Delay on two bills leaves time for review

Editorial by Wilmington Star-News, July 29, 2013.

TAKE IT SLOW

North Carolinians can be grateful for the Honorables' inaction this year on two controversial measures. The state Senate adjourned Thursday without voting on a bill that would remove the moratorium on using injection wells to dispose of chemicals used in industrial operations, and it failed to take up a proposal to privatize much of the state's business recruitment activity.

Both proposals need far more study to determine whether they would help or harm the state.

Current state law prohibits gas and oil exploration companies from disposing of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing by injecting them into deep wells. The coastal plain would be most conducive to these wells, a fact that has alarmed environmentalists and residents living in the eastern part of the state.

The ban on disposing of chemical waste by this method came in response to a project in the 1960s known as Hercules. Operators didn't anticipate the chemical reaction that occurred as the waste was forced deep underground, and freshwater wells were contaminated. There is good reason to worry what would happen if the ban were lifted.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker's plan to streamline the industrial recruitment needs more study, and more time to persuade the public why it is necessary. Decker and Gov. Pat McCrory are among those who say North Carolina's process can take too long, is not flexible enough to woo businesses that have many other choices of location and is scattered among several agencies – including the rural economic development centers whose work has recently been called into question.

But others, including state Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, question whether such dramatic changes are necessary. Brown said Decker already has considerable authority to reorganize her department and make changes, including establishing a public-private partnership to target and woo new businesses to the state.