Letters: Why the rush on fracking?
Re “Coalition asks Brown to halt fracking in California,” Aug. 29
Gov. Jerry Brown implies that California needs the money fracking would provide as much as it needs environmental protection.
What California depends on is water. We all need water, and each fracking well consumes millions of gallons of that precious stuff, never to be reclaimed. You can’t purify the chemicals out or flush out the aquifer if an earthquake cracks a shaft and the chemical mixture drains into the groundwater.
We are deep into drought. The water California has relied on will be even more fought over. Throwing it down oil wells to get money now ignores how much we will have to spend to live with the consequences.
Suvan Geer
Santa Ana
Most Californians agree that getting fracking right is of far greater value than getting it fast. Haste makes waste of several sorts — of time, money and the health of workers and “downstreamers” such as small towns whose sewage treatment plants are incapable of dealing with fracking fluid (and what’s in that stuff anyway?).
My personal take on fracking and other major extraction efforts is that in light of the fact that fossil fuel reserves are already several times what the planet can stand to burn, it’s time to get off these carbon drugs.
Robert Siebert
Orange
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