Microsoft Office Outlook - Memo Style - Montana Board of Oil and Gas

Richmond, Tom
From: Betsy Scanlin [bescanlin@msn.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 11:07 PM
To: DNR FracComments
Subject: Comment to Proposed Rules re: Hydraulic Fracturing
Dear Board of Oil and Gas Conservation:
Please accept these comments and requests in connection with your hearing on the proposed adoption of rules relating to
"fracking" processes.
You will be determining your and my children's and grandchildren's health and economic welfare in enacting these rules.
You have the ability now to prevent future clusters of cancers and future superfund sites such as the smelter regions of
yesteryear whose costs in health and remediation have burdened our generation of taxpayers.
In Montana, our water is limited and precious. Neither you nor industry will be able to remediate undrinkable water for
entire communities as well as agricultural land. Your actions in adopting the proposed rules can either protect it, as our
state constitution envisioned, or jeopardize it. Please do not jeopardize it when you have the means to safeguard it.
Rule II Disclosure and Rule V Notification: If chemicals used in "fracking" are benign and not toxic, there should be no
reason not to require disclosure of them. If their formula is proprietary, the Board can require the formulas to be
confidential while still requiring disclosure of the elements of the formula. There should be no loopholes that defeat the
intent of providing public knowledge of processes that could jeopardize public health and economic stability. Information
should be easily and timely available to members of the public, namely, before processes begin, through current and
future technology. Disclosure should be required at least 10 days prior to drilling: the proposed 24-hour notice of
disclosure is unrealistic and insufficient.
Please acknowledge in your actions that you represent the public and not solely commercial interests. Present private
jobs without safeguards are not worth the future public costs of medical care of our people and remediation, if even
possible, of our water and land.
Please assure that we Montanans can have safe economic development that does not jeopardize the health and welfare
of our residents.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Betsy Scanlin, 401 N. Word Ave., P.O. Box 65, Red Lodge, MT 59068 (406) 446-1599, bescanlin@msn.com.
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