Ridgefield approves ban on fracking waste
More than 160 people came in from the cold Wednesday night to vote on Ridgefield’s fracking waste ban.
“We’re ecstatic. We’re actually humbled this many people came out for the environment,” said Michael Garguilo, leader of the petition effort to call the meeting and vote, after the vote at Town Hall.
“This is really for all the creatures and things that can’t speak for themselves,” he said.
The ordinance bans the use or reuse of wastes from natural gas or oil extraction on property in town, disposal of it in wastewater treatment or solid waste processing facilities, as well as a ban on a long list of activities including the sale, acquisition, transfer and handling of such wastes. They are defined as including “all geologic or geophysical activities related to the exploration for or extraction of oil, including, but not
limited to, core and rotary drilling and hydraulic fracturing.”
The Town Hall meeting before the vote was fairly brief — it took longer to check everyone in than to pass two voice votes, one to close debate, and another to adopt the law, which mirrors ordinances passed by more than 50 other Connecticut towns.
First Selectman Rudy Marconi explained the background of the proposed law, saying the selectmen had been working on an antifracking waste ordinance for most of last year.
Then citizens turned in their petitions calling for a town meeting on a draft law endorsed by numerous environmental groups.
After confirming they had more than the required
369 valid signatures — 2 percent of Ridgefield’s
18,000 voters — “we had 45 days to set a town meeting,” Marconi said.
Resident Ed Tyrrell argued that more discussion was needed on the issue.
He used the comments period at the start of the Board of Selectmen’s meeting to read a statement into the record.
“Fracking produces American-made oil,” Tyrrell said. “It is taken from the ground by highly paid, middle-class Americans who pay taxes and want to send their kids to college, just as we do.
“It would be great if we did not use so much oil, but we will for years to come,” he said. “I want us to use as much American-made oil as possible so we do not have to buy it from Middle East terrorist states ...”