r10720City Council Meeting: November 27, 2012 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER 10720 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA IN SUPPORT OF A MORATORIUM ON
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING (FRACKING)
WHEREAS, hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a type of resource
extraction that potentially threatens the health of both the public, the region's water
supply and the environment, and requires unconventional drilling techniques, vast
quantities of water, and the use of toxic chemicals; and
WHEREAS, the oil and gas industry has been granted exceptions to multiple
laws and regulations, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act,
and employs potentially hundreds of unknown chemicals of concern; and
WHEREAS, in a study of Pavillion, Wyoming, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) recently documented water contamination from fracking chemicals; and
WHEREAS, fracking wastewater may often be laced with hundreds of toxic
chemicals, heavy metals, and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM); and
WHEREAS, due to the volume and . chemical complexity of fracking waste,
treating such unknown waste is difficult, making the disposal of fracking wastewater a
significant challenge; and that the disposal methods currently available in California
have an imminent possibility of reaching local streams and rivers, which supply Los
Angeles' regional drinking water; and
WHEREAS, rivers, streams and wetlands across our state and particularly within
the watersheds from which the region derives its water supply are vulnerable to
pollution by fracking; and
WHEREAS, fracking is currently causing serious local and regional air pollution
problems across the country, including the release of such hazardous air pollutants as
methanol, formaldehyde, and carbon disulfide; in addition to the release of volatile
organic compounds, including benzene and toluene, and nitrogen oxides; and
emissions from heavy -duty truck traffic, large generators and compressors at well sites
which contribute to smog formation; and
WHEREAS, emissions generated by producing, refining and burning shale oil,
and drilling and fracking for shale oil can result in significant uncontrolled emissions of
methane, a potent greenhouse gas often associated underground with oil; and
WHEREAS, fracking in California may undermine the state's efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020; and
WHEREAS, much of the State of California and the Los Angeles region, in
particular, is located on top of fault lines within one of the most active and potentially
dangerous earthquake zones in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Ohio has experienced a dozen unusual earthquakes, the most
severe occurring on December 31, 2011, caused by a Class II injection well disposing of
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fracking wastewater, which resulted in a moratorium on injection wells in the
Youngstown, Ohio, area; and
WHEREAS, there have been thousands of recorded minor earthquakes clustered
around fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas and Oklahoma, which
the United States Geological Survey "almost certainly" attributes to fracking wastewater
disposal activities, and a 5.6 quake in Oklahoma which "was possibly triggered by fluid
injection" at nearby wastewater wells; and
WHEREAS, numerous townships, cities, states, and countries have banned or
issued moratoriums on horizontal hydraulic fracturing and waste injection wells,
including the states of New Jersey, North Carolina, and New York; the cities of Buffalo,
NY and Pittsburgh, PA; the Delaware River Gap; and, internationally, in the Canadian
Province of Quebec, Germany, France and Bulgaria; and
WHEREAS, the EPA is currently conducting a study, to be completed in 2015, to
determine the risks associated with this new industry; and
WHEREAS, the State of California's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal
Resources (DOGGR) reports that oil and gas companies are currently (racking in
California and specifically, in the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles County, in a region
which also affects the residents of neighboring cities like Los Angeles, Culver City and
Santa Monica, and that these companies have proposed future fracking activities; and
WHEREAS, the
State of California's
Division of Oil,
Gas & Geothermal
Resources (DOGGR) is
not currently able to "identify
where and
how often hydraulic
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fracturing occurs within the state" and "has not yet developed regulations to address
this activity."
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City Council of the City of Santa Monica urges the State of
California's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources to place a moratorium on
hydraulic fracturing ( "fracking ") in California until adequate regulatory safeguards
including, but not limited to, air, water and soil disclosure and notification, are in place.
SECTION 2. The City Council also urges the State of California's Division of Oil,
Gas & Geothermal Resources and the California State Water Resources Control Board
to expeditiously develop, approve and implement protective regulations within their
existing authority, including disclosure reports.
SECTION 3. The City Council incorporates the moratorium on hydraulic
fracturing in Santa Monica's Sustainability Bill of Rights.
SECTION 4. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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Adopted and approved this 27th day of November, 2012.
q�k
i hard Bloom, Mayor
I, Sarah P. Gorman, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that
the foregoing Resolution No. 10720 (CCS) was duly adopted at a meeting of the Santa
Monica City Council held on the 27th day of November, 2012, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers: Holbrook, McKeown, O'Connor, O'Day, Shriver
Mayor Pro Tern Davis, Mayor Bloom
NOES: Councilmembers: None
ABSENT: Councilmembers: None
ATTEST:
SA Iva h _
Sarah P. Gorman, City Clerk