Quality
of Life is our economic engine here in Fredericton. People are
attracted to our city for its urban forest, its parks and trails, its
universities, clean air, and the lack of pollution
from heavy industry.
Just
last month, in addressing the doctor shortage here in Fredericton, the
President of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, Andrew Steeves,
highlighted the following: “Attracting investment,
entrepreneurs, and talented professionals and skilled trades people is
based largely on the quality of life and amenities a community has to
offer, and excellent healthcare is at the top of the list.”
As a concerned citizen, I want to detail the certainty of air
pollution from shale gas development, and to warn that if is allowed to
proceed in large regions surrounding our city,
there will be a large negative impact on our quality of life here in
the City of Fredericton. We need to impose a ban on shale gas at the
municipal level and then pass resolutions for the Province to do the
same.
Shale
gas development requires the large-scale industrialization of our
farmland, forests, fishing lands, and hunting lands. Distribution
pipelines and compressor stations along the way must
be build to transport the gas to markets. Shale gas development
blankets distant communities downwind with known carcinogens &
asthma-causing smog.
Fredericton will become
a sink for heavier-than-air toxins that travel long distances from
shale gas wells, the diesel emissions from truck traffic, storage tank
emissions, and compressor
stations.
What do all of these chemicals have in common?
They are all heavier-than-air, they all cause cancer, and they all are
found in toxic
levels in the air downwind from shale gas operations. Benzene is one of
the signature gases from drilling sites and compressor stations and
this chemical has been directly linked to various blood cancers
including leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
In
addition, Ozone is created when VOCs mix with heat and sunlight. These
chemicals react with the exhaust fumes from trucks and huge generators
in these operations to form ground-level ozone.
This ozone can travel for over 300 kilometers before settling and
accumulating in low-lying areas, such as the river valley which
Fredericton is located. Saint John, New Brunswick is one of three areas
in Canada that regularly exceed acceptable levels of ozone,
levels established by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the
Environment. Ozone can cause serious health problems in susceptible
persons, especially young children and the elderly.
I want to take a few seconds to paint a picture of what heavier-than-air really means.
Carbon dioxide is heavier than air. That means
it will sink to the floor. Imagine that I have a glass of water on the
table and I drop a piece of dry ice in it. Dry ice is frozen carbon
dioxide. This is the same chemical used for creating fog in theatres
and nightclubs. The carbon dioxide gas created
will then mix with water vapor and pour out of the glass, then drop
down onto to the table, drop down onto the floor, and then spread out
over this entire room. Imagine that these are the volatile organic
compounds and ground-level ozone travelling long distances
before settling in the valley of Fredericton.
Air pollution is a certainty for Fredericton.
New air pollution and health studies provide a clear warning. Taken
individually, any
of these single reports is quite troubling. But when you look at this
new information together, it is truly frightening. The data confirms
that if shale gas operations are allowed to proceed around Fredericton,
that it will be a significant threat to our
human health.
Here are some examples:
(1)
Air pollution from truck traffic alone is extreme. Because of the
immense amount of water used in fracking, “Each well = 1,800 to 2,600
truck drive-bys. An 8-well pad site = 14,400 to
20,800 drive-bys”
(2) Some areas of once pristine, rural Wyoming now have smog levels equal to Los Angeles.
(3)
Oil and gas operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth region emit more
smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than all cars, trucks,
buses and other mobile sources in the area combined.
(4)
Texas hospital records in six counties with some of the heaviest shale
gas drilling, including the Barnett Shale region, found that "children
in the community ages 6-9 are three times
more likely to have asthma than the average for that age group in the
State of Texas."
(5)
Baylor University’s results published in 2009 showed that childhood
asthma rates in the Tarrant County area of the Barnett Shale were more
than double the national average.
(6)
The same six counties in Texas with rising rates of invasive breast
cancer also have the highest count of compressors, separators, tanks and
other above-ground points of emissions. Looking
at the map of 254 counties in Texas, “You will notice that the counties
in which you have heavier drilling activity perfectly matches the jump
in breast cancer rates.”
(7) And a 3-year health study released in March 2012
“calculated
higher cancer risks for residents living nearer to the wells as compared
to those residing further [away]. Benzene is the major contributor to
lifetime excess cancer risk from both scenarios."
(8)
The final and the single-largest health threat is climate change. Our
atmosphere is now moving past 400ppm and our children will see CO2
levels move past 550ppm by 2050. The latest climate
models (March 2012) predict that temperatures could rise by 3*C by
2050, based on mid-range emissions.
For
the future health and security of our children and grandchildren, the
data from climate change scientists, including NASA’s James Hansen,
prove that we must leave coal and unconventionals
such as shale gas in the ground.
So we
really have to ask how we will attract and retain doctors when they find
out Fredericton is surrounded by shale gas licenses.
They
will listen to the facts more than they will gas companies who have
compromising restrictions on the information they release to the public.
They
will listen to the New Brunswickers whose property sales fell through
because the buyers found out that the land is on, or near, shale gas
lease areas. This is already happening in New Brunswick.
And
they will listen to residents here in Fredericton who are voicing
concerns about the health of their children, about the risk of increased
asthma and cancer, about the impact on their property
values, and about their quality of life.
I
appeal to the City's obligation to protect the health of our children, young
people, and the elderly. I appeal to your obligation to protect our
air. I appeal to the City to protect our quality of life
here in Fredericton.
Because
of the certainty of air pollution from shale gas development, the City
of Fredericton has only two choices. (1) Ban shale gas development at
the municipal and Union of the Municipalities
of New Brunswick level in order to put pressure on the provincial
government to do the same or (2) Build a dome over the city. I
believe a ban would be cheaper and more acceptable to the citizens in
this city.
Our group asks City Council to
vote and pass a ban on shale gas development in the City of
Fredericton. We also ask that City Council vote and pass a resolution
asking the Province of New Brunswick and the Union of the
Municipalities of New Brunswick to also ban shale gas development.
And we
would be in good company. Minto, Sackville, Hampton, and Sussex Corner
have already passed a ban or moratorium. And a breathtaking 154
municipalities in New York State have passed a
ban or moratorium(or in the process of doing so).
Thank you.
