Some friends far away have to buy drinking water in little bottles because theirs tastes like algae or sulfur or industrial chemicals. Ours wins national taste tests.
We’ve all seen the news videos with the lady lighting her kitchen spigot on fire because her well got fracked. Maybe you’ve heard about the Texas town that squandered their water and had to pay to have more trucked in. We don’t have these problems and don’t want them.
There may be some people with dollar signs in their eyes over the prospect of gas in our community forests. I wonder if they are prepared to pay for any damage they may cause. Or if all of us, once again, will have to foot the bill for someone else’s greed.
Alabama doesn’t have a law, like New York state’s, that forbids drilling near major aquifers. But we do have a state motto: “We dare defend our rights.”
Susan Di Biase
Jacksonville
