Dear President Obama Page #5

without any injuries.

So, they will get a bonus

if that happens.

So you could imagine there's

quite a bit of pressure

not to report injuries

and-and we've heard that

from workers that they..

They're encouraged to keep going

even though

they have been injured.

(Jason)

I really think

the-the educational

part of the industry

is really lacking.

Because if I would've known

most of this stuff

when I first started

I probably would've wore a mask

or rubber gloves

or, you know, been more careful

with the stuff

that I hauled around.

[instrumental music]

(Sal)

I used to work for Slumber J

Fracking Wells.

I started out, uh...

working in the shop.

The day before

they went on a frack job

they determined that they

did not have enough people

so, they took me

out of the shop.

Uh, where I was assisting

mechanics and the welders.

[whirring]

They actually left me in charge

of putting the chemicals

into the tanker.

So, you have

seven to ten chemicals

that went into the machine

and only four

were able to go in by hose.

We had to use buckets,

five gallon buckets

to transport those chemicals

up ten feet in the air

and we had to

pass them above our heads.

And the people who were on top

frequently

dropped those chemicals.

Unfortunately

they dropped them on me.

[birds chirping]

And the company sent a nurse

uh, with me

to every doctor's visit

and, uh, they would never

permit them to do

any blood work on me.

And-and when they finally did

it was five-six months later.

I was actually driving down the

road when the doctor called me.

And he asked me where I was and

how fast I could

get to the hospital.

It kind of shook me up

and I said, "What's up?"

And he goes, "Well,

does cancer run in your family?"

I said, "Not that I'm aware of.

What's wrong?"

He said, "You need to

come to the hospital today."

If my white blood count

shot up to nearly 20,000

which is twice the normal range

for a year and they..

And they told me

I'd lose my teeth.

I pulled my own.

I pulled that one two weeks ago.

Those are my teeth, man.

'Okay, I shouldn't lose

all my teeth in a year.'

They quit paying

for everything.

So naturally,

it's not their fault.

Because those chemicals

are safe.

Ask them. They'll tell you.

[beeping]

(Randy)

Since day one, they never

told you of safety measures.

There was no safety meetings.

There was no respirators.

And I was running

the vac truck.

A baby bottle...water truck.

And cleanin' up

what they

sprayed off these mats.

Because that was the..

What they set around

the well hat.

So, in two days

I was standing in the stuff

anywhere from

28 to 30-some hours.

'These are all the pictures'

'from the last two years.'

Them's all burning welts.

It's like being put on..

Someone set you on fire

that nobody can put you out.

That's one of 'em days where

you're contemplating

whether to stay on this planet

or leave it

'cause you're in so much pain.

'You realize all that stuff

showin' on the outside'

'what damage is it

doing on the inside.'

Then the last two years

it was twenty

twenty times that

what's life threatening

to go to the ER.

I seen over

52 different doctors.

Uh, none of them will tell you

what it is.

[instrumental music]

Even though some of the science

is still unsettled

the ethical question

that emerges then is

what do you do in the face of

scientific uncertainty?

In the field of public health

um, we want good data, but

but we also..

It's, it's by definition

an advocacy science.

We-we-we protect people first

and foremost and so..

It-to my way of thinking

we now have

enough evidence

on the harms of fracking

um, and enough troubling signs

to push the pause button.

The-the most important thing is

to put-keep people

out of harm's way

while the wheels

of scientific proof making

keep grinding on.

[instrumental music]

(Mark)

It's not just workers

who get sick.

Across the country in the

states where fracking is done

neighbors of drilling cite the

same complaints over and over.

Headache, nausea, severe asthma

and breathing problems.

Living in the gas patch..

...whether as a worker

or a neighbor of a drilling rig

put you directly in harms way.

Yet amazingly,

in many communities

drilling is allowed

next to schools

churches, even hospitals.

Shall we?

Cassie, we are entering

Firestone Colorado.

'The place

where I lived for two years.'

There was 75 wells

active wells, oil

and gas wells around my house.

[music continues]

Weld County is

the center of fracking

It's the epicenter of

oil and gas development

in the state of Colorado.

And as I understand it

it's the epicenter of hydraulic

fracturing in the United States.

Weld County only

has about 260,000 people.

And we have over 21,000

active oil and gas wells.

So it comes out to about

one oil and gas well

per four homes.

'Right here we're approaching'

'um, a playground'

'that this

kindergarten school uses.'

'And there's

a active well pad right here.'

'This well pad is roughly

300 feet away from this'

'children's playground.'

Most of the people that I talk

to in this area think that

these tanks hold water,

when in fact they hold

toxic industrial liquid waste.

Tons of hydrocarbon vapors

are being released right now

and go into the environment.

And the children

that are playing in

that playground right there

are subject

to this heavy industry

and all of their

toxic emissions

that are being released.

This is not uncommon

in Colorado though.

Colorado, we have roughly

52,000 active oil

and gas wells.

And the state knows

that roughly

four thousand of these

active oil and gas wells

are in really

close proximity to homes

public playgrounds,

hospitals, daycares..

Putting the-the health

and welfare of the citizens

in danger.

These types of things

should never happen

in residential areas.

There's no moral conscious that

the industry is putting these

so close to our children

i-in our neighborhoods.

In Colorado we've had

fracking bans passed

at a referendum level

in many many towns including

Boulder, Colorado Springs, um

Broomfield, Longmont.

The people

know ha-what this means to them

and they ban it and

it moves forward on that level.

Again, in Colorado

Governor Hickenlooper is suing

those towns

for passing their

own democratic referendum.

Saying that th-they can't keep

the oil and gas industry out.

Oh, we now must turn our

full attention

to defeating

these ballot measures

uh, and I know that the industry

uh, the business community

uh, the vast majority

of elected officials

uh, both Republican

and Democratic

across the entire

state of Colorado

uh, are united in opposition.

It's outrageous.

I mean, this is

a Democratic governor

not the governor of Texas.

The governor of

the tipping point state

in Obama's election in 2012.

Um, the Democratic Party..

...is, uh, unfortunately

rallying with the gas industry.

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