The City of Totana manifests its rejection to the activities of exploitation and gas extraction through the well-known technique of hydraulic fracturing, popularly known as "fracking"), and urges the Autonomous Community to develop a standard that, in the use of its environmental competences, prohibit it until sufficient guarantees are available regarding its safety and environmental reliability.
In addition, the totanero plenary agreed to demand the effective adoption of the agreement adopted by the Regional Assembly in 2015 by declaring the Region of Murcia "Fracking Free Zone" and to legislate accordingly.
The totanero Consistory requires the competent administrations that, prior to the granting of any research or prospecting permit using the hydraulic fracturing technique, all public administrations are duly informed of the society and that the position of the communities is taken into account autonomous communities and the municipalities involved.
On April 25, 2013, the City Council has already approved an initiative for both the municipality of Totana and the Region of Murcia to be free of fracking, since this extraction technique is a crime against health and the environment , as it will affect the pollution of our waters and have real effects on the population.
The "fracking" is a technique for unconventional gas extraction that consists of making a series of vertical and horizontal holes in the subsoil to cause fractures in the rock strata that contain the gas at a depth of between 3,000 and 5,000 meters. therefore, perforations can affect the most superficial layers, where large pockets of water are found.
Through these perforations, a mixture of water, sand and hundreds of chemical products that disintegrate the subsoil are injected at high pressure and allow to release the associated gas in these porous and impermeable rocks.
This technique is, therefore, very invasive and aggressive with the environment and entails a series of health and environmental impacts.
In relation to its effects and impacts on the natural environment, the possible repercussions are the emission of polluting gases, the contamination of underground aquifers, the uncontrolled discharge of wastewater, atmospheric pollution, earthquakes of small and medium intensity, noise pollution and landscape impacts .
The Ministry of Energy opened a door to "fracking" in the Region of Murcia last year by authorizing, for the second time, the prospecting program that the multinational "Oil & Gas Capital" aims to carry out in Calasparra, Cieza and Jumilla
