Lewes Forum thread

Meeting announced as concern grows over fracking in Sussex

A public meeting is being held at 7.30 on Friday 10th February at the Subud Centre, 26a Station Street, Lewes to highlight the hydraulic fracturing proposed to take place at Balcombe, West Sussex. There will be a short film about the practice, followed by talks by Will Cottrell, Chair at Brighton Energy Co-op and Howard Johns, Managing Director of Southern Solar.

The technology - also known as ‘fracking’ - is designed to access deposits of shale gas deep beneath the ground and has already been linked to earthquakes after test drilling in Lancashire. The company undertaking drilling in the UK – Cuadrilla – was forced to admit that its activities were the “highly probable” cause of tremors of magnitude 2.3 and 1.5 recorded in the Blackpool area last spring.

The drilling site at Balcombe - near Ardingly reservoir and the headwaters of the Ouse - threatens water tables locally and potentially throughout the region. If left unchallenged it could open the way for many more similar sites throughout Sussex and the South East. The process involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to fracture the rocks in which the shale gas is embedded. It requires tens of thousands of tonnes of water, threatening problems related to tanker traffic and putting serious pressure on water supplies at a local level.

Mixed with the water are hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals, a significant proportion of which are never recovered. In areas affected by drilling in America, concentrates of methane and other contaminants in water supplies have produced dirty tap water which is also capable of being ignited. Another issue is waste water pumped to the surface containing chemicals released from the rocks such as radionuclides as well as those within the fracking fluids.

The scale and potential irreversibility of the ensuing contamination mean that people throughout the region should be watching developments in Balcombe keenly. While we clearly need new forms of energy to come on line, the practice at best carries many proven risks and has been shown to cause emissions at least equal to those of coal. Its pursuit and funding also appears to be taking place to the detriment of other, cleaner sources.

If we meet this challenge with sufficient energy, cooperation and organisation we will be helping to both prevent huge ecological damage throughout the region and to keep our emissions as a country inline with what should be binding targets. France has declared a moratorium on the practice and is now revoking drilling licenses. It has been banned in several US states. A UK moratorium on the practice is currently being proposed.

For more information see:

www.lewesagainstfracking.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Lewes-Against-Fracking/234168936662614?sk=info
www.gasdrillinginbalcombe.wordpress.com
frack-off.org.uk/

What on earth does a co-op green washed lobbyist and a solar panel salesman know about something as complex as this? Just admit it, with over 200 years with of oil at current consumption levels in the Canadain tar sands alone the whole "peak oil" whinge is over. If we can start wars for oil (Iraq anyone) you have zero chance of stopping this. Still gives the hand wringers something to do in this cold weather.

Well, whoever you are "?", you do not have the ability to discuss such topics objectively !!

When are we going to learn that we cannot continue to denude and destroy the very thing that we depend upon for our lives. The Ouse provides my drinking water. Squirting poisonous chemicals at high pressure into the rock only metres from it seems like madness, whatever way you look at it.

You might be content to know nothing about it (whilst slagging off those who want to find out more), close your eyes and roll over and die '?' but thank heavens not everyone is like you. The world would be a much sadder place if they were.

I'd be interested to hear what the scientists from southern/ south east water company have to say about these proposals. It's not in their interest to have their primary asset contaminated and they would have the mother of all claims agaist the fracking company if the water became undrinkaable or had to have expensive treatment. I can hear the lawyers rubbing their hands with glee.

More importantly, Zebedee, fracking could contaminate the groundwater that supplies Harveys' borehole and bugger up the beer!

I'm with '?' on this one. The only people who are against fracking are the eco-loons determined to see us returned to the dark ages in the name of Mother Gaia. Personally I quite like living in the modern world, with all the benefits in terms of health and longevity that come with it.
Where can I show my support for the fracking planned at Balcome?

I would also like to show my support for fracking.

"Earthquakes" at magnitudes of 2.3 and 1.5 are better described as tremors.
I would like cheap gas and electricity for the next few decades please.

The fracking should go ahead.
The amount of water quoted, 7,500 cubic metres, on a one off basis, to frack in Balcombe for shale gas, is quite insignificant, when compared to the potential of vast reserves of cheap, low-carbon gas. Do not forget 72,000 cubic metres of water are lost every day by South East Water.
The slick water used in fracking is 99.86% water and sand. Shale gas operations in the U.S.A, are heavily regulated and closely monitored. State regulators have all asserted in writing that there have been no verified or documented cases of drinking water contamination as a result of hydraulic fracking.
The earth tremors associated with the brief initial fracking stage near Blackpool, produced tiny, barely perceptible tremors. The few production buildings for gas shale, are no bigger than domestic garages. The output of a gas wellhead is equivalent to the average output of about 47 giant 2.5MW wind turbines, each one twice the height of Nelson'€™s Column with blades noisily thrumming the air. The gas wellhead can be hidden in a hollow or behind a hedge. The 47 wind turbines must be on top of hills. The gas well requires no subsidy; in fact it will pay a hefty tax to the government; whereas the wind turbines each cost you a substantial add-on to your electricity bill. Unreliable wind power costs three times (nine times if offshore) as much as reliable gas-fired power.
To persist with a policy of pursuing subsidized renewable energy in the midst of a terrible recession, at a time when vast reserves of cheap low-carbon gas have suddenly become available is so perverse it borders on the insane. Nothing but bureaucratic inertia and vested interest can explain it.
Chris French
Chairman
UKIP Mid Sussex

Do you want jobs, clean cheap energy and an economic future? Or do you want to be held prisoner by a handful of green activists who loathe the capitalist system and are more than happy to terrify you with exaggerated accounts of damage done by fracking?
If you want the second, then do please vote against fracking.
If, on the other hand you want Britain to have an economic recovery and your kids to have jobs....

At least Huhne has gone . Any chance of getting an adult in his former post who can assess risk and plan an energy strategy for the real world rather than Waybuloo.

"Prospecting oil companies have bought extraction rights to whole swathes of England, including the South East, where there is, apparently a lot of shale gas."

GOOD! We need cheap fuel, not the inefficient, expensive and ugly wind turbines blighting our countryside.

Ignore the squealing lemmings and climate change deniers.Check out the facts.

Let's use our common sense, folks! Even if there's the slightest chance of contaminiation of our groundwater, we should stand against fracking. More importantly, we should be getting off increasingly dirty fossil fuels and move over to renewables. You don't have to be an eco loon to realise that.

I do get annoyed with journalists who have the arrogance to believe that they can fully understand complex scientific data and arguments. To understand climate change one needs to look at it with an open mind, not one that has a neo-con crypto Christian viewpoint nor that of a post summer of love hippy. I have, as an engineer had discussions with my brother in law, a top geologist, and reading up on the subject have come to my layman’s conclusion that climate change is man made and happening. I also agree that the sun also has a substantial influence too. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Our problem is over consumption and that is what needs tackling. Although I am an atheist, the bible says that we should have dominion over the earth. However we as humans collectively preach and practice domination. This is unsustainable. In the US the pseudo-pious religious right preach that god will make it OK. This obviously a trick to allow the super rich status quo to continue. They also frighten us mere mortals that we all doomed unless we carry on regardless. This is just irresponsible. Better to be responsible than running the risk of giving our grandchildren a desolate earth.

Over consumption AND over population!

Ou make want to read the following article as Ohio has banned fracking recently due to the earthquakes and polluted groundwater