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The Madison Patch has published the following article dealing with ban-fracking local ordinances. This is the same fight we are involved with in Florida.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
Madison Residents Seeking Fracking Ban
Several residents attended a recent Board of Selectmen meeting asking for a local ordinance.
By Jack Kramer, Correspondent
MADISON, CT – A group of concerned Madison residents attended the Dec. 4th meeting of the Board of Selectmen to urge the board to get behind a growing movement in towns in Connecticut to ban fracking.
Fracking is a method of extracting natural gas from deep in the ground by injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into dense rock formations such as shale, in order to crack the rock and release the gas.
This new drilling technique in shale formations has allowed the gas industry to reach large reserves that were previously considered uneconomical.
Unlike traditional vertical fracking, horizontal fracking requires massive amounts of water, sand, and potentially toxic chemicals to unearth the natural gas that lies underneath the shale. Holding ponds or tanks are also needed to store the chemically contaminated waste water that comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured.
The anti-fracking group had a number of volunteers at the polls this past Election Day, asking people to sign a petition asking Madison officials to pass a ordinance to ban fracking.
“I was amazed by how many people were in support of a fracking ban in Madison,” Lynne Charles, one of the residents who is behind the ban fracking movement, told the selectmen.
Charles and a half-dozen other residents urged the selectmen to take action on against fracking.
“I think we get the point,” First Selectman Tom Banisch said after hearing a number of residents urge the board to ban fracking.
Banisch and the other selectmen pointed out to the group that there was no action planned on fracking on the agenda.
But, the group is hopeful the selectmen will take up the issue at an upcoming meeting – perhaps at its next meeting on Dec. 18th.
At present, federal laws do not protect the health of either the environment or people. Connecticut must protect itself from the importation of toxic fracking wastes.
selectmen says it all