Dirty Frackin’ in Our Waters

In The Indy’s April 2 article, “Frickin’ Frackin’ Fracas,” the statement “No fracking currently occurs in Santa Barbara County” might be legally true, but it is less accurate in practical terms considering the ways in which we commonly define and perceive the place we call home. Most would probably consider surfing at Haskell’s — where one such injection well is currently active just offshore — to be an activity done within the county, for example.

Here, and in this article, it bears mentioning that several other injection sites are active just off our coast. We must consider that waste water contamination of billions of gallons of high-quality water in California aquifers is already confirmed, and that these fluids have been found to contain levels of benzene up to 700 times the amount allowable by federal standards, as well as many other toxins and pollutants. Of course, injection also plays with the geology in uncertain ways and is known to cause earthquakes.