North Carolina is quite a distance from West Virginia’s coal country and the chemical spill that prevented 300,000 residents from using tap water to drink, bathe, do laundry or cook. But the West Virginia crisis raises a relevant question as N.C. lawmakers and regulatory agencies hash out rules that would regulate any future fracking in our state.
Should residents know what chemicals are used in the fracking process?
It was small comfort to those waterless West Virginia residents to know they had been exposed to a chemical known as 4-methylcyclohexane methanol. But if the energy industry has its way, North Carolina residents might be denied even that basic information. One of the issues currently under debate by the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission is how much secrecy to grant energy companies who want to shield some fracking solution ingredients from the public, arguing that the chemical cocktails injected deep underground constitute a trade secret.
Thus far, state lawmakers have been sympathetic to that view, making it clear they will oppose safety rules that might impede natural gas exploration. The N.C. Mining and Energy Commission has the unenviable task of devising rules that thread the line between facilitating the energy industry and protecting corporate data while also safeguarding the environment and residents’ health. At a meeting late last year, the commission appeared to be leaning toward an electronic “lock box” compromise. Under this system, the chemical formulas companies want to protect apparently wouldn’t be on record with relevant state or local agencies, immediately available in the event of an above-ground spill or underground release. Instead, they would be accessed only through an electronic storage box, which presumably would be limited to a few government and company officials authorized to download the data.
In theory, it sounds feasible — so long as the computer system isn’t down. But you have to wonder how it would work in a real emergency, when emergency personnel are rushing off to try to assess and contain contamination of unknown ingredients. How easily could they get vital information? How would they prepare in advance? Also, imagine the reaction when residents are told: “Your water is contaminated, but we can’t tell you with exactly what.”
This is a recipe for panic and confusion. The companies lobbying to lock up this information are saying, in effect, “We can’t trust regulatory agencies to store this information, but you will have to trust us.”
If spills such as the West Virginia debacle teach us anything, it’s that protecting public health must be the regulatory priority. In an emergency, response times are crucial in assessing risks and mitigating damage. The “digital lockbox” scheme sounds like an overly complicated mechanism designed to satisfy corporate interests while keeping North Carolina residents in the dark.