Buffalo, New York Says ‘No’ To Toxic Fracking Waste

By Doug Draper

The week has started off well for greater Niagara region residents on both sides of the Niagara River who are fighting to keep toxic fracking waste away from this region and the Great Lakes.

This Monday, March 5 the council of Niagara Falls, New York passed resolutions banning fracking waste within city limits and calling for a state-wide ban on fracking, and this Tuesday, March 6 the council of Buffalo, New York passed its own resolution, urging the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo to impose a ban on fracking in the state.The Niagara Falls, New York resolutions, in particular, ensure that plans will not move ahead to use the city’s wastewater plant to treat and dump any of the toxic fluid into the Niagara River above the American and Horseshoe Falls.

Environmentalists on both of the border have expressed concern that any discharge of the fluid could have a harmful impact on Great Lakes fish and other wildlife, and on drinking water supplies for millions of Americans and Canadians around Lake Ontario and beyond.

 Petrochemical companies in the United States are using the fluid in what is called a hydraulic fracturing (more commonly called “fracking”) process used to extract natural gas from underground layers of shale rock. The water used in the process is mixed with chemicals, the identity of which the companies are attempting to keep secret.

Critics of the process say that not knowing what chemicals are being used makes it virtually impossible to determine their potential impact on the environmental and human health, or to track their whereabouts in water, soil or air.

 (Niagara At Large invites our readers to share their views on this post in the comment boxes below. NAL only posts comments by individuals willing to share their first and last names.)

You can read more about Buffalo’s decision to say no to fracking by clicking on  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/hydraulic-fracturing-bann_n_820647.html .