If the facts don’t back you up, just make them up. Or so goes the fracktivist motto. Their claims of tainted water and air from fracking don’t have the proof behind them and haven’t had the proof behind them for the past 60 years (since we began fracking). Now, a new story by The Washington Free Beacon disproves a much more recent event fractivists seized upon to push their extremist agenda.
Last September, as many Coloradans experienced the destruction and devastation of the biblical floods that struck Colorado, fractivists only had one focus on their agenda: using the floods – however possible – to attack fracking. As The Beacon writes:
Environmental activists ginned up false fears about flood-induced contamination from hydraulic fracturing operations in Colorado shortly before voters in the state weighed in on moratoria on the practice, a new report from state regulators shows.
… Concerns about water contamination during the 2013 floods “were the direct result of reckless claims from environmental activists who were running campaigns to ban oil and gas development in several cities along Colorado’s Northern Front Range,” [the Peak emphasis]
At a time when many Coloradans’ lives had been upended, whether through a beloved house becoming inhospitable, or living in a town that had become completely cut off from the rest of the world, fractivists thought the best use of their time would be in finding ways to use the floods to attack fracking. Never you mind that the devastation in Colorado was caused by wholesome, 100% natural (probably organic too!) rainwater. Then again, fractivists were never known to be class acts.
To boot, fractivists decided the best use of a helicopter at this point wasn’t helping people or delivering much needed supplies, but rather, flying around and taking pictures to gin up oil and gas contamination fears where no contamination actually existed:
A group called EcoFlight organized helicopter flyovers of flooded areas with activists from Frack-Free Colorado and Fractivist and reporters from CNN, CBS, and Reuters to document supposed water contamination.
“We pushed dozens of photos through blogs and social media sites to get the mainstream media’s attention to the unfolding environmental disaster in the gas fields,” EcoFlight said. “Congratulations—we succeeded.” [the Peak emphasis]
Like we said, classy. Unfortunately for them that “oil contamination” they found wasn’t oil spills at all, but rather, sewage from flooded towns.
A number of news outlets covered the supposed water contamination, including the Denver Post. That newspaper ran a photo on its front page with a caption that claimed crude oil was leaking from a damaged tank.
The Post later issued a correction, noting that the substance in the picture was not crude oil but “standing water left behind after floodwaters receded.” [the Peak emphasis]
Watch yourself Colorado, if fractivists start attacking the real contaminators of our water they’ll want to pass initiatives that make it illegal to go to the bathroom.
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