What you don’t know about fracking
No one is using fracking and acidization in the same sentence. While attention has been paid to House Bill 1205: Regulation of Oil and Gas Reserves, high pressure well stimulation or fracking, little attention has been paid to the process of acidization. According to Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resource policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the bill will allow fracking but will fail to regulate other types of unconventional oil and gas extractions such as acidization. This process uses diluted acid to dissolve the limestone and carbonate formations.
“This type of fracking, along with a form that uses less than 100,000 gallons of water, go virtually unregulated in the package of bills proposed. This legislation is basically giving false assurances and doing very little to regulate the techniques that are most likely to be used in our region,” states Heckler.
Then there is House Bill 1209: High-Pressure Well Stimulation Chemical Disclosure Registry that allows companies to label chemicals as proprietary (trade secret) and therefore not have to be disclosed.
Some argue this registry is a federal requirement and, if so, it needs to be changed so that Floridians can decide what is best for the state.
According to a Florida House of Representative staff analysis of one of the bills, chemical disclosure requirements would only apply to the most conventional form of fracking, not acidization. Hecker says oil companies do not have to give advanced notice to the state if they change their operations to unconventional extraction – and that the new bills don’t change this.
As porous as Florida limestone can be, let’s not allow the possibility of potential carcinogens in the groundwater. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York banned fracking after a report by the State Department of Health cited health and environment concerns caused by fracking. Let’s not regulate fracking but ban it altogether. This is my personal opinion and one I feel strongly about for future generations and the protection of Florida’s environment and aquifers.
Dan Andre is the Vice Mayor for the Town of Fort Myers Beach