Athens City Council members continued to discuss the possibility of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” coming to Athens County during their meeting last night, but took no action to combat the controversial drilling method.
That was not the only time council has spoken out against this issue. After council, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis, Athens County Commissioners and hundreds of residents wrote letters of protest to the possibility of fracking coming to the area, the Wanye National Forest announced it would no longer be selling leases for oil and gas rights for over 3,000 acres of federal land.
Despite this news, council members continued to pursue a legislative ban for the City of Athens.
Councilwoman Nancy Bain said she believes the council should pursue a plan to ensure the drilling wells would stay out of the city.
“I think we could ban this in the city limits and within three miles of the city,” Bain said. “If this happened close to the city it would really have an impact on our water supply.”
Councilman Jim Sands said he supports this plan and Councilwoman Chris Fahl agreed fracking is an issue that needs to be addressed.
“We have a very vulnerable aquifer,” Fahl said. “If you punch through your skin, it’s vulnerable to infection. If you punch through the aquifer, it would cause problems.”
Councilman Kent Butler stressed that this issue has been affecting a larger area than just Athens.
“This isn’t just a thing a few hippies in Athens are worried about,” Butler said. “The (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) is going to look into this issue in depth and will release findings in 2012. They want to ensure this is a scientifically sound approach. Again I think this is a very intense issue.”
Also discussed at the meeting was the passing of an ordinance to require bicycle parking at all new businesses and multi-unit residential facilities. Councilwoman Chris Fahl introduced the ordinance to council on Monday.
“This will require off-street bicycle parking at these businesses,” Fahl said. “This is in line with our pedestrian and bicycle plan to help encourage bicycle commuters by providing parking that is out of the rain and safe.”
Butler was also in support of this bill, praising what he hopes it will accomplish.
“I think this is a step in the right direction to make the city more bicycle-friendly,” Butler said.
The ordinance will require new restaurants and retail stores to have at least four bicycle parking spots, as well as additional ones for those establishments over 10,000 square feet. Along with this, multi-unit residential facilities such as apartment complexes will need one parking spot per bedroom.
