Lubbock City Council has seen its fare share of opposition, and its recent controversial topic hydraulic fracturing also known as "fracking" is no different.
Activist Armando Gonzalez said, "As Occupy Lubbock on Thursday we want to present to city council and ask them to put a hold or a moratorium on fracking."
Fracking includes drilling more than 7,000 feet underground and injecting fluid at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas.
Chris Faulkner, Breitling Oil and Gas CEO said, "We are talking about 5 million gallons of water, 1 million pounds of sand, and 1/2 percent of that mix are those chemicals."
Gonzalez said he does not support this method because it will contaminate our water.
"The problem with fracking is that they use a lot of chemical's that are known carcinogens like taurine, benzene, diesel," he said.
Lubbock Director of Water Resources Aubrey Spear said the city has done its homework on fracking. In fact Spear said areas like in Midland and Odessa are already using the fracking method.
"The risk is very minimal," he said. "The fluid they are using--if those wells are cased properly and everything, the water is going to go in and do its job as fracturing."
One of the sites approved by the previous council for the drilling process known as fracking is around Lubbock's airport. The other two sites are at the city landfill, and city's farmland site in east Lubbock. The three sites will be leased to Four Seven drilling company.
"We actually have clauses in there were they are responsible for the monitoring the ground water and take water samples, before they do anything," Spear said.
Spear said the agreement also makes the company accountable for any clean-up. However, Gonzalez isn't convinced, and said the city needs to allow its citizens to have a say and take more time to research.
