FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             

September 14, 2015

CONTACT: Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, www.LetsBanFracking.org

LuAnne Kozma, Campaign Director, 231-944-8750             luanne AT letsbanfracking DOT org

Ban fracking campaign moves closer to its goal, requests more volunteers

CHARLEVOIX, MICH. – The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, a grassroots ballot initiative campaign gathering signatures for a ballot proposal to ban horizontal fracking and frack wastes, announces it is now over 100,000 signatures or 40% of the 252,523 valid signatures required. 

 “We are doing much better than our efforts in 2013 because people know more about the dangers of fracking and frack wastes now,” said LuAnne Kozma, the Committee’s campaign director. “Everyone who wants to see this on the ballot needs to get involved in collecting signatures right away,” Kozma continued. “We are not asking for a big commitment, just two or three days of your time. If all people who care about this issue act now and take the time out of their busy schedules to do this, we’ll make it. A large team is actively getting signatures already, but we need more volunteers in these last two months of the campaign to make sure it will happen. Most ballot initiatives bring in the bulk of their signatures in the last part of the campaign and that’s what we intend to do. Click on the volunteer tab of our website LetsBanFracking.org.”

Volunteers began collecting signatures May 22, 2015 for a six-month period to qualify for the 2016 ballot. The deadline to mail petitions to the Committee is November 10. 

Fracking and the disposal of frack wastes continue in the state. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality permitted 10 more horizontal wells in Grand Traverse, Manistee and Crawford counties in 2015. A hazardous waste processing facility in Detroit, which takes 40% of its wastes from out-of-state, including some from oil and gas operations, is likely to be approved by DEQ to expand its operations ten-fold. Reporting on the expansion Friday, the Detroit Free Press cited US Ecology’s admission that liquid waste treated by the facility is going into the Detroit Water and Sewer Department system, which provides water to the entire metro Detroit area.[1] The ballot initiative would prevent such wells and frack waste processing and disposal.

The public is on the Committee’s side in knowing the dangers of fracking. In May, a poll by Public Policy Polling indicated a strong majority of fifty-five percent (55%) of Michigan voters would vote yes to support the Committee’s ballot proposal to ban fracking and frack wastes statewide, change the current law that requires the State to foster the gas and oil industry and put in its place a requirement that human health and the environment be protected during oil and gas development, and give Michigan residents the right to sue if the fracking industry violates the ban. Only 32% oppose the measure, and 12% are not sure.

An overwhelming majority, sixty-four percent (64%) of those polled, support a ban on frack wastes being disposed of in Michigan, including frack wastes produced in other states, after hearing that currently frack wastes, including radioactive drill cuttings, muds and sludges, and millions of gallons of fluids containing toxic chemicals, are disposed of in Michigan landfills, injection wells and at Michigan gas drilling sites.  

Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan is a ballot question committee registered with the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections. The Committee’s website is: www.letsbanfracking.org. To learn more about the poll results, click here.

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