Guest View: Land-use issue a community threat

I read Marvin Jones guest opinion article with great interest regarding the anti-fracking ballot box initiative proposed by San Benito Rising. Marvin and I do not agree on partisan politics, but on this issue I stand with him and affirm his position. San Benito Rising is a wolf in sheep’s clothing supposing to appeal to environmental sentiments when in reality, the group is proposing another land-use initiative similar to the failed 2004 Measure G Growth control measure, adopted by the San Benito County Board of Supervisors at the time, that was ultimately defeated by voter referendum.
For readers unfamiliar with the 2004 Measure G campaign, San Benito County farmers and ranchers mobilized to defeat Measure G, a growth control initiative backed by outside environmental groups, on the March 2 ballot. The measure was touted by proponents as a way to protect the local agricultural economy and jobs, while preventing unbridled growth, but county agricultural leaders said nothing could be further from the truth. Please read a complete summary news article by Ag Alert here: http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=46
One might think the proposed anti-fracking initiative is different than Measure G. In some respects it is different, but the goal is the same: prohibit property owners from exercising their rights to control the land they own to “protect the environment”. And, as Marvin Jones points out, it is being funded and supported by the same out-of-county interests that brought us Measure G in 2004. San Benito Rising employs the ruse of a Bogey-man fallacy, portraying the oil industry and its money from “contaminating the body politic as surely as they would contaminate the aquifers” according to Andy Hsia-Coron, a leader of San Benito Rising. (Quotation from Benitolink.com)
 Last year, the current board of supervisors listened to the concerns of Aromas residents and revised its land use planning laws consistent with state environmental laws to help protect county residents from oil and gas exploration that would impact the environment in San Benito County. But according to San Benito Rising, that didn’t go far enough. The group wants to eradicate all existing natural gas and oil wells in San Benito County and ban future energy extraction opportunities citing the potential for local water supply contamination from oil/gas wells, a reduction of available water supply and geological impacts that could cause earthquakes.
 The problem with San Benito Rising’s principal argument is this glaring Inconvenient Truth: There is no scientific, peer reviewed, site specific geological and/or hydrological study to support their claims in San Benito County. In fact, of all the natural gas and oil wells in California, there is no recorded evidence of any water supplies, aquifers, potable water wells or watersheds being contaminated by conventional gas/oil wells or hydraulic fracturing wells. Period. Hydraulic fracturing is also a safe method to stimulate potable water wells and aquifers according to the State of California Department of Water Resources web site.
Like a lot of folks, I was ignorant of the facts of hydraulic fracturing prior to San Benito Rising’s efforts to ban all petroleum based production in San Benito County. I began to research what ‘fracking’ is and discovered that it is a safe and sound method to recover natural gas and oil approximately 7,000 feet underground. Unlike a lot of folks, I am a water utility supervisor with 25 years of career experience with the same water company, four different state and industry certifications as: a water treatment operator Grade 2, a water distribution operator Grade 4, a cross connection control specialist and backflow assembly tester. This means I have demonstrated the knowledge and experience to operate and protect potable water distribution systems/tap water to meet federal and state public health standards.
During my research, I was surprised to learn that the federal government/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actually supports hydraulic fracturing as a safe process to improve domestic gas and oil production, lower energy prices, create jobs, improve the economy and reduce our dependence on foreign produced energy from countries often times unfriendly to the United States. According the the EPA administrator: “There’s nothing inherently dangerous in fracking that sound engineering practices can’t accomplish.” – Gina McCarthy, Current U.S. EPA Administrator (11/4/13)
So, according to San Benito Rising, the agency of the federal government responsible for making policy decisions and laws to protect all three medias of the environment – air, land and water – in the U.S., the State of California that regulates all current oil and gas production and potable water standards in the state and the San Benito County government officials and elected representatives who study and implement public policy regarding land use and the county General Plan do not understand the dangers of ‘fracking’ as well as local environmental activists. Obviously, I disagree with the message of San Benito Rising. Further, last year the Governor signed the most stringent hydraulic fracturing regulations in the nation.  These regulations, under Senate Bill 4, require:
– An independent, science-based study of hydraulic fracturing
–  The development of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
– Mandatory public disclosure of the content of all chemicals used
– Well integrity testing before and after fracturing
– Regular testing of nearby drinking water sources
– Prior notification of surrounding land owners
These new state requirements render the proposed San Benito Rising mandate to terminate all existing natural gas and oil wells, plus all future potential energy extraction projects, an extremely broad overreach. If enacted, San Benito County would have to defend the law at all costs against lawsuits which would likely result from existing property owners and energy companies with safe, legal oil and gas well operations in the county. The new law would require all existing natural gas and oil well operations to be terminated within three years.
In my opinion, San Benito Rising is subversive to San Benito County’s community, economy, culture and public infrastructure. Its insidious message is deceptive and duplicitous because most people/voters do not understand the issue of ‘fracking’ or will not take the time to investigate the veracity of the group’s claims. As such, San Benito Rising is a threat to San Benito County. If they are successful with their attempts at eradicating all petroleum based production in San Benito County, I am convinced that their next move would be to place a moratorium on water wells and curtail the distribution of water supplies to control municipal and industrial growth they feel would be detrimental to ‘the environment’ which would have devastating impacts on our local economy.
I challenge everyone in the community to investigate this issue for themselves and form a community coalition to fight San Benito Rising’s efforts to undermine our culture and economy from wealthy, out-of-county environmentalists and their lawyers.
Michael Smith, Hollister