Stop Fracking! 2500' Buffer Zones Ballot Initiative Launch December 27th 2017
Exciting news! Our ally Colorado Rising has submitted language for a statewide ballot initiative to help protect our communities’ health and safety from fracking by establishing 2500’ buffer zones around occupied buildings, such as homes and schools, and vulnerable areas, such as playgrounds and water sources. (Here’s a story that Boulder Weekly recently published about it.)
Here’s how you can help to make this coalition effort to protect Colorado communities a success: Show your support today by signing this online Pledge to Sign and share it with friends! Then Colorado Rising will email you a signing location when it’s time to sign the actual petitions.
Here's why: Health studies show negative adverse health impacts such as cancer, difficulty breathing, low birth weights and birth defects within 1/2 mile from fracking operations, which is why we need to increase the distance from these operations from our neighborhoods. Right now fracking is permitted 500' from a home and 1,000' from a school! This is not safe and must change.
Click here to Pledge to Sign - for common sense health and safety protections for our neighborhoods. (Read on below for more background info.)
Thank you for joining us in action!
The Colorado Rising Team
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Background: Last year a strong coalition effort gathered over 210,000 signatures for two statewide ballot initiatives to protect our communities from fracking. We accomplished this in just over 3 months, despite $14M spent in opposition from the fracking industry. We missed placement of the initiatives on the statewide ballot because the Secretary of State’s Office rejected too many of the signatures for pedantic reasons, dropping our petition signers just below the required number.
Despite this disappointing setback, our movement has continued to grow and build support for a successful initiative effort in 2018. Statewide polling shows strong support for action to protect our neighborhoods from fracking. This demand for action is building after recent events:
the tragic Firestone explosion last spring that killed two men and badly burned a mother,
the Appeals Court’s decision on Martinez vs. COGCC that the COGCC must consider public health and safety as a precondition to permitting fracking and the COGCC’s shocking appeal of that ruling,
the industry’s increasingly callous disregard for requests to place drilling at a safer distance from homes and schools,
a growing body of public health research showing that living too close to fracking, especially less than ½ mile, is a serious risk to health and safety,
stories being shared on traditional and social media about people living by fracking whose health and quality of life are being ruined, and
numerous reports of farmers, ranchers and other landowners whose property has been contaminated and property values decimated.
What’s next: Colorado Rising, which is comprised of many of the grassroots groups and activists who worked hard on last year’s effort, is preparing to launch a successful ballot initiative effort in 2018 armed with all the knowledge we acquired last year, and we need all hands on deck!
Here’s the plan:
In 2018, we will run a statewide statutory ballot initiative that protects public health and safety from fracking. Ballot language has been submitted to establish buffer zones of 2,500 feet between new oil and gas operations and occupied buildings, such as homes and schools, and other vulnerable areas, including water sources and playgrounds.
A 2,500 foot buffer zone (almost ½ mile) is strategically based on polling and health studies that show harmful effects, such as cancer, difficulty breathing, low birth weights and birth defects, on people living within a ½ mile of fracking operations (especially vulnerable populations like children and the elderly) and public safety data regarding the impact zones of explosions, fires, leaks, and plumes. This will provide much needed protection for all of our communities. (In contrast, a local control initiative would only protect a few select communities.)
We are hiring a signature gathering firm with a long history of success to supplement volunteers’ efforts.
Prior to circulation of the required printed ballot initiatives, we are launching an online Pledge to Sign campaign so we can begin to tangibly build support and awareness for the initiative, educate people, gather volunteers, recruit endorsers, and accept donations in advance of launching the signature gathering campaign. Our goal is to recruit tens of thousands of online pledges before we ever hit the streets with the printed ballot petitions.
We are creating a statewide network of volunteers to help with signature gathering, outreach, fundraising and education, with the help of a growing list of endorsing partners. If you would like to help, please email unite@corising.org.
Thank you for your help protecting our communities from fracking!
