Media Release

Restrictions on Hydraulic fracturing

Paul Bruce | Greater Wellington Regional Councillor

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" for oil and gas has seen a growing sense of unease from the public, and an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and Councils across New Zealand calling for investigations or a temporary halt.

I’m putting fracking on the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s agenda and urging Wellington take a precautionary approach to this controversial drilling method.

In the last six months we’ve seen Hawke's Bay Regional Council calling for an investigation into fracking, Christchurch City Council unanimously voting in April to impose the first moratorium in New Zealand, and half a dozen other city and district councils are considering or have asked for a moratorium. France, Quebec, New South Wales and Vermont all have moratoriums in place.

We can’t keep our heads in the sand over fracking anymore. Greater Wellington Regional Councillors Chris Laidlaw, Daren Ponter and Paul Bruce are looking for new policy on oil or gas hydraulic fracturing exploratory or production wells drilling as part of the single Natural Resource Regional Plan. They also want investigation into "fracking" being conducted by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment to be completed before any consideration of the use of hydraulic fracturing in the greater Wellington region.

It is quite possible we could see fracking within GWRC boundaries. Four exploratory wells have been drilled over the last decade in Wairarapa and the expectation is that resource consent applications for production wells in the Shale rock utilising Fracking is now in the offing. The Government is also calling for tenders on 25 oil and gas blocks, including 14 offshore, and two in the Pegasus Basin, south of Cape Palliser.

Its important the council get its head around the fracking process, used to extract gas and oil from hard-to-access rock like shale. Shale, a clay-based rock, has natural gas and oil trapped in it, but this can flow if the rock is fissured and high pressure liquids displace them, pushing hydrocarbons to the surface through the well casing.

To prepare for the fracking process, a drill hole is lined with steel casing and explosive charges are detonated in the pipe to induce hairline fractures in the rock. A mixture of about 97 per cent water and sand and 3 per cent chemicals (many toxic) is injected at high pressure into the fissures, allowing gas or oil to flow more freely. Shale oil and gas is generally deeper, and in less porous rock, than earlier traditional reservoirs which were closer to the surface.

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about fracking: massive water use, toxic chemicals, air pollution, climate change, the problems of waste disposal and health impacts. In New Zealand, to date fracking has only occurred in Taranaki and there we have seen water contamination, poor waste disposal and consents being breached, after a comparatively small number of wells were drilled in 18 years.

There is growing concern worldwide that the toxic chemicals used in fracking fluid can potentially get into underground aquifers and contaminate water sources; as could some of the hydrocarbons released.

The implications for surface water and terrestrial ecosystems has now also been looked at more closely in a new US study. The fact that wells are typically located close to surface water increases the risk to aquatic ecosystems in three main ways: water withdrawal, contamination and excess sediment.

And more recently, research focused on an even more ominous byproduct of the technique - the increased possibility of earthquakes. In Britain, the Department of Energy and Climate Change on 17 April published an independent expert report recommending measures to mitigate the risks of seismic tremors from hydraulic fracturing and invited public comment on its recommendations.

The jury is still out on fracking that’s why I am urging GWRC to delay considering any fracking consents it receives until the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment can assure Wellingtonians its safe.

There are risks associated with fracking, and none more serious than climate change. The question needs to be asked, why are we so willing to facilitate fossil fuel extraction, when there are persuasive environmental and economic reasons to support alternatives?

The public will have a chance to support the motion on Fracking in public participation at the commencement of the Greater Wellington Regional Council meeting 9.30 am 13th June.

Paul Bruce | Greater Wellington Regional Councillor

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