Chatham Board of Commissioners Extend Oil and Gas Moratorium

The Chatham County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on July 17 and voted unanimously to extend the moratorium on oil and gas development in the county for one more year.

This moratorium focuses on hydraulic fracking, a shale gas drilling and extraction method.

In 2012, then Governor Pat McCrory lifted a moratorium on fracking in NC, causing Chatham County to take local action.

Chatham County’s fracking moratorium was set in place in August 2015 because of many health, safety and environmental concerns, and so that the county could have an opportunity to further researches its effects.

The new ordinance states that after conducting a research study on fracking, the county still has many questions and concerns including what the socio-economic impacts could be, how to dispose of fracking wastewater and the impact the methane produced will have on air quality.

Glenn Dunn, an environmental lawyer from Raleigh, was there to provide legal advice throughout the meeting.

“You need to justify extending the moratorium through new facts and conditions and I think that the consensus is, and it’s up to you ultimately, that the study indicates several new facts and conditions that you would like to have looked into as well as the uncertainty of the status of the state rules,” said Dunn.

All 10 residents who spoke at the public hearing voiced similar concerns, and all were in favor of extending the moratorium.

Cary resident Charlie Ritter spoke of other types of impacts fracking has had in other places.

“There have many documented cases of carcinogens in the drinking water in the U.S. Oklahoma has had earthquakes that rose from 1 to 2 per year to over 1100 per year in areas of fracking. The infrastructure has been devastated by heavy equipment. Other parts of the world have regretted allowing fracking. At least 5 countries have banned fracking totally, and 8 partially. In the U.S. there are over 400 local bans. Many of these bans were imposed after they suffered devastation. If this happens it’s too late,” said Ritter.

The board discussed the possibility of making the moratorium longer, but decided that in a year the moratorium can again be extended if needed.