Bengal News Reporters
Imagine turning on your water faucet and then holding a lit match under the running water; naturally the small flame would be extinguished. However, in areas where natural gas is abundant underground, and gas companies are using hydro-fracturing, commonly known as fracking, to mine it, people could have a very different reaction to this experiment: their water could start on fire, if a YouTube video is to be believed.
Fortunately, the West Side doesn’t have to be concerned with this extreme scenario, which affects people with well water. However, the danger of pollution in the lakes and rivers surrounding the area is very real.
According to FrackAction.com, hydro-fracturing is a process where water, sand and chemicals are injected into the earth at high pressure. The aim of hydro-fracturing is to fracture rock formations deep underground in the hopes of liberating natural gas that would be otherwise inaccessible, and to bring it to the surface.
“The Environmental Protection Agency is largely powerless to do anything about pollution caused by fracking. A provision of the 2005 energy bill, inserted at the behest of then Vice President Dick Cheney, stripped the EPA of authority to regulate the process,” according to FrackAction.com.
The energy bill passed in 2005 does not require gas companies reveal what chemicals they use in the process of hyrdo-fracturing, according to FrackAction.com.
Frack Action Buffalo, led by Rita Yelda, Niagara District Buffalo Common Councilmember David Rivera and North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek worked this past fall to pass Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance. This bans hydro-fracturing in the city of Buffalo, as well as the use of wastewater from the process.
The ordinance passed by Buffalo does not allow the the Buffalo water authority to except any fracking water in the future. According to the Erie County Water Authority it is almost impossible to know what to test for when treating wastewater from fracking.
Kirk Laubenstein, legislative assistant to Rivera asked, “Once you screw up your water, how do you unscrew it up?”
Laubenstein said that the council passed the ordinance knowing that gas companies weren’t particularly interested in the West Side, but because it was the right thing to do. Laubenstein said by passing the ordinance in Buffalo it gave smaller towns and communities more leverage to also ban it. The traditional form of vertical fracking has long been used in New York and now horizontal fracking, which is more controversial because of the amount of water, sand and chemicals needed, is being developed and implemented, according to FrackAction.com.
“Vertical fracking has already been happening in the Collins area, just 40 minutes outside of Buffalo. There is also an investigation into the acceptance of fracking waste in the city, where it is ending up in local waterways,” Yelda said. “When public health and the environment are on the line, that outweighs any of the supposed economic benefits.”
Laubenstein said he felt the same way, comparing fracking to the tobacco industry in the way that it may create jobs for people while at the same time it creates a huge health risk for the public.
“Along with protecting its residents by passing this law, Buffalo is also sending a message to Albany that New York does not want hydro-fracking,” Yelda said. “We will stand up for our communities if New York State will not.”
Yelda is referring to the moratorium that is currently banning horizontal hydro-fracturing in New York State. That moratorium is set to expire this summer, and if no laws are created banning the practice, statewide gas companies will be free to continue to drill vertically as well as start drilling horizontally. This will allow gas companies to challenge Buffalo’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, and possibly over turn it, which would allow them to drill for natural gas under the city as well as send wastewater to water treatment plants in the area.
Since gas companies by federal law are not required to list the chemicals that could be in the water, it becomes a guessing game for the water treatment facilities.
“National Resources Defense Council said they would work with us to fight the case if we need to,” said Laubenstein.
Frack Action Buffalo is going to continue to back legislation to prohibit hydro-fracking on local and statewide levels. The organization does community outreach and education, and every second and fourth Sunday at noon they hold open meetings at Lafayette Presbyterian Church in Buffalo.
Edited by Paul Giazzon and Jennifer Waters
