Rochester Hills Calls Hasty Session for Moratorium on Fracking

Fracking has been a contentious topic in Rochester Hills and elsewhere in Oakland County in recent months. (Patch file photo)

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The Rochester Hills City Council is meeting in special session at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to consider a a moratorium on oil and gas drilling.

The meeting was called Monday afternoon, but the nonprofit group Don’t Drill the Hills said in a news release that “only a select number of residents” were notified of the session and notice wasn’t posted on the city web site “until after pressure from DDHI members.”

The meeting will be held at Rochester Hills City Auditorium, 1000 Rochester Hills Drive.

“This situation is of great importance to all residents of Rochester Hills,” the group said. “Residents have been waiting for months for movement on enacting of oil and gas ordinances with substantive and enforceable protections.”

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Horizontal drilling and fracking have been hot topics of discussion around southeast Michigan for more than a year after Jordan Development Co. and others have leased or purchased mineral rights in Rochester Hills, Auburn Hills and thousands of acres of land in Oakland County and the region for exploration and possible drilling.

Members of the group worry about potential environmental risks associated with fracking, but also have questions about property rights, property values, mortgage and insurance complications, she said.

Fracking is the common term for slick water horizontal fracturing. The practice involves drilling wells up to two miles into the Earth, then turning the drill bit horizontally to drill up to several miles. The wells fill up with millions of gallons of fresh water mixed with sand, salts and chemicals, which is subjected to intense bursts of pressure to loosen rock formations and release natural gas. Critics of the process fear possible contamination of groundwater resources, as well as concerns about the disposal of the resulting fracking fluids.

Most recently, drilling plans have been announced in Scio Township, Shelby Township, and Fowlerville, as well as in Rochester Hills, where members of the Don’t Drill the Hills group filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s lease allowing horizontal drilling under Tienken Park, Norwicki Park and Stoney Creek Cemetery violate city ordinance.

Don’t Drill the Hills said it “welcomes the whole idea of a moratorium,” but said the group still has concerns about what it called the city’s “willful subversion of the law” when Mayor Brian Barnett signed the leases with Jordan Development Co. LLC to allow horizontal drilling under the two parks and cemetery, and granted an easement to Sunoco allowing for a pipeline under Bloomer Park.

Both actions should have been put to a vote of the public under Rochester HIlls’ charter, the group says.

The first oral arguments in the litigation are scheduled for Oct. 8.

“Again, DDHI welcomes a moratorium on drilling, but encourages a more permanent solution from our elected officials,” the group said in the statement. “No moratorium can replace enforceable state and local laws and tighter regulations that will protect resident’s home values, health, and welfare.”

» Can’t attend the city council session? Watch a livestream of the meeting.