About 175 people showed up for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' public hearing on hydraulic fracturing public hearing Tuesday night at Rend Lake College in Ina.
A six-member panel listened to a range of public comments about the DNR's proposed fracking regulations. Most were highly critical of the draft rule, and many comments focused on water quality monitoring, disclosure of chemicals that are protected by trade secrets, seismicity, and the size of fines that can be levied on industry.
Karen Genet of Hardin County told the panel that fracking would threaten her rural way of life, and jeopardize tourism at places like Garden of the Gods and Cave-In-Rock.
"The industrialization of southern Illinois will be a death blow to our way of life and it will be the squandering of one of the last wild places in the Midwest for the sake of short term, short sighted fossil fuel gluttony."
DNR will hold three more public hearings, including one on Thursday in Effingham and one in Carbondale on December 19.
The public comment period closes on January 3.
