Dear Editor,
Soon after the historic Fayette County Ordinance banning industrial waste disposal passed, EQT, a large fracking concern that we were unaware was also using Fayette County as a dump, filed the inevitable injunction against the ban’s enforcement. This action automatically stops the County’s Cease and Desist Order that was filed against all industrial waste-dumping operations there.
Like every rampant polluter, EQT cites jobs as a reason to take away our health. However, at the January 19 filing, EQT admitted that, in the whole of Southern West Virginia, they only employ eight people!
As the rest of the nation succumbs to drought and urban sprawl, wild, water-rich West Virginia increases in economic potential. Are a few short-lived jobs worth our lives and future economy? Imagine, if Isis were poisoning the air and water and destroying our land as these corporations do, would we call it jobs and allow it?”
Now there is more news: the only other frack waste injection well in WV whose injectate has been tested for radioactivity is in Ritchie County, operated by Hall Drilling. As with the Fayette wells, radioactivity in the Ritchie well’s injectate is extremely high.
While these wells continue to be permitted by the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection, this agency has just admitted that, like those in Fayette County, the Ritchie County well is also leaking. By law, these leaks should have automatically suspended the permits and initiated investigations, but none of this has happened!
Your input to officials and the media is extremely important, the legal process is not over. Just as in the passing of the waste-ban ordinance, you can protect this ban in court. Your voices win the day!
When all else is said, however, please remember that the WV Mountain Party collected the information, wrote the petition for the ban and drafted the original version of this excellent ordinance. They will continue to work with you in this, and similar, fights. They need your support at the polls. Winning or not, votes significantly increase Mountain Party effectiveness! (see mountainpartywv.com)
Dan Lutz
Economic Justice Chair
WV Mountain Party