To the Editor:
Hydraulic-fracture gas drilling is arriving, and our awareness of how it is likely to affect our health, lakes and rural lifestyle is lagging. This process should not be confused with the kind of gas drilling we have co-existed with in the past.
Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling technique that pumps water, sand and chemicals underground with enough pressure to fracture the bedrock, then continues drilling horizontally to force additional fractures through which many well-bores can be inserted to tap deep gas reserves, such as the Marcellus shale substructure that extends under our region.
In our area, the Marcellus shale is more than mile deep and 50 to 200 feet thick. Such drilling requires mega-bucks and massive amounts of equipment available only to multi-national drilling corporations who bring with them a number of environmental dilemmas and questions.
What we know for sure about “hydrofracking” is:
• Each well requires millions of gallons of fresh water combined with acids and other toxic chemicals, which must then be pumped out and stored in a waste pit. Because the Marcellus is a 300 million-year-old marine deposit, the waste water will be so contaminated by salt, that it can only be treated by special hazardous waste treatment plants yet to be built. Or left in open pits, where it is likely to leach into the ground. Or dumped in old wells and mines (as presently proposed in Tioga County) with disingenuous promises that it will not migrate into our drinking water, lakes or farmland.
• From the history of hydrofracking in Colorado, Wyoming and Oklahoma, we know some of our drinking water is at risk, though no one can precisely say how much. Dr. Stephen Penningroth, Executive Director of CSI lab that monitors water quality of Cayuga Lake and its tributaries, said he believes a reasonable estimate of drinking water contaminated near drilling sites would be 1 to 5 percent.
• Air Pollution will exceed company predictions. According to a 2008 report by the Colorado Department of Public Health, rural communities similar to ours in Colorado and Wyoming now have ozone levels higher than Los Angeles! And Volatile Organic Compound emissions from natural gas well completions in the Denver metro area . . . [were] likely underestimated by as much as 500 percent.”
• Possible danger of radioactivity from hydrofracking has not been sufficiently studied. “The Marcellus also contains uranium, and the radioactive decay of the uranium-238 makes it a source rock for radioactive radon gas (222Rn).” [Wanty, Richard B. (1993). “The Marcellus Shale apparently was not included in the geological formations tested [in a 1999 study of Natural Occurring Radioactive Materials]. Therefore, it would seem prudent to test for NORMs in this rock, as well as the reactions it will undergo when exposed to fresh water in a lined pit.” (www.dec.ny.gov/docs/ materials_minerals_pdf/normrpt.pdf)
• Hundreds of heavy truck loads per day (mainly transporting fresh water in and polluted brine water out) will create an unsightly maze of new roads and will badly erode a number of existing local roads, much of it at the expense of local taxpayers. Sullivan County Commissioner of Planning and Environmental Management, William Pammer, noted that based on statistics and experiences elsewhere, the high volume of Class 1 and 2 roads in . . . areas where drilling would occur, would likely lead to a huge increase in infrastructure costs. Expect an “80 percent degradation” warned Pammer.
• Noise pollution from trucks and enormous compressors will run 24/7 during gas well production, disturbing to distraction both humans and wildlife.
• There is currently no federal oversight regulation of hydrofracking because the Energy Bill of 2005 specifically exempts hydrofracking from the Clean Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Citizens Right-To-Know Act, and EPA regulation.
As to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), suffice it to say that theDEC’s website on hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus shale region was written by a Texas/Oklahoma consulting group that also represents oil and gas corporations from Texas to Montana, which might make them experts on hydrofracking, but hardly makes them experts on the geology and community needs of western New York.
“The Report,” as the DEC website refers to it, never even mentions concerns about radioactivity or radon. Never mentions the Finger Lakes. Never mentions seismic activity. Never mentions corruption of surrounding soils and roads. Never mentions the constant roar of compressors and endless truck traffic. And, as to disposal of the volumes of remnant toxic water, DEC’s expert solution is: “Many Marcellus operators are actively researching options where . . . industrial treatment facilities can be used to manage flow-back contaminated water.” (In other words, it’s up to the drillers to figure out what to do with the millions of gallons of contaminated water.)
Maybe DEC is right. Maybe it is just a little dirt falling and not the sky. Do I really understand all this? Hardly. All I really know is enough that I absolutely want some people who do understand it to be responsible for assurances that: 1) water wells and aquifers will not be contaminated; 2) uranium and radon will not infect me or my neighbors: 3) our lakes will not be harmed; 4) our farmland will not be unduly eroded or rendered infertile; 4) our air will remain compatible with our lungs.
Is that too dramatic? Perhaps, but as many as 18,000 such wells are presently envisioned for western New York alone.
There’s no doubt that our country needs energy, especially domestically-produced energy. It’s also clear that gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale would bring some wealth and temporary business to western New York and our area. The trouble is—-at what cost?
In response to the desperate cry that we have to find and use up every drop of polluting fossil energy now before alternatives make them as antiquated as whale oil lamps, I can only suggest temperance and moderation. To the panic call of Drill! Drill! Drill!, I can only say that this gas has been trapped where it is for 300 hundred million years and isn’t going anywhere. We have time to wait for a few answers. In all probability, if and when drilling the Marcellus Shale proves to be safe and efficacious, natural gas will likely still be needed. And if not, if alternative energy sources have surpassed our need for fossil fuels by then, we will all be the richer for it.
Steve Coffman
Dundee
