Cabot has been a naughty boy again. He will have to stand in the corner once more for fibbing. The shale gas magnate has been buying full-page ads in local newspapers touting the safety of fracking fluid.
The ads depict a pie chart showing the composition of frack fluid to be 99 percent clean water and ordinary sand, plus 1 percent of “household” chemicals.
Why it almost sounds like a day at the beach, Cabot's Beach. But if there were a Cabot's Beach, it would be fenced off with warning signs: “Danger Keep Out. Contact With Water or Sand Is Hazardous.”
But what could be harmful about sand? Plenty.
Fracking requires silica sand. Ordinarily Silica sand grains are clumped together making them heavy and resistant to being windblown. But mining and processing reduces much of its grain size to a fine powder.
These tiny grains can be respirated deep into the lungs where they can cause silicosis. Silicosis is an inflammation of the lungs that causes irreversible damage to the breathing organs. Imbedded specks of silica act like tiny shards of glass cutting and irritating lung tissue. There is no treatment for this condition; it is permanent and lifelong.
Some particles of silica are so small that they can pass through the lungs into the blood stream. Here they can cause heart problems. But that's the least of it.
Silica is classified as a carcinogen and there's a lot of it blowing in the wind.
Up to 5 million pounds of silica sand is used to frack a gas well. To see startling footage of a silica cloud shrouding workers at a drill site and going downwind to blanket private residences view Youtube: AMBA0331.
The most harmful particles of this sand are too small to be visible. They can remain airborne for a long time and over long distances. A person downwind from a frack site may inhale them and not even be aware of it.
Health problems linked to respirable silica may not become apparent for years. When they do, it's too late.
For these reasons the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has recommended that all hydraulic fracturing sites that use silica sand implement safety procedures to protect the workers.
What about that sliver of chemicals, that 1 percent. We'll have to take the gas company's word that it is indeed only 1 percent. After all, they're on the honor system---just like West Point. All infractions are self-reported. So putting cynicism aside, we'll go with the 1 percent.
Cabot says many of these additives are ordinary “household products.” All right, let's take them up at that. Think about that cabinet of chemical horrors under your kitchen sink. Pour a cup of water. Prepare a mixture of these under-the-sink products. Pour slightly less than one-half teaspoon of this into the cup of water---that's 1 percent by volume---stir well and cheers. Well, maybe not.
Formaldehyde, battery acid, as well as dozens of other chemicals with unpronounceable names are in a fracking recipe and you won't find them under your sink. The most lethal are derivatives of petroleum; they contain the Class A carcinogen, benzene.
Benzene is so potent that the EPA standards for drinking water is a maximum of 5 parts per billion. At a ratio of 6 parts per billion the water is unpotable. At this ratio a microscopic 1/50,000th of a single drop of benzene would render one cup of water undrinkable.
Fracking fluid should not even come into contact with skin, as skin is an absorbent tissue.
Lastly, what about the water at Cabot's Beach?
An average well uses 5 million gallons of water. One percent of this---the amount of chemicals used---is 50,000 gallons of chemicals. This is more than enough to turn the entire 5 million gallons into a polluted, slimy lake. You wouldn't want to swim in Cabot's water and neither would Cabot.
Oh, Yes. If you happen to be on or near Cabot's Beach, it's best to keep breathing to an absolute minimum.
Sincerely,
Bob Scroggins
New Milford, PA