Participants: Rose Josefa (Resident of Mora County, Concerned Citizen), Don Shaw (Resident of Mora County, Concerned Citizen), Johnny Micou (Drilling Santa Fe and Common Ground United), Linda Spier (Photographer, Galisteo Basin Photography Project Producer, Community Activist)
Co-Hosts: Pat Leahan, Arielle Hawney
Summary: We learn the background of how citizens of Mora County formed a group once they heard the Oil and Gas Industry was looking to obtain leases for oil and natural gas exploration in the county. The industry procedure known as hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is explained, and we discuss the enormous amounts of water and proprietary formulas of toxic chemicals that are involved (patented by Halliburton Industries). We learn that the O&G Industry (during the Bush-Cheney administration) became exempt from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, Surface Water Run-off Act, the Community Right To Know Act (under the Homeland Security Act), and more. We discuss how Santa Fe County citizens are dealing with the O&G Industry. The hazards of directional drilling, and the truth of the land-lease process (including the industry requirement that "you can't talk to your neighbors"), are explained. Solutions are explored. And as Shaw and Rose emphasize: "Education is the key."
