Tatum: New interest in Florida fracking of concern

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” is an oil drilling technique where sand, water and chemicals are injected deep into the ground under pressure in order to fracture the oil-bearing shale rock, allowing the oil and gas to be extracted. This technique causes earthquakes and is prone to leaking methane gases into the atmosphere. It also leaves toxic chemicals in the earth and in the aquifer.

Fracking is normally done in shale rock, but in Florida, most of the oil and gas is found in loosely mineralized soils, requiring the need for “acid fracking,” or “acidizing,” employing the use of acids such as hydrofluoric acid (HF) or hydrochloric acids (HCI) to dissolve limestone, dolomite and calcite cement.

A recent study at Duke University found that 92 percent of water and drilling fluids remained deep underground. Are these substances that we want to inject into our groundwater or allow to be anywhere near our aquifer? There is no such thing as safe fracking.

Some chemicals used in fracking are non-toxic, but a new study says that out of 81 common compounds, there’s very little known about the potential health risks of about one-third of them. And some indeed, are well known carcinogens: benzene, toluene, xylene, methanol, lead, hydrogen fluoride, naphthalene, sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, crystalline silica.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection chief of mining Calvin Alvarez says that fracking is not a “factor” in South Florida, and Ed Garrett, DEP section administrator, says that we don’t frack in Florida. And Ed Pollister, owner of Century Oil, says that fracking is inevitable, and that if he doesn’t do it, somebody else will.

But fracking has occurred in Florida and it is allowed by the FDEP. And the interest in this is recent: in the past five years there have been 37 drilling applications granted, and of these, 16 have been in the past year. This recent surge of new interest in Florida is due mostly to the new extraction technology which makes it possible and profitable to exploit previously inaccessible pools of oil and gas.

When we think of the oil and gas industry, we usually don’t think of Florida because it is not a big oil producing state, but extraction started in 1943. There are operating wells sucking oil from the Sunniland Oil Trend in Collier, Henry, Lee and Dade Counties, and in the Panhandle in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in what is known as Jay Field.

The winds of public opinion may be shifting in Florida. In the recent off-year elections, the monumental Amendment 1 was approved by a landslide. The people spoke with a loud voice, saying they want to protect what is good and unique in Florida, our land and water.

Even more recently, proposed SB166 was written to prohibit hydraulic fracturing in Florida. If passed, it would take effect in July 2015. There is also a state-wide effort to ban fracking at the local level where authorities are acting rather than just listening to their citizens.

The time is here to take an important step towards protecting what we cannot afford to lose. Our Santa Fe River, Inc. has been a leader in opposing the threat posed by the Sabal Trail pipeline project. We must encourage our law-makers to save Florida. The potential for mineral rights exploration in North and Central Florida could easily destroy our aquifer and drinking water source.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and Jim Tatum are both from Fort White. She is president of Our Santa Fe River, Inc., and he is the group’s historian.