ATLANTA – Recent interest in northwest Georgia’s untapped natural gas reserves has environmentalists and local officials clamoring for tighter restrictions on a sometimes controversial drilling method.

Hydraulic fracturing – which pumps a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground to bust up rock and free the gas – is not now happening in Georgia.

Officials in 10 communities and the Georgia Water Coalition are urging action before higher gas prices make the region more appealing to drillers who use the technique known as fracking.

Advocates including Joe Cook with the Coosa River Basin Initiative say they have reason to worry that day may come.

Prospectors are showing an interest in the Conasauga shale formation that is believed to contain as much as 625 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, he said.

“They’ve been buying up mineral leases and even drilling wells in hopes that the local geology, gas prices and modern-day drilling techniques will create a natural gas boon in northwest Georgia,” Cook said Wednesday.

That’s why the coalition named the lack of protections in place for northwest Georgia’s drinking water to its new “Dirty Dozen,” released this week.

The state’s four-decade old law does not account for fracking and thus leave the area’s water supply vulnerable, the group argues.

Cook said changes are needed to require companies to identify and monitor groundwater near wells, properly dispose of the chemicals used during the process and notify the public when a well is drilled.

Wariness toward fracking is not universal, though. Commissioners in Whitfield County, where the only two active oil and gas well permits have been issued in the state, have no immediate plans to weigh in.

“There’s a threat with a lot of things, but the biggest threat we have to face is not being able to supply our own energy needs as a nation,” said Mike Babb, chairman of the commission.

Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, said he supports fracking, but the legislation “sets some rules and regulation in place because hey, y’all, we don’t have any.”

Meadows, who is head of the powerful House Rules Committee, which sets the legislative agenda, said Wednesday that he has asked legislative counsel to work on a bill. The new session begins in January.

“When it comes to something like this, particularly when it’s going to be in our backyard in northwest Georgia, we want to put out those precautions to make sure my neighbors aren’t hurt and the people who are doing it aren’t hurt,” he said.

The bill, he said, would address many of coalition’s concerns. It would also raise the current $25 permit fee – Alabama and Tennessee charge $500 – and levy a severance tax.

“I’ve got to pay somebody to be in charge of these things,” Meadows said. “I don’t want Mr. and Mrs. Georgia to pay for it.”

Right now, the state has one person, geologist Jim Kennedy, who monitors oil and natural gas wells.

There are two active permits in Whitfield County, Kennedy said. Those permits do not include fracking.

“I’ve not seen anybody in Georgia apply for that – so far,” he said. “That doesn’t meant it won’t happen in the future, but so far, it hasn’t happened.”

Kennedy said it’s possible that north Georgia has a large amount of natural gas underground, but low gas prices have caused energy companies to focus their attention on “proven fields” such as the Marcellus shale in the northeast and midwest.

“The price of gas is so low, it might cost more to produce the gas than you get from selling the gas on the market,” he said.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.