Fracking - Bad News for WNC


This quote by Ansel Adams sums up my feelings on the idea of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking) in Western North Carolina. I normally shy away from controversial or political themes in this blog, but this one hit me right at home last week while watching the local news. The North Carolina senate is moving ahead with legislation to lift the 2012 ban on fracking in the state. Click here to read the law in its entirety.

If you are unfamiliar with the process (or didn't click the link above), fracking is a way of extracting natural gas from rock formations by injecting, at high pressure, a mixture of water, sand and other chemicals in such a way that the rock formations holding the gas break, allowing the natural gas to be collected. Problems stemming from these wells include earthquakes - as has been seen in Ohio - and contaminated drinking water. As if that wasn't enough, imagine the sight of drilling pads, roads, and heavy duty construction trucks cruising through some of your favorite backcountry locations. (Check out this great post about fracking impacts on national parks out west)

Now here is where I will get political. A lot of the potential natural gas deposits are found in the Eastern part of North Carolina, under the counties of Durham, Wake and Lee. More is found north of Winston-Salem near the Dan River basin. However, these areas are some of the most populated in North Carolina, meaning there are plenty of people there to raise a fuss about these wells. Western North Carolina is rural, forested and covered with national forests as well as state and national parks. Add this to a high unemployment rate and given the chance, which area (and people) will be more appealing for a mining company to exploit?

That brings me to another point - jobs. It is true that North Carolina, and especially Western NC, has a very high unemployment rate (we can debate the cause/effect of recent cuts to corporate taxes and unemployment benefits another time). Natural gas companies will tout that their industry creates a lot of jobs (how many will be available in NC is still up for debate). Consider this point though - wouldn't it be easier for the mining companies to bring in their own previously trained and proven workers than to hire and train new workers? But even if 5,000 jobs were created across the state over the next ten years, at what cost? Those jobs will pack up and leave when the gas runs dry. And besides, North Carolina has hundreds of thousands that are unemployed. Will the mining company take their new workers with them? What about the environmental impact left behind when they pull out, leaving empty drilling pads and unused roads cut into our beautiful mountains?

This brings me to my next couple of points - environmental impact and property rights. The version of the fracking bill passed by the NC Senate makes it a felony - A FELONY! - for a person to disclose what a mining company uses in their fracking fluid. So the idea is that to protect the competition between the companies, they can use any secret mixture of chemicals they feel like. Sure, this mix is supposed to be treated after the well is dismantled, but can we guarantee that it was completely removed? This is not even diving into the possibility of natural gas leaking into groundwater supplies - rendering the water completely undrinkable (something the gas companies would be liable for only if it occurred within 2500 feet of a drill pad).

Ok, the last point I will make is about property rights and self-governance. These are perhaps the most appalling of all the impacts from this bill. Fracking employs a technique called horizontal drilling, which helps maximize the amount of gas removed. The version of the bill that the senate has passed would allow drilling adjacent to private property to move horizontally onto that private landowner's property - with no consequence for the consequences such as contaminated ground water. It also allows the mining company to access private property at will, as long as the land owner is contacted (not asked for permission, simply contacted). Furthermore, this bill expressly prohibits any local governmental agency from creating a law to ban fracking in their town/county/municipality. It seems that those all-important property rights and will of the people go out the window when the all mighty dollar comes to play.

Once the beauty of nature is destroyed, it cannot be repurchased at any price. We are living on this planet like we have another one to go to. The mountains of Western North Carolina are where I call home. My wife, my daughter, my family and everyone and everything that I know and love is here. The mountains have always been an anchor in my life; they calm me. The idea of ripping them apart for a few dollars digs straight to my soul and infuriates me to no end. There is no place on earth like the mountains of WNC - don't sell them out.


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