The ubiquity of Fracking Fever, camping out all about Culver City as spring morphs into summer, blew into Council Chambers with gale force last night – five seconds after the Pledge of Allegiance.
Fracking Fever is even hotter than the Expo Light Rail, which lands in Culver City, at Washington and National, at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. It will be ready for boarding by the public at 12 noon.
Addressing his City Council colleagues and especially the crowd of anti-fracking activists prominent in the audience, Vice Mayor Jeff Cooper proposed that his mates formally declare their opposition to fracking in a resolution.
Further, he said, Culver City should demand that the state impose a moratorium on the controversial oil drilling method unless or until researchers find fracking to be safe, not a threat to health or bodily intake.
He immediately received unanimous assent from the other four Council members, and Asst. City Manager Martin Cole pledged that a resolution would be read for their approval by the meeting of Monday, July 2.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Andy Weissman had expressed doubt about the wisdom of an isolated local action, such as a moratorium. Since City Hall controls but a corner of the Baldwin Hills Oil Field, said the Mayor, the effectiveness of a moratorium seemed dubious to him.
Unsurprisingly, anti-fracking advocates vigorously embraced the Vice Mayor’s idea.
Here is Mr. Cooper’s proposal:
“As I know many of us are, I am concerned about the prospect of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the oil fields of Culver City – not just because of its impacts on Culver City, but because this dangerous practice potentially threatens the public health, our water supply and the environment, and requires unconventional drilling techniques, vast quantities of water, and the use of toxic chemicals.
“I am proposing that Culver City, like the City of Los Angeles, pass a resolution opposing fracking in our community and demand that the state place a moratorium on this controversial technique. I am hopeful that my Council colleagues will agree with me that fracking must stop, for the following reasons:
• “The oil and gas industry has been granted exceptions to multiple laws and regulations, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act.
• “Fracking wastewater may often be laced with hundreds of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials, all of which make the disposal of fracking wastewater a significant challenge.
• “That wastewater has the potential to pollute the sources of our water supply.
• “Fracking also causes the release of such hazardous air pollutants as methanol, formaldehyde, and carbon disulfide and more.
• “Fracking and the associated injection wells are thought to cause earthquakes – a dangerous prospect in Southern California.
“There are many other reasons why fracking must not be allowed in Culver City or elsewhere. I would like us to develop a resolution and take the appropriate steps for the City of Culver City to express its support for Gov. Jerry Brown, for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and for the state of California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to move swiftly to place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and on the disposal of fracking wastewater by injection wells until a determination can be made that such processes are safe for public health, for our water supply and for the environment.”
