Senate Candidate Pollesch to Press State Panel for Tougher Fracking Rules

Companies engaged in fracking should be required to post sufficient bonds to cover the risk of spills, pollution, damage to roads, and other potential damages, State Senate candidate Shari Pollesch will argue in testimony being submitted to a state panel on Wednesday.

Pollesch will testify Wednesday at a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality hearing on its proposed new rules regarding fracking. The hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Lansing Center, 333 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing. Pollesch is the Democratic candidate for the 22nd State Senate seat, which covers all of Livingston County and the western two-thirds of Washtenaw County.

In her testimony, she will ask the DEQ to require bonds in line with the risk that fracking poses to local communities. The bond for a recent well in Conway Township was just $25,000.

“Not requiring these for-profit corporations to cover these risks is akin to corporate welfare. If the cost of posting the bond that actually covers the risks makes this activity unprofitable, well then, that’s the answer: it is too risky to be sensible,” her testimony says.

Pollesch also said companies should also be required to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process rather than hiding behind “trade secrets.”

“There is no sound reason to exempt for-profit oil and gas companies from providing advanced notice of the exact chemicals they will be using to recover oil and gas.  Key statutes, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, recognize this principle and specifically reject claims of trade secrecy in reports of discharges. The public’s right to know trumps claims of ‘trade secrets’ in a democracy,” Pollesch said in an advance copy of her remarks.

Pollesch also believes the DEQ should be requiring these corporations to pay the communities where these activities are occurring for the water that is being permanently converted to toxic waste. In the case of the Conway well, the toxic water was injected into a well in Unadilla Township, where it will remain. It cannot be denied that the water being used in each fracking process can never be returned to the water cycle. In addition to reimbursing the community for the water, these corporations should be paying the cost of monitoring these wells, forever. It should not fall to taxpayers.

The DEQ should further stop downplaying the dangerous nature of the chemicals being used by these for-profit corporations by focusing on the “quantity” of the chemicals used when presenting information to the public. In its on-line “Questions and Answers” about fracking, the DEQ claims that only a “small amount of chemicals” is mixed with sand and water.  Several paragraphs later, it again focuses on the “small” quantity of chemicals used compared to the “99.5% of water and sand.”  Regardless of how “small” the quantity of the chemicals used, the large quantity of water with which the chemicals are mixed is still permanently converted to toxic waste.

For more information about Pollesch’s Senate campaign, visit her website, voteforshari.com or her Facebook page, Shari Pollesch for Senate .  Questions can be directed to Pollesch and her campaign team by email at shari@voteforshari.com or by calling (810) 224-0560.