One Thing Is Certain: Fort Worth Is Not Safe For Either The Living Or The Dead

This morning I got email from Don Young with a couple links I did not get around to clicking on til this afternoon.

The email message...

In their latest angle on covering the dangers of drilling-fracking, the national media is fixated on the DEAD. While I welcome almost any media attention to the most important environmental/human health issue of our times, this one is kind of like a red herring, distracting the public from more important issues.

When the media came calling last week to inquire about my long-dead father I did my best to steer them back on track. We all have respect for the dead but when industry is fouling the planet at a breakneck pace we must focus on the LIVING.

One thing is certain: Fort Worth, Texas is not safe for either.

One of the links went to a New York Times article titled "Drilling for Gas Under Cemeteries Raises Concerns." The other link went to a CNN article titled "Fracking Under The Dead."

Below is an excerpt from the New York Times article...

FORT WORTH — Henry Donald Young Sr. is buried in a small pioneer cemetery next to his parents here, beneath the drooping leaves of an old tree at the industrial edge of one of the largest cities in Texas.

But Mr. Young’s relatives wonder how restful his final resting place has become. Thousands of feet beneath the cemetery, a company has been drilling for natural gas using the controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

“I would imagine that drilling and fracking and all that vibration is bound to cause some damage,” Mr. Young’s son, Don, said of the 134-year-old Handley Cemetery. “But who’s going to dig up their dead relatives to see if there’s a crack in the casket? What’s being done to Fort Worth in general, whether it’s to the living or the dead, it’s immoral.”