Dear President Obama Page #9

California drills

300 new wells a month.

One of the most insidious

meet-ups of oil and water

is that some

of the highly toxic

waste water

resulting from fracking

is being used to irrigate

California's crops.

(Scott)

One thing people

need to remember

all waterways are connected

whether below ground,

above ground, aquifers, rivers

one way or another,

everything's connected by water.

As I looked into this

I-I realized

there was no testing.

(Mark)

In 2015, Scott made

independent tests of the water

the oil company said

had been filtered of toxins

before being given to farmers,

often for free.

(Scott)

We tested the whole ten-miles

canal system.

Results came back

and we started seeing

solvents, chemicals of concern

that were matching up with oil

that was coming out

of the ground in Kern County.

I was shocked.

When I came out here,

I ended up in the middle

of an almond field

with the smell of oil worse

than it was

when I was on the ground at BP.

Water Department,

that is taking produced water

that has oil

and other contamination

and then using it

to irrigate.

'This is just like

in Venice, Louisiana'

'when I was out with fishermen

in the Gulf of Mexico.'

It's the same thing.

It's the exact same thing.

You shouldn't have oil

you shouldn't have volatile

chemicals in the water.

It's that simple.

(Tom)

Both my grandfathers were

farming on either side of me.

I'm living here, and one

grandfather's two miles

that way and the other one's

three miles this way.

Both my parents were raised

here. And I was raised here.

So farming, of course,

is in my blood that way.

The fact that the oil has moved

into this area is a new thing.

Never saw an oil well

in this area when I was young

not where the intensive farming

was going on.

They were separate. So we pretty

much could ignore each other.

Now, there's conflicts between

the oil companies

and the farmers.

Yeah, we kinda have

a nice system here

of-of water coming

from the mountains

and very good soil,

deep nice soil.

If our ground water

is contaminated

it puts a real dent

in how much farming we can do.

Can you irrigate...

crops like grapes and oranges

that are full of water

themselves

and guarantee that chemicals

in your irrigation water

don't now get into

those-those crops?

It's a big unknown because

no-nobody has ever taken

the precautionary approach

and say

"This water has dangerous

chemicals in it.

So you shouldn't be irrigating

with it until we know more."

Nobody's even

thought about whether

they're contaminating

the food that humans eat.

(Mark)

It's not just clean water

that suffers from all this

extreme energy extraction

in California.

For many years,

highly industrialized drilling

utilizing acids, steam

and hydraulic fracturing

has taken place in the heart

of urban Los Angeles.

Mostly, in working class

neighborhoods.

Tankers filled with tens

of thousands of gallons

of acids and other chemicals

pull behind these walls.

Just three feet from where

people sleep, play

cook and study.

Workers pull on hazmat suits

pump chemicals into the ground

and oil and gas back out.

During the process, toxic

chemicals including carcinogens

and endocrine disruptors

escape into the air.

No notice is given

to neighbors. No warnings.

You're just taking a walk,

you would immediately be hit

by the strong smell of,

you know, of gas.

Or sometimes there was mask,

you know.

It was also found

that they had masking agents.

That would then

somehow smell like

you know, like fruity smells--

Yeah, it would be like

an artificial smell. Yeah.

And so even that

was uncomfortable

'cause I...well, why does it

smell like that?

In our family there was a lot

of nausea, there's, you know..

- Yeah..

- Do you wanna share some--

Yeah, I would get like

a lot of nosebleeds

and I would be, um,

really nauseous all the time

and get a lot of headaches.

The odors for this facility make

our community sick.

And it's not...fair.

(Rose)

I have to say that

we've done a lot to lead

um, in reducing emissions

um, reducing green house gas

emissions across...California.

I think we've set a great

example for a lot of states.

And at the same time

we're the third largest

oil producing state

in the country.

And while

there seems to be this focus on

you know,

changing your light bulbs and

driving electric cars

and putting solar on your house

all of which

are really great things

we continue

to pump California dry

of every last drop of oil

we can muster.

Until you address

that half of the equation

you really can't lead on climate

and I think that's what's been

uh, most dis-disappointing about

Governor Brown's tenure here.

(Mark)

California Governor,

Jerry Brown

is in his fourth term.

He never hesitates to remind us

of his leading man reputation

as a green politician.

Going back to his first terms

in the 1970's

when he was nicknamed

Moonbeam Brown.

And our planets, spaceship Earth

we're all going through

the universe together

'taking out of the same well'

same ozone layer

and we gotta protect it.

(Rose)

He really, um, understands

the impacts of climate change

and sees himself

as a leader on climate

and yet, at the same time, uh,

you can't lead on climate

and frack your state dry

of every last drop of oil.

(Mark)

For all of his green efforts

to cut emissions

promote renewable energy, paint

himself as a climate champion

Governor Brown's unwillingness

to slow the expansion

of gas and oil in his state

has proved a huge gamble.

Reducing an entire state's

climate footprint

is a game of inches.

One serious accident can turn

back years of progress

proved by the catastrophic

well failure

and leak at Porter Ranch.

During the leak, more

than 7000 suburban residents

fled the community

or were relocated.

Many suffering from a litany

of two familiar maladies.

Nose bleeds,

vomiting, headaches

and respiratory problems.

Sadly, no one in those working

class neighborhoods

of downtown Los Angeles,

suffering and complaining

for years of the same maladies

due to the chemicals

in their air, has ever been

offered to be relocated.

[chanting]

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

[cheering]

Two years ago, I stood

in this beautiful state building

and participated

in our rite of democracy.

And we're asking for

a moratorium on hydro-fracking.

'Our thinking on this

has evolved'

and we're here to ask our

governor to evolve along with us

and use the science, and use

what has been taught to us

by the victims,

and what have been taught to us

'by the medical community'

and evolve to ban fracking now.

[chanting]

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

Ban fracking now!

This is really

a grassroots campaign.

What started around people's

kitchen tables grew into

the largest social movement

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