Dear Editor

In the commentary article by Mr. Chris Faulkner, “Fracking will improve, not hurt public health” (Oct. 16-22) Mr. Faulkner asserts that fracking is “a drilling technique that actually lessened the harmful health impacts of the energy industry by reducing our reliance on coal.”

Fracking, Mr. Faulkner says, has given us renewed access to natural gas which emits less carbon pollutants than coal does. This assertion, by the CEO Breitling Energy Corporation, is misleading and leads to a false conclusion. Consider the following facts before accepting Mr. Faulkner’s statement as factual or his authority to make such a claim:

--While it burns cleaner, natural gas emits carbon and created a fifth of energy-related U.S. carbon emissions in 2008. It is not a clean energy.

--Unlike coal, its production emits large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon diozide.

--Fracking requires an abundance of water to unlock gas and oil from shale formations.Thus, fracking and its dark cousins, gravel packing and acidization are a threat to precious water resources across the state of California.

--The World Resources Institute notes that gas deposits “sit atop acqifers that are being withdrawn at rates that far exceed their natural recharge rate.” Further, WRI notes, the fracking process involves injection into the shale of millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand that “can use nearly 100 per cent of a local water supply.

-- The disposal of this contaminated water is also a gigantic problem; the reinjection and underground storage of this contaminated water can end up drifting into clean water aquifers, poisoning them. Unfortunately, fracking into underground waters is not prohibited by the 2005 Safe Drinking Water Act. In Pennsylvania the Associated Press reported 300 complaints alleging negative effects on private water wells. In 2013 in California our aquifers are already being rapidly depleted of potable water In the midst of our drought. Do we want to risk losing them altogether?

--Water wells near natural gas production sites are more likely to contain explosive methane. We’ve all seen the film of water flowing from taps in Parker County, Texas, a fracking site, that can be lit afire.

-- In 2010-2011 the Inglewood Oil Field, part of which lies in Culver City, used 247,251, 796 barrels of water.

Natural gas has a place in the mix of U.S. fuels, but if it is extracted and produced at the cost of serious public health problems such as poisoning potable water supplies or creating other unsafe conditions such as dangers of explosions or earthquakes, common sense tells us to leave the gas in the ground.

Bruce Lebedoff Anders

Culver City