Last Chance

Think Local

By Chris Hoffman

(Sherburne, NY – Oct. 2011) On Wednesday, Sept. 28 the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued draft regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing. The public comment period on the draft regulations runs concurrently with the public comment period on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) released earlier in September. After the comment period ends on Dec. 12, the DEC will release the final SGEIS and regulations, after which permits for hydraulic fracturing will be issued.

Environmental groups and numerous anti-fracking organizations have accused Governor Cuomo of suppressing public comment by limiting the comment period to only 90 days and holding only four public hearings, with each speaker allocated a mere 3 minutes.

The four public hearings will be held on Nov. 16 at Dansville Middle School Auditorium, 31 Clara Barton St., Dansville; on Nov. 17 at the Forum Theatre, 236 Washington St., Binghamton; on Nov. 29 at Sullivan County Community College, Seelig Theatre, 112 College Road, Loch Sheldrake; and on Nov. 30 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St., New York City.  Each public hearing will have an afternoon and an evening session from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Comments will be accepted in written and oral format at the hearings.

The only viable location for Central New Yorkers is the Binghamton hearing, which is 40 miles south of Norwich. Danville is 163 miles west of Norwich and Loch Sheldrake is 86 miles southeast of Norwich.  Despite the distance and the possibility of winter weather, I hope many people will attend.

As Cuomo moves to make fracking a reality and begin issuing drilling permits in the spring of 2012, once again it is abundantly obvious that corporate profit and the potential for increased tax revenue carry more weight than environmental or health concerns, or concerns about the devastating effects fracking will have on New York’s tourism, wine, dairy, and farming industries.

Catskill Mountainkeeper, among many other environmental organizations, has repeatedly cited major flaws in the dSGEIS, including an inadequate assessment of the serious health impacts of fracking and the dismissal of documented science about natural migration of methane and contaminants in drinking water.

In a recent article in the Ithaca Journal, a Bradford, Pa. resident describes the countryside after hydrofracking begins: “Trucks by the hundreds, tankers, dump trucks, drilling rigs, fracking rigs. Five-acre drilling pads were bulldozed in the middle of farmers’ best fields, million-gallon ponds were installed, roads were built, woods and fields were trenched and bulldozed for tie lines. Drilling rigs went up at an unbelievable rate. From one spot on our farm, I counted eight rigs.  Then the generators started. You could hear them a half-mile away. Then the pumping stations — small industrial sites with buildings and pipes sticking up out of the ground.  They put one of these at the end of our little dirt road. Now the woods are gone and the dirt road is a main thoroughfare.  One entire field is a pumping station.  When I first saw this, I cried.

This industry is like a swarm of locusts, leaving destruction and a lasting impact on the environment.  But it goes much deeper than this.  It creates greed and pits neighbor against neighbor, even dividing families.  Back home, all rental properties now house gas people, as the landlords raised the rents so high that longtime tenants were forced to move.  Every parking area is lined with pipes and equipment associated with the gas business.  Roads have been destroyed and are barely passable.  Motorists are being forced off the road by a steady stream of big rigs and trucks.

People who are used to a few cars going by their house now have to endure 100 tractor trailers a day.  I went up to our well site and counted 80 tankers lined up so closely that you couldn’t fit between them.”

So, make sure you take some time during the remainder of this year to get outside and enjoy the beautiful vistas and pristine countryside, because this may be the last opportunity to do so.  Pay particular attention to the clean, crisp air and the silence of nature, as these, too, will become a thing of the past once hydrofracking begins.  If you get your water from a well, test it now so you have a baseline to compare after hydrofracking begins.

And be sure to take a minute to personally thank your Governor for having your best interests in mind as he allows the Southern Tier to be ravaged for profit from gas that you will never benefit from.

Chris Hoffman lives in the village of Sherburne in her 150+ year-old house where she caters to the demands of her four cats, attempts to grow heirloom tomatoes and herbs and reads voraciously. She passionately pursues various avenues with like-minded friends to preserve and protect a sustainable rural lifestyle for everyone in Central New York.