There are fresh fears about fracking in Scotland’s central belt after scientists in America discovered dangerous levels of toxic ‘gender-bender’ chemicals downstream from a fracking site. Researchers from the University of Missouri found hormone-disrupting chemicals in surface water near a fracking waste water disposal facility at Fayetteville in West Virginia. The concentrations were high enough to damage wildlife and threaten human health, they said. Experts and environmentalists warn that the US findings expose the risks that millions would face in Scotland were the fracking industry’s plans to be given the go-ahead. This is, however, denied by the industry. Companies, led by INEOS, which runs petrochemical plants at Grangemouth, have plans to frack hugh swathes of Scotland around Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Dunfermline. They want to create large drilling fields to hydraulically fracture underground rocks to extract shale gas for public use. But their ambitions have been temporarily thwarted by a Scottish Government moratorium on development while health and environmental impacts are assessed. The SNP election manifesto published last week promised that fracking would not be allowed “unless it can be proved beyond any doubt that it will not harm our environment, communities or public health.”
Sunday Herald 24th April 2016 read more »