On Wednesday, fracking activists held a fracking water taste test directly in front of the State House to showcase for legislators the threat that fracking poses to drinking water in Maryland. In states like PA and Wyoming, concerned homeowners have pointed to fracking as a cause of drinking water contamination.
Dozens of Marylanders from across the state donned red Fracking Moratorium Now! t-shirts, buttons, and stickers to make sure the issue of fracking was on legislators minds as they headed in for their first day of the 2013 General Assembly session.
To convey the dangers and risks of fracking to Maryland water sources, we had a series of water samples collected from PA and Maryland The first sample was clearly contaminated drinking water taken from an abandoned home near a fracking site in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The previous owners, the McEvoy family, suffered severe health impacts from drinking and bathing in the contaminated water and had to move away. Their community, called the Woodlands area, includes 12 families who are still without a clean water source. Please visit: http://www.marcellusoutreachbutler.org/ for more information.
The second water sample was from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, a county that has experienced impacts involving necessary infrastructure to transport fracked gas, compressor stations and gas pipelines. In 2011, a compressor station exploded in Mann Township, and 150 people were evacuated. Farmers and residents have also claimed that gas pipelines near their property are the cause of water contamination, which has led to severe and sometimes fatal health problems for both humans and livestock.
Samples three and four were from Maryland, the former from the State House in Annapolis and the last from Western Maryland to show what is at risk.
People who were interested in tasting the Pennsylvania water had to sign a liability form stating that they wouldn’t sue us if they got sick as a result. Understandably, no one wanted to try to contaminated water.
Delegate Heather Mizeur addressed the crowd, stressing the importance of not only fracking’s risk to our climate and our health, but also to our economy. As Mizeur says “the environment and the economy in Western Maryland are tied together like a canoe and a paddle”.
This week was a good week for fracktivism in Annapolis! On Monday, twenty-five activists came to Annapolis with 48 hours notice to attend a shale commission meeting and then yesterday’s event was a success! If you are interested in keeping the momentum going, please email your state senator and ask them to support a moratorium on fracking in 2013!
