Easter. How nice it would be to wear a bonnet in an Easter parade…Instead, I will bring up an unpleasant topic. Benzene. Rhymes with “mean.” Benzene is a chemical that causes cancer. Benzene is a tiny, tight ball of carbon molecules that acts like a bullet, ripping through cells and DNA of life forms. Trucks with benzene (plus its chemical rhyming cousins toluene and xylene) might be coming this way. Even though the City of Buffalo has a ban of fracking, even though there is a statewide delay on fracking permits, keep reading. Keep danger off our doorsteps.

If you live in Erie County, please contact your Erie County legislators. Ask for a permanent ban on all fracking activities on county land. This will prevent drilling, pipelines, and compressor stations on county land.

Fracking, a method of drilling for natural gas, uses enormous amounts of chemicals. Look at my last name. I must be qualified to explain fracking by cosmic coincidence. Seriously, my biological sciences degree was earned at the University of Massachusetts. Over 700 toxic chemicals are used in fracking. (See the Generic Environmental Impact Statement at www.dec.ny.gov.) Accidents happen. Chemicals are spilled, Yet, few accidents are reported. I had Hodgkin’s disease—a lymphoma cancer—30 years ago. I do not joke about toxic chemicals, cancer, or the environment.

In a gas industry photo of a drill site, you will see a derrick. Blue sky. You will not see or smell two enormous pools with chemicals that turn a home property into an industrial zone, that nullify a home mortgage, that reduce a property value to zero. You will not hear people cry with grief over a contaminated water well or when someone then sickens and dies from cancer. If you own private land anywhere, if an industry landman asks you to sign a gas lease, please, please, say no.

Learn more at www.foodandwaterwatch.org. Again, please contact your Erie County legislators. Write a letter or make a phone call to protect the air, water, and soil of our children’s children.

Sincerely,

- Barbara Frackiewicz, Buffalo

Artvoice reserves the right to edit letters for content and length. Shorter letters have a better chance at being published in their entirety. Please include your name, hometown, and contact number. E-mail letters to: editorial@artvoice.com or write to: Artvoice Letters, 810 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202