LETHBRIDGE — The Alberta New Democrats are renewing a call for the provincial government to undertake an independent scientific review of hydraulic fracking.
Speaking in Lethbridge, NDP environment critic Rachel Notley said there are too many questions about safety and the impact on Alberta’s water supply.
She pointed out the province has approved five million cubic meters of water in the last year to be allocated for fracking.
But she says the government just started keeping track a few months ago.
Notley added there have been 4,000 applications by industry to have fracking activity approved and not one has ever been rejected.
Hydraulic fracturing is a method which uses pressure to release natural gas and oil through cracks in underground rock formations.
“If we don’t get a better ... understanding of what’s safe for Albertans, we run the risk of doing some really long-term damage,” Notley said Tuesday. “In Alberta, we have no regulation — at all — that specifically covers fracking activity.”
Notley suggested there are a lot of questions that have be answered before “we start holus-bolus giving out water to the fracking industry without knowing the safety that needs to come along with that.”