Fracking protest brings new issues to surface
Fracking protest brings new issues to surface
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
A group of about 100 protestors in the Canadian Maritimes used Earth Day to get their word out about the ills of hydraulic fracturing.
Despite the Nova Scotia government denying that it’s been used since 2008, some of the protestors said “fracking” is still used to break apart shale rock and extract natural gas from under the Canadian province and from waters off the coast of Nova Scotia.
On Friday, protestors marched on the provincial legislature in Halifax demanding an all-out ban on fracking. Signs warned of contamination to drinking water as well as long-term effects of injection of any number of up to 600 chemicals into the ground.
Yuill Herbert, the director of an organization called Sustainability Solutions Group, organized the protest. Calling it a controversial method of extracting natural gas, Herbert said it wouldn’t make sense to allow something that uses large volumes of water while pumping a mix of chemicals into the ground.
