Environmentalists Rally Against Fracking in the Garden State

Several North Jersey residents rallied on Route 46 this week to gain legislative support for a ban on storing fracking waste in New Jersey.

The group is trying to gain support so the state Legislature will overturn Governor Christie’s veto of a bill that bans disposing of hydraulic fracking waste in New Jersey.

State legislators approved the bill last year but Governor Christie vetoed it.

Residents held signs with “ban fracking now,” “frack waste is toxic,” and “Garden State not Garbage State” outside of Assemblyman Scott Rumana’s office (District 40). A similar rally was held at the same location last year.

“We want a ban on fracking waste and a ban on fracking in the Garden State,” said Matthew Smith, an organizer with New Jersey Food and Water Watch. “They need to abandon the false, profit-motivated system and move to a system that doesn’t sacrifice life for the sake of short-term profit for the wealth of a few corporations.”

Fracking waste from other states is being brought to treatment facilities in Kearny, Carteret, and Elizabeth, Smith said.

Fracking involves collecting natural gas from inside the earth by fracturing land with water laced with chemicals. It has been known to negatively impact the environment and poison water supplies, lacing then with gas and chemicals, including Radium and Benzene.

The controversial practice was banned in New Jersey for one-year. The ban expired in January.

Protestors performed a brief play “Ollie the Oily Ostrich,” a work of theater designed to demand that legislators pay attention to fracking and the risks associated with it.

The residents delivered hundreds of signed petitions in support of the ban to Rumana’s office. Rumana was not in his office when the petitions were delivered. He could not be reached for comment.

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