In one New Mexico county, water has won out over oil.
Mora County, N.M., has become the first county in the United States to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The county, which is home to 5,000 mostly poor and Hispanic residents, relies heavily on cattle ranching and residents voiced fears that fracking would degrade the water required to support herds of the animals.
“I don’t want to destroy our water,” Mora County resident Roger Alcon told the L.A. Times. “You can’t drink oil.”
County Commission Chairman John Olivas estimated that upwards of 95% of the county’s population supports the ban, despite the fact that oil companies often offer hefty payouts to landowners who allow fracking on their property.
While bans on fracking have been enacted in dozens of U.S. cities, no other counties or states in the country have yet to outlaw the controversial procedure.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has promised to make a final decision before the 2014 election on whether to ban fracking in the state. Cuomo is awaiting a review on possible negative health effects of the procedure by his state health commissioner, Dr. Nirav Shah.
Opponents of fracking say that the financial benefit from the oil recovered during the procedure are far outweighed by the health and environmental risks.
“Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ is a highly dangerous method of drilling for natural gas that threatens our drinking water, health, communities and environment,” a petition to Cuomo stated by Food & Water Watch states. “It involves the injection of water, chemicals and sand underground, with documented risks including contaminated groundwater, wastewater that contains radioactive elements, and gas seeping into homes.”
Radisav Vidic, an environmental engineer at the University of Pittsburgh, says that there is still much to learn about how to conduct fracking operations safely.
“This is an industry that’s in its infancy, so we don’t really know a lot of things,” Vidic, told Scientific American. “Is it or isn’t it bad for the environment? Is New York State right to ban fracking, and is Pennsylvania stupid for [allowing it]?”
A new study lead by Vidic and published in the journal Science, found that while advances in fracking technology have lowered the incidence of groundwater contamination, pollution of the environment remains a serious consideration.
“The most common problem with well construction is a faulty seal that is emplaced to prevent gas migration into shallow groundwater,” the study concluded. “The incidence rate of seal problems in unconventional gas wells is relatively low (1 to 3%), but there is a substantial controversy whether the methane detected in private groundwater wells in the area where drilling for unconventional gas is ongoing was caused by well drilling or natural processes.”
