Bill to ban fracking in Allegheny County parks gets additional support

Allegheny County Council held a public meeting Thursday about a bill that proposes banning natural-gas drilling, aka fracking, in the nine county parks.

The hearing was met with great fanfare from local environmental activists.

The bill was first introduced in 2021, and the effort has increased its support since then, but it’s still opposed by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

The fracking-ban proposal would prohibit new leases on county-owned park land for industrial use. Deer Lakes Park has already agreed to a lease to allow fracking near its borders, and this bill would not exterminate that agreement, just stop new leases.

Allegheny County Councilor Bethany Hallam said the bill is necessary to protect county parks from fracking. She said there have been reports of possible natural-gas leases in North Park and Round Hill Park. Fracking has been linked to water contamination and other health effects for nearby residents.

“[County-owned parks] are not industrial parks. These are lands held in common by all the people for our recreational use and enjoyment,” said Hallam. “Environmentally speaking, these forested lands help us fight climate change and preserve our natural environment.”

Robin Martin Lesko, organizer with the environmental group Food & Water Watch, said county parks greatly contribute to the livability and health of Allegheny County residents, and said the parks should continue to be preserved and protected.

On Friday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald released a statement opposing the legislation, saying that decisions about fracking on county-owned land should be made by council and the executive branch on an individual basis. He also pushed back on reports that fracking leases are currently on the table at county parks.

“Let me state emphatically: we have no plans to allow any drilling or related activity in any of our parks,” said Fitzgerald. “With that being said, future administrations and councils should be allowed to evaluate what’s best for the county and its residents on a case by case basis and to deliberate that publicly.”

He supports keeping the current process for approving natural-gas leasing on county lands as is, and defended the way to leases near Deer Lakes and at the Pittsburgh International Airport were approved in the past. He said they included public hearings, conversations with stakeholders, and led to agreements that benefitted impacted municipalities and other entities.

Fitzgerald said those leases have brought economic benefits to county residents and said the airport would be bankrupt without the natural-gas leases. The airport now utilizes natural-gas drilled onsite and solar panels to provide internal energy needs.

Fitzgerald said he supports a transition to renewable energy, and said he believes natural gas is part of that path.

“Everything we can do here to innovate and grow green jobs helps us travel that road to sustainable energy, but it’s not automatic and bills like the one being considered by Council are not rooted in that reality,” said Fitzgerald.

Hallam said County Council has the authority to pass a fracking ban and refuted Fitzgerald’s opposition. She added that the county executive is term-limited and will leave office after 2023, and that these public health decisions should be left up to council.

[Fitzgerald] engaged in the transparent fiction of asserting that the Council should not exercise its charter-granted authority over transactions involving county-owned property and uphold its duties as trustee for the environmental interests of the county’s residents merely because he does not wish it to do so,” said Hallam.

Even so, the county executive’s opposition could sink the fracking-ban proposal this term.

The bill has garnered more support this year than when it was first introduced in 2021, but it will need enough votes to clear a potential veto from Fitzgerald. Currently, there are five co-sponsors of the bill: Hallam, and County Councilors Anita Prizio, Olivia Bennett, Jack Betkowski and Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis.

Eight votes are needed to pass a bill in the 15-member chamber, but 10 are necessary for a veto-proof majority.