Permaculture magazine Nearly 100,000 signatures have been made against the potential oil drilling (fracking) at Leith Hill in Surrey, due to water pollution concerns.
Over 91,500 people fear Leith Hill oil site may pollute local water A petition demonstrating public concern over the risk to local water supplies from oil drilling on Leith Hill is close to hundred thousand signatures.
The petition, hosted by 38 Degrees, which is addressed to the Environment Agency (EA) titled ‘Don’t risk water pollution from oil drilling on Leith Hill’ has been signed by over ninety-one thousand people, with more being added by the minute.
The organisers of the petition will be officially handing it in on Thursday 1 March at 6:30pm during a public consultation at the Dorking Halls, where residents have been invited to talk to EA representatives about how they will regulate the proposed oil and gas activities on Leith Hill in Surrey.
Short term oil extraction is increasingly being prioritised by our Government over the protection of our water resource.
Water will ultimately be much more valuable and important to our Nation than oil.
“Water is both a vital natural resource and a heritage, which must be protected, defended and treated as such.
Lester Sonden, then director of SESW, said he was concerned about the potential for long-term contamination of water sources.
However well-designed, there is a risk of failure at some time in the future.” Public confidence is also dropping in two of the companies responsible for the drilling to foot the bill should a clean up of this scale be necessary.
With over £50m wiped off UKOG’s share price recently due to possible formation damage at Broadford Bridge oil well in Sussex and Europa’s share price going steadily down by over 66% in 5yrs, from over 12p in April 2013 to 3.85p on Wed 21st Feb, campaigners against the drilling fear this could end up costing the tax payer a lot more than they bargained for, as well as causing irreparable damage to our water.