Governor’s Fracking Order Provides Time to Push for Needed Protections
Governor David Paterson has issued Executive Order 41 to prohibit natural gas exploration using high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New York State until July 1, 2011. The Order also directs the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct further comprehensive review and analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.
The governor also vetoed a hydrofracking moratorium (S8129B/A11443A) passed by the Legislature. The Legislature’s moratorium would have suspended the issuance of new permits for hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas drilling through May 15, 2011. The moratorium was broader in scope than the governor’s order and included low-volume fracking and vertical wells.
Executive Order 41 gives DEC time to publish a revised Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program. The revised GEIS will be published about June 1; the governor directed DEC to accept public comments on this revision for at least 30 days after publication.
Strategic Plan for State Forest Management
NYS DEC
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-4255
The Catskill 3500 Club thanks the Department of Environmental Conservation for the opportunity to submit comments on the draft New York State Strategic Plan for State Forest Management. The Catskill 3500 Club, whose members climb the 35 high peaks of the Catskill Forest Preserve, has special concern for the Catskill and Adirondack Forest Preserves, which are protected under Article XIV, section 1 of the state Constitution. Its nearly 2,000 members and aspirants are also committed to preserving New York’s State Parks, State Forests and Wildlife Management Areas, and we are very concerned about possible adverse impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing horizontal (HVHFH) natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, which may impact the New York City watershed and the larger Catskill region.
DEC has stewardship responsibility for over 786,000 acres of designated State Forest and Wildlife Management Areas, primarily located over the Marcellus Shale formation. The Catskill 3500 Club is opposed to New York State granting any new or expanded leases to private entities for HVHFH natural gas exploration on our state lands, which are managed for watershed protection, public recreation, wildlife habitat and open space conservation.
Any proposal for HVHFH gas drilling on these state lands must be evaluated under the State Environmental Review Act (SEQRA), as is now required for any such projects in a State Park. The State Energy Plan protects state-owned parklands, as consistent with the public trust state parkland doctrine, but it does not extend this protection to all state-owned lands that are legally designated to conservation and outdoor public recreation. We believe that State Forests and Wildlife Management Areas must be equally protected. DEC encourages us to visit these lands, and hydrofracking in these areas would deny us the lands we have invested in. State lands traversed by the Finger Lakes Trail and the North Country National Scenic Trail should be off-limits to high-volume hydrofracking. We believe that all public land must be evaluated on a case-by-case, site-specific basis. We note deficiencies in the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS):
(1) The dSGEIS fails to address adequately accidental spills, leaks and releases that are common elsewhere. The HVHFH gas drilling process involves the transfer of very high volumes of fluids — often at high flow rates and tremendous hydraulic pressures — between tanks, trucks, and impoundments. The draft Statement must address mitigation measures necessary to respond to this common spillage problem or provide a regulatory response.
(2) The Catskill 3500 Club disagrees with the dSGEIS conclusion that there need not be any limitation on water withdrawal from New York’s lakes, rivers and streams. There must be a cumulative impact analysis on water quality, aquatic ecology and quantity of flow, when water withdrawal occurs at levels required for HVHFH well development. Permits should be required for a determined limit of water extraction per day.
(3) The dSGEIS fails to evaluate the cumulative impacts of forest fragmentation, habitat destruction and wildlife disruption resulting from HVHFH gas drilling site construction. Hydrofracking involves tree cutting, vegetative clearing, and grading of about five acres for a single well pad. With the installation of necessary roads and utilities, the total disturbance is estimated at seven acres. If New York’s State Forests and Wildlife Management Areas are drilled to the density allowed for conventional drilling techniques, the recreational and aesthetic value of our public lands will be seriously degraded. The dSGEIS fails to analyze adequately the impact of converting forest to low permeability surfaces, which will cause increased runoff and erosion. These clearings may very likely increase the spread of invasive species. It is very unlikely, if not impossible, that public lands would be or can be fully restored; the costs involved are prohibitive. Well-plugging alone is unacceptable.
(4) This gas drilling process involves injecting up to eight million gallons of water per well, combined with eighty to three hundred tons of hydrofracking chemicals, at extremely high pressure. Roughly half of the injected fluid returns to the surface, containing these chemicals. This flowback wastewater cannot be treated by conventional wastewater treatment plants. The heavily saline water requires sophisticated reverse osmosis or desalinization facilities, which require great energy, and which do not exist in the Northeast in a capacity sufficient to handle this wastewater; even if built, the residual thousands of tons of salt cake will require adequate landfills. Industry proposes to allow disposal of HVHFH wastewater deep into natural rock formations. Aside from being an unproven technology, this region is characterized by fractures and fissures in its geological formation and is subject to seismic activity, and the industry proposal presents a serious risk for groundwater contamination. The fluid disposal plan should not result in building surface impoundments in DEC-managed State Forests or in Wildlife Management Areas for flowback water tainted with hydrofracking fluids, which may be used by waterfowl. Flowback water should be pumped into trucks or temporarily stored in tanks.
To eliminate conflict of interest, the issuance of drilling permits should be undertaken in a separate department so that DEC can concentrate on strong advocacy for New York’s environment. The dSGEIS should not be finalized and reissued until the United States Environmental Protection Agency issues its own assessment. Thank you for the opportunity to express our concerns and opinions.
Jeffrey Glans - President
Carol White - Conservation Chair
Assembly Bill A11347 would require stringent environmental safeguards for hydrofracking in New York State, including regulations regarding the withdrawal of surface water and disposal of spent fracking fluids, which are laden with toxic chemicals.
Assembly Bill A11093 gives the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) the power to regulate gas and oil drilling in Allegany State Park, which is still vulnerable to drilling because the state does not own all the subsurface mineral rights on the park’s 65,000 acres. The park received considerable protection when OPRHP designated 80% as Park Preservation areas; A11093 would ensure that any future drilling will be done under stringent regulation, supervised by OPRHP. Energy companies would be required to post hefty bonds and to restore the land to its pre-drilling state. Visit http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/ to read the bills.
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) lobbies in Albany for all of us on environmental protection and conservation issues in New York State. ADK will work with the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2011 as it amends its master plan for 786,000 acres of state forest lands, most of which lie atop the Marcellus Shale. ADK opposes leasing of state forest land for gas drilling, and has received assurances that DEC will amend the plan.