Statewide Impacts of Fracking in North Carolina · 2015-11-25 · Title: Microsoft Word - Statewide...
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Statewide Impacts of Fracking in North Carolina • Thousands of tanker trucks on roadways, dangerous traffic, noise, and road damage. In some states (PA, ND, AK) road damages are estimated to exceed revenues from fracking and are paid by the public • Land disturbance for additions of expensive new pipelines and noisy compressor stations to deliver gas to distant markets, with toxic air emissions at many places in the system. Gas distribution companies already have permission to operate in almost every county in NC, meaning that there will be minimal regulation. NC has no gathering pipeline infrastructure, which would need to be created for fracking to proceed. • Industrialization of landscape could impact tourism from the mountains to the coast. • No good disposal options for “flowback” wastewater in NC; can’t be discharged into streams, injected or treated by wastewater plants. Recycling is experimental, energy intensive, leaves toxic residuals. • North Carolina is planning to explore unassessed basins in parts of southeastern and southwestern NC which could broaden the impact of natural gas development • Setup of a new regulatory program will be paid by taxpayers; those tax dollars could otherwise be used for other programs and initiatives. This expensive new program is being created despite: o Current estimates of <5 year gas supply for the state, likely less o Triassic Basin geology: NC natural gas is shallow, in a region with many faults, therefor it would be difficult to access o Gas prices so low that industry is unlikely to begin drilling unless circumstances change For more information visit www.cwfnc.org Durham office: 9194019600 Hope Taylor: [email protected] Maribel Sierra: [email protected] Asheville office: 8282511291, or [email protected] A natural gas pipeline under construction in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania (Photo from Bloomberg News)
Transcript of Statewide Impacts of Fracking in North Carolina · 2015-11-25 · Title: Microsoft Word - Statewide...
Statewide Impacts of Fracking in North Carolina
• Thousands of tanker trucks on roadways, dangerous traffic, noise, and road damage. In some states (PA, ND, AK) road damages are estimated to exceed revenues from fracking and are paid by the public
• Land disturbance for additions of expensive new pipelines and noisy compressor stations to deliver gas to distant markets, with toxic air emissions at many places in the system. Gas distribution companies already have permission to operate in almost every county in NC, meaning that there will be minimal regulation. NC has no gathering pipeline infrastructure, which would need to be created for fracking to proceed.
• Industrialization of landscape could impact tourism from the mountains to the coast. • No good disposal options for “flowback” wastewater in NC; can’t be discharged into streams,
injected or treated by wastewater plants. Recycling is experimental, energy intensive, leaves toxic residuals.
• North Carolina is planning to explore unassessed basins in parts of southeastern and southwestern NC which could broaden the impact of natural gas development
• Setup of a new regulatory program will be paid by taxpayers; those tax dollars could otherwise be used for other programs and initiatives. This expensive new program is being created despite:
o Current estimates of <5 year gas supply for the state, likely less o Triassic Basin geology: NC natural gas is shallow, in a region with many faults, therefor it
would be difficult to access o Gas prices so low that industry is unlikely to begin drilling unless circumstances change
For more information visit www.cwfnc.org Durham office: 919-‐401-‐9600 Hope Taylor: [email protected] Maribel Sierra: [email protected] Asheville office: 828-‐251-‐1291, or [email protected]
A natural gas pipeline under construction in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania (Photo from Bloomberg News)
