5.5 Energy Production and Mining
with oil and gas operations, including leaked fuids associated with the operation of heavy equipment. During large rain events, polluted runof from a well site can impact surface waters if stormwater management practices are insufcient. While horizontal drilling allows operators to reach underground resources with fewer sur- face wells, impacts to wildlife habitat are likely as operators choose locations for well pad sites. Well pads are likely to be located away from houses and public properties; therefore, alterations to agricultural felds and forested areas are most likely. In addition to land con- version at the well pad, new roads may need to be constructed to access the well pad and an infrastructure of pipelines may also be constructed to transport oil and gas products from the site. Tese new roads and utility corridors have the potential to fragment terres- trial habitat and impact streams and wetlands at crossings. Constituents of fracking fuids vary depending on subterranean conditions and the com- pany conducting the hydraulic fracturing, but sand is often a component of fracking fuids. Increased demand for sand for fracking could potentially lead to increased sand mining. Increased sand mining has the potential to impact wildlife habitat (see Section 5.5.5). Studies have shown that wildlife located in areas of unconventional oil and gas extraction tend to avoid these areas due to noise pollution from increased trafc on rural roads, drill- ing mud pits, building storage sites, processing plant operations, and compressing stations (Drohan et al. 2012) . Drilling mud pits have been reported to entrap migratory birds and other wildlife and wastewater impoundments have been known to entrap deer and foxes (Ramirez 2009) . Some species may be more sensitive to this noise pollution than others. Altered hab- itat selection due to wildlife avoiding these areas may have efects on reproduction and survival. Future research should consider the efects chemicals used in fracking can have on wildlife. Many animals that have come into contact with chemicals used in fracking show signs of “shale gas syndrome” which is noted to afect the neurological, dermatological, gastrointes- tinal, respiratory, and vascular systems. Because studies are fnding these results in live- stock, we can infer that these chemicals could have the same efect on NC wildlife. As with other routes of exposure to chemicals (i.e., industry, agriculture, forestry), this poses a risk to wildlife populations as well as to humans who consume fsh and wildlife because many chemicals bioaccumulate in tissue. Contaminants found in a Kentucky stream showed low pH and concentrated toxic chemicals of aluminum and iron that resulted in stressed aquatic life and gill lesions in fsh (Papoulias and Velasco 2013) . Fish also bioaccumulate these toxins, which can pose a risk to human consumption. In livestock, it has been documented that cattle exposed to sulfur dioxide during gestation from fracking air pollution had an increased risk of calf mortality and higher occurrence of respiratory lesions (Waldner 2008;
692
2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online