Dear Editor,
I want to congratulate U.S. Senator Manchin for securing $6 billion to upgrade the water and wastewater infrastructure in West Virginia Cities and County seats. Through the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” that President Biden signed into law in November of 2021, Senator Manchin has secured $1.2 trillion for water and wastewater infrastructure development in the Mountain State. That should bring a lot of development, especially since the last-minute passage of the horizontal well drilling bill SB 694 at the end of the March 2022 WV State Legislative Session. “The Department of Environmental Protection defines a horizontal well as any well site forged through horizontal drilling that disturbs three acres or more of surface or uses more than 210,000 gallons of water in a 30-day period.” (Charleston Gazette Mail 3/3/22 Pg. 78) That’s a lot of water and fracking for natural gas pollutes a lot of water then dumps it into the aquifer with Lord knows what fracking fluids wasting our water sources and changing H20 into toxic poison.
A corporation based in Germany, West Virginia American Water, enclosed a flyer with last month’s bill wanting to inform and engage the public, local governments, emergency planners and local health departments in their planning process: visit westvirginiaamwater.com under Water Quality, select Source Water Protection>Source Water Protection Plans. Region 5 Huntington to the Southwest border of Raleigh County is 2022 and public comment is over. Region 2 is Weston for the 2023 plan while Region 4 is Bluefield, Bluestone, Gassaway, New River, Kanawha Valley and Webster Springs for 2024, “LEARN ABOUT YOUR WATER SUPPLY AND HOW TO PROTECT IT” is the enclosure title and very good advice given to their customers who receive a monthly water and wastewater bill. The picture at the top is a beautiful, NATURE AS THE ART OF GOD, pristine stream in the wild, absolutely priceless.
The Biden Administration proposed in March of 2022 the “America the Beautiful” initiative to conserve at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.” (personal response from the White House dated March 7, 2022). Somehow this does not seem like enough of our life-supporting, oxygen-producing habitat on Earth, in my opinion. Let us tell our legislators that we want a scientific study done to establish survivable balances of carbon/oxygen in our atmosphere and how much oxygen-producing surface and ocean must be preserved so that aerobic life forms can survive. Where will the oxygen come from to burn the fossil fuels that are being harvested and sold at such an alarming rate? Encourage the study and BAN FRACKING NOW until the results are in, save North America from becoming the natural resources sacrifice continent for the city empires of the world. Turn the unpopular Mountain Valley Pipeline into the utilities trunk line for remote estates and suburban development. Leave what fossil fuels are left in the ground where they are, protect and preserve our naturally regenerating, oxygen-producing, life-supporting surface habitats. Tell your Government Representative and Officials what you want done with all those billions and trillions in regard to the miracle of life on Earth and procuring good health.
