Health, Environmental Risks Grow with Expansion of Fracking in Mexico Juan Luis Garcia Hernandez - SinEmbargo
go to original June 1, 2016

Frack U. Mexico (Narco News TV)

The practice of fracking - an extraction method for shale gas or shale that carries with it damage to human health and the environment - has expanded in the country, warned experts from the United States and Mexico during the presentation in Spanish of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.

Several states already have multiple wells using water injection to extract energy: Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Puebla, Tabasco, Nuevo León and Coahuila. Numbering more than 900, the organizations are certain the wells are illegal.

Julián Ramírez, member of the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking, stated:

"One of the big reasons for the Energy Reform was the exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon wells. There are already two legal fracking wells in Veracruz [Maxochitl 1 and Kaneni 1] and one in Tamaulipas [Semilla 1]."

Ramírez explained that this extraction system [fracking] is linked to recent approval of the law on Special Economic Zones.

In Veracruz [state on coast of Gulf of Mexico], 172 of the state's 349 fracking wells are in the Municipality of Papantla.

Alejandra Jiménez, Papantla activist, added that violence is an important problem around this practice, especially resented for the criminalization of women, then she added,

"As for the drug trafficking, it is very obvious in Veracruz. There is a very serious situation of organized crime where there are wells. It has a lot to do with the industry. I wouldn't say that there is complicity, but the existence of foreign capital attracts the drug traffickers.

"What the communities were living through was the diversion of water. And we would like serious studies that tell us about the impacts of pollution," said the activist.

A single well drilled with this technique requires between 9 and 29 million liters [2.4 and 7.7 million US gallons] of water for its operation. Jiménez said:

"At no time have we been informed about the impacts on health and the environment. But they have gone to do surveys where they induce them that Pemex might continue working at the site [through Program of Community Care]."

Read the rest at Voices for Mother Earth

Related: Fracking in México: Statistics, Environment, Maps and More (Carto Crítica)

Related: What's True Cost of Fracking? Eye-Opening Infographic May Surprise You (AlterNet)

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