Dear Woodlot supporters,
The Friends of the UNB Woodlot was lead to believe that Environment Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney would have a Q&A format at her public meetings. We just learned from CBC Information Morning that Minister Blaney is not answering questions, she is only listening.
The public will have to answer the questions at this meeting if Minister Blaney, or her senior officials who one would expect are also present, are unwilling.
It would appear that this tour has been manufactured to generate crisis and confusion, meanwhile the real story may very well be that this whole "listening tour" is a manufactured distraction, meant to hide the real agenda which is the exemption for mining and shale gas exploration in wetlands. Why would Minister Blaney not be forthcoming with the fact that existing farm land is EXEMPT from the wetlands policy, and instead allow this confusion to go unanswered. Certainly the other agenda may be to dilute the wetland protection policy across the board, something that the land development lobby has been fighting for since mid-September 2010.
Last weekend's New York Times story below is very troubling since government tests in the US are finding uranium and radium radioactivity in shale gas drilling effluent. Some radioactive contaminants are up to 1000 times acceptable human health levels and some of this effluent is being dumped into rivers and streams, a practice that has the potential to contaminate drinking water in some municipalities.
Please try to make the public meeting tomorrow. Demand the Q&A format that was promised. If Minister Blaney is only listening, the public may have to speak up and provide the answers.
Public Meeting for Wetlands
DATE: Friday, March 4, 2011
TIME: 10:00 AM - noon
LOCATION: Killarney Lake Lodge, Rotary Room, 1600 St. Mary's Street, Fredericton
Best regards,
Mark D'Arcy and Caroline Lubbe - D'Arcy
Fredericton, NB
(506) 454-5119
E-mail: markandcaroline@gmail.com
MINISTER BLANEY - DON'T ALLOW TEST DRILLING IN NB's WETLANDS
Untreated Radioactive Wastewater from Hydrofracking Dumped in Rivers, Streams
Mar 2, 2011
http://www.facebook.com/l/fe3e4TqH-Hg6baMLtlXjEHUS28w/www.democracynow.org/2011/3/2/headlines#13
"Newly disclosed figures show wastewater produced from the natural gas drilling practice of hydrofracking has contained radioactivity and other contaminants at levels far exceeding federal limits. According to the New York Times, internal government documents show at least 15 wells produced wastewater with more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable. The wastewater is sometimes brought to sewage plants ill-equipped to properly treat it and then disposed into rivers supplying drinking water. At least 12 sewage plants in three states discharged partly treated wastewater and waste into rivers and streams. The documents also show government regulators and industry officials knew of the problems with the wastewater disposal and treatment but took no action."
Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
The New York Times, March 1, 2011
http://www.facebook.com/l/fe3e4J6l0SJZu3opR5zSPwcSygw/www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?_r=2&hp
