The hydraulic fracturing process — pushing
gallons upon
gallons of chemical - laden
water into shale rock in order to bubble up natural gas — takes place deep in the ground,
thousands of feet below the earth's surface and
thousands of feet below the shallow aquifers that provide drinking
water.
In the weeks following the rupture
of the Exxon Mobil Pegasus pipeline that spilled hundreds
of thousands of gallons of oil (or tar sands diluted bitumen)
into a Mayflower, Arkansas neighborhood and lake, the news about the spill was just one depressing story after the next as we learned that wildlife had been oiled, local residents, including children, were becoming sick, contaminated
water was pumped
into the lake, the media was being intimidated to reduce access and coverage and that Exxon may have known about the spill earlier than they are letting on.
In terms
of community impact, BNP has been directly involved in the funding
of a four giga - watt coal power plant in India, the Tata Mundra plant, which affects the livelihood
of thousands of fish workers by dumping
gallons and
gallons of warm
water from the plant
into the naturally colder
water of the coastal area.