Report finds gas drilling poses unacceptable risks - Marcellus Shale

Due to this being Christmas, I am just posting this for ya'll to see. However, I am not going to be a whipping post for the industry.......Call it a Christmas present to myself.
Hope and Pray that each of you have a wonderful holiday,
Earlene still barefooted

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/09-15pr.shtml
December 23, 2009
Department of Environmental Protection Calls for Prohibition on Drilling in the New York City Watershed

Report finds gas drilling poses unacceptable risks to the unfiltered drinking water supply for nine million New Yorkers

Also check out:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/natural_gas_drilling/12_23_2009_nat...

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Good, let them buy our gas, fools should always reap what they sow.
That's fine, New Yorkers. We'll handle the NG supply from down here. Goodness knows you don't need energy supply for your city.
This:
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/
Will look much better in the dark.
I'm a little suspect of this report. Among the conclusions, this statement stood out: " Cumulatively, the introduction of hundreds of tons per day of fracturing chemicals into the watershed over a period of several decades is significant." WOW!, what a statement. I suppose if you dumped tons of stuff/chemicals (what chemicals) in a lake it would cause a problem! Correct me if i'm wrong... i thought frac methods went thousands of feet BELOW any watershed or supplies...AND in the frac process..much of the material or chemicals are recovered. But i'll admit there is a lot i don't know. jhh
I think New York City needs to go completely solar powered. Like right now. Like tomorrow. Like Obama thinks they can do.
And then enjoy their lives.
Here's a news article on the proposed regulations being considered. jhh


New York City Calls for New Natural Gas Drilling Regulations
by Brian Nearing, Albany Times Union, N.Y.|Times Union, Albany, N.Y.|Thursday, December 24, 2009


New York City joined a broad coalition of environmental groups Wednesday in calling for Gov. David Paterson to scrap proposed state rules on natural gas drilling and start over.

The city Department of Environmental Protection said a proposed 802-page state rule book on gas drilling released in September by the Department of Environmental Conservation should be abandoned because it "does not adequately address the risks of drilling in the New York City watershed, which supplies drinking water for nine million New Yorkers."

DEC is working on rules to regulate hydrofracking, a drilling technique that uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and drilling chemicals to fracture gas-bearing rocks deep underground.

Gas companies are eyeing the technique to exploit the Marcellus Shale, a gas-laden underground formation that stretches through the state's Southern Tier and the Catskills, and south to Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The shale is the largest natural gas supply in the Northeast.

"New York City has invested $1.5 billion to protect the watershed and prevent degradation of the water supply. The known and unknown impacts associated with drilling simply cannot be justified," said Acting DEP Commissioner Steven W. Lawitts.

The city gets most of its water from a 1,700-square-mile region in the Catskills that feeds four massive reservoirs. Should pollution become a problem, adding filtration to the system could cost the city $9 billion, according to city officials.

City officials broadly criticized DEC's work, saying proposed rules fail to include "critical and necessary analyses" required under the state Environmental Conservation Law, including cumulative impacts from drilling such as waste disposal, air quality, pipeline construction and ancillary infrastructure.

The city also said the rules that failed to address potential public health risks.

"We appreciate the input from (New York City)," said DEC spokesman Yancey Roy. "Because we are in a public comment period, we are still taking input and not responding to individual comments."

DEC is taking public comments through the end of December.

New York City's concerns echo those sent in a letter to Paterson this month by some two dozen statewide and local environmental groups concerned over possible water pollution caused by drilling.

Those groups asked Paterson to impose a one-year moratorium on gas exploration and have DEC start over, this time with help from his former environmental deputy, Judith Enck, who this month took over as a regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"New York City is another very loud voice to the call that this draft plan is completely inadequate," and that DEC does not have enough staff to deal with drilling on this scale," said Katherine Nadeau, a water and natural resource program associate with Environmental Advocates of New York, one of the groups that signed the letter to Paterson.

An industry spokesman warned against a state delay in opening up the shale for drilling.

"We've felt all along that the review done by the DEC is comprehensive," said David Spigelmyer, vice president for government relations at Chesapeake Energy, a Oklahoma-based company that owns mineral rights on about 1.5 million acres of Marcellus Shale. "The environmental, economic and energy benefits are in jeopardy for New York state residents by holding back any further."

In October, the company announced that it would not drill on 5,000 acres that it controls within the reservoir watershed.

City officials reached their conclusions after reviewing a report on hydrofracking by outside engineering consultant, Hazen and Sawyer/Leggette, Brashears and Graham.

That report found hydrofracking chemicals can travel along underground fissures to ground water and ultimately streams that feed reservoirs. Extensive subsurface fracture systems and known "brittle" geological structures exist that commonly extend over a mile in length, and as far as 7 miles, in the vicinity of city reservoir systems.

"Of greatest concern are our tunnels, which are located both inside and outside the New York City watershed. Naturally occurring fracture systems have been demonstrated to transmit fluid and pressure, as evidenced by saline water and methane seeps encountered at grade and in shallow formations near the city's infrastructure during and since its construction," according to the city's statement.

Copyright (c) 2009, Albany Times Union, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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