http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/08/15/nl-fracking-port-au-port-815.html
Posted: Aug 15, 2013 2:40 PM NT Last Updated: Aug 15, 2013 6:02 PM NT
West coast fishermen wary of possible problems
Port au Port Peninsula fishermen voiced concerns at a meeting Wednesday night about the future of their industry if fracking were to be approved near the waters where they fish. About 100 people showed up to the meeting in Lourdes to discuss the possible implications of the process.
Fracking involves injecting chemicals and water into rock at a high pressure in order to extract oil. Terry Tucker, a fisherman in the area, said he doesn’t think fracking is a fool-proof process.
Fishermen on the Port au Port Peninsula are concerned about fracking plans in the area. Fracking is a technique which injects oil, water and chemicals into wells to draw out oil.Fishermen on the Port au Port Peninsula are concerned about fracking plans in the area. “They’re pumping a bunch of chemicals down into the ground, they’re pumping it down into a mile down – no one really knows what goes on down there,” Tucker said.
“This is all just a guess and this is a big chance to take. If things go wrong and there’s no fix, and NASA engineers can’t fix it, and it’s just unfixable. So then this place here just goes – everything goes.”
Tucker said he actually used to work in the fracking industry, but he didn’t like what he saw.
“It’s actually scary when you think of what they were doing because after the job was done, I went over cause I was just there watching, and I grabbed a handful of the Š sand that we put down into the ground, and just dumped on the ground,” he said.
“And when I had Š the sand in my hand, one of the chief engineers ran over to me and said, ‘Get that out of your hand, wash your hands, do you know what’s in that?’ They just dumped it in a field, just in a cattle field, so it seems to me that they weren’t really too concerned about just dumping that stuff into a cattle field and I don’t think they’d be really concerned about dumping that stuff into Bay St. George or Port au Port Bay where I fish.”
Tucker said he would be happy to have more development in the area, but doesn’t think it would be worth the risk to the natural environment.
“I’d love to see development here. I’d love to see companies coming in and bring jobs and bring money and bring everything to the place, but I don’t think it’s worth the chance of destroying something, even if there’s a small, small chance that it could just go to crap,” he said.
“I hope that the government really, really looks into this. I hope they’re not blinded by what some of the oil companies are probably going to offer.”
Black Spruce Exploration is planning to establish fracking wells on the Port au Port Peninsula, pending approvals from government and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.
Fishermen concerned about industry if fracking approved, West coast fishermen wary of possible problems
Special thanks to Richard Charter