Newtown residents who wish to speak in favor of, or against, Newtown’s proposed ordinance prohibiting the storage, disposal, or use of fracking waste may do so at a public hearing scheduled for 7 pm on Wednesday, December 5. The Legislative Council hearing is set right before the panel’s regular meeting, which commences at 7:30 pm in the Municipal Center Council Chambers.

The proposed ordinance was referred to the council’s Ordinance Committee back in early February and has been a matter of discussion on several committee agendas in the interim. On October 25, the ordinance panel voted unanimously to refer the proposed language to the full council for consideration.

A full text of the ordinance appears for review in the November 16 edition of The Newtown Bee.

The draft ordinance identifies “Hydraulic fracturing” (fracking), as the fracturing of underground rock formations, including shale and non-shale formations, by man made fluid-driven techniques for the purpose of stimulating oil, natural gas, or other subsurface hydrocarbon production. That process produces various waste by-products.

The local ordinance draft identifies such “natural gas waste” as:

*Any liquid or solid waste or its constituents that is generated as a result of natural gas extraction activities, which may consist of water, brine, chemicals, naturally occurring radioactive materials, heavy metals, or other contaminants;

*Leachate from solid wastes associated with natural gas extraction activities;

*Any waste that is generated as a result of or in association with the underground storage of natural gas; any waste that is generated as a result of or in association with liquefied petroleum gas well storage operations;

*And any products or by-products resulting from the treatment, processing, or modification of any of the above wastes.

The local ordinance draft identifies “oil waste” as:

*Any liquid or solid waste or its constituents that is generated as a result of oil extraction activities, which may consist of water, brine, chemicals, naturally occurring radioactive materials, heavy metals, or other contaminants;

*Leachate from solid wastes associated with oil extraction activities; and

*Any products or by-products resulting from the treatment, processing, or modification of any of the above wastes.

Newtown’s proposed ordinance would prohibit:

*The application of natural gas waste or oil waste, whether or not such waste has received Beneficial Use Determination or other approval for use by DEEP (Department of Energy & Environmental Protection) or any other regulatory body, on any road or real property located within the town for any purpose;

*The introduction of natural gas waste or oil waste into any wastewater treatment facility within or operated by the town;

*The introduction of natural gas waste or oil waste into any solid waste management facility within or operated by the town; and

*The storage, disposal, sale, acquisition, transfer, handling, treatment, and/or processing of waste from natural gas or oil extraction within the town.

Ordinance Framework

The local ordinance is primarily drafted mirroring model language suggested by Food & Water Watch, which has been working since 2005 to ensure access to essential resources for future generations while protecting the quality of the environment. Since the group organized, Food & Water Watch, among other initiatives, was the first national organization to call for an all-out ban on fracking.

The group’s work, according to their website (foodandwaterwatch.org), was key to building momentum to fight back against the oil and gas industry by supporting a grassroots movement to protect drinking water and the environment from fracking with research and initiated the formation of the national coalition, Americans Against Fracking.

With allies, Food & Water Watch also initiated the formation of leading state based coalitions, fighting fracking and related infrastructure on the front lines in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, and elsewhere. In Connecticut, the organization has provided ordinance framework for more than 50 of the state’s 169 municipalities, including neighboring Bethel, whose Board of Selectmen reportedly supported a local ordinance in a unanimous vote on November 13.

Thirty-seven of those town ordinances have been adopted since last April.

There is no fracking in the state, according to Food & Water Watch, but drilling in nearby Pennsylvania generates billions of gallons of liquid waste, and millions of tons of solid waste. This material must either be treated or disposed of in some manner, or it can potentially be used as a de-icer, to control dust on roads, or as construction material.

The risks to public health are considerable, including chemical and radioactive contamination of water and soil and permanent damage to private and public property, the group says.

As a small, densely-populated state with several waste treatment facilities, a growing number of municipalities fear Connecticut could potentially be a target for drilling waste treatment — bringing trucks filled with toxic, radioactive fracking waste onto local roads.

Alternate Language Proposed

The model fracking waste ban that Newtown is considering adopting has not been without its detractors, however.

Food & Water Watch reports that over the summer, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) unveiled its own waste ban ordinance for towns to consider. But the group says this model legislation is “seriously flawed; it offers a narrow definition of fracking waste, exempts oil and gas waste from conventional wells, and crafts exceptions for waste to be used in construction and roads.”

This potentially exposes people to serious toxic and radioactive contamination, the group states, and it is a practice that states like Pennsylvania have rejected.

Food & Water Watch says the “CCM ordinance is clearly advanced by corporate interests threatened by the citizen movements to pass comprehensive waste bans. And they have shown they will go to extreme lengths, making the ridiculous claim that Food & Water Watch has been ‘pressuring’ towns to pass bans, only to find themselves ‘paralyzed... from performing any infrastructure improvements or road projects, effectively chilling the economic development environment for many communities.’”

There is absolutely no evidence to support this, the Food & Water Watch observed, and towns that have passed comprehensive waste ban ordinances are not chilling their own economic development.

The group’s local coordinator, Jen Siskind, said the CCM ordinance was an attempt to undercut a wave of grassroots organizing in dozens of communities across the state and called the CCM’s actions “bizarre.” According to Newtown Ordinance Committee transcripts, Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley has similarly deemed the CCM claim, “nonsense.”

CCM argues that the Food & Water Watch model ordinance, “would make every gas station in every town non-compliant, would hinder the expansion of natural gas in Connecticut and would substantially increase the costs of heating homes, road building projects and paving driveways.”

CCM Legislative Testimony

In testimony before the Environment Committee earlier this year, CCM said, “Regulation of such materials should be handled on a statewide basis; municipalities do not have the resources and/or expertise to appropriately and effectively regulate, evaluate, and enforce the use of fracturing waste in the state.”

“CCM understands that there may be risks associated with the storage of hydraulic fracking waste, which may affect water and other natural resources and ecological habitats and have statewide implications,” its testimony continued.

“However, towns and cities do not have the expertise or resources to evaluate the science associated with this matter; that responsibility resides with DEEP. Additionally, it most certainly makes no sense, from a practical perspective, for 169 Town/Cities in a state of 5,500 square miles to legislate or regulate this issue individually. This current piecemeal approach only creates a confusing crazy quilt regulatory structure that will defy implementation,” CCM told the Environment Committee.

Chairman Paul Lundquist said the full council will take up the Newtown ordinance for discussion and possible action following the hearing on December 5, barring any strong opposition that would suggest the ordinance draft needs to go back to the committee for further review.