Can Communities Reclaim the Right to Say “No”?

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



Can Communities Reclaim the Right to Say “No”?
Many communities trying to keep fracking, drilling, or big box stores out are finding they don’t have the legal right to say no. Their response? Take on the very structure of law.

by Mari Margil
posted Aug 24, 2011


It’s no wonder that many communities want nothing to do with the natural gas drilling procedure known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”

The practice, which involves pumping chemical-laced water underground at high pressure, results in millions of gallons of frack wastewater that’s been found to contain dangerous levels of radioactivity, carcinogenic chemicals, and highly corrosive salts. Last year, 16 cattle died after being exposed to the wastewater; a famous scene in the documentary Gasland shows a resident lighting his tap water on fire.

But communities trying to protect their drinking water from fracking haven’t found it at all easy to do.

No Right to Self-Government?

In June, the city council of Morgantown, West Virginia—which draws its drinking water from the Monongahela River, just downstream of a new natural gas well—passed a ban on horizontal drilling and fracking within one mile of city limits. Two days later, a company seeking to drill sued Morgantown, claiming that because drilling is regulated by the state, it wasn’t within the city’s authority to keep fracking out. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-right-to-say-no

[midnight]

1. K&R. There is something wrong about making people and animals drink water that catches on fire...

[Mist]

2. There's apparently been a lot of stealth neutralizing of various local gov'ts. nt

[SharonAnn]

3. Ours was bought several decades ago. They're still owned by others..