Hello, my name is Lori Bush, and I am an At-Large Council member of the Cary Town Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback regarding the potential lift of our state’s ban on hydraulic fracturing.

I’ve come here today to provide 2 viewpoints.

My Own. And the Unanimous position of our 7 members of the Cary Town Council.

Cary is a thriving community of more than 140,000 people, close to the triangle, and home to businesses and families. We have a diverse population, a growing retirement age community, and a long list of parks and greenways. We, and our neighboring communities depend on Jordan Lake as our primary source of drinking water .

At the Town of Cary – we are, and have been, committed to the environment by protecting and preserving open space and our water conservation programs. We’ve hired a sustainability manager to help us lead by example – continually making investments to ensure the high quality of life of our citizens, while we pay close attention to ensuring our environmental stewardship and protecting our natural resources for our community.

2 weeks ago, our town council members UNANIMOUSLY agreed to a position of legislative advocacy, and resolution concerning Shale Gas development.

The Town of Cary requests that ANY FURTHER legislative and regulatory activity of the NC General Assembly related to shale gas development proceed in a deliberate and thoughtful manner and to PRESERVE local government’s abilities to determine appropriate land use planning related to potential locations of oil and gas activities. While development of this resource could be an economic benefit to NC, other states have found that shale gas production has many impacts that need to be carefully managed – such as the possible environmental impact of using high volumes of water during drilling, (especially during the drought conditions that we have weathered in the past) the potential contamination of ground water aquifers by chemicals, the clearing of access roads, and the storage of chemicals used in the process.

Personally, I would also like to comment on this issue. Soon after I became a council member, I started a blog. One of my first posts detailed a 1-day seminar on the issues surrounding “fracking” – with speakers from both sides of the issue presenting. I received a comment on the blog from a woman who LED a coalition of Homeowners in the Barnett Shale area that consisted of 5200 families, business & houses of worship – and resulted in a huge deal and 18-page lease. After 3 years of living with wells in their community, she has learned a great deal, and has many regrets. Their air quality suffered, and many homeowners were forced to leave their homes due to the smell of gas, their wells were tapped dry of water, and many landowners cannot sell their property, while others are finding toxins showing up in their blood and urine. And, most importantly, as I mentioned before, without local ordinances in place, for set-backs, noise, light and traffic restrictions, some wells were fracked at 2am, and kept local homeowners up at night.

Please, allow our local municipalities the ability to do what we do best: protect and serve our citizens in the best way we know how, through local government authority.
Thank you.