Shell has acknowledged that fracking for gas in the US has caused water contamination, but says no one has attributed this contamination to the company.
Shell also said it would leave Karoo communities with 50 percent more water than they had before it began fracking for gas.
These were some of the claims made by Bonang Mohale, chairman of Shell Africa, during a panel discussion with Jonathan Deal, chairman of the Treasure the Karoo Action Group, at UCT’s Graduate School of Business on Friday.
Mohale said Shell had started flying journalists to the US to show them its gas drilling operations.
“Has there been some contamination (of water)? Absolutely. But there is not one person (who) has come up and said, ‘This is attributable to Shell’,” Mohale said.
Shell would drill holes “no bigger than a coffee table” when it fracked for gas in the Karoo. The holes would be lined with steel, concrete and a third layer to create a barrier to protect underground water from contamination.
Mohale said 99.5 percent of the substance that would be pumped at high pressure into the ground would be water and sand, “to create cracks no bigger than matchsticks”.
“The design of the well is where things normally collapse ... In 800 000 wells Shell has dug, there is not one owned, managed and drilled by Shell which has collapsed,” Mohale said.
The company would use “brackish water 2 000 metres below ground, and we will recycle up to 50 percent of the water ... At the end of the day there will be a net gain of water in communities.”
Responding, Deal said Shell had run “huge ads” saying there had not been any documented cases of groundwater contamination from fracking. He drew a parallel with the big tobacco companies in the US that said it had not been proved that smoking caused cancer.
“Companies have to make money, so we can’t blame them, but it doesn’t mean we have to endorse them,” Deal said.
The onus was on Shell to prove to the country that fracking was safe. So far, the company had failed to do so.
Fracking was inconsistent with the constitution, it was not sustainable development, it would damage the economy of the Karoo and it would affect rural livelihoods.
“Why (does Shell) deny the dangers and risks of fracking and refuse to answer questions about pollution in other countries? Why has Shell not shown the public what fracked land looks like?”
The Karoo was a biodiversity hot spot and the only one in the world that was entirely arid, Deal said.
Fracking had begun 12 years ago in the US and only now were health problems surfacing. These were associated with the chemicals used in fracking, Deal said.
The cost of fossil fuels was going up, while that of renewables was falling.
“Shell’s got an opportunity to do the right thing and move us away from fossil fuels towards renewables.” - Cape Times
NUTSHELL:
One question: Based on your exposure to Gasland and other research results on the safety/ contamination levels in water from fracking-mined environments, would you drink some fracking water? If my guess is good as yours....our answer will be NOOOOPE!!!! *headshakingvigorouslyfromlefttoright*
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