Colville, Washington takes its time. There is no hurry, no need to do much of anything.
Well to the south, in the living room of a small house off Kanan Dume Road, five freshly minted fugitives explore ways to weave their disparate agendas together.
Dorothy, the geological engineer on the run from an oil and gas company, washed breakfast dishes. She told them more about the poison fracking leaves behind.
“Then you’ve got what the industry calls BTEX compounds.
“There’s benzene, which can cause leukemia and other blood diseases. Toluene, which attacks the nerves, liver and kidneys. Ethylbenzene, linked to the growth of cancerous tumors in the kidneys and other organs. And xylene, which causes dizziness, confusion and disrupts muscle coordination.
“Those are just the BTEX compounds. Just a sliver of all the poison fracking leaves behind.
“And because the government doesn’t require the frackers to report any of this, nobody knows how much poison there is, where it is, or what it’s doing.
“Nobody in Colville Washington, Farmington, New Mexico, or anyplace else in America has a clue.”
