Sparks fly over fracking in Karoo debate

At Wessa's "What the Frack is going on?" Steve du Toit, Regional Ma-nager of WESSA, who chaired the meeting, had difficulty keeping passionate anti-fracker Edwin Bird seated.

GEORGE NEWS - A red-hot debate between Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor, an avid anti-fracker from Cape Town, and Ivo Vegter, author of Extreme Evironment and global warming denialist from Knysna, saw sparks flying as they thrashed out the pros and cons of fracking on Tuesday evening.

The event was hosted by WESSA (Wildlife and Environmental Society of SA). Westgarth Taylor calmly thrashed Vegter's book and dismissed it as horsesh..t and inferred that he was employed by Shell, one of the petro-chemical giants that had applied for rights to exploit gas in the Karoo region.

This did not sit well with Vegter, who in his rebuttal said he would not deign to respond to this accusation, as it was nothing less than character assassination. He then responded by saying that Westgarth-Taylor had selectively quoted from negative book reviews, and had chosen to ignore the positive crits. A grim-looking Vegter read a letter from Shell which had categorically stated that he (Vegter) was not employed by them, nor did he receive any pecuniary or financial gain from them.

There was comic relief from the intense debate when Steve du Toit, Regional Manager of WESSA, who chaired the meeting, had difficulty keeping passionate anti-fracker Edwin Bird seated. The crusty Georgian (former Western Cape farmer), kept on popping up like a jack-in-the-box to make a point.

At one time Du Toit tried to gently, push Bird back in his seat much to the amusement of the audience who had been sedately listening to both viewpoints, and politely applauded Vegter, even though he was clearly addressing an anti-fracking audience.

Vegter emphasised that go-vernment should formulate strict environmental laws regulating hydrological mining operations and incorporate rehabilitation for land where gas exploration had taken place. Westgarth-Taylor said that government's track record was sullied. It had allowed 54 mining companies to operate without water licences, which showed that they could not be relied on to protect the citizens of South Africa against unscrupulous mining practices. The staunch anti-fracker (who is a member of Treasure the Karoo Action Group) closed off his powerpoint presentation, packed with facts and figures, by saying that the hydraulic fracking operation is so forceful that it causes a blast that could be measured between 4 and 5 on the Richter scale.

He emphasised that one litre of fracking chemicals (containing heavy pollutants) would permanently pollute one million litres of water, and that local municipalities do not have the capacity to handle toxic waste resulting from the mining operations.

There simply was not enough water to carry out mining operations in an arid area such as the Karoo, and that by using desalinated water (as was proposed) this would produce further ecological pressures on the country's coastline.

Citizens who are concerned about the potential threat of hydrological fracking, (as a moratorium on exploration had been lifted) were asked to make financial contributions towards Treasure the Karoo Action Group's legal costs incurred to opposing hydrological fracking.

* In 'n vurige debat het Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor, komiteelid van Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG) 'n dwarsklap gegee na Ivo Vegter, die Knysna skrywer van die boek Extreme Environment tydens 'n George Wessa vergadering. Vegter het aangedui dat die regering gedwing sal moet word tot omgewingswetgewing ter beskerming en in mitigasie van hidrologiese metodes wat gebruik word met skaliegas ontginning.

- George Herald