Amherst Officials Hope To Cease Efforts To Begin Fracking In National Forest

The Amherst County utilities director alerted officials last week to the potential for use of fracking in the George Washington National Forest. The forest service had originally proposed a ban on the controversial natural gas extraction method for the future, but the matter is so controversial that adoption of the plan has been put off. According to the News & Advance, the director is recommending that the service authority, join other area communities to ask for a moratorium on horizontal fracking in the national forest. Lynchburg and Roanoke have written to the forest service to argue against it. Experts say the method has already led to groundwater contamination in other areas.