Fitzgerald wants council to rework county park fracking ban after veto

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Allegheny County Executive ich Fitzgerald has vetoed a bill passed by county council that would have banned fracking in county parks.

Fitzgerald said he vetoed the bill not because he wants fracking in county parks but because he felt the bill doesn't protect the areas surrounding county parks and needs more community protections.

"It doesn't protect the larger footprint of land adjacent to our county parks," he said. 

Fitzgerald says protections of eliminating excessive noise, baseline water testing and limiting hours of operation are missing from the current bill.

He also says that if down the road an offer came up that was too good to pass on, the bill could be easily overturned with no protections or the opinions of the community and he wants everybody to have a say.

"The council and local municipalities would have a seat at the table. The third group, and I think this is important as well, is the local communities. In essence, the bill that I'm vetoing, there is no seat, there is no table, there's nothing."

Council has 30 days to call a vote to overturn Fitzgerald's veto. If the county's 11 supporters stick by the current fracking bill, that's more than enough to overturn it. 

But Fitzgerald says he hopes they go back to the drawing board and rewrite the language.