want our bodies to be. Regulations can be broken with little fear of punishment.”

Saying a little bit of no-no gives a big bit of yes-yes to fracking, and that is what we have here.  Implication is that if we abide by these tiny rules, then fracking is OK.   An added sweet cushion for the industry is the hand-cuffing of local authorities who will not be able to run their own counties and municipalities.

 

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