Support a fracking ban ordinance in Middletown

A committee of concerned Middletown citizens has been working for many months to encourage the creation of a fracking ordinance for the city of Middletown. We began with an educational presentation from Jennifer Siskind of Food & Water Watch in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library. We spread the word to citizens by disseminating information at Riverfest and contacting individual members of the Common Council. We then attended two meetings of the General Council Committe, which prepares its monthly agendas. In early January, an ordinance will come before the council.

The ordinance will prohibit the deposit and/or use on our streets and land of toxic fracking waste trucked through Connecticut from Pennsylvania. If passed, Middletown’s prohibition will join those of Coventry, Washington, Branford, Mansfield, Windham, Portland and other Connecticut towns; the entire state of Vermont; 500 towns in New York and all five boroughs of New York City.

The city’s legal department has drafted an ordinance using tough language befitting the county seat of Middlesex County. In our state, when a majority of towns pass fracking ordinances, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will be encouraged to turn the existing temporary moratorium on the deposit and use of fracking waste into an outright permanent ban.

Please attend the meeting of the Common Council in the municipal building on Jan. 3 at 7 p.m., when the ordinance will be presented. To begin the new year, let us show a collective determination to protect our children and resources.

— Carolyn D. Shaw, Middletown