At fifteen minutes until midnight on Tuesday, June 21^st, the City Council of Morgantown approved the following motion (second reading) after three minor amendments were made to strengthen the language:

“An ordinance repealing Article 721 of the City of Morgantown’s Business and Taxation Code and replacing it with a new Article 721, which prohibits oil and gas drilling operations which involve horizontal drilling with fracturing or fracking within the City, and the operation of wells that utilize horizontal drilling with fracturing or fracking within one mile of the Morgantown City limits.” (The first reading was adopted on June 7, 2011.)  The vote was 6 in favor and 1 opposed.

One amendment added code sections to justify the ordinance, one added a definition for “horizontal drilling”, while the third changed the language from “horizontal drilling and/or fracturing” to “horizontal drilling with fracturing”.

This five hour meeting of City Council included interviews to fill a position on the Board of the Morgantown Utility Board, a public hearing on a smoking ban in public places as well as a public hearing on the horizontal drilling with fracking ban described above.