Fracking can hurt growing yogurt industry say protesters

Fracking can hurt growing yogurt industry say protesters by Jennifer Lorson, August 17, 2012, Legislative Gazette
“People around the country are standing up to the oil and gas companies and organizing to defend their communities from fracking and the air and water pollution it brings. Governor Cuomo should stand with those communities, not with an industry that puts secret chemicals and profits above everything else.” Julia Walsh, Campaign Director for New Yorkers against Fracking, said Wednesday, “Fracking threatens the dairy industry, when we are trying to support its economic development and well-being.” … At the protest last Wednesday, Steingraber said, “Our message to Governor Cuomo is: you cannot have fracking and yogurt too. Ninety percent of milk is water. If you contaminate the water, you contaminate the cows of New York, and their milk.” ….”When a toxic accident-prone industry is added to the dairy environment, the milk will become contaminated.” She said there was ample research to back this up, and specifically cited research data from Pennsylvania (where fracking in the Marcellus Shale formation has increased dramatically since 2005) which showed milk production is reduced in areas which have introduced fracking. … As the facts from Pennsylvania prove, dairy production decreases significantly in areas where fracking occurs. … As a biologist, Steingraber said milk is one of the most environment-sensitive substances, and so is very susceptible to contamination through both water and air. … Fracking releases known human carcinogens into the air, Steingraber said, which eventually end up in both the cows and their milk. Third-generation dairy farmer Tim Stoltman shared her concerns. “Dairy cows require 30 to 40 gallons of water a day to stay healthy and produce good quality milk. Imagine if all that water was tainted with toxic fracking chemicals. Yogurt makers utilize great amounts of milk from farmers like me, and I require clean groundwater for my cows. Fracking in New York would jeopardize all this.”