Fracking vote a no-brainer

If water is life, as the saying goes, then the members of the Butte County Board of Supervisors need to do everything they can to protect our local supply of this precious natural commodity. After all, we cannot live without it. Moreover, much of our local economy—think farming and ranching—relies on an ample supply of clean water.

Those are some of the reasons these local officials must ban hydraulic fracturing—or fracking. It poses a very real danger to our water supply—the Tuscan Aquifer, our main source of drinking water.

Back in April, by a 4-to-1 vote, the board directed its legal counsel to craft a local ordinance banning the practice, and on Tuesday, Feb. 10, its members will vote on that proposed prohibition. There’s a large contingent of locals—led by the group Frack-Free Butte County—who want to see this happen, as demonstrated by the successful gathering of signatures to put the issue to a public vote. But as the group’s leaders have acknowledged, the county’s ordinance is stronger.

With that in mind, the supervisors should hold fast and place the community’s interests above all others. Fracking does not belong here.