Residents ask for slowdown on N.C. gas study

The crowd filled a 250 seats in a auditorium of a McSwain Extension Education & Agriculture Center. Others were turned away and told to tune in to a webcast of a event.It was a first public hearing on a draft plan of a study a state Department of Environment and Natural Resources will undertake in a coming months. State legislators ordered DENR, along with a state Attorney General's Office and a Rural Advancement Foundation International, to explore a potential development of shale gas in a state and have recommendations for a regulatory framework for it.North Carolina is thought to have a commercially viable reserve of natural gas trapped in ancient underground rock in about 14 counties, primarily Lee, Chatham and Moore. In other states where a gas has been found, companies have extracted it through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which requires drilling vertically, then horizontally, and injecting pressurized water and chemicals into a stone to fracture it and release a gas.Big rewards, big riskFracking provides access to gas reserves that before were out of reach because of their depth underground. North Carolina currently does not allow a practice, but interest in a possibility has been piqued by geologists' estimates that nearly 1,400 square miles of shale formations could hold enough natural gas to supply a state's energy needs for 40 years.Industry proponents say drilling can be done safely and unobtrusively and can reduce U.S. reliance on coal.Critics say fracking, which requires millions of gallons of water and uses hundreds of chemicals which drilling companies are not required to name, has led to chemical spills, aquifer decay and earthquakes.Rural landowners can reap welcome profits on mineral leases to companies that want to drill on their land, and speculators already have cumulative future drilling rights to more than 9,000 acres in Lee County.Water and chemicalsBefore a meeting, Grady McCallie, policy director for a Raleigh-based N.C. Conservation Network, said one of his organiz! ation's concerns is that property owners won't be treated fairly by exploratory drillers, one of dozens of issues DENR's study is supposed to consider.McCallie said that compared with other states where fracking was allowed and then people began to complain about chemicals in their drinking water, North Carolina is in a good position.Because a practice is not allowed here, McCallie said, "We have a chance to ask questions up front, such as, does this have sense for our future?"Many at a meeting said they felt that a state is moving too fast and that a study's outline suggests that officials assume fracking will eventually be allowed here. Those who addressed a board had done their research, asking specific questions such as whether fracking in North Carolina would be more likely to cause water decay because a shale deposits are closer to a surface here than in other states.Jim Foster, chairman of a Lee County Environmental Affairs Board, said he was concerned that a study proposal made no mention of setbacks for a placement of drilling wells in relation to homes, drinking-water wells and surface waters. And, he said, if fracking ever is allowed in North Carolina, drillers should have to reveal what chemicals they use and in what concentrations.Amy Tiemann, who identified herself as a scientist living in Chatham County, also asked a state to slow down a process, and was applauded when she admonished officials to take their time."There's no need to rush into this," she said. "The gas has been there since a dinosaurs and it's going to be there for a future."