In a powerfully symbolic victory for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, Pittsburgh bans drilling for natural gas.

By unanimous vote, the Pittsburgh city council has banned drilling for natural gas within the city’s boundaries, becoming the first city in Pennsylvania to pass such a measure. The ordinance, drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF),  was adopted by a 9-0 vote on November 16th.

Gas flare, photo courtesy Free.foto.com
The ban in Pittsburgh comes at a time when the growing practic
e of “fracking”—the high pressured injection of water containing sand and toxic chemicals to exert explosive pressure on gas-containing shale formations—has come under increased scrutiny and criticism because of its health, safety and environmental hazards. While liberating gas by “fracking” is no doubt highly lucrative for gas companies and property owners who sell their mineral right to gas companies, it has already resulted in several high profile calamities, including the intrusion of natural gas into drinking water, literally causing tap water to catch fire, a phenomenon illustrated below in a short trailer for Josh Fox’s recent documentary, “Gaslands.” Although drilling areas are located mainly in the east, southeast and Texas (including the entire states of West Virginia and Louisiana), there is also drilling in much Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

The wealth created by the practice, and an examination of its environmental and social consequences is offered in a CBS News “60 Minutes” segment that aired on November 14th.

Pittsburgh sits above one of these enormous shale structures—the Marcellus Shale formation—located a mile beneath sections of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia and the practice of fracking is already well underway to tap the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.
According to CELDF’s Mari Margil and Ben Price, corporations have already purchased leases to drill in Pittsburgh, even in areas beneath city parks and cemeteries.
“Fracking has been demonstrated to be a threat to surface and groundwater, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, rivers, and streams,” Margill and Price wrote for Yes Magazine earlier this month. “Because it disturbs rock that’s laced not only with methane, but with carcinogens like benzene and radioactive ores like uranium, forcing the mix to the surface adds to the dangers.”
Although the Pittsburgh ordinance only affects plans to drill inside the city limits, its passage received national news coverage given Pennsylvania’s long history of oil and coal exploitation. It also is a landmark for CELDF’s national and international efforts to put the rights of citizens and the environment ahead of corporate interests in exploiting natural resources. CELDF is based in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, but is active in Spokane, where the organization has worked in support of grassroots-based structural reforms to decision-making affecting communities and the environment.
“This ordinance recognizes and secures expanded civil rights for the people of Pittsburgh, and it prohibits activities which would violate those rights,” said Pittsburgh Councilman Doug Shields, who introduced the ordinance that CELDF drafted. “It protects the authority of the people of Pittsburgh to pass this ordinance by undoing corporate privileges that place the rights of the people of Pittsburgh at the mercy of gas corporations.”
To listen to a podcast of Mari Margill’s recent interview with Councilman Shields, go here.
–CB staff