January 08, 2013 04:18 PM UTC

New video series takes look at drilling impacts on Colo. residents, businesses

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• by: checks-and-balances

(The ongoing debate on fracking makes this diary worthwhile,especially to our West Slope polsters. – promoted by Voyageur)

POLS NOTE: Here is the link for those who can’t see the embedded player.

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A new video series takes a look at the impacts of drilling on Colorado residents and business owners. According to the Center for Western Priorities release – the group that’s releasing the minidocumentaries:

“Colorado communities struggling to balance their quality of life and local economies with industrial drilling and fracking operations are the focus of a new mini-documentary series by the Center for Western Priorities (CWP).”

The videos include interviews with residents and local business owners in Rifle and Paonia. People living in the Western Slope community of Rifle already have drilling in their midst, and are experiencing air and water challenges, explosions and truck traffic that make some of them wish they’d never moved there.

Farmers, ranchers and local business owners in Paonia talk about Colorado BLM’s plans to make 20,000+ acres in their area available for oil and gas leasing. Agriculture is a staple of the North Fork Valley, and the farmers and ranchers are scared of the impact drilling will have on their livelihoods.

More from the CWP release:

“It’s an unknown practice,” said Jeff Schwartz, a Paonia farmer. “The risk that we’ve learned, that I’ve learned, about around the country is that there is a high risk of water contamination, and that’s a high risk to my family making a living.” Schwartz continued, “Anything that threatens the safety of our food crops threatens everything we do.”

CWP says that LookWest will continue visiting western communities to give people affected by oil and gas drilling a platform to have their stories heard. You can watch the videos at the CWP website (www.westernpriorities.org).