With gas and oil development looming on the horizon in Gem County, Idaho, the County Commissioners are tasked with putting in place an Oil & Gas Operations ordinance that is protective of both citizens and the County. Whether you want this industry in Gem County or not, our health, safety, and property values need to be guarded when one slip can seriously injure our personal, natural, and civic resources materially and financially.

A number of commendable people have worked hard to make the draft ordinance better than it was. However, the draft in the Commissioners’ hands is still incomplete, much of the current language is vague and sketchy, and neither the County nor our emergency responders and citizens are adequately protected if things go wrong. We need to have an ordinance in place that safeguards citizens and County (i.e., taxpayers’) interests while allowing businesspeople to operate in a safe manner, without creating undue nuisances to residents in their homes.

Citizens have incorporated into this document clearer and precise attorney-approved language from ordinances of mature gas and oil states, asking the Commissioners to use this as the basis for their deliberations. (See the original combined with the proposed new version here.)

Do you agree that it would be a better idea to use the knowledge of experts with experience in living amidst oil and gas operations, rather than accepting an inadequate ordinance or spending many more months working on revising the current draft in a committee setting?

SUPPORT BETTER LANGUAGE IN GEM COUNTYS’ OIL & GAS ORDINANCE BY SIGNING…

YOUR VOICE COUNTS…