In Monroe County, anti-fracking activists have struggled to get government officials to take fracking-related issues seriously. In particular, they've asked the county to pass a law banning its water treatment facilities from taking fracking waste, but their requests have fallen flat. 

Erie County is a different story. Yesterday, its Legislature passed a law banning fracking on all county-owned property. And it goes further. According to a Buffalo News article published today, "The law also prohibits introducing drilling waste into any county-owned facility such as a waste water treatment plant and outlaws spreading of 'fracking' byproducts on county roads."

This is exactly the type of law that fracktivists want Monroe County to pass. Fracking is unlikely to happen in Monroe in the near future, but activists worry that the county could take steps to accept fracking waste at county water treatment plants or that the county-owned Mill Seat Landfill could begin to take in drill tailings.

Unlike the Monroe County Legislature, Erie County's body has more Democrats than Republicans, though according to the News article, some Republicans did back the fracking law. But Monroe County's Republican administration and its allies in the County Legislature's Republican majority have sat on Democratic fracking-related legislation.