Rally for the Red Wolf August 24 Raleigh

When: Wednesday August 24 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m.

Where:  Pullen Park – 408 Ashe Ave, Raleigh, NC 27606-2149

organized by the Endangered Species Coalition

facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1772852632998073/

Join us on August 24th to raise awareness and support for the red wolf, learn more about Canis rufus and tell the Fish and Wildlife Service that red wolves belong here in North Carolina!

WHY: The red wolf is one of the most endangered species in the world, and it is found right here in our state. The truth about red wolves is that there are fewer than 40 wild red wolves, and all 40 are found right here in North Carolina. Why have you never heard about the red wolf you ask? Where’s the action and public support? That’s where you come in. Currently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is deciding the fate of the wild red wolf recovery program in North Carolina, and the agency is expected to announce its decision in September (next month!). Will the FWS abandon their three decades of hard work trying to save the red wolves? Or will they listen to the public and continue the program? Join the fight for North Carolina’s Red Wolf on August 24th!

WHERE: Shelter #5 at Pullen Park – 408 Ashe Ave. Raleigh, NC 27606. Shelter 5 is located on the north side of the park, between the tennis courts and the Pullen Aquatic Center – parking is available next to the Shelter

http://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/content/ParksRec/Articles/Parks/Pullen.html

WHEN: Wednesday, August 24th

RED WOLVES EDUCATIONAL EVENT

10:00 – 12:00 – A family friendly educational event. We will have experts and educational materials on hand at the same location (Pullen Shelter 5) starting at 10am. Stop by to have your questions answered, and stay for the rally at noon!

RALLY FOR RED WOLVES

12:00 -12:30 – Howling for red wolves – peaceful, positive rally in support of this endangered species 12:30 – 1:30 – March for wolves (march will wind through NCSU’s Campus and end back at Pullen Park)

Please take a few seconds to RSVP on facebook so we can estimate how many people will attend. Registering is optional if you prefer to remain anonymous. Also, if it is the last minute and you haven’t RSVP’d, please come anyway, we need you there on behalf of the wolves!…

Dominion’s Fracked gas Pipeline Threatens Virginia National Forests & Waterways

McAuliffe defends pipeline support at climate-change meeting

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, right, gestures as he addresses the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change as Virginia secretary of public safety Brian Moran listens at the Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday. (Steve Helber/AP)

Reposted from Washington Post

By Jenna Portnoy September 10, 2014

RICHMOND — During the first meeting of Virginia’s newly reconstituted climate change commission, Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) defended his support for a proposed natural gas pipeline, despite concerns from the environmental community.The group met Wednesday, about a week after McAuliffe, amid great fanfare, announced that a consortium of companies led by energy giant Dominion Resources wants to build a 550-mile pipeline through Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.

Environmentalists worry that the pipeline could damage federally protected public lands in the George Washington and Monongahela national forests and indirectly encourage fracking from companies enticed by a cheap, quick way to get their product to market. The National Forest Service is considering whether to make lands in the Virginia lands available for fracking — a practice McAuliffe insisted he would fight.

“They support me on what my decision is. I have told them they will not allow fracking in the national forest,” McAuliffe told reporters outside the meeting. “I do not support fracking as governor of the commonwealth and we’re in mutual agreement on that.”

Calls to the National Forest Service were not returned Wednesday.

The pipeline debate highlighted the competing interests McAuliffe must satisfy.

This summer, McAuliffe reconvened by executive order the Climate Change and Resiliency Update Commission. The panel was initially established by former governor Timothy M. Kaine (D), but it went dark under his successor, former governor Robert F. McDonnell (R).

McAuliffe appointed dozens of businesspeople, environmental activists and lawmakers to the commission and charged them with producing a report within one year on ways to combat climate change, which has had particularly devastating effects on the state’s coastal areas. However, when the time came for questions, the first one was about the pipeline.

Henry “Hap” Connors, who sits on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, asked: “Can you give us a little more information about the natural gas pipeline?”

McAuliffe repeated his pitch for the $5 billion project.

“It will be a game changer for the commonwealth on job creation. It will also be very good for our environment,” he said. “This has nothing to do with fracking. That gas is out West. That gas will be taken to Texas or Louisiana or somewhere else. We’re not doing the fracking; I want to be very clear about that … We will take spurs off of this natural gas pipeline to build a huge new manufacturing base.”

In addition, McAuliffe said last week that the pipeline would prevent spikes in energy bills during severe weather and give Virginians “direct access to the most affordable natural gas supply in the United States.” He added that the pipeline would allow Dominion to close old coal-fired power plants, which McAuliffe said emit more emissions than fracking.

Mike Tidwell, founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, disagreed: “There is no question whatsoever that this gas is coming from fracking and fracking drilling vents an enormous amount of methane into the atmosphere — and that’s over 20 years, over 80 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide,” he said.

Although Tidwell called on McAuliffe to withdraw his support for the pipeline, he praised the governor for re-launching the climate change commission.

Another commission member, Cale Jaffe, director of the Virginia office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said many recommendations of the previous climate change commission would be satisfied by carbon emission regulations released this summer by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.

The McAuliffe administration is working on a formal response to the proposed regulations that calls for changes that would take into account Virginia’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, such as reliance on nuclear energy.

“What the EPA is trying to do and the goals are laudable, however one size doesn’t fit all,” McAuliffe said. “If some of the [proposed regulations] were left in there, [this] could absolutely cripple our economy.”

Dominion’s Pipeline Plan

Endangered Red Wolf Threatened by North Carolina Hunting Laws

by Tamara / Piedmont Earth First!

In North Carolina, the hunting of one predator species may wipe out the last population of Red Wolves (Canis rufus) in the world. While this species of Red Wolf may not be genetically “pure” to some critics, they carry many genes of the original Red Wolf inhabitants who were virtually wiped out through targeted hunting by European colonizers. In an effort to complete the extinction of the Red Wolf, hunters are fighting to take back their manifest destiny right to kill coyotes, a species that has naturally expanded its range from the Western to Eastern United States. The coyote is nearly indistinguishable from the small, reintroduced Endangered Eastern Red Wolf, many of whom are being mistakenly shot and killed even while wearing their radio collars.

Unfortunately, coyotes are threatened not only by hunters who fear predators, but also by the actions of conservationists who view them as dirtying the genetic purity of wolf species. Some nature enthusiasts even use invasion biology terminology such as “foreigner” to appeal to readers’ xenophobia. Coyotes that have established in the Eastern states have been found to sometimes breed with wolves, creating a naturally occurring hybrid species that some call “Coywolves.” These animals are filling a niche, left open by the destruction of wolf populations, now preying on larger species such as deer; they could possibly restore some of the ecosystem balance that was harmed by the removal of top predator species. What is missed by some wolf conservationists is that coyotes are migrating on their own as they search for food and habitat, and the interbreeding of these animals could increase genetic variability and make them more resilient to degraded environments.  One study from the UK states, “We conclude that hybridization can increase evolutionary responsiveness … and that taxa able to exchange genes with distant relatives may better survive rapid environmental change.” (Rike, et al) Climate change and habitat loss, anyone?

We need to oppose both the cultural fear of predators promoted by livestock and hunting interests and the flawed logic of genetic purity, pushed by some conservationists, if we want healthy ecosystems that include top predators such as coyotes and wolves. In the Southeast, the Wildlife Resources Commission has pursued expanding coyote hunting even in areas where it puts Endangered Red Wolves at risk. It’s important for those who care about the red wolf to speak up against daytime hunting in Dare, Tyrell, Hyde, Beaufort, and Washington counties.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold two public hearings in February to receive comments on permanent rules regarding conditional coyote hunting in the five-county red wolf reintroduction area in northeastern North Carolina and the designation of the red wolf as a state-listed threatened species.

The public hearings will begin at 7 p.m. on these dates and locations:

• Feb. 3 at the Columbia High School auditorium, 902 East Main Street, Columbia.
• Feb. 17 at Wildlife Commission headquarters auditorium, 1751 Varsity Drive, Raleigh.

Comments also can be made online or by letter to N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, 1701 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1701. Comments will be accepted through March 16, 2015.

Categories

DOT: More than 1,600 trucks could be required for one NC fracking site

Posted by John Murawski on January 8, 2015  to News & Observer

A waste water tank truck passes on the main street of Waynesburg, PA on April 13, 2012. It is estimated that more than 500 trillion cubic feet of shale gas is contained in the Marcellus shale, a stretch of rock that runs through parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Shale gas is natural gas stored deep underground in fine-grained sedimentary rocks. It can be extracted using a process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” which involves drilling long horizontal wells in shale rocks more than a kilometre below the surface. Massive quantities of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the wells at high pressure. This opens up fissures in the shale, which are held open by the sand, enabling the trapped gas to escape to the surface for collection.

MLADEN ANTONOV — AFP/Getty Images

More than 1,600 trucks could haul sand, water and equipment for a single fracking operation in North Carolina, chewing up country roads and causing millions of dollars in damage to roads and bridges, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The department is projecting nearly $11 million in maintenance and repairs in one example cited to the state legislature in an agency study of traffic impacts resulting from shale gas drilling.

The DOT study, dated Dec. 31, requests changes in state law to make it easier to require private industry to repair public roads damaged during fracking operations.

“The volume of traffic can and does cause significant damage to secondary roads over a relatively short period of time,” the report says. “The majority of this traffic occurs over a period of six weeks.”

Fracking remains under moratorium in North Carolina, but the first drilling permits could be issued as early as April.

Each drill site will require 1,290 to 1,650 trucks, DOT estimates, based on the experience with fracking in Bradford County, Pa.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation enacted a program posting roads with lower-than-usual weight and size limits so as to force the energy industry to agree to pay bonds and maintain local roads. The strict terms applied only to fracking operations and exempted other trucking companies.

North Carolina DOT engineers said in the report that Plank Road, which crosses the Deep River in Lee County, and Bridge #169 over the river would require $1.3 million just for upgrades to handle heavy hauling operations.

The total bond amount would be $10.8 million, but DOT said it would accept $6.6 million. The energy company could pay a surety bond to a bonding company to cover the expense at a fraction of the full bond amount.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/01/08/4460803/dot-more-than-1600-trucks-could.html#storylink=cpy

Oil & Gas Interests May Not Be Interested in North Carolina

Fracking in North Carolina: Environmental factors a moot point if no one will come frack

Lauren K. Ohnesorge

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

In 2015, unless the Legislature takes action otherwise, Lee County could serve as ground zero for a mining revival – this time through fracking.

Even as environmental groups rally for online support, those in the energy industry are preparing in-depth gas surveys to take stock of what North Carolina can offer in natural gas. Drilling could happen as early as April, experts say.

Poll: Should North Carolina allow fracking in 2015?

But that’s if all goes according to a plan two years in the making.

Even if environmentalist pleas against the practice go unheard, fracking can’t provide an economic infusion without the oil and gas industry – and, at least today, the oil and gas industry doesn’t seem interested in prioritizing North Carolina.

Lee County is no stranger to mining.

Oil and gas deposits there have been talked about for decades. And, at the turn of the century, the Sanford area was coal country.

After a methane gas leak and two fatal explosions, however, and the coal chapter ended in Lee County.

Two years ago, a new energy conversation crept into the Sanford vernacular.

Jim Womack, then a two-year veteran county commissioner, was called to Raleigh to be a part of the state’s Mining and Energy Commission, which he chaired for two years.

At the time, fracking seemed like an opportunity, he says.

About 9.8 percent of families in Lee County were living below the poverty line.

Fracking – at least to Womack – seemed like an opportunity for the whole community to profit. In addition to the service industries, including hotels and restaurants, supporting those working the fracking sector, the landowners themselves could profit, he pointed out.

But that was then.

Flash forward to 2014 and, while a moratorium expired on actual fracking, the state still isn’t issuing permits for the procedure. North Carolina was waiting for the commission to develop rules – rules it finalized earlier this year, giving way for a big change in 2015. Two months after the Legislature in Raleigh reconvenes in January, without evasive action, permits will finally be issued.

But, according to Womack, it won’t be the economic infusion he’d hoped for years ago. At least not initially.

“It takes time for that to happen,” he says. “It takes investment on behalf of the oil and gas companies. We’re a virgin area at this point.”

And the economic landscape isn’t working in fracking’s favor.

He points to gas prices as a factor.

“I would say there’s a bit of trepidation right now with the way the international economic landscape is with oil and gas,” he says, pointing to OPEC “flooding the world markets” with crude oil. “Immature plains, like what we have in North Carolina, are really not being seriously looked at.”

But there is interest in “qualifying” resources here, he says. That means more advanced surveying. He predicts that, when permits can be issued, “we’ll see a little more deliberate survey and analysis of what we have.”

To actually develop the area, oil and gas companies would need to get the holders of the mineral rights on board, bring in a drilling unit and then get a permit to penetrate.

Womack hoped that gas prices would be such “that a company would be willing to take on a financial risk and begin drilling early.”

But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“It could change, but at this juncture, we’re expecting more exploration work early on,” he says.

As Womack and team are pushing oil and gas companies to pay attention to North Carolina, they have some very loud critics calling for North Carolina to be left alone.

One of the loudest is the Sierra Club.

Spokesperson Molly Diggins points out what she feels is the biggest environmental side effect of fracking: waste water.

“There’s a significant amount of waste water that has all kinds of contaminates in it,” she says.

A method that’s been used in other states, groundwater injection, where waste water is injected back into the ground as a disposal method, is illegal in North Carolina.

“Efforts to allow it have failed in the legislature,” she says.

Womack says that, when wastewater is no longer suitable to be reused in the process, it could be transported to another state for injection or hauled to a licensed wastewater treatment facility in North Carolina.

“We already know there are several North Carolina companies interested in securing contracts to manage that kind of water recycling,” he says.

Womack is of the belief that fracking is environmentally sound, and a greener option than burning coal.

It’s an argument scoffed at by Diggins.

“There’s definitely greenhouse gas emissions associated with fracking,” she say

Tribe says no to fracking

By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.

ONE FEATHER STAFF

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has joined other governments in the mountains of western North Carolina in opposing the practice known as fracking.   But, being a sovereign nation, the Tribe, unlike area counties and municipalities, can actually prohibit the practice on tribal lands.

Tribal Council unanimously passed Res. No. 340 (2014) last month that states in part “the Eastern Band of Cherokees will not permit or authorize any person, corporation or other legal entity to engage in hydraulic fracturing on Tribal trust lands.”

The resolution, submitted by Tribal Council as a whole, was signed into law by Principal Chief Michell Hicks on Sept. 10.

“Our tribe has taken a strong stand with the resolution against hydraulic fracturing commonly known as fracking,” said Chief Hicks.  “I signed the resolution because I believe our environmental protection is paramount to the survival of our people.”

Tribal Council Chairperson Terri Henry commented, “Of importance to the Tribe is the impact on the health of our people who utilize many of the products of the forests and habitat surrounding our Trust Lands.”

The resolution also states, “Hydraulic fracturing is a method of extracting natural gas that involves the injecting, at an extremely high pressure, a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to break up shale or other rock formations otherwise impermeable to the flow of natural gas; and the State of North Carolina is without legal authority to permit hydraulic fracturing on Tribal trust lands.”

An amendment was made to the original resolution which states, “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians supports the ban of fracking in the State of North Carolina, specifically in National Forests.”

The EBCI joins other tribes who have passed resolutions in opposition to fracking such as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation (SB 786) in May that will allow the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission (MEC) to issue permits for fracking in spring 2015.  That legislation was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory in June.

Red Wolves Under Threat In North Carolina

Contact Fish & Wildlife Services in support of red wolf recovery:

Consider contacting Fish and Wildlife Services in support of wolf reintroduction in North Carolina.  They have extended the public comment period which may directly affect whether they decide to end the program and send the remainder of wolves left into captivity.

Contact:
Tom MacKenzie, USFWS
404-679-7291
tom_mackenzie@fws.gov and redwolfreview@fws.gov

Red Wolves: A Future In Doubt

Hank, one of two captive red wolves, managed by the Red Wolf Coalition.

Credit Dave DeWitt

Hank and Betty seem like they’re in a pretty good mood today. It’s stopped raining, and the sun is poised to peak out between the loblolly pines that surround their den. And their caretaker, Kim Wheeler, has brought them a snack.

As the director of the Red Wolf Coalition, Wheeler cares for these two captive red wolves at their enclosure just south of Columbia. She often brings groups of tourists here to see the mating pair and learn more about how the species behaves.

“She’s certainly more active than he is, but just to watch and sit here quietly – the way they move here through their enclosure is so quiet – you can just imagine them in the wild, and how they move around undetected,” said Wheeler.

In 1987, the red wolf made history in eastern North Carolina, when four mating pairs were released into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was the first species determined to be extinct in the wild to be reintroduced outside of captivity.

One hundred or so wild red wolves now roam across five counties in eastern North Carolina, including three wildlife refuges, a naval bombing range, and private farms. It’s an area larger than the state of Delaware.

A map of the range of the red wolf in North Carolina.

Credit Southern Environmental Law Center

The red wolves are top-level predators here on the isolated coastal plains, eating mostly rodents, white-tailed deer, raccoons, and wild turkey. And they are definitely stealthy – Kim Wheeler has been here nine years and only seen them twice in the wild, but she hears them quite a bit.

“I love their howl,” she said. “And to know that that sound would have gone extinct had the U.S Fish And Wildlife Service not stepped in to do something to restore this animal. It’s kind of an amazing thing to stand there and hear that and know that could have been erased from this planet.”

Keeping the red wolf howling in the wild has not been cheap. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has spent nearly $30 million since the start of the recovery program. For all of those 27 years it’s been a constant struggle to manage breeding and keep red wolves off of private lands.

Landowners have been skeptical of the recovery program almost from its inception. But lately, as both the wolf population and general anger with the federal government has grown, the situation has come to a head.

Landowners Speak Out

About 100 or so people crammed into the cafeteria at Mattamuskeet High School on a stretch of isolated highway in Hyde County – sitting around tables normally reserved for hungry teenagers.

They are here for a public comment session as part of the federal review that will determine the future of the Red Wolf Recovery Program.

“I want the red wolf program done away with” said Wade Hubers, a local farmer. “I’m no biologist, but I know if you put ed wolves on the Refuge and there is no food supply, they are not going to stay there.”

Since the first wolves were introduced, roaming off of the refuge has been a problem. But another challenge is more recent: coyotes. As they have across the country, the coyote population in eastern North Carolina has exploded. Here, they have both fought with and bred with the red wolves.

A red wolf (left) and a coyote (right).

Credit B. Bartle/USFWS

There’s no hunting season on coyotes in North Carolina – they can be shot anytime, anywhere. And coyotes look similar to the protected red wolves, just a little smaller with different shaped ears and snouts. So accidental shootings are common. Sometimes they are reported to the Fish and Wildlife Service. More often, they aren’t. Since the beginning of 2013, eleven red wolves have been killed.

Earlier this year, the Southern Environmental Law Center sued to make coyote hunting illegal in Hyde, Beaufort, Washington, Dare, and Tyrell – the five counties in which red wolves roam. Last May, Judge Terence Boyle issued an injunction on coyote hunting while the case is pending.

That further infuriated landowners. Many make the claim that there is no such thing as a pure red wolf.

”You know the red wolf can not be full-blooded,” said Lynn Clayton from Hyde County, stepping to the microphone with a grin. “He must have at least a little bit of Mexican blood in him – he won’t stay on his side of the border.”

Many in the crowd applauded the insensitive comment, but not all of those who spoke were as outwardly prejudiced.

Roger Seale lives in Rocky Mount, but owns land in several areas, including one tract in Hyde County on which he hoped to cultivate wild turkey. By his estimate, he spent $8,000 a year over several years on food and clearing large trees and vegetation to try to build a wild turkey population he could hunt.

“But when I started checking my trail cameras,” he explained, “I’d see turkey, I’d see turkey, and then I’d see wolf.”

Within about a year after he spotted the first red wolf on his trail camera, the turkeys were gone. He blames the red wolves. Seale says hunting in the area is depleted, forcing recreational hunters to go elsewhere and having a negative impact on an area with very little economic activity.

“I don’t want any animal to go extinct, but I also don’t want the protection of an animal to affect the personal landowner,” Seale said.

The private firm leading the review of the Red Wolf Recovery Program will issue a report next month. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make a final decision on the future of the wild red wolf sometime early next year.

Oct 11 Global Frackdown event in Durham

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Join us for the Global Frackdown Getdown! Be part of of an international day of action. The Global Frackdown Getdown will be on October 11, 2014 from 2:00 – 6:00 pm at Durham Central Park, Durham, North Carolina. Local Bands, Local Brews and Local Food. BE THERE!

On October 11, communities across the world are coming together for a global protest to call for a ban on fracking, a dangerous method of drilling for natural gas that puts our air, water, climate and communities at risk.

Report: Fracking contaminated drinking water wells in PA

By KEVIN BEGOS, Associated Press; MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Published: August 28, 2014, 9:39 pm Updated: August 29, 2014, 9:15 am

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Six years into a natural gas boom, Pennsylvania has for the first time released details of 243 cases in which companies prospecting for oil or gas were found by state regulators to have contaminated private drinking water wells.

The Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday posted online links to the documents after the agency conducted a “thorough review” of paper files stored among its regional offices. The Associated Press and other news outlets have filed lawsuits and numerous open-records requests over the last several years seeking records of the DEP’s investigations into gas-drilling complaints.

Pennsylvania’s auditor general said in a report last month that DEP’s system for handling complaints “was woefully inadequate” and that investigators could not even determine whether all complaints were actually entered into a reporting system.

DEP didn’t immediately issue a statement with the online release, but posted the links on the same day that seven environmental groups sent a letter urging the agency to heed the auditor general’s 29 recommendations for improvement.

“I guess this is a step in the right direction,” Thomas Au of the Pennsylvania Sierra Club chapter said of the public release of documents on drinking well problems. “But this is something that should have been made public a long time ago.”

The 243 cases, from 2008 to 2014, include some where a single drilling operation impacted multiple water wells. The problems listed in the documents include methane gas contamination, spills of wastewater and other pollutants, and wells that went dry or were otherwise undrinkable. Some of the problems were temporary, but the names of landowners were redacted, so it wasn’t clear if the problems were resolved to their satisfaction. Other complaints are still being investigated.

The gas-rich Marcellus Shale lies under large parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Ohio. A drilling boom that took off in 2008 has made the Marcellus the most productive natural gas field in the nation, and more than 6,000 shale gas wells have been drilled. That has led to billions of dollars in revenue for companies and landowners, but also to complaints from homeowners about ruined water supplies.

Extracting fuel from shale formations requires pumping millions of gallons of water, along with sand and chemicals, into the ground to break apart rock and free the gas. Some of that water, along with other heavy metals and contaminants, returns to the surface.

The documents released Thursday listed drilling-related water well problems in 22 counties, with most of the cases in Susquehanna, Tioga, Lycoming, and Bradford counties in the northeast portion of the state.

Some energy companies have dismissed or downplayed the issue of water well contamination, suggesting that it rarely or never happens.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the main industry group, suggested that geology and Pennsylvania’s lack of standards for water well construction were partly to blame.

Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer said in statement Thursday that Pennsylvania “has longstanding water well-related challenges, a function of our region’s unique geology — where stray methane gas is frequently present in and around shallow aquifers.” He said many of the problems were related to surface spills, not drilling.

“Our industry works closely and tirelessly with regulators and others to ensure that we protect our environment, striving for zero incidents,” Spigelmyer said.

Jim Womack has had enough of your fracking protesting

Reposted from TheRant

Apparently taking a page from the North Carolina General Assembly’s playbook when it comes to limiting free speech, Jim Womack is seeking a protest perimeter at an upcoming public hearing on fracking.

Womack, a Lee County commissioner and chairman of the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission, has asked CCCC officials via email to “designate all areas within 300 feet of the main hall as noise-free areas” during the public hearing, which is set for Aug. 22 at CCCC’s civic center.