(PARAMUS) – Assemblywoman Connie Wagner on Friday announced she plans to introduce legislation to prohibit a type of natural gas drilling that can endanger drinking water by blasting water diluted chemicals into shale rock, breaking it apart to free natural gas.
Wagner said she intends to introduce a bill on Thursday to prohibit in New Jersey the drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking .
“Everyone agrees we have to work to find alternative energy Dests and reduce our reliance on foreign oil, but I don’t see how anyone can support pumping chemical-laced water into the ground,” said Wagner (D-Bergen). “A quick spin through some YouTube videos that depict people being able to set their tap water aflame is reason enough for concern. This is something that needs to be kept out of New Jersey.”
More than a dozen families in Susquehanna County, Pa., recently filed a lawsuit against the Southwestern Energy Production Company, asserting that a succession of “releases, spills and discharges of combustible gases, hazardous chemicals and industrial wastes” from the company’s nearby drilling sites had contaminated their drinking water and made them sick.
New York State legislators are considering a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until it can be more closely studied and shown to be safe, while the Environmental Protection Agency is studying whether hydraulic fracturing is a threat to drinking water.
“We have too many unknown answers about this process,” Wagner said. “Our drinking water is precious, especially in highly built out areas like Bergen County and most of New Jersey. We cannot risk our water by leaving the door open to a process like this that can endanger human health.”
