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Health Risks Are Real

I’m writing in support of the Madison fracking waste ordinance. This isn’t a referendum on fracking. It’s simply an effort to ban the toxic, radioactive wastes from our town. The wastes can turn up in road deicing solutions and in construction fill and products, for which there’s little oversight or disclosure requirement. The health risks are real and remediation can be extremely expensive.

In his March 1 letter “Alert the Community,” Bob Roxbrough suggested that our selectmen and 34 other towns had been duped into adopting ordinances to ban oil and gas extraction wastes that pose no danger. He referenced fracfocus.org, a website where the industry discloses chemicals used in fracking wells. Unfortunately, companies aren’t forced to list all the chemicals used; they’re often proprietary. Furthermore, the chemicals injected into the ground aren’t the only substances that come back up, including radioactive radium. Much information has been gleaned through studies analyzing both the wastes and their health effects, studies completed at institutions such as Yale, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Duke. I encourage Mr. Roxbrough and your readers to visit www.concernedhealthny.org/Compendium. The inability of many communities across the country to drink their local water due to contamination from fracking wastes is also well known.

On Monday, March 26 there will be a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. before the selectmen vote on the ordinance, which can be found at www.madisonct.org/888/Ordinances—-Not-Yet-Approved. Unfortunately, a change made to the original ordinance prohibitions would allow Department of Energy & Environmental Protection-approved wastes in our town; this needs to be reversed.

I encourage your readers to review this ordinance, to view Jen Siskind’s presentation on Madison TV Channel 18 or her shorter presentation from the Dec. 18, 2017 Board of Selectmen meeting at MadisonTV.org on YouTube, and come to the public hearing on March 26.

Susan Glantz

Madison