Natural gas is widely touted as a ‘green fuel’. But as Paul Thacker found in Colorado, fracking’s national ‘ground zero’, it’s anything but. Lives and health are being ruined by pollution from taxpayer-subsidized gas wells, flaring and refining plants, while property values collapse. Now a mass of environmental refugees are fleeing the ravaged state.
They sign nondisclosure forms or move away. Very few win lawsuits. Some sign gag orders, but more just move away, lose everything, and marriages crumble.
A general contractor in Colorado’s Grand Valley, Duke Cox says the first time he became aware that drilling for gas might be a problem was back in the early 2000s when he happened to attend a local public hearing on oil and gas development.
A woman who came to testify began sobbing as she talked about the gas rigs that were making the air around her home impossible to breathe.
“There were 17 rigs in the area, at that time”, Cox says. “And they were across the valley, so I wasn’t affected. But she was my neighbor.”
The incident led Cox to join the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, a group of activists concerned about drilling policies in his area on Colorado’s Western Slope. Within months he became the group’s President and public face.
And as fracking for gas became more common across the state, he has found more and more of his time taken up with the cause. “We are ground zero for natural gas and fracking in this country”, he says.
His claim is not hyperbole in many respects.Scientists in Colorado are publishing alarming studies that show gas wells harm those living in close proximity, and dozens of stories stretching back over a decade have documented the ill effects of natural gas drilling on Colorado’s citizens.
In response to public unease, the state has created a system to report complaints of oil and gas health effects. The subject has become so acute that it consumes Colorado’s politicians and electorate, who have been squaring off on multiple ballot initiatives to limit where companies can drill, in order to provide a buffer between gas wells and people’s homes.
Thanks to ECOLOGIST
