Originally, on election night in Broomfield, Colorado, it was reported that there would be no ban on fracking in that city. A ballot calculation won by just 13 votes. However, due to the close numbers, a mandatory recount began Monday. On Thursday, it was discovered that Question 300?–?a measure that calls for the banning of fracking for five years and a law prohibiting the disposal or open pit storage of frack waste in Broomfield — was actually passed by more than 15 votes.
The close numbers, to those in support of fracking, show a split in the community on whether they believe fracking is a viable threat to the environment. However, for fracking activists, the close numbers are considered a small victory in their path toward outlawing the process in the United States. More people are starting to realize the real dangers that these facilities and procedures put on the people and land in the community.
If the original numbers had stood, Broomfield would have been one of very few cities in the surrounding area that did not have bans on fracking in their communities. Boulder, Lafayette, and Fort Collins all won their measures to ban or suspend fracking in their cities, and Longmont has a complete anti-fracking law already in place. In a statement to the Colorado Independent,?B.J. Nikkel, former Republican state legislator and supporter of the fracking industry, said:
The city is representative, more of a mirror to Colorado than the liberal cities that have opposed fracking. To us, the close vote shows that when people have balanced information, it puts us in a place where we can prevail.
Floyd Ciruli, political analyst in Denver, pointed out that though the votes were close, they held considerable weight in the elections because the state’s northeastern counties voting whether or not to secede saw economic benefit from gas production through fracking. This interest in the economic value of fracking was void of all thought of what fracking could mean to the ecological status of their communities.
After this area of Colorado saw mass flooding and the toppling of several fracking disposal towers, this procedure was in the spotlight this election season. People are slowly starting to see fracking as less of an economic necessity and more as an enemy to their communities.
