At their regularly scheduled meetings on Tuesday, June 14, both the Blountstown City Council and the Calhoun County Commission made their first move to keep hydraulic and acidic fracturing out of their constituents’ backyard. Although the approach of the governing officials differed, the Calhoun County Citizens Against Fracking (CCAF) were very pleased.
David House, counsel for the City of Blountstown, advised the Council of his contact with several surrounding cities. The cities forwarded their adopted resolutions. With the Council’s direction and approval Mr. House will draft a resolution to ban fracking within the city limits of Blountstown.
Terry Tanner-Smith, an anti-fracking supporter, thanked the Council for their resolution. Blountstown now joins 48 Florida municipalities including Ebro, Lynn Haven, Marianna, Mexico Beach and Panama City who have all gone on record that fracking is not welcome.
CCAF attendance at the Commission meeting continues to grow as public awareness of fracking increases. Hydraulic and acidic fracturing involves drilling and injecting thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground at high pressure. Rock is fractured to release oil or natural gas. In states where fracking first began there have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to fracking areas as well as sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to drinking well water contaminated by this process.
Commissioner McDougald expressed concern that the ordinance draft presented in December prohibited all drilling. CCAF spokesperson, Dianne Foster, reminded the Board that the new ordinance draft presented in May strictly addressed fracking. Fracking is very different from conventional oil drilling. Dr. Bill Wallace, microbiologist and CCAF founder, assured the commission that the ordinance desired by CCAF was to only ban fracking, there was no desire to stop drilling for gas by conventional methods.
Dr. Linda Lampl, President of Lampl-Herbert Consulting (LHC), updated the Board …
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