See the update at the bottom of Page 2 on Saturday's well-attended fracking forum in Brea and details on an upcoming event involving seven North County cities.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 18, 8:33 A.M.: It's doubtful anyone from Linn Energy, the major leaseholder in the Brea-Olinda Oil Field, will swing by but organizers say they are presenting a first-ever presentation educating Brea residents on fracking Saturday night.
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Fracking on the Fringes of Orange County, With Little Oversight
Yes, the city of Brea did hold an informational meeting of its own recently after residents expressed alarm over fracking wells popping up next to their homes and schools. But Mayor Brett Murdock let Linn Energy give the fracturing presentation without allowing the community to ask questions, according to Alexandra Nagy a Food & Water Watch organizer.
“Brea residents are concerned the Brea City Council's priorities are more closely aligned with protecting Linn Energy than safeguarding community health and safety,” she writes in an email.
Hydraulic fracking involves drilling into the earth to inject highly pressurized water to release natural gas. Polluted drinking water has resulted from some fracking operations, particularly in Pennsylvania. Nagy and others in Brea believe they should be able to raise question about fracking operations to ensure North County does not suffer a similar polluted fate.
And so, she is sitting on the panel along with Tom Williams, a UC Bekeley petroleum engineer, and Hollin Kretzmann, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney. The presentation begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at Brea Congregational Church, 300 E. Imperial Hwy., Brea.
The church, Food & Water Watch, North Orange County Citizens Climate Lobby, Citizens for “Stop Fracking Brea” and Orange County Against Fracking sponsor the forum. Learn more at foodandwaterwatch.org and/or check out the flier on the next page …
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UPDATE, JULY 21, 3:19 P.M.: Saturday night's fracking forum drew so many more people than expected that more Brea Congregational Church chairs had to be brought in for seating.
Alexandra Nagy, a Food & Water Watch organizer who spoke at the event, estimated that 125 people came out. “It was standing-room only for some people,” Nagy says.
Attendees learned that more is to come as a forum on “Impacts of Oil Drilling on Water and Earthquakes” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Titan Student Union at Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton.
The free event is aimed at North County's seven cities, Nagy explained, as experts will discuss the impacts of fracking, acidizing and waste water disposal oil recovery practices on local water quality and earthquake risk. Professor David Bowman of the university's Department of Sciences hosts.
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