Letter: New York must ban fracking
Oil field workers drill into the Gypsum Hills near Medicine Lodge, Kan. An emerging oil boom has been sparked by modern technologies using horizontal drilling and a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to coax out oil and gas. The potential production from the Mississippian Lime formation here - and its impact on domestic energy supplies - remains uncertain. But the use of the technology to unlock energy supplies previously unavailable in the United States is now in play in places like Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana (Feb. 21, 2012). Credit: AP
From what has happened in other states, it should be evident that high-volume fracturing to extract natural gas from subsurface shale promises to have disastrous consequences if it is allowed in New York State ["Fighting fracking," News, March 26].
We have been told that fracking will not be permitted in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds. This alone tells us that there are serious concerns that it could contaminate groundwater.
Our elected state officials need to push for legislation to ban fracking. I do not want New York's water to be ruined for my children and grandchildren.
William Coddington, Port Washington
