The first things that would come to your mind when you think of New York won't be the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State building, but instead it would be the highly flammable water and earthquakes, if hydraulic fracturing is allowed.  The NYS Assembly passed a one-year ban on new drilling permits that would run through to June 2012, replacing the current ban which expired in 2011. Governor Andrew Cuomo is now expected to lift the moratorium in New York State after the Department of Environmental Conservation announced that it recommends that the drilling method be allowed. However many City officials believe small earthquakes triggered by hydraulic fracturing could cause cracks in the concrete lining of tunnels that channel millions of gallons of water to New York City taps every day. On Nov. 5, an earthquake measuring 5.6 hit Oklahoma and was felt as far away as Illinois. Until two years ago, Oklahoma typically had about 50 earthquakes a year, but in 2010, 1,047 quakes shook the state. In Lincoln County, where most of these seismic incidents were centered, there are 181 injection wells for hydraulic fracturing.
Hydraulic fracturing also requires the use of chemicals, such as acid solutions, biocides, ethylene glycol, hydrochloric acid, potassium chloride, ammonium bisulfite, boric acid and benzene. Biocides are intended to kill living organisms, ethylene glycol causes kidney and brain damage, hydrochloric acid causes gastritis, chronic bronchitis, and dermatitis, potassium chloride causes cardiac arrest and rapid death, ammonium bisulfite causes pulmonary edema, and allergies, boric acid causes kidney failure, and benzene causes harmful effects on the bone marrow and can cause a decrease in red blood cells, leading to anemia. Somewhere between 20 percent to 40 percent of the toxic chemicals used in the fracking process remain stranded underground where they can, and often do, contaminate drinking water, soil and other parts of the environment that support plant, animal and human life. The detriments of hydraulic fracturing out weigh the benefits. If we don't act soon, then by this summer we will be drinking toxic water and experiencing massive earthquakes. We must fight, and we must win!