Less than two years have passed since North Carolina began
studying fracking issues. When lawmakers first announced their desire to study statutory
changes to allow fracking, they promised to wait and study the facts before
deciding whether to allow fracking. Experts
from other states and from our Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(“DENR”) agreed that the state should study the groundwater quality in the area
before fracking occurs. This scientific
study is needed so the new fracking rules will protect water. This week news reports show that DENR is
refusing EPA money to do the study before the rules are developed and signaling
layoffs for water research. Durham’s
County Commissioners wisely protested
DENR’s decision as the wrong course at their meeting on Monday.
On October 10, 2011, DENR conducted a public hearing in Sanford, North
Carolina.
Current DENR Assistant Secretary Mitch Gillespie was at that
meeting. In 2011, Gillespie was still
serving in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Gillespie was the legislative leader most responsible for crafting
HB 242, the bill which called for fracking study. Rep. Mike Stone accompanied him and explained
to the audience that: “We need this information so we can develop either the
best reason to frack with the best law in the nation, or not to frack at
all.”
Rep. Gillespie’s version of HB 242 directed DENR to answer a
series of questions, including whether there was enough water in the area to do
fracking. DENR staff outlined all the steps needed to
update North Carolina’s oil and gas laws from late 2011 into the summer of
2012. Staff worked hard to pull this
information together. From the very beginning DENR staff told the public that
the State needed to sample groundwater in the shale areas to establish a
baseline for groundwater quality. This
baseline would be used to help revise our oil and gas laws and to draft the
regulations that would protect the State’s groundwater resources.
Based on this information, DENR’s report recommended that
the State conduct baseline groundwater testing in the regions with shale. DENR also asked a neutral, non-profit task
force called STRONGER to come and review the steps North Carolina must take to
safely develop oil and gas. STRONGER
also recommended that the State conduct baseline groundwater testing in the
regions with oil and gas potential. No one disputed this recommendation in the
STRONGER process.
Baseline testing protects the public health and the
economy. The baseline is what tells you
whether the water is clean now and whether it is safe to drink. It will also tell whether the groundwater is
suitable to be used to supply the fracking operations with the water they
need. Water resource managers need this
information to help insure we have enough clean drinking water. DENR needs this information so it can develop
rules to protect the drinking water now underground.
Representative Gillespie had a reputation for targeting
DENR, having jokingly painted a bullseye
on his office window so that it lined up with DENR’s old office building. About a year after the Sanford public
hearing, Representative Gillespie resigned his seat in order to become an
Assistant Secretary at DENR. Representative
Gillespie championed public involvement and sound science. Less than six months into the new job,
Assistant Secretary Gillespie had already changed his tune, supporting Halliburton's efforts to keep fracking chemicals secret because he did not want DENR to have the
information. Assistant Secretary
Gillespie’s methods of handling fracking issues have moved from open public
hearings to behind closed doors.
DENR had asked the US EPA to help pay for the baseline
testing and EPA agreed to pay for the costs.
Now DENR has turned that check down.
Assistant Secretary Gillespie appears to have forgotten what
Representative Gillespie promised to the folks in Sanford a couple of years ago:
a comprehensive study of all the issues.
Division of Water Resources Director Tom Reeder is claiming responsibility for this decision. Considering how tight DENR's budget has been the past two years, he could not have made a decision to turn down $600,000 without checking with his boss, Gillespie. Reeder is just following orders. Gillespie is the one who promised to study all the issues
DENR’s mission is to protect the environment. Forty years ago, voters in North Carolina
approved a Constitutional Amendment which sets forth his agency’s mission. That provision states in part: “It shall be
the policy of this State to protect its lands and waters for the benefit of all
its citizenry.” Assistant Secretary
Gillespie needs to take his orders straight from our Constitution. He should direct his staff to use all the resources
available to protect our lands and waters.
Drawing a new bullseye on DENR cannot achieve this mission.
