To the Editor:

Jane Hipps wants fracking banned in North Carolina. Her opponent, state Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, is a little muddy on the issue. 

Hipps, a Waynesville Democrat challenging Davis to represent Senate District 50 in the N.C. General Assembly, is committed to keeping our mountain water clean and safe from toxic chemicals that are involved in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a process used to extract natural gas from deep in the earth. Davis, however, has provided mixed messages on whether he would want fracking in Western North Carolina. While he co-sponsored the bill to lift a moratorium on fracking in North Carolina, he has stated that testing and building a pipeline through our mountains would be too costly. Is Davis softening his stance for election-year politics? 

Last month, the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources announced it would back off initial plans to test for fracking sites in Western North Carolina for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and would instead focus on sampling shale gas deposits in the Piedmont region of the state. However, that didn’t stop Davis from leading a public panel discussion Sept. 2 in Franklin to help promote the benefits of fracking and to downplay the dangerous side-effects of water contamination and earthquakes that have plagued other states with fracking industries. 

Touting jobs and energy independence for North Carolina, Davis said he was proud to have sponsored the bill to bring fracking to the state. However, key questions remain about public safety and adequate regulations for fracking. Numerous “fraccidents” have occurred in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Texas, Colorado and Wyoming where toxic chemicals have leaked into groundwater, soil and major rivers, killing wildlife and poisoning drinking water. Once the chemicals are used with massive amounts of water to get the natural gas, the toxins and the water are stored in wells. These wells have repeated leaked into groundwater and rivers in other states where fracking has occurred. 

As a state senator representing Western North Carolina, Davis has voted for funding cuts to environmental protections for wetlands and fewer water and air quality monitoring stations in the state. In February, a stormwater pipe burst at a Duke Energy Progress plant near Eden, dumping more than 50,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of wastewater into the Dan River. The disaster highlighted the need for more monitoring of waste sites, including wastewater wells used by fracking industries that could contaminate rivers for decades. 

Jane Hipps doesn’t want Western North Carolina to face a similar environmental catastrophe from fracking and lax oversight of the oil and gas industry. Let’s keep our water clean in this state. Let’s remember what a precious resource water is. We fish in these rivers. We swim in these rivers. We want to pass on this resource to our children and grandchildren. Let’s not throw it away because 

of short-sighted economic gains. Don’t let Sen. Davis sweet-talk you into believing that fracking in North Carolina is safe. It’s not. Elect Jane Hipps for N.C. State Senate District 50 and protect the natural resources of Western North Carolina. 

Michael Beadle

Canton