Greenwich Is Latest CT Community To Ban Fracking Extraction Waste

From Greenwich Conservation Advocates: In the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 18th, the Town of Greenwich became the 50th town in Connecticut to pass a comprehensive ordinance prohibiting contaminated waste from out-of-state oil and gas fracturing extraction. The ordinance, which was originally submitted to the Town of Greenwich in May of 2017 by Greenwich Conservation Advocates, had been reviewed and recommended on its merits by a special subcommittee of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) not once, but twice, and passed 105-31-2. The Greenwich Representative Town Meeting or 'RTM' is comprised of 227 members.

"GCA is pleased that Greenwich enacted this comprehensive and protective ordinance at a critical time,"
said Richard Margenot. "The Greenwich RTM decided that the health and environment of its residents is
paramount and that from a fiscal standpoint, prevention is always preferable to remediation."

A comprehensive and truly protective bill --- Substitute Senate Bill 103 (SSB103) --- was not taken up in
full by the State General Assembly this year and the state moratorium for developing regulations only
covers a portion of the waste stream. This leaves CT residents vulnerable to the millions of tons of solid
waste and the billions of gallons of liquid waste generated by the oil and gas extraction industry. Waste
contaminated construction fill or road de-icers are the common methods of entry into municipalities.
Eight states currently manage oil and gas waste from fracturing extraction in Pennsylvania.

Waste from both conventional and horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations has been documented to
contain many contaminants including chemicals and naturally-occurring elements that are known to cause
multiple cancers, organ damage, neurological and developmental problems, birth defects and other
serious health problems. Radioactive isotopes are also a critical concern and are documented in two
forms: radium-226 and radium-228, a highly radioactive form which leaches from rocks and minerals as a
direct result of the fracking process. Additional waste constituents include chemical additives that are
often part of proprietary industry formulas and remain unidentified.

"GCA members began by supporting state level action and decided to also pursue a local ordinance
because we recognized that it offered protections the state bill in 2017 didn’t," said Marija Mikolajczak.
"We appreciate the beauty of our community’s natural resources but being dependent upon them as a part
of the ecosystem ourselves, it is important to conserve and preserve what we have."

Neighboring Stamford has also enacted a ban as well as 15 counties in the State of New York. The bans
address the needs of localities due to the lack of truly comprehensive and protective measures statewide
and particular exemptions from signature federal laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking
Water Act which were written and passed to protect public health and the environment.

Most recently, the CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) drafted a 'model' ordinance for
municipalities but it did so in such a way to exclude key aspects of the contaminated waste stream. The
CCM engaged in lobbying for weaker provisions at the State Assembly on this issue. They also lobbied
against another public protection known as the 'water in the public trust' provision which was retained in
The State Water Plan this year by public demand.

The Greenwich ordinance received review and endorsements from the Greenwich Conservation
Commission; the Greenwich Shellfish Commission, the Greenwich Environmental Affairs Department
and the Greenwich Department of Public Health.
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Greenwich Conservation Advocates (GCA) is a nonpartisan grassroots neighborhood organization that
initially formed in early 2017 in response to concerns about local drought conditions. GCA supports
and promotes local water conservation and quality protections. www.greenwichconservationadvocates.org

Image via Shutterstock

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