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WEEKLYPRESS.COM · UCREVIEW.COM · OCTOBER 19 · 2011


City Council Updates L


By Haywood Brewster Staff Reporter


ast week, seventeen members of Philadel- phia’s City Council


voted in favor of a resolu- tion which joins the City of Philadelphia as a Friend of the Court, together with lawsuits already filed by the Attorney


General of the State of New York, the Delaware River- keeper Network, and other parties, in suing the Delaware River Basin Commission. Philadelphia is joining these lawsuits to require, according to the resolution passed today, “that no drilling of Marcellus Shale take place until a full en- vironmental analysis is com-


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pleted.” The resolution, sponsored by Councilman Curtis Jones and Councilwoman Blondell Reyn- olds Brown, and co-sponsored by Councilwoman Maria Qui- nones Sanchez, passed unani- mously after a physician, a rabbi, a landowner with prop- erty in “shale country,” and two activists testified in favor. About 30 supporters inside City Hall held up signs affirm- ing, “Protect Our Water” and “Don’t Drill the Delaware.” Councilman O’Neill, the only councilperson not present for the vote, had cast his “aye” vote before leaving the cham- bers. “Today was a great day for de-


mocracy, science and human health in Philadelphia,” said Abe (Mr. Alex Allen), Associ- ate Director of Protecting Our Waters, after the vote. “Our representatives in City Coun- cil chose to unanimously look out for the interests of the peo- ple while resisting the persis- tent lobbying of the industry.” Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, who testified at Council today, was delighted with the vote. “Shale gas drilling is a public health disaster in the making,” he warned. Dr. Walter Tsou, President of Physicians for Social Respon- sibility, past president of the American Public Health As- sociation and former health commissioner of Philadelphia, also testified. “As a public health physician, I have grave concerns about public health and environmental conse-


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quences of hydraulic fractur- ing in the Marcellus Shale region,” he said. “A cursory list of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing includes known carcinogens like di- ethyl enzene, ethyl benzene, formaldehyde, petroleum distillate (paint remover) and ethylene glycol, otherwise known as antifreeze. Add to that methane [migration into groundwater] and flowback [drilling wastewater] con- taminated with radioactive isotopes.... Politicians have explicitly avoided the public health question because if they were really confronted with it, they would stop hydraulic fracturing.” The resolution, which de- mands both a Delaware River Basin-specific cumulative im- pacts study and the EPA na- tional study of the risks high- volume hydraulic fracturing poses to drinking water, in- cludes a clause which appears to lay the groundwork to do just that for the Delaware Riv- er Basin, which supplies Phila- delphia with 100 percent of its drinking water (the Schuylkill River is also in the Basin):


“Whereas, If the combined results of both a national EPA study and a Delaware River Basin-specific


cumulative


impacts study, show the po- tential for catastrophic risk, potential costs, and the inher- ent and cumulative risks to water, air, climate, farms, food, economy, fish and wildlife, human health, scenic value, and the tourism base, the City of Philadelphia will determine whether it is advisable to call for the entire Delaware River Basin to be kept off limits to unconventional gas drilling techniques.” The resolution also quotes the Pennsylvania Constitution’s famous clause ensuring that the people of Pennsylvania must enjoy “clean air, pure water,” and more. Julie Edgar of Gas-Truth, an


advocacy group which has sprung up to oppose shale gas drilling, testified in favor. After the vote she said, “Com- mon sense advocates were pleased that the City Council of Philadelphia did the obvi- ous right thing to support voices calling for the precau- tionary principle in demand- ing that we wait for cumula- tive environmental impact studies to be completed.” Aaron Birk, a resident of West Philadelphia, was more exu- berant. In his testimony prior to the vote he said, “This is our chance to make history. The City of Philadelphia can stand up to an industry which wants only profit . . . If we stand up to the industry, we have ev- erything to gain.” After the vote, he commented, “There’s a lot of excitement here, a lot of really good feelings. Jan- nie Blackwell made several really moving comments; she made a prayer for the occupi- ers, the sick and homeless and struggling people, and spoke in praise of the Occupy move- ment. She encouraged Coun- cil to respond to their constitu- ents who are out in the street with serious concerns.” To- day, Birk said, Council did just that, standing up to the frack- ing industry because, he said, “even if dollars did flow into the city, they’d dry up from public health costs and we’d be left with poisoned water.” Late in the day on Wednesday, several Council members in- dicated they’d been hearing a great deal from constituents in favor of passing the resolu- tion to forbid fracking and sue the DRBC. A spokesman for Councilman Green said, “We are receiving a lot of calls in fa- vor, and we are documenting everything.” A spokesman for Councilman Rizzo said, “We’ve gotten a lot of calls about that . . . I believe he’ll go that way [a yes vote].” Curtis, in Darrell Clarke’s office, said he’d received “a large number of calls in favor,” as did Coun- cilwoman Donna Reed Miller.


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