Clean Water for North Carolina filed a constitutional challenge to the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission’s authority to strike down local ordinances on fracking. Photo by Bob Warhover

Clean Water for North Carolina and three residents of counties where fracking could occur are challenging the authority of the state to preempt local ordinances offering communities greater protections from the practice.

The group’s complaint, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court last Friday, alleges that the law legalizing fracking in the state unconstitutionally grants the Mining and Energy Commission judicial powers, including the authority to determine whether local ordinances restrict fracking and can be overturned.

The complaint cites a section of the North Carolina constitution declaring “the legislative, executive, and supreme judicial powers of the State government shall be forever separate and distinct from one another.”

“The courts, and not the Mining and Energy Commission, which is stacked with pro-industry legislative appointees, should rule on ordinances enacted by local governments,” Clean Water for North Carolina Executive Director Hope Taylor said in a press statement.

“Last year, tens of thousands of people, including many [Clean Water for North Carolina] members, commented at hearings or in writing to say the Oil and Gas rules do not come close to protecting their communities,” Taylor said. “And yet we’ve been told to accept drilling and fracking 650 feet from our homes, drinking water wells and schools, and 200 feet from our streams. If local governments decide democratically to enact protections that their citizens need, the MEC shouldn’t be able to toss them out.”

North Carolina prohibits local ordinances that could restrict drilling, because, according to the language in the law, it is “the intent of the General Assembly to maintain a uniform system” for fracking statewide. But dozens of North Carolina counties and towns have already passed resolutions calling on the General Assembly to hand over control, while others urge lawmakers to reinstate the ban on fracking altogether.

The challenge follows lawsuits disputing the constitutionality of several state commissions — including the Mining and Energy Commission and the Coal Ash Management Commission — with a majority of members appointed by the legislature.