Last night, Rochester’s Planning
Commission recommended that City Council pass a proposed one-year moratorium on
natural gas exploration and extraction. That moratorium includes the use of
high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
Nobody spoke against the proposal, though several speakers did urge Council
to consider a full ban. They also said they’d like to see any moratorium or ban
include other drilling-related activities, such as fracking fluid treatment or
injection wells on industrial sites. They said, however, that the moratorium is
a good first step.
“Please do everything you can,” said activist and city resident Emily Good,
who stressed the potential for fracking-related water and air pollution.
City resident Charlotte Miller told the commission that fracking, or its
supporting services, could drive young people out of Rochester. She wants to
stay here and buy a house in the city, but she’d leave if fracking comes to
town.
“I want you to want me here,” Miller said.
Most if not all of the audience members who were interested in the
moratorium saw the text of the legislation for the first time last night. The
moratorium would technically apply to permits, certificates of zoning
compliance, and variances for natural gas exploration and extraction. It
doesn’t explicitly prohibit other fracking-related activities, such as
injection wells or fracking fluid storage, and it’s unclear whether those uses
would be covered by the moratorium. It’s not just the drilling that matters.
For example, cities could experience problems with housing, crime, and truck
traffic. Even emissions from nearby gas fields could affect cities.
The legislation says that drilling could threaten city residents’ health,
safety, and welfare. But the purpose of the moratorium is to allow a study of
fracking’s effect on the city. This section of the legislation is very
important for that reason:
“There has been inadequate research into the specific impacts of natural gas
exploration and extraction in urban areas, where there are dense residential
development, many existing industrial sites, and a large number of brownfield
sites containing identified and unidentified hazardous substances or hazardous
wastes. Of particular concern is the impact that the natural gas extraction
method of high-volume hydraulic fracturing may have on the existing hazardous
waste substances or hazardous wastes found in brownfield sites, the potential
for and increased danger from seismic activity in a developed urban area, and
the increased danger from any spills, emissions, or discharges due to proximity
to dense, urban populations,” says the legislation.
By adopting the resolution, City Council would be saying that these issues
need to be studied. That’s an important statement, since the state is still
reviewing its environmental statement on high-volume hydraulic fracturing; the
state isn’t issuing permits while that review is under way.
Council will vote on the moratorium during its June 19 meeting, which starts
at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 30
Church Street.
This article appears in Summer Guide 2012.
