Fracked Farmland: “It’s a slow kill”
Idyllic Farmland to Industrial Frackland
Vicky Simlik and her husband bought their 80-acre dream hobby farm 30 years ago in a beautiful area of hay fields and pastureland near Farmington, BC. As a paint and fibre artist, she cherished the quiet rural life. The expansive, open spaces, clean air, and frequent wildlife sightings inspired her work. As the farm was located in an Agricultural Land Reserve, a designation established to preserve valuable agricultural lands for the future, she never dreamed the peace and quiet could be taken away.
Then fifteen years ago, the oil and gas industry set their sights on the Montney formation, one of the largest known gas resources in the world. Immense profit could be found in the gas and condensate (a by-product of fracked gas used to dilute the tar-like bitumen for transport) lying below the fields of Farmington.
