In the end, the Mandeville City Council deferred action on a proposed resolution to ban fracking. Council members said they needed more time and more information about the practice before making a decision.
About a half-dozen Mandeville residents spoke during the meeting to make the case against fracking. But no one from Helis Oil and Gas was there.
Helis is a New Orleans company. They’re seeking permits to drill a well just north of Interstate 12 and use the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, method to extract oil and gas.
The proposal is not popular with Mandeville residents like Abby Sands, who came to the meeting Thursday night to show her opposition to fracking.
“It’s dangerous to our health, to our future, and to our businesses," Sands says. “If it actually happens, I feel that I’ll be forced to leave the state and the parish. My property value will go down. I will not breathe the dirty air, and I will not drink the polluted water.”
But Helis says in online materials that fracking is safe and that the company would take measures to safeguard the environment and the water supply in St. Tammany.
