How Fracked is my Valley

"Once there were green fields kissed by the sun,

 Once there were valleys where rivers used to run;"

The paraphrased title of this piece is borrowed from a novel, the verse from a popular song from my era by The Brothers Four but the theme common to both is a nostalgic look back at what once was but can no longer be, a theme I fear could well become the case for the Los Alamos Valley/San Antonio Creek basin area if those who live here do not gain control of its destiny.

But how fracked is  my valley?   

At a recent information-gathering/disseminating meeting held in Los Alamos on July 18 it became evident that my valley and your valley is fracked far more than we knew. And there was nothing to suggest that it won't continue. In a gathering of ranchers and townspeople and county officials and one or two oilmen we learned what legislation is currently in place regarding fracking specifically (almost none), what legislation is being proposed statewide and nationally, and what may or may not be accomplished with it.

But the elephant in the room was illustrated by the evident frustration of ranchers and landowners who represent the first line of direct contact with fracking, and it was a lack of control. It was the inability to stop oil companies from coming onto their land and pumping harmful chemicals deep into it. It was the inability to learn precisely which chemicals are being pumped into the earth and what health risks they might pose. It was the inability to safeguard their own lands from human error during well construction or chemical transporting or polluted water dumping. 

As the oil companies like to point out, fracking is not a new process, used in some cases as long ago as the forties. Modern fracking - utilizing horizontal drilling, placing explosive charges  deep in the earth, and injecting pressurized propant and chemicals to assist flow, is newer, but has been utilized in Marcellus Shale back east for a number of years, and in Europe. Before moving down to the Santa maria River valley and then to Los Alamos, fracking Monterey Shale was begun in Monterey County amid protest. 

The point is, it should not have come as a surprise to us and to county leaders. Safety lies in awareness and autonomous action. To those who expected the oil companies to take a reasonable and empathetic approach to landowners, to involve them in decision making or to voluntarily discuss the chemicals to be used, or to delay exploratory drilling or fracking until essential questions could be answered, the evidence is to the contrary. The website FracFocus.org is a voluntary registry of chemicals used in fracturing procedures by oil companies across the U.S. There are many oil companies registered but Venoco and other players in Santa Barbara County are not.  

We can wait; we can wait to see if Congress will pass a bill to force oil companies to reveal fracking propant ingredients, we can wait to see if local and state legislators will tighten fracking laws, we can wait to see if oversight is truly present, we can wait to see if the oil companies' claims of safe drilling and chemical containment are accurate, we can wait to see if pressured toxins forced deep into the earth will find their way to the surface eventually.

Or we can act now, before our valley is no longer green, before the water in the San Antonio Ground Water Aquifer becomes contaminated, to attempt to ensure that control of the future of this valley is in the hands of those that live here, not those who come to exploit the local resources and then move on. 

The answer lies is in every voice, every telephone call, every question, every meeting attended. Let's begin with the Board of Supervisors meeting on August 2.