‘Nowhere safe left to live’
Eleven-year-old Violet Hansen, a resident of Rosendale, was the show-stopper. “Many people think kids don’t pay attention to what’s going on. We’re not stupid just because we’re young,” she said. After listing some of the states where fracking is done, causing “water faucets to catch on fire and houses to explode,” Hansen said she was “scared” and “angry.” “New York State is so beautiful. Why ruin it? If fracking happens by the time I have children, there will be nowhere left safe to live. Animals won’t survive and plants will die. Then will the economy even matter?”
When calling for a short break more than midway through the hearing, Bernardo noted that Hansen should definitely “run for class president.”
Marbletown resident Patricia Anderson said the U.S. House of Representatives, after conducting an investigation into the chemicals used in drilling, acknowledged that the companies were injecting fluids into the ground whose potential risks they little understood. The House found that “more than 650 of the products used in hydro-fracking contained chemicals which are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. But hydrofracking is exempt from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, so they had no authority to restrict this use,” she said. “They also found that 279 of these compound products contained at least one component listed as ‘proprietary’ or ‘trade secret’ posing an unknown risk to human health and the environment.
“The U.S. Congress knows this stuff is toxic and can do nothing about it,” said Anderson. “You, our county representatives, are our last line of defense against this poison.”
Bernardo noted that legislature is accepting written comments on the proposed law until 5 pm on Friday, April 27. The legislature’s laws and rules and environmental committees will then meet to bring the vote to the full legislature.
Wishnick said afterwards the committees will be addressing several issues, including the nature of the penalties on ban violators and type of brine to be banned. He also said he planned to suggest that the legislature approach the state Department of Transportation to seek local approval prior to using production brine to de-ice state roads in the county. If the changes to the proposed law are substantial, a second hearing would be held.
