Marcellus Shale Drilling and the 5th District Council Race

By Christopher Zurawsky

I am proud to be the candidate in the 5th district city council race who is most clearly, passionately and honestly opposed to Marcellus drilling and I look forward to carrying on the fight as a member of Pittsburgh City Council.

At the JCC event all of the candidates had an opportunity to state their positions on the topic. For the third time in a public venue, I heard Corey say that he is against drilling in the city. Period. On two of those three occasions, including at the JCC, he followed that statement with ... "and that's all I'm going to say about it." The brevity of his remarks, coupled with his assurance that he won't speak any further on the matter, indicates to me that his interest in, knowledge of, and commitment to the subject is lacking.

On the other hand, while I too told the audience that I oppose drilling in the city, I also said that I believe that State Sen. Joe Scarnati's plan to prevent communities like Pittsburgh, which have banned drilling, from receiving revenue from proposed drilling fees is misguided because negative effects from drilling do not recognized municipal boundaries. Pittsburgh will need that money to remediate problems like dirty drinking water that has been fouled by fracking fluids dumped in waterways outside the city.

In addition, in response to a county council candidate's representative who characterized Marcellus drilling as a 21st century gold rush, I offered that it's just the opposite. The fabled gold rush involved individual prospectors working in remote mountains. In contrast, Marcellus drilling is by and a large an organized multinational exploitation of our land and natural resources, occurring at times in fairly populated areas. Calling it a modern-day gold rush minimizes, rhetorically, its negative effects.

At other events during the campaign I have emphasized that I am eager to carry on Doug Shields' crusade against Marcellus drilling, and I will be happy to take the lead on council in defending the drilling ban in court, if it comes to that, and in establishing other means of discouraging drilling in the city, such as: regulating where, geographically, and in what zoning districts, a well can be located; controlling noise levels; and obligating drillers to secure a bond to maintain and repair city roads that they use to access wells.

At a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting I engaged in a fairly lengthy discussion with Post-Gazette editorial board member Tom Waseleski about the relative merits of the city's drilling ban, particularly regarding the potential costs to the city of a possible lawsuit challenging the measure. I told him that sometimes council needs to do the right thing, even if it costs money, and where Marcellus drilling is concerned, Pittsburgh is the only big city in the East that is associated with drilling. As such, we need to be the leader in questioning the value of the enterprise and opposing it, if that's what our constituents want. As noted above, Corey O'Connor's take on the subject was, "I'm against drilling in the city, and that's all I'm going to say."

Beyond the campaign trail, I have testified against Marcellus drilling before county council, I've attended a number of Marcellus-related events over the past year, including a fascinating lecture at Pitt's Engineering School debunking industry myths surrounding drilling, a panel discussion at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, and a screening of Gasland at Frick Park.

I would very much appreciate it if you would share this letter with your friends and acquaintances.