Communities near drill sites at greater risk of respiratory disease, neurological problems, birth defects & cancer. http://j.mp/12c5GMU
From polluted skies to contaminated drinking water and hazardous waste, communities of color in California get way more than their fair share. If the oil and gas industry gets their way, drilling – and the environmental and health threats from fracking, acidizing, and other technologies – will be piled onto communities already staggering under smoggy skies and unsafe water.
In our new analysis of the more than 84,000 oil and gas wells in California, we found that 5.4 million people live within a mile of one or more of these wells. And more than a third (or 1.8 million) also live in communities ranked as the most threatened by pollution by the California Environmental Protection Agency. This means that there are an awful lot of people on the frontlines as fracking (and other technologies) enable oil and gas drilling to expand in California. And for nearly 2 million of them, the additional air, water, and soil contamination now being found in study after study in states across the country, will be all that more dangerous coming on top of an already heavy environmental burden.
Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:16 pm