Wastewater from gas drilling being used for area road maintenance | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com
July 22, 2011
Wastewater from gas drilling being used for area road maintenance | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com.
Groups Flag Top 10 Flaws in NY’s Revised Fracking Review
July 20, 2011
Groups Flag Top 10 Flaws in NY’s Revised Fracking Review.
Top 10 Fracking Flaws
- New York State isn’t proposing to ban any chemicals, even those known to be toxic and carcinogenic. While the proposed public disclosure component has been strengthened, telling New Yorkers what toxic chemicals will be used is not the same as protecting the public from negative health impacts.
- The preliminary draft allows drilling waste to escape treatment as hazardous waste, even if it is in fact hazardous under the law. This means fracking waste could be sent to treatment facilities unable to properly treat it, putting the health and safety of our waters and communities at grave risk.
- The state proposes allowing sewage plants to treat drilling wastes, even though such plants are not permitted to handle the toxic elements in such wastes, and even though the DEC itself has called into question New York’s capacity and ability to treat fracking wastes.
- Drinking water supplies would be inadequately protected. The preliminary draft increases buffers and setbacks from aquifers and wells. However the protections are inconsistent and can be waived in some instances. All setbacks and buffers must be set to provide maximum protections that cannot be altered.
- Some fracking restrictions would have sunset dates. The preliminary draft proposes to place some areas of the state off limits to gas drilling, but upon closer examination, many of the restrictions have sunset dates and some of the protective buffers only call for site-specific individual environmental review, rather than clear restrictions.
- The preliminary draft does not analyze public health impacts, despite the fact that fracking-related air pollution and the potential for water contamination have serious effects on people-especially the elderly and children, and communities downwind and downstream of proposed fracking operations. There is growing evidence of negative health impacts related to gas extraction in other states.
- The DEC proposes issuing permits before formal rulemaking is complete, a backward move that leaves New York’s waters and communities at risk.
- The state is breaking up environmental impact reviews. The thousands of miles of pipelines or compressor stations required for drilling to get the resulting gas to market will be reviewed by a different agency under a different process. Without an accounting of such impacts, New York’s environmental assessment is incomplete and the full impacts of fracking are unknown. The Public Service Commission has jurisdiction over gas infrastructure. As such, Governor Cuomo should direct state agencies to coordinate their efforts in order to protect our air, water and communities.
- While proposing to put the New York City and Syracuse watersheds off-limits to drilling, critical water supply infrastructure would not be protected. The state proposes a buffer around New York City drinking water infrastructure in which only an additional review would be required and upon which projects could be permitted-not a formal ban. The proposed buffer is only one-quarter as long as a typical horizontal wellbore, too close to the sensitive, aging infrastructure that provides the city with drinking water. There are no proposed buffer requirements for Syracuse.
- New York’s environmental agency has been subject to steep budget and staff cuts and does not have adequate staff or resources to properly oversee fracking, even if every possible protection were in place. This reality raises the possibility that the DEC will be forced to cut corners with its reviews or fast-track permits despite the risks. Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Advocates of New York are members of an advisory panel expected to weigh in on agency resources and staffing in the months to come.
The DEC’s preliminary revised draft fracking assessment was released earlier this month. The complete revised draft is expected to be released for public comment and review in August. The groups are strongly requesting the DEC to expand public comment period from 60 days, one month less than the public comment period for the first draft of the SGEIS, to at least 180 days.
Drilling & the DEC: Responding to New Guidelines Ithaca July 25th
July 14, 2011
Drilling & the DEC: Responding to New Guidelines
Experts will speak out on DEC’s revised draft SGEIS at free, public forum in Ithaca.
Monday, July 25, doors open at 6:30; presentations start at 7:00
Women’s Community Building, 100 W. Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY
Speakers:
Louis Allstadt, Former Executive Vice President, Mobil Oil Corporation
Tony Ingraffea, Ph.D., Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering at Cornell University
Helen Slottje, Managing Attorney, Community Environmental Defense Council
Roger Downs, Conservation Director, Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club
Karen Edelstein, GIS and Mapping Consultant
Martha Robertson, Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature, will introduce and moderate the event.
One of the key questions to be considered by the presenters will be how the newly revised SGEIS differs from the one released and widely decried nearly two years ago. During that time, much more has been learned about hydrofracking as it is conducted in other states, especially in neighboring Pennsylvania. Significant new restrictions and protections have been written in the new revised draft, using problems in Pennsylvania as lessons. Those who attend the event will learn what’s better about this draft, what concerns remain, and what are some recommendations for the DEC.
Attendees will be encouraged to submit comments on the newly revised SGEIS to the DEC. Template comment letters, addresses, and online links will be provided to participants and made available widely afterwards.
A second public forum will be held in Ithaca in early fall to address the community, social and economic impacts section of the SGEIS. This final section of the SGEIS will be released to the public in August. All public comments on the SGEIS, parts 1 and 2, will be due to DEC on or about October 1.
This event will be videotaped and available through the internet at www.shaleshockmedia.org several days following the meeting.
The forum is sponsored by numerous local organizations including:
Shaleshock Action Alliance
ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction)
DRAC (Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition)
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network
Social Justice Committee, First Unitarian Church of Ithaca
Brewery Ommegang and the Business Coalition
ENSAW (Enfield Neighbors for Safe Air and Water)
Otsego 2000
GDACC (Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County)
Keuka Citizens Against Hydrofracking
Concerned Citizens of Ulysses
Danby Gas Drilling Task Force
League of Women Voters of Tompkins County
Sustainable Tompkins
CPFL (Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes)
C-CARE (Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy)
People for a Healthy Environment
PAUSE (Promoting Alternatives to Unsafe Sources of Energy)
Committee on Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation, Ithaca First Presbyterian Church
Tompkins County Council of Governments Task Force on Gas Drilling
For more information contact Martha Robertson: mrob@twcny.rr.com,
Hilary Lambert: hilary_lambert@yahoo.com, Sara Hess: sarahess63@yahoo.com.
Drilling Guidelines Released Cortland Standard- July 8th
July 11, 2011
Drilling guidelines released
Cortland County drafts map based on information detailed by state’s hydrofracking requirements
By CATHERINE WILDE
Staff Reporter
CORTLAND — The county Planning Department has drafted a map outlining the areas in the county where well pads for the hydraulic fracturing method of gas drilling would be prohibited, under the state’s proposed drilling permit requirements to be released today.
Large portions of Cuyler, Truxton, Cortlandville and Scott would be protected from gas drilling, according to the county map, released Wednesday.
Portions of Homer, Preble, Cortlandville, the village of McGraw and the city of Cortland would be protected because of a 500-foot buffer for the sole source aquifer outlined in the state’s draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement.
The maps outline areas that fall under the state’s guidelines that restrict drilling, said Eric Lopez, geographical information system specialist for the county Planning Department.
Under the guidelines, no permits would be issued for gas drilling within 500 feet of a private well or domestic use spring, or within
2,000 feet of a public drinking water supply well or reservoir.
The maps also considered that drilling would be prohibited in the 100-year flood plain, within 500 feet of the aquifer, on state land and in the Skaneateles watershed that supplies the city of Syracuse.
The map does not reflect the location of private wells or the areas that would be excluded from drilling because of those 500-foot buffers. The department does not have information about private wells.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to post the full 736-page document to the department’s website after 5 p.m today. A draft version of the document was released to certain news media outlets after the regulations were released last week.
The regulations — which offer certain protections such as buffers between well pads and water supplies and enhanced well casings — are limited, officials say.
County Planning Department Director Dan Dineen faulted the water supply buffers for applying to well pads but not the lateral lines that extend underground from the drilling.
“So it does provide some protection but a well can be 1,000 feet from the aquifer and the lateral line will go under the aquifer,” Dineen said, calling the document an incomplete
protection.
Dineen said he was happy that the document provides for a “closed loop system,” which
recycles fracking waste fluid from drilling operations. This limits the chances for toxic fluids to migrate by being left in a pool on site, for instance.
Dusty Horwitt, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, said the environmental group is concerned the state is rushing a process that has not yet been proven safe. The Environmental Working Group is a research advocacy organization that conducts environmental investigations and informs the public about risks of the gas drilling industry.
Horwitt questioned whether the DEC did the thorough scientific testing that would prove the process is safe.
Horwitt said the 500-foot buffers from a primary source aquifer are too close. He cited a case in Colorado where a hydrofracked well released contaminants such as benzene and toluene into a creek 3,500 feet away. Six years later, the water still has dangerous levels of the contaminants in the creek, said Horwitt.
Horwitt challenged the DEC’s protection of the Syracuse watershed and New York City watershed, where hydrofracking would be prohibited. These areas have a 4,000-foot buffer so the underground horizontal drill cannot reach below them.
“If this process is so dangerous that it can’t be conducted at all inside these watersheds, … why should it be allowed near other people’s drinking water?” Horwitt said.
Virgil resident Bob Applegate said he is particularly interested in what air pollution protections are put in place under the document and what will be done to prevent methane from migrating into drinking water.
The gas industry says it needs more time to respond to the regulations.
Cherie Messore, spokeswoman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, said the association is waiting for the full document to be released Friday before commenting fully.
“We’re looking forward to reviewing the SGEIS to determine if the protections outlined by the state DEC strike a balance between protecting New York’s environment and allowing for expansion of natural gas exploration in New York and specifically in the Southern Tier,” Messore said Wednesday.
Messore said the industry favors tough but fair regulations and she cited the potential job growth and economic gains that gas exploration could provide for the state.
But Jim Weiss, a member of the local activist group Gas Drilling Awareness of Cortland County, says there are very pressing concerns about the gas drilling industry.
Weiss mentioned a push by the industry to export the gas in liquefied form overseas to major markets like China.
“So here we are putting our own environment at risk not just for so-called energy independence but really a profit for a few people and to ship the gas overseas,” Weiss said.
Weiss also said the question of enforcement is left unanswered. If a gas company violates a rule and is faced with a fine, Weiss said, a fee of a few thousand dollars is “peanuts” for a multi-million dollar industry.
Weiss urges caution and wants the state to hold off on releasing its final regulations until after the federal Environmental Protection Agency completes its review of the process, expected in about a year.
“If we are talking about air and water and health, those are not things we want to take risks with,” Weiss said.
Safe, Not Sorry, on Drilling – NYTimes.com
July 10, 2011
Safe, Not Sorry, on Drilling – NYTimes.com.
So now drilling is ok after your revelations about the waste and other problems?
GDACC 
