Posted: Monday, January 5, 2015 1:29 pm
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Updated: 10:35 am, Wed Jan 7, 2015.
The Sylva Herald
A local opponent of hydraulic fracturing has reaped the rewards of perseverance: commissioners will consider opposing use of the technology in this county and beyond.
Donna Dupree, of Jackson County Coalition Against Fracking, emerged in recent months as a ubiquitous presence at commissioners’ meetings as she lobbied for an anti-fracking resolution. Last month, Dupree made her usual pitch in the three minutes allotted public speakers. This time, she drew a response, with new Chairman Brian McMahan asking for a copy of the document she favors. Dupree’s anti-fracking resolution duplicates those passed by several Western North Carolina towns and counties. The Jackson County commissioners’ meeting starts at 6 p.m. tonight (Thursday) in the Justice Center boardroom.
A favorable vote carries symbolic weight only. State law forbids local governments from regulating hydraulic fracturing companies. Dupree says she believes local leaders still should “stand up and be counted” as the debate rages on both state and national levels.
The groundwork for likely passage took place in November when Democrats, including McMahan, seized control of the board. A month before the election, a conservative-leaning majority, by a 3-2 vote, “reaffirmed” a 2002 ordinance that regulates the location, visibility, and pollution from asphalt industries, heavy industries, mining industries and junkyards. At the time, Democratic commissioners Vicki Greene and Mark Jones described the action as meaningless because fracking wasn’t included.
Geologists are skeptical natural gas exists in WNC, saying deposits in the mountains likely burned off when the Appalachians were forming. The ancient geologic pressures combined crushing combinations of compression and heat. Last fall, the state did an about-face on plans to collect rock samples from the far-western counties for testing, ending for now the possibility fracking could occur here. The issue continues to resonate locally, however. Republican lawmakers are about to lift the state moratorium on fracking. Though, with fuel prices falling, there are questions about whether energy companies will spend the millions necessary to pinpoint North Carolina’s potentially small reserves, largely confined to the three-county swath of Moore, Lee and Chatham.
Fracking technology enables companies to extract natural gas out of rock they shatter using high-pressure mixtures of chemicals, sand and water. Supporters say the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling is safe when done properly; opponents fear irreversible environmental damage, particularly to water supplies.
Town boards across the region, including Webster, Sylva and Forest Hills, and commissioners in Swain and Haywood counties passed anti-fracking resolutions last year. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians invoked sovereignty and outlawed use of the technology on the tribe’s lands.
The resolution Jackson County leaders will review opposes fracking on the grounds that it increases water demand; produces toxic wastewater requiring disposal in nonexistent treatment facilities; and because of its potential to industrialize the region. These factors, the resolution states, run counter to protecting natural resources that attract tourism, a major county economic driver. In passing the resolution, commissioners would be asking lawmakers to reinstate North Carolina’s ban and allow for local regulation if fracking did take place.
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Monday, January 5, 2015 1:29 pm.
Updated: 10:35 am.
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