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This is another in a series of articles by the Orange County Commission for the Environment (CFE). Each article highlights an environmental issue of interest to the residents of Orange County. The CFE is a volunteer advisory board to the Board of County Commissioners. Additional information can be found in the Orange County State of the Environment 2014 report at r /commission for the environment.php Potential Effects of Fracking on Orange County by the Orange County Commission for the Environment Introduction Certain geologic basins in the United States have deposits of organic -rich shale containing reserves of natural gas and oil. Extraction of hydrocarbons from these shale deposits has become fairly widespread using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." In North Carolina, organic -rich shale deposits occur in rocks of Triassic age; basins that contain Triassic rocks exposed at the surface are shown below. Only the Sanford sub -basin has been proven to contain organic shale. Only a very small portion of southeastern Orange County is underlain by the Triassic - aged Deep River Basin. This basin is composed of three sub - basins; from north to south they are the Durham, Sanford, and Wadesboro sub - basins. The central portion of the Sanford sub -basin contains an approximately 800 - foot -thick deposit of organic -rich shale. Limited activity to date identified potentially commercially viable natural gas resources in a 59,000 -acre (92- square -mile) portion of the Sanford sub -basin in Lee County and a portion of Chatham County.