Fracking regulator: Rules must balance industry needs with resident protections

This is the first edition of a monthly series. Next month: mineral rights issues.

At the corner of Carthage and Steele streets in downtown Sanford, a black flag with four center-pointing arrows slowly flaps against a streetlight.

The small gust of wind leaves a message rippling above the quiet intersection: “Well Centered.”

Yet, although the small town of about 28,000 people sits almost exactly in the center of North Carolina, a glance around the block reveals that it’s not the center of much else — especially economic prosperity.

The manufacturing-reliant town, home to a handful of plants including Pfizer and Caterpillar, has suffered from unemployment rates upwards of 10 percent since 2008, leaving boarded-up shops, vacant buildings and picked-over thrift shops to dot the town’s center.

“We’re languishing in Lee County in the trough that follows an economic recession and precedes recovery because of an over reliance on industrial manufacturing,” said Jim Womack, a 12-year Sanford resident and member of the Lee County Board of Commissioners.

To combat his county’s economic slump, Womack has long advocated for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a drilling process that injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into shale rock formations underground to release trapped natural gas.

His efforts became reality in July when the Republican-led legislature voted to end the state’s existing drilling ban, and now that Gov. Pat McCrory has announced his plan to open the state to new methods of energy production, Womack said it seems that the moons are aligning.

He now serves as chairman of the Mining and Energy Commission, a 13-member group that will finalize a set of fracking regulations by early 2015.

To do that, the commission must navigate through the interests of a diverse pool of industry representatives, government officials, landowners and concerned residents — some of whom aren’t sure fracking is the best step for the state.

Bill Faison, a former Orange County representative who came out against fracking during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said he remains unconvinced that drilling for natural gas will be economically beneficial for North Carolina, especially considering the potential environmental impacts.

“It’s not a good idea to contaminate your own drinking water,” he said. “Bad things happen when you drive yourself off your own land — especially when you do that for no particular reason.”

An April report from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources states that fracking could pose water contamination and air pollution risks, but ultimately it concluded that the procedure can be done if the appropriate safeguards are put in place.

The report also states that the Lee, Chatham and Moore county areas of the Triassic Basin possess the most potential for natural gas extraction, but exact estimates of just how much natural gas could be extracted cannot be accurately made.

Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, the fracking bill’s sponsor, said this uncertainty shouldn’t be viewed as a negative.

“If it turns out there aren’t reserves, what do we lose — a little time filling out the paper work and changing the regulations?” he said.

“The bottom line is we are looking at trying to make North Carolina a self-sufficient and self-reliant state when it comes to energy.”

Achieving this self-reliance will include raising the state’s current severance tax of $.0005 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas, which is comparatively low to other states that allow fracking.

“All of those taxes are outdated,” he said. “Our economy is still based on 1930s manufacturing, and we have not achieved our full potential because we’ve gone away from manufacturing without establishing new pillars to support a robust economy.”

Aside from economic changes, the energy commission will also oversee statewide policy changes like a mandate against local governments banning drilling, fracking fluid disclosure regulations and minimum drilling unit sizes.

The group will meet again on Jan. 24 to hear the first recommendations from its subcommittees.

“There are people who are a little more risk averse than others and that’s recognized, but there isn’t anybody I know that will endorse imprudent risk,” Womack said. “Prudent risk and safeguarding the process is what we’re about here. It all goes back to striking the right balance between the interests.”

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.