The Council of Canadians is calling on Atlantic premiers to ban fracking given the Council of Canadian Academies report last month.
“We are urging New Brunswick Premier David Alward to stop shale gas development in the province,” says Emma Lui, water campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “There have been fervent protests against shale gas development and with SWN’s expected return this summer, Alward is not doing his government any favours by moving full steam ahead with fracking.”
Liberal Party leader Brian Gallant has expressed his commitment to a moratorium on fracking if elected on September 22, 2014.
In letters to the premiers of New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the Council writes: “Despite the fracking boom in some provinces, the Council of Canadian Academies report makes clear that we do not know enough about key aspects of fracking like well leaks, the safety of fracking chemicals and cumulative impacts. Fracking is not safe and poses risks to water sources, climate change and public health.”
The letter raises a number of concerns including leaks from incompletely sealed wells, chemical migration underground and in the flowback and well deterioration and impacts of leaks on groundwater and on greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.
While Council of Canadians Atlantic Regional Organizer Angela Giles and National Water Campaigner Emma Lui commend Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia for putting a temporary freeze on fracking, they are calling on these provinces to outright ban the practice.
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Read the letters here: New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.