Fracking? In public parks? How could anyone support that? The county can’t let fracking companies exploit public spaces. Fracking’s ugly and dangerous to public health. Keep it far away from places where families picnic and children play.
That’s a natural but mistaken response to the possibility — at this point, only theoretical — that fracking companies might drill for gas under county lands. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will be right to veto the County Council’s bill preventing anyone from engaging in industrial or commercial land uses on or below any park.
As we argued on Nov. 14 — “Banning drilling under county parks still misguided” — technology would keep the fracking rigs well off public land; drilling a mile below the park would not affect the park. The fees the companies would pay the county would go for maintaining the parks, as well as other needs.
At Deer Lakes Park, the fracking company Range Resources has successfully drilled for natural gas without disturbing the park or its users. There has been no evidence that the drilling has polluted the water supply or the air.
We agree with most experts, who say fracking is generally safe, though difficult. The county must thoroughly vet companies that want to frack underneath public lands. It must rigorously regulate any who do, and impose severe fines and penalties on any whose neglect of best practices leads to harm.
Some supporters of the ban oppose working with businesses in this way. Councilman Paul Klein argues a financial gain should not trump protecting “the sanctity of community assets from commercial intrusion.”
We agree: Allegheny County should protect common assets from commercial intrusion. But not all public-private arrangements are intrusive. They can be cooperative and mutually beneficial. The arrangement he and ten of his fellow council members want to ban is cooperative, not intrusive.
The county has land, under which is shale from which natural gas can be extracted. Fracking companies can extract it, but do not have the land. Arrangements like the one the county already has at Deer Lake benefit both parties — and crucially, at no cost to the county or its people.
We commend Mr. Fitzgerald for promising to veto it.
First Published: July 9, 2022, 4:00 a.m.