Each time I get in my car and drive to the grocery store, I pass the same signs- “NO FRACKING” and each time I drive West of where I live, I see signs along the interstate that embody the same messaging. I never really paid any attention to it, until a few years ago and I decided to look it up. It was obviously a sensitive and high profile subject if people would decorate their land with hand painted signs or purchase billboard space to push this message out to the public. So what is fracking? According to a website, Dangers of Fracking, it is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside. So, we need more energy sources and this is a way to find them. Fair enough. After additional research I found that until about 2014, fracking was banned in my state of North Carolina but Governor McCrory signed a law lifting that ban and making it legal for the Mining and Energy Commission to issue fracking permits in Spring of 2015. And, people are not happy. Apparently, there are some major impacts as a result of fracking and they are right in my back yard. Jordan Lake, in Durham, NC is in the middle of the fracking area and is a major water source for residents. According to the News and Observer, the fragile geology of the area makes it highly likely the drinking water would be contaminated for years to come, if fracking were to occur. And yet another alarming fact, the Shearon-Harris Nuclear Power Plant, which is the nation’s largest repository of highly radioactive nuclear waste is also in the fracking area and to add insult to injury- it’s on a fault line. Fracking can cause earthquakes. All this time, I drove by those loud and obnoxious signs, thinking to myself, ‘that doesn’t affect me, those people are just politics crazy!’ -and it does.
Marjorie Budd: Fracking dangers. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article24801799.html
North Carolina and Fracking. (2012). Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://earthjustice.org/features/north-carolina-and-fracking#
What Goes In & Out of Hydraulic Fracking. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2016, from http://www.dangersoffracking.com/