Editor:
The column “The potentially irreparable damage of fracking,” Aug. 2, by Pat Mulligan, hit right where it hurts most, the probable truth.
I spent my working career in the water treatment protection field and have been following fracking in the media. What I see and hear has been disturbing. We simply don’t know what the long term effect will be from the fracturing of shale deposits thousands of feet below the water table. Once the fracking fluid is injected, we no longer have control. Should the chemicals appear at some future time in well water supplies, there is virtually nothing that we can do economically to get them out. It is just too expensive.
Early in my career I was working for the state, principal public health engineer, stream pollution control. Assistance was requested by a local health officer in the northern part of New Jersey. He was getting E.coli readings from water samples sent in from a new development. Investigation revealed that many homes in the development were located on shale. Each home was served by its own 100-foot deep well and individual septic system, which resulted in recycling waste water into the well system.
The energy companies are presenting a rosy picture and appear to have very little opposition. Probably the least what should be done now is monitoring of water supplies in those areas where fracking has been done.
Frederick Neff
Millville