|
After earthquakes in Lancashire and tales of poisoned water
and flaming taps in the US, 'fracking' for gas or oil in the
English home counties was never likely to be easy.
And so it proved when oil executives faced the fury of a
village hall full of West Sussex residents in a
clash over a controversial technology that energy
companies believe could open up major reserves of energy from
underground rocks.
"What you are about to do will make our water beyond toxic"
- Ella Reeves shouted at Mark Miller, the Pennsylvania oil
man who had come to Balcombe to explain plans to search for
hydrocarbons 800 metres under the Sussex weald. "It's about
money for you, but for me it is about life."
Reeves was one of around 200 residents squeezed into the
village's well-kept village hall to hear Miller, the chief
executive of Cuadrilla,
a multinational oil and gas company, explain why he might
want to use hydraulic fracturing - or 'fracking' - less than
a mile from the village, which lies on the London to Brighton
commuter line, just five miles from Gatwick airport.
The technique involves forcing thousands of gallons of chemical
solution under high pressure into rocks to release oil or
gas, but opponents say it pollutes groundwater, adds to greenhouse
gas pollution and destroys local ecosystems.
The meeting was the latest skirmish in the battle between
environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over access
to the UK's shale gas and oil reserves - which, in Lancashire
alone, could deliver £6bn a year for 30 years, according to
one industry estimate.
Supporters say it will improve the UK's energy security and
the battle has intensified in recent months with anti-fracking
activists scaling a rig in Hesketh Bank, Lancashire, halting
work in November.
Balcombe laid on a more polite welcome, but after two earth
tremors near Blackpool last year were attributed to Cuadrilla's
fracking operations, the atmosphere was tense. A warm-up video
screened by the meeting organisers about the toxic impact
of the technique in America raised the temperature to furious.
Miller and his two PR
minders, all dressed in black, gritted their teeth
as the film spoke of 'red nasty water oozing out of the
hill', 'radium in waste products', 'methane
in drinking water' and how 'our heaven has turned into
our hell'.
Fracking 'threatens to destroy the environment and wreck
lives', the voiceover said - adding frightening claims
that the chemicals used in the US had been linked to bone,
liver and breast cancers and disorders of the nervous system.
"I am going to be following a bit of a tough act with that
video," said Miller as he took the microphone nervously. "I'm
not sure I can."
He managed to explain that his company has acquired an exploration
and development licence from the Department of Energy and
Climate Change and that it only planned to drill a test well
at this stage.
He said the pollution suffered in parts of America, where
the fracking industry is huge and growing, represented "the
poorest part of our industry". "Drilling and fracturing for
natural gas is safe," he said to disbelieving tuts. "It about
doing it right. Environmental incidents are rare."
By this point, some in the audience wanted to hear no more.
There were shouts of "you've gone on long enough" and "you're
talking rubbish".
Anti-fracking campaigner Will Cottrell, chairman of the Brighton
Energy Co-operative, claimed a 10-well fracking facility was
"like setting off a 4.4 kilotonne nuclear bomb". Cuadrilla
said this was untrue, but the hall was in foment.
"You are in Sussex now and we will not be drove [pushed around],"
shouted Alan Gold, 67.
"If you put fracking fluid down there at 10,000 pounds per
square inch it is going to disturb our drinking water," yelled
another man. "Go away!"
"Frack 'em and forget 'em, isn't it?" said a voice from the
back. "It's all about the money."
"This is how they burn witches I guess," Paul Kelly, a director
of PPS, Cuadrilla's public relations and lobbying firm told
the Guardian. "I can think of dozens of oil companies
who wouldn't put themselves through this in a million years
and maybe they have it right."
"It has been pretty disastrous," added Nick Grealy, a former
gas executive who promotes the shale gas industry for clients
including Cuadrilla. "They were set up."
For many residents, this was the first they had heard of
the plans and they voiced worries about the millions of gallons
of water needed for the operation in a drought-affected area
and noise and water pollution. Two young women spoke about
their fears that fracking would hinder their recovery from
cancer.
Miller said the fracking technology used in the UK was designed
to prevent pollution of water courses. He repeatedly said
the well was only at exploration stage and that a further
licence would be needed for extraction. He said the chemical
used in the fracking solution was not carcinogenic.
Just one resident, retired Rod Jago, spoke up in Miller's
defence. "Surely we should welcome any contribution to self-sufficiency
provided it is safe," he said to gasps of disbelief from some
of his neighbours. "All new technologies have teething problems.
We wouldn't have trains or aeroplanes if we had meetings like
this when they started."
A spokesman for Cuadrilla, whose backers include former BP
chief executive Lord Browne, said said it was pleased to have
been allowed the platform.
"We couldn't answer all the questions and there was a great
deal of confusion about some of the claims that were being
made about America," he said. "In the European Union, there
are some very rigorous controls on groundwater pollution."
|
