I just received my “Vote No on 300” mailer today. I am baffled by the claims it makes. The one that was the most ironic to me was “Facts are just collateral damage in the activist war on fracking.” That people who are against fracking next to our homes and schools in Longmont are fueled by “passion for a cause” rather than by scientific evidence or facts.

The truth is that the people who are pushing this dirty industry into our city are the ones distorting or ignoring the facts. Here are the facts that have fueled my passion.

Water: The pro-frackers want us to believe that there has never been a single instance of water pollution from fracking. “Not one. And that’s the truth.” Apparently they’re using second-grade logic, holding steadfast to this claim while looking us straight in the eye and hoping it will be enough to convince us. Information readily available to the public on the COGCC website would suggest otherwise. On Aug. 1, 2009, Mr. Norman Anderson filed a complaint with the COGCC alleging that his water well had been contaminated by fracking operations. Long story short, the state agreed and fined the Eddy Oil Co. $66,000 for its “contamination of the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer by produced gas.” (http://cogcc.state.co.us/orders/orders/1v/349.html)

The COGCC website also has a nice archive of spill/incident reports, an archive that shows that since 2009, more than 450 Spill/Release Reports have been sent to the COGCC from Weld County alone. And 46.3 percent of those spills contaminated groundwater. Again, this is on the COGCC website, http://cogcc.state.co.us. So, keep saying there has never been water pollution from fracking, oil and gas industry, but we know you’re lying.

Air: I am more concerned about air pollution than water pollution, even with the above evidence of water pollution. Fracking produces fugitive emissions of VOCs such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, cyclopentane, propane and ethyne. A 2011 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study of the air quality in Erie, a town of 19,000 people, revealed higher levels of propane and ethyne in the air than in Pasadena, Calif. (essentially Los Angeles) and Houston, Texas. In January 2011, the COGCC requested emergency funding for explosive levels of methane seeping into residential homes from plugged and abandoned oil wells (COGCC website, Order No. 1E-10). And a recent study by the Colorado School of Public Health showed significantly increased acute and chronic health problems, including cancer, for those living within a half-mile of fracking sites. Colorado allows fracking to occur as close as 350 feet to our homes and schools. That’s less than a tenth of a mile away.

Back to water: Each frack job consumes up to 5 million gallons of water. There are currently 47,000 wells in Colorado, with a projection of 100,000 in the near future. And each well is fracked numerous times. That’s a lot of water. Water that can never be returned to the water cycle. Water that is forever contaminated with chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors. I beg you to look up the effects of carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors on the human body. This water is sometimes shoved back down into the ground where we hope it won’t seep. But many times it is left in open pits. Google “images for fracking wastewater” to see what is allowed in Colorado. Coloradans are often put on water restrictions, but the oil and gas companies are exempt from these restrictions.

Here’s another fun fact: The oil and gas industry is also exempt from virtually all federal laws put in place to protect our air and water, such as the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Planning and Community Right to Know Act. Thanks, Dick Cheney!

More facts to consider: An article from the Center for Economic and Policy Research reveals that the claim of job creation is hugely misrepresented by the oil and gas industry. And up to 80 percent of the jobs are taken by out-of-state workers. Communities with fracking have experienced lower property values, increased crime, significantly damaged roads and sick residents.

These are the facts that have fueled my passion for this cause. Sorry, boys, you just sent your “literature” to the wrong house! Join me in voting “yes” on Question 300 to protect Longmont!

Lindsay Gahn is a Longmont resident.