A few weeks ago, I attended an event in the Seelig Theatre at Sullivan County Community College. The theatre was packed, and I was glued to my seat for four and a half hours. At times I was touched, at times terrified, at times enraged. But this was no documentary or play; this was a real-life drama. It was the first of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation hearings on the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (draft SGEIS) for horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing to develop the Marcellus Shale.
More than 60 speakers took their turns at the microphone to comment on the SGEIS (the 800+ page document is available at www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html). Most speakers targeted deficiencies in the document. Many spoke so eloquently and passionately against drilling that I felt extremely proud of my friends and neighbors in the Catskills, and only hoped that the drilling proponents in the crowd would look closer at the environmental and social devastation that could occur here for the benefit of so few.
If you are not familiar with the hydraulic fracturing process and the environmental and health concerns surrounding it, I recommend that you visit the Catskill Mountainkeeper (CMK) website (www.catskillmountainkeeper.org). Here is their description of the process:
The process of getting the gas out the shale is a highly industrial undertaking, which includes numerous truckloads of equipment, chemicals, sand and water along with generators, pumps, drilling rigs and hoists. In addition to the drill, the site contains a large holding pond for the contaminated waste products from the process. The wells run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and produce exhaust fumes and noise – the sound of a drill is comparable to the sound of a jet engine. When gas is found there can be a release of the various gases in the formation.
Hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) is a technique used to create fractures in the shale to allow gas to travel more easily from the rock pores where the gas is trapped, to the production well. In order to create fractures a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is pumped into the rock under high pressure. When the fluid can no longer be absorbed the pressure causes the formation to crack or fracture and allows the gas to flow through the fractures to the well. Some of the fracturing fluids are pumped out of the well and into surface holding pits or tanks but studies have shown that anywhere between 20-40% of fracking fluids may remain underground.
The process of fracking requires millions of gallons of water, which are drawn from area lakes and rivers and transported in large 18 wheeler trucks over local roads. Each million gallons of water in fracking fluid includes 40,000 lbs. of chemicals. Therefore, conservatively, if each individual fracking uses 3,000,000 to 6,000,000 gallons of water there will be anywhere from 120,000 lbs. up to 240,000 lbs. of chemicals. There are reports of some fracking operations
taking up to 8,000,000 gallons - that’s 320,000 lbs. of chemicals that will be shipped over our local roads to be mixed onsite with the 800 tractor trailer loads of water. If 70% is recovered from the well that is 5,600,000 gallons of contaminated water to be shipped to a wastewater facility in 560 tractor trailers. This is one well, one fracking operation. There are multiple frackings done at one well and possibly hundreds or thousands of wells across the state. (This is based on a tractor trailer load carrying 10,000 gallons a load.)
Catskill Mountainkeeper also provides reasons why the DEC SGEIS needs to be rewritten. It is difficult for most of us to read and interpret an 800 page technical paper, so CMK has provided an important service by distilling it down in layperson’s terms. I urge you to learn as much as you can about drilling and the DEC document, and make comments to the DEC by December 31st deadline.
I plan to comment on the SGEIS, but I do not believe that you need to read an 800 page document to recognize the risks to water, human health, wildlife, agriculture, and our rural landscape. I’m sorry that there are landowners who are so desperate, greedy, or unaware of the dangers, that they are willing to subject their neighbors to truck traffic, noise, unsightly drilling sites, and possible contamination of surface and drinking water with toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. If you support a complete ban on natural gas drilling in New York, visit www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NY-Statewide-Ban-On-Natural-Gas-Drilling.
Incidentally, the Board of the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society has issued a statement calling for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in New York – is the Sullivan County Audubon willing to do the same? If gas drilling comes to Sullivan County, it will use more water and could be more destructive than many mushroom plants. Please educate yourselves and take action!
 Kathy
Scullion
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