IS SOMEONE POISONING YOUR WATER?

Take a look!



The arms and legs of a Giant (Halliburton), are wending their way into your community, into your very own backyard, and poisoning your water.

My yard?

The Giant is drilling for natural gas in people's yards in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado, Wyoming, Michigan, in Texas and Louisiana, and preparing to do it in the Catskill/Delaware watershed, which supplies all of New York City and Philadelphia.

Pay attention -- this is serious!

People need money so the Giant is buying permission to use their backyards. It's Halliburton under different names, and various natural-gas drilling companies under different names, buying the right to proceed with "Fracking."

F-r-a-c-k-i-n-g is a petroleum industry technique that pumps large amounts of water, sand, and chemicals underground at high pressure to open fissures that improve the flow of oil and natural gas.

It's Deja Vu -- I'm talking about your yard, not the Gulf!

Mining companies pump water, sand, and a cocktail of noxious chemicals, including benzene and toluene, into the ground until they build up enough pressure to fracture the bedrock and release the gas trapped inside.

And it's poisoning my water?

Yes, people are using bottled water, but they're still getting sick. In Wyoming people are reporting headaches, nausea, itchy skin, dizziness, and difficulty breathing. Again and again tests prove that gas drilling puts contaminants in the air. And even when the readings says that formaldehyde levels, are Hot, red-hot and deadly, they are rationalized away in the company's favor.

You can buy bottled water, sure -- but you can't buy bottles of Evian to maintain a herd of cows.

Furthermore, the natural gas companies have started trucking in workers (off of the rigs in the Gulf), to counter the protests of concerned citizens that are saying no to fracking. Also, the formaldehyde levels in the air and water are regularly underestimated. and home owners are not being fully informed about the dangers of fracking.

Under federal law, companies aren't required to reveal the chemicals they are pumping underground. The only restriction the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) has issued is that frackers cannot use diesel oil. It's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. Thanks to the Bush-Cheney era's accommodating legislation, frackers can use other compounds that have the same toxic chemicals as diesel -- they aren't even required by law to list their toxic ingredients.

Explosions, fires happen. In June, an explosion at a drill site in Pennsylvania spewed 35,000 gallons of fracking fluids onto the ground and into a nearby stream. It took 16 hours to stop the flow.

How do we stop this? What can we do?

Work with Democracy for America, DFA, a watch-dog group founded by Dr. Howard Dean. He's the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and a man the White House trusts.

Contact DFA and sign their petitions.
Dan Mulligan, National Field Organizer
Democracy for America
(802) 651-3200 ext. 115
dmulligan@democracyforamerica.com

Most people don't realize what's happening. I'm a blogger, writing, doing my job . I can't do this myself, but the DFA can -- maybe, just maybe, if we contact them right away -- bring this issue to the national stage.