Fracking in IL - Press Conference Today, 10:30 AM

Frack Free Illinois | frackfreeil.wordpress.com | facebook.com/FrackFreeIllinois

	Press Conference - Tuesday, 10/14, 10:30 AM
	160 North LaSalle Street, Chicago
	The entrance of the Michael A. Bilandic Bldg.,
	(The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules meets to vote on the fracking rules at 11:30a)


JCAR – Prioritize the safety of Illinoisans over the profits of the oil and natural gas industry! Prohibit the rules for fracking and seek independent scientific advice on whether fracking should be allowed to move forward, especially in the active earthquake zones.

Frack Free Illinois asks the members of JCAR, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules,
who are deliberating over the rules for hydraulic fracturing, to prioritize the health, welfare and safety of Illinoisans, and the environment, over the profits of the oil and natural gas corporations. We ask that they prohibit the rules.

Fracking is extremely dangerous with significant proven risks. The 12 IL Reps and Sens on JCAR have a duty to safeguard the health, welfare and safety of Illinois residents, and the environment from these risks. In states where the oil and natural gas corporations have been allowed to proceed with fracking, we have seen devastating results: air pollution sickening the residents, water contamination, plummeting property values, injured workers, worker fatalities, horrific fires, truck accidents, residents on fixed incomes run out of towns by ever increasing costs of living, and serious induced earthquakes!

The rules for seismicity constitute a threat to the public interest, safety and welfare. The rules allow fracking and Class II injection wells in the active earthquake zones. These active zones should be place off limits. And to make matters worse, there is insufficient monitoring in Southern IL to pick up the small earthquakes that will herald the onset of more serious earthquakes. We find this to be reckless endangerment of the residents of Southern Illinois! The issue of fracking induced earthquakes is a well documented phenomenon, and such a serious problem that the state of Ohio has placed a seismic monitor on every frack well. Are the lives of Illinois residents worth any less?

Although we recognize that the IDNR did a tremendous amount of work on these rules since last winter. It appears that the rules are being gutted right now, behind closed doors, by JCAR members in collusion with the fracking industry, who are asking for over 60 significant changes to the rules. The industry cries that they made a deal over 2 years ago - back room deals should not take precedence over scientific reports of public health issues that have come to light over the course of the past 2 years. We say “No” to the profits of the industry trumping our public health!

We ask that JCAR honor the over 30,000 public comments that the IDNR received about the dangerous effects of fracking during the public comment period on the first draft of these rules. This was the largest number of public comments ever received by the IDNR, showing that Illinoisans are very concerned about fracking.

We ask that JCAR prohibit these rules and send them back to the IDNR for reworking. We suggest they bring them out to the light of public scrutiny with public hearings, and this time request that the IDNR get independent seismologists and scientists to assist them in the drafting of these rules.

There are also serious deficiencies in the rules for:

	- Air Pollution - including dangerous carcinogens such as benzene and silica sand,
	- Radioactivity - the toxic fracking waste water and mud is often significantly radioactive,
	- Chemical Disclosure - the rules give the fracking industry 2 hours to get back with the 1st responders and the ER. This
	is unacceptable and endangers our emergency personnel,
	- Fines for Violations - these rules outline very low fines for very serious violations. We need fines that bite for there
	to be appropriate enforcement of these rules.

Dr. Lora Chamberlain, organizer for the group, says, “JCAR has a duty to protect against threats to the public interest, safety and welfare, fracking constitutes a serious threat. JCAR should prohibit the rules and send them back to the IDNR. Fracking is not going to go well for Illinois. The Governor, IDNR, ILGS and JCAR are showing a high degree of hubris by forging ahead with fracking and deep injection well disposal of millions of gallons of toxic, radioactive waste water in the active earthquake zones of the Wabash Valley and New Madrid in Southern IL!”

She adds, “Frack Free Illinois and many of our collaborating community groups, and even the IL Sierra Club, find that there is no safe fracking. No amount of regulation is going to stop many of its devastating problems. And the burning of fossil fuels is causing catastrophic changes to our climate. Illinois needs to stop drilling for fossil fuels and move away from them immediately. Rather than endangering our residents and workers, let's move towards real energy independence by investing in wind, solar, geothermal and energy efficiency, creating 3-4 times the number of jobs that fracking creates.”


Speakers Include:
Dr. Lora Chamberlain, a Family Physician and organizer for Frack Free Illinois - Dr. Chamberlain is a life long environmentalist and progressive activist. She has worked on such issues as Single Payer Health Care, the Illinois State Bank, and with groups such as the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project.

Joyce Good, a member of Frack Free Illinois and Citizens Act To Protect Our Water, CAPOW. She is concerned about our water, the devastating effects of nuclear energy and fracking, also climate change.

Carol Kurz, a member of Nuclear Energy Information Service, NEIS, the premier nuclear watch dog group in Illinois. She has been studying the effects of nuclear energy in our state for over 30 years.

Emily Carroll is the Midwest Region Director at Food and Water Watch. She works to organize consumers in the Midwest to support common sense policies that ensure a safe and sustainable food supply. Emily's work is also focused on protecting Illinois' water resources by fighting water privatization and hydraulic fracturing in the state.

Joy Holowicki is an alum of Benedictine University and lived in Illinois her entire life. She is a member of Rising Tide Chicago, an all-volunteer collective focused on addressing the root causes of climate change, and a research assistant at Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.