HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0421.055 2012-2014 September 17,2013
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Aloha Council Members, -j
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I am testifying in support of Bill 129 and opposing geothermal tracking. -0
In 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney chaired President Bush's Energy Policy Task Force, whic '
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recommended tracking be excluded from federal oversight under the Safe Drinking Water Act ofN
1974, thus exempting corporations from revealing the chemicals used in franking fluid. Somehow
the tracking industry also managed to be exempt from The Clean Air Act,the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Toxic Release Inventory.
Fracking on the mainland has resulted in contamination of nearby streams and wells. In some
communities people are able to fight the water coming out of their faucets on fire — because
chemicals from the natural gas drilling process had seeped into the water. I have seen this in
documentaries in numerous areas.
In and around Youngstown, Ohio,a single tracking wastewater well triggered 167 earthquakes
during a single year of operation. That's according to a study published in the Journal of
Geophysical Research.
Why some injection wells cause earthquakes and others don't is unclear. It is hypothesized that
quakes occur when a"suitably oriented"fault lies near an injection site.
Geothermal tracking is called enhanced geothermal system. In Basel, Switzerland it was done on
a known seismic fault and it generated earthquakes that reportedly caused millions of euros in
damage to local infrastructure. The project was cancelled in 2009.
The earthquake potential is more of a concern for geothermal tracking than for gas(racking, due to
the ongoing nature of the technology. The natural gas industrial enters a site,tracks for the resource
and moves on.
Geothermal development on this island has already caused numerous problems and should not be
done dose to residential areas. Now it is being proposed to expand geothermal to provide
electricity to Oahu via undersea cables between the islands.This is a high tech approach of
prohibitive cost, and an un-ecologically sound, crazy idea, especially in these financially unstable
times.
If one wants safe, abundant, efficient energy sources, build out local solar. All wells WILL fail given
a long enough time,and whatever is"down there"will get into the aquifer. Solar and wind have
NONE of these risks. If something happens you can get to the problem area.The same can not be
said for well drilling and rock that is split There is no putting the genie back in the bottle...
All across the United States, the well being of citizens is being disrupted by the(racking industry
industrialization and contamination of our countryside. Do not support that happening here.
Mary Marvin Porter
Island Eyes Video
Keaau, Hawaii 96749 a/. 5-5.Comm. No.,_ _
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