Mark Barrett

ASH

CULLOWHEE – The public will get four hours to tell state regulators what they think about proposed rules to govern the controversial natural gas extraction method called fracking during a hearing here Friday.

Each of three previous hearings held in the Piedmont to discuss rules drew hundreds of people, and Friday’s hearing has been moved to the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University, the same large building where the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams play. There has already been considerable debate over the issue in Western North Carolina.

The state Mining and Energy Commission does not get to decide whether fracking, more properly called hydraulic fracturing, will be allowed in the state. At issue Friday is what rules will govern the practice.

Gov. Pat McCrory and the state General Assembly passed a law earlier this year that lifted a 2012 moratorium on fracking in North Carolina. That means permits for fracking could be issued as soon as spring 2015.

Fracking involves injecting mixtures of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth at high pressure to free up natural gas. Critics say it causes environmental problems. Proponents say it is safe and boosts the economy.

Is WNC a target?

The most promising areas for fracking in the state are generally considered to be in the Deep River shale formation that runs from southern Granville County through parts of the Triangle southwest to the Union-Anson county line.

But it is possible that other parts of the state could yield natural gas if fracked, geologists say, and the General Assembly has provided funds for limited testing of rocks in a formation called the Precambrian Rift in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.

State testing in those seven counties had been scheduled to begin in late summer or early fall, but an internal Department of Environment and Natural Resources memo suggests that DENR does not now plan testing in WNC during the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Instead, the Aug. 21 memo from DENR Chief Deputy Secretary Donald van der Vaart said testing will include only the Deep River basin, smaller areas to the north and west of Greensboro and Winston-Salem and another area arching from near Goldsboro through Fayetteville to Laurinburg in southeasten North Carolina.

State Sen. Jim Davis, a Macon County Republican who provided a copy of the memo to the Citizen-Times, said it is unlikely that fracking will occur in WNC.

“We just don’t have the right kind of rock” to yield commercially viable amounts of natural gas or a pipeline to move it to market, he said.

Avram Friedman, executive director of Sylva-based environmental group Canary Coalition, said it is unclear what the memo means for the future of testing for natural gas in WNC.

“Because (state officials) don’t want people to show up at the public hearing, we’re very wary of that claim,” he said.

And even if testing does not occur during the current fiscal year, “That doesn’t mean they won’t be exploring next year or the year after that,” Friedman said.

“It’s unlikely that they’ll find any significant deposits of gas in Western North Carolina, but you never know,” he said.

How safe?

The proposed rules cover issues like how close to homes fracking would be allowed, what groundwater testing companies would be required to perform and standards for groundwater protection.

Friedman said he would prefer that the moratorium on fracking had stayed in place and said the rules the state proposes are not as strict as those in some others.

“They certainly are not, from what I’ve seen, the strongest rules in the nation as they have claimed,” he said.

Fracking, he said, is “a big gamble. The companies are hoping to make profits now at the risk of harming future generations.”

Julie Mayfield, co-director of environmental group Western North Carolina Alliance, said she is concerned that setback requirements are not tough enough, the rules do not specify a minimum penalty for violations and do not require enough groundwater testing to detect contamination.

“The only requirement for a follow-up test is 30 days after” a well is shut down, she said, but groundwater contamination is often “slow moving and it can take a long time to show up.”

Davis, a co-sponsor of the law that lifted the fracking moratorium, called the proposed regulations “a great start” and said they will be updated as technology changes.

“I feel good that we have gone further for consumer and environmental protection than any state in the union has,” he said.

A 2013 study by N.C. State University economist Michael Walden said construction of facilities to extract natural gas in the state would create $80 million of new economic activity, nearly 500 jobs and $4.9 million in public revenue each year. During a 20-year production period, it would generate $158 million of new income each year, 1,406 jobs and add $9.6 million to public coffers annually, Walden wrote.

Davis said fracking “is part of an energy revolution and there’s no reason that North Carolina can’t participate in that, provided that we do it in an environmentally responsible way.”

“Cheap energy is going to be the avenue for a revitalization of the industrial complex in the United States,” he said. “If we have access to cheap energy, we’re going to bring manufacturing back to this country.”

Want to comment?

• Friday’s public hearing on state fracking rules will be 5-9 p.m. at Ramsey Center, 92 Catamount Road on the Western Carolina campus in Cullowhee. Registration for those wishing to speak will begin at 4 p.m.

• Written public comments may be submitted at the hearing, or they can be sent to DENR-Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, Attn: Oil and Gas Program, 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh 27699-1612. They may be sent electronically via this website: http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/mining-and-energy-commission/public-comment-meetings. The deadline is Sept. 30.