Who Do You Believe – Industry Scientists or Environmental Scientists?

By Chris Hoffman

(Hamilton, NY – July 2011) On July 19, the Southern Madison County Gas Coalition (SMCGC), a group of landowners allied to garner the best outcome for leasing and environmental protection should hydrofracking be allowed, held an informational meeting at Hamilton Central School.

Presentations were made by Dr. Donald Siegel, Professor of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University, and Dr. Scott Cline, a petroleum geologist and engineer. A panel discussion followed, moderated by David W. Keefe, CEO of international oil and gas consulting company Petro Enterprises, Inc., former employee of Exxon Mobile, and a long-time resident of Madison County.  All three panelists have posted to the website of the organization Friends of Natural Gas NY.

Siegel’s presentation was titled, “Shale-Bed Methane: A Critique of Perceived and Real Hydrologic Problems,” and culminated in his statement that “fracking will not create systemic water problems.” He stated that only about 10 percent of the 2 to 5 million gallons of water used per well comes back out, and “what doesn’t come out does not move or flow underground.”

He cited data from the US Geological Survey’s gauged streams project that shows 500 million to 2.5 billion gallons of water now flowing, and called using 5 million gallons of water per well for hydrofracking “very minimal.”  He noted that the “fracture zone” takes place 2,000 to 3,000 feet below potable water levels, and the energy released during hydrofracking is “less than that released by an air gun.”

Siegel stated that Ian Urbina’s series in the New York Times on hydrofracking was misleading because “past waste disposal and well sealing practices have no bearing on the future” and that new rules and best practices allow for wastewater to be processed and re-used in drilling.

Cline’s presentation focused on the proposed regulatory changes in the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Study (dSGEIS), stating that these new proposed regulations will “ensure safe development at every step” and that NY regulations will “mitigate most of the incidents experienced in PA,” such as methane migration, site spills, and failure of blowout prevention.

Additionally, Cline’s research has led him to believe that hydrofracking does not cause either aquifer contamination or methane migration.

Background

The original dSGEIS was released on September 30, 2009, with a 90-day public comment period.  The DEC received 13,000 comments.  The preliminary revised draft SGEIS (prdSGEIS) was released on July 8, 2011, and is nearly 1100 pages long.  It can be accessed by visiting dec.ny.gov/energy/75370. By the end of this month, socioeconomic and community impact studies will be added to the prdSGEIS and are expected to be available for public access by Fall 2011.

The public comment period for the prdSGEIS is currently set for 60 days. Publication of the final SGEIS is anticipated by December 2011.

Questions and Comments from the Audience

How can we be assured of protection against shoddy operators?

Panel Response:  More stringent regulations and higher standards; no permits will be issued beyond the DEC’s oversight ability; permitting fees to DEC from gas companies will fund additional DEC staff; constructing the wellheads is very expensive, which limits involvement to large, well-capitalized operators.

Keefe added that the SMCGC proposed lease for its members would hold the gas companies accountable for all actions associated with construction and drilling.

According to one attendee whose profession is disaster recovery and reconstruction, “Bradford County, Pa. looks like one of the worst disaster sites I have ever seen since hydrofracking has commenced there.”

He cited white dust on everything, residual wastewater being sprayed on the roads to keep the dust down, gas lines in people’s back yards, constant noise and hum from machinery.  Upon inquiry during his visit there, he learned that the workers were not local people, but were brought in from Canada.

Panel Response:  Construction is “initially disruptive, but it moves on.”  The gas companies repair the roads at their own cost; the promise of a domestic gas supply instead of foreign oil is worth the inconvenience. This man’s inquiry, “where is the gas going?” was not answered by the Panel.

A woman stated that she had learned that there are currently 15 banks and several insurance companies in CNY that will not mortgage property with or near a well pad.  Panel Response:  We are unaware of this.

Another attendee asked if hydrofracking speeds up production. Panel Response:  Hydrofracking makes it possible to extract larger quantities of gas in a shorter period of time.

The meeting ended after 10 p.m. with existing opinions unchanged. Those in favor of drilling dismiss the environmental concerns of those opposed, and those opposed don’t believe that industry or regulators can be trusted.

Catskill Mountainkeeper Cites Ongoing Concerns

On July 20, Catskill Mountainkeeper, an independent, not for profit, community based environmental advocacy organization, released its initial observations after reviewing the dSGEIS, citing ongoing major issues:

The DEC will leave tracking of the solid and liquid wastes generated by fracking to gas industry operators and does not classify as hazardous some of the waste that normally qualifies as hazardous, meaning that fracking waste could be sent to ineffective treatment facilities.

The DEC proposes to prohibit fracking in primary aquifers that serve as public drinking water supplies, but this “prohibition” is limited to a couple of years, after which the state could “reconsider” the bans.  In addition, the DEC does not specify the conditions under which “reconsideration” would be reviewed.

The state will prohibit well pads above ground on state-owned lands, but would allow drilling under these same lands.

The DEC plans to allow permits to be issued before legally enforceable new regulations are finalized.

Requirements regarding the cumulative impact of multiple wells lack a comprehensive, focused plan to review and analyze consequences.

The DEC has not addressed fracking in areas of special geological risk, such as those with fault lines that are potential pathways for the upward gradient of contaminants into aquifers, because they claim that contaminants can’t rise into aquifers. However, according to Mountainkeeper, independent scientific studies have proven that upward migration of contaminants is not only possible, but also likely, and the DEC’s assertion is based on industry studies that examined just 5 days in the fracking process.

Instead of prohibiting open storage pits, the DEC has relied on industry’s assertion that they are “unlikely” to use open pits for storage of wastewater, and has proposed a system whereby a lone DEC employee could grant approval without an environmental impact study.

Mountainkeeper asserts that the prdSGEIS “presents the industry with a clear road map for fracking in the Catskill Park, the Delaware River Watershed, and throughout the Southern Tier of New York.”

IndustryViolations Continue in PA

The PA DEC reports 1,750 violations (dep.state.pa.us) by gas companies from January – May 2011, including:

Discharge of industrial waste and pollutants into waters of the Commonwealth – 140

Failure to achieve permanent stabilization of earth disturbance activity – 68

Failure to adopt pollution prevention measures – 57

Failure to prevent migrations into fresh groundwater – 3

Failure to plug a well on abandonment – 200

Failure to properly control, store, transport, process, or dispose of industrial waste – 81

Failure to remove equipment or restore site within nine months of completion – 59

Improper casing to protect fresh groundwater – 14

Improperly lined pit; pit/tanks insufficient to contain pollutants – 62

Pollution incident not reported – 13

Chris Hoffman is a freelance writer/reporter for the Madison County Courier. She can be reached at Madnews@m3pmedia.com.