Council of Canadians calls on the P.E.I government to ban fracking

Media Release
December 11, 2013

The Council of Canadians is calling on the P.E.I government to take a stand against fracking in the province in the wake of a recent recommendation by the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Energy to implement a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the province.

In a letter to the Ministers of Environment and Energy, the Council writes: “We are writing to express our support for the recommendations of Standing Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Energy to implement a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the province and urge you to adopt this recommendation.”

The letter raises a number of concerns including exorbitant water use, the potential for water contamination, public health impacts, the lack of safe methods to dispose of fracking wastewater, and the potential damage to fisheries as well as greenhouse gas emissions and their impacts on climate change.

Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow, Vice-Chairperson Leo Broderick,National Water Campaigner Emma Lui and Atlantic Regional Organizer Angela Giles point to Newfoundland Labrador and Nova Scotia, which have both listened to people in the province and put fracking on hold until provincial reviews are completed.

Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking,” is a technique to extract natural gas from harder-to-access unconventional sources trapped in rock formations such as shale gas, coal bed methane and tight gas. Millions of litres of water and thousands of litres of chemicals are injected underground at very high pressure in order to create fractures in the rock allowing gas to flow up the well. There are many risks associated with fracking, including groundwater contamination from undisclosed chemicals, impacts on air quality and climate change, the lack of solutions to safely dispose of fracking wastewater and links to earthquakes.

The Council of Canadians is calling for a ban on fracking in P.E.I and in other Canadian and Indigenous communities.

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Read the letter here.

For more information:

Elizabeth Berman, Director of Communications, Council of Canadians, (613) 410-2853eberman@canadians.org | www.canadians.org/fracking | Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs