Frack sand truck

Some might call this truck

a "sow belly" or more descriptively, a "sand hog" but I refuse to anthropomorphize onto an instrument of destruction. Such framing seeks to diminish and naturalize the unnatural. This is a truck that's used to transport a particular type of sand used in high volume hydraulic fracturing for unnatural gas, the mining of which sand in Wisconsin has been causing major health problems, currently being ignored by the powers that be.

This truck has been parked at the dead end side of the entrance to Old Owego Rd. in the Town of Owego. Sometimes the cab is attached. At other times, such as when I parked and got near to take these photos, the cab is gone.

I have no idea why it's parked there nor whether it's the same truck or a different one each time.

The truck comes and goes and comes. There's a frack sand transfer facility in the village of Owego about 15 minutes to the west by auto.

I took this photo August 16, 2011 in the village of Owego at the Ward & Van Scoy business on Erie St near Rte 96 at about10:00 a.m. The sand was being blown from the silo to the truck via a pipe in a box flimsily covered with blue tarp that was blowing about. I did not see the worker wearing any protective face gear. The noise was loud. The sand is transported by freight train into the village, along a rail that runs on the north side of the Susquehanna River. This river runs parallel to Rte. 17/I86, which itself runs parallel to Rte 434, which the parked frack sand truck drove on in order to get to this parking spot.

Fracking

Walter sent out a letter today expressing concern that it's likely that Cuomo, Libous and the NRDC have struck a deal to treat the residents of the Southern Tier of New York at lab rats or guinea pigs (take your pick) by allowing the invasion and deployment of 300 wells (why that number? was it just snatched from the air?) as an initial experiment in the Southern Tier. Every well could be drilled through our drinking water aquifer just perfectly (which they won't) but that still does not address the unanswered and unacceptable issues of increased truck traffic spewing diesel exhaust, increasing noise, shortening response times for emergency vehicles, increase in ozone from said truck traffic, from increased numbers of compressor stations, the flaring of gas from each well, degradation of quality of life in terms of increase in crime, drug use, etc. that comes with an influx of an uncontrolled young male un-rooted population. There's still the unsolved problem of what to do with the frack waste. There's still the theft of millions of gallons of the animals' water, nature's water, the people's water from the hydrologic cycle. There's also the cultural change from an influx of men from the Southwest U.S. working 12 hrs. on/ 12 off in physically exhausting work handling toxic chemicals. There's already a shortage of low income rental housing in the area. As is the case in the NEPA counties being fracked, landlords have jacked up rental rates and residents now find themselves homeless and/or families split up and children put into foster care as a result. And that's just to start.