Pro-fracking?

Here is a look at my final journalism story of my career, on hydraulic fracturing, a community taking a different stand towards the controversial process. 

A small Home-Hardware stands out on Main Street, in Blackville, New Brunswick. Piles of wood trucked from some foreign mill lay in the shadow of the former green, rusted, old abandoned mill that has sat unused for years. Between those two places is a large patch of grass, for the most part it is green, but parts of it have yellowed from the lack of settlement. A sign is standing tall, about 20 feet from Main Street, a white background and thick green letters: “SAY YES TO FRACKING.”

“The huge sign above the Home Hardware was erected by a private citizen, on his own property, said Wendy Astle, Program Coordinator for A Family Place, Miramichi. “He is not on the Village Council or any committees in Blackville. He works out west and wants to be able to work here, in his hometown.”

In a province where sometimes violent protests against the exploration for shale gas and a controversial process called hydraulic fracking has come to a town situated on the banks of the world famous Miramichi River, population 990, is taking a different kind of path.  The town, whose livelihood depends entirely upon the natural resources available there, has all but disappeared in recent years.

            The village revolves around the local grocery store with a gas station and a store where the former mill workers gather for their morning coffee.  The Home Hardware that is just up the street from the Irving is where high school students get summer jobs loading trucks full of lumber. A statue of the Dungarvon Hooper, a story of a murder cook from a logging camp, who howls at night sending shivers through the spine of loggers who enter that area, stands tall at the edge of the beautiful municipal park.

            It is the kind of town that when you walk into the Pharamasave, people call you by your first name. The yellow buses file down from the top of the hill from the local school.

           From first glance the town is the picture of a healthy, vibrant, small town. However, the tiny village of Blackville lost its main source of employment, when the UPM, United Paper Ltd, a paper mill company from Finland, which still stands like a ghost closed in 2007. The mill closure meant 60 lost jobs.

            Other members of the community were employed at a much larger UPM mill in Miramichi, about a thirty minute drive from Blackville, which also closed, putting 600 people out of work.

            This meant hundreds of people were out of work. The mill closure came about THREE 3 months after the closure in Blackville. The community had been hit hard. Twice.

            Statistics Canada reported that the unemployment rate for the Cambellton-Miramichi area in April was 21.1 percent, up from 19.6 percent in April 2012. This region of New Brunswick is viewed by Statistics Canada as having the highest rate in unemployment.

            Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of a rock by a pressurized liquid. A mixture of water, sand and chemicals are injected into a wellbore at high pressure and gases like petroleum, uranium-bearing solution and brine water may migrate into the well.       

            Hydraulic fracturing is a process met with great resistance in nearly all parts of the globe. In 2011, France became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing.  Places like Prince Edward Island have brought forward the idea of a moratorium. Nova Scotia has made similar proposals in the past. The process has been blanketed in nothing but negative stories. Examples like the United States are hard to find. According the New York Times, the United States reported having success with the technique, and with a yield of 87 percent self-sufficient in gas.

On November 7, 2013, the Liberal leader, in his throne speech, called for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. CBC News quoted Brain Gallant, “Fracking is a contentious issue in our province, across North America and across the globe.” A moratorium would mean that Liberal government would start a suspension of the ongoing activity of hydraulic fracturing. According to CBC, energy minister Craig Leonard said that he expects the Liberals will allow shale gas exploration if they win the election. His party is calling for a moratorium for votes in the election.

Many of the environmental factors, such as the chemicals involved with extracting the gas, contamination of wells, have yet to be explored. There are many questions surrounding hydraulic fracturing. So why bring it to a small community like Blackville? 

            “We’re tired of poverty,” said Bonnie Fournier, local stay at home mom. “We’re tired of having to split up families to go away to Alberta to work. We’re tired of no jobs.”

          There will be no fracking done in Blackville, as there are no deposits found here, said Christopher Hennessey, council member and entrepreneur. However, a short drive of 15 to 20 minutes to areas such as Dungarvon and Cains will take you to gas rich areas, within the Blackville parish.”

           “Blackville is pro-fracking solely for economic reasons,” said Anthony Connors home-grown local. “They need the jobs and economic benefits fracking will bring.”

           In Blackville is all too common for people to move to provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan to find work.

        “Alberta is one of the provinces to which shale gas exploration is on-going,” Fournier said.“It was just a way of living, we had our own water well, which we drank from every day.”

            The community wishes to see a revival of their community. Despite the controversy surrounding the areas already involved with the process. It’s all about job creation and economics. 

            “There are very few answers to the unemployment crisis in our area,” said Hennessy. “We have no industry, no mills and no chance of future development,”

            “The big picture needs to be seen here, we need money we need revenue,” said Jake Stewart, Conservative MLA for the riding of Southwest-Miramichi.
            He predicts that within the years of 2018-2020 New Brunswick will hit a boom. Stewart thinks that the community needs jobs, and needs industry. “I want to make a difference,” said Stewart.

            “I am certain this is a good idea, because I have worked in the industry and worked on the wells the same as what would be found in areas of Dungarvon, Tower Road, and Kent County,” said Hennessey. “I know that the industry can be performed safely and have seen the benefits to small communities even smaller then Blackville.”

            The community has had three open information meetings that were neutral, based on facts and truths. There are supporters and non-supporters of Blackville’s possible economic revival.

            “I am one of those people who is still undecided on the fracking issue,” said Astle. “I would love to see the positive benefits that the government is promising us, but I am not convinced those are true. I think there has to be much more unbiased research into the process.”

            “I think that Blackville will survive no matter what they decide to do. We have been through economic downturns in the past and the spirit of people helping others in the community is still alive here”