Frackfree Mahoning Valley News Release
www.frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com/
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For Immediate Release: September 18, 2012
Contact: Susie Beiersdorfer: Phone: 234-201-0402 or E-mail: frackfreemahoning@gmail.com
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FRACKFREE MAHONING VALLEY (FFM) CALLS UPON MAYOR SAMMARONE AND YOUNGSTOWN CITY COUNCIL TO DELAY ANY FRACKING-RELATED VOTE ON WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 AT CITY COUNCIL: FAILURE TO DELAY THE VOTE IS NOT ADEQUATELY PROTECTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST, HEALTH AND SAFETY, THE GROUP SAYS
Youngstown, Ohio, 9/18/12 - Frackfree Mahoning Valley, a group of concerned citizens from Youngstown and the surrounding area, released a statement on the Frackfree America National Coalition (www.frackfreeamerica.org ) and the Frackfree Mahoning Valley (www.frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com/ ) websites on 9/18/12, calling for a delay on the planned fracking-related resolution vote to take place at Wednesday’s Youngstown City Council on September 19, 2012.
Frackfree Mahoning Valley says that if Youngstown City Council votes to greenlight the leasing or selling of Youngstown’s mineral rights for gas and oil drilling, the door will be wide open for fracking and related processes in the city limits, which FFM strongly opposes based upon the high risks of fracking and related processes to drinking water sources, air quality issues, and public health and safety.
For more information about the resolution, please see: “Youngstown council to weigh fracking resolution,” by David Skolnick, Youngstown, Ohio Vindicator (9/14/12): http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/sep/14/youngstown-council-to-weigh-fracking-res/
Frackfree Mahoning Valley (FFM) says that proper due diligence on the fracking and injection well question has not occurred, as evidenced by the fact that independent scientists, physicians and other health professionals, public health professionals, the general public, lawyers, industry or business stakeholders have not yet testified in an open public televised forum, including public dialogue with experts, or before Mayor Sammarone and Youngstown City Council.
FFM says that greenlighting this high-risk and essentially experimental process of fracking and related processes and inviting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to begin permitting fracking in Youngstown subjects the general public to an unacceptable level of risk to public health, safety, and well-being. The group says that the public deserves to know what is being considered in detail before the city proceeds to do business with the gas and oil industry. FFM also believes that when the public is adequately informed and aware of fracking and related processes, they will demand a stop to it and demand to be properly informed of potential risks and costs of proceeding.
FFM says that a failure to delay the vote would indicate to them that City Council is not adequately protecting the public health, safety, and well-being of Youngstown community families and citizens and those of the surrounding area.
“No amount of money for demolition of buildings is worth risking contaminating the public’s drinking water, more earthquakes, spills, leaks, or mechanical failures, which we are not adequately prepared to handle. Public officials must safeguard the public well-being and interest – not the monetary interests of the gas and oil drilling industry. To fail to adequately address these issues in a public forum is unconscionable. The risk to public health by fracking and related processes is great. We are renewing the call for televised open public dialogue with independent scientists and others, “said Tom Cvetkovich, concerned citizen of Youngstown, Ohio.
In Frackfree Mahoning Valley’s “Statement: Open Letter” posted at www.frackfreeamerica.org and www.frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com/, FFM lists local and nearby fracking-related accidents or incidents that have already occurred, some of which remain unresolved. Those incidents include the recent 5- mile long Fowler “brine” spill, the Brookfield, Ohio, fish kill, and the Ginsburg well in Ohio, which has reportedly been repeatedly cited for violations since 1986, yet apparently, remains in operation.
The December 31, 2011, 4.0 magnitude Youngstown earthquake, one of about twelve in an area that had no reported earthquakes before drilling, is another example, according to FFM, of how the public health is not being safeguarded, as evidenced by the lack of a permanent ban on the injection wells in the moratorium area. Frackfree Mahoning Valley is also demanding a permanent ban on injection wells in the moratorium area since they say there is a greater risk of more earthquakes if drilling or deep injection of toxic fracking waste goes ahead. They say that based upon the history of other injection well earthquake incidents, more earthquakes may yet occur in the moratorium area since the ancient geological equilibrium has irreversibly been disturbed by the lubrication of the fault.
Frackfree Mahoning Valley says that the Ginsburg well and earthquake examples alone show why the widely touted “stringent regulations” in Ohio are failing to protect the public health and safety.
According to FFM, it was once thought that using asbestos was safe. Just as one cannot strictly regulate asbestos into becoming safe, one cannot regulate fracking and related processes and make them safe. Fracking and related processes cannot be safely done with the state of the technology as it stands today, says FFM.
Any meetings with the gas and oil fracking industry should be done while the public is in attendance, the group says. The public should be able to voice their concerns.
For media inquiries or more information, e-mail:
frackfreemahoning@gmail.com or call:
234-201-0402
www.frackfreemahoning.blogspot.com
Also see:
Frackfree America National Coalition
www.frackfreeamerica.org
e-mail: frackfreeamerica@gmail.com call: 234-201-8007
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/Frackfree
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