268916 Fracking: Legal considerations surrounding the potential public health impacts

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 12:50 PM - 1:10 PM

Heather Horton, JD, MHA , Office of the General Counsel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA
Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is a method of obtaining natural gas or oil from petroleum bearing rocks. Scientists, oil and gas industry executives, political leaders, and the public have become interested in fracking because of its potential to produce gas and oil domestically in the U.S., and because of its potential to impact the environment and public health. Fracking may bring into communities millions of dollars in tax revenues, hundreds of jobs, and royalties from companies to property owners. On the other hand, fracking has the potential to contaminate groundwater with toxins. Communities have a variety of legal tools available to address the practice of fracking. For example, communities may ban or impose a moratorium on fracking, or they may amend their zoning laws to limit where fracking may occur. This presentation will address legal issues associated with fracking and legal considerations for communities that are interested in regulating this controversial drilling technique.

Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Describe legal issues surrounding the practice of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). Identify potential legal remedies a community may consider in response to fracking.

Keywords: Water, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Senior Attorney for the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I also serve as an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, co-teaching Public Health Law primarily to public health students, but also to medical and law students. Among my public health law interests is environmental law, and specifically legal issues surrounding fracking.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3210.1: Hot Topics in Public Health Law II (Co-sponsored by the Partnership for Public Health Law and the Law SPIG)