Johnson County votes today on fracking

JOHNSON COUNTY, Ill. -- The national hydraulic fracturing debate will hone in close to home today as Johnson County voters take to the polls to vote on whether their county commission should oppose any effort to begin fracking in the county.

A law that allows hydraulic fracturing in the state was passed by the Illinois Legislature last year.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is reviewing "thousands" of public comments submitted during multiple public hearings regarding the law, according to DNR spokesman Chris Young, and a revision of the rules drafted to implement the law will be released later this year.

Fracking is a process that releases oil and natural gas trapped underground. It involves pumping a mixture of fluid and sand into the earth at pressures high enough to create fissures in rock. Proppants, such as sand, hold open cracks in a formation so the gas or oil can be accessed from above.

Proponents of fracking say it could stimulate the economy by bringing job opportunities and money into Southern Illinois. Fracking opponents cite risks to the public's health and the environment, including groundwater.

Today's fracking ballot question is a nonbinding referendum, meaning the majority vote will serve only as a recommendation to the county's three commissioners on whether they should support fracking.

Phyllis Oliver, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Cypress, Ill., on Monday said the fracking debate in Johnson County is like the never-ending story that keeps getting uglier.

"I never thought Johnson County would get so ... People get so angry with each other," she said.

Oliver does not want fracking to come to Johnson County because she has seen the adverse effects it has had on communities like her parents' in Northeastern Ohio, where fracking has been ongoing for more than five years.

Fracking in that area didn't turn out the way people thought it was going to, she said, when the traffic, noise, smell and other problems caused by the industry were taken into account.

Oliver said she doesn't want to keep anyone from making money, unless it comes at cost of losing clean air or water.

"Money isn't worth anything if you can't drink the water or breathe the air," she said.

Zach Garrett, media coordinator for Johnson County Citizens Opposed to Fracking Proposition, on Monday said the group is neither for nor against fracking in Johnson County.

The group disagrees with the wording of the ballot question, saying it is poorly written and confusing, and it believes the fracking issue should be discussed at the state level, because fracking is permitted under state law, not within the county.

"The county board is an inappropriate venue as far as we are concerned," Garrett said.

A county government has no power to ban an industrial process or pass a Community Bill of Rights, which is a document intended to assert community rights over state law, he explained. If the county tried to ban fracking and override the state law, it could result in lawsuits.

A county only has the power and responsibilities the state gives it, Garrett said.

"We don't think our county can afford a frivolous lawsuit," he said.

On the other side of the Mississippi River, some have raised the question whether fracking could disturb the New Madrid fault Line, triggering a massive earthquake.

The United States Geological Survey has conducted research that associates deep-well fluid injection, a process sometimes used to dispose of produced waters or flowback waters from fracking and gas production, with the triggering of earthquakes, according to its website. Earthquakes may occur when the injected fluid reaches a critically stressed fault.

Southern Illinois and its ultimate decision on whether to engage in the fracking process is "practically in our backyard," said Karen Glaub, of Perryville, Mo. She grew up in Cape Girardeau.

The magnitude of an earthquake depends on the severity of the fault, and "we're sitting on one of the worst ones in the country," she said. " ... We could end up with a big problem."

There hasn't been enough time to learn of the consequences of hydraulic fracturing, Glaub said.

"At this point, I'm against [fracking] because there are so many unknowns," she said.

About 604 early votes had been cast on the issue as of Monday afternoon, out of about 8,452 registered voters in Johnson County, according to Robin Harper-Whitehead, Johnson County clerk/recorder.

Though the fracking question is not the only item on the ballot, one would think it is, Harper-Whitehead said, because it is the most controversial, the most confusing and the most talked about.

Oliver said she would not be surprised either way the majority votes today, and the argument that has turned neighbors against neighbors "will be interesting."

"If they vote 'no,' we're not going to go away," she said.

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Johnson County, IL