All mothers want to protect their children from any harm that may come their way. In our small community of Erie, Colorado we are particularly concerned about the safety and health of our families, while the oil and gas industry insists on encroaching on our homes and our public schools. Of particular concern, is the planned,state approved, and permitted well site between Red Hawk and Erie Elementary Schools which is said to contain eight individual, heavy industry well-bores to extract natural gas and oil.
As mothers, we have repeatedly asked Encana Oil and Gas to abandon the aforementioned area of concern; Encana refused. Encana appears to be the opponent of our real health and safety concerns that pose a probable risk to our children due to the close proximity of Encana’s heavy industrial mining activities.
The concerned mothers and citizens of Erie, Colorado feel we have no other recourse than to organize a peaceful and civil rally in response to Encana’s refusal to seriously address the adverse impacts their heavy industry could bring to our air, water, soils and our personal health and welfare. This rally is in regards to what appears to be; Encana’s lack of cooperation and the numerous federal exemptions that the oil and gas industry enjoys which are absolutely unacceptable. Clean air, clean water, clean soils and a healthy way of life are being stripped from all citizens due to the lack of local, state and federal protections.
We absolutely can make a statement, peacefully and together. As mothers, it is our right and duty to stand up for our children and insist on the Precautionary Principal, which states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action. True however, Section 390 under NEPA exempts industry from the burden of proof. The burden of proof has been shifted from the agency to the public. The oil and gas industry now enjoys this ‘categorical exlusion’ and now the public is essentially defenseless.
Evidence of harm does exist as illustrated by the Colorado School of Public Health Study which indicates a 66% increase in cancer for those living within 1/2 mile of Fracking operations.
Our children, our environment and our communities deserve better.
Please stand with us to make a statement loud enough to bring national change for the protection of all children who find themselves in the unruly path of natural gas expansion.
*Erie Rising does not endorse any aggressive, offensive or unlawful actions! This is our community, filled with children and families. Thank you for your support and respect in this peaceful rally.