Canadian environmentalist opposes fracking in Clare

CANADIAN Jessica Ernst gave a presentation entitled Fracking Community at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis last week. The meeting was attended by a large audience of people from all over Clare.

CANADIAN Jessica Ernst gave a presentation entitled Fracking Community at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis last week. The meeting was attended by a large audience of people from all over Clare.
Organised by Clare Fracking Concerned, the evening also featured an update from Leitrim farmer, Eddie Mitchell, on the Irish situation, in particular the applications for shale gas exploration licences recently submitted by petroleum companies, Enegi Oil and Tamboran for West Clare and the North-West Region, respectively.
Jessica Ernst, a scientist from Alberta, Canada with 30 years experience in the petroleum industry, spoke about her personal experiences of fracking. Her well water was contaminated by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) performed near her home by the gas company EnCana, and she is now suing the Alberta government, the energy regulator and EnCana for negligence and unlawful activities, alleging that EnCana contaminated a shallow aquifer with natural gas and toxic chemicals. Ms Ernst can no longer use the water in her home. It has been found to be contaminated with methane and toxic chemicals including hydrocarbons, as well as metals such as chromium and barium.
Fracking is the subject of government investigations throughout North America due to increasing evidence that the practice causes surface and groundwater contamination, air pollution, and earthquakes.
The Canadian energy regulator (ERCB), one of the bodies Ms Ernst is suing, has acknowledged that the potential for hydraulic fracturing to contaminate usable water aquifers with fracturing fluid chemicals and natural gas is a real risk and public issue, especially in shallow zones. In 2012, Alberta regulators said that hydraulic fracturing contaminated fresh groundwater in September 2011, while telling the public for over a year beforehand that fracturing in Alberta had never contaminated groundwater.
This evidence of groundwater contamination from shallow fracking was of great interest to Clare listeners, given the shallow depth of the shale layer in the Loophead Peninsula, where Enegi Oil has applied for an exploration licence.
Clare Fracking Concerned is a group of local people from diverse backgrounds who are concerned about the risks to human health and the environment that fracking would bring to West Clare. Their website is www.frackingfreeclare.org.