Comments on: Wastewater Well in Ohio Triggered 11 (or more) Earthquakes

By: Blakeslee

Blakeslee — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:50:09 +0000

Wind power generator installation would do similar damage to roads, since they require heavy construction equipment. More damage would be done to the land, since wind generation requires much more acreage than drilling pads. Then add the overhead power lines collecting the electricity to the damage assessment.

While drilling does have its costs, mostly temporary during the drilling process, fracking per se has not been particularly troublesome, although environmental radicals have managed to make it much more important in the public mind than the evidence justifies. That will change as the truth comes out.

By: Duane Nichols

Duane Nichols — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:40:20 +0000

I believe that a reasoned examination of the damages already done to the land, roads, water systems and air quality in West Virginia by Marcellus drilling and fracking provides ample justification for a moratorium. The State of New York readily recognized this. The people living in the Delaware valley recognize this to be true. Ohio is substantially divided over this question. It has noting to do with wind mills or solar power. If such drilling and fracking are justified, it should only be done under the strictest regulations and controls. D.G.N.

By: Blakeslee

Blakeslee — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:58:53 +0000

There are 80 documented fatalities from windmill power generation:

http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/accidents.pdf

Some solar power devices are killing people:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=explosive-gas-silane-used-to-make-photovoltaics

Why aren’t the advocates of a moratorium on “fracking” also calling for a moratorium on solar and wind power generation?

By: cindy rank

cindy rank — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:51:52 +0000

As the vice-president of Ohio Oil and Gas Association said, such wells may “have been used safely and reliably as a disposal method for wastewater from oil and gas operations in the U.S. since the 1930s,” but as is the case with recent horizontal drilling and the amounts of water and pressure needed to frack the wells and the amount of waste water to be dealt with — not to mention the size and impacts from todays mammoth coal mines (mountaintop removal type strip mines and large longwall underground mine operations) — it’s all a matter of scale…….

And the scale of these operations has overwhelmed the controls and regulations currently in place to maintain them as safe and environmentally sound projects. … They may not all fail, but enough ‘accidents’ and disruptive events have happened coincidental to these operations that continuing to drill full speed ahead is hardly a wise course to follow.

Thank you all for adding your thoughtful commentaries to the news of these important happenings.